Defying the Alpha

by Emilia Rose

  “When did you tell him that?”

  “A couple weeks ago.” She scratched the back of her neck and looked at the flickering decorative candle between us. “I wanted him to know that if he doesn’t take care of you, then someone else will.” She quieted her voice to almost a whisper. “Just looking out for a friend.”

  After leaning forward on my elbows, I grabbed her wrist. “Thank you.”

  She grinned back at me, rested her elbows against the table, and leaned closer as she licked her plain vanilla cone. My lips curled into a smile at the thought of her actually not being shitty to me anymore. So much had changed since I became a Lycan, and this change was one I could get behind.

  “What’re you smiling like that for?” she asked, tugging on a strand of my hair.

  “It feels so good to be able to be with you like this,” I said honestly. To be able to laugh and be happy, to have a friend I could lean on when I felt like my world was crashing down on me.

  Suddenly, Vanessa leaned over the table and kissed me.

  My eyes widened, and I tensed, unable to comprehend what was even happening. I tore myself away from her and swallowed in both fear and confusion. Had Vanessa just kissed me?

  Vanessa pulled away with fearful eyes. “Isabella, I’m so sorry. I-I didn’t mean to. I thought that … that you …” She rubbed her hand over the front of her neck, skin turning a bright red.

  I stood and accidentally crushed my ice cream cone in my fist. “I have to go,” I said, tossing it in the garbage and hurrying toward the exit of the café. My mind was in a fog, thoughts running rampant through my head. “I have to go.”

  Wind whipped rain around the forest like a damn tornado. I shifted into my wolf and sprinted into the woods, my paws sinking into the mud. These past few days just kept getting crazier. Roman had been gone for two days, I had confessed my undying love for a man who I had apparently shared seven-thousand years with, and Vanessa had kissed me.

  Kissed me.

  With everything going on, part of me feared that I was the corrupted one who was slowly going mad. I started for Kylo’s pack house with tears in my eyes at the thought of doing something so intimate without Roman’s permission.

  Roman had told me that I could do anything but sex with Kylo … but Vanessa?

  “Need mate,” my wolf whimpered. “Roman.”

  I leaped over the gorge and collapsed on the other side, scraping my thigh against a jagged rock hard enough to draw blood. If I had known that Vanessa was into me, I wouldn’t have treated her any different because she had been such a really good friend lately, but I just … wished it’d never happened.

  When Kylo’s pack house came into view, I transformed back into my human and draped one of his shirts he had stuffed in his foyer’s closet over my body. Kylo appeared in the hallway in nothing but a pair of sweats.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  I hurried to him and hugged my arms around his body. What was wrong? So much was wrong. I didn’t know where to start. I wanted to be strong. I wanted to be so strong. But being without Roman had made me so weak, both physically and mentally.

  As I doubled over into him, tears burst from my eyes.

  Kylo picked me up, walked to the couch, and sat me on his lap. “What’s wrong, Isabella?” he asked, peeling my hands away from my face. “Please tell me, so I know how to make it better.”

  “Derek is missing. Dolus is coming. Vanessa just kissed me. And I miss Roman.” I sobbed into his shirt.

  He ran his fingers through my hair, trying to soothe me, and pressed his lips to my temple.

  “Has he called you?” I asked desperately.

  I needed him to be alive. What if he hadn’t called because Scarlett had corrupted him? What if, when he came home, he wasn’t the same? My heart tightened. I just wanted my mate back in my arms.

  “I’ve tried contacting him multiple times, but I haven’t reached him.”

  “Do you think he’s okay? Do you think he’s alive?”

  “He’s alive, Isabella.”

  “What if he isn’t?” I whispered. I tucked my head into the crook of his neck and closed my eyes, hoping that sleep would make all my problems go away just for a few hours. “What if my mate is dead?”

  Chapter 34

  Isabella

  Curled into Kylo’s bare chest, I blinked my eyes open to see the outline of a man in the darkness. He sat at the edge of the bed, one of his hands on my leg under the blankets as he talked to Kylo. I inhaled a whiff of mint deeply and jumped into Roman’s arms.

  Legs wrapped around his waist, face stuffed into the crook of his neck, fingers thrust through his thick brown hair, I held him so tightly to me and murmured his name against my mark. “I missed you so much.”

  Roman chuckled lowly in my ear and wrapped his arms around me. Scarlett’s scent lingered faintly in his hair, but I let it slide because all that mattered at this moment was that my mate was home safely.

  After kissing my forehead, Roman pulled away from me and rested his hands on my hips. “We need to talk.”

  Glancing between him and Kylo, I nodded and felt a bit guilty for everything that had happened between Kylo and me and between Vanessa and me when Roman was gone. “Please, let me go first,” I said. Yet when I opened my mouth, nothing came out, except, “Kylo and I …”

  Roman tensed. “Did you … have sex?”

  “No,” I reassured him. “But we—”

  Almost immediately, Roman blew out a relieved breath. “Then, I don’t want to hear what you did,” he said.

  I shifted uncomfortably under his intense stare and wondered why he didn’t want to know that we had … we had touched each other and then confessed our love.

  He cleared his throat, his unreadable gaze flickering to Kylo. “Not yet.”

  I glanced between them, trying to understand the expression they had just exchanged, but dropped decided not to ask them about it when Roman grabbed my hand and led me to the living room. Kylo followed and sat on a leather love seat across from us.

  “Wait,” I said, placing a hand on Roman’s chest. “I have to tell you something else.”

  Roman furrowed his brows, patience in his eyes slipping, yet he took a deep breath and brushed a piece of hair off my cheek. “What is it, Isabella?”

  “Vanessa kissed me.”

  Angry, possessive dominance dripped from every one of his features, which made me even more confused. How was he angry with Vanessa for kissing me but didn’t want to know what I had done with Kylo, which was much, much worse?

  “Why?” he asked.

  “I have no idea! We were just having ice cream, and she kissed me.”

  “Did you like it?” he asked.

  “No! I pushed her away,” I said. “Are you … mad?”

  After pausing for a few moments, he clenched his jaw. “A little, yes. At her.”

  I stared at him with wide eyes. My guarded Roman rarely talked about his emotions. It was … refreshing beyond belief to hear him speak so honestly and openly about what he thought.

  “But you’re not angry with Kylo?” I asked to be clear.

  “I gave you permission to stay with Kylo, Isabella. I knew what was going to happen between you two. I had been thinking about it since the moment you told me you were mates. I trusted you not to have sex with him, and you didn’t.” He glanced over at Kylo, who nodded. “I know that this connection you have with him is something that makes you strong. I know that this”—he looked between Kylo and me—“was going to happen sooner or later. And I wanted it to be on my terms. I didn’t want you to go behind my back.”

  My stomach tightened. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes,” Roman reassured, rubbing circles on my knee. “Kylo knows what I will allow and what I will not allow you to do together when I’m not here, just like you know my limits too.” His eyes shimmered gold. “Whatever goes on between you and him is your choice. I’m asking for something simple, considering our relationshi
p. I don’t like to share what is mine, but if it makes you stronger and helps us communicate, then that’s what it has to be like for now.”

  I pressed my lips together, searching his eyes for any sort of doubt. Yet there was none.

  He smiled at me, his eyes drifting to my lips. “I have always given you a choice, Isabella.” He brushed his finger against my bottom lip. “I have never held you back from something great, have never stopped you from doing whatever you wanted.”

  My heart tightened at the thought of my possessive alpha mate being so considerate. Since the beginning, Roman had sacrificed so much for me: he had given me a choice to be his mate by waiting until I was eighteen to understand our bond, he had let me go to the Lycans without stopping me because it was important to me, and now, he was letting my wolf connect with Kylo.

  Kylo brushed his hand against my knee and smiled. “If it makes you feel more comfortable, we can start by being friends,” he said.

  But both he and I knew that we could never be just friends after what had happened the other morning.

  After a few moments, Roman nodded to Kylo. “How was everything?”

  As they dived into a conversation, I relaxed in Roman’s arms, rested my head in his lap, and let him brush his hand against my hair. It was odd that after Kylo had come into the picture, Roman and I had been more intimate too. The old Roman—the one I had fallen in love with years ago—had come back.

  Staring between Kylo and Roman, I smiled.

  Our mates are safe, my wolf said.

  She said the word mates like we had mated with both of them already. I closed my eyes, content with how this was all working out in such a weird way. And now that Roman was home, my wolf would hopefully be less angsty around Kylo for a bit.

  Around four a.m., Roman picked me up. “You can’t fall back asleep yet, Isabella.”

  “I know,” I said, yawning. “We have to run home.”

  “You’ll stay here tonight,” Kylo said.

  “In your spare room?” I asked as Roman walked with me down the hallway, passing every spare room in this pack house.

  When Kylo pushed open his bedroom door, Roman walked into the room and placed me on the bed.

  “In Kylo’s bed?” I asked with wide eyes. “I don’t know if this is a good idea.”

  Roman lay on his side next to me, resting his head on his hand, and stared down at me. The moonlight bounced off of his hazel eyes and illuminated his tired, stressed face. He brushed a finger up the center of my chest. “We’re staying here for tonight, but we have other things to talk about.” He grasped my chin in his hand. “Like what you and Kylo did the other morning.”

  “I thought you said that you didn’t want to know.”

  “I said that I didn’t want to know yet,” he said, eyes tinting gold the way they always did before he forced me down onto my knees.

  I looked at Kylo, who sat at the end of the bed, passionate brown eyes fixed on me. I should’ve fucking known that they had been up to something all this time.

  Roman grabbed my chin. “You didn’t think I didn’t want to know at all, did you?”

  “Um …”

  Completely awake now, I parted my lips and pressed them back together. Heat slithered up my body, making me hot everywhere but especially between my legs. I pulled my knees to my chest, nipples hardening under their intense stares.

  Roman tucked some hair behind my ear. “Oh, it’s okay, Isabella. You don’t have to tell me. You can show me,” he said, pushing me onto my side. He lay behind me with his cock against my ass and his hand stuffed between my legs.

  My breath caught in the back of my throat, my mouth dry. “I …”

  Did he really want me to show him exactly what Kylo and I had done while Kylo was right in front of us?

  “This?” Roman asked, finger dragging my oversize T-shirt up my legs.

  At the edge of the bed, Kylo gazed at my thighs, pressed his lips together, and took an unsteady breath through his nose. His usual soft brown eyes were a vehement gold, burning into every inch of my flesh that he hadn’t really touched yet.

  I shook my head. “No,” I whispered. “Not this.”

  Roman lifted one of my legs into the air and let Kylo see my gray cloth underwear, soaked with my arousal. After played with my entrance, he slipped his fingers into me easily. “This?” he asked.

  When I shook my head, Roman growled low into my ear and thrust his bulge against my pussy. “What about like this?”

  I pressed my legs together and only let out a small whimper. Kylo had thrust against me over and over and over the other morning, his cock throbbing against his underwear and my pussy wet with anticipation. All my wolf had wanted in that moment was for him to stick himself in me raw and fuck me until I begged him to stop.

  “He touched you like this, didn’t he?” Roman asked, continuing to thrust against me.

  “Yes,” I whispered as my pussy clenched.

  Roman ripped my panties right off of me, leaving my bare pussy glistening under the moonlight.

  Kylo glanced between my legs and pressed his hand against the bulge in his gray sweatpants. “Fuck,” he breathed out, fingers moving so slowly down every inch of his cock.

  I squirmed slightly in Roman’s hold, the pressure between my legs almost unbearable even though neither one of them had really touched me yet. But that didn’t stop my wolf from thinking about everything two domineering alphas could do to me in the bedroom.

  “I bet you wanted to do more with him,” Roman said. “I bet you wanted this …” He plunged his fingers into my pussy and pumped in and out, sending a wave of pleasure through my body.

  Unable to hold myself back, I grasped his wrist, arched my back, and rode his fingers like a carnal beast trapped in heat, desperate to come.

  When he pulled out his fingers, I whined, “Please, Roman. Put them back.”

  Roman chuckled against me. “I have something better for you.” He pulled out his cock and slapped it against my entrance, slipping just the head inside of me. “I bet you wanted this too,” he said, and in one swift movement, he shoved all of himself inside me.

  Gripping the bedsheets, I clenched around him. “Oh Goddess …”

  Heat gathered in my core as Roman slowly pumped in and out of me, forcing me to listen to the sloppy noises my pussy made for him. I closed my eyes to try to even my shaky breathing and displace all the tension. Yet after a few strokes, Roman showed no signs of stopping. Instead, he tugged me on top of him with my back against his chest and rested my feet on his thighs, giving Kylo a clear view of what was Roman’s.

  Kylo stroked his huge cock through his pants. I stared down at it with wide eyes and imagined how I’d feel if he pulled all eight inches of himself out, wrapped his hand around it, and stroked himself in front of me.

  “Tell me what you wanted Kylo to do to you,” Roman said into my ear.

  I shook my head, unable to admit it out loud, especially to Roman.

  Roman pumped faster into me and rubbed my clit in furious little circles. “If you’re not going to tell me what you wanted the other morning, then tell me what you want him to do to you now.”

  Sucking in a sharp breath, I said, “Nothing. I … I don’t want him to do anything to me.”

  “But you’re clenching,” Roman asked in my ear, making me clench even harder around him. “You must want something.”

  Don’t think about it, Isabella. Don’t think about Kylo ram—

  “Isabella, if this is going to work, you need to be able to communicate.” Roman continued to thrust into my pussy, getting his cock wet with my juices. “Now, one last chance, what do you want Kylo to do to you?”

  Though I wanted to scream out every sinful thing that I wanted Kylo to do to me, I didn’t want to hurt Roman. So, I kept my mouth shut and let my pussy pulse on his cock as Kylo slipped a hand into his pants.

  Roman growled in my ear, “You’re really going to make me punish you in front of Kylo, aren’t yo
u?” he asked me harshly. He grabbed my breasts in both his hands and tugged hard on my nipples.

  Pain mixed with sheer, undeniable pleasure rushed through me. My entire body felt like it was on fire, like I was going into heat yet I had my mate with me this time. Electricity shot up and down my arms and legs, making them tingle.

  When I answered Roman with a mere whimper, he pulled his cock out of my pussy, repositioned himself near my ass, and shoved himself into my tight hole, still squeezing my nipples. Then, he growled at Kylo, “Eat her pussy.”

  Goddess … did Roman just—

  I tried to close my legs, but Kylo had already maneuvered himself between them with his warm breath fanning my clit. I squeezed my eyes closed, a wave of pleasure crashing over my body. He brushed his fingers up the insides of my thighs and lifted them into the air, resting them on his shoulders. And then, finally, he pressed his lips onto my clit, his tongue immediately lapping at it.

  “Oh Goddess,” I moaned, squirming in their hold.

  Roman brushed his teeth against his mark. “Watch him,” he grunted.

  “No.”

  After I defied him for the last time tonight, Roman curled his arms around my legs, hooked his hands behind my head so I was in a full Nelson position, and forced me to stare down at Kylo. Face buried between my legs, Kylo massaged my clit in torturous circles with his tongue and pushed two fingers inside of me.

  “Princess, you’re so tight and warm,” Kylo said.

  I clenched around both him and Roman at the mere pressure of my holes being filled. But what if … what if it were Kylo’s cock instead of his fingers, disappearing between my pussy lips and pounding into me at the same feral rhythm that Roman was?

  “Still nothing, Isabella?” Roman asked low in my ear. “You don’t want anything more?”

  Swallowing hard, I stared down at Kylo with my heart racing inside my chest. “No,” I said, the word coming out in a raspy whimper.

  Yet they both knew that was a lie. Neither my wolf nor I wanted just this. We wanted more.