Lonely Alpha (10 page)

A heavy feeling settled into the pit of
Mandy’s stomach, and when he spoke again, it turned to alarm. “What
do I smell like to you?” he asked.

“Pine, the mountains and…man,” she finished,
unsure how else to describe the definite masculine note in his
heavenly scent. It had been teasing her ever since she’d first met
him. Could what he’d said be true? She shifted uneasily against
him. Maybe the time had come for something to be said. “What
exactly does being a shifter’s mate mean, anyway?”

“Your mate is the one you spend the rest of
your life with,” he said, drawing her even closer, so that she
straddled him. He brushed her lips with his before continuing. “You
know – your other half. The bond between mates is the strongest
bond on earth.”

She trembled as he kissed her, long and hard,
slipping his tongue past her teeth and deep into her mouth, as if
he were claiming her. She despaired, even as she enjoyed it. What
had she gotten herself into? She had to go back to Nashville when
this was all over. Of course she did. What would Jack say? Hating
herself for it, she broke the seal of their kiss, leaning back and
trying not to notice how hard he’d grown. “I’m not so sure we’re
officially mates, Jack.”

His lips tickled the hollow of her throat,
tempting her to tilt her head back and let him kiss a trail all the
way down to her chest. “There’s no ‘official’ about it, really.
It’s not like getting married. You just know, and then…that’s
it.”

Just ‘knowing’ didn’t seem quite concrete
enough to base a promise of lifelong togetherness on. Was she
missing something – was she just not wolfy enough to understand, or
was what Jack was saying a little crazy? “What I mean is that I
have a life four hours away in Nashville.” She tried to gentle her
tone, but was afraid that it still came out sounding harsh. “You
don’t really expect me to abandon it to stay here in the mountains
as your mate, do you?”

Chapter 7

He stiffened against her, his embrace
becoming rigid. His lips still touched her neck, though he’d
stopped kissing her. Several moments passed before he spoke. “Yes.”
There was a stubborn note in his voice that reminded her of when
she’d first met him, on his cabin’s front porch.

She sighed. “I can’t do that. Surely you can
understand.”

He leaned back, meeting her eyes. “I
understand that you’re my other half.”

She squirmed uncomfortably in his lap,
attempting to ignore the hardness of his erection. Even as she
tried to make him understand that she couldn’t be his mate, it was
far too easy to remember riding him, and the temptation to sink
down onto his cock and do it again was as real as the hold he had
on her. “Jack, I really like you. To be honest, I’ve never felt
half this crazy about anyone else, but—”

“When you came to my cabin, I figured you
were just another ditzy tourist from the city,” he interrupted.
“But I was wrong. You’re my mate, and I’m yours – how can you think
that I could ever let you go?”

This was all escalating way too fast. Jack
was digging his heels into the ground like a stubborn mule, and she
worried she’d give in, slump against his chest and tell him she was
his forever. It sounded crazy, even to her, but the temptation was
there, beneath the reasons why she couldn’t do so. When she thought
of saying goodbye to the Smoky Mountains and Jack, her heart nearly
wrenched in half. She had to keep those thoughts in the back of her
mind in order to keep arguing. “Maybe we can work something
out.”

“Being mates is like being an alpha – either
you are, or you’re not and you’re alone. There is no in
between.”

“Jack—”

He clapped a hand over her mouth and she
stiffened, indignant anger beginning to replace her
frustration.

“Shhh,” he said softly, his lips brushing her
ear. “I heard somethin’.”

She held as still as a statue, ears straining
for some hint of a sound. Then it came – the subtle snap of a twig
beneath someone’s foot. Underbrush crunched, causing her heart rate
to spike. They’d been found.

Jack held her tight as the sound of hushed,
careful footsteps grew louder and then faded as their hiding place
was passed by. When she finally couldn’t hear them anymore, she
breathed a sigh of relief.

Jack removed his hand from her mouth,
smoothing a stray lock of hair out of her eyes. “We’ll track him,”
he said. “But we’ve gotta wait a little while – let him get a head
start. I can’t risk anyone like him discovering this place. We
should be able to follow his scent trail easily.”

Mandy nodded, her emotions numb as she tried
to wrap her mind around the concept of a hunt and an eventual
killing. “What if he’s laid traps in the forest?” A phantom pain
swept through her hand at the memory of the steel trap, gone as
soon as she’d felt it. “There could be – I don’t know – explosives
or something.” The guy was clearly a maniac and had used teargas –
would it be farfetched to believe he’d planted other nefarious
weapons amongst the pines and poplars?

“You don’t have to worry about that. If he
blew us up, he wouldn’t have his trophies. No, he’ll want to shoot
us, nice and clean. When a shifter dies, his corpse is human,
unless he’s killed one very specific way.”

“How?”

“Shot with a silver bullet. If a hunter can
manage that, he’ll have a wolf carcass to mount. If he doesn’t,
he’ll have a human body to either hide or explain to the
police.”

Mandy shuddered at the thought of being
killed and preserved like a trophy animal. “That’s barbaric. What
kind of sick freak—”

“Trust me, shifter hunters are more animal
than their prey.” He tapped the side of his head with a finger.
“Crazy with hate, if you ask me.”

Mandy sighed, her breath streaming over
Jack’s chest. “All of this is crazy, you know.”

“I reckon it is.” He pressed his lips against
hers, hot and soft.

She leaned into the kiss, aware again of the
renewed hardness in Jack’s lap. He rocked his hips beneath her,
causing the tip of his cock to grind against the seam of her sex.
She gasped, her nails biting into his shoulders as she clung to
him. They were already pressed as tightly together as two people
could be, but she tried to get closer anyway. If they were going to
risk their lives hunting down a psychotic killer, she wasn’t going
to deny Jack or herself this. Slowly, she reached below with her
newly healed hand, wrapping her fingers around his shaft.

“No,” he said, stopping his rocking. “Not
this time.”

“What?” She was still clutching his cock when
he lifted her out of his lap, setting her aside on the floor of
packed earth.

“You got your way last time,” he said, “but
I’m not hurt anymore.” His wicked grin was illuminated by the
moonlight that spilled through the den’s entrance.

Her hand slipped from his groin and before
she could respond, he lowered his head into her lap. When he’d
lifted her off of him she’d landed halfway sprawled in surprise. He
pressed his mouth between her thighs as he gripped her hips,
raising them.

That was how she found herself lying on her
shoulders, her hair spread around her face in disarray as Jack’s
lips poured hot and soft over her slick, tingling skin. There was
nothing but air and Jack’s hands between the lower half of her body
and the ground. Remembering that they were in danger, Mandy stifled
a cry as he buried his tongue in her sex, tasting her. A low moan
rose from his chest, just quiet enough not to be careless, as a
tremor shot through the insides of her thighs, forcing her to
writhe.

He held her steady, finding her clit and
stroking it with his tongue. “Jack!” Her cry was whispered,
strangled, and even she wasn’t sure whether it was a request for
more or less. She already felt as if she might burst with
sensation. He seemed to know it and didn’t hesitate to take
advantage of the fact, making slow, merciless love to her with his
mouth. She could just make out his bright hazel eyes gleaming with
what looked like satisfaction as she breathed deeply, trying to
gain some sense of control, however fragile, over her body.

She couldn’t. Jack was touching her, licking
her, tasting her in all the right places. Even the feel of his
hands on her hips made her weak. It was all she could do to keep
her mouth shut when she came, her pussy heating and tightening
against his mouth. The pleasure he brought her started in her belly
and rolled all the way to her toes, making them curl. The cry she
held back became a low moan.

Finally he relented, lowering her hips so
that she lay before him. The intermission was short-lived. Within a
moment he was on top of her, cupping her breasts as he kissed his
way over her belly. When his lips brushed the lower curve of one
breast, her entire body warmed.

“So many things I wanted to do to you back at
the cabin,” he murmured. “So much of you I haven’t tasted.”

He touched the tip of his tongue to her
nipple, which had long since gone hard. Teasing, he traced a
half-circle around its edge, then drew it into his mouth.

She moaned as the two days’ worth of stubble
on his jaw rasped against the soft swell of her breast. He did the
same, teasing her other nipple with his fingertips. Having his
hands and mouth on her body at the same time was heaven, and his
cock was pressing against the inside of her thigh, firm and hot.
She reached down and gripped it, stroking him.

He lifted his head from her chest and kissed
her, their tongues entwining as he flexed his hips, positioning
himself to enter her as he’d wanted to the first time, back in his
bed. She caressed the length of his erection one last time, her
fingers skimming over the shaft and her thumb dragging over the
rounded tip. He was still as she touched him, reaching below to
cradle the warm weight of his balls in her palm. They were drawn
up, tight and ready. She released him and laid her hand on his back
instead, digging her nails in just a little as she anticipated his
cock pushing past her slick folds and sinking into her body.

He took her slowly, drawing out the first
thrust until she wanted to squirm with impatience. Instead she
arched her hips just a little, angling them so when he finally did
enter her fully, his body teased her clit with exquisite pressure.
She ground against him, drawing out the sensation.

“Mandy,” he whispered her name, wrapping his
arms around her and holding her tight. “You feel so good.” He
rocked into her again and her channel tightened in response as a
bolt of sensation shot through her middle.

“So do you,” she gasped, as quietly as she
could. He – this – felt much better than good. Sex the first time
had been great. It was even better now that she could feel his arms
around her without worrying that the embrace would hurt him.

A fear that was perhaps irrational struck
her, causing her to run a hand down his side. It was obvious from
the way he moved that he was no longer hurt, but she had to feel
for herself. Her fingers swept over the places where his bullet
wounds had been, and beneath a light film of dried blood, there was
nothing but smooth scar tissue. She breathed a sigh of relief.

He thrust into her, deeper than before, as if
to prove he was well again.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and
pulled him close. For a little while, as he made love to her, she
all but forgot about their hunter and the danger they were in. It
was easy to get lost in Jack – the sight and smell and feel of him.
When he held her, he made everything else seem faraway and
inconsequential. And when he thrust into her…it was impossible to
care about anything else. Every bit of her body tingled and
tightened, from her nipples to her stomach to her pussy, as her
pleasure mounted. Jack rocked into her, and she bit down on her
inner lip, vaguely remembering that she wasn’t supposed to cry out.
Mercifully, he kissed her as she began to come.

His hot lips muffled her cry as her channel
shrunk around his cock, tightening arrhythmically as waves of
intensity swept through her middle. Having him inside her as she
came was even better than feeling his mouth against her sex. She
dug her nails into his back, but he didn’t seem to care. If
anything, it seemed to encourage him – he thrust harder, finally
ending their kiss.

She stopped clawing him and loosened her
embrace as her climax faded, leaving her feeling fulfilled in a way
the first one hadn’t. It was almost – but not quite – time to start
thinking about the ordeal that lay before them. She squeezed her
eyes shut, slipping into oblivion for a few last moments as Jack
moved faster. The muscles in his back became tense under her hands.
It was almost over. She didn’t want their lovemaking to end, but it
had to, of course, and she wanted it to be as good for him as
possible. She tightened her channel purposely, causing it to shrink
around his cock.

A low ghost of a growl rumbled deep in his
chest, more felt than heard. His breath hit her face in a rush as
he thrust into her, hard, holding her tighter than ever between his
arms. She took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the richness
of his woodsy scent. If things went badly tonight, she would want
to remember this moment. Hopefully the thought would prove
melodramatic, but just in case… She pressed a kiss against his jaw
as he stilled, relishing the way his stubble tickled her lips.
She’d always considered herself a fan of the clean-shaven look, but
Jack had managed to change that.

“Well, Mandy…” He withdrew from between her
thighs and settled at her side. “I wish we could do that all over
again, but we can’t.” He cupped her cheek and pulled her into a
final kiss that lasted longer than she’d expected. “Time to go,” he
said when it was over. “You can stay here while I track him if you
want, and I’ll come back for you when it’s over.”