Loveless: A BWWM Wolf Shifter Romance (The Alpha Series Book 2)

by Brooklyn Knight

  Vince watched me, and I tilted my chin upwards. “Who Gerald is, is none of your business,” I informed him. “And as for Loveless...” I paused. “I had a necklace and it had an amulet on it. It’s very important, and I need it. It must have come off during the attack. In fact, I know it did.”

  He stared at me.

  “I need you to help me find it, Vince.”

  “Why is it important?”

  I stifled a groan. “You know, this would be a lot easier if you didn’t ask questions,” I said.

  “And if you want my help, not only will I ask questions, you will answer them,” he snapped back, crossing his arms over his chest.

  We fought a battle of the wills for approximately two minutes, locked in another epic stare-down, but suddenly, his eyes turned into that color, and when they dropped to my breasts, I gasped.

  I pulled the cover back up.

  “Why are you shielding yourself from me?” he growled.

  “Which of the hundred reasons do you want me to start with?” I responded, but there weren’t one hundred reasons. Shit, I was struggling to find even one. “I know what this is.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “This,” I clarified, pointing between the two of us. “You trying to be all up on me, and acting as if you can’t help yourself. It’s... you being a wolf. It’s your erotic energy, it’s part of who you are and nothing more.”

  That was my explanation for his behavior, but what was the rationale for mine?

  Vince’s eyes shimmered with amusement. “And how do you know all of this?”

  “My friend, Julian, told me about it,” I answered quickly. “He knows all about this stuff. He knows about vampires and witches, and wolf shifters. He was the one who concocted Love – ” I dropped the sentence and cleared my throat. I was saying too damn much.

  Vince chortled. “Well, I think your friend, Julian, was wrong,” he whispered leaning close to my face. Too close.

  “About the erotic energy?”

  “No,” he shook his head. “About it being nothing more.”

  He was staring at my lips again, and when he licked his, my pussy jerked. I swallowed and tried to steady my trembling jaw. My mouth tightened.

  Vince pulled away from me, and I fought the urge to gasp for air. I watched him rake his hand through his hair.

  “Fine,” he barked at me. “You choose not to tell me about these things, but I will find out soon enough. In the meantime, you will tell me about the plan you have devised to rescue your sister.”

  “I can’t tell you about that either,” I said shaking my head.

  His eyes narrowed with rage. “You do not understand,” he claimed. “If I am a wolf shifter, so is my brother.”

  “And?” I asked twisting my neck at him, even though Julian’s words flew into my mind again.

  “And,” he came back, almost twisting his neck, “it means that no ordinary attempt to separate him from your sister will work. They are fated mates, Shenique. They were created for one another. Any separation will bring them great anxiety and pain, both physical and otherwise.”

  “But he kidnapped her.”

  “Initially, he did,” Vince confirmed, “but now, she is here of her own free will. They are connected by their souls.”

  I rolled my eyes. Had I not been a victim of Loveless, I might actually have cared about this ghoulish fable he was trying to get me to buy into, but I didn’t care. “Well, Julian told me about that mate stuff too,” I informed him, “and it’s bullshit.”

  “I agree.”

  I frowned, confused. “What?”

  “I agree that it is bullshit, but not for the same reasons as you,” he said marching forward. As soon as he was within five feet of the bed, my nipples pebbled and slick moisture slipped from between my folds. If this man didn’t quit invading my personal space, I would be forced to throw my pussy at him.

  As if sensing my physiological response, Vince’s pace slowed, and his pupils dilated. “I do not want my brother to be with your sister,” he continued. His voice sounded like it was about to snap. “If you have a viable plan to separate them, I want to hear about it.”

  I tensed hearing his words. “What’s so wrong with my sister and your brother being together?”

  He cocked an eyebrow at me. “I could ask the same thing of you,” he replied, “but I won’t. Make no mistake, I am happy that my fratello has... found true love; but it has come at the expense of his duties.”

  “What duties?”

  “That is none of your concern,” he replied.

  I stared at him, trying to interpret what he was saying. He was strong and unbreakable, that much was clear from the way he had rescued me from that pack of raging wolves. Not only that, but I was beginning to see another side of him: a soft, affectionate side, a side that promised hours of shameless, erotic pleasure.

  I cleared my throat and my head.

  His brother having found my sister should have elated him. Unlike me, there was nothing he had to protect his brother from; but his anger was reaching me, and the urge to touch him was growing stronger by the minute. I curled my hands back and pressed them against the mattress.

  “How do I know I can trust you?” I whispered, reconsidering his offer of partnership. “How do I know that this isn’t some elaborate plot to get me out of Italy? Shit, how do I even know that those wolves weren’t your goddamn friends?”

  “If that was my plan, it would have worked,” he whispered back. His words rolled over my body. “But the truth is, there was no way I would have let anything happen to you. I saw you and those fucking wolves from a mile away. Literally. You can trust me, Shenique. You can trust me more than you realize or understand.”

  His words struck me, touching some place deep inside; a place I thought had ceased to exist.

  “And why is that?” I demanded lifting my chin.

  “I am not sure.” He paused, and his eyes dropped. “But I am telling you the truth, and I want you to believe me.”

  I peered at Vince, assessing his trustworthiness, but the more I looked at him, the only thing I could think about was the way his lips felt against mine as they claimed them, and the way his fingers felt as they explored my secret depths. Suddenly, a potent, inexplicable urge settled between my thighs, and I squeezed them together, trying to erase the ridiculous desire.

  Vince inhaled, and his eyes glittered.

  “Loveless,” I muttered. I sighed. “Loveless is the potion I plan to use to destroy the bond between your brother and my sister. It’s in the amulet on the necklace that I lost. That’s why I need you to help me find it.”

  His eyes narrowed and he folded his arms over his chest. “You are a sorceress?”

  “No,” I said quickly, “but my friend is. Well, maybe not a sorcer-ess. He’s a he, so that would make him a sorcer-er...”

  “You are talking about Julian.”

  “Yes.”

  Silence.

  “How did you get this potion?”

  Now I was on trial. I tried to straighten my shoulders. “Julian made it and gave it to me,” I answered. “Look, are all of these questions really necessary? Do you want in or not?”

  Suddenly, Vince’s body stiffened, and his gaze darkened. “I most certainly want... in.”

  With a grunt, he brushed his soft lips against my mouth, and to my faux chagrin, they puckered under his touch.

  He was trying to resist me.

  I was trying to resist him.

  Our efforts were in vain.

  The hairs on his chin smoothed against my face, and I fought the urge to lean in to him, to give in to him. This time, it would be more than his fingers inside of me.

  It would be his dick.

  I inched back, for my own good. “First of all,” I said gently pushing my hand against his chest, “if we’re going to be a team, there’s no way we should even think about doing this or that,” I pointed at his stiff erection, “or anything else of th
at nature. Besides, just so you know, I don’t do relationships or hook-ups.”

  Vince frowned and leaned back to get a good view of my face. “What does that mean?”

  “It means, I’m not down for what you’re offering here.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “It did not seem that way a few seconds ago...” he noted, licking his lips, and instantly, I wanted to explode on his tongue.

  “A few seconds ago doesn’t matter,” I snapped. “I’m... vulnerable, and weak, and wounded, and...” I cleared my throat. “The point is, don’t touch me. Got it?”

  “Okay,” he agreed, but I didn’t believe him. Not for a split second. He stared past my eyes and into my soul, totally unnerving me. “And for the record, I do not do relationships either. If they are anything like what my brother and your sister have, I want no parts of it.”

  My eyes fluttered and something churned my insides, but I ignored it.

  He continued, back to business. “How do you know that this Loveless actually works?”

  “Because I’ve taken it myself,” I answered, although based on the evidence, I was now questioning its effectiveness. Apparently, Loveless had left me high-and-fucking-dry.

  Vince frowned. “Why would you do something like that?”

  “No questions,” I insisted easing back a touch more. My body quivered. “You said you want in, so the first thing we need to do is find it. I lost it in the woods when those wolves attacked me, and if we don’t get it, there’ll be no chance of separating your brother and my sister.”

  “To be clear, I’m not in yet,” he contradicted me.

  My heart skipped a beat.

  “And to be clear, the first thing we need to do is get you better.” He paused. “You could have died out there.”

  We stared at one another, and Vince’s brows drew together. “Rest,” he insisted.

  Finally, he removed himself from both my personal space and the bed, but I lurched forward, already missing his presence.

  “Where are you going?” I called out. I tried to reign in my fluster.

  “Back to the mansion.” He responded without turning around.

  “But...” I cleared my throat. “So who’s going to take care of me, change these bandages? And I’m hungry!”

  Vince paused and turned to look at me. “The chefs will be here with your meals later,” he assured me. “And I will be back. You won’t be alone for long.”

  I nodded, but couldn’t deny the urge to beg him to stay.

  But stay for what?

  We had already come to an agreement: we were teammates, and we were going to work together to split up my sister and his brother. I was still unsure of his reasons, but it didn’t matter. He had made some valid points. If Sasha and his brother, Remi, were soul mates, it was going to take a helluva lot more than nagging to drag her ass out of there and away from that masked-murderer, sonofabitch.

  Still, it was more than that...

  I was a strong, independent woman. I had never needed a man to take care of me before. In fact, any man that had come into my life had only hurt me. Vince was a man, but I couldn’t deny, that feeling wasn’t there; and if it was, I could barely sense it.

  Without saying anything more, Vince left the room, and then I heard a door close.

  He had left.

  Now, the room felt empty, like a vacuum had sucked all of the life out of it, creating an unsettling void.

  I lifted myself from the bed, gritting my teeth and flinching in pain, even though it was significantly less than when I’d first awakened. Finally, my feet touched the floor, and my toes sunk into the carpet. I limped over to the window and pushed the curtains to the side. That was when I saw the massive, brown wolf standing in the front yard, and as if sensing my presence, it turned and pinned its steely gray eyes on me, before bolting away.

  Twelve

  Vince

  ‘One Objective’

  I stomped into the mansion, in full wolf regalia. The staff hustled out of my path, but I only growled at them before bounding up the steps and into my room. Once inside, I pushed the door closed with my hide and stood motionless, allowing the animal to regulate itself. He was antsy, and I was trying to understand him. He had never been this way before. For the most part, he was dormant, lurking in the shadows of my soul, only arising when I commanded his presence. But now, he was a fucking force to be reckoned with, and he had me questioning who was really in control, him or me.

  Why did we not claim her? He demanded of me, completely irrational and belligerent. She is our mate. She belongs to us.

  I do not believe in that bullshit, but even if I did, claiming her is not our objective, I growled in response.

  We only have one objective, the beast argued. If we take her, nothing else will matter; not Remi, not Sasha, and not Loveless.

  This crazed animal had no idea what it was talking about, especially about the potion called Loveless. I had never heard of it before now, so there was no way my wolf could have any ideas. The animal was all beast, which meant he was only governed by primal drive. He wanted to fuck Shenique until one day turned into the next. I would not lie and say this prospect did not thrill me. Merda, the way she tasted, the feel of her sensual silk against my fingers, had my cock harder than it had ever been in my entire life. Never had my desire for a female been this strong. When I had caught up to her in the vineyard, I had tried to practice constraint, but there was none to be found. And when I was next to her in that fucking bed...

  Merda...

  My wolf was primitive, but I was a man, and though I had never particularly cared about a woman’s emotions, all of a sudden, I did now. This meant that even though I wanted nothing more than to be buried deep inside of Shenique’s warm, wet pussy, I would not do this if she did not want it.

  She wants it, my wolf commented, eavesdropping on my personal thoughts. Her body told us this!

  I mean emotionally, I snapped back. Shenique is not ready in this way. In fact, she was barely available. It was one thing to be horny, that was a primitive response, but it was another thing to yield to emotion, and Shenique had not demonstrated this. Something was keeping her prisoner. I had no idea what it was, but I had a strong feeling it had something to do with the man named Gerald.

  My claws dug into the carpet.

  And then she had ingested Loveless, and I wondered how long it had been. If it was as powerful as she and her friend Julian believed it to be, this would be another reason for her emotional unavailability.

  But why would she have done this?

  My wolf started to bark up a response, but I’d had enough of him. It did not matter any way. I would control myself around Shenique. She was not open, and neither was I. I would focus on the business of separating my brother from his mate. He would get over her, and things would return to normal.

  My body began to writhe and twist, the way it did just before a shift, and within a few seconds, my wolf had disappeared.

  Good.

  Now, I was crouched on the floor, holding onto the edge of the bed, waiting for the intense cramping to subside, when a knock came on the bedroom door.

  I sniffed. “Come in, Remi,” I allowed, but irritation scraped at me.

  Remi walked in, sealing the door behind him. “Fratello, are you all right?”

  “I am fine,” I muttered, heading for my robe, which was laid across the bed. I gripped it into my hand and shrugged it across my back, trying to bridle my agitation at his presence.

  “What of the man who was attacked?” Remi pressed, choosing to ignore my detached demeanor, though the scent of his irritation was starting to filter into the room.

  “He will be okay,” I answered. “I am going to check on his progress later today. I will send your regards.” I walked over to the window and stared out of it. From here, I could see the cottage, even though it was a few miles away. I sniffed, hoping to catch a whiff of Shenique, and my eyes closed at the light, but fragrant aroma of her essence. I could ha
ve gotten lost in it, I wanted to, but Remi’s eyes boring holes into my back prevented this.

  “There is something I need to talk to you about,” he said. “It is about my trip to Miami.”

  I opened my eyes and turned a little, curious about his comment. My brother had not spoken much about his trip since he had returned with his fucking mate. In fact, we had not spoken much at all, yet now he wanted to talk? On his time?

  “What is it?” I bit out.

  “Now is not the time to speak on it,” he answered.

  I scrubbed my hand over my face.

  Always on his time...

  “But tonight, I would like for us to meet in the parlor,” he continued. “It will be an important meeting and there is no way you can miss it. There is someone I want you to meet.”

  I growled, hating the way he was prone to bossing me around. He was two years older than me, but that did not guarantee his alpha status. I respected Remi and would never challenge him, because of his seniority and his wisdom, but I could not deny that I was becoming less and less captivated by him as the weeks drew on.

  I grunted. “Who is this person?”

  “You will find out tonight.”

  “Tonight is not good for me,” I said, heading for the bathroom.

  “Vince – ”

  “I am busy,” I interrupted him. “Perhaps you should consider moving this important meeting to tomorrow morning, and if that time is not suitable, think of another. Of course you will need to confirm with this mystery-motherfucker, whether the time works for them. Either way, it will not be possible for me attend tonight.”

  Remi pinned me with a menacing, narrow gaze. “What is your problem, Vince?”

  “Now is not the time to talk about it,” I retorted.

  “You have been very aggressive lately,” he noted, tone as sharp as his nails, which were extending. “I do not like it. In fact, I am becoming very impatient with you.”

  “Then that makes two of us,” I spat, staring into his face.

  His eyes quivered, but he did not respond, even though his ferocious energy suggested that he wanted to.

  I chortled and shook my head in disgust. “I will see you in the morning,” I confirmed, and then I entered the bathroom and closed the door behind me.