The Alpha's Heart (Wilde Creek Two)

by R. E. Butler

  He went to his knees and wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in her stomach, kissing her soft skin. He traced her bellybutton with his tongue and tried once more to calm the wolf, which demanded he move faster.

  After a long moment of simply kissing her belly, he found himself back in control and the wolf waiting, impatiently, for the moment when he could mark her. He undid her jeans and pushed them down her legs along with her panties. The sweet scent of her arousal surrounded him and he inhaled, leaning forward to kiss the top of her mound, where her trimmed, soft curls hid what he wanted to nuzzle and lick.

  With her hands on his shoulders, she stepped free of her shoes and clothes and he gave her a gentle nudge until she sat on the bed. Pushing her legs apart further with his hands, he settled between her knees and parted the lips of her pussy, growling at the evidence of her arousal.

  He’d planned to be slow and smooth, but one look at her glistening pussy combined with the scent of her arousal had him abandoning all his plans and falling on her like a starving man at a buffet. He licked her with one, long stroke and then he suckled her clit. The firm little bud pulsed under his tongue as he held it between his lips and flicked it with his tongue.

  Brynn moaned loudly and stretched back on the bed, her legs rubbing on his shoulders as he licked and sucked her clit. Raising his head slightly, he watched her as he slid two fingers inside her pussy. Her lips parted as she moaned and she struggled to keep her eyes open as they darkened with desire. Her pussy was hot and slick and his fingers plunged deep and fast as he circled her clit with his tongue.

  Her head lowered to the bed completely and her hands fisted the blanket as he fingered her pussy, rubbing her inner walls to find the place that would send her over the edge. Playing with her clit as he searched for her hot spot, he rubbed his tongue along each side and the sensitive top of the nub, finding each place that made her pussy clench his fingers. He would devil her spots for just a moment and then move on, not wanting to give her a light climax, but wanting to shatter her world.

  Curving his fingers inside her, he stroked and played while he licked her clit. She moaned loudly and then her moan hitched in the middle and he froze, rubbing his fingers in the same place and hearing the same hitch.

  Fucking finally.

  Moving his tongue in fast strokes along the side of her clit, he focused his fingers and rubbed that spot over and over. Her moans grew louder and her legs tightened against his shoulders as he fingered her faster and closed his lips over her clit, sucking the bud into his mouth and flicking his tongue over the top.

  “Ack-sel, fuck, there, fuck,” she babbled, her breath hitching and her body trembling.

  He growled at the sound of his name on her lips and she screamed, crying out his name as her back bowed and she came. Her pussy tightened around his fingers and her clit pulsed against his tongue and his wolf howled in happiness. Easing the ministrations of his fingers in her pussy, he gentled her with soft caresses and kissed her clit, nuzzling the inside of her thigh as he slipped his fingers from her.

  She sank limply into the mattress with a groan and Acksel couldn’t stop the satisfied grin that overtook his face or the happy growl that rumbled in his chest. He’d pleasured his woman so well it looked like a bomb could go off next to her and she’d be unable to move.

  He stood, shoving his jeans and shorts down his hips and kicking them away. His movements were jerky and hurried as his wolf paced in his head. The beast had stayed back for most of the time, but now he knew that the moment to really mark her was coming soon.

  He put one knee on the bed and was surprised when she rolled to her knees suddenly and went on all fours. He joined her, trailing his fingers up the backs of her thighs.

  “Do you know how gorgeous you are?” he asked.

  She looked over her shoulder, her face flushed with passion, her eyes bright.

  “I love you.” Her voice was rough.

  “I love you too, sweetheart.”

  He stroked his hand on her back, running his palm along her spine. She arched like a cat under his touch. Gritting his teeth, he nudged her pussy with his cock, bracing himself for the tight heat that would envelope him and vowing that he wouldn’t come with the first stroke, no matter how good she felt.

  And then he plunged inside.

  Tight.

  Hot.

  Mine.

  His wolf howled as he thrust deep and Brynn moaned and clenched around him. He could have blacked out from the pleasure, it was so good. So perfect.

  Gripping her hips, he pulled out of her slowly, watching her tremble beneath him. He pushed forward but went slow this time, savoring each ripple of her pussy around his cock. His hands flexed on her hips as he set up a slow rhythm, wanting to both prolong the time and rush forward to completion. He willed his climax away, fighting his body’s natural response to want to fill her with his come and mark her completely.

  He rocked into her and she moved back to meet him with each thrust, her hands digging into the bedding and her little moans and groans spurring him on. Again and again he drove himself into her, looking down to watch his cock disappear into her silky depths. Loving the way she felt. The sounds she made. The perfection that was his mate.

  Mate.

  She was his. He just had to claim her.

  “Brynn.” He growled her name and her pussy gripped him tighter.

  She moaned his name and shoved herself back harder against him. He felt his control slipping but wanted her to be lost to pleasure before he marked her this time. He slid one hand to the front of her body as he fucked her and pressed on her clit with his middle finger.

  “Oh, oh,” she moaned, lowering herself down to her elbows and wiggling under him.

  “Come for me, baby.” It was a demand and a request rolled together.

  He moved faster within her and strummed her clit with the same fast tempo. He wanted her to come. He wanted to feel her pulse around him, to see her lost to the pleasure once more. The pleasure that he gave her. That only he could give her.

  His body slapped against hers as he drove them both forward. His gums ached as his fangs elongated in his mouth and his fingertips shifted slightly to claws. He rubbed her clit hard and fast with the pad of his finger as he thrust into her pussy with wild abandon.

  With a keening cry, Brynn wailed his name as her climax took over and he let himself go into his own pleasure. With a sharp growl, he plunged deep and came inside her and dropped over her back, fitting his mouth over the juncture of her neck and shoulder. His fangs slid through her flesh and he held her close as his cock emptied into her.

  Her blood seeped around his fangs and coated his tongue. He had marked her deeply. He lifted his fangs from her flesh and sealed his lips around the wound, sucking lightly and probing the torn flesh with his tongue. His saliva would help the wound to heal into the permanent scar that would show that she was his forever. Lapping gently at the mark, he eased away from her and she whimpered as his cock slipped free.

  Rolling to his back, he lifted her until she was cuddled on top of him, her head resting on his shoulder and her legs splayed on either side of his hips. Tossing the cover over top of them, he gentled her by stroking his palms up and down her back.

  “Love you, sweetheart,” he said in a low voice. He reached and turned off the lamp and the room was bathed in darkness.

  “Love you, too,” she answered, snuggling against him.

  “You’re my mate, Brynn,” he said. “Everything I have is yours. Move in with me.”

  She kissed his chest with a contented sigh. “Okay.”

  He chuckled and continued his stroking of her back until she fell asleep. It didn’t seem possible, but he’d finally gotten everything he’d ever wanted in his life. He had his mate in his bed, wearing his marks, and she was carrying his pup.

  Life was very good.

  Chapter 20

  Brynn opened a cabinet in Acksel’s home late Saturday morning, loo
king for a platter. Not that she expected him to actually have one, but she had been surprised more often than not over the last week with him, so she was willing to give it a shot.

  Nothing.

  After the trouble she’d had all week with the females, Acksel’s dad had suggested a party for the pack at Acksel’s house as a way to get everyone together in a less formal setting so she could get to know them. When she and Acksel had made love on Wednesday night he had mated her completely, and she had the bite marks to prove it. But according to pack law, she was not officially alpha female until the full moon, which was still about two weeks away.

  She wanted to believe that the females were just being bitchy, but each day stupid, small, shitty things kept happening to her and it was starting to grate on her. She didn’t want to spend the rest of her life being belittled. Acksel told her to take control and be bitchy right back and put them in their place — whoever they might be — but before this point, she hadn’t thought it was in her nature.

  Then Dade had taken the shift of driving her to work on Thursday and Friday and he made the observation that once the baby was born, if she wasn’t really, fully accepted, then the baby wouldn’t be either. Yes, as the alphas’ child it wouldn’t be physically harmed, but it might be tormented all the same. She’d felt her inner momma-bear come out at that thought and knew that she needed to be assertive of her position so that she could ensure that no one gave her shit — or their kids.

  But the first problem had been that no one knew for certain who was being bitchy to her, and the second problem was that Brynn wasn’t sure she could just haul off and clock someone. Even if they were being rude.

  This alpha female business was more complicated than she imagined.

  Closing the cabinet, she rubbed her thumb against her temple and thought about Acksel. She had a feeling that if he thought he could get away with keeping her locked up safely forever he would do it, but that was no way for either of them to live. He was more tense now that she’d gone back to work, and the issue with whoever was messing with her was making him agitated and that made her feel worse. It was bad enough that someone — or several someones — were trying to drive her crazy in an attempt to make her want to abandon Acksel, but each night after work she had to listen to her protector tell him what had happened to her and see the rage shine in his eyes.

  Eveny came into the kitchen with Luke. She turned and gave him a little shove in the shoulder. “Girl talk, scoot.”

  “Baby,” Luke frowned, looking torn.

  “Just leave the room and pretend not to listen.”

  He gave a growl of sorts and stalked off but his footsteps didn’t carry him more than a half dozen feet onto the back porch.

  Eveny shook her head. “Being around the pack makes him anxious for me. He worries about me getting upset if someone says anything about me taking a human mate.”

  “I do not,” Luke yelled from the porch.

  Brynn laughed as Eveny shouted back, “I said pretend not to listen, geez.”

  Eveny’s voice lowered some as she leaned against the counter with a sigh. “It’s true. No one has said anything outright to either of us about our mating, but there are some that have an air of ‘you’re doing something wrong’ whenever Luke is with me. I think it’s worse because I’m the wolf and he’s the human. It’s hard for wolves to understand why I would pick a human for a mate when wolves are so much stronger. It’s easier, in some ways, for wolves to understand a male picking a human as a mate, because females aren’t thought of in the role of warrior like males are.”

  Brynn grimaced. “I don’t think everyone understands Acksel picking me.”

  Eveny shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter what anyone thinks about you two being together because you already are. You’re Acksel’s mate, and judging from what I’ve seen between you two, I’d say that his wolf knew you were his long before this point, but he was too buried under the old laws to even listen.”

  She felt a little stab of something. “You weren’t.”

  “I wasn’t what?”

  “Too buried under the old laws to ignore your desire to mate with Luke.” She felt like she might cry at the thought that had been swirling inside her. She knew Acksel loved her and had cared about her for a long time, but she’d wanted to be important enough for him to be willing to risk banishment from his people to be with her, the way that Eveny had for Luke.

  Eveny hugged Brynn with a soft sound. “I’m so sorry, Brynn, I didn’t mean to make you sad. Male wolves are different than females. They’re more male than human males, if that makes sense, more in touch with their primal instincts. It’s hard for males to disregard the laws because they’re the ones that made them. The laws are drilled into the young males’ mind from an early age because they are the ones that carry out the laws and protect the pack.” She leaned away slightly and looked at Brynn, her eyes full of compassion. “Even though he didn’t choose you immediately, he did more than just choose you later — he rewrote history for you. I don’t know when that’s ever happened before, but I can tell you it’s never happened for a human. Acksel put aside all that he knew in the past, all he’d been taught about humans and wolves, and made a stand.”

  Acksel came stomping into the kitchen, glaring furiously at Eveny who squeaked in surprise and stepped away. He pulled Brynn into his arms and nuzzled her neck. “Why are you upset? I can feel your emotions tugging at me and it’s making my wolf insane.”

  He made a snarling sound at Eveny who was now tucked safely behind Luke’s back as he duck-walked them out of the kitchen. “She didn’t do anything wrong, Acksel,” Brynn smiled reassuringly at Luke and Eveny, who peeked around his arm with a wry smile. Brynn slipped her arms around Acksel’s lean waist.

  She sighed and closed her eyes, resting her ear over his heart to hear the steady beat. He kneaded her back and kissed her neck. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure.”

  He curled two fingers under her chin and lifted her face. “If I could go back in time, the moment I was strong enough to protect you, I would have made you mine no matter what. I would have taken the banishment with pride so that I could have you with me. Among the numerous recent mistakes that I’ve made concerning our mating, that’s the old mistake that haunts me. That you know that I didn’t pick you, that it will worry you.”

  She shook off her upset feelings. Looking into his gray eyes, it was so easy to feel how much he loved her, how he would move heaven and earth to take care of her. “I don’t want to live in the past. We’re together now and that’s all that really matters.”

  “Because you chose me. I’m a lucky son of a bitch.”

  He kissed her once, and she was certain he meant it to be only once, but one kiss turned to another and another, until he pressed her against the counter with a low growl and she could feel the ridge of his erection press into her stomach.

  She did love that she could affect him so quickly.

  Panting slightly, he braced himself on the counter and dropped his head to her shoulder. “You make me forget everything.”

  She slipped her hands up the back of his shirt and ran them up and down his spine. “I’m glad you’re mine, Acksel.”

  He echoed the sentiment, hugged her tight, and with a last kiss, left her in the kitchen to continue rummaging for dishes. Finally it dawned on her that she could ask one of the omegas to run to her house and get her serving dishes. Stepping out onto the porch, she scanned the yard which was already beginning to fill with pack members. Mostly it was the protectors who had been called to set up the multitude of picnic tables that the pack kept in a storage barn at the back of Acksel’s property, but she spied a few omegas. She thought omega was a cool sounding title, but knew that for the wolves, it wasn’t.

  Adam seemed to know she was looking at him from where he fiddled with the thick pork chops and ribs that had been put into a large smoker, and jogged to her. She could see the hitch in his step as he favored his
non-scarred side. She hadn’t ever given him much thought, but now that she was the alpha female, she cared about him on some instinctual level. Her hand immediately covered her stomach and she thought of the baby. Maybe having Acksel’s child was really messing around with her abilities in some ways. She certainly felt like she was more wolfish than before.

  “Yes, Alpha?” He stopped at the bottom step of the porch and looked up at her.

  “Could you run to my house and bring back my serving dishes? I have a big cabinet full of bowls, platters, and trays. They’d be really useful for all the food that needs to be put out.”

  “Right away. I’ll get your key from Sam.”

  “Thank you, Adam.”

  He nodded once and turned, walking straight to Sam, who looked at Brynn for a moment and then, after she nodded, took a key ring from his pocket and unclipped one. Adam took the key and left and she smiled inwardly. She liked that Adam and Sam had both looked to her for approval. They didn’t seem to have a problem recognizing that she was the alpha female. Maybe it was because, like Mia had said, males weren’t as interested in who the alpha mated as long as he was content. Or maybe it was some kind of primal, wolfy thing with them. That they recognized the mark on her neck and knew what it meant, no matter what they thought of her being human.

  So why were the females being so stubborn?

  Well, she wasn’t going to let them ruin the party. She was going to stand proudly by Acksel’s side as the alpha female, even if it wasn’t entirely official with the pack yet, and they could just suck it.