Heart of the Wolf (The Heart Chronicles Book 1)

by Alyssa Rose Ivy

  “Yes, but only if you promise we’ll continue that kiss you started.”

  “Oh, I promise we will.”

  Carter kept his promise and then some. He kept his hands to himself on the elevator ride up to the tenth-floor penthouse suite, but seconds after the door closed behind us, his lips were on mine again. His hands enfolded me, pulling me flush against him, as I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling his face closer to mine. I gave over complete control, closing my eyes and savoring his taste. The kiss was intense, but it wasn’t enough. I needed more of him. I broke the kiss and pushed him away.

  He looked startled until I pulled his t-shirt over his head. He grinned, slipping one strap of my dress down my shoulder and leaving gentle kisses as his lips trailed down.

  I ran my hands over his chest, loving the feel of each and every muscular plane. He moved on to my other strap, moving it down in the same way. His eyes were heated and lidded with need. His need matched my own.

  He claimed my mouth again, his tongue tangling with mine, as he slid one finger underneath the cup of my bra. That one tiny touch had me moaning. I waited for him to slip his whole hand underneath the cup, but instead he moved the finger over to my other breast, repeating the gentle touch. I moaned again, this time out of desperation. I needed more.

  With a wicked grin, he used both hands to push the two dress straps down just enough that they slipped down my arms. The rest of the dress followed, slipping down to my waist. He repeated the same actions with my bra straps. I closed my eyes, enjoying the feel of his gentle lips and hands.

  I felt his hand move around to my back and a finger slid underneath the clasp of my bra. He unhooked it, and my bra fell away.

  I waited for his gentle touch on my breast, but it never came. Instead my eyes flew open as he squeezed one breast and ran his teeth over the nipple of the other. His grin grew larger and wickeder as he slid my dress all the way down my body so it pooled on the floor. “I’ve been waiting a long time to do that.”

  I undid his belt, sliding it off before moving on to his button and zipper. I pulled his pants down. “I’ve been waiting a long time to do that too.”

  He kicked away his pants. “Have you been waiting a long time for me to do this?”

  “Do what?” I waited anxious and desperate with need.

  He slid two fingers into my underwear, slowly moving them between my legs. I gasped as they slipped inside. “This.” He used his free hand to pull down my underwear, I kicked them away when they reached my feet, much the way he did with his pants.

  I closed my eyes, savoring every second of the pleasure he gave me. I was putty in his hands, barely able to stay standing.

  He must have sensed it because he moved forward, backing me up against the wall. With something behind me, I could fully give my body over to his hand. “Hope.” He whispered my name as his lips swept over my ear.

  I whimpered, reaching out for him with my eyes still closed. He grabbed my hand, joining it with my other one and putting both above my head.

  I opened my eyes.

  “Let me look at you.” His eyes swept over my body. I could feel his stare, and somehow I knew he was trying to memorize me. His fingers had stilled when he stopped me, but now they started up again, the first two fingers joined by a third.

  He was wearing nothing, and I noticed his boxers in the pile of clothes scattered all over the floor. He’d taken them off while my eyes were closed. “I need you, Carter. Please.” I would beg if I had to. Nothing else mattered but having him.

  “Let me take care of you.” His tongue ran over my nipple.

  “I want you inside me.” I squirmed, his fingers were working magic, but I wanted more than that. I wanted him.

  “You don’t know how this works. I didn’t before either, but I do now.” His hand stilled, but he made no move to remove his fingers.

  “I do know how this works. Are you going to accuse me of being a virgin too?”

  He smiled. “No. By this I mean how mating works with a Kenai wolf. I get it now.”

  “Then fill me in and make it fast.” Frustration didn’t look good on me. “And don’t try to tell me having sex with a girl means you mate. I refuse to believe you’re a virgin.”

  “I’m not, but you’re not just any girl.” He ran his lips down my neck. “Not at all.” He bit down gently.

  “I’m not?”

  “You are made to mate with a Kenai. You are as rare as you are beautiful.” He nipped at my neck again, as his fingers returned to their earlier work.

  “I’m just a normal girl.” I closed my eyes. It was impossible to hold a conversation with the pleasure he was giving me.

  “You are anything but just normal. You are gorgeous inside and out, smart, talented, perfect.”

  “I need you.” Nothing he was saying about mating was going to change my mind.

  His fingers stilled once again. “You are asking me to take you. With what I am and who you are, you will be saying you want to be my mate.”

  “If being your mate means having you inside me right now, then yes. I want to be your mate.” I didn’t have the other words I needed. The words that explained how much he already meant to me, how impossible it was for me to imagine a life without him.

  “It’s more than that.” His lips moved down my neck again. “There’s no going back. With everything you’ve gone through…”

  “If you want to say no, say no.” I prepared myself for rejection.

  “I can’t.”

  “Sure you can. If you don’t want me, let go of me, and I’ll get dressed.” I felt bitter tears form in my eyes.

  “The thing is, I do want you. I need you too. I couldn’t possibly say no in the same way this can’t just be sex.”

  “Is this magic?”

  “I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s all in your control.”

  I tested his statement. “Let go of my hands.”

  He let go and removed his hand.

  “I didn’t tell you to leave.”

  He stared, nervousness flashing across his handsome face.

  I took him in my hand, realizing the decision was already made. It was made the moment we met, long before we boarded the boat, and long before the lifeboat. “Make me yours, Carter. Make me yours.”

  I expected more hesitation. I expected him to think it over, but I got none of that. Instead I found myself in his arms being whisked into the bedroom.

  Seconds later I was laying on silky sheets with Carter hovering over me. “Tell me again what you want.”

  “I want to be yours.” There was no hesitation in my voice. The decision was crystal clear.

  He thrust into me, sending pleasure through every part of my body. I wrapped my legs around him as he thrust again, harder and deeper until every inch of him was inside of me. He cupped my bottom, pulling me closer to him.

  “Carter,” I called out his name as everything stood still, I felt nothing but pleasure, and my vision disappeared. I felt his lips on my neck, his teeth grazing against me, and then a sharp pain as he bit down. “Carter.” I bit back the scream that wanted to come out. The momentary pain disappeared as he ran his tongue over the wound over and over again.

  He throbbed inside of me, and then he stilled. He stayed inside for a few moments more, before he rolled over beside me.

  Nothing was the same. We were one, yet we were still separate. I could feel him still, inside me physically, yet also inside my head. I couldn’t read his thoughts, but I knew how he felt. “I love you.” The words tumbled out as I tried to make sense of everything that had happened.

  “I love you, Hope.” He took my face in his hands. “I love you more than you will ever know.”

  “Am I your mate now?”

  He brushed his lips against mine. “Yes, and I’m yours.”

  “I may also be your partner… well, sort of.”

  “Think you can handle working with me and sleeping with me?” He ran his lips down my neck.
>
  “I think I should be the one asking you that question.” I slid my hand down his chest.

  “I can handle anything as long as I know I get to end my nights this way.” His lips moved down my neck.

  “Then I guess we have our answer, co-Ranger.”

  “But not yet.” His lips continued their descent down. “I plan to use every minute of our time off.”

  I closed my eyes, and soaked in the intense sensations of his hands and lips sweeping over me. “That sounds absolutely perfect to me.”

  “You’re absolutely perfect.” He kissed me lightly on the lips. “I am so lucky to have you.”

  “And I’m so lucky to have captured the heart of the wolf.”

  Afterword

  The Heart Chronicles will continue with Heart of the Lion. Want more Chronicles? Check out the other series set in the Chronicles world: The Crescent Chronicles, The Empire Chronicles, The Dire Wolves Chronicles, The Allure Chronicles. The Grizzly Brothers Chronicles, The Pteron Chronicles, and The Forged Chronicles.

  Please keep reading for a preview of Hunt (The Grizzly Brothers Chronicles #1) a New Adult Paranormal Romance by Alyssa Rose Ivy

  www.AlyssaRoseIvy.com

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  Hunt

  The Grizzly Brothers Chronicles

  There's a new Alpha in town and he just found his mate, she just doesn't know it yet.

  Welcome to Crestview, Montana. Population ~1000 and not all of those are human.

  After his brother is murdered, Ian must step up to become Alpha of his bear shifter pack. At the same time law student Mara shows up in town, and Ian knows she’s destined to be his mate.

  When a rival pack lays claim to Mara, Ian and his brothers will stop at nothing to protect her.

  Preface

  In the space of a few moments I went from kissing Ian to being held in rough arms as I was carried up toward the sky.

  Disoriented and petrified, I watched Ian’s ranch disappear below. I tried to scream, but I was breathless from the shock. Instead I held onto the creature carrying me, both hoping he’d release me and terrified he would let go and send me falling to my death.

  Less than forty-eight hours before I was a normal law student. Now I was falling for a bear shifter and kidnapped by a guy with wings.

  It turned out my summer in small town Montana wasn’t going to be so quiet after all.

  Mara

  No one should be laid to rest alone. Even if you’ve been forced to walk the road of life with no one by your side, you deserve to have someone present at your burial. At least that’s what my grandfather taught me when I was a kid. Somehow even at twenty-three I couldn’t shake the lesson, which is why I was standing in the pouring rain without an umbrella.

  The weather report hadn’t called for rain. I’d checked twice before leaving the house dressed in the black cotton dress I saved for these sorts of occasions. The material was too thin for the cool Montana morning, but I didn’t have any other options in my closet.

  I’d made the slow drive over to the old cemetery just outside of town for the first time since arriving in Crestview six days before. I’d witnessed far more burials in the same time period when I lived in Philadelphia, but it seemed most people in this small town had someone around to bury them. I hoped people would be able to say the same thing about me when the time came.

  The rain had started innocently enough. A few drops landed on my wavy brown hair while I watched the gravedigger work. I ignored the water, watching the surprisingly upscale wooden coffin sit beside the hole in the ground that would become its new home. I’d been to plenty of these burials before, but this one felt different. Usually it was older people who had money but no family. This man was in his thirties. Had the dead man bought himself a high-end coffin before he died? Most thirty-year-olds I knew weren’t preparing for their own death.

  The small drops of rain became larger, but I refused to run back to my truck. It couldn’t take that much longer. These burials never did. There was no one around to make speeches or to play music. There was something beautiful about the simplicity even though the reason for it was depressing.

  The worker turned the crank and lowered the coffin into the hole. I walked closer, still keeping enough of a distance that he might not notice me. Explaining my presence was the most awkward part of these things.

  I looked up at the sky, letting large droplets of rain splash down my face. Was my Grandfather watching me? He’d never told me much about his belief in the afterlife. He’d always been more concerned about his life while on earth.

  “Miss?”

  I startled at the sound of a voice. The gravedigger paused with the coffin midway into the hole. He was older than I expected. At least seventy something with a weathered face that suggested he spent a lot of his time outside in the sun.

  “Yes?” I brushed my wet hair way from my face.

  “You should get on out of this rain.” The man squeezed water from his soaking wet t-shirt.

  “So should you.”

  He frowned. “This is my job.” Then his expression softened. “Unless. Are you a friend of his?” He pointed to the coffin.

  “No.” I shook my head. “I’ve never met him.” And I’d been unable to find out anything about him. Some might call it stalking, but I called it honoring. I always researched the deceased in an attempt to know them in some small way. Even if you are alone at the end of your life, you still did something, and someone should acknowledge, even if silently, the imprint you left on the world.

  “Then why are you here?” He tilted his head slightly.

  “Because someone should be.” That’s what my grandfather used to say. Of course it sounded better coming from him. More sage.

  “Well, I’m here already, so why don’t you go ahead home.” He gestured with his hand for me to leave as if shooing a fly away.

  “Ok.” I accepted his logic half to be polite and half because the rain had picked up even more. “You do an important job.”

  His body stiffened. “No one has ever said that to me.”

  “Now someone has.”

  “Get out of this rain before you catch a cold.” His expression was serious.

  “That’s not possible.” I shook my head. “It’s an old wives’ tale.”

  “I believe the old wives. There was a reason for every story they told.”

  “There’s also a reason for science.” I may not have gone into the sciences, but I had a lot of respect for people who did.

  “Is that why you’re here?” His brow furrowed. “Standing in the rain at the burial of a man you never met?”

  “Maybe.” I shrugged before walking back toward my truck.

  And that’s when I saw him standing underneath the trees only a few feet away from me. Tall, dark, and with intense emerald green eyes so bright they almost gleamed. The intensity of his eyes was only matched by his scowl that seemed born more out of sadness than anger.

  I looked away, despite my desire to study his handsome face. Handsome faces brought heartache with them.

  I resisted the urge to look back as I made my way across the parking lot to my truck. I’d chosen to park in the furthest spot in the lot. Given the rain, it wasn't my best decision. I manually unlocked the door and stepped up into the Chevy S-10 truck that had been my grandfather’s only months before. It was nice to have my own vehicle, but I’d had far preferred his company. I’d learned to drive in this truck, but somehow now that the title bared my name it felt different, less like mine.

  Choosing to spend my summer break working in a small town in Montana probably didn’t help matters, but it sounded good at the time. I needed to get out of the city. There is something soothing and healing about silent, dark nights. They are the kind of nights that only exist in th
e country, and even though I hadn’t lived in the country since I was eighteen, it still called to me in a way the city never would.

  Besides, it gave me the opportunity to spend more time with Connor—also known as Professor Daniels, the one person who knew my Grandfather almost as well as I did. And even if all my law school classmates were convinced I was sleeping with Connor, I didn’t care. I wasn’t, and I had no plans to ever change that.

  I pulled out of the freshly paved lot and onto the bumpy road. I was glad I had a truck with good clearance. I’d have bottomed out a regular car at least a dozen times already. I took a quick glance back out toward the rainy cemetery. I was too far away to see the grave, but I assumed it was being covered up. The attractive guy was gone, and a small voice in my head wondered if I’d completely imagined him. It wouldn’t have been the first time.

  Ian

  She didn’t look like a bitch. Nothing about her suggested she’d been involved with Jonovan or his death, but she had to have had something to do with him. Otherwise, why was she even at his burial? No one was even supposed to know about it. Normal people don’t show up at a stranger’s burial—especially not people who looked like her.

  I wanted to forget about the way her wet black dress hugged her body. And how her damp hair fell in her face hiding one of her eyes. None of that mattered. What mattered was finding out how involved she was with Jonovan and whether he’d planned to make her his mate.

  The old pickup truck didn’t fit her. It was as though she’d borrowed it from her father. Maybe she had. I wasn’t sure when she’d gotten to town, but it had to have been after I left a month before. I’d hoped my brothers would keep things under control while I was away, but as usual as soon as I left everything fell apart.

  I walked into the trees and shifted, waiting for the familiar feel of my bear to take over. He was stronger and more instinctual than my human form, and he was the only chance I had of catching up with her truck now that it had already disappeared around the curve of the road. My vision tunneled as I adjusted to my second form.