The Alpha's Trials (Werewolves of Boulder Junction Book 7)

by Martha Woods

  The atmosphere in the room dropped considerably, no one there quite sure what was going to happen between the two women now that the secret was truly out. Cayden kept a close eye on Claire, just because she was injured didn’t mean that she wouldn’t attempt to lead out of the bed and strangle Skylar if she thought she had a chance. Leila did the same for Skylar, watching her hands for any sign that she was losing control of her form and letting her shadows out. She would really prefer not to have to console Skylar over a murder that she didn’t even mean to commit.

  “That’s right.” Skylar nodded, voice calm. “She took part in killing my father, she held a gun to my daughter’s head. So I killed her, and everyone else who got in the way of me protecting the rest of my family.”

  Everyone held their breath, all eyes alert and on Claire, wondering just what her reaction would be to coming face to face with her sister’s killer. What they didn’t expect was to see her shrug, popping her lips and scoffing, “Good. It’s what they deserved, it’s what she deserved.” She rolled her eyes at the shocked expressions on everyone’s faces. “Don’t worry, you won’t get any pushback from me, if she had been there when I found out I probably would have killed her myself, sister or no.”

  Cayden blinked in surprise, leaning back in his chair. “I’m… Surprised to hear you say that,” He said, “You two were closer than most anyone I’ve ever seen.”

  “Yeah well that was before I found out who she and her husband were. Feelings change.”

  “Which brings us back to the important question, what did you do to get all of those hunters on your tail?” He chuckled, already having an idea of what she might have done. “Knowing you it was probably something very dumb.”

  Claire couldn’t hide her audacious grin. “Well a big part of why so many of us fell for him was his face. He’s probably going to have a harder time now that he only has one eye.”

  “Jesus Christ Claire,” He said, “You took the man’s eye?”

  “In hindsight I should have taken a lot more, it would have saved us all a lot of trouble down the road.” She gestured at her torso. “I’d have a few less holes in me, that’s for sure.”

  “So that’s why you were almost dead when we found you…” Farah spoke softly, “Because you saw what was wrong and immediately tried to find some way to fix it.”

  “I don’t know if fix is the right word but… Yeah, I guess you could say that.”

  Leila nodded, turning to the rest of the group to address them all. “A few of us here have been in this same position before, and we’re only here now because someone gave us a chance. I think that we owe her the same opportunity, to be able to prove what kind of person she is not to us, but to herself.”

  Skylar chewed her lip, mulling over their options for where to go from here. On the one hand Claire would make an extremely valuable ally, she had knowledge of what Christian would do and where he would go, not to mention that she had already proven herself to be a more than competent fighter, the sheer number of bodies she left behind in the forest could attest to that. But on the other hand, she was the sister of the woman who had attempted to murder her daughter, who had taken her father away from her and was more than prepared to do the same to the rest of her family. That wasn’t something that could just be ignored, no matter how Claire felt about her sister now.

  Regardless of what her feelings were on the matter, Skylar knew that she would have to come to a decision. It was a group effort of course, she wouldn’t dare to try and assert complete control over her friends like that, but she wasn’t blind to the fact that they would accept her decision as the unanimous one, so she had to carefully consider each option.

  But of course, there was one very important thing that she needed to know first.

  “Claire… If we let you go, what would you do?”

  “What would I do?” She scoffed, wincing as she pulled her sheets off against Cayden’s protests. She pointed down at her stomach, bandages covering what was still a very serious wound. “I would get in a car, drive back to the outpost and shove my knife directly down Christian’s throat for everything that he’s done. I’m lying here in a bed half dead while he’s probably knuckle deep in some new fan that he picked out of the rank and file.”

  “Wait…” Cayden said, eyes wide. “Did… Did you two…?”

  “I don’t want to think about it right now.” She looked back at Skylar. “So yeah, that’s what I’d do. Why? What are you planning to do?”

  “We’re planning to do just the same actually, and if you wanted…” Skylar took a deep breath, calming her shaking nerves and steeling herself. “If you wanted, I would be more than happy to take you along. If everyone else felt the same of course.”

  “No protests here,” Said Hayley and Michael, soon joined by Farah and Cayden. Leah took a few more seconds to come to a decision, still not quite sure what to think about working with someone related to that whole mess, but she recognized that Claire at least seemed to have a good heart. Those were in short supply these days.

  Cassandra and Leila nodded their approval as well, and Liam was willing to trust his wife’s judgement, which left only Iggy as an unknown vote. He stared hard at Claire, those deep eyes boring into her skull while he tried to see if she was being dishonest in any way.

  “Why would you help us?” He said, “You’ve spent your entire life fighting against people like us, you’ve made killing us almost into an art form. Why would you give that all up now?”

  She leaned forward, meeting his gaze unflinchingly and speaking slowly, “Because I have seen those that I loved for what they really were; ugly, twisted people that were transformed by hatred and who fell in love with death. I have realized what I was a part of and I feel nothing but shame for all of it.”

  Reaching towards him, she took his hand, squeezing it while she whispered, “Because now I know that not all monsters have fangs.”

  He was silent, her finger running along his knuckles and her heartbeat pounding in his ears. There was no lie in what she was saying, even if he wanted to try and convince himself there was. Huffing to himself, he said the only words that he thought made any actual sense at that point, much to his surprise.

  “I think she can help us, we should give her a chance.”

  Claire smiled, laughing while the rest of the group gave her their welcomes. “Don’t get me wrong, I think that this whole group is a weird mix. But I’m glad that you can trust me enough to let me try and help.” She looked up at Skylar, smiling widely. “Thank you.”

  She smiled back, any doubt she had crumbling in the face of that radiant grin. “You’re welcome.”

  Chapter 7

  Now that they knew they could trust Claire, or at the very least could make steps to getting there, the group decided that they could afford to get separate rooms for themselves. After all it wasn’t like they were staying at the Ritz-Carlton, they were at a dead-end motel in the middle of the country, the only other things passing through were chicken farmers and tumbleweeds.

  Most importantly, it had been sometime since the couples had been able to spend their time alone. They had made an exception for Liam and Skylar, and that had only been possible because the rest of the group was otherwise not using the room. But now that they had an injured newcomer with them they couldn’t exactly ask everyone to vacate the room for a few hours while they got reacquainted, that would only make her condition worse. So Michael decided to take the initiative and pay for the rest of the rooms that were available, it was better that no other people came to stay anyway considering exactly what they were planning and, knowing how… Active some of them could get, it would eliminate the possibility of noise complaints.

  Hayley sighed gratefully as she opened the door to her and Michael’s room, as much as she loved her friends she had to admit that spending days on end crammed into the same room very quickly lost its appeal. It was fine once in a while but… The two of them hadn’t been intimate since the night befo
re they left Boulder Junction, and that just wouldn’t do. Of course, before they could get around to that they had to process the last few days for themselves, too much had happened just to brush away easily.

  “So…” Michael started, “Our group is getting a lot more… Varied, isn’t it?”

  “You can say that again,” Hayley laughed, “When we started on this journey I didn’t think that we would be picking up a vampire and another hunter, or another Enenra for that matter. What do you think of them?”

  “Iggy… He’s young, impulsive, just like the rest of us honestly, I think that with time he’ll probably outgrow that and become a real force to be reckoned with.” He inclined his head, counting off with his hands. “Then there’s Claire, who I’m still not sure what to think about but she seems more or less trustworthy. It’s all just a matter of whether or not her and Iggy can decide to get along, that’s the biggest obstacle right now.”

  “And Leila?”

  Michael sat down on the bed, kicking off his shoes and laying back with a groan. “I’ve gotta say that I was wrong about her, I thought she was just some other person taking advantage of Sky for her own goals. I love Sky but that big heart of hers is going to backfire on her one day… But I guess that day isn’t today. Leila actually cares about her.”

  “Yeah…” Hayley cuddled up next to him, arms wrapping around his neck and her head resting on his shoulder. “After everything that’s happened, everything she’s been through, it’s nice to know that Sky still has some family left. Apart from us of course.”

  “We’ll always be there for her but… I know that’s not exactly the same as having someone exactly like you, who knows what you’re going through and can guide you through it every step of the way. We tried, but we didn’t know the first thing about how to help her through her changes, all we could do was stand there and hope she was going to be alright.”

  “And now she is.” Hayley leaned in, pecking his lips and looking deep into his eyes. “I think we all are now.”

  Michael ran his hand through her hair, marveling at her beauty for the hundredth time that day. “I still can’t believe that you’re real, that this is real. How did someone like you end up with someone like me?”

  “Well, there’s a lot of reasons,” She said, smirking while she pressed a kiss to his chest. “You’re kind, once you get through that tough shell that you show to all your enemies, you’re smart, a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for...” She reached down, palming him through his pants and giggling when he shuddered. “And I don’t know if you’ve seen yourself naked, but oh boy, is that ever a sight that is hard to forget.”

  “Hard to forget huh?” He said, reaching around and lifting her onto his stomach. “I don’t suppose you’d want a refresher then?”

  “Oh, I think I’d like that very much.” Hayley grabbed his collar, pulling him up towards her and crashing her lips against his, her teeth sinking into his bottom lip and pulling while he groaned. Michael ran his hands along her thighs, squeezing lightly before moving them up her body, her shirt lifting up her torso and exposing the soft skin underneath.

  “All you have to do is ask Michael,” She said, tossing her shirt off to the side and descending on him. “Be a good boy and say please.”

  “Oh really?” His eyes glinted, hands hooking underneath her arms and spinning her to the side, Hayley yelping when she found herself under him. “And what if I don’t want to say please?”

  She blushed, legs rubbing together at his display of power. “I don’t know...” She breathed, lips ghosting against his. “Why don’t you show me?”

  Her next sentence was merely a moan, his knee pushing between her legs and grinding against her core, his mouth marking her chest while he bit and sucked at the tender skin underneath him. She held him close, grinding herself against him and moaning into his hair, his scent like a forest in the springtime.

  Michael broke up his words with a kiss to each breast. “I think… You should… Say please...” Running a finger down her stomach, he stopped just short of her waistline, fingertips dancing at the edge of salvation. “I think that you should be the one begging tonight.”

  Hooking his fingers under her waistband, he pulled her pants down to her ankles, underwear dragging down with it and leaving her completely bare. She yelped as the cold air hit her body, knees crossing instinctively before he pushed them apart again, lips dragging down her stomach before he levelled himself with her mound.

  “Oh, would you look at that...” He leaned his head on her thigh, each breath he took ghosting against her skin and making her shiver. “What do you think? Are you going to say please?”

  “N-no...” She groaned when he pressed a lingering kiss to her wetness, tongue flicking out to flick away a bead of her arousal before he pulled back. “Oh, fuck it, please...”

  Grinning to himself, Michael dove back in, spreading her open with his fingers before dragging his tongue against her, lips sealing around the button of her clit before he plunged his fingers into her. Hayley almost leapt off the mattress, back arching while she wound her hands into his hair, pulling him deeper into her while she groaned at the top of her voice.

  “Oh my god!” She said, panting when she lost herself between strokes. “Michael I… Oh god right there!”

  Pulling her legs up over his shoulders, Michael could go even deeper into her, hands on her backside and digging into the taut muscle, each stroke of his tongue or squeeze of his fingertips sending ripples through the skin. In mere minutes she was panting and moaning, legs squeezing around his head and hand digging into his hair, her free hand palming at her chest and pinching her nipple.

  Right as she was starting to crest, Michael stopped moving, each knowing chuckle of his sending a shockwave through her body. When she was able to form words again, she asked, “Why… Did you… Stop?”

  “What, you didn’t think you were the only one that was going to get off, did you?” Sitting back, he undid his fly, pulling his pants down and freeing himself from the straining fabric. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from his revealed form, licking her lips in anticipation of them meeting once more.

  Michael shuffled up towards her, stopping just as he started to brush her chin with his hardness. “Do I get a kiss? Or can’t you wait anymore?”

  Though she desperately wanted to feel him inside of her, she wasn’t one to refuse a request like that. Leaning forward, she pressed her lips to his swollen head, opening her mouth and taking the first two inches while she gazed up at him. He shuddered, her tongue flat along the underside of his shaft, before she started to bob her head back and forth, her position awkward but the feeling incredible for him.

  Hayley smirked around him, hand teasing the underside of his sac while she worked herself along him, relishing being able to feel him fall apart in her hands. Eventually however, her position won out over her, neck starting to cramp up and forcing her to pull off of him with a pop. “Do you think you’re ready now?” She said, resting her cheek against him. “Or do you need me to keep going?”

  “You do have a mouth on you, don’t you?” He grinned, leaning down and claiming her lips as his own. “Normally I love that, but tonight I think I might have to teach you a little lesson.”

  “Go ahead Michael, give me your worst. We’ll see if you have what it takes.”

  Rather than replying, he hooked his hands underneath her backside again, hefting her up and thrusting into her in one smooth movement. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, the sudden sensation of being filled with him combined with her lingering arousal from before was almost enough to push her over the edge right then and there. He didn’t give her time to get used to his size, thrusting in and out of her with reckless abandon, her body turning to jelly in his hands.

  “P-Please, Michael I…” Another broken moan, his length slamming in to the hilt and his body shaking with want, her legs dropping from his grip and falling back to the mattress. He placed his hands on eithe
r side of her, leaning down and biting at her neck while he continued to slam himself true, her nails trailing down his back and leaving tiny scratches in the skin.

  “God Hayley, you feel so good…” Their lips met again in a clumsy kiss, hips grinding against each other and driving them both quickly to the edge.

  “Oh god…” She said, “Michael I… I...”

  Michael gasped, her walls tightening around him while she threw her head back and howled, both of them thankful once more that they had rented out all of the rooms. He didn’t let up his relentless pace, his hardness pistoning in and out of her with enough force to rock the entire bed, drawing her climax out until she was afraid she was going to pass out from it. Luckily for her however, he found his end not long after hers, his hips snapping into her once more just before he flooded her with his seed, the build up from a week of no intimacy pulsing out from him and finding a home inside of her.

  Hayley moaned, lips pressed against his temple while she felt him fill her up, their bodies collapsing against one another once she squeezed the last drop from him. Even though he hadn’t pulled out yet, she could already feel him dripping out of her, staining the sheets with his spend and glistening the skin of her backside, but neither of them could bring themselves to care. For now, being here, like this with one another, that was enough for them.

  “I love you Hayley.”

  She smiled lazily against his cheek, holding him close and breathing deeply. “I love you too Michael.”

  “Heh, have we said that to each other before?”

  “You know, I can’t really remember,” She replied, “Maybe once or twice when we were… In the heat of the moment, but I’m not sure it’s been like this.”