“She’sours!” Kenai snarled, starting forward again, but I lifted both hands.
“Do I get a say in this?”
All three of them froze.
“Sit,” I commanded, pointing to the various chairs around the room. “All of you.”
To my surprise, they obeyed. Kenai and Taimyr took the sofa, close enough to present a united front. Aleksi sprawled in the armchair across from them, but there was nothing relaxed about his posture. He was a coiled spring, his green eyes tracking my every movement.
I remained standing, power pose 101. “Now. Explain yourself,” I said to Aleksi.
“He broke into our home—” Kenai started.
“After you stole my mate,” Aleksi snarled.
“Your mate?” Taimyr’s voice was dangerously quiet. “Over my dead body.”
Aleksi’s eyes fixed on me, and the intensity there made my breath catch. “Tell them, omega. Tell them about the bond. I know you feel it too.”
I did. But how could that be? I was mated to Taimyr and Kenai. They were all I ever wanted, so how could I feel this about him? Lawyer mode activated—avoid the question.
“I’m not a shifter. I’m human.”
He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. You were fated to be mine. I know it in my heart.” He placed a hand on his chest for emphasis. “Because I felt you—your rage, your pain, your absolute fury at the injustice you were witnessing. It hit me like a runaway sleigh.”
“That’s impossible,” Taimyr breathed. “Emotions can’t be felt like that unless there’s already a bond.”
“There is a bond,” Aleksi insisted. “Or there should be. Would be, if you two hadn’t gotten to her first.” His hands gripped the armrests hard enough that the wood creaked. “I was drowning in it.” Aleksi’s jaw clenched. “I felt this wave of emotion that wasn’t mine—rage, yes, but also determination. The absolute certainty that this system needed to be destroyed.”
His eyes locked on mine again. “And underneath it all, this achingly familiar feeling. Like coming home after being lost for years. Like finding something I didn’t know I’d been searching for my entire life.”
My chest tightened. Because I’d felt something too, watching him protect his teammate. I’d felt the same thing when I let myself trust Kenai and Taimyr.Home. Safety. Did Aleksi need that as much as I had?
“I looked up,” Aleksi continued, “and there you were. Everything I had ever wanted. My mate.”
“That’s not how mates work,” Taimyr protested, but there was uncertainty in his voice.
“It is for Finnish forest reindeer,” Aleksi replied. “We don’t bond based on scent or sex. We bond based on magical compatibility and shared purpose.” He gestured to me. “Her magic was singing the same song as mine. A song of justice, of tearing down systems that hurt those who cannot fight for themselves.”
“I don’t have magic, Aleksi,” I said softly.
He waved his hand, dismissing my words immediately. “Not all magic is as flashy as what these two have,” he muttered, giving Kenai a particularly hard look. “The root of magic is emotion—love, joy, and wonder. Why do you think Jólnir has entrenched himself in the human mythos? He needs those emotions, that hope humanity clings to in its darkest times.”
He stood up suddenly, and before I knew it, he’d gently grabbed my chin, his face so close to mine his scent wasoverwhelming. His eyes were dark green like the needles of an evergreen, and his nose had just the slightest hook. I couldn’t move away from him. I didn’t want to move away.
“You are brimming with it, kisu—so much hope. You’ve tried to hide it, I understand that. But your heart is overflowing with compassion, the purest form of magic in this world.”
My breath caught, and his eyes darted to my mouth, then back up—but in the next moment Taimyr was dragging him away from me.
Aleksi twisted his shoulders, forcing Taimyr to release his grip, but didn’t move closer again.
“Even if that’s true, it doesn’t give you the right to attack my mates,” I said.
“Your mates,” he repeated with disdain. “They were there when you went into heat, and they took advantage.”
“We did no such thing.” Kenai was seething. “Every choice Sylvie made was her own.” He turned so Aleksi could see the mark on his neck. It sparkled faintly in the firelight, a mimic of frost patterns spreading across a windowpane.
Aleksi huffed, his massive frame radiating restless energy. “A mark means nothing if it was made under duress.”
