“I don't know what you were about to ask, but I don't want to be anywhere else, doing anything else but making you my mate.” Aleksei was moonstruck with how Helena glowed in the moonlight.
“Hey, you're glowing. Why are you glowing? I wanna glow.” She touched his face and stroked his cheek like he was made of magic.
“You are, but I think only I can see it.” The glow of fated mates. Selena had tried to tell them all that true mates would know each other. Undoubtedly, the matching fire for each other in their souls were alight, calling to join together. He had no idea it would make him feel like his heart was ready to explode.
“Ladies and gentlemen, wolves, and people of Rogue and beyond.” Niko stepped into the circle and a beam of moonlight lit him up. “Welcome to our first open mating ceremony. If you think your fated mate is here tonight, step into the sacred circle and join with them. Everyone else, have fun.”
“Ooh. This sounds like all official and stuff. What do we do?” Helena looked at Aleksei with so much love in her eyes he forgot how to talk for a minute.
Instead of words, he pushed the flowers and her hair to the side and ran his teeth along her throat, right where he'd wanted to the first day they'd met.
“Oh my god. Do that again and I think I might come right here in front of everyone.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and guided his head back to the same spot. “Whatever it is you're about to do, I want it. I want you, and I want the whole world, starting with all of our friends and, well, I guess half of Rogue is here too...I want them all to know that we belong to each other.”
Aleksei wanted that too. He was eternally grateful that the Troika pack hadn't given up on him, even when he'd given up on himself. Because without them and their crazy revolution for love, he wouldn't have been able to claim his true mate and be truly, completely happy.
He pulled the gown off Helena's shoulders and found the neckline was stretchy enough that he could easily push the whole thing all the way to the ground, taking his time to caress her soft curves as he did.
“Mine.” He licked the soft spot on her throat and gently sunk his teeth into her skin. Helena's knees gave out, but that was okay, he had her. Together, they dropped to the ground. Aleksei spread her legs with his, and she guided his cock to her wet folds. They joined their bodies under the moonlight and became one.
“I love you Aleksei Troika. You and your fantastic cock. God, I'm going to come from your touch alone. I want us to be like this forever. Don't you dare stop.”
He would never stop. Never stop loving her.
Aleksei howled to the moon, thanking her for the gift of his mate. Other wolves in the sacred circle joined in the call and the forest was filled with the sound of love.
For the final time, Aleksei’s wolf pushed him to mark his mate. It needn’t ask again. He lowered his mouth to her soft skin, thrust his cock deep into her wet, willing cunt, and bit down. Helena’s whole body locked and then spasmed with the first of what would be many orgasms.
I love you, zhin moya. I claim you for my own and now you bear my mark for all to see.
Helena’s wolftress voice popped into his head. I love you too, wolf man of mine. As soon as I come down out of this warm and fabulous place you’ve sent my mind and body, I’m going to bite you right back. Because if I’m yours, then you’re mine and I want everyone to know.
He would wear her mark proudly knowing together they would live happily for ever after.
Epilogue - Nothing Becomes Something
Death.
Despair.
Darkness.
That is all he had known for far too long. Although, he didn’t have a good sense of the passage of time. Not since he’d died. Since he’d been killed. Murdered.
Betrayed.
He hid from the rest of the beasts letting his fur keep him warm, reveling in allowing his tongue hang out to taste the air, and waiting for his wolf to heal his new wounds. These woods didn’t smell right. The trees were too new, the ground too warm, and the small, scurrying animals foreign to his nose.
This wasn’t home. But deep inside he knew this was where he needed to be. He’d escaped the pits of hell, the monsters that lived below who’d used him as a toy soldier in their coming war, then cast him aside when he’d broken.
But once broken, he felt no more pain. Of course, he also didn’t feel pleasure either. His only consuming need now was to destroy the beast who’d betrayed him.
He’d been close. The woman and her mate had almost led the him to the dark one who called himself king.
The wolf he’d become knew what it was to be a king. That word didn’t feel quite right in his mind. He’d been no mere ruler, on a throne, with a crown. He’d been the alpha of alphas, an emperor, the last hope for his people. The last of the Volkov Wolf Tzars.
If given the chance, he would have been a revolutionary.
He shook his head to toss away the cobwebs of his memory. He shouldn’t even have this awareness, consciousness, or remembrances. He was dead. He was nothing.
Not nothing.
My mate.
My savior.
Help me.
The fur on the back of his neck stood up on end. Who had spoken into his head? He narrowed his eyes, scanning the night for signs of demons trying to trick him.
No telltale shadows wavered with their bat like lizard forms. No minions of evil, then. That was either good or very, very bad. If the Queen of Hell hadn’t sent her wyrms after him, it must be either her pawn or her consort.
But no, the voice had been distinctly female. It asked for help from its mate.
A surge of lust rushed through his body as if his heart was pumping pure need instead of blood. How he would like to take this female and give her more pleasure than she could ever imagine, if only she would submit to him.
He would dominate her, protect her, make her his.
The heat of the desire turned to crystals of ice in his veins. He was no one’s mate. Never again would he feel the thrill of having a woman under him. Death did not love and he was death itself now.
Despite the voice’s protest, he was nothing.
In case the voice wasn’t a trick by the inhabitants of hell, he opened his mind unlike he had since he’d been pushed from his former life.
I am not your savior. You must save yourself.
There was no reply to his harsh command so he closed his mind once again, locking it tight inside the shield of the wolf.
Tonight he would rest, heal, and consider the events of the past few days. He was in this strange foreign land for a reason. He’d scented old friends and foes on the wind and could only hope he’d been given the chance to seek his revenge on those that had betrayed and usurped him.
Tomorrow he would hunt again.
Somewhere not far from his hiding spot, he heard revelers mating under the bright moon. They came together in a sacred spot blessed by the Goddess herself. He wanted to watch, be a voyeur, but that world was no longer his.
He didn’t belong there, he didn’t belong here, he belonged nowhere.
Nothing.
Another presence shimmered into the darkness. Not a demon, or any other creature of Hell. This one could not contain its light. It sparkled like a million rainbows on the water.
He growled at the intruder. No one was welcome in his presence.