Alpha Wolf

Chapter Twelve

One of Michael’s brothers, she thought it was Theo, showed her into Michael’s room. Michael was broader shouldered than Theo, his face angular, his eyes darker and also warmer.

Theo hadn’t said much before he’d left. Clearly, her hysterical tears had put him off his game a little bit. Even she couldn’t understand why she was this upset.

A world without Michael in it would be a darker, miserable place. In fact, she knew firsthand how low that existence would be. She’d been relatively content to go through life abused all the time. In fact, she’d been relieved not to be dead.

Michael had changed all of that. Not just for her, but for nearly an entire pack of wolves. What if he’d made a different decision and taken the out offered by the ceremony?

She closed her eyes and slumped upon the bed. Michael’s scent enveloped her, making her heart ache with longing for him. Where was he?

She’d heard the three guys stop him on the boat and she’d appreciated it. That wouldn’t have been a good time for her to speak. But now?

The safety of sleep grabbed her attention and pulled her to its waiting arms. Trying to pry open her eyes worked for about three seconds before she gave into the exhaustion that overtook her.

She wasn’t sure how long she slept. When she woke up, it was dark outside and Michael’s arms were wrapped tightly around her, all but pinning her to his chest.

Waiting for a moment to see if he would say something, she realized he was out cold. His deep breaths were steady and sound, a reminder that he was there and he was with her. Listening to him lulled her back down into unconsciousness.

The next time she awoke, Michael was not asleep. His warm lips made their way down her body as his hands skillfully unbuttoned her shirt. The same clothes, she realized distantly, she’d fallen asleep in.

“I really must smell bad. I’ve been in these clothes forever.”

He mumbled something incoherent and kept kissing her.

“Michael?”

“You smell awesome, like you always do, and I swear if I don’t get inside of you soon I might explode.”

She opened her eyes to look at him. His eyes were serious. All of a sudden, the argument came back to her. Her unreasonable response to his thinking about leaving this world.

More rested, she didn’t think she’d react quite so strongly. Not that she was any happier but she wasn’t going to weep.

“I’m sorry I got so upset.”

He kissed her hard on the lips. “I’ve got to get you out of these clothes.”

Clearly, Michael wasn’t fooling around. Sitting up, she helped undoing the buttons and threw the shirt on the floor. It was already disgusting. She was going to have to do some laundry. Next, she pulled off her khaki pants in the same general direction where she’d thrown the shirt.

Michael tugged at her clothes breaking the clasp of her bra. She gasped and looked down. His cheeks turned a decidedly red color. “Sorry, I’ll get you a new one. A whole bunch of new ones. Or you get yourself some. What’s mine is yours, as you know.”

“Let’s face it, I don’t really need a bra.”

“Still, I can’t go around destroying your clothing.”

“Sure you can, I kind of like it that you’re losing it a little bit.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You do?”

“Sure. You don’t have to be in control all the time.”

With a muttered oath, he pushed her flat on her back, kissing her frantically. She could hardly keep up. Michael seemed crazed and, for her part, she was happy to go along for the ride.

He kissed her chest and she gasped. Her skin tingled with excitement. For a person who had once thought sex horrendous, it was amazing how turned on she could get by being kissed and caressed by her mate. Then again, maybe it was supposed to work that way.

She didn’t care. Arching her back off the bed, she felt the rough pads of his skilled hands delve into the curls covering her pussy. “Yes, Michael, stroke me there.”

“You like that, huh?” His eyes sparkled with lust as he gazed down at her.

“I like everything but, gods, I want your hands on me.”

“That’s good because I want to put my hands on you.”

And he did. First one finger and then another as she groaned. Another few seconds and she’d be begging. He played with the sensitive bundle of nerves inside her channel and she sighed, feeling the pressure growing.

“You’re so beautiful, Scarlett. I want to watch you come for me. Then I’m going to make you do it again.” He nuzzled her neck as he spoke. She could feel the hard length of his erection pressed up against her leg.

He wasn’t going to have to wait long to get his wish. All the pent-up emotion of the last few days swirled inside of her, desperate for release and Michael’s talented hands were giving it a chance to explode. Biting down on her lip, Scarlett saw colors form before her eyes before she shouted Michael’s name in a frenzy of pleasure that made her whole body shake.

Michael’s mouth took hers in what she could only describe as an assault on her senses. Gods, she loved him. Loved the way he tasted, loved the way his whiskers rubbed her as he kissed, loved the way he lost himself in the joining of their two mouths.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on, feeling his hard member against the outside of her opening. She knew what would be happening, she craved it.

“I want you.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Take me.”

He seemed to need no other words. He pushed his erection deep inside of her with one hard movement. She gasped from the fullness and closed her eyes.

“Gods, Scarlett, you’re so damn tight. It’s like heaven in here.”

For her part, she couldn’t speak and his words were like caresses on her ears. He was never as uncontrolled as when they made love. It astonished her that she was the one who could make him this way.

She wrapped her legs around his waist as he pushed her against the headboard in his strong movements, his hand preventing her head from striking the board itself.

“More, Michael. Give me everything.”

“I want to, Scarlett. I want you to have my whole life.”

Closing her eyes, she let herself get lost in the feelings his cock created inside of her.

Shifting his legs, he changed his direction slightly and now he rubbed her clit in his thrusts.

She cried out as the pressure became too much. If she was going to die, she decided, she wished it could be like this, with Michael inside of her, their bodies forever joined.

“More … more … more,” she begged as her body exploded. She could feel her wetness surround Michael’s length as he screamed her name following her into the oblivion they had created together.

Seconds later, or maybe it was hours, she could no longer sense time, he kissed her nose, her forehead, her neck.

“I’m so sorry, Scarlett. I’m so sorry I even thought about not waiting for you. I felt sorry for myself, lost, alone. I can’t really explain it except the way it is between us now, I need it. I was drifting in loneliness, needing you and not knowing you were out there.”

Scarlett opened her eyes to look at him as tears fell on her face. Her heart pounded hard as a lump formed in her throat.

“Michael, are you crying? Don’t.”

He wiped his eyes. “If you tell anyone I did this, I’ll never live it down.” He laughed.

She pulled his head down for another kiss, trying to show him with her mouth all that was impossible to say. He’d never have to worry that she would betray him like that. He was her everything too.

Finally, she spoke. “I overreacted. It was exhaustion. The idea of there being a world without you in it was too much for me.”

“What can I do to fix it?”

She reached up to kiss him. The more she knew of her wolf, the more she understood what this actually was. Michael was an Alpha wolf, he needed to take care of everyone and she being his mate meant he felt doubly so toward her.

“You can’t fix it, Michael. It’s not broken. It’s just over.”

He exhaled loudly. “You forgive me like you forgave your pack members for hurting you?”

“It’s not even in the same league. It’s nothing. Didn’t you ever fight with your brothers?”

He laughed. “Yes, but we’re all stupid little boys. We’d end up pounding on one another and get over it.”

“You and I don’t do that, however, I think we may have done the mated equivalent of it just now.”

“Okay.”

He rolled off her and she felt bereft of his warmth. It wasn’t that it was cold in the room. No, she just preferred being close to Michael. Rolling over, she snuggled into his side as he pressed his nose against her hair.

Suddenly remembering her thoughts before she went to bed, she yawned. “Where did you go last night?”

“We had to swear in the wolves to make them Pack. There were forty-five of them; it took hours.”

“Didn’t I have to do that?” She felt a little put off that she had missed the whole thing.

“No,” he laughed. “I can hear it in your tone you didn’t like not being there. I came back to get you but you were out cold. You’re my mate, which makes you automatic Pack. Technically, it makes you royalty.”

Royalty? She’d not given much thought to that aspect of Michael’s persona. He was a Royal member of the pack—not just an Alpha but one of the top members. Life was going to be a little different from being all but ignored except when someone wanted you to wait on them or beat on you.

“Tristan doesn’t mind that I missed it?”

She’d only met the Alpha briefly and she hadn’t been able to hold his eye contact the whole time they’d been together. She assumed, or hoped rather, that would lessen as time went on. Or maybe she’d really never know what he looked like.

“If he did, he didn’t mention it to me.” Michael kissed her hair. “Wanna go run?”

“I didn’t pack any sneakers.”

She was going to need a lot of clothes if she was going to make it in Maine. It was warm right now, well, warmish. Compared to Louisiana it was downright cool.

He pinched her lightly and she yelped, laughing. “What was that for?”

“I didn’t mean run on our two legs. I meant run in our wolf bodies.”

She started at the thought. Wow, she really could do that. Gulping, she remembered the last time she’d shifted and how much that hurt.

She decided to ask her wolf. Do you want to run?

Yes. Her wolf sounded tentative. As long as Michael stays with us. I don’t know these woods yet.

“She wants to as long as you stay with us the whole time.”

Michael laughed. “Just try to get rid of me.”

He bounded off the bed like a little boy. “I’ll show you all my favorite spots.”

She moved a little more slowly. The idea of shifting for fun was brand new to her.

She’d never even gotten to go with the pack when they ran wherever they went. What did shifters do when they ran together? Look at the scenery?

“Where do we shift?”

“Here.” As if to demonstrate, Michael shifted as the warm white light she’d witnessed so many times in shifts surrounded his body. In his place, was Michael’s tall black wolf with the white lines around his eyes.

“You make it look so easy.”

It is. Try it yourself now.

He’d told her it wouldn’t hurt and it wasn’t that she didn’t believe him, she did. It was hard, however, to imagine it could be pain free when it had been so agonizing the first time.

“Okay.”

Closing her eyes, she called the white light to herself and felt the shift begin.

“Breathe.”

Listening to Michael she took a deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth. Her muscles shifted, her bones altered, and through all of it there was no pain.

She blinked as she realized she was a wolf.

Taking two steps, she got used to the feeling of moving on four feet instead of two.

“Now what?”

Michael sniffed the air. “Give her control.”

“How do I do that?”

Even as she asked the question she could feel the wolf prowling on the edge of her mind pushing forward. Before Michael could answer, she opened up her senses and the wolf moved in.

Now things were clear. She could see the world through her eyes and wow, things looked different . Michael’s room was awash in color and smells, all of which she’d known as a human but now she could really feel it. Colors had taste. Why hadn’t she known this before? Red was hot, it burned her tongue just to look at it. Yellow…

“Come with me.”

She didn’t need to be told twice. Michael was her mate and he was Alpha to her, to boot. If he said come, she came. Scarlett blinked. Wow, her thoughts had been given over to the wolf too. It wasn’t that she didn’t think these things as a human just not quite like that…

They moved together through the house. It was mostly quiet. She could hear low voiced conversations behind closed doors as they walked on four feet.

“It’s quiet.”

“It’s still early.”

Scarlett hadn’t heard the others last night, which she now knew she should be able to do. That meant that something about the construction of the building kept sound to a minimum. Probably a must-have for a wolf house…

Michael growled, low and nonthreatening. Clearly, he wanted her attention. “You’re thinking too hard. Be the animal. You need to learn to do this. Someday you might need to live like this for a while.”

“Why?”

“We never know what’s going to happen. Theo did for a while. Who knows when we may need to hide from my father.”

“Okay.” She swallowed. That was a horrible thought. She needed to be the wolf.

Finally, she exhaled and let the wolf in completely.

As they approached the doorway to the outside, Michael took off running and Scarlett followed. At this speed, it was easy to be her wolf.

There was nothing but the call of the woods. The wind felt glorious and the grass soft beneath her feet. It took her twice as many steps to keep up with Michael thanks to his larger size but she didn’t care.

They entered the woods side by side. That was when she scented it. Having never hunted one, she still knew exactly what it was: deer. It was there and she wanted one.

Michael crouched low and she followed suit. “Get it.”

He wanted her to get it? It turned out to be no problem. Her wolf might have been terrified in the human world, but in these circumstances, she felt right at home. As long as Michael watched, she’d do anything he wanted.

Pouncing in the air, she gave into the instinct to take down the deer. It ran, but she was faster. Michael moved in front of the deer, distracting it, keeping it from getting through the bushes. Growling, Scarlett took it down by ripping out the tendon in the back of its left leg. The animal screeched as it went down. Then it was easy. She was hungry, it was meat.

Michael came up behind her, helping her with the final moments and together they enjoyed their breakfast. When it was over, she was full and tired. Moving forward, she banged her head into Michael’s side. He smelled so … right.

He knocked his head into hers making a low sound in his throat. Yes, this was contentment. She lay down as Michael stood protectively at her side. The breeze off the Atlantic cooled her down.

A scent hit her nostrils and she jumped up. There was no question as to who it belonged to: Tristan.

Her wolf knew her Alpha. Whimpering, she lay flat on the ground as Nero had taught them to do in his presence. It was the only way she knew how to show respect.

“She does it too?”

Tristan’s voice filled her head as long as well as Michael’s laughter.

“Tristan saw that behavior over and over last night at the swearing in. We’ve asked everyone not to do that.”

“I never really got to greet my new sister-in-law and then I smelled you guys out here. Thought maybe I could help with the deer, but you’ve done just fine without my slow interference.”

“You’re not slow.” Michael scoffed. “You never could be.”

“I will be if everyone keeps me out of every challenge.”

“Ah.” Michael’s laughter again. “I heard you were upset about that. You can’t expect the pack to lose you. You’re too important.”

“So I’m supposed to let everyone I care about go down over and over again while I watch?”

“You’re supposed to lead us.”

“That’s why I should be first through the door in danger.”

“No,” Michael growled. “Your magic sustains us. We will keep you safe and you will keep us whole.”

Scarlett watched the exchange in awe. Michael challenged Tristan’s desire and Tristan took it and even seemed to listen to him.

“I need to ask you something.”

“Anything, my Alpha.”

“I ask you as my oldest brother, not as your Alpha.”

Michael howled at the sky and Scarlett knew that meant yes. It was amazing how many things she understood that she never had before.

“If something were to happen to me—.”

It won’t.”

Tristan spoke over Michael’s interruption. “If something were, I want you to hold the pack as you did before. Hold it for Braden until he comes of age. You did it for me. Do it again.”

Michael lowered himself beneath Tristan, looking down.

Scarlett swallowed both in her human and wolf form. Michael had agreed. She knew what that cost him. He never wanted to be supreme Alpha wolf again and yet for his brother, his Alpha, he would. This time she howled at the sky, in tribute to her mate who was everything, who filled her life.

Some moments were meant to be had as wolves.