Fated To The Alpha: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (5 page)

He started to build up a rhythm as he thrust into me from behind, his hips repeatedly slapping against my ass.  I soon dropped to my elbows, my eyes shut and my mouth open as one pleasured grunt after another escaped my mouth.

He bent forward, pressing himself to the length of my back, and moving his hands from my hips to my swaying breasts.  He squeezed them in his powerful hands, kneading the soft flesh and playing my stiff nipples, sending further shivers of excitement through me.

With his added stimulation on my tits combined with his continued thrusting, I soon found myself soaring through my second orgasm of the night, and my second ever from simple thrusting.  It wasn’t as intense as the first, but it still made me collapse forward, screaming into the dirt.  And after he did that, he thrust forward once more and held himself there, grunting behind me as I felt him splashing against my insides.

For a long while, neither of us moved.  I lay there with my face in the dirt while he held himself inside me, both of us catching our breath.  Eventually, he withdrew his softening cock and came down to the ground with me, and I reached out an arm for him, pulling myself to his body and resting my head against his chest.

“You’re all glowy,” he murmured above my head.

I raised my head to look at his face, barely visible in the moonlight.  “How can you even tell?  It’s dark as pitch here.”

“There’s plenty of light coming from you,” he said.  “I take it that was good for you, too?”

He was right; I couldn’t stop smiling.  “Yeah.  Don’t let this inflate your ego too much, but that was the best I’ve ever had.  I’ve never actually cum during sex before.  Every orgasm I’ve ever had has been either self-induced or from someone eating me out.”

“Maybe you just weren’t with the right partners,” he said.  He paused a moment, and then suddenly asked, “By chance, does that include your alpha?”

I shook my head.  “No.  I’ve never done it with Leon.”

As soon as his name escaped my mouth, the reality of what had just happened came crashing in, and I sat bolt upright.  “Oh my god!  Leon!  Oh, shit, what did I just do?”

“What you wanted, didn’t you?” he said, sitting up more slowly and putting an arm around my shoulders.

“Yes, but… oh, god, what if they find out about this?”

“You’re not planning to tell them, are you?”

I looked down at myself, and held an arm up to my nose and took a sniff.  “As soon as they get a whiff of me, I won’t have to!  I’ve got your scent all over me!”

Jeremy lifted his head and scanned about, searching the sounds of the forest.  “I think I hear the creek off in that direction.  Come on, let’s go wash.”

He rose to his feet with a grunt, and then lowered a hand to help me to my feet.  He led me by the hand through the woods until we came to the trickling creek, where I let go of his hand and rushed in.  The water was numbingly freezing as I squatted down and splashed it all over myself, rubbing as if my life depended on it, but it was a small price to pay.  All I could think of was what Dad would do if he knew what had just happened.  Or what Leon would do.  A little cold water was nothing compared to that nightmare.

I heard more splashing, and looked to my right to see Jeremy doing the same thing I was.  “You don’t want my scent either?”

“You think you’re the only one who might get in trouble for this?” he said.  “I can’t go back smelling like a Caldour any more than you can go back smelling like a Morgandorf.”

I scrubbed myself until I was certain no one would be able to identify the scent of another wolf on me, and then stepped out of the water and shook myself off.  Jeremy stepped up beside me.  I looked at him.

I just looked.

I knew I had to go back.  I had to.

And it was the hardest thing in the world to tear myself away from the man before me.

“You should be going now,” he said.

“I know.”

“I should be too,” he said.

“You should.”

“We ought to be saying goodnight now.”

“You’re absolutely right.”

We waited a few seconds more before temptation overtook us.  And then we
launched
ourselves at each other for the most intense goodnight kiss I’d ever had.  It was like we were trying to
devour
each other, our mouths pressed together so hard.  Our tongues seemed to be trying to tie themselves into a knot with the way they danced together, and our hands couldn’t seem to find any one part of each other they wanted to grab onto, with the way they kept moving all over each other’s bodies.

It was he who finally broke the kiss, suddenly turning four-legged and scampering off into the dark woods.  As he disappeared into the brush, I paused, needing to catch my breath again after the intensity of that.

Just before I was about to turn to leave, I happened to sniff myself one more time. 
Oh, great, now I’ve got to wash again.

CHAPTER THREE

Well, it was now official.  I had slept with the enemy.  I was a traitor to my own pack.

At least that was what anyone would say if they found out about this.  But it wasn’t how I felt.

I actually felt better than I had in weeks.

It was still before dawn when I returned to the village.  I scampered through the houses on four paws, hoping no one was awake yet, which they shouldn’t have been.  I got back to my house and leaped into my open bedroom window, shifting back to two legs once I was inside.  When I listened to the sounds of the house, I could hear Dad still snoring.  That was good.  Still, I gave myself another sniff… and while I was pretty sure I had gotten most of Jeremy’s scent off me, I wanted to be completely sure.  Dad probably wouldn’t wake up if I took a shower now, would he?

I decided to risk it.  If nothing else, it was much nicer getting hot water to wash myself with as opposed to that ice-cold creek, and I didn’t have body wash out there in the woods.

Once I was thoroughly cleaned off, I strained my ears again, relieved to hear Dad still snoring.  I decided I had best get some sleep while it was still dark, not wanting to appear dead on my feet to the pack during the day tomorrow.  I quietly slipped back to my room and curled up in my bed, drifting off to sleep with a happy smile on my face.

Unsurprisingly, Mom and Dad were already up when I awoke.  It was the smell of Mom’s cooking that roused me, and I quickly threw on some light clothes and walked out of my room with my best morning face on.

“Morning, Mom.  Morning Daddy!” I chirped as I stepped out into the kitchen.

Dad looked up from his plate of bacon and eggs, and cocked his head.  “Well good morning, sweetheart.  You look chipper this morning.”

“Do I?” I said, trying to appear as innocent as possible.  “I don’t feel any different.”  I sat down at the counter next to Dad, and looked to Mom preparing a plate for me.  “Mm, that smells good, Mom!”

“Would you like some jam on your toast, Evie?”

“Yes please.  Strawberry, if we have any.”

As Mom went to put the finishing touches on my breakfast, I felt Dad staring at me.  I turned my head to see him studying me with a tilted head.  I suddenly started to grow nervous.  Could he tell?  Was he suspicious?  Was I acting too innocent?

As I watched him, a bright smile slowly spread across his face.  I tried not to bite my lip out of anxiety.  “You’re finally warming up to it, aren’t you?”

“What?”

“Leon.  Your engagement to him.  Becoming the wife of the alpha.  You’re finally starting to like the idea, aren’t you?”

I put on a smile that was half-fake, half-relieved. “Uh, yeah!  You figured me out, Dad!  I’m just giddy with the idea!  I think it’s—”

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Mom said.

I looked down to see the plate of food set in front of me that I had not even noticed before.  “Oh, yes, thanks Mom,” I said as I dug in, eating a little too fast.  I slowed down as I felt eyes on me, carefully chewing the bite of toast I had in my mouth.  I had to be more careful not to be so obvious.  That was the kind of thing that would surely give me away…

“What’s that smell?”

I nearly choked a chill running through me when Dad said that.  I looked up at him, wide-eyed.  Had I missed something?  I scrubbed myself three times, didn’t I?  Was that not enough?  How did he…?

“Something burning?” he said.

Mom turned around to see the eggs that were still on the skillet starting to smoke.  “Ah!” she gasped, rushing to the stove and picking up the skillet to turn the eggs over.  “Well, I hope no one wanted seconds,” she said.

I breathed a huge—but subdued—breath of relief, and went back to quietly eating.  That had most likely taken years off my life.

I got through the rest of my meal pretty uneventfully, other than Dad stepping out a little early to go tell Leon the “good news.” 
Wonderful,
I thought.  Like I needed this scenario to get any more complicated.

When I was finished, I changed into something a little more presentable and walked out of the house, finding the rest of the pack up and about, going about their day. 

As I walked among them, a part of me could not help but feel a bit like an outsider. They were my pack; they always had been.  I had grown up among them all.  They had always been part of my life.  Yet, if a single one of them knew who I had been with last night, I knew they would have cast me out in an instant.  Was that loyalty?  Or was it that I had forgone my own loyalty?  That was how they would have spun it.

When it came right down to it, could I really even call myself one of them anymore?

Eventually, Charlene found me, moving to intercept me as I passed the circle where she and a few others sat around chatting about whatever.  “Hey, Evie,” she said—and then looked me over.  “You look different.”

No I don’t.  Don’t tell me I look different.  I am just the same as always.  Nothing’s changed.  Please don’t say anything is different.

“I don’t feel any different,” I said, echoing my words to Dad earlier.

Charlene looked at me suspiciously.  “No… there’s something…”

She took me by the wrist and led me away from where anyone was around, and then looked at me again.  Her eyes widened, and she raised a finger to point at me.  Dropping her mouth open, she suddenly gasped,
“YOU HAD SEX!”

In a rush of panic, I clapped a hand over her mouth, desperately looking around to see if anyone heard her, and put a finger to my lips to shush her.

She pulled my hand from her mouth and laughed.  “That was a confirmation if I ever saw one!”

I grimaced.  “Tell me it’s not that obvious?”

She shook her head and scoffed.  “Girl, it’s written all over you!”

“No, please!  It can’t be written all over me!  Tell me it’s not written all over me!”

She retreated back, a little intimidated.  “Well… maybe it’s just woman’s intuition?”

“Leon can’t find out!  Neither can my dad!  In fact,
no one
can find out!”

“Okay, okay!” she insisted.  “My lips are sealed!”  Then she looked around, and leaned forward before saying in a conspiratorial whisper, “But you gotta tell me who!”

“No!” I declared, shaking my head.  “I’m not saying another word!”

“Come on, it’s me!  Was it Tucker?”

“No, it wasn’t Tucker.”

“Well then, was it Alex?  You know he had his eye on you for a while before Leon moved in.”

“No.  It wasn’t Alex.”

“Joey?”

“Stop guessing!  Please!”

“What are you ladies up to?” a voice said, making me nearly jump out of my skin.  I turned to find Leon approaching, a proud smile on his face and a pompous swagger in his step.

Thankfully, for as long I’d been wishing for her to stop talking, Charlene did know when it was the right time to button it.  “Oh, nothing,” she said.  “Just girl talk.”

“I’m sure,” he said.  He looked at me directly.  “I spoke to your father,” he said.  “He tells me you might be starting to come around on my proposal.”

“Uh… well… Dad might be getting a little overzealous… but…”

“I understand if you’re still nervous,” he said, putting what I think he meant to be a comforting hand on my shoulder.  “The wedding doesn’t have to happen too soon if you don’t want.  We can make it next spring, how about that?”

I just stared back, my mouth kind of hanging open.  “Uh… I… uh…”

“Just think about it,” he said.  “I’m sure it’ll seem more real the closer it gets.”

With that, he walked away.  No waiting for any further response; he had made his decision, and that was just that.

“I hate to say it, but I’m beginning to understand why you’re not jumping at the chance to marry him,” Charlene said.  “That was like he thinks you’re his PA or something.”

I said nothing.

“Evie?”

I still didn’t say anything.  I just couldn’t breathe.

*

“I knew the whole time what it meant,” I said as I lay curled up against Jeremy’s chest.  “But as soon as he said the word ‘wedding’ I just froze.  The thought of marrying him was always just an idea, until he went and made it real.  He was talking about it happening next spring.  He put an actual time frame on it.”

“What did you say to him?” he asked.

“Nothing!” I said.  “I just kind of stood there in stunned silence.  You know, he didn’t even wait for me to say anything!  He just said it and walked away, like it was a done deal.”

“What are you going to do?” he said.

That was the ultimate question, wasn’t it?  What
was
I going to do?

I at least knew one thing for certain that I had only been ambivalent about before, I did not want to marry Leon.  Not when the idea of it scared me that much.

“I just wish there was some way I could say no to him.”

“If you ask me,” Jeremy said, “any alpha who would deny you your own life choices doesn’t deserve to be your alpha.”

“It’s not just him that I would be defying,” I said.  “How do I tell my father I don’t want to marry him?  There’s no way Dad will accept that!”

“So you can’t refuse to marry him without going against both your alpha and your dad.  So where does that leave you?”

“I wish I knew,” I groaned, pulling myself tighter against his body.  “I just don’t see a way out.  Not without running away altogether.”

“Would you do that?”

I blinked.  I actually wasn’t serious when I said that last part, but when Jeremy suggested the idea I stopped to actually consider it.  The idea did not seem any less frightening than the idea of marrying Leon.  Run away?  Abandon everyone I knew?  How could I do that?  Where would I go?

“Your silence is saying a lot,” he said.

I sighed.  “I guess this is what they call a rock and a hard place.”

“So then… you will marry him?”

I frowned, searching for a way to say no.  When I couldn’t find one, I shrugged.  “Hell, maybe it won’t change anything,” I sighed.  “For a guy who claims to want me for his wife, he barely seems to pay any attention to me.  Maybe he won’t even notice if we keep this up.”

He slipped his hand under my back, cradling me in his arms.  “Something tells me you don’t really believe that.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” I decided.  “Whatever he says or does, he can’t stop me from seeing you if I want to.”

“You sound like you’re trying to convince yourself of that more than me.”

“Can’t you just let me believe it for a while?”  I said before giving him a deep kiss.

The load of cum he had already given me tonight sloshed around inside me, dribbling out onto my thighs as I pressed my crotch against him.  I started to suckle at his neck as he massaged my breast, pinching my nipple in his fingers.  I moaned, pushing my chest into his hand.

I felt him hardening again as I rubbed my slit along the length of his dick, making my pussy hungry for the next round.  I rolled onto my back and parted my legs, letting him settle between them and slide easily inside my tunnel, which was still dripping wet from our mixed cum.