She watched him for several minutes as he regained his control and then a thought occurred to her. “Why have you not kissed me?” She felt a wave of desire hit her that had her stumbling, and her eyes widened as she met his still glowing gaze.
“Because you are not of age, my love, and a kiss is not all I would want. Let us leave it there for now.” She could tell he was embarrassed, which was an odd thing to witness as Vasile was always so sure of himself. But if he did not want to talk about it, then she would not push him.
“I want to ask you something, but I do not want to incite your wrath,” he says, effectively changing the subject.
“Then I guess you should choose your words wisely.” Alina’s brow rose as she looked up at him, and she liked seeing the shocked look on his face at her boldness.
He cleared his throat before he finally asked. “About your markings?” He paused obviously waiting to see if she was going to snarl at him as she had the other night. She simply stared at him the way her father had done so many times to her when she had to ask him difficult questions. “I should never have asked to see them in front of your father, or anyone for that matter. They are a very private matter between a female and her mate. I disrespected you, and for that I owe amends. What can I do to show my remorse for disrespecting my mate thus?”
Alina felt her mouth drop open and quickly snapped it shut. She had not been expecting his words. Initially, as soon as he said the word markings, she assumed he was going to ask her if they had appeared. But once again Vasile Lupei surprised her. She stared into his blue eyes as she considered his request and felt her heart speed up as she realized what she wanted him to do.
“A kiss,” she breathed out before she lost her nerve. “I want a kiss from my mate for disrespecting me.” She could tell that he had not been expecting her answer. Apparently they were both good at surprising the other. His eyes never left hers as he took slow measured steps until he was standing inches from her. Alina tilted her head back to look up at him and tried to keep her breathing even. As his arms came around her, one hand gripped the back of her neck while the other wrapped around her small waist pulling her close against him. He tilted her head back even further, and as his head lowered her eyes fluttered closed. Her lips parted slightly as she waited to taste him. The taste never came. His head continued to lower until his lips were next to her ear with his warm breath blowing the tendrils of her hair around and warming her skin.
“Everything in me wants to give you what you want,” he whispered in his deep, gravelly voice, and she knew he was telling the truth. Even with her lack of experience, she could hear the desire in his voice, and more than that she could feel it through their bond. “But this I cannot, not yet.” He pressed his lips to her neck just below her ear. Before he pulled away he nipped her skin enough to sting but not draw blood. “Mine,” he whispered and then kissed the tender spot soothing the place his teeth had just been.
Alina was glad that he held her a few moments longer because she was sure if he had stepped away immediately after the kiss on her neck she would have fallen ungracefully to the ground. Her whole body felt warm and tingly, even in places she had never tingled before. That thought had her giggling, and she was not sure if it was because she was somehow drunk on his scent or because in her mind the words sounded ridiculous.
“I think it is time I get you home, my love,” he told her gently as he pulled away, but he did not let go until he was sure she would not crumble.
“Is the tingling getting to you too?” she asked innocently.
Vasile’s jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed as she grinned up at him unrepentantly. “You are nothing but trouble, Mina,” he muttered as he took her hand and began leading her back to her home.
After several moments of silence, as they walked she asked the one question that she did not really want the answer to. “When are you leaving?”
“In three days’ time,” he answered. She felt his eyes on her but kept her own straight ahead. She wanted to be strong. If she was going to be the mate of an Alpha, she had to be strong, so she swallowed back the tears and turned her lips up in a smile as she finally met his gaze.
“What shall we do until then?”
He chuckled as he walked over to her and took one of her hands in his. “Until then I will spend every waking second with you with the intent of making you fall hopelessly in love with me.”
She grinned at him. “Maybe it will be you who falls hopelessly in love with me.”
His smile dropped away as he tugged her closer to him. “That fate was sealed before you ever met me. I have loved you from the first minute I laid eyes on you.”
“When was that?” Her voice was breathless but she was over being embarrassed by her reaction to him.
“In the marketplace more than a year ago. You were defending a woman to one of the merchants. You were so fierce, so sure of yourself. I had to tear my gaze from you lest someone think me depraved for gazing upon one so young. I was confused by my reaction to you. You were young and yet not young at the same time. You were beautiful and there have been many nights I have had to banish your face from my thoughts. You were simply too young.”
“You said I was beautiful,” she prompted.
He nodded. “Yes, you were.”
“What am I now if I was beautiful?”
He ran a finger down her jaw line and her neck. “Now Mina, you are breathtaking. Beautiful is too mundane a term for you. It is a very good thing I have not seen you in the marketplace recently.”
“Why?” Her words were barely a whisper.
“Because I would have snatched you up and taken you to my den and, had that happened, I do not think I would have been able to let you go regardless of the fact that you still have a year until you are of age.”
“Whoa.”
He chuckled. “No, beloved, whoa does not even begin to cover it.”
“Are you sure no one followed you?” Ivan asked Emilian as the small band of conspirators from the two packs stood in a deserted shack. Eleven in all, eight males and three females. from the Eastern and Western packs agreed to meet when Emilian had informed them that he had the proof that Vasile did not need to be the Alpha of the Eastern pack.
“I think I am capable of being discrete when it is warranted,” Emilian answered while looking over the group. He was hoping for more. But perhaps it was a good thing so few had shown. More wolves meant more of an opportunity for his secret to be exposed. He did not want anything revealed until the time was right, and he was sure that Vasile could be taken out. There were seven total from the Eastern pack: Anton and his mate, Mara, Aurel, Calin and his mate, Lizuca, Drin, and Costel. Anton, who was the most dominant in that group, had informed him that there were others who would come forward once there was definitive proof to stand against their Alpha.
“So what is the big news that you were so intent on speaking about with us?” Anton asked.
Emilian smiled. “I overheard my Alpha and his mate speaking last night and came across some very disturbing news that I thought your pack should be aware of, especially since it concerns your new Alpha.
“It will have to be pretty damning for most of the pack to stand against him. He is very well liked,” Costel spoke up.
“Everyone has skeletons.” Emilian’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Vasile is not any different than the rest of us and should have to answer for his skeletons because he is a leader. He should be held to a higher standard than the rest of us.”
“Why are you so concerned for the wellbeing of our pack?” Drin asked with narrowed eyes.
“There is only one way to move up in the ranks of a pack―you know this.”
Aurel frowned. “You think to take Vasile’s place?”
“What of his second?” Mara, Anton’s mate spoke up.
Emilian crossed his arms over his chest and drew himself up to his six foot one inch height. “I will take on Vasile if it comes to that just as any others have the
right to challenge him. The strong are the ones who should lead. His second cannot take over if his Alpha is bested in a challenge, only if Vasile were to die of natural causes like an animal attack or disease.”
“What if one of us wants to challenge him?” Anton asked.
Emilian opened his hands out in front of him as if to say have at it.
“So what is the news you have?” Marian, one of his pack mates, asked sounding impatient.
“From what I overheard from my Alphas, Stefan and his mate, Daciana, were not true mates.”
The room was silent, not even the sound of breathing penetrated the stillness. Emilian watched in satisfaction as the wolves in Vasile’s pack swallowed the information with obvious difficulty. They did not want to believe it, but they also knew how close Anghel and Stefan had been.
“Did your Alpha know all along?” Aurel asked.
Emilian shook his head. “No, Vasile was the one to tell him. Anghel and his mate were shocked.”
“If they were not true mates, then why did she die when he did?” Lizuca, Calin’s mate, asked with skepticism written across her pixie like face.
“She poisoned herself,” he answered without any hesitation.
“Then there will be no way to prove it,” Drin pointed out.
Emilian chuckled. “It is obvious that you have never attempted a coup. You have to think, look at all the angles. We do not have to know how she died. There are other ways to know if they were true mates.”
Mara’s eyes widened as his train of thought reached her. “Their markings.”
Emilian clapped his hands together with a wicked grin. “Exactly, she-wolf.”
“How exactly are we going to check their markings?” Costel frowned.
Emilian shrugged as though they were talking about the weather. “We dig up their bodies.”
Romanian Proverb # 9
“Cine n-a gustat amarul, nu stie ce e zaharul.”
“If there were no clouds, we should not enjoy the sun.”
“You leave tomorrow,” Alina murmured as she sat on the ground by the river with Vasile’s head in her lap. She ran her fingers through his hair, loving the way the strands tickled her skin and loving even more that she alone had the right to have her fingers in his thick, dark hair.
“Hmm,” he responded.
She grinned. His eyes were closed and he was nearly purring at her under her ministrations. Three days had flown by. They had been inseparable except at night when they were forced to sleep apart, and even then he had slept opposite her with only the wall of the cottage between them. Every night she had fallen asleep to the sound of his deep voice telling her tales of his life, the short time he remembered with his brother, and the years he had had with his parents. It was obvious he loved his family very much and she ached for his loss. He was alone, left with a pack that had been falling apart around him without his notice. He had told her how his father’s mind had begun to fail, and that was why his attention had not been on the pack. She could feel his guilt and that broke her heart as well.
“What are you thinking so deeply about?” he asked her softly.
She looked down and saw that he had opened his eyes and was watching her. She blushed under his gaze. She was pretty sure she would never get over someone so handsome taking notice of her, mate or not. “I am just sad for you. You have so much on your shoulders and no one to bear it with you.”
“I have you,” he told her as he reached up and ran his fingers across her cheek.
“But I cannot be with you, not really.”
“Just knowing you are here waiting for me is enough for now, Mina.”
As she stared down at him, she felt him opening their bond up even more so that she could see his memories. She smiled at the memory of the first time he had seen her. To him she was indescribably beautiful. He saw her in a light in which she had never imagined herself, and it warmed her to know he was so attracted to her. She saw his pain over the memories of his father, and before he could sensor it she saw his mother with something in her hand and felt Vasile’s sorrow.
“What was that?” she asked breathless from the intense onslaught of emotions pouring out of him.
He sat up abruptly and ran his hands over his face. She could tell that he did not want to talk about it, and yet he wanted her to know because he wanted her to know all of him.
“My parents were not who they appeared to be,” he began.
Vasile let out a deep breath as he began to tell his true mate about his parents. He was embarrassed and yet he knew if he told her she would not judge him. His Alina was a kind, gentle soul, and if anyone could understand what he was going through, it would be her. She listened to him without interrupting, seeming to understand that he needed to get it all out. Like a dam breaking open the story rushed from him with all the gory details. And even though it was brutal to relive, when he finally finished, he felt as if a thousand pounds that he did not even realize he had been carrying had been lifted off of his chest. His heart was still pounding in his chest from the memories of finding his father a bloody mess by his own hand. If he had ever wanted to wipe his memory clear of anything more than those images, he could not remember it. He finally turned to look at her and immediately gathered her into his arms.
She was weeping silently, his little Luna, broken for him. She was not bothering to block her emotions from him and he felt all of them: anger at his parents for putting him in such a position, admiration for his mother at having loved a man that had not been her true mate for so long, and pain for his father at having slowly gone mad. Regardless of the love his mate had for him, it was not enough.
“Do not waste your precious tears on me, beloved,” he whispered to her. “It is a sad story, but it was their choice and only they are responsible.”
“That may be,” she said around quiet sobs. “But they…left you…to deal with the consequences.” Her words were interrupted by the rapid breaths caused by her tears.
When she began to shiver, he pulled her tighter against him as though his arms would be enough to hold her together. He hated that telling her had caused such hurt in her, but then he knew that was the way of true mates. They felt deeply for one another, and when one hurt, they both hurt. When one rejoiced, they both rejoiced. He knew that even though there would be times when the truth would be hard on her, he would not keep things from her. She was his mate, his equal, his beloved, and she alone deserved to know everything―even his darkest, most painful secrets.
“No one must know, Vasile,” she said suddenly, her voice urgent as she pulled back so she could look up at him, “not even my parents. If the wrong wolves in the pack had that information. . . .” Her words died away as her eyes widened at the understanding of how bad that would be.
“I know, Alina. Only one other knows the truth and he will not speak of it.”
“You are sure?”
He nodded. “Anghel was one of my father’s best friends, regardless of the fact that they were Alphas of separate packs. They respected one another and that respect will continue on past the grave.” He stood then, still holding her in his arms, and began walking back towards her home. It was after dark and past time he got her home. “It is late and you need rest. I have surely taxed you with my sordid family secrets.”
She shook her head against him. “None of us is perfect, Vasile. We all have dark things tucked away that we would rather never see the light of day.”
His wolf perked up at her admission. “And pray tell, Mina, what dark things do you have tucked away?” He dropped his voice suggestively hoping she would hear the teasing in it and the desire to know her even more.
She laughed. “I think I will wait until I bear your marks and your bite before I go digging into my gritty details.”
“There is nothing you could ever tell me that would keep me from you.” He gently set her down at the door of her home and tilted her chin to look up at him. “You are stuck with me Luna mine, forever.”
She smiled and it nearly stopped his heart to know that it was for him and him alone. “In a couple of centuries when you are growling at me in irritation, I will remind you of your words this night, Alpha.” Then to his surprise and utter pleasure she reached up on her toes and pressed a quick kiss to his chin before quickly ducking into the cottage closing the door quietly behind her.
He chuckled at her boldness as he wandered over to his usual place to sleep for the night. He stripped off his clothes, folding them for in the morning, and then phased into his wolf form. He settled down against the side of the cottage and waited.
“Goodnight, Vasile,” her voice brushed against his mind.
His wolf rumbled with satisfaction. “Goodnight, Mina.”
Alina’s eyes fluttered open as she felt something brushing across her lips. She blinked several times to see Vasile’s handsome face come into focus. She could not stop the smile that spread across her face.
“It is time for me to go.”
And just like that the smile from the previous night was gone. His words were like a jagged piece of glass cutting across her chest until her heart was exposed to the harsh elements, no longer protected in the safety of his care. She nodded as she sat up and brushed her hair from her face. Alina knew she should care that he was seeing her in such a state, but she was filled with too much sorrow to care.
He stood to give her room and she followed as she briskly braided her hair down her back and straightened her clothes. She had been so tired the night before that she had not even bothered to change into her sleep clothes.
“Can I walk you out?” she asked him putting on the bravest smile she could muster.