Rogue Alpha: Wolf Shifter Romance (Wild Lake Wolves Book 1) (21 page)

I barely had time to catch my breath and clutch the
sheets even tighter. Something wild seemed to come over Tucker. He let out that
low, preternatural growl. His fingers closed around my hips. He didn’t hurt me.
Just the opposite. When I thought I couldn’t possibly fit more of him inside
me, he found a way to slide in deeper. He filled every inch of me, stuffing me
to the fullest, giving me the most intense pleasure I’d ever felt.

“Yes! More!” I heard myself gasp. It was enough to
send Tucker completely over the edge. His other hand went to my shoulder,
pinning me against the bed as he fucked me with abandon, no longer pausing to
let me adjust to his girth. Still, I didn’t tear. My body was made for his, it
seemed, as I clenched and stretched around him. I felt the rising tide of a
powerful orgasm build from someplace deep inside. When Tucker came, I marveled
at whether I would be able to take it. He filled me so completely I doubted
there was even a millimeter of space left.

Tucker growled again. A low, menacing rumble that
vibrated through his body and into mine. In another life, it might have
frightened me. It was filled with such power and dominance. Now, though, it
ignited some deep desire inside me, and my body answered with the first
shuddering quakes of a deep orgasm. He stopped me though. With his hand at my
shoulder, Tucker leaned forward. I felt his hot breath at the nape of my neck
and the hairs there stood on end. My skin rippled in gooseflesh where he touched
me and my sex answered with a fresh rush of hot juices.

He flicked my earlobe with a quick tongue and I
gasped. He used no words but somehow I understood exactly what he wanted, as if
his body, his low growl could communicate with me along some erotic, telepathic
line.

You’re mine now and forever. Say it.

“Yes!” I cried out. “Fuck. Yes! God! All yours! Do
it!”

I had no conscious understanding of what was about to
happen, only that I needed it, craved it, would die without it.

I felt Tucker shift behind me. From my peripheral
vision, I saw him rear his head back. He let out a howl that was part human,
part wolf and all sex. I screamed with him from the pleasure and pain of his
deep thrusts, my body stretched as far as it could go.

With my ass angled high, his monstrous cock impaled
deep within me he had me open, stretched, teetering on the edge of my own
explosive pleasure. I was his. Now and forever, even though I couldn’t
appreciate what that meant. Just that I wanted it. Would kill for it. Would die
without it.

Then Tucker came. His thick, hot semen exploded
inside me, reaching every corner as my own body quivered and clenched around
it. My raw sex shuddered and my orgasm broke over me, stretching me open even
wider if that was even possible. Then Tucker bent low again. I felt his teeth
at the nape of my neck. Just as I reached the crest of my orgasm, he sank his
teeth into my flesh. My body was combustible sensation. Pleasure. Pain. Desire.
Euphoria.

He drew blood. It should have hurt. I should have
screamed from the pain of it. Somehow though, as he let me take my orgasm, a
different type of release came over me. The focus of my world was the juddering
release between my legs. At the same time, his teeth sank into the tender flesh
at the base of my neck. I became awash with ice and heat and ecstasy. Then he drew
his teeth away and sucked me there. His tongue was rough with soothing heat. He
pumped out the last of his seed in me as he lapped at my neck and pulled me
close to him.

I was weightless, boneless, as my orgasm waned. I
let him draw me against him, shuddering as he gathered me into his arms and
held me close. He was still in me. His great, thick cock pressed deep into my
sensitive folds. He placed slow kisses at the base of my neck while he ran his
hand down and gently squeezed each of my nipples. Another claiming that I was
only too happy to give.

I don’t know how long he held me like that. An hour?
Forever? I nuzzled back into him, relishing the feeling of total submission as
he worshiped my body with his fingers. He was slow and tender now, but the
message was clear. My body was his as his was mine. And I knew I could never go
back.

Chapter Nine

We woke at dawn. Tucker still cradled me against
him. I forgot for a time who I was or where I was going. In that dream space, I
was only Tucker’s...had always been Tucker’s. He snored beside me and I took
time to really look at him as he slept.

Awake, Tucker had a feral, dangerous beauty about
him, as if he could bring a grown man to his knees with just one glance. I
suppose he’d brought me to heel last night the same way. A slow blush crept
through me as I thought about how much I’d enjoyed the process. Asleep, though,
he was coiled strength, but peaceful. His thick, dark lashes fell against his
cheeks. He worked the muscles of his jaw as he dreamt. He let out a chuff that
sounded part dog, and I marveled at the rise and fall of his strong chest.

What had he done to me? We were near strangers and
I’d let him take me, possess me in ways that made me question who I was. It was
as if the world...my world...had shifted on its axis the moment he fixed his
eyes on me. What was I to him? Just a quick if not amazing fuck? Is that what
he was to me? This wasn’t who I was. I had plans, a new life ahead of me.
Tucker could be anyone. I knew nothing about him, and yet, I’d now let two days
go by and I felt bound to him.

Something happened last night, and I had a million
questions. I should wake him. Better yet, I should get dressed and get the hell
out of here before he woke. I should be on my way to Ann Arbor like I’d
planned. What was I doing here? There were forces at work here that had nothing
to do with me, and yet somehow I knew I was ensnared in them. It should have
scared the hell out of me, and it did. But, as much as the rational part of my
brain knew that, there was some other knowledge deep inside me as well. This
had
everything
to do with me. And everything to do with Tucker.

I should have left that morning. I often wonder what
would have happened if I had. To be certain, my life would have turned out very
differently. But, I didn’t leave. Not then. I didn’t even go later when I was
given another chance. I slid quietly off the bed and padded across the room to
Tucker’s bathroom. I had clothes somewhere, and I suppose a few days before
that modesty would have won out and I would have covered myself. But, there was
an elemental shift in who and what I was that morning. I was with Tucker. I
belonged to Tucker. Being naked around him was suddenly the most natural thing
in the world. Even as he slept, it felt unnatural to cover myself around him.

I stepped into his shower, letting the steam envelop
me as the hot jets of water sprayed over me. I thought it might clear my head.
There was still a part of me then that wanted to make sense out of everything.
There was a rational explanation for everything I’d seen and felt. I was lonely
and horny, and Tucker was Tucker. The wolves on the road were just wild animals
far away from their natural hunting grounds. It wasn’t personal. It wasn’t
about me. For a while, it worked. I started to feel like myself again. I could
leave. I could call the insurance company again and get another rental. Or
Tucker himself could drive me to the bus station. But the University of
Michigan and my life awaited and this detour needed to be over.

I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around
my chest. I grabbed another from the rack and flipped my head over to gather my
hair in it. As I did, my hand brushed over the raised flesh at the nape of my
neck where Tucker had bit me. I tucked my hair into the towel and stood up.
Using a small wash cloth, I wiped the steam away from the mirror. Tucker had a
small hand mirror sitting on the counter and I turned my back and lifted it so
I could see the back of my neck reflected in the larger mirror.

In the throes of passion, Tucker had bitten me hard enough
to draw blood. But the flesh where he’d marked me had already healed over.
Where I expected to see a fresh scab or teeth marks, instead, there was a
raised crescent shaped mark. It shone white against the rest of my skin, like
an old but deep scar. When I pressed my fingers against it, heat shot through
me, zinging straight to my sex. The pleasure was so intense, I almost lost my
balance. Gently, I ran my fingers over the scar again. My heartbeat quickened
and the hair raised on my arms. It made no sense. And yet, as I traced the
outline of my marked skin, I felt desire building in me as if I’d touched an
erogenous zone.

I heard the front door open and close, and I went
back to the bedroom. The bed was neatly made and Tucker was gone. I felt a
small pang of fear. I wanted to be close to him again, badly. I went to the
front door.

It had rained last night and a light, misting fog
blanketed the woods around me. The air was cool and clean, and I inhaled
deeply. I smelled pine and drying leaves, and strange as it sounds, I was
looking for something else. Tucker. His clean, male scent covered me, even
after my shower. I thought to call out, but the woods seemed so tranquil, I
didn’t want to disturb anything. Tucker’s bike was still parked alongside the
cabin so I knew he couldn’t have gone far. I wanted to venture into the woods
after him but on the off chance the wolves had followed us here, it didn’t seem
the wisest course. I waited, leaning against the doorframe for a few minutes,
and watched as a bright, golden sun began to peek through the trees.

Last night, being so close to the woods might have
frightened me. This morning, though, something had changed about that too. I
had the strangest, most comforting sensation of belonging. These were Tucker’s
woods, and I felt safer than maybe I should.

I don’t know how long I stood there but rustling in
the trees to my left caught my eye. I pressed my back against the doorframe. A
lone gray wolf emerged from the trees and stepped into the clearing in front of
the cabin. My pulse quickened and I reached back to get my hand on the
doorknob. There was enough distance between us that I knew I could move quickly
and slam the door behind me before the wolf could reach me. I started to step
backward but the wolf held me in its gaze.

He was magnificent. Bigger than the other wolves I’d
seen. He had deep, silver eyes that flashed in the light. He stomped the ground
with his massive paws and swung his great head low. His silvery-gray coat shone
almost like glitter in the morning sun. He pricked his ears back. He regarded
me with keen, intelligent eyes rimmed in black, and before I knew what I was
doing, I walked toward him.

The wolf bent low, his head nearly touching the
ground as I approached. I recognized the gesture for what it was—an assurance
that he meant me no harm. I clutched the towel around my body with one hand and
reached out with the other. The wolf nuzzled against my palm, and his fur was
soft, like sable, but covered hard bones and sinewy muscle. He let out a chuff
and stomped the ground again with his front paw.

I became aware of heat at the nape of my neck, right
where Tucker had bit me. My body felt strange. Every sense was heightened.
Where I might have earlier described the smell as just wet leaves or pine, now
I became aware of the earth, the scent of wet rock, moss, the sweet, putrid
scent of something decaying deeper past the trees. And then there was the wolf.
His breath came hot against my wrist and I knew in that instant he bore
Tucker’s scent just as I did.

Before I had a chance to process it, the wolf
stepped back then bent low again, arching his back to almost a perfect U shape.
His claws dug deep into the ground and shuddered. For a moment, my vision went
blurry, or at least the shape of the wolf did. His fur rippled and shifted, the
thin bones above his paw thickened and stretched.

I took a step back, then another. The wolf reared
his head back and let out a haunting wail that seared me to my soul. His body
stretched and grew, elongating as the fur seemed to recede, leaving tanned
flesh behind. Then, his shoulders broadened and fur was replaced with muscle.
His snout stretched, then spread, giving way to a human nose and jaw whose
lines I was just beginning to know by heart.

I blinked once, hard, and Tucker rose to his full
height in front of me where the wolf had once been.

Maybe I should have run or screamed. My eyes
couldn’t have seen what I knew they just had. Tucker was the wolf. The wolf was
Tucker. I knew this, and all at once I knew something else, as my flesh burned
where he had marked me and heat throbbed between my legs.

I belonged to them both.

Chapter Ten

It wasn’t fear or shock I felt that day when Tucker
came to me. I craned my neck to keep his gaze. His eyes...the wolf’s eyes...flashed
silver, and it was as if everything that happened was something I’d known all
along. He reached out, letting his fingers play along my arms as he drew me
closer to him.

“Are you all right?” he finally said.

I cocked my head and reached up. His eyelids
fluttered as I caressed his jaw and let my hand run down the curve of his broad
shoulder, and touch the dark curls across his chest. His shift from wolf to man
had been both brutal and beautiful. Like what I imagined childbirth must be
like. And I knew in that moment his willingness to let me witness it was an act
of trust. Would I understand? Would I think him a monster?

“Neve,” he said. The sound of my name against his
lips made me shudder. I wanted him to say it again and again. “You need to
understand what it all means. There are some things you have to decide.”

I nodded. Of course he was right. But as my fingers
played along his flesh and his body heat warmed me, all I could think about was
letting him wrap himself around me again, letting him stretch me wide and take
me over and over and forever. I ran my hand down his back, cupping the rock
solid muscle of his naked buttocks.

“Come inside,” he said. “The others are going to be
here soon.”

Others?

Tucker motioned for me to sit on the couch again as
he went into the bedroom. He came back with drawstring pajamas slung low on his
hips and tossed me a white t-shirt. One of his. I couldn’t help but inhale his
scent as I pulled the shirt over my head.

“You sure you’re all right?” he said as he sat on
the couch next to me. We’d done some serious damage to the room last night. His
coffee table was broken in two pieces against the wall. A chair near the
fireplace had been overturned.

“I shouldn’t be,” I said. “But somehow I am. If you
were going to hurt me, seems like you had plenty of chances before now.”

Tucker’s eyes darkened and he reached for me,
cupping the back of my neck with his hand. “I’m never going to hurt you, Neve.
From now on, I’ll lay down my life for you if I have to. My life and any member
of my pack’s.”

His pack. I knew what he meant but my brain had
trouble truly processing the words. His pack. Without him telling me, I already
knew I’d met some of them. Jake, the deputy. The two other men who’d been with
Tucker when I first met him at the State Park outpost. How many more?

“And they’re like you?” I drew Tucker’s hand away
from my neck and held it in my own. His hands were large and powerful, nearly
twice the size of mine. “Werewolves? Is that a term you use? Shifter?” I felt
stupid asking. But my only language reference came from books and movies.
Fairytales.

Tucker smiled and ran his thumb along my palm,
sending a tingle straight up my arm. “Yes. Don’t worry. It’s not a slur.”

Something else prickled the hairs along my neck and
my blood turned to ice. My breath caught in my throat and my eyes shot straight
to Tucker’s. I pressed the mark on the back of my neck with the palm of my
hand. “Will that happen to me now?”

Tucker’s eyes grew serious. “I can’t change you,” he
said, his voice low and earnest. “Not unless you were already born like me. You
won’t shift. But Neve, I did do something to you, and you need to understand
what and why.”

I nodded. I flipped my hand so that now I traced the
strong veins along Tucker’s wrist where they snaked into his broad, rough palm.
I pressed my thumb against the sensitive flesh until I could feel his strong
pulse. Tucker’s heartbeat. My heartbeat. I sensed it, but now the evidence was
right there beneath my fingertips. He would explain, but I already knew one
thing. We shared some kind of blood bond now. Tucker’s pulse perfectly matched
my own, as if our hearts now beat together.

“You marked me,” I said, and Tucker nodded. “We’re
connected now.”

Tucker sighed. A tender smile lifted the corners of
his mouth and his gray eyes sparkled. “We are. You can sense me.”

I nodded. “I don’t know how to say it. But, I feel
you. Here.” I pressed my other hand against my heart.

“And I feel you,” he said. “From now on, I’ll always
know where you are. I’ll know if you’re in danger. I’ll know how to find you,
as long as I still draw breath. And after that, the pack will protect you.
They’re connected to me too. And you through me.”

My head spun. It was a strange sensation, not
feeling completely in control of my own heart. The old me would have maybe
panicked a little. But, with Tucker by my side, his presence calmed me. My
steady heartbeat came from him.

“It won’t always be this strong,” he said, running a
finger between my breasts and tapping me just above my heart.  “But when you’re
by my side and after we’ve just coupled, we’ll be in sync like this. If you’re
further away from me, the pull won’t be as strong.”

The moment he said it, a deep longing and fear
warmed my blood. The idea of being far away from Tucker sent a shiver of cold
panic through me, like the air had just gone out of the room. God, I didn’t
ever want to leave his side.

I shifted so I straddled him. Through the cotton of
his pajama pants, I could feel him growing hard. I was still naked beneath the
t-shirt and his rigid cock pressed against my heated cleft.

“I can’t stand thinking about that right now,” I
said. I snaked my arms around his shoulders and Tucker wrapped his arms around
my waist. I
should
think about it. I was supposed to be long gone, on my
way to my new life at the University of Michigan. That seemed a million miles
away, and in another lifetime, now. My world was two inches in front of me and
staring up at me with that devastating flash of silver in his eyes.

“Will you stay with me?” he asked, and his pleading
eyes went through me, spearing me with heat from my head straight through my
core. Unbidden, my hips began to grind against him and my breath started to
come short.

“Tucker,” I gasped. What was happening to me? I was
like some bitch in heat when I was around him. Maybe that’s exactly what I was.
Oh, and I wanted to be. I wanted to spend the rest of my life in this cabin
with Tucker, letting him do wicked things to me and making me beg for more.

He threaded his fingers through my hair and drew me
down so he could kiss me. His lips were hot and wet, and I sank into him again.
I couldn’t stand not having him in me again. My body thirsted for it. I felt
like I would die if I didn’t have him inside me right now.

With frantic hands, I fumbled with the drawstring on
his pants. His cock had grown rock hard beneath me and I struggled to free it.
I raised myself up on my knees and settled over him. Tucker had gone slow last
night, letting me get used to the size. Now though, I didn’t care if he tore me
in half, I just had to have him in me. I settled myself over him and lowered
myself down, taking him in to the root.

He fit me so well now. It had only taken one night,
and my body was already trained just for him. I didn’t fuck him. Not then. I
just needed the feel of him in me, and it was enough to calm the rising urge.

“What is this?” I asked, fixing my eyes on Tucker’s.
He stayed deep within me, but didn’t move. It wasn’t about that. Not yet. This
was about our need to be completely connected to each other while he tried to
make me understand.

“You’re mine.”

It wasn’t really an answer, and yet it explained
everything. I was his. And he was mine. Whatever he had done to me, I now had
the strong physical need to couple with him like this. I needed it like the air
in my lungs.

“I’m sorry,” he said, smoothing a lock of hair away
from my eyes. “I know I should have explained everything before I took you. I
should have given you the choice.”

Would it have mattered? I tried to think about how I
felt before Tucker and I came together last night. But everything before that
seemed like the distant past. It was like I came to life for the first time
when Tucker touched me. It was crazy. I wasn’t this girl. I was practical,
sensible. The daughter of a fireman who taught her to question everything and
trust no one. But with Tucker, I was wanton and free and more alive than I’d
ever felt in all of my twenty years on earth. If he had given me a choice last
night, would I have walked away? Would I have had the courage to say no?

“It doesn’t matter anymore, does it?” I cupped
Tucker’s face in my hands, running the pad of my thumb along his thick, arching
brow.

“I could undo it,” he said. “I could break the
connection. But Neve, you need to understand the other reason why I did it.”

“There’s more than one?” I smiled, feeling suddenly
shy. Tucker’s erection twitched inside me, sending fresh waves of desire
through me. Soon, I wouldn’t be able to hold still.

“Yes. I think the main reason is obvious. You did
something to me, too, last night, Neve. I’m not in the habit of marking women
like this. There’s something different about you. The minute I touched you, I
knew you were the one. Believe me, this whole thing has thrown me for as much
of a loop as it’s done you.”

I placed a soft kiss on Tucker’s lips. I didn’t want
to think for a single second about how many other women Tucker had been with,
though I knew it should be none of my business.

“We have to stop.” Tucker shifted, pulling himself
out of me. The loss of him, even for a second made me ache. “The others are on
their way up here. I’m going to have to explain everything to them too.”

I pulled the t-shirt back down to cover myself,
stretching it over my knees as I drew them up to my chest. Tucker adjusted
himself and shot me a devastatingly sexy wink. “There will be time for that
soon, I promise.”

“What’s the other reason?” I asked.

Tucker’s eyes grew dark again. He stood up and
turned, placing one hand on the stone mantle of the fireplace. I watched him in
profile as he slicked his hair back with his other hand. “It has to do with
what happened on the road the other day.”

Things locked into place in my mind before Tucker
finished talking. The wolf.

“She was like you, wasn’t she?” I said. My throat
felt dry. That beautiful she-wolf who died in my arms. I’d known there was
something special, something human, about her. I hadn’t been imagining things
when I looked into her eyes as she died.

Tucker nodded. “Magda.”

Magda. I’d heard him say her name the other night
when he took Jake and the others outside.

“Was she part of the pack?” Fresh horror crept into
my chest. Had I killed a member of Tucker’s pack?

He shook his head. “No. She was were, yes. I think
you already knew that. She was mated to the alpha of a rival pack. His name is
Asher. There’s a lot of history between us, Asher and me. I can’t go in to all
of it now.”

“And now they want to kill me,” I whispered,
realization dawning on me. I killed one of them. An eye for an eye.

“It’s not going to happen.” Tucker turned, his voice
had lowered to that menacing growl I understood on a different level now. “Do
you understand that? They aren’t going to touch you. I’m going to protect you.
You’re one of us now, if you want to be. My body, my pack, you have my word.”

“What happens if I leave?”

Tucker’s eyes widened and I swear I
felt
the
panic and longing as it rose within him. He got a hold of it though. My own
heartbeat steadied along with his as he took a deep breath. His lips set into a
grim line.

“You have that choice,” he said. “I told you I can
break the connection if you want. It would have to be now though. If we wait
much longer, it’s permanent.”

“How do you break it?” Fear simmered low in my
belly. Was I serious? Did I want that?

“It’s a little gory but I promise it won’t hurt for
long. If I cut away the mark before it has a chance to permanently imprint,
that would be the end of it.”

Almost unbidden, my hand flew to the crescent shaped
scar on the back of my neck. It throbbed with heat beneath my fingertips. It
was mine. It was part of me. I knew it before I could give voice to it. But
since he’d done it, everything about me had changed. I wasn’t who I was
yesterday, and there was no denying it. I hadn’t consented to this, not really.
And now Tucker was giving me the chance to go back.

“What would happen to me then? Will this rival pack
leave me alone then?”

Tucker sighed. “No. I’m sorry. Asher isn’t being
rational. He’s mad with grief over losing Magda. I know it was an accident. You
saw with your own eyes how this is affecting him.”

Asher. Of course. He’d been the large red wolf who’d
tried to tear me out of my car the other day. He wanted to tear me limb from
limb, and there was no denying it.

“I’m safer here with you.” It was a question and a
statement.

Tucker nodded. “I’m not going to lie to you and tell
you the coming days will be easy. Bringing you here… When Ash figures out I’ve
marked you, he might take that as a sign of open warfare. That’s the worst case
scenario. I’m hoping his pack can help bring him to his senses before it comes
to that. A full out pack war isn’t good for any of us. Ash may be hurting now,
but he’s not incapable of reason. But even if that happens, I can protect you
better if you’re among us. It’s going to take the rest of them some getting
used to, but they’ll eventually see what I did was for the good of all of us.”