The Pomegranate Society

Twenty-nine: Alina Starkov

Twenty-nine:

Alina Starkov

There were three things that changed her mind about Nikolai. Genya's birthday party, the opera, and the trip to the hospital. It also helped that she was still fuming with Aleksander. Professor Morozova, as she had taken to calling him again just to watch him get red. She'd avoided him and the club house since the incident at the restaurant. To his credit, he hadn't called on her either. He knew that she was mad, and she imagined, he probably didn't want her to bite his cock off if he asked her for a blow job.

She was so angry right then she might just actually do it, consequences be damned.

That was why he had wanted her to join the society. Because of her connection to Nikolai, because he had planned on using her from the start. Now, if she wanted to keep Mal alive, she had no choice but to marry Nikolai and become his future Queen. Did she want that? She didn't know. But it didn't matter, because Aleksander had seen to it that choice was taken from her.

All of her choices were.

But the Saints seemed to be pushing her in the direction of Nikolai anyway. Most afternoons if she weren't with Aleksander, she went to the hospital to spend time with Mal. Sometimes she did her homework, sometimes she read, sometimes she sketched. Sometimes, she even just talked to him absentmindedly, having heard once that talking to someone in a coma could help them wake up. She thought it was on a tv show or something. On that particular afternoon, Alina had been curled up in a ball in the chair next to Mal's bed, listening to her music, half falling asleep.

There was a knock on the door. She looked up and she saw Nikolai standing in the entryway, holding what appeared to be a bag of take out and two drinks. "Hey," he said, "Genya told me you were here. I thought that you could use some company. I also thought that you could use some food, so I got some for us. I wasn't sure when the last time you ate was and I know you stay here late sometimes."

She smiled, and wiped sleep from her eyes. "Nikolai," she said, "that was really sweet of you."

He smiled bashfully, and took the empty seat next to her. He reached over and placed the food on the nightstand. "So," he said, "this is Malyen Oretsev. I looked at his record. He's pretty impressive. You know, tracker is code for spy, right?"

Alina nodded. "I'm aware. Mal was really happy when he got that title. He wrote me like ten letters about it."

"You two still write letters?"

"Yeah," she said, "sometimes, when he's with his unit, he's not allowed to take a phone for safety. Or there won't be service. He doesn't have a whole lot of people outside of me, so we made a promise to keep track of each other. Our homes were bombed when we were children, and we left with our families together. We both...."

"Both what?" Nikolai asked.

She tried to hide the tears back as she struggled to talk. Years later, and it still was impossible to discuss. "We had to hide in the dirt and the leaves when our family was attacked by Fjerdian soldiers. When we made it out they were.... well....we only had each other. When we got to the next village, they took pity on us and sent us to the orphanage."

Nikolai reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You know, a lot of what my family does is about giving back to the community, Alina. If you...." He shook his head. "I shouldn't be trying to sway you, should I? That's wrong."

She let out a self-deprecating laugh. If only he knew. "Do it, Nikolai," she whispered, "make me want to be your Queen."

He smirked at her. "Well, if you want me to do that, we would need more time alone and privacy."

"How far is your apartment from here?"

"Not very," he said.

"And you can dismiss the guards at home?"

He nodded. "Alina, you don't have to do----"

She reached out and laced her hand through his. "I'm holding onto something I don't even have yet that might be miserable, Nikolai. The truth is, I don't know what my future holds. I could wind up working a dead end job for years, I could fail out of college, Mal might never wake up and I might not be able to support him...."

Nikolai pressed his forehead to hers. "Alina," he said, "he's your family. He's important to you. I would never let anything bad happen to your family. Because if I have anything to say about it, you're family is going to be mine. And I intend to take care of you until the end of our days."

"Saints," she whispered, "you are making it really, really hard not fall in love with you, Nikolai Lantsov."

He grinned. "Well, wasn't that the point of this whole, little arrangement?"

"You said your apartment was close?"

He nodded. "Matthias and Nina are outside. They've got the car running, and I can give them the boot if I'm at home for the night...."

Alina got up from her seat and offered her his hand. "Come on. Let's go."

"What about---"

"Leave it," she said.

"Alright then," he said, grinning.

They left the hospital holding hands together. The pictures were on the gossip magazines everywhere the next day, and they were trending on twitter and Instagram. With the #QueenStarkov.