Bite Me

Dealing

Mine.

The single word cleared the fog in his brain.

For a moment, Alexandri Volkov was calm. Then realization struck. The memory of chasing a dark-haired woman like his place in the pecking order was threatened hit him hard. He turned horrified eyes down.

The unconscious body of Melody fucking Johnson met him.

Shit. "Shit," he said out loud. He had actually- A large bitemark, stamped on the side of her neck was more than enough proof.

He had staked a claim.

That meant-

Volkov wanted to get off her. Instead, he moved closer, her scent rushing through his lungs. His eyes were locked on the claiming mark, his body thrumming with need. Shit. He needed to-

He slapped himself. In the shock of that, he scrambled off her and buried his face in the snow. It was more slush than anything else after the events of today, but it was doing wonders for the heat under his collar. After a minute or two, he felt in control of himself- at least enough to stand and grab the edge of the statue. When he felt secure enough, he turned his eyes back to her.

He had never been blinded by instinct.

At least, not to these levels.

Shit.

Worse of all, he damaged what he hoped was going to be his Hail Mary. Fear filled his system at the cuts that must've reopened during their struggle, as well as the wet spot that showed where he stabbed her. His grip on the statue hardened, fracturing the stone. This was ridiculous. Volkov put that wound there. Intentionally. Made it easier to whisk her out of sight so they could talk. Now he regretted it with every fiber of his being.

It was ridiculous to base his hopes on this one woman. But, still. She was here and dead to the world.

Even more concerning had been his show of power over the rest of the pack. Normally, his powers and the beast side didn't mix. But the metal scattered around showed it could. Maybe he should talk to Mother about this.

Hate curled in his chest.

Yeah, right.

And now he was pissed.

What was Melody even thinking? She had drawn attention, rocking in without a care, and shot down a good number of the pack- his servants! Sure, he hadn't been the one to create them, but whatever. He's the leader so they were his! And, on top of that, she had the absolute gall to bite him.

The bite mark on his neck tingled.

He wasn't expecting to have such a response to Melody. Sure, he had been watching her and her sister for months on Mother's orders, but she was still a stranger to him. He was supposed to be more advanced than the pack. Right? He wasn't supposed to be able to give in to those base instincts.

But now those base instincts had gone and dropped a mate in his lap.

Which was great, really. Wonderful. Superb.

Except for the fact that she's one of the people that Mother wanted dead.

Bonus, at least. Mother had been wanting him to take a mate, if only as an experiment to see what would happen, and now he has a mate. The only person Mother wouldn't want him to mate.

He digressed.

What was he even supposed to do with her?

Well, he knew what he wanted to do to her. That question was basically a trick. It was what was most commonly done to seal the bond besides time and such. But, Volkov returned his eyes to his mate, who was still very dead to the world, he had a feeling a romp wasn't in the cards. Which was fine. He still wanted to punch her. Or at least someone that looked like her.

The bond was making everything in him twist.

With a roar, Volkov summoned a massive beam from...somewhere. It didn't matter. It slammed into the statue and sent it to the ground a screech. Givre would bitch at him about it later. But it didn't matter because it was a good outpouring of emotion.

Okay, now there was double reason to spare Melody Johnson. Her abilities and the bond.

He trudged over and scooped her up, making a face at the massive scar that arched its way over the shaved part of her head. Strange. It looked like someone had hit her with a sledgehammer.

A caw made him froze.

Shit. He looked up to see a crow, standing on a nearby branch. It watched him with beady eyes, cawing out again. That was one of his "brother"'s spies. Shit. If Rowe got word-

He took off.

Caw-

The crow's caw was cut off by the metal embedding itself in its chest.

Bang. Bang. Bang .

"Herminia!"

BANG. BANG. BANG.

"HERMINIA!"

BANG BANG BANG!

The door to the massive lodge swung open.

A woman stood there on the other side. She had forsaken her usual hunting gear for a simple white shirt and black pants with boots. A stylistic deer mask hid her features from the world. The latter hid her surprise at him looking wrecked with a woman in his arms.

Of course, Volkov could've just taken the back way. Herminia Orion, the eldest of Mother's "children", had shown him how to avoid the creepy mist and the quartz and pollen traps she had set up. But he had sprinted by in a panic.

All because of Melody Johnson-

A shrill voice interrupted his thoughts. "What's all the ruckus, big guy?!" A small tabby cat had crawled out of the shadows, staring up at him with too-awake eyes. "You're interrupting breakfast!"

It was too late for breakfast. Maybe lunchtime.

He wasn't going to get into it with Persephone today. "Fuck off, mutt, I'm not here for you."

"Mutt?!" Persephone screeched. Herminia ignored her creation, silently cocking her head.

Volkov swallowed. "I didn't know what to do," he said with a shrug. The motion nudged Melody's head, meaning she softly breathed into his neck. He shivered, the motion not...entirely unpleasant. "Can I come in?"

"Well, you called me a mutt-"

Herminia scooped up Persephone. "Anytime," she said, ignoring the mewl of protest in her arms. Volkov managed a nod, pushing past her. He ignored the creepy, vacant stares of all the taxidermy mounts, feeling himself relax a bit. At least in here, he didn't have to worry about Mother and her machinations. Being the first lab rat gives Herminia special treatment and the entire play was a circus of crazy.

A weak sigh from Melody almost made him stumble.

He set her on the couch, fingers immediately going to the zipper of her coat. "I need bandages," he managed out. "Healing salve-" The zipper wasn't coming down. Why wasn't it coming undone? His fingers were slipping on the cheap piece of plastic-

A hand rested on his shoulder.

He turned, baring his teeth. Persephone yowled and jumped off Herminia's shoulder, uncaring of the threads she tore out. Herminia seemed unbothered, holding a wooden box. "Let me."

Let her.

Volkov wanted to growl and hiss and snarl but he swallowed the urge back. He stepped back, allowing Herminia to approach. "I stabbed her," he admitted, watching as she pulled down the zipper. "Lower stomach."

"I see."

Herminia had always been the steady one. Underneath the creepy thing about memories that brings up her hallucinations and her habit of stuffing animals, she was the calm in a storm. Volkov had always admired that about her. Except right now he couldn't because he had stabbed his freaking mate and was trusting someone else to fix it.

Hopefully, Persephone wouldn't say anything-

"Is that Melody Johnson?"