fate of the alpha - episode 2 Read online

“You’re afraid of a little egg?” she teased.

  “No, but I remember what that magic does to you.”

  His words hung in the air a moment. Too late, he remembered that Grace hadn’t been the one to tell him about the price of her magic.

  “Would that be so bad for you?” Her eyes narrowed and she lifted the egg even higher. “Would being with a woman with lowly cottage magic be such a punishment?”

  “Of course not,” he said.

  Julian wasn’t sure if that was the right answer or if it was a trick question, but at this point he was finished playing games. Time to lay the cards on the table.

  “I want you, Grace. Badly. And I think you want me too. But I need to know the feelings are coming from you, and not because of the magic.”

  In her surprise at his words, she let go of her hold on the egg. It dropped out of the air and splattered on the linoleum.

  Grace met his gaze, and her expression softened. For the first time, Julian felt hope. Then she appeared to get hold of herself.

  “Why do you like me so much?” she asked, reaching for a handful of paper towels. “You don’t respect me.”

  “Why would you think that?”

  “Because every time I see you, you manage to insult my family’s magic.”

  “I respect you personally, as a friend to Ainsley, as a police officer and as a woman,” Julian said. “But it’s true that I don’t think you are getting as much out of your magic as you could if you studied formally. You have an incredible gift that ought to be developed. Your...trouble is a perfect example of why.”

  “If it hadn’t been for my magic, where would Erik Jensen be?” she shot back as she bent to clean up the broken egg.

  “You were amazing that night,” he said. “I’ll give you that. But it was too much. You could have died.”

  Grace deposited the mess in the trash bin, and retrieved another egg from the fridge.

  “You’re right,” she said, and paused, considering. “But I didn’t. And neither did Erik.”

  “You were very brave,” he told her truthfully.

  She smiled at that, and reached for the tendril of hair that kept slipping from her bun. Before Julian knew what he was doing, he grabbed her wrist.

  He was close to her now, so close he could feel her pulse hammering through that delicate wrist as fast as a bird’s.

  “Put the egg down. No more cooking. And no more putting up your hair. I want to see it down.”

  He waited for her to argue, or resist. She was the very definition of a modern woman. She would probably be offended at him telling her what to do. Or worse.

  But control meant everything to him. And seeing her surrender hers again was all he wanted. This time all for him - not for the magic.

  He heard the egg touch the bowl as she put it down. It was like a concerto.

  “Take your hair down,” he said, letting go of her wrist.

  Her eyes widened, but she obeyed him, slipping her fingers upward to pull the pins out of the bun, one by one. It was the most sensuous thing he’d ever seen.

  “Good girl,” he breathed.

  Her eyes sparkled with pleasure at his approval.

  She pulled out the last pin and then slipped out the elastic. A toss of her head unleashed a cascade of dark hair. It was long, longer than he had imagined - smooth and silky and fragrant. He wanted to bury his face in it, lose himself in the lush femininity she hid from the world, from everyone but Julian.

  She stood before him with an inscrutable expression. He admired how relaxed she was under his command. Like she was born to bend to his will.

  He reached out and ran his hands through her hair. The silken strands flowed between his fingers like liquid. The scent of jasmine washed over him.

  Grace closed her eyes in pleasure at his touch and he was nearly overcome with the way his heart pounded in response.

  He leaned forward and brushed her lips lightly with his once, twice. On the third sweep she sighed and her lips parted.

  Blazing with satisfaction, he grasped her jaw with one hand and devoured her mouth, sinking his tongue into her in just the rhythm he wanted to possess her with.

  He wrapped his other hand around a thick ribbon of her gorgeous hair and used it to drag her closer. Her heart pounded harshly now and her breathing deepened. His own body screamed demands, but he ignored them to concentrate on Grace.

  She trembled in his arms, her small body warm and welcoming.

  Julian slid his hand down from her jaw to follow the curve of her ribcage to her hip. She was all hard angles, but he could feel her willing her body to soften for him.

  Breaking their kiss, he pulled back slightly and looked into her eyes again.

  Grace panted lightly, her lips pink and swollen from his attention. Her eyes were endless dark pools.

  Julian could hardly believe he was about to ask her to stop.

  CHAPTER 14

  A insley hoped Grace and Julian would figure out what to do about Sadie.

  There was no way she was going to let Ophelia come to her house and see the craziness in her front yard, so Ainsley would have to find her quickly.

  She ran a few feet into the woods behind her house, then peeled off her clothes as fast as she could and stashed them next to a tree.

  The moonlight on her bare skin aroused and intoxicated her. She took a panicked breath, then pursed her lips and let it out slowly. She needed to put these feelings aside.

  Inhaling deeply again, she tried to catch Ophelia’s scent. The smells of the dozen males milling around the front lawn of her own house overpowered everything.

  Her eyes closed and she dropped into her auburn wolf.

  She sucked in the night air until she could feel it cool her hips.

  Still, she smelled the males out front and the squirrel in the oak above her, and the neighbor’s dog, and the exhaust from a car’s fumes a few blocks away. But no Ophelia.

  Frustrated, she planted her paws shoulder width apart, and shook herself until her pelt rippled loosely around her ribcage.

  Then she sniffed the air again.

  Somewhere, woven into the scents of the woods, was something unfamiliar.

  Ainsley trotted towards it. The underbrush scratched at her thick pelt, soothing and distracting her at once.

  The scents of other wolves in the woods began to tickle her nose. There were so many.

  Ainsley had spent most of the last full moon in Erik’s bed. And on his floor, and up on his kitchen countertop, and out on his porch, and even once in his front yard when they were trying to get to the car to run to the grocery store for steaks.

  Would all the wolves of Tarker’s Hollow be out in the woods tonight? What would they be doing besides running?

  Not knowing the answer made Ainsley nervous. She picked up the pace.

  After another five minutes she began to worry. She should have found Ophelia by now.

  Desperately, she hoped it wasn’t a test. She pictured Ophelia with a stop watch, shaking her head as Ainsley proved what a lousy tracker she was.

  Every cell in Ainsley’s body sprang to life. In an instant, she was invigorated and pulled with magnetic force in the opposite direction.

  Her clever paws followed the wordless command and she found herself hurtling through the trees, each leap making her more anxious to take the next.

  Ophelia must be calling her.

  The power of the call was unquestionable. Obeying it wasn’t just a necessity though, it filled Ainsley’s chest with a sweet, pleasant sensation.

  Instinctively, Ainsley fought the warm glow. Until moments before she became the alpha, Ainsley had never been a wolf. She had never answered to a superior animal. It was distasteful to her, and the appeal of it made it feel sinister.

  But she didn’t stop following the command, that would have been unthinkable. As she sailed over the pine needles, paws barely touching the ground, Ainsley wondered if her own call was the only reason anyone in the pack liked her,
the only reason they obeyed her.

  The cool scent of water greeted her as she felt Ophelia’s pull hum in her bones.

  She was close.

  The muddy bank of the creek sucked at her paws as she skidded to a halt in front of a large silver wolf. Before her eyes, the wolf morphed upward into a woman.

  Ophelia.

  Ainsley didn’t shift. She wasn’t sure what was required but she was secure in the knowledge that the other alpha would make her wishes known.

  Ophelia towered above her like a statue, her pale skin glowing in the moonlight. A huge scar rent the skin over her left breast.

  Ainsley thought of the scar on her own shoulder. A souvenir from her first fight as alpha. The small amount of silver in Clive’s bullet had nearly killed her. Who had been crazy enough to do something like that to Ophelia?

  She stared up at the woman, the alpha’s alpha, with open admiration.

  What Ophelia looked like told Ainsley almost nothing in comparison to how she smelled. The spicy scent of Cressida, and the woodsy smell of Javier covered her. Ophelia also smelled like meat, and an irksome, cloying perfume. Why would any wolf wear such silly, smelly stuff?

  A purplish musk of satisfaction emanated from Ophelia’s pores, telling Ainsley that her superior had enjoyed the packmates she had offered her.

  Ainsley’s chest puffed out in pride.

  “Rise, Ainsley,” Ophelia commanded, her contralto voice bouncing off the trees.

  Ainsley rose out of her dawn-colored wolf and stood before Ophelia, naked.

  And that was when she realized where they were.

  Ophelia had called her to the special place where she and Erik had played as children. The place where they had drawn Ainsley’s alpha.

  Furious, Ainsley tried to push her anger down.

  “What have you been doing, Ainsley Connor?” Ophelia asked.

  Shit.

  “Tending to some pack business,” Ainsley said. “You enjoyed my gift?”

  “I did.” Ophelia’s lip quirked up. “But was there really no one left to mate with the alpha of Tarker’s Hollow?”

  Ainsley racked her brain for a reason why she wouldn’t mate during the full moon. A reason that wouldn’t make her less an alpha in Ophelia’s eyes.

  “Listen, Ainsley.” The older woman put her arm around Ainsley’s shoulder and began to walk her along the path of the creek. “I know you have a mate, a favorite. And I admire that you sent him away in the middle of the full moon, by the way. He was quite flustered. He barely said goodbye, he was so concerned with following your orders to the letter.”

  Ainsley’s heart dropped at the mention of her mate. He had left on his own. Not because he thought Ainsley wasn’t brave enough to stand up to Ophelia, but because he knew she wasn’t strong enough to send him away.

  Erik was gone. He was really gone.

  “As the alpha,” Ophelia continued. “You can’t deny yourself. You mate with whomever you want, whenever you want. That’s the way it is done.”

  “I don’t want to mate with anyone else right now,” Ainsley replied as lightly as she could.

  “Yes, you do,” Ophelia replied.

  Ainsley’s whole body ached with a wordless longing. Trembling, she clung to the thought of Erik. His dark eyes through long lashes, his kind smile.

  “It’s not right,” Ainsley said.

  “You’re an anomaly, Ainsley. And that’s the problem here. You really don’t know how this works, because you’re not really a wolf. Not yet.”

  “Of course I’m a wolf!”

  “Alright then, smart girl, how do you think you left things today with your beta?”

  “What?”

  “I’m sure you’re familiar with J. D. MacGregor - the man who served your father faithfully and who has attended you with infinite patience and respect during your precarious tenure as alpha. How do you think he felt when you left him in your front yard to pace the grass with the omegas?”

  “I--”

  “You didn’t think about it. Right?”

  Ainsley nodded, tears prickling her eyes. How could she walk away from MacGregor that way, without deference for his position in the pack? If she had thought about it, she would have invited him in. Though of course, she wouldn’t have slept with him.

  Ophelia stopped walking and turned Ainsley brusquely to face her.

  “Wrong! You didn’t need to think about it, Ainsley. Bringing him into the house for show and not fucking him would be as bad as leaving him on the lawn. We are wolves. We are not people.”

  Ainsley was nearly cowed, but a tiny core of strength allowed her to pipe up.

  “But, Ophelia, we are people most of the time.”

  Ophelia smiled a bitter smile.

  “So, Ainsley, when you became the alpha of this pack, were you elected by a majority?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “How did you accomplish that most impressive feat?”

  “Mating with Erik.”

  “Mating with Erik.” Ophelia nodded, and took a few more steps along the creek bed. “And what about Cressida Crow? She’s a powerful wolf in her way, but an unlikely friend for an alpha. What happened to make her your closest female packmate?”

  Ainsley colored, but Ophelia didn’t look back at her, or force her to acknowledge what they both knew - that Ainsley had succumbed to her wolf and had an unexpected interlude with the girl who had been her rival for Erik’s attention until that moment.

  “On the other hand, you tried to use your head with Clive Warren. He was a loose cannon, but also a promising young male - an increasingly rare commodity in Tarker’s Hollow. What happened there?”

  “You know what happened.”

  “Yes, I do. But do you? Ainsley, you’re a smart girl, but you’re missing the forest for the trees here. You are a wolf, all the time, even when you’re not shaped like one. And life is easier for you when you act like a wolf.” Ophelia’s eyes sparkled like obsidian in the moonlight. “Hell, it’s more fun too.”

  Desperately, Ainsley tried to hear the sound of Erik’s laughter but it was too late. She was in the thrall of the alpha before her.

  “I’m not asking you to sleep with another wolf tonight,” Ophelia continued. “But I’m telling you that you must stop this over-complicated human thinking.” She raised her arms in a joint-popping stretch, letting the pale moonlight bathe her ample breasts.

  “Let’s just run,” said Ophelia. “You’ll look at this the right way when you stop listening to your brain and start answering to your wolf.”

  With that, Ophelia melted back into her lupine form and disappeared into the trees in a flash of silver fur.

  Ainsley was a flame-colored wolf before she finished a breath. Now that she was closer to the rich scent of the soil and warmed by silken fur, other problems did seem to fade.

  Filled with a burst of moon drunk energy, Ainsley bounded into the trees to catch her leader. When she caught up to Ophelia, perhaps she would nip playfully at her heels to see what would happen.

  Ophelia liked her, it was easy to know that when Ainsley was a wolf. She could almost taste the tomato-red smell of Ophelia’s pleasure at teaching her.

  CHAPTER 15

  Grace stood before Julian, trembling with desire.

  Why had he stopped kissing her?

  She would have liked to kiss him all night, maybe even all year.

  He’d said he wanted her. Badly. The memory of his words washed over her, warming her from the inside. She searched his blue eyes for a clue about what she had done wrong.

  “That business with the egg,” he demanded. “Was that enough?”

  His words didn’t even make sense. What business?

  Oh.

  “No, that wasn’t enough,” she whispered.

  The magic wasn’t the source of her desire.

  She didn’t know exactly why she wanted him - needed him. She had never felt this way about anyone before. It couldn’t be love, because she didn
’t know him, and what she did know, she mostly didn’t like. But it sure felt the way love was supposed to feel.

  “Good girl,” he said again.

  Every cell in her body bubbled over with joy, though she was a strong woman, and had never wanted anyone to call her ‘good girl’ before.

  “Do you have another bedroom?” he asked.

  She ought to have thought he was presumptuous, asking a question like that when they were only kissing and she was supposed to be making pancakes. Instead she felt sweet relief.

  Until she remembered that her bed was full of canines.

  “No, that’s the only one,” she replied.

  He smiled and she figured he must have heard the regret in her voice.

  “Come on,” he told her, “I have an idea!”

  He took her hand and led her into the living room.

  Gazing at the sofa, he muttered, “Disponat vobis.”

  The sofa unfurled like it was stretching after a long nap. Branches grew out of its back, and before Grace’s eyes it morphed into a bed with a railing made of living trees.

  “Succendunt ignem,” he said to the fireplace.

  To Grace’s wonder, a small fire appeared in it. She stepped forward to look at it. The flames danced merrily, and the air in the room was already getting toasty.

  She sensed him moving behind her, then felt his hand on her arm and his warm breath in her ear.

  “Is this okay? I’ll turn it back into a sofa in the morning.”

  “It’s beautiful,” she told him.

  “You are beautiful,” he whispered, and ran his hand down her arm. Her skin tingled in its wake.

  He wrapped his other arm around her waist and held her that way for a long time as they stood together, gazing into the magic fire.

  Julian slid one hand up her chest to curl around her neck. His hand was warm and though the position was unusual, Grace didn’t feel threatened. She could feel her own pulse against his hand. Or maybe it was his pulse.

  “You’re brave and you’re beautiful. And you have such incredible restraint. I’m going to enjoy stripping that away from you, my love,” he whispered. And though his words were smooth, his voice was harsh with desire.