by Mina Carter
Screw. That.
She’d almost been killed, Alex had bitten her and apparently turned her into a werewolf, a defective one since she didn’t feel much different, and to add insult to injury, he hadn’t even come to see her when she was lying at death’s door.
Asshole needed a lesson in manners.
Her hand hit the painted wood hard, shoving the door inward so hard, it hit the plaster with a crash. The crack of splintering wood said she’d broken either the frame or the door, but she didn’t care, already storming across the room.
Alex sat behind the desk, looking up as she slammed her hands down on the surface in front of him.
“Some pack fucking alpha you are,” she snarled, trying to hide the hurt she felt inside at him abandoning her when she needed him the most. “I thought you were supposed to care for all the wolves in your pack, not leave them high and dry when they’re mortally ill.”
Alex didn’t move, gaze locked with hers. As she watched, amber flared in his eyes, shooting out from the central ring like solar flares until just a thin circle of blue remained at the edges. His nostrils flared, features tight. He was pissed at her accusation, but she didn’t care.
“And just who brought you here?” he asked, his voice tight with control. “Who made sure you got medical attention… The right medical attention, not some damn human hospital who haven’t a clue how to deal with a werewolf? Do you know how many people survive a lycan bite?”
He rose, movements controlled. An aura of danger surrounded him, one she’d seen before and been attracted to, but now was ramped up to the max. The veneer of the civilized billionaire businessman cracked more than she’d ever seen, revealing the maelstrom beneath. Alex Kingwood was the poster boy for what a lycan could be; handsome, sophisticated elegance dressed in designer suits with a ruthless streak humans couldn’t help but be attracted to.
But that ruthless streak was wider, more than just a streak or personality attribute. It was part of his very core, part of the very feralness and primal nature that drove him.
The scales fell from her eyes. Alex Kingwood wasn’t a good man with a ruthless streak. He was a ruthless predator who wore the man like a suit. And that made a shiver go down her spine.
“No, how the hell should I know how many can take a bite?” she admitted. And she didn’t have a clue. She knew lycans carefully controlled who they bit, that they had to have permission from the pack alpha.
Her mother, wanting to sink her claws deeper into the Kingwood fortune, had petitioned Charles to turn them. All of them. She hadn’t even thought to ask her children whether they wanted to be lycan or not. All she’d seen was a way to ensure she kept her place and access to the money she liked so much.
Eva would have; she knew that without thinking. Anything to learn more about lycans, and perhaps get closer to Alex. But the request had been denied by his father. Repeatedly. Eventually even Naomi had gotten the message. They weren’t good enough to be lycan. A message which had been driven home hard and fast, and she still felt the sting of today.
If she wasn’t good enough, why had Alex turned her?
“Why?”
Even standing on the other side of the desk, he towered over her. He hadn’t shifted, even a little… But seeing all that anger contained in his human form made her stomach quiver with instinctive fear. Which was ridiculous. She knew Alex, he would never hurt… When she’d been human.
Now she wasn’t and the tension between them had changed.
“Why what? Why don’t some people survive a lycan bite?” He rounded the desk as he spoke, gaze latched onto hers. It wasn’t a walk; it was far more dangerous.
Always before, she’d seen Alex playing human, now she realized it was just that, playing. A mask to conceal the creature within. The beast she poked with a stick.
Shit, she’d never been very good at self-preservation.
Even though her instincts clamored at her to run, she held her ground. Something deep within wouldn’t give ground, wouldn’t let her back even a half step. If she did, then she’d lose somehow. Instead, she held his gaze, a challenge in itself, but she didn’t care.
“The infection overwhelms them. It rips into the body, into each cell, tearing it apart to change to something else.” His voice was mesmerizing, deep and low, the rich tones sliding over her senses like thick chocolate sauce over hot cake. “Taking them, cell by cell, from plain old human to something far more dangerous. Some people can’t take it. Their bodies give out, or worse, fight the infection… which fights back, creating an ever escalating feud on the cellular level until the body gives up. End game.”
“No. That’s not what I meant.”
She tilted her head as he came to a stop in front of her, so close she felt the heat of his body through his shirt and her dress. Layers of fabric separated them, but all she wanted was to tear them away and rub herself against him. Skin to skin.
Heat flared. Crawled through her veins, and shivered along her skin. Unbidden, unwanted, her core ached and her pussy clenched. Liquid heat dampened her panties and his nostrils flared a response.
Her cheeks burned but she held his gaze, daring him to mention it. He’d always been able to make her react, sometimes just with a look, but she’d be damned if she was going to be a slave to her own responses.
His eyebrow quirked, just a little, in curiosity. “What did you mean then?”
“Why did you do what you did? Why did you bite me? What happened? Was this some kind of accident?” Soon as her mouth was open, and she’d started, the questions tumbled out over each other in a hurried jumble.
“What kind of accident would be so bad that you need to bite me? Make me into a werewolf… Whatever the hell kind of werewolf I am. Because, I don’t know about you,” she motioned to herself, “but I’m not seeing a whole lot of furry shit going on here.”
“You were dying. What would you expect I do… Leave you there?” His expression was hard, like a whip. “Give me some credit, Eva. I wouldn’t let you die. Not while you’re in my care.”
He hadn’t answered her question. His expression said he wasn’t going to. Anger flared and a snarl rumbled in the back of her throat. It wasn’t a human sound; that made no sense, but she was too pissed off to care.
“Dammit, Alex.” She slammed her hands into his broad chest and shoved. It was like trying to shove a cliff but he rocked back on his feet, surprise in his eyes. “Just give me a straight fucking answer.”
He grabbed her wrists, yanked her up against him as he turned, pinning her between him and broad desk. The heat simmering through her veins turned volcanic, supercharged, and shot through her veins. Her body went pliant in his grasp, her curves against the hard muscled planes of his larger form. Damn traitorous thing.
“Answer?” His voice was no less a snarl than hers had been. “I’ll give you an answer.”
His lips crashed down on hers. Hard. Demanding. Ruthless.
The dominating manner had always done it for her, sending her up in flames in his arms, but that had been before. This was something else. The same as she realized he wore his human appearance like a mask, she tasted the true depth of his feral masculinity.
His lips parted hers, tongue shoved past to gain possession of her mouth. She whimpered, fingers clutching at his shirt. The sound of tearing fabric filled the room, ignored by both. His tongue found hers, slid against it, back and forth in a primal rhythm.
Hands hard on her waist, he caged her, held her. One slid around and down, large fingers spread to cup the globe of her ass. With a hard yank, pulled against him, and she felt the thick bar of his cock pressing into her soft belly.
Her gasp of need was smothered beneath his lips as he took hers. Claimed them. Branded them with the heat of his own. It wasn’t the same as before. At his apartment, he’d been dominant and assertive. Firm with her as he took what he wanted, there had always been a measure of gentleness. An awareness and reference she hadn’t realized.
Un
til now, when it was gone.
But this… this was something else. His near rough manner, the way he held her as though he owned her, triggered primal instincts she didn’t know she had. She slid her tongue against his, fighting to get closer. All she wanted, all she could think of, was getting closer... Skin to skin. Him pushing her back on the desk, shoving that dress up and getting between her thighs.
Her core pulsed, an ache so savage she broke away with a whimper of distress.
She needed him. Needed this. Damn what the hell had happened.
“God, Eva…” His voice was ragged, his lips against her temple as she fought for breath. Instinctively, she nestled against him, pressed her mouth against his throat and he jerked, shoving her away from him so fast, she stumbled against the desk.
“We can’t.” He backed away, the lines of his body so tight with tension, the air virtually vibrated around him.
“Why not?” She took a step forward, not understanding. “Sure as hell wanted to in the city.”
He took a breath, obviously gathering himself, and his expression blanked. This was the alpha she knew instinctively, even though she’d never seen that look before.
“Things are different now. This is pack law.”
Pack law meant he couldn’t kiss her? Pack law meant that now she was bitten, they were done? She didn’t need to ask the question, seeing it in his expression.
“Well, screw pack law,” she snarled and ran from the room.
*
Of all the screwed-up, shitty situations to find herself in. Still fuming, Eva stormed through the manor like all the hounds of hell marched at her heels. She had no real idea where she was going, and to be honest, she really didn’t care. All she wanted was to get as far from Alex as physically possible.
Her expression was like thunder, so dark and ominous that the staff scattered before her, even though they were full lycan and she, apparently, was not. At the moment, though, she really didn’t care. One more asshole mentioned pack law and she’d tear them a new one, lycan or frigging not.
By the time she’d worked her way down to the kitchens, her usual refuge in times of stress, her anger had turned to misery and a hard knot formed in the back of her throat.
Hearing voices ahead, she ducked into a storeroom and pulled the door shut. Leaning against it, she closed her eyes. As a human she hadn’t been good enough for Alex, she’d known that… accepted that. But to find out she wasn’t good enough when she was a werewolf either…
She swallowed. Hard. She wouldn’t cry.
Her eyes didn’t seem to have gotten that memo. Tears built and prickled hot needles into the back of them. Breathing deeply, she fought them. Not happening. She was done crying over Alex.
“...says she’s not changed yet.”
“Really? Like at all?”
Eva opened her eyes at the sound of voices on the other side of the door. Great. Even the staff were talking about her. Not that she should have expected anything else. They were all lycan and therefore part of the pack. Probably a higher level than she was since most were born wolves, and she was a bitten wolf who hadn’t even got enough juice to prove she had an inner wolf.
“Nope. No fur, no hint of amber when she’s stressed. Kevin said that only happens with the weakest of wolves. Like well below beta level.”
“Oh my word. Well, if her bite came from the alpha and she’s still that weak… Alex isn’t going to take her to mate, is he?”
“Fuck no, he can’t. An alpha needs a strong mate.”
Eva turned against the door, jamming her foot against the bottom of it when the voices stopped just outside. Shit. If they found her in here, they’d know she’d been listening to their gossip. Panic started to overwhelm her, then she stopped. Frowned. What the fuck did she have to be ashamed of? They were talking about her… so fuck them.
Still, she wanted to hear the rest of the conversation so she pressed her ear closer to the door.
“Yeah, but the Master of the City mated that Trevais woman… the one they all said was nearer to human than lycan.”
The other woman snorted in amusement. “He’s the Master of the City. Would you argue with Veyr?”
“Do I look suicidal to you? I like my throat the way it is, thank you very much, not shredded from ear to ear.”
“Exactly. Veyr is a different matter. Alex? Not so much, he still has to adhere to pack law.”
Eva’s lips curled back from her teeth, and with supreme effort, she kept the snarl in the back of her throat a silent one. Pack law, pack law, everyone was so freaking worried about pack bloody law. Assholes. All of them.
“Hey, is this all the linen we have? We’re missing some towels and at least two tablecloths.”
“I think we’re due a delivery from the laundry service later.”
“Well… it does explain one thing.”
“About the tablecloths?”
“No… about Alex’s little pet.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“She’s not exactly svelte-like, is she? My cousin married a bitten woman, emigrated to England where she was from. She was well, rather large when she was bitten, but the weight dropped off her when her wolf took hold. So that would make sense, because doesn’t look like this one lost any.”
“Yeah, you’ve got a point. Like any wolf woman would be that… curvy.” She spat the word like it was distasteful and the snarl in the back of Eva’s throat rose to just below audible. Anger burned within her. Rose from the depths of her soul to scorch the inside of her veins as her blood boiled through them. Her nails flexed, biting into the wood as she fought the need to tear the door open and launch herself at the lycan woman, her rage so intense and complete she shook.
“Yeah. Good point… Hey, did you hear about the deal tonight with the vamps?”
The words stopped Eva’s anger dead in its tracks. The vampires had Davie.
“Yeah. Not a moment too soon either.”
The voices grew quieter as the women walked away up the corridor. Eva cracked the door open a notch to hear better.
“Too true. Have you had to take a blood bag down to that one in the basement yet? Fucking thing freaks me out. The sooner it’s gone, the better.”
Eva blinked slowly, absorbing this new information. Alex had a vampire prisoner, and a deal with the vampires going down tonight? Hope filled her heart. He’d sworn he’d help her and he was making deals with vampires, with what sounded like a prisoner exchange. And there was only person she could think of for Alex to exchange a captured vamp for.
Davie.
Chapter Three
Eva managed to avoid Alex for most of the day by escaping to the library. Not hard when he also appeared to be doing his best to avoid her. Probably didn’t want reminded of his mistake.
The more she thought about it, the more she became convinced what they’d had was just a bit of fun for him. That she was just a human plaything to be put aside when his duty to mate for the pack came calling.
Asshole. She’d thought that about him so often in the last few hours, she should really append it as a prefix to his name. Scowling, she realized she’d re-read the same six sentences of her book for the last hour or so.
With a sigh, she closed it and stood. It was a new one by her favorite author, one she hadn’t gotten around to reading yet, so to find it on the shelves of Alex’s library had been a surprise. In fact, there was a whole shelf dedicated to romance, so someone in the house must be a fan.
Not Alex though, she couldn’t see him reading anything so frivolous. Perhaps something dry about the history of lycans or war amongst the paranormal race… that seemed more his style, not romance even if he did totally fit the mold of asshole-alpha-male-who-needed-bringing-down-a-peg-or-two perfectly.
Her lips quirked as she headed for the door. There was that word again. Asshole. It just seemed to slide so perfectly through the mind when she thought of him. Unfortunately, her over-active imagination didn’t stop there. Oh
, no. Once it had latched onto him, it rifled through her memories and raided them, presenting her with images of Alex naked, his gloriously muscled form stripped for her perusal… the way his eyes flared with amber and darkness when he was aroused. The way his cock felt when he drove int…
Shit. No. Hissing in anger at herself, she shut down the thought before it could get any further. She was not a bitch in heat to be panting after the pack alpha. There would be no more nights wrapped around his heavily-muscled form, or him moving over her as he drove into her again and again. Not now. Even if he wanted to, her pride wouldn’t allow it. She refused to be good enough to screw, but not good enough to mate.
Fuck that.
Or in this case, not.
Voices on the other side of the library door made her pause, her hand on the doorframe. Every cell in her body went on alert as she froze in place. Male voices.
“I’ll be gone until nightfall. Make sure our guests are fed and watered,” Alex said, his voice more familiar to her than her own. Yearning filled her heart for a second at the deep tones, but she chased it aside with a spurt of anger.
“Yes, boss.”
The second voice she also recognized. Frank. She still wasn’t sure how rankings in the pack worked, but if Alex had a right-hand man, Frank was it. A wash of guilt hit her hard and fast. And he’d lost his nephew because of her so if she was looking for help, it wasn’t going to come from that quarter.
She pressed a little closer to the door, her breathing shallow as they stopped nearby.
“Get someone to clean thoroughly in here. Smells like half the damn pack have set up camp. And before I forget, make sure Eva gets a little something ‘extra’ to help her rest. I don’t want anything to go wrong tonight.”
Eva’s eyes widened. He planned to drug her? Of all the low down, assholish things to do. Her lips curled back again as anger surged, almost overwhelming her. A small crack under her hand warned she needed to get a handle on her temper.
Even from the other side of the door, she felt him pause. Heard the rasp of his breath as he turned. She squeezed her eyes shut, clearly seeing in her mind’s eye the frown she knew marred his brow. Any moment now the door would be flung open. Alex had to know she was there.
