He shoved her further into her pillow. He pounded harder and harder with each thrust, growling with pleasure and grunting his satisfaction.
Another orgasm began to build inside her and it was bigger than before. Each thrust brought her closer to the goal and she did nothing to hold it back. Alex became more forceful still and began clawing his hands down her back and pulling sharply on her hair.
His dominance drove her wild and she could do little to keep herself in check any longer. The sensation took hold of her again; she tried to scream but couldn’t find the breath to do so. Her face buried in the pillow and she exhaled heavily.
Her pussy convulsed around Alex’s thick cock and as she convulsed from the orgasm she felt him release himself inside. They both lingered on the orgasm they’d experienced. Neither wanted to move but Cynthia’s legs were jittery. She could hold herself up no longer and collapsed to the bed. Alex fell beside her, spent. The fire in the corner raged, but they no longer needed the heat.
That was definitely worth the wait, she thought.
Alex rolled to his side and held and arm around Cynthia. No words needed to be said; just silence, satisfaction, and the sudden need for sleep.
CHAPTER 9
Alex was woken from his slumber by a loud knock on the door. What now?
“Are you goin’ to sleep all day?” he heard his father ask from the other side.
He looked around the room and was glad to be greeted by Cynthia curled up under his arm. The fire in the stove had died in the night but the heat from it still lingered.
Alex shuffled to his feet, pulled on his jeans, kicked on his boots, and with shirt in hand he leaned down to kiss Cynthia’s cheek. His father waited for him impatiently on the other side of the door.
“Sorry,” he said, closing the door behind him, “it was a long night.”
A light snow was already falling on the sloping hillside. The sun reflected in his eyes off the stark white snow, blinding him. The trees were bare, save for a few evergreens slouching from the snow.
“The pack alpha’s name is Buck,” his father said, “I figured you might try talkin’ to him first. Gotta get some experience as a leader if you want to be an alpha someday.”
Alex knew what he meant but after last night he wasn’t sure if he really cared about being an alpha. As long as Cynthia was in his life, he was content. Whatever the case, he knew that part of the reason he was brought along for these diplomatic situations was because of the scars that were covering his chest. They were unmistakably made by the claws of a bear and aided in convincing anyone unwilling to believe the truth.
“I’ll give it a shot,” Alex replied as he stepped high over the snow with each footfall.
The cottage was already buzzing with morning activity and the smell of breakfast cooking in the back was almost too much to bear. The light from the morning sun peeked through windows on the upper story, casting rays of sunlight to the gathered pack who were watching the events unfold with interest.
“Some night, eh?” Buck said, greeting Alex and his father at the door. That it was. Alex shook the alpha’s hand firmly, as did his father.
Buck brought the pair of them to the corner of the den and sat them down on a bench. Graciously he offered them each a cup of tea to wake them up, which they accepted.
Alex sipped at his but his father elbowed him to action. He could feel his nerves failing him already.
“Er… right. Umm… over the past couple months, the bears have been attacking every wolf den in the area. We have no idea when they’re going to attack next, or where. But … umm,” Alex said, unsure. His father continued to sip at his tea and Alex got more nervous.
“Let’s fight … together?”
What the hell was that?
Shit. He felt like an idiot for not knowing what to say. His father went silent and still sipped at his tea. Buck sat in a rocking chair adorned with thick, hand-made, blankets and animal pelts. His confusion was plastered on his face.
“What?” Buck asked.
“We’re fighting and need help,” Alex pleaded.
“No,” Buck said, simply. “Bears have been peaceful since my grandfather’s day. We have no reason to pick a fight with them now. I understand you’re having a problem but our den is safe from the bears. Most of them don’t come up this far.”
Alex’s father leaned back on the bench.
“What if we could prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that the bears have been attacking?” Marcus asked.
“Even if you could, you really expect me to send my own men to fight a war so far away and die on foreign ground?” Buck wondered.
“If we don’t work together we’ll lose this fight before it even really starts,” Alex interjected.
Alex could see that he was losing the battle. Buck was a proud alpha, and Alex knew he was only doing what was right for his own pack. His father signaled Alex to be quiet. Great, another fuck up to add to the history books.
“Show them, Alex,” he said.
He stood from his seat and removed his shirt, exposing the scars that he proudly wore.
“Do you see these?” his father shouted, “These are from the first of their attacks. And, every day I wonder when he’ll receive another. Not only do we need your help, but you need ours as well. No pack is safe. Just because you haven’t been attacked yet, doesn’t mean you never will. The sooner we deal with these bears, the better.”
Alex looked around the room at the people watching. He lowered his shirt out of embarrassment.
“I would gladly step in the way of any enemy wanting to do your pack harm and I have in the past. You were there! Where is your sense of pride as a wolf? Don’t you desire to hunt? Don’t you desire the chance to sink your teeth into an enemy to protect your home?”
His father started pacing through the crowd. Alex sat silent and watched. This was the father he knew growing up. He was a man of passion and pride. Alex was none of those things. Stupid.
Many of the warriors in the house seemed sympathetic to the cause, Alex could feel it. His father had reached them with his words, even if his words hadn’t reached the pack alpha.
“You haven’t managed to convince me to commit anyone that isn’t willing, but it would seem you may have swayed the minds of a few that would follow,” he said. Buck stood from his seat and took Alex’s father by the shoulders. “I will not send anyone that isn’t willing to join, but if you want to join this wolf on his journey to defeat the bears, I won’t stop you.”
Alex looked through the crowd and saw more than a few strapping men step forward. They all, in turn, reached out and clasped Alex’s father by the shoulder. A gesture which his father mirrored.
Why couldn’t that have been him? What did his father have that he didn’t? He wrestled with the emotions that stirred inside. Trying his best to make sense of what he’d just seen.
I’ll never be like that.
“So be it, if it’s war they want, its war they’ll get,” Buck shouted.
The wolves in the crowd howled, and the woman and children cheered for their warriors. Alex felt his nerves well up in his chest, strangling him. He caught his father’s gaze and forced a smile. At least the day was won.
CHAPTER 10
Alex was frustrated, that much was clear. No matter how many kisses Cynthia tried to give him, he wouldn’t cheer up. She held his hand as they entered the cab of the truck. She was glad to be riding in the front this time, instead of the back. Even if the heater didn’t work, at least the biting wind and cold wouldn’t nibble at her skin.
Marcus, the old pack alpha and Alex’s dad, stood with Buck behind the truck. The two embraced like old friends.
“It’s going to be alright,” she said, trying her best to reassure Alex.
He huffed with a half-smile edging at the corner of his mouth. Dammit, just feel better! A row of trucks and SUV’s rounded a corner from just up the icy road, each one full of wolf shifters ready to join in the fight. Their
vehicles showed their age, with chipped paint and squeaky breaks, but they still moved forward. At least they had that much.
Cynthia held tightly around Alex’s arm. Even if she couldn’t improve his mood, having him nearby was enough for now. She knew he would come around in time. He always did.
Marcus plopped into the driver’s seat beside Alex.
“Let’s get home,” he said, twisting the ignition and bringing the old workhorse truck to life.
It was slow going down the icy mountain. The snow made the driving conditions difficult on their brakes and they didn’t so much drive down the hill as slide.
For the next hour they drove through sketchy conditions. Eventually the path cleared and they were able to drive instead of steer and pray. A collective exhale of nerves railed out from the trio in the cab.
Still, Alex sat silent. Cynthia caught his gaze as he looked out the window and she smiled. He smiled back, but it wasn’t genuine. Drastic times called for drastic measures. Cynthia played at the edge of his periphery, making odd faces, slowly moving in front of his face so he could see. The one that finally broke his stoic demeanor had her buck-toothed and cross-eyed.
Was that a bear?
She narrowed her eyes and caught sight of a large brown bear standing near the top of a snow embankment beside the road. Then another popped its head over the edge, then another. She lost count at ten. A mighty roar rang out, leading them to charge.
A massive pile of fur and muscle hammered into the side of the truck, causing it to careen out of control. It spun in circles, skidding off the road and coming to a crashing halt on a guard rail overlooking a sharp drop. Cynthia peered out the truck window to see how far down, but her vision was obscured by a dense fog.
Shit, shit, shit.
Alex was shaking his head to regain himself. To their left, on the driver’s side, the bear was thirty feet away, again rearing itself to hammer the truck over the ledge and possibly to their doom.
Run. Just get out and run! Cynthia’s fear frazzled her nerves and she was frozen in place, watching the horror unfold as the bear bore down on them.
Cynthia gasped when Marcus, having regained himself, kicked down the door and ran toward the bear. Didn’t he use a cane? His body began to shift from the excitement but he didn’t have enough time to do so fully. He met the bear just ten feet from the truck in an attempt to stop the charge but it was too heavy. The bear pushed him against the truck.
The guard rail groaned and cracked under the weight of the two shifters battling it out.
“Cynthia,” Alex said. He took her by the jaw and kissed her deeply. “I love you. When you see a chance, run.”
She snapped from her daze and nodded. Alex squeezed his way out his door and past the pair of shifters.
Alex fell to all fours and howled with pain. His skin tore away and tightly wound muscle wrapped against his bone. Patchy black fur matted against open wounds.
Something was wrong, why was it taking so long to shift? She fought with the idea of going to help him, but was sidetracked when she saw another bear charging towards the truck. This time, it would definitely fall off the cliff.
In front of her, Marcus and the first bear wrestled against the car, neither gaining any ground. To her back and her right was nothing but open cliff, and to her left was Alex writhing in agony with a bear ready to assault the truck. There was no escape.
A loud howl tore through the battlefield. The wolves from the den had their hands full with the rest of the attacking bears but paused for a second when they heard the cry. Even the bears were confused and curiously searched for the source.
Alex stood to all fours. Instead of the proud gray fur he always wore, he was covered in a thick black mane. He arched his back and lifted his muzzle to the sky and howled again. This time the bear wouldn’t be tricked. It charged forward without fear of the one simple wolf in its way.
Shit.
There was no way out of this. Cynthia tried the key in the truck ignition but the engine wouldn’t turn over. The passenger door was wedged against the guard rail. She twisted the knob for the window and worked as fast as she could to get it down and escape, but even if it was down she wouldn’t have enough time to wiggle free.
In a flash of black, the bear fell to its knees. Alex was standing over it, his jaws salivating. He growled at the bear that tried to fight to its feet, but Alex was too quick. He had the bear’s leg in his jaw in an instant.
Cynthia watched with horror as she saw rage explode from Alex. She’d never seen him act like this; she was in awe at how quickly he was moving, his constant attacks easily overpowering his foe. He was lost in his battle, gnashing at the creature he was entangled with.
The bear was still much stronger than him and finally fought him off. It reared back on its haunches and swiped with its front paws but Alex dodged the blows with ease.
She wiggled her way out the window and found footing on the guard rail. The drop looked even higher than she first imagined. You can do this. Just one foot over the other. Get around the truck and you can shift and run for safety. Marcus and his bear battled back and forth again, jostling the already slippery metal. Cynthia lost her grip and soon after her balance.
She caught herself on the edge of the guard rail. With her feet dangling, trying to get a foothold to push herself back up. The truck continued to snap and twist the guard rail as she held on. The bear was slowly overpowering Marcus.
“Help!” she shouted.
Cynthia struggled to find a good hold on the guard rail; the cold steel bit at her hands. You can do this, come on. Idiot. She cursed at herself more. Don’t look down. Don’t look down. Don’t look down.
The bear Alex was fighting shoved past him and tried to take advantage of the moment. It plodded towards Cynthia, hobbling on its back leg but still charging. Alex lurched in front of the massive beast just as it approached the cliff and toppled it to the ground. The loose dirt was unable to slow its momentum as it crashed through the broken guard rail, plunging past Cynthia into the depths below. As it fell, its paw grappled onto Cynthia’s leg and in that brief moment she found herself falling.
Cynthia let out a panicked scream and reached for anything that might slow her decent. Alex barked and leapt of the edge. Cynthia shook her head no. His body started to snap and crack back into shape. His human hand reached out to catch her. With one long stretch, he snagged Cynthia by the leg and tugged her to his chest. Hugging her close he maneuvered his body so that he would absorb the fall. He managed to softly kiss her on the forehead.
Cynthia could just barely feel her tears flow as they descended into the abyss of fog.
Thump!
Alex took most of the impact, lying dead to the world on his back as everything else went black.
CHAPTER 11
“Alex, wake up!” she shouted through cries.
Fucking hell.
Everything was a blur, they were surrounded by dense fog. His vision was cloudy but it started to pull itself into focus as he elbowed himself into a sitting position. Every muscle fiber and bone within his body ached. The blood from the fighting was dried to his skin.
Cynthia threw her arms around him, holding tightly. He winced in pain, but was glad she had survived the fall. She kissed every inch of his face as tears streaked down her cheeks.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, “this wasn’t meant to happen!”
“What happened,” Alex asked, mind still in a daze.
He looked up, trying to peer through the fog and could just barely make out the top of the cliff. It was high; over 100 feet at least, any normal human would have likely died from the fall.
How did I survive?
“I tried to climb over the truck but just couldn’t get a good grip, I feel so stupid that I can’t even climb. Stupid!”
Alex returned himself to the ground and laughed, his body ached with each exhale. He didn’t know what was so funny, after falling from such a height all of the bones in h
is body should have been broken. Thankfully it seemed that they had healed while he was sleeping, though, he was still incredibly sore. He managed another laugh, for the moment he was just glad to be alive.
“What are you laughing at?” she asked with half a giggle. She brushed the tears from her cheek and stared at him with concerned interest. “I think that fall made you go crazy.”
Alex pulled at her arm, catching her off guard, bringing her beside him. The movement knocked the delicate wind from his lungs but it brought her closer. He leaned on his side and kissed her on the lips.
“It might have,” he said, “but at least we survived.”
Every inch of his skin tingled like little bolts of electricity stabbing at every pore.
“How did you do that?” Cynthia asked.
“Do what?” he wondered.
“You were, different,” She began, her eyes searched all over his face. “I mean, you moved with such speed, and you looked stronger than usual. You were just as terrifying as an alpha,” she said.
“I-” he began, scratching his head, “I don’t know.” Something was definitely different, he knew that for certain. He felt something click, perhaps it was his resolve. After he gave his wolf instincts full control of his body, everything felt natural.
She pushed herself to sit up.
“Can you do it again?” she asked.
Alex thought about it for a moment. He could feel the basic urge to shift into his wolf form scratching at the back of his mind. But, his wolf felt content. As though it were an animal that had its fill and required rest.
“I’m not sure,” he replied, bringing himself to his feet. Pushing through the burn and cracking of his limbs. Still, he clutched at a wound the bear had given him to his side.
“We need to find a way out of this place. We have to join up with the other wolves,” she said after watching him get up slowly. They both knew they were in trouble if they were attacked in their weakened state.
Loved by the Alpha Bear (Alpha Bears Book 3) Page 77
