Destined For The Alpha: Six Heart-Racing Shifter Romances (Werewolf's Harem Book 7)

L
ucas reached out
, brushing his fingertips against her shoulder, down her arm. She shuddered, and he began again, from her shoulder to her collarbone and on down. His touch traced the outline of her breast, and he splayed his fingers to cup her there.

Heavy and full and warm, her breast felt perfect when she arched into his hand. He watched her, saw her eyes drift close and the way she bit her lip as she leaned into his touch. Her soft abandon was his undoing.

Lucas leaned in and brushed his lips over hers, seeking. He dropped his hand to pull her close, and drank in her quiet sigh of pleasure.

Her lips parted for him, the sweet heat of her mouth firing his blood. He pressed in, groaning as he slid his tongue against hers. Her arms went up about his neck, fingers digging into his hair. He gripped her hips, ran his hands over her back, wanting more. The kiss ignited between them, and soon they were both breathing hard. 

Lucas broke the kiss, looking down at her. Her face was flushed, and she opened her eyes to turn that incredible sapphire gaze on him like a spotlight. Her expression accused him of denying her pleasure, and he would have laughed if he weren’t so on edge. 

“Take your clothes off,” he said, all playfulness gone.

W
atching
the last fleeting rays of red and orange trace the Atlanta skyline at dusk, Lucas Kiern couldn’t suppress a shiver as he stared out the twenty-foot-high glass wall of his penthouse office at Luna Corp. The color red had been on his mind much of late.

Not the deep amaranth slipping from the sky as the sun finally sank, no. It was a fiery copper hue that occupied his thoughts, brushed the edges of his mind as he tried to sleep. A rich, sweet, warm color that was nicely complemented by stunning sapphire eyes, creamy pale skin, and freckles dusted across the bridge of a pert nose. 

His wolf stirred within, struggling to surface. Heat bloomed in his chest, the soaring teak-paneled walls of his office seemed to encroach, confine. Lucas had but to look at the calendar to understand his malady.

Heedlessly stripping off the jacket and tie from his Kiton suit, he tossed them onto his desk and braced his arms over his head and leaned against the window. Lights flickered to life across the city, and in the growing darkness he could see both the changing night-scape outside and a faint, blurred reflection of himself in the window. 

His 6’3, tightly muscled frame was unsurprising. He was, after all, the paradigmatic specimen of a werewolf. Big without being bulky, long-limbed without sacrificing speed. His kind were Vikings, Spartans, Highlanders.

Swallowing, Lucas reached down and clawed the first few buttons of his shirt open, giving himself more room to breathe. He could feel the walls pressing in on him. Or perhaps instead his Berserker ancestors, watching and silently judging from their places of honor in Valhalla. They’d launched fleets of ships, waged war, conquered foes. Lucas’s life couldn’t be more different; his wars were in board rooms, his fleets were complex computer software systems, his foes were Japanese innovators that he admired and occasionally befriended. His ancestors would probably be disgusted by his soft, cultured lifestyle.

Blinking, Lucas focused on himself once more. Wavy blond hair, cut stylishly. A bit longer in the front where it curled, a prominent gray streak in his forelock that women seemed to admire. Rather than age him, it brought the frozen steel of his gray eyes to a stormy sheen. Tan skin, from head to toe, no matter the season. Teeth so perfectly straight and white, no one would ever guess that they grew into gruesome fangs under the full moon’s pearly spell.

A growl ripped from his chest, startling him. His visage, the source of so much pleasure from so many eager bedmates over the years, was not his friend tonight. Staring at himself wasn’t going to fill the massive void of want that had opened within him.

Pushing away from the window, he returned to his desk and sat on the edge. Sweeping his coat and tie to the floor, he revealed the pale blue file folder once again. Sighing, he reached out and slid a finger under the cover, slowly baring the file’s contents to his hungry gaze.

Aurelia Gilson, he read. His eyes dropped down the page, following the now-familiar path of statistics and facts that made up the woman who’d become his obsession.

Date of Birth: 1982. Age: 31. Birthplace: Austin, Texas. Family: Brother, Edgar Gilson, Resides Peacefully In San Francisco, CA. Education: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, First and Second Degrees in Computer Science and Computational Linguistics. Wanted By: Interpol, CIA, FBI, and Police in Dubai, U.A.E., New Zealand, France, Norway, Namibia, Cote D’Ivoire, Italy, United Kingdom, and Greece. Bounty: €1.5 Million. Current Residence: Unknown. Last Seen: Nuit Du Hack Hacker’s Convention, 25 June 2012.

Flipping the first sheet over, Lucas skimmed down the list of Aurelia’s offenses, what his private investigator had referred to as her “mile-long rap sheet”. She’d phreaked, sniffed, spoofed, socially engineered, phished, pharmed, and whaled her way into the elite community of top-level hackers at a mere fifteen years of age. Just that many years later, she’d been caught and exposed for the white-gloved criminal she was, her identity leaked to a number of national security agencies. It had only been a matter of time before his poor girl had been banished from every technophile locale in the civilized world.

Flipping another page, he came to a map. A map of Sri Lanka, to be precise, with a fat red circle drawn around the commercial capital of Colombo. Aurelia’s current location, according to the detective.

Unable to contain his eagerness now, he flipped the page again. A fat, glossy sheaf of photographs awaited him.

Older photos first. Childhood and teen photos of her with her brother, her only living family member. Then college, photos of Aurelia posing with her friends on the MIT campus. And just as the college photos tapered off, came his favorites. Aurelia, the naughty vixen, had taken some very explicit and high-quality striptease photos for some Suicide Girls-esque knockoff. That red hair pinned up in a pile at her nape, shapely long legs and tiny white panties and a yellow baseball t-shirt, those big blue eyes flirting while her pink lips pouted at the camera. 

As the photos progressed, the shirt edged up to showcase a flat stomach, then came off to reveal stunningly full rose-tipped breasts. Then Aurelia slowly stripped off the panties, allowing the view of her curved ass. She spread her legs, giving just a hint from behind. Then she rolled toward the camera, sprawling, her legs opening to reveal…

And that’s where it ends, Lucas thought with a curse. He’s made a single call, purchased the whole damned smut operation in the hopes that there were more photos and they’d just held some back as a tease. Then he’d had the investigator track down the photographer, search his studio for the negatives. Surely there were more, to sate his curiosity.

Denial, swift and aching. He was hard now, his need painful as his body begged him to let his imagination fill in the gaps. He wouldn’t do it, of course.

No, no. Lucas was the CEO of one of the most powerful tech companies in the world, an aggressive alpha werewolf, and a competitive bastard who got every single thing he wanted, when he wanted it. And now he wanted Aurelia.

Surging forward, he pressed the intercom button on his phone.

“Leila!” he barked.

“Y-yes, Mr. Kiern? Do you need me in your office?” came the immediate response. Her voice was throaty, a promise. His feisty little she-wolf secretary, who serviced his needs and defended his office with equal vigor.

“Not right now. I need Walker. And Ben, too. Have them come in, please,” he requested, easing his tone a bit.

“Yes, sir,” she replied, all business now. He loved that about Leila, he honestly did.

Minutes later Walker Black and Ben Fincher entered his office, curiosity about his summons evident in their expressions.

“Sit, please,” Lucas waved at them, studying the two males as they dropped into the chairs across from his desk.

Leila had once teasingly referred to Walker and Ben as Lucas’s ‘book ends’ because they frequently flanked him during meetings, trips, and any other important interactions. The two were nothing alike, and little like Lucas either, which made them such a powerful team. 

Walker was a hair taller than Lucas, with rich mahogany hair and piercing brown eyes. He was even more muscular than your average wolf, and often intimidated humans to the point of terror. He spoke little, but every word was pure seriousness. If Lucas were the alpha of a pack, Walker would be his beta and main enforcer. As it stood, he was the COO of Luna Corp, and a vital part of keeping everything running. His wolf was an immense timber wolf, which reflected exactly his serious and direct personality.

Ben, on the other hand, was an inch or two shorter than Lucas and Walker. He was dark haired, with big blue eyes that made him seem younger than his thirty three years. He was leaner and slighter than Lucas, and faster in human and wolf forms. Ben was the head software analyst and engineer at Luna Corp, and he was more lighthearted and compassionate than Lucas or Walker. He was more human, and provided the balance necessary in their partnership. His quick, playful Grey Wolf was inky-black and beautiful, a strong draw for female wolves.

“Well?” Walker said, snapping Lucas out of his thoughts.

“I’ve decided. About the girl, that is. I want her to be the first female brought to the compound,” Lucas declared.

A look communal displeasure passed between Ben and Walker.

“Is there a problem?” Lucas asked, crossing his arms and leaning back in his seat.

He expected Ben to cut in and tactfully explain their issues, but Walker spoke instead.

“We don’t understand why you’re doing this. You’re rich, you’re young, you’re good looking. There are females throwing themselves at your feet, trying to be your mate.”

“Most of them are willing to take a lot less than that,” Ben cut in. “Why not choose one of those, keep her for a while, then trade up? It’s what everyone else does. This concept of yours, this harem thing-“

“Harem?” Lucas said, rolling the word over his tongue. Several incredible women, all dedicated to the top triad of Luna Corp, all servicing their needs and keeping their secrets…

“Perhaps that is the correct term,” Lucas admitted, nodding.

“It’s a strange concept,” Walker said, his tone dour. Always the practical one.

Lucas sighed. He’d known it wouldn’t be a simple conversation, not even with the two males who knew him best.

“Ten years ago, I sat you two down in a coffee shop and told you that I wanted to start a software company. I wanted to build something that would give us financial stability, a product we could really believe in, and the flexibility to escape the corporate world when we needed, to let our wolves be free. What was your response then?” Lucas asked.

Walker and Ben looked at each other.

“We were skeptical,” Walker answered.

“Yes, and maybe rightfully so. But we put the work in, and built our little software program into dozens of different products, and now they’re selling worldwide in a hundred markets. I had the vision, you had the know-how, and we worked our asses off. Now it had paid off a hundred fold.”

“Which is why we should just level off now,” Ben said, cocking his head.

“I wasn’t satisfied with working some nine to five in a cubicle, dragging myself through each day and punching the time clock. I wanted excellence, and together we created it. Now that I’m satisfied with my work, I want to settle my personal life. And I expect no less than excellence in that arena, as well. There are many female wolves in the world, but I want the best. The brightest, most beautiful females, and ones who can offer us as much as we could give them.”

Walker and Ben watched him, listening patiently.

“We’re not twenty years old anymore. We’re rich, successful, and in our prime. It’s time to start building a foundation, thinking of living a full life outside of work. I personally plan on selecting a female from the Harem to breed with, someone I respect and trust enough to parent with. I would expect no less from you two.”

Ben looked a little aghast, while Walker’s stony expression remained unaffected. 

“You want us to share all the women?” Walker asked. “Wolves don’t usually like to share much. Food, women, territory…”

“I think the situation will be unique with each woman. It will be up to her preference, ultimately, but I imagine it will also rely on our personal level of interest and attraction. When I select a female to breed with, I would expect to be her only mate.”

“And if we all settle down with one female, what about the rest of them?” Ben asked.

“We would care for them financially, and try to find them an acceptable male if they should choose that course,” Lucas answered.

Ben was quiet for a long time, then he snickered.

“Do you find this amusing?” Lucas asked, arching a brow.

“Well, yeah. It’s kind of like you’re setting up your own dating service,” Ben replied.

“Do you have a better idea? Or do you plan on being single forever? Or maybe just keep dating human women, hiding your wolf from them?” Lucas challenged.

“No,” Ben snapped, sinking back in his chair with a scowl.

“Or maybe we could all just do without, like some wolves do?” Lucas suggested, giving Walker a hard look.

“I don’t trust females,” Walker said with a shrug.

“That’s the beauty of this deal,” Lucas explained. “There will be a contract, specifying that the females must live on our terms and protect our identities. In exchange, they’ll receive financial compensation and protection. If they violate the contract, we’ll throw them right back to the mess they were in before.”

Ben and Walker looked at each other, obviously still having reservations.

“It just sounds like…” Ben started, the paused.

“Paying for sex,” Walker finished, unabashed.

“I’m not planning on including sex in the contract. Only companionship. I assume that we’re all capable of using our looks and charm and dominant wolves to our advantage. This just keeps everything above board, and safe.”

Walker visibly relaxed, and Ben nodded. Lucas could see he’d swayed them.

He stood, leafing through the photos on his desk until he found one of Aurelia that showed her fully dressed. Handing it to Walker, he continued.

“This female is an exceptional mind. She’s beautiful. I have no doubt she’s spirited. And lucky for us, she’s in a hell of a lot of trouble. There are a dozen more women in similar situations, and more that we’ve yet to find. I want to take Aurelia in first, as her predicament is pressing.”

The males nodded, and Lucas felt a weight lift off his shoulders. Grabbing his cell phone, he sent a text to his team on the ground, telling them to go ahead with the plan.

Looking up at his two best friends and business partners, Lucas smirked.

“They’ll meet us at the compound in two days’ time. I suggest we head out and get everything ready.”

“Alright. Let’s do this,” Ben said, excitement tinging his tone.

Walker stood as Lucas approached, offering him a handshake. They clasped hands, their agreement silent but strong.

Leaning back over his desk, Lucas pressed the intercom button.