Luna of Mine (15 page)

“
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.”

“
A
re 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.”

“
Y
ou 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.

V
asile 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.