14. Alec

Chapter 14

Alec

D awn came with a quiet flood of white and gold light, the forest brightening slowly, birds waking, the few remaining species calling to each other as the sun’s glow spread over the mountains.

Alec sat on Leif’s lap, his huge mate in his lycan form keeping him warm through the night as they tended the fire, making sure everything was reduced to ashes and the fire didn’t spread past the fallen tree.

A few bones remained, along with blackened metal from buckles and weapons, but Alec would take care of them after he sorted out his mate’s curse.

“Can you Change back for me?” Alec asked, hand on Leif’s chest where the scar was hidden under thick fur.

In answer, Leif Changed, smoothly transitioning from lycan to human form in seconds, Alec in his lap the whole time. Blood and gore spotted and smeared his pale skin, but the area over his scar was clear.

“What’s on your mind, little greenbough?” Leif asked, smiling down at him with crystal-bright blue eyes.

“I want to try to dismantle the curse,” Alec said, spreading his fingers over the ancient dagger mark, sending his awareness deeper into Leif to the silver blade tip surrounded by dense scar tissue.

Leif held him gently, watching him with trust and affection, and Alec breathed in deeply before reaching out with his magic.

The silver was old, so old, the inimical curse anchored in the metal, sending out strands of hunger to consume the life force of any wolf that dared to form a pack bond with Leif. His poor mate, alone for centuries, cut off from the essential and necessary bonds with his own species, languishing on a lonely mountain until he stumbled across Alec in the cold woods.

Alec closed his eyes, focusing on the silver. Any surgical attempt to remove the chunk of metal would be butchery, as Leif’s healing would compromise every second of cutting by a scalpel—so Alec did not cut.

He changed.

The silver chunk trembled, making Leif gasp, and Alec kept going, not daring to stop once he started, fearing what the curse might do if he failed his attempt. He sent more energy into Leif, propelling his focus and skills to the deepest level, the molecular structure of the element shining bright in his mind’s eye, and he made it respond to his will.

Solid no more, the silver pooled in the pocket it once occupied as a blade point, and Alec thinned the scar tissue as he worked, calling the silver to the surface, past blood vessels and muscles, through skin, beading on the surface of the scar.

Alec lifted his hand away, letting the liquid silver run freely from the scar, and he plucked at the motes of the curse that followed the silver to the surface of Leif’s skin. He caught them like a bug, each deep-red mote of magic, and he eroded the form of the curse one piece at a time until it was nothing but energy that he let float away into the ambient magical fields around them.

Leif gasped and shuddered when Alec released the last bit of energy, his hand coming up to his chest, but Alec stopped him, not wanting him to smear the liquid silver. He grabbed a handful of leaves from the ground and wiped at the silver, cleaning most of it away before tossing the leaves to the embers of the bonfire, where they caught and burned in seconds. Leif wasn’t affected by silver anymore, but better not to take chances with the curse gone.

“The curse is gone, but the lifetimes it stole from those long-dead wolves remain,” Alec quietly told Leif, pulling his awareness back into his body, swaying a bit. That took a lot out of him. Leif caught him by the shoulders and held him upright. “But you can join a pack now, or even make your own, my alpha.”

“Alec,” Leif whispered, eyes full of tears and relief, and some incredulity after so many years with the curse. Alec understood what it felt like to be free, finally. Freedom was everything.

“I love you,” Alec told his mate, the golden cord between them shining bright in the morning light.

“Thank you,” Leif breathed out, pressing his forehead to Alec’s, overcome. “Thank you, Alec.”

“Anything for you,” Alec promised him.

“I love you,” Leif said, blue eyes bright. Alec smiled, pulling him into a kiss.

Ale c

No one came looking for the dead mobsters, at least not in the hills. Not even the police for the crooked cops, though they were reported missing by the state troopers when the cruiser was found abandoned in Hemlock several days after they failed to report in for their shifts.

Leif and Alec listened to the gossip in Gelridge Hollow from the friendly cashier on their monthly trip out for essentials.

“Heard that the feds raided Rodgers’s house a while back, looking for him, and everything was left, like he stepped out and was meaning to come back, but they never found him,” they said as they helped Alec pack the groceries.

“Sounds like he ran before the feds could catch him,” Alec said, nodding along.

“I bet he’s in the tropics, drinking margaritas on the beach,” the cashier said.

“Probably,” Alec agreed, smiling.

Leif was at the cart, loading items on the checkout belt. The cashier took a look at Leif and then leaned closer to Alec and whispered, “Your mate is an alpha, right?”

“He is, why?” Alec answered, curious.

“My kid’s bestie is a werewolf. There’s no pack in the area, and I was wondering if your alpha was accepting pack mates? The kid’s family moved to the area a couple months ago and it’s just him and his parents. They seem really lonely. None of them are alphas.”

Leif stopped loading the belt and looked up, and Alec felt his heart pang at the eagerness and hope in Leif’s eyes. Leif was speechless, and Alec sent him a rush of love and calm through their mate bond .

“You got your phone?” Alec asked the cashier.

“Yeah!” they eagerly pulled it out and Alec gave them his number.

“Pass that number along, tell them that Alpha Mate Alec Greyfeld would love to talk to them. No pressure.”

“Thank you so much! I’ll pass it along for sure!”

Minutes later they were in the parking lot, Alec checking the lot out of habit, Leif smiling as he loaded the groceries in the truck.

“What’s that smile for?” Alec gently teased his mate, smiling wide himself at the happiness coming along the mate bond from Leif.

Leif leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to his forehead, Alec feeling Leif’s grin against his skin. “Thank you, Alec.”

“I just passed along my number,” Alec grumbled good-naturedly.

“You saved me, and gave me a future full of possibilities.”

“Anything for you.”