ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (234 page)

She walked onto the plateau and her power rolled over the bare ground and pushed against them. It made it harder to breathe, and Bruce was sure that whatever she was throwing off was adding to the feeling he still couldn’t shake. She moved like she was on the hunt and when she came closer he dropped his eyes because no matter how he’d come to despise he, she was still above him in rank and way more powerful.

Even without the extra boost his power had given her in the short time they’d tried to do a relationship.

“Well, it’s nice to see you all here together,” she said in a sugary voice that did nothing to hide how lethal she was and how much she was obviously ready to go out on the hunt. Bruce could smell her bloodlust.

None of them answered. Whatever she needed to say, he wanted her to say it so that he could get away from there. The power in the ground was restless, uncomfortable.

“I want to talk about the Assassins,” she said and the group shuffled as if the topic was something no one wanted to talk about. “I hear they still haven’t moved on.”

She glanced at Dwayne who nodded in confirmation.

Tara’s voice was hard when she spoke again. Her eyes were glowing a greenish color, heading swiftly toward the blinding white light that it became when she was about to change. The change was close. Her usual eyes didn’t look the way they did now.

“I want to know why that is. They’re smelling something here. Someone knows something and they think they can pick up on it.”

Bruce was aware of her teeth as she spoke. They seemed even worse than before, deadly and animalistic. She was losing her humanity and it wasn’t happening slowly.

“If there’s any human down there—“

She stopped talking and her eyes shifted to the trees. The feeling in the air grew until Bruce felt like it was going to suffocate him. Tara’s eyes started changing, went all the way to the bright light and the thin pupils that made him think she should rather have been a snake than a leopard.

“There’s a human here,” she said under her breath and her voice was low like she was growling. Bruce lifted his head and smelled the air, but all he could pick up on was Tara’s sudden aggression.

“It’s impossible for a human to get up here,” he said. Tara glared at him and then moved toward the trees at a speed that was much too fast for a human, using muscles that a human shouldn’t even have had. She disappeared into the trees and a moment later Bruce hear a small yelp.

The sound tugged at him like there was something very important he should know what he didn’t. And then Tara came out of the trees again, dragging a woman by the arm.

Dragging Jenna by the arm.

Bruce’s blood went cold and for a moment he felt dizzy. The pack gasped for breath.

“Impossible, is it?” Tara said and her voice was thin with rage. She was on the verge of losing control. Bruce glanced down at Jenna. She didn’t look scared as he thought she would. Maybe a bit rattled, but there was anger in her eyes, too. They were a brilliant green, a human green, but the anger was unmistakable.

“You human found us,” Tara said. Bruce’s stomach flipped. By saying
your human
it sounded like she knew about the mating. But she couldn’t know, could she? Not unless Dwayne had told her, because Bruce had no doubt the psychic knew.

When he glanced at Dwayne the man shook his head almost imperceptibly, as if he knew the question on Bruce’s mind. He hadn’t ratted him out. He liked the idea that there was another loyal in his pack, someone that had his back. But that took a backseat in his mind.

Tara had Jenna and she was beyond angry.

“We should have killed them all when we had the chance,” she sneered. “Taking out only the few humans that know leaves too many that can still find out.”

“Tara,” Dwayne said softly, trying to ease the situation. But she wouldn’t hear it. She threw Jenna down and Bruce went to run forward and check on his wife. Every muscle in his body was clenched tight and he had to bite on his jaw not to attack Tara for manhandling Jenna.

“Well, we’ll make this easy,” she said and her voice rolled out husky and on the verge of a growl. She was letting her animal go. All hell was going to break loose in about five seconds. “We’ll start with her and then work out way down the mountain.”

Tara brought on a part of the change. Her face pushed out, taking on a strange shape that was between her leopard and her human. Her fingers lengthened, her nails turning into black claws and her skin became hairy. But she kept her human shape, her ebony hair that trailed down her back like silk and her hips that swayed when she walked, so that she was rather a bi-pedal monster.

She turned and headed for Jenna, teeth bared and claws ready. Bruce lunged forward but he would be too slow. Jenna screamed as the claws came down.

Instead of sinking her claws into Jenna’s cheek as Tara had planned, her hand bounced back as if there was a force around Jenna. She scrambled back, away from Tara, her eyes wide, her breathing too fast. If she didn’t focus on breathing slowly, she was going to hyperventilate.

“You have protection,” Tara said to Jenna, her eyes narrowed to thin slits. “A shifter’s protection.

She turned and her eyes found Bruce immediately.

“You’ve given her your protection,” she said.

“I’ve taken her as my mate,” Bruce answered, because it was better that Tara knew than that she thought there was some way around it. He wasn’t just Jenna’s bodyguard, he was her guardian. There was a very big difference.

Tara let out a sound that was something between a hiss and a low-throated growl, and launched toward Bruce, taking out her anger on him instead. This was what it was for. The bond that he’d forged with Jenna, the protection he’d given her by taking her as his mate. This was what it had been all about. Jenna could not be harmed, instead he would take her place.

He was ready for Tara, and by the time she reached him he was a bear. The shift came fast, the magic in the air making it easier, the fear for his wife making it less painful. It was like all sensation had left his body and all that was left was his quest to protect his own.

Tara was a leopard by the time she reached Bruce, having taken her shape, too and she attacked him with a scream that sounded eerily human coming out of her leopard throat.

How many times had they gone through this?

He was ready for her. He took her attack head on. Her claws scraped through the flesh on his chest and he roared but smacked her to the side with a sweep of his paw. She tumbled but regained her footing and launched again.

Bruce was aware of Dwayne moving toward Jenna and he wasn’t worried that the man would harm her. He crouched by her and Bruce knew that it was for peace. He didn’t know how he knew, he just did.

He didn’t have more time to think. Tara was on him again, her jaws cranked wide open, her eyes a bright white that had no feeling in them, nothing was a wish for death. She jumped on Bruce and he lost his balance, falling to the floor.

Tara latched onto his throat and tried to work through Bruce’s thick fur. He tried to peel her off but she clamped down so he started rolling.

He outweighed her by about two hundred pounds and his weight took its toll on her. Her animal made a strained sound as the air was forced out of her body. She squirmed underneath butch and he didn’t let up.

When her breathing was so shallow he could hardly hear it he let up. He wanted to drag her across the plateau and fling her off the cliff while she was too weak to survive the fall. He couldn’t look into her eyes and kill her without her rolling him with her mind, and every time he tried to get her face turned away from him she pulled it back to him.

She had other powers, mind powers that scared him.

From out of nowhere a wolf jumped on his back and he roared at the pain when it bit into his shoulder. It wasn’t as sore it was a surprise. The pack wasn’t supposed to get involved, the fight was between him and Tara.

By attacking Jenna, Tara had indirectly challenged Bruce. It was fight between the two of them. The pack wasn’t supposed to get involved. That didn’t stop them from getting in the mix though. Cleveland hung back and Dwayne was still crouched with Jenna who seemed to be frozen with her eyes glued to the fight.

But Stephen and Rosa had both shifted and he knew it was Stephen on his back. Rosa was crouched a few feet away with her lips curled back in a sneer, baring sharp teeth and glowing eyes that were downright scary.

Lori was in the throes of shifting to a bear. It was different than his change – she had less to fuel her and she was weaker. But the moment she was a bear Bruce would be in trouble. She matched him in size and weight and if she was against him, with two wolves and a wereleopard on her side he was outnumbered and overpowered by many.

He turned to Dwayne and for a moment he tried to read what was in the psychic’s eyes. And he found nothing comforting. He turned back to the pack that were suddenly all turned against him, and he knew that this fight was only going to end one way – in death. The only variable now was whose death it was going to be.

He launched at Tara again, the strongest of the pack but the leader. If he could kill her the others would have no choice but to submit. But the time Stephen had bought her by jumping on his back had given her enough time to recover from her lack of oxygen, and she was on her feet again, growling at Bruce.

He attacked her nevertheless, because as long as he was going for her, the pack would go for him instead of Jenna. He threw himself on her with teeth bared and claws slashing, trying to cause as much damage as he could. But the wolves were on him and Lori clapped him with a claw that left deep cuts into his skin. He started losing blood and the wolves managed to take chunks out of his fur, too. It was like once his skin was broken, his strength started leaking out those holes.

As if the others knew what was happening they eased off and it was easier for Tara alone to take Bruce on. She growled and  at first Bruce thought it was aimed at him. But then he realized it was a command toward the others. A command that involved Jenna. He turned to her and roared as long and loud as he could.

Dwayne translated for Bruce.

“Run!” he shouted.

Jenna got up and headed for the trees, running like her life depended on it, because it did. Cleveland was a bird in less than a second and set off after her. He would guide her, Bruce knew. Cleveland was on his side.

The others set off into the trees after her. Bruce tried to stop them but they were faster, and finally he had to make do with knocking Tara down and trying to kill her. But the leopard got away from him, too, and he watched her white and yellow fur disappeared between the trees, after his wife.

He groaned and crumpled on the plateau, alone, hoping to god that Jenna was going to make it out. Because if she didn’t, he wouldn’t.

CONTINUE READING HERE

AND ALPHA MATE

By Sicily Duval

The pull of the moon was strong. It was almost full, and I could feel the wolf pull towards it. But it wasn’t full moon yet, and I would fight it. Being a werewolf was a very weird love-hate relationship. I wasn’t myself anymore. I shared my body with a predator, and animal, and when the moon called, it came out. My wolf wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good. It was wild, and there were times when I couldn’t fight it.

Tonight wasn’t going to be one of those nights. It couldn’t. Brandi was with me, and she couldn’t know what I really was. There were only so many humans that liked to walk on the wild side, and she wasn’t the type. Too classy.

“I don’t know what to do, John” she was saying. “He just doesn’t seem interested anymore.” She was talking about the low-life of a boyfriend she’d been with. They never lasted long. She was too deep for them. But since her father died, she needed someone to love. And that someone wasn’t going to be me.

Girls like her didn’t go for guys like me. We were friend-zoned. It was like she always chased danger. The guys that weren’t good for her. It was the paradox of women, wasn’t it? There were times that I wondered if I should tell her how dangerous I really was. But that wasn’t going to happen. There was a difference between danger and death. The other guys, now that was flirting with danger. Me? That would be flirting with death.

And no matter which way you painted it, death wasn’t attractive. I knew.

“He’s just being such a prick. And I don’t want to dump him. I can’t go through all of that again.”

“Why not?” It seemed stupid that a woman like her would put up with these idiots.” Really, B. You deserve so much better.”

She smiled at me, and her blue eyes were deep like the ocean, gazing at me from the dark fringe that fell over her forehead.

“Why’s that?” she asked, even though she knew what I would say because I always said it to her. She liked to tease me. It drove me crazy. It was one of the reasons I stayed. Not the biggest reason, but it helped. A lot.

“Because you’re funny and beautiful and you don’t need to deal with boys that won’t grow up,” I said. She had a killer personality. We’d been friends for almost ten years, and there hadn’t been once in all that time that I’d thought she was being shallow or fickle or petty like most women I knew. And she had a body to boot. It was an absolute bonus. She was voluptuous, with curves in all the right places. There were so many guys that said Hollywood Hot was the only way to go. Skinny and airbrushed. But skinny didn’t do it for me. It was how she carried herself. She was a walking piece of art. There was not one part of her body that I would call fat. Only contours of pleasure.

“You’re a sweetheart,” she said and kissed me on my cheek. Her lips against my skin were electric, and they burned a print onto me, so when she pulled away again I could still feel her like she was there.

“I have to get home.”

The part I hated most about any day. The part we said goodbye. She gave me hug and I held on to her, arms wrapped around her waist. The feel of her was familiar. Her body was a puzzle piece against mine.

She let go.

I’ll see you on the weekend, okay?” she said and turned towards home. I waited until she was about a block from me before I walked towards the trees that started on the other side of the street. As soon as I was hidden between them, I let the wolf loose. I could feel my bones click and pop as my body took on a different shape. Goosebumps spread across my body, and then hair sprouted from my skin. It covered my body in sleek silver fur.

I knew my wolf was beautiful. Not in the cute and cuddly way pets were, but in the ferocious way a wild animal was. Majestic. Dangerous. My wolf had silver fur with a wide dark stripe running from my head to my tail. My eyes were almost black. I’d looked at myself in a window reflection when I’d changed the first or second time.

There’s nothing quite as disconcerting as looking in a mirror and finding the reflection staring back isn’t the one that’s always been there.

In wolf form I was comfortable in the woods. Animals weren’t meant for cities. I lived closed to the forest for a reason. I slipped noiselessly between the trees and weaved my way in the direction of her home. After about a mile I moved towards the edge of the forest, and then slipped into a narrow alley. I stuck to trash cans, the smell pinching my now-sensitive nose, and I made my way almost two blocks away from the forest.

Just as I arrived at the bus stop, so did the bus. I held my breath. I could hear my pulse in my ears. The smell of the different passengers hung in the air, clinging to my fur, as they got off the bus. A lady that wore too much perfume. A man that needed a shower. And then the smell of summer rain. Of evergreen.

Brandi stepped off the bus.

I allowed myself to breathe again. She was safe. It was my worst nightmare that I would get to the bus stop one day, and she wouldn’t be on it. They wanted her, and if they became impatient enough, they would get her. I didn’t try fooling myself that I could keep her safe when they attacked. But I was her guardian now, and I would do everything in my power to keep her safe.

Even if it killed me.

As big as I was – a werewolf wasn’t standard wolf size – I could be very quiet. It’s a trick of the trade; something I got when I lost my humanness to the wolf. I followed her, quiet as the night, until I saw her safely home. Then I turned towards the forest, and ran.

As soon as I was in the cover of the trees, I started my shift back to my human form. It felt strange, going back to my normal size. It was natural, but the wolf pulled me in completely, and it felt unnatural for me to be human again. I shook off the feeling, and shuddered. I couldn’t give in to the wolf. The animal was a dominant predator, and it was literally a battle of wills to keep in charge.

What would Brandi think of me if she ever found out? The answer was very easy. I would never let her. I’d lose her for good.

“Well, you’ve been busy, haven’t you?” a voice came from the trees. It was deep and serious, and it seemed to come from everywhere at once. The voice brushed against my skin like it was something physical, and I had to remind myself that I was immune to the lick of fear that accompanied it.

“Good evening, Alpha.” My second stepped out from between the trees into the small clearing. As a human he was upright and proud. The kind that commanded authority no matter where he was. As a wolf he was fierce and demanding. A predator at it’s very best. I was the Alpha, but if anything happened to me, he would be in charge. He had what to took to be the leader of the pack.

“Evening,” I said, looking down at him. When I met his eyes, he turned them away, accepting my dominance. There would be a night he would challenge my – I knew it. But tonight wouldn’t be it.

“Still protecting her?” he asked.

I nodded slowly and looked around us, alert to the sounds of the forest. My second was alone. He hadn’t brought other members of the pack with him. It was just as well, I wasn’t in a mood to play games. The one thing I was able to do that none of my pack were, was call the wolf out in them. And if I did that, they were under my control. No wolf liked that. I had been a sub. I knew what it meant.

“You know it’s not right to do that,” he said.

“She’s not a threat until she’s mated.” It was a fact. I didn’t have to justify myself to this man, but if they were questioning my ability to lead…

“It’s a pity one of the Hart’s survived,” he said. For a moment I thought he was going to look me in the eye. The hair on my neck stood on end and I got ready to shift. But his gaze traveled to my forehead, and rested there instead. As a wolf you learned how to look humanly acceptable but offer respect in an animal’s world.

“She doesn’t even know. Her old man didn’t even know.” When I spoke about her father a sorrow filled the air around us. My second must have felt it, too, because he looked around us, and frowned.

He shrugged. “It was a risk. We had to do it. I don’t care if you want to treat her as your pet and follow her around. But you had better not get in the way when the time comes.”

“Are you threatening me?” I asked. The sorrow around us shifted and changed to danger. He shook his head quickly from side to side.

“No, my lord,” he said, bending his head. It was good to know what he was scared of me, at least. “But if she is mated, and she becomes a threat to us, you are required to take her out. The Alpha before you took out her father, and you know how that worked.”

A shiver ran across my skin. I’d been there that night. I’d seen what werewolves could do to a man because they were born into the wrong bloodline.

“The pack won’t allow you to override our laws,” he said.

“Why are you telling me this?” I snapped. I was angry, my blood boiling in my veins.

“I didn’t mean to offend,” he said in a low voice, his head bowed but his eyes staring up at my chest. “It’s my job as the second in command to warn you that there will be bloodshed if something changes. Yours or hers. It has to be that way.”

I snorted and turned my back, walking into the trees. I was the only one in the pack that could do that. No pack animal would turn their back on a alpha, or they would get a bite out of it.

In every myth, if there was evil, good rose up against it. Since the beginning of time supernatural creatures had been hunted, and taken out. Often they’d just been misunderstood.

The Hart family had a reputation. They were silver wielders. Humans didn’t have magical powers, but some of them had talent. And silver wielders could kill werewolves easier than other people. Silver was something we just didn’t do. It irritated us like an allergy if we were in the same room, and if a silver bullet hit our hearts, we died.

Brandi was the last Hart of her line. The knowledge of their talent had died about three generations ago. It had been a night of a blood moon, a lunar eclipse at the same time that the wolves attacked, and it had been a slaughter. For the wolves. After that the Hart’s had for some reason stopped. Even her father, Ernest, hadn’t known what he’d been capable of. But he’d had to die because he’d had a wife. Brandi’s mother. The act of marriage was what ignited the talent.

Thank god Brandi didn’t have her sights on a man.

I made my way home, and collapsed into bed. My bones hurt with an ache almost like growth pains, and I felt feverish. The change out of full moon did that to a wolf. It was best to stick to the two nights that the wolf came out by itself.

2

The shrill ring of my cell phone pulled me out of sleep. My head hurt and my eyes felt gritty. I was really out of the game today. I reached to the night stand and groped for the phone, knocking it off before I managed to find it and flip it open.

“Hey sleepy head,” her voice came through the speaker. It was like silk, caressing me even when we weren’t together. It held sorrow. I could feel it through the phone – heavy, dragging me down.

“Are you okay?” I asked. I was suddenly awake.

“You know me so well,” she said softly. My skin rippled, and I forced myself to stay calm.

“I did it.”

That caught me off guard. “Did what?”

“I dumped him. I told him to leave. He came by the house late last night, and I told him I never wanted to see him again.” Her voice was laced with tears, but the tension left my body and I fell back onto the pillow.

She was safe. It was just a break up.

“Can I come over?” her voice was soft, vulnerable.

I stilled for a moment.

“It’s okay if you say no,” she said, misinterpreting my silence for rejection. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see her. I was just scared for her. The pack was getting restless, and having her, a Hart, in the house of a werewolf? At least the break-up meant she was even further from getting married than before.

“I just need to get away,” she whispered. My brain whirred, and a plan clicked into place.

“Why don’t we get out of here?” I suggested.

“That would be great. Like to the movies?”

I shook my head, even though she couldn’t see it. “I mean out properly. Let’s go to Vegas.”

She was quiet for a moment.

“Vegas is perfect. It can distract you, and we haven’t had time to really have fun in a while.”

I bit my cheek, hoping she’d go for it. If I took her away she’d be gone for the full moon, out of the pack’s, and safe. My second could keep a handle on things for a night or two, he’d relish it.

“That sounds perfect,” she said.

I hung up. She was going to pack and be here in an hour. I had to do the same.

Vegas was a whole different ball game. The amount of people mingling around, the plethora of smells and feelings all around me were so overwhelming, I had to switch off to it. I couldn’t think. My senses were being bombarded.

We checked into the hotel, leaving our bags there, and hit the strip. Gambling wasn’t my thing, but Brandi threw herself into it, and she was pretty good, too. Everything she won, we used on alcohol. We were working at a profit, and none of our own money.

“This was such a good idea,” she said, slurring a little. She’d had a couple of drinks already. I didn’t drink as a rule, I had to keep the wolf down, but tonight I let go. A fog had rolled in, blurring the edges of everything I looked at, and everything seemed just beyond arm’s reach.