The mate finding spell business - book 1

DIMA’S POV

Unbelievable was the only word Dima could use to describe the situation that just took place. He knew when Oksana went still in his arms that her thoughts couldn’t have been good, but he didn’t want to intrude, and now he was indirectly accused of only wanting to get in her pants and abandon her afterward.

And here he had thought he was making progress with her family, at least he got to know that his mate trusted him.

“How is this my fault!?” His bear’s aggression was mixing up with his emotions and made him sound louder than he intended to, but Dima would still make his point count even if he had to make it while half shifted. He would not be bullied by a man who doesn’t wish to accept his own faults, even if that man is his mate’s father. “I was not the one who basically told your daughter that you prefer her to be sick and at death’s door at any time of the day over accepting that she’s a grown adult and can mate and bond with whoever she wants, this to sugar coat it for you. I did not just come here to bang my mate. I will never treat my mate like a common whore. I won’t pull a ‘wham bam thank you, ma’am’, kind of move on her! I will do things right, even if they have to be rushed!” Angus was once again on fire while glaring at him, but this time Dima couldn’t care less. He was right on this argument, and he had better things to do other than entertaining a mad wizard.

Angus took a threatening step forward, his fire acting like that of a demon, and spread down his leg and onto the floor, making a quick path in Dima’s direction. The bear shifter’s eyes flashed black, and he released an angry roar, warning Angus that he would lash out if needed.

“ANGUS!” Zainab snapped, and Elspeth took that moment to splash her son with water and extinguish his fire. Sizzling could be heard from Angus’s skin and the smell of burnt flesh hung in the air. Dima would have winced at the sign if he wasn’t so worried about his mate, but instead, he took that opportunity to run out of the house and shift to follow Oksana’s scent.

“He is right Angus, and you know it. Stop being irrational, and-” He stopped hearing Zainab’s voice and gained speed. The longer he ran, the closer he got to his mate, but the view before him was changing quickly, the sun was starting to rise, and the terrain was getting arid, which worried Dima. Why would his mate leave the garden’s from her town and the greenness of the forest they passed and go to a deserted place? Did she simply want to run away, or was there something else about this place?

After some time, a single lone tree could be seen in the distance, it seemed dead, but his mate’s unmistakable figure could be seen sitting in front of it. Dima slowed down his pace and started to shift back to his human form. A packet fell from his bear’s left hind leg mid-transformation, and as Dima looked down at the unknown packet, a piece of shining paper attached to the item caught his eye.

’Get dressed. No one needs to get blinded by your trinkets, even less my distraught granddaughter, save that for later.

Oh, and give her the cookies and the term of tea!

♡~Xoxo, Ivy ♡′

Dima rolled his eyes at the paper, and a light smile made its way onto his face as he got dressed. Only his mate’s weird grandma to send cookies and a term of tea on a pack of clothes that he didn’t even notice she had tied to his leg.

Oksana was sitting on a rock facing the dead tree, she had a faraway look on her face and didn’t even blink when Dima’s shadow covered her. Her blanket had fallen from her shoulders, polling behind her with the flying broom close by, goosebumps covered her skin, and the dawn’s cold made her shiver.

“Tsk tsk.” Dima shook his head at the sign. At the beginning of the day, she was bedridden with fever, mere hours later she collapsed and stayed out cold for hours, and now, less than an hour after waking up, she’s sitting on a rock in the middle of nowhere catching the chill of dawn. Dima approached Oksana and grabbed her blanket off of the floor, dusting it off before covering her with it.

“Sit with me, please, and watch the sunrise, Dima.” Dima didn’t understand how his mate wanted to see the sunrise if she was literally facing a tree, but he still complied and wrapped his arms around her. Oksana cuddled more into his warmth and turned her body to face east. Her chilled hands touched his, and Dima almost jumped out of his skin with how cold her hands were.

She was worse than a glacier!

Immediately he got to work and started rubbing her hands with his to warm her up.

“Look, Dima! It’s happening.” Oksana happily exclaimed and softly grabbed hold of his jaw to turn him to face the sunrise. Dima covered the hand holding his jaw with his own, and rested his shin softly on Oksana’s brown-reddish hair, watching one of nature’s most magnificent shows in bright colors.

Life before Oksana had really been black and white for Dima, but from now on, he promised himself to never fall down that rabbit hole again. No more alcohol ever again, no more sleeping the days away, no more depression, no more living life like a mindless zombie.

Life starts now, from square zero, and with a loving mate, Dima decided at that moment as the sun rose and its beams started caressing and warming his skin, illuminating the earth below them.

“It’s like the gods themselves approve of my decision...” Dima murmured and absently but sweetly kissed Oksana’s head and stayed quietly watching the sunrise fully. Oksana let out a small sigh of contentment and melted into Dima’s embrace, enjoying the quietness with him.

A few minutes passed by before Oksana broke the silence. “Do you think my father hates me, Dima?”

“What!?” Dima jumped in shock and looked down at his mate, incredulous with what he heard.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m the only thing holding him back from truly putting his past behind his back. I make him remember my biological mother every day, and although he and mom- Zainab have a whole happy family of their own, I feel like it would be better for him if I just died, you know.” His face fell at her words. How could she think and speak about her own death like it was a light matter? As if speaking of the weather?

“NO! I don’t know. Angus would be nothing without you and your siblings. He loves you, Oksana!” She ignored Dima’s outburst and kept on letting out her bottled-up thoughts and emotions.

“That would explain why he’s against us, you mean a cure, my salvation, but if I died duo to this thing I have, he would be free, and no one could accuse him of anything since there was nothing that he could do for me. He would have a clean conscience and a whole family clean of blemish like me.” The longer she spoke, the more Dima despaired.

Black veins started slowly covering Oksana’s face and arms, her skin got pale again, but she didn’t seem weak or about to pass out. She just looked more and more void, while her voice sounded more melancholic. He couldn’t understand what was going on, but he knew he had to do something. Otherwise, he feared for the worst.

Dima kneeled in front of Oksana and took her face in his hands, softly caressing her cheeks with his shaking thumbs and trying to see if she reacted to him. “Oksana...” He started to speak, but he really didn’t know what to say.

Was that how he sounded when he was depressed and his mother finally got him to speak?

How long has his little mate been holding onto these poisonous thoughts of hers?

“Oksana, my love, my mate, I need you to listen to me when I tell you this because I would never lie to you. Your father loves you, and I can bet my life that he would hang himself if he knew that this how his words earlier made you feel.” Oksana’s void look started leaving her face, and a crushing vulnerability filled her whole being, and tears brimmed her eyes.

“I don’t know for how long you have held and bottled these thoughts of yours, but from now on, you have me beside you, and you can always vent your worries and fears to me.” Tears started falling down her face, and Dima tenderly wiped them away.

“I know that we just meet and that I don’t know your family all that well, but one thing I can guarantee you, and I will repeat it over and over again until I feel that it has been engraved into your skull.” He looked her deep in the eyes and said slowly, “Your. Father. Loves. YOU. ” While pocking her shoulder with his finger at each word.

“And there is nothing in this world that could change that. Not your biological mother, not his or your past, not his new wife, not his new family, and not your sickness.” Oksana was sobbing by then. Dima grabbed her from the rock and sat down on the floor with her on his lap. He rocked her back and forth and caressed her back to comfort her. He knew how important it was to let our emotions out from time to time. It was one thing that he hadn’t done as a boy, and it led him to depression and he was not going to commit the same mistakes he did with his mate. He felt her start to calm down and slowed down his rocking.

“Thank you, Dima.” She brokenly said in-between sniffs. “It’s just that every time I tried to bring up my worries with my family, they would always shut me down. They thought my fears were stupid and didn’t understand how I could feel like this. But it’s not something that I can control! Jamila would always get mad at me when I thought of these things, her gift made her able to read my thoughts, as you have experienced, and she didn’t like my depressing worries. She would always say ‘At least be happy that your father is alive!’ It’s not that I don’t love or care about my dad, I just feel like I am a burden for him. You saw him today, he cried, and he seemed defeated, and he’s never like that. I never wanted to invoke those feelings on him, but at the same time, I also understand him a bit and his reaction to my grandmothers’ solution.” Oksana explained and wiped away some of the tears and snot that covered her face.

“Oksana, fathers will always be fathers. If it was me in his place, I would have probably reacted the same way. No one likes to think of their daughter having sex. To him, you’re his little princess, he is protective over you, extremely more, after all, that you two have been through. And while you feel that I’m giving you a cure, he feels that I’m taking you away from him. I guarantee you that is not my intention at all, but his reaction after your fight proves my theory.” Dima spoke and petted Oksana’s hair and back, loving the feel of having her in his arms.

Oksana hung onto every word he said, humming in comprehension after pondering what he expressed and taking into consideration her father’s feelings. Things may be a bit jumbled at the moment, but she knew they would solve it soon.

“Wait! What reaction? What did he do? Are you alright?” She started fussing over him, and Dima laughed at her reaction, loving every second of her attention. That was until his third leg awoke with all her shuffling.

“Oksana stay still for a moment please.” He groaned and dropped his face on her shoulder. She immediately complied and plopped down on his lap, straddling him... This time Dima groaned louder. A shiver went down Oksana’s back and, at the understanding of what his fountain of ‘pain’ was, she blushed profusely.

Dima couldn’t hold himself back for much longer if his mate kept her darkened wide eyes on him with her beetroot face and lower lip locked in between her teeth. His control was slowly slipping, and before he did anything that went against the words he gave her father, he slid her from his lap and back onto the rock they had previously sat on, much to his bear’s displeasure.

Electricity hung heavy in the air between them, and Oksana clenched her things. The act seemed to happen in slow motion for Dima, and a loud growl rumbled from deep within his chest. His bear tried to take over and squelch both theirs and their mate’s thirst, but Dima didn’t let him. He slapped his hands against his face and hid it, taking a deep breath to try and calm down both his raging boner and his horny beast.

The intoxicating sweet aroma of their mate’s flowery scent mixed with a hint of arousal infiltrated his nostrils and made both animals lash out harder than they were. His hands shifted into his bear’s claws, and he moved them to his hair while he dropped his head in between his knees. His dick was so hard that it was painful to have his pants zipped, especially with his mate’s scent surrounding him. Knowing that she was within arms reach and that he couldn’t touch her was driving his animal nuts!

‘Bad idea, bad bad idea indeed, a very bad idea!’ Dima repeated in his mind every time he breathed in her scent, and impure thoughts invaded his mind.

Oksana cleared her throat awkwardly, and Dima willed his self-control to come back. Either that or to someone to put him out of his misery. The shame he felt at that moment was enough to kill him. If only shame could kill.

“So... Um, what did my dad do?” Oksana asked, trying to break the awkwardness.

Dima cleared his troat and ushered back his claws, blocking his bear out of his mind, and, ignoring his cock, he finally got the courage to look at his mate’s face. She gave him a crooked smile, and he gave her a shy one in return before recalling Angus’s fiery reaction.

“He, um... He caught on fire again and tried to roost me. But this time it was different from the last one. This time he controlled his fire and wiled it down his legs and onto the floor to attack me.” Dima reminisced the weird occurrence and saw Oksana facepalm.

“Oh, daddy... Why did you have to be such a hot-headed show-off?” She muttered, and Dima regarded her with interest.

Normally, the only ones who can wield fire like that are phoenixes, demons, elementals, and dragons but not wizards. To be a ‘normal’ person out of that species and able to handle the fire like that, Angus had to have many centuries of practice, and even then, his skill wasn’t normal.

“My great-grandfather from my dad’s side was a demon. He fell in love with my great-grandmother, and his powers were passed down the line. Dad is the most in tune with them. My grandmother Elspeth is more witch than a demon, and I, for example, even though I have no magic, I am fire prove.” Dima was gobsmacked. Who would have thought his little mate had demons genes inside her!

“Wow! That’s amazing!” He finally reacted and watched as Oksana’s hanging head snapped up, a look of shock plastered on her face.

“You don’t think that’s weird or that I’m evil for having a demon’s genes inside me?” She asked, suspicious of how at ease he was taking this news. Dima scrunched up his face and rolled his eyes, people nowadays had a way to screw up with others’ heads that left him bewildered.

“Oksana, of course, I don’t think you’re evil. You could be a fully blooded demon that I would still love you and treat you the same way. Fuck what others say and might think! This is none of other people’s business, and even if it was, it’s not your fault that you have those genes inside your DNA, that’s not something that you can control.” As soon as he finished speaking, the black veins disappeared from Oksana’s skin, and she attacked him with a kiss. He fell on his back from the surprise, but he never disconnected their lips, holding her securely against his torso and falling into a trance that only her sugar-like addictive lips could put him under.

Fireworks erupted all over his skin, and his stomach felt weird like it couldn’t stop doing flips and his heart, his heart felt like it was in a race trying to shorten the distance between him, and the finish line that, in this case, was out of his chest and against Oksana’s own beating muscle that raced as fast as his. And what started off as a passionate kiss turned slow and uncertain from Oksana’s side, as if she only now realized what she was doing, but Dima wasn’t going to let her overthink things and end this world stopping mind-shattering kiss. Oh, no, he wasn’t. He moved one of his hands from her back and softly wrapped it in her hair, angling her head to the side gently and bringing back the passion into their kiss, until Oksana melted back against him and let her hands wander.

Beast and man fused into one at that moment, completely in peace and in tune with one another, only focused on their mate and the way her lips moved against theirs. Feeling bold and high from Oksana’s kiss, Dima brushed his tongue against the seam of her lips and awaited, hopeful that his advances would be accepted. Oksana hesitated for a beat, and just when Dima was prepared to pull back, she opened her mouth, and shily brushed her tongue against his. Time stopped around them, and Dima felt as if he had tasted pure oxygen for the first time, the velvet feel of her tongue on his drove him crazy, her sweet taste infiltrated his senses and got him hooked. Dima took control of their kiss and flipped them over, everything around them forgotten, and the only thing on their minds was the next move of their tongues’ exotic dance.

Dizziness started getting to him, and Dima felt the world sway around him, black dotes started to cover his vision, and recognizing it as a sign of lack of oxygen, he reluctantly separated their mouths. A string of saliva connected their lips, their harsh panting, and the drumming of their hearts was the only thing they could hear. They looked at one another with cheesy smiles, both covered in sand and with their hair all over the place, Oksana with the added dried tears and snot on her face but neither of them minded those things, to them, their moment was perfect, and that was all that mattered.

“Oksana, I told your father that I would do things right with you and not pull a ‘wham bang thank you ma’am’ move on you, I want your approval on this and tell me if you don’t want it, but I wish to marry you before your next ‘immune system break’. I wish to take you on dates until then, for us to get to know each other better, the first one being today if you agree. So will you, Oksana, do me the honors of going on a date with me and being my wife, pretty please?” She looked at him frozen, a smile still on her face but a pensive glint in her eyes, Dima could almost hear the gears shifting in her mind, and in fear of rejection, he closed his eyes and started praying.

A few minutes passed and Oksana still hadn’t spoken, the early sun rays started burning Dima’s face, but the shifter didn’t dare to move a muscle and stop praying. Sunburn be damned, his mate could take as long as she’d like to answer, Dima decided and kept his eyes closed.

A soft caress on the face made him open his eyes and find Oksana’s amber-colored orbs watching him with her lower lip tucked in between her front teeth, a nervous tic of hers, he noticed. “I think it’s too early for marriage, but if you really want it, we could go ahead with it... It’s going to be a lot of work, but I think we can make it. And yes, I accept to go on a date with you!”

Dima was so happy that she accepted to go on a date with him that he couldn’t hold himself back and kissed her again. This time it was a quick kiss only lasting a few seconds before Dima jumped up and took Oksana up with him.

“I’m so happy!” He exclaimed and spun her up in the air. “But I don’t want you to feel pressured into marrying me.” He quickly added.

“Don’t worry Dima, I want to. It’s just happening so quickly. Just two days ago I thought I would never make it past twenty-three, nonetheless, find love and now look at us. I have you by my side, and I’m already feeling healthier than I’ve felt in the last ten or fifteen years.” Dima smiled at his mate’s enthusiasm and hugged her tightly before analyzing the sun’s position.

“It’s probably already seven a.m., we should go back, and you need to sleep for a few hours. I have a date to prepare!” He enthusiastically exclaimed, making Oksana giggle at his excitement.

"We need to sleep, mister, both of us, or there won’t be any date.” Oksana playfully scolded and kissed Dima’s pout.

“Alright, woman!” He responded with a heartfelt laugh and followed her back to the rock to pick up their things.