Alphas Unbound: 8 Sexy Shifter Romances

by Elsa Jade

  “Kind of wish you did.” Iron didn’t, not really, but frustration was riding him hard, and instead of being able to leave here to spend the weekend shifted, running the woods and letting the wolf out, he instead was here for the next several hours, exposed to Bella and fighting every fucking minute the need to get close.

  Steel shrugged. “Enough shit goes on during a mating season. No need to add more to it.”

  “What do you think is going to happen with Mel?” And now all Iron needed was a fucking sewing circle to go with all this goddamn feelings talk.

  But he was worried. The situation with Brick and House and Mel wasn’t only shitty, it was unusual. And if anyone cared about the outcome as much as Iron did, it was Steel.

  “Hard to say. All possibilities have shitty parts to them. Mel comes first though. Whatever else, she’s protected.”

  “Are you going to say anything to Brick and House?”

  Steel shook his head. “Nothing I can say they don’t know. Besides, I don’t say anything and get involved with that shit.”

  “You say plenty to me.”

  “I say shit to rile you as a friend,” Steel countered. “I don’t say dick as your alpha. The serious stuff, that’s for you to decide, and I’m not going to dictate your life.”

  “Yeah.” It was the old way, the old laws, and some packs still ran that way – alphas in charge of every decision including pack matches and allowing runs. Not their pack, though, not since Steel’s father challenged his way to alpha and changed everything. That man had been a great alpha, and Steel was following in his steps, an alpha he was proud to be beta for.

  The pride Iron had in his alpha made this next part difficult. Steel wouldn’t be happy over this next bit of news, and though Iron had every right to his decision, the wolf didn’t like upsetting its alpha. Iron respected Steel, and total fucking honesty, he feared the alpha, just a little. All the assurance that he was within his rights didn’t quite cover his apprehension about doing something he knew would be against Steel’s wishes. “Besides, it’s not necessary. I made a decision.”

  Steel’s head popped towards Iron, surprise and curiosity playing over his features. “What do you mean?”

  “Laura. I’m taking her as a mate.”

  “The fuck you talking about?” Steel half threw himself from the barstool in shock, his head whipping around to look at the bar. If he was looking for Laura it was pointless. Laura was visiting family this week, some big reunion, planned for months, and that was the only reason Iron had put off mating her. Fuck any little voice in his head that said otherwise. “Are you shitting me?”

  Pissed was good. Pissed was better than scared or disappointed. “You said you don’t get involved.”

  “You’re passing up your true mate, who you’ve known and loved since first grade, to take some…”

  “Don’t finish that sentence,” Iron warned before Steel could say anything further. Steel never liked Laura and Iron half expected this reaction, but he wasn’t going to hear anyone – even his alpha – talk shit about the woman he just confessed he was going to mate.

  “Why? Out of everyone in this forsaken city, why her? It makes no sense.”

  “She knows who and what we are. She knows our world. She wants lots of kids and has no problem that this is going to be our life. And I know you don’t like her, but I do, enough that I know we’ll make good parents and have a good life together.”

  “You’re an idiot.”

  “Steel-”

  “You’re a fucking idiot,” Steel ground on, the disgust on his face clear as a ringing bell. “You got the sexiest, smartest woman we’ve ever met as your mate, and you’re not even going to try?”

  “Made my decision.” Iron’s growl was audible, a rough scrape of vibration against eardrums. “Accept it or don’t, but I made my decision.”

  Steel rose, leaning into Iron’s space, about to say something else, when with a sudden jerk he drew back, his eyebrows crowding close together and wary surprise racing across his features.

  This was Steel’s alpha face. This was wolf business, somehow, but Iron didn’t feel a goddamn thing – not a wrong scent, not a wrong noise – and that had his hackles rising. Iron pulled back from their fight, every inch now pure beta of the pack. “Anything I need to do?”

  Steel’s face shifted by the second, concern going into confusion, wariness translating into…hope? Only the light in his eyes and the feel of alpha never left. “Don’t know. Stay here, and follow in ten if I don’t come back.” With that, Steel left the bar, the front door slamming behind him.

  “Fuck.” This night was putting Iron on edge. Hell, he’d been on for what seemed forever. Fucking Mating Season. Somehow this year its pull was harder than ever to ignore, and it seemed every unmated male in the pack was feeling the effects. Probably because the full moon was on Beltane this year. Bubby would probably know, but he wasn’t going to visit the old woman to ask. She’d smack him in the back of his head and ask him why he hadn’t mated Bella yet.

  Speak of the incredibly sexy little devil… Bella walked to the bar, sitting that plush ass firmly on the bar stool right in front of him. “What’s a girl got to do to get a drink around here?” she asked, and her tongue came out, touching the corner of her mouth with a light, sensuous stroke, designed to make a man’s dick immediately jump with the hope it could be included the next time that tongue made an appearance.

  Fuck.

  Chapter Two

  ‡

  If anyone else ordered a piña colada, he’d have kicked them out of the bar.

  Bella, though, drank only fruity drinks and the occasional margarita. Like hell he’d ever admit he’d memorized that entire section of a bartender’s bible, let alone that he bought it thinking of her.

  “Thought the hospital liked you too much to let you off on a Friday,” Iron said, setting the drink in front of her.

  Bella picked up the drink, her eyes on him over the rim of the cup. She took a long swallow, humming in pleasure, his sensitive ears picking up the sound over the general noise of the bar. After she put the drink back down, her tongue made another appearance, swiping away over her lips, picking up any lingering moisture.

  And all the while, her gaze was locked with his.

  He stared back, refusing to look anywhere else on that bountiful body, that beautiful face. He couldn’t crack, not now, not when he was finally closing the door that should have been slammed shut years ago.

  “It’s not me specifically the hospital likes. Any resident is fair game.”

  “They still work you too fucking hard.”

  She shrugged, her lips in a little half-smile. “I gotta pay my dues like anyone else. But…” She trailed off, bending forward a little to rest on the bar, hunching her shoulders to give a wider gap at the front of her shirt and with that, an amazing look down at the top of her breasts–“I do have tonight and tomorrow off. Plenty of time to…relax.”

  Desire pulsed low in his belly, a flame that started simmering the moment he saw her tonight rising and flaring to meet the heat in her gaze. Bella had always been flirty with him, but tonight she was on a mission, in his face with her desires. “Playing some pool to relax?”

  “To begin with.”

  The tension wasn’t broken, but put on hold when one of the girls Bella had come in with walked up to the bar and grabbed her arm. Iron bit the inside of his cheek to keep from baring his teeth at the girl. The girl, unaware of any vibes, pulled at Bella, saying, “We got the next game, and Sam is asking if you’ll partner with him.”

  The way she said the name told of a long-running story, a game plan in motion.

  Sam.

  So that was rich boy’s name. He had an open, eager face, decent enough looking, more intelligent than handsome, and his gaze was once again fixed on Bella in a way that had the glass in Iron’s hand in danger of cracking.

  “I’ll be over in a moment. Let me finish my drink and grab another.” Bella lo
oked to Iron, and taking the hint, he began mixing the next one. After a couple more words, Bella pushed the other girl away and once again turned her full attention on him. “Sam’s a doctor – pediatrics. Nice guy, too. Been flirting with me for a while, but it hasn’t turned into anything yet.”

  “I didn’t ask.”

  “No, you only looked ready to murder. Why is that, I wonder? Think he’s too good for me?”

  His voice was rough in anger. “Where do you get this shit? When the fuck have I ever thought that about you? If anything, pencil dick isn’t good enough for you. I could go over there and break him, and there’d be nothing he could do to protect you from me.”

  Bella’s eyes lit up, and his wolf went to ground, positive he’d somehow walked into a trap. She wrapped a strand of rich brown hair around her finger, pulling it across her mouth, bringing his attention to the star of many of his favorite fantasies. “Oh? Does that mean you think you’re better for me? Because you can protect me? Place me behind you while you take on the world for me?”

  Her words became visual for him, and the phantom feeling of her body pressed against his back had him almost panting with adrenaline and desire.

  “How should I thank my protector?” Bella continued, and she leaned closer, dropping her voice to the low tones that seemed designed to make his dick go from zero to coming in about ten seconds. “On my knees? With my mouth open and my tongue out, waiting for my man to take his reward?”

  If his knees hadn’t locked he’d be on the ground, the image in his mind destroying every bit of strength in his body. Fuck yes, he wanted to come all over that beautiful face, thick white strands visible against the rich tan of her skin, and then he’d push every bit into her mouth, watch her swallow his come down, and by the time it was done he’d be so fucking turned on he’d do it all over again.

  “Is that what you want to see? Me marked by you, so much that no one will ever doubt you own me?”

  She was sin and temptation and every fantasy of his life, and the thread of his control was fraying with every word she spoke, unraveling no matter how he tried to pull it together.

  “Bella,” came a voice from the tables behind them, but other than a lift of her hand to acknowledge she heard the words, Bella otherwise didn’t give them any attention.

  Instead her attention was focused on him, those gorgeous brown eyes shining with want and lust and determination. “Let me tell you a secret, Iron. I decided I’m spending the next twenty-four hours getting fucked. I want a dick deep inside me, so hard and so full and so deep I won’t walk right for three days. I want a man’s tongue running over every inch of my body, like he’s starving and the only thing that sates the hunger is the taste of my skin. I want a voice in my ear describing every filthy, debauched sexual act he’s going to do to me or make me do to him, and I want him to wreck me, and then I’m going to turn around and do the same thing to him. And finally, I want a good dozen orgasms before I go back to the hospital Sunday afternoon.”

  Iron was frozen, his brain not working and his dick in danger of exploding from all the blood settled there.

  Bella leaned back, still sexy, but no longer carnal, no longer primal. Now she was talking as two long-time friends did. “Here’s the deal. I want that man to be you. I’m tired of our little thing, whatever the fuck it is. So this is your choice. At the end of the night, I’m going home with a man, either you or Sam. If it’s Sam, it might be the beginning of a relationship, or it might be a one-time thing between colleagues. I don’t know, but I’m not going to worry about that now. If it’s you…” and here she stood and leaned forward, grabbing the drink from his hand, her face too close for anyone to mistake what she was saying as casual. “If it’s you, we can enact every fantasy the two of us have had, and I don’t know everything that will happen after, but Iron? One thing I know? I know it will be good.”

  She placed a twenty on the bar. “Keep the change,” she said, and walked to her friends.

  Fuck.

  Chapter Three

  ‡

  Stupid, sexy, stubborn bastard.

  Why? What had she done to deserve to fall in love with the most idiotic, blind asshole to ever walk the earth? Bella swallowed the water in three gulps. She couldn’t handle any more liquor on her stomach, not the way it roiled in time with her nerves.

  None of her friends noticed, though. They laughed, smiled as they continued to play pool. Only Mel had been able to tell when they talked earlier. Of course, only Mel knew her history with Iron and what the plan was for tonight.

  Sam couldn’t keep his eyes off her. She’d been the center of his focus all night. Good-looking in a quiet way, brilliant, genuinely nice, rising star of pediatrics, and she could barely look at him because Iron was in the same room.

  Stupid muscle-bound, dour jerk. He pulled her out of the sandbox when Rick Jordan shoved her, wiped the sand from her knees, and told her to beat Rick’s ass and he’d make sure none of Rick’s gang would jump in. After Rick ran away with a bleeding nose and his former friends now making fun of him, Iron smiled and said, “You’re badass.”

  Mrs. Jenkins scolded him for his language, and Bella decided then and there she was going to marry him.

  The problem was he didn’t get the same revelation.

  All through high school, Mel assured her that the chemistry between them was almost visible, that he was going to break one day and bend her over the nearest desk and after that they’d be together forever.

  It never happened. He had a revolving rotation of girls, and she’d ended up losing her virginity to Billy Marconi on prom night.

  Billy had been a mistake – not because she regretted finally having sex, but because his idea of foreplay was two minutes sucking on each breast, followed by five pumps, followed by being asleep the rest of the night. Yeah, she never went out with Billy again.

  The bad sex she was able to rectify through a college social life she refused to sacrifice for her medical goals, but she never forgot Iron. No man could come close, though all her college girlfriends conceded she gave it a hell of an effort. She didn’t plan to pine for the guy, it was just that she couldn’t forget him.

  Twenty-two years, umpteen fights, a legendary amount of jackassery, and he was still the only one who made her heart twist in her chest with his smile.

  Which led to Mel’s phone call, telling Bella of her theories of what was going on with Iron and his love life. Which led to Bella taking charge and getting her ass down here.

  Which led to tonight, because like hell Laura was going to get her man as a mate. Fuck that shit. It was one thing to think Iron would never mate. In a weird way, she could deal with that. Not optimal, but hey, that was life. Taking another woman as mate though?

  It wasn’t going to happen. Full stop.

  And why wasn’t it going to happen? Because beyond their weird chemistry, beyond her crazy, never-ending feelings for him, the truth was Iron didn’t love Laura – and no, it wasn’t Bella’s dislike of her former high school enemy talking.

  Mel agreed with her, though Mel could hardly be called a disinterested party. Still, Mel had been adamant it seemed Iron had decided to settle, and that Laura was the safest, easiest choice.

  Leaving Iron to deal with whatever garbage was going through his thick head when it came to their relationship and watch as he mated another woman would have been the safe, easy choice. Accepting defeat and going out with Sam or another doctor – again, the safe, easy choice.

  And when did Isabella Santiago ever go with the safe, easy choice? Exactly, and it wasn’t happening now, not when her future with Iron was involved.

  This was getting settled. She was going to get the blind idiot to admit he loved her and wanted to take her as his mate this mating season. Enough of patience. Enough of pulling back, or giving him space, or any other crap she’d told herself to do as she fought her instincts to settle this by sitting him on a chair, sinking down on his cock, baring her throat, and demanding he c
laim her.

  It was time to get on with their lives. Bella was getting older, and she wanted the family, wanted the kids, wanted Sunday dinners and raucous laughter and tears and wanted to tear her hair out over the chaotic love large families have, the kind she grew up in…and fuck, her biological clock must already be ticking, because right now she wanted to forget the preliminaries and jump on Iron.

  “You look a little flushed. Should I get you a drink?” Sam’s voice broke through her thoughts, and she lifted her heated face to her sort-of friend and interested suitor.

  Sam had been subtle, but in slow strokes he’d been making it clear over the last few weeks that his interest was more than in being colleagues.

  The attention was flattering, and everyone around her agreed he was perfect. Her friends at the hospital had been talking them up to each other for a long time. No doubt there was a betting pool over when they’d get together, because Sam was the sort of guy any sensible woman would think might be it.

  But she wanted Iron. He was twenty-two years of adoration and love, fifteen years of sexual desire, wrapped in a six-foot-two body that paid homage to his name. He was hard and large, possessive and powerful, a man who was only supposed to exist on movie screens and in female fantasies, not in real life.

  Iron was it for her, and this thing with Sam, with Laura? All it did was bring her feelings to a head. Better or worse, and she knew how true that was.

  She belonged to Iron.

  Iron belonged to her.

  And he better get with the program, because if he dared try to let her go home with Sam, she’d, she’d…

  A charged energy ran down her back, and she turned to find herself the focus of Iron’s gaze, his hazel eyes almost glowing as they took her in.

  Kara, the nurse who was the biggest champion of Bella and Sam getting together and probably had the most money on the line in the betting pool, looked at her watch. “I got to get home, guys. Promised the hubby I wouldn’t be too late.”