Owned By The Alphas: Part One (3 page)

T
rudging
uphill at the human’s pace was stifling for Calt. He’d never walked so far a distance at so slow a pace in his entire life. But when he moved faster, he heard the human’s labored breath, and more than once she tripped and almost fell, as well. Both times, Calt had not looked back to see if she was okay, and he could hear from her huffs and quickening heartbeat that this annoyed her very much. Her irritation fueled his entertainment. If she had seen the smile playing on his face, she would have huffed into a tornedo.

“Where are we going?” she said, tentatively from behind him, failing to hide her annoyance. He did not answer, on purpose. “Hello?” she tried again. Calt looked up at the sky, hiding his amusement with feigned interest in the growing amount of stars. After a few more steps, the human lost patience entirely. “Excuse me! I asked where are you taking me?!”

He turned and regarded her with mild curiosity, and anger flickered in his gut. He was head of his pack and he did not like being talked to in such a disrespectful way. She was female, and should remember that. “Watch your tone,” he warned.

She stared at him, fear creeping into her eyes again as he had seen it do when he had shifted. Good. A little bit of fear would keep her on better behavior. He turned and continued toward his den, desirous of returning to his pack before they worried.

“Um…I think I’m going to go back and find a trail again. I have to be at work tomorrow,” the human called to him. He did not know that Ali was what you would call ‘in between jobs’ since, after finishing college, she’d discovered that Poly-Sci was a useless major. She’d chosen it because she had no idea what she wanted to do with her life, a fact that still remained. She wasn’t one of those people born with a sense of purpose linked to a career. When asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she’d only ever answered,
Happy
. To which, of course, the jaded adults who’d asked had laughed and called her adorable. To this day, she didn’t know why they didn’t answer the same.

Even if he knew these things, it would not have mattered to him. Calt did not know what
Poly-Sci
meant, and
a job
he knew about but the concept of it he did not understand. What was the point? Why didn’t humans barter for what they needed? Why did they not tend to things they were good at and offer the world those things in exchange? And why did they bother with toys and trinkets that did nothing but take them away from nature and fresh air? It made no sense.

Calt’s eyes narrowed as he walked to her. She tried very hard not to look down to his cock as it swung with his long, purposeful strides, and this was confusing. Why the false modesty? Had she not felt the girth of his shaft inside her just an hour or more before? Why not stare at it, if that was what she wanted to do?

His eyes held hers as he loomed over her, and he took her chin in hand, gently. She blinked at him, her pretty brown eyes softening at his unexpectedly tender touch. As soon as he had her attention, he told her the truth. “You are not going back. You are now mine.” She gaped at him.

Releasing her chin, he turned around and walked away, determined to get home as quickly as possible. The sun was gone now. His pack would all be awake. With all of the turmoil of late, it was his responsibility to reduce their fear, not exacerbate it with his unexplained absence.

But it was very hard to ignore her scent, especially when the wind picked it up and carried it to his wolf. When he had told her just then that she was his possession, her body had gone lax, her irritation vanishing from her eyes and her pheromones had released the most delicious scent. An ordinary man would never have detected it, but to Calt, the pheromones of the female were mouth-watering. To deny his urges to take her again, it was torture to his wolf. He never tortured his wolf.
I don’t have time for sex now
, he told himself as they walked, even though he could feel her staring at his ass and legs as he deftly trampled a path for her through untamed brush. His wolf growled inside his mind, telling him to make the time.
What was the hurry? So the others would feel safe? They’d know soon enough that there was nothing to worry about. Let them wait,
his wolf growled inside his mind and body.

He’d successfully lost the rivals. He thought it had been too easy, yes, but maybe they’d retreated in case his pack were to come to his aid now that they were farther into his territory.

Calt turned his head fast, in an attempt to catch her in the act. Sure enough, the female’s eyes flicked upward, guilt-laced. He smirked and turned around, wrapping his large fingers around his erection and palming himself in front of her. “You are interesting to me,” he murmured under his breath.

Staring at him, she whispered back, “Me? Look at you! You have no shame.”

His eyebrows rose. “Shame? What is this?”

She chuckled like he must be joking. When she saw he was not, her smile fell. “There are so many definitions and interpretations, where do I start? I guess shame is when you’ve done something you shouldn’t have.”

“If you should not have done it, then why do it?” he asked, interested.

Ali shrugged. His phallus had grown and the dark crimson tip appearing again and again through the gap in his fist hypnotized her. She could look at nothing else.

“You do it because you want to, I guess,” she mumbled, unable to focus on the conversation. “Wow, it is really hard to talk to you when you’re doing that!”

Ignoring her, he prodded, “Then why have shame? If I want to do something, I do it. You are making no sense.” Abruptly, he turned and continued onward. He shot a look over his shoulder to see if she was again staring at his ass, and she was. He smirked and she looked away. “You want me to take you again,” he called back to her.

“No, I really don’t,” she muttered.

He chuckled and continued onward, thinking this was the most fun he’d had in months. The crunching of her sneakers against twigs and dead leaves remained steady and after fifty or so more paces, he confessed out of curiosity, “I expected you to argue.” He glanced behind to see her expression. She was staring at him without guile.

“Argue what?”

He chuckled and moved a low tree branch out of the way, waiting for her to pass under. She dipped beneath it, he told her in a deep and intimate tone, “To my claiming you.”

Ali glanced to Calt as he released the branch. “Right,” was her enigmatic response. She glanced to the ground quickly and waited for him to take the lead again. He inspected her face, her pretty eyelashes lowered, her pinked cheeks, cold from the night air, her flushed lips and the way she bit the bottom one as she waited for him. He walked ahead and decided not to push for another answer.

A
n owl’s
ominous hoot burst from a place very near their heads and, startled, Ali grabbed the werewolf’s large hand, slipping her chilled fingers into his much warmer ones. Calt showed surprise, but he quickly tightened his grip and used this hold to balance her when she swayed on the uneven terrain.

They walked in silence, and Ali took the opportunity to process his impossible proclamation.

You are not going back.

You are now mine.

Mine...

His.

It hadn’t occurred to her to argue, or that she should demand he take her back to civilization–not that he would have done that if she had. It wasn’t just the fact that he’d saved her from the other werewolves when he didn’t have to, or that he was so incredible to look at, or that the idea of being claimed by a man like him hit a chord in her womanhood that stretched back to early civilization, the spark in every woman that hadn’t been completely extinguished by society, yet. The thing that toppled Ali over on the inside was that he reminded her of a boy she’d known when she was in junior high, one she’d been quietly in love with.

Jared had been very different, not just from other boys, but from everyone. Sure, Marin County as a whole was inhabited by granola-heads; kids weren’t coifed, and Jared least of all. He was almost primitive. But Jared was something more than that. He was a man before any of them. At only twelve and thirteen, Jared was taller than the rest of their class, and he’d filled out already, too. He had a crew of boys who stumbled around him, and he was the eye in their storm, walking with them through the halls like he wasn’t really there, or like he owned the place, or both.

But it was his eyes that had pierced Ali’s soul in the same way Calt’s had, making her forget herself and her insecurities and concerns. When Ali watched Jared walk by her, she felt calm deep within her heart. Jared’s eyes were the darkest shade of blue, so beautiful. There was a deep confidence in them, a stillness that could not be toppled. He rarely spoke, and she always believed it was because he didn’t care what anyone thought of what he did, who he was, his opinions or plans.

He simply
was.

And while they had no classes together, and never spoke, she would catch him watching her sometimes. Flustered, she would look away quickly, her pre-teen self not knowing what to do. But once she braved another glance. He was still watching. Their eyes held and she felt the rest of their classmates disappear around them, as if only they were in the hallway. But he didn’t approach her and she didn’t have the courage to walk to him, although she’d wanted to. That was the last day of eighth grade. When the new school year started with them both beginning high school, she looked for Jared. He wasn’t there. She looked and looked and looked.

Being with Calt felt like Ali had found that perfect guy, the one she’d caught a glimpse of in the hallways of her childhood. The feeling in her chest was similar; it was a noiselessness of self.

As the night grew colder, and their footsteps trudged on, Ali wondered if the magical beast meant what he said...if she were really
his
. To think of no longer having to scour online want-ads for jobs in search of the phantom career she was told she should have, to quit for good her waitress job, to never have to read another half-ass, wishy-washy text from her ex-boyfriend. That all sounded amazing. She’d take being a sex-slave in a cave over that any day of the week.

Shit, wait a minute. Were they going to a cave?

“I’m sorry. Can you hold on a minute?” Ali said, with a tug of his hand.

He stopped and looked down at her. “We are almost there.”

She glanced to the ground and smiled at the sight of her small sneakers next to his huge bare feet, both covered in dirt and scratches. “Look, this is hard to ask, but I have some questions.”

He waited.

She waited, too. When he said nothing, she continued slowly, “Oh. Okay. I’m nervous, because I don’t want to offend you in any way…Calt.” She liked how the name slid off her tongue. “But it’s not a full moon tonight and…” she trailed off, feeling dumb. When he stared at her without comprehension, she blurted, “How did you just change into a wolf when there’s no full moon?”

His eyes danced and a fresh smirk tugged at his lips, as he said plainly, “We do not need the moon to tell us who we are.”

Ali nodded, processing. “What about scratching or biting a human? Does that turn us into…one of you?”

He laughed out loud at this, not a small chuckle but a loud belly laugh that ended quickly. On a grin, he corrected her. “We are also not a disease you can catch by contact. We are
born
.”

“Oh. Okay, interesting.” She exhaled, glad to know she wouldn’t wake up on all fours with fangs, a snout, and fur sprouted from all over her body.

“Any other questions?” He was smiling down at her.

She wasn’t going to ask more, but as he was so responsive, she decided one more couldn’t hurt. “Are we going to
a cave
?”

His eyes darkened with pride. “It is not just a cave, it is our home. You will be very comfortable there. If you are not, I will make changes until you are. Is that all?” A forlorn howl floated on the wind. Ali gasped, looking around. Calt looked to the sound and tugged on her hand to pull her along, walking faster, “She’s wondering where I am.”

“Who is?”

“Tawny. My lover.”

This horrifying revelation was punctuated by a gust of wind and Ali cringed and released his hand to wrap her arms around herself and stop walking. Bile snuck up the back of her throat as she stared at him.

Calt did not like her pulling her hand away; that was clear by his expression. He felt the bite of the cold, too, and misunderstood her abrupt halt as a reaction to that and not his news. “We are almost there. I will have a fire made. Come.”

Her teeth chattered and she nodded. He reached in and reclaimed hold of her hand. Mortified, Ali allowed herself to be led onward, knowing she had little choice but to go with him. It was well into night now, and she was far, far away from campgrounds or humanity. As their legs blazed forward, Ali’s mind spun, considering what she was in for…to be part of a harem, or something? Perfect guy or no, she didn’t like the idea of sharing at
all
and kicked herself for being so impulsive, for having blindly come along just because she was hot for some guy, without getting all the information. How many times had she done that, gone down an abyss because of a dude? And how on Earth was she going to face some woman who Calt showed no hesitancy in calling his lover?

Wait. Women don’t howl.

“Tawny’s a wolf?”

Calt glanced down, surprised. “Of course she is.”

Ali considered this, and delved further. “Are there any other women,
just
women, in your pack?”

Calt frowned. “You are the first.”

Ali’s veins quickened as hope slipped in, but just as quickly as she’d begun to feel special, she realized that if
she
were jealous, how would this
Tawny
feel, seeing a human appear out of nowhere.

A female werewolf can bite with more than her words.

Calt pointed ahead. “See those bushes? We are hidden behind those. In case you get lost for any reason, those are your landmark. Always.”

Ali stole a look at the back of the werewolf’s profile and considered what she should do. She could always escape. She could wait until no one was watching, and run. If things got bad with the female werewolf, she could demand to be let go. She doubted he would like that, from his reactions thus far. Or…she could fight the beast, and do her best to claim status. Gulping down her fear, she could not believe that the voice inside was saying,
I don’t want to go back. I will do whatever it takes to stay here
.

“Calt? When you say you’re…keeping me, what do you mean? For how long? And how will the others feel?”

Calt stopped walking and turned to face her. “When I say I am keeping you, I mean I am keeping you. Forever. They will abide what their alpha wants. That is the law.”

He waited for her to say something and was surprised when tears formed in her eyes. She let go of his hand, dropped the heavy backpack from her shoulders and stepped forward to lace her fingers through his hair. He bent his neck and brought his lips close to hers as he looked into her liquid eyes. Ali rose on her tiptoes and kissed him for the first time. He tasted wonderful to her. His lips opened and he slipped his tongue inside her mouth, tasting her, too. His arms went around her and his hands clasped her shoulder blades, crushing her against his chest. They kissed until another howl, lower and masculine, echoed off the tree trunks surrounding them, pulling them apart with its urgency.

Calt looked to the sound and bent to lift her backpack off the dirt. “That was Borhan. They are growing restless. Come.”