Alpha Contender Boxed Set: BWWM Paranormal shifter romance BBW

by Terry Bolryder

  Fifi’s brows lower, and he looks at Matt, as if hoping she knows more. Matt thinks for a moment and keeps unwinding the wrap absentmindedly.

  “I’m not sure. I don’t know a lot about fated mates. But I don’t see why he’d be emitting pheromones and marking a female if he wasn’t in the market. Maybe you just have to show him how in the market you are.”

  “You’re just trying to get me to end things so that you can go back to doing…whatever it is you do,” I tell Matt.

  She grins at me, a sly grin this time that makes me realize just how much there is going on under that pouty mask she has on all the time. “Maybe. Probably. This whole situation is kind of a hell hole for me, associating with humans and lower bred males.”

  “Lower bred?”

  “Like those brothers. The twins. If they were higher bred, their parents would still be alive.”

  “Rude,” I mutter.

  “It’s not rude if it’s the truth,” she retorts.

  “Actually, the truth can be very rude,” I say, leaving it at that. She just shrugs. I guess I just have to accept that Matt is a bigot, and try not to take it too personally that my parents are dead as well.

  “So, what are you going to do?” she asks. “Because you need to get out of my room about now, and I’m curious.”

  Fifi waits as well.

  “Well, I don’t know. I… Lindon doesn’t seem to even want to do anything unless he smells someone else on me.”

  Matt raises an eyebrow and then nods at Fifi. Before I can even scream in shock, Fifi pushes me back down on the bed and straddles me. My eyes widen as I push against his chest but I can’t manage to stop him from lowering himself over me, flattening his body to mine.

  “What are you doing?” I squeak.

  Fifi shakes his head. “Matt, go get ready, I’ll stay here until she’s good and scented, tell us when you’re changed.”

  Matt shrugs and disappears into the bathroom adjoining the room.

  Fifi absentmindedly runs his fingers along the back of my ears, and I bat at his hands.

  “That tickles, stop it.”

  “Hm,” he says, wrapping his arms around me as he lets his heavy, huge body hang all over me.

  “You know, I really don’t get you,” I say.

  “What’s there to get?” he asks.

  “I don’t get why you’re here, I’m not sure I trust you, and I definitely don’t think I’m attracted to you.”

  “But why?” he asks, blinking long lashes and sitting up a little. “I’m so beautiful.” But this time there’s a bit of mirth in those dark blue-purple eyes.

  “You know, I believed that about you before. That you really were just full of yourself. But now, I think I see that maybe you feel you’re ugly under there somewhere. And that ugliness makes you nervous.”

  “Ugly?” He raises a perfect eyebrow.

  “But we all have ugly parts of ourselves, Fifi. And I think maybe acknowledging yours would make you even more beautiful.”

  He takes a deep breath and his face goes serious and I see the man behind the mask. He’s breathtaking, but not for me.

  “Can you get off now?”

  He grins down at me. “Do you want me to?”

  My eyes widen as the double meaning sinks in. “Oh gross!” I say, slapping at his arms and laughing. “Get off of me.”

  “As you wish,” he says, rolling off. I laugh and brush my arms off and head for the door. “And Misty?” he asks.

  “Yes?” I turn back and fold my arms, waiting.

  “I hope we’ll still be friends after this. And if you want to talk about anything, you know I’m there.”

  “Hm, I don’t know if I trust you.”

  “You will after Lindon scents me on you and it wins you your man.”

  I scoff at that and wave a hand at him. But it makes me smile that the odd pair of Matt and Fifi were even trying to help me.

  The front door of the house bangs open just as I walk out into the hall, and I look down to see Lindon looking up at me with furious golden eyes.

  Are Matt and Fifi right? Should I really lay it all on the line right now?

  Chapter 2

  Lindon rushes up the stairs and grabs me by the arms, looking me over and pulling me against him.

  “When you didn’t come back after saying you were going for a drink…” He lets out a huge breath and releases my arms. “Well, I guess I freaked out for nothing. Do you have your bracelet on?”

  “No.” I blush, thinking about how I wished I had it on earlier.

  “What’s happened?” he asks, narrowing those glittering champagne eyes at me suspiciously. “You look shaken.”

  “Just been a hard couple days. I mean, there’s someone out there trying to kill me, and you were lying to me, and now we’ve made up but still seem to be fighting.”

  He puts a shushing finger up to my mouth and pulls me toward his room, pushes me in and shuts the door behind us.

  So many shut doors in this mansion.

  “I’m so ready for this to be done,” I say mournfully, walking over to the window.

  “You are?” His voice is sharp, surprised. “I thought this was the fantasy. A bunch of men fighting over you.”

  I play with the curtains and look out over the yard. “Thank you for tackling your teammate out there.”

  He waves a hand. “It was nothing.”

  “No it wasn’t. It was something, to me.”

  He’s quiet as he takes a seat on the bed and rests his hands on either side of him. I love the sight of him. Body lightly sheened with sweat, tanned flesh glowing, golden eyes sparkling. Blond hair mussed like a woman has just had her hands in it.

  It’s time to just be honest with myself and go for what I want.

  “You know,” I say, keeping myself turned to the window so I don’t have to face him. “I was too nervous to tell you this before, but I didn’t really come here because of what your dad said about meeting lots of guys. You know why I really came?”

  “No,” he says quietly, waiting. He folds his arms and I swallow at the biceps that flex there. He bites his lip, confused.

  Gosh he’s beautiful. I might as well lay it all out for him now. If he rejects me, then he rejects me.

  “Why did you come?” he asks.

  I run my hands along the edges of the drapes, trying to distract myself, to keep my nerve. “I came because I saw your picture, and your dad said you were available.”

  “Did he?” Lindon asks, a vein twitching near his left brow. “Interesting.”

  “Yeah, it was like, seeing you, just seeing your picture, I was enamored. And I’ve never dreamed of a bunch of guys. It sounds like a fantasy. But all I ever really wanted, in my wildest daydreams, was just someone to take care of me. Someone to sit by the fire with, someone to read to me. Someone to read with. Someone I could take care of.” I blink down at the flawless grounds beneath me. “Someone to make the loneliness go away.”

  “Well,” he says, voice strained, like he pities me but doesn’t know what to say. “There are plenty of men down there waiting to help you make that loneliness go away.”

  I blink at him and then turn away. “Yeah, I know. But I think none of them can really match up to the one I want. And I should know, I’ve kissed all of them.”

  “Misty, what are you saying?” Lindon sits on the edge of his bed, hands on his knees.

  Gosh, I love those long legs.

  “I’m saying I want you.”

  “I’m not taking a mate,” he says.

  “I heard from Rowan that you competed with Rafe over his mate.”

  “That would have been a mating only for children. Not a mating for love. And we all knew Aspen was going to choose Rafe. She just needed a little nudging.”

  Nudging, hm? I open the window a little, and the cool air from outside blows in, and I hear Lindon inhale sharply. That’s right, Fifi’s scent should be all over me.

  “If you want me,” he says in a cho
ked voice, “then why do I feel Fifi’s scent all over your damn body?”

  I turn to him, a small smile on my face. “What? Scent? Come again?”

  He lets out a little growl and paces to the window. He shuts it and then cages me against the wall next to it. “Are you trying to drive me crazy?”

  “If it suits my purposes. Let’s be honest, we’ve been driving each other crazy this entire time, and I can’t do it anymore. I want you. If it’s a mating in name only, then it’s in name only.”

  “Just yesterday you didn’t want to talk to me again. You were done with me.”

  “I was mad,” I say, running a hand through his hair. “I was hurt.”

  “Hm, you should stay hurt. I’m not good for you.”

  “But what if I can’t focus on any of these men as long as you’re here?”

  “You’re just getting confused,” he says. “You’re mistaking protection for real care. Misty, I was hired to do that for you.”

  Frustrated tears blur my eyes. For once, I’m daring to hope, trusting myself that I know what I want. And of course, it’s still not working.

  “Fine, I’ll find someone else. I just had to ask you for real. At least once, before I went.”

  “Who? Misty, you can’t decide this quickly.”

  “Oh, I should give it more time?” I narrow my eyes. “Why? Because some murderer is apparently going to come for me and you don’t want me to call this off until they find him?” I blink in offense.

  “No…because you barely know them.”

  “Ha!” I push him off of me and head for the door. This was a bad idea. Even Fifi underestimated the ridiculousness that is Lindon and his stubbornness.

  “Just give it another week,” he says.

  “Right, and just hope nothing happens?” I say.

  “Right,” he says.

  I lean against his closed door and tilt my head to the side. “I’ll give you what you want if you give me what I want.”

  He swallows, handsome face tightening nervously. “What do you want?”

  “One night with you.”

  “I can’t mate—”

  “I know. You can’t mate me. But I want one night with you. One night with everything but that.”

  He frowns. “And then you’d go to another man?”

  “Do I have a choice?” I throw my hands up.

  “Yes. You could walk away and not do anything with me.”

  I frown at that. “Yes, I could. But I know what I want. I’m giving a lot up for you and the race. The least you can do is give me a memory of us to think back on.”

  “Misty, we barely know each other.”

  “That’s not true,” I say, walking up to push on his chest, backing him to the wall. “That’s just not true. You know you know me when you touch me. I know I know you when I kiss you. And I’d be good for you. I’d push you. You know that, Lindon, and so, I think, does everyone around you. So, why won’t you just stop being so stubborn?”

  He looks coldly into my eyes. “You’ll never understand. Fine, so we have this one night between us. I give you what you want, and then you’ll spend the rest of the week following the rules?”

  “And will choose a mate at the end of it, yes,” I say.

  “Fine,” he says, lowering his lips to my neck. “A week it is.”

  “But I want my night tonight,” I say.

  He sucks in breath and pulls back. “The others, they’ll know.”

  I shrug. “And they’ll also know that you threw me back to them afterwards, without going all the way. It’ll be a perfect way to convince them you really aren’t competing.”

  “But it’ll stifle your pheromones.”

  “You had no problem with that before.”

  He shakes his head. “I have no problem with this now, except that it’s extremely selfish. What if we do this and you don’t find a mate?”

  “You think that’s more selfish than making me stay here with a potential murderer?”

  “I’ll protect you.”

  I throw up my hands and give up. “Fine. Fine, Lindon. I’ll just go pick one now and save us both the trouble.” I start back toward the door and he grabs my hand and whirls me back against him.

  “Damnit, Misty, why do you have to make everything so hard?” And then his lips crush over mine.

  It’s everything I knew it would be, everything I wanted. Every time I kiss him, the sensation is stronger. Like I’m falling in love with him. Like I’m already in love.

  Like there’s something between us, intangible and yet saturating the air.

  Like we were meant to be.

  I’d say I was just being a silly, romantic fool, but I never have been and I don’t see why I would start now. I’ve always been a pragmatist, and it wasn’t practical to daydream or see things as other than reality presented them.

  But there’s nothing in the world as right as his lips on mine, the warm, perfect feel of them. The way his hands move over my body, caressing my curves lightly. The way my knees are buckling, and he knows this without me saying anything and scoops me up and carries me to the bed without a word.

  He sets me down gently and just stands there for a moment, watching me with a slightly open mouth and glowing golden eyes. As if the sight in front of him is everything he’s ever wanted and yet completely baffling at the same time.

  How I love this confused, conflicted man. I’d take a tiny portion with him rather than a feast with anyone else.

  It’s time to be honest with myself that no one else will do, so I’ll take what I can from him. And live with that afterward.

  I just have to hope he can wake up from the past enough to see what he has in the present. I set him on fire. I know I do.

  I can see the hesitation in his eyes as he looks me over, and then he runs his tongue slowly along his lower lip and I know I’ve won. Again.

  He lunges smoothly forward, onto the bed, covering me with his huge body and making me feel small under his predatory gaze. He smooths my curls back from my face and runs a finger along my hairline and down my shoulder.

  “Are you sure, Misty?” he asks, toying with a curl again. “Are you sure you want this? Are you sure it can be anything?”

  “I’ll let you know as we go,” I say, grinning up at him.

  “Baby,” he says, moving down my body and taking the hem of my tank top in his teeth. “Once I start, you won’t be able to think.”

  “Prove it,” I say.

  With a feral growl, he lifts the tank easily away and then pulls it over my head. Then he reaches behind me and his fingers tickle as they undo the clasp at the back of my sports bras. “Two bras?” he asks. “You are huge.”

  My eyes widen in offense. “Excuse me?”

  But I can’t be mad long because my breasts come free of the constraints and fall into his strong but gentle hands.

  “Perfectly huge,” he says, kneading them gently in a way that feels amazing after being strapped down for so long. “Poor babies,” he says, rubbing a thumb lightly over the nipples. “All trapped like that.”

  I laugh and then gasp as he takes one in his mouth and sucks lightly, then a little harder as his eyes darken and fix on mine. My mouth opens in an O shape and then I arch back, giving myself up fully to the sensation.

  I know he’s watching me. I can feel his hot gaze like sunshine on my body.

  That’s what Lindon is, sunlight. Warm and bright and necessary, but dangerous as well.

  He continues to work on my breast as one hand kneads my side and then moves down between my legs, over my sports wear. I gasp at the double sensation and move against him, but he just teases me with a light touch and then moves his hand back to the other breast, tweaking the nipple lightly.

  “Slowly,” he says in a low voice, before flicking his tongue over my swollen, aching nipple. “If I’m going to only have you once, I’m going to take you slowly.”

  I groan. If only he could take me all the way. Even if he didn’t wa
nt to live with me as a mate, I feel like it’d be worth it just for that one time. I could go back to living alone afterward. After all, I’ve done it for years.

  I’ve always been alone in some ways. But at least I’d have that memory.

  But then he tweaks my nipple again and I feel myself cascade into an orgasm, moaning and closing my eyes as sparks explode throughout my body and waves of sensation flow through me, stifled only slightly by the painful thoughts of a moment ago.

  I open my eyes to see him staring down at me, a mixture of hunger and reverence in his eyes. If only I could keep this man.

  Chapter 3

  His hand shoves between my legs as he takes my lips, stifling my gasps as he moves against me, rubbing over my center deftly and capturing my cries with his mouth. He knows exactly how to please me, takes control of my body effortlessly. It’s the best sexual experience of my life and yet I get the feeling that it’s only just starting.

  If only I could make it go on forever.

  A second orgasm hits as he presses his hand against me, precise and urgent, and I rear up and wrap my arms tight around him as I ride out the intensity. His arms come around me and he holds me like I’m precious. The air smells like heaven. There’s no way to describe it. It’s just intense, and us, and him, and something sweet and other worldly and heady all at once.

  “You okay?” he asks, rubbing his hand down my back as I shiver against him.

  “I…yeah, obviously. It’s just, I don’t know how you do it.”

  “How I do what?” he asks, lowering me back down to the bed and placing a hand on either side of my head.

  “Make everything feel so good,” I say, reaching up to touch the tips of his hair that are pointing in all directions at the front of his head. “I mean, I haven’t known you long. Should it really feel like this?”

  “Maybe it’s because I’m an alpha,” he says quietly, eyeing my body like he wants to stop talking and keep going.

  I don’t think that’s it, but I’m not going to argue. I think it’s that I care for him, and he cares for me. Each touch is amazing, and I want more of them.

  His eyes run over my face, drop to my breasts, which are swollen and wet at the tips, gorgeously pointed up at him. He runs his hands down my waist and then pulls my bottoms off, leaving me in my underwear. A silky, black bikini. I see approval in his gilded eyes as he hooks a finger under the waist and pulls them off in one smooth motion.