Chapter 90 Waterfall

Waterfall

Avalyn

When I woke up the next morning, Nik was already gone. But then it was nine in the morning. This was by far the most I've slept in a while.

I got out of bed and stretched my limbs, a huge smile gracing my features. Last night was... last night was hands down one of our most memorable nights.

I went to the washroom and took a quick warm shower, soothing my sore muscles. Life is good.

When I stepped out, I saw Tessa in the room and a pile of clothes in her hand. "For you, Mistress."

"Thank you, Tessa." I grinned. I was in a very good mood this morning.

"You're very welcome, Mistress. I'll go make your breakfast. Do you need anything?" She looked very worried.

"Why are you so worried?" I took off my bathrobe and started wearing the clothes she had got me.

"I was very scared for you last night, Mistress." Deep concern was etched on your features. "I don't ever want you to have to go through pain. Especially under the hands of the man, you love so much." She whispered the last part.

"Pain?"

"You were screaming so much last night." She whispered her hand over her heart. "Does Alpha Nikolai punish you? I thought that only happens between Masters and slaves."

I clutched her hands in mine and squeezed lightly. "Let me assure you that everything that happened last night was amazing. And the screams that must have scared you were of pleasure. Of extreme, outer-worldly—" I stopped myself from saying too much. "You know Nik would never hurt me."

She let out a breath of relief. "I know, Mistress. He loves you very much. Anyone with or without eyes can see that. But I just got scared."

"The last thing you need to do is worry about me, especially when I'm with Nik. And I can take care of myself. Mostly." I added when I realized that Nik would be the first one to argue about it. And then I grinned at her. "Go make me breakfast." I swatted her behind playfully. "I'll have egg toasts and bacon."

She jumped, her eyes wide and a blush rose on her cheeks. "Yes, Mistress." And then she ran out of there.

I let out a chuckle. She still needed to get out of her shell.

I combed my hair and I decided that I loved the waves that were created because I braided it when my hair was wet.

When I finally went downstairs, I took a seat at the small dining table beside the kitchen and watched Tessa cook quickly and efficiently.

The door swung open and Max stepped in with a devious grin. "I smell food." He picked up an apple while Tessa was still preparing our breakfast.

"So...last night," Max said with the biggest smirk on his face.

"Shut up." A blush rose on my cheek. I mean I know we were loud—okay, I was loud, judging by Tessa's reaction. But I wasn't that loud. And while his cottage was the closest one to our's, it was still a considerable distance away.

Nikolai had taken the handcuffs from Max. Bad idea. Max never failed on giving shit to other people just for the fun of it. And it wasn't much later when I realized that you should never really take him seriously. All you would be is greatly offended or annoyed.

"That's not what you were doing last night. I distinctly heard some screams." His eyes twinkled.

"What?" Was I that loud? Now I know why our bedroom back in Silverwitch Bay was soundproof. All the bedrooms there were soundproof.

"Don't worry. I was a gentleman. I made Talia scream loud enough to drown yours. So, you know, we wouldn't hear you two." He picked up an egg toast from the plate Tessa just placed in front of me.

I could feel the heat flowing in my cheeks. "Can you not?" I whined.

"So you wanted us to hear you?" I hope he chokes on that toast.

"No! That's not what I meant!" I covered my face. "You know what? Shut up!" And then I stuffed my mouth with the toast so I was saved from speaking and making a bigger fool of myself.

"Never." He grinned another wide grin.

I kicked his leg under the table and pulled my legs up on the seat. I folded my legs and gave him an angelic grin.

And then suddenly my chair rocked and then I felt the time slow down and my eyes bulged when the chair tipped over and I fell backward.

For a second, silence reigned and I kept staring at the ceiling before we both registered what just happened.

He freaking kicked my chair!

And then came his unabashed, booming laughter.

I jumped off the chair and lunged at him. "You- you hairless monkey!" I started punching him and he cracked up again, not in the least affected by my attacks.

"Hairless monkey?" He choked on his laughter. "The best thing I've heard in a while." He wheezed.

I was about to slap his chest but he caught my hand.

That's when the door opened.

"Babe! Avalyn is abusing me!" Max whined.

"Nat! Max is harassing me!" I whined too.

She sighed and shook her head, tired of us already. "What are you both? Twelve?"

"On a scale of one to ten, yes." We both said together and then high-fived each other, laughing at Nat's frustrated sigh.

"So Nat. We heard you last night." I grinned. She was going to take my shit if I couldn't shit Max.

"Oh? It's funny because all we did last night was sleep." She took a bottle of water out of the fridge and downed half of it.

I glared at Max and he cracked up again. He was laughing way too much today morning.

"I am going to kill you." I hissed at him.

"Who is going to kill whom?" Nik swung open the door and stepped in along with Dimitri and Papa.

All three of them, along with Nat had come from training.

"Avalyn is going to kill Max," Nat said flatly and picked up another toast.

"Wow. I'm feeling the love, Talia." Max rolled his eyes.

"It's amusing that you waste so much of your energy when you can simply shut his trap, Love." Nik popped a kiss on my forehead before he grabbed three bottles of water, tossing one to Dimitri and one to Papa who looked thoroughly amused.

"Hell," I gave Max a shit-eating grin. He glared at Nik before giving me a pleading look.

He motioned with his fingers that he will zip his lips and then he loved me and then begged me. Getting tired of his dramatic ways, which could give tough competition to Dimitri too, I unfroze his tongue.

"You know when we were young, Kol was drinking water from a pond in his wolf form and a fish bit him on his tongue. He couldn't eat or talk for four hours." Max flipped Nik off.

"That didn't happen!" Nik whacked Max over his head.

"That did happen." Dimitri snickered. "Best four hours of my life."

"Oh yeah?" Nik raised his brows and then both the men got into a playful fight.

"Immature pups. The lot of them." Nat sighed and settled on the table, having a toast from the new batch Tessa made.

"Pup, huh?" Max pulled Nat off her chair. "Nothing about me is small." And then put her over his shoulder. "I think you need a reminder." And then slapped her ass as he made a move towards the door. "And we'll make do without the handcuffs Avalyn borrowed from us last night." And then slammed the door shut behind himself.

That smug monkey!

My wide eyes snapped to Papa. The water he had just drank sprayed out of his mouth. He started coughing before Dimitri thumped his back and he coughed a couple of times himself too—which sounded a lot like muffled laughter.

My cheeks heated as I was unable to meet Papa's eyes. "I -I, um...he...uhh." I shut my mouth and covered my face with my hands.

"That was information I could live without." He muttered before he too left.

"Handcuffs?" Dimitri grinned.

"Not you too." I groaned. I've dealt with enough embarrassment for today.

"Fat chance." He commented after thinking about it a great deal and then turned to Nikolai. "You've never used handcuffs on me!"

"Get out." Nik threw a bottle at his head.

"That's it! I'm breaking up." He huffed and walked to the door. "There is only a certain amount of ignorance and disrespect a man can deal with." And then he left, slamming the door behind him.

"You are never asking anything from anyone again." I pointed at Nik.

"You weren't complaining last night."

"You have no idea how much Max tortured me today," I whined and we both sat at the table, finally having a peaceful breakfast.

"How about I make it up to you?" Nik asked.

"Will you use the handcuffs again?" I asked. I liked being tied up.

It feels so good to finally be able to accept that I like something and not feel ashamed of my kinks.

"I think your mind is in the gutter, Love." Nik's eyes glowed at my train of thought. "I was thinking we could go for a run."

"That's not the kind of exercise I was looking for but fine," I said slyly but got up anyway.

We shifted into our wolves the moment we stepped out of our cottage and Nik and I ran through the trails. I wasn't familiar with the trail but Nik was and I followed him.

We ended up crossing the mountains that surrounded the valley and then we were racing up the tallest mountain that stood in the middle of the entire pack. I quickly got tired. My wolf felt weak for some reason. Maybe it was because I hadn't shifted in a while.

And the mountain we were on, no one had ever successfully climbed it. I distinctly remember an old story-tale that was affiliated with this mountain. Papa had told me about it once when I had asked him if I could climb the tallest mountain.

We trotted up the mountain for another mile before I nipped at Nik's paws. He turned to yip at me playfully but I came to a stop which lead him to stop too.

'Is everything okay?' He asked me.

'Yes. But I don't think we should go any further.'

'Why?' He demanded.

'It's not safe.' I replied but then my head turned towards our left and all the breath left my lungs.

In front of me was the mountain valley where the town of Montana was situated. We had crossed a couple of mountains to get here but we were on higher land and at an angle from where we could see the faint, rare house here and there that were big enough to be visible from here. And behind the mountains, I could see the vast spread of flatlands. I could make out the area that was forest and the city area.

And behind the flatlands, I could see the blueness of the ocean. And the line where the ocean met the sky.

The whole scene was breathtaking. I have never seen anything like it. Not even in the movies. I could swear that this is the most beautiful place on earth.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Nik had shifted to his skin. So I shifted too. "Yes." I sounded breathless.

"Thought so." He hummed. "Because on the top of this mountain is going to be our home."

"Huh?"

"Remember when we were in Mozog and I promised you I would make you a palace better and grander than it?" He asked, his eyes looking deep into mine.

I gave him a single nod, actually realizing where he was going with this.

"I'm going to fulfill it." He told me with a distant look in his eyes. "I have it all planned out."

"Tell me," I whispered. It was all unbelievable. This was why he was holding off building the packhouse again.

"The entire pack is built wrong—strategically." He started. "The pack is in the mountains and instead of taking advantage of it, it is situated in a valley. So when it is attacked, the enemies will have top ground and we will be trapped in the middle." He picked up a stick and started drawing on the soil, making a sort of map.

"This is the mountain we are on right now." He drew an upside-down 'V to depict a mountain.

"It's the tallest and the largest one of the pack. Not just this one, but of all the packs. Coincidentally, it lies in the center of our supernatural island as well. Exactly in the center, Avalyn." And then he traced a large circle with the mountain in its center. "It's exactly equidistant from the north, south, east, and west. You don't understand the kind of advantage we will have if we set the entire pack on this mountain, Ava."

And then he made a smaller circle around the mountain. "This is the Montana Pack." And then he made another circle which touched the circle of Montana pack and the west coast. "And this is the Rogue pack."

Then he went on to make another small circle to the northwest of Montana Pack, besides the Rogue Pack, "this is Verdura Pack," he said with venom in his voice. "And these," he made two more circles to the southwest and south of Montana Pack, "are Wintercrown Pack and Red Moon Pack."

"And this," he shaded the remaining part which consisted of almost fifty percent of the island, "is Mystic Lupus." A hiss left his mouth.

The first thought that crossed my mind is that we share a lot of our border—almost fifty percent with our enemy. And from the look of Nik's face, mortal enemy.

"And once our pack is stable and strong enough, I plan on attacking it, killing Adrik, and taking over the pack as well." He informed me. It wasn't going to be easy. But Nikolai never made empty promises.

"Only three packs will remain then," I noted. One in the northwest and two in the southwest. "Do you plan on taking them too?" It made me excited. The fact that I have such a powerful male as my mate turned me on.

"I don't plan on it. But I will if they create problems for me." He cupped my cheek and his nostrils flared. "Or if you want me to."

"I don't know yet." I looked down at the map. I don't want to shed blood where it is not needed.

"We can decide that later. But right now, we just need to focus on our pack." He grabbed my hand and then rubbed his feet over the map, making it look like there was nothing here, and then pulled me to trek with him higher up the mountain.

"But it's not safe, Nik. We can choose another mountain." I told him, my worry taking over again.

"Why is it not safe?" He asked me, not stopping for a second.

"There is an old belief that the elders used to pass it from generation to generation. Papa told me about it too." I told him.

He raised his brows, motioning me to go forward with it.

"The mountain's name is Soare- Luna Mountain. It means 'Sun- Moon Mountain' in English. It is said that Goddess Luna used to live here with God Sol—her mate. They had a beautiful home at the very top of the mountain. They had many kids but the wild animals living in the mountains used to attack them often, killing most of their children."

"Goddess Luna had magical powers so she gifted her last remaining two kids some special powers, making them the strongest creatures on earth. But to curb their excessive strength, she made one a slave of the moon and another the slave of the sun. That's why our ancestors could only shift during the night. And that's why the original vampires couldn't stand in the sun. The changes that we see today— us phasing whenever we want and the vampires walking in the sun freely are evolutionary."

"Those kids procreated and turned other humans and that's how the supernatural race started. But then the original brothers started fighting for power and ended up killing each other. Goddess Luna and God Sol were disappointed and depressed so they left Jivan and decided to live in heaven with the rest of the Gods and Goddesses."

"I still don't see how it's dangerous, Love." He continued walking further and further up the mountain and I followed, getting more worried as our altitude increased.

"It is said that the beautiful house that they lived in is still up there," I told him. "It's a sacred place and no one has been there. To this day, no one has been able to make it to the top. Something happens and they end up dead. No one, not one person has been seen their home and lived to talk about it."

"It's exactly what it is, Ava. An old belief." He looked back, motioning me to catch up with him.

The woods were growing denser on our sides as we ventured deeper into the forest. was growing eery and foggy and whimsical and the air was feeling different. It was... thicker somehow. Didn't Nik feel it? He just looked too excited and determined to notice the shift. I ran up and caught up to him anyway.

But then I heard a branch snap and I stilled. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

And then I heard a loud cry from the woods. A child's cry.

What is a child doing here?

"Heard it now?" I asked, following the origin of the sound. It was coming from the thicket of trees. If there is a child here, I need to help him. He surely is lost.

"There is nothing there, Ava." Nik followed me into the woods.

"I heard a child's cry, Nik." And I heard another one, louder than before. And then a couple of growls. A lot like those of snow leopards.

"I think the child is in danger. I heard the growls of a leopard." I whispered.

"So far, I've heard nothing, Ava. Stop!" Nik caught my hand.

My eyes snapped to his worried grey ones. "Then trust me. The child needs help. We are the only ones who can help. There is no one else here."

"Exactly. There is no one else here, Love." He looked down at me, deep concern etched in his eyes.

"Trust me?" I asked.

He sighed and nodded. "Lead the way."

Giving him a quick, grateful nod, I took off in the direction of the growing cries. I ran at full speed, whizzing past the trees and jumping over the huge rocks that block my way. Nik was hot on my heels. The cry grew louder and louder and so did the growls. I was close. So close.

I hope that we get there in time. I won't be able to live with the death of an innocent child on my conscience.

"Avalyn stop!" Nikolai's loud voice boomed through the forest and instinctively, my legs froze on top of a huge rock.

I looked behind me and saw him about fifty meters away. Wasn't he just behind me?

"Come here right now." He growled.

"Don't shout, you will startle the snow leopards." I hissed. With the way their growling stopped, I fear that exactly that has happened. I hope the child is okay. "We need to go. Come on." I took a step forward but a loud growl ripped through his mouth.

"There is no one there! I said come here." He roared, his eyes black. I looked in front of me, in the distance I saw something white with black spots move. I could see them. How can Nik not see them?

"They are here!" I hissed. "We have to go." I'll never be able to forgive myself if there was a child in danger and I didn't help him.

"You asked me to trust you and I followed you here. Now, I'm asking you to trust me. Trust me when I saw that there is nothing there." He extended his hand. "Please, Love, step down, or else you'll trip and fall to your death!"

Fall to my death? The rock wasn't even that big! Nik was just being overprotective. He must be scared of me getting hurt by those leopards.

"Get off that blasted rock and get your thick ass back to me. Right, this instant." The fury in his eyes sent a shiver up my spine. Instinctively, I jumped off the rock.

That's when I heard it.

The sound of thudding water. I turned around and saw a humongous waterfall. The water was flowing with such a force that I would have jumped to my death had I not listened to Nikolai and walked ahead. And I had been standing at the very edge of the rock, one slip and I would have flowed down with the strong current.

My heart thudded in my chest when reality seeped in.

"What the fuck were you thinking, Avalyn?" Nik gripped my arm and turned me around to face him. "Do you realize that if your leg must have moved an inch, you would not have been standing here?" He growled, capturing me in a hug so tight that I could barely breathe. I hugged back, not minding a single bit. His heart was pounding loudly and I knew he was scared—for me.

"I- I swear I heard the snow leopards, Nikolai. I didn't hear or see the waterfall." I turned around to see the vast expanse of the waterfall again. How did I not see it? I took a breath and the smell of the water was present in the air.

Again, how did I miss it?

"You couldn't see the waterfall?" When my eyes looked deeper into his darkened grey ones, I saw fear, hurt, sadness mixed with anger, love, and all the other emotions I could think of. "Really?"

"Yes. I swear I heard the child and the leopards. And not the waterfall." I bit my lip.

"Please listen to me next time." He cupped my cheeks, kissing my forehead, "you got me so fucking worried, Moya Lyubov."

"I-I'm sorry," I said gently, I didn't know this bothered him so much, that it hurt him so much. "I'll listen to you now."

"For some reason, I was stuck there," his thumb jabbed in the direction where he had been standing, "unable to move."

And then as if something clicked. "You know what? I think your story was true. There is something on this mountain." He took a deep sniff and his sharp eyes examined our surroundings. "Something is different. It's not... natural. I just don't know if it's good or bad."