Alpha Rising (8 page)

Tears rushed from her eyes. “Oh God, Travis.”

“Lilliana.” Her name sounded like a prayer.

She wanted him to come. He’d given her pleasure twice over. Now it had to be his turn. Lilliana shuddered, although she knew she was getting a third round any second.

“Please, Travis. Give me what I need. Give us both what we need, baby.” She knew he held back. He’d been as hard as a rock when he entered her. By now he must be dying to come. He’d hold off his own pleasure until she reached hers. It was part of how he took care of her. She knew that about him now.

He reached between them, finding her clit, and swiped it again. She saw stars, pleasure pushing her over the edge until the pressure that built between them became more than she could bear. Her back arched, and her mouth went dry. She shook in his embrace.

Over and over she came undone beneath him. Her muscles liquefied,
and she wondered if she’d ever move again. He called out her name as he
surged inside of her. She loved the feel of his warm seed inside of her. Seconds later, he bit her, his teeth clamping down on the juncture of her shoulder.

Lilliana shuddered, coming for the fourth time before she saw nothing but blackness.

****

She blinked awake, seeing that the sun seemed brighter than earlier. Lilliana stretched, very grateful to see she hadn’t lost the use of her muscles after all. Where was Travis? She looked left and right. His scent permeated the room, it was all over the sheets and the pillows. Even her own skin. Where had he gone?

Lilliana frowned before she got out of bed. Where was she anyway? Perhaps she should have thought about that earlier, but she’d been really focused on getting Travis inside of her.

Of course she could blame that on the mating loonies or whatever. She
had
to because she’d gone into
heat
. Like the neighbor’s cat they hadn’t bothered to fix. Just something she was going to have to deal with apparently.

Finding her clothes and pieces of Travis’ shirt she’d shredded, which she quickly put into a garbage can, she opened the door to whatever room they were in. She sniffed the air, and it didn’t tell her much. Maybe tracking by scent would come later. Or maybe that wasn’t a thing werewolves could really do. “I’ve been a werewolf for one day, two at the max since I don’t know what day it is. Super wolf I am not.”

With that thought, she made her way into the hallway. It was long and decorated rustically. In the distance, she heard voices, and the ache that had formed in her chest eased when she heard Travis.

“I told you last night. I don’t want New York. As soon as I can get my people out of this cursed state, the better.”

“You can keep Pennsylvania. That is if you can take it from Pierre. He wants Philly. He’s never going to be satisfied with just Pittsburgh.”

“I’m not concerned with that jackass. If he comes at my pack, I’ll destroy him.”

When she rounded the corner, she saw them standing in the kitchen. She leaned against the wall. Wherever she was, apparently Cyrus was still around. “Is this common? Packs fighting over cities? Why don’t we all hang out in the woods and just be wolves?”

“Some do.” Travis’ whole face lit up when he saw her. “Some of us embrace our human side. It’s easier to run a pack in the city. Werewolves aren’t as likely to accidentally show themselves, to suddenly decide to go lone wolf and start running amok. Besides, we all need jobs, cars, groceries. We’re only wolves during full moon.”

He crossed to her and pulled her into his arms, his bare arms. Travis had no shirt to wear, so he’d been speaking to Cyrus naked from the waist up. She wasn’t going to complain, but she wondered, as she looked at Cyrus dressed in a suit and tie, if Travis might have preferred to have been fully clothed.

“We didn’t used to fight at all.” Cyrus shrugged. “Then our Alpha Prime, the supreme leader of the United States packs, who used to lead us all, died. Every Alpha in the country has had to either fight to defend his pack ever since or jockeyed to be Alpha Prime.”

She looked at Travis. “Was he the wolf who chose to be with Lily? Was he Alpha Prime?”

Cyrus choked, laughing so loud it startled her, and she jumped. “Did Travis tell you our folklore bullshit? No, Alpha Prime was not that wolf gifted with Lily. No one believes that bullshit anymore. We’re werewolves because we’re werewolves, and I don’t personally need a creation myth to get through my day.”

Travis growled. “You’re such an asshole.”

“Hey now, is that how you talk to family, cousin?”

Lilliana’s hand found the she-wolf totem she wore around her neck. In all their dealings, Cyrus had never taken it from her. Who was this man who laughed at a mythological story but wanted a totem so badly he’d followed her home to get it? He’d not taken it when he’d had the chance?

She shook her head. “So then, no. Not the original wolf. Who was the Alpha Prime?”

“His name was Lucian. He ruled us all with an iron hand and a heart of gold. Someone chopped off his head before he could name a successor and everything went up in smoke.” Travis shook his head. “Some of us think that we don’t need a Prime. Cities can rule themselves and leave each other alone.”

Cyrus nodded. “On that, Travis and I agree. You think I give a shit about full oon rights in Arizona? Let them work their own crap out. I fought and bled for Manhattan. Lucian was one thing. He earned his position. He cared about all of us. I’m not kowtowing to anyone, and I’m not giving up my city.”

Lilliana tugged on Travis’ hand. “Come on. I want to go home.”

“It burned, she-wolf.” His eyes moved over, sadness obvious in their blue depths.

“As would I have had Cyrus not rescued me. Thank you for that.” She stared at Cyrus. “I think you should have this.” She unhooked the totem Travis had given her. “I’m safe now and I’m at peace for the first time in my life. I am finally who I have always been meant to be. I have my mate, and had I not been born a werewolf, I would have asked the moon to make me walk on four legs to be with him. This kept me safe. Now it should keep you that way.”

Cyrus’ eyes met Travis’ over her head. “Is she for real?”

“I’d suggest you take it. Those were some pretty powerful words she just spoke over you.”

He took the necklace from her hand. “Thank you, Lilliana.”

She nodded and would have turned, but he grabbed her arm. “You know you smell fantastic. Like hot sex. If you change your mind and want more than tattooed boy there can give you, you make your way up to Manhattan, and I’ll open my arms for you.”

Lilliana groaned. “You know that’s not how this works. Thanks for the pseudo compliment just the same.”

At least she thought that was how it worked. She’d only been at this for a couple of days.

****

Travis held her hand in the bus. One of his pack members had rented one, and the whole pack traveled back to Philadelphia together. Nerves made her edgy, and she tapped her foot.

“The moon isn’t quite gone yet. It’s still ninety-nine percent full,” he whispered in her ear. “Tomorrow will feel more normal.”

“My mom used to tell me I was hormonal.” She shook her head. “I’m glad there’s another answer.”

One of the female werewolves laughed in the back of the bus, and Lilliana felt heat rise in her cheeks. They were all listening to every word she said, and everyone had wanted to speak to her. The pack felt like family, and yet they were strangers, an odd combination that did nothing to set her at ease.

“Can I ask you something?” If they had extra ears listening, then oh-frickin-well. She supposed as the Alpha’s mate she’d have to get used to it.

“Anything. Always.” Travis leaned back in his seat. He seemed perfectly fine so he must be used to the strangeness of always being on stage, always being watched.

“Who killed Lucian?” The question had troubled her for hours.

“We don’t know. Some people thought it was me. We’d argued about how much I had to pay in service to him that month.”

She shook her head. “It wasn’t you.” That was impossible.

“Ah. Thanks?” He laughed. “Nothing like my mate thinking I’m not capable of killing if I had to.”

Lilliana looked at him sideways. “For money? I don’t think so.”

“All right. That I’ll take.”

“No one knows who killed him?” That couldn’t be good. The firebombing, someone trying to frame Travis for hurting Cyrus’ pregnant females, and Lucian’s death? Someone was playing a dangerous game.

No one would hurt Travis to win whatever this was. Not as long as she lived.

****

Travis grinned, watching Lilliana across the room. She said something, and Beth, one of the Beta females, laughed. It was hard to make Beth laugh since her mate died, but Lilliana did it on a regular basis. In the six weeks since he’d brought her home to Philly, his whole world had lightened up.

He stroked the new ink on his chest, a giant lily. The beautiful flower had been etched in right over his heart. He strode to the other side of his office. Before he could overthink it, he picked up the phone.

Cyrus answered on one ring. “What?”

“Meet me in Jersey tonight. I want to blood oath. You and me. No war. I’ll defend you; you defend me.”

Cyrus sucked in his breath. “And?”

“And nothing, man. I don’t want your money. I don’t want anything from you. You don’t want jack shit from me. Nothing but a promise not to bother each other and to protect each other. In blood.”

Because that kind of oath called for blood. The safety of his people required no less. Lilliana’s life would be protected by an oath he couldn’t break.

****

Cyrus held out his hand, and Travis took it. Together, they held on until their joined blood slid out of their hands onto the ground beneath their feet. Matilda, working in the diner right then, shouldn’t know what went on outside her restaurant, and yet in the way she always knew everything, he suspected she did.

“I swear to you, Travis, that as your cousin and as Alpha of the Manhattan Pack, I will not attack you unless you attack me first. I swear to come to your aid if someone else attacks you.”

Travis nodded. “You know we’re not really cousins except really, really distantly. Like our grandmothers were cousins.”

“Are you going to swear it or not?”

He grinned because he couldn’t help himself. “It would be a really dick move, wouldn’t it, if I brought you out here to swear, got you to do it, and then didn’t do it myself?”

“I’m standing here bleeding.” Cyrus growled.

“Squeamish? All right already. I get it. I swear not to attack you unless you attack me, and I swear to come to your defense if someone else attacks you. Cousin. I, Travis Michaels, the Alpha of Philadelphia make this vow to you.”

They waited a beat and then separated their hands. Travis took a handkerchief out of his pant’s pocket and wiped away his blood. “This is how it starts, you know?”

Cyrus nodded. “Look. I don’t intend to make this oath with a whole bunch of people. Okay? I’m not going to go around swearing blood oaths with people until I’m Alpha Prime. I have to assume you’re also going to limit who you do this with.”

“Yeah.” This was why he’d hesitated, and he knew it was why Cyrus had too. They had a lot of assuming to do with each other.

A lot of trust.

He could let Cyrus in, or he could end up losing everything, and that was no longer an option.

He wouldn’t break; he wouldn’t fail.

Travis turned his back on Cyrus. A scent wafted through the air, and he knew immediately Lilliana was there. How had she known where he’d be?

She leaned against a car he’d seen in one of his shops earlier that morning. Had she
borrowed
it?

“What are you doing here?”

“Well…” She grinned, the wind whipping her hair around her face. “It’s not every day my mate takes a blood oath. I thought perhaps you might like some company after. Besides, I hear this place has a great meatloaf.”

He pulled her into her arms and sighed when her scent enveloped him. “You were worried I might go and have a real freak-out the whole way home. Beat myself up over it and generally assume I’d done the wrong thing bringing Cyrus this close to us.”

“Yes.” She kissed him. How could she always be this soft? “You never did eat the meatloaf I brought you.”

“Would you like to do that now? Go see Matilda and actually have a meal here?”

“I would.” She smiled and he felt like the luckiest man on the planet. She made him stronger by loving him, she made him the Alpha he should be.

The kind that would risk it all to keep his people safe. Lilliana completed him.

“You’re so whipped.” Cyrus walked by them to get to his car.

“You’re just jealous.” Travis smiled not turning to the other man.

Anyone would be. He had Lilliana. Hand in hand, he brought them into the diner. Meatloaf had never sounded so good.

The End

Coming Next in the Fallen Alpha World, Alpha’s Chosen, in 2014

A Thank you from Fated Desires

Thank you so much for reading
Alpha Rising
! We’re so happy that you had a chance to look into the paranormal world of the Fallen Alphas. We do hope if you liked this, that you would please leave a review from where you purchased this or on another platform. Not only does a review spread the word to other readers, they let us know if you’d like to see more stories like this from us. Rebecca loves to hear from readers and talks to them when she can. You can reach her through her website and through her Facebook and Twitter accounts. You guys are the reason we get to do what we do and we thank you.

If you are looking for more stories like these, you don’t have to wait much longer! Leia is cooking up new works in this series and a few others. Also, we have a few new authors coming that will be sure to whet your appetite.

About the Author

As a teenager, Rebecca Royce would hide in her room to read her favorite romance novels when she was supposed to be doing her homework. She hopes, these days, that her parents think it was well worth it.