The Alpha's Mate (5 page)

Max shrugged, trying to hide his smile. "There is a small tribute paid to the alpha, yes. But few people actually bow."

Expression fled her face and she narrowed her eyes at him. "It's you. Of course it is." She pulled her chair back from the table and sat back down, holding her head in her hands. "What the hell have I gotten myself into."

Someone knocked at the door and Max called for them to come in when Kelly's head snapped up. "It's Andy," he said and grabbed her license from his pocket, handing it over to her. "He'll take you back to your car."

Some expression he couldn't read spread across Kelly's face but drifted away before he could begin to process it. "We'll keep you safe, show you how to be what you are. It doesn't suck, I promise."

Andy stood in the kitchen, halfway between them at the other end of the table. Kelly looked at him, "You were there that night, you helped me to my car."

Something ugly flared inside Max when she took a step toward the other man. But he held himself back. If he tried to be near her now that heat could flare up between them once more, and she might surrender to it. But she would hate him afterward, and the thought of that made him snarl. "Andy's a member of the pack," he simply said.

Andy led her out without further trouble, leaving Max alone in the house once more. He didn't know what to do with himself, or what to do next.

Kelly sat in the car with Andy, her head reeling. Werewolves existed, Max said he had changed her into one. Clearly she had missed her nervous breakdown because this had to count as living in crazy town. Andy fiddled with the radio as they sped down the highway, finally settling on a country station and keeping the volume low. As the man on the radio crooned about love and heartbreak she tried to sort her thoughts into something resembling sanity.

"Max told you?" Andy asked.

Kelly let out a huff of laughter and said nothing.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

No, she didn't. But even as she started to speak different words tumbled out. "How long have you been one?" She couldn't say the actual word. It was too bizarre.

But Andy had no problem answering. "Since I was a kid. Everyone in my family is. Lawyers who are actual wolves, seems like a good combination." He glanced over at her and shot her a winning smile.

That seemed almost normal. "You're a lawyer?"

"Criminal defense. Family has been practicing in Boise basically since it was founded."

They drove towards the lights of the city for several minutes. Buildings popped up more frequently until the country merged seamlessly into town. "Are you hungry?" He asked.

Come to think of, Kelly couldn't remember the last time she ate. "Yeah."

He pulled into a small diner and parked. "They've got great burgers. Or salad if you feel the need to be vegetarian after the last truth bomb. It's all great as far as I'm concerned, but my sister says I'd eat out of a trash can."

Finally Kelly smiled, "Do you always talk so much?" She unbuckled her seat belt and stepped out of the car. Andy jogged around to meet her on the walkway to the door.

"Pretty much. Sometimes you need to keep talking to make sure people listen."

They walked into the diner and were seated at a table next to the window overlooking the highway. From that point it didn't take Kelly long to figure out Andy's specialty. He made people feel comfortable. With almost no effort she told him about her research, listened to him talk about his family, and laughed at his stupid jokes.

Her burger was delicious, as promised, and by the time they sat back in his car she could almost believe this werewolf thing wouldn't be half-bad.

Andy parked at The Merge and walked her to her car. Once at the door they stood awkwardly for a moment and she felt almost like this was a first date. He smiled and kissed her cheek. "How about we go to The Merge together tomorrow?"

That sounded almost like a date. She grimaced, but before she could talk he said, "You can meet some other people in the pack. It would be good for you. We're not all Max."

That was something to be grateful for. She didn't know where she stood with Max right now, but to find out that her reaction to him would happen with everyone? That would have been unwelcome news. "Okay."

Andy grinned. "I'll pick you up at 8." He walked back to his car as she slid into her own. And, despite everything, Kelly smiled.

On Sunday Max went to The Merge. It had only been half a plan when he got into his car, but he found himself navigating the familiar streets and pulling into that parking lot with little conscious thought. He saw several familiar cars and sat at the bar with friends and packmates, talking and gossiping as they always did. And after a little while that now familiar thrill of awareness sparked through him. Sharper now, more focused since he'd had that bare taste of her. Max's head snapped around at the sound of another familiar voice.

Andy had his hand around Kelly's shoulder. Andy was touching his mate, and she didn't seem to mind.

His vision turned red and he nearly jumped from his seat and bounded across the room to grind the man into a pulp. Kelly was his. Whether she knew it or not.

He stopped listening to what the people around him said and instead focused on Andy and Kelly. One by one, Andy introduced Kelly to different members of the pack. They exchanged a few words and moved on. He should have been doing that. Kelly was his responsibility. What gave Andy the right? This time he did stand. Andy caught sight of him and paled. But he pressed on, introducing Kelly to an older man named Reuben before stepping away from her and approaching Max.

"She's going to run away if you walk up to her looking like that." Andy warned.

All the anger coiled up in Max arrowed in on Andy. "Are you trying to give me an order?" His words were ice.

Andy froze, his hand halfway to Max's shoulder. He dropped the hand and took half a step back. "She's just talking to people. What's going on with you?"

Max pierced him with his eyes. "That woman is my mate. What claim do you have?"

Quietly, almost too softly to hear, Andy said, "Does she know that?"

Max shoved Andy aside and strode up to Kelly. Despite everything between them she smiled when she saw him. He pulled her close and she rested her head on his shoulder. "There's something I didn't tell you last night," he said.

"Of course." She didn't sound mad. Perhaps amused.

"Will you come home with me?"

"Yes."

They didn't stop touching on the way to the car, but this wasn't the frenzied sexual need of yesterday. Instead it felt comfortable. Max kept glancing over at her, hard to believe she was so close, that tonight she would be his. "Did I tell you how I was changed?" He asked once they sat in the car and he pulled onto the road.

"You didn't." She laced her fingers through his.

"Do you want to know?"

"I do."

"I was nineteen and completely stupid," he began.

Kelly smiled, "I know a lot of stories that start that way."

"My friends dared me to walk in the woods and midnight on the new moon. So it was damn near pitch black. I'm stumbling around, more than a little drunk. And then there's this ravine that ran through the woods of the campus."

"You fell?" she asked.

He nodded, "Tripped over a branch and hung off the side of this drop. I had no idea how far it was to the bottom, but I didn't want to find out the hard way. And along comes this wolf. Big ass thing. And I was terrified. I thought it was going to kill me. Instead, it takes a big chunk of my arm and pulls me up. Just barely nicked me in the process. Whoever it was, I don't think they even knew. And then on the full moon, well I knew something was wrong. Luckily the head werewolf down there found me before I got into real trouble. Taught me everything I knew, and then I moved here just after graduation."

"Couldn't that wolf have just shifted to help you up?" She asked.

Max shrugged. "It takes a lot of energy. I thought I would pass out last night. And if he was far from home, or naked, or any other number of reasons he might have thought he could help me without shifting."

He pulled into his driveway and they got out of the car and entered the house.

"It was a nice story," Kelly said. She placed her purse on the kitchen table and set her shoes by the wall. She hung her jacket on the back of one of the chairs and revealed her black halter top which was edged with sequins of some kind. "So what's the next bombshell?"

But staring at her, Max felt incapable of speaking. All he could muster was, "You're beautiful." Kelly laughed and the sound punched him in the gut, twisting into something darker. So he forced himself to admit it. "You're my mate. It's why we're so drawn to each other."

"So that's a thing now, too?" But her tone belied the levity in her words.

Mate, now wasn't that a word with a whole lot of baggage. How was she even supposed to respond? But every denial she knew she should give rang hollow. Max was her mate. That was the first thing in two days that made any sense. "I'm sure you say that to all the girls."

Max froze. "I've never said it to anyone. Except you. I want you to understand. I want you so bad that I'm hard from just being by you. But this isn't casual."

Good, Kelly didn't do casual. "Then why are you all the way over there?"

The words took a second to register on Max's face. But he damn near bounded across the room once he did. He swept her up into his arms, actually carrying her and took two steps toward his bedroom. "You're sure?"

"I'll be a hell of a lot more sure once I have my hands on you." Something between a laugh and a yelp escaped her throat as he ran past the stairs and into a bedroom, tossing her onto the bed. Max towered over her at the edge of the bed, his eyes glowed with that yellow light she now realized must have something to do with his wolf. The sheer hunger in his gaze thrilled her, made her yearn, made her wet and ready for him. She crooked a finger, summoning him.

He knelt at the edge of the bed between her splayed legs. Slowly, ever so slowly, he traced one finger up the inseam of her jeans, all the way up until he all but touched her most intimate place, separated only by fabric. He continued to trace up the seam, over the zipper, and then even further over the button and up to her belly button. Flames licked up Kelly's body, but Max made no move to touch her bare skin. She moved her hands to remove her shirt, his shirt, anything, but he clamped down on one wrist. "Don't," he growled. He yanked that arm above her, his other hand settling under her breast, thumbing the nipple, the touch barely registered through her shirt and bra.

But it was enough and her nipples pebbled, more in expectation than from contact. "Then touch me," she said.

Max grinned, something feral and not quite human. "I am touching you." That pressure on her nipple increased and Kelly arched up to meet his hand as he tried to pull away. He let go of her wrist, but pinned her with his gaze. "Do you trust me?"

"Yes," she said, it required no consideration.

"Then hold still." It was a command that required the utmost control. Without waiting for her he increased his intensity, replacing that thumb with his lips. His beautiful full lips.

He sucked at her through her shirt still, and she cried out at the pleasure. His hand crept down and laid over her pussy through her jeans. She wanted to clutch him to her, but stopped herself. That would not be lying still, and even through the pleasure she was curious to see where he would take this. He pressed that hand against her, circling in broad strokes and making the fabric of her jeans brush roughly against her clit. She thrust her hips up, half to increase her pleasure of the contact, half to escape it. Already she was mad with lust for him.

While her attention focused on his hand, he kept working her nipple in his mouth. It was the oddest feeling, his making love to her through her clothes. She didn't know why he was doing it, but he bit down just enough on her and she didn't care, jerking in lust. His hand moved faster and faster against her, the material of her jeans growing moist with her pleasure. She bucked and jerked against him at the mercy of the ecstasy he rained down upon her until with a cry she convulsed, exploding in a rocking climax.

He lifted his head from her breast, grinning and captured her lips as she panted. Their tongues tangled and Max weaved his fingers through her hair. She finally moved her arms, working her hands under his shirt and getting it off of him. This time he cooperated, breaking their kiss for only a moment to pull the piece of fabric over his head. Her hands danced across his chest, tracing the curves of his muscles and delighting as they flexed under her. She pulled back and kissed lower, down his neck, licking and sucking at his chest, her hands blazing the way.

She traced over the bulge in his jeans and heard Max groan. She quickly undid the button and pushed his pants down. His cock stood fully erect before her, magnificent in it's pulsing redness. Kelly licked her lips, desperate for a taste of him. She flicked her eyes up to see him staring at her, his hands bunched in the sheets around him. Her hand circled him and pumped once then twice. All the while she stared into those hot, glowing eyes.

She readjusted herself on the bed and took him into her mouth. Max let out a gasp, somewhere between a "Yes!" and an exhalation. She felt one of his hands rest on her head, not pushing or guiding her, but keeping her there. But Kelly had no desire to let go of his hot cock. She swirled her tongue around, licking up and down, then bobbing her head until she found her rhythm. She smiled around him as Max let out his groans and whimpers, his hips bucking as wildly as hers had. Just from giving him this pleasure she could feel herself nearing another peak.