Curse of the Alpha: The Complete Bundle (27 page)

E
rik’s mate
was howling in distress.

She was his mate.

He knew that now. In wolf form everything was easier - his emotions were primary colors and easy to understand.

Regretfully, he reached for his human self so that he could comfort her.

When he stood beside her as a man again, she looked up at him with mournful golden eyes. He stroked her shimmering auburn fur. It was soft as silk at her cheeks and thick like a pelt over her spine.

He spoke as softly as he could.

“Ainsley, shut your eyes. Think of your human self. Reach for her hand.”

She stared at him a moment more. Then her eyes shut. When she opened them again she was back in her human form.

Her hazel eyes blinked in surprise as she took in her surroundings. She must be realizing they were in their special place.

“We’re here,” she breathed.

“You ran right to it.”

She shivered and then looked down at herself. Erik looked too.

Ainsley’s soft curves were like the subject of a Renaissance painting. Her long chestnut hair hung down in waves that all but covered her generous breasts.

He snapped his head back up to look at her eyes, but not before he had seen enough to harden his cock to bursting for her. He was desperate to bury himself in all that delirious softness.

Her eyes met his, but they were full of misery. She was wrapping her arms around herself as if to hide from his gaze.

“Ainsley…”

“Oh god, please don’t look at me.”

He turned away immediately.

“I won’t hurt you. I promise. I know Clive tried to hurt you. I would die to protect you.”

Guilt washed over him. She could probably see his erection.

“I know you won’t hurt me.”

“Then why are you hiding from me?”

There was silence. He turned back to her.

Her head was hung shamefully.

“I…I don’t look like Cressida.”

“Why would I want you to look like Cressida?”

He was dangerously close to jealousy when it dawned on him.

“Do you think you would be more beautiful if you looked different?”

She nodded without looking at him.

How could he find the words to tell her? He adored the way she looked. And he loved her. She was his Ainsley. He would love her when she was huge with his child and when she was old and stooped. He had loved her when they both were small and dirty. He loved her fierceness and her loyalty. He would never have his fill.

But she wouldn’t hear any of that. Not really. Because she was too busy trying to hide herself from him.

So he simply spread his arms wide.

“Look at me, Ainsley, just look.”

She turned and met his eye. He glanced down and her eyes followed.

Her lips parted at the sight of his rigid penis.

“I’m proud of you,” he whispered, “you’re wonderful.”

Her eyes met his again.

“You were magnificent – a born wolf!”

She smiled happily. The golden flecks were dancing in her eyes again. He could stare into them forever.

Suddenly, there was a hum in the air.

Ainsley began to glow.

At first he wasn’t sure if it was the sunlight coming out from behind a cloud. A haze of soft light shimmered around her head.

Then her lips parted slightly and her arms fell away from her body, allowing him a full view of her glorious curves.

He clenched his jaw, determined not to force himself on her. She had to make the first move. After what she had been through it was important.

She blinked at him slowly, looking hypnotized. Then she caressed his face with a soft hand.

At her touch his resolve broke down. He pulled her close and inhaled her intoxicating scent.

She sighed and crushed her breasts against him. He could feel the peaks of her nipples harden against his chest.

It drove him wild and he dove into her neck, sucking and biting her soft, smooth flesh.

She moaned and sunk her nails into his back. The pain and pleasure egged him on and he lost himself in her scent.

When he pulled up for air he could see that her whole body was glowing. She shimmered and shone like an icon.

He stroked her hair and she leaned into his touch. Sparks seemed to emanate from his hand as he touched her.

He needed to lie down with her, right away. The rocky bank was uninviting. He lifted his eyes to the bamboo and pictured his house just beyond the meadow. He would never make it home - he needed her
right now.

She reached for him again and he lifted her effortlessly in his arms and carried her up the bank to the trees. There was a bed of pine needles a few inches thick and he laid her there gently.

She smiled up at him like an angel. His heart hurt and he closed his eyes fighting for control.

He opened them to find her sitting up, eyes fixed on his cock. Her lips were swollen from his kisses. She ran her tongue across them and leaned in.

Ainsley swirled her tongue around just the tip of his penis, tasting him. She licked up and down his shaft. She even probed his balls with her inquisitive tongue, as he writhed and moaned. Then she returned up his shaft to his sensitive head.

He was nearly crying with anticipation as she completed her exploration.

Suddenly she sucked him deep into her mouth. He saw stars as she dragged her mouth all the way up and down his heavy organ. After just a few strokes he had to pull himself out of her grasp. If she went on he would burst in her mouth and he needed to claim her.

He pushed her back down and leaned on his elbows, framing her glittering face.

“Ainsley…” he whispered.

She smiled up at him and he devoured her mouth. She tasted like honey.

He worked his way lower, sucking on her neck and nuzzling her collarbone.

She arched up to him and he breathed in her scent. The tangy spice of her was overwhelming.

Ravenously he fell on her breasts, licking and sucking her stiff pink nipples. He felt her hands tangle in his hair and heard her moans.

The beating of their hearts was loud in his ears. His was alternately rushing and dragging to match hers.

Her hips began to grind into his belly as he kissed his way down her body. He buried his nose in the thatch of her chestnut hair. The scent nearly drove him over the edge. Determinedly, he went lower still.

Ainsley froze. Shivers of anticipation ran up and down her body. Rays of light stretched out of her fingers and toes.

Erik was beyond wondering if he was going to do something right or wrong. He felt as if this were preordained – as if he couldn’t help but please her.

He pressed her thighs apart gently. She was shell pink and so wet it took his breath away.

She cried out in anticipation and he stroked her thighs to soothe her.

Then he pressed them further open still. Slowly, he lowered his face to inhale her unbelievable scent. His cock went so stiff he thought he would explode.

She lifted her hips in a wordless question.

He answered by taking his first taste of her. Immediately, he was delirious with her exquisite flavor. He lapped and sucked her coppery juices, tonguing between her folds and suckling and tugging on her clitoris, utterly losing himself in her.

She seemed to lose control of her movements. She wiggled and strained and nearly bucked him off.

She was ready.

He crawled back up to look into her luminous eyes.

“Ainsley, are you sure..?”

She answered him by wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him like he was going to war. He was sure that she could taste herself on him, but it only seemed to encourage her.

Just as he was about to find her with his hands and guide himself in, she rolled under him and he found himself on his back.

Ainsley straddled him and looked down at him with love in her eyes. Slowly, she dragged her soaking pussy along the length of his throbbing cock.

A golden halo surrounded her. Erik’s sense of time slowed down. There was no urgency, no worry, no world. There was only Ainsley.

Then she ground herself against the tip of his engorged penis.

The pleasure exploded through all his nerve endings. His whole body went stiff and he closed his eyes and prayed not to come that instant.

As soon as he was fully inside her he dared opened his eyes again.

Ainsley’s face was soft with ecstasy. Her breasts were swollen. Her nipples jutted out enticingly. She gazed into his eyes and slowly dragged herself up and down.

His heart burst with love for her. He grasped her hips in his hands and helped her find the rhythm she wanted. Before long she was moaning lightly. When she took her breasts in her own hands, he slipped his hand down and massaged her clitoris.

Her body stiffened and she cried out. She clenched him like a fist as she convulsed with pleasure. Light shot out of every pore of her skin and he felt it reflected in his own.

All his resistance was gone and he exploded inside her again and again, for what felt like a lifetime.

When it was done, she collapsed on top of his chest, panting. Then she pushed herself up enough to look into his eyes in wonder.

Something and changed in the pack.

Erik could feel the presence of an alpha now.

But it wasn’t him.

A
insley could feel
the light washing over them. Erik glowed beneath her and her skin tingled and sang at every point of contact between them.

It was working. She was drawing the alpha.

His eyes were riveted on hers. She could hear his heartbeat struggle to fall in step with her own. A wave of animal pride washed through her and she let go.

As she climaxed she could feel him swell. His deep groan reverberated through the electrified air between them.

Suddenly it was as though Ainsley’s head had been wrapped in wool all her life, and it had been removed in an instant.

She was assaulted from all sides with an invasion of sounds and smells as intense as when she had been a wolf. She dropped to Erik’s chest and panted with her eyes shut.

Ainsley heard the air hissing in and out of his lungs and the squelch of his pulse. She smelled the tomato red happiness of his fading pleasure.

She pulled up and looked down at him. He was a rainbow of dancing atoms, forming into a man shape. She reached for his face and her own hand trailed a blurred image of itself.

Erik’s pupils dilated and he emitted the grassy green scent of submission.

From all around, she could feel pinpoints of green warmth shooting through her. She closed her eyes and threw her head back. She heard a booming roar and realized it was emanating from her own throat.

The alpha had been drawn, and it was Ainsley.

Ainsley Connor was the alpha.

The weight of it didn’t hit her. The dissonant chorus of her pack’s emotions had already mesmerized her. Their fear and joy and confusion sliced through her like a thousand tiny knives.

Erik pulled her back down and rolled on top of her, covering her body with his.

The gesture smacked of impudence but she allowed it, hoping that he could shelter her from the merciless assault on her senses.

He nuzzled her neck. His breath skittered pleasantly across her nerve endings, distracting her a bit.

When he took her face in his hands and looked into her eyes again, she found a measure of gravity. The sounds, smells and feelings still hurled themselves against the doors and windows of her consciousness. But only she and Erik were inside.

“Ainsley, you’re…you’re the alpha.”

She smiled, not trusting herself to speak.

“You can’t leave now.”

The relief in his voice broke her heart and she smiled at him again and shook her head. She could smell the salt of her own tears as they prickled at the corners of her eyes.

He smiled down at her happily. He had never looked more handsome.

“What does it feel like?”

Ainsley closed her eyes and reached out to him with her mind. She poured the joy and power and confusion and the thousand voices of the pack into him for just a moment.

“Wow.”

His breath was scented with her arousal and she lifted herself up to taste his mouth.

At length she pulled away again.

“What do we do now?” she whispered.

A
insley awoke
to a symphony of pleasure. The sun from Erik’s skylight kissed her bare skin with delicate warmth. In it, she could see every color in the rainbow.

She stretched and felt the individual fibers of her muscles flex and release in tandem. She smiled and buried her head in the soft pillow again.

The smell of her mate filled her nose. Her belly curled in desire. She raised her head to call him to her. She knew that he would come at once to satisfy her craving.

But as she lifted her face another scent reached her. It was savory and meaty and bloody and wonderful.

Ainsley launched herself from the bed and trotted down the stairs naked. She could hear the sizzling and cracking of the meat and the happy humming of her mate as he slapped and seasoned the meat into submission.

“Ainsley,” he said, grinning at her.

She was overwhelmed with stimuli. The light playing off his dark hair, the flash of his white teeth, the musk clinging to his muscled shoulders, the heady smell of the meat. She froze for a moment in the doorway.

“You must be very hungry – I’m always ravenous after I shift.”

Yes, she was
very
hungry.

His gentle words helped her to focus.

She moved to him and wrapped her arms around his large frame. Was she lavishing him with approval for the meal? Or was she clinging to him like a life raft? Her wolf and human sides passed the problem back and forth without an answer.

He flipped the meat and tiny droplets of grease caught the light to show her their rainbows. The smell that arose from the pan as it seared the pink meat was irresistible.

Without thinking, Ainsley tried to snatch it out of the pan.

Erik grasped her wrist to stop her and she snarled at him. He cringed a little.

Suddenly she remembered herself and relaxed in his grasp.

They looked at each other in wonder.

“I’m going to sit over there.”

She pointed at the stool by the counter.

He nodded but grazed her knuckles with his lips before he let her go. When she looked up at him she saw the twinkle in his eyes.

“Are you laughing at me?”

“Maybe.”

Ainsley laughed. Erik joined her after a moment. They gazed at each other awkwardly. Then he turned back to the pan.

“How do you feel?”

She thought about it. She felt fabulous. As a matter of fact, she felt fan-fucking-tastic.

“Perfect,” she said.

He turned back to her with a smile, looking her up and down.

It hit her that she was completely naked in the bright light of Erik’s sunny kitchen. She was perched on a stool, which meant that her round belly was creased in the center and her breasts swung low without the constraint of a bra. Her tangled hair fell around her shoulders and down her back.

What must she look like to him?

Instantly she saw herself through the tunnel of his eyes – sexy tousled hair, swollen lips, lush, ripe breasts, round fertile belly and soft pink thighs – all haloed in a tantalizing shimmer of power.

Oh. Like that.

Ainsley tossed her hair and winked at Erik. His mouth dropped open and the spatula clattered to the ground, forgotten.

“My meat!” she whispered plaintively.

But it was too late. He smelled so good she had already forgotten about whatever it was that she had wanted so much a minute ago.

He leapt over the counter and knelt at her feet, nuzzling and mouthing her thighs. She lifted one leg and draped it over his shoulder.

He spread her open and inhaled deeply. Growling with desire, he buried his face in her, licking and sucking convulsively.

Ainsley tangled her fingers in his hair, pulling him closer. She didn’t care if he could breathe, or what she might taste like after their hours of copulating last night. All that mattered was the fire in her veins that his tongue was stoking.

Then it was time. She pulled him up by his hair.

He left a wet trail of sorrowful kisses up her belly and between her breasts, as though he would have liked to take his time.

She hoisted herself onto the counter in one smooth motion and wrapped her legs around his narrow waist possessively. He was radiating delicious warmth. She nuzzled his chest and neck, then looked into his eyes.

He gazed at her in open adoration.

She pulled him closer with her legs.

His expression darkened with lust as he dropped his boxers to the kitchen floor.

She closed her eyes in assent and he pressed himself into her slowly.

Every time they joined, her power expanded. By the time they finished she felt she would be able to see the stars in the daytime sky.

Spent, they collapsed on the kitchen floor. Her head rested on Erik’s massive chest. He stroked her hair with his warm hands. They were sated - for now at least.

The smoky smell of the meat roused Ainsley. She leapt to her feet and Erik slipped on his shorts and scrambled back to the stove.

The pan clattered against the counter top. Ainsley admired the rippling muscles in Erik’s back as he reached up for a cutting board and slid the meat onto it. He cracked a dozen eggs into the pan and set it back on the burner.

Then he turned and brought the cutting board to the counter in front of her. He salted the steak generously then slipped a knife deftly through it, creating small, juicy squares.

Ainsley’s stomach knotted on itself in hunger.

He smiled at her and tossed a bite to her.

She snatched it out of the air with her teeth.

The flavor burst against her tongue. She tasted the salt, the seasoned tang of the cast iron pan, the charred exterior, and the sweet juicy strings inside. She thought immediately of her rabbit.

“Soon I’ll teach you to hunt,” Erik said, as though he were reading her thoughts.

Ainsley started to wrinkle her nose in disgust, but it actually sounded awesome. She imagined tearing apart the rabbit in her strong wolfy teeth, letting the hot blood pulse down her throat.

It made her think of Clive and his bloody steak.

For the first time she thought about the implications of being the alpha.

“What are we going to do now…about me?”

“I called MacGregor while you were sleeping. Everyone knows. The whole town is buzzing.”

As he said it, Ainsley knew that it was so. When she let her guard down she could feel the teeming energy of her pack.

“Has there ever been a female alpha before?”

“Mac says it’s rare but not unheard of. It’s never happened in Tarker’s Hollow before.”

“Will they follow me?”

“They have to, you’re the alpha.”

“What if they don’t want to?” She was thinking of Clive, of course.

“If a wolf doesn’t want to follow an alpha he can leave the pack as an outcast. Or…”

“Or what?”

“Or challenge the alpha for control.”

“Would Clive do that?”

There was a pause while Erik considered.

“I don’t know anymore, a lot has changed,” he said at length.

“What if he does?”

“Then you would have to face him. Alone.”

Ainsley’s stomach clenched. A vision entered her head of Clive Warren’s handsome face and fearsome body, poised to shift and destroy her.