His Perfect Wolf (Mystic Wolves Book 2) (7 page)

“I’d like to go back
to your house so I can shower and change into my own clothes, then I can be out
of your hair.” Both men stood well over six feet tall, making her feel small
and insignificant. S
he’d shared her body with Niall,
something no other man had the pleasure of, and now he couldn’t wait to be rid
of her. Talk about a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am. Hot tears burned her eyes, but
she held them back. She remembered the way back and didn’t need Ni
all, or any man, for that matter.

Before she could do
more than take a couple steps, a hard arm came around her waist, lifting her
off her feet. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Niall’s harsh growl
reverberated next to her ear.

“Back to your hou
se to get cleaned up so I can leave.”

Setting her back on
the ground, he barked an order to Jett.
“Head to the club.
If I can, I’ll be there later. Did you
leave her key at my place?”

Alaina couldn’t look
at either man, shaken by the rush of emotions, she
fought
for composure. Unnerved by her reaction, she tried to pull away from Niall. He
shot a disapproving frown down at her, tightening his hold. He caressed her
ribs, running his thumb over the underside of her breasts. She yelped and tried
to squirm away
.

“Hmm, are you
ticklish?” His warm breath feathered her neck.

Uncomfortable with the
way he took charge of her life, and her body, she batted his hand away. “It
sounds like you have things to do, and I need to figure out…everything. Let me
go, Niall.” She
didn’t look at the man holding her
like he owned her one minute, and then like he couldn’t wait to be rid of her
the next.

Chapter Five

Never.
He silently vowed, agreeing with his
beast. His wolf tried to push forward, wanting to claim Alaina right then and
there. He restrained the urge to pick her up, carry her back to his home, and
mark her for the world to see. Niall wanted to kick himself for
his reaction over the condom. He hated the hurt he’d
caused her, but it was the first thing that had popped into his head when he’d
realized they were no longer alone.

She struggled against
his
arm,
the terror in her voice had him
marginally easing his g
rip. “
Alaina,
let me take care of you. We don’t know
why you were running, or who you were running from. I can protect you. Let me
do this.”

Her shaky indrawn
breath undid him. The tingling sensation in his chest where his heart lay had
him frowning down a
t her.

Without another word,
Jett left, heading back the way he’d come. Niall figured he’d have some razzing
from the guys at Chaps. He watched his friend leave, his long strides eating up
the distance before he turned Alaina to face him. He adjusted his h
old on her, shifting her body against his, showing her how
she affected him. With an arm at her back and one beneath her legs, he lifted
her in his arms and held her against him. “Let’s get something abundantly
clear, babe. I don’t want you to leave. I can
read
your body language like a book. What we shared wasn’t just some romp in the
woods for fun, where I now send you on your way.”

Alaina drew in a shaky
breath and bit down on her bottom lip.

The faint hint of her
blood raised his hackles. Leaning down,
he ran his
tongue along her lip until she opened for him. “You made your lip bleed.”
Licking the coppery sweet flavor away, sealing the small wound with his tongue,
he eased her into accepting his kiss.

She grabbed him,
wrapping her arms around his neck wi
th a cry of
surrender.

Niall tried to be
gentle with her, tried to tame the feral intensity of his beast. Most women
found his rugged looks, and uncompromising behavior, in and out of the bedroom
a turn-on. As he held Alaina, he found himself straining to
be different. His hands were firm, yet tender where he
kneaded her flesh through the denim.

Blinking
up at him.
“You can’t keep picking me up and carrying me around like this, you know,” she
whispered.

“Sure I can,” he
replied with a teasing wink, turning
and walking
toward home.

She smiled. “I’ll get
fat and lazy,
then
you won’t be able to carry me.”

Her tone was playful,
but he marveled at the thought of her being big and round with his cub. First,
he’d have to petition the pack to allow him to change her
,
then
approach her with the news of what he
was.

He’d loved it when
Emma was pregnant. Every moment Nolan was inside his mate was an experience
he’d relished. Emma was a wild wolf though, and he’d understood that. Had
promised her he wouldn’t curb those t
endencies. If he
had insisted she not run alone, she might not have been killed by a hunter all
those years ago, leaving him to raise their son alone.

“What’s wrong?” Alaina
asked, running her finger between his brows.

Niall winced at the
dark thoughts. “I
was just thinking about having to
go into the club tonight. I hate to leave you all by yourself.”

She was staring at his
lips. He wondered if she was thinking of kissing him. Niall didn’t want to make
love to her in the woods again. Her first time should’
ve
been on a bed, his bed, with soft music and candles. The next time he would
make sure she got the hearts and flowers, even if his heart wasn’t available.
He’d make sure she never knew.

“I’ll follow you into
town. I need to find a hotel for the night, ma
ybe
even the weekend. I’ll call my mom on Monday.”

Gritting his teeth to
hold back his retort, Niall kept walking. “You won’t find a room available for
a hundred miles or more. This is the month of the bikes, babe. Have you ever
heard of Bike Week in Sturg
is?”

She nodded her head.

“You teach school,
right?” Again, she nodded. “I’m assuming your classes just started. Well, Bike
Week is the same week every year, and the bikers start pouring in weeks in
advance and stay for weeks after.”

At her puzzled look he
explained that their club was in Sturgis and catered to
the bikers and locals.

“Oh. Well, I guess I
can just head out and drive till I find a vacancy.”

He was getting a
sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He needed to do something to get her
to sta
y. “Alaina, I want you to stay with me for the
weekend.” Niall was smart enough not to say
forever.
It was too soon, and he didn’t want to
run her off. Shaken by the thought of her leaving and never seeing her again,
Niall stopped in his tracks. “Stay with
me, babe. I
promise to be a great host and rock your world.”

“What about your son?”

“He’s with his
grandparents. Do you know what that means?” He began walking again. “We’ve got
the house to ourselves all weekend.” Niall glanced down to see how she reacte
d to his words.

Her flawless skin
glowed, cheeks pink from desire she couldn’t hide. He couldn’t wait to see the
flush spread across her body when he got her home and naked. He’d been hard
since the first time he’d caught her scent and found her injured, t
he smell of her wrapping around him, pulling him toward her
as if she had him on a leash. He should be enraged, or annoyed, instead he was
hard.

“Don’t you have to
work tonight?” she asked.

“Not for hours,” he
said. A primitive hunger and possessiveness fo
ught to
break free inside him, wanting to claim Alaina Strop.

He circled the front
of his house, raising his head to the air. The smell of several of his pack
mates overlaid his and Alaina’s. Her compact rental sat next to his large
four-by-four truck, loo
king small in comparison.

Setting her on the
ground next to his truck, he pressed the keypad and got the envelope Jett had
left with the key Torq had made for her rental. His boys had even coded a
keyless remote just in case she’d had one from the company.

“Let’s get your stuff
out of the trunk,
then
go inside. I have plans for the next
two hours.” He popped the hatch. Her suitcase was as colorful as the woman,
with pink and purple flowers all over it. He smiled and hefted it out, while
she grabbed her purs
e that was neatly tucked to the
side.

“Shower, and then I’ll
feed you.”

Her mischievous look
amused him. “Yes, you will.” His cock throbbed, the need to sink into her heat
once again inflaming him. His fingers itched to stroke the skin he’d already
discove
red was smooth as velvet and soft as silk. He
wanted to slide his fingers through her hair while she knelt before him, wanted
to feed her his cock and watch her suck him.

The dirty things he
imagined doing to her, a virgin up until
recently,
should be ille
gal.

He took her bag,
holding onto her hand the entire way into his bedroom. “Take your shower while
I make a phone call.”

She fisted her hands
at her sides, but nodded.

Reaching out, he
pulled her to him. “I’m fighting a primitive urge to throw you down
and fuck you senseless. First, I need to check in with my
brother. That’ll give you a moment to catch your breath, but don’t think I’m
not hurting so bad right now, I’m aching.” He placed her hand over his bulge.
Every part of his being was tense with a hu
nger
unlike anything he’d ever experienced in his entire thirty-seven years. Not
even when he’d been with Emma.

He shook off thoughts
of his truemate. The need to stake his claim on the woman in front of him
overrode everything else. He bent, taking her li
ps in
a hard kiss. There was a primitive quality to it, but there was nothing he
could do to change how he felt.

Not giving her a
chance to respond, he lifted his head and walked out of the room.

The sound of the
shower coming on gave him the chance to
check in with
his pack. His first call was to Zayn and Jett.

“I need to make
this
quick boys. You got any news for me?”
Niall asked.

“How’s your girl?”
Zayn asked.

“Her name’s
Alaina,
and she’s great.” Pride rang in his
voice.

Jett cleared his voice
over t
he line. “I noticed you were pretty acquainted
with the young lady. What’s your plans, boss?”

“You got something to
say, Jett?” Niall kept his voice low, his hackles raised at Jett’s question.

“She doesn’t seem like
one of the chicks from the club is all I
’m saying,
and there is something familiar about her. I’m not pressing in on your
territory, Alpha, I’m just saying don’t play around with her. I could see the
innocence written all over her face, if not her body, anymore.”

Niall growled, his
blood boiling
. Chaos erupted inside his mind at the
thought of his pack mate interfering with what he considered his.

Reminding himself that
this was Jett, his best friend, Niall took a deep breath. “I’m not playing shit
with her. I’ve never felt anything like I feel f
or
Alaina, not even with Emma. It confuses and pisses me off, but it excites me
too. Now, that is the end of my sex life that you need to know. I appreciate
you thinking about Alaina, but she’s my concern, not yours.”

“Don’t fuck up the way
I almost did, b
ro. That’s my advice to you,” Zayn
said.

Jett laughed. “Nobody
can fuck up the way you did. Besides,
Ny
is the smartest one of us. I just…you didn’t even notice I was there until I
was almost on top of you. I purposefully stepped on that branch, you know.
What if I’d been one of the rogues?”

Shit.
He’d been so consumed with getting
inside Alaina, and then once he was, everything around them ceased to exist.
He’d never had a problem putting the pack and their welfare before anything
else, except Nolan. His s
on would always come first.

He lowered his chin to
his chest. “Fuck, I don’t even know what to say, except I was out of my mind.”

“Do you remember what
you said to me when we had our
talk
?” Zayn asked.

Niall waited, knowing
Zayn would eventually get to his
point.

“You said the greatest
feeling in the world was being locked inside your mate, and you were right.
When I’m with Cora, the world could melt away and I wouldn’t even notice.”

“I wasn’t locked
inside her. She’s not my mate.” He didn’t say the word, y
et. His plans for the weekend were to woo her, show her how
good it could be between them. After he made her fall in love with him, he’d
tell her about shifters, and hope she wanted to be one. If not, he’d be talking
with Payton and having her
do
some fey
magic.
Alaina would walk away from the weekend with a memory of them having a brief
affair, while he feared she’d take a piece of him with her.

“Whatever you say,
Ny
.” Zayn laughed.

Clenching his hand,
Niall gave them both a few instructions and told them
he’d
see them at Chaps. The shower had shut off a few minutes earlier, and he was
impatient to get to Alaina. He went into one of the guest suites and took a
quick shower, washing off the dust and dirt from his climb down the cliff. He
got a cold chill thi
nking how close she came to
death, and how lucky she was to have made it out relatively unscathed.