Wanted by the Alphas (An Extremely Sensual Paranormal Shifter Romance)

by Dawn Steele

  Shannon jabs him. “Pardon his rudeness. Actually, we don’t need to disturb Mr. Walker – ”

  “Hell no,” Jared interrupts. “A challenge is a challenge. I’ll never back down from one. You can go sit on the couch over there and wait till it’s all over.”

  “You’re not going to fight him!”

  “The hell I’m not.”

  The receptionist begins to look worried.

  “Ah, sir, Mr. Lucien’s family owns this hotel, among other properties. He is a very prominent member of our community. I wouldn’t want to have to call security.”

  “It’s OK,” says a voice to their right.

  Shannon turns. Lucien Walker, prominent member of Dolphin’s Bay, enters the reception area. His hair has been toweled dry, and every inch of him affirms the towering blond god that she thought he would be on the rain-soaked road.

  In fact, he is far more magnificent in the clear light of day.

  His eyes are a piercing blue. She is a woman of medium height, and he stands so tall that she has to crane her neck up to peer at his face. His family is obviously of Scandinavian origin. They have emigrated years ago, as his North Western accent suggests, but his physical characteristics still bear his Viking roots. His shoulders are broad and he has a V-shaped waist in comparison. His body is strong and muscular under his dry white shirt, and she can see little blond hairs peeking out of his unbuttoned lapels.

  God, but he is staggering!

  Lucien says again, “It’s OK, Peter. I asked them to come here. I believe I owe this gentleman the conclusion of our argument on the road a little earlier.”

  Peter seems worried. “Uh, sir, your father would not like this – ”

  “My father has nothing to do with this,” Lucien snaps. To Jared, he says, “You and I seem to have an argument about who cut who off on the road. How shall we settle this?”

  “Jared,” Shannon warns. She eyes Lucien pleadingly. “Please, we don’t want any trouble. We are new here in this town.”

  “All the better to test the waters with the locals, eh?” Lucien says.

  He sizes Jared up. Jared is a tall man, though not as tall as Lucien. But he is a good several inches taller than most men at six feet two. Jared’s body is lean and hard due to his nightly activities. She remembers what she has seen Jared do before and her chest contracts with sudden fear for the blond man.

  “So what do you say?’ Jared challenges. She can tell he is itching for a fight. “How good are you at wrestling?”

  Lucien laughs. “Wrestling in the mud? I’m afraid our weather does not allow for such proclivities. I’m looking more at a contest of strength. Arm wrestling, if you will.”

  At this, Jared grins. Shannon knows why. There is no better arm wrestler than Jared Bellamy in Tupelo, Nevada – from where they came from.

  At least they are only arm wrestling. She almost heaves a sigh of relief. She has seen Jared break men before in terrifying ways, which is one of the reasons why they had to run for the Pacific Northwest.

  As for the other reason . . . she’s trying her best to put it out of her mind.

  “Fine.” Lucien smiles back. He is poised and confident, something which does not surprise her. Men of his looks and obvious riches usually are. But then, he has not met the likes of Jared. “Let’s raise the stakes, shall we?”

  Raise the stakes? Her antenna pricks up. Why is he so confident? Because he is the bigger man? Because he is used to being a big man – and she doesn’t only mean physically – in a small pond?

  “What do you have in mind?” Jared says, suspicious.

  “Something I’m sure you’ll agree to. If I win, you both get free room and board at this fine hotel for as long as you need to stay.”

  Shannon can see the wheels in Jared’s head churning. Free room and board for as long as they wish to stay? They might be choosing to stay for a long, long time if she has her way. Jared, of course, has more wanderlust genes in his body.

  Lucien turns to her. “And is this your wife?”

  Jared says quickly, “She’s my sister.”

  Yeah, that’s usually his line and what has most people’s eyebrows rise a tad. They look nothing alike, she knows. And they shouldn’t, because they are not blood related. He is auburn-haired and she is dark. Very dark, with hair that gleams midnight in its darkness. His eyes are brown and hers are a startling violet. He is tall and she is petite in frame, though she is not short.

  “Sister.” Lucien seems amused by this revelation.

  “We are not related by blood,” she quickly offers. She wonders why she did that. She is not trying to let him think she is available, is she?

  She finds herself wondering if he is available too. A man who looks the way he does? No way in hell. She can imagine all the debutantes lining up to spread their legs for him.

  “And if I lose?” Jared demands in that kind of lofty tone which indicates that he does not think he will be losing.

  Lucien’s mind seems to be churning quickly as well.

  “If you lose,” his cavalier tone suggests that he thinks it is a forgone conclusion, “then your sister will have to go out on a date with me.”

  Shannon lifts her chin in surprise. A date? Her pulse begins to beat a little faster. So he is interested in me too?

  Jared is surprised too.

  “You want a date with Shannon?”

  She bridles at his tone. Hey, I am considered very attractive, you know.

  “Fine,” Jared says. “To each his own. He flexes his right arm. “Let’s do this.”

  “Great,” Lucien says, smiling. “Let’s adjourn to the restaurant. There are plenty of tables there to carry out our bet.”

  WAGER

  The one restaurant in the entire hotel is a modest affair, with red and white checkered tablecloths and neatly folded napkins in the shape of crowns. Silverware bedecks lacy place settings. Several tables are occupied, and the patrons turn their heads to size up the three very attractive young people coming in.

  Shannon’s gaze is immediately drawn to the garden beyond the wide French windows which surround two walls of the restaurant. The garden is in full bloom, and the roses are bountiful in yellow, red, pink and white amid leaves heavy with raindrops. She almost gasps at their largesse. Coming from a desert, she rarely sees such growth profusion.

  And no wonder, if it rained the way it did here . . .

  An entrance opens out to the patio surrounding the restaurant. Out there, several tables have also been placed. However, the tablecloths have all been folded up and no one is sitting outside. Raindrops speckle the surfaces of the tables.

  A waiter bows deferentially to Lucien. “Table for three, sir?”

  “Not in the way you mean, Tod. Clear a table for us over there.” Lucien points at a table for two next to the garden. Not out in the patio, but just inside.

  “Clear it, sir?”

  “Everything off. We want it clean.” Lucien motions to the brother and sister pair. “This way, please.”

  Jared struts ahead in that cocky way of his that she detests so much. Plenty of girls find Jared very attractive – and she supposes he is in his ‘I’m all butch male and I know it’ kind of way – but she is not one of them. Maybe she did find him attractive when they first met . . . but not anymore. Not after living with him and putting up with his moods for all these years.

  Jared pulls a chair and seats himself on it. Lucien pulls a chair for her and gestures, “If you will be our witness, Mademoiselle.”

  “Thank you.”

  She is charmed despite herself. She sits, taking care to ensure her narrow skirt doesn’t ride up her thighs too much. He seems to notice this, and she notices that he notices.

  Lucien takes the chair opposite Jared. Jared places his elbow on the table and proffers his hand. Lucien does the same. Every single eye in the restaurant is riveted on them, and Shannon is self-conscious to be in the center of so much attention.

  The two young men lock t
heir grips. Jared’s eyes are brown steel while Lucien’s are a bright cornflower blue. She finds herself admiring Lucien’s well-toned forearms with their sparse blond hairs. She wonders how his large hands would feel like on her body.

  Suddenly, she is not sure who to root for to win.

  It isn’t that she doesn’t love Jared. They have been together for a long time, for better or worse. But he has been increasingly volatile of late. She understands the reasons, but does not actually relish being in the firing line.

  Nevertheless, Lucien Walker is turning out to be a very interesting prospect. Very interesting indeed. Shannon is not looking for a relationship. She has had too much heartache in that department, especially with Jared being so unpredictable, but she is not dead set against having one either.

  The thing is that Lucien Walker does not seem to be the kind of guy who wants a relationship either. A conquest, yes. An easy fuck, maybe. But not a relationship.

  “You tell us when to begin,” Lucien says to Shannon. His eyes gleam with an unmistakable spark of desire.

  She swallows. Jared eyes her balefully, aware of Lucien’s obvious attraction to her.

  Lifting up her chin to mask the sea of uncertainties boiling within her, she says: “On the count of three.”

  The guys grip each other’s fists tighter. The air is electric around the table despite the humidity from outside. Lucien’s eyes never leave hers. A delicious tingle runs down her spine and sends a heat wave into her groin, which is rapidly becoming moist. Few men have affected her in the manner Lucien Walker is affecting her now.

  She says, “One . . . two . . . three.”

  The atmosphere immediately becomes charged as the two men grip each other’s fists in strained embrace. Both men’s forearms are completely exposed. Their muscles bulge as their brows furrow in concentration.

  Some customers from the other tables are getting up from the chairs and crowding closer to watch, as are the waiters. Shannon sees all this from the periphery of her vision, because she doesn’t dare take her eyes off the dueling contestants.

  She remembers an episode from one and a half years ago when Jared first started to turn feral. He had a run in with a couple of thugs from a local gang. It was in a quiet alley, and Jared and she had decided to take a shortcut to get to the other street. They were ambushed at knifepoint by two youths who suddenly materialized from a dark doorway.

  She was frightened at first when she saw the gleam of the knife angled at her.

  “I’ll be taking that pretty purse, Miss,” says the youth who was pointing his knife at her throat.

  “And I’ll be emptying your pockets,” says the other youth, who has his knife poised at Jared’s throat.

  “And what if I don’t wish to do that?” Jared says calmly. She can feel the power coursing through him by the way his neck muscles bunch.

  “You have no choice in the matter, pretty man,” the youth says, grinning. “Give your wallet over or he’ll cut your girlfriend’s pretty throat.”

  “And maybe gut her like a pig after I’m through with her.” The one on her side lifts her hair up and smells it. “She’s real pretty.”

  “Jared,” she whimpers, “just give him your wallet.”

  That is when Jared explodes. He has been gaining in muscle strength and agility since ‘the change’, and even in his current form, he is lethal. With a few quick, sharp chops, he floored the two youths. They were writhing in pain and groaning on the ground. Their arms were bent in unnatural angles.

  She gazed up at him with new fear in her eyes.

  This very same strength – even more magnified with the passing of time – now dances in Jared’s sleek and enhanced muscles. She imagines him pushing down Lucien’s arm and breaking it off with a pop at the elbow. Jared is capable of doing that too, and he has recently acquired a cruel streak which frankly frightens her.

  This was why he was so eager to take on this quarrel with Lucien. Because part of him wants to show off what he can do. She doesn’t think it’s a good idea to call anyone’s attention to them, but she may as well try talking to a cliff wall. They are bound to attract trouble wherever they go.

  To her surprise, Lucien seems very well matched in the strength department. The man is huge, no doubt, but Jared has to be using all his accelerated capabilities. Unless Jared isn’t even trying yet. But both men appear to be taxed, with their forearm muscles in complete and severe tension. The veins in their forehead throb and their jaws are clenched.

  Come on, she thinks. And she is not completely sure who she is cheering for.

  Then she sees the telltale twitch in Jared’s cheek, and she knows he is channeling all his strength. And he has considerable strength even when he is in his human form.

  Lucien’s forearm starts to bend. His eyes narrow as he fights back.

  She raises her knuckles to her mouth and bites on them. The anticipation is killing her.The people around them crowd closer.

  “Come on, Mr. Walker,” says the waiter who has shown them in.

  “You can do it, Mr. Walker.”

  Lucien’s forearm is now three inches off the table. He is grunting and resisting everything Jared has to throw at him. It is not a fair contest, Shannon thinks. No normal human being can go up against Jared.

  Lucien’s forearm comes up again in a burst of strength. Now he is almost back to midline. Jared seems surprised.

  Jared starts to growl. Once again, he takes Lucien’s arm down in a pendulum arc of strength. Beads of sweat dot both men’s foreheads. Shannon’s teeth indent her knuckles, and she takes them away, surprised to see the deep tooth marks.

  Lucien has not had the upper hand in this contest of wills yet. Not once has his forearm brought Jared’s down across the midline.

  “Raise you ten dollars on the dark-haired guy,” mutters one patron behind Shannon.

  She feels a flush going into her cheeks.

  She’s close enough to the two men to smell their sweat of locked determination. She’s close enough to see every scalloped vein on their temples and arms, every detail of their grim faces. She finds herself admiring Lucien Walker’s face again. Truly, he has the face of a Nordic god. His chin with the little cleft juts out like a profile on a Scandinavian coin. His blue, blue eyes sparkle with contained effort.

  Because she is studying him surreptitiously (or at least, as surreptitiously as she would like to think), she sees the sudden change in color that comes over his eyes.

  It is fleeting. She doesn’t think anyone else has noticed it. But it is unmistakable. One moment, his eyes are cornflower blue – the startling blue of an Impressionist painting – and the next, they are completely black, as though his irises have been taken over by his pupils. It is as if an eclipse has come over the sun.

  Then, as quickly as it has appeared, it is gone.

  She blinks. Is she imagining things?

  Lucien Walker seems to have a burst of strength. For the first time since the arm wrestling began, he now has inched Jared’s arm over the midline. Gasps of appreciation issue from the onlookers. Jared is shocked.

  “Urrrr,” he grunts. With another feral spurt of energy, he slowly claws his way back.

  But Lucien is unstoppable. His arm comes down again and forces Jared’s hand down . . . down . . . down.

  “Oh!” The gasp which escapes her lips makes Jared’s gaze dart at hers for a split second.

  That second is all Lucien needs. He slams Jared’s arm down against the table with a thump. Jared cries out with the pain.

  The little crowd erupts in applause. Hometown boy wins!

  “Fuck!” Jared cries. He is clearly disbelieving over what just happened. He stares at Lucien’s smug face.

  She knows what he is thinking. No one has ever bested Jared before in a show of strength since the Change. She’s thinking the same thing about Lucien.

  What the hell are you?

  WINNINGS

  “I’ll be collecting my winnings now,” Lucien sa
ys, standing up.

  They both massage their elbows. It has been a strong, well-matched contest. Jared is still glowering, and Shannon can tell he will not be satisfied with this outcome. He will demand a rematch.

  “I’m sorry,” Lucien continues, shifting his gaze to her, “but we haven’t been properly introduced. I am Lucien Walker, as you have no doubt deduced. You are?”

  He leaves it hanging.

  She discovers her tongue. “I’m Shannon.”

  “I know. I heard your name the first time from your brother. But I would like to know the full name of the beautiful woman I am going to date.”

  Jared bridles at this, but she stays his arm. He won it fair and square.

  “I’m Shannon Bellamy. And this is my brother, Jared Bellamy.”

  “So you are indeed brother and sister.”

  “Um, we are not actually related by blood. My mother married his father and I decided to take the name ‘Bellamy’.”

  “That’s too much information, sis,” Jared says sarcastically.

  “No, on the contrary, I find it very interesting.” Lucien’s blue eyes favor hers again, and a thrill of excitement shoots down her gut. “May I pick you up tonight, Shannon, at seven thirty?”

  Her mouth goes dry. “I-I don’t know where we’ll be staying.”

  “Yeah, Shannon,” Jared cuts in. He puts a proprietary hand on the small of her back. “We’ll have to be going. See you later, Lucien Walker.” He pronounces it as though it is acid in his mouth. “Come on, Shannon.”

  “Wait,” she says, turning back to an increasingly amused Lucien, “I’ll leave you my number.”

  She fumbles in her purse for her cellphone. Her movements are nervous, jittery. Lucien makes her nervous, especially with the way he watches her. Jared makes her nervous because you can practically smell the agitation coming off him in waves.

  “Wait,” Lucien says, “there’s another part of the bargain I haven’t disclosed to either of you. I would be honored if you both would be my guests for the night in this modest hotel.”