Mate of the Alpha

by Marie Mason

  “Come, you need to take a shower.”

  Lily protested as he led her from his office into his private bath. It wasn’t nearly as large as the one on his estate. There he had a built-in sauna, hot tub, and one or two surprises in his shower stall. All the decadent pleasure a man, or wolf, could ask for. He couldn’t wait to share each and every one with Lily.

  He quickly turned on the shower, waiting until he was satisfied with the temperature before turning back to her. “Strip.”

  “I don’t need a shower, Ethan.”

  He growled and took her face in his hands. He knew his expression was fierce, but tried to keep his touch light. “I need to wash the freaking stench off, baby.”

  “Oh,” she said, understanding dawning in her eyes. “I’ll take a shower.”

  “You have ten minutes.”

  As Lily washed away the scent of her attackers, he called the restaurant down the street. It was closer than the one he’d planned on taking her to after work. He ordered all her favorites – Caesar salad, sirloin steak tips, and banana cream pie. Then he ordered his favorites – a medium rare New York strip, steak fries, and coconut cream pie. They’d argued the merits of each dessert on several occasions. He personally thought either flavor would taste delicious spread across Lily’s mound as he licked her to satisfaction.

  When he heard the shower turn off, he hurried to the bathroom. Grabbing a large towel, he opened the glass door.

  “Out.” He noticed he was still talking in almost one-word sentences, but he couldn’t help himself. He and his animal were wound so tightly one false move would have them crushing Lily to the floor and mounting her round ass.

  Above her protests, he dried her quickly and stuffed her inside a large terry cloth robe. He swung her up in his arms, taking her back to the soft leather couch in his office. This was not how he’d planned the claiming of his mate. Champagne and roses had already been delivered to his penthouse suite. The large solitaire diamond was in the suit jacket he’d left in the boardroom. The events of the night had forced his hand. Forced his wolf to demand the claiming, the mating. If anything had happened to her…both man and animal shuddered at the thought.

  He was always saddened at the loss of any shifter, but those that had dared to touch his mate had signed their own death warrants.

  “Stay here, Lily. I’ll be right back.” He gave her another hard kiss before striding back into the bathroom.

  Lily heard the water running in the shower and knew he was washing away the blood and smell of the wolves that had attacked her. She tugged the lapels of the robe up to her nose, breathing in his deep, rich scent. She was trembling inside and it wasn’t from her near attack but the step she was about to take. A step that would change her life forever.

  Her breath caught in the back of her throat as she watched Ethan walk across the office floor. He’d wrapped a large, white towel around his waist. He stopped, towering over her. His eyes were a swirl of colors – blue, gold, black. The colors seemed to change in reaction to the emotions racing across his face. His chest was bare, a bronzed work of art thick with black, curling hair. He brought her hands to his towel.

  “Take it off,” he ordered.

  Her hands trembled as she worked the knot free but she managed to fumble it open and let it drop to the floor. When she discovered his size, her wide eyes sought his for reassurance.

  He folded himself over her, pushing her into the soft leather of the couch. “I’ll take care of you. I’ll take a long time,” he whispered by her ear, nipping the sweet upper curve. “Do you trust me not to hurt you?”

  She moved closer, drawn like a magnet to the hair-roughed chest, her nipples throbbing when she pushed into him. “I trust you.”

  Ethan let out a savage breath. Years of waiting to find her, months of wanting to fuck her…and now, he held his mate in his arms.

  He quickly stripped her of the robe. Closer, he could hear her tortured breathing. Her nipples were diamond hard points digging into his warm chest. She clung, trembling. His big hands tunneled through the damp curls of her hair, savoring its silkiness. Somehow, she’d bundled it on top of her head so the shower’s spray had only dampened it. “I need to mark you,” he said through a tight throat.

  “Mark me?”

  His hand brushed her hair away from her neck and he licked the side of her neck, tasting the honeyed sweetness of her skin. “Here. I need to place my mark here so no one, no one will ever hurt you again.”

  His mouth brushed hungrily against hers and he felt it open, felt her body quicken in response even as he heard her helpless groan of pleasure.

  He interpreted her response as agreement, a scared oath. “I’m sorry, baby. I can’t wait. I need you too damn much.”

  Lily smiled knowing he was apologizing for the fact he was about to take her on a leather couch in his office. No doubt, it offended his sensibilities. Ethan was a sophisticated man, seduction his game. Instead of upsetting Lily that there’d be no fancy dinner, romantic carriage ride or a ten-star hotel to mark their mating, it gave her a rush of feminine power to know his desire for her had knocked away his veneer of civilization and control.

  The man wanted her.

  His wolf craved her.

  The coolness of the air rolled over her as he moved. Before she knew it, he was crouched between her legs.

  “I need to taste you,” he growled, grasping her calves and bending her legs forward. She moved, trying to get away. “Ssh, baby. You’ll like it, trust me.”

  He smiled at her and Lily couldn’t help but compare his grin to that of his animal counterpart. Both so charming and so lethal.

  He put pressure on her bended knees, spreading her to his view. She shivered, her mind racing with thoughts of what he was about to do. She’d read. She’d read lots and lots. Romances, erotica – manuals – she’d satisfied her curiosity on how things were done, but nothing had prepared her for this. Flesh against flesh. Tongue against…

  He knelt between her splayed legs, his gaze locked on the pinkness of her slit. He bent forward, his shoulders taking the place of his hands to hold her in place. His thumb touched the outside of her swollen lips and she jumped.

  “So wet. Is that for me, baby?” He grinned again and Lily was lost. Completely lost. She wanted this man. She’d been on the verge of falling completely, helplessly in love with him for months. Now, she fell over the edge. He said she was his mate. A person made especially for him, even if she wasn’t a wolf. Or thin. Or as beautiful as the other women in his life had been. It had to work both ways, didn’t it? He was made especially for her? Exactly what she needed. A man, and wolf, who loved her unconditionally.

  “Ethan!” As she’d been thinking of him, he’d readied himself for action. He licked her, his wide thick tongue traveling through her center. He gave her clit a small lap before starting all over again. Over and over he tasted her. With his tongue, his mouth, his teeth.

  Before she knew what was happening, a wave of pleasure washed over her. This time his name was but a whisper. “Ethan.”

  He didn’t stop his ministrations, but continued to lick. Slower, but just as deep. Just as exciting. She cried out a second time. The orgasm reminding her of an ocean washing across a sandy beach, long, rolling waves that seemed to go on forever.

  He moved up her body as she was trying to regain her senses. He inserted both of his long, powerful legs between hers while his hand slid under her hip and lifted her into the starkly intimate contact known only between a man and a woman, his cock nestled in the wetness of her pussy. A hard, throbbing cock that no doubt wanted the same relief she’d just experienced.

  He thrust inside her and Lily melted. His invasion was physical, mental, and emotional. He consumed her. He was big and she felt a sensation of being stretched past her limits. Taking a deep ragged breath, she let her body go. Let everything go, but this moment, and this man.

  He sucked in a deep breath, his nostrils flaring. The swirl of colors in h
is eyes intensified, switching from blue to gold to a deep, burning amber. “Oh fuck. Why the hell didn’t you tell me you were so tight?”

  She had panted through the pain and now only a burning discomfort remained. “Because I didn’t know?” she moaned as he thrust deeper.

  Her words seemed to blast through his control, and he plunged inside of her again and again. Without missing a beat of his driving motion, he lowered his head and captured one turgid nipple between his teeth. The sensation of his nipping teeth caused a tidal wave of feeling to wash over Lily. Her body clenched around him.

  A low growl rumbled in his throat. “If you do that again, I can’t be held accountable,” he warned, in a harsh, tension-filled whisper.

  “For what?”

  “How fast and hard I fuck you.”

  A sense of unfamiliar aggression filled Lily. Testing him, his control, she sank her nails into the flesh high on his hips. This time she deliberately clenched hard around him.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” His curses were raw and ragged. “Lily, baby, have mercy.” He snapped his teeth together, the veins in his neck standing out in prominence as he tried to hold back. She knew he was afraid he would hurt her, scare her with the intensity of his loving. But she wanted it. Wanted everything from him.

  Once again she clenched, inwardly drawing on him. She was shocked, overwhelmed, delighted, and drowning in sensation after sensation to have him so rigid and hard inside her.

  In response, Ethan thrust to the hilt. She felt him around her, within her. She felt the heat and strength of him with wonder. His lean hand gripped her thigh, spreading her more, opening her for his possession. Her body was his to do with as he willed. She was beyond caring what he did to her because the sensations were growing. She arched her back, seeking the right pressure, the right rhythm. The pleasure. For a few seconds there was nothing else in the world except Ethan, who had become completely a part of her.

  Then it was there, the fire, the heat, the throbbing satisfaction. She cried out, gasped his name as she flew to the sky then fell back to earth, safe in the arms of the man she loved.

  “Oh, baby.” Ethan lifted himself enough so she could see his face, look into his dark, mysterious colored eyes. “I need to–” He grunted as if the effort to speak was too great, but he didn’t stop pumping inside her. Her eyes widen when she felt his cock grow inside her, the middle girth pressing into some never before touched part of her pussy. He grunted again. “I need.” His body jerked and his thrusts lost some of the graceful rhythm.

  She immediately knew what he wanted. What his wolf needed. She pulled her legs up, spreading herself even wider, allowing him to thrust deeper. She groaned as he sank completely inside. The length and width of his cock was incredible. It not only touched the neck of her womb, but thrust past it, battering her with its strength. The sensation was utterly carnal. Their gazes locked, his eyes now a dark, dark amber. His mouth opened revealing the sharpened length of his teeth. “Ethan,” she groaned as she felt the warmth of his release bathing her womb.

  “Mine,” he growled. Again, Lily acted on instinct, tilting her head to the side, exposing the soft vulnerable curve of her neck for his possession, for the mark of his wolf. As his cock spewed forth his seed, her pussy clamped down, pulsating along his length, milking the very essence from his soul. She felt the touch of his lips then the erotic pinch of his teeth as they sank into her flesh. She’d been claimed by her alpha wolf.

  They lay side by side on the big leather sofa, the sweat on their bodies slowly drying. Lily didn’t feel the coolness of the air, her great, big wolf was behind her, keeping her warm. Keeping her safe. Less than twenty-four hours ago she’d been on the verge of walking away from a man she knew she could never have. Now, her future was all she’d ever dreamed.

  Her head rested on his strong, muscular arm, his bicep hard beneath her check. His hand slid a slow, steady glide up and down her body, from her shoulder, her arm, crossing back over to her side, down her hips until he reached her knees. She wanted to offer a token protest as he lingered and petted her dips and curves, but she thought, what was the use? He’d seen, tasted, and used every inch of her in the last two hours in wild and wanton ways. She lay as naked as the day she was born, boneless, brazen, and about as satisfied and loved as she supposed a woman should feel.

  She felt the stirring of his cock against her lower back and smiled, grinding her ass against the hardness.

  “Keep that up, baby and it’ll be round two.”

  She didn’t know if she could stand so much pleasure again, but she was certainly willing to try. She snorted. “I think we passed round two about an hour ago.”

  “Oh, no, baby. A new round doesn’t start until we get up and get dressed. Then undressed again.” They’d only gotten up when the food had been delivered and Ethan had insisted on feeding her. He’d pulled on his pants, but ordered her not to dress, not even in his discarded dress shirt. It was the first time she’d had a picnic in an office and the first time she’d had a picnic in the nude. Tonight was the night of many firsts for her.

  His wondering hand slid around her body to caress her stomach.

  “You do know we probably made a baby.”

  Her body went completely still. “A baby?”

  He flipped her around until they were face to face. “Are you okay with that?”

  “Can you tell I’m pregnant?”

  He smiled. “Not yet, but your scent should change by morning.”

  “Oh.” She was quiet as she lay beneath him.

  “Talk to me, Lily.”

  “You sound just a little too happy about the possibility of me being pregnant already.”

  “Of course.”

  Lily frowned. Had she totally misjudged this man? This wolf? It was the sense of protection and loving and caring that made shifters so much more attractive than human males. And the sex. Let’s not forget the great sex. Her pussy still throbbed from his possession.

  But at what price? Arrogance and assumption? Would he morph into another boyfriend from hell? Had she been wrong to trust him? To open her heart up once again?

  She pulled away. At least she tried to. Her big, bad wolf wasn’t letting her go anywhere.

  “There are a couple of things I probably should have told you before I stuck my cock inside your hot little pussy.”

  “Ethan!” Indignation colored her voice at his crude words.

  “Hush,” he commanded, as his gripped her chin and rubbed her bottom lip. She clamped her teeth over his thumb in retaliation of his firm grip and he laughed. “You can bite me anytime, anywhere you want, baby.”

  Lily went silent, her eyes spitting fire. Ethan knew if his dick had been anywhere near her mouth, she would have sunk those pretty, pearly whites into the head of his cock. The image went straight to his groin as he pictured her on her knees in front of him. The anticipation of the sharp pain from her bite was arousing. He wasn’t the least bit surprised at the raw hunger flooding through him. Or the wave of love that washed through him. He’d waited his whole life for her. A woman to love him. Need him. Challenge him.

  Ethan felt like lightening, thunder, and rain. The same sensation he had when he shifted. Now given to him by this woman.

  She pulled her chin from his hold. “What should you have told me?”

  He brushed the hair from her face and his hand caressed the mark of his wolf on her neck. “That I want your belly swollen and tight with my child growing inside.” He leaned closer, letting the power of his wolf shine once again in his eyes. “That I want to keep you barefoot and pregnant. That I love you more than life itself and always will.”

  He kissed her, devouring any protests she might have made before he continued.

  “I’m also a very arrogant.” Another soul-teasing kiss. “Old-fashioned.” The pressure became insistent, speaking of things to come. “Wolf.”

  “Mmmm,” Lily hummed into his mouth. Her arms encircling his neck. “I knew that the minute
I walked into your office that first day on the job.”

  “That you were my mate?”

  “No, that you were an arrogant son-o–”

  His lips swallowed her words.

  “Tell me,” he ordered.

  “Tell you what?” Lily could barely catch her breath.

  “Lily,” his voice growled his impatience.

  “I love you, Ethan Scott.”

  “And.”

  She sighed, pretending that he was forcing the words from her against her will. “And I want to be with you. Forever.”

  “And.” He snapped his teeth at her, but the show of aggression didn’t intimidate her. She’d already come to know that look. It meant he was determined to get his way.

  “And I want.” She rolled her hips, his cock catching in the padded vee of her thighs and making him groan. “To be.” She lifted her head and nipped his chin. “Barefoot and pregnant.”

  She squealed as she found herself flipped on her stomach, his heavy weight covering her. He positioned her until she was on her knees, her legs spread to accommodate his. He found her already wet entrance, his thumbs caressing the swollen, outer lips of her pussy. The cool air blew across her opening, making her shiver. Then she felt the hard warmth of his cock, pushing inside her. She groaned as the width of the head stretched her.

  He stopped. “Too soon?”

  “No.” She wiggled her hips.

  “Good, because I think it’s time you received your punishment.”

  “Punishment?”

  “Yes,” he growled and leaned over her until his mouth touched her ear. “You put yourself in danger.”

  He straightened back up, the head of his cock still lodged in her pussy. One finger stroked where they joined, then continued up to her smaller opening. She realized he’d been gathering her juices on his finger when he pushed the digit inside her.

  “Ethan.”

  He rocked his cock another inch inside her needy pussy, then added another finger. He entered her slowly in both places. “The next time you disobey me, I’m taking this ass. Do you understand, Lily?”