Taming the Alpha

by Mandy M. Roth

  He wasn’t surprised she had Fae in her. He’d known deep down she was his mate for years and that meant she had to be more than human. He just wasn’t expecting her to be that much more.

  Rubbing his chest, he walked out of the side entrance and found Harmony at the end of a long corridor, her head bent, her shoulders moving up and down as she sobbed softly.

  Guilt assailed him. He knew he was the cause of her sorrow.

  He wasn’t good at comforting anyone. He didn’t even understand how one would handle a situation such as this. Deciding to go with his gut, he moved up quickly behind her and wrapped his arms around her, drawing her back into his arms, letting her cry as he held her, his chin on the top of her head, her body tucked against his.

  She was safe now.

  And he’d never allow her to be harmed again.

  He rocked their bodies, and she twisted in his arms, her sobs coming faster. She bunched his shirt and then went ramrod stiff in his arms.

  Sniffling, she looked up at him, her eyes rimmed with red. “I stink.”

  “I’m sorry, what?”

  “I smell. I don’t ever remember a time in my life when I could smell myself,” she said, crying harder. “And my hair has to be a mess. I haven’t been able to brush it in a week. Has it been a week? I counted the days and nights correctly, right?”

  Casey tried to speak, but she kept going, kept spooling out of control.

  “And I’ve been in these clothes the whole time. They need to be burned. And my shoes. I love my shoes, but they need to be burned too. Set the hell on fire. Like a blaze seen from space kind of thing. I should have put out Jerk Off’s eye with them. I was going to, but I held back. That’s it. I’m doing it now.”

  She attempted to break free from him, but Casey held her tight. He didn’t want to laugh, but her hysterics bordered on amusing. Only Harmony would care about her hair after what she’d been through. “Princess,” he whispered, drawing her attention for only a second before she continued. Finally, Casey dipped his head to hers and pressed his mouth to her, silencing her with a kiss.

  His wolf roared in delight. It wanted him to skip right to the fucking her part. Thankfully, he kept the wolf at bay. Harmony needed this. So did Casey.

  Her lips parted, and against his better judgment he surrendered to his desire and slinked his tongue over her bottom lip. One taste was hardly enough. He found himself tugging on her hair, forcing her head back as he increased the heat level of their kiss, his tongue mating with hers.

  His cock dug painfully at his zipper and he strained to resist pushing her against the wall and fucking her brains out. It wouldn’t be lovemaking. No. He’d just killed. His wolf was on a natural high and it had a shot at its mate—there would be nothing sexy about it. If he took her now it would be raw. It would be without the romance a woman like Harmony deserved.

  Restraint like he’d not had to exercise in decades came over him, and he tore his mouth from hers. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

  He expected her to agree and to leave him standing there. She shoved him hard against the wall, and the next Casey knew Harmony had herself pressed to him, her lips on his mouth once more. The once-mighty alpha male knew he was anything but in control of the situation. In that single second, he and his wolf came to an understanding—this was their woman and their woman was about to get what she wanted.

  Her hands seemed to roam everywhere at once. Casey hissed as she shoved her hand down the front of his jeans. “Harmony,” he said, catching her wrist.

  Staring up at him with nothing but need showing on her face, her lips parted. “I need this.”

  I need you.

  He didn’t say it. He couldn’t. When she was thinking clearly again, she’d realize she was too good for him. That he was a science project gone horribly wrong and she’d leave him. He knew it. Harmony was out of his league. He was a fugitive, and she was used to a certain way of life. Yes, he could provide her with it, but not without risk.

  “Harmony,” he said as he tried to get her hand out of his pants.

  He failed. His stubborn woman had one thing on her mind, and she apparently didn’t care where they were, who might see or that they’d only just kissed for the first time. He’d had grand visions of romancing her. Of courting her as she deserved.

  With great effort, he gained control of himself and his mate. “No. Not now. Not here. I’m taking you home. I won’t do this here. You’ll regret it later.” She opened her mouth, and he knew it was to protest. He pressed a finger to his full lips. “Give me this, Princess. Let me show you what you mean to me.”

  She nodded and then sighed. “For the best. I still smell me.”

  He snorted. “I think you smell delicious.”

  She eyed him. “Tell me you had a full breakfast. I don’t think I can take two shifters wanting to eat me in one day.”

  “Weston made sexual advances on you?” he asked, ready to track his old friend and kill him.

  She laughed. “No. But he did mention skipping breakfast and I think he was kidding about eating me. At least I hope he was joking.”

  Casey led her out of the factory and to where he’d left his cars. He opened the door for her but found he didn’t want to let go of her hand. “I need to take you home.”

  She hesitated. “Not my house.”

  “I thought you’d be dying to get back to the lap of luxury,” he said, no malice to his voice.

  She lowered her gaze. “Casey, my father is one of the many wealthy backers who are funding the genetic testing by the Corporation. Before you get mad at me, please know that I was trying to get all the files I could into the right hands. To people who could help.”

  Her father was aligned with the enemy? He wanted to hate the man but found he couldn’t. After all, the man was the reason Harmony existed. Without him, he’d not have a mate.

  “Then I’ll take you to my house,” he said, kissing her temple as if it was an old habit, rather than a new one he hoped stuck.

  Chapter Six

  Harmony blinked several times, sure her eyes were deceiving her. Nope. They were still parked in front of what looked to be a home worth millions, not somewhere Norman Bates would call home. Maybe Jerk Off had slipped something into her food. That had to be it because there was no way the mansion she was staring at was Casey’s. Maybe she’d misheard him when he said he was taking her to his house. The guy lived in a creepy, rundown, old hotel.

  She cast a speculative glance at him. “Tell me we’re not breaking into this place.”

  He feigned shock and indignation. “I would never.”

  “You totally would,” she countered with a sassy grin.

  “Okay, I would, but I have a key.”

  She arched a brow. She wasn’t exactly up for being detained by the human authorities after her bang-up week. “Gained by legit ways or by way of eating the previous owners? Because I have to tell you, I cannot do jail time. Orange is not my color. So, did you eat the owners?”

  He licked his lips, and she wanted to be kissing them again. Their kiss had been brief but enough to let her know sex with Casey would be mind-blowing. She’d always believed as much.

  He snapped his jaws. “Possibly. I do enjoy munching on the well-to-do.”

  “Casey, for realz.” She searched his face for an answer as to what was happening. “Why are we here? I thought you said you were taking me back to your house so I could get cleaned up and rest.”

  He shut off the car and suddenly seemed nervous. That was certainly a trait she wasn’t used to seeing from the normally outspoken and all too often grumpy man. “The hotel is one of the places I pick to lay my head. Gus and Bill like it there and Laney used to call it home. I wanted to stay close to them in case there was an issue.”

  She watched him, waiting for him to cut to the chase. Why the hell were they parked in front of a mansion? She’d begun to develop something of a mistrust for those considered her own kind—the elite. During
her discovery stages, she’d continued to find more than one of her father’s supposed family friends and those considered in his inner circle on the lists of backers of the testing done on humans and shifters. She wasn’t sure who she could trust outside of Casey, Laney, and those they put their faith in.

  “I have a number of places,” Casey said, gripping the wheel as if he might yank it off in another second. “Some are kind of dilapidated, but I don’t mind that. I’m not very fancy.”

  “You don’t say,” she said with a grin so he would know she was only teasing. She’d come to appreciate his lack of concern over material things.

  He blushed, and Harmony didn’t have to fake surprise. She was. Casey wasn’t a blusher.

  “Then I have a few that are not so dilapidated,” he said sheepishly.

  Harmony soaked in what he was telling her. She gasped. Her favorite lone wolf was secretly loaded? “Holy crapola! You’re serious. This is your place?”

  “Do you like it?” he asked, hope in his voice.

  She touched his hand gently. “Casey, it looks like a beautiful home, but you should know that while the hotel sort of creeps me out, I don’t mind it that much. Oddly, I think I kind of actually like it.”

  “Somehow, I doubt that greatly,” he replied evenly.

  “Well, it’s true. Plus, I just spent a week in a cell. The hotel looks like it’s five stars in comparison.”

  He cupped her hand, strain evident on his face. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to you sooner. I promise you I was searching for you.”

  Hearing he’d cared, that he’d tried, meant the world to her. She stared at their joined hands and found the courage to ask what she’d wanted to since he’d arrived at the factory. “Why didn’t you correct Weston when he said I was your mate?”

  “I was sort of hoping you missed that part,” he said.

  “I didn’t.”

  “Come on.” He touched the door handle with his free hand. “I’ll draw a hot bath for you and then see what I can whip up in the kitchen. I’ll warn you, I only use this place every once in a while, so it’s not fully stocked.”

  She squeezed his hand, desperation clinging to her. “Please don’t shut me out. I need you to answer my question.”

  “I will,” he said, meeting her gaze head on. “But not until you’ve gotten cleaned up and have had something to eat. I know you, Princess. You don’t like having anything close to dirt on you. And you’re hungry. I can hear your stomach growling. First do those things, and then we can talk.”

  He was a stubborn man. She’d known that much about him for years. She wanted answers, and he wanted to see her cared for first. He’d win. No doubt about it. “Fine. But you’re talking to me, and if you try to shut down on me, I’ll knock you out with my magik and shave a picture of a kitten into your chest hair.”

  “Deal,” he said, partially laughing under his breath. He exited the vehicle, which she was fast suspecting was really his and not a boosted one as she’d first thought. He came around to her side and opened the door for her, offering his hand to her. “Princess.”

  Placing her hand in his, Harmony tried but failed to keep her feelings for him in check. She’d done so well hiding behind sarcasm in regards to Casey. That wouldn’t work anymore. She wanted the man in ways she did not want others. Not that she’d been altogether that interested in other men since meeting him. She’d spent more time with her sex toys than men since walking in and first meeting Casey.

  He drew her close to him, and there was simply no denying the sheer amount of alpha male Casey exuded. She wondered briefly if it was from the experiments, or if he’d always naturally been alpha. Her guess, the latter.

  “A hot bath, huh?” she asked as he led her to the front door of the mansion.

  True to his word, he produced a key and let them in. Once inside, he keyed in the security code into the alarm pad. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected. Dusty, unused, and furniture covered with sheets. That wasn’t the case. The place looked pristine and well-cared for, as if someone spent a great deal of time seeing to each detail.

  “You’re sure you didn’t eat the owners?” she asked, only half-kidding.

  He turned to her and bent, sweeping her up and off her feet, making her gasp. He held her and then walked in the direction of a giant, grand staircase that was made to be a focal point of the massive entryway.

  “Casey?”

  “We’re going to clean up,” he said, his gaze hungry.

  “We are?”

  The muscles in his neck strained. “Yes. But I will behave. You have my word.”

  She’d see about that. If she had her way, he’d misbehave in the best possible ways. The mere thought of it had moisture pooling at the apex of her thighs. She knew enough about shifters to know Casey could smell her arousal. She didn’t care. She wasn’t embarrassed by sex or her desire to have it.

  He inhaled deeply and almost missed a step. He righted himself and glanced down at her, reflecting desire back at her. She nearly smiled. She’d have her man tonight if she had to pin him down and take what she needed from him.

  With the way he carried her with ease and the fact she was pressed against his frame to know just how sinewy it was, she was sure he would be fantastic in bed. And she was determined to find out. She’d let him stop things at the factory because he’d been right, she did want their time together to be better than that. But she wouldn’t let him stop things again.

  No.

  The man was going to fuck her.

  Period.

  He carried her into an enormous master bedroom that shamed the ones in her parents’ homes. He didn’t set her down until they were in the master bathroom. Only then did he set her down on a plush chair in the corner. Within seconds, he had water filling the oversized garden tub.

  Harmony said nothing, allowing him to do this for her. As she glanced to the side, she caught sight of her reflection. She looked as haggard as she felt. She almost broke, nearly giving in to tears she wasn’t sure would ever stop if they were completely set free. Her bottom lip trembled and she clenched her fists.

  Casey materialized before her, missing his shirt. That did the trick. Every inch of him appeared to be sculpted perfection. For as hairy as he was with the long hair and the beard, she had assumed he’d have much more than a dusting of hair he had that made a line to his groin. She wet her lips and swallowed hard at the sight of the trail of hair disappearing below the waistband of his jeans.

  “Whoa,” she whispered. “You’ve been hiding that body under ratty old band T-shirts all these years?”

  He chuckled. “Come on, Princess. Right now, we’re going to focus on what you need.”

  She met his gaze. “I need you.”

  “Harmony, please. I’m trying hard to contain my wolf. If you keep telling me you want me while I can smell your cream, I don’t know that I’ll be able to stop him from surfacing. He doesn’t just want sex from you. He wants to own you—possess you in every way possible. You don’t want that. Not yet.”

  She tipped her head, eyeing him. “Who says? You? How do you know what I want?”

  His jaw tightened. “I know you date other men. I follow you around town when you’re out with them. I know that, unlike me, you’ve been with others since we’ve met.”

  He’d not had sex in four years?

  “Casey,” she said, her hand moving to his scruffy neck. “I wanted it to be you with me each and every time. And I’m sorry I was with other men, but let’s be honest here. I think you’re avoiding telling me why you didn’t correct Weston when he said I was your mate, because you’ve known all along. In the end, that puts you in the wrong here, not me. You’re a smart man. You seem familiar with magiks. You must know that most require sexual energy.”

  He exhaled slowly. “You’re going to force this talk now, aren’t you?”

  “Right after you shut off the water to the tub so it doesn’t overflow,” she said, pointing to the nearly full tub.
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br />   He did and then stepped back in her direction as she stood. “Fuck.”

  “Okay.”

  He groaned. “That wasn’t a proposition.”

  She glanced at the bulge in his pants. “I think it might have been.”

  “Harmony, you’re killing me here.”

  “Fuck me and then we can talk,” she offered, walking toward the bath. She began undoing her clothing, happy to be rid of it. Ignoring Casey’s gasps from behind her, she kept going until she was naked. She stepped into the tub, and the hot water felt perfect. She glanced over her shoulder to find Casey there, his mouth agape. “You coming?”

  He adjusted his cock through the front of his jeans. “Probably.”

  She nearly laughed, but instead, put her hand out to him. “Join me.”

  “No.” He shook his head. “I won’t be able to stop the wolf. I can barely stop myself. Telling him no if I’m naked and wet with you will not work.”

  “Casey Black,” she snapped. “You will get your sexy ass in this tub now.”

  “Oh, I will?” he asked.

  “You will.” She bent and realized the tub was even bigger than she first thought. She sank beneath the hot water, letting it rush over her. When she surfaced, Casey was there, minus clothing. Seeing his long, thick cock jutting out from a thatch of black hair made her rethink her ability to tame the man after all. She’d seen more dicks than she should admit to in her relatively short life and there was no denying that the man before her was a cut above.

  She bit her lip as he stepped into the tub. She expected more protests, more attempts at him being a gentleman. When he yanked her to him, his mouth crashing onto hers, she smiled against his lips a half-second before returning the kiss tenfold.

  Growling, he twisted their bodies, putting his above hers. She noticed his eyes and the tiny flecks of color pushing through. He’d been honest about struggling with his wolf side, and it broke her heart that he even had to. She ran her hands over his chest and upper body, knowing she’d never touch her fill of him.