by Gale Stanley
Despite the fact she gave Brady a hard time, there were some things she truly loved about him. Physically, they were a perfect match. She would never find a human who would make her feel the way he did. But there was more to life than sex. If she stayed with her pack, she’d have to accept her Alpha’s orders and continue to take multiple mates in the hopes one of them would impregnate her and save their species from extinction. She refused to be treated like a bitch that was good for little more than breeding and satisfying the physical urges of the males. Living among humans wasn’t the life she had envisioned for herself, but at least she’d be able to do as she pleased instead of answering to a man.
Ayala came back and looked for a spot to display the flowers. The little house was still in the midst of being renovated, and there were only a few pieces of furniture. She set them on a workbench that still held cans of paint and brushes.
Brady’s arms circled her, and he nuzzled her hair. “Still mad at me?”
“Yes,” she hissed.
He dropped his arms and stepped back. “Do you want me to go? We can do this another day.”
Not if I can help it. “No. The Alpha won’t be happy.”
“Fuck the Alpha! He doesn’t have to know everything. Nobody’s carrying any pups anyway.”
Ayala let out a little gasp, and her fingers flew to her open mouth. As far she knew, Brady had never disobeyed the Alpha or spoken one word against him. She turned and gave Brady a shaky smile. “You would do that for me?”
“And a lot more.” He pulled her into his arms and kissed her forehead. “Say the word, and I’ll leave.”
Her head said leave, but her body said stay. “No, it’s okay. Come upstairs.”
Brady sighed and looked as if he might go anyway, but he followed her up the steps to her bedroom. She undressed quickly and without an ounce of self-consciousness. There was no false modesty among Lycans, who shed clothes and skin on a moment’s notice to unleash their inner beasts. Her people revered their bodies, both two-legged and four.
Brady had seen her shape-shift countless times. There’d be no shifting now, just fucking, and that’s all she wanted, physical satisfaction. Brady knew her human body better than she did, and he could arouse every nerve ending to sexual frenzy. Coupling with Brady’s human body was not a hardship, at least not physically. If only he would stop trying to make more of their screwing. His sad face and puppy-dog eyes were wearing her down and lowering her resistance. She had to stay strong, enjoy the physical, and not let flowers sway her. If Brady wanted a submissive house slave, he would have to look elsewhere.
Brady shut the door and leaned against it, staring at her as if she were the most beautiful woman on the planet. His golden gaze held hers as he pulled off his boots. His hands went to his belt buckle, his zipper, up to the buttons on his shirt. Ayala tried to hide her anticipation. She’d seen his body many times, but she never tired of looking at it. At last he stood completely naked, his long, thick cock already hard and slapping against his belly as he walked toward her. Why did he have to be so damn good-looking?
The mattress dipped with his weight, and she shifted to the side.
Brady sighed and put a big, warm palm on her thigh. “It doesn’t have to be like this.”
“How can it be otherwise when we’re forced to have sex with partners we haven’t chosen?”
He winced and took his hand away. “I would choose you regardless. You’re special to me.”
Ayala lifted a brow. “I bet you say that to all the wolves.”
A small smile lit his chiseled features. “No, only to you.”
Ayala’s heart twisted, but she steeled it against him and sneered. “I might have to fuck you, but I don’t have to listen to your bullshit.” She tilted her head so her long, raven hair would hide the conflict of emotions on her face. Although she discouraged Brady with words, her face always betrayed her true feelings. “Let’s just get on with it.”
Brady’s smile disappeared along with his erection. “If that’s what you want.”
* * * *
Sighing, Brady lay back and fisted his cock. She’d hurt him and his desire ebbed, but he knew he could stoke the fire again. One look at her body and his blood heated. She might not care for him the way he wanted, but her body responded to his as if she’d been made for him alone. The scent of her arousal filled his nostrils. Her breasts were flushed, the nipples already erect, and her pussy…God, he loved the way the lips puffed up, all shiny with her cream, wet and ready—for him. Smell and sight weren’t enough. He wanted to taste.
Reaching out a hand, he stroked her wet pussy and pressed a finger between the folds, elated to hear her little gasp. Ayala focused on his hand as he brought his fingers back and slowly sucked each one. As soon as her taste exploded on his tongue, his dick stiffened, and he pumped his shaft slowly until the engorged head of his cock strained the boundaries of its foreskin. As if mesmerized by a snake charmer, Ayala watched his cockhead appear and disappear as he manipulated the loose skin back and forth.
Ayala wanted him. There was no hiding it, even though she tried. She tried to set her face in a blank mask that he watched intently, trying to figure out what was going on behind it. Why did she resist showing him how much she needed and desired him? Her love and passion was everything he wanted, but she wouldn’t give it to him willingly. He promised himself that one day she would belong to him and there would be no secrets between them.
The old traditions died with their people when they were massacred in the great fire. Multiple mates had not been unheard of in the old days, but the partners were loyal within the relationship. Now pack members were forced to take multiple partners, whether they had a committed relationship or not. Everything revolved around reproducing, and most times sex was devoid of emotion. But not with Ayala. His wolf ached to claim her as a true mate and mark her with its bite as well as its seed. Brady had spoken to the Alpha about this, and Alex had given him permission for a formal union, but the Alpha insisted Ayala would still have to breed with the others if Brady didn’t plant a cub in her womb. Brady longed to have a child with her, but what if it didn’t happen? Wolves were territorial creatures, and Brady knew it would kill him to let his soul mate fuck the other wolves, so he held back. Ayala didn’t seem interested in a permanent mate anyway. But even if a formal union wasn’t in the cards for them, they could still have a loving relationship. Unfortunately, Ayala seemed bent on denying him the affection he craved.
“Well?” Ayala snapped. “Are you going to fuck me or not?”
Anger narrowed his eyes. “I wouldn’t dare disobey Alex. Let’s get on with it.” For just a second, hurt glittered in her eyes, but it disappeared so quickly he might have been mistaken.
His inner wolf howled with need, and he hardened his heart to match Ayala’s. Avoiding eye contact, he pushed the foreskin back to his balls until his shaft was completely smooth. “Suck me.”
She crawled between his legs, and then a long tongue licked up the underside of his cock and swirled around the head. He couldn’t hold back a moan when the wet heat of her mouth covered him.
* * * *
Damn him for being so delicious. Ayala loved this, all of it, his scent, musky and masculine like the wolf he was, the salty-sweet tang of his pre-cum. Everything about Brady made her hungry for more physical contact. Her pussy throbbed and ached to be filled by him. But she could never let Brady know how much she wanted him. He might get the wrong idea. He might think she was interested in more than sex. And that was the furthest thing from her mind.
She could not envision herself as the submissive bitch that every Lycan male wanted in his home and his bed, and although she loved submitting to Brady during sex, she refused to be subservient in any other way.
A big world waited beyond the pack, and Ayala intended to find her place in it. She would not let anything or anyone hold her back—including cubs. A stupid, illogical part of her wished she could make lots of babies with Brady.
Little boys who looked exactly like their father, with thick black hair, always a tad too long, and big, liquid-gold eyes that sucked a woman into their depths. The other part of her didn’t want to bring a child into a world where he or she would have to hide their true identity all their life. She knew firsthand how it felt to live in fear of being hunted, caged, or worse, and she would not force that kind of existence on anyone else.
Brady’s tug on her hair brought her back to the here and now. He wanted more, and sucking him off was one thing she didn’t mind doing. Ayala slid her mouth back up his cock, letting her teeth gently scrape his long length.
“Fuck,” he gasped. “You’re killing me.”
Encouraged, she soothed his tender flesh with her tongue then gently licked and sucked his sac. A low growl rumbled up from his chest, a sure sign that he was aroused. Ayala wrapped her fingers around the base of his shaft, stroking and sucking in tandem, humming as she used both mouth and hands. His hips bucked and incoherent animal sounds came out of his mouth. His excitement fueled her own. Her thighs were damp with her fluids, and she marveled at the effect he had on her.
“Stop.” He growled and tugged her hair to pull her off his cock. “Ride me. I want to make a baby today.”
That’s not going to happen. Refusing to leave anything to chance, she’d been taking birth control pills for years. So far she’d been lucky, but there were no guarantees. They were made for humans, not her. She needed to make a move soon before her luck ran out and she lost her chance at a new life.
This might be the last time she and Brady were together. She wanted to make it good so she’d always remember how it was with them. Getting to her knees, she straddled him, impaling herself on his stiff rod in one downward motion. He lifted his hips, filling her so completely the breath caught in her throat.
He grunted and dug his fingers into her hips as she started rocking back and forth. His breath heaved like a bellows, and the musky scent of their sex grew stronger. Brady reached up to play with her silver nipple rings, and his tugging went right to her core. She rubbed her swollen clit with a finger.
“Uh, uh, that’s my job.” Brady growled hoarsely as he rolled them over, pinning her body beneath him. Bending down, he captured her mouth in a passionate kiss, nipping her lower lip as he backed away. She wrapped her legs around him as his sweat-slick body rose over her. Thrusting his cock deep, he gyrated in slow, provocative circles. Her breath came in pants, and she whimpered and arched as he ground his hips against hers. His rhythm was calculated to drive her crazy, and she moaned beneath him, pinching his nipples and pulling at the hair on his chest, letting him know she was close and he could unleash his inner beast.
Brady increased his tempo, pounding into her relentlessly. She matched him thrust for thrust, and when he rubbed her hard, little clit, she reached her peak and let out a howl of pleasure. Brady growled out his own release and at last collapsed over her with a groan of pure male satisfaction. Still firmly inside her, he rolled them to the side and held her close for a cuddle. Having none of it, she struggled free, and ignoring his hurt look, she ran for the bathroom to hide until he left.
Chapter Three
If Ayala had to rate the sexiest men in the pack, the Alpha would be number three. With those intense eyes and a hard body that screamed edgy and erotic, he’d be number one on most lists, but Ayala would choose Brady or Cade over him any day. Her two Lycan lovers had inflamed her erotic fantasies for years and when she grew old enough to bed them, her dreams had come true. But when their wolfish, macho attitudes and possessive natures came out, she felt suffocated. Too bad she’d been cursed with a brain and a desire for independence. Brady and Cade would be better off choosing from among the other women, she-wolves who had been born to please men instead of themselves.
So, she had no desire to become better acquainted with the Alpha’s perfect pecs and amazing abs. He was just too damn controlling. Not that he was interested. The Alpha’s sex life was a mystery. Maybe he didn’t even have one. No one really knew.
But on a list of the most dangerous men in the pack, she would definitely put the Alpha in first place, no doubt about it. Ayala had heard all the stories about him, including his exploits as he led a group of shell-shocked youngsters halfway across the country, and how he’d kidnapped a she-wolf and her cubs from the Pennsylvania Wilds. The tales had probably been embellished through the years, but at least some of them were true. A man had to be strong and lethal to take charge of a pack. Alex had earned the respect of his people. The members of the pack, including Ayala, obeyed him out of admiration, and maybe just a little fear.
Ayala wasn’t fearful today. She knew exactly what she wanted, and when she saw the Alpha today, she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Alex lived in the center of town in the largest of the buildings he’d purchased for the pack members. Only a few of the dilapidated old houses were still owned by their original occupants, old-timers who didn’t have the means to move on. New Hope had been on the verge of extinction before Alex stepped in.
Ayala hadn’t been impressed with the area when she first saw it, but staying in the adobe dwellings they’d been living in since they first settled in New Mexico wasn’t an option. The area had become a popular tourist attraction, and the pack members were afraid to shift. The Alpha had chosen this old mining town because it was a pit stop that didn’t attract visitors and he liked the proximity of an abandoned mine shaft, said to be at least five hundred feet deep. He saw it as a future avenue for escape or hiding, something that would never have occurred to Ayala.
It had been a good move in many ways. The original residents had accepted help from the pack, and in return they minded their own business. Like the others of her kind, Ayala was careful to shift and run in the surrounding woodlands, and if their neighbors suspected all was not as it seemed, they didn’t let on. The locals had actually become very protective of the new residents and discouraged tourists and outsiders—a win-win situation for all.
Alex’s home had been a store in its previous life, with storage on the second floor and living quarters on the third. The first floor had been made into a community room with a small kitchen and bathroom.
The front door was locked, but the door to his office on the second floor was accessible by a hinged fire escape he’d mounted on the side of the building. Ayala climbed up the steel gratings, knocked once, and entered the Alpha’s domain. She smiled at Alex sitting behind a massive, mahogany desk phenomenally cluttered with paperwork, laptop, and phone. He stood up immediately and beckoned her over.
“Have a seat.” He gestured to a chair in front of his desk. “So, what do you think?” he asked, waving a hand at the files and bookshelves lining the walls as he sat down. “It’s a lot bigger than my old office, but it seems the more space I have, the more clutter I make. It’s taking me way too long to get organized.”
Awestruck, Ayala glanced around politely. “It’s very nice.” The Alpha was truly amazing. Through the years he’d made sound investments, enabling him to buy up most of this old town as well as fund an addition to Philadelphia Hospital back east. One of their pack, Dr. Roy Granger, headed the facility.
“Yes. Well, I’m sure you didn’t come here to look at my office. What’s on your mind, Ayala?”
Beating around the bush would be pointless. Ayala sat up straighter in her chair, her spine rigid. She looked the Alpha right in the eye. “I want to go away for a while.” Well, she definitely had his attention now.
Alex leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers under his chin. “Away? Why?”
“I want to see someplace besides New Hope, maybe visit my birthplace.”
“You want to see the Pine Barrens, visit New Jersey?” The furrow deepened between his eyes, and she rushed to sway him to her side.
“Yes! I have no pictures. I can’t even remember my mother’s face. I need to see our home again.”
“There’s nothing left there, Ayala. The fire destroyed everything.�
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“I just want to see it.”
“It’s out of the question. It’s too dangerous.”
A rush of disappoint filled her. She hadn’t wanted an argument. “The great fire was sixteen years ago. No one remembers it—or the rumors of wolves who could turn into people. I won’t shift, I promise.” She couldn’t keep the whiney tone from her voice. “I would never put the pack in danger. I just want my own life.”
His mouth thinned with displeasure, and his voice turned harsh. “You don’t have a good life here? Don’t I provide everything you need?”
She straightened in her seat, refusing to be intimidated. “I want to make my own choices.”
The Alpha’s face softened a bit. “I know you haven’t been happy with my efforts to increase our population. You have an independent streak…” He seemed to consider his next words carefully. “But leaving is not the solution. I have some news that may change your mind. I haven’t told the pack yet, but I think you need to hear this.”
Ayala doubted he could change her mind, but she was willing to listen, especially if he wanted to share important pack business.
“Scheduled breeding with multiple partners hasn’t worked for us. I intend to do away with the practice. Two of our men formed a union with a human woman, and now they have a beautiful baby girl. I wasn’t pleased at first, but maybe our spirit God has shown us another way.”
Ayala’s jaw dropped. She hadn’t expected this. Human mates were not unheard of. There were several mixed couples living in Pennsylvania as well, but surely the Alpha didn’t believe Kweo wanted them all to interbreed. “I don’t—”
Alex held up a hand. “Hear me out.” He paused. “If there were more of our people, we might all find Lycan mates, but with so few of us left, the answer to our survival may be to merge and mate with trusted humans.”
