by Morgan Rae
Chapter 28
When Brent opened his door, he looked like he’d been tugged out of a deep sleep, his hair askew, wearing nothing but boxers and an open shirt.
“Miranda?” he grumbled, blinking away sleep.
“Can I come in?” she asked.
“Yeah, sure.” He stepped back, opening the door further for her. “Y’need a ride home, darling?”
Brent’s home was cluttered with old bottles, dirty clothes, and sentimental knickknacks. Miranda twisted in her spot to face him.
“Brent,” she said, “wouldn’t you like to be Alpha?”
“Alpha? The hell’re you talking about?” He squinted.
“Jacob is falling apart,” she said. “He can’t control his Beast. Your clan needs a strong leader.”
“Hey,” he said, lifting a warning finger. “Jacob’s stronger than any of us. I wouldn’t last a day in his shoes.”
“Maybe,” she said. “Or maybe you’re stronger than anyone realizes.”
Brent went to the door, opened it, and then said, “You’re trying to put a rift in the clan and I ain’t having it. I want you to go.”
She dropped her shirt and let the fabric crumple on the floor. “I want to stay.”
Brent’s jaw went slack as his eyes fixed on her. “Aw, hell,” he muttered and began peeling his shirt back.
Miranda smiled. Two can play this game, bitch.
An Alpha’s Mate
(Part 3)
Chapter 29
On the outside, everything seemed perfect. For a couple weeks after biting Holly and giving her the mark that made her his mate, Jacob had been tame. Relaxed. Happy. Human. He laughed. They kissed. He even took her out to dinner, real dinner. He taught her to ride the horses in the stable. Mama Mae taught Holly her very own arctic salmon recipe, which involved coating the fish completely with salt and letting it bake. It was delicious, Jacob could attest to that.
But in the dark of the night, when everything was quiet and still, Jacob’s Beast would rattle around inside of him. It crept up on him, slowly.
(I’m still here, it whispered in his ear. You can’t get rid of me that easily.)
The strong, aggressive urges weren’t quite as violent or explosive as they’d been before the marking, but they were still there, tapping incessantly at the edges of his sanity. At night, he dreamed he was the Beast, large, lumbering, powerful. King of the night, his heavy paws sinking into the earth as he ran through the woods. In his dreams, he climbed the tallest trees, rolled in the summer-crisp water, and ripped the flesh of other, lesser bears with his strong, steel-hard jaws.
He woke up sweating, thirsty, like he could drink the black out of the inky night sky and still not be sated. Jacob sat up and threw his legs over the edge of the bed, raking his fingers through his hair.
“Jacob?” Her voice was an instant soothing balm, like a cool touch on a spot of sunburn. “Are you okay?”
And yet…he didn’t want her to see him. Not like this. He was supposed to be her mate, her Alpha, strong. She should be proud to wear his mark on her throat—
But like this, he just felt weak. Trembling in the face of his own Beast.
The blankets slithered and he felt Holly’s soft lips press to his shoulder. He felt the life in her, he could smell her perfumed, lavender human smell, and it made his heart ache. “Come back to bed,” she murmured.
“I’ll be right back,” he growled and got up. “Go back to sleep.” He yanked his pants over his hips, tossed a shirt over his shoulders, and barreled out the room.
He left the front door and walked out to the porch to sit on the steps. He gazed out beyond Red Moon Ranch and let his vision fill up on stars and night sky and black, rolling hills. He reached into his pocket for a smoke and found a pack of e-cigarettes instead. With a Post-it note attached: Try these. :)
Dang it, woman. Wasn’t anything sacred? She was lucky she was so damn cute. He tilted the e-cigarette pack to his nose and sniffed. Under the bitter mint smell of the flavored smoke packs, he could smell a distinctly Holly scent. White wine, sweet berries, the newly cracked spine of an old book. He took her in and felt his boiling blood begin to simmer down, his heart slowing to a normal pace. He longed to go back to bed, curl up against her, shove his face in her red hair and just inhale her scent until he choked on it.
Better this way. Holly had made it clear countless times that she didn’t want the Beast in her life, so he’d keep them separate.
Jacob was fine. Just fine. That’s what he told himself as he watched dawn peek over the sturdy mountaintops.
Chapter 30
Holly woke up to an empty bed, the sheets beside her crumpled and cold. She hit her alarm and flopped back against the mattress with a sigh. She vaguely remembered Jacob getting up at some point in the middle of the night, but she had hoped he would find his way back to bed eventually. Now, instead of waking up wrapped up in her husband’s strong arms, she started her morning off with a flurry of worry fluttering inside her chest.
Marking her was supposed to tame his Beast. He’d told her that. The marriage, the bite, these were all steps they’d taken together. Steps that were supposed to rein him in. And it had worked, for a little while, at least. But now…now it was just as bad as it had ever been. And then there was that thought, nagging, in the back of her mind—
What if this is it? What if her husband was damaged beyond all repair? What if he had already gone too far and there was no stopping his downward spiral into becoming a full-fledged animal?
Then she would stand beside him, Holly decided. For as long as she could, or as long as he would let her. Heck, she had stood beside Chris for fifteen years and he hadn’t even deserved her loyalty. Jacob…
Jacob was a breed of his own. Figuratively and literally. He was special and Holly wanted to be with him for as long as she could, in whatever capacity she could.
Which was what made waking up alone so hard. It was as though she had lost him already.
Holly took her time getting up. She rolled out of bed, cracked her stiff bones, and shuffled into the bathroom. There, Holly brushed her teeth, rinsed off, and then applied her makeup—a light coating of blush, a little dark blue around her eyes to make them pop. Then she braided her long ginger hair back and slipped into a navy striped shirt (with a floral collar high enough to cover the bite mark on her throat—she was going to have to get used to working around that) and dark pants. Satisfied, Holly made her way downstairs. She could smell the burnt-chocolate smell of brewed coffee and walked into the kitchen.
Jacob sat at the cherrywood table. He looked like he was having metal for breakfast; he had taken apart some oil-slick piece of farm machinery, and he was cleaning it with a dishrag before putting the pieces back together. Holly had to wince. On the cherrywood? Really?
Instead of complaining, she smiled and said, “Good morning.”
Holly pressed a kiss to his mouth. He kissed back, hands black and grimy, and grunted, “Morning.”
“Did you make breakfast?” she asked.
Jacob nodded as he cleaned off his hands on the towel (Going to have to trash that towel, she thought). “Yeah. There’re some eggs and toast on the counter.”
“Thank you.” Holly turned on the stovetop to heat up the eggs.
“Don’t mention it.” Jacob started to go back to his project just as Holly snagged a mug and reached for the coffeepot.
“Y’might wanna reheat that,” Jacob said, nodding towards the pot.
“How long have you been up?” she asked, casually.
He shrugged. Tried to brush it off. “Not long.”
That wasn’t going to fly. “Did you get any sleep last night?”
“Yeah.” He hesitated, and then added, “Just until I woke up.”
Holly poured her cup of coffee and then sat down across from him. She reached over and entwined his fingers with hers. “You’re going to have to talk to me about this eventually,” she told him. Before he could protest wi
th a vague, monosyllabic answer she continued, “It took a lot of trust for me to drop everything I had in Sacramento and come out here and join your clan. It took a lot of trust for me to get this.” She tapped her finger over the side of her neck where her mark was still very visible. “All I’m asking for is a little trust in return.”
His shoulders sagged a little at that. “I’m tired,” he said. “I’m cranky. There’s not a lot more for me to say about the subject.”
“What does it feel like when you’re bear?” she asked, leaning in closer as she took a sip from her coffee. There was no judgment in her demeanor, just bare curiosity, like she was doing research for a thesis.
“It’s…uh…” Jacob fumbled for a second and glanced away. He let out a breath of a laugh. “I’ve never had to explain it to a human before.”
“I think you’ll find I listen better than most bears,” she pressed with a smile.
He squinted at her, and then nodded. “You ain’t wrong about that.” He took a sip from his cup of coffee as though lost in thought, and then finally said, “It’s like downing ten cups of coffee and an energy drink and them being told to sit in your chair and be quiet.”
Holly smiled sympathetically. “I’ve got a couple classrooms full of students who know the feeling well.”
“Yeah,” he said, offering up that crooked smile. Then he added, “It’s more than that, though. Y’get the jitters, right? From all this pent-up energy. And then it’s like this monster is whispering over your shoulder. Telling you to run or fight or bite.”
“So your Beast is violent?”
“It’s not…” He rubbed his arm. “He doesn’t mean to be. And I can control it.” His eyes met hers with sudden intensity. “I’d never hurt you.”
She knew he meant it to be comforting, but it felt dismissive instead. Holly became sharply aware that she was just another person in his life that he had to control himself around. Maybe she offered him more comfort than others, but that didn’t change the fact that he had to hide a part of himself to be with her.
Could she live like that? Married to half a man for the rest of her life?
“I know,” Holly said. She nibbled her thumbnail briefly, lost in thought. Finally, she straightened her spine, swallowed down the rest of her coffee, and then said, “I have to head out for class…are you going to be okay?”
That almost drew a wince from him. “I’ll be fine,” he said. Ever stubborn. “Don’t worry about me.”
“I’m your wife,” she said pointedly as she got to her feet and drew her fingers through his hair once. “That’s my job. You can’t take the good parts of marriage and leave the rest out.”
“Can’t I?” he said, slipping his hands up her legs to cup her rear. There was that boyish grin again, that smile that always simultaneously put her at ease and warmed her blood.
She smiled and gave his thick hair a little tug. “If that’s what you wanted, you should’ve picked someone more submissive.”
“Thought I did,” he said and entwined her fingers in his. His comment caught her off guard for a second, until she realized—he was right. She had been submissive when he first met her, weak. She had let Chris—and anyone else—walk all over her. And now? Well. She still had some growing to do. Especially when she could feel her will swaying under the grip of his dark, soulful eyes. With his eyes still on hers, Jacob kissed her fingers one by one before drawing her index finger gently between his teeth.
Apparently the Beast hasn’t completely left the building. She could see it now, a shimmer of gold in his eyes. A wild, animal part of him that lingered behind his eyes. A predator who had caught sight of his prey.
Tempting. It was incredibly tempting to fall into his fangs and, even now, she felt her body betray her good sense. A shiver of electricity grazed her skin as he gave her finger a small bite and then pressed a kiss to the tip. “Stay,” he murmured. “Just a little while.” His breath felt warm on her wet finger and she imagined how it would feel beating between her legs.
Holly glanced at her watch and then moved over to Jacob. She straddled his lap and hooked her arms around his neck. “You have fifteen minutes to blow my mind,” she said. Even when she was being coy, her smile felt shy.
Rather than turning him off, her timid disposition seemed to make the Beast pant at his teeth and he growled, his voice low in his throat, “Then we better make the best of it.”
In one swift motion, Holly was sitting on top of the table. She gasped as her ass hit the table, making the dishes jump, and giggled against Jacob’s mouth when he snaked up her body to claim her lips in a kiss. His salt-and-pepper beard tickled her chin. His tongue pried her teeth apart and he swallowed her laughter, which soon turned into moaning. His hands wasted no time—she heard his belt clink as he ripped it apart, the heard the rustling fabric as he undid his pants. He dragged her own pants down her legs, tossing them to the floor. Abruptly, without warning, he pulled her panties to the side and shoved his cock inside of her.
Holly gasped sharply and dug her nails into his back. His dick was hard, like hot iron, and he’d gotten there so quickly, too. The thought that she kept him in a constant state of arousal—bear or not—broke a dam in her and she felt a flood of lust slick his cock. Holly whimpered against his hard chest, waves of pleasure crashing over her with every hard thrust. He wasn’t gentle now, which was just fine with Holly—she wasn’t breakable. If anything, she reveled in the low swing of his hips, the raw, masculine pounding of his body against hers. He claimed her in every way imaginable, his cock buried deep inside of her, his rough fingers bruising her skin, and his teeth sunk into her.
Holly wrapped herself around him, her arms looped around his shoulders, her legs hooked around his hips, and she kept him close, tight, gasping against the crook of his neck. The table shuddered underneath them, glasses clinking and falling over as he pounded her again and again. His pace set her on fire from the inside out and she felt herself heating up, everything inside her growing tighter. She was swept away in his ferociousness and, when he growled and sank his teeth into her throat, she gasped and saw stars.
“Oh God, Jacob,” she begged. “Just like that…”
If Jacob was good at anything, it was finding those places inside her she hadn’t even known existed before him. The head of his cock hit the perfect spot inside of her, sending sparks of pleasure shivering through her body every time. She wasn’t going to last much longer like this and it was all she could do to hold on to him as though for dear life, riding out the thrill that thrummed through her veins.
She was throbbing, dripping around Jacob’s iron-hard cock, and, before she knew it, Holly had reached her peak. She cried out as her orgasm unexpectedly came crashing down around her and her nails dug sharply into Jacob’s skin. She felt his own orgasm as he growled against her and thrust into her roughly, his hot cum pouring inside of her. Holly mewled and nuzzled against his throat as he shuddered, both coming down from the intense, rough high.
“That’s one way to start off the day.” He grinned against her ear.
“You’re telling me,” she said breathlessly. She held on to him a moment longer and tucked her head against his shoulder.
Her gaze fell and landed on her watch. “Oh, crap—” Holly grabbed Jacob’s face, pressed a hard, quick kiss to his mouth, and then unwound herself from him completely. “I have to go. What’re you doing today?”
“I’ve just got a couple jobs lined up.” He twisted her hair in his fingers. “I’m all yours after.”
“Alright.” Holly couldn’t stop smiling. “Dinner?”
“You’ve got it.” He pressed another strong, firm kiss to her mouth. She could lose herself in those soft lips, in the scratch of hair on his chin.
But even now, in the blissful afterglow, she felt a sense of coldness around him. It was as though no matter how close he got, he was still so far away. A morning fuck on the kitchen table, as good as it was, wasn’t going to solve their problems.
Chapter 31
Holly decided it was time to do this her way. After class, she went into the school library and instantly began ransacking the nature section. Books about bears, books about the wildlife in Etna, books about ursus arctos interacting with humans. They had a huge catalogue of books, magazines, and articles about the local wildlife, and Holly took as many books as she could fit in her arms and carried them to a nearby table. There, she pored over the material, flipping through page after page.
Most of it read like National Geographic. She read about how bears slept through much of the winter and mated through much of the summer. They were approaching mating season, which would explain his inability to keep his hands off of her. She read about how they sometimes claimed their mates with love bites. Holly’s hand slipped absently to the side of her throat and her thumb rubbed over the bruise there. They ate salmon and berries. Climbed trees. Generally kept to themselves, alone. You can say that again, she thought to herself. Getting Jacob outside of himself was like pulling teeth.
It was time to dig deeper. Holly poked around the local archives. The college was equipped with microfiche readers that looked like old-fashioned desktop computers with a small slot at the bottom for the microfiche cards. Once she set it up, she could scroll through archives from local newspapers dating back to the early 1900s.
The library, which had been bustling with students cramming for tests earlier, was now still and quiet. Holly twisted the large knob on the side of the microfiche reader to focus the screen. She read stories dating back decades ago about bear attacks in Etna. How it was becoming a problem for the people in town. Efforts to Chase Out Bears Coming Up Short, proclaimed a headline in a 1975 issue of Eyes on Etna. The Westmore name came up in the same paper, but in a different article. Scott Westmore Reopens Red Moon Ranch, the headline read. There was a picture beside it of Scott and Mae Westmore standing under the hanging Red Moon Ranch sign, his arm around her back. Mae was younger, but still very much Mama Mae, a stout woman with a boy cut. Both were all smiles.