Alpha's Last Fight: A Paranormal Shapeshifter BBW Romance

by Rose, Aubrey

  I didn’t want to start a fight, but I don’t think she understood. I tried to explain delicately.

  “This is not only about us. This is not about me telling you what to do. I promise. It’s just… you’re in touch with the animal inside you now. You may not have embraced it yet. But it’s there, it’s free. You’re not a do… a— y’know, anymore. I’d be surprised if you weren’t climbing the walls by tomorrow. In a week, you’d be as crazy as a loner.”

  “What exactly is a loner anyway? I’ve heard you say it before. Is it like a dog?”

  I welcomed the change of subject. Maybe I just had to let her learn the hard way that she couldn’t stay here.

  “More like the opposite of a dog. Wolves are supposed to live in packs, right? Some choose to live like this...”

  “Dogs,” she said, not bothering to hide her contempt for the word.

  “Yeah. But even then you’ve got all sorts. Some do the whole nine to five thing, then head for the woods as soon as they clock off on Friday. Weekend Wolves.”

  That one got a smile out of her.

  “Others just want to be at one with nature and give up on civilization entirely. There are packs like this out there in the wilds. But even they find a balance between their two selves. But if you’re out there by yourself, living like a lone wolf, with no one to talk to and no one to remind you what it is to be human… after a while you begin to forget.”

  “Forget what?”

  “Everything. You forget everything. You forget what it is to be human. You forget what it is to be a wolf. Your body finds a new balance… and so does your mind. That’s what a loner is.”

  “I still don’t get it.”

  “Well… ever see a werewolf, like in a movie or something? Half-man, half-wolf. Maiming and killing and generally scaring the shit out of everybody? Back in the old countries, a hundred years ago, shifters were hunted to the point of near extinction. Some escaped to other countries. Other continents even. But some got left behind hiding in the woods. They became loners. And what came back down from the woods was bigger and uglier and a fuck of a lot crazier than what went up.

  “So that monster you see in the movies, werewolf, wolf man, whatever you call it. That’s what it’s based on. Mean motherfuckers. Tough to kill.”

  While she took all that in, I finished my beer and headed to her fridge to see if I could find another.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Natalie

  We spent half an hour arguing about where we should go for the evening. Nothing I suggested seemed to appeal to Hutch. I could tell he was trying, but he was uncomfortable. He didn’t like it here. The apartment or the city.

  I had to admit, I was feeling it too. It was a small apartment, but in the past I’d found it cozy. Now it felt claustrophobic, like the walls were closing in. I was secretly glad that we weren’t spending more than a couple of days here, and I wondered if I would have felt the same way if Hutch hadn’t put the idea in my head.

  In the end we agreed to a compromise. I would choose the destination if Hutch got to choose what I wore. Of course, this turned out to be a trap.

  He selected a nice, thin summer dress that really complimented my figure. There was no denying the guy had a thing for dresses. Oh… and no panties. The whole dress thing made a lot more sense now.

  This was not the kind of thing I would have done in the past. But… I liked it. Walking down the street, knowing I was one stiff breeze away from exposing myself. I think I would have been too scared before. But now, with Hutch, I wasn’t afraid. It was just one of the perks of being with a man like that. I could have walked down the street naked and no one would have dared give me a dirty look.

  Either way, it wasn’t windy, and the dress was modest enough that I wasn’t exposing myself to anyone. Which didn’t explain why I was getting a lot more appraising looks than I usually would on a walk down the street. Maybe I was more confident. Maybe I was carrying myself differently. It was kind of flattering, even a bit of a turn on.

  The more we walked and the more they looked, the more apparent it became that I was, to put it bluntly, becoming more lubricated downstairs. With no panties on, this made for a rather interesting sensation. I smiled up at Hutch and squeezed his hand.

  Every couple of blocks, we’d pass someone who took particular interest in me. They’d stop walking or, on one occasion, walk into a mailbox. Hutch would respond to their interest with an audible snarl and they’d back off.

  Dogs… I didn’t realize there were so many of them. I looked up at Hutch again.

  “They can smell you. They know you’re… well y’know… good-to-go as it were. They can tell there’s something special about you.”

  I smiled and gave his hand a squeeze. I liked having something special about me.

  By the time we reached the gallery, I wished we were back at my tiny flat. I was hot, in both senses of the word, and, like the man said, good-to-go. But now we’d walked all the way, Hutch wanted to check it out.

  He took me by the hand and led me through the gallery at a brisk pace. This was the city’s largest public art gallery. I loved it here. The breadth and depth of variety in the way we expressed our creativity never ceased to amaze. My companion didn’t seem nearly as impressed.

  When we got to the Rubens gallery, he turned to me and grinned.

  “What?”

  “Pretty hot, some of these,” he said as he indicated in the direction of some prime examples of ‘rubenesque’ women.

  “I suppose you’re going to tell me he was a shifter?”

  “Nah, although that guy back there was.”

  We returned to the previous room where the paintings were a little more vibrant and dynamic. Hutch talked me through it, explaining what he saw, what the artist was thinking, what he was feeling.

  It was amazing. So much so that by the time he’d moved onto the next painting, a few other people had gathered to listen to him speak. He spoke from the heart, with such passion, as if he had painted the paintings himself.

  I overheard someone behind us utter the term “idiot savant” and I felt Hutch tense. The last thing I wanted was for him to start a fight in here, so I distracted him the only way I knew how. I stood on my tiptoes and whispered in his ear.

  “I want you to fuck me.”

  In the stillness of the gallery, sound carried, and I could tell by the uncomfortable silence around us that other people had overheard.

  I didn’t care.

  Hutch took me by the hand and dragged me out of that room in double time. We headed down one floor and into a little storage room he’d spotted just next to the fire stairs. Apparently “staff only” didn’t mean much to a guy like Hutch.

  I wonder if he looked for these things whenever he entered a building. Some people check the exits, some check where the restrooms are… Hutch checks for a place to… well. Before I could question him about this, he had me facing the wall, my arms braced as I breathlessly anticipated what came next.

  With my dress lifted up over my ass, he took me hard and fast. It was all impulse, all primal lust. My old self would have been mortified to see the roughness, the messy lust that shook me from my fingertips to my toes. But my new self was just fine. I loved every second of it.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Hutch

  Things were going well with Nat. At least, I thought they were. Never having been in a relationship that lasted longer than a weekend, I didn’t exactly have anything to compare it to. But we had fun together, the sex was as good as it gets, and all that other stuff I always saw young people in love doing that I assumed was as boring as hell... I was actually starting to get kind of into it.

  I was glad I still had the fights though. Something to remind myself I wasn’t becoming too domesticated.

  As I pulled onto the dirt road that led to the camp, I thought back to last weekend. Our time in the big city and Nat’s tiny apartment. I don’t know how she did it. I couldn’t live cooped up in a
cage like that. We still had fun though. Who knew art galleries could be so—

  Shit!

  I wasn’t paying attention and almost rode straight into a police cruiser that was parked at an angle across the road. What the hell? My back tire slid out on loose gravel and I only just managed to stay upright as I skidded to a halt yards away from the car.

  The cop who got out of it looked like he was straight out of Cool Hand Luke. One of those arrogant pricks who is far too in love with his mirrored shades and porn star moustache. I half expected him to speak with a lazy, southern drawl to complete the image.

  What the hell was he doing here? We paid a lot of money to make sure we weren’t hassled by cops.

  “You Hutch?”

  “Who’s asking?”

  “Starsky. Ha, ha, ha!”

  His braying laugh set my teeth on edge. I had to be careful, or this wouldn’t end well. I hated cops.

  “Can I help you with something?”

  “Sure, sure you can. You just take it nice and easy though. Stand where I can see your hands. No sudden moves.”

  I forced myself to stay calm even while I was running through possible outcomes in my head. There were too many variables to say for sure. But unless he was some kind of gunslinger, I thought I could take him. But it would be close. And killing a cop would not end well for me or the pack.

  “No problem, Officer Starsky.”

  “There’s a good boy. So I’ve been getting a lot of reports about certain activities out in these old factories. Unsavory activities. Criminal activities. Drinking, gambling, fighting… even prostitution. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you, Son?”

  A shakedown didn’t make sense. A warning of some kind? But he wasn’t finished.

  “You ever heard of a Morgon Gyrich? He’s got an outstanding warrant for aggravated assault down in Charlotte. How about this pretty young thing?” He held up a photo of a teenage Gina. “Girl put her father and uncle in the ground before running away from home ten years ago. There are plenty of folk who’d like to have a chat with her.”

  I struggled to remain calm as the beast inside snarled and snapped, desperate for release. There were lines you didn’t cross, and threatening my pack was one of them.

  “I got nothing,” I said, leaning back on my bike.

  “No? Okay then.” The cop sneered. “I’ll be back later to see if that’s true.”

  “Why are you here?” I couldn’t help myself from asking. “We have an understanding. We have a deal.”

  “We? We don’t have shit. Someone, somewhere, might have a deal. But it sure as shit ain’t us. This is just a reminder, boy. A reminder that you are on a very fucking short leash and should that deal ever just poof, disappear into thin air, then the police department of this fine district will wipe your mangy little tribe of freaks off the face of the earth.”

  I wanted to kill him. A single lunge and my hand around his neck. It would be over in seconds. I could dispose of the body. The car might be a problem, it was almost certainly tracked. That wasn’t what stopped me, though.

  That one act would end my pack. We’d have to scatter and those that made it out would have nowhere to go. It would just be a matter of time until Morgan and Gina and others like them were picked up. Prison does terrible things to a wolf. Most would rather go out fighting than risk being locked in a cage for the rest of their lives.

  So, for the sake of my pack, I stood silent as the giant asshole climbed back in his cruiser and headed back towards town, leaving nothing but a shower of gravel in his wake.

  What the fuck was that all about? There was no way officer asshole came here on his own accord. He was sending a message, one I didn’t understand. There was one thing I knew, though.

  I had a real bad feeling about this.

  ***

  “What the fuck is going on, Hutch?”

  Gina was on the warpath. The day just kept getting better.

  “I just got here, you tell me.”

  She threw a program in my face. “We’re fighting three nights a week now? What the hell? We barely have enough fit bodies for two. And loners? You promised we’d never go down that path. I don’t want those freaks anywhere near our home. We’ve got kids here, Hutch. What the fuck were you thinking?”

  As far as Gina and the rest of the pack were concerned, I had final say on the schedule and lineup of the fights. Changes like this didn’t happen without my approval.

  Nobody was aware that this wasn’t strictly true. I had a lot less control over these things than I had led them to believe. And now it was coming back to bite me in the ass.

  “It’s a mistake. I’ll sort it out.”

  “You better.”

  It all made sense now. The cop was sent to soften me up. Remind me where I stood. Get me in a submissive frame of mind so I’d roll over on these changes. Just goes to show how little they knew me.

  ***

  “What the fuck is going on?”

  I threw the program in the face of the ghoul who was waiting for me in my office.

  “P... please calm down, Mr. Hutch. There’s no reason to… don’t shoot the messenger and all that.”

  He was terrified. Someone further up the food chain had sent him to fuck with me in my own home. That someone must have had a hell of a hold over him.

  I was on him with a single lunge, my hand around his neck as I pushed him against the wall. All it would take was just a little more pressure. Just a push…

  “It’s Hutch. Just Hutch.”

  I held him until his eyes bulged and then let him drop. He took a couple of minutes to recover, gasping for air.

  “We had an agreement,” I said, not waiting for him to speak.

  “We still do.” His voice was soft, rasping and tinged with fear. “But it is an agreement that is subject to change. It is an agreement that only exists while my employers feel their investment is economically viable. You understand what happens if they decide the deal isn’t profitable, don’t you?”

  “Office Friendly made that pretty clear,” I grunted.

  “M… Hutch. I hope you understand that I have nothing to do with that. I am just th—”

  “We can’t do three nights. We’re stretched too thin as we are.”

  “Then you’ll have to dig deep. Maybe look for some new talent. If you check the revised program—”

  “No loners. That’s not negotiable. Shit. Fine, we’ll do three nights. I’ll figure it out. But no loners. Not now. Not ever.”

  “I’m not sure my emp—”

  “Get the fuck out of here before I send you back to your employers with your balls in a box.”

  Once the ghoul had scampered away, I pulled his wallet out from where I had tucked it in the waistband of my jeans. Morgan and Gina weren’t the only ones with pasts. I was a pretty accomplished pickpocket, back in the day.

  Walter Hopkins. The ghoul had a name. The ghoul had an address. The ghoul had a pretty wife and a fat little baby girl. I made a note of his address, pocketed about forty dollars in bills, and dumped the remainder in the trash.

  Well shit.

  When I first made the deal, it had seemed too good to be true. The guys I’d talked to had flown me to Reno and dazzled me with bright lights and expensive hookers. They fronted me a chunk of cash to drop on the fights, and when I lost it all on the first night, they laughed it off.

  That sort of money meant nothing to them, and if I played my cards right, it would mean nothing to me soon enough. It was a drop in the ocean. We’d be making ten times that a night when we were up and running. All we needed was a change of leadership. The pack needed someone with vision. Someone who wasn’t afraid to move forward. Someone like me.

  It took about a year for me to find out that it was too good to be true… and I’d been lying to everyone ever since. Gina, hell even Quinn, would probably have seen straight through it, but these “employers” set me up real good. They’d used my arrogance against me. Made me believe
the deal I’d signed was going to secure the future of the pack… my pack. But what I’d really done was sold them all out.

  I felt a pain in my stomach. Not like I’d just taken a punch, something unfamiliar. Like a knot of tension that was gripping my guts and twisting. For four years, I’d lived the lie. Hell, I’d even begun to believe it myself. I didn’t think about the future. I just lived in the moment. Each day was another day, and as long as I was kicking ass and chasing tail, I didn’t give a shit what happened tomorrow, or next week, or next month.

  But now I’d found Nat. For the first time in my life, I actually had a reason to give a damn about the future. How could I ever bring myself to tell her I didn’t have one?

  ***

  “No loners.”

  “Damn straight.”

  “But takings are down. We need to do three nights to make our repayments.”

  “That’s bullshit, Hutch.” Gina wasn’t buying it. She was smart. Smarter than me, that was for sure.

  “What can I say? The numbers don’t lie. We’re all going to have to dig deep. Maybe get some of the pups in the ring a little earlier than planned. We can handle it. We always do.”

  She shook her head.

  “I’ve been asking around. At the gate, Janet at the bar, I’ve even spoken to a couple of the bookies. Takings are up; they have been for a while. Crowds are bigger and we’re beginning to attract people with a bit more money. Bigger bets, fancy drinks. Everything you promised us. So…”

  I waited, hands on hips.

  “Either the numbers are lying or… someone is.”

  She didn’t come straight out and accuse me of anything, but I could see in her eyes that she was hurt and confused, even a little bit scared.

  “It’s not as simple as all that. Interest rates, the economy, all that bullshit. Everything changes. Look, I’ll talk to some people. See if we’re missing something. But for now… three nights. When we’re backed against the wall, we fight. It’s what we do.”

  She nodded. Still suspicious, but still on my side for now. The knot in my stomach felt like it was getting tighter. I wanted to come clean and tell her. I’d been shouldering all of this bullshit alone for too long. But it wasn’t fair to lay it on her, too.