The Alpha's Reluctant Mate

by Williams, Morganna

  From the tone of her voice, I knew that as far as Sebrina was concerned this was a non-issue and there was no need to discuss it further.

  I decided to let the topic go for now; she’d given me a lot of information to digest about vampires and werewolves, not to mention Sebrina and Ryan themselves. There had to be a way they could be together.

  Tera came to drag me back to the gathering. I mixed and mingled with the other werewolves for the rest of the evening and was more than ready to go home by the time Connor brought the party to a close.

  Energy had been prickling just below the surface of my skin since the little welcoming ceremony. During the last hour it had almost become unbearable, like the raw power harnessed in my body was going to burst through my skin. It was almost painful in its intensity.

  I didn’t even wait for Tera and E; pulling my heels off, I sprinted across the grass to the relative peace of our little cottage. Quickly stripping out of my party wear, I pulled the long nightgown over my head and let Dizzy out to go to the bathroom.

  I was just letting her back in the house when Connor trotted up in full fur. With a sigh I let him in and tried to ignore the tension that seemed to release from between my shoulder blades at his presence.

  Somehow his nearness seemed to keep whatever was building in my body at bay. I knew with him close I would be able to relax and sleep, so tonight I didn’t even try to argue. Without a word I led the way to my bedroom and climbed into the bed next to his large furry body. I was asleep almost before my head hit the pillow.

  * * *

  I was on my hands and knees whimpering as his hand fell again and again across my vulnerable bottom; the pain of his discipline built as did the need in my core. I felt moisture dripping to the tops of my thighs as he continued to spank me.

  “Please…” I begged, spreading my legs wide and pressing my chest to the ground. Still he spanked me but I wanted him to take me, claim me… fill me with his cock.

  Then he gripped my sore bottom and spread me wide as he drove deep inside me with one hard thrust.

  I came with a scream.

  I woke mid-orgasm, my body still shuddering with pleasure and the scent of my arousal filling the air. Looking to the left side of the bed, I met the golden gaze of Connor’s wolf. I would never have thought it possible for a wolf to leer but he managed it.

  “What are you doing to me? Are you slipping Spanish fly in my food?” I yelled with as fierce a glare as I could manage, given I’d just woken screaming in a full-body orgasm.

  The wolf smirked at me… actually smirked.

  “Get out!” I yelled, springing to my feet and pointing at the door.

  Connor growled menacingly, then lay his head back down as if I hadn’t just demanded he leave.

  “You… you…” The wolf sighed deeply as if I were the biggest pain in the ass he’d ever encountered and pulled the covers on my side of the bed back with his teeth.

  Deflated, I climbed back in the bed, shooting him another glare. “I’m watching you, buddy.”

  The wolf made a snorting sound, then turned his back on me.

  Chapter Eight

  The first thing I became aware of when I woke the next morning was that Connor was gone, and I had to admit to being a little relieved that there would be no awkwardness to deal with.

  The second thing I became aware of was the intense sensitivity of my skin and the burning that seemed to run beneath each nerve ending. I tried to rub it away but that just made it worse.

  Intensely uncomfortable, I went into the bathroom with the hopes that a cool shower would relieve the problem. Glancing in the mirror, I did a double take.

  My eyes were no longer green or even human-looking. The amber flecks seemed to have liquefied to take over my entire iris, leaving me with eyes so gold in color there was nothing human about them. To say it was disconcerting to have a wolf’s eyes in my face was an understatement.

  My face even seemed a little elongated, giving me a feral and hungry look. The realization that all I wanted this morning was a hunk of raw meat only added to the ick factor.

  The shower was my refuge from the burning intensity beneath my skin and the strange woman looking back at me from the mirror. I lifted my face to the spray, enjoying the feel of the cool water beating against my face.

  After my shower, I at least felt a little more human. I avoided the mirror because I wasn’t ready to see the wolf girl again.

  Tera was already in the kitchen when I entered; she took one look at my face, pulled a large steak from the refrigerator, and plopped it on a plate in front of me.

  “I don’t know if I can…” I started, not wanting to admit how badly I wanted the raw bloody meat.

  “You can, it will help,” she said simply.

  Deciding to push all the pretenses aside, I tore into the meat. “Where’s Epenie?” I asked around a bite.

  “She’s been moved to the main house,” Tera said, watching me to gauge my reaction to the news.

  “Why? I need her,” I cried in dismay, feeling alone in foreign territory.

  “For her own safety and to preserve your friendship; trust me when I say, you don’t want anyone around you who doesn’t understand exactly what is happening to you for the next few days. Knowing and being prepared for the reality of a newly changed wolf are two very different things.”

  “You’re afraid I’ll eat her? I might eat people?” The squeak in my voice demonstrated exactly how disturbed I was by the prospect.

  “You won’t eat her or anyone else, but you might certainly scare them into thinking you will. Your control is going to be more and more tenuous in the next few days and some of your features will shift back and forth as your body prepares for the full moon.”

  I sighed and pushed the empty plate away from me. Tera had been right; the raw steak seemed to have relaxed some of the tension coursing through me, but now I felt sick and nervous about what was to come.

  “What exactly is going to happen to me?”

  Tera shrugged. “Everyone is different.”

  I suddenly felt too restless to stay cooped up inside and rose to leave the cabin, but something else occurred to me. “Where’s Dizzy?”

  She smiled sympathetically. “With Epenie at the main house.”

  “I can’t even have my dog?”

  “You’ll get her back once you’ve completed the first change. Her you might eat.”

  Once again I’d been given almost more information than I could deal with; shaking my head, I ran from the house. Suddenly I needed the wide-open spaces the large compound grounds offered me.

  I’d run almost a mile before I realized I hadn’t even bothered to put on shoes. It was like I’d turned into some sort of wild creature. I caught a scent in the air and turned my nose up to catch more of it.

  Instinct seemed to take over as my nose twitched, separating the different smells on the wind to pick out the one I wanted.

  When I found it, a shudder of pleasure coursed through my body, I didn’t know exactly what I smelled, but I knew with certainty that it was prey.

  Crouching, I crept almost soundlessly through the brush, weaving in and out among the large trees until I came to a clearing.

  A doe stood at the base of the creek delicately lapping at the water, her little speckled fawn by her side.

  I must have made some sort of noise as I watched them, because the doe suddenly looked up from her drink. Her big brown eyes filled with terror as they met mine and she bleated a warning to her baby before leaping away from the stream.

  I wanted nothing more than to chase them down and shred them to pieces. I closed my eyes as I fought against the impulse, as sickened by the desire as I was intrigued by it.

  A low moan escaped me as I fell to my knees, tears tracking down my cheeks in response to the inner turmoil I was feeling. It was as if a battle was taking place between the human Xandie and the wolf. Previously I’d been convinced that we were one and the same, but now I wasn�
��t as sure as their desires warred inside of me.

  The sharp tearing pain in my backside caught me completely by surprise. I fell forward on my hands, screaming as my skin seemed to split apart.

  I collapsed face first into the ground as the spasm intensified then finally stopped. Lying there for a moment, I tried to make sense of what just happened.

  It didn’t hurt so much now but it was extremely uncomfortable. I reached behind me to feel the back of my pants. There was a huge lump back there; frowning, I reached inside my pants and encountered a fur-covered tail.

  “That’s just great!” I yelled. Getting slowly to my feet, I walked carefully and a little painfully back home.

  Jeans were not made to accommodate a tail, but I wasn’t about to strip from the waist down for my walk home. I muttered to myself all the way, feeling absolutely ridiculous.

  Tera looked up from where she sat reading on the big chair in the corner of the living room when I tromped into the room.

  I sent her a glare as I clomped through the room to my bedroom, unbuttoning my jeans as I walked. The relief was almost immediate when I pulled them down with my panties to free my long furry tail. I pulled a long terry housecoat over my head before stalking back to the living room to finish glaring at Tera.

  “What?” she asked, sitting up straighter in the chair.

  “I have a tail!” I shouted.

  “That’s a new one,” Tera said thoughtfully.

  “What do you mean, that’s a new one?” I asked incredulously.

  “I’ve never heard of anyone sprouting a tail in the time building up to their first change, although I think Hank got wolf ears.” She laughed at the memory. “Kind of hard to hide those with a baseball cap.”

  I growled with frustration. “You people need a manual to prepare new wolves for these things. It was more than a little shocking to suddenly sprout a tail, not to mention uncomfortable and painful!”

  Tera shrugged. “I laid out another steak for you.”

  I scowled fiercely before thanking her and going to the kitchen to eat more raw meat.

  Picking up the plate, I carried it with me back into the living room. “So do I get to look forward to this every month before the full moon?”

  “Not at all. This is the only time you’ll have to deal with the war between your two forms. Once you’ve completed your first change, you’ll be able to control it with the exception of the night of the full moon. You have to change that night but every other day or night whether you change or not is totally up to you.”

  “I’ll be able to change during the day?” I asked.

  “Anytime you want,” she assured me. “The worst part is almost over. You’ll also have a lot more control over your wolf once you’ve become one. You will still be you when you’re a wolf, just a little furrier.”

  Finished with my steak, I carried the plate to the kitchen and put it in the sink. The talk with Tera made me feel better but I still thought a manual would be a good idea. Maybe once this was all over with and things got back to normal I could write one. I could call it, A Werewolf’s Guide to the First Full Moon. Frowning, I shook my head; no, that was way too long of a title. I’d have to give it some more thought.

  Chapter Nine

  The next few days seemed to blur together. I was such a cauldron of emotion, filled to the brim with all I could handle, the power constantly pulsing beneath my skin.

  One minute I was shivering with cold and the next I felt as if my body had been tossed into a lake of fire, leaving me screaming and writhing with pain.

  Tera and Connor took turns staying with me, but I felt the most peace when Connor was near. I felt weak for leaning so heavily on him when I wasn’t ready to commit to him in any way, shape, or form, but at the moment his presence was necessary to retain my sanity.

  The closer the full moon drew, the less he was able to help assuage the raging beast growing inside of me. They fed me several times a day—always with fresh, raw meat. I’d lost all vestige of human feeding, and I fell on the meat like an animal, consuming it almost in an instant.

  Initially, Sebrina had come to visit me but the last few nights even she stayed away. I was too consumed, too crazed by the changes going on inside my body. I understood now why Epenie and Dizzy were being kept away.

  I’d bitten Tera at least once and even Connor was beginning to have difficulty holding me off him when I went into a frenzy to get the meat he’d brought me.

  On some level I registered and was appalled by my sudden lack of humanity, but before I could react to those feelings, the instincts of the wolf would spring once more to the fore, taking away even that small moment of reason.

  The days passed relatively peacefully, as that was when my ravaged body finally allowed me some measure of rest, but the minute the moon rose high in the sky, the beast was back trying to claw its way out of me.

  By the day of the full moon, I just lay in a corner of the living room whimpering as pain wracked my body. Curled into a small ball away from both Connor and Tera, unable to tolerate even a soothing touch or the softest whisper, my senses were overloaded by all the stimuli surrounding me.

  My hearing was acute to the point of pain; my sight so good that my brain couldn’t process images fast enough; and my body was changing to accommodate my nature, man and beast sharing one body. Food no longer interested me; all I knew was a churning nausea that would not abate.

  The night before, I’d screamed myself hoarse, as it seemed the fires of hell consumed me. Connor tried to comfort me and I raked him with newly formed claws, but still he held me close as if trying to absorb some of my pain.

  The instant the full moon rose, I sat up from my position on the floor and turning my head toward the window where its bright light seemed to fill the room. All of the pain began to fade as I moved toward that light, and the change started before I made it to the window. My bones began popping, my muscles stretching and lengthening as my body shifted into the form of a wolf.

  Bracing my large paws on the floor, I arched my back in a luxurious stretch. All of the fear and confusion fell away as I saw things clearly for perhaps the first time in my life. As a wolf I’d shed all of the stresses and worries of humanity; life was very simple. I just needed to live it.

  The night beckoned me with the rich scents of the wooded glen; the grass and earth both calling to me to come and play.

  The front door swung open and then Connor was there beside me, his shaggy body bumping against mine playfully and then springing away. As we ran together, I could hear the cries of the other wolves of my pack in the distance.

  I raced through the valleys and up the hills of the compound, pausing only a moment when I reached the walls of Connor’s estate before leaping them easily to land on the other side.

  Joy filled me as I ran, enjoying the freedom of spirit and mind as my wolf soared across the grounds of Wolf Creek.

  Connor kept pace with me, content to let me lead until I prepared to jump the walls that surrounded the entire community. He growled and knocked me to the ground in mid-leap.

  I sprang into a crouch, snarling back at him, angry to have my freedom curtailed in any way. He nudged me in the other direction with his nose, nipping sharply at my flank when I would have resisted.

  Offended by his highhanded attitude, I raced away from him, no longer wanting to share this new exciting journey with him, ignoring his presence trailing closely behind. My attitude lasted all the way into the open meadow where I stopped to watch what seemed like a thousand fireflies chase each other in the night breeze.

  They were so beautiful, I forgot to be angry and lay next to him in the field to watch the dazzling display of light. It looked like tiny faeries dancing around the meadow.

  I became instantly intrigued when a new smell made itself known; licking my lips, I sat straight and pointed my nose high in the air to catch the direction in which I would find its source.

  Connor could smell it too, but he let me
lead the way as our hunt began. As we grew closer, we both crouched low and belly-crawled over the base of a hill.

  The giant wild boar was at the bottom of the hill rooting in the trees for its dinner. I smiled as well as I could with a muzzle as I realized this was indeed part of the circle of life; he rooted for his food and in turn was ours. It felt perfectly natural.

  In tandem we approached the boar, circling it from different directions to attack. In almost perfect unison we sailed through the air at the boar.

  I landed on its back while Connor took his throat. It was over very quickly and we were feeding on our fresh kill. I tore into the tough hide with relish, enjoying the taste of the meat and warm blood.

  After we’d eaten our fill, Connor howled low and long to call the others in to share in our labor. As I watched, wolves began coming from all different directions, all of them large but no two looked the same. Colors seemed to vary as much as their personalities and I was surprised to realize that I recognized most of them and could have called them by name if I’d still had my human voice.

  Tera was a blondish red wolf, smaller than some of the others but still much larger than a real wolf would be, her build sleek and compact. She caught sight of me and jumped at me, tumbling us both to the ground like puppies.

  I yipped and barked at her as we ran around tussling in the security of our pack while the older pack members watched rather indulgently.

  Some ate the remainder of the boar, others had hunted on their own, but all waited with an air of quiet expectation.

  Connor walked to the top of the hill and stood silhouetted in the moonlight. Every eye looked to him as he raised his muzzle to the sky and howled. As one we sprang to our feet and joined him in his cry. We were one, pack and it was only in that moment that I knew exactly what that meant.

  These people were my family. Together we would live and die. Together we were pack.

  * * *

  Shortly after what I would forever think of as the community howl, Connor and I split from the group once again for another long run. I felt like I could run forever; we stopped at the lake that bordered the compound.