Page 26 of Alpha Wolf (Return To Fate Mountain #6)
Chapter
Twenty-Five
Valeria followed Dom up the familiar stairs to his apartment, her heart racing with anticipation she couldn’t quite name. The evening had been perfect. Her family’s acceptance, the warmth of belonging, the certainty that everything in her life was finally falling into place.
He stepped aside to let her enter first. “After you.”
Valeria stepped through the doorway and stopped dead, her breath catching in her throat.
The apartment had been transformed. Dozens of pillar candles flickered throughout the living room, casting everything in warm, golden light.
Red roses were in tall vases on every surface, petals were scattered across the coffee table, and full blooms floated in glass bowls.
Crystal champagne flutes waited beside an ice bucket, and chocolate-covered strawberries were artfully arranged on a silver platter. Soft jazz played from the stereo, and the entire space smelled like roses and vanilla candles.
“Dom...” Valeria breathed, turning in a slow circle to take it all in. “When did you do all this?”
His slight smirk told her he was pleased with her reaction. “I had the team take care of it while we were at dinner.”
“Your crew did this? The scary bikers bought roses and candles?”
Dom chuckled, popping the cork on the champagne. “Wait until you see the group text,” Dom said, filling both glasses with bubbles that caught the candlelight. “Besides, they owed me after all the ribbing about finding my mate.”
Her bear stirred with deep contentment, recognizing what all this preparation meant. Dom handed her a glass, his fingers brushing hers. “To us,” he said, his voice rougher than usual. “To our bond.”
They clinked glasses and sipped the expensive champagne, but Dom set his down almost immediately. He extended his hand toward her. “Dance with me?”
The request made her chest tight with emotion. She took his hand and let him pull her close, one strong arm circling her waist while his other hand held hers gently. They swayed to the soft music in the candlelight.
Her head fit perfectly against his shoulder, and she breathed in his scent that made her bear purr with satisfaction. This was what home felt like.
“I love you, Valeria,” Dom said quietly, his voice vibrating against her ear.
The words made her look up into his face, seeing devotion and certainty in his dark eyes. “I love you too,” she whispered, reaching up to cup his face.
“I want you as my mate, permanently,” he continued. “I want to give you the claiming bite tonight. Will you let me claim you? Will you claim me?”
Her heart hammered against her ribs. “Yes, I want to be your mate.”
The music continued to play as Dom took her hand and led her toward his bedroom. More candles waited there, with rose petals scattered across the dark comforter.
“They even decorated the bedroom.” Valeria laughed, pulling him down for a deeper kiss.
This felt different from every other time they’d been together.
The desperation was gone, replaced by something deeper and more sacred.
Dom undressed her slowly, reverently, pressing kisses to every inch of skin as it was revealed.
His hands were gentle but sure, worshipping her body like something precious.
“You’re magnificent,” he whispered against her neck, making her shiver. “I’m the luckiest wolf alive.”
She explored his body, memorizing the feel of his muscles under her palms, the way he responded to her touch. They took their time, savoring each caress, building the connection between them until the air felt electric with anticipation.
Dom’s hands slid down to her waist, gripping firmly.
In one smooth motion, he lifted her off her feet.
She gasped, wrapping her arms around his neck as he carried her across the room.
He laid her gently on the bed. When he climbed on top of her, he braced himself on his forearms, his body hovering just above hers.
He kissed his way down her body, his mouth hot against her skin. When he reached her breasts, he circled each nipple with his tongue before sucking hard enough to make her arch beneath him.
“My perfect mate. I’m going to spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to give you more pleasure than you can stand.”
Valeria’s hands fisted in his hair as he continued his journey downward, pressing kisses to her ribs, her stomach, the sensitive spot just below her navel that made her shiver. He settled between her thighs, his hands gripping her hips to hold her exactly where he wanted her.
When his tongue first touched her, Valeria cried out at the intense sensation. He alternated between broad strokes and focused attention on her clit that had her climbing toward orgasm embarrassingly fast.
“You taste so fucking good,” he groaned against her, the vibration sending shockwaves through her system. “I could do this for hours. Make you come over and over until you can’t remember anything but my name.”
His words combined with the relentless pleasure of his mouth had her teetering on the edge. When he captured her hands and pinned them to the mattress while he continued his assault, the display of strength and control pushed her over.
Valeria came with a broken cry, her body convulsing as waves of pleasure crashed through her. “That’s my good girl,” he praised, kissing his way back up her body. “Coming so beautifully for me.”
When he positioned himself at her entrance, his expression was raw with emotion. “I love you,” he said, his voice breaking slightly. “I love you so much it terrifies me. I need you to be mine, Valeria. I need to know you’re never going to leave.”
The vulnerability in his voice made her chest tight. This powerful alpha, this man who’d faced down professional killers to protect her, was laying his heart bare.
“I’m yours,” she whispered, reaching up to cup his face. “I’ll always be yours.”
He entered her slowly, inch by careful inch, his eyes never leaving hers. “You feel like home,” he breathed, his voice shaking with emotion. “Like everything I never knew I was missing.”
Valeria moaned at the sensation of being filled so completely, so perfectly. This was what her bear had been craving. The weight of her mate above her, inside her, claiming her completely.
“I love how strong you are,” she gasped as he began to move with deep, measured strokes. “I love how you protect me, how you make me feel safe. I want to be yours.”
Dom’s control faltered at her words, his rhythm becoming more urgent. “Mine,” he growled, his hands framing her face. “You’re mine, and I’m never letting you go.”
“Yes,” she breathed, meeting his thrusts with her own.
Valeria could feel her fangs elongating as her bear prepared for the permanent bond, and she saw Dom’s canines sharpen in response.
“I need to bite you,” he said, his voice desperate with longing.
“Please,” she whispered, tilting her head to expose her throat. “I need your mark. I need to be yours forever.”
When they struck simultaneously, his fangs sank deep into her neck while hers found his shoulder, the claiming venom flowed between them.
The pleasure was overwhelming, but underneath it was something even more powerful: the absolute certainty that they belonged together, that this bond would last for the rest of their lives.
The world dissolved around them. She was floating in starlit space with Dom, their essences twining together in streams of light. The physical bedroom vanished, replaced by an infinite expanse of deep black space scattered with brilliant stars and swirling nebulae of incredible beauty.
Valeria found herself weightless, drifting in cosmic space, but she could see Dom clearly across the starlit plane, his form outlined in brilliant silver against the velvet-black horizon.
Galaxies swirled in slow, eternal spirals high above them, constellations pulsing softly as though exhaling beams of light around them.
All of Dom’s memories and secrets surged into her mind in a breathtaking rush—his childhood loneliness, his military service, his desperate search for belonging, his fierce protective instincts.
At the same time, she experienced the intimate immersion of her own life stories flowing into him, her struggles with family expectations, her determination to prove herself, her deep need to be valued for who she truly was.
Dom took her hand, and his voice rang through her psyche without words: I will always protect our bond. I will always protect you.
Her entire being responded. She felt her bear spirit roar awake inside her chest. Valeria’s acceptance exploded like a supernova, so bright she thought it might fill this cosmic realm entirely.
She offered him her complete trust, her total surrender, and Dom’s heart echoed back that devotion, weaving them into one another with threads of starlight.
Mine, her thoughts sang to him.
Forever, he responded, and she felt his overwhelming love surround her like a warm embrace, pure and unguarded. The bliss of their union pulsed between them, a living thing that bound them together for eternity.
In that space, which felt like the heart of the universe itself, there was no separation between them, no barriers, no secrets. His strength became hers; her trust became his, creating an unbreakable connection that transcended time and space.
Slowly, the radiant brilliance faded, and they found themselves back in the candlelit bedroom, their bodies warm from the aftermath of their mating. Dom’s eyes, still luminous with wonder, gazed down at her with awe and tenderness.
When reality returned, they collapsed together. The mate bond settled into place between them like a warm current, carrying emotions and thoughts she was only beginning to understand.
“I can feel you,” she whispered in wonder, testing the mental connection and feeling his love flowing back to her through the bond.
“We’re really mated now,” Dom said, his voice filled with awe as he held her close.
They were mates, bonded for life, two halves of a perfect whole.