“Unexpected is the word I’d use.” His voice…her supremacy almost faltered, almost wavered at the sound of it. Was he using some new kind of ploy, some odd magic she’d never encountered, to confuse the wolf?
“Your name,” she snapped. Her annoyance surged, since she wasn’t sure what she dealt with and she might have to handle him differently than most rogues trespassing on her lands.
In further show of his ceding to her superiority, the man collapsed at her feet. Not quite belly up, but damned close. Sharing a glance with Charley, she saw the confusion on her second’s face and couldn’t answer it. Yes, she should be tearing into him rather than continuing to talk, but she couldn’t explain something she didn’t understand herself. Shrugging, she gestured to the man and then down the alley—knowing Charley would understand she wanted to take him back to headquarters.
The man answered, fingers twitching against the brick as he lay on his side at her feet. “Lynwood Pierce. Look, about trespassing on your pack property…”
Charley kicked the stranger, and Dara flinched. When her beta gave her a wide eyed expression, obviously worried he’d overstepped somehow, she shook her head at him. He’d done his job. There was no logical reason for her or her wolf to be bugged because they’d kicked a rogue trespasser.
But aloud, she simply pretended bravado she didn’t feel, not even a little. “I think we’ll go someplace more private to talk, if that is okay with you, Lynwood.”
Striding away, she was sure Charley would bring along their captured enemy. Plus, if she turned her back on them, neither of the male wolves would know she battled nausea because they’d hurt Lynwood Pierce, whoever the hell he was.
CHAPTER Two
Licking his lips, Lynwood tasted blood. Knowing they’d knocked him out to haul him to wherever he was wasn’t altogether surprising, but they didn’t have to bust his lip to do it. Then again, since he wasn’t sure why they’d taken him—most packs simply showed him the hypothetical door, albeit with force, then left him alone—perhaps he shouldn’t focus on minutia like a bloody lip.
He scented her as soon as he’d woken, a far more disturbing truth considering how quickly and thoroughly she’d put him down in the alley. He could smell her, but couldn’t see her, which should’ve disturbed him far more than her presence somewhere in the darkness. Scraping his boot against the ground, he recognized two things in rapid succession.
For one, the floor felt like cement. For two, the sound of his foot against it echoed in the space, meaning it was a big room. Perhaps a parking garage? Blinking, he allowed his wolf to peer out, but the beast could see no more in the perfect darkness than the man. Closing his eyes, since they were useless, he decided to try out some of his more trustworthy senses.
A dripping, somewhere to his left. A leaky roof or a faucet? He couldn’t tell, but he could smell wet rust, which suggested the faucet idea held credence. Aside from her smell, he didn’t smell dust or mold, furthering his parking garage or perhaps warehouse supposition. Years on his own told him they couldn’t have good intentions for him, not since they’d taped him to a chair and roughed him up.
Yet the only other wolf he sensed nearby was her—the tiny alpha woman, petite in stature yet rippling with power. Trapped in darkness and helpless in a chair, yet neither he nor his wolf battled any real fear. Waves of her power washed over him with the constant battering resilience of water to a beach. Although his wolf admitted her dominance, he didn’t fear her.
Likely a sentiment he’d find fatal pretty quickly, but the man couldn’t seem to work up the proper resentment for the accepted truth of the animal.
“Look, sweetheart? We both know I’m awake and you’re in control, but could you spare a drink of water? Because my mouth tastes like blood and is dry, and the dripping I can hear isn’t helping any.” There, his voice didn’t betray his illogical reaction to her, or at least he hoped it didn’t.
“You’re hardly in a position to request favors.” Her voice seemed to strip him bare, the acid in her tone actually painful to him for some reason.
A bright light shone on his face and he blinked, blinded. Trying to turn away from it didn’t help since she’d duct taped him to a damned chair. “I realize that. Again, you’ve got all the cards, sweetheart. I haven’t fought against you, not even a little…and I didn’t ask you to let me go.” He didn’t ask, but he worked to free himself. It wasn’t his first time getting taped up, so he knew patience would better serve him than panicked tugging at his restraints.
The light winked out, leaving a sheen of red with a brilliant white spot burned on the back of his eyeballs. Though he couldn’t see her, he heard her movement moments before her hand cupped the back of his head. “Drink, then.”
He couldn’t, leaving it to dribble down his chin before he managed to control himself to the point of swallowing. Her touch—the feel of her fingertips in his hair so near his scalp—scraped him to the core. There was something about this female…
The untainted water proved cool and refreshing as it trickled down his dry throat. Her nearness lasted a few seconds longer before she vanished again, and he couldn’t track her in the darkness. She was soundless in her movements, but perhaps she was off to his left a little.
“You said your name was Lynwood…” The sound of her words came from his right and he snapped toward direction. But then he heard her breathing, as if she stood right behind him. The conflicting guesses at her location left his wolf spinning, panicking past the hypnotic sound of her voice.
“Yes,” he said. The man worked to still and calm the beast, forcing instinct down in favor of calm logic. “My name is Lynwood Pierce and I understand that I’ve trespassed on your turf, but—”
Her breath washed over him when she spoke, her face so close he could practically feel her lips move with her words. “There aren’t any buts, Lynwood, you trespassed.”
Swallowing hard, he bit his lip. The temptation to lean forward and capture her lips shivered through him, a need almost as important as breathing. Again, the man worked to overrule the wolf so he could speak. “You’re right, of course, sweetheart.”
Her palm met his cheek with a resounding slap. “Stop calling me that. I’m Alpha and will be addressed as such.”
“Fine, Alpha Sweetheart, I’m sorry I upset you with my presence.”
Her second slap left him smiling. She might hit him, but her touching him pleased him on levels he couldn’t begin to explain to himself. “You’re pushing it, Lynwood,” she advised, tone grave.
With only the darkness to see, his mind offered more interesting things for him to picture. He imagined her spread before him, body arching in pleasure, while he did push it—in and out of her while she screamed his name. “You have no idea how much I’m restraining myself, sweetheart.”
Again, her palm and his face, but he spit blood this time. Perhaps if she hit him hard enough, she’d knock some sense into his obviously demented wolf.
“Why are you here? Which pack are you from, rogue?”
“None. I quit the pack system a long time ago, and I have no desire to join club doggie, so if that is your only concern, we’re both wasting our time.”
She didn’t slap him this time. Instead, her hand grasped his hair, tugging his head back. He felt her breath wash over his throat, a sure sign she could sink her fangs into his weakest spot to draw life’s blood.
He sighed, wolf and man agreed in their acceptance of her dominance.
Releasing him with a jerk, she paced away. Since she’d been so silent before, did she battle the same conflicting emotions as him? Or was she simply letting him hear her movement as a prize for his submission?
“You said you were restraining yourself, Lynwood, yet I sense no dominance in you. Are you that controlled? And what are you doing with your voice?”
He shut his eyes again to resist trying to see in the utter darkness. Breathing deep and counting his breaths to calm his heart, he finally spoke when her steps a
gain receded from his side. “I’m restraining myself because I’m reacting to you in a way I don’t exactly understand, sweetheart. As to my voice, I honestly have no clue what you mean.”
Her fist caught him this time, rocking his head back as she rapped his jaw in a smooth and no doubt practiced punch. Pain ricocheted from the point of impact down his spine and he wiggled his jaw to try to work past it to think.
“I smell your lie, stranger, so you might as well tell the truth. More lies will only equal more pain.” The coldness in her voice suggested she wasn’t playing around.
His pulse throbbed—almost as hard as his cock. The illogic of being turned on when she seemed intent on only his pain and submission helped him think. Dissonance jangled within his mind because what he felt and what he should feel were so opposite. “It wasn’t a lie exactly, sweetheart. We both know you’re exaggerating when you call it an untruth, so I might ask you why bother…due to that undeniable fact.”
Her silence answered him. It seemed she’d abandoned him to the darkness, which bothered the man, yet the wolf refused to believe it. The wolf could still sense her, teasing threads of her scent making the animal scrape inside him in frustration the man didn’t understand.
“If not a lie…” She was close again, her breath feathering his face. “Then explain why it wasn’t a truth. Perhaps I’ll reward you for your compliance.”
Considering the only reward both man and wolf craved was a taste of her lips, he doubted it. “What I thought when I answered was, I’m not doing anything with my voice, but if you’re an iota as affected by the sound of my voice as I am yours, I sympathize.”
The sound of her sucking in a breath might have been her revealing surprise, but he couldn’t be sure. Light flooded the room, proving he was indeed in some kind of abandoned parking garage. Weeds grew up in cracks in the floor, yet they seemed to have given up and died in the dark—brown carcasses shriveled and limp against cracked and faint traces of old paint. The alpha stood on the other side of the room, hand still holding a switch which apparently controlled the overhead florescent lights. In a move so fast, he struggled to track it, she returned to his side.
Powerful. The tiny alpha held much power in her small frame, an idea which turned him on in the same twisted way her baring his throat hardened his cock instead of causing fear. “So, is this the part where you tell me to get the hell off your lands and not to come back?”
Lips curled in derision, she shook her head. “I’d planned to, but I’ve changed my mind.”
He arched his brows. “Really?”
***
Any other time, she would have simply told him to leave and stay the hell out. Any smart alpha surely would tell him so, if they bothered to speak to a rogue at all—after beating the shit out of him to ensure he wouldn’t consider trying his luck by stepping foot on her lands ever again.
Yet…
Something about the man sent her wolf in a tizzy. The animal paced inside her, restless. Since she’d mastered her wolf long before she became Alpha, the woman couldn’t quite figure out why the animal suddenly seemed so contradictory in her desires.
It was as if her skin, always so damned comfortable, didn’t quite fit anymore. On one hand, she wanted him the hell out as he marked a threat against her rulership over these lands and wolves. Rogues didn’t belong on pack lands, period. It wasn’t ever something she’d learned exactly, it was common knowledge to the point of being base instinct.
But in a most peculiar turn of events, she didn’t want him to leave. The wolf wanted to rub up against him, to mark him with scent as hers. The wolf wanted to bite his bared neck when she’d twisted his head back…but not to maim, to mark.
If she’d been smart, she would’ve chased him until he got the hell out of her space. Instead? “You can stay, however if I hear a hint about you going near my wolves or encroaching on my lands, I’ll gut you like a fish. Are we clear, rogue?”
The man tilted his head at her, busted lip bleeding slightly. She again realized how handsome he was in this form. Mocha dark, his skin reminded her of sweet things she wanted to taste. The ebony of his eyes seemed almost fathomless, the kind of darkness to curl up in and find rest and solace. From the broad cast of his shoulders to his aristocratic face, everything about this man attracted her.
His scent reeked of a lust to match her ludicrous desires, which didn’t help her clamp down on the wolf’s readiness to boink him ten ways from Tuesday. What kind of sick fuck sat duct taped to a chair and thought about sex?
Her new stray, apparently. While he sucked on the lip she’d ordered bloody, she imagined crawling into his lap and pleasing them both.
Ridiculous. She’d be better off with him far from her lands and people.
“Crystal clear. Do you have a name, sweetheart?”
Shaking her head at his audacity, she narrowed her eyes at him. “Alpha.”
“As you wish, Alpha Sweetheart. Stay away from your wolves, don’t step out of line, understood.”
“You agree?”
He nodded.
“I’m going to be watching you. It might be smart for you to pack up and go, because you’re not welcome here. I give you my word, I will be watching your every move for the slightest step out of line. I will personally punish you for any perceived crossing of boundaries with extreme prejudice. You understand me, correct?”
His smile was awfully bright in his dark face, the sincere twist of lips causing her to shiver all over. If she didn’t know better, she’d define his expression as one of sexual promise.
“I understand. You’ll be watching. I’ll look forward to it.”
Snarling in frustration, she headed away from him. The more distance between her and the wolf, the better.
Charley waited aboveground, filing his nails as usual. “He still alive?”
She nodded, looking into the distance where the sun began to make its way toward sunrise. Winter was coming, the smell of the wind warning of a long and dangerous freeze. “He is. Give me time to leave then release him.”
“Release him?” Charley dropped the file. As he bent to pick it up, Dara watched.
Once he’d again met her gaze, she made her order both a verbal and a non-verbal command. “Release him on his own recognizance. I’ll watch him, see why he’s here. Unless I change my orders, all wolves are to steer clear of him and cut him a wide berth. He’s not here, they don’t see him, and they certainly don’t interact with him.”
“Understood, Alpha.” Charley’s head bowed, wolf and man giving her unquestioning obedience—exactly as she preferred it.
Stripping, she packed her clothes into a bundle and then tried to run from the tangled cocktail of emotions her new rogue wakened. The man was trouble. She should have either killed him or banished him.
So why had she kept him?.
CHAPTER Three
Living in the south for his entire life, he’d never seen anything quite as breathtaking as the blanket of icy white coating everything. Drivers on the news were complaining about the rain prior to the snowfall, saying it made roads icy and dangerous, but all Lynwood saw was a world turned into a snow globe. The very air smelled different, a cleanness to the frozen earth which winter in his home lands never quite managed.
Though he could feel the chill through his furry wolf coat, the under layer of hair seemed to provide insulation as nature intended and only the pads of his paws really found the cold in anyway uncomfortable.
But not running. Once he began to stretch his muscles, practically flying across the marshmallow fluff, the cold didn’t bother him in the least. Skidding to a stop, he simply smiled up at mother moon, glowing down at him in full bodied approval as if she knew he danced in her illumination.
The glory of it enchanted him. So charmed by the landscape, in fact, he didn’t at first notice the tendrils of scent blending with the rich bouquet of forest and night. He startled when he finally registered what his nose tried to tell him.
; Pack. And they were close. He’d managed to make it nearly a month without picking up the tiniest whiff of them, so he tensed at this hint of their presence. Part of him claimed this forest, some tiny territorial shard of his ancestors which still beat in his blood in a warning.
But most of him, although he walked in wolf form, recognized the foolishness of his instinct. Bunching his muscles, he tried to stealthily creep away from them while remaining downwind. The last thing he wanted was to raise the hackles of the local alpha. Although she’d humored him and allowed him to stay, he understood her acceptance was conditional and attempted not to tromp her list of rules and regulations to stay on her lands.
Once he’d managed to get far enough away to no longer scent them, he rested on his haunches and considered the night again. No sooner had he rested, though, than the wolf barreled out of the night and tumbled him to his side. When teeth snapped near his muzzle, he turned away, scrabbling to regain his feet.
But then he breathed in her scent.
Wolf smiled, as much as he could, and Lynwood’s joy rose. Illogical, since her snapping maul would likely draw blood in seconds, but it was her.
Alpha Sweetheart.
Planting a paw on her chest, he let his tongue loll out and relaxed. If she’d intended to kill him, she would’ve done it instead of snarling. She snorted, disgust clear on her lupine face, and leapt away from him. Rolling to his side, he simply looked at her.
Stunning. Her coat was black and white, shadows carved in moonlight. The vibrant blueish gold of her eyes, beautiful in the human woman, seemed an almost startling hue in the animal. The very tip of her tail wagged, the only movement in her otherwise proud stance, the motion a show of dominance which caused his nostrils to flood with the scent of her.
Lying on his back in the snow, his tail wagged too. To the right—proof he was happy to see her and couldn’t keep the fullness of his joy inside. She shook her head, still obviously not impressed with him. Rolling to his feet, he kept his head low and twitched an ear to face her.
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