Alpha Devotion: Paranormal Romance Collection

by Lola Gabriel

  “Oh?” He raised an eyebrow at her, and though his tone was curious, the gesture was playful. For a moment, Sadie dreaded the possibility of him asking, And where is your friend? like some sort of creep looking for a hookup. To her surprise, he simply waited for her to elaborate, his silence telling her that she could turn away from him and dismiss him instead if she wanted to.

  Sadie didn’t want to dismiss him. On the contrary, she was hoping he would stick around for a little while longer.

  “Yes,” she said, gesturing with her head to the dancing crowd in the middle of the room. Despite him not inquiring, she still said, “She’s over there on the dance floor.”

  “Is she now?” He rested his elbow on the table and leaned against it, like he was asking for her permission to stay, even if it was not on the stool across from her. “And why did she leave you all alone here?”

  “She did not leave me,” Sadie told him, grabbing another nacho from the plate in front of her. “I’m getting some fuel in me to catch up to her.”

  “Ah.” He nodded his head. “Makes sense.” He turned so that he was leaning on the table with his full arm instead of only with his elbow. “Will your friend mind if I keep you company while you catch up to her?”

  She noticed he didn’t ask if she minded. Could he tell that she didn’t?

  “She might,” she answered teasingly, resting her head on her closed fist. “She’s always warned me about the dangers of talking to strangers.”

  She had meant for it to come out like a joke, like part of their banter so far, and yet she felt… weird referring to him as a stranger. Sadie had never seen him before—she would remember if she had—but she felt like this wasn’t the first time they had met, as if they had known each other a long time ago. Perhaps in another life.

  Another life? She resisted the urge to shake her head at her own silliness. Listen to yourself! You don’t even believe in that stuff!

  However, the smile he gave her then seemed entirely too understanding, like he knew what she was thinking and agreed wholeheartedly.

  “Your friend has a point,” he said, and he held out his other hand. “My name’s Raven, I’m 23, and I was wondering if I could ask you to dance.”

  Raven. Raven. That name rang a bell of familiarity within Sadie, but she couldn’t pinpoint what it was about it exactly that sounded so familiar. Had she ever met someone with that name? It was fairly common, so it wasn’t impossible that she’d had a classmate called Raven in her early education.

  No, that’s not it, she thought. Oh, well. If she couldn’t remember, it was probably not that important anyway.

  “Nice to meet you, Raven,” Sadie said, enjoying how the name rolled off her tongue, how its letters took shape in her mouth. She reached out to shake his hand, and the moment she did, she was barely able to hold back the shiver threatening to overwhelm her. If his touching her elbow had sent electricity through her, holding his hand was like being struck by lightning, leaving her entire body tingling and sizzling.

  “I’m…” She took a deep breath, trying to regain her composure. “I’m Sadie, I’m 21 years old, and yes, I’d love it if you asked me to dance.”

  He grinned at her, his teeth white and perfectly straight. He held his palm up to her, as if he were an old, Victorian gentleman. “Sadie, will you dance with me?”

  “Yes, of course,” she replied, and she was delighted to find that holding his hand a second time did not diminish the effect it’d had the first time.

  Raven led her to the dance floor. Sadie had imagined, looking at it from afar, that being among the dancing crowd would be suffocating, that the air would be hot and humid and uncomfortable, and she would be dying to get out of it. The truth was that the air did feel hot, but she realized that it was Raven’s presence that made it feel like that, and it had nothing to do with the people dancing around them. His eyes seemed to sparkle beneath the lights of the club, a gaze so intense and so focused entirely on her that Sadie blushed under it.

  Still, rather than wanting to get out of the crowd, all Sadie wanted to do was remain right where she was, with Raven so close to her, she could smell his scent: musk and a little bit of sweat, which sent a shiver running down her spine. She longed to fill her lungs with that scent, to press Raven close to her, to fuse their bodies until she didn’t know where she began and ended.

  It was as though there had been a Raven-shaped hole in the depths of her being, and now that she had found him—or, more appropriately, he had found her—she didn’t want to let go of him.

  Raven took her other hand and placed her arms around his neck, putting his own hands on her waist. Even though the music was still bouncy and electric, he guided them in a sort of slow dance, with both of them gently swaying from side to side in the middle of the dance floor. His grip, though kind and respectful, was firm, almost possessive, like he didn’t want to let go of her either.

  Sadie had never believed in love at first sight. She’d had crushes at first sight, like a lot of other people did, but they had never been like this… this sort of intense connection she felt with Raven, like he had been missing from her life and she had never known until now, until he had shown up out of nowhere and swept her off her feet. She still didn’t believe in love at first sight, and she didn’t think that was what this was, because this didn’t feel as juvenile and immature as that; this felt deeper, beyond it, as if her very soul was calling out to his. But perhaps the most surprising part of everything was that his soul was answering back to hers, and Raven pulled her closer as if to demonstrate this.

  Sadie buried her hands in Raven’s hair, in the damp locks at the back of his neck, and when he exhaled, she felt a shudder go through his entire body, traveling to her through his touch, giving her goosebumps. He leaned his head against hers, his breath hot on her ear, and Sadie tightened her grip on him, pushing herself closer to him while also pulling him to her.

  When Raven’s lips touched her temple, Sadie couldn’t stand it anymore. She turned her head and lifted it to meet Raven’s mouth, kissing him like she had wanted to since she had first seen him. He immediately moved his hands to the small of her back, pressing their bodies together.

  In the back of her mind, Sadie remembered that they were dancing in the middle of a club, surrounded by a bunch of other immortal shifters who probably didn’t give a damn about them making out right there on the dance floor, but they most likely would if they started another, much older kind of dance.

  Sadie forced herself to break away from Raven, and she had to bump her head against his when he leaned in for another kiss. She understood the feeling, but it wouldn’t do for them to continue out in the open.

  “Please tell me you’re thinking of getting out of here,” Raven murmured, his words reverberating against Sadie’s skin.

  “Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, I am.” She was about to take his hand and lead him somewhere else—anywhere, it didn’t really matter where as long as they could be alone—when an image of her friend flashed in her mind, reminding her that she had not come to this place by herself. “But I have to—I need to let my friend know I’m leaving.”

  “Yeah, okay.” Raven kissed the top of her head. “I’ll be waiting outside.” Then he walked away, presumably to the exit, leaving Sadie to go look for Ellie in the middle of the dancing crowd. Even that separation, the missing heat from his body pressed to hers, felt almost like a stab, like he had taken a part of her with him. It was completely unbelievable.

  Well. All the more reason to get to her friend as soon as possible.

  It was easy to find her, and Sadie was surprised that she hadn’t seen Ellie while dancing with Raven. Then again, she hadn’t actually had eyes for anyone else, so she probably wouldn’t even have noticed her best friend if they’d been standing next to each other.

  “Ellie!” Sadie placed a hand on Ellie’s shoulder to get her attention. Ellie, whose back was to Sadie, turned around and grinned widely at her.

  �
�Hey, babe!” she yelled, ecstatic. “You finally came to join the party!” She reached out to grab Sadie’s hand, but Sadie beat her to the punch and grabbed Ellie’s in a firm grip instead. She needed her friend to understand what she was about to tell her.

  “Listen, I’m so sorry to bail on you on our first girls’ night out,” Sadie said. “But I—well, I… I kind of met this guy, and I—”

  The words got suddenly stuck in her throat. How could she possibly explain that she was ditching Ellie for a guy she had met less than an hour ago, who was a complete stranger with only a name and age to his face, and yet Sadie couldn’t resist the pull of her body, of her very soul to him? She didn’t know how she could translate such a ridiculous yet honest concept into actual logical sentences.

  Ellie, however, didn’t seem to need any explanation; she held both of Sadie’s hands in her own, and her grin grew wider.

  “Honey!” she cried. “Oh, my god, I’m so proud of you!” She threw her arms around Sadie and hugged her tightly, nearly squeezing the very breath out of her. “We can have another girls’ night out whenever we want to! I wanted you to enjoy yourself and have the time of your life, and here you are!”

  “I’m sorry,” Sadie repeated, starting to feel a little awkward. She was ditching her best friend, and Ellie was congratulating her for it? After she had spent so long trying to convince Sadie to come with her in the first place? The awkwardness soon turned to shame, settling in the pit of Sadie’s stomach.

  “What? Are you kidding me?” Ellie pulled away from her and rubbed her arms. “No, Sadie, sweetie, don’t apologize! Remember what I said? The night is young, and so will we be for eternity. Go, go, have fun! Just text me to let me know you’re safe and sound, okay? I give you my blessing!”

  Sadie’s eyes grew damp at her words. She hugged Ellie once more for good measure and then swirled around to follow Raven.

  “And you better tell me the details on Sunday!” Ellie screamed after her, and Sadie gave her a thumbs-up before finally exiting the club.

  Raven was standing by the curb, the lights of the streets covering him in a pale yellowish hue, bringing out his eyes. He was beautiful in a way that was otherworldly, and if Sadie had been a human instead of a shifter, she would’ve believed him to be some sort of magical creature straight out of a fairytale, having come to take her back to his home.

  He turned to her and smiled, a sharp edge to the gesture that made Sadie thrill.

  “Ready to go?” he asked, holding out his hand. Sadie had never been more ready for anything else in her life.

  “Yeah,” she said, taking the palm he offered to her. Wherever the wind took her, indeed.

  4

  Sadie didn’t really have any expectations as to where Raven planned for them to go, but a hotel never even crossed her mind as an option. Although she hadn’t come to this specific one, Hotel Delmore, she had heard of it—one of the many immortal-exclusive hotels this side of the city—and she knew it was fancy and expensive. She grew nervous, not knowing how to tell Raven that she couldn’t possibly afford to stay in such a place, but Raven didn’t seem worried in the slightest as he strode through the sliding doors and went straight to the reception desk, holding Sadie’s hand all the while.

  The young man on the other side of the desk, whose nametag read Thomas, smiled politely.

  “Welcome back, sir,” he said. “Your usual room, I take it?”

  “Yes, Thomas, please and thank you,” replied Raven.

  Sadie blinked at the exchange. This didn’t seem to be the first time Raven came here. On the contrary, it looked like he frequented this place, if Thomas knew him on sight and if he had a ‘usual room’.

  “Here you go, sir,” Thomas said, handing Raven a key with a tag labeled 801. “Enjoy your stay.”

  “Thank you, Thomas,” Raven said. He nodded his head at Thomas and then headed to the elevators on the other side of the reception, leading her by the hand. He pressed the button to go up and walked into the first one that opened its doors.

  As soon as they stepped inside and started going up, Sadie turned to Raven.

  “So,” she said, “do you bring all the girls you meet to your ‘usual room’?”

  She felt silly asking that question for a number of reasons, but mainly because she was jealous at the fact that Raven might’ve brought someone else here before her. The rational part of her knew she had no right to be jealous; it wasn’t like Raven was her boyfriend or anything. They had only met around an hour ago. What he had done before encountering her was of no relevance or consequence to the situation at hand, and yet something ugly festered inside Sadie at the mere thought of anyone else standing in this elevator next to Raven in her place.

  Raven squeezed her hand, and that mere act made whatever was festering inside her sizzle out of existence.

  “Nah,” he answered casually, like he was asked that same question all the time. “That would defeat the purpose.”

  “What purpose?”

  “Of having a room that I can come to when I want to be by myself,” he elaborated, glancing at Sadie with the corner of his mouth curling up into a smirk.

  The implication was not lost on Sadie. Even though Raven had a room in this hotel for whenever he wanted to be alone, he was inviting her into a space that, for all intents and purposes, could be considered sacred to him.

  “Oh.” She blushed at the realization and stared at the doors in front of them.

  When the elevator stopped and let them out, Raven gently tugged her along to the room at the end of the hallway. He slid the key into the lock and opened the door, allowing Sadie to walk in. The lights were out, but from what she could see, the room was quite spacious, around three times the size of her dorm back at EMU. It had a king-sized bed, a giant TV mounted on the wall, a kitchenette, a pair of glass doors leading to a balcony, a closed door that most likely led to the bathroom, and a closet.

  The moment Sadie closed the door behind her, Raven used the grip on her hand to pull her to him, the same way he had done at the club, and kissed her, his mouth insistent and urgent against hers as he tentatively touched the zipper on the back of her dress. Sadie nodded into the kiss, giving him permission to undress her, and her own hands grabbed the hem of his shirt, asking the same question. She received a nod from him in response, and they separated only briefly enough to let her remove his shirt and to let him push her dress down to the floor, her purse falling alongside it.

  Raven grabbed her by the hips and led her to the bed, kissing her jaw and neck and throat. Sadie’s knees touched the edge of the bed, and she fell on it, pulling Raven on top of her, and then she scooted upwards until her head hit a pillow. Raven kept kissing her throat, and then he moved to her collarbones, and then to her breasts. Sadie aided him by pulling her bra off so he could tease her nipples with the tip of his tongue before he continued his way down her chest, her torso, her navel, leaving her hissing in ecstasy.

  Sadie was not expecting to feel his tongue through her panties, and she arched into the touch with a moan, her hands immediately burying themselves in Raven’s hair. Much less was she expecting him to pull her panties down her thighs and legs and swipe his tongue up and down her opening, making her gasp and buck her hips.

  “Oh!” she cried. “Oh, that feels—that—Raven…”

  She had touched herself before, of course, trying to figure out what she liked, but she had never imagined that having someone else touching her would feel this good, that having someone use their tongue to drive her closer to her climax would feel so much better than her own fingers ever had.

  Raven teased her only for a moment, lapping at her skin and sucking on her flesh, on the part of her that had been made specifically to receive pleasure. Sadie was almost grateful when he finally pulled away, trembling as he made his way back up to her mouth and left a path of kisses and bites upon her body. She felt Raven’s shaft rubbing against her, teasing her opening without actually pushing inside, and Sadie thre
w her arms around him and pressed herself to him. She wanted to feel him, to merge their bodies as much as they physically could.

  “Please,” she muttered breathlessly. “Raven, please.” She didn’t want this to be over, and she was already too close to the edge to stand any more foreplay for much longer.

  Raven didn’t need to ask her what she meant. He ground his hips down one more time, and then he slowly slid into Sadie, letting her get used to the intrusion. Her mouth opened in a gasp that was more like a silent scream, and she wrapped her legs around Raven’s waist, urging him deeper inside her. Not needing to be told twice, Raven thrust in and out of her at a rhythmic pace, hitting the exact spot that made Sadie see stars behind her closed eyelids.

  Sadie whimpered with each of Raven’s thrusts, combining with his little grunts into a symphony of pleasure, a song and dance as old as time itself, and she pulled his head down to kiss him, moaning when he licked into her mouth and grazed her lower lip with his teeth. Sadie knew her release was close, and she tightened the grip of her limbs on Raven to warn him.

  “That’s it,” he groaned. “That’s it, Sadie, come on, come on…”

  His words of encouragement, muttered so closely to her lips that she felt as though they had been spoken from her own mouth, pushed her over the edge, and she climaxed with a cry, arching off the bed and into Raven’s body. Nearly at the same time, Raven thrust his hips one more time, two more times, before he tensed and spilled inside her.

  Afterwards, they lay together, gasping for air. Raven had dropped to the bed, and Sadie had curled against him, her arms wrapped around his body while his arm was slung over her shoulders.

  “You’re amazing,” Raven muttered under his breath, his mouth pressed to the top of Sadie’s head as his fingers threaded through her hair.

  “You’re not that bad yourself,” Sadie joked, feeling the rumble of his chuckle through his chest.

  She didn’t know what would happen tomorrow morning. She didn’t know what she and Raven were, if they were even anything at all. She didn’t know if he actually felt the same way she did, although it seemed like he did.