The mate finding spell business - book 1

OKSANA’S POV

It took her a few moments to regain her witts, but once Oksana did it, she felt confused. Why was almost her whole family inside her room, and why was Dima sobbing on her neck?

“Dima..?” She asked carefully, unsure of herself.

“I thought I had lost you.” He hiccuped and pulled his face away from her neck, showing her his red, blotchy, tear-stained, and snot-covered face.

Oksana didn’t know what to do with herself at that moment. Looking into Dima’s genuinely spooked, dark brown eyes, she knew that even though they had just met mere hours ago, it was time for Dima to find out about her past. With a nervous, dry gulp, Oksana shily kissed Dima’s forehead and wrapped her fingers on his hair, carefully caressing it as a way to comfort him and relieve some of her stress.

“Papa, I’m going to tell him,” Oksana spoke directly to her dad and saw the man change colors. Angus’s eyes lost their light at the prospect, and he hung his head low before giving his daughter a simple nod. Zainab sent a small smile her way and a nod before following her depressed husband out of the room.

All of the adults knew how hard this story was for Angus, so they decided to make themselves scarce and let the family and the shifter have this moment alone.

“Come, Dima, let’s go to the living room to talk.” Oksana softly whispered in his ear and caressed him one last time before trying to get out from underneath him and out of her bed. She didn’t go far, Dima tightened his grip on her and stopped her from leaving the bed. Kaavy and Axton, who were still in the room, saw Dima’s reaction and immediately tensed, getting ready to pry the shifter off of their sister, but with a shake of her head, Oksana stopped them.

“Come on, Dima, let’s go. We have to talk, honey.” The endearment slipped before she noticed. Oksana tried to convince the shifter to let go of her, but the big softie was too stubborn.

“Just five more minutes, please.” He hoarsely whispered and gave her a soft kiss on her neck.

The kiss made Oksana shiver in pleasure, and goosebumps spread all over her body, she felt her nipples tighten in response to Dima’s touch, and warmth pooled on her lower belly. All that from just an innocent kiss on the neck. She couldn’t imagine what would happen when they shared a proper kiss if that ever happened.

Her face flushed in embarrassment, her brothers were still in the room, and both were looking elsewhere whit red-tinted cheeks. They had seen what Dima did, and by the bear shifter’s satisfied smirk, they could all see her embarrassment poking on her chest through her thin sweatshirt.

‘Curse you, braless comfort!’ Oksana cursed in her mind and searched for something to cover herself.

“Ummm, good to know that I’m not the only one who gets erect, my little mate.” Dima ‘seductively’ purrs against her neck and chuckles when both Oksana and her brothers clear their throats uncomfortably.

Dima finally pulled his face away from Oksana’s neck, and she stopped her quest of finding something to cover herself with to clear his face free of tears. “Stop teasing me.” She muttered embarrassed, and grabbed a blanket she spotted behind him.

“Let us go now,” Dima mumbled with a chuckle and sat up before quickly dragging Oksana onto his lap and getting up. Oksana yelped in surprise, and Dima smiled down at her. He nuzzled his face against her hair one last time and walked towards her bedroom door. Kaavy walked in front of them, and Axton left the room after them, closing the bedroom door on their way out.

Once in the living room, everyone took their seats, and a suffocating silence fell over them.

No one was comfortable enough to start this conversation, and with Oksana too worried about how to begin explaining things to Dima without jumbling everything more than it already was, the poor bear was left in the dark for almost twenty minutes. Until Angus started talking...

“Oksana’s mother was a human who I thought was the love of my life. We were even engaged when we had Oksana...” Kaavy and Axton gasped loudly at this revelation. They had known that Oksana was their half-sister, but to know that the human from their father’s horror story was their sister’s own mother chilled them to the core. Dima stayed quiet and kept his composure, he couldn’t imagine the wizard in front of him with anyone else other than Zainab, but then again, his bear instincts always told him that Zainab wasn’t Oksana’s mother. Oksana shivered in his arms and he held onto her more strongly, feeling by her reaction, that the worse was yet to be revealed.

“There was always a slight problem with her, she craved power, immortality, and eternal beauty. She knew I was a born wizard, that I was immortal, and that made her try to make me turn her immortal as well. I always thought when the time came that I would solve the problem. I even had a blessed necklace to give her on our marriage day that would have solved everything and solidified our love, but when she found out Oksana was immortal like me... She lost her mind.” Angus fisted at his hair and slumped down, tears could be seen gliding down his face, and while Zainab tried to comfort him, Oksana took over for him.

“I was two months old when my- the human got in contact with a dark witch for the first time. The witch helped her and enchanted a sapphire with black magic. And with that crystal, the human one day came home and sucked the magic out of my body. I was just a baby, but I screeched so loudly that my father heard me from outside of the house and reached me just in time to save my life. When the human heard my dad’s loud footsteps, she attached the sapphire to a thin lace choker around her neck and jumped down the window. If dad had taken just a few more seconds... I would have died.” Dima growled through the whole tale. He didn’t know how a mother could do that to her own child. Shifters were very protective of their children, especially bear shifters, and to know that a woman could be so greedy as to kill her own baby for immortality was extremely unsettling to the man.

Oksana felt like a rock had been lifted off of her shoulders, but the difficulty she had in speaking left her nerves haywire. She felt better after having told Dima about this, but she feared her brothers’ and mate’s reactions. Her only hope was that they wouldn’t abandon her after knowing about her parentage.

The version her brothers knew was a sugar-coated one, so their reactions of disbelief and rage were not lost on Oksana’s self-conscious mind. Jamila only knew the true story because she had eavesdropped on her father when the man had first told Zainab about Oksana’s condition, but the tail never ceased to stop the girl’s overwhelming emotions from taking over.

“Magic, to a born witch or wizard is like the animal spirit to a shifter, when taken away from us it leaves us either extremely weak or kills us. Oksana was just a baby when it happened, but to have her soul ripped in half should have killed her. Her biological mother took half of Oksana’s soul with her, and that is what is keeping the bitch immortal, that and the black magic she uses in the coven she joined.” Zainab explained further, and Dima’s thunderous growl made his anger be loudly known.

Oksana felt a bit ashamed to admit in front of her soul mate her faults and her imperfections that left her at the same level as a sick human, but in Dima’s mind, Oksana was perfect, and revenge was on his plans.

“The little bit of magic that remained within Oksana is what is keeping her alive, what gives her two or three weeks of healthiness, and what allowed her to grow to adulthood. Attacks and blackouts like the one that happened today are her little bit of magic failing her. My mother-in-law, Elspeth, has an affinity with the art of healing, and she has made it her mission to keep Oksana alive while we searched for a way to get her powers back. She is also teaching Axton in case things like this even happened at home, but as you saw today, what that human did to my little Oki is getting more life-threatening as the time passes.” Dima whimpered loudly, and sniffs filled the living room. Everyone was melancholic and afraid of the future, but somehow, amid so much pessimism, Oksana could feel a brighter fate coming.

“Is there anything we can do to help Oksana? A spell or a potion? Perhaps even try to locate the human if we take the rock from her and give it back to Oksana, wouldn’t that help her regain her powers? Or at least her health?” Dima shot question, after question, and suggestion, after suggestion. Oksana felt happy to see that her past wasn’t pushing him away, but she also knew that half of what Dima suggested was already being looked into by her family.

Unfortunately, the coven her egg donor had joined had at least thirty-two wielders of black magic, and that was too dangerous for her family to try and attack, not that it impeded her father from trying to do it, anyway. The man was crazy, but Oksana loved her crazy overprotective dad.

“There’s nothing we can do, Dima, but it’s ok, I’m fine,” Oksana assured her shifter and saw him slump down in sadness. “Dima, it’s ok-” She tried to reassure him again, but her grandmothers, Ivy and Elspeth, interrupted her.

“Of course, there’s something you can do!” Grandmother Ivy, Zainab’s mother, exclaimed much to the shifter’s delight.

Oksana felt confused after years of hearing there was nothing they could do, to suddenly hear there was something that could be done, left her dumbfounded.

“What is it?” Dima asked, immediately jumping off of the sofa with Oksana in his arms and walking towards the two witches and the wizard with them on the staircase.

“You complete the mating bond with her. What else, salmon head?” Grandma Elspelth rudely smart assed Dima and shocked everyone with her declaration.

“WHAT?!”

“OH, HELL NO!” Her father immediately yelled.

“Is there really no other way of saving Sana?” Axton asked their grandmothers.

“Unless you manage to steal the sapphire from the human bitch’s neck and crack the crystal in front of Oksana, then, no,” Ivy explained.

“Unfortunately...” Mumbled Oksana’s grandfather.

Why were all the men in her family so against her and Dima mating? - Oksana couldn’t understand them. Didn’t they want her to be happy and healthy? Did they wish for her to be sick and crimpled all her life, burdening the life of others around her every time she fell sick, is that really the life they wanted for her? Even her grandmother Elspeth, who hated shifters with a passion, agreed with this solution.

Talking could be heard around her, but Oksana’s mind was only fixed on all the questions inside her brain. Why couldn’t they just be happy for her? If the guy who showed up through a portal had been Jamila’s mate, they would have been less revolted than this. And Jamila is the same age as her, they’re both 23 years old, with only five months of difference between them!

Is it because of what completing the mating bond implies? Is it the sex? Jamila is no saint, and they all knew that, but other than scolding her sister, they let her be. Why can’t they do the same for her? Just, why!?

Oksana signaled Dima to put her on the ground, and he carefully did it. The second her feet touched the ground, he kissed her on the hair and curiously observed her.

“Why can’t you ever be happy for me? Do you truly wish me to be a sick, crimpled, useless person all my life?” Oksana loudly accused her male relatives, looking them all in the eyes with a cold glare. Dima reached for her to comfort her and lightly hugged her to his chest. Her father was the first to react.

“Of course not! Who do you take us for? We love you and only want to protect you! He’s going to hurt you. Guy’s only want one thing from girls, and that is to hurt you, I-”

“Well, he won’t hurt me! He’s my fricking mate!” She exclaimed and pushed Dima’s hands away from her. Oksana took off running towards her house’s front door and grabbed her grandmother Elspeth’s broom before opening the door and leaving the house flying through the sky.