155. Dominik

CHAPTER 155

Dominik

Dimitri looks down and notes the frost around his hands and smiles. It's that kind of smile that even Hannibal Lecter would probably be afraid of. "Elders, Alpha," Dimitri says in the most commanding voice I have ever heard come from him. "I wish to invoke the right of challenge." The room explodes in shouts and hushed whispers as everyone looks around, chatting with each other. I can feel through the bond that Aurora is ecstatic with Dimitri's request. At this point, Klaus leaves the room taking his daughter with him quickly.

Alpha Karl stands there, fur rippling up and down his arms and the bridge of his nose. The rage coming off him is quite palatable in the air. "How dare you!" he says, enunciating each word tinging the syllables in venom. "You leave to work for the wolves! You abandon the female carrying your child, and you dare come in here requesting to battle me?" he says, his bear's growl evident in his voice as he stares at Dimitri, attempting to intimidate him.

The oldest elder stands now; his arthritis-ridden hand sticks out from the long sleeves of his robe as he raises it to silence the room. "The Kovac line is the oldest of us all. If he had been present before your father, he would have been Alpha, and his bloodline would be in charge right now." The elder says as his eyes begin to faintly glow. "I have seen three Alphas come and go over my lifespan. None as disrespectful as you are Karl," he says with a slight tremble to his voice due to age.

A second elder, just slightly younger stands next. He lowers his head as he looks at Dimitri. "We, the elders, approve your request to battle. It's about time someone shows this male what it means to be a real Alpha." Dimitri stands tall, then raises his fist over his heart and lowers his head in deference to the elder. All six of the elders repeat the exact same motion that Dimitri had done. The current Alpha, Karl, is sputtering, unable to form words. He's practically foaming at the mouth with how angry he is.

"We'll see you in the ring, I suppose," I say with a smile as I walk over to Dimitri and pat him on his shoulder. Dimitri just smiles at me and nods his head before we leave the room peacefully and quietly. We start walking towards where I suppose the challenge ring is. There's Aurora with the rest of the family in the stands, each with clusters of oak leaves to act as pom poms.

Aurora comes over and jumps up into Dimitri's arms quickly and kisses him. "I'm so proud of you," she says as she smiles brightly up at him.

"I'm only doing what's right, baby girl. Nothing more, nothing less," Dimitri says as he presses a kiss to Aurora's forehead. She smiles and then suddenly bites her wrist and shoves it in Dimitri's mouth. His eyes widen in shock as we see some of her blood dripping out of the corners of his mouth. Through the bond, I hear her explain to him what she's doing. Even though he does not need the edge. Her accelerated healing factor would be quite beneficial for him to have for when the fight is over. She goes on to say that it's easiest now to give him her blood than when there's a crowd.

I watch him take several large gulps before he removes her wrist from his mouth and licks the wound to seal it. She bounces up on her tippy toes and licks her own blood off of his face. It's probably the most erotic thing that I've watched in the last thirty-six hours. She smiles and then smacks him on the ass. "Now be a good teddy bear and beat that asshole's ass and become Alpha," she says much more jovially than she would normally say.

"If you feel he's a threat, eliminate him," she states plainly. She nuzzles him underneath his jaw, showing him affection, and with the gathering bears shows she's submissive to him. They know what a powerhouse she is, and for her to bow to him only adds to the fear she's trying to spread.

Dimitri removes his shirt and hands it to her, and she clutches it to her chest tightly. He then walks into the center of the ring after kicking off his shoes. Aurora comes over and hops into my lap, wrapping her arms around my neck. "Don't worry, Dom, he's got this," she says, smiling as she rubs her face along my cheek. She's extra affectionate, so I can only imagine that there's another heat cycle on the horizon. It's been almost six months since the babies were born. And almost a month since the last one stopped nursing. It's about that time.

The old Alpha enters the ring and shifts, wrecking the clothes that he was wearing. Aurora tilts her head, studying him, quite puzzled. Her laugh carries across the challenge ring. "He's so tiny. It's cute!" she squeals when she says the word cute, which gets her a deep growl from the now-shifted Alpha.

Aurora seriously doesn't care. "My baby girl's going to be bigger than that." She starts to laugh harder then throws her arms up in the air.

"What the hell. You call that a Great Bear." She points right at the alpha. "He's mediocre at best." She screams at the top of her lungs as she bounces in my lap, unfortunately, causing a very painful erection. "Oh hell. Even I'm bigger than that when I shift." she says as she now suddenly stands up and has her ass in my face.

Alaric and the rest of the guys are watching Aurora taunt the Alpha. All of them laughing hysterically because what she's saying is true. Being the red-blooded male that I am and that peach of an ass in front of me, I grip her hips and then bite her firmly. I draw blood and get a squeal from her as she sits back down suddenly. "Naughty naughty, little mate," I say to her, whispering in her ear.

Slowly, I take the tip of my tongue and trace the outer shell of her ear down to her neck. I then half bite my mating mark, causing her to shiver almost uncontrollably in my lap. "Now be a good girl, and sit here for Daddy, and maybe later I'll give you a treat," I say, hoping that the offering of naughty sex would appease her for now.

Aurora's eyes turn back to me suddenly. She raises an eyebrow, and I just nod at her; she can see I'm not joking. She nods emphatically, agreeing and suddenly being the most quiet, perfectly behaved female I have ever seen in my entire life. Just as I regain my focus on the ring, Dimitri's bear bursts into existence. The earth shakes as his front paws hit the ground. He's almost twice the size of the other bear in the ring. Aurora claps her hands and then looks back at me quickly, making sure that she's not overstepping the bounds that I'd set for her. I want her to be proud of her mate. I want her to show her support, so I smile and give her a nod.

Dimitri charges the Alpha before we know it and bowls him over, almost launching him into the air. We hear the crack of several bones as Karl hits one of the pillars outlining the arena. Dimitri raises up on his hind paws and roars again, swiping his paws in the air, taunting the downed Alpha. The Alpha gets up quickly and charges, trying to ram his head into Dimitri's stomach. Dimitri takes the hit and then lands full force on the Alpha's back. He splats him to the ground and moves quickly to protect his stomach. He brings his massive jaws down on the back of the neck of the current Alpha. He starts applying pressure, growling, trying to force his submission. Aurora is bouncing in my lap, clapping her hands furiously as she watches the scene unfold.

After what seems like forever, the Alpha shifts back to his human form, which for them is the sign of submission. Dimitri backs away and lets him up. Aurora starts stepping down off the bleachers when another bear tackles her to the ground with his mouth around her throat. He's made one vital mistake, though. Aurora is on her back, therefore able to attack him directly. She remains compliant for several minutes, which shocks the rest of us.

I start to move forward, and she raises her hand to stop me; she's got a plan. The bear that's holding her throat can't see her face or her eyes. She winks at me, and just as the old Alpha starts taunting Dimitri, Aurora's hands fly up and shift immediately. She sends her talons through the bear's throat and through his chest. Blood spurts out in all directions, coating her and the ring in blood. The bear that had her did manage to puncture her neck in three places, but nothing life-threatening. She throws the bear off of her with the help of Alaric and me. We flank her immediately as she walks towards the old Alpha, still bleeding.

"Oh, how the mighty have fallen," she says. Her eyes move to the elders, who bow their heads, pretty much giving her permission to seek her revenge. "You dare attack a royal," she says softly as a pleasant smile slowly creeps across her crimson lips.

She reaches up and touches one of the holes in her neck. It's slowly starting to close; she looks at her own blood on her fingertip and then licks it off slowly. "Your guy managed to draw blood; I'm impressed. But not impressed enough to spare your life," she says ever so calmly. Slowly she shakes her head from side to side as she stares at him.

"Hey, D?" Aurora says while Dimitri remains behind the old Alpha. "Remember how I explained that new trick of mine." Dimitri nods, Aurora smiles. "Do it," she says with such finality and smile.

Dimitri's eyes start to glow like that of his bear, you can hear the rumble from him. We feel a pull through the bond from him as he starts to gather strength, for what, I'm not sure. Suddenly, he hits the Alpha in his back flat palmed. Shockingly enough, I'm sprayed with blood as I now see a large spike of ice sticking out of the Alpha's chest with what's left of his heart around the tip. All of our eyes go wide, even Nicodeamus is shocked. Aurora starts to clap her hands, looking at Dimitri as the Alpha falls to the ground.

Dimitri stands there shocked. Looking at the palm of his hand, wondering exactly how he did that. Aurora smiles and goes up and hugs him tightly. "Apparently, I can do my ice attack remotely," she says and smiles. "I tested it when we were in the meeting hall. When I had you freeze the table."

She smiles ever so sweetly. "Just now, yeah, that was all me using you to impale him." Dimitri smiles and then leans down and gathers Aurora up in a passionate kiss. We just start laughing because the freak factor just went up by twenty. When I didn't think our family could get any stranger, here we are kicking it up a notch, taking it to the next level.

The elders approach and advise the clan that Dimitri is now their Alpha. Dimitri blinks his eyes twice and releases Aurora, smiling with a slight blush to his cheeks. He embraces his countrymen one at a time. Each of them swearing fealty to him and to our family. He walks off with the elders to relay our plans to help rebuild the clan. Aurora smiles and looks at me and then waggles her eyebrows.

"So?" She bites her bottom lip seductively. "When do we get to play there, Daddy?" she asks.

Ever since one of the little girls in our family called me Daddy Dom, it's now become Aurora's new favorite nickname for me. Part of it freaks me out, the other part makes me hard as a rock.

"Later, sweetness, later," is all I say to her before smacking her on her ass.

One of the elders breaks off from the pack and decides to give us a clan tour. We go from house to house, meeting each of the families. Most are thankful that Dimitri and Aurora removed the tyrant from his rank. There's only one house that's still upset that there's a Lycan in control. But as the elder put it, they lost most of their family members because of Vladimir. It was going to take a little bit before they decided to trust again.

Aurora hands off her daughters to Arnulf, and the four of us wolves go out to hunt. Alaric and Arnulf remain behind, helping to prep for the big banquet that we were going to have in celebration of Dimitri taking over. The four of us roam over the countryside for what seems like hours. We successfully manage to kill four wild boar and a stag. Aurora's beast shoulders the stag as Klaus takes two of the boar. Jayce and I pick up the last two to carry. We make it back to camp and the local butcher smiles, clapping loudly. He's ecstatic that we have plenty of fresh meat for the celebration.

We party into the night as Dimitri gets to hang out with his clan. Aurora stays with all five of her children, almost isolated away from the rest of the group. My brother and Arnulf sit by her side, helping with the children. Alaric and I stand shoulder to shoulder, watching her and the others at the party. "Is she alright?" I ask softly, hoping for Alaric to shed some light on what's going on.

Alaric draws in a deep breath, and his eyes glow faintly. Within moments Nicodeamus approaches and looks between his daughter and us. "Ah, I see what concerns the two of you." He sighs and sips at his whiskey. "She's allowing Dimitri to have his moment in the sun. And she knows most of the bears aren't comfortable with the wolves' presence." Nicodeamus sighs and looks between Dimitri and Aurora.

Dimitri notices the looks that Alaric and Nicodeamus keep giving me. He slowly approaches and then looks over at Aurora. "Why is she sitting with the children over by themselves?" He furrows his brows, just as confused as the rest of us.

"I don't think she wants to steal your thunder," I say softly and keep an eye on Aurora and the children. Jayce has pulled Aurora and Luna into his lap, kissing both of their temples.

"Bullshit!" Dimitri says firmly before walking over to Aurora and the children. Odette immediately latches onto her father. Aurora and Jayce start to laugh at the little one's antics. We can see the range of emotions that cross Aurora's face as she smiles up at Dimitri. He kisses Aurora's full lips before coming back over to us. "No problems, Luna is anxious, and Aurora is making sure she feels calm and safe." He smiles as he snuggles Odette tightly before heading back over to his other daughter and granddaughter.

Aurora's eyes glow faintly, and soon Marco is by her side. He kneels before her and lowers his head to her. Luna practically launches out of her mother's arms and into Marco's. I'm shocked witnessing the exchange. My eyes quickly dart over to Nicodeamus. He smirks and shakes his head. "She's his mate. Until she matures, she will seek him out for comfort but not understand why."

Nicodeamus smiles just before he kills off his drink. "When she gets close to maturing, Marco will be sent to either the Winter Palace or the Summer Chalet." Nicodeamus smiles and sets his glass down.

"He's lucky to have lived so long without a mate. Luna is blessed to have such a good, strong male," Nicodeamus says before moving off to join Dimitri.

The rest of the night goes off without a hitch. Aurora has finally accomplished what she had set out to do. All of her mates are in positions of power within their own species. Now is the time for change and growth for all involved.