Claimed by the New Alpha

by Candace Ayers

  I didn’t buy into it for a second. I’d talked a little bit to Carolyn about her husband. She told me that when it’s right, it’s right. She’d been drawn to her husband the same way that that I was drawn to Alex. Unexplainably. Inexplicably. Unrelentingly. As crazy as it was that I’d stumbled upon Alex, it was right. She’d also told me how my leaving five months ago had affected him. She was certain that Alex felt as strongly about me as I did about him.

  “Does your ass get jealous of the shit that comes out of your mouth? If you’re going to bully someone, I suggest you don’t try to pull it on a girl who grew up in the streets of DC. Now, I’m going to excuse myself. Good luck with everything.”

  I walked away from him and headed in the direction that I’d seen Alex go. We needed to talk.

  It’d been a while since he’d left and I figured he’d be on his way back before too long. I’d just meet him on the road.

  I hiked up the road and found Alex’s truck parked off to the side. His clothes were thrown on the hood of the truck and my heart began racing in my chest. Why are his clothes off? What could he be doing that required him to take all of his clothes off? I suddenly had flashbacks of seeing Sam bopping the read-head in the bed of his truck. My stomach sunk to my knees.

  With images dancing in my head of Alex having sex out there with some floozy up against a tree, I let my pregnancy hormones drive me. I crept through the woods, a small trail of tears streaming down my face—angry, scared, hurt tears. I’d been so sure of our connection just minutes before, and there I was, creeping through the woods in an effort to catch him with his pants down. Off. His pants were already off. I’d catch that bastard in the act.

  I heard movement up ahead and stepped behind a big tree. I knew I looked crazy and I felt even crazier, but something wasn’t right.

  After a few seconds, I peeked my head around the tree and let out a blood-curdling scream. Standing less than six feet from me was the biggest bear I’d ever seen. The only bear I’d ever seen, face to face anyway.

  It just stood staring at me. There was something about its face that made it look annoyed, but that had to be more of my hysteria. I was going to die, and I blamed Alex’s. If he’d only kept his pants on, things would’ve turned out differently.

  Trembling, I made a move to step backwards. The bear grunted at me and reached its paw out. I suddenly feared, not for myself, but for my unborn baby. I snapped. I reached out and slapped its paw away. “You are not eating me. Not today. I have a baby in here and I will beat your furry ass to keep him safe if I have to.”

  It backed up a step hoping to slowly make my getaway, but suddenly, the bear was gone, and Alex appeared in its spot, naked and grinning. “You’d beat up a grizzly bear for our cub?”

  CHAPTER 17: Elizabeth

  I blinked a few times. Was I still alive? Oh, no, was I hallucinating?

  “Wha… what just happened?”

  Alex looked sheepish. He ran a hand through his hair and blew out a long, slow breath. “No more secrets.”

  I leaned against the tree. My mind was slowly trying to make sense of what I’d just seen. If I didn’t know any better, I would have sworn that there was a bear in front of me who had just… become Alex.

  One second, bear. Next second, Alex.

  “I’m sorry, Elizabeth. I didn’t want you to find out like this. My bear just smelled you and came towards you. He smelled you sad and angry and came running.”

  “Your…bear.” Funny thing is, I knew what he meant. He didn’t mean it as in, the bear that he keeps around these woods as a pet. No, he meant it as in, the bear that he is.

  I shook my head to clear it and then stared deeply into his golden brown eyes. Alex, the guy that I’d somehow fallen in love with in a matter of hours. Alex, the bear-man. Man-bear? Something in my brain snapped back into place and I reached out and smacked him.

  “I thought you were cheating on me! I saw your clothes and your truck and thought I was going to find you out here with another woman!”

  He raised an eyebrow. “I just revealed that I’m a bear shifter and you’re pissed because you thought I was cheating?”

  “You… you scared the hell out of me. I just verbally whipped your brother for even suggesting you didn’t care about me, and then I come out here and thought I’d find you… the way I did Sam. I was scared. Terrified.”

  “Which one?”

  “Huh?”

  “You had words with my brother? Which one?”

  “Matt. He’s an ass.”

  “Did he touch you?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Does it matter? Can we get back to the issue at hand? What the hell is a bear shifter? Am I dead? I feel like this whole thing is surreal.”

  Alex caught my shoulders and pulled me against his naked body. He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. “I’m a bear shifter. And no, you’re not dead. Feel my heartbeat?”

  I pressed my ear to his chest and listened to it racing. “Why is it going so fast?”

  “Because I’m afraid you’re going to run from me again.”

  I leaned away from him and shook my head. “I’m still here.”

  “I’m a shifter. I can turn into a bear…”

  It actually all made sense. As much something like this could make sense. I’d seen his eyes take on an inhuman glow multiple times. I knew there had to be something special about him that would explain that. I just never in my wildest dreams could have imagined it would be—this. I’d watched True Blood like half of the rest of the country. I knew what shifters were. I just didn’t know they actually existed. Like in real life. “Do it again.”

  He moved away from me and in a blur of movement, his body contorted and he was a bear again. He huffed and went down on all fours so he was closer to my height. He was huge. Ginormous.

  I reached out and slowly rested my hand on his head.

  “Holy shit.”

  He made a sound that was so similar to laughter that I couldn’t help but laugh myself. I stroked his head and neck, feeling the coarse hair beneath my fingertips. This was either real or it was hands down the most vivid dream I’d ever had.

  “This is amazing, Alex. Can you understand me?”

  He huffed again and nuzzled his face against me. A small flutter in my stomach surprised me and I looked down at it with shock on my face.

  Alex was instantly standing next to me again. “What’s wrong?”

  “He just kicked, I think. It’s early, though. When you put your face against my belly, he moved.” I laughed. “Is he going to come out a bear?”

  He looked appalled. “Of course, not!”

  I laughed even harder. It was all so crazy. “I’m kidding, Alex. He will be like you, though, right?”

  He nodded and watched me curiously. “He will. And one day he will feel the same pull towards someone as I feel towards you. My whole family is like this. I’ll explain everything better later.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, you will.”

  “How are you taking this so well?”

  “I don’t know. I think all of this has just been crazy enough that I’m more stunned than anything. Maybe I’ll freak out later. Maybe I won’t. How do people normally take this news?”

  He touched my cheek. “People don’t normally find out. That’s why the town was so closed up when you got here. It’s a big secret to keep.”

  I pouted. “But they were nice to Sam.”

  At the mention of Sam’s name, Alex growled and pulled me into his chest. “Mine.”

  I nipped at his chest. “Were you trying to eat me earlier? Is that a thing?”

  His laughter rang out loud and clear through the forest.

  “No. We do not eat people. There is something I wanted to explain to you, though. About mates.”

  “Mates? Bailey used that word. Are we mates?”

  “Yes. Mates are just like they sound. Soulmates. You were meant for me and I was meant for you. I could feel it the very first time I laid eyes on you
at the rodeo. I knew you were mine.”

  I kissed him then, desperate to feel something solid. “What does it mean?”

  He kissed me back. “It means that we’re going to be together for a long time. It means that I love you, and that my heart belongs to you.”

  I grinned up at him. “This is all so insane and I’m sure you’ll have to explain it all a million times to me later, but right now, I just want to be close to you. As close as I can get.”

  He ripped the straps of my dress and pushed it off my shoulders. With a predatory look on his face, he pushed me against the tree. “As close as possible?”

  My body reacted instantly, the same way it had this morning and three months ago. Maybe it was the mate thingy, or maybe it was just how hot Alex was. I couldn’t be sure, but either way, I wanted him. “What did you want to explain to me about mates? I have about two more minutes of listening before I’m tackling you and having my way with you.”

  He pushed my dress up over my belly and hips, over my head, and let it fall to the ground. His fingers cupped my sex and his mouth landed on my neck. “This. Mates claim each other. I wasn’t trying to eat you earlier. I was fighting the instinct to claim you as mine. Everything in me is screaming at me to mark you so no one else ever thinks they can touch you again.”

  His lips felt amazing against my skin and I was ready to agree to anything. “Is it a hickey?”

  He flicked his tongue over the same spot. “No. It’s a bite. It’s a bond between us.”

  “Will it hurt?”

  “Probably. It’ll be worth it, though.”

  I rocked my hips against his hand, trying to get him to rub my clit. “Do you still want to?”

  He scraped his teeth there and made me gasp with pleasure. “Fuck, yes. I’ve wanted to mark you as mine since that first night. It took everything in me not to do it.”

  I tilted my head farther to the side. “I want you to mark me. I want to be yours. Do I mark you?”

  He yanked my panties down and easily lifted me until my core hovered over his dick. “When I mark you, Elizabeth, everyone will know that I belong to you. You own my heart, little one.”

  I cried out as he dropped me slowly onto his shaft and pinned me against the tree. I dug my nails into his shoulders and held on. I wanted him more than anything. Nothing else mattered.

  Alex drove into me again and again, filling my body until I thought I couldn’t take anymore. “I’ve missed you so much. Never leave me again.”

  “My bear, make me yours.”

  My body was close already. Alex seemed like he was right there with me. His thrusts were erratic and his grip on my thighs punishing. I tilted my head to the side, inviting him to claim me. I wanted to be tied to him forever.

  Alex let out a roar louder than anything I’d ever heard and then sank his teeth into my neck. Stinging pain lasted for only a second before blinding pleasure filled me and I tumbled into the strongest orgasm of my life. I ripped my nails across his back as the pleasure shook me. Alex jerked into me once more before I felt his seed filling me.

  I felt him licking my neck but my head was so light that it just rolled back. My body felt like all my bones had been removed. I slumped against the tree behind me and mumbled his name.

  Alex held me tightly in his arms and lowered us both to the ground. He laid me on his chest and held me tight. “It’s okay, little one.”

  I lost track of how much time we’d been there, recovering, but the night had fallen without my noticing. I idly played with Alex’s hair and pressed kisses against his chest.

  “How do you feel?”

  I lifted my tired head to stare at him and gave him a satisfied grin. “Like I should’ve stayed here five months ago and kept doing that.”

  He grunted. “I should’ve tied you up and made you stay.”

  I flicked my tongue over his nipple. “You should’ve, mate.”

  Alex hardened under me and shifted us so that I was straddling him. “Are you too tired?”

  I grabbed him and then lowered myself onto him, filling myself with my mate. “Never.”

  He reached up and wrapped his hands over my breasts. “I love you like this. Ride me, Elizabeth.”

  Who was I to deny my mate? I leaned over him and kissed him long and hard. “I love you, bear.”

  “Always.”

  THE END