Half-Blooded: The Alpha's Mate (BBW Shifter Romance)

by Bethany Rousseau

  “Ahh, eager little thing, aren’t we?” Mia hadn’t heard someone call her a ‘little’ anything in years—the compliment made her heart flutter almost as much as the teasing drove her crazy. Caleb rubbed the tip of his cock against her clit, the contact sending sparks and jolts of pleasure through Mia’s body as she writhed underneath him. He kissed her everywhere his lips could reach, and Mia returned the compliment, lapping at the sweat that gathered at the base of his throat, bringing her lips up to his over and over.

  When he finally thrust into her, slowly and steadily, Mia moaned out long and low, shifting her hips and pushing down to take him as deeply as she could. Caleb held still inside of her for a long moment, and Mia trembled, wanting to move, wanting to make him move, but so thoroughly enjoying the sensation of his cock filling her up, her walls tightening around him as if her body itself didn’t want him to leave it, that she couldn’t make herself stir. He was so big inside of her that Mia was grateful for his slow approach; she probably would have hurt if he had thrust into her mindlessly the way Gary used to. Instead, Caleb took his time, pulling out of her almost completely before sinking into her once more, slowly working his way deeper and deeper inside of her. Mia tightened her thighs around him, running her hands over his shoulders and back, kissing his neck and all over his face as she moved in counterpoint to his thrusts. Caleb pushed her head gently aside, nuzzling against her neck and then kissing and nipping along the column of her throat, the sharpness of his teeth a thrilling contrast to the softness of his lips and the roughness of his stubble against her skin.

  He began to pick up his pace gradually, and Mia heard herself moaning out over and over again as her body moved without any thought, pleasure and sensation dancing and electrifying her nerve endings, racing up and down her veins. She twisted her hips and writhed underneath him, crying out when Caleb found her breasts with his mouth once more and lavished attention on them, moaning as he sucked and licked. She almost screamed with confused pleasure and pain as his teeth nibbled sharply just outside of her nipples, the sensation shocking her and making her whole body tense up. Her previous orgasm made it possible for Mia to hold on to the pleasure of the moment—and she knew it was doing the same for Caleb as he thrust into her steadily, rocking his hips against hers. Although he picked up his pace, he was still deliberate as he moved inside of her, shifting his position on top of her, and Mia realized absently that he was seeking her g-spot with his cock, trying to brush up against it. She twisted her hips and he found it, grazing it with the tip of his erection.

  She cried out, gripping him tightly, her fingernails digging into his shoulders as the barest brush of contact sent a sudden sharp, intense jolt through her body. He chuckled lowly and carefully brushed it again, thrusting steadily up into her pussy. Mia cried out again, and Caleb changed his pace up, alternating between quick, careful brushes right up against her g-spot for a handful of thrusts and then shifting to a slower, deeper rocking of his hips while she recovered from the intense sensation. He brought her to the edge of orgasm again and again, catching her off-guard with his quick and then slow thrusting, constantly leaving her guessing. Mia felt her inner walls tightening around him erratically as she came closer and closer to orgasm, her body on fire, her mind refusing to work beyond taking in the pleasure that Caleb was giving her.

  Eventually, Caleb began thrusting hard and fast into her, the thickness of him filling Mia so thoroughly that she couldn’t imagine anything better in the world. Just when she thought that she couldn’t possibly take any more pleasure, he buried his face against her breasts, kissing and nuzzling, sucking and licking, while one of his hands dipped down between their bodies. In a matter of only a few moments, he found her clit, right above the well of her pussy, and began stroking her even as he thrust into her as hard and fast as he could. Mia was crying out, writhing with pleasure, as her entire body tensed more and more, so close that she was whimpering with need. Finally, she felt the last of her self-control breaking apart, and as Caleb thrust deep inside of her she hit her orgasm, her muscles tightening around him, her whole body twisting with the spasms of pleasure that the relief provided. She was dimly aware of Caleb reaching his own second climax, groaning out long and low as his cock twitched inside of her. She felt the gush of sticky-slick heat deep inside of her, and as she tumbled down into a satisfied, thoroughly velvety darkness of pleasure, she smiled to herself at the fact that they had come almost together; it was so good to be with someone who really appreciated her response, who enjoyed her body for what it was. Mia felt Caleb collapse against her and wrapped herself around him as tightly as her nerveless limbs would allow, loving the feeling of his body as she drifted away.

  Chapter Three

  The next morning, Mia felt a tingling to the point of almost pain along her shoulder as she woke up. “Hm?” she said, turning slightly. She saw Caleb and blushed, remembering the night before; it was the wildest night she’d had in years—the motorcycle ride, the fight in the bar, and of course the amazing sex. She smiled at him sleepily, and the tingling sensation stopped. There was an expression on Caleb’s face that seemed perplexed, with an odd undercurrent in his bright eyes that Mia couldn’t quite place. “Oh, didn’t I mention I have a birthmark?” she said nervously, thinking that maybe it disgusted him; she knew that it had taken Gary a long time to get used to seeing it on her—he likened it to a very, very bad tattoo.

  “You didn’t,” Caleb replied, tearing his gaze away from it and looking at her. “That’s an interesting one—I’ve seen a few in my life,” he said absently. He glanced at it again, and Mia began to feel uncomfortable. But the next moment he changed gears completely. “Did I wake you?” He pulled her around to face him and kissed her hungrily. “Because as rude as it probably was, I’m glad you’re awake now.” Mia quickly responded to Caleb’s touch, getting turned on in a matter of moments and forgetting the matter of her birthmark entirely.

  Mia was not surprised, but she was very pleased, when Caleb told her after their encounter that he wanted to spend more time with her. “You are single—but if you want to stay single for a while, I understand,” he said, as they were cuddled together in the afterglow. Mia agreed to see him again without a single reservation or hesitation in her mind; it seemed that after weeks of feeling sorry for herself, it was definitely time for her to get back on the horse, so to speak. She thought Caleb was probably the most exciting person she had ever met—and if he was interested in getting to know her better, then she was more than happy to indulge him. They had breakfast together and Caleb took her home, giving her his phone number and taking hers in return. For about an hour, Mia was paranoid—maybe Caleb hadn’t meant it, maybe it was the sort of thing guys just said, to get through the moment. But he texted her shortly after that, asking her to meet him at his favorite restaurant later in the week, and Mia did a happy dance in the middle of her living room, surprised at how overjoyed she was.

  Their second date was a huge success—Mia decided to let Caleb into her apartment, instead of going back to his place. She felt herself quickly becoming more and more attracted to him; his easy sense of humor, his strength, and the myriad of creative ideas he had when it came to the bedroom. Caleb seemed to be just as interested in her as she was in him; he loved having sex with her as many times as either of them could stand, and was always interested in making sure that she got off first. He didn’t call attention to her birthmark again, but occasionally Mia caught him glancing at it when they were both naked and her back was to him. She agreed to a third date, and then a fourth, and before she knew it, weeks had passed and she couldn’t even imagine missing Gary.

  In spite of how excited Mia was in her new relationship—even though it was in the early days, and certainly not a certainty for a long-term bond—she was troubled by physical symptoms she didn’t understand. It started the day after she first slept with Caleb; when she had come home, Mia had been annoyed and frustrated at an odd, stale-meat smell that seemed to be waf
ting through her apartment with no source. She pulled everything out of the fridge, and wandered from room to room, cleaning and moving things around, looking for the cause of the irritating smell. It was only when she was carrying her garbage bags down to the first floor dumpster that she noticed the scent intensifying—and realized that it was coming not from somewhere in her house, but from her neighbor’s apartment. Mia was less than pleased at the fact that she couldn’t exactly knock on the old man’s door and tell him he had something spoiling somewhere in his house; and the fact that, as she surreptitiously leaned in towards his front door she confirmed that that was exactly where the odor was coming from was a little disquieting.

  She found an air freshener that would at least mask the smell, since she couldn’t manage to get rid of it, and tried to think nothing of it. But then she found herself catching other scents that seemed improbable; she noticed a friend’s new perfume not by a general pleasing smell, but was able to detect exactly what it was made of—the plants and animal extracts that comprised it. She also found herself irritated by a lingering garlic and onion smell that seemed to randomly be present in the elevator—and realized that it was a particular tenant of her building, who lived in the fifth floor, who was trailing the smell behind her constantly, by running into the woman one day instead of having to endure her aftermath.

  Her heightened sense of smell was just starting to become a normal thing when Mia realized one night while she was out with Caleb that she was able to hear much more than usual. She was distracted as she sat with him at a café, hearing the conversations of the people around them; most of the people were speaking in low voices, but Mia kept hearing perfectly clear snippets of conversations as if they were occurring right next to her, directed at her. She excused herself to go to the bathroom and turned on the water to block out the cacophony of noises, taking a few deep breaths. Another time she was kept up half the night by a piercing, ringing sound, coming up through the floor. Mia was so overwhelmed by the intensity of the noise that she covered her eyes instead of her ears—it was as if the sound had developed a color, a visual brightness, and as high-pitched as it was, it was unbearably bright, like an LED flashlight shining in her room.

  The next night, blissfully quiet, Mia was still awakened in the middle of the night; this time it was by a dream. She fell asleep fine, thanking the heavens that there was no disgusting smell or terrible sound keeping her awake, plunging into the darkness with an exhausted mind and body. She found herself running through a forest, low to the ground—impossibly so. Unless she was on all fours, she couldn’t have possibly had the particular vantage that she did in her dreams, and even then, she wouldn’t be able to move so quickly. Mia heard howling in the air, and started moving in that direction, sniffing the air. She was disoriented, able to see things clearly in the darkness of her dream, but in oddly washed-out colors. The air was painted with scents—animals she identified by the tinges of musk that she knew belonged to them, plant smells that were so much more intense than she was used to experiencing them in her normal life, the smell of water and dirt. Mia rushed headlong through the trees, trying to find the source of the howling.

  Suddenly, she was surrounded, and Mia stopped in her tracks. Looking around in a panic, she saw a dozen huge wolves, gathered around her in a circle. Her heart was pounding, she tried to scream—it came out as a howl. Shaking her head, Mia looked at each of the anonymous-looking, huge wolves as they slowly closed in on her, their eyes focused on her, their intent obvious. And yet, she couldn’t even think of running away from them; she knew that she should at least try, that standing there in the middle of their circle was only inviting her own doom, but she couldn’t quite stir herself out of her sense of intense fear enough to make her legs move. She woke up screaming as the first of the wolves launched itself at her.

  Mia didn’t mention any of it to Caleb, assuming that it was some strange adjustment, that it would go away on its own; and in some respects, she enjoyed her heightened senses. She noticed that Caleb smelled even better than ever since her nose became more sensitive, and that she liked the deep, slightly gravelly sound of his voice even more than before. But she began developing other symptoms—equally inexplicable, but much more galling. Her birthmark, which Mia had lived with her entire 25 years without even really noticing, began to tingle and burn, and a few times in the middle of the night she was awakened by a clawing pain right where it was on her shoulder. Some days there was a deep, gnawing ache below the skin that she couldn’t explain—she hadn’t injured herself, and when she looked in the mirror she couldn’t see anything different about it.

  She also found her tastes changing; where before she ate whatever she wanted, Mia found herself craving steak, sausage, fish—caught herself eating meals that were almost exclusively carnivorous without thinking about it, with only maybe a salad or a little bit of vegetables, never any pasta or bread. When she tried to force herself back into her normal eating habits, she became violently ill, curled up on her bathroom floor after trying to eat a normal-sized portion of pasta with cheese sauce. She had similar reactions to another favorite: coffee. It was mystifying and concerning, and Mia thought with increasing concern that it was obviously adding up to be symptoms of something that wouldn’t just go away on its own. She didn’t want to worry or burden Caleb, but she was very deeply worried about what was happening to her.

  Mia went to the doctor after the symptoms had become more and more severe over weeks without any signs of letting up; the smell of antiseptic and sterilizers burned her nose as she sat waiting for him, fidgeting and wondering if her breakfast of eggs and toast would come back up on her. The man came into the room and asked her about her symptoms, and Mia recited them in order, making her story as fast as she possibly could; he looked concerned, and ordered a dozen tests. Mia was thankful for once that she had spent the money to have premium insurance, since it wouldn’t cost her everything she had to get to the bottom of it. “Considering how varied your symptoms are, you may be dealing with more than one illness,” the doctor suggested as his assistant took her blood for a battery of different tests: vitamin deficiencies, allergies, autoimmune diseases, metabolic disorders, cancers. She got scans of different parts of her body, and they even biopsied her birth mark, just in case it had become cancerous. The biopsy had been acutely, agonizingly painful, in spite of the topical anesthetic they applied.

  Mia waited, continuing to see Caleb without telling him about how much stress and uncertainty she was feeling, for answers. Within a few weeks, everything had come back, and her doctor called her the schedule an appointment. When Mia saw the older man come in, she knew there was something wrong. He sat down heavily in his chair, looking at the file that contained her results and then at her. He shook his head slowly. “Mia, my dear,” he said slowly, “Sometimes medical science is able to give us all the answers, and sometimes no matter how hard we try, we get nothing at all.” He took a deep breath and sighed. “According to your test results, there is not a single thing wrong with you. You are the single healthiest 25-year-old woman I have in my practice, according to every single possible thing I could test you for.” He shook his head once more.

  “How can that possibly be? Even if I don’t have a specific disease, wouldn’t the throwing up and the other things at least make me nutrient-deficient, or something?” The doctor shrugged.

  “You can look at your results, if you like. Damnedest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. You are 100% healthy, and yet I can look at you and absolutely know that you aren’t. And if you were poisoning yourself for sympathy or something, even THAT would come through on one of these tests.” He sighed. “I’m really sorry, Mia. I wish I had answers for you. The only thing I can come up with is ‘idiopathy’—not an insult to you, it just means that something is either psychosomatic, meaning it’s being spurred on by your mind, or it has no cause that we can identify.”

  Mia left the doctor’s office feeling depressed and defeated for the fir
st time since she had started seeing Caleb. She decided that she felt well enough to go out on the date she’d planned with him for that night, although she hoped he wasn’t interested in doing anything particularly active—even very adventurous sex seemed like it would be too much trouble for her in her current state of sickness and depression.

  Caleb lifted her spirits right away; he appeared at her apartment door, loaded down with mixed grill items from a churrasco restaurant that was between his home and hers, along with bottles of South American beer, and declared his intention of getting her back in good spirits—he had noticed that she sounded down on the phone. Mia laughed, feeling more positive the minute he walked through the door, and devoured her meal without even the faintest worry that she would throw it up later. A few beers later and she and Caleb ended up on her couch, making out and then having passionate sex with each other, subsiding only after each had finished twice. “What’s troubling you, Mia?” Caleb asked her as they lie together, still recovering from intense orgasms.

  “I think I told you a couple of weeks ago that I had a doctor’s appointment—that was why I was a little bit late getting to our date,” she said, turning to face him. Caleb nodded, reaching down and cupping her breast, giving it a gentle squeeze and teasing the nipple idly. “Well, I had a bunch of tests done—brain scans, chest scans, x-rays, and about every blood test you could imagine, along with other bodily fluids…” she shuddered. Even if she knew that urine and other tests were perfectly legitimate, she would never be comfortable with giving samples. “The results came in today, and they couldn’t find anything wrong with me.” Caleb smiled slightly, his eyes looking sad, and Mia explained that the reason she was distressed was because of the strange symptoms she had been experiencing.