Book 1 of Alpha Wolf: Mate Mine

ANOTHER SURPRISE CHAPTER! Because I love you as much as Elena loves Mirko! :))

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“I love you”

As soon as it left her lips, it immediately reached his core, sinking into the deepest recesses of his soul, like an arrow that fully hits the target.

Mirko stopped breathing.

How three simple words could steal the air from his lungs and kidnap his heart, was one of the many mysteries Mirko had faced since he met Elena.

The girl, on the other hand, could not avoid but winced a little. The malicious voice that belonged to Mrs Insecurity whispered that he had not answered her…that he did not reciprocate her feelings.

Maybe Mirko felt overwhelmed.

Maybe he did not feel like answering.

Or, simply, he was not yet in love, regardless of the mate bond.

Unaware of the swirl of doubtful thoughts in the head of his mate, Mirko, who had fallen madly in love with her from the first day he had met her, was spellbound. Happy. Agape…

Funny that the word “love” derives from the Greek word ”agapao“, from which “agape”, which means precisely ″to love deeply - unconditionally, whatever happens”.

A heartbeat later, Elena found herself crushed in Mirko’s arms.

And soon the air was filled with sweet sounds of kisses, rustling of touches and feather-like caresses.

After the heated moment, the two lovers approached the table with the playful fire crackling from its hole, the flames of which came out of the table’s surface. There was a grill placed on the table with trays covered with foil. It seemed perfect for a BBQ and Elena discovered that she had had a good intuition.

In fact, they started cooking meat on the fire in front of them and eating it immediately afterwards. There were also other dishes apart from meat, but this was the undisputed dish, in different forms. Ribs, legs, chest, and so on. It looked like a whole animal had been cut into pieces, perfectly disjointed, and meticulously cleaned, ready to be cooked on the fire.

“Wow, it’s so delicious,” Elena moaned as a little juice ran down her lips. They were eating from iron sticks, where they skewered the meat and cooked it. Mirko remained silent, more likely embarrassed or shocked for some reason. Elena did not notice it, immersed in the exquisite meal.

“What is it?” The surprise was evident in her voice, since she had never tasted anything so extraordinary.

“Deer” He managed to say without looking at her.

It seemed that Mirko had lost the ability to pronounce a single sentence without stuttering. All his bestial confidence had evaporated that evening.

“Wow, it’s crazy! Where did you get it?” The girl asked as she grabbed another piece.

A sigh of relief escaped Mirko as soon as she seemed fully satisfied with the quality of the food. It would have been a big kick in his pride if Elena had not liked the food he selected.

“I-I, err, I hunted it myself,” He admitted, again blushing.

In some clans of werewolves, more traditional and ancient, the male used to provide for his female by hunting the best and largest prey of a herd. It was old-fashioned, but deeply instilled in the genes. Modern werewolves no longer procured their own food, even less for their mates. Mirko was another story entirely.

Instead of taking her out to a restaurant and then following the evening with some activities like going to drink, cinema or play bowling, Mirko had provided their food, recreated their own private restaurant in the middle of nature and build a kind of ice path to skate.

Moments like this, when his actions spoke louder than any word he could ever utter, made her heart explode with an ever greater love for this extraordinary creature. It did not matter if he still did not love her or if he had not reciprocated her declaration of love.

“I’m curious though” Elena’s voice piped in, tinged with the smile that lingered on her face.

“How did you plan all this? All by himself?”

Mirko stared at her for a moment before he cleared his throat.

“Some of my men helped me build the ice path and Frerea went to buy the lights and the skates”

Elena chuckled, imaging a woman like Frerea, as big as a Viking warrior, in the mere act of buying fairy lights and ice skates.

“And my Gamma’s mate suggested some ideas for the date, though I never asked her to.” Mirko rolled his eyes cutely as he remembered an event from the past.

“Oh, I had no idea your Gamma had a mate,” Elena noted, with the iron stick full of sausages halfway to her mouth.

Mirko smiled at how cute she looked with the cheeks full of food, like a little bird. “You two will get along very well. I can tell.” He said before he slipped a large piece into his hungry mouth.

Elena was about to investigate the news a little more when a rustle of bushes caught her attention. Mirko seemed oddly unaware and relaxed.

A large group of wild wolves began to emerge from the shadows of the forest like wild ghosts in search of human blood. The bigger of the group was their Alpha and was of considerable size. Usually an adult werewolf could easily take down a couple of normal wolves, however those were more than numerous, with a fierce and aggressive look.

After all, the wild wolves that swarmed the Black Devil territories were famous everywhere.

Feeling tingles on her hand, she was brought back to Mirko who caressed her hand and stared at her with a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, they won’t come close.” And as he said that, he turned slightly, shooting them a quick glance. And that seemed enough, since slowly they returned to the depths of darkness, without making a sound.

“How many of those haunt your forest?” She asked after a few seconds of silence, shivering at the idea of moving to his pack, full of wild wolves.

Mirko spared her an indecipherable look.

“Many”

A light wind blew his hair around his face as the fire created leaping shadows on his chiselled face, making him look more mystical than ever.

“So, it means that I won’t be able to run in your woods in my wolf form” She pouted lowering her eyes. Marco had told her how he always went to explore the Black Devil woods and what a fantastic indomitable nature was hidden inside. How could he go alone, since Crucifero could not accompany him all the times.

“Don’t worry, once you bear my mark, nothing will come near you.”

And that answered her previous dilemma.

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Aside from the small fright with the appearance of wild wolves, that was the best date ever, surrounded by nature, with an authentic dinner and the best company ever: Mirko.

Elena felt high. She could touch the sky with the tips of her fingers due to how happy she was.

After cleaning the whole deer, or rather, Mirko ate three quarters, they approached the ice rink, hand in hand.

Unable to contain her excitement, Elena jumped up and down instead of walking normally.

“Have you ever skated on ice before?” she asked, incapable of imagining Mirko skate.

“Not really,” He pouted, scrunching his eyebrows. “I, uh, tried after building the ice track” Elena stared at him, expecting him to continue. But her wait was in vain since Mirko didn’t want to add more details about his experience. Instead, he ran his hand through his hair for the twelfth time in the last hour.

The last time she had skated had been with her human aunt, her mother’s sister and Marica’s mother. Thinking that long time had passed since the last time she had visited her, Elena promised herself to visit the aunt soon. Even Mirko had met her ... Elena smiled to herself at the memory (LADY TREX’s NOTE: THIS PARTICULAR MOMENT, when Mirko meets Elena’s human aunt, is not part of the main plot, but IS PART OF THE BONUS EPISODES collection. If you want to read it, you can find it on Patreon under the name of “ELENA AND MIRKO MEET IN THE WOODS” & ″ MIRKO MEETS HER AUNT ″)

Elena grabbed a pair of skates, and it was not difficult to choose the right size since Mirko’s were twice the size of hers. Once on, Elena threw herself on the frozen path. It was large there in the clearing, resembling a kind of irregular circle, but then it shrank and disappeared among the trees like a path.

Sensing his gaze on her back, Elena turned and stared at him over her shoulder, and noticed his predatorial look. What was he thinking?

The truth was that Mirko shared several similarities with wild wolves. One of them was that when a prey escaped or started running away, they felt the need to hunt.

“Do you want to race?” She struck him with a smile so wide that his breath stopped for a moment at how beautiful and carefree she looked.

Then Elena rushed away between giggles as h stared at her. His nostrils flared and eyes thinned into two slits.

“Run, mate. Run.” Craken and Mirko whispered in unison without batting an eyelid.

Quickly putting on those damned skates with a grunt, he settled on the ice. Once his legs did not betray him and remained balanced, he snapped his head where she had disappeared.

Raising his nose in the air, he howled deeply in the night before following her alluring scent through the ice path in the forest.

“Can a Full Moon Lady outrun the legendary Black Alpha?” She teased him from somewhere. His eyes darkened by the second.

“Come back here, Elena” He spotted her running figure.

“Black Alphaaa! So slowww!” She shouted jokingly as Mirko watched her disappear behind a curve again.

In an instant, Elena was in his arms, releasing a squeak of surprise as her back slammed against an oak tree.

Mirko bent down, staring at that prey he had caught too easily, locking her hands over her head with one of his.

“So sweet,” he growled over her neck, taking deep breaths.

She fought under him like a caged bird.

“I knew you were a caveman,” She stressed, trying to free her hands from his iron grip.

“I’m your Alpha, you’d better listen to me next time,” He murmured against her soft skin, leaving warm kisses all along.

“I’m your Alpha, you’d better listen to me next time.” She mocked him with her voice, imitating his husky one. Mirko leaned back just enough to look at her with a raised eyebrow.

“First of all, I don’t sound like a drugged hamster.” He laughed at her imitation of his voice.

“Second.” He shot her an evil grin. “Maybe I should really act like a caveman.” He licked his lips as the predatorial glint in his eyes returned.

“Wha-”

Before she could make sense of her stutter, his hands tightened around her wrists, quickly throwing her onto his hard shoulder.

And her protests were pointedly ignored.

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