Volkov's Mate

The First Move

Helje turned the corner out of the conference room towards the back stairwell. Although the Alphas didn't strike much fear into her, she still had enough of their yapping in the hours long meeting. Being near them for one more minute stuck in an elevator would have been the final straw. 

As she made her way through the lobby she hears footsteps approaching from behind. 

"What," she snapped as she turned, coming face to face with Nikolai. "Oh, I wasn't expecting you."

"Helje, lets's walk together. There's a lovely restaurant a block or so from here."

"I'm not interested. I would rather go home than have to listen to one of you drag on another minute." She whisked around to leave, almost making it to the door before her arm was grasped firmly by Nikolai. His grip tightened as his other arm reached around her.

"Let me get that for you," he seethes as he opens the door. His body enveloped hers as he pulled her outside. 

"Get your hands off of me!" Helje said furiously as she smacked his hands away. "I will not be intimidated, you of all people should know that. There's nothing to discuss outside of the meeting."

"Okay, okay... I just need help. You know my situation."

"Obviously I know your situation. We all JUST talked about it. I don't have anything to offer you."

Nikolai knew that was false. She had something to offer him, but it would rely on whether or not he could get her to agree to it. 

"Look, you're a good leader. You have lots of land and plenty of members. Your pack, especially because you're women, protects itself. It has to since you're pretty much a female utopia. But you've also set yourselves apart from your neighbors. They want what they don't have."

Helje scowls, a low growl reverberating in her throat. "My pack isn't some sort of romantic female world where it's all sunshine and rainbows. I don't even see sunshine or rainbows for months. As much as I like how you think we're perfect that is a fantasy. Do you really think all we do is have one big slumber party? We do exactly the same as what you do. We fight, we argue, we train ourselves to become the strongest version of ourselves we can be.  We're not scared of you or your brothers or what you all might do for a piece of pussy."

"No, Helje, I didn't mean it like that. But-"

"I'll take note of your threat. There's nothing more to discuss. Goodbye."

"Helje!" Nikolai calls after, but there's no use in chasing her. He accomplished what he needed to.

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It took until nightfall for Helje to configure her plan. Volkov was always polite to her, if polite meant keeping his distance and rarely talking to her. But today she saw a different side to him. He had found his mate after decades of waiting. There was no way he would be able to resist. The pain, the heartbreak, the whining he would go through until he could finally get her. Get Angela. 

Helje did not notice witness the whole fiasco but she thought it was unlikely for this to be an actual match. Wolves can sniff the hormones, they can sniff others' mates, yet all she has in Volkov's word. And that fact that his supposed mate was so young made her queasy. He is desperate for a mate, someone young enough to immediately secure the line of succession. Someone vulnerable enough to give in to the whims of her first crush just because he looked in her direction. None of it made sense from a logical perspective and Helje always did pride herself on being perceptive.

At the moment all she knew was that Volkov was playing at something, and that she would be the one to make the first move.