Blood Awakening: The Strongest Hybrid and His Vampire Bride

Chapter 375: The Weight Behind the Punches

A week had passed since the silent deal with Alaric Drago.

Nikolai spent most of it buried in paperwork or beating his body to the edge of collapse. After the ambush at the tower, he abandoned open training grounds and took to the underground chambers beneath the Volkov estate—an old battleground once reserved for the heads of the clan.

He fought whoever he could convince. Some days two at once. Some days until his fists bled.

The training was brutal. And Nikolai no longer held back.

The quiet left in him after the battle wasnʼt just exhaustion.

It was loneliness.

His mother no longer lingered around him, the pendant glowing a faint blue, lacking his motherʼs essence. From the moment she came to the mansion, Elizabeth spent her time in the mansion owned by Ivan.

Nikolai couldnʼt blame her and felt the pressure to make a new body for her, though research was progressing. It would take time.

But...

It was quieter now.

Too quiet.

”Pay attention, Nikolai!” Alexeiʼs voice cut through the stillness, sharp and loud.

The floor cracked under Nikolaiʼs heel as he dashed forward—no warning, no wind-up.

Alexei barely raised his guard in time.

Crack!

Nikolaiʼs punch landed flush against his forearm, forcing the older man three steps back.

”Tch—youʼre faster.”

”Iʼm not finished.”

Nikolai twisted and followed with a low kick—sharp, efficient. Alexei grunted, raising his knee to block. Stone dust flew where their limbs clashed.

They broke apart—then clashed again.

Steel against stone.

Speed against weight.

Alexeiʼs claws extended, fur bristling across his arms and neck. His body bulged with that familiar half-transformed power, skin shimmering faintly with the bloodlineʼs golden hue.

But Nikolai hadnʼt shifted.

He didnʼt need to.

A soft blue glow pulsed under his skin—Celestial Aura rushing through his veins like wildfire. It licked along his spine, hissed around his fists.

His eyes didnʼt glow.

They burned.

Alexei lunged. A downward hammer fist, quick and heavy.

Nikolai stepped inside it, shoulder to chest, and drove his fist straight into Alexeiʼs ribs.

Thud.

Air shot from Alexeiʼs lungs as he staggered.

Another punch—left hook. Then a short elbow.

Each hit was clean, snapping the head, clipping his jaw.

Enraged, Alexei grabbed him by the collar and threw him across the chamber.

Nikolai twisted mid-air, landing low—one hand on the floor, knees bent, before he launched back in.

They met halfway.

Fists. Knees. Blood.

Alexei ducked a spinning backfist, rolled under Nikolaiʼs follow-up strike, and caught him in the gut with a rising uppercut. A ripple of force cracked through Nikolaiʼs chest, displacing his organs as blood spurted from his mouth.

He didnʼt fall.

Instead, he stepped in close again—no space left—and brought his head forward.

Crack.

A brutal headbutt to the nose.

Bone splintered and blood spraying.

Alexei reeled.

”I said pay attention!” he barked, voice distorted by the blood in his throat.

”I was,” Nikolai muttered, wiping his mouth. ”Youʼre the one slowing down.”

Alexei growled and flashed in with a full-speed charge, arms wide, claws bared, aiming to slam Nikolai into the far wall.

But Nikolai pivoted, dropped low, and hooked his leg behind Alexeiʼs ankle.

The takedown was clean.

Alexei hit the stone with a solid boom, a dust cloud blooming around them.

Nikolai stood over him, chest heaving, knuckles bloodied but loose.

He didnʼt gloat.

Just held out a hand.

Alexei took it after a beat.

”Fuck,” he muttered, pulling himself up. ”Youʼre finally stronger than my half-transformed state...”

Nikolai exhaled. ”Took me long enough.”

”Youʼre not done, though.”

”No. Not yet.”

Because of a genetic mutation, Alexei carried the blood of his father and a small amount of his motherʼs werewolf bloodline. A pseudo-hybrid, but he couldnʼt fully transform into a werewolf.

He only had this half-transformation—at least until Nikolai told him about his bloodline.

”Are you sure you want to start training against my werewolf form?”

Alexeiʼs voice was rough, but he was a gentle man, even more so towards Nikolai who helped awaken the special bloodline of his mother.

”Letʼs take a break today... Otherwise, your lovely wife will kill me.”

”Shut up, your wives are already watching from the door!”

”Huh?” Nikolai turned around and noticed Risa and Lunaria both peeking from the reinforced glass that stopped any damage to the building.

”Well, letʼs talk a little first? Youʼre the only friend I can speak to like this...”

”Haha, sure.”

Alexei slapped Nikolaiʼs shoulder, and the pair sat together for a moment.

The floor was still cracked beneath them. Dust drifted in slow spirals as the tension bled from their shoulders.

Alexei passed Nikolai a chilled towel from the storage bin on the wall. He kept one for himself, pressing it to his neck and jaw, wiping blood from the corner of his lip.

”...You really are a bastard,” Alexei muttered, half-laughing. ”My joints are still shaking.”

”You asked for it.”

”I always ask for it. Doesnʼt mean I enjoy getting ragdolled across the room like an old sparring dummy.”

”Donʼt you remember when you wiped the floor with me daily at your gym!?”

”Hahaha!”

”Donʼt Laugh!”

Nikolai smirked faintly, towel resting over the back of his neck. The heat was still pulsing in his chest, but it felt good now, as if he truly earned it.

They sat on the edge of the old bench pressed up against the far wall, shoulders bumping once, then settling.

”Youʼve changed,” Alexei said after a moment. ”Youʼre more... I donʼt know. Present. Less angry. Less human.”

Nikolai didnʼt reply at first.

Then: ”I think I finally accepted who I am and what I have to become.”

”Thatʼs what impresses the rest of them, you know.”

Nikolai tilted his head. ”Who?”

”Everyone,” Alexei said, looking straight ahead. ”Theyʼre in awe because you stopped apologising, worrying and have finally become a leader. Brother, I feel like I can trust you with my life now, even when I swore to never trust anyone but my wife and your father...”

The silence stretched for a moment before Alexei reached into the pocket of his coat, draped over the bench. He pulled out a small silver locket, worn but polished, the chain wrapped around his fingers.

He stared at it for a few seconds before cracking it open with a soft click.

Inside: a girlʼs photo. Seventeen, maybe eighteen. Bright eyes. Half-tied hair. Smile crooked on one side.

”Her nameʼs Marianne.”

Nikolai looked at it, then at him.

”Careful, I donʼt think your wife would accept a harem...”

Alexeiʼs eyes bulged as he elbowed Nikolai.

”Little bastard! Sheʼs my half-sister. Iʼve met her twice. Same father. Different mothers.” He paused. ”She was taken before I could. Passed off in some deal years ago. House Baldon sold her to gain a temporary alliance with the Everen family.”

Nikolaiʼs heart throbbed... a sense of confusion and fear.

ʼHow could it be Everen!? Such a coincidence cannot be true!ʼ

Alexei kept talking, his voice quieter now. ”I thought it was political. An arranged union, maybe. But the reports I dug up say otherwise. Sheʼs basically a hostage now. Bought, caged… maybe worse.”

He looked at Nikolai then.

”I want to get her out.”

Nikolai didnʼt respond right away.

Not until Alexei added, ”The city sheʼs in... the Everenʼs stronghold—itʼs in Drevnos.”

That name hit like a stone to the chest.

Nikolai turned his head slowly.

”Say that again.”

”Drevnos.”

Nikolaiʼs gaze sharpened as his head lifted, looking towards the sky, with tense shoulders.

”Thatʼs where they took my grandfather and, ironically, itʼs house Everen who is keeping him.”

The weight between them shifted—no longer just two men resting after a spar. It was something deeper now. Shared blood. Shared loss. Shared war.

Alexei didnʼt speak, but he couldnʼt help but look at Nikolai with a strange expression, as if asking, ”How could it be such a coincidence? Did someone plan this from the start?”

Nikolai stood up, slowly.

”Then itʼs settled, brother. We are going to Drevnos, but can you give me some time?”

”To comfort the wives? Haha, donʼt worry, I will have to do the same... since she will kill me.”

”Then weʼre going.”

”Letʼs go, Nikolai.”

The cold stone underfoot felt warmer than it should have.

Nikolai reached for his coat, draping it over his shoulders with a faint grunt. Muscles ached. Blood was still drying on his knuckles. But inside, the fire was starting again—low and steady.

Alexei tied the locket back around his neck and stood beside him. No more jokes. No more teasing.

Just silence.

The kind of silence that followed a decision.

Nikolai looked back at the reinforced glass.

Risa was gone now. So was Lunaria.

Theyʼd both seen enough.

”Youʼll tell the others?” Alexei asked.

”Not yet,” Nikolai said, his voice low. ”Iʼll speak to Kumiko first. Then Selene.”

Alexei nodded. ”Understood.”

Nikolai walked toward the chamber doors, footsteps echoing softly behind him. The long corridor beyond was lined with steel pillars and the claw marks of generations before him.

So many wolves had walked this path.

Now he would walk it too—toward blood, fire, and war.

But not alone.

Not this time.

At the door, he paused. Turned halfway.

”Iʼll call the others when itʼs time. But Drevnos belongs to us.”

Alexei grinned. ”Then weʼll take it back together.”

And with that, the chamber door groaned open, spilling them both into the lightless corridor ahead.

The larger man couldnʼt help but look at his younger brother in arms and feel that his growth and changes were beyond his imagination.

He also felt the desire to become his strength...

The day when the empty 4th Seat became a new familyʼs spot might not be far off.