Shifter Alpha Claim 1-6 Omnibus

by Tamara Rose Blodgett

  And I'd thought to kick his ass? Hell yeah, I did. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Right? “Wow,” I say softly.

  “Spectacular, yes?” Drake says, admiring his shift to human a little too much.

  I wince. “I'm not gonna lie—kinda choking on the self-love, Drake.”

  He ignores me, whirling to face something unknown in the dark corner of the alley between Dakota and Minnesota Streets.

  “What?” I say so low only Murphy can hear me.

  Drake answers, “Vampires.”

  Marvelous. Awesome hearing too.

  I hiss a warning. Letting whatever vamps may be lurking around that I mean business.

  In the next moment a tug hits me hard in my center, and I know. I straighten with a grin, sauntering into the gloom. Drake's hand is suddenly on my arm, and I yelp like a girl. That makes me want to kick my own ass on principle.

  Along with the hormonal overload, I guess I have a case of the jumpies.

  Murphy laughs.

  I eye him up, and sullenly realize he's too far away to hit.

  “It's my mates,” I tell Drake.

  “Get your hand off her shifter, or lose it,” Matthews says, suddenly in front of me.

  My hand moves to his arm. “He's okay, Matthews.” I never call him by his real name. He doesn't like it. He likes it fine when I shout it out while his tongue is on me.

  Rolling to my tiptoes, I put my mouth beside his ear, “John, it's okay—he's okay.”

  His eyes stare down Drake. “Don't ever touch our female again.”

  I sigh. Males.

  Aeslin runs his finger along my nape.

  I shiver.

  A small smile graces his lips—he knows the effect he has on me. His eyes slim on Drake. “What is your business, shifter?”

  “I am Drake.”

  Aeslin waits—and so do I. Because my night's gone to shit, it just wouldn't be normal if another shoe didn't fall.

  And I'm right.

  “What are you doing with Narah?” Matthews ignores his introduction, pulling me tight against his body.

  Only a very small part of who I am allows me to feel protected when I'm with the men. I've spent so many years fending for myself, I'm still not totally accustomed to their compete devotion. But I realize with a little spike of fear—I'm liking the process more than I ever thought possible.

  My eyes meet Murphy's, his reflective gaze shines back at me. Potent.

  Ominous.

  I feel something build, and I'm too fucking late to stop it.

  Drake opens his mouth and sticks his spiked tail in there. Whole. “I hear congratulations are in order,” he says, grinning broadly, clearly thinking he's breaking the ice with some great shared news.

  I blanch.

  Murphy stuffs his hands in his pockets, studying the rough asphalt at his feet.

  Drake looks from Aeslin to Matthews, his grin fading to nothing in an instant.

  I sort of think dying would be great about now.

  Matthews carefully rotates me, his eyes traveling from the top of my ravaged hair to the tips of my combat boots. “Is this shifter—is he telling us—your mates, that you are expecting young?”

  Oh baby Jesus.

  Wordlessly, I nod.

  Aeslin ignores Drake, moving past him he comes to stand beside Matthews.

  Two sets of condemning vampire eyes glare down at me. And I deserve their anger.

  My avoidance has cost trust, putting a firm wedge between us.

  “Tell me they knew, Enforcer Adrienne,” Drake says with soft realized horror.

  “It's Narah,” I correct needlessly, “And no, they didn't.”

  10

  Merck

  My balls throbbing painfully, I decide I must take Talyn at her word.

  Her body has been saying yes for the last half hour. I wear the sure wetness of her arousal on my tongue. I taste her need everywhere. Her pussy, her lips—I read it in her eyes.

  Still, I hesitate.

  “Do it.”

  It's a command, not a concession.

  My iron clad control vanishes, lust neatly inserting itself as I begin to push my way inside her tightness. I pause, my dick so rigid and ready I have to wait or risk damaging her.

  Talyn doesn't.

  She shifts her hips forward, capturing me deeper inside her, and I groan, breathing through my aching need to claim her—take her as I should, as my beast commands me to.

  “Come on,” she says, breathlessly. “Fuck me, fuck me.”

  I trap her body between my palms and thrust hard, her pussy resisting my size, length, the speed of the thrust.

  It won't be long before her wolf helps mine.

  Talyn tries to swim back to herself, the woman I first met, the spitfire intellect surfaces in her eyes for a pressurized moment.

  Vulnerability.

  Fright.

  Resignation.

  Those emotions all take position inside her, while I'm buried to the hilt and her features go slack with release and acceptance.

  I rock backward, and she sighs at the temporary relief it gives her pierced body. Then her wolf, breaks the surface, covering Talyn.

  Spinning eyes regard me, glowing like twin suns captured in amber fire. Her hands move to my ass, talons that were only nails before stabbing deep. Pinning against her.

  I howl, the sound echoing inside my bedroom, the acoustics of metal, brick and cement transferring, reverberating it—shaking our eardrums.

  Her answering howl rolls through my body like a wave breaking over the sand of my soul.

  Then I'm rocking back and forth, Talyn meeting every thrust as I make them.

  It's just a change, I lie to myself as her hands shove me further. As my wolf thaws the male part of me.

  I can't stand up to it.

  The dam breaks as an orgasm sweeps her body, gooseflesh rising. Her gorgeous large breasts jiggle as she quivers and her pussy pulses around my dick, milking—milking.

  I grow impossibly harder, and then I'm flooding her with my seed. Talyn keeps her grip steady, but her eyes open, finding mine.

  They are not Talyn's eyes, but those of her wolf. They're grateful. The pain of her transition recedes into post-coital bliss.

  I cup her face, propping my body weight up. “Welcome,” I whisper to her wolf.

  A low growl begins in her chest, and my prick begins to automatically grow in response to the desire, her need.

  “Again,” she says, a husky catch to the word.

  I cage her with my arms. “Yes, my queen.”

  Because that is what Talyn is. A Lanarre wolf, birthing her beast in this tenuous moment of sexual intimacy.

  I'm here to serve her.

  *

  Talyn

  Oh my God.

  My body flushes with heat, chicken flesh pebbling my skin. I run hot then cold. I can't stabilize.

  I don't want to.

  Merck tenderly takes my body, thrusting again. I'm deliciously sore. Chagrined to the core. This is what I was worried about? This is what I was resisting? Simply put, I wish I'd done him the minute I met him.

  Merck's not using me. He's cherishing me. Knowing that causes a fresh bout of tears to threaten.

  The second time Merck makes love to me is even better than the first. He's cooled the banks of fires that were raging out of control. I can think.

  I also feel her.

  My wolf loves his wolf. Loves. They swarm each other inside our bodies, rolling together with every deep unforgiving thrust of him into the willing vessel of my body. He's so large, but built so perfectly, as though Merck's is the custom-made size for my body.

  As though he is the key and I'm the lock.

  He smooths my hair back from my face with both hands, burying his length so fully inside I feel as though we'll never part.

  “Merck,” I say, the tears I held at bay running out of my eyes and sliding along the seam of his hands.

  “Don't cry, Talyn.”
/>
  I cry because I know it could never be this perfect with anyone. I weep for his job of just this—then he hands me off to strangers. I grieve for wanting this forever.

  Wanting him.

  Because he won't return the sentiment. Merck told me what he was.

  A Changer.

  And that is all.

  He gently seats himself inside me, and I accept the second course of his healing essence, my wolf—my body, relieved and ready—but my heart remains heavy.

  My future is not set.

  There's only now. And maybe now isn't enough.

  11

  Narah

  I don't use tears, though I know they'd break the guys. I'm too honest for that manipulation.

  They're not hardened criminals that need to be goat-roped.

  Aeslin and John are the males who made a baby inside me. Whatever it is, it's mine. And that's a first.

  I've always been someone else's

  Someone to abuse, rain unkindnesses down on, dismiss.

  Torture.

  I ignore everyone, especially Drake the diarrhea mouth.

  “Narah,” Aeslin says softly, tipping my chin up. I look into his eyes and tears shimmer even though I vowed I wouldn’t cry. “I have never wanted for something more than this.”

  “I don't want to discuss our personal business with the shifter as an audience,” Matthews says.

  I sigh.

  “We'll wait for you, love,” Murphy says. “Come on you, before your fat claptrap gets your arse in more trouble.”

  Drake gives me a look with a question buried inside. “We'll get her,” I say as an assurance I don't feel. Pretty tough to assure anyone of anything when I have my two mates looming over me, and a bun in the oven.

  I swallow past it, and Drake must see the resolve in my gaze because he nods, taking my words at face value, walking off with Murphy.

  Matthews watches his retreating back with a mixture of anger and wary curiosity then turns to me. “Aeslin may handle you with kid gloves but I know you're not a delicate flower, Narah.”

  My lips twitch.

  “Is it true—are you pregnant?”

  I quickly nod, biting my lip to keep the thick wetness coating my eyes from falling.

  I'm really hating the hormonal swings.

  “Why, Narah? Why did we have to find out from some strange shifter?”

  I look at the ground. “He smelled it on me. It wasn't a plan to have you find out that way,” I say with quiet regret.

  “Smelled it on you?” Aeslin and Matthews exchange a glance. “That wouldn't be possible.”

  My chin rises. “It is.”

  Aeslin cups my face, kissing away escaped remorse. Not tears. Just some leakage. His silver eyes are gentle on my face. “Narah—answer us. Why would you keep this happy news from us?”

  I roughly inhale, gripping Matthewsʼ forearms. “I don't want to quit my job. I'm not that fragile.”

  Matthews—John—places his big palm on my still-flat stomach. “But he or she is, Narah. Promise me you'll quit when you begin to show.”

  I knew it would come to this.

  That they'd want to shut down the beating heart of what makes me—me.

  Aeslin's palm falls beside Matthewsʼ on my stomach. A tiny flutter, like butterfly's wings, trembles inside my belly and I gasp.

  Their eyes meet mine then Aeslin's narrows. “I feel the babe within.”

  Matthewsʼ grin is wide, his normally neutral face vanishing with the baby's movement. He frowns at Aeslin. “Why the long face, Aeslin?”

  “How far along are you, Narah?'

  I can't lie, but my eyes shift from his intense sliver gaze. Damn. “Five months,” I whisper.

  Matthewsʼ hand leaves my stomach as though burned. “What?!” he yells and I wince.

  They scowl.

  I gulp, confessing, “The doctor says because of my size I'll be small then suddenly blow up.”

  Aeslin scowls. “That's a dire prognosis.”

  Matthewsʼ smile flashes like lightning. “You're so literal, Aeslin.”

  I nod, smiling. “He is.”

  “So technically, you're not showing, but you should be,” John clarifies.

  I nod.

  “God!” he shouts, stalking off. John rakes fingers through his dark hair then turns, hoods shadowing his eyes.

  I know they're angry without looking, and I don't want to look.

  “Tell me you'll quit now,” he says in a low voice.

  “Normally, I wouldn't agree with Brutus, here...”

  I snort and Matthews glares.

  Aeslin's piercing eyes glow with mercury fire. “Yet, you must see reason, Narah.”

  “Fine,” I say, offering the only concession I'm capable of. “I'll take a hiatus,” Aeslin's brows drop, and I ignore the rage cloud filming them over, “but only after I close this case. I have to figure out where Talyn Phisher is, find out if she's okay.”

  John says, “Have Murphy do it, you're his sire—command him. Any vampire would.”

  I cross my arms, my own anger surfacing. “I am not any vampire. I'm still half-human, and pregnant—and fucking responsible.”

  “You are responsible only for your safety, and the safety of the unborn child. Our unborn child.” Aeslin looks at me until I drop my eyes.

  Dammit.

  They let the silence fill the space between us. A very effective maneuver. But in the case of the guys, they don't maneuver. They are always who they present themselves to be. Another thing to get used to.

  “Okay,” I agree softly.

  “And we are not trusting our pregnant mate's safety to the youngling.”

  I don't roll my eyes. Murphy would jump under a bus for me.

  “Let's go get the dragon and get out of here, wrap this enchilada.”

  Matthews stands stock-still. “Dragon?”

  Oops.

  Aeslin strokes his jaw. “He's a prehistoric shifter. That's why the heightened sense of smell.”

  I laugh. “That's what Drake said. I call bullshit.”

  Matthewsʼ lips quirk.

  “What? There's no such thing as prehistoric dragons because they don't exist, never did.”

  Matthews nods, gripping me by the nape and drawing me into him. “Exactly my point. They might not exist but Drake seems real to me. And dangerous.”

  They look down at me, their bodies protectively close, achingly perfect. I want to sink into that healing love. I covet it so hard it freaks my shit out. Fear makes me angry. My hands fly up. “He didn't hurt me. He could have baked me but he says he doesn't hurt females.”

  Matthews grunts.

  Aeslin shakes his head. I rise on my toes, kissing his hard mouth. His flesh softens, molding to my lips. Arms encircle my waist as he whispers beside my ear, “Don't ever keep things from us, Narah. We can't protect you if we don't know what to protect.”

  Matthews grips my shoulders. “Yeah, what suave and debonair just said.”

  I break my kiss from Aeslin, letting my head fall on his shoulder. “Nice, Matthews.”

  John grins, slapping my ass. “Let's go get dragon, and see about your client.”

  “No—you two hang here. That's all I need is Casper up my ass about too many vamps in the chicken coop.”

  Their confused looks keeps a grin affixed to my face.

  Until I walk into the office and a brained Murphy is writhing on the floor, moaning about arsehole dragons.

  12

  Merck

  Talyn's wolf is gorgeous.

  The rumors about Lycan royalty are true. The females, Jesus-on-a-stick—she's Eve reincarnated.

  Smooth, muscular hips roll smoothly as she paces across my apartment.

  Nude.

  Which I will never get tired of looking at.

  Gone is the modesty of the woman, true Lycans aren't worried about a little tit and ass vaulting around. And Talyn is uncovered, her beautiful pussy is accented with a dark patch of short hair right a
bove her slit.

  I could dine on the delicacy of Talyn. Forever.

  “Why are you so nervous?” I ask casually instead, putting on the finishing touches of our meal.

  I'm ravenous. My beast has coupled, and now requires satiation. Fucking and food. But first, the woman who I've claimed must be fed.

  Claimed.

  I try to remain untroubled by the scent that the dragon coated Talyn with.

  That my seed wiped away.

  His was only a partial claim. In the end, only cum nails the claim.

  Talyn stops gracefully in the middle of the floor, the city illumination backlighting her perfectly. I still, knife raised from chopping fresh tomatoes, the pinch of cilantro still clinging to my fingertips.

  “I'm naked!” she yells. “I have no clothes.”

  I glance down at my half-finished salsa, and calmly set the knife down on the cutting board. Inhaling deeply, I release a slow breath, trying for zen. “I noticed.”

  “Of course! Who could not help noticing?” Talyn crosses her arms, shoving her gorgeous rack into delectable view. I try not to grin but that always makes a face look funny.

  Her frown becomes a scowl. “Don't you dare laugh.”

  “Never,” I say then bust up, shoulders shaking soundlessly.

  She rounds the peninsula of the kitchen and punches me in the arm. I'm utterly distracted by her tits bouncing as she does. “Sorry,” I croak.

  “You're not sorry,” Talyn seethes.

  I nod stupidly. Caught.

  I grab her shoulders. “You've taken a shower, you need something to eat. What's mine is yours. You could have grabbed a t-shirt from the drawer, but I do appreciate the view.” Then I kiss her.

  Hard.

  At first she's stiff then Talyn melts into the hold, and my rock-hard erection falls between us like the plank it is.

  “You do a lot of this?” she asks, her tongue dipping inside my mouth, eyes taking in the food spread, the apartment—our undeniable intimacy.

  Only with her.

  “No,” I say.