Alpha Domination (Alpha Wolf Book 1) Read online

  My brow furrows. He thinks I’m having regrets. Something hitches in my throat as his fingers gently pluck my nipple. “No,” I breathe.

  “Good,” he growls softly, pulling me into a deep kiss and rubbing the pad of his thumb against the sensitive peak, arrowing desire down into my loins. My hand momentarily squeezes his shaft, muscles clenching in response to him. A groan spills hotly against my lips. “Mm... Please, love...”

  Love...

  He’s never called me that before.

  He feels thick and heavy against my palm. I squeeze gently, once more, and he opens his eyes, tilting his head slightly to look at my lips. Every agonizing inch of me wants to curl forward and kiss him again, but I force myself to hold where I am, sliding my hands into motion on the length of his cock. He watches me, jaw ever so slightly slack, chest rising and falling heavily.

  “Do you want me?” I murmur, heart pounding in my chest.

  The word is raw and achy as it crawls from his throat.

  “Yes.”

  Another arrow of lust snakes down through my belly. My whole body trembles. Nathan takes my hand and moves it to the small of his back, scooping me closer and kissing me hard and slow.

  “I want you,” he growls. My breathing hikes. He’s looking deep into me with penetrating eyes full of heat and need. “I want you naked and trembling. And coming for me.”

  I swallow, body quivering. A sexy smile plays out on his soft lips. He stretches my arms above my head, lifting my top and then holding it around my wrists as he kisses my breasts, making me squirm and moan against his attentions. His other hand moves down to my hip, slipping below the fabric there and cupping me like he has before, too much pressure to be innocent but not enough pressure to ease the ache unfolding inside of me

  “What do you want?” he murmurs, hot, moist breath taunting my breasts.

  His eyes draw level with mine. I can see my reflection swimming in their depths, drowning in a sea of desire. But I don’t know what I want. Everytime he touches me, I feel more and more confused.

  I’m beginning to realise that I don’t want Carrick any more, but thoughts of Nathan are reckless and stupid. I know this isn’t anything deeper for him. It can’t be. He’s still in love with Anna. And how can I compete with his dead lover?

  “Georgie...?”

  I bite my lip. “You... All night.”

  A flicker appears in his brow and disappears just as quickly. He kisses me hard and deep, his hand massaging beneath my underwear as I moan and press into the caress. The shirt snagging my wrists comes loose in his slackened grasp. I slide my hands free and wrap my arms around his neck. He groans softly against my lips as I welcome him to taste me.

  “This is taking too long,” he breathes raggedly. “I need you.”

  Panting and desperate, we wrestle my jeggings off together. Then, Nathan tugs my legs towards him, dropping me so that I’m flat on my back instead of my side. His body is between my thighs. It feels so good. My hand slips to his cock and I bite my lip, watching as he swallows down hard at the way I stroke him. He pushes my hand aside, guiding himself into me.

  My thigh muscles bunch and my body arches as he takes his sweet time filling me up. The ache of sheathing him so slowly is almost too much. When he’s deep, he lowers trembling lips to kiss my mouth. The fluttering caress is gentle and burning with heat. My fingers twine in his hair, an almost animal mewl touching my throat as he begins to withdraw just as slowly and then thrust again.

  We gasp against each other’s lips. It’s not just me he’s teasing with this insanely lingering climb. I try to urge him faster with eager movement from my own hips, earning a guttural growl from him.

  His dark eyes look down at me. Those sexy lips form one of his crooked smiles. His hand rests on my hip, holding me still. “It’s dangerous to suddenly rush a guy,” he rasps, voice a sexy rumble.

  “It’s dangerous to tease a woman like this,” I whisper, a breathy, wanton mess.

  He leans in to kiss me, but I see my chance, pushing him. We roll and I end up on top. Nathan releases a short, easy laugh that dies to nothing as he looks up at me. The heat from the fire licks my side. My palms are bracing his chest and my hair is dangling loosely in front of me. His lips part. Dark eyes follow mine.

  The way he looks at me makes me feel sexier than I’ve ever felt before.

  His palm curves to my cheek. He brings me closer to him, kissing me slower and somehow more intimately than before. When our lips part, I try to read his face, but he’s shuttering something away behind the desire and tinge of sadness in his gaze.

  I close my eyes, absorbing the sensation of his hand as it traces down my throat to my breast. His thumb swirls over my nipple and my body clenches, drawing a whisper of a groan from him. My lashes part. He’s still watching me, awash with desire.

  My hips thrust slowly and he strokes in time to each lingering movement. Hurried air rushes my lips. His mouth is parted, tongue swirling slowly as he watches me.

  “You really are something else,” he murmurs.

  Our tempo rises. His other hand comes to rest on my thigh, his thumb drawing circles on the inner flesh. I’m starting to shake. Each breath is shuddered and the awestruck way he watches me makes my body tremble more for him. I bite my lip, trying to tamp down the desire and emotion I feel, but the next moment my breath hitches and I gasp in pleasure finding his hand has snaked down between us to stroke my clit.

  I see him swallow thickly.

  “Come for me, Georgie...”

  The pace picks up until I’m getting lightheaded, my whole body tingling and light as its core aches and burns. His hands move to my hips. He urges me harder and faster, perspiration glittering on his brow as he thrusts up to meet me and I lose sight of him through the ripples of pleasure that arch my body and usurp my trembling voice.

  I hear him shout my name, bucking against me in one final cataclysmic moment...

  When some form of sense returns, I find we are clutched in each other’s arms in a sort of sitting position, bodies still locked together. My face is nuzzled into his neck and we’re both damp with sweat. His heart is thundering against my chest. I can hear his breath coming in short, hard pants.

  I press a soft kiss to his throat. His hands are trembling as they smooth through my hair. I murmur his name and he shakily lies down, holding me close as he does. We stay like that for a while, unmoving and intimately connected.

  New Aches

  His face is delicate and hard all in one. I love the way the fire highlights and softens his features from moment to moment. We’re side by side. Still naked. Mute.

  He’s examining my face in much the same way as I am his, my hand skimming his chest loosely as I think. We haven’t spoken since that utterly shattering climax. I feel like I’m a mirror broken into a thousand glittering pieces. Our lovemaking has unmade me and now I have to put everything I am back together as something new.

  The life I had before, even the semblance of it that I thought I could hold onto, is now unreservedly gone. My allegiance to Carrick has dwindled to nothing. Any residual feelings I had for him are dust. The thought brings guilt to my stomach, but not as much as I thought I’d still feel after this second night of intense sex with Nathan.

  My heart is aching, but not from the sense of committing a betrayal. Nathan’s dark eyes are watching me; though, his expression doesn’t give his thoughts away. I think of how many times he’s called Anna’s voicemail.

  My heart clenches.

  We’ve spent a matter of days together, lurching from hate to... whatever this is...

  My feelings are just a product of heightened adrenaline and the need for intimacy. I have to rationalise it. Because the only other reality is that...

  I’m falling for Nathan.

  And he’s still in love with Anna...

  “It’s okay to regret,” he murmurs. I bite my lip. The darkness of his eyes is heavy, suffocating in intensity. “Your boyfriend... You don’t ha
ve to tell him. When the full moon has stabilised your werewolf abilities...” He swallows. “I’ll be out of your life for good.”

  I don’t answer. I don’t know if I can.

  My fingers have stopped over his thrumming heart.

  “We’ll come up with some story about your absence. No one will ever know we met...”

  I nod slowly, not trusting myself to speak and fighting the hot tears I know I want to cry. He thinks I want to go back to Carrick and my life. That’s so far from the truth. The emotional intensity of the intimacy we’ve shared is almost unbearable. But...

  Maybe it’s just better if he keeps thinking that I’m still in love with Carrick. That I still want to go home.

  “We’ll get rid of Caleb and his packmate. No one will cause you any more trouble, Georgie.” He caresses the side of my face and I close my eyes, involuntarily breathing him in. He smells even better this close.

  My voice trembles, tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth.

  “How long until the full moon?”

  He swallows. “One more night. And then, the next, the alterations will settle in your body.”

  One more night with Nathan...

  I gulp down the hot tar that fills my throat and keeps me from speaking. Another deep breath pulls in his aroma. I press myself close to him, arms reaching around so my fingers can clench against his shoulders, my head nestled against his chest.

  I hear him breathe me in and feel him sigh. His arms wrap around me, too. His lips brush my forehead. “It’ll be okay,” he murmurs.

  But it won’t be okay.

  How can it? I’m tethered in a long dead relationship to a man who, far from being able to understand what I’ve become, doesn’t seem to understand me as I am. Or doesn’t care to. And I’m falling for a man who is desperate to be isolated and alone in a world I’m only just beginning to comprehend. Not to mention, our lovemaking may have ruined me for any other.

  And then there’s the problem with Caleb and Dan, or whatever the latter is called. They still have their sights set on me and, whilst I know that Nathan will do his utmost to protect me, I’ve seen the state he was in after they’d taken him by surprise. I can’t bear for that to happen again.

  What if I lose him?

  When I don’t even have him...

  “Your heart is racing...”

  I swallow against the choking thought.

  “What are you thinking about...?”

  “Just... that we have one more real night together,” I lie.

  He stays silent as I pause. Maybe he knows I wasn’t really thinking about that. Maybe he can smell my fear. I clear my throat.

  “When I go back, Carrick... He’s not like you, Nathan. You’re like a sexual fantasy come to life...” I can feel my cheeks heat. This isn’t quite coming out as I’d hoped. “What I mean... You’re not someone I’m going to forget in a hurry. But this is no strings and no claims, right? No regrets...?”

  Please say no... Please say it’s more than that...

  “Mm...”

  My heart plummets.

  “And it probably shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Or again. But it has. And... And we have until the full moon...”

  “And you want to have more no strings sex with me?”

  I open my mouth.

  “No,” he says quietly, almost so low I can’t hear it. “I think... We need to nip it in the bud, Georgie. Before it messes with our heads.” I tilt my head back to look at him, but the shutters are down, his emotions sealed off. “You’re right. It’s been good. Too good. And I don’t want the wolf part of my brain thinking it has some kind of animal claim over you as my property.”

  My mouth closes. I want to protest, but all of my protests are drawn from emotions that I really shouldn’t be feeling. Besides, Nathan isn’t talking of anything more than some feral agenda. He doesn’t care for me the same way I’m beginning to care for him.

  “Carrick,” he pronounces the name slowly as if it tastes unsettling on his tongue, “is your mate. He’ll be worried about you.”

  He moves his arm from around me, putting space between us. An odd sense of hurt and rejection washes over me. His eyes shift to the ceiling and he rolls slightly onto his back.

  “You should get dressed, Georgina...”

  I scoot back in barely checked horror. He’s grit his teeth and still staring at the ceiling. It’s like he’s signalling that he’s done with me. He’s had his fun and now I’m no longer needed. I scoop up my clothes and scramble for the basement like a shameful one night stand.

  My heart is pounding. I sprint across the cold concrete floor and dive onto the ragged mattress, trying to suppress my tears and failing.

  From elation to devastation in a matter of minutes.

  Now To War

  My head hurts when I wake. I think it’s from all the stupid, unnecessary crying I did in the basement, but I don’t appear to be there any more. Instead, I’m in the bedroom, tucked below the sheets.

  Nathan must have carried me upstairs after I’d fallen asleep. His scent laces the pillows and I briefly wonder if he’s been lying beside me before I push the thought away. An arrow of traitorous desire snakes its way through my insides. His bed is desolate without him in it.

  The hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention. It dawns on me that I can hear Nathan’s voice. I slide out of bed and creep to the open door, noting that I’m dressed in one of his shirts. His voice carries from the kitchen, low and dangerous.

  “If you harm her...”

  My chest constricts. I tiptoe through the narrow hall space until I’m hovering close to the sofa. Nathan is pacing in the kitchenette, his phone glued to his ear. His teeth are bared and his empty hand is clenched into a fist.

  My knuckles whiten as I grip the back of the sofa. The tension in his body is setting me on edge. His gaze flickers to mine, but he doesn’t stop pacing.

  “You know I won’t do that, Caleb.”

  Even from across the room, I hear the woman’s scream on the other end of the receiver. It’s followed by crying. Nathan swears. He’s stopped pacing now. Instead, he’s looking at me, his fist still clenched. Terror races around the insides of my ribs.

  “Tell me where she is.”

  My heart hammers.

  The phone line clicks off. Nathan grits his teeth and then throws the mobile across the room, yelling. “Bastard!”

  I grip the back of the sofa tighter, trying to stop myself from trembling. Nathan closes his eyes and exhales. After a moment, he picks up the gun, fetching a box of bullets from the kitchen and loading it.

  “What are you doing?” I whisper. “What’s going on?”

  “Caleb has Hattie. He must have followed her home or something. I’m going to go shoot the motherfucker.”

  His fingers are trembling as he tries to fit the bullets into the gun. I move closer to him, touching his cheek gently. His eyes flicker closed, pain crossing his brow. His hands still on the weapon. I find myself leaning in and kissing him softly. He doesn’t resist, but it feels bittersweet and, after, as I linger, he murmurs achingly against my lips, “Don’t...”

  Shamed, I step back.

  He keeps his eyes on the gun whilst he finishes loading it. “He wanted me to bring you and trade you, but I won’t do it. You’re staying here and I’m going to find her.”

  I hesitate. I don’t want to leave Hattie in danger, but I’m not sure he’s thinking this through clearly. “What if it’s just a ploy to get you out of the cabin so they can grab me while you’re gone?”

  “I’m not letting them kill Anna!” he shouts, his gaze flashing to mine.

  The silence seems to reverberate. Nathan swallows thickly. I go to touch his arm, but he shrugs away. Pain is gripping his frame.

  He opens his mouth to say something and then closes it again, taking a shuddered breath as a tear squeezes between his lashes. “Hattie.” He brushes the tear away vigorously. “I meant Hattie.”

&nb
sp; He stares angrily at the gun.

  I clear my throat. “So, I’m coming with you?”

  “No.”

  “But–”

  “For fuck sake, Georgie!” He looks up at me with eyes full of hurt and anger. “You’ll stay here. For once, do as I fucking tell you.”

  I bite my tongue, but only because, for a brief moment, a chink in his armour is showing. I know he’s frightened of losing Hattie. Just like he lost Anna.

  He finds a gun in the kitchen drawer, loads it, and hands it to me.

  “No one will come. You’ll be fine. But, in case, just aim and fire, like before.”

  I swallow, thinking of Bobby’s body hitting the snowy ground in crimson array.

  Nathan snatches up his car keys and heads to the door, but I call out before he can turn the handle. “What about you? Who’ll look after you?”

  He stops to look at me. His eyes are shuttered and his expression muted.

  “I can look after myself, dahlin.”

  But I don’t believe him.

  The door closes as a lead weight drops in my stomach. After last time, how can he think that he’ll be able to take them on his own?

  I don’t bother to wait for the sound of the pickup leaving before I find the werewolf book. It’s on the floor where I dropped it. Pages flip infuriatingly. Nathan hasn’t made it easy. There’s no table of contents, but I know I’ve skimmed over an idiot’s guide to shapeshifting.

  The thought of changing terrifies me, but I can only assume it’ll be faster to reach Hattie’s place running as a wolf than on foot.

  Finally, I spot a diagram I’ve seen before. It’s a rough indication of how the body morphs from one form to another. Just looking at it makes me queasy. I try to remember what Nathan told me, about how it would get easier over time, but I’m not totally convinced. He’s scribbled down tips and tricks, though, which I guess must have been for new werewolves in his pack. Staying calm is apparently the key.

  After a few deep breaths, I undress and crouch down on the floor by the fireplace. It feels foolish trying to will a change. When it doesn’t start to happen after five minutes, the panic starts to rise in my blood.