CLAIMED BY THE ALPHA UNDERBOSS

by Candace Ayers

  Eliseo slammed his fist down on the table in front of me startling me out of my reverie. The cannolis had just come around, along with a fresh round of port. His skin was flushed; his lips were sloppy. He was more than drunk—and in front of Don.

  One glance at the head of the table next to me told me that Don had stepped out. How had I not noticed that? Markus blurred my senses. I wasn’t used to missing things.

  “Maybe that’s why he stole from you and fucking disappeared.”

  I gulped. The haze of my slight buzz made it difficult for me to fully process his words. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about you being a cunt.”

  It was like he had slapped me again.

  “Hey!” Markus barked. “Eliseo, get a hold of yourself!”

  “Tell me where the fuck he is!” He jutted his finger at me.

  Markus jumped up and grabbed his shirt front in a fist, knocking over a glass of wine. His face had turned beat red, the veins popping out on his neck. He looked as though he was straining to control himself. “You’re angry Don put me on the bust tomorrow and not you. You want it?”

  “Don’t fucking do that. Don’t you dare fucking try make me your charity.”

  There it was again, that deep growl.

  I started to scoot back in my chair.

  “Get a hold of yourself, Eliseo.” His eyes glowed even more so than I had seen before.

  Eliseo’s gaze had taken on a silver quality. He tipped his head up, letting out a blood-curdling growl.

  Why was I the only one in the room who wanted to scream?

  My makeup woman-friend stood up, mumbling something and reached behind the curtain retrieving a faux wall. It was made of steel and slammed shut, a lock coming down with it. I glanced around me again, taking a closer look. Behind all the curtains, everything was steel. Holy shit. Phantom pain from the slaps and the punch and the torture took over my body. I was stuck. Fucking stuck in this room with mobsters… and Markus…

  “You don’t tell me what to do. Only Don does that.” He reached over the table and backhanded Markus so hard he let go of the shirt. His chair tipped so he stood up, letting out a growl of his own. It was guttural, inhuman. I pressed my back against the steel door, suddenly feeling like the whole room was closing in.

  “Except you don’t listen. You don’t deliver.”

  Eliseo was shaking all over. “Don’t provoke me.” His eyes changed right before mine. They weren’t grey, they were silver and they were getting bigger, and red-rimmed.

  Markus backhanded him so hard he was flung all the way around, flying against the wall. He turned back around and shoved Markus who flew towards my wall. I screeched stepping out of the way. I heard something crack. A bone maybe? “Markus!” I sounded like a hyena.

  “Emily.” Another man stepped towards me. His face was stern, but unconcerned, like this scene was commonplace. He lifted me up and held me but I couldn’t tell if it was to keep me there, or to keep me out of harm’s way.

  Markus rolled over. “You don’t need to be provoked.” He was growling like an animal or a monster. He was shaking too, just like Eliseo. Something was about to happen, I could feel it. “You can’t get results.” He was gaining on Eliseo, who had now started hyperventilating, breathing so hard his whole chest looked like it was going to explode. Was I watching a seizure? Were they both dying? No. That didn’t make any sense. “You are failing Don.” He reached out on either side of him, turning his head up to the ceiling again.

  The make-up woman went around the room, blowing out all the candles.

  Suddenly, it was pitch black.

  Another howl. I heard crackling and popping sounds, whimpers of pain. Something sloshed to the ground. Blood? The sounds were coming from everywhere, all around me. I couldn’t distinguish anything but I thought I might have heard ripping and tearing. More growls. It was so loud, it drowned out my own heart pounding in my chest.

  “Oh no. They’re dying.” Markus had slipped from my fingers. What was happening? Were they fighting? Why the hell didn’t anyone care? “Markus!”

  Someone flicked on a flashlight. It was about time.

  But my heart stopped when I saw the scene before me. Eliseo was on the ground, lying face up and naked, his clothes sprawled around him. But it wasn’t just his clothes, some of them were Markus’s. But Markus wasn’t anywhere to be seen. There was wolf standing on top of Eliseo with blood dripping from its fang-like teeth. His coat was white, but damp with a red substance that must have been blood too.

  I was four feet away from an actual wolf. Where had it come from?

  What the fuck had I gotten myself into?

  Chapter Seven

  I sat up in bed all night, waiting for Markus and it wasn’t until the sun had started to rise that he finally came for me. His shirt was completely unbuttoned and his pants had dust stains on them. He looked tired. Drained. I stood up and walked to him because I just couldn’t wait any longer. I hadn’t stopped shaking since the incident.

  “What the hell was that back there? Where did that wolf come from? Where did you go?” He shook his head, brushing past me. He let himself fall onto the bed.

  Without wasting a second, I went to join him, climbing up next to him. “Why did you leave me?”

  He seemed to wake up to this. He turned his face toward me. “I didn’t leave you. I was there the whole time.”

  Now, I was even more confused. “You have to explain yourself.” Without thinking, I reached my hand under his shirt and touched the skin of his torso. He inhaled sharply and his eyes glazed.

  He turned over, resting on his elbow and fingering the hem of my dress. “I don’t want to scare you away.”

  I snickered. “I met you in the middle of being tortured. You got into a fight right in front of my face. You work for the mob. What could be worse?”

  He let out a dry chuckle and focused on a spot on the ceiling. “All of that sounds pretty frightening.”

  I shook my head. My first instinct was to compare this strange relationship, or whatever it was that was going on between Markus and me, to my relationship with Cody. But he wasn’t Cody. For some reason, those silent mornings and cold shoulders were a million times more exhausting and terrifying than real conflict.

  He traced his hand across my cheek. “You look so sad.”

  I lifted it from my face and held it to my chest. “You have to give me something. Please.”

  He let out a sigh. “There is more.”

  “What?” I was hungry for knowledge. Ready to know everything. “God, just explain this to me. That wasn’t a fight, what was it? The way the two of you were shaking like that? And why didn’t anyone stop you—”

  He silenced me with a hand to my lips. “Let me explain.”

  I nodded.

  He sighed. “There’s another element keeping us together. Something other than working for Don. We have a bond, Eliseo and Don and I, as well as many of the others in the family.”

  “Is he your real family?”

  Markus shook his head. “We are shifters.”

  I had written exactly two novels about shifters and even with all that research, I knew they weren’t real. I now felt as though I had written myself into one of my stories. “No. You’re not.”

  “Yes. I am.”

  I started breathing heavily. What was all of this? Again, shit started running through my head. My heart sunk. I knew what all this meant. I wasn’t stupid. I knew how shifters worked because they weren’t so apart from the world in my head that… Wait a second. A thought just popped into my head that sent chills up and down my spine. “By lover, did Don mean… mate?” My lips twitched. A smile was coming on but I felt like an idiot doing it. Why in the hell was I smiling? Was this a good thing? Should I be happy to be a part of this fictional world?

  He nodded, scooting closer to me. “Yes. I’ve never felt this way before and certainly not about anyone that I just met.”

  I nod
ded. “Why me?”

  He shook his head. “Because… because you’re perfect.”

  I was, surprisingly, feeling a little star struck. A real werewolf? Easier to believe because I really had seen his true form. White fur. How beautiful. The writer in me wanted to write it down right then and there, get it on paper. But then, Markus slid his hand over my thigh and my flesh responded with electrifying tingles. I suddenly wanted him more in that moment than I have ever wanted anyone. “Does it go both ways? The mating thing, I mean.” Stupid. If I had to ask the question…

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. We’re both new to this.” He was trailing his hand down my face and neck, raising goosebumps everywhere. “But I certainly hope so.” He pressed his lips to mine in a hungry, passionate kiss that made my whole body tingle.

  A moan slipped from my lips and I melted into him. His tongue tangled with mine as his kiss turned slow and sensual.

  With a ragged breath, he pulled away, “Do you want me?” His voice was a low and husky.

  Want him? I felt an igniting so powerful that I was a mere pawn. I couldn’t stop this if I tried. My body wouldn’t allow me to. I slid my hands under his shirt, feeling his warm, firm muscles and the ripples of his six pack. I slipped the shirt over his head.

  “Hell, yes, I want this, do you?” My words were thick with lust. He was running kisses down my neck and inhaling my scent. I could feel his rock-hard erection pressing against my stomach. He closed his eyes and pulled me against his hard chest.

  “I’ve wanted this since the moment I saw you.” He swiftly snatched me up and threw me down on the bed and before I knew it, he was on top of me, pressing his solid body into me, bedding me the way I had always wished Cody would have. My skin was on fire, my blood boiling, my heart pounding and the best thing about it was that I could feel his heart pounding too. He wanted me just as much me as I wanted him, and that was electrifying.

  “You’re not scared?” He ripped my night dress clean off, my breasts tumbling out in front of him.

  “No,” I whispered as his mouth attacked my nipples and trailed warm, passionate kisses down my stomach making a line with his lips and tongue to my panty-clad pussy. He reached around and squeezed my butt as his face delved between my thighs and gently nipped and teased my clit through the thin fabric. I moaned in pleasure, and, I couldn’t help myself, I pressed my pelvis into his face wanting more. My clit pulsed as I rubbed against his mouth. I could feel an orgasm building in my lower belly.

  “We need to get rid of these panties,” he growled. He tore them in two as easily as if they’d been made of tissue paper, exposing my wet and wanting pussy. He stared at me for a moment, his eyes betraying a longing that I’ve never experienced directed at me, before he extended his tongue. He used the very tip of his tongue to tease my clit with fast, little flicks. They barely touched me, yet I screamed at the intense sensation. I tried to wiggle, but he held me still. When I almost couldn’t stand it anymore, he spread the lips of my labia and began lapping hungrily at my juices. His tongue laved every fold of my pussy like he couldn’t get enough, like he was savoring every drop of me.

  Being with Cody was never like this. Shit. Was I supposed to be thinking about Cody at a time like this? It didn’t matter, because if there was ever a question of comparisons, Cody would never measure up. No man would.

  When Markus pushed his tongue into my pussy, penetrating me as deeply as it would go, every inch of my body tingled and I felt the warm burn of my orgasm beginning in my belly. Then, he rubbed his thumb over my engorged clit, it was all over. I screamed, “Markus, I’m…I’m…”

  “Yes, baby. Do it for me... cum for me,” he coaxed as the first wave of an intensely pounding orgasm overtook me.

  I was still shuddering from the intensity when he slid himself up over me and locked his lips over mine. Our tongues danced, and I could taste myself on him. For some reason this aroused me tremendously and I wanted more. My excited fingers found their way to his belt and tugged it off. Many quickies with Cody in his office on his lunchbreak had taught me to be efficient. At least one good thing had come out of that disaster.

  “I need you now,” Markus growled from somewhere deep in his chest, and the sound practically rumbled within me. He pinned my arms above my head as he kissed my neck and my chest with fierce biting, sucking kisses. Then, he stared into my eyes like a wolf over its prey, as he slid his cock into me inch by inch until he had fully penetrated me. I gasped like it was my first breath. He pressed in as hard and deep as he could go and I felt myself opening to him. It felt like we were one person I could sense his internal shudders.

  Mmmmm….. He began to move rhythmically, and the sensation of being filled so completely with his huge girth was exquisite. I dug my fingers into his back, grasping at him, clutching, holding on for dear life as he thrust into me again and again until, overwhelmed by sheer ecstasy, I shuddered and cried out as another powerful climax overtook me. I felt Markus’s entire body tense, and his cock grow even larger before he began to convulse. In throbbing, pulsing jets, he released his seed into my clenching pussy.

  I realized at that moment that, captive or not, there was nowhere else I would rather be.

  Chapter Eight

  The next morning, I woke up to the sun streaming through the window and Markus practically laying on top of me, like he was afraid I might get away. It was endearing, heartwarming. I wriggled myself out of his grip so that I could lie on top of him. His eyes flickered open. “Hello, you.” That sleepy smile and the look in his eyes made me feel so important.

  “Hey.” I wanted to go back to sleep, but my mind had already started working and there was no way I was going to be able to silence it. “Tell me something. Tell me what this is.”

  He nodded, sitting up. “First thing in the morning?”

  “What, are we dating now?”

  He chuckled. “I guess you can say that.”

  “You guess? Uh—huh. So, what now? I have a life at home. In Manhattan.” For the first time, my deadlines came to mind. I guess with the threat of dying out of the way, I could think about the matter of living.

  He sighed. “I must admit, we have some working things out to do—” Then, he stopped himself short.

  “What?” I rested my chin on his chest, taking in every detail of his face. I liked this close, intimate angle.

  He opened his mouth to say something, but then stopped again as if there was a secret inside of him he wasn’t sure he could tell me. But what could that possibly be? What was it he wasn’t telling me?

  “Nothing. We need to get you dressed. You might be able to cooperate with us in our search for Cody.”

  I gulped. Cody. What were they going to do if they found him? Before I had a chance to ask this question out loud, someone knocked on the door. I slipped under the covers while Markus slipped out of bed and put on his boxers. He opened the door a crack. I could just barely hear the voice of the person on the other side. “We have Cody’s secretary. She knows something about where he went.”

  Markus nodded. “How do you know?”

  The man rolled his eyes. “She’s his goddamn secretary, she had to have caught wind of something.”

  Markus nodded then glanced back at me.

  The man followed his gaze. “Bring her.”

  I furrowed my brow. “Why?” I asked, as Markus shut the door behind him. He went into the armoire and pulled out a green blouse and black jeans for me, then a pair of dress pants and a dress shirt for himself.

  “It’s all protocol. This is what I was afraid of,” He said as he hastily dressed. “Not the shifter stuff.”

  I guess it made sense. “You want me to… watch… or something…?” My voice trailed off. Another torture? It was the first time I had really thought about it, Markus as a boyfriend would come with all his mob stuff.

  “Yeah.” He rested his hands on his hips. “I need you to get dressed. With that, he picked up his phone from the side table and wen
t to work on it.”

  Something felt off. “Are you planning to always pick out my clothes?” I asked. Strange, but I went along with it and started to put them on.

  He shrugged. “Only until you get used to them.”

  I furrowed my brow. They were expensive, Saks Fifth, Prada, Marc Jacobs. But I had been dating the stock market and, apparently, a thief. What was there to get used to? I was starting to get annoyed with the way that he assumed he knew things about me.

  “Okay. I’m ready.”

  He gave a short nod, grabbed my hand and led me out the door. Thirty minutes later, we were back at Gino’s restaurant, only, this time, there was a very different scene. One that was all too familiar to me. But instead of me tied to a chair, there was another woman with blonde hair and green eyes. Her blowout was caked in blood and she was crying breathlessly. “Oh God.” I croaked.

  Markus shot me a quick look. There were two other men already there. “Where is Eliseo?”

  One of them nodded. “Don took him off this job.”

  Markus nodded. “Alrightie then.”

  I tried not to look that woman in the eye but it was hard because she went right for me. I could see her eyes pleading with me as if she thought that I was some sort of ally in this situation. But, I was boning the man who had just become her biggest problem.

  “Lexi.” Markus knelt down in front of her.

  Good cop.

  “Tell us what you know.”

  She burst into tears. I flinched. My skin crawled. I didn’t want to be there. Why was I there? They were torturing her over money. Markus, my Markus, was torturing her.

  “I can’t tell you. He’ll come for me.”

  “Who? Cody?”

  She nodded.

  One of the men handed Markus a paring knife.

  More tears, screaming, pleading. It wasn’t long until I was imaging myself in that chair feeling what she was feeling, scared for my life and wondering what I could have done that was so horrible that I deserved this. She was there in that position now, no doubt feeling the same right now, and this time it was all because of Markus.