It took two more months for Nick to discover who the regnant was, and it was, mildly put, a shock to the system. Looking at Captain Renard, his superior officer - his damned boss! - he couldn't help but notice the burnt orange eyes in a face that looked mostly human. Sharper, maybe. But the eyes…
And even without them, he knew. His very soul knew. He felt the presence of the regnant, felt it thrum through his system, and he knew.
"You," he whispered, frozen in place, still breathing hard.
The dead jagerbar lay at his feet. He mourned the death like all creatures he had had to kill, but this one hadn't given him a choice. Mad, beyond reason, nothing but instinct and bloodlust, he had killed whoever had wandered into his territory. And since the jagerbar had been a roaming loner, too, his territory hadn't been a fixed area.
Blood trickled from the shot wounds, staining the powerfully built jagerbar's clothes, just like blood was running down Nick's face from a shallow but messy cut at his hairline.
Renard watched him, not making a move, and Nick felt the concern and the need to touch, to reassure, and the Grimm gave it. A tiny inclination of his head, a flick of his eyes, and he allowed the regnant to touch him.
It was a gentle touch, reassuring for him and for the regnant, and it held no ambiguous meaning. It was weird how he responded to the creature who happened to be the captain he had been working for in the past years. Nothing of the stoic, business-like façade had remained. There was deep worry, a tenderness that spoke of the deeper bond forming between them, and a touch that went deeper than a surface caress.
The orange faded to green.
The face shifted into the softer human contours.
A hint of fangs disappeared.
Now so much made sense. At least when it came to his work as a detective, at how lenient Renard had seemed, how he had backed him and Hank up, had let them run with things that others wouldn't have been given permission to. And his questions when it came to creature-involved cases.
All made sense.
All!
Renard gently wiped the blood away, inspecting the cut and nodding. "You'll need stitches, Nick," he said softly.
He looked completely human again, but for the first time Nick sensed his difference, the power, the core of steel and fire. He felt it in his very touch, like magic trailing along his fingertips where they had touched Nick's skin. Gentle, warm, soft, not at all aggressive, but sharp and biting underneath should anything threaten or attack.
Renard, the regnant, stepped back, giving him space, watching him calmly.
"Why did you reveal yourself?" Nick asked, finally finding his tongue.
His thoughts were still whirling, though. He felt off-balance. This he hadn't expected.
"It was time. You started to sense me, feel me, respond to my power. You opened yourself up to the possibility of this bond and that was all it took."
Nick knew it was the truth. He had picked up strange echoes around the precinct, unable to put them in context with his captain, but it would have happened sooner or later.
Because Monroe had backed down from his possessive claims, had come to terms with another sharing the Grimm with him. Because Nick had had the time to understand what being the counterpart to a regnant meant. He could recite the files Marie had kept hidden inside out, knew everything and still there were blanks.
This might be the weirdest kind of triangle he had ever heard of, Nick mused with an almost hysterical amusement.
"You will be my strongest weak spot, Nick," Renard went on, smiling slightly. "You are my companion-counterpart."
"This will be awkward at work," Nick blurted, thoughts still chasing each other.
Renard had never given even the slightest hint of being aware of the Grimm. Or that he was a creature himself.
Superior control. Iron control. Incredible power locked underneath the tall, powerful frame of their captain…
"No more than before. You're simply aware of me now. It would have happened sooner or later as you grow more and more into your powers. You already are much stronger than Marie ever was. You have control."
He snorted. "Yeah, right."
"Don't dismiss what you've achieved, Grimm. Simply expect there to be a rise in your abilities. The bond is now two-ways. No more shields, no more barriers." Renard came closer again, placing a hand on Nick's chest like he had before.
The Grimm part in him responded and the echo left him breathless.
Remember who you are. Trust your instincts. Nothing else.
Marie's words, sounding so much stronger in his mind than back when she had whispered them breathlessly before her passing.
He was a Grimm. He was a blutbad's mate. He was a regnant's companion-counterpart. He felt it in his soul and it was just the beginning of what he could be with the regnant, what he could still become with Monroe. It should be tearing him apart to be split like this, but strangely enough, it felt good. It felt whole.
Power called to power. Nick had become the center of this, if he wanted to or not.
"This is what we are. This is what you are to me, Grimm. Nothing has ever mattered more to me, nothing ever will." Renard tilted his head a little. "And nothing will change at work. I'm still your boss in that regard." White teeth flashed. "And I will kick your ass if you get insubordinate."
"And you will continue to push certain cases my way," Nick observed.
Renard chuckled and dropped his hand, the echoes still between them. "Most likely. You are a Grimm, Nick. It's your job. Being a cop and a Grimm gives you a certain advantage over say, a librarian."
He glared at the taller man. Nick had learned a lot about his aunt's secret life in the past months, especially by reading all her journals back and forth. She had been a single-minded woman, out to rid the world of the bad creatures, killing a few good ones on the way, it seemed.
She had had a reputation. He had gotten that much from his first meeting with Monroe such a long time ago. A bad, bad reputation. The Terminator of all Grimms.
But she had told him one thing: he had a responsibility he could not ignore. He had seen enough to know that. He had done enough to understand that. Yes, he was still trying to make sense of a lot of things, and finding out he was the counterpart of a regnant didn't help.
Aunt Marie would probably have blown a fuse, he mused. She would most likely have tried to keep this from happening.
Not that anyone had the power to.
This was an essential part of Nick reacting to what was Renard. His true form.
Renard was still smiling knowingly.
"So nothing changes?" Nick finally said. "I'm still a target because of what I am. I'm still a cop and a Grimm."
"Essentially, yes."
The bond sang softly, like a constant melody that was reassuring and calming. Calming especially for the regnant. Renard looked relaxed, the lines of his body easy and loose. The bond was there to stay. Like Monroe was.
Yeah, weird kind of triangular relationship, he thought again, almost laughing out loud. One sexual, one platonic.
And he had to work with it. Creature politics and so on. Renard was politically suave, very adept, the perfect player, though not in any position to guide and influence anyone in Portland. At least no one who he didn't have to. Nick had yet to understand what a regnant was doing in this position.
Then again, maybe the answer was easy: keep the city safe. He could do that best as a police captain. He might even go for a higher position, too.
Nick looked at the dead body not far away from them and grimaced.
"Call it in," Renard simply said, giving him some space. "You caught a killer. Good job, detective."
He shot the regnant a dark look, but he drew out his cell.
No reception, of course.
That meant going back to the car, using the phone there, then wait for the cavalry to arrive.
Renard just smiled again.
x x x x
When Nick returned, he was gone, but there was the distinct feeling that the regnant was still around.
In a way if was comforting.
x x x x xx x x x xx x x x xx x x x xx x x x xx x x x xx x x x xx x x x xx x x x xx x x x xx x x x xx x x x xx x x x xx x x x xx x x x xx x x x xx x x x xx x x x xx x x x xx x x x x
Monroe came to slowly accept the third person in this relationship, though for a while the blutbad instincts hissed and snarled and snapped whenever Nick had too much of Renard's scent on him. It wasn't that they were touching more than before; actually, aside from a brief clap on the shoulder just one time there had been no touching at all.
Distance.
Superior officer, detective. Nothing new there.
"You can sense this bond, right?" Nick asked one night after he had calmed down his mate once more. Renard hadn't even been at the office.
Monroe drew him close, nuzzling the warm skin at his neck. "In a way. Not like a scent or something I can see, but it's there. I can tell when it strengthens."
"I would never betray you," the young Grimm whispered.
"I know. This is just… weird. Really weird. It's… not something I could ever fight." He sighed into the crook of Nick's neck.
"And you won't have to because I won't leave you. Ever."
"Blutbaden don't share, Nick. We have only one life mate. This is… unprecedented."
"Like a blutbad and a Grimm together?" Nick teased.
It got him a chuckle and Monroe slipped a hand under his t-shirt, letting it rest over the old scar. It was a habit and Nick had accepted that this was Monroe's way of reassuring himself again and again.
"Yeah, like that. I know Renard isn't trying to… mate," he almost choked on the word, "with you. I got that from the files. And I know he would wipe the floor with me if he wanted to and I tried to stop him. And I really, really know you're not sleeping with him."
"But instinct is hard to ignore," Nick finished softly.
Monroe nodded.
"We can work this, Monroe. We can. I can't be anyone but who I am. I can't undo what connected me to Renard."
"It's in your blood or your genes or whatever," the blutbad agreed.
He didn't like it, but it was a fact. His Grimm was part of a powerful, rare and very secretive creature. Nothing could undo it.
Still, acceptance was a daily fight.
The regnant wasn't an ever-present oppressive force, but he was imprinted on Nick. Monroe felt it.