Secret Worlds (352 page)

The wolves manned this functioning wild life preserve to keep up appearances, and the primary building was busy with people performing their day-to-day tasks when I arrived. I entered through the large glass doors and walked past the reception desk where the wolf lady from the night before, Diana, was sitting. She wasn’t the normal receptionist, a redhead by the name of Jessica. I wondered what had happened to her. She’d never missed a day as long as I’d been around. Those thoughts would have to wait for later, though; the glare Diana tossed my way was setting off all kinds of red flags in my head.

Remembering that I needed to act like an Alpha if I wanted to be treated like one, I pretended to ignore her and continued past.

“Hey,” she shouted at me. “The boss is in a meeting. You’re going to have to wait.”

I kept pace and continued toward Aiden’s office door. “Don’t get your hackles up. He won’t mind me peeking in.” Aiden had never kept me from pack business. As potential mate, it was my duty to familiarize myself with the way the pack operated. That often meant sitting in on meetings.

“Maybe you didn’t hear me. I said you’re not going in there.” Diana stood and in a graceful whirl of motion, managed to get in front of me and block my way into Aiden’s office.

She was beginning to get on my nerves. I had to look up to meet her eyes. She had at least five inches on me, but, I wasn’t going to let her size intimidate me. It’s not the size of the dog, it’s the fight within that matters most, and if I wanted to be respected as the Alpha Female, I’d better start showing it now. I lowered my voice to a dangerous whisper. “I’m not sure if you’re just new to the receptionist position and don’t know how things work, or if you’ve got some kind of problem here, but you need to back down.”

Diana stared down at me, daring me, her hazel eyes locked onto mine almost as if she was trying to see through me. “You may be Aiden’s little plaything, but you’re not
pack
. And from what I hear, you’ll never be
pack
. Once he’s realized this, he’ll toss you aside and pick up a real woman.”

If it weren’t for the seriousness of the situation I would die of laughter. The audacity of this woman to think she had a chance with my Aiden. But laughter would have to wait.

“Aww, you think you have a shot with him? That’s so cute.” I narrowed my eyes but did not break contact with her. I knew better than to break eye contact with a wolf. I was the dominant here, even as a human, and she needed to know it. “Let me save you the trouble of getting your hopes up. He’s mine, bitch. And even if he weren’t, he’d never shack up with a skank like you.”

“Big words for such a small girl.” She leaned in, coming nose to nose with me. “Let’s see you back that up.”

The knob on the door turned with a slight creak. Diana straightened up and plastered a fake smile across her face just as the door opened.

“Babe?” Aiden pushed straight past Diana as if she hadn’t been standing there. He pulled me into his arms. “Why didn’t you come in when you got here?”

Over Aiden’s shoulder I spotted Diana sneering at me. I smiled in return. “I was just having a friendly little chat with your secretary. She’s new, right? You might want to keep her on a shorter leash until she’s trained a little better. She’s so unprofessional.”

“Forget her. You get in here.” He pulled me straight past a fuming Diana, into his office, and kicked the door closed behind him.

“So, we need to talk—” I tried to say, but he captured my mouth before I could finish the sentence. Aiden’s kisses had all the intensity of a man who’d finally found what he’d been sorely deprived of. His lips begged for more contact as he backed me up against the bookshelves.

“Go ahead, talk. I’m listening.” He left my lips only to taste new delights as he worked his mouth down to the crook of my neck. His hands came up and cupped my breasts through my t-shirt.

Aiden was all heat and need and pent up aggression. He nipped possessively at the hollow of my neck, making me squirm with delight. That man knew exactly how to get my motor running! My body throbbed with need for him and warmth pooled between my thighs.

“You’re not saying anything,” he teased as he pulled back. Fire blazed in his eyes and he burned a trail all the way down my body. “Didn’t you want to talk?”

“Talking is overrated, just fuck me,” I panted and gripped his pants, pawing at his belt buckle. Suddenly, it felt like there were too many layers of clothes between us, but it only took me a moment to rectify that.

“That’s my girl.” Aiden seized my hips and lifted me up in a smooth motion. His strength added to my desire. He carried my weight easily while his large hot hands gripped my ass under my skirt.

I wrapped my legs around his torso and gripped his head, weaving my fingers into his dark thick hair, and ground myself into him.

Aiden growled his appreciation; the vibrations of his chest rumbled through my body. He twirled around toward his desk, swept a hand across it and sent his pencil cup, notebooks, and stapler crashing to the floor.

Though he was furious with need, he laid me out gently across the now-empty desk. Desire smoldered in his pitch-black eyes. He slipped his hands under my skirt, hooked my underwear with his fingers, and dragged them down. I kicked off my fur-lined boots and flung my panties off with them. Aiden smirked and grabbed my ankles. He lifted them to his shoulders and smoothed his hands down my bare legs.

Both rough and gentle, soft and hard, he was a sexy conundrum that had my body aching for his next move. And move he did. His boxers hit the floor and he dove into me with one powerful thrust. He knew just how to hit all the right spots and how hard to drive me. Aiden was all Alpha, and I was ready to submit to him forever.

I reached up to pull him down to me. “My answer is yes.”

I swear I saw a new spark ignite his smoldering eyes. “Babe, you don’t know how happy you’ve just made me.”

“You could show me.”

Another deep growl rumbled through his chest. He leaned on his hands and met my mouth as he drove into me harder. The desk beneath us creaked and shifted, moving with his thrusts. He had me pinned and I loved it. His power flowed through me with each plunge. It was if he was joining us, fusing us together. He found places I don’t think had ever been touched before. Places that caused me to lose control and quiver. He drove me to the edge and then sent me freefalling into the abyss. Stars burst in my vision and I swear I blacked out for a moment. When I came to, my body still buzzed with electricity and Aiden towered over me, smiling.

“I don’t know what you just did there, but … damn!”

“Just wait until you’ve transitioned. It gets better.” He winked.

Oh damn! I swear I almost came again hearing that. “Why didn’t you open with that when you first asked me to change? I doubt any woman alive could turn that offer down.”

“I wanted the decision to be yours. No coercion.”

“You’re evil.”

“I’m yours.”

“No … I’m yours.” I lifted my head and punctuated my point capturing his lips in an intense kiss.

Someone knocked on the door, a soft almost tapping sound. It was my turn to growl, only this time it was out of frustration. I wasn’t ready to end our moment.

“I’m busy.” Aiden shouted to the door.

“Sorry, boss.” Diana said. “Micah is here and the rest of the council are meeting in the conference room.”

“Bad timing.”

“We’ll have to continue this later.” Aiden’s shoulders sagged.

“Do you want me to join you in council?”

“No. I need to give them the good news, though. That should get them off my back. For now, you get that sexy ass into a shower and be ready for me to ravage you again later.” He stood and retrieved his boxers and pants.

“Is that all I am to you?” I joked as I sat up on the desk. “Your little plaything?”

“No, that’s just one of the perks.” He stole one last kiss and headed for the door. “I won’t be long. I promise.”

“You better not.”

He walked out, passed Diana, and headed down the hallway. She stood in the doorway, and once Aiden had walked out of sight, turned to me and sneered. I sat proudly on top of Aiden’s desk, naked from the waist down, and crossed my legs.

“You think you’re untouchable, don’t you?” Diana spat at me.

“You’re treading a very thin line, lady.”

“Tough words for a human. I could shred you right here.”

“So do it. What are you waiting for? Oh, right … Aiden would have your head for that.”

“Accidents happen.” An evil glint shone in her eye and a smile spread across her face.

I wasn’t going to let her scare me. I glared back at her. “They do, don’t they? I’d feel terrible if my fist just accidentally found your face. Cut the crap. You don’t want me for an enemy.” As soon as I became Alpha Female, I planned to make her life hell.

“Why, because you’re fucking the boss?” She rolled her eyes. “Oh yes, I heard. Half the pack heard you. You’re quite the little slut, aren’t you? Just walking into the boss’s office and screwing him as loud as you can for all to hear. Bet you feel like you’re something hot, don’t you?”

I folded my arms in front of me.

“Lemme tell you a little secret. No one wants a human mating with the Alpha. The council won’t allow it, and I won’t stand for it.”

I smiled. “Well that’s just fine by me. I won’t remain a human for long.”

She scoffed. “Not everyone survives the transition. There are ways to swing the odds either way.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Why? Are you scared?” She sashayed toward me. Her smug expression sent my blood boiling.

I gritted my teeth to stop myself from saying anything else. I knew what she was doing—trying to get me to snap—and she was dangerously close. I was no match for her yet, so I couldn’t challenge her to a fight; but once I transitioned, she would slowly and painfully eat every last word.

“I’m going to tell you one last time.” Her voice went deadly quiet. “Leave Aiden and this pack … for your own safety.”

I couldn’t help the shiver of fear that threatened to reveal itself. I turned away, hoping to keep it hidden and give off the vibe that she was not worth my attention. “Get it through your head. Aiden and I are already mates,” I said with as much conviction as I could muster.

“You’ll never be his true mate.”

Something slammed hard into the back of my head. Before I could register the pain, the world went dark and I felt myself freefalling into nothingness.

No hangover in the world could compare to the throbbing pain that I felt when I awoke. Aiden’s voice called out to me. I’m not sure how I managed to hear it over the fire alarm ringing in my ears.

Groggy and very much disoriented, I cracked open my eyes and tried to focus. A thick screen of haze clouded my vision. Hanging over me was a tanned blob punctuated by two piercing black dots. I knew it was Aiden, though, and seeing him, even a blurry version of him, gave me that warm fuzzy feeling deep down in my belly. Everything would be okay as long as he was taking care of me.

“Wake up, babe. C’mon. There you go. Open those eyes.” He sounded as if he were talking to me under water, but his voice worked magic, rousing me further. I blinked away some of the haze and focused on him.

“You took a nasty fall. Can you tell me your name?” he asked.

“Diana,” I moaned. It was the first name that popped into my head.

“No, babe.” He sounded really worried. “Diana’s the one who brought you here when you fell. Tell me
your
name.”

My brain hurt too much to think, and the details, like my vision, were a little fuzzy; I couldn’t make sense of them. “What happened?”

“Tell me your name.” Aiden’s frantic voice sharpened to a high pitch.

I reached back into the murky depths of my mind. “Fall … Fallon.” Yeah, that was right. I hoped. Thinking hurt. Everything hurt. I just wanted to fall back into the peaceful abyss of unconsciousness. There, pain did not exist.

I heard a woman’s voice in the background. “Is she going to be all right?” She must have been Diana. That name triggered instant feelings of anger. She sounded concerned, but that couldn’t be right. Diana was bad. But why, I couldn’t quite put my finger on yet. Again I reached as far as I could into the murky depths of memory for the answer.

Aiden turned away from me, and from what I could make out, the two blurry shapes appeared to be intertwined.
Was he hugging her?
“I’m so glad you were there to help her.”

“I know how much she means to you,” Diana sounded so innocent I almost believed her, but a nagging voice in my head sounded warning bells that overtook the ringing in my ears.

She hit me? Didn’t she?

The pain kept me from forming the words, but deep down I knew Diana was full of shit. She had to have hit me or pushed me—something. The last memory I had was of her scowling and threatening me. There was no way I fell. I didn’t remember standing up.

Aiden face returned to view. He was clearer now, and those gorgeous obsidian eyes, filled with concern, met mine. “Sorry, babe. Guess I gave you a little too much lovin’ earlier.” He placed something cold on my forehead. The icy chill helped to slow the throbbing. “You’re probably concussed. We’ll have to keep you up for a little while. Diana has offered to help keep an eye on you while I’m tending to pack business.”

“No,” I blurted out.

His head tilted sideways. “No, what?”

“Not Diana.” I felt like I was moving in slow motion while everything around me was on fast forward. I tried to push myself up but felt instantly dizzy and crashed back down.

“She doesn’t know what she’s saying,” I heard Diana say. “Must have really hit her head hard.”

“Call Lyssa,” I moaned.

Aiden crinkled his forehead. “Babe … it’s still daytime. You know she can’t come out here.”

“Daytime?” Why was everything so dark? I wondered. “Shit. What day is it?”

“Do you want me to call a doctor for her?” Diana asked. She sounded so sweet and helpful, and Aiden was eating it up.

“You don’t need to do anything for me,” I snapped, still struggling to sit up. My body just wasn’t cooperating.