The Alpha's Desire 2 (3 page)

I fumbled in my purse for my keys, thankful I’d thought instinctively to grab it as I’d left the alley. After several boggled attempts to get the keys in the tiny circle on my door, the thing unlocked. The sound startled me. My fingers grabbed at the door handle too hard and too fast. A twinge of pain shot down my fingers, but I continued on until my body fell hard into my seat. At this point, I slammed my door with all the strength I could muster and reveled in the explosion of sound.

Grabbing for the box of tissues I always had in my back seat, I cleaned myself up in a hurry.
Good enough
, I thought, throwing the tissues to the floor. The scent of our lovemaking filled the car, made my body weep to have his back against it. Just the touch of the tissues against my overly sensitive skin, still warm from him, sent a thrill through me as I remembered the brief moments we’d just spent locked in the heat of passion.

“Down and dirty in an alley, who’d have thunk it?” I said out loud to myself. “You’ve changed, girl.”

The thought brought a smile to my wet face. I had changed. Now, if I could only convince him to take a chance on us, then all would be well in my world. Perfect even. 

Yet, with him, I always had to wonder if it had been my last. He seemed tough, determined. My safety, his job, would remain foremost on his mind. At some point, he might stop giving me the chance to throw myself at him. Filled with determination and the rush of suddenly being in a rush, I turned the key, hearing it make that horrible sound that told me I’d pushed too hard.

“I’ll push hard with him, too. Use everything I have in me,” I empowered myself as I calmed enough to bring the engine of my car to life.

Chapter Three

Once inside my apartment, I raced to the sliding glass door to search for a glimpse of my wolf or of the man. I hadn’t seen him on my ride home, although I’d felt him close by. I’d had to continually remind myself as I’d driven to keep my eyes on the road rather than glancing in the rearview mirror for sight of fur. The knock on my door nearly had me seeing stars. I’d turned so fast that I had to pause for a minute until the clouds of gray moved from in front of my eyes.

I walked to the door as fast as my jittery, yet strong and determined, legs could carry me.  After throwing open the door, he stood at my threshold like a deer in headlights. He looked at me briefly, but then past me as if my living room were filled with some beast that would attack him. The idea of it brought yet another smile to my face.

With a light voice, I beckoned him, “Please come in. I won’t bite. Well, at least not until you ask me to nicely.”

My laugh, though obviously a smidge nervous still, brought a smirk to his face as well.  Back in simple jeans and a t-shirt, he stepped into my apartment. I closed the door a little too hard once I’d gotten him inside. He looked back at the door, and then back at me. A sly expression raised his eyebrows, and widened and brightened those dark eyes of his.

“Plan on keeping me here, do you? Don’t think I can escape, manage a closed door?”

I answered by making a show of turning the lock fast so that it clicked with a bold thud into place.

“I deserve some more answers if nothing else,” I said as I grabbed his hand and led him to my couch.

“I guess you do. Ask me anything. No point in holding anything back now,” he said as his hands moved in jerky motions on his lap, as if he couldn’t decide what to do with them.

I had a few ideas, but first, I needed some answers. I placed one of my hands on one of his, and drew it to my leg regardless. I wanted to talk. Didn’t mean we couldn’t also touch in the meantime. I’d have curled up on his lap, secure in his arms, if given the choice.

“Probably not a good idea,” he mumbled. “I seem to so easily lose my determination to follow the rules where you are concerned. Just the briefest touch sends me over the edge. I have to get some control over myself.”

Though the words stung to some degree, I let myself relax in this moment of having him here to at least question. I brought back that confidence I’d miraculously found in the car. I squeezed harder when he tried to take his hand back. With a steely look on my face, he met my eyes and nodded his consent. Giving his hand a light pat in thanks, I went back to holding onto it tightly.

“You let me hold your hand, or I jump in your lap to have this chat,” I threatened, trying to deepen my voice as much as I could for a sultry effect.

“Well, you wouldn’t get any answers then, I can tell you that. That body of yours, it does things to me, unexplainable things,” he said with a shake of his head.

I let him look me up and down. I swear just the power of his look made me feel touched.

“What’s on that amazing mind of yours?” he urged, though the tilt of his head told me his mind was still on my body.

This knowledge only encouraged me. Gaining a shred of myself back, I decided to live in this moment, to luxuriate in the easy pace of my breath, the steady though a bit accelerated beat of my heart. My muscles relaxed even as my skin tingled where his hand touched my thigh. I swore I felt more than just a simple touch, even as the sensation grew weighted with emotions. My skin practically buzzed.

“I can explain that, too, that feeling. You are not imagining it. It is part of that magic I spoke of. Anyway, I’m sure that isn’t foremost on your mind. Ask your most burning question. Fire away,” he urged.

“Okay,” I said with a shake of my head, as if I could work out my thoughts that way, get back to the question that lingered most given the short amount of time I’d had to think on all he’d had said in the alley as I drove home.

“First, I want to know, why the protection? I mean, I get that we are to live long lives, but is there something that could more easily shorten them other than just life’s accidents? The way you said it, the inflection in your voice, the seriousness of it, made me wonder if there was some other enemy out there waiting to harm me. A group made to protect is usually only formed due to a viable threat.”

“You are too smart for your own good. You are sadly right, though. There is something more, well someone actually, a whole blasted group of them to be exact, that does wish you harm. There’s a group of other wolves. Original werewolves, that is. They were born with an affliction rather than spelled into a gift. Or at least, that is what they have said. While ruled by the moon, forced to turn each time its light fills the sky, they also have the power to turn at will, but it has to be motivated by anger. It’s a protection thing. They turn much more violently than my kind does, a more traumatic physical event. Basically, they resent us for that among other things.

“For one, they don’t live as long. They have normal human lives as far as that goes. They feel themselves to be royal I suppose, and resent not just our existence, but the fact that we honor the bloodline by protecting it. If they had their way, every last one of your bloodline, along with any werewolf like me, would be extinguished.”

“Oh my,” escaped me as a chill formed under the skin of my shoulders. I felt like I’d stepped into a storybook.

I shuttered. He squeezed my leg.

“I don’t mean to scare you. I’ve protected you all of these years. You’re safe, so I don’t want you to start worrying now. I’ve done what I had to when they’ve come around, and would again in the blink of an eye,” he offered in a stern voice. “They haven’t been a match for me yet, even three on one, odds in their favor. That fact only rubs salt in a very sore and festering wound, as you can imagine.”

“I just had no idea that there were people out there, or wolves, werewolves, that hated me. All these centuries, generation after generation, if they only live a normal human lifespan, this hate has lived? How often does the wolf come knocking at my door? Once a year? Once a week? How often do you have to truly protect me?”

“It ebbs and flows, the amount of times they come, that is. Sometimes we hear nothing for months, or even, a few times, years. But, that only means they are formulating some new plan to get at you and those like you. I swear they are taught to hate your bloodline from the moment they can understand the concept. And, the way we live, the protectors like me, the ease of it, it is a constant slap in their faces. I’ve heard rumors before, though, and more so with this current generation of true werewolves, that they have plans to kidnap one of you females left, to mate with you in hopes of getting some of the magic into their line.”

“But I have no magic,” I responded with a shaky breath.

I appreciated his confidence in protecting me, but still, my stomach knotted to think of being taken to be mated with. I thought I’d rather be killed. I tried to mentally shake off the dread that had begun to wash away my solid attempt at rational thought, as not to offend him, make him think that I didn’t trust him to protect me. The thing was, I just had to adjust to the idea that such an enemy lurked out there and was after me. Ignorance is pure bliss.

“You do have magic in you. You feel it on your leg. Our powers are stronger when mixed together. It’s easier to feel, of course, when not in the midst of some heated, passionate moment,” he stated with a wink.

“Anyway, the potential to tap into it without instruction seems to dwindle with each generation, just as your werewolf tendencies do. I’m not sure you could ever be brought to the point of turning into a werewolf, though who knows? No one I am aware of has broken the rules, gotten close to their charge in human form, enough to teach the human how to tap into the power that lies very dormant inside them. They believe the potential exists, though, with the right training to bring it out in you.”

“You honestly think that, over all of these generations, no other werewolf like you, spelled to protect, has fallen in love with the person they were to protect? Or, even if not in love, hasn’t met them at some point in human form and told them the truth?”

“If it ever happened, I wasn’t told about it or made aware,” he sighed. “Gotta believe that we are the first. Though, yeah, it is hard to believe. And that scares me even more. If any relationship ever occurred, who knows what happened to them, because I haven’t even heard such a thing. Not so much as a rumor.”

“So, where does all of this leave us? I want to be with you, as a man, as well as have you protect me as a wolf. You said they don’t watch you, right? So, do they check up on you?”

“I wouldn’t call it checking up on, exactly,” he said with a tip of his head to the side again.

His eyes looked me over again. He stopped to stare at the shake of my crossed leg. Running his hand from my thigh to my calf, the corners of his mouth turned up, broke that so stiff and serious expression he’d had going. In an instant, he pulled his hand back and tucked it under his thigh. Where he’d been turned on the couch with his body facing me, he pushed his back against the back cushions. His head flew back as he expelled a huff of air.

“Why is this so hard? No, don’t tell me. You are simply amazing, built just as a woman should be.”

“Really? The world would disagree. Full-figured woman don’t have a huge following. I think we’ve just started to at least earn some respect.”

“No. In my eyes, you are what a woman should be, like I told you before, like the paintings,” he stated in a garbled tone with his head still back, his eyes focused on the ceiling.

“We can do this,” I encouraged. “If we knew that sex wasn’t forbidden, off the table so to speak, then we could relax in each other’s company and just talk. It’s like the donut that someone sits on a table in front of you and tells you not to eat. Willpower is a myth,” I joked. “A very cruel myth.”

“Right. I get the message,” he said, finally straightening his head and turning to look at me. “But, we aren’t supposed to talk. You are not supposed to even know that werewolves, magical or otherwise, even exist at all.”

“Got it,” I grunted as I slid over to him, my thigh coming to rest against his.

His mouth twisted up on one side, for a moment, as he took a deep breath through his nose and then continued. “Back to your checking up question. I would more call it checking in with. They just see if I need anything, and ask for updates on the other group of werewolves, as far as if they are attempting anything. They collect intel, I guess you could call it, to try to stay on top of the issues, figure out the group’s next moves if they can. It helps. It always has.

“They even keep me updated if there’s some news that will better prepare me to protect you, whether I need to be more vigilant or not. Though, I always know where you are and what you are doing. We have a connection that even far away, even when I’m asleep, the slightest change in your breathing or heartrate wakes me. I’m never far enough that I can’t race to you in time. I move a bit faster than the average wolf.”

“So I noticed. But, still, where does that leave us?” I pleaded.

I placed my hand on his leg and squeezed before I moved in a little closer. I watched his muscles jump as our arms came to rest against each other. That magic he spoke of practically sizzled. I looked to see if one could actually see it. 

“Please, don’t,” he hissed.

“You don’t want me?”

“You know that I do. I just can’t,” he said, his voice tight, deep. “Not again.”

“You can. How would they ever know?” I countered.

“They would. They know or find out everything. What if they took me away from you?”

“You mean they would kill you to keep you away from me?” I asked as my voice hitched with the increase in beats of my heart.

“No,” he said fast. “No, they would never do that. But, they are a serious bunch, and your life is very important to them. If they thought my feelings for you might compromise my judgment, and thus your safety in any way… we’ve been straight out told that if we break any rule, that we will be removed from service. We weren’t told specifically what would happen to us then, but they didn’t seem like they would ask questions or could be reasoned with.”