Nikolai held her rocking hips. His eyes glinted with the same thrill she felt. At any moment, they could be caught. They’d be reduced to two silly teenagers, gathering their clothes before running off.
Thankfully, as she rocked over his cock, no one came down. No voices approached them while Nikolai reached between them to stroke the bead of pleasure between her folds. Her attempt to silence herself became a struggle as he teased her. He timed his circles with the rhythm of her rocking so that each time she slammed down, he arched over her clitoris.
Finally, the engine above roared to life and her moan escaped her. She was so close. Every small movement, every stroke threatened to spill her into a pool of orgasmic pleasure. Then, Nikolai slipped out of her. She cried out, bereft, but he only smiled.
His hands were gentle as he rolled them over. He placed her legs over his shoulders, letting her hook her ankles behind his head, and began to slam home inside her. Gone were her small strokes, replaced by Nikolai’s furious need. He gripped her thighs to steady her with each pump.
Unable to control herself, her orgasm exploded within the first few thrusts. She screamed, her pleasure radiated through every ounce of her body and soul until it escaped through her voice. She gripped the grass beneath her, gathering fistfuls as if she might lift off and float away.
The sound of the crashing waves joined them, timing Nikolai’s thrusts. She could barely believe this was her life. She lay beneath one of the Alpha bears of the California coast, the open sky above them and the endless ocean beside them. The air glittered with the rainbow cast by the nearby falls.
Monica had once imagined a life of power and control, but she found herself greedily grabbing for this life of love and laughter. It was exactly what her tired soul ached for. She thought of their silly pranks, the rainbow balls that filled her room. When she looked back to the man above her, she let the orgasm take her again.
Nikolai shuddered, too. He arched into her, unable to control himself. As he came, she held his gaze. It became a tether that wrapped around both of them. Would it last beyond the small patch of grass they’d claimed with their love making? Or, would it snap the moment he drove her back to Monterey?
She didn’t want to find out. Monica wanted to stay beneath him forever, his cock buried inside her. Instead, he pulled out. He shuddered at the sensation. It echoed through her, rising like aftershocks to fill her throat. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t find any words.
Nikolai extended a hand, a small smile on his lips. He didn’t stray far from her, as if he too were afraid of the tenuous tether that bound them. He seemed glad to revel in her presence. She opened her mouth to say she should clean up when she realized he was leading her to the sand, to the ocean.
“How do panthers feel about swimming? I can’t imagine Nessa in the ocean.”
The sound of another woman’s name in his mouth made Monica growl. She yanked his hand until he careened toward her. She cleansed the name from his mouth with a greedy kiss. For this moment, Nikolai belonged to her. She would let no one else take him from her because she knew the moment they drove back, he belonged to his pack.
When she drew back, Nikolai was breathless. He looked down at her with wide eyes. “I don’t know what I did to deserve that, but my question still stands. Can you swim?”
Monica winked at him and ran for the water. He shouted and ran after her. They crashed into the open waves together. While she wasn’t a water born creature like Lia, Monica loved the waves. It was part of what kept her in California. She couldn’t imagine a life without an open body of water nearby.
Chapter Thirteen
The waves shoved him this way and that, only a fraction of the strength of it’s endless depths. Nikolai pushed through the waves to catch up to his mate. The water glistened on her dark skin, droplets of gold that made her sparkle like a goddess. His breath caught as he watched her.
She turned toward him, her eyes alight with joy. She was breathtaking, more than he ever thought he would deserve. Today had brought them a little closer, but how long would that last? When would she turn and run from him again? He wasn’t ready to lose her, but he knew he would stay wherever she told him. If she said to leave her alone, he would hurt, but he would do it.
Thankfully, in that moment she beckoned for him to come closer. He closed the distance between them. She reached and pulled him closer, her hands on his chin as she led him down for a kiss. Her lips were greedy, teeth scraping against his as if she might devour him.
There was an entire world waiting on shore for them. She had a pack with Oscar Torres. He led his own Pack. The two lives would drift apart again. He contemplated visiting Oscar, begging the man to release her from her pack bonds. Would she hate him for it? He wanted her to be free from the only family she’d ever known. It was too much to ask, he decided. It wasn’t his place.
“Was there anything else you had planned for this date? I’m still in possession of the dildo, so I think that means it’s still my turn. Don’t think about pulling any pranks on me.”
He laughed, his soul feeling lighter than it had in… years. He was a child again, a teenager filled with lusty hormones and a taste for thrill. She brought out the worst in him and he was loving it.
“We could drive back for ice-cream. Extra rainbow sprinkles, of course. Then you could invite me back to your place.” He stopped when she splashed him. “Only to steal the dildo from you, of course. You’re too slow in planning your next prank. I’m getting impatient.”
“Is that so?” She dove beneath the water.
His heart flipped. For a moment, he thought the current had grabbed her. He cried out for her, searched the waves for her. Then, he heard a shout from the shore. A very naked Monica waved to him. He realized how far out he was, how long it would take his bulkier form to reach the shore.
Still, he swam against the tugging current. Each time he came up for air, he saw Monica reach for another article of clothing. Both, his and hers. He was nearly to the shore when he saw her grinning on the stairs. She tugged his shirt over her head and stepped into those creamy, white panties.
The waves pulled back and left him on sand, but he still had to fight against the last of the water. He was painfully slow while she bounded up the stairs. He’d jinxed himself, he thought. The laugh that he let out was bright, filled with joy.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he shouted after her. He stood on the shore, his hands on his hips as he watched Monica race higher on the hill.
She paused, a bounce in her step. “I’m returning a favor!”
When she disappeared, and he heard the roar of his truck engine, his heart shot into his throat. He lurched forward and fumbled up the stairs after her. She was driving toward the road. It was slow, her reflection in the side mirror as she watched him chase after her.
He was as naked at the day he was born, but that didn’t stop him. If she thought he was going to be shy while she stole his truck, she had another thing coming. He surged forward, wobbly bits flapping in the broad daylight, and summoned his shifter speed to catch up to the truck. With a burst of strength, he leapt into the bed, sending the truck fishtailing for a moment. Monica cackled from inside the cab and used one hand to shove his clothing out the sliding window.
Nikolai caught his shorts before they flew off into the trees. She directed the truck back the way they came, following Highway 1 back toward Monterey. The trek was slow and winding. Nikolai used the moment to reach around and jerk open the passenger door. Monica let out a cry of alarm as he carefully climbed out of the bed and into the cab.
“That’s impressive,” she noted as he settled into the passenger seat. “Everything about you has been impressive, today.”
His cheeks warmed. He couldn’t believe he was blushing over a dick compliment, but he was. Never before had he found a woman who could take it all, and yet he’d buried himself to the hilt in this woman. His mate. Nikolai reached for her empty hand and gripped it, not saying an
other word.
Chapter Fourteen
Nikolai hung up the phone, the plastic groaning beneath his hand until he heard the glass crack. Only then did he let it drop to the table. The beast beneath his skin roared with defiant anger. It wanted to go on a rampage through his own Pack. They needed to be reminded of their place, needed to be brought back down to earth.
Caz had called moments ago. The Monterey Alpha had dire news, his voice dripping with contempt over Nikolai’s situation. Alex and the rest of the unruly shifters were starting trouble in Monterey. They’d started fights with Caz’s shifters. Good men and women were out of commission while Nikolai’s idiots staked their claim over Jefferson Street.
What kind of Alpha couldn’t control their riotous pack?
Nikolai, apparently. He needed to get himself down to Monterey and drag his shifters back home. It was getting tiring, this mess. Part of him wanted to walk away. It was tempting to grab Monica and make a break for the Nevada mountains. He wouldn’t mind a life with her by his side, waking to find her smeared with paint or cackling over some prank she might have pulled.
It was a dream, a vision he held onto while he grabbed his coat. When he threw the door open, the presence of another shifter made him pause.
Brigid turned to face him, hands in the pockets of her denim jacket. There was an apologetic smile on her lips. Her hair was mussed, sticking up at all angles as if she spent the morning gripping and pulling it.
Nikolai stood up straight. The bear whispered to him. Grab her. Punish her. Make her beg for forgiveness. Instead, Nikolai kept his cool. He kept his eyes filled with indifference while he lingered in the doorway. She wouldn’t win, not by getting him riled up. The least he could do was hold onto whatever sanity he had left.
“To what do I owe this visit?” he asked casually, as if he didn’t want to rip her head off.
Brigid shifted from foot to foot, scratching at the back of her neck. How long had it bene since she last shifted? When was the last time Nikolai led a run? The mess he’d created, the mess it had grown into, had kept him from doing the things he was supposed to do as an Alpha. It was his job to lead a run, so his shifters could assume their animal forms under his protection.
He swallowed the sigh of defeat that tried to escape him. Nikolai was trying to get his shit together, to be the kind of man he should have been and not the one his father wanted. That meant he’d let a lot of his duties fall to the wayside. If he’d been a better Alpha, he might have been able to stop the fights on Jefferson Street.
“I came here to confess something,” Brigid began. She looked everywhere other than Nikolai. His gaze was too much for her.
While it brought him joy to know that his defiant shifter was still too submissive to look him in the eye, it also made him want to coddle her. The urge to take the traitor under his wing was nearly overwhelming. He had to jam it back down and keep one foot back, so he didn’t approach her.
Finally, Brigid straightened her spine, showing a bit of the woman who’d broken the mirrors on his truck. “This mess is my fault.”
Nikolai cocked his head to the side. When he said nothing, Brigid struggled to go on. She seemed to trip over her words. Each time she started, she swallowed and shook her head.
“Alex came to me, claiming to be your brother. He said he could give us everything we wanted as long as we followed him. I knew he was trouble, but I could also see that he wasn’t going to face you head on. Alex had been on the edges of the territories, causing trouble for a while. He told me this himself after I agreed to join him.
“He said it was the best way to pull your power out from under you. Mind you, I didn’t want him to become our Alpha. I didn’t want him to have any kind of power. He’s a deranged and highly immoral man, a monster created by your father. One of many mistakes he made. Instead, I wanted to help you stop him.”
Nikolai couldn’t stop the growl that escaped him. The bear pressed against the surface, begging to be released. He could barely contain its anger. “You aren’t exactly filling me with confidence. If I had to guess, I’d say you were lying to save your own ass right now.”
Brigid let out an uneasy laugh. “It would sure seem like it, right? The methods I’ve used weren’t the smartest, but I stand by my convictions.”
A long moment passed, and Nikolai was forced to ask. “What convictions?”
“If you can’t put him out of his misery, how else can you fix your father’s mistakes? How else can you be better than him?” Brigid’s words struck a nerve in Nikolai.
All this time he’d thought she was turning against him when all this time she’d been testing him. Brigid had found his father’s monstrosity and brought him to Nikolai’s feet, as if to point out his father’s faults and say, will you become better than him?
He wanted to rage against Brigid, against her foolhardy moves and brash tones. Still, she had a point. All this time, Nikolai wondered who he was. At times, he was his father’s son. It was nothing more than an echo of a person, a shadow cast by a man who felt so much bigger than him. In the quiet moments, in between control and chaos, he found himself slipping into nothing. Where there should be a soul on fire, there was nothing more than the whisper of wind in an empty place.
Each step he took forward, closer to Monica, closer to his Pack, he felt a little less lost.
Brigid’s arms were crossed over her chest, her chin jutted out as she waited for an answer. Nikolai searched for one, for a nugget of the man he was supposed to be when he realized he could be anyone he wanted.
Such as the man he’d been all along. If his goals had been his father’s, his methods had been his own. Slowly, Nikolai let out a breath. When he pulled it back in, he felt reinvigorated. He’d been his own man all along.
Behind her, faces came into focus. While they’d been talking, the Pack had arrived. They stood on the ground and looked up at Nikolai with hope in their eyes. He noted the few faces that were missing, not too surprised. He was more startled by the number of shifters that had arrived in a show of support. They cared enough to save their own Pack.
They cared about him, too.
He raised his chin, trying to summon the spark of leadership he knew should be there. “Brigid, you’re demoted.”
Her jaw dropped. He gave her a challenging look. Try me, it said. Finally, her lips nothing more than a grim line, she nodded. He knew he would have to put his truck in the garage later. He couldn’t afford new mirrors again. What would he tell the insurance company?
“And next time you consider using me as an exterminator, consult me first. I know he’s my father’s mistake, but that doesn’t mean I have to be the one to put him down. You’ve made your own packmates unsafe by summoning Alex here. Sure, you helped expose others who wanted to move against me, but I should cast you out the same way I’m going to cast them out.”
This time, Brigid opened her mouth to argue. One look from Nikolai, with a touch of his Alpha power thrown in, had her closing it again. He wouldn’t hear her side of the argument. Just like he’d acknowledged that his fight for the sealskin and the coast had been stupid, Brigid would need to come to terms with the same. Neither could argue their way toward righteousness.
“What do we do now?" The voice came from another packmate.
Nikolai tried to find it in the small crowd of faces, what was left of his Pack. They watched him with desperation, but behind it was something else. It cut him in half, making the world seem to wobble beneath his feet. There was trust and admiration in their gazes. He didn’t’ deserve it, not after the monster he’d been.
Yet, faced with a greater monster, they saw Nikolai for the man he wanted to be. He became their protector, their friend. He cast a sidelong glance at Brigid. While he was grateful for her results, he hated her methods. She only gave a tight-lipped smile in return.
Becoming Alpha was a thing he’d never questioned. All his life, Nikolai knew he was being groomed for the position. His father had been Alpha
and he, too, would rise to the job. Nikolai reveled in the power, in the way it made him feel, but he knew the Pack his father had given him was a bit of a mess. The situation they were in had only been a matter of time, he guessed.
The fact that Brigid’s meddling and Alex’s appearance had been the catalyst didn’t take away from the fact that his father had bred a hunger in his Pack. They hungered for power, in all forms. Honestly, Nikolai was surprised they hadn’t taken to killing each other yet. He could guess that was only because of his own presence.
Up until his failure in gaining the coastal territory, his Pack hadn’t thought of crossing him. His strength and posturing had been enough. There were some, of course, who loved him. He protected them and allowed them to live the simple lives they craved. Those were the people he loved in return.
Nikolai sighed, dusted off his pants, and rose to the challenge. It was time to make this Pack one that meant more than just power. If the rebel shifters couldn’t see what that was worth, he would run their asses into the Nevada mountains.
As he walked away from Brigid and her confession, Nikolai thought of Monica. His bear craved her, happy to think of her instead of focusing on the task at hand. He knew the bear would rise to the moment when Alex finally challenged him, but until then, the bear was obsessed with Monica. He couldn’t help but wonder if…
No, he thought. That wasn’t right. Monica was a distraction. As much as he liked her, it was probably amplified by the fact that the rest of his life was crumbling between his fingers. Once he rebuilt his life and his Pack, the bear would return to its senses.
She belonged to Oscar Torres, and if he knew one thing it was to never cross Oscar. Nikolai knew what happened to the gangs that used to run wild on the streets of Santa Cruz. He would never subject his Pack to that kind of brutal fury.
Her True Alpha Mate Page 10
