Curves & Alphas: A Paranormal Box Set: (BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (40 page)

She seemed speechless, willing, yet strangely off-kilter, and this urged his cock up higher, hardening, reaching for her. Her bra, thankfully front hooked, he removed next. She just sat there, biting her lip, so he moved in and bit it for her.

“You just take what you want when you want it?” she stated, the slight tremble in her voice music to his ears.

“I do. You don’t seem to have a problem with that though. Still I sense some sort of internal struggle.”

“It’s not in my nature to just sit back, be moved around, dominated…” she said, searching his eyes with hers, hesitating to say more.

“But,” he encouraged.

“I don’t know. With you… I just…”

“You just want me to take you. You want to for once give up all the responsibility, the control, to relinquish it to a man who scares you quite a bit because you know that in reality, he could just take what he wanted. I’m far stronger than you. I say what I want. I take what I want. And, you, my strong and beautiful Katrina, want to see what it is like to be on the receiving end of letting me ravish you.”

She bit her lip harder, a sparkle in her eyes, her lids heavy. Bedroom eyes. She nodded her head so slightly that he could barely make it out, but it was all he needed.

“Scarves?” he barked.

“What?”

“Where do you keep your scarves?”

“Special hanger in the closest.”

With a nod, he turned to the door on the opposite wall, saying as he walked to it, “Take off you skirt, your hose, your panties, before I get back.”

He didn’t look back on purpose. He truly believed that for once, this woman wanted to let go, and he wanted to be the one to give that experience to her in the worst way. Opening the door to the closet was like entering the beginning of paradise. The whole place smelled of her, riling him, making his mouth actually water to be able to taste her. Soon, he thought as he grabbed hold of some scarves, and yanked them free of the odd hanger with several silver circles.

Yet, when he turned back around to the bed, he almost fell to his knees. She had done as he asked, and now she sat there, completely naked, a crooked smile on her face, with her legs folded up in front of her, her arms wrapped around them.

“You’re killing me,” he hissed as he strode to the bed, his hard length now straining painfully in his dress pants.

He didn’t say another word, only went to work. He first took one of her arms, yanked it free, and tied it to the top post as he stared down at her breast now freed, hanging there heavy, and her nipple already hard. After he walked around the bed and did the same with the other wrist, she laid back, her arms out, her breasts free, with her knees still bent up. His stomach clenched just at the thought of pulling her legs out and tying them to the bottom of the bed. 

Going to the foot board, he leaned against it, his cock a painful reminder of his out of control desires as it pressed against the wood. He bent over, taking both of her ankles, and pulling them out toward the foot of the bed. He did his sloppy best to tie her ankles there with the scarves, but all he could concentrate on was the ripe folds of her pussy, already wet, pale, framing red skin he wanted to lick. Her hips moved in subtle little squirms as she sort of groaned and purred at the same time.

As she continued that erotic dance, he undressed himself, revealing in the way her eyes took him in, each inch of skin he revealed to her. When his full form had been stripped, he climbed onto the bed, between her legs. Slipping his hands under the round cheeks of her ass, he grabbed them a bit too hard, making her gasp, as he pulled her up to his mouth.

The sounds that came from her as he took his first taste, his tongue pushing through her folds just about sent him over the edge. His cock pulsed for release. Yet, he held onto his frail grip of control, as he ate her, licking, tasting, sometimes nibbling, fast, hard, letting her know who would give her pleasure, and who was in control of it.

In fact, removing his mouth just as she started to shutter, hinted at release, her cry of protest made his heart beat faster, the animal inside him ready to take his mate. He tried to control at least that urge. It wasn’t the time. He couldn’t do that to her. So, though fast, this time, he silenced his beast within by sliding her ass up over his thighs until his erection was poised to enter her.

When he did, it was also harsh and quick, though each noise she made only proved how much she liked it. In his mind, he vowed to take it slow after, but right now, he needed to be inside of her. And, her cries begged him to do so with haste. They moved together, her hips moving up to take him inside of her even deeper. With her tight and warm around him, he moved his legs back, came down over her, her flat on the bed now with him in a position to thrust in even harder.

His mind blanked. He knew only the joining of their two bodies. His lion roared inside of his head. And, before he knew what was happening, riding the waves of his contractions, coming just as she did, his teeth sunk into that curve between her neck and her shoulder. He claimed her. They mated. His full weight fell on her, as what he had done hit him. He panicked as she cried out in pleasure and pain.

Chapter Seven

Katrina sat in her office the next morning unable to concentrate on anything. All her mind managed to do was go back to last night, as her body yearned to be tied up again, to feel completely vulnerable to a man, to Alex. In giving herself over to him at first, once he’d claimed her savagely, brilliantly, curling her toes, he’d untied her, switched gears, and then made love to her with a fierce passion she’d never known before.

She’d been totally consumed by it, a flame ignited that would not burn out inside of her. She longed right now, almost to the brink of insanity for him to kiss her, everywhere. To have him inside of her again was a yearning she feared would never be quenched even if they never got out of bed again. She touched the place on her neck where he had bitten her. At the time, she’d expected blood, but he had licked the wound, and none had shown. In fact, there was not even a mark there this morning, just a tingle, a memory.

When he had finally left her last night, he’d not spoken many words. He’d already let his body do all of the talking, yet he had made some sort of oath to her.

“I’ll find a way,” he’d growled before kissing her on the forehead and walking out her door.

She’d stood there dumbfounded, her body satiated, worn out, and yet still trembling for more. She’d never given up control so completely, not to any man or any situation. It terrified her in the best way possible. She couldn’t get enough, and she didn’t regret losing herself to this man, a virtual stranger, a shifter of all things. She didn’t understand their kind, and yet it didn’t matter.

For a woman like her, it should have all been terrifying, and yet, she wasn’t. She had though basically avoided all of Stacey’s texts this morning. She’d checked on her several times. She wanted the explanation not given to her last night.

All Kat had texted was,
Have to cancel. Sorry. No time to explain
.

She knew her friend would think work, so this morning it had been easy to reply to Stacey’s texts with,
sorry, work, TTYL
.

She knew she could only get away with it for so long, but as long as she could she would. The buzz of her phone, her assistant paging her, made her jump, so much so that her hand had flown to her heart, trying to calm the pounding in her chest before she took a deep breath and hit the button to ask what she wanted.

“I have someone from the IRS here to see you,” Janet stated matter of factly.

“Send them in,” Kat replied knowing this couldn’t be good.

In moments, Janet had shown in a woman, one rather plain in a pants suit with short mousy brown hair.

Rising to shake her hand, the woman flashed a badge with the other that read,
Criminal Investigation, Department of the Treasury, US, Special Agent,
as she introduced herself as, Michelle Drysdale.

“Nice to meet you. What can I do for you, Agent,” Kat said as she ushered the woman to take a chair in front of the desk. 

“Well, I have already spoken to Faust Financial, and I was informed that they had already sought representation. I was told to speak to you. The Department of Justice has accepted our recommendation of prosecution against Faust Financial Services for money laundering,” she stated as if bored.

Katrina’s heart did a little flip, already feeling quite protective over Alex. She tried to tamp it down knowing emotions would do her no good here. In fact, she quickly reprimanded herself, straightening her jacket as she sat up straight.

“Just yesterday this was only a primary investigation. What has changed?” Kat asked.

“A witness had turned over evidence in exchange for his own pardon.”

Her world flipped then, finally and completely. Fierce feelings for Alex surfaced, along with a need to protect him. She’d wanted to leap over her desk and rip this woman up by her hair screaming for her to leave Alex alone. Every instinct she had went suddenly against her usual cool demeanor, her rational thought processes, undermining everything about her that made her an amazing lawyer.

It was just sex
, she berated herself as the CI went on about the particulars.

Chapter Eight

This day can’t get any worse
, Alex thought to himself as he stood, out in the woods, in the form of his lion, poised to kill a man who’d shifted into a jaguar. Emerald eyes stood out in the night as the half-moon barely shone enough with the cloud cover to outline the black animal against the backdrop of trees and brush.

Men stood all around them, Alex’s pack along with the pack of the jaguar, Marcus. He’s been identified as an informant, moving what had been an investigation into them to a prosecution’s case, an actual case that would be tried in court. The jaguar pack had turned him over, and his brothers had made it his job to punish the rat.

While his lion roared for blood, the man within him cringed. He was an alpha, yes, but a murderer, no. He killed when he had to, like now, but still, something about it he hated, not the lion, but the man who had to live with the image of a bloodied human body after the lion tore the other animal apart.

And, this was just the icing on the cake. His brothers had already grilled him about Katrina. They had told him in no uncertain terms that last night was a one night stand, never to be repeated. He didn’t confess to the mating, and wasn’t sure how to even handle that with her yet. Then, all of this IRS crap had landed on them. It had taken the heat off of him, the entire day turning into a tactical approach on how to handle the rat and how to make the evidence disappear.

Kris was using a few rather crooked political ties to ensure that papers, files, all paper and digital trails were erased, that whatever they had went missing, or something along those lines so that the case would have to be dropped. He didn’t care for the skin-walker that would be used, but what else could they do at this point? He had a man to kill, and Kris had men to pay to make this all go away by any means necessary.

The wind rustled through the fur on his back, and then his mane, a warning it seemed, reminiscent of hair raising on the neck of his human form, a signal of bad things to come. They circled each other, as if this was a fair fight, as if this battle had not been designed as a supposedly fair fight to kill a man who had turned on his pack, his people.

Pound for pound, Alex’s lion’s four hundred and thirty pounds far outweighed Marcus’s jaguar’s weight of three hundred and twenty pounds. Still, a jaguar was stronger, pound for pound, and had a far stronger bite than a lion. The jaguar was also faster, stealthy, and would use that to his advantage. Still, this was a fight to the death, and a toss-up at that. And while stats sat just slightly on his side in such a battle, it was just as highly probable that in the fight the jaguar could injure his lion fatally, in that he would eventually die of his wounds.

He had to hope that the man inside of the jaguar, the mind game in his head, knowing that everyone here wanted him to die, would help in the fight. Marcus knew that if Alex didn’t defeat him, another would. He wouldn’t survive the night. This battle was more retribution, a way to quench a thirst for revenge, a gift if you will to the wronged party given by the one that had a guilty member.

He had power on his side, and would use his body like a battering ram to take this jag down. So he leaped forward, trying to grab hold, but fur brushed his nose as the agile beast curled around him, leaping away easily. Only fear had obviously gotten the better of the jag as he went to climb a nearby tree. His back paw slipped, not catching as it should have, a sloppy move that allowed Alex’s lion to move forward and bite into the animal’s hind leg.

He yanked him down, pulling on him, turning his neck to flip the animal onto its back so he could go for the neck. Only, at that point, the jaguar fought back. Self-preservation at its best in the animal kingdom, it squirmed under him until it managed to bite the front leg of his lion.

His lion roared out in pain, but stepped forward, basically onto the jaguar’s back, crushing him to the ground, tearing into the animal, wrestling, biting, being bitten until the fight left the other animal and he laid on top of it, bleeding himself. In that moment, not knowing the extent of his own injuries, to his legs, his side, even one on the neck, his human mind took over and thought only of Katrina, wondering if last night truly was the one and only time that he would touch her precious body.    

~~~

He’d spent the hours after the kill alone in his own home having demanded that his brothers leave him alone to heal. In those hours, as his body had mended itself faster than was normal than for any pure human, all he could think about was a laundry list of mistakes he’d made.

Sure, many of them had been forced upon him by society. When an entire race of people came out, all they could do to protect themselves against the prejudice that followed was to ensure that if the worst happened, if living conditions became too bad, that they had the funds to pick up and go.

Through their business, money gained fast and primarily illegally was laundered, made to look clean. They managed this in an easy three step process, like most did. The job had proven time consuming, and required quite a bit of a rather devious knowledge to layer and integrate dirty money into a legitimate financial system, only to have to continue to move it around, transferring repeatedly to numerous accounts until this dirty money appeared clean.

In Alex’s mind, the whole term dirty was relative anyway. He couldn’t really see where he was doing anything wrong. Couldn’t convince the IRS of that though, and so, more crimes had to be committed to cover the old ones. The whole process at this moment seemed tedious, so he had to remind himself over and over again of their purpose, that it was one they had been forced into by humans.

All of that had been done so that they could buy houses in remote areas, live off the grid if they had to. And, for many shifters, this escape route was also their retirement plan. To run free, to not have to fit in, that was the dream these days. With Katrina in his life, and yet still forbidden, that escape route took on new meaning.

He’d already looked himself for the perfect spot to build a private retreat. He had it narrowed down to a private island and a remote jungle. Either way, he could shift when he pleased, and run free when the whim struck him.

Even out, the shifters didn’t turn in front of humans as a rule. Sure, they no longer had to kill humans that caught them shifting in extreme circumstances, but as a general rule, while humans had been forced to accept them, to allow the human side of a shifter the same rights, they didn’t get them, and they didn’t want to see their other half.

There were always the groupies. In his case, the women who threw themselves at them, and later wanted to see them shift in return for a night of torrid sex. He’d had his fill of it, and had all but thrown it aside for good right before Kat came along. It seemed fate in his mind, something he hadn’t really been a believer in until he’d walked into her office.

He suddenly needed to see her more than her needed air to breath. Sadly, sitting up made the struggle for air all too real. Shifters healed at an accelerated rate that is if their injuries were not bad enough to kill them before the process could take place. His injuries tonight had been substantial, with bites that bleed, and now bruised, the pain in his body was still at a high level, though getting more and more tolerable by the minute.

She couldn’t see him like this because he wouldn’t have an explanation for why he looked so battered and beaten. It wasn’t that he couldn’t hide his injuries with clothing, but in her presence, alone, he couldn’t keep his hands off of her, and the oozing bite marks covered in bandages he wouldn’t want to have to explain.

So, sane, or maybe insane, he still went to her apartment, only this time, he found a way to watch from afar. In another apartment building that faced hers, he found an empty at the moment apartment, and he broke in. The place had to be a bachelor pad, as it smelled of pizza and sweat socks, and was in dire need of a cleaning. Still, it served a purpose for now. Hopefully the guy who lived here would be out for some time.

With his enhanced eyesight, he watched her. Her window cracked at the bottom, enjoying this oddly warm fall night, when the breeze blew, the curtain fluttered, and he could see her huddled up in a blanket on the couch, reading a book. Or, pretending to read. She held the thing open, but she stared off into the distance more than she actually feigned looking at the pages.

At one point, his gut tight, wanting to go to her, he watched as she picked up her phone. She stared at it for some time before she moved her finger around on the surface of it. The phone in his pocket vibrated, and a rush of warmth spread over him. She was thinking of him too.