Alpha's STOLEN Mate Chapter 104

Elowen

We walked aimlessly after leaving Lysandra's cave, neither of us speaking, both lost in our own troubled thoughts. The moon rose slowly, casting silver light across our faces—illuminating the worry, the guilt, the exhaustion we both carried.

Halfway down the mountain, Kaius stopped abruptly. He braced himself against a silver birch tree, his knuckles white as he gripped the bark.

"Fuck!" The word exploded from him with raw self-recrimination. "I'm his Alpha King. I should have known. Should have seen it." He looked at me, his expression anguished. "I should have realized Frost was in love with you, Elowen."

Heat flooded my cheeks. What was I supposed to say? *Yes, I knew and ignored it? No, I was completely oblivious?*

I chose silence.

"I'm not blaming you," Kaius continued, reading my hesitation. "I'm not angry that he loves you, or that you... that you inspired that in him." His voice dropped. "I'm angry at myself. He's followed me for years. Been my most loyal companion. And the one thing—the *one* thing I couldn't understand about him was his heart." He laughed bitterly. "Fuck. It took a curse designed to make him destroy what he loved most for me to finally see it."

Something in his vulnerability made my own defenses crumble. I moved to stand beneath a moonflower tree, its pristine white blossoms beginning their nightly bloom. Petals drifted down like snow, catching in my silver hair.

"Well," I said softly, "at least Frost is safe now. Away from the danger—both from Morgath and from..." I gestured vaguely between us. "From this mess. You don't need to blame yourself, Kaius."

He approached slowly, reverently, as moonflower petals continued their gentle cascade around us. His hand reached up to brush a blossom from my hair, but his fingers lingered, trembling slightly as they traced the line of my jaw.

"My Queen," he breathed, his voice rough with emotion. "Do you have any idea how breathtaking you look in moonlight?"

My heart stuttered.

"Anyone who falls in love with you—it's not their fault. It's inevitable." His thumb stroked my cheek. "You're so radiant, so powerful, your scent so intoxicating..." He leaned closer, his forehead nearly touching mine. "Just like how Morgath's obsession has always centered on you. You've always been the most captivating creature in any room. To everyone."

My face burned under his intense gaze.

"I'm grateful," he whispered. "So fucking grateful that you're my mate."

He leaned in to kiss me—

I turned my face away at the last second. "What about Rowan?"

The name hung between us like a blade.

Kaius didn't pull away. Instead, his arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me flush against him. His other hand tangled in my hair, his lips brushing my ear.

"Every single time I fucked her," he said, his voice low and devastating, "I imagined you. Only you."

My breath hitched despite myself.

"Do you know how boring it was? How mechanical?" His words were raw, honest in a way that made my chest ache. "I couldn't even finish most of the time. Just going through the motions while my mind filled with images of you." His teeth grazed my earlobe. "The only way I could get any pleasure at all was imagining *you* beneath me. Imagining *your* body arching in ecstasy. *Your* voice crying my name."

"You're such a—such a pervert!" I shoved at his chest weakly, my face on fire.

"Maybe." He caught my wrists gently. "But everything I did—every compromise, every degrading moment—it was all to protect you, Elowen." His voice dropped to something dangerous, almost desperate. "If I hadn't played Rowan's game, I never would have learned Morgath's secrets. Never found her lair. Never been able to save you." His eyes bored into mine with fierce intensity. "Don't you understand? Everything has always been for you."

The conviction in his voice made my resistance waver.

He pulled me close again, but this time his touch was bolder, more possessive. His hands traced the length of my spine, learning every curve, before settling on the swell of my ass, squeezing possessively. He lifted me slightly, pressing my heat against the hard ridge of his erection, a silent, brutal promise of what was to come.

"Kaius—" I gasped, my body torn between the instinct to fight and the overwhelming urge to surrender.

His fingers slipped beneath the hem of my dress, gliding over the bare skin of my thighs with an agonizing slowness that was pure torture. When he finally found the damp heat between my legs, my breath hitched. He didn't enter me, not yet. Instead, he teased, his fingertips circling the entrance, tracing patterns against my soaked panties.

"Just like Frost never said the words out loud..." His voice turned into a low, predatory growl against my neck, the vibration traveling straight to my core. "I never told you either."

Oh God. My mind was a haze of anticipation and dread.

"I love you, Elowen." The confession came out rough, almost angry in its intensity, as if torn from the deepest part of his soul. "I didn't realize how much until I couldn't see you. Until I thought I might lose you forever." One finger finally slipped beneath the fabric, finding my slick folds and sliding inside me with practiced ease. I couldn't suppress the moan that escaped my lips.

"When you're gone, I'm going insane. When you're in danger, I lose all reason. When I think about you—" Another finger joined the first, stretching me, curling in a way that made my knees buckle and my vision swim. "God, Elowen. You fucking consume me."

His thumb found my clit, applying perfect, merciless pressure that had my hips bucking against his hand. "I love you," he repeated, his voice thick with a desperation that mirrored my own. "I can't keep pretending I don't. And I can't risk never telling you—risk losing you again without you knowing—"

I broke.

My mouth crashed against his with a desperate, savage hunger, all my anger and longing and fear pouring into the kiss. He responded immediately, his free hand tangling in my hair, pulling my head back as his fingers continued their maddening, relentless rhythm inside me.

"Kaius—" His name came out as a plea, a prayer, a demand.

He understood. In one fluid, powerful motion, he spun me around and slammed me against the moonflower tree. The rough bark scraped against my chest, a grounding pain in the storm of pleasure. I heard his belt buckle clang, the harsh rip of fabric as he freed himself, and then—

He entered me from behind in one smooth, impossibly deep thrust that tore a guttural scream from my throat.

I cried out, my fingers digging into the bark as he filled me so completely it felt like he was touching my soul. Moonflower petals rained down around us like a blessing, sticking to our sweat-slicked skin as he began to move with a brutal, punishing rhythm that was exactly what I craved.

"Mine," he growled against my neck, his teeth grazing the sensitive skin there. "You're mine, Elowen. My mate. My Queen. My fucking everything."

I couldn't form words—could only sob and push back against him, meeting each savage thrust with a desperate, shameless need. The rough bark scraped against my palms, my cheek, the pain a sharp counterpoint to the pleasure building to an impossible, unbearable height.

His hand snaked around my waist, his fingers finding my clit again, circling in perfect, torturous time with his deep, powerful thrusts. "Come for me," he commanded, his voice a raw whip against my senses. "Let me feel you fall apart in my hands."

The combination of his filthy words, his merciless touch, the possessive grip of his other hand on my hip—it was too much. My orgasm crashed over me like a tidal wave, a shattering, white-hot explosion that ripped my name from his throat in a choked cry. My inner walls clenched around him, milking him, pulling him deeper.

He followed seconds later with a guttural roar that seemed to shake the very foundations of the mountain, his release hot and overwhelming as he buried himself as deep as humanly possible, marking me as his from the inside out.

We stayed like that for long moments, both of us trembling, moonflower petals continuing their gentle descent around our joined bodies.

Finally, Kaius pulled out carefully and turned me to face him. His eyes were soft, vulnerable in a way I'd rarely seen.

"I meant it," he said quietly, brushing a petal from my hair with infinite tenderness. "I love you. And I'm never letting you go again."