Alpha MC: The McKinnon Brothers

by Alana Hart

  Liam frowned. “I guess.”

  “Get all your frustrations out?”

  His gut clenched. “Fuck are you talking about?”

  She chuckled. “Maybe I was wrong about you being a virgin.”

  He felt his cheeks get warm and struggled to keep his face angry. Angry was better than embarrassed. “Whatever,” he snapped, and left the kitchen.

  “Where you going?” she called.

  “Bed.”

  “It’s not even seven.”

  “Good night.” He took the stairs three at a time, closed the door to the room he’d chosen, and fell on the bed.

  Fuck. He was so used to living in the Den with its soundproofed walls, that he’d forgotten she would also be able to hear him. He needed to get away from her. She was a girl with some serious issues, and he didn’t need that in his life. He was going to be an alpha, a great honor and huge responsibility. He had no place in his life for anything else.

  One more day, he told himself. After that he would be free of the nosey hybrid.

  And then his door opened. He closed his eyes.

  “What?” he growled.

  She stepped inside.

  “That wasn’t an invitation.” He kept his eyes shut hoping she’d go away, but his bed sank as she sat down. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m bored.”

  “Go to bed.”

  “Not tired.”

  “I am.”

  “No you’re not.”

  His eyes snapped open and he glared at her grinning face, the bright blue eyes piercing him. She wore the same baggy gray tee shirt, but it pulled up in the back so that he became very aware that she wasn’t wearing anything else.

  He pointed in her face. “Get your skanky, hybrid cunt out of my room. I’m tired and have to figure out what to do tomorrow. Don’t need you fucking with my time.”

  She sighed. “You must scare a lot of people.”

  He stared at her, the stare that made most people run from him.

  “Not me, though,” she said. “I told you, I grew up in foster homes. Not the nice ones you see on TV. I got the shit shows. I was a problem child passed from place to place, given up on before I turned nine. You won’t scare me away with names, Liam.”

  He did not like the sound of his name in her mouth—or, he did like, and he didn’t like that he liked it. Sitting up in a flash, he wrapped a hand around her throat and squeezed enough to hear her heart speed up.

  She flinched, but remained where she was, relaxed.

  “You think you could do worse than the guys at the facility?”

  “I could kill you.” He squeezed harder to show her how easy it would be.

  Her only response to that was a smile. It irritated Liam so much that he let her go, pushing her away.

  “Not worth it,” he mumbled and lay back on the bed.

  “Why do you hate people so much?”

  “For fuck’s sake, go away.”

  She cocked an eyebrow. “Just talk to me a while. I’ll get tired eventually.”

  Maybe, Liam thought, but he remembered staying up late many nights with her at the facility.

  He sighed and crossed his arms. “I don’t hate all people.”

  “Just humans?”

  “Not all of them,” he said, thinking of his brother Aiden’s friend, Reagan. Though technically she wasn’t human anymore.

  “So there’s hope for me yet,” she teased.

  “Don’t hold your breath.”

  “Are you a virgin?”

  He tensed, already hating this conversation. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, filling his nose with the heady scent of Lyss. “Yeah, I am.”

  She whistled. “Wow. Why?”

  He was highly aware of how close to him she was sitting. He could feel the heat of her thigh against his hip.

  “Sex is for procreation, and I don’t need to procreate. My brothers can do that.”

  “But sex is fun.”

  He peered at her from one eye. “You had fun with Warren?”

  “That wasn’t sex.” He couldn’t frighten her off by mentioning what happened to her at the facility. She was a tough chick, this Lyss.

  He sighed. “Sex is for love, and I don’t believe in love.”

  He had closed his eyes again, and Lyss was silent for so long that he thought she had somehow slipped from the room. But, no, when he opened his eyes, she still sat on his bed beside him, a pained almost devastated look on her face.

  “What?” he said.

  She blinked, the look clearing, and smiled. “Sex and love are not one in the same.”

  He sat up, leaning on his elbows. “You don’t think sex would be more enjoyable if you loved the other person?”

  She shrugged. “Maybe. But you can still enjoy it if you don’t.”

  Liam shook his head and lay down, folding his hands over his chest. “I don’t need to find out. Sex and love are a waste of time. They make people do stupid things for each other. Makes them lose who they are.”

  Lyss was shaking her head slowly. “Someone sure fucked you up, huh? Was it mommy? Does little Liam have some mommy issues?”

  “Fuck off, cunt.” He didn’t care that words didn’t affect her, he didn’t know how to hurt her, and he wanted to.

  “Don’t you want to at least try it?”

  “What with you?” He laughed. His laugh stuck in his throat when Lyss slid onto his lap, straddling him. “Fuck are you doing?”

  Her eyes glinted almost red in the light of the dying sunset. “You’re going to tell me you haven’t even thought about it?” She rocked against him, and he felt himself respond.

  Grabbing her hips to keep her still, he glared up at her. “No, but I can think about it and not do anything.”

  “Not in my experience.”

  “There’s a first for everything.”

  She grinned wickedly. “I think this will be your first.” And despite his hands clamped on her hips, she rocked again, harder this time.

  He hissed through clenched teeth, gripping her hips hard. He could have thrown her off of him, but he didn’t. Some sick, delirious part of him didn’t want her to stop.

  He tried one more time. “Haven’t you had enough of guys forcing you to fuck them?”

  She stilled, looking down at him. His stomach clenched as she took his wrists in her hands, too strong, and he remembered her recent introduction to shifterdom. She pressed his hands over his head, leaning close to his face, and moved her hips slowly, up and down, riding him.

  “No,” she said. “This time I’m the one doing the forcing.”

  She sat back, pressing herself against him, and pulled her shirt over her head. Liam watched her breasts swing free, his hands itching to grab them. But he wouldn’t. He didn’t need love and he didn’t need sex. He could ride this out, let her do what she needed, and then prove that he didn’t need any of it.

  She reached down and unbuttoned his jeans, pulling the zipper. When he sprang free, she caught him, and watched her hand move up and down the shaft. Before he had time to react, she slid down and took him in her mouth.

  He gripped the sheets, his breath caught in his throat.

  She sucked him, milked him, making little sounds in her throat, humming against him. Her tongue sliding over him was enough. He sat up, reaching for her, but she surged forward, pushing him back down, took him in her hand, and sank down on top of him until he was deep inside her.

  Words failed him. He stared at the place where their bodies met, and watched as she lifted herself almost completely off of him. She sank back down a little, pulled up, sank down a little farther. She did this over and over until he thought he would go mad from wanting to bury himself inside her.

  He caught her eye and saw the gleam of triumph and pleasure there. Sitting up, he wrapped his hand in her hair and pulled her head back.

  “Enough,” he growled, but she sank down onto him, taking him fully inside her. Faces close, breath mingling, Lyss re
ached up and touched Liam’s cheek. His heart ached.

  “You want me to stop?” she said as she ground herself against him.

  Yes! For the love of Christ, stop! Gritting his teeth, he met those piercing eyes. “No,” he whispered.

  Her pupils grew large. She pushed him back, lifted herself off of him, turned around, and sank back down. Her hair tickled his stomach as she leaned back, filling herself with him.

  Liam watched her ass as she fucked him. It’s just sex, he told himself. It means nothing. But it sure fucking felt good. He grabbed her ass, squeezing, and she moved faster in response.

  He wanted more. Wrapping an arm around her waist, Liam flipped them over so that she was on her hands and knees in front of him. She arched her back, pressing against him. Kneeling, Liam took her hips in his hands and slammed into her. She screamed, looking over her shoulder. The desire in her eyes matched his own. He slammed into her again and again, each time making her scream louder.

  He moved faster, pushing deeper, their hips smacking with such force it shook the bed. He felt her tense, her breathing stopped, and she clenched around him. When she finally dropped her head to the bed, panting, Liam bent over her, slamming into her, breathing in the scent of her sweat-soaked skin.

  Knowing that his blood, his venom, ran through her veins urged him faster. His fangs emerged. He sank them into her ribs, feeling her clench around him again, this time screaming as she came a second time, and then he was lost as well, spilling himself deep inside her.

  He slowed and finally stopped. Panting against her back, his forehead resting there, Liam felt the regret washing over him, regret and a sense of something lost being found, something empty being filled.

  He could not love. He would not love her.

  Chapter Twelve

  Lyss breathed into the mattress feeling the heat of Liam fill her. The stinging in her side was fading fast, but what was holding strong was the feeling of power that taking Liam had given her.

  There was guilt, too, but if he really hadn’t wanted to fuck her, he wouldn’t have. Some part of her felt she was helping him. But mostly she just wanted him. She had never had a no strings romp and if Liam really was against love, then she had accomplished it. Men were no good. Sex was great, but too often it came with assholes or clingers or jealousy. Just this once she could fuck someone without having to lie afterwards.

  “You know,” she panted. “For someone whose never had sex, you sure know how to fuck.”

  His body stiffened around her. Liam moved away from her. She lay on the bed watching him where he sat, and then she stood, pulled her shirt on, and left the room.

  That she already wanted to fuck him again meant nothing. She felt more when she was with him and that was understandable; she had his blood in her. She could feel twice what others would feel, her feelings and some of his. Sex with Liam was phenomenal, but it was a one-time thing.

  Besides, he didn’t believe in love. That was a deal breaker for her. She may have had a shitty childhood, but there had been people she truly loved, people she had cared about. Love was important. She needed it, craved it. And since Liam couldn’t provide, she would not be sticking around.

  Once she was safe from the facility, Lyss planned on seeing the ocean still, and then hopping on a boat and seeing the world.

  She took a hot shower, pressing her hand against her stomach, the feel of him inside her left her feeling dizzy. She rinsed, stepped out into the cold bathroom, and found her way back to her bed across the hall from Liam. His room was quiet and dark. Lyss lay down and watched the moon track across the sky, stars blinking through a thin layer of gray clouds.

  It had been nice taking control, taking something from someone that they didn’t want to give her, something they could never have back. It had been nice, but now that it was over, now that she was no longer next to Liam, she felt the profound sense of having lost something.

  It felt like only minutes had passed after she managed to fall asleep that Liam was beside her bed waking her. He put his finger to his lips before she could say a word. The intensity in his eyes put her on alert.

  It was early morning, some time before dawn, the sky a static gray.

  She listened as she climbed from the bed and pulled on a tee shirt and a pair of jeans. Voices floated in from outside under the static hush of someone talking over a radio. A woman spoke in a nasally voice.

  “That’s the Costa’s house, sir, and they ain’t supposed to be home for ‘nother three weeks. I know cause I’m watching their fish for ‘em. Someone’s in there that ain’t s‘posed to be.”

  By the time the neighbor had finished telling the police officer her story, Liam and Lyss had disappeared into the woods behind the house.

  They were close to the highway again, the sound of early morning traffic humming a mile or so away, when they finally stopped to catch their breath. Lyss rubbed her ribs.

  “Think the place sent them?”

  Liam shook his head. “No, just a nosey neighbor.” He turned then and met her eyes. The jolt that went through her was startling. For once, Lyss didn’t know what to say.

  Why him? She’d had sex before, with guys she cared for and guys who forced her, but she never really loved any of them. Sex was fun, she hadn’t been lying when she said that. There was no room in her life for a relationship. Honestly, she was way too damaged to be someone’s other half, and as far as she could tell, Liam was just as fucked up as she was. And he hated her.

  Shaking off the butterflies fluttering all over her body, Lyss broke the eye contact, and then she froze.

  Liam must have heard it at the same time because he whipped around, but too late. The tranquillizer sank deep into his back. He spun, trying to yank it out. Lyss crouched, ready for an attack, and then the sting of another tranquillizer got her in the thigh.

  She yanked the tiny dart free, but it was empty. She felt the effects almost instantly. Woozy, her vision swirling, she watched Liam take a swing at someone and fall. That someone then knelt in Lyss’s line of vision, which was quickly becoming too blurry to see through.

  A bald man, with cold, dark eyes peered at her.

  “Did it work?” another asked.

  Dr. Anderson shined a light in Lyss’s eyes. “Hard to tell without some tests.” He stood. “Get them in the van.”

  Whatever they had been shot with wasn’t putting Lyss to sleep. Liam, she could see, was passed out as they hauled him alongside her through the woods. Perhaps they had underestimated her because she was a woman, but all she felt was exhausted, her limbs too heavy to move. So she pretended to be passed out, keeping her eyes shut, listening to the doctor talk to one of his cronies.

  “His blood is phenomenal,” Dr. Anderson was saying, his monotone voice sounding excited. “We’ll take more samples, run more tests. He’s not like any other hybrid we’ve found before. This ability of his… if it sped up her changing, then we may have a breakthrough.”

  The man carrying Lyss over his shoulder dropped her suddenly and she landed with a thump on a carpeted floor. She chanced a glance and saw she was in a van. Liam was dropped beside her. The men with Dr. Anderson climbed in back, while what had to be a student drove. Dr. Anderson, from the sound of his voice, was in the passenger seat.

  “I’ll need to call O’Neil. We may need more funding.”

  “Another auction could bring in a lot of money. And if we advertise him as a stud, we could bring in more bids once there is offspring.” The student seemed overly excited.

  Anderson made a sound of agreement, his thoughts obviously somewhere else. Someone was texting on their phone near Lyss, their thumbs tapping away at the screen.

  “Will she sow the babies?” Lyss contained her growl. Sow?

  “Depends on her ability to carry offspring. We’ll test that, as well. Lorn,” he spoke up. “Call ahead. We need to run more blood tests on the male and a full scan on the female. Tell them to prep three females. If he won’t perform, we can extract
the semen and implant it in the females.”

  Lyss thought she was going to be sick. How was he talking about people as if they were animals for breeding?

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And, Cromlin—”

  Exactly what he was going to have Cromlin do, Lyss didn’t find out. At that moment there was a thunderous boom, the van crunched and was thrown sideways, and Lyss slammed into something metal.

  She opened her eyes and was staring at the floor of the van over her head. Of the men in back, two were obviously dead, and the other was knocked out. The side of the van where they had been sitting had been hit so hard that it nearly touched the door on the other side. In front, the driver’s head dangled loosely from his body strapped in by the seatbelt. Anderson’s forehead dripped thickly with blood.

  Lyss, her adrenaline overpowering the tranquillizer, scrambled up, grabbing Liam. He moaned and held his head in his hand. A cut there was healing already.

  “C’mon,” Lyss said and started dragging him toward the back doors. Before she could get her hand on them, they flew open, revealing two people in black clothing.

  The woman had dark red hair and hazel eyes. The man was tall and broad, with a dark beard and hair and blue eyes. They looked oddly familiar.

  “They’ll have back up nearby,” said the man. “We need to move.”

  Glancing at Lyss, the woman looked over Liam, her face pained.

  “Liam?” she said.

  His eyes snapped open. For a moment he stared at her, and then his eyes found the man. Lyss felt his heart speed up a moment before he clamored away from them, awkwardly due to the drugs.

  “We need to get you out of here,” the woman said. “We can talk, if you want to.”

  “Fuck that,” Liam spat.

  The woman flinched.

  Liam leapt to his feet and started walking slowly. Lyss could feel the drugs leaving her system, so it must’ve been the same for him.

  “Liam, please wait.” The woman went after him. When she reached for his arm, he spun around and glared at her. The hatred in his eyes made Lyss freeze where she crouched by the van.

  “Wait? Wait for you?” Pain thickened his voice. “I did my share of waiting for you. I’m done.”