Chapter 6

Dimitri's POV

The backyard of the Silverwater packhouse looks nothing like it did when I arrived.

White fabric hangs between the trees, moving lightly in the evening breeze. Lanterns have been placed along the paths, their warm light falling across the grass in soft, uneven pools. Tables have been arranged farther back, covered in white cloth and flowers I don't have names for, the kind of careful excess that tells me this pack has been planning weddings and matings in this same yard for generations. The ceremonial space sits at the center of it all, prepared for the moment that will bind Athena to Blackridge.

I stand near the edge of the gathering.

I have been waiting long enough. I dislike waiting. It serves no purpose. There is always something that can be done, something that can be handled, something that can be finished. Standing in one place while time passes has never appealed to me, not since I was young enough to learn that time spent standing still is time spent vulnerable.

Tonight, I am doing it anyway.

Athena is somewhere beyond the trees, completing the rituals of her pack. I know they matter. I respect that. It doesn't make waiting any more tolerable.

Reese stands beside me, giving me an update about the arrangements at Blackridge.

"The pack has been informed about the mating ceremony. The clearing is being prepared for the ceremony. Extra guards have been placed around the pack's boundary, as news of your finding your mate has travelled like a wildfire."

I nod.

"The northern road?"

"Cleared."

He continues. I listen, or at least I am listening until something changes inside my chest.

My wolf lifts his head.

I stop hearing Reese.

The bond pulls, sharp and sudden, and my eyes turn toward the trees before I've consciously decided to look there.

Athena.

I feel her before I see her. Something about her is different, though I couldn't say what yet, only that the sensation grows stronger with every second that passes, building like pressure before a storm finally breaks. Around me the gathered pack has gone quiet in the particular way a crowd goes quiet when it senses something is about to happen, conversation trailing off mid-sentence, heads turning toward the same stretch of trees my own attention has already fixed on.

Then she steps into view.

My wolf reacts hard. I don't move. I simply watch.

She is walking toward me with the women of Silverwater behind her, white surrounding her from every direction. The gown is simple compared to what she wore at the ball, but it draws my attention immediately, the fabric catching lantern light every time she moves. Her hair falls freely around her shoulders, decorated with white lilies, and for a moment I let myself study her the way I haven't allowed myself to all night, the line of her jaw, the steadiness in how she carries herself even now.

Then I notice her neck.

Bare. Unmarked.

My wolf takes offense. A sharp pressure strikes through my chest, immediate and possessive. She should have been marked the moment we found her. That is what the bond demands. That is what my wolf has wanted since the ballroom, and seeing her walk toward me still untouched by any claim only sharpens the want into something closer to need.

The sight of her unmarked neck makes something primitive inside me rise.

Mine.

The word comes from somewhere deeper than thought, older than the careful control I've spent fifteen years building around everything I feel. My wolf surges toward her. I lock him down. He pushes again. I tighten my control further. My face remains impassive. No one looking at me would know what is happening beneath my skin.

Then her scent reaches me.

I inhale once. My scent is on her, mingled with hers, and the combination hits harder than I expect. Her familiar scent carries something of me now, and mine has become part of hers. Together, they form something that fills my senses so completely that for a moment I forget Reese is standing beside me, forget the lanterns and the fabric and the entire gathered crowd.

My wolf goes quiet. Then he purrs.

I don't understand that reaction. I don't need to.

Athena keeps walking. I watch her cover the distance between us. Reese notices. So do the others. One by one, they take a few steps back, giving us space without being asked to.

Athena stops in front of me.

I look at her. Her eyes meet mine, and for a moment everything else becomes distant, the yard, the lanterns, the fifty or more pairs of eyes surely watching us right now.

She looks different. I don't mean the dress. I mean her. There is something in her expression that wasn't there earlier. Acceptance, perhaps. Certainty. She has made her choice, and whatever war she fought with herself to arrive at it, I can see now that it's over.

An elder steps forward. Alpha Asher stands one step behind him.

The elder bows. "Alpha Romanov." His gaze moves to Athena. "Luna Athena." Warmth slips into his eyes when he looks at her, and I understand it immediately. She belongs to these people. She has been theirs for years. Tonight, they are placing her in my hands, and every one of them standing here tonight knows exactly what that costs them.

The elder turns toward me. "Alpha Romanov, do you acknowledge the she-wolf standing before you as your mate? Do you accept Athena King as your mate?"

I look at Athena. There is no hesitation. No question.

"Athena King is my mate." My voice carries across the ceremony space. "My wolf and I accept her."

The elder nods, then turns toward her. "Luna Athena, do you acknowledge the male standing before you as your mate? Do you accept Dimitri Romanov as your mate?"

Athena looks at me. Her answer comes without hesitation.

"I accept Alpha Dimitri Romanov as my mate."

Something moves through the bond the instant the words leave her mouth. My wolf responds immediately, rising toward her like he's been waiting his whole life for exactly this permission.

The elder smiles. "Then let the joining begin." He gestures toward Athena. "Lift your palm."

She raises her hand. I raise mine.

The elder takes a ceremonial blade. He reaches for Athena first. One clean slash crosses her palm. Blood gathers. Then he takes my hand. The blade cuts across my palm, the wound opening, blood welling against my skin the same way it did in that guest room hours ago, though this feels different, heavier with everyone watching.

The elder takes Athena's hand and places it against mine. Her palm presses into mine. Our blood meets.

Warmth moves through my hand. Then it travels upward, spreading through my arm and into my chest like something waking up after a long sleep. My wolf reacts. The sensation is strange, powerful, like something inside me has been strengthened by the contact alone. He rises beneath my skin, pressing toward the bond, and I feel him differently now. Stronger. More certain than he's ever let himself be around anyone. Somewhere in the back of my mind, distant enough that I barely register it as my own thought, I understand that whatever I was before tonight, some part of that man is gone now, replaced by someone new... someone more powerful than I was before.

Athena's fingers shift slightly against mine. I look at her. She is watching our joined hands, and her breathing has changed, quicker than it was a moment ago. The bond pulls tighter between us.

Blood continues to mix between our palms. Neither of us moves. The wounds begin to close, slowly, and the ceremony continues around us, but I barely register the voices reciting whatever comes next. Her hand remains in mine. The wound seals completely. Still, she doesn't pull away.

Neither do I.

There is no reason to. At least that is what I tell myself.

The elder steps back. The ceremony is complete. Applause rises around us, people smiling, some cheering outright, the sound washing over me distantly, the way sound does when your attention is somewhere else entirely.

Athena looks toward her family. I watch her face change; the warmth in her expression tells the love and respect these people have for her is not just one-sided.

She begins saying goodbye. One by one, people approach her. Women hug her. Someone kisses her forehead. Another woman whispers something into her ear that makes Athena laugh through the tears gathering in her eyes.

I remain where I am. I wait, again. This time, I don't mind as much.

Eventually, she reaches Asher. Her brother opens his arms, and Athena walks into them. They hold each other tightly, and I hear his voice, low, meant only for her but carrying just far enough that I catch it anyway.

"This is always your home."

Athena closes her eyes. She kisses his cheek, then squeezes him one last time before stepping away. She looks at him for another second, something passing between them that belongs only to the two of them, and then she turns toward me.

I meet her eyes. She walks back over to me.

Reese is waiting beside the car. He opens the door. Athena gets in first. I follow. The door closes behind us, and the noise of Silverwater fades as the car begins moving.

Reese takes the wheel. The road stretches ahead.

Blackridge is waiting. My pack is waiting. The mating ceremony is waiting.

I look at Athena beside me. Her white gown catches the faint light coming through the window. The lilies in her hair are still there, a little loosened now from the evening. Her pearl bracelet rests against her wrist, catching the same faint light every time her hand shifts in her lap.

And her scent is still mixed with mine.

My wolf settles beside the bond, quieter now than he's been all night, but still anxious to claim her fully as his.

****************

Athena's POV

The car ride is quiet. Dimitri doesn't show any sign of wanting to start a conversation, so I stay silent too, watching the dark shapes of trees slide past my window while the events of tonight settle slowly into something I can actually hold onto. But somewhere beneath the quiet, I can sense his entire body shift into something sharper, more alert, the moment our car rolls out of Silverwater territory. It isn't anything he says. It's in the set of his shoulders, the way his eyes move to the mirrors more often than they did before, the particular stillness of a man scanning for threats without wanting anyone to notice he's doing it. His hand rests loosely on his knee, but I notice the way his fingers curl slightly tighter every time the trees thicken along the road, like some part of him is noting every shadow we pass without conscious effort.

My eyes flicker outside toward my own window, then across to his side of the car, and that's when I notice them. A dozen wolves, maybe more, running alongside us in the dark, their pace matching the car's without effort, moving through the trees like they were born knowing exactly how fast we'd be going tonight.

"These are our pack wolves," the man driving says, glancing at me through the rearview mirror when he notices me leaning forward slightly between the seats to see out the front windshield. Reese, if I remember his name correctly from the introductions earlier. "They're here to safely bring you back to our pack."

"Don't worry, Luna." He holds my gaze in the mirror a moment longer than a simple reassurance would require. "None of us would ever let anything happen to you. We will protect you."

"You can expect the same from me." I nod at him, polite but sincere, before leaning back into my seat.

I don't know exactly when my eyes close, but I fall asleep somewhere along the dark stretch of road, and I wake with a small, startled breath as my body registers something shifting around me, a sensation like passing through a thin film, subtle but unmistakable, the feeling of crossing from one territory into another. My wolf stirs faintly in response, a part of her aware of the change even before the rest of me catches up.

Then I feel a hand settle gently over mine, and instantly, something in me calms.

I open my eyes and realize I'm leaning my head against Dimitri's shoulder, and his hand is resting lightly over mine where it had fallen against the seat between us at some point while I slept. I don't know how long we've been like this. I don't pull away right away either.

"We are here," he says, the first words he's spoken since we left Silverwater, and I sit up straighter as the car slows and finally comes to a stop in front of a large three-story packhouse, its windows lit warm and gold against the dark.

As soon as the car stops, Dimitri steps outside without waiting, while I take a moment to gather myself before Reese circles around and opens my door for me. The night air here feels different than it did at Silverwater, cooler somehow, carrying the scent of pine and woodsmoke from somewhere nearby, and beyond the house I can make out the dark line of a forest stretching back farther than I can see in the dim light.

Dimitri is already waiting outside when I step out, and when I come to stand beside him, he turns to face the gathered crowd. Dozens of pack members stand assembled in front of the house, waiting in the kind of hush that comes from genuine curiosity rather than obligation. I can feel their eyes on me, noticing everything, my dress, my bearing, the way I stand close to their Alpha without shrinking from him, and I keep my chin level the way my mother taught me.

"This is my mate and your Luna, Athena King." His voice carries easily across the yard, calm and sure. Then, without even glancing at me, he adds, "And this is my pack and my people. From today onward, they are yours too."

I look out at them, and I can see it clearly, hidden excitement threaded through with a kind of concealed uncertainty, the wariness of people who don't yet know what kind of Luna they're getting, only that their Alpha has chosen someone none of them expected. I give them a smile that's polite but genuine, and something in the air around me shifts, the anxious edge I felt coming off them a moment ago lifting, if only a little.

"Thank you for being here this late to welcome me," I say, letting my voice reach as many of them as it can. "I'm happy to meet you all."

Whatever uncertainty lingered seems to loosen further after that, and one by one, they start coming forward, offering their names, their greetings, small bows and warmer smiles than I expected this early. I return each one warmly, taking a moment with every person who steps toward me, while Dimitri disappears into the packhouse and a group of she-wolves gathers around me instead, guiding me gently toward the entrance.

That's when my eyes catch on someone standing a little apart from the rest.

A she-wolf, positioned just far enough from the crowd that she isn't quite part of it, watching me with an expression that has nothing warm in it at all. Her lips are pressed into a thin, tight line, and there's something in the way she holds herself, arms crossed, chin lifted, that makes it clear my presence here is something she finds genuinely offensive, though I can't begin to guess why.

Before I can ask anyone who she is, one of the she-wolves beside me touches my arm gently.

"Luna, if you'll follow us. Your room is ready on the Alpha's floor."

I glance back once more toward the woman standing apart from the crowd, but she's already turned away, disappearing into the edges of the gathering like she never wanted to be seen looking at me in the first place. I file the moment away, a small, sharp thing sitting at the edge of an otherwise warm welcome, and let the women beside me lead me inside.

The packhouse is larger than I expected from the outside, warm wood and high ceilings, the kind of space built for generations rather than a single lifetime. We climb a wide staircase, and with every step the noise from the yard fades further behind us until it's nothing but a faint hum beneath the sound of my own footsteps and the soft chatter of the women guiding me.

The room beyond it is beautiful in a quiet, unshowy way, large windows overlooking the property below, a bed already turned down, fresh flowers set on the table by the window that I suspect someone cut and arranged only hours ago. 

"If you need anything at all, just ask," the young she-wolf says, lingering by the door. "We're just down the hall. You can rest here until it is time for the mating ceremony."

"Thank you," I tell her, and I mean it. "For all of this."

She gives me another smile, softer this time, before pulling the door shut behind her.

The room falls quiet.

I stand there for a moment, listening to the faint sounds coming from beyond the walls. Footsteps move somewhere down the hallway. Voices drift in and out, followed by the occasional sound of laughter. Everyone seems to know that tonight is important.

I take a slow breath.

The room smells faintly of cedar and something floral I don't recognize yet.

I breathe in again.

There is no trace of Dimitri.

That tells me this isn't his room.

For some reason, I find myself wondering what his room smells like.

The thought makes me smile faintly before I can stop it.

I look around instead.

Everything is unfamiliar.

The walls.

The furniture.

The soft white curtains.

Even the flowers arranged on the table.

It is beautiful, and I know someone has gone to considerable effort to make me comfortable.

Still, there is one thing in this room that feels like home.

I lift my hand to my hair and tuck a loose strand behind my ear.

My fingers catch on something.

A small white lily.

I gently pull it free.

I stare at it in my palm.

It is the only piece of Silverwater, the place I have called home my entire life, that I have with me now.

The thought makes my chest ache.

I close my fingers around the flower.

I don't want to lose it.

I don't know why.

Maybe because everything else is changing so quickly.

Maybe because I need something familiar to hold onto.

A knock sounds at the door.

I look up.

Before I can answer, the door opens.

Dimitri walks inside.

My heart skips.

His eyes find me immediately.

Then they drop to my hand.

The flower.

For a brief second, he simply looks at it.

His expression remains unreadable.

He closes the door behind him.

I look at him properly then.

He has changed from the formal clothing he wore earlier.

Now he wears only white trousers.

His chest is bare.

My eyes notice his unmarked neck and feel my wolf rising at the sight; then my eyes find...

Scars.

So many scars.

They cover his chest and shoulders, some thin and pale, others deeper and more pronounced.

Silver.

I know immediately.

The thought makes my heart clench.

Silver scars are different.

They don't disappear completely.

They remain as reminders of the pain that caused them.

I look at each one.

I can't help wondering how many battles he has fought.

How many times he has been injured.

How many times he has walked away from something that should have broken him.

Every scar seems to tell a story.

A story I know nothing about.

My heart clenches.

This is the man everyone sees as the Alpha of Blackridge.

Strong.

Untouchable.

Impossible to intimidate.

Yet standing in front of me is a body marked by everything he has survived to become that man.

I look up.

His eyes are already on me.

He has been watching my face.

His gaze moves slowly over my expression as though he is searching for something.

I don't know what he expects to find.

Fear?

Hesitation?

Regret?

I don't feel any of those things.

I am nervous.

Of course I am.

My entire life is changing tonight.

But when I look at him, I don't feel afraid.

His gaze remains on mine for another moment.

Then he speaks.

"Come on. It's time for the ceremony."

The words land flat, stripped of anything soft, the same clipped efficiency he's carried since the moment I met him, like emotion is a currency he's learned to spend as rarely as possible.

I nod and follow him out of the room.

But what surprises me, once we're moving down the hall and out into the cool night air, is the way his hand settles at the small of my back, guiding me across the pack's land toward the clearing where the ceremony will take place. The gesture is nothing like the man who just spoke to me in that flat, unreadable voice. It's careful. Almost gentle, in a way that feels entirely at odds with everything hard and guarded about him, and I find myself wondering which version of him is the truer one, the words or the hand that's currently guiding me forward beside him in the dark.

Once we reach the clearing, we walk up to the front together. Dimitri pulls his hand back and turns to face the gathered crowd, and instantly every murmur of conversation dies as the pack turns its full attention toward him.

"I thank everyone for gathering here and being part of this ceremony as witness." His voice echoes easily through the trees, carrying to every corner of the clearing without effort. "Tonight I will claim my mate and Luna in front of my pack. And being your Alpha, I expect you to respect my mate and accept her as part of this pack."

Power radiates off him in slow, heavy waves as he looks out over his people, and the moonlight falling across his shoulders and chest only sharpens the effect, highlighting the strength in him in a way that makes him look lethal and beautiful in the same breath. I feel my wolf respond to it immediately, drawn toward the pull of the bond the same way she's been drawn toward him since the moment we met.

My eyes lift to the sky. The moon has reached its peak now, shining so brightly that the dark around us seems to soften under its light instead of pressing in. When I look back down, I find Dimitri already watching me. His eyes have darkened, his wolf clearly surfacing just beneath the surface of him, and my own wolf answers by coming forward in return.

He extends his hand toward me. When I place mine in his, he pulls me gently toward him until we're standing face to face, close enough now that nothing else in the clearing seems to exist.

"I, Alpha Dimitri Romanov, accept you, Luna Athena King, as my mate and my Luna." He holds my gaze as he says it, his voice unwavering, clear of anything soft or uncertain.

"I, Luna Athena King, accept you, Alpha Dimitri Romanov, as my mate and my Alpha." My heart races as the words leave me, each one settling into place like something that will shape the rest of my life the moment it's spoken.

A growl, low and rumbling, rises from his chest the instant the words leave my mouth. I feel the pull between us strengthen immediately, something almost physical now, like each of us is being drawn toward the other by a current neither of us controls.

My eyes flick to his neck. I feel my own canines lengthen without my permission, and when I glance up, I see he's mirroring the same reaction, his own teeth already sharpening in response.

Marking is one of the most private, intimate moments that happens between two mates, ordinarily shared alone, away from anyone else's eyes. But mating an Alpha means the marking happens here, in front of the entire pack, witnessed by everyone who has gathered tonight to see it.

I swallow and gather my hair over one shoulder, baring my neck to him.

His eyes lock onto the exposed skin before he lifts his hand and slips his fingers gently into my hair, pulling me closer. My eyes stay locked with his, and everything else, the crowd, the moonlight, the entire clearing, simply falls away until there's nothing left but him.

When he lowers his head toward my neck, my eyes close on their own, my heart pounding with an anticipation I don't have words for.

Then his hold on me tightens, and his teeth pierce my skin. The pain is sharp and immediate, sharp enough that I bite down on my own lip hard enough to nearly draw blood, holding back the sound rising in my throat as he pushes deeper. His arm wraps fully around my waist, pulling me against his chest like he's trying to absorb some of what he's causing me, and I don't know how long it takes before the pain begins to fade into something else entirely, something closer to pleasure than anything I expected tonight to bring.

When he finally draws his teeth back, I keep my head resting against his chest for a long moment, feeling almost drowsy, like something in me has shifted permanently and hasn't finished settling yet.

"You have to mark me." His voice is quiet, meant only for me, spoken after he's given me a few moments to gather myself.

I lift my head and look at him, and I can see his wolf straining just beneath the surface, clearly agonizing in the wait, and yet he holds himself perfectly still, giving me every second I need before asking anything more of me.

Standing on my toes, I press my mouth against the skin of his neck, and I feel his arm tighten around my waist, taking my weight as I push my teeth through his skin. The moment his blood touches my tongue, I feel something snap into place inside me, a current of electricity moving through my entire body, like two separated pieces finally being stitched back together into one. A low growl leaves my own throat as I bite down harder, and though he doesn't flinch, the quiet sound rumbling from his chest tells me he's feeling exactly what I'm feeling too.

My body begins to relax, my wolf settling alongside me, and I draw my teeth back and look up at him.

His eyes flick between my mouth and my eyes, and then, without a word, his lips are on mine, kissing me deeply. I feel myself dissolving into the sensation completely, until a thunderous howl rises from the wolves surrounding us, shouts and cheers pulling my attention back to the moment we're standing in.

He doesn't pull back immediately. When he finally does, a strange ache of longing settles into my chest, one I don't fully understand yet.

He turns to face his pack, and the noise around us swells even louder, everyone looking at us with open, unguarded happiness. I smile out at them, feeling my own connection to them forming in real time, something warm and immediate threading between us. When they bow before us together, a wave of possessiveness and protectiveness surges through my wolf, care rising alongside it as she accepts every single one of them as her own.

Afterward, pack members come forward one after another to offer their congratulations, warm words and small bows, a few reaching out to press my hand between both of theirs like they're trying to memorize the moment. I take each greeting in, letting myself feel, for the first time tonight, like I might actually belong here.

Then the same she-wolf I noticed earlier, the one standing apart from the crowd with her arms crossed and her mouth pressed into a thin, unhappy line, steps forward.

There's no warmth in her expression at all as she looks between us.

"Congratulations, Alpha." Her voice is flat, courteous only in the most technical sense. Her eyes flick toward me for half a second, cool and assessing, before she turns and walks away without another word.

I look at Dimitri, searching his face for some reaction, some flicker of recognition or discomfort. There's nothing there at all, his expression as unreadable as it was the moment I first saw him across a crowded ballroom.

"Who is she?" I ask.

"Not someone you should be bothered about."

His tone leaves no room to push further, so I let it go, filing the question away for another night. He doesn't look toward her retreating back again. His eyes come back to me instead, and something in them shifts, the flat control from a moment ago settling into something more direct, more purposeful, the look of a man moving to the next item on a list rather than lingering on what just happened.

The pack is still celebrating around us, laughter and howls rising into the night, but Dimitri's hand closes around mine again.

"The marking isn't the end of it," he says, his voice low and even, giving nothing away. "The bond isn't complete until the mating is."

There's no warmth folded into the words, no attempt to soften them into something gentler than what they are. It's simply true, and he says it the way he says most things, plainly, because there's a task in front of him and he intends to see it through.

To a human woman, words like that might have sounded cold, even careless. But I've grown up around wolves my whole life, and I know male wolves are built with an eagerness to complete the bond that has nothing to do with tenderness and everything to do with instinct. What would have wounded a human girl barely registers as strange to me. This is simply how our world speaks.

Although deep down, some quiet part of me had hoped my first mating would come from something more than physical need alone.

My wolf stirs anyway, something in her rising to meet the bluntness of it rather than being put off by it, and when he turns and leads me away from the clearing, away from the fires and the noise and the lingering weight of that stranger's stare, I follow him without a single moment of hesitation.