I Am The Alpha (28 page)

We stared each other in the eye from inches away, and while the last two times we’d made love tonight had been almost frenzied, desperate, and primal. This was something else. This was something softer, gentler. This was the meeting of two souls that were so madly in love with the other they wanted to become one being and
stay
that way for as long as possible.

William’s eyes slipped shut and he brought his forehead to mine. My body glowed, hummed with a gentle pleasure as he slipped in and out of me in a slow and even rhythm that felt like we could go on this way forever.

His hands left mine, stroking down my arms, as he held himself aloft so as not to crush me or cause discomfort. I cupped his face between my hands and brought his mouth to mine, twining my arms around his shoulders holding him to me as we made love for who knows how long.

When we came, it was a kinder, gentler thing than the orgasms previous. The pleasure radiating out from my center, gently lapping at my edges before washing back in. William smiled down at me, his eyes closing and his head turning to the side as if my gentle cry of release was the sweetest music he’d ever heard. Several deep strokes more and he bowed his head and took his own pleasure.

My body throbbed and pulsed with soft afterglow and I swore it was in time with my beloved’s heartbeat. He carefully vaulted my leg and drew me into his side as we panted and gasped and lay completely spent and satiated in the circle of each other’s arms.

“I love you Chloe Young,” he murmured again and it struck me…

“Reese,” I told him and felt his head jerk as he looked down at me, I didn’t have the energy to look back though.

“What?” he asked.

“Reese,” I panted, “You love me, Chloe Reese.”

William said nothing, simply squeezing me tighter against himself, a deep and contented sigh escaping from him. I smiled.

“I still want a wedding, a human one. It’s every little girl’s dream to get married one day. Our wolves may be cool with a couple of bites and there you have it, but it’s important to me…” I confessed and swallowed hard, nervous; afraid he would dismiss the idea as silly or that he would patronize me like my father would whenever I told him something was important to me. I waited to be… discounted, marginalized, but it didn’t happen. Instead, William squeezed me again, gentler this time and kissed the top of my head with love and tenderness.

“Whatever you want, Sugar. I’d do anything to make you happy.” I snuggled closer, relieved and we were silent for a time.

“I’m glad he did it,” I said somberly. William was silent, and very still beneath me. “I’m glad he did it so we didn’t have to choose, so you didn’t have to…”

“I wouldn’t have, not if you didn’t want it. We are extremely long lived, Sugar. It’s not all sunshine then moonlight runs either but you know that.
I am so sorry
that
this
was your introduction to this life. Nothing but pain and blood.” He sounded so unhappy and it made my heart ache for him.

I huffed a small laugh, “It was a rough start, but we’re together now. I know the truth,” I sighed out and reveled in the sensation of his fingers sliding up and down my spine in their gentle caress.

“There are so many things I should have,
could
have done better.”

“I love you, William Reese. That is what your choices; good, bad, or indifferent have led us to. Something beautiful and something
real
.
I need to hold on to that.” He gave me a gentle squeeze and kissed my hair again.

“Sleep, Chloe,” he murmured and I could hear the weariness in his voice.

“Promise not to let me go,” I said and I knew it sounded weak but I didn’t care.

“Never again, Sugar. Never again,” he solemnly vowed and with a final contented sigh, I slept. We both did, and we slept
hard
.

I opened my eyes to a murmur of voices. I was still safe and secure in William’s arms, both of us covered by the bed’s crimson sheet, but we had a visitor. Markus leaned against the metal railing that acted as a safety measure at the top of the spiral stair leading down into the Library. I was really going to have to look through there sometime soon. I wondered what gems were hidden on those shelves…

“Welcome back, Girly.” Markus grated, chewing on a toothpick in the corner of his mouth. I wrinkled my nose a bit at the slight hint of mint I caught from all the way across the room.

“What time is it?” I asked sleepily.

“‘round two o’clock.” I sat up sharply clutching the sheet to my chest. William let me go.

“The meeting! I have so much to learn, I have so many questions!”

“Calm your tits, Princess,” William said laughing and I whirled, frowning and punched him lightly in the arm. “Owe! Hey! You know that hurts a lot more with your new strength,” he chided but I just glared at him.

“It’s not funny! I’m responsible for something like two-hundred people and I don’t even know what we
are!
”
I said forlornly.

Markus laughed, “You picked a fine mate, Boy. I like her. Get dressed you two and meet me in the kitchen. I’ll make breakfast. I figured you’d need a minute so I set the meeting for tomorrow night to give you time to recover. Junior there always tries to do too much at once.” Markus gave a gusty sigh and left the room waving over his shoulder. I felt my shoulders drop and chewed my bottom lip thoughtfully.

“We have a lot to do, don’t we?” I asked and William sat up beside me.

“Yeah, but we’ll do it together. Come on, let’s get dressed. Markus will set us straight. It’s the Arbiter’s job to keep the Pack’s Alpha appraised. We’ll be getting a crash course in politics today I expect.”

“Your father was the Alpha, don’t you know a lot of it already?”

William smiled, “Some but not everything. Father tended to play his cards close to the vest.”

I slipped out of bed and stretched, expecting that delicious sort of soreness from a night of great sex. The kind that left you begging off anymore the next day lest you really hurt yourself and trashed your ability to walk. There wasn’t any. Like not at all. None. Huh, there might be some advantages to this whole wolf-kind thing.

“Get dressed, Chloe, before I bend you over the end of the bed and fuck you again,” William was looking at me like I was something good to eat and I grinned.

“Well aren’t you just a big bad wolf?” I teased.

“Don’t tempt me woman,” he said, the edge of a smile kissing his full lips. God I wanted to tempt him, was ramping up to do just that, but Markus’ voice called out from the kitchen at the far end of the house.

“Keep it in your pants Junior! Better yet, both of you find some pants and get your asses out here! I don’t have all goddamned day.”

William and I laughed and found clothes, which for him were a pair of jeans that hung dangerously low on his hips and for me was another of his oversized tees. I led the way down the stairs, William’s hands resting lightly on my shoulders as he followed. The touch reassuring and comforting. At the door leading into the living room I paused, frowning at the sight of the door which was leaning against the wall, off its hinges.

“Was that like that last night?” I asked.

William was looking me over, “I told you I lost my shit for a minute there, Love,” he said softly. I took one of his hands from my shoulder and kissed his palm softly, bringing a gentle smile to his lips, before I continued leading the way to the kitchen.

We sat at the table and my stomach growled at the bacon and sausages Markus had frying. He expertly flipped a pancake and winked at me.

“Yet another domesticated wolf?” I asked with an arched brow and they both laughed for a moment.

“What do you want to know first, Sweetheart?” Markus asked.

I chewed my bottom lip, “Give me a biology lesson,” I said bravely. “What am I? I mean, I know the basics, but…” I hesitated, searching for the words I needed but coming up empty.

“Spit it out, Honey,” Markus said kindly and I sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“If William and I ever have children will they be like Romulus? Because if the answer is yeah, I need to keep up on my birth control. I don’t know if I could do it.”

Markus set his spatula down and looked over to William whose expression was one of worry as he looked me over. Markus cleared his throat, “Well, first off you’re limited on your options for birth control. As far as I understand it, and yer gonna wanna check with one of the females of the Pack on this, birth control pills and the like are just like any other drug we take. Not exactly effective due to our ridiculously high metabolism.”

I felt myself blanch and shot a nervous look to William who shared it with me. We hadn’t used protection last night. Markus laughed.

“Boy, you didn’t pay any attention to the Beta’s did you?” he asked.

“Shut it, Old Wolf. Do we need to be worried?” William reached for my hand and I gave it to him.

Markus let out a gusty sigh and turned back to cooking, to save the food from burning, “Chloe, you just went through your first change last night and even though it was the damnedest thing I ever saw…” I cut him off.

“Wait, why was it ‘the damnedest thing’?” I asked frowning.

“You’re a natural Alpha, girl. Only once or twice in a lifetime do you come across someone who has the fortitude to control their first change like you did last night. It’s not supposed to happen. Even so, it
was
your first change and a wolf-kind’s hormones go all kinds of screwy with the first change. I think you’re safe. That being said, conceiving ain’t the hard part for us. Blood Born wolf-kind are rare Honey.

“Even if a female wolf-kind conceives, they got nine full moons, nine changes, to go through. Gotta have a certain amount of control to carry to term. You could do it. After last night, I’m damn sure about that,” he nodded and started plating up the food. William got up and moved around the older Arbiter, setting the table and pouring glasses of orange juice.

I sat back in my seat and tried to wrap my mind around it and felt a little selfish for tackling that problem first. I mean, I had over two-hundred and some odd people to take care of with William… I frowned.

“So if William is Alpha, and the one to lead us all, what
exactly
is it that I do as female Alpha?”

Markus grinned, “Well as Alpha Bitch,” he laughed outright at the look I gave him. “Don’t glare at me, I didn’t come up with the title. That was long before my time. Anyways, as Alpha Bitch it’s pretty much your responsibility to make sure that the Betas are properly educating the newly Moon-Forged and that the Blood Born kids are being properly brought up. You’re the Pack’s social worker. Also, you’re a big part of the Pack’s legal system. Both of the Pack’s Alphas preside over any wolf-kind on wolf-kind criminal proceedings.

“Violence among the Pack isn’t tolerated, despite the brutality of the Challenges for succession. The human world ain’t equipped to deal with us, so we have to police ourselves. It’s the Alpha’s, as in both William and you, it’s your job to oversee any criminal proceedings when it comes to doling out Pack law. I deal with the civil law angle when it comes to the Pack’s dealings.” Markus stopped talking and stared at me.

“What?” I asked.

“Eat, or do I have to go back to the biology lessons?” he asked.

I ate, and listened to him as he continued to fill me in. I felt like I should be taking notes. There was so much to learn. Finally, he leaned back and sighed.

“You need to think about how you want to deal with Sharon and Remus too,” he said. I stood and started clearing our plates, rinsing them and putting them into William’s dishwasher.

“Do we really have to do anything?” I asked softly.

“Do you wanna look weak?” he shot back and I frowned.

“Haven’t enough of y…” I stopped myself, “Haven’t enough of
our
people died already?” I asked, sadly. My hands shook as the memory of the loud crack of Lucinda’s neck echoed in my ears.

“You need to come from a position of power you two,” Markus said and heaved himself to his feet. “William knows the law, no decision has to be made
right
now. But one does need to be made so y’all better be thinking about it.”

He got up and stretched and went for the stairs but he turned and looked back at William over his shoulder, “You best take her for a run tonight, Boy. Show her what it is to be wolf-kind without all the blood and the teeth.” He fixed his eyes on me, “There are good things about what we are too,” he promised as his parting shot, then he disappeared down the stairs.

I looked at William who was smiling and I felt myself frown a little.

“What?” I asked.

“Oh, you’re going to like this. Come on,” he stood and held out his hands to me and I took them. He drew me in, wrapping my arms around his waist and walked me to the steps, him moving forward, me walking backwards. I laughed slightly.

“Where are we going?” I asked softly.

“I think Markus has the right idea, Sugar. We need to take a mental break, and you need to see the fun side of being wolf-kind. We’re going for a run.”

I smiled up at this man, this impossible man who I had grown to love so much in such a short time and the way his beautiful brown eyes sparkled, I just couldn’t and wouldn’t deny him anything.

“Okay,” I agreed and yipped, shrieking a laugh as he bent and threw me over his shoulder. He slapped me on the ass.

“Quiet, woman! With your high pitched noises and girly sounds.”

“You love my girly noises,” I chided with a wicked grin turning my lips.

“Too fucking right I do,” he agreed and he carried me down the stairs and out front of his house into the early autumn twilight.

Chapter 23

William

My house sat on the edge of a great deal of forested land, perfect for wolf-kind who loved to run, and I’d yet to meet one that didn’t. The wolf in us enjoyed the woods, loved the forests and mountains and absolutely
loved
to run. If you were a couch potato sort before being bitten, you wouldn’t be afterward. The wolf wouldn’t let you.

“So, is there a plan here? Or were you just going to carry me around like a sack of potatoes all night?” Chloe asked from behind me as I walked toward the trees. I reached up and swatted her ass again and she gave an adorable little yip.