BAD BOY ROMANCE: DIESEL: Contemporary Bad Boy Biker MC Romance (Box Set) (New Adult Sports Romance Short Stories Boxset) (134 page)

Power erupted as soon as our skins made contacted, and it surged through me like an electric current. Reid was the one that gasped, I was guessing he felt it too. I jerked my hand away and looked at his fingers.

“What was that?” I asked.

“That is the power that comes with the role you’ve accepted,” he answered.

“But I’m just a human. I have no power.”

He shrugged. “I don’t how it works, but it’s more than twice what it was before you,” he said. I reached out and touched him again, and heat surged through my body, tightening it. I was suddenly aware of Reid, the planes of his face, the high cheek bones, straight nose, and his wheat colored hair that shone golden in the morning light. He looked at me and his eyes were deep and dilated.

“What’s that?” I whispered.

“That’s the bond between us. You’re taking your place as my rightful second. The bond knows it.”

I didn’t know what it was, but I suddenly wanted him. I ached for his body on mine, in mine. I got up and walked around the table, climbing onto his lap. I straddled him and kissed him, pushing my chest against his. He sighed into my mouth, and with the sound the heat increased. The energy in the room became hot and static, and I felt it like a hand on my skin, pressing in all the right places.

Reid stood up, holding me against his body like I weighed nothing. I wrapped my legs around his waist and he carried me to the bedroom. There was a sense of urgency, something wild driving me on.

And I let it go. I have into it.

I pulled Reid’s shirt of and dug my nails into his shoulders. He moaned and laid me down on the bed, he pulled down my pajama pants, running his hands up my bare legs. I was the one that pulled off my own shirt, and I was naked in front of him.

His eyes were hungry, and he looked at my body like he was physically touching it, drinking me in. I grabbed his buckle and tugged on it, and he did the rest.

When he’d gotten rid of it he crawled onto me. His skin was so hot it almost burned when I touched it, and the intensity of his stare matched the intensity of the power in the room. I gasped under the weight of it. The atmosphere was so thick I struggled to breathe.

Reid’s hands traveled over my body, tracing the rise and fall of it. His hands found my breasts and he kneaded them. His lips were on mine, his tongue in my mouth, and my body melted under his touched. I could feel him pressed against my hip bone, hungry and hard. Lust hung around us, lust and something else, something more powerful.

I grabbed onto his shoulders and pushed him to the side and then down, so that he was lying down. He understood and lay on his back. This wasn’t about him. It was about me. I didn’t know what was happening, but I knew what I had to do. This was me claiming my place.

I threw one leg over him and straddled his body, his hips between mine, his manhood right under me. I leaned forward and kissed him. His hands were on my hips, and his breathing was hard and erratic.

I kissed him like I was going to devour him. Then I lowered my hips and I found him. He gasped when he was at my entrance, and then I lowered myself down on him. He slipped inside of me and I let out a breath that sounded like a cross between a moan and a sigh as he slid all the way inside of me.

The power surged and rippled around us, swelling like a wave until I felt like I was going to drown, and then it drained a little bit again, letting me up for air. Reid’s skin was boiling hot underneath me and I felt that same searing heat inside of me.

I pushed myself back up, and the friction made me moan. Reid’s face was pure ecstasy. I sank down on him again, and as he looked at me I watched the blue flame bleed into his eyes, eating the green until his human eyes were gone and his wolf eyes were bright and powerful. I saw the beast slide behind him and I knew this wasn’t just sex.

This was claiming authority.

I moved my hips against him, moving faster and faster, feeling him slide in and out of me. It was more intense than it had ever been before. His hands traveled over my body and he closed his eyes. I did the same, giving myself over to the feeling that built inside of me. It wasn’t just heat the way it usually was.

It was power. Magic built inside of Reid, and translated to me because he was inside me. It surged through my body and it felt like it was going to rip through my skin and spill out in a burst of light. I imagined that if I had any kind of werewolf in me, it would break out now. I could feel how Reid was feeling. I touched his control over his wolf, and then I touched the animal inside, and it pushed back against me.

An orgasm built inside me, starting deep down and then filling outward, like a cup being filled with hot water. I felt like I was buried in power, and then I broke through the surface and the orgasm rocked through me. It ripped out of my extremities so violently I couldn’t tell if it was delirious or painful. I cried out. Reid cried out almost the same time and I felt him release inside of me.

With it came more power, washing through me. I collapsed on his chest, and with him still inside of me, I suddenly felt all the wolves in the pack.

I felt them like separate energies, like breaths of air. I knew where they were. I touched their power, their wolves, the same I’d touched Reid’s. My eyes shot open and I lifted my head, looking at Reid. His eyes were green again.

“Did you feel that?” he asked. I nodded. And I knew that every wolf in the pack had felt that too. We were bonded now, completely. And I was the alpha’s second, his mate.

Chapter 9

They were home for one more full moon. It was the longest stretch Reid had ever been home, as if pack matters had taken preference and the army could wait. They’d been called up to leave the day after the full moon. We would have one more night together.

For the past month the pack had been teaching me what it meant to be a werewolf. To be a part of a pack, and to be one with them. It was different after Reid and I had forged the bond. I felt in touch with every one of them. I couldn’t touch their power the way I had when Reid and I had had sex.

That had been like I’d used his power and rode it out to find his pack. It had been wild and scary, and I wasn’t in a hurry to do that again soon. For now, what I had was enough.

Even Sarelle was submissive to me. She still didn’t like me, and the feeling was mutual, but we didn’t have to like each other to fit in a pack, to work together as a unit. As long as the hierarchy was clear, no one questioned their motives in the pack. The pack was like one organism.

When the sun dropped behind the horizon, Reid stepped into the room and I could feel the power building. It was time to go. I took his hand and that familiar hum of energy surged through me.

“Are you ready for this?” he asked. I nodded. I was ready. I still had a lot to learn, but I had a pack to teach me. We walked out of the house and made our way to the forest.

At the edge of the trees Reid stopped and kissed me. Then he laced his fingers through mine and we walked into the trees. The forest was alive. I could feel Reid, feel the effect the pull of the moon had on him. He was anticipating the night, waiting for the power that was building all around us.

We stepped through the forest and it opened for us, flowing and bowing around us so that we moved like we were walking through a field. I felt liquid and alive, bending around nature until I was as part of it as Reid. I knew that all of this was because of him, because of our bond, and because he was touching me.

When he left tomorrow it would all die down so that it was just me and my normal human life. Until he came back.

We reached the clearing, and the rest of the pack was present. I felt them as we stepped into the circle of power. The unity washed over my skin in a rush of goosebumps. They bowed their heads to both of us respectively, and even Sarelle acknowledged me.

The moon was bright in the sky, and I felt the ground under my feet crawling with magic. Everything around me was bursting with life, from the wolves to the forest to the earth.

The pack dropped to the floor, and they moved toward us, crawling on their hands and feet. The action should have been so awkward, but they moved with fluid grace, like they had muscles under their skin that I didn’t have. John was the first to reach me. He touched me legs with his hands and then rubbed his cheek against my pants. Someone took my hand rubbed it against a cheek, and it was Maria. More wolves joined us, until we were both surrounded by people on all fours, rubbing themselves up against us.

They were being good wolves, submissive and their animal behavior didn’t scare me or freak me out.

When I thought about it again, after the full moon was over and the pack left on duty, I would probably think it was the weirdest thing. But right now it felt right, it felt like it was the way it was supposed to be. And I understood why Charlene, John’s wife, would never be able to do this.

I felt it when the first wolf gave in to the change. Maria was the first to go, and I could feel the power swallow her and draw her animal out. Her face changed, bones moved under her skin, and then she was a wolf. The others followed suit, one by one changing in front of me, until everyone except for Sarelle was a wolf.

She stood up and looked at me.

“I didn’t think you had what it took to lead us, but I was wrong,” she said before she gave into the change as well. Reid looked at me, smiling. He lifted my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles. Then he kissed me.

“I’ll see you in the morning,” he said. I felt the wolf rip out of him as if I was the one that was changing. The pain was vivid and real for a moment, and then it passed. His wolf broke free, and he shook himself like a dog. Reid threw his head back and a howl drew out of his throat. The others joined in, singing their song to the moon.

Then Reid launched forward and ran into the trees. He made small yipping sounds that got the others even more worked up than they already were. They answered with similar sounds, and one by one, according to hierarchy, followed him into the trees. I was left alone in the circle of power.

And it didn’t drain the way it had the first time. It stayed with me, less than when the wolves were with me, but still there. When I stepped into the trees, I felt it drain out with me, and I knew that if any other human walked in there now it would just be a patch of dead earth.

I made my way through the trees, back home. I felt the night air almost like a whisper on my skin, and I could feel the power of the pack, knew where they were. I knew this wasn’t going to last, not while Reid was away. I couldn’t draw power by myself the way I could when I was with him. It was because of him.

But I loved it. I loved that I was part of something bigger, and I relished the power, drank in the energy. It was so much more than just an ordinary human life.

And I knew there was no way I could go back. It was the reason I’d married Reid in the first place, even when I knew he was a wolf. His power had touched me from the start, even if it hadn’t been that prominent then. A life without him just wouldn’t have been enough.

It was the same now. A normal, human life just wasn’t going to be enough anymore. Once you taste magic, you never want to let it go again.

When I got home I crawled into bed, tucking the covers under my chin. The night pressed against the windows, like it was searching for me.

We’d been through a hell of a journey, Reid and I. But every time it had ended well. That was all I needed. It didn’t matter what came my way now. We were happy, I was happy. And that was good enough for me.

I rolled onto my side and curled into a ball. There was only a future left now. A future that was going to be a hell of a lot more interesting that things have been so far. Just me and Reid, and nothing could come between us now.

Chapter 1

Allegra

When Reid is away, everything is normal. I’m a military wife that lives at the base and sells beauty products to the other military wives. I take part in bake sales and stork parties and I plan events and meet-and-greets because that’s what we do here. We’ve always stuck together as the wives of soldiers to be there for each other and make sure that we all have someone to turn to.

Charlene used to be the person that I could turn to. She’s married to John, one of Reid’s team members. They’re all Army Rangers. But recently things have just been different. I can’t really relate to her anymore, and not because she isn’t a good friend. There just isn’t anything in my life anymore that she can understand.

Besides being Army Rangers, Reid’s team consists of werewolves. They’re all wolves, Reid included, and even though I knew that from the start, my life has changed a lot.

And I couldn’t always say for the better. But now I can.

There was a time when I understood that Reid was a werewolf, but he kept that part of his life as far away from me as he could. It affected our marriage so much we were about to break up. And then, to make things right, I decided to become part of his pack instead.

And it wasn’t easy, but I did it. Sure, I had to fight a wolf or two to get here. But I’d made it. And we are better than ever.

It’s when Reid comes home that everything changes. The magic builds, and my life as a human is turned upside down.

I woke up one morning with goose bumps crawling over my skin. The atmosphere that hung in the room was static. I stretched my arm over Reid’s said, still made and cold with his absence, just to be sure that he wasn’t there already. The kind of magic I was feeling usually came with him.

He wasn’t in bed, or even in the house. Not yet. But he was close. I could feel him coming closer, and as it seemed to work with these things now that we were bonded as the alpha couple, I could feel his pack crawling closer too.

It was still something I had to get used to, being connected to seven other wolves besides Reid. Our little pack was nine large, and since I’d stepped into the role of alpha female completely, I was connected to each of them on some level or another.

At least, most of them. Sarelle was the wolf that had challenged me. I’d had to physically fight her, she’d attacked me in a pack meeting when Reid had tried to replace me. I hadn’t been too sure about it all then yet. The rules had been changed a bit because I’m just a human, and I’d fought her and won.

I still wasn’t a hundred percent sure how I’d done it.

She wasn’t fond of me, she was fifth in the pack hierarchy and it bothered her. Somehow she knew how to shut herself off to me, so that even when I felt them all, I couldn’t really feel her. Her wolf was just a dim light in the darkness, where the other were blazing flames.

It shouldn’t have bothered me, but it did. She shouldn’t have been a person whose opinion mattered, but it did. Maybe it was something along the lines of a queen having subjects that didn’t serve her.

My phone rang and I snatched it off the night stand. I pressed the talk button and held it to my ear.

“It’s time, Allegra,”  Charlene said.

“Be there in five,” I said and slipped out of bed. Charlene was pregnant. She and John were starting a family, and because he was still away, I was the one that stood in for him. I’d been with her to birth classes after he left on duty, because the chances were that I would be the one holding her hand when the time came.

And the time had come.

I threw on a t-shirt and yesterday’s jeans and kicked on running shoes. I was in the car in less than two minutes, tires squealing on the tarmac. When I knocked on her door she opened with her overnight bag in hand.

“Let’s do this,”  she said, but she looked pale and her eyes were big and scared.

“You’re going to be perfectly fine. I’m here, and I’m not going to faint on you like some male.”

She smiled at that. Men were heroes, they could kill on the battle field and not blink an eye. They could have a bar fight to defend their woman, they could conquer the world. But a woman giving birth?

I took Charlene’s arm and walked her to the car. She waddled with wide steps, one hand clutching her stomach.

“Three minutes apart,” she said and I knew she was talking about the contractions. We still had some time. I drove her to the medical center. Charlene phoned ahead in the car, and they were waiting for her in the emergency lane with a wheelchair when I pulled up.

They wheeled her in and I reversed back out to park the car.

When I found the maternity ward a male nurse held up his hand. “Family only,”  he said.

“Her husband’s on duty. I’m all she’s got,” I said. He nodded his head and let me through. Charlene was already propped up on the bed with her legs open, ready to give birth. A nurse forced me into scrubs and I walked to her bed, grabbing her hand. She was already sweating, her damp hair clinging to her forehead and cheeks.

“She’s crowning,” the nurse said, crouching behind the sheet they’d thrown over her head. Charlene made a groaning sound that rolled over into a higher-pitched squeal.

“You’re doing great, baby mama,” patting her hand with my free hand. She was squeezing the life out of my fingers.

“Another push with the next contraction,” the nurse said. Charlene took a deep breath and did it again. Her face reddened with the effort and her body contracted, forcing the baby out.

“That’s the head,” the nurse said. Another nurse was at her side, helping her. Charlene was breathing fast and shallow.

“Deep breaths, slowly in,” breathed with her, “and out again.” I didn’t want her to hyperventilate.”

“Okay, ready for another one?” the nurse asked. Charlene shook her head.

“I don’t want to do this anymore,”  she said and she was on the verge of tears.

“Better to get her out, then it’s over. Otherwise we’re going to have to come back tomorrow,”  I joked.

“The hell we’re not,” she said and her face scrunched. She screamed a long, drawn out scream, and then the sound tapered off and it was replaced with the first cries of a newborn baby.

“That’s my girl,”  I said, touching her cheek. She fell back on the pillow, gasping. The nurse wrapped the baby in a hospital blanket and brought the little bundle to Charlene, putting her down on her chest.

“It’s a beautiful baby girl,” she said. Charlene was crying, and I had to swallow down my own tears. She let go of my fingers and I moved them, circulating the blood.

The little girl made small sounds, moving her mouth. New born babies are the most beautiful, ugliest little things in the world. Her face was squashed and she still had the waxy substance in her hair and around her nose. But she really was the most precious thing.

Charlene smiled through her tears. The nurse helped her with her hospital gown so that she could get the baby feeding. I took a step back and watched.

Charlene glowed. Her hair was damp and messy, she had dark circles under eyes and the nurses were still finishing up between her legs. But she glowed like only a mother could, and none of that mattered. She was beautiful.

I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath. I wanted that. I wanted to miracle of birth. I wanted to feel a baby inside of me, and give birth to Reid’s children. I wanted all of this. And why not? We’d been married long enough.

Charlene looked at me, suddenly realizing I was in the room with her. She held out her hand I came closer.

“Well done,” I said to her. “She’s perfect.”

“She is,” Charlene said. She sighed. “I wish John were here.”

“They’ll be home soon,” I said. And I could feel it. I wondered if John knew. If he’d felt it when Charlene had given birth. I knew that if it had been me Reid would have known. But we were bonded differently because I’d accepted who he was. I’d accepted being a part of the pack.

Charlene and John didn’t have that kind of link. To them it would be the same as with any other person. And that meant that he probably didn’t know. I sighed. This was another part of being a military wife that was hard. Sometimes we spent Valentine’s day, birthdays, Christmas, Easter, Thanks Giving alone. That was okay. They came again and again. Every year. But having children?

Charlene thought the same thing. She was crying again. So I found the camera I knew she’d packed and started snapping pictures.

“So he can be as close to this as he can,” I said. Charlene smiled.

I got another rush of goose bumps. It drew over my body like a blanket and I shuddered. The power rushed through the room like a wave before it died down again. I looked at Charlene for any reaction, but she was caught up with the baby. She hadn’t felt it.

I didn’t think she could feel it at all.

Strangely, it made me feel lost, like I was alone in this world where friends and strangers alike just wouldn’t understand me. I looked at Charlene, so wrapped up in her perfect life, with the baby that she’s always wanted, and I suddenly wanted that.

My life was great, but it wasn’t perfect. Far from it. It was confusing and wild and every now and then things went so fast I struggled to catch my breath. And there were no children. Looking at Charlene now, her delirious smile, witnessing the birth process, I realized with a pang how much I wanted that.

And I wondered why I’d pushed it away for so long. For Reid’s sake, the answer came to me right away. Because we’d been struggling for a long time to make things works. Starting a family as a military wife was already hard. Doing that when you were married to a werewolf just complicated things. A lot.

But we’ve accomplished so much the last while. Look at how far we’ve come. Reid and I were better than ever, a tight unit. It included weird magic, but whose life didn’t have a kink here and there? I kissed Charlene’s hair, one that I think she barely felt, and left the hospital room, shrugging out of the scrubs they’d pushed me into.

When Reid came home we were going to talk about it. I wanted a baby. I wanted to create new life. And I was sure he would want that too. We’d been married for long enough for it to be a good time.

Another wave of magic rippled over my skin and the power that slammed into my chest made me gasp. I knew what it was, but it had been absent for so long I was almost inclined to say I had to get used to it again.

He was close. He was going to be home soon. Very soon.

Chapter 2

Reid

John pushed into my room. He literally beamed, and I could feel the heat rush off him. He was a werewolf and I was his alpha, and I could feel everything he felt. And today it was like a tidal wave, washing through me.

“She’s here,” he breathed. “Charlene gave birth a couple of hours ago.”

He held out his phone with a photo of the two of them, Charlene was in her hospital gown, looking spent and happy, and in her arms the tiniest baby was bundled up in lots of pink.

“Isn’t she the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?” he handed me the phone and I looked at it. Little babies always looked like old people, wrinkled and scrunched up. But she was swaddled in pink and Charlene looked so happy, so I nodded. John took the phone back and stared at the photo.

“It’s a shame I missed it, but tomorrow I get to see her. I’m so happy,” he said. And I really believed he was. This was what John had wanted from the start. A wife, children, a family that resembled normal life. Being werewolves meant that our lives were very different, and John yearned for normality. No one chose to be a werewolf, but it happened. Most of us were turned during attacks. One scratch from a werewolf and you caught it, too. Some of us were bred, like me, but John had been made. And I think if he could have chosen, he would never have been one at all. Even after everything he knew, the extra strength, the power, the magic.

I didn’t know anything else. I liked the power. I didn’t want normal.

John disappeared again to show everyone else he could find, leaving me behind alone, wondering if that was what Allegra would want. We’d never really spoken about children, what our lives were going to be like five years, ten years, twenty years down the line.

We should have, everyone had to discuss things like that before they got married. But we hadn’t done that. We’d talked about the fact that I was a werewolf, that I had a pack that needed me as much as she would.

We talked about the army, the idea that marrying me meant that she might lose me if something went wrong, that if I came home at all it would happen very seldom. We talked about things that young lovers talked about, not things that married couples were supposed to talk about.

And since then it had been a fight and a struggle to keep things together. And children hadn’t been in question.

We gathered in the mess hall for supper, and my team sat together. The air around us hummed with our energy, and no one else joined our table. Almost everyone knew we were werewolves, but I had an idea that even if they weren’t aware that they felt it, they just didn’t like sitting in the constant wave of power. When six wolves sat together it built.

We fed off it, but humans that could feel it tended to avoid it the way you avoided a live wire.

When John sat down his delirium rippled through us, and we all smiled. He grinned at me and I shook my head and took a bite of my food.