The Alpha's Hunger (19 page)

He whimpered and licked Ashley’s bloodied face. She moved her face away from him, but did not seem wholly conscious. His heart beat in his throat.

The wolves around him began to shift back to human form. He was dimly aware of Mark taking charge of the scene, reporting to law enforcement and requesting an ambulance as sirens sounded in the distance.

Ben shifted as well, blinking to take in Ashley. She was covered in blood and he couldn’t tell how much was hers and how much was Sandoval’s. Her eyes fluttered open, but her face was pale. “Ashley, oh, God. Where are you hit?”

“Don’t rip my clothes off,” she said with a weak smile. “It’s just my leg. I’ll be okay.”

He scooped her up into his arms and held her tight to his chest, cradled her like a baby.

“Get the pack out of here,” Mark said to Stanley.

“Everybody out,” Stanley barked and his pack shifted, slinking out the doors and windows, disappearing before the police arrived. The South American wolves disappeared as well, and Mark let them go. When it came to managing human law enforcement, wolves preferred to handle things on their own.

Mark and Zolla had already put on clothes. His were torn and tangled around his body from when he shifted with them still on. Zolla handed him a pair of pants and took Ashley from his arms while he yanked them on.

“How did you find this place? I didn’t give you the address.”

“I traced the location on Ashley’s phone,” he said.

He took Ashley back into his arms. “Thank you,” he said, his voice choked.

Mark looked around at the broken windows and bloodstains all over the floor. “This is going to be a hard one to explain.”

Ashley’s body had begun to shake as shock settled in. Her face grew even paler and she appeared to be losing consciousness.

“Ashley!” he cried.

“Listen to me,” Mark said sharply. “Ashley was kidnapped to lure Ben in. He came, but first notified Zolla, who called me. When I arrived, a fight had ensued between the South Americans—some were fighting to help Ben, some against. The windows were broken in the process. I shot Sandoval after he shot Ashley, and the rest of them got away. Got it?”

“Yeah, okay,” he said, his heart pinching as he watched Ashley’s eyelids slide closed again. The police and ambulance pulled up at the same time and he ran outside, carrying Ashley still crushed against his chest.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. You never move the victim. Put her down there,” one of the EMTs barked, pointing at the grass.

“No,” he said in a hard voice, walking straight to the back of the ambulance and stepping in to lay her on the gurney. “You need to help her, right now,” he said.

“We’ll take care of her,” one of them assured her.

“Sir, step away from her please,” a cop said, his gun drawn.

Mark appeared at his side, his FBI badge out and on display and took his elbow, leading him away. When Ben shook him off, Mark said in an undertone, “Keep it together, Stone. This is going to be tricky enough as it is.”

* * *

The surgeon walked in and gave her a warm smile. “Well, you are one lucky young lady,” he said. “Your initial x-rays showed a severe fracture, but when we went in there to put the bone back together, all I found was hairlines. So you don’t have any plates or metal in you at all. The bullet is out, and you’ll keep this hard cast for six weeks, followed by a soft cast for another four,” he said, rapping his knuckles on the cast on her foot.

“What? No color?” she teased. “I wanted pink.”

He grinned at her. “I could have a layer of pink added just for you.”

She gave him a weak smile. “Thanks.”

“The police want to speak with you, and your sister’s here. There’s also a very anxious man who claims he’s your fiancé,” he said with a wink.

“When can I get out of here?” she asked, swinging her legs over the side of the bed.

“I can sign your release papers now. I think the police will want your statement before you can leave though.”

“May I see Ben first?”

“I don’t see why not,” he said, nodding to the medical technician standing behind him. She nodded and left, returning with Ben.

Ben arrived but stopped just in the doorway, looking unsure. She remembered how things had last ended with them and her hand flew to the wounds on her shoulder, which were almost healed. She had forgiven him, but she wasn’t about to let it pass without making her feelings clear.

She pushed herself to her feet and marched over to him. “Don’t you ever,” she said, slapping his chest, “disappear on me—” she struck his shoulder, “again,” she said, pushing and shoving at his unmoving form. “You don’t get to walk away from me every time things get hard,” she said, thumping his chest again and again.

His hands came around her waist, stilling her hips, stroking her gently. “I won’t. I won’t,” he murmured.

His lack of reaction to her tirade made it seem like he wasn’t taking her seriously, so she drew back her hand and slapped his face, remembering too late the way wolves re-establish dominance.

She received no alpha reaction this time, though. He just gazed down at her with a pained expression.

“Why did you leave me?” she asked, her eyes suddenly filling with tears.

To her shock, she thought she saw his own eyes grow bright before he blinked rapidly. “I’m sorry I hurt you, Ash. I never wanted that.” He shook his head as if disgusted with himself. “I only wanted to protect you, but, as usual, I bungled everything.”

She gulped. “You keep pushing me away,” she said, her voice cracking.

Ben swung her up into his arms and walked to the bed, where he sat down, keeping her cradled on his lap. “Does that mean you’ll have me?” he asked softly.

She resisted a smile as a tear streaked down her cheek. “I’ll consider it.”

He nibbled at her ear. “I’m not sure you understand how things work here,” he said, his voice a deep teasing rumble that made her toes start to curl. “You’re mine now. I’ve laid claim to you. That means you’ll never be rid of me, so I suggest you get used to the idea.” He pulled away, looking serious. “I hope you can stand me. I know I’m one hell of an asshole, but I promise I’ll do everything I can to make you happy. You’re all that matters to me. I mean it.”

Unaccountably, she burst into tears, all her pent-up emotions flooding out.

Ben appeared alarmed. “I’m so sorry, Ashley. I can’t undo marking you, but if the thing that makes you happiest is being rid of me, I’ll do my best to stay away,” he said, looking sickened by the thought.

She laughed through her tears. “Stupid wolf,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face there. “I don’t want to be rid of you.” She kissed his jaw, then his lips when he turned and captured the back of her head, his concerned look turning to hungry. She pulled away. “I need more of you, not less. Can you give me that?”

He met her eye. “I’ll give you everything,” he said with the solemnity of a vow.

She laughed and wept more tears, which he thumbed and kissed away.

“Sweet angel. You came into my life like a storm. How did I not know that all I was ever missing was you?”

Chapter Eleven

By some miracle, the police seemed satisfied with the story Mark laid out for them. It didn’t hurt that Sandoval was a known drug lord, and the DEA was thrilled to have him out of the picture. Ben feared it put him on their watch list as a contact, but since he had nothing to do with drugs or drug running, he hoped it would come to nothing.

He drove Ashley to her home. “Stay there, I will help you out,” he said when she started to open the car door.

She ignored him and pushed the door open as he walked around, hopping on one foot as she pulled her crutches from the back seat.

“I said stay,” he said, taking them from her hands.

“Woof,” she said.

His heart lurched, remembering their first few days together, the way she had had lit his darkness, her smile quickly becoming something to look forward to, her presence steadying him.

He picked her up, carrying her inside. “It is my job to take care of you, little girl, and I expect your cooperation.”

“I have to learn to walk with these things some time,” she said.

“Not when I’m around,” he said firmly. “And if you need a reminder of how it feels to be over my lap, I won’t hesitate to give you one.”

Ashley squirmed and her body heated in his arms. The idea of spanking her suddenly appealed, not because he wanted to teach her a lesson, but because he knew it turned her on.

He swung the door shut behind him and carried her to her bedroom where he laid her on her bed.

“So is that how it’s going to be with you?” she demanded.

“What?”

“It’s your way or I get spanked?”

He smiled, arranging pillows underneath the knee of her wounded leg. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“So what happens when I’m mad at you? I think you deserve a spanking for biting me and then just leaving.”

He grinned and walked around to stand beside the bed, presenting his ass toward her. “Go ahead.”

She gave him a smack. “Ow,” she said, shaking her hand out as if it hurt.

He laughed.

“No, really, this isn’t fair. What does a she-wolf do to punish her mate?”

He sat down beside her, brushing a strand of her mahogany hair out of her face. “All you have to do is cry,” he said softly. “The smell of your tears will bring me to my knees.”

She studied him, as if trying to see if he was teasing or not. “So, if I want to end a spanking, all I have to do is cry?” she asked. “Why didn’t I try that last time?”

He stroked her cheek. “I don’t know if I would end it, but it would be very difficult for me. Bear that in mind when you’re naughty, little lady.”

“Is that why you seemed so troubled last time?”

He nodded. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said seriously. “It kills me to see you cry.”

Her lips curved into a sultry smile. “I don’t know… I think there were a few times you kinda liked the spanking thing,” she said.

He pounced over her, claiming her mouth as one hand worked the buttons on her blouse. “I think that was you,” he said between kisses.

“Maybe we should try it out to see,” she said, biting down on his lip.

The animal in him jerked with pleasure at the pain. He growled and yanked open her blouse, popping the rest of the buttons.

“That’s two blouses you have destroyed,” she complained, although her smile was feral.

“I think the blood had already ruined both before I got to them,” he said. His eyes landed on the ugly slashes on the front of her shoulder and he swallowed. He ran a finger over them, surprised the wounds were already closed. They appeared to be two weeks old, not roughly thirty-six hours.

“Didn’t Zolla tell you?” she asked. “He thinks I have wolf blood in me and that’s why they healed so fast.”

A ripple of recognition went through his body. Yes. It made sense she had wolf blood. Why else would he be so drawn to her? He lowered his head and kissed the marks reverentially. “My little wolfling,” he murmured. “How can this be?”

“I think it was my grandfather—my dad never knew his father and my grandmother would never say who he was.”

“Your dad never shifted?”

“I really don’t think so. But he was always very protective of his girls, like you are,” she said, touching his face.

He leaned over and kissed her, doing his best to caress her with his lips, instead of attacking. He’d never been one to ‘make love’—it wasn’t something wolves did, but for her, for his Ashley, he would try. He slipped her bra down over her shoulders, kissing along her collarbone. Her scent filled his nostrils, intoxicating him. Sliding his body over hers, he ran his thumb lightly over her pebbled nipple, kissing down her throat. She wove her fingers into his hair and arched against his touch. Her skin was impossibly soft, her body so slender and lithe beneath him.

“You’re beautiful,” he whispered hoarsely.

“You’re a fucking God,” she answered.

He chuckled. “Language, sweetheart,” he warned, flicking his tongue in her ear and nibbling on her lobe. He had her bra off and her skirt up, his index finger stroking along the dampened silk gusset of her panties.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she dared, lifting her chin like an insolent child.

He chuckled and sat back, straddling her, and made a show of rolling up his sleeves. “You are determined to have your bottom warmed by me tonight, aren’t you?”

Her eyes darkened and she squirmed underneath him. The scent of her arousal reached his nose like nectar.

He pinned her wrists to the bed beside her head. “Where do you think you’re going?” he drawled.

She giggled.

He looked into her eyes and lifted his weight off her just enough to roll her to her belly. “Pull down your panties, Ashley,” he murmured, releasing her wrists and climbing off her.

She hesitated.

He waited.

Turning her head to look at him, she lifted her ass in the air and reached down with both hands, sliding her panties down to her thighs.

“Good girl.” He grabbed the pillow from the bed. “Lift your hips again,” he commanded, and slid the pillow under her pelvis when she complied. He ran his hand over her naked curves, doing his best to ignore the cast on her leg that screamed for him to treat her as fragile. He focused instead on her gorgeous ass, lifted and presented for his chastisement and his cock pushed painfully against his pants.

He brought his palm down, watching her cheek flatten and spring back. He slapped the other side, waiting for the red prints of his fingers to stand out against her milky skin. She wiggled her ass for more. He bit back a groan. Knowing she craved his dominance sent a shot of pure lust rocketing through his body. Wolves were born to dominate, at least alpha wolves were. Having a female who offered herself up the way Ashley did fed some inner source of virile power.

“I think I may have to give you regular spankings,” he said, slapping one side of her ass, then the other. “I can’t have you acting out just to earn a punishment.”

She moaned wantonly.