Alpha Bully

by J. L. Wilder

  “Unbelievable,” he said. “She really thought she was going to get you into some kind of trouble just for daring to talk to me!”

  “She’ll probably try again,” Grace said. She leaned back on her elbows and tilted her face up towards the sun, and Jonah couldn’t help admiring how attractive she looked like that. He ached to reach out and run his fingers over the length of her neck, to taste her sunbaked skin. But, of course, he didn’t dare. Not in public like this.

  “She won’t get away with it,” he said. “She’s seen now what happens when she tries. I bet she’ll leave you alone.”

  “You really don’t know her at all, do you?” Grace asked. “She was furious, seeing us together just now. She was furious with me for even daring to show up. She warned me that if I did, she’d tell the professors that I was just trying to hook up with alphas in the woods.”

  “What?” He was appalled.

  Grace shrugged. “She thinks there’s no other reason for me to want to come to a social. You know, because no guy could want me for anything other than sex.”

  She said this so matter of factly that it made Jonah want to get up and hit something.

  He controlled his temper. “She’s wrong,” he said.

  “I know,” Grace said. “But I don’t think she’s done with me. She knows she can’t do anything now, with everyone watching. But she’ll make me pay for this later.”

  “Stay away from her,” Jonah said, genuinely worried. “Stay in public places, and when you can’t, stay in your room. Don’t let her get you alone.”

  Grace nodded. “Believe me,” she said, “I’m going to try.”

  Chapter Eleven

  GRACE

  Two long days passed between the social and the next time Grace was able to meet with Jonah.

  She thought she might go out of her mind in that time.

  She spent all day Sunday in her room, terrified to go out, frightened of what would happen if she crossed paths with Aubrey. When she’d been sitting beside Jonah at Field Day, it had seemed like a very distant worry, something she didn’t really need to dwell on. But now he was back on his campus, and she was alone, with no one who knew what she was dealing with.

  I wish I could tell Skye, she thought desperately.

  But Jonah had made it clear that he wasn’t ready for anybody to know what was going on between the two of them. He hadn’t given her a command, but she didn’t want to go against his wishes. A part of her still felt that it was too good to be true, his having imprinted on her. How could he possibly want her?

  What if he resents the fact that he imprinted on me? It was Aubrey he really wanted. What if he’s wishing it had never happened?

  That thought was never too far from her mind, no matter how hard she tried to push it away.

  On Monday, she had to go to class. Much as she would have liked to stay home, she knew that drawing attention to herself was a bad idea right now. Aubrey would be looking for any ammunition at all that she could use against Grace.

  She sat in the back of the classroom again, praying that Aubrey wouldn’t sit beside her. For once, luck seemed to be on her side. Her rival didn’t even glance her way as she made her way down the steps to the front of the classroom and took a seat right in front of Professor Jenkins.

  She’s sucking up, Grace thought.

  Then she pushed the thought away. Who cared what Aubrey was doing? As long as she was leaving Grace alone, that was the only thing that mattered.

  Tuesday seemed to crawl by agonizingly slowly. Grace felt incapable of paying attention in her classes. She stared at the clock, waiting for the hour when she would finally be free to run down to the river and spend time with Jonah.

  Finally, after what felt like forever, class was dismissed. Grace grabbed her things and hurried out of the room.

  But she was stopped at the door by a hand on her shoulder.

  She turned, anxious, expecting to find Aubrey, thankful for the fact that they were still in the doorway of the classroom where Professor Jenkins could see them, where Aubrey couldn’t do anything to her.

  But it wasn’t Aubrey. It was Skye.

  “I need to talk to you,” she said.

  Grace opened her mouth to protest, but before she could speak, Skye had locked a hand around her wrist and was dragging her away from the academic building and out onto the grounds. Grace stumbled after her, doing her best to keep up.

  Once they had put a significant amount of distance between themselves and the buildings, Skye stopped. She turned to face Grace.

  “You’re going to see him, aren’t you?” she said. “Jonah Jackson.”

  There was no point in lying about it. Skye already knew too much. And besides, Grace hated lying to her friend. “Yes,” she said.

  “For tutoring?” Skye asked, her voice leaching sarcasm.

  “Yeah, that’s right,” Grace said.

  “No, that’s bullshit,” Skye said. “I saw you together at Field Day between my races. I saw the way you were looking at him. Whatever is going on between the two of you might have started out as tutoring, but it’s a hell of a lot more than that now.”

  “What do you think is going on?” Grace asked. “What are you accusing me of?”

  “Shit, Grace, I’m not accusing you of anything. Why is that always the first place your mind goes?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Grace said. “Maybe because you dragged me out here like I was guilty of a crime. Or maybe it’s the fact that Aubrey threatened to report me for an illicit affair just because I dared to show my face at a couple of socials.”

  Skye’s eyes widened. “She did?”

  “She figures there’s no reason for me to be there if I’m not meeting up with alphas to fuck around with them,” Grace said.

  “But that’s...that’s insane,” Skye said. “Everyone goes to the socials. There are dozens of people there who aren’t mated.”

  “You know how she is,” Grace said. She found, to her horror and embarrassment, that she was shaking. It was so hard to walk around with the knowledge that someone loathed her enough to try to ruin her life.

  Skye rubbed her forehead. “I just want you to tell me what’s going on,” she said. “I wasn’t going to...accuse you of anything. But I know you’re not just being tutored. I know you, Grace. You’ve been acting differently for weeks.”

  “Why does this matter?” Grace asked.

  “Because you’re my friend,” Skye said. “I just want to make sure you’re okay. Don’t you get that? Wouldn’t you do the same thing if I was the one acting strange?”

  Grace knew she would.

  She wanted to tell her friend the truth. If anyone would be capable of celebrating the fact that she was mated, Skye would be that person. Skye would think it was amazing. She would want to know everything about Jonah. And she would make Grace feel as if she deserved the good things that were happening in her life. She would help Grace get rid of the doubts she’d been feeling since the moment Jonah had imprinted.

  But she couldn’t tell. Not until Jonah gave her permission to do so.

  Still, she had to say something. She had to come up with a story that Skye would believe.

  “Okay,” she said. “You’re right. I do have feelings for him. He was my tutor to begin with—he still is—but I’m attracted to him.”

  “And you want him to claim you,” Skye surmised.

  “Yes,” Grace said. It was the truth, after all.

  Skye sighed. “Grace...”

  “You don’t think it’s possible.”

  “I’m not saying it’s impossible for you to be claimed,” Skye said. “I think you totally deserve to be. I just want you to be realistic about your expectations. Jonah’s the top-ranked alpha in our year. He’s going to claim Aubrey. That’s just...known.”

  “He took me to Field Day,” Grace pointed out.

  “Yeah,” Skye said. “And that was really nice of him. He seems like a really good guy. I get why you’d like him
, I do. I just don’t want to see you get your heart broken.”

  Grace knew her friend’s concern was coming from a well-intentioned place. Still, it was difficult to listen to. This was what everyone was going to assume about her relationship with Jonah if she ever told anyone about it. They would assume she was deluding herself into thinking he could care for her.

  It was hard enough to believe that his affections were real without Skye making her doubt it.

  “My heart’s fine,” she said. “Let me go, Skye. I’ll see you at dinner.”

  She turned and took off across the lawn before her friend could try to stop her again.

  By the time she reached the river, she felt like crying. Jonah was already there, and he frowned when he saw her face.

  “What’s up?” he asked her. “Aubrey didn’t get to you, did she?”

  “No,” Grace said. “It was my friend, Skye. She...she knows you and I have been meeting. She snuck after me one day and saw us here.”

  Jonah frowned. “Can she be trusted?”

  “What would you do if I said no?” Grace said. “Out of curiosity.”

  “I suppose we’d have to leave school,” Jonah said. “We’d both be expelled if anyone found out about this.”

  “You would do that?” Grace asked. “Leave school when you’re about to graduate? For my sake?”

  “You’re my omega,” Jonah said, his voice a bit gruff. Grace thought he was struggling to suppress emotion. “What am I going to do, let them kick you out? Deny that I’ve been seeing you?”

  “You could,” she said. “People would believe you if you said that Skye and I were lying about it. No one would think you’d really been with me if you said you hadn’t.”

  “You don’t think so?”

  “It’s not realistic,” Grace pointed out. “Aubrey didn’t believe it even when she saw us together at Field Day.”

  Jonah crossed to her side and took her in his arms.

  “I’ll tell you what people are going to believe,” he said, holding her close, gazing down at her. “When I say your name at the claiming ceremony, when I make you my own in front of everyone, they’re going to believe that. They’ll have no other choice.”

  “It’s so hard to believe that’s going to happen,” Grace admitted. “The way we’ve had to keep our relationship a secret...”

  “We’ll tell people soon enough,” Jonah said.

  “You didn’t order me not to tell,” Grace said. “Why not?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t like giving orders,” he said. “I like to think people are following me because they want to, not because I’m making them.”

  “But alphas’ orders do really work, right?” Grace said. “I’ve read about them, of course, but it’s hard to imagine.”

  “You’ve never had one before,” he realized. “You were raised human.”

  “My father would have loved to control me that way, if he could have,” Grace said. “But he didn’t have that kind of power. Lucky for me.”

  “Lucky for him,” Jonah said, his expression dark. “I still haven’t decided whether I’m going to seek him out and make him pay for the way he treated you.”

  “Don’t,” Grace said. “Leave him alone.”

  “Yes, alphas’ orders work,” Jonah said, and Grace could see that he was deliberately steering the subject away from what he would have liked to do to her father. She decided to let him. “It’s like what you told me once. Strong alphas, good alphas, use their orders to help their pack be strong and successful. Weak alphas use them to compel everyone around them to obey.”

  “What does it feel like?” Grace asked. “You had an alpha growing up, right? So you must know. What’s it like to be given an order you have to obey?”

  Jonah paused. “Should we find out?” he asked.

  She felt a strange thrill of anticipation. “What do you mean?”

  “If you’re going to be my omega, at some point, you’re going to have to submit to me. Accept me as your alpha. You’re going to have to show me unquestioning loyalty and trust. You can do that by following an order.”

  She nodded. “Okay,” she said, wondering why she felt so nervous.

  “It’s not enough to just do as I say,” he said. “You’ll have to give yourself over to my will completely. You’ll have to be committed to following me, no matter what I might tell you to do.”

  That sounded frightening. But she wanted to be his. She wanted to belong to him. “Try me,” she said, wishing her voice sounded a little stronger.

  He nodded. “Take off your clothes,” he said.

  It wasn’t a request. There was something heavy behind his words. She felt her hands moving almost without thought, pulling her shirt over her head, unfastening her pants and letting them fall to the ground.

  He spoke again, in his normal voice, without the weight. “Is this okay so far?” he asked. “You can tell me if it isn’t.”

  She felt short of breath as if she had just gone over the biggest hill on a roller coaster. “It’s okay,” she said.

  He nodded. “I want you to touch yourself,” he said. “Sit on that rock there. Spread your legs. Let me see.”

  She breathed deeply, trying to keep herself calm as she did what he’d requested.

  “Show me how you like it,” he said, his gaze seeming to hold her in place. “Make yourself wet for me. I’m going to fuck you, and I want you ready.”

  She complied. It was almost as if her hand belonged to him, as if she had no power at all over what she was doing. She had done this before, of course, but it had never felt so indulgent. It felt like something that he was giving to her.

  He came over and knelt before her. “Put your legs over my shoulders,” he said quietly.

  She did so, trembling.

  “Put your hands flat on the rock,” he said. “Don’t move at all. Just lay back.”

  She did. A breeze blew, teasing over her bare nipples. She felt wild with desire. She wanted to squirm, but his words held her absolutely still.

  He licked her slowly, spreading her open with his hands, pushing his tongue into her for a taste. Grace let out a low moan that didn’t feel like it belonged to her. He felt so perfectly, achingly good.

  He rubbed his tongue against her, flat and rough, then traced gentle shapes that made her shiver. Heat pooled in her belly, and she felt tears of ecstasy leak out from behind her closed eyelids. “Jonah,” she whimpered.

  He wrapped his arms under her hips, lifted her to him, and sealed his mouth against her, suckling at her body.

  Grace sobbed as she came. She pictured herself thrashing against the rock, bucking up into his arms, grinding against that sinfully wonderful mouth. But he had ordered her to stay still. And that order kept her where she was. It was impossible to break.

  As she caught her breath, Jonah climbed up beside her and took her in his arms. “You did good,” he said gently. “You can move now. If you want to.”

  She nodded and leaned into his shoulder. “Might take me a few minutes to be ready,” she admitted.

  “That was good?”

  “That was amazing.”

  “You submitted well,” he told her.

  She looked at him. “Does that mean I belong to you now? Completely?”

  He nodded. “You’re mine. It proves the strength of our imprint.”

  She relaxed, feeling reassured. Nobody could question what they had. She would never have been able to surrender so fully to someone who wasn’t truly her alpha. And if Jonah hadn’t imprinted on her, he wouldn’t have been able to control her the way he had.

  For the first time, she felt free from the doubts she’d had.

  He looked over at her. “If you want to tell your roommate about us,” he said, “that’d be all right.”

  “Really?” She hadn’t been expecting that. “Are you sure?”

  “Well, you should definitely keep what we’ve been doing down here a secret,” he said, leaning over and kissing her. “But
maybe it’s time people knew that we were mated and that I’m planning on claiming you at the ceremony.”

  Chapter Twelve

  JONAH

  Actually telling people was harder than giving Grace permission to do so.

  He started with Alex. Alex was his second, after all, and already submitted to Jonah’s authority and will. Jonah was confident that Alex would respect his decision, even if he found it surprising.

  His friend sat in silence for several moments after Jonah had finished explaining what had happened. When he finally spoke, it was to ask a question. “Are you happy?”

  “What?” That wasn’t what Jonah had been expecting to hear.

  “You imprinted on Grace Foster,” Alex said. “I know you were hoping to claim Aubrey Price. Are you okay? Are you happy with it?”

  “It’s an imprint,” Jonah said. “It’s not something I can choose.”

  “Well, exactly,” Alex said. “I want to make sure you don’t feel...I don’t know. Cheated in some way. Or trapped. I’d hate to think that you’re stuck in a life you don’t want because biology picked it for you.”

  “It’s not like that,” Jonah assured his friend. “I don’t think I could have imprinted on Grace if I didn’t have some kind of feeling for her. That’s probably why it never happened with Aubrey. If I’m being honest—and I feel like I can be now—I never really liked her very much.”

  Alex nodded. “Grace seemed nice,” he said. “She seemed like she would be easy to get along with.”

  “Yeah, she is,” Jonah agreed. “So you’re okay with this? You’ll be comfortable having her in our pack?”

  “Of course,” Alex said. “Whoever you want, obviously.” A smile cracked his face. “That’s kind of fun to think about, isn’t it? Our pack, after graduation. Taking off to start a real life together.”

  “Do you have any idea who else you’ll want to ask to join us?” Jonah asked.

  Alex’s smile faded slightly. “Me?” he asked. “You want me to decide?”

  “Not decide, necessarily,” Jonah said. “But you know all the betas in school a lot better than I do. You can point out to me which ones I ought to be paying the most attention to. You can make recommendations. I’d be foolish to ignore your wisdom on that subject.”