Alpha's Territory

by Alexis Davie

  The kiss started that way, but within seconds, it was a kiss filled with passion. The kiss had an almost desperate quality to it as they clung to each other and Jasper felt like maybe the kiss was saying everything they wanted to say to each other without them having to find the right words.

  Jasper felt heat flooding his body and his cock started to harden. He began to pull away from Lila, not wanting to scare her off, but she caught his face in her hands and pulled it back down to meet hers. Her hands moved down his body and she unbuttoned his jeans and pushed her hand inside. Her fist circled his cock and he moaned as she brought him to life once more. He kissed down her neck, his hands roaming over her back. She worked his cock and then her hand was gone and she pulled back from him.

  “Shit, Lila, I’m sorry. I…” he started.

  She reached up and put her finger on his lips.

  “We’ll talk later,” she said. “Make love to me, Jasper.”

  She took a step back as she said it and she pulled her t-shirt over her head, exposing her braless breasts. Jasper swallowed hard, her words echoing in his mind.

  “Are you sure this is what you want?” he asked.

  “Yes. I want you. Now,” Lila said.

  She was already pushing her jeans down as she said it. She stepped out of them and pushed her panties down, and Jasper watched her, his chest heaving. She kicked her panties aside and moved closer to him again. He enfolded her in his arms and lifted her. She wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms around his shoulders. He kissed her again, a kiss that drove him wild with the need for her.

  He walked her toward the nearest wall and slammed her against it. She moaned as he kissed down her neck and over her breasts. He moved his tongue slowly back up her body, feeling her skin turning to goosebumps beneath his tongue, and then he found her mouth with his own again, and as he kissed her, he used one hand to push his jeans and boxer shorts down.

  Jasper pushed his erection into Lila’s center, moaning loudly as he felt her grip him, a warm, tight grip that made him catch his breath. He began to move, filling Lila, making her moan and writhe in his arms, her body sliding against his. He could feel his bear stirring, but he pushed it back down and kissed Lila’s neck again as he pumped into her. She matched his thrusts, her hands roaming all over him, like she needed to touch every part of him.

  As he moved inside of Lila, it was like they had both been unleashed, like the worst had happened and they’d gotten past it. Their hands and mouths were all over each other. Jasper felt Lila shudder, her climax throwing her through waves of pleasure. She screamed Jasper’s name, her nails digging into his back.

  Jasper was almost there himself and he pumped faster, needing the release his climax would bring him. He felt a shiver go through his body as he exploded inside of Lila. He pressed his face into her neck, licking her, tasting the saltiness of her skin as his cock went wild, spreading pleasure through his body.

  When his orgasm faded, he slipped out of Lila, but he held her a moment longer, his face still buried in her neck. She panted for breath, her arms around him, her head resting against him. Finally, Jasper pulled back from her and smiled. She smiled back at him, and he knew then they would be okay. It didn’t matter how slowly they had to take it, he was never going to let Lila go again.

  He carried her over to the couch and sat her down. He picked her t-shirt up off the floor and gave it to her. She smiled her thanks and put the shirt on. Jasper pulled his boxers and his jeans back up and fastened his jeans, before sitting down beside Lila. She shuffled closer to him and he wrapped his arm around her. She put her head on his shoulder and they sat that way for a moment.

  “Does it hurt?” Lila asked, breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen over them.

  “Does what hurt?” Jasper said.

  “Turning into a bear,” she clarified.

  “It does the first time,” Jasper said. “And then it hurts a little bit less each time until it just kind of stops hurting.”

  “What does it feel like being in bear form?”

  “It feels like freedom,” Jasper said without hesitation. He was smiling as he said it, and he realized then how much he liked being a bear. He wanted Lila to understand that being a bear was a gift, not a curse. “It’s like suddenly, you’re more powerful, faster, more graceful. All of your senses are heightened and everything is more intense. You become one with the world around you, aware of things you don’t even know exist as a human.”

  Lila lifted her head from Jasper’s shoulder and peered up into his face. Her cheeks were still flushed from their lovemaking.

  “You make it sound like you like being a bear,” she said.

  “I do,” Jasper said.

  “But don’t you worry you’ll hurt someone?” Lila asked.

  Jasper shook his head.

  “No, because I’m still me. How can I explain this?” He paused for a moment and then he nodded to himself. “Okay, so when I’m like I am now, I can feel my bear inside of me. It gives me heightened instincts, and sometimes, it can influence my mood, but I can choose whether or not I listen to what it wants me to do. And in my bear form, it works the other way. I am still in there, still exerting my will over the beast. My morals remain in place and I can control what my bear does. The only time I ever fully let go and let my bear take over me completely is when I’m out in the middle of nowhere, running with my pack. Does that make sense?”

  “I think so,” Lila smiled.

  Her puzzled smile told Jasper it didn’t really make sense to her and he tried again.

  “I guess it’s like having a gun. It makes you more powerful and you know you can hurt people. But you can choose not to,” Jasper said.

  “That makes more sense,” Lila said.

  She put her head back on Jasper’s shoulder and he realized he had missed the feeling of her curled into him.

  “And you’re immortal, right?” she said.

  “Mostly,” Jasper agreed.

  “Mostly?” Lila said.

  “I can be killed with pure silver. A bullet, a blade, something like that. Any wound inflicted with silver won’t heal, and if it’s not a fatal wound, it will poison my blood and I will die slowly. I can also be killed by decapitation.”

  He felt Lila shudder against him and he laughed softly.

  “It’s not so bad, Lila. It’s pretty hard to accidentally decapitate yourself.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure it is. But maybe it’s not so hard to cut yourself on something silver.”

  “There’s an antidote to the silver poisoning, though. Dandelions.”

  “Dandelions?” Lila repeated.

  “Yeah. So really, as long as I can find a couple of dandelions, the silver can only kill me if it’s a fatal wound, or if I’m locked away somewhere where I can’t get out. I keep a fairly big supply of dandelions at home so if I ever accidentally contract silver poisoning, I can cure it, and once I eat the dandelions, the symptoms aren’t that much worse than the flu. And on the plus side, I can’t catch the real flu.”

  “You can’t catch any diseases?”

  “No. And any other wounds inflicted on me heal.”

  “So, assuming you avoid silver, and you don’t get decapitated, you’ll never die?”

  “No. And we stop aging at thirty.”

  “That bit sounds pretty damned good,” Lila grinned.

  “It has its perks,” Jasper grinned back.

  “So, how old are you?” Lila asked.

  “It’s my birthday next month and I’ll be four hundred and eighty-six,” Jasper said.

  “Four hundred and… shit,” Lila gasped. “That’s crazy.”

  She shook her head and fell quiet for a moment. Jasper let her process the information.

  “This takes a sugar daddy to a whole new level,” Lila laughed softly after a while.

  “How do you think I feel? People call guys out for going for girls twenty years younger than them. I’m chasing a girl four and a half centuries y
ounger than me,” Jasper said.

  “Wow. You really are a dirty old pervert, aren’t you,” Lila giggled.

  “I know. But women my own age are so… bony,” Jasper winked.

  Lila laughed and shook her head. Her laughter faded and she looked up at Jasper again, her expression serious.

  “We have a time limit, then, don’t we? If we make a go of this, we know it has to end.”

  “What do you mean?” Jasper asked.

  “Well, I’m twenty-six now. Reasonably, we could have maybe twenty years. We could perhaps push it to thirty. But that’s about it. Look at you. You’re young and hot, and you always will be. You won’t want to be with an old woman.”

  “Lila, I want to be with you. It doesn’t matter to me how old you are, that won’t change,” Jasper said.

  “It will,” Lila said. “I know you think it won’t, but it will. And even if you’re willing to suck it up, I’m not. I don’t want to be a burden to you.”

  “You would never be a burden to me, Lila. Ever. But there is another way…” Jasper said.

  He trailed off, realizing this was moving anything but slowly.

  “What?” Lila demanded.

  Jasper shook his head.

  “Let’s not get too deep into it right now.”

  “I want to know,” Lila said. “If this is going to work, I need to know everything.”

  “Okay, but remember what I said. There’s no pressure and we can take this as slowly as you want to. But there’s a way to stop you getting old. A way we can be together forever. I can turn you into a bear shifter like me. And we could be together for all of eternity.”

  Lila went quiet, and suddenly, she wouldn’t meet Jasper’s eye.

  “Hey,” he said gently. “What are you thinking, Lila?”

  “I’m thinking that I like you. A lot. And I do see a future with you. But eternity... it’s just too… too big to think about right now. I’m sorry.”

  Jasper felt as though she had stabbed him in the heart again, but he took solace in her words. She did see a future with him. He had always known he would live forever barring decapitation or a wound from a silver weapon, and he thought maybe that made it easier to deal with than just having the opportunity for immortality dumped into your lap.

  “I get it, Lila. It’s okay. That’s why I didn’t want to mention it yet. I’m not asking you to commit to forever with me right now. It’s just… well, it’s an option for the future.”

  Lila nodded slowly.

  “I appreciate that, Jasper. And I would rather you tell me stuff, even stuff that kind of blows my mind. I mean, we have time, right?”

  “Right,” Jasper agreed. “Once you turn, if you turn, you would either stop aging at thirty, or at the point you get turned if you were to be older than thirty when that happened.”

  “That’s good. Because I think I would need at least a few months. You know, to practice not accidentally decapitating myself,” Lila said with a soft laugh.

  Jasper laughed with her, and just like that, the awkwardness between them vanished. Lila snuggled closer to Jasper.

  “Thank you for not pushing this,” she said. “I’m just not sure I’m ready for eternal life, and in the interest of being totally honest with you, I really don’t know if I ever will be ready for that. Knowing that, are you still willing to give us a chance?”

  Jasper kissed the top of her head.

  “Yes,” he said.

  12

  Lila walked toward the exit of the store, her carton of almond milk in her hand. She felt happy. Happier than she’d been in a long time. Happier even than the day she got the keys to the bar. She was so glad she had decided to give Jasper a chance. She couldn’t believe that she had let herself think he was a monster, even for a short time. It had only been two weeks since they’d talked and decided to give their relationship a go, but already Lila knew Jasper was far from a monster. He was everything she had ever wanted in a partner.

  She left the store and stepped out into the sunshine. She looked up into the blue sky, wondering how much bluer it would look if she were a bear. How much nicer would the breeze feel on her skin? How much more giddy would she feel when she saw Jasper?

  The thoughts had been going through her head pretty much nonstop since Jasper had told her she could become a bear shifter. On the one hand, the thought of being with Jasper forever was amazing and he made being a bear sound appealing. But on the other hand, she kept reminding herself that eternity was a damned long time, and she had to be sure before she made such a monumental change in her life. She couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if she did become a bear and then she and Jasper split up. An eternity alone sounded pretty depressing.

  As she walked along the street heading toward home, she made a decision. She wouldn’t think about the possibility of immortality at all for the next three months. And then she would revisit the idea with a fresh perspective and see how she felt about it then.

  With her mind a little clearer, Lila looked around as she walked. A white van was parked just down the street from her and a man was standing at the open back doors, his back to her. He looked vaguely familiar to her, but she couldn’t place him. She figured if it was someone she knew, she could be forgiven for not realizing it just from a view of his back. It was probably a customer from the bar, she thought to herself, someone she would recognize, but not necessarily someone she knew well.

  She was almost level with the back of the van when she saw the partition between the back part of the van and the front seats was covered with a mirror. The man had been watching her moving closer to him. He spun to face her before she had time to see his reflection and cold dread seized her. The man was Brady.

  A cold, predatory smile crossed his lips when he came face to face with Lila.

  “You caused so much fucking trouble for me,” he said in a low voice.

  He had moved to block Lila’s path. She looked around, desperately wishing someone would walk past, but the street was deserted. Cars drove by, but no one would look at this scene and know Lila was in danger.

  “But I want to give you a chance to make it up to me,” Brady added, smiling that cold smile again.

  “Just move out of my way,” Lila said, hating that her voice shook as she said it.

  “I should have known you’d choose the hard way,” Brady said, rolling his eyes.

  He reached for Lila. She swung out, catching him in the temple with the milk carton. Brady’s head flew to the side, but he didn’t go down. He smacked her arm, knocking the milk from her hand. The carton hit the ground and burst open. Brady grabbed Lila’s wrist. She opened her mouth to scream, but he was too quick for her.

  He pressed a rag against her open mouth and nose. Lila tried to push it away, but Brady was too strong for her. She smelled something sweet as she sucked in a breath through the rag. She felt her legs buckling, her body sagging against Brady’s. He caught her and held her up, moving her toward the van doors, more carrying her than pulling her now.

  She was vaguely aware that she was in danger, that she had to fight him, but her body felt weak, and before she could do more than whimper, her eyes closed and everything went black.

  13

  Jasper looked at his watch for the third time in less than a minute. He tapped the face, sure the watch was broken. Time was moving too slowly. He had an hour to wait before it was time to meet Lila for lunch, but he felt like he had been waiting forever. He smiled and shook his head. She had only left his apartment a couple of hours ago after spending the night, and already he missed her more than he had ever imagined he could miss another person.

  He couldn’t explain how it had all happened so quickly, but even after just the two weeks they had been seeing each other, he knew with certainty that he never wanted to go another day without her by his side. He felt the now familiar panic come over him at the thought of losing Lila. She seemed like she was as into the relationship as he was, but Jasper knew the idea of bec
oming a bear scared her, and that gave them a time limit.

  Not the time limit Lila imagined. He would never leave her because she got old, and no matter what the future held, she would never be a burden to him. Being with her was a privilege and that wouldn’t change, but he knew that if she didn’t become a shifter, her death was inevitable. He tried to stop himself from thinking about that, but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing her.

  He knew he had to let go of his fears and trust that Lila would come around to the idea of being a bear, of being with him for all eternity. He thought she would come around, but he couldn’t let himself get his hopes up too high. It would make it too painful if she decided against it.

  He looked at his watch again and saw another minute had passed. Only fifty-nine more minutes and he would be with Lila again.

  The intercom buzzed and Jasper frowned. He wasn’t expecting anyone. His confusion melted away to joy and he grinned as he moved to the intercom and pressed the button to release the door. It had to be Lila. She had to have been feeling the same separation anxiety as he was, and she had come over earlier.

  He waited by the door, his stomach swirling. The bell rang and he pulled the door open. The smile fell from his face when he saw Hayley, one of the personal trainers from his gym, standing on his doorstep.

  “What can I do for you?” he asked.

  “I have something important I need to talk to you about. Can I come in?” she said.

  Jasper looked at Hayley. She was clearly agitated and he decided to hear her out. It would pass the time until Lila came over. He found it hard to care about anything except Lila these days, though, and if Hayley was bringing him a problem from the gym, he already knew how he would deal with it. He would redirect her to Karl.