Alpha’s Hunger Box Set: Books 1-3

by Wilder, Carina

  So instead of standing around like an awkward crimson loner, I decided to explore the house a little more. I headed down yet another hallway which led towards the western end of the enormous mansion, knowing full well that if and when Tristan wanted to find me, he’d have no trouble doing so. The man’s incredible nose could pick up my scent from miles away.

  My route took me down a red-walled corridor, past a series of closed white doors until I came to one that stood half open. For some reason, I stopped and peered inside.

  At first all I saw was a series of tall bookshelves covered in leather-bound volumes, and the corner of a white billiard table coated in red felt. Balls were scattered across its surface, seemingly undisturbed. But as I watched, one of them began rolling across the table.

  Okay, so someone was inside.

  Curious to see who was playing, I pushed the door open slightly, just enough to see movement. That’s when I froze in my tracks, stunned by the sight in front of me.

  A woman lay on her back across the other end of the table, dressed in a pink and green striped dress that had been pulled down to expose her breasts. A white mask coated in feathers lay on the floor nearby.

  Two tall, young-looking men stood near the woman, smiles on their faces as they gawked at her half-naked body. Oh God. I’d stumbled upon our hostess, who was apparently wrapped up in some kind of pool table sex-fest.

  Each of Estella’s hands held onto some piece of their clothing. A tie here, a sleeve there. She was pulling them close, murmuring pleading words.

  When the two had bent obediently to her will, she kissed one man long and hard, before locking lips with the other one.

  Paralyzed, I held my breath as I watched the proceedings unfold. I couldn’t help but wonder why the hell she hadn’t brought the men to her bedroom, or at least shut the damn door. It was almost like she was hoping to have spectators.

  One of the men lifted her voluminous skirt, pushing it up above her knees. The other moved to the far side of the table and grabbed her arms, holding her down as she arched her back in mock resistance. She squirmed, moaning with pleasure as man number one leaned down and drew her nipple into his eager mouth. Meanwhile, man number two got on his knees, tugged her panties to the side and feasted on her, his fingers flexing greedily into her white thighs.

  I gasped when she turned her head and looked my way, her strange emerald eyes fixing on my own as if she’d known the entire time that I was there. Letting out a long moan, she gyrated her hips to make a show of her pleasure, a knowing smile flashing across her face as she pulled her gaze back to her two lovers.

  I shouldn’t have been watching. I should have fled to another part of the house, gone searching for Tristan. But curiosity—or something even more powerful—was forcing my hand. Not to mention my arousal. What was it about this woman, this insanely confusing creature, that made people bend to her will? What was it that made me go against my very nature and stand frozen, gawking at her half-naked body like a spectator at a sporting event?

  With a violent shudder I recalled the effect Krane had on me, both in his dragon form and in person. He’d pulled me in, intrigued me, attracted me in a way that I found infuriatingly hard to resist. Maybe it was that same blood, the potent genes of a dragon, that gave Estella the ability to control me now.

  If so, Kara had been right. Estella was more powerful, even, than Tristan. I understood now why he’d been so reluctant to try and explain her to me. How could anyone find the words to describe such a woman? She was an impossible combination of age and beauty, power and unadulterated glee. I’d never met anyone like her…and I hoped I never would again.

  A second wave of arousal hit as I watched her hips buck under the touch of one lover’s tongue. Man number two was crawling up onto the table, his knees anchored by her head as he unzipped his pants. Though I tried not to look too closely, I was fully aware that he was offering her his hard cock, which she took eagerly in her mouth. The man, seemingly oblivious to my presence, watched her suck with an expression of the purest pleasure on his face.

  In that moment I found the strength to pull away, slipping quickly back into the hall. I spun around, pushing myself out of sight of the doorway and padding farther down the hall. I wondered if anyone walking by would know that I was only pretending to study the series of paintings hanging on the wall as I tried to catch my breath.

  The world of shifters and Valkyries, aside from being mysterious and difficult to grasp, was proving somewhat more sexually open than the human world I’d always inhabited. I couldn’t imagine such a sight at any cast party I’d ever been to, and actors weren’t exactly sexually repressed creatures.

  No, this was free, open, unabashed lust. Desire that wished to be satisfied at any cost. Estella had found two Lessers that she could bend to her will with little effort. She’d offered, no doubt, to teach them how to pleasure their future mates, and in the bargain they’d offered her an evening of erotic delights. As far as I could tell, all three of them were loving every minute of it.

  “No harm done, I guess,” I muttered under my breath as my eyes locked on a painting of a rainy landscape.

  “Tell me,” said a deep, slightly muffled voice from somewhere behind me, “did you enjoy watching Estella in all her glory?”

  I spun around, flustered and mortified at the thought that someone knew what I’d been up to, only to see Tristan’s wolf mask staring me in the face.

  “Oh, thank God it’s you,” I sighed. Having my lover catch me playing voyeur was marginally less embarrassing than if it had been a stranger. “I didn’t mean to spy on her. It was just that I was a bit surprised to see…that…on a pool table.”

  “It’s quite something to watch a woman being pleasured by two men, isn’t it?” he asked softly, stepping forward and pressing his body towards mine. I pushed my back against a section of bare red wall, wondering if Estella could hear our conversation from the game room. She’d probably love to know that we were talking about her. “I’ll bet you’d like the same treatment she was getting, wouldn’t you?” the voice behind the mask asked. “Admit it. You’d love to have two mouths on you. Two hard dicks for your personal pleasure.”

  A wave of dizziness overtook my head, all but throwing me off balance. I wasn’t sure whether to feel excited or angered by my lover’s words.

  What exactly was he saying? Did Tristan suddenly want to invite someone else to partake of our private encounters?

  I shook my head. I wasn’t interested in anyone else. I couldn’t even imagine desiring another man, other than for a fleeting, confused second. “It only made me want you,” I protested. “I’m not interested in ménages, thanks.” My voice was wearing thin with confusion and mild irritation. Enough with the teasing and cryptic language, Tristan. Just be honest and tell me what it is you’re after. “Are you saying I’m not enough for you?” I asked. “After a few weeks with me, you already want to change things up?” I pushed in closer to him and whispered, “Even after what we did on the elevator and in the garden just now?”

  He laughed. “Oh, you sweet thing, I’m sure you’d be enough for any man. But I do think it’s a shame that you’re not into threesomes.” An odd, low purr had begun to take over his voice, a sound I’d never heard from the man I thought I knew.

  I narrowed my brown eyes at the bright blue irises that were staring at me from behind the mask, my mind a mess of questions. Since when did Tristan talk like this? Had he somehow drunk six bottles of champagne in the few minutes since I’d last seen him?

  Because he sure as hell wasn’t acting like himself.

  “Why exactly do you suddenly want another guy in our bed?” I asked. “What are you trying to tell me?”

  “Why do I want it?” he asked, easing closer. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because I’d really like to be inside you at the same time as my brother.”

  Chapter 12

  Wait—at the same time as my…brother?

  The moment the words hit my e
ars, my heart stopped.

  Everything stopped.

  Had I really just heard what I thought I’d heard? Had Tristan Wolfe just said he wanted to make love to me alongside his devilish dragon shifter of a sibling?

  No. No way in hell would he ever make a proposition like that.

  As a chuckle erupted from behind the wolf mask, a sudden wisp of a familiar, imposing scent met my nose, sending a frigid shot of terror pulsing through my bloodstream.

  “Krane,” I gasped, my body frozen tight against the wall. Oh, God. How had I not known it the instant he’d pulled up behind me? How had I not sensed his presence, or picked up the cruelly erotic scent that I’d come to dread?

  The wolf mask nodded, and I knew from his narrowed eyes that the bastard was smiling. Amused by my discomfort. His hands were still pressed to the wall on either side of my head, but he pulled one away for a second to lift the mask and reveal his face.

  He was exquisite. Mischievous, sexy, those full lips of his twitching up into the most wicked of grins.

  Damn him.

  I needed to escape. He was far too close for comfort, the invasive bouquet of his flesh too consuming.

  Why was he doing this to me?

  Part of me wanted to scream, another part wanted to command him to get away from me. If his brother found out he was here, I could only imagine what he’d do to both Krane and me. No matter what happened, this meeting of ours wasn’t going to end well.

  “We haven’t formally met,” Krane said, cocking his head a little as Tristan sometimes did. A mist of sensual aromas swirled around my head. Tantalizing, sweet, savory at once, I did everything I could to push them away. This had to be some trick that the dragon shifter was playing on my mind. He’d done it to me in his dragon form, then again in the subway station. He’d made me stop cold, forced my eyes to stare into his own. He’d driven my mind to delve into places I’d never wanted to venture.

  This man had powers that I didn’t begin to comprehend, and I didn’t like them one bit.

  “You know what? I don’t want to meet you,” I said, shaking my head slowly. “I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to know you.” I turned my head to see it anyone was coming, but his thick arm was blocking my sight lines.

  He glanced down, eyes locking on my breasts. Self-consciously, I crossed my arms, trying my best to conceal my bare skin from him. My chest belongs to Tristan, I wanted to say. Not to you.

  “Damn. You’re really something,” he said. “I can see now why my brother wouldn’t want to give you up.”

  “Give me up?” I asked. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Why would Tristan need to give me up?

  “You probably satisfy all his needs, don’t you, little thing?” he asked, edging still closer.

  “You don’t know anything about me,” I spat.

  “I know everything about you,” he said, sniffing the air around us. “I even know that some part of you wants me, and badly. I can smell how turned on you are right now. You know, I’d fuck you right here if it weren’t for that damned brother of mine. I’d claim you for my own.”

  “Arrogant bastard,” I said, grabbing his arm and trying, but failing, to yank it down from its locked position beside my head. He was too close now for me to bend down and duck under. However strong Kara’s Valkyrie blood might have made me, I was no match for this man. “Let me out of here,” I commanded in my best I’ll kick your ass voice.

  “Or what?”

  “Or I’ll…” The truth was that I didn’t know what I could possibly do against an adversary like Krane.

  “Oh, I get it. You’re going to tell him, aren’t you?” he asked in a mocking tone. “You’re going to tell my brother on me.”

  “I don’t know,” I muttered, trying to solve the unsolvable problem before me.

  “You’re going to tell me what?”

  Tristan’s voice, usually the most beautiful, sexual sound in the world, hit me like the cruel bite of a whip. I slammed my eyes shut, willing myself to sink into the floor and disappear from the universe.

  The dragon shifter pulled away from me at last, freeing me from the temporary prison he’d created.

  “Hello, Brother,” Krane said, turning to Tristan, who’d pulled his mask off and was standing a few feet away, arms crossed over his chest. The look on his face was enough to terrify me. I’d only ever seen such an expression on his features once before, when Craster’s wolf had threatened me in my apartment.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked.

  “Funny thing,” Krane said. “You might be interested to know that your lover here…” He gestured slowly, casually, in my direction. I wanted to plead with him. Stop talking. Please. Stop. But he wouldn’t have listened. He didn’t care what I had to say. His sole aim was to ruin my life. “She and I have met before. Twice, actually. Frankly, I’m a little surprised that she hasn’t told you about our little trysts.”

  Tristan’s eyes shot to my own, and I could feel his rage directing itself towards me, sending a fierce jolt of shame through my chest. My throat dried, my hands trembled.

  “Is this true?” he asked.

  “We’ve never met, not officially,” I replied, shaking my head violently. “We’ve never spoken to each other until a minute ago, and that was only because I thought he was you.”

  “I’ll give her that much,” said Krane, leaning back against the wall, arms crossed over his chest casually, lips twisted in a mischievous smirk. “We’d only met through sexy gazes and shared moments of fierce eroticism. No words, though. Just looks…and lust.”

  By now, I was fairly sure that any activity in the billiard room down the hall had come to an abrupt stop. Eyes were trained on us from the direction of the living room, and Estella was probably sitting up on the pool table, listening, amused by the confrontation unfolding in her hallway.

  “Ariana,” said Tristan, “is it true that you’ve seen my brother before and you didn’t tell me about it?”

  I swallowed hard, hesitant to answer. I knew I had to be honest with him.

  But I also knew that the truth could end our entire relationship.

  “I did see his dragon,” I admitted. “Flying over Manhattan one night, near Wolfe Tower. It scared me, but I didn’t see him again, so I thought he was gone. Then I saw him yesterday in Times Square station. Just briefly, and I…I didn’t think anything of it…I wasn’t even a hundred percent sure who he was.” I slammed my eyes shut. The last words were too much of a lie. I’d known from the start, in the deepest recesses of my mind, exactly who and what Krane was. He was an enemy. A threat. A cruel manipulator.

  And I’d hidden his presence from the one man I should trust.

  “If you didn’t think anything of it, you should have told me,” Tristan said. “You were keeping it from me deliberately. You lied to me. Why would you do that to me? To us?”

  I shook my head, about to issue a denial, to double down on my claim that I hadn’t actually known it was Krane, that I hadn’t actually lied. “I was scared,” I blurted out at last. It was the most honest thing I could think of. “Scared of what you…what he…I thought…”

  “You know what? I don’t even care,” Tristan said, his voice dripping with an anger that sent a chill deep into my marrow. “What’s clear to me is that you can’t be trusted.” His hands balled into iron-hard fists, his knuckles white. His eyes flashed light, telling me that his wolf was close at hand, riled up, ready for action. As he spoke, his voice went gritty, the words coming in a strange, wild growl. “Krane has always loved interfering in my life, ever since we were young. He loves meddling. As for you? I trusted you. But I should have known better…I should have known you’d be weak. You’re just a human. There are reasons our rules are in place, but like a fool, I chose to defy them to be with you. I was stupid.” He let out a chuckle that made me want to weep.

  “What the hell does that mean?” I asked, tears threatening to streak down my cheeks. “Are you…” I
couldn’t say the words. I couldn’t ask if in front of all these witnesses, in front of Krane, if I was being dumped. I wanted him to stop talking. I knew his wolf was close by, protecting his heart. Telling him to say these cruel things, punishing me for being disloyal, disobedient.

  But I wasn’t some alpha wolf’s subordinate to be chastised in front of a room full of onlookers. I was a woman with feelings.

  I was Tristan’s lover.

  “What do you mean, you defied the rules?” I asked again.

  He narrowed his eyes. “It means that giving my heart away to someone who lies to me is the most insane thing I’ve ever done. It means I was right to worry that you couldn’t handle a relationship with the likes of me. It’s not your fault, I suppose. You are what you are.”

  I hated the tone of his voice. The disdain, the quiet rage. I hated looking into his eyes to see the bright blue of his wolf shining from within, knowing that the animal inside him was turning him against me, convincing him that he should push me away. In an instant, the beast had robbed him of kindness, of empathy. All the wolf saw in me was someone who’d defied him.

  “I need to get out of here,” Tristan said. “Before I do something stupid.” He shot his brother a final glare and turned to walk away.

  “Does this mean I can have your lover?” Krane asked. “Because I have to tell you, man—those tits of hers are incredible. I could motorboat those fun-bags all day and all night.”

  Tristan spun around, and a split-second later, his right fist was landing a crushing blow on his brother’s jaw. Krane staggered sideways, falling almost to the floor before bouncing up again.

  And the bastard was laughing.

  He was actually enjoying watching my life get destroyed. He was reveling in my lover’s rage. He was a total sadist.

  “So it’s going to be like that?” Krane said. “You’re so insane about this woman that you’ll kill me over her? And here I thought you were done with women, Wolfe. I thought you’d sworn them off for good.”