Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Sylvie
Taimyr flew me back to the chalet at what felt like breakneck speed. I clung to the thick fur around his neck as wind whipped through my hair. What’s wrong? I tried to ask through our bond, but both of them were laser-focused on getting home.
Taimyr landed on the veranda, and Kenai urged me off his back and inside. As soon as the door closed behind us, both men were on me. Taimyr grabbed my face, his tongue demanding entrance while Kenai’s laved up the side of my neck.
“Ours,” Taimyr bit out against my lips.
“Only ours,” Kenai echoed, his hands looping around my stomach and finding their way under the waistband of my pants.
“Guys, what’s wrong? Why are you—”
The door of the chalet shook as if it had been hit by a battering ram. Then the scent hit me—leather, pine pitch, and something contrastingly sweet laced with ginger.
“Open this door!” The voice was deep, accented, and absolutely furious. “I know she’s in there. I can smell her.”
Kenai and Taimyr went rigid, their bodies forming a barrier between me and the entrance. Through our bonds I felt their protective instincts flare, their scents sharpening as they released alpha pheromones. But beneath that was something else—something that felt almost like…resignation.
“Aleksi,” Kenai said quietly, his hand still possessively on my hip. “Don’t do this.”
The door exploded inward in a shower of splinters.
Aleksi filled the doorway—chest heaving, still in his human form, but his green eyes were nearly black, his massive frame filling the entrance as snow swirled in around him.
He looked wild, dangerous, every inch the alpha who’d been fighting a losing battle for far too long.
And those dark eyes locked on me with an intensity that stole my breath.
“Mine,” he growled.
Kenai threw himself between us. “She’s mated to us.” He lowered his head, antlers catching the firelight as he thrashed them in warning.
Aleksi chuckled. “You think you can keep her from me, pieni valkoinen?”
Kenai snorted. “From you? Absolutely.”
His protectiveness definitely did something for me—but this man had at least one hundred pounds on him.
Aleksi ducked through the doorway, twisting his massive antlers to fit. “Then try and stop me.”
Kenai charged forward, and antlers clashed against antlers as the two men locked together.
The sound was like nails on a chalkboard as tines scraped and caught. I could see the strain in Kenai’s smaller frame as he tried to match the stranger’s raw power.
“Aleksi, stop!” Taimyr shouted, moving toward them.
But he didn’t stop. The same aggression I’d seen at the logistics center was now turned on my mate.
Kenai groaned, sinking to his knees as Aleksi twisted sharply, throwing him to the floor. A ragged cry tore from Kenai’s throat, and red welled on his cheek where a tine had slashed through skin.
“STOP IT!” I ran forward and shoved Aleksi. I knew I was too small to make any real difference, but the instant I touched him, his nostrils flared—and he stepped back.
Taimyr rushed to Kenai’s side, checking his wound, while I stayed between them and Aleksi, my hands still pressed to his chest.
“Oh, this kisu has claws.” His voice was low, amused. He stared at me, pupils blown wide, and my breath caught. “Hitto, s? oot kaunis—damn, you’re beautiful.” He inhaled deeply, his expression darkening. “But you reek of them. Their scent is all over you.”
“How did you find us?” Taimyr growled, his voice rough as he cradled Kenai’s injured cheek.
Aleksi didn’t take his eyes off me. “There was a hole in the barrier.”
Kenai and Taimyr exchanged a sharp look.
“No way,” Taimyr countered. “I double-checked everything. There was no hole—”
“Doesn’t matter.” Aleksi’s tone was final. “I am here now, and my mate is coming with me.”
He placed his hand over mine on his chest, and my heart stuttered like a trapped bird.
Mine.
But I stepped back, resisting the pull, even as part of me wanted to breathe him in.
“She’s ours!” 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 was overwhelming. 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.”
“Duress?” Kenai’s voice cracked with disbelief. “We protected her. We gave her every choice—”
“Enough,” I cut in. “Aleksi, I am Kenai and Taimyr’s mate. That’s not up for debate. They are mine.”
Kenai and Taimyr booth preened at that, but something flickered through Aleksi’s eyes that made my heart ache. I softened my voice. “Don’t you see? This is exactly what Jólnir wants—the three of you tearing each other apart instead of working together.”
All three alphas turned to me, and I felt their surprise ripple through the bonds—well, through two bonds, and whatever this electric connection was with Aleksi.
“Kenai, you’ve been trying to organize for years, haven’t you?” I turned to Aleksi. “And you’ve been fighting alone because you couldn’t trust that anyone else would prioritize your people’s suffering.”
Aleksi’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t deny it.
“So here we are,” I continued, moving to stand equidistant from all three of them, claiming the center of the room as my space. “Three alphas who all want the same thing—justice for your people—ready to rip each other apart over an omega. Exactly what Jólnir would want.”
I looked at each of them. “And now, instead of recognizing that you’ve all been trying to protect your people, you’re here fighting over me like I’m some prize to be won.”
“You’re not a prize,” Kenai said quietly. “You’re—”