Nicolai Woolf in Pursuing My Rejected Luna: The Waiting Hero

Nicolai Woolf in Pursuing My Rejected Luna is the man Skye writes to when she has no one else: a childhood friend who now runs the most feared family in the north. Spoilers for the whole book.

Who he is

Nicolai Woolf heads the Woolf Family, a northern power that runs shipments the capital pretends not to see, with his Beta Dimitri at his side for fifteen years. His father died when he was eighteen and left him the family and its enemies. He handles business with quiet threats, collects debts and keeps territories in line. The book never pretends he is a gentle man.

He is also the serious boy Skye met at a formal dinner as a girl. At twelve she told him he wasn't as interesting as everyone said, and she laughed at his surname and called him Wolfy. He never forgot her, and loved her for years while keeping it brotherly.

The letter

Skye's letter in chapter 18 asks for help with her stepbrother Dalton, held in the capital without charges. Nicolai answers with three words, consider it done, and within a week Dalton walks free. He doesn't ask for anything in return. He requests a diplomatic visit only so he can see how she is really living.

At Ironwood he says out loud what nobody else will, then leaves her a card with his number and a promise: day or night, he will come.

Restraint as romance

What sets Nicolai apart is how long he waits. He doesn't declare himself while she is married, or while she is divorcing, or while she is newly free. Dimitri tells him early that he's in love; Nicolai admits it, and still keeps his distance because Skye has to be able to stand beside him, not behind him.

When she moves to his estate after the attack, the first thing he gives her is a key to her own suite, with doors that lock from the inside. When the threat is gone, he tells her she is free to leave. Only when she chooses to stay does he ask before he kisses her. His care is in the details: he knows how she takes her tea, asks her opinion in meetings, and is honest that his family works outside the law.

Father before mate

Nicolai becomes Benji's father before any bond exists. He builds a nursery, walks a crying baby up and down a hallway at 3 a.m., and fights a baby swing and loses. He agrees to Jaxon living in the west wing because Benji having his father close matters more than his own comfort. Benji's first word, "Ni", is the book's reward for that.

Jealousy, told honestly

Nicolai's hardest test comes after the mating ceremony, when a new bond appears between Skye and Jaxon. He is angry and scared, and says so. He also holds her. Dimitri tells him to feel it, tell her and keep choosing her anyway, and he does. He changes his own question from whether he can share her to what she needs. When he asks whether she would choose between them, and she says she would choose him, he tells her he can't watch her give it up.

Protector

In the final arc his methods come back into view. When Skye is taken, he runs the operation, leads the way into the house and fights his way to her. Afterwards he dismantles the plot against his family without a single public death: the man behind it is left to watch his work become irrelevant. Then he makes Jaxon Consort Alpha in a public ceremony and calls him family.

Why he works

Nicolai is a familiar type, the dangerous man who is soft only for one woman. What makes him memorable is that his softness takes the form of respect: keys, choices, honesty, patience. He calls her moonbeam because she was so full of light as a girl, and spends the book making room for her to be that again.

Read more: Skye, Alpha Jaxon and Recap Part 3: The Woolf Estate.