Alpha Doms Box Set: 9 Delicious Stories + 10 Sexy Heroes = 19 Reasons to Indulge
Page 29
She blushed despite the spark of mischief in her blue eyes. I found it endearing, just like the woman herself. “What do you have in mind?”
I set her down, holding tightly to her until I was certain she was steady on her feet. “Dinner.” I kissed her neck. “Dessert.” I kissed her jaw. “You.” I kissed her lips, teasing my tongue inside her mouth.
She drew back breathlessly. “Your place or mine?” She didn’t miss a beat.
“Did I forget to mention wolves have supernatural senses? We hear everything.”
“My place it is. I’d rather not introduce myself that way.”
I couldn’t stop smiling. Damn, love was great. I didn’t care if that made me a fucking pussy. It only meant every other werewolf who’d found his mate was one too.
“How far away do you live?” I asked, my cock stirring quickly.
“Ten minutes.”
My groin tightened as her nipples pebbled against my stomach. “Hm. I don’t think I can wait that long. I think I might need a snack to hold me over.” I slid my fingers between her plump folds, grazing her clit.
Her eyes widened, even as they darkened. She bit her lower lip, bowing into my hands. I could tell she’d bit back a moan.
The predator within me surfaced again. I smiled wide. “I definitely need a snack.” I dropped to my knees in front of her.
She startled. “What are you doing?”
“Grabbing a snack.” I winked at her.
She appeared stricken, but the excitement blazing in her eyes was undeniable. “But…” She shook her head, looking towards the shower curtain. “Oh- Holy crap! Anyone could have walked in.”
Oh, she was adorable. “I locked the door, sweetie. There’s probably a line of pissed off women ready to kick it down.”
She tried to contain her smile. “I hope some of those buff guys out there are your friends.”
I laughed. “They’re more than that. I’m their alpha.”
She chewed on her lip. I loved the vivacity shining in her eyes. I loved that she didn’t try to cover herself up. I loved that she felt safe to be herself with me. It was an honor. “Think they can hold them off long enough for me to have a snack too?”
I groaned, pressed my forehead against her soft stomach. “I love you.”
Just as before, she glided her fingers through my hair. “I…” She gave a nervous chuckle. “I don’t know how, but…” She sighed, as if accepting whatever truth she was about to say. “I love you too.”
I jerked up. I hadn’t expected her to say those words so soon. I didn’t think humans were capable of loving as swiftly as wolves were, but she showed no signs of misgiving. She was telling the truth. She loved me.
They’d never be able to hurt her again, anyone. Those four words, the sincere fright in her voice at the admission, squeezed my heart, made me want to fight harder for her, work harder to prove that I’d never be like them, whoever they were.
I cupped her face, wanting to reassure her. “I love you, Anna.”
She met my gaze with confidence. “I know.” She smiled wide; mischief gave her a beautiful glow. “Now get your snout south and make me howl, Jayce.”
Damn right I loved this girl. Thank you, Nature. “Oh, you’re going to be howling all night, baby.”
And damn did she howl that night, and every night thereafter.
—
*****
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CONTROLLED BY TWO
Christin Lovell
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CONTROLLED BY TWO
Copyright © 2013 by Christin M Lovell
Cover Image © Viorel Sima
Cover Image © CURAPhotography
Cover Image © TheModernCanvas
This book may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
All characters and storylines are the property of the author and your support and respect is appreciated. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
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CONTROLLED BY TWO
Sassy, plus size Callie is down on her luck, but not on love…if she will finally let the two men of her life in.
Jay and Eddie have lusted after their curvy mate since the day they met her in high school. What started out as a rivalry between the two quickly died under Callie’s resistance, forcing them to work together in their quest to possess all of the buxom beauty. Their days are tense, but their nights under the same roof as Callie are tenser.
Can Callie learn to let go of her two best friends in an effort to gain two soul mates? Can two alphas get past their possessive nature and learn to share on a permanent basis? Hold on to your seats because things are about to get heated.
—
Controlled by Two
Chapter One
CALLIE
I stared down into my coffee cup, biting back the tears. I was certain my coffee was cold by now. I hadn’t taken a sip in nearly half an hour. I was just biding my time, waiting until I could pull myself together well enough to face them. I didn’t want to alarm them. I didn’t want to ruin their day.
Jay and Eddie had been there for me from the day we met in high school. They were my best friends. According to them, I was their mate. Whatever that means.
Oh, did I forget to mention that they’re werewolves? They’re alphas to be exact.
We live in a city, a city that warrants two packs; a city that spans too many miles with lack of a modern metropolitan transport system. We live in hell…or so it feels a good nine months out of the year. We live in a place global families flock to; a place where retirees and South Americans have turned migration into an art form.
We live in Orlando, Florida, in the middle of the devil’s fire pit, as Eddie says.
Another swell of tears rushed me. I swallowed hard, wiping my fingers across my cheeks incessantly. A brief glimpse around the small Starbucks showed no one was paying attention to the fat girl crying in the corner.
Yeah, I’m the fat girl, have been most of my life. It’s what made me appreciate Jay and Eddie even more. They treated me as an equal, as if my outer beauty was on par with theirs. They loved me just the way I was.
I couldn’t say the same for many of my past boyfriends. They never lingered once they met Jay and Eddie though. If I wanted to determine a man’s lasting ability, I introduced him to my two roommates. Typically, they were gone within a week.
I wished a boyfriend stayed long enough to warrant my tears. No, today I was crying out of frustration, major pent up anger.
It took me six years to earn my Bachelor’s Degree. I had a massive amount of student loan debt and after six months, I still didn’t have a job to begin paying the upcoming first month. You sacrifice your social life; you suffer endless, sleepless nights studying for exams with the jaded idea that it will all pay off. It didn’t, and I couldn’t help but feel like I wasted the last six years of my life.
Worse, Jay and Eddie insisted that I not work while earning my degree. Each pack has its own business. Upon graduation, they were immediately gainfully employed. When they reached the age of twenty-one, they fought for their alpha status, simultaneously earning the CEO position of their companies. For Jay, that meant at the packs digital media marketing firm; for Eddie, that meant running a multi-million dollar software development company. They were both successful in their own rights. They worked hard; they earned their positions and were brilliant at what they did. Two years ahead of me in school, they paved their paths to success.
I didn’t have their connections though, nor did I have a brain for computers or business. I was a psychology major with an emphasis on criminal psychology. I wanted to be a detective. I wanted to study crime scenes from a new vantage point: the killer’s perspective. I wanted to get ins
ide the suspects’ heads and work the cases backwards from there. I wanted a position that wasn’t available across ten counties.
I’d given up on a career in criminal justice by month two. Now, I spun my degree for high school and college counselor positions, to magazines and newspapers as an investigative journalist, to many other potential employers offering employment titles I never thought I’d have to entertain.
I was single minded, focused in my studies. Jay and Eddie were single minded, focused on getting me through those studies. They were amazing mentors, but after six months with only two second interviews and no other call backs, I couldn’t help but feel like a failure. I could handle failing myself, after all, I’d allowed myself to get to the weight I was; that was a failure in and of itself, but I couldn’t handle telling them that I’d botched my chances again. I couldn’t face their hopeful expressions when I walked in the door knowing their features would cloud up and their eyes would hold sympathy, moments later.
They’d helped me so much, especially financially over the past six years, and after six months, I couldn’t even begin to repay them. I felt like one of their buckle bunnies; you know, the typical gold diggers who practically stalked them. The big difference was I didn’t want to be one. I felt sick knowing how much money they’d spent on rent, groceries, and shuttling me places. I felt worse knowing that every day I wasn’t working, I was costing them more.
I sighed, closing my eyes, fighting back the urge to crumble, more so than I already was. A degree was supposed to empower me. The guys were so happy at my graduation ceremony. They hollered and whistled, embarrassing my conservative parents and me when my name was called. They were so proud of me. They made me feel amazing, as if school was this grand accomplishment to celebrate. I thought it was too, at the time. Fifty-seven interviews and zero job offers later, my past, my college graduation, was now a tainted memory.
—
Chapter Two
JAY
I speed dialed Eddie. It’d been hours since Callie left for her interview. Usually she called one of us by now. I couldn’t help but feel anxious. My wolf paced, his tail swishing like an aggravated feline. He didn’t like the absence of his mate. I had to agree.
“Hey,” Eddie answered in a rushed greeting. I could tell he was on the move, walking briskly somewhere.
“Where are you?”
“A few blocks from my office.” The street traffic became louder. “You heard from her yet?”
“Nah. That’s why I was calling.”
He stopped moving. I knew he was frowning; I just knew him after all these years of friendship. “Damn.” He expelled a heavy sigh. “She doesn’t say anything, but I know she’s frustrated.”
“You’re preachin’ to the choir, man.” I rubbed my forehead, trying not to worry. “Where do you think she is?”
“My guess? Probably hiding out somewhere. She really wanted this job.” He began moving again, faster than before.
I listened closely as he sniffed the air around him. “You smell her?”
“Smell and see her.” A low growl erupted from him, setting me further on edge. My wolf was instantly on high alert. “She’s in the Starbucks at the south end of downtown. Shit, man. I can tell she’s been crying from across the street. You better get down here.”
“Be there in five.” I hung up before he could reply.
We were on the same page when it came to Callie. She was our mate, our shared mate. We’d accepted it a long time ago and had worked together since to make her as happy as possible. Unfortunately, these last few months, nothing that we did seemed to change her defeated disposition.
Grabbing my keys off the rack, I bypassed the questioning gazes from my pack members as I raced out of my office. My wolf and I fought for control through ten blocks of traffic until I spotted the Starbucks, the tension mounting in my muscles the closer I got to her.
—
Chapter Three
CALLIE
I swallowed hard, taking a deep breath as I lifted my head. I jumped at the sight of Eddie, standing beside the table. His features were turned down as he watched me.
Dark hair touched his brow, brows that framed chocolate eyes. His lips were mashed together; his strong jaw clenched as his nostrils flared. Muscled arms flexed as he tightly gripped the back of the chair beside me. He was upset. It was too late. He’d already seen all I was trying to hide from Jay and him.
I bit my lower lip, sucking it tightly between my teeth. I had hoped the pain would keep the tears from welling again, but it didn’t. Damn it.
I quickly turned my head, gazing out the window. I wanted to chastise myself for sitting near the window, but I knew he would have found me regardless. Wolves apparently have the scenting ability of highly trained police dogs. According to the guys, they could pick my scent blindly out of a crowd.
The chair slid out beside me. His presence engulfed me; his warmth surrounded me. I wrung my hands together, fighting not to fall into his arms like I always did.
“Come here, sweetie.” He didn’t wait for my reply; he jerked my chair closer, enveloping me in his arms. Kisses rained down on my head. “It’s gonna be okay, sweetie. You’ll find something soon, and it’ll be better than this job ever could have been.”
I didn’t trust myself to speak. I was barely containing my sobs, barely stopping myself from making a spectacle of myself. I simply nodded my head, willfully trying to pacify him as he tried to pacify me.
“Why don’t you let me buy you dinner?” He ran a gentle hand up and down my back.
“You buy all my dinners,” I bluntly stated.
“Hey, not all of ‘em.”
I jerked my head up to find my other roommate, a Channing Tatum double with a wicked pair of green eyes, gazing intensely at me.
Jay pulled out the chair across from me. He was still dressed in the suit I chose for him this morning; his cropped brown hair was a bit disheveled, as if he’d been running his fingers through it all afternoon. Either that or he banged one of his gold diggers on his lunch break…
I cut my eyes at Eddie. “Really? You couldn’t leave me a semblance of my pride?”
He merely stared at me, quietly watching me.
“I was worried,” Jay said, running his finger along the side of my coffee cup, testing the temperature.
My stomach chose that moment to growl. Heat touched my cheeks as I tried not to look directly at either of them.
Eddie sighed. “Why didn’t you eat?”
Keeping my gaze averted, I shrugged my shoulders.
“Callie, baby, we gave you the card for days like this.” Jay touched my forearm briefly before pulling back.
The last of my ego ruffled my confidence to the surface. “I hate using that card. Anytime I have to use it, it’s a reminder that I’m not self sufficient, that I’m a liability rather than an asset. Plus, it wasn’t like I was going to waste away if I waited until I got home. Even there you technically paid for my meal, but at least I don’t have to swipe that card to open the fridge.”
“So, let me get this straight. You’re okay swiping that card for coffee, but not for food?” I heard the agitation in Jay’s voice.
His accusation stung. I knew my eyes were wide and glossy as I faced Jay, momentarily stunned. I drew my brows down, glaring at him, grinding my teeth. A mix of emotions sat in my chest, tarnishing my shield. “The coffee was free. I had a reward on my Starbucks card.” I hated that my voice cracked in several places.
Jay winced, masking his reaction beyond that. For a brief moment, I saw the apology in his eyes. I knew he didn’t mean to upset me. Jay was the crass one of the group, the one who spoke without thinking. In business, it made him slick. In his personal life, namely with me, it kept up the love-hate thing we’d had since the day we met.
The guys exchanged looks. I hated when they did that. They silently communicated; they made decisions without me. They took control of every situation with an exchange like this.
A few seconds later, they both faced me.
“Let’s go, Callie Cat.” Jay winked, standing and grabbing my coffee. He frowned, shaking his head in dismay as he registered the weight as a full cup.
“A big, juicy steak sounds good to me. What about you?” Eddie smiled easily, moving from his chair. He extended a hand to help me up from mine.
I declined, shaking my head negatively. I gathered my purse and shoved out of my chair, immediately pushing it against the table. I knew at this point, there was no use arguing with them. They were stubborn wolves, willing to allow their wolves to surface if I dared to decline.
—
Chapter Four
EDDIE
Every protective instinct in me roared to the surface. We hadn’t said anything, but the tear stains on her round, flushed cheeks were obvious, if the fresh ones in the basin of her eyes weren’t proof enough. We didn’t need physical proof though. We scented and sensed her emotions long before she ever revealed them. It was part of being our mate.
We’d tried on several occasions to convince our buxom mate that she was meant for us, that we wanted more than friendship. She declined us every time, dismissing our advances. Repeatedly we were forced into the friend zone to the point that we gave up. The elders and our parents assured us she would come around. They continually reiterated that it was different for a human, especially a human woman.
Jay discarded her full cup of coffee. I didn’t need to pick it up to know she hadn’t drunk much, if any. When Callie was upset, she rejected anything of substance. She claimed she didn’t want to become an emotional eater, that she was big enough already.
There was nothing that set me off quicker than hearing her degrade herself. She was a gorgeous woman. She wasn’t a thin, petite wafer; she was a sturdy and curvy woman. She had rounded edges that fit perfectly within a man’s palm. When she wore her hair down, her brown locks cascading around her face, falling just beyond her shoulders, my fingers itched to slip between her strands and cradle her head as I kissed her insecurities away. The tight bun she wore now beckoned me to unravel it. Her honey brown eyes seemed more playful, more sensual when her hair was free.