by M. L. Briers
If he was going to do it he would need to do it quickly. She couldn’t get pregnant, because he would never tear a family apart. Damn, what if she was already pregnant? What if she carried the man’s child within her womb and he’d have to watch her belly swell as it grew inside her?
Alex stalked back and forth across his bedroom floor. Running hadn’t worked for him. A long cold shower certainly hadn’t worked for him, although he’d found himself slightly less tense after forty five minute and several… He growled out his annoyance. That damn issue just kept raising its head over and over again without proper relief. There would be no relief until he pushed into her depth and claimed…
Alex whirled on his heels and growled at the images within his mind. He didn’t need another forty five minute shower to tell him what he already knew. He was smitten by her, bitten by the damn need for her, and she was married, but not off limits…
Alex’s head snapped up and he eyed the window without even seeing out through the glass, he was staring back at his own reflection. Not off limits… Not yet. She was his mate and he was going to damn well woo her. No matter what. That was his decision and he was the alpha, so it was final… wasn’t it?
“Jonathon I know you said you weren’t coming up the weekend, but something’s happened and I think you need to get here…Now.”Julia didn’t want to be so cryptic, but she found she couldn’t just blurt it out over the phone, it didn’t feel right.
“Is it Sofia…?”The panic in her brother’s voice made her feel even more guilty, maybe she should just blurt it out. “Is she hurt?”He demanded when Julia didn’t answer.
“Nope. Not hurt, but we have a problem…”Julia bit down on her need to tell him. She could hear Steve in the background demanding answers. Jonathon and Steve had been together nearly as long as Sofia and her brother had been married.
It was almost as if once he was safely behind the walls of his fake marriage he could relax and find the one… and now Sofia had found the one. Julia knew her brother, there was no way he would deny her that happiness he had with Steve.
And Steve for his part loved Sofia like a sister. He was fiercely protective of her around their friends, especially the ones who knew their secret, but weren’t impressed with the whole cloak and dagger sham marriage, almost demanding that Jonathon should come out of the closet at work and put his career on the line. They couldn’t fire him for being Gay, but they sure as hell could find something else to fire him for.
“I don’t know, Steve, shut up and let me listen.”Jonathan hissed and Steve pouted. She could almost see him doing it. He did it so well, and so often.
“Well, tell her to get to the point.”Steve hissed back and Julia rolled her eyes.
“You should just come up and we should talk…”Julia really didn’t want to do this on the phone. Especially not now the two of them were bickering like the old, not-so-married-married-couple that they were.
“We’ll get the train…”Jonathon assured her.
“No we won’t, we’ll take the car. The train isn’t going to stop there at that time at night.”Steve hissed in the background and Julia snorted a chuckle.
“Fine…”Jonathon hissed and then spoke into the phone. “We’ll jump in the car and be there within the next couple of hours…”
“It only takes an hour, and with no traffic…”Steve hissed and Jonathon groaned.
“We’re on our way, sweets.”Jonathon assured her before the line went dead in her hand. She pulled the handset away from her ear and stared blankly at the screen as the light faded to black.
“This should prove interesting.”Julia groaned. Thinking that maybe she should have just done it over the phone.
“You did what?”Sofia almost screamed it from the rooftop. Maybe the rooftop was where she needed to be right now. She certainly didn’t want to be facing Jonathon and Steve in the next- however long it would take them to get there. “Are you insane?”
“We’ve had that conversation and the answer is still yes, sometimes, but not about this.”Julia assured her, taking the calm approach to Sofia’s almost manic tendencies.
“I need a drink…”She set off for the kitchen, but Julia cut her off.
“You do not need to be poo-faced when they get here, and besides I tossed your scotch.”Julia gave her a triumphant wag of her eyebrows and Sofia groaned.
“You did not...”Sofia announced with the scepticism that rolled through her. It would probably have broken her friend’s heart to throw away good booze. No, it was in the house, but she’d damn well hidden it.
“Did too.”Julia’s whole attitude said she wasn’t about to tell her where.
Sofia huffed and turned on her heels. If that was the case, two could play at that game. She wanted a drink and she was bloody going to get one.
“Fine. I’m going out and you can wait here for Jonathon and Steve to arrive.”Sofia headed straight for the front door, snatched the door open and left, without looking back.
Sofia didn’t hesitate in her step all the way to the bar. She didn’t hesitate to throw open the door and walk inside, but she did more than hesitate when the first pair of eyes that she focused on were her mates. She almost tripped over her own jaw, it seemed to get wrapped around her feet, and she subconsciously took two steps backwards as her whole body seemed to want to make her take leaps and bounds forwards.
“Crap!”It was the only word that was bouncing around inside her brain, so it was a sure fire bet that it was the one that was going to burst from her lips, especially as he was already up on his feet and moving towards her.
He had the look of a hungry wolf in his eyes and she didn’t think she was imagining that, as his long legs ate up the distance between them, like it was just a few paces.
“Gotta go.”Was the next thing she managed to spit out from her suddenly parched lips, as she turned and hit the solidity of another broad chest that had come in behind her and was blocking her escape route like a wall of pure muscle.
Sofia was sure that she just sort of bounced off the man, and her head shot backwards on her neck, with her eyes snapping upwards to assess what she was dealing with. She saw the amusement in the pale blue eyes staring back down at her for only a moment, as the man’s attention was taken by the deep low growl of warning that came from behind her back.
Every hair on her body stood to attention. Every fibre of her being wanted to melt into a mushy goo on the floor, and her brain switched from panic to docile awareness.
“Walk away, Rory.”The alpha growled, low and deep, and with enough menace to have the Lycan in front of her snap to attention and be off in a heartbeat.
She had no clue as to why, now that the man mountain wasn’t blocking her getaway any longer, she was still standing there, immobile, like a lamb to the slaughter, like a damn idiot.
“Sofia…”His deep tone drawled, and her body responded in kind. Mushy goo. She would have turned towards him, but she wasn’t sure which way was up. But that was a mistake all of its own. The warmth of his hands on her shoulders travelled through her body like a wildfire. She was sure that the small yelp she gave had echoed off the silence inside the room, much to her annoyance, as all eyes focused on the alpha and his mate.
He turned her in place. She found her eyes glued to his for the longest moment of her life. Snared. Like a deer after a hunt.
“I…”It was the best she could do. It might not have been an award winning speech, and she wasn’t about to submit it as a CV, but it seemed to be all her fuddled brain could handle, as his hands slowly travelled down over her upper arms.
Oh, that feeling, the feeling that his fingertips created over her skin and how it shot through her body, like the downturn on a rollercoaster. There was clenching of muscles, feminine muscles, hollow clenching around an imaginary…
“Drink?”He offered. The look in his eyes said it wasn’t a drink he wanted, or was offering her. The slight upturn to his lips said he knew what she was feeling, everything that s
he was feeling, and she felt the colour deepen in her cheeks.
“I…”The second try for a sentence came up empty and she shook her head, at least she thought she shook her head, it felt like it moved, just not a great deal.
“Then I guess you came here looking for me.”He gave her a wolfish grin. A grin that said he was going to devour her whole, but not with teeth and claws. No, he was going to use everything but.
Sofia swallowed down the very big lump that wasn’t really in her throat, but boy did it feel like it. She practically reached up and slapped herself around her own face to try to knock some sense into her mind.
His hands were still on her arms, but they were now loose bands around her wrists, and how they seemed to tether her to him. That was the wakeup call that she needed. She yanked her arms away from him.
He felt her pull away, physically and emotionally. She blinked several times and tried to shake the pull his hands had caused on her mind and body.
“No.”Sofia declared and saw him frown. Was that the right answer? What had been the question?
“No?”He offered back to her as if he wanted her to be sure of her answer.
“Yes.”Sofia declared, but the wolfish grin and the way he practically ate her up with his eyes told her she was an idiot.
“Yes…”He grinned triumphantly, but playfully, and she balked.
“No.”She answered again with another sort of shake of her head. Firmly of the belief that it was the right answer this time. He seemed to damn happy with the other one.
“But you found me, now what will you do with me?”
Sofia wanted to groan against the mental images his words created within her mind. What would she do with him? Goddess, what she wanted to do to him right at that moment in time. It was somewhere between hit him over the head with the nearest tree trunk, or curl up around his body and do all of those things she’d read about in her romance novels. The good stuff, the stuff that real people just didn’t get to do, unless they had a Lycan of their own handy…
“I have no intention of doing anything with you. I’m married.”Yes! She’d found her voice, she’d found her spirit, and she clung to the lie of her life like it was a lifejacket.
“Married isn’t a problem for me…”Alex declared, with a slight internal wince. It was, but it was a problem he was willing to overlook.
“Well it is for me. I have morals.”Sofia declared. There was a rush to guilt inside her. She had so many damn morals that she was standing there lying to her mate. Great role model she’d be for the children she was never going to have with this man.
“I guess it would be easier if you were a widow.”Alex didn’t mean that the way it had sounded, or maybe he did… but the wide eyed look of terror on his mates face made him want to head butt the nearest brick wall.
Sofia backed the hell up. Right there and then she’d encountered that proverbial wakeup call to her common sense and her mind, as if he’d just whipped out an axe and was coming for her husband. Only this man didn’t need anything as mundane as an axe. Not when he was carrying his own arsenal of deadly weapons inside his body.
“Wait. Sofia…”Alex felt her fear and it cut him like a knife. Kept him rooted to the spot, knowing that in that moment in time what she feared most, was him.
Sofia didn’t run. She wasn’t to the point of insanity yet. Run from her mate? She might as well have painted a bull’s eye on her back, but she did high tail it out of there on fast feet, feet that felt like lead. She could have been dragging a lump of concrete on each foot, because every step away from him was pure hell.
“Sofia…”She felt his hand circle her wrist and she didn’t try to stop herself being turned back towards him. Even with the cool chill of the night air she felt warmed by him, by his presence, by his touch. “I would never hurt you.”The feel of his fingertips against her cheek, as he cupped her face, was like a caress to her body and soul.
“He’s my husband…”She left out the words that echoed hollowly in her mind, in name only. He was her friend even if they didn’t share a bed.
“I can’t deny the urge to kill him is strong, but that would hurt you, and like I said, I would never hurt you.”There was a low deep growl behind his words that rang more than a few bells within her.
“I need to leave now.”Sofia went to move away, but his hand on her wrist tightened just a little and that possessiveness, that desire he had for her said more than anything of his feelings.
“Let me scent you…”Alex’s words were more a plea. He was her mate, how could she deny him something as basic as taking in her scent? He already had it, but not properly, not in the Lycan way, but wasn’t it only adding fuel to the fire?
“Alex…”She was going to deny him. He could hear it in her tone, sense it in the way she stood away from him, her body slightly arching backwards, when he knew that she desired nothing more than to sway towards him, reach out and touch him.
“Don’t deny me your scent…”He growled gently, encouragingly.
“And then what? Don’t deny me your taste? Don’t deny me your body? Don’t deny me the bond?”Sofia had the mental image of all of those things inside her mind and it caused her to shiver long and hard.
“Just your scent, love.”He growled again. He took the smallest of steps towards her that closed what had felt like an ocean between them. And then his body was there, not against hers, but it might as well have been. There was no longer any personal space around them. There was no longer the ocean, but air, the smallest amount of air, barely a particle could have passed between them, and she shivered long and hard again.
Alex felt the shiver run through her. His fingers slowly ran from her cheek into her hair and he fisted the silken strands as he dipped his head and scented the sweet smell of her very essence. His hot breath caressed her neck and she trembled.
Sofia couldn’t stop her hands reaching for his chest. Her fingers skirted and then flattened against the muscles that tensed under her touch. Her forehead brushed against his top, but he might as well have been naked, her body swayed just that breath towards his, shutting out even the air between them, and his gentle growl rumbled in his chest and through her fingers to deep within her very soul.
“Sofia.”Her name was reverently spoken on his lips, and those lips gently brushed the heated skin of her neck and her knees almost gave way. But the feel of his hand leaving her wrist and travelling around her body to the small of her back, keeping her upright, keeping her body against his, made her want so much more.
“Alex please, let me go now.”She knew she couldn’t have backed away from him if her life depended on it. Not then, not in that one moment when she felt so connected to him that the sky could fall, the world could erupt in the fires of hell, and all life could cease to exist around them. She was his and he was hers and together they could survive anything.
She’d never had this. She’d never known this. She’d believed this wasn’t for her. This life, this love, this contentment. How could she walk away from this? She needed him to do it. To take the first step. If he walked away then so could she. If he let go of the moment, of the connection between them, then she could let go too.
Alex fought an internal battle, not only with himself, but with his wolf. Neither one of them wanted to take a step back, not when he could stand here with her like this for all eternity. His wolf whined such a sorrowful tune within him that Alex thought his heart might just break in two. But she needed his strength now, and she was his mate, he would die for her in battle. But he didn’t have anyone to fight, only himself.
He would slay any beast intent on harming her without a thought to his own safety, and he knew that the beast was holding her now. A tender embrace that was tearing her apart inside, pulling her emotions in two different directions, no matter that it was done with pure love for her, he was the beast to be slayed.
Alex took that one long step into the abyss and away from his fated love. His hands couldn’t hold onto her a mom
ent longer in his torment and they dropped to his sides. His head bowed in shame that he had thought to do this to her and then he threw his head back and roared with everything he felt inside. The agony of a love unfulfilled, a moment before he turned on fast feet and ran into the woods. Shifting into his beast and leaving his mate behind him.
Sofia couldn’t stop the forward march of her feet now that they had begun. One foot in front of the other, she ran blindly down the road. The tears that welled in her eyes and cascaded down her cheeks stung against the chilled air of the night. But she didn’t give a damn.
She had lied to her mate. She had given him the pain and torturous agony that she heard in the roar that had been ripped from his chest. She had felt every part of that pain as it swept over her body, entered her very soul.
He was hers. Her forever mate, her love, her life, and she had caused him such agony in that one lie, in that one moment that if she lived for all eternity she could never atone for her sin.
Sofia saw the lights coming towards her through the haze of her tears. Her misery was so deep within her soul that she didn’t care. Didn’t breathe in the time it took for the car to be upon her. She kept going. Kept running…
Jonathon saw the figure in the road a moment before he turned the wheel and slammed on the breaks. He heard his partner let out a high pitched warning shriek beside him, but it was too late. He knew he was going to hit. His heart hammered within his chest and his eyes widened as he saw Sofia’s face in front of him, and he screamed out a denial of what was about to happen…
CHAPTER FOUR
Shaun flung himself in front of the car without even thinking about it. She was of his pack and it was his duty to protect her. His strong arms wrapped around her and his body curled against hers, as the force of his body hitting hers took her from her feet.
