by Lib Starling
“God, you’re beautiful,” he whispered. “Even if…if you don’t…” His throat seemed to close; he couldn’t finish the thought. But he managed, “At least I got to see you like this, one last time.”
And then he swept her into his arms, bearing her back toward the bed while his tongue traced its way around her mouth, coaxing a moan of need from her throat.
Chase laid her back on the white coverlet, edging her collarbone with his lips, dwelling in the hollow of her throat before making his way down her chest to the soft skin between her breasts. He breathed deeply, taking in the scent of her skin, and Roxy felt him shudder, as if the wolf inside of him delighted in her smell, too. When his mouth found her nipple she sighed, half in pleasure and half in relief, as the first glow of a fire began to build deep in her middle.
As Roxy’s breaths came shorter, her cries regular and more urgent, Chase moved lower, pausing to kiss around her navel, then lower still. The heat of his tongue between her legs made her gasp and arch, and her breath came rushing back out in a long moan of rapture. She twisted her fingers in his dark hair, feeling her body rock on waves of building ecstasy, until at last, with tears hanging in the corners of her eyes, the waves broke and the fire raged inside her.
For several long moments, Roxy lay crying out and twisting, still holding Chase’s mouth firmly against her. When her shaking hands fell away from his hair, he sat back, grinning.
He started to speak, but Roxy cut him off, gasping. “I want you inside me, Chase—now—please!”
She didn’t need to say anything more. He obliged, and she was filled by so much more than just his hard, eagerly thrusting cock. The flame inside her hadn’t died away—if anything, it only burned hotter, and with a more certain glow. It seemed to double with each moment, with every movement of Chase’s body, with each of his hoarse, avid breaths. Roxy cried out again and again, wordless with wonder at the sensation that flooded her senses—she could feel Chase inside her—not his physical body, but his soul, burning in perfect unison with her own.
He succumbed with a groan, his whole body going rigid as the heat overtook him, and he fell onto the pillow beside her.
For a long time they lay quiet, catching their breath, while their hands, still seeking some satisfaction that flesh could never provide, petted and stroked and caressed one another, unable to let the passion between them cool from a boil to a simmer.
Finally Chase’s fingers grazed Roxy’s cheek, and she turned to look at him. His face was tense with an unspoken question.
Roxy took her time, considering the emotions that thrummed along her veins, the new sense of wholeness that wrapped her like a warm blanket. She’d thought her soul couldn’t be more fully united than she felt since coming to know and accept her fox totem. Yet now she understood that even with her fox flowering into its own, an essential part of Roxy had been missing—until now.
She returned Chase’s touch, feeling the planes of his face, the scratch of his stubble beneath her palm. Inside her, the fire still burned hot, even though their lovemaking was finished. Its flame had scoured away all thought of Alexander—it had even burned his smell from her skin. And it had turned her doubts and fears to ash.
“I love you,” she said. “I love you, I love you, I love you.”
They’d made love a second time, taking their time, all the desperation of unanswered questions gone. Then they dozed, and woke in each other’s arms, their skin warmed by the late afternoon light peeking in through the blinds.
Reluctantly, Chase raised himself up from Roxy’s embrace and sat on the edge of the bed, stretching his arms, readying himself for the evening’s task.
“I’ve got to go on patrol,” he said. “It’s my turn for the witch-hunt.”
Roxy sat up, too. “I feel like I should be doing more to help.”
“Your time will come.” Chase watched her while she yawned and stretched, the love in his eyes giving way just for a moment to worry. “Scarlett’s not done with you. Her jealousy runs too deep. You need to keep yourself safe—that’s the most important thing now.”
“I don’t know if your brothers would agree with you about that. They were all pretty shaken up by…by what happened to you.”
“I don’t care if they agree or not. You’re the most important thing to me, Roxy. And I want you kept safe.”
He stood and dressed. Roxy pulled the coverlet around her shoulders, watching him in silence while the gathering shadows of evening played across his skin.
“I’m happy,” she said. “Perfectly, absolutely happy. Not just me, but my totem, too. I think it loves you as much as I do.”
“It’d better,” Chase said, laughing. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Neither am I. My mind’s made up.”
Chase buckled his belt, then turned to her with his dark brows raised. “So…what are you going to tell Alexander?”
“Yeah—Alexander.” I’ve got to take care of this now, Roxy realized. He has to know where I stand, so we can all move forward and work together to bring Scarlett down. I can’t be a distraction to him—for all the brothers’ sake. “I’ll go to him tonight,” she promised. “I’ll talk to him—he’ll see the way it is, the way it has to be. You’re the only one for me, Chase. I know that now.”
Chase hesitated. “Do you want me to talk to Alexander for you?”
It was tempting. Roxy no longer feared that Alexander would lose control, but she had come to love him as a friend, and she’d hate to see the pain of rejection on his face. It would be easier to leave it up to Chase, but Chase and Alexander had their history of brutal confrontations—especially where Roxy was involved. The last thing Alpha House needed now was another fight between the two wolves. The brotherhood needed unity more than ever now, as they closed in on the witch who stalked them from the shadows.
“No,” Roxy said. “I’ve got to do it myself. I’ll be okay, Chase; don’t worry about me.”
He kissed her, a gentle brush of the lips, and Roxy’s heart leaped within its pool of fire. “I’ll always worry about you,” he whispered. “Keep yourself safe. We could find Scarlett at any time, and…”
The thought gave Roxy a sudden chill. What if Chase was right, and Scarlett’s attack on him had been meant to draw her, Roxy, out? What if the witch had something special in store for Roxy? That thought was bad enough, but the possibility that she might inflict her magic on Chase again as a means of provoking Roxy—that thought was unbearable.
Roxy seized Chase by the shoulders, pulling him into a fierce, insistent kiss that left him breathless and blinking. “You be safe, too,” she said, her voice nearly growling along with her inner fox.
They kissed again at the front door, forcing themselves to part. It was an agony to see Chase jog down the pathway to his old orange Mustang, and an even worse torment to watch him drive away. He was headed out to the elk preserve, where he’d meet a few of the brothers, shift into his wolf, and lope through the sage lands until the moon was high, searching for the witch.
He had his work to do, his crucial task—and Roxy had hers. Steeling herself, she went back inside to prepare to meet Alexander. Scarlett was still out there, her spells waiting to close on the shifters like a hunter’s traps. Who would be the witch’s next victim?
No one, Roxy told herself firmly as she showered and changed. We’ll stop Scarlett before she can strike again. We’ll all do our part, as a team—as a brotherhood.
And Roxy’s part was to break it off with Alexander. Her stomach tight with anxiety, she got into her Jeep and pulled onto the highway, heading for the hidden enclave of Blackmeade Village, where Alexander waited in the gathering night.
Part 6
.1.
T he winter stars scattered a feeble spray of light through Alexander’s bedroom window. A gust of wind moaned around the walls of Alpha House, shaking the window’s opened shutters and rattling the window pane. Roxy could smell winter all around—the smoky cold of the snow and hills
outside, and the icy, guarded caution that dominated the atmosphere inside Alexander’s room.
She could hardly believe that she’d been here just hours before, tangled in Alexander’s sheets, his well-cut, naked body poised over her own, so dangerously close to going through with their desires that it gave Roxy a chill. What would have happened if she’d surrendered to that passion? She never would have had her time with Chase; that much was certain—never would have realized how deeply she loved him. She had come so close to losing Chase forever, and all because of the strange, magnetic pull Alexander could exert over her fox totem. At the thought of what she’d nearly lost, a hollow, aching fear replaced the chill.
Alexander was leaning casually against the dark fir wood of his window frame, arms crossed over his chest, as if he had no cares at all—never mind the witch that was somewhere out there in the darkness, pursuing the shifters of Blackmeade Village—and pursuing Roxy, too. Never mind the fact that he’d professed a desire to have Roxy for his own, and had claimed that he would never let her go. In the same pale-blue button-up shirt he had worn the first night they’d met, he looked like winter itself, cold and implacable. But even in her human form, without the aid of her fox’s sensitive whiskers, Roxy could sense the tension that radiated from him—a certain desperate dread, as if he knew already what she would say.
What I must say. I have to put this attraction to rest, and make my decision to be with Chase absolutely clear. If I don’t, Chase and Alexander will go on fighting forever, and we’ve got a much more important war to wage right now.
“That was fast,” Alexander said.
It didn’t feel fast to Roxy. She had spent the late afternoon and early evening making love with Chase, watching in amazement as the realization of her love for him broke over her consciousness like a bright, new dawn. It had felt like an eternity—an eon of unending bliss, of wonder and glow. An eternity, and not nearly long enough.
She shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so.”
Alexander hesitated, squeezing his folded arms tighter. Roxy could hear the unasked question. Well? What did you decide?
She eyed Alexander carefully. He had changed in recent months…but how much? Though she’d grown close to him as a friend, and even come to trust him, Roxy could still remember his violent attack when she’d denied him access to her body. Would he receive this new denial like the gentleman he was trying to be…or would his animal side win out again?
Roxy took a deep breath. As she did so, her totem seemed to breathe in, too, inhaling Alexander’s wild, frosty scent—and the potent force of his alpha charisma. Roxy’s head spun; she blinked rapidly, fighting against a melting sensation within her, a sudden desire to please Alexander at all costs.
No, she told her fox firmly. That’s not what we really want.
Her guts trembled as she clung to the sweet fire that still burned in her chest, the memory of Chase holding her, loving her—of his soul pouring into hers, mingling their two selves together. Never in her life had Roxy felt so complete, so right. She would not lose sight of that. Not even for an alpha shifter.
“I’ve made up my mind,” Roxy said. It was difficult to speak through the force of Alexander’s presence, but she forced the words out all the same. “I need to be with Chase. He’s the right one for me. I know that now. You and I, we…we just can’t be.”
Alexander’s jaw clenched, the muscles in his pale cheeks jumping. Roxy felt an instinctive clutch of fear; her fox cringed, waiting for the alpha’s punishment.
He trembled a little, his shoulders and neck going tense—but he didn’t step away from the window frame—he just continued to lean, casual and unruffled, as if Roxy hadn’t even spoken.
“We can’t…” Roxy stumbled over her words. “We can’t let anything distract us right now, Alexander. It’s crucial that we all work together to take on Scarlett.”
“I know.”
“I hope you and Chase won’t have any…any bad feelings between you.”
His laugh was sharp and bitter. “Bad feelings?”
“You know what I mean. We have to stay focused. There’s a battle ahead, and none of us knows what to expect when we finally root Scarlett out of hiding and…do whatever we need to do. What do we have to do, anyway, to get her to leave us alone for good? We have no idea what’s coming. We need every brother of Alpha Delta Phi—and maybe of the other fraternities, too—to stick together and trust one another, not to be divided. Especially not by something as insignificant as a fight over a girl.”
Alexander’s arms dropped to his side. He stared at Roxy in frank disbelief, then came toward her—gently, not with any force or anger. He touched her face with a cool hand, and lifted her chin so she stared up into his light-blue eyes. “You are not insignificant,” he said. “And you are worth fighting for.”
Roxy swallowed hard, fighting down the instinctive swell of gratitude and wild elation at the alpha’s touch—at his approval. “But we can’t afford a fight now,” she said, her voice choked and hoarse. “This is the way it has to be, and we all need to move forward as one.”
Alexander bent as if to kiss her. She felt pinned, captured—frozen in place by the alpha’s intoxicating nearness. Her fox squirmed eagerly, relishing Alexander’s attention—but her human side gripped the memory of Chase tightly, refusing to let her love go. She watched Alexander’s lips approach in slow motion, and time seemed to thicken and stretch, while the fox’s glee turned slowly to anxiety…and then to naked fear.
“What…” Roxy muttered, blinking at the sudden shift in her emotions.
The fox gave a frantic twist, and Roxy could feel it snapping its narrow jaws, as if trying to fight off an unseen attacker. She pushed Alexander away and staggered back, gasping as she collided with his dresser.
“Roxy,” he said. “What’s wrong?”
“I…something’s not right.” Her head throbbed; she pressed one hand to her temple and gritted her teeth against the rising sense of dread and her fox’s increasing panic.
With a whirl of nausea, Roxy recalled her day at the restaurant with Brooke—how her friend had sat up suddenly, peering into Jackson Hole’s busy ski-season crowd and muttering about how she’d thought she had seen Scarlett. And then the forced shift—Brooke hustling her into the bathroom, bracing her against the metal wall of the stall while Roxy fought off the cold, forceful grip of the witch’s magic.
“Oh my God!” Roxy shouted. “Alexander, help me!”
“What? What’s wrong?” He seized her by the shoulders, staring into her eyes with an intensity that snapped Roxy out of her blind panic and focused her thoughts enough that she could speak—clearly, if not calmly.
“Scarlett,” Roxy panted. “I’m going to…she’s trying…” Then she doubled over, clutching her stomach as a wave of sickness swept over her. Gagging, reaching desperately for her stay medallion, Roxy fought back against the witch’s force, struggling to keep her human side dominant and in control.
Alexander released her shoulders and bolted for his bedroom door, shouting for the Alpha House brothers—alerting them that Scarlett might be near. Then he wheeled and took Roxy in his arms, pulling her tight against his chest.
“Fight it,” he told her. “Your stay…concentrate on the power in your stay.”
“I am!” she cried.
“Stay with me, Roxy. Keep your totem in check.”
“I…I’m trying.” Her knees buckled; she sagged against Alexander, clinging to his strong arms with weak, trembling hands.
“God damn that witch,” Alexander muttered. His mouth was close to Roxy’s ear as he supported her, holding her body insistently against his own solid flesh, as if to remind her soul that it was, in fact, human.
He could do little else to assist her, Roxy knew. This fight was hers alone.
And she was losing. Roxy knew that—she could feel her fox twisting and growling, its white fangs flashing as it tried to fend off the attacker. But little by little, even through the pr
otective barrier of her stay, Scarlett’s grip on the fox increased, until Roxy could practically see the creature’s glossy red fur clutched in a hard, hate-filled fist.
Deep within her heart, the fox gave a pained, desperate cry.
“No!” Roxy gasped.
Then she screamed in pain as her totem was ripped upward and out, her senses inverting, her body seeming to turn end over end so that the room and Alexander spun sickeningly around her. In her own ears—her own throat—the human wail became the high-pitched, grating squeal of a fox in distress. Alexander’s arms closed more tightly around her, and she struggled, flailing all four limbs and her bushy tail, arching her long, slender back and snapping at the stifling human clothing that draped her body.
“Stay calm!” she heard Alexander shout, his voice muffled through the folds of her sweater, which now hung heavy and thick, dulling her vulpine senses.
She felt the softness of his bed beneath her flank, and then his arms released her. She twisted and sat up, pawing at the sweater. Alexander’s hands pulled it away from her head; fresh air flooded in, and her whiskers burned with an onslaught of sensation—the thick fear and anger that filled the room, increasing by the moment as fraternity brothers crowded in, staring at her wide-eyed; the shock and pain that still emanated from her own body. It seemed as if she could still hear her human voice, its desperate scream echoing from the walls.
“Oh my God!” one of the brothers yelled.
“Stay calm, all of you,” Alexander said levelly.
Roxy crept out of the folds of her sweater and stood on wobbly legs, then shook her pelt. She looked up at Alexander, wide-eyed, waiting for the alpha to give his commands.
Alexander didn’t wait for a more obvious cue. He sent each of the brothers out of the house with curt instructions, giving them all routes and directions to intensify the search for Scarlett. With only the barest instant of hesitation, he even instructed three of the brothers to find Chase at all costs and bring him back to Alpha House.
