I Am The Alpha

by A. J. Downey

  “What I want, little girl,” I growled, my voice deepening and taking on a rougher quality. “Is to save my world. My life that your family, your father destroyed! Now keep your mouth shut!”

  She blinked and shivered for a moment before she nodded. I took my hand away slowly and she spoke, hesitantly. “My father is an accountant, what could he have possibly done to–” She cut off mid-sentence as I threw my head back and let out a short, quiet laugh.

  Amazing! Impossible even. She didn’t know? She had no idea what her father did? She had no idea who she was living with, what kind of monster her daddy was. Huh.

  “You don’t even know what Daddy Dearest does for a living, do you?” I crowed, my voice returning to normal as I pushed back the change.

  “I told you, he’s an accountant–”

  “He’s a murderer!” I snapped. “He killed my father. He destroyed everything! And now, he’s going to lose his daughter. I’m going to take her from him, just like he took my father from me.”

  I leaned over and snatched the belt from her robe. The thin garment went flying but I had what I needed. I used it to tie her hands together at the wrists while she babbled incoherently at me. I didn’t listen to her. Rage battered at my will to hold it back and I couldn’t afford to kill her. Not yet. I needed her.

  I slid to the floor and hauled her up by the wrists. I ducked and threw her over my shoulder and with four long strides, I was out of the room. I didn’t stop my momentum, leaping fluidly over the balcony railing to the garden below.

  Behind me I heard a loud whoosh of air as my shoulder was driven into her stomach on our initial landing. All the breath was driven from her lungs and any protestations she’d been spouting suddenly ceased. I didn’t care, it only helped me really. I grabbed the bag I had packed for her and strode forward, letting us out the back gate. I kept walking, making the final strides around the corner to my car.

  I wrenched open the back door, threw her and the bag inside as she dry heaved, trying in vain to force her battered lungs to inflate. I gave no quarter, spared no pity and slammed the door shut. I paused for a moment, watching her through the tempered glass as she struggled to breathe before making long strides around the sedan to get into the driver’s seat. In less than a minute I was pulling out onto the road and heading for the nearest entrance to the I-80 West. From one coast to the other, we were heading for Seattle.

  Chapter 2

  Chloe

  Oh my God, he was crazy. He was fucking crazy! I tried valiantly to pull air into my lungs but my body just wasn’t having any of it. Tears leaked out of the corners of my eyes, hot and stinging, which pissed me off. I was not going to cry. No, fuck that. My father’s daughter didn’t cry. No, the tears were definitely not from emotion. They were purely from having the wind knocked out of me, a physical reaction. I worked hard to draw air but it so wasn’t happening.

  Damn it!

  Where were we going? Where was he taking me? How did he make that jump? How had he not broken anything? So many questions, no way to get any answers. I was drowning on dry land, no ability to pull air, I was panicking; my body struggling, my mind not far behind and finally, finally, I sucked in a breath.

  I coughed, violently and struggled, trying to get into a sitting position, to flag someone down to get help.

  “I wouldn’t,” he drawled from the front seat in a threatening tone. I looked up into the rearview mirror. Deep brown eyes, intense, brooding, and very unfriendly were illuminated by the headlights from the oncoming traffic. I met their reflection with a grim resignation. I had nothing on him size wise. Nothing at all. I was stuck.

  My breathing was returning but it hurt, I knew I would be bruised, but I could live with that. I could probably live if he raped me, even if the thought did make me ill… but if he actually physically took me away? Out of the city? No. If he took me away, I knew the odds. I knew the likelihood of what happened next. If he took me away I couldn’t live with that, I wouldn’t live, statistically speaking. If he took me, rape would be the least of my worries. If he took me away he was going to kill me and I wouldn’t, couldn’t go down without a fight.

  As soon as I could draw full breath I struggled into a sitting position. I was about to let loose and start screaming when he growled at me. It was unlike anything I had ever heard before, an animal sound emanating from his very human throat. It caught me so off guard I forgot about the whole screaming and making a fuss that I was supposed to be doing. He knew it too! The bastard jerked the wheel and slammed on the brakes and I was thrown back down below the level of the windows. My head connected sharply with the tempered glass on my way down and I cried out, my hands tied and useless in front of me, though I desperately tried to stop myself from colliding with anything else.

  He jerked the car’s shifter into park and got out, the crisp fall air swirling into the car’s warm interior in his wake. The back door opened and I kicked out. He cursed and grabbed my ankle and I screamed. I screamed and howled and I kicked out with my other foot and connected solidly with his chest. Predictably, it didn’t do a damned thing for me, except piss him off.

  He grunted and dove into the back seat, over the top of me, his large hands curving around my tied wrists. He was between my thighs and I gasped which I choked off into a whimper. His black jeans may have been two sizes too big, his belt working overtime to keep them up, but there was no amount of fabric in the world that would disguise the hot, solid length of his erection which pressed solidly at the apex of my thighs.

  “You keep struggling, I will rape you, just to make a point,” he threatened. I blinked and he grinned savagely, his teeth very white and almost sharp looking, nestled in his dark blonde goatee.

  “Where are you taking me?” I asked and hated how breathy it was.

  “None of your business, either behave, or I’ll put you in the trunk.”

  I turned it over in my mind. That had possibilities, I could break out a tail light or pull the emergency… I gasped and suppressed a moan as he squeezed my wrists so hard, I swore the bones in them ground together.

  “You’re hurting me!” I cried.

  “That’s the idea, Little Huntress, you going to calm your shit?”

  “Oh my god, fuck you!” I spat, “Why should I cooperate with you? Why should I help you kidnap me?”

  He leaned back a bit, actually considering the question before meeting my eyes again. “Because I’m not the only one interested in finding you, and they aren’t nearly as nice as I am.”

  I stilled, confused, but that didn’t stop me from considering the implications behind his statement.

  “I don’t understand…” I said and he scowled.

  “You don’t need to, you just need to do what you’re told,” he shook his chin length, dishwater blonde hair back, out of his face.

  “It’s not in me to go down without a fight,” I told him. He smiled and it wasn’t a nice one.

  “While as much as I would like to find out what it’s like for you to,” he cleared his throat, “Go down, we’ve got a long drive ahead of us. Now you can either lay here, real nice and quiet, or…” he gripped one of my fingers and bent it back painfully, “I can start breaking little pieces off. Your choice, Little Huntress.”

  He wrenched on my finger until I cried out, “Okay! Okay! I’ll be good.” Oh my god it galled me to say it. I was no match for this asshole physically though. Even if I did manage to hurt him, it would have to be bad and there wasn’t anything I could do with just my body to incapacitate him. I needed a weapon and there, predictably, weren’t any back here.

  “Good girl,” he praised me mockingly before he let my hands go. He ground his hips and by default, his cock, into me suggestively once, and raised an eyebrow to get his point across. I closed my eyes and turned my face and he chuckled darkly, a menacing sound, before he backed off of me and out the door.

  I was so fucked. He retook his place behind the wheel and put the car back into gear. I sniffed.
>
  “You are such an asshole,” I muttered and my captor barked a laugh.

  “You would know, being the daughter of that piece of shit. To break your word is disgusting. To give a false promise in order to get closer to someone?” He shook his head, the disgust clear in his voice. “Your father has a debt to pay and only blood will settle it.”

  “My father is a goddamned accountant! A CPA for Christ’s sake! I have no idea what kind of crazy you’ve got going on in there but you have the wrong person! You have to have the wrong person!” I turned away, refused to meet his glances in the rearview.

  Why were the good looking ones either taken, gay, or crazy? I found myself wondering. It was true. He wasn’t half bad to look at. Handsome face, long straight hair half way between his chin and shoulder and those shoulders were enough to drool over. If we’d been in the same bar or club I wouldn’t have hesitated to talk to him.

  He continued to drive and he didn’t speak anymore. I didn’t try to engage him in conversation either. We had to stop sometime, for gas or food or even for him to take a piss. When we did, I would figure something out. I had to figure something out. I closed my eyes, weary. This is not how I’d planned on my evening ending, not at all.

  Chapter 3

  William

  My throat hurt. Multiple times in a single evening she’d made me growl and I couldn’t keep doing that for long, it would do damage, take time to heal. And the fact she made me growl? It fucking irritated me. That growl was not designed for human vocal chords. If she kept pushing my buttons like this I would do some serious damage to my voice, and that damage took a while to heal, sometimes it became permanent.

  I had made sure to fill up the tank before I’d taken her but I would have to stop eventually and I didn’t like the chances that she would throw a grade-A hissy fit in the back and draw attention to us when we finally did. I needed to figure that out sooner rather than later because on top of my throat hurting, I was hungry and I needed to eat.

  “Hold out your wrists.” I said it so suddenly that it almost startled me, not to mention her. She jerked in the back where she was still laying down. She hadn’t been asleep, but she had been pretending.

  “Come on,” I said, getting irritated again, “I know you weren’t sleeping, hold out your wrists.”

  She was hesitant. Who could blame her? I’d attacked her in her home, kidnapped her from her bed, bruised her, threatened to rape her and then even gone so far as to threaten to mutilate her. It’s no surprise at all that she would be hesitant, but I didn’t have fucking time for this shit. I pushed back the rising tide of anger and breathed in and out slowly.

  “Give. Me. Your. Wrists.” I demanded slowly and deliberately. She held them up and I reached back and with one hand, jerked loose the knot I had made in the satin sash from her robe. I knew she had already tried the door handle discreetly. I’d heard it, but I was already one step ahead of her, the child lock was on. The back doors wouldn’t open from the inside.

  “Climb up front. Come here and sit down,” I ordered her. For a minute I thought she would stay in the back but eventually she decided it would be better to move. She climbed carefully into the front seat, trying to keep as far away from me as possible but the sedan wasn’t exactly roomy so I had to tilt my head slightly as her butt swung past me. Almost without thinking, I reached out and gave her ass a little slap.

  She yipped and spun quickly into the seat, face flaming a brilliant red to match her hair. I didn’t bother to hold back the laugh that bubbled out of me. You’ve just got to love the Irish, they wear their emotions on their faces. That fine skin did nothing to hide shame, embarrassment, or rage.

  “Asshole,” she muttered.

  “Put your seatbelt on.”

  “Suddenly so concerned with my safety?”

  “I’m concerned that I don’t want to be pulled over because a cop noticed that you weren’t wearing your seat belt. I could easily kill you before anyone managed to do anything about you being here. Come to think of it, I could kill them too… so don’t argue with me, just put your fucking seatbelt on!” My volume had grown and my voice had deepened and by the last few words I was bellowing in a bass so low that it practically shook the car.

  She put her seatbelt on, hands trembling so violently that she had trouble getting the latch to catch. I smiled at the small victory but it was drowned out by the wince. I rubbed at my throat. That really hurt. I needed to quit fucking doing that.

  We were silent for a time. I paid attention to traffic, which was picking up as early morning crept on into mid-morning. She stared out the window, deliberately looking away from me but I could see the wheels turning. A sign caught my eye from the edge of the freeway and I changed lanes. Hitting the exit I reached behind me and grabbed a spare jacket which I dropped into her lap.

  “Drape that across yourself,” I ordered and stopped at the light. She obeyed without question but there was a curious look in her eyes, which I ignored as I pulled into a parking lot and slid my hand under the jacket. I was throwing her off base, which was a good thing.

  “Don’t say a word, or you won’t like what happens,” I warned.

  She was stiff as a board, but nodded quietly as I slid my hand up the silky skin of her leg until it met the warm center between her thighs. She was clean shaven, I noted idly. I was tempted to mess with her seeing as she was such a pain in my ass, but I simply let my hand rest across her lips and hit the switch that rolled down my window with my free hand as we pulled to a stop.

  “Welcome to Carl’s Junior, may I take your order?”

  The voice emanating from the speaker was unnaturally loud and grating, something I didn’t appreciate but I nodded, even though they couldn’t see me.

  “Four of the Super Star burgers, please. Three large fries, make two of those cross cut. A large chocolate shake and a large Dr. Pepper.” I glanced at her. “You want anything?” Her eyes were wide at my order but she nodded after a moment. Fear wouldn’t stop her from eating, good to know.

  “A steak burrito combo, with a coke,” she said faintly and I relayed her order.

  “Please pull up to the window.”

  I pulled up, reached into my inside pocket and pulled out a black credit card with gold lettering to hand to the guy at the drive-thru. He was a pimply faced teen and I noticed him give an appraising look to Chloe’s barely covered torso. Can’t say I could blame him, she filled out all that creamy satin and lace really nicely. Still, for some reason his admiration pissed me off and I growled at the guy, my fingers tightening almost possessively on her before I could stop myself. She gasped and shuddered and I quickly loosened my grip.

  “Will there be anything else, Sir?” the kid asked after he handed back my card, the receipt, and our food.

  “No, that’s all, thank you,” I ground out, tersely. I hit the gas and roared out of the lot, irritation rasping in the center of my chest.

  She said nothing but began separating out the food. There wasn’t room for her to spread out all of mine but she pulled out one of the fries and set it in between the seats and pulled out a burger which she held out to me with a shaking hand.

  “Um… are you going to let go of me?” she asked and I realized I still had my hand resting between her legs. I nearly jumped, but I managed to calmly pull my hand out from under the coat and took the burger from her. I got onto the freeway and put my foot down, pushing the speed up until just under what I thought would flag police. Using my card hadn’t been the best idea, they would be able to find me, but my dumb ass hadn’t thought to grab cash.

  I ate my food in silent contemplation of how I was going to make the rest of this work, all the while ignoring the girl’s fragrance on my fingers.

  Chapter 4

  Chloe

  “Eat,” he commanded. Instead I continued my sightless staring out the window, my food growing cold and forgotten in my lap, which was thankfully, still covered by his coat.

  “Don’t touch me lik
e that again, please.” He stopped shoving food into his face and looked over at me. I could see him out of the corner of my eye but I didn’t turn to look. I was embarrassed for one. I should have been pissed, I should have been afraid, and I was, all of those things and more, but the humiliating part? I’d been aroused, too.

  I don’t know what it was, if it was fatigue, adrenaline, or if maybe my hormones had gone wonky from the stress… I don’t know what, but his hand between my thighs had turned me on a bit and that bothered me more than anything right now.

  “Eat your food,” he said again but his tone was different; not sharp, not angry… I think it had been the most normal sounding thing he’d said to me thus far.

  “Who are you?” I asked, unwrapping my food with shaking fingers.

  “Doesn’t matter,” his response was short but I think that had more to do with him shoving food in his mouth than it did with his being intentionally terse. He was eating like he was starved but at least he chewed with his mouth closed. I thought to myself, if only his mother had gotten around to teaching him that kidnapping girls from their beds was a bad thing.

  I couldn’t help it. It made me giggle, and once I started I couldn’t stop, the giggles turned into laughter and he looked at me with those wide brown eyes and I noticed the deep amber colored flecks in them. Beautiful, or they would be if he weren’t such a fucking weird maniac… Like I could talk, laughing hysterically like a crazy person as I was.

  “What’s your fucking deal?” he demanded and that just made me laugh harder.

  “My deal? Oh that’s rich, you asshole! I’m not the one kidnapping girls from their beds in the middle of the night!”

  “Don’t call me an asshole.”

  “Then tell me who you are, if I can’t call you anything else, ‘asshole’ it is.”

  He threw the wrapper to his burger back into the bag and gripped the wheel of the car with both hands. A muscle in his jaw ticked as he gritted his teeth, but I simply stared at his profile. It really was a crying shame he was such a dick, because he really was handsome. Straight, dishwater blonde hair hung halfway between his chin and shoulder, just barely brushing the top of his coat. He had a full goatee that had been unkempt long enough that it was headed into beard territory but it added to his good looks, it didn’t detract. Same with the long pale scar along his jaw, almost hidden by the beginnings of his beard. He had ‘bad boy’ written all over him without the benefit of his having kidnapped me, and a mouth that was made for sin.