Lion In Wait (A Paranormal Alpha Lion Romance) (13 page)

“Yes,” Erik said. He was being patient. Way more patient than I ever could have been. He leaned forward on the desk where his lectern used to sit, his knuckles popping. “That is true. However, I’m not sure that she was really stolen, Lucien.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” The wolf, I noticed, wasn’t taking his dressing-down very well. “She was
my
mate, and then that jackass took her away!”

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t half expect someone to voice a complaint about the pejorative use of ‘jackass’ but I kept my head down and went right on typing.

“All right,” Erik began. “What is it you expect to happen, Lucien? Let’s be realistic.”

“My honor!” the middle-aged wolf was almost shrieking. “My honor is at stake, Alpha! When that monster... that
freak
took my mate, I was going to murder him, drive a silver spike straight through his heart, to avenge my honor.”

Erik sighed again. It was
really
hard not to laugh. “First of all, let’s not start in with the freak talk. We’re all different here, but we’re all one pack. Get it? Werebear or werewolf, there’s no difference in the eyes of the alpha. And, in case you forgot, that’s me.”

I didn’t look up, but I knew the glare he was giving the room. I’d seen it a thousand times.

“He threatened me! He stole my mate, he—”

“What is the
other
rule about mates, Lucien?” Erik interrupted. “The one that says if your mate wants to leave, then...”

Lucien shook his head, at least feigning that he didn’t understand. A shifter’s mate leaving was a mark of shame for which we humans don’t have a corollary. The closest thing might be, I dunno, eating your co-worker’s lunch and getting caught on tape.

Erik gestured with his hand. “Come on, Lucien. If your mate wants to leave, then she... c... c...”

“Can leave?” Lucien said. I swear his lips were trembling.

“Uh-huh. So, if she can leave if she falls in with someone else, then I don’t really see what kind of a case you’ve got.”

“So I don’t get to fight him?” Lucien balled up his fists and stood. Erik
hates
it when people stand up. “That freak takes my mate and I can’t even fight him over her?”

Erik half-laughed, and then shrugged. “You can fight whoever you want. That’s not my business, that’s not pack business. But if you want to issue a sanctioned challenge for dominance, you’ve got to play by the rules. If he kidnapped her? Okay. If he swept in, cast a spell on her and took your children? Perfect. But right now, all we’ve got is someone leaving someone else, and no rules have been broken. Now sit down, and stop complaining.”

Lucien grunted, and he sat down hard. “Okay, fine,” he said, then added a mumbled, “Goddamn assho—”

“What?” Erik leaned over the table. “What did you say?”

“Uh... I said yes... I mean yes, sir.”

Erik’s shoulders visibly relaxed when he checked the clock. This was his favorite part of court days. The ending part.

“Fantastic,” he said with a sigh. “I thought that’s what I heard. Now, if there’s no other complaints to hear today, I—”

From the left, someone shouted, “I’ve been waiting all day!” From the right hand side of the room came a “Me too! This is ridiculous!” and then from the back of the room, someone complained that they’d been coming for two weeks and hadn’t yet been heard.

“Are you sure?” I asked. “There’s a lot of really irritated people. Is this really the time to go hide out in your office?”

Erik flashed a dimpled half-smile. “Do you remember what Walt wanted me to hear two weeks ago? He has a complaint about his neighbor watering his lawn three times a week instead of two. Oh, and the other one, Greg? Who’s been waiting all day, you saw the report. He is complaining that
Leon
of all people stole a bunch of DVDs out of his car. I just... I can’t even imagine. Leon can hardly keep himself awake most times.”

The noise from the audience started to grow, and before I knew it, Erik had my hand in his, and I grabbed the typewriter off the table. “Got everything?” he said.

“Uh... yes, I think,” I said, stammering as he pulled me to my feet. “Wait!” As he pulled me to the door to his office, which was conveniently six feet from where we were standing, I stuck out a hand and barely grabbed my notes. “Okay, now I do!”

“Good,” he said. “Court is adjourned! I’ll be in my office until four, but don’t bother knocking unless you have an appointment.”

“Sir,” I said, “there’s no appointments, you told me not to make any.”

“I know,” he grinned. My sex muscles clenched. I hated when he did that. Okay, hate is a little strong of a word. More like ‘wish he’d only do it behind closed doors.’

I started going a little weak in the knees, but before that mattered he shoved me through the office door, sighed and collapsed backward, resting against it. His huge arms strained the sleeves of his dress shirt as he ripped off his jacket and reached for his tie.

Without looking, he took a second to click both deadbolts and the lock on the door’s handle.

The grin from earlier came back, this time joined by a flashing pair of pale yellow eyes. His swelling muscles were just about to tear through the slacks that I’d had tailored for him not even a week before.

“Here?” I said, almost breathless. “But won’t everyone in the room hear?”

“Oh like it’s the first time,” Erik said. “The way you were looking at me with those side-eyes of yours, I could hardly control myself. I didn’t give a shit about anything going on in there for at least half the day. I’ve been thinking about this since lunch.”

“About what?” I asked, feigning innocence.

“Get over here, Izzy.” Erik grabbed me by the wrist and yanked me across the floor. “I can’t keep myself calm much longer. You better either take that dress off, or not care if I rip it to shreds.”

His words burned my skin just about as hot as his fingers on my wrist did. “I’ve got others,” I said in a breathy whisper. “You keep buying them for me.”

“You keep making me tear them off,” he said. “What choice do I have?”

Before my eyes, Erik’s arms swelled, his shoulders and his legs grew larger until the fabric on his clothes gave just a little. He grabbed my modestly-sexy v-neck collar between both of his hands and ripped my dress straight down the middle.

I unbuttoned his shirt, running my finger from where a tattooed leaf poked out just above his collar, all the way down to where the roots disappeared under his belt.

“No panties?” he said, breathing hard and ragged.

“You tore them off at lunch, remember?” I smiled, dragging my fingernails along the curve of Erik’s neck. “And before that, you scolded me for wearing any.”

Erik took a deep breath, inhaling my scent, and hoisted me off the floor. I wrapped my legs around him and sighed as his cock pushed into me, then let out a long, moaning exhale when he settled in.

“I’ve missed you,” I whispered, kissing his neck.

He thrust hard, and I threw back my head, laughing as he went. Every inch of him stretched into me, making my whole body flare to life. He didn’t say anything, but then again, he never did. When he got like this, speaking was about the furthest thing from Erik’s mind.

Seconds later I felt his burning flesh against the deepest parts of my thighs, I started moving backwards. At the exact same time, I slammed against the couch that he kept in his office for exactly this purpose, and he was all in me.

I let out a howl of pleasure, and the back of the couch thumped against the wall.

With each increasingly desperate, wonderful push, my chest heaved harder and harder, my breath came in short bursts.

After a few hours apart, we were both quick to please. I squeezed him with my legs, reaching down to massage. As soon as my fingers wrapped around his base, Erik started letting air out of his mouth in snorting grunts.

“Bite me,” I moaned. “Just a little.”

Fangs brushed my skin, and he gave me a nip that sent a chill straight down me. Underneath my bra, my nipples got all prickly and sweet. With each thrust, he took more and more of my breath away until I thought maybe I’d be smothered in the pleasure.

Erik took a huge breath and held it tight. Every cord in his neck was taut when I stroked him, and his cock had somehow swelled even bigger when I wrapped my fingers around him and pulled.

“Can’t... can’t... hold off,” he groaned. “So close, so...”

I couldn’t even bother with speech. I just squealed with delight. He bit harder, but not enough to hurt, just enough to feel really, really good. Short, hard hairs had started pushing out of Erik’s pores. He was normally pretty good about not shifting, but sometimes when he
really
got going like this, he couldn’t help himself.

Something about me – normal, curvy little Isabel Deschaine – being able to drive this incredible hunk of man so wild he turned into a wolf never stopped thrilling me.

Then, all at once, we both took a breath at the same time, and held it in.

I opened my eyes to find him smiling at me, staring straight into mine.

“Let go,” he whispered. “Now, let go... I can’t hold on.”

I shook my head, trying to protest, but probably not very convincingly. “You first,” I said.

Erik squinted in silent defiance. Then, he thrust into me again, ending the debate. Every muscle in my body quivered and shook, and before I could think about stopping myself, the whole world went fuzzy, white, and warm.

For a few moments, we stayed together, our bodies pulsing and gripping at one another until they were satisfied. I wanted him again. I always wanted him again.

“Well,” he said, pushing off the couch. “I guess now we go from my most favorite part of the day to my least favorite.”

I knew what that meant, but I wanted him to say it. “Which is?” I asked. I wanted a cigarette. I always did, even though I quit four years ago.

“Which is,” Erik kissed me as he shrank back to normal size. “Going back to pretending you’re not my mate.”

“Why?” I asked with a shrug. He’d told me the answer before, but it didn’t make sense. “Why can’t we just be... us?”

He shook his head. “Can’t happen. Alpha and a normal human? The pack would go nuts. There’d be a damn riot.”

“Sounds like there already is,” I said, tilting my head to the door behind us and the noise bursting from the courtroom.

“If you think that’s bad, you ain’t seen anything, little girl.”

When he called me little girl, my stomach quailed. “So, what,” I said, pulling my dress together enough to keep it from falling open in the middle of everything. “We just keep pretending this isn’t real? We just keep on acting like I’m your... what, your booty-call or something?”

Erik laughed in an almost over-done, cartoonish way.

“What’s so funny?” I demanded, putting my fists into the small of my back. My dress fell open, and he immediately stared at my bared curve.

“It’s just... hump stump?” he laughed again. “I’m sorry, you know how this works. We’ve been over it a thousand times. I’m trying to figure it out. I’m trying to come up with some way that we can be together without the charade, but...”

“But what?” I asked when he trailed off.

“I...”

I clicked my teeth.

“Sorry,” he said with another laugh. “You’re just... kinda open there, you know? I have a hard time keeping myself from...”

“From what? Come on, you big stud, at least say what you mean. Or wait.” I pulled back the tatter of a dress and looked down. He’d started stirring back to life again. I cocked an eyebrow. “Looks like someone isn’t exactly sure they’re finished.”

He flashed another grin. “How do you do this to me all the time?”

Erik took a step forward and grabbed one of my shoulders, spinning me around. I reached back and ran my hand along his length. As he caressed my back with his fingers, my skin prickled and tingled, and then he ran himself between my legs, against my belly.

“Soon,” he said softly, and guided himself slowly into me after grinding for an incredible second. “Someday soon, we...” he trailed off, sighing deeply

“I know,” I whispered, and urged him all the way. “I know.”

“Y
ou know, Leroy, someday you might look back and wish you’d paid attention to my rambling old-man stories instead of fiddling with that phone all the time.” Grandpa whistled and rocked back in his chair.

He stuck his finger in the end of his pipe a couple of times then touched another match to it, blowing a big puff of sweet, vanilla-scented smoke.

“Why not tell me a different one, grandpa?” I smacked my gum. The candy shell crunched for the first couple of chomps. Little bursts of mint filled my mouth and my nose. “If all that stuff about the wild packs of monsters running around the forests and the mountains is true, why do you only ever tell me the same story?”

“They’re true,” he insisted, taking his pipe out of his mouth and pointing it to the horizon. “See that?” He jabbed the stem in the direction of a weird plateau jutting out. “One of them lives in a cave near the base of the mountain. Goes up there to survey the land and make sure everything’s on track. You can see him every night. Well, almost every night. He’s a little old too, but it’s different for them.”

“So,” I said, pulling my knees up to my chin against the growing desert chill, “there’s a... would you call him a werewolf up there? If I sit out here all night, I’ll see him? This isn’t some story you just made up?”

“Stay out here and find out,” he said. “As for me, there’s a game coming on, and I’d rather sit in there instead of out here in the wind. Anyway, when are you getting married?”

I laughed so hard I snorted. “Married? It’s been at least a week since you asked me that, Grandpa. And just like then, I’ll say that I haven’t even thought about it.” I put my bare foot up on the table, wiggling my toes.

“Well you should, you’re getting pretty old there, too Leroy. Just like me and Po—” he cut himself off with a draw on his pipe.

“Grandpa,” I chuckled, “you’re the old one! Anyway, why does it matter? I’ve got my whole life in front of me. What’s the point in worrying about all that stuff now?”