by Tasha Black
“Oh, wow! How did we know we would need this?”
Ainsley pulled out a folded acrylic blanket. It was the kind that had probably cost five dollars at the drug store back when they were kids. It was still in its package wrapper.
They both stared at it for a moment in wonder.
Ainsley tried to open it but her hands were shaking.
“Let me.”
He ripped the plastic open. By some miracle the fabric was unspoiled. It was probably because there wasn’t a natural fiber in it. He unfolded the blanket and wrapped it around them.
Ainsley shivered with delight. Erik could feel her skin begin to warm as the blanket
trapped his heat against her. He couldn’t resist pulling her fragrant wet tresses out of her eyes.
She smiled shyly, her lashes brushing her cheeks. It seemed like maybe she was
trying not to look into his eyes.
He caught his breath as he realized why. She must be afraid she would draw his
alpha. Which meant she was feeling the attraction too.
His heart thundered and he fought to stay calm. His job was to protect her. But he
could feel himself hardening and tried to wish it away.
“What else is in there, Connor?” he asked, slipping into their old vernacular to distract her, and himself.
She giggled and kept digging.
“Oh, wow,” she pulled out a comic book. It was practically disintegrating.
“Do you still read those?” Erik asked.
“God, no,” she replied with her new tight smile. “I barely have time to read the
Journal.”
“What’s it like up there?”
She paused and he could feel her thinking.
“It’s different,” she said simply.
They sat in silence for a moment. Erik rested his chin in the crook of her neck. Her
skin was as smooth as silk. It felt like she was trying to mold herself into him.
“Do you remember when we found this place?” she finally asked.
He smiled against her hair and nodded.
“Tell me,” she demanded.
“It was hot, was it summer break?”
“Yes,” she agreed.
“It was summer and it was hot. We wanted to play in the creek but you promised your
dad you wouldn’t because it was still swollen from that storm.”
She nodded.
“So, we walked along the bank, hoping for a breeze across the creek – but there were
only mosquitoes.”
“Yes.”
“And then you spotted it! You ran ahead of me and started pulling branches out of the way without even thinking about what might be in here.”
“And you told me to stop because there might be snakes!”
“But you said I was chicken. So I ran right over to show I wasn’t.”
“Remember all the crap that was in there?” she asked.
“There’s plenty of crap in here now too.”
They looked around. There were piles of leaves and sticks and tons of cobwebs. But
now that he could shift, it didn’t matter. He leaned his head to the opening of the cave.
They had a few more minutes, maybe.
“Ainsley, when you said that you never shifted before, what did you mean?”
She went still in his arms.
“I meant that I’ve never shifted before…” She paused for a moment, considering
something. “I thought I might have once, but now I’m not so sure.”
That was impossible. Everyone knew that wolves had to change at the full moon.
He listened to her heart beating steadily. She was telling the truth.
“What do you do when the moon is full?” he asked incredulously.
She turned and looked him in the eye.
“Do you really want to know?”
He nodded.
She turned back and nestled into him again.
“I told my broker that I have terrible lady problems,” she said, her voice tinged with disgust. “Every month I leave town and check into a motel in New Jersey for three days.
It’s a sort of seedy, awful place. But if you make noise there no one cares.”
She paused and tucked her hair behind her ear self-consciously.
“I don’t think you want the details but you can probably imagine it’s painful.”
He was sure it was very painful. She must be strong beyond his understanding. But
why undertake it? Why didn’t she just shift?
“Why do you do that? Is it so bad to be yourself?”
He could feel that he had wounded her, but he wasn’t sure how. He curled his arms
even tighter around her and brushed his lips against her ear.
“I’m sorry. It’s none of my business,” he whispered.
She seemed to melt into him again.
“No, Erik, you’re my friend. You can ask anything you want-”
“Hush!” he interrupted.
His skin was tingling and he knew they were running out of time.
“Ainsley, we have to go! They’re close!”
Suddenly he felt a current of energy running through her. The hairs on his arms stood on end.
He lifted Ainsley off his lap and moved toward the mouth of the cave. They would be
here any second. How had he let himself get so distracted?
He grabbed Ainsley’s hand and pulled, but she didn’t budge. When he turned to her,
she wrapped him in a fierce embrace.
“I won’t let them hurt you,” she whispered.
“Ainsley, you can’t protect us. We need to run.”
“I. Won’t. Let. Them. Hurt. You.” There was iron in her voice like nothing he’d ever
heard before.
Something moved in the cave. It sounded like whispers. He looked up and saw that
the vines around the entrance growing and weaving together. Within a minute there
wasn’t a particle of moonlight left in the cave.
“Ainsley, did you…”
“Yes,” she whispered. He could barely see her at all now, even with his enhanced
vision.
“How?”
“I don’t know. I never did that before.”
He felt her tremble and knew she was going to cry. He didn’t know what to say.
“Everything is crazy here. It was bad enough to be a wolf,” she sobbed. “Now I shoot
blue stuff out of my hands and…and I saw a ghost, and I just made vines grow. I just…I just want to be normal.”
She buried her face in his chest.
Without thinking, he lifted her off the ground.
Immediately, she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist
and wept like a child. After a few minutes her sobs subsided. She still clung to him
fiercely.
He began to talk to her gently and stroke her hair.
“I remember a little girl who wasn’t afraid to be extraordinary. She loved comic book super heroes with amazing powers. She was a hero herself.”
Ainsley was still. She was listening. He continued.
“I think that little girl would think it was unbelievably cool that you made vines grow just now to save us - and that you can do all that other stuff. I think she would have loved to be a wolf whenever she wanted and fly through the woods and howl at the
moon.”
He could hear her dimpling as she smiled.
Then he felt her fingers slide through his hair. She pulled his face to hers and brushed her lips against his so softly he was afraid he had imagined it.
The gentle kiss awoke a furious passion in him. In an instant his cock was stiff and
throbbing. He struggled with his wolf for control, grabbing her face in his hands, and devouring her mouth, when what he really wanted was the tear off the rest of her dress and lay claim to every inch of her.
&
nbsp; Ainsley gasped, then arched into him, matching his kiss and sinking her fingernails
into his shoulders. Her tongue tasted like honey and the way she moaned softly into his mouth made him want to pin her to the cave floor and---
Erik pulled away quickly and put his finger across her lips.
Outside the cave he could hear Clive and the others. There were three of them. They
came very close to the mouth of the cave.
Ainsley’s heart fluttered against his chest like a baby bird. She put her feet back on the ground, but he pulled her protectively into the circle of his arms.
The wolves moved away.
Just as Erik began to breath again, they circled back. Again they went past the cave’s mouth. But Erik knew they had caught the scent and it would only be a matter of time.
“We’re going to have to make a run for it,” he breathed into Ainsley’s ear. “If you can’t change then I’ll carry you on my back.”
“Won’t that slow you down?”
“I’m fast.”
“How fast?”
“Really fast,” he whispered with more confidence than he felt.
“One way to find out!” she whispered back. He could feel her smile against his cheek
and his heart drummed.
“Hold on tight,” he said. “And whatever happens, don’t let go.”
Erik eyed the mouth of the cave and prepared to shift.
Read Episode 5 on your Kindle!
A F T E R W O R D
T hanks for taking the time to read the second installment of Curse of the Alpha!
If you enjoyed it, please take a second and leave a quick review.
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Drop me a line, I’d love to hear from you!
And thanks again for reading my book. I know there is no shortage of books out there.
It means a lot to me that you chose to read mine!
-Tasha
A L S O B Y T A S H A
B L A C K
Available Now:
Winter Heat: Set in Bela Andre’s Game for Love world, Winter Heat is the story of a young artist that fals for a bad-boy snowboarder with a dark secret. If think you know enough about me by now to take a guess at the secret, you might be surprised!
Available for Preorder:
Curse of the Alpha: Episodes 5 & 6 bundle:
In Episode 5, Ainsley makes a powerful enemy. How wil the pack react when the new alpha is drawn?
In Episode 6, Ainsley must master her true nature to bring balance to the pack. Wil she be able to harness her powers in time to defend the ones she loves?
Document Outline
Copyright
Episode 3
1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 8
10. Chapter 9
11. Chapter 10
12. Chapter 11
Episode 4
13. Chapter 1
14. Chapter 2
15. Chapter 3
16. Chapter 4
17. Chapter 5
18. Chapter 6
19. Chapter 7
20. Chapter 8
21. Chapter 9
22. Chapter 10
23. Chapter 11
24. Chapter 12
25. Chapter 13
26. Chapter 14
27. Chapter 15
28. Chapter 16
29. Chapter 17
Afterword
Also by Tasha Black
Table of Contents
Copyright
Episode 3
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Episode 4
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Afterword
Also by Tasha Black
9. Chapter 8
13. Chapter 1
14. Chapter 2
15. Chapter 3
16. Chapter 4
17. Chapter 5
18. Chapter 6
19. Chapter 7
20. Chapter 8
21. Chapter 9
22. Chapter 10
23. Chapter 11
