Alpha Domination (Alpha Wolf Book 1) Read online

  I try to take a deep breath to centre myself. The scents of bleach and blood wash down my nostrils. And then one aroma picks apart from the rest.

  One of the hunters is here.

  Where is Nathan?

  I follow his scent to the stairwell, tangled with the smell of the hunter. My heart racing, I creep through the doors, keeping my ears sharp for the sound of Nathan’s voice. How have they found us?

  Voices echo on the stairwell, rising from below. I can hear a scuffle as I start descending. Then there’s a horrible shout and thud. My heart races. I lean over the handrail. A body is lying broken on the ground floor. My stomach flip-flops, a gasp leaves my lips. It’s a man and his eyes are staring up, unseeing.

  Nathan leans over the edge of the rail on the floor below me. He looks down at the prone figure before turning to look up at me. His gaze flickers to my left and he shouts my name, panic contorting his face, as a hand grabs my upper arm.

  The second hunter’s scent wafts around me as he drags me backwards. Nathan is racing up the steps. I squeal and twist in the hunter’s arms. He snarls at me to be quiet whilst I struggle, trying to elbow him in the ribs.

  Nathan’s just reached our floor when the hunter brandishes a knife below my chin. My body stiffens at the feel of the cold metal. His arm is wrapped like manacles around my torso, my fingers digging into his forearm.

  Nathan stops in his tracks, his gaze moving between us, assessing the situation. I look to him for some way of escape, but there’s something in his eyes that makes me think he’s frightened, too.

  “Stay where you are or I’ll gut her like a fish.”

  Nathan’s jaw works, anger rippling through him, fighting with the fear. “What do you want?”

  “You,” the hunter answers, his voice thick with an accent that wouldn’t be amiss in the south. “We’re going to leave, nice and quietly. My colleagues have a car waiting in the lot. You’re going to come with us.”

  “I don’t see what’s in this for me.”

  “Come with us and I won’t kill this blood traitor on the spot.” He shoves me in the back, the knife scratching my flesh enough to draw a sliver of blood.

  Blood traitor...?

  Nathan’s grip on the handrail tenses. “You’d kill a human just to get your point across? I’d have thought that makes you the beast in this scenario.”

  Human? The hunter thinks I’m still a human?

  “She knows what you are. That makes her a traitor to her own kind in my book.”

  “So why haven’t you killed her already?” Nathan asks, still frozen to the spot.

  I pull a face, but he ignores me, concentrating on the hunter. Their conversation is quiet. A collection of voices is rising from the ground floor where they must have discovered the bloodied body.

  “Not my rodeo,” the hunter grunts in disdain. “Now move.”

  Nathan heads reluctantly back towards the ward. The hunter moves the knife to my lower back, the tip nudging my spine. He steers me the same way. We head back through the doors to Hattie’s ward. I glance at her mutedly as we pass. The hunter shoves me ungraciously, directing me until we’re through the ward to a small, empty service staircase.

  “So why do you want me?” Nathan asks, his voice bouncing off the walls, his tone eerily casual as we begin to descend, him still forced into the lead. “Aren’t I just another skin for your wall?”

  “Black pelt, isn’t it?”

  Nathan glances at the hunter and I hear, rather than see, the bastard smirk in satisfaction. Nathan’s steps have stiffened slightly. I think back to when he changed in front of me and how dark his fur was. I’d been too frightened to really think about it, but, now I was, it occurred to me that it was an unusual colour to bear even for an actual wolf.

  “Almost unique. Could be that we’ve been looking for a wolf like you.”

  “Then why were you following Caleb?”

  “The mutt from the woods? Always a bonus to eradicate a few of your kind when we can.”

  “But not me?”

  We’re nearly at the bottom of the stairwell. There’s an exit door that will lead to the car park. If we reach it then there’s no escape. We’ll be outnumbered.

  “Somebody’s willing to pay for you. And I gotta eat.”

  The shitty stair lights catch on the back of Nathan’s jacket as he moves, momentarily outlining the edge of his gun. I pretend to stumble on the last step, loosening the hunter’s grip on me and pressing up against Nathan’s back. He stiffens as my hand reaches below the lip of his jacket for the second time in twenty-four hours, pulling the gun from his waistband as our bodies less than accidentally collide.

  The hunter is reaching for me when I turn. Surprise shifts onto his face as I slide the safety off and pull the trigger. The gunshot echoes around the inside of the stairwell.

  Nathan swears, snatching the gun from my hands. The hunter is splayed half on and half off the last few steps. Blood oozes from the hole in his chest, his eyes staring.

  Oddly, I feel no guilt this time, only thundering adrenaline.

  Nathan puts the safety on and slides the gun into the waistband of his trousers, eyes skimming the exits. There are vague shouts coming from beyond the doors that lead back into the hospital. My heart is pounding.

  “The whole place will have heard that. Come on.”

  His warm, rough hand curls reassuringly around mine and he drags me through the exit door. The bright light hits my tired eyes like a thousand suns. I squint, stumbling behind Nathan. Cold air grips all exposed skin in an unpleasant embrace. The sensation breaks through the layer of exhaustion beginning to seize my bones.

  The stairwell exits onto a small path that winds between buildings and low brick walls. Nobody is about. We creep-run around the edge of the building, following the smooth tarmac deeper into the site. Thankfully, the parking lot is far enough on the other side of the hospital grounds that we’re out of view from the dead hunter’s friends, but the low thrum of adrenaline trying to beat the tiredness in my veins doesn’t doubt that they’ll come looking for their dead colleague.

  Nathan pulls me inside one of the outer buildings through a maintenance door. He’s moving sure and fast, as if he isn’t running on barely any sleep or food for twenty-four hours or more. This stretch of corridor is deserted, but there are footsteps echoing from up ahead.

  We pause, long enough for my tired muscles to wobble threateningly. Still in control, Nathan stashes us inside a cleaning cupboard, closing the half-slatted door just as the huddle of staff members hurry around the corner.

  I hold my breath until they’ve passed, saved by the shadows of the windowless storage room. My heart is booming in my chest.

  Nathan’s eyes light on mine in the semi-gloom. He’s mere inches from me in the close space. My gaze dips to the silhouette of his lips. His hand is still curled around my wrist, his pulse spiking as he looks at me.

  The air in the cupboard seems suddenly thick.

  Nathan pulls me close, the heat of his mouth tasting mine with an unexpected urgency. It’s an urgency I reciprocate, drowning in the sudden need to touch and feel him.

  Heat rolls achingly low in my gut. My palms cup his face, my chin tilting to welcome the ferocity of his hungered for kiss. I hear him groan, his hands curving around my backside, lifting me and pressing me up against the wall as he winds my thighs around him.

  “That was a stupid thing to do,” he mutters against my lips.

  I gulp down cold air. “What...?”

  “We could have been arrested.”

  I open my eyes and jerk back from him, indignation highlighting my expression. Loose hair is curled across his face in sexy disarray.

  “You could be dead!” I hiss back, anger jolting my words.

  His dark eyes glint in the barely there light.

  My voice wobbles. “They could have taken you, Nathan, and then–”

  His hand cups my cheek, thumb stroking my skin. He looks at me for a lo
ng moment, like he’s trying to figure something out.

  And then he leans in, glancing at me before our lips brush slowly. The last thing I see are his lashes shuttering as my eyes close and he presses closer, the hand on my cheek sliding around and into my hair whilst his mouth tenderly explores mine. My heart and mind recognise some kind of surrender that I’m too drunk on sensation to process.

  The kiss is wholly encompassing; the kind where time seems to slow but your heart is beating so fast you think it’s stopped altogether. Every nerve ending ripples with something that’s not just excitement.

  And I know for certain... like a key clicking into place...

  I’ve fallen in love with Nathaniel.

  The kiss builds and then slows until I feel the heat of his breath as his lips slowly uncouple from mine. I swallow down as he looks at me, my eyes pricking with heat, completely overwhelmed.

  This wasn’t supposed to happen...

  “Nathan...?”

  “Mm, I know,” he says gently, but he doesn’t know. He doesn’t have any idea what turmoil he’s just unlocked. “I’ll take you home. We’ll get you something to eat and cleaned up. You’ll feel better then. It’s been a long couple of days.”

  “But what about–?”

  “I’ll deal with the hunters,” he interrupts. “I promise.”

  Full Moon Rising

  It’s late evening. Nathan has been gone for hours.

  He left me back at the cabin after another looped, crisscrossed journey in order to fool anyone attempting to follow us. We ate, him more because I insisted than anything else, and then he left to track down the remaining hunters. I’d smelled six back in the woods. We’d taken out two at the hospital and one in the woods, which left three, two of those possibly the ones that had been injured in our first escape.

  I hope so, anyway. It will even out Nathan’s odds.

  He refused to let me go with him and, for once, I was too exhausted to put up a fight. I’d passed out on the sofa not long after he left, losing my fight with the delirium of sleep.

  Physically refreshed, I waiver near the window, looking up at the pale orb hanging in the sky.

  It’s the full moon.

  My last night with Nathan...

  I don’t know how to process what happened earlier. Having feelings for him was hard enough, especially when I knew he would be sending me back to my ‘normal’ life after the full moon. Back to my normal life and to work out this messy thing with Carrick. And now...

  Now that I realise the feelings I have...

  That the feeling I have, is... more than just affection...

  What am I supposed to do?

  The pickup’s parking spot has been erased by the falling snow. I sigh. Worry for Nathan is coursing through my veins. He didn’t think the hunters knew about the cabin, but that didn’t stop him from leaving me a loaded gun.

  I bite my lip. How had they known to find us at the hospital with Hattie? How long had they been watching us? And how had they known what colour wolf Nathan was?

  I catch a glimpse of my reflection in the glass. I’m still wearing the torn and dirty clothes I’d been wearing in the woods. With a last glance out of the window, I pick up the gun and head to the shower to wash everything away.

  The hot water is soothing in the way that nothing else can be. My eyes closed, I stand under the stream with my face upturned. The heat scalds my skin, making it tingle.

  It takes a while to properly untangle the matt of blood and hair close to my scalp. Eventually, it’s loosened. Next, I work carefully on the knots. They’re thick and awkward to extract. It takes a while before my hair feels anything like it should.

  Eyes tight closed, blind from the threat of running water, I hunt for Nathaniel’s shampoo. Almost stumbling, my hand stretches out, expecting to find steamed tiles or the shower door. Instead, in a sharp exhale, I find the hard plain of a chest.

  My whole body freezes, except for the outstretched arm, which begins to tremble.

  The gun is holstered in the same shower basket that holds the shampoo. The shampoo that I can’t seem to find. I gulp down humid air.

  “N-Nathan?”

  My lashes are glued by water droplets, but I don’t know if I’d dare to look, just in case it isn’t him. The body moves nearer, male musk and aura forcing me deeper under the shower spray, closing the gap between us. My outstretched hand is no longer outstretched, forearm pressed up against hot, naked flesh with no room to move.

  Once again, my heart is thundering and I can hear my own shallow breaths echoing off the walls of the shower space. Warm breath brushes my lips and I instinctively lift my chin, trembling as his scent folds in around me simultaneously comforting and unbalancing me. My exhale stalls in my throat.

  I can smell Nathan and I can smell blood.

  Hot water sluices the tremulous spaces between our lips as his mouth slowly curves over mine, releasing a whimper of desire I didn’t know I was holding onto. His tongue tastes and teases, tormenting me until all thought dissolves.

  “You okay?” he whispers barely audible over the sound of the running shower and my embarrassingly excitable pants.

  “I can smell blood on you...?”

  “Problem solved,” he murmurs matter-of-factly. His palm scorches the eager underside of my breast, encouraging an intake of breath and the pooling of desire in my loins.

  “How?” I ask, voice quivering, trying to stay on track.

  “Well, two out of three... One of them was reporting to their boss, but I’ll sort that out later.” He kisses me, again, slowly and deliberately, leaning into me and turning my brain into mush.

  “Did-Did you find out who...?”

  His lips have found their way to my earlobe, teasing the droplet of sensitive flesh. The sensation dulls my thoughts, but not as much as his roving hands. Fingers are tracing down my side to my hip whilst his other hand massages the soft mound of flesh that is beginning to ache for him.

  “Who...?” he prompts gently in my ear, hot breath drawing the hairs on my neck to attention.

  “Who... the boss...? Who sent them...? To find you...?”

  “Some human,” he dismisses breathily. “We can discuss it later.” A soft moan passes my lips. “Do you like that, Georgie?”

  “Nathan, I... If my scent is... clouding your judgement...”

  His chuckle rolls deep down my spine and into my most intimate spaces. Scorching lips travel over my collarbone. “Georgie, dahlin, water washes away scents, except...”

  His mouth presses to my breast. My fingers clench around his shoulders. I bite my lip, feeling his heat circle my hardened nipple. His tongue swirls over the taut peak as my shaking hands tighten their grasp on his strong shoulders to steady myself, a groan of need curling from my throat.

  When he releases me, my lashes flutter open, despite the shower spray. He’s looking down at me, dark eyes glowing embers of desire.

  “Except for the scent of you wanting me, dahlin...”

  I swallow. It feels like he’s seeing deeper into me than anyone else has.

  “You looked so good all wet. Sexy... Tasty...”

  He growls the last word and I remember with a tremble the way he’d made me come in Hattie’s apartment. “Nathan, you said...”

  “I know what I said,” he answers calmly, but, as he leans in to kiss me one more time, I can feel the hard jut of his erection against my belly and a new ache unfolds lower with a breathy whimper.

  “Please,” I murmur, asking myself if I can take this small, last pleasure before tomorrow comes.

  “That’s exactly what your body is saying to mine,” he growls, softly, his hot breath fanning the small space between our lips, skin brushing on skin. His hand settles on my hip, gently urging my body against his as he kisses me, tenderly savouring my taste for the longest time.

  “Nathan,” I gasp, his mouth patterning my throat and shoulder.

  “Uh huh?”

  I swallow down my desire,
desperately trying to keep my head. “The hunters... Oh...”

  My fingers splay against his strong back and my spine arches as his lips surround the aroused tip of my breast, his hand pressing the small of my back to bring me ever closer. My other hand slips down his chest, creeping ever achingly lower.

  “Nathan... You can’t... Ohh... You can’t just... just come in and...”

  He’s drawn his hands down my arms as I tried to speak and now he lifts them above my head, pressing them and my body back up to the damp, cool tiles, his male length deliciously plastered against me. I look up into his dark, desire heavy eyes, noting the teasing, slight curve of his lips, as he looks down at me.

  “I can’t what?”

  I swallow, wanting him more than anything. “You can’t just come in and make love to me without explaining anything. Without even a hello.”

  His mouth moves into an infuriating smile, but it looks sexy as hell in the dim bathroom light coupled with the sheen of the running shower. “Make love to you?” His head cocks slightly to a side as he contemplates the uncertain expression on my face and my poor choice of words. Then his eyes darken. “What if I say ‘hello’ now?”

  I bite my lip. “Nathan...”

  He moves closer, as if to kiss me, stopping close enough that I’ve already parted my lips and tipped my chin. His breath rolls hotly over my skin, his eyes darting from my hopeful mouth to my heavy-lidded gaze. “Don’t you want me to make love to you?”

  I gulp down my desire, my words trembling even as the heat slicks down into my centre with one flicker of his scorching gaze. “I... I want you to explain what happened. Talk to me. Not... fuck me, because you’re tired and high from the chase and– and your wolf brain wants to mate.”

  That infuriating smile is back. “How about ten seconds of action for every question I answer?”

  “No,” I answer, traitorously glancing down at his sensuous lips.

  Amusement sparkles in his eyes. He releases his grasp on my wrists, resting his arm against the tiles above me. “You really are headstrong and difficult, you know, dahlin?”

  “I know,” I murmur and lean in to taste his longed for kiss, something inside me snapping. His mouth curves into a smile against mine, but the action is lost as the kiss builds in passion and momentum. His hand cups my arse cheeks. The motion grinds our bodies together, lacing my loins with wet heat whilst his tongue strokes mine. I gasp hotly against his lips, his erection stroking against my lower belly.