Lonely Alpha (13 page)

He slipped a hand beneath her chin and tilted
her head backward, brushing her lips with his. “I know how you
feel. When I thought you’d been killed… It was like I was dying
too. It was hell for a few minutes; pure hell. I think I woulda
felt like that for the rest of my life if I’d lost you.” His voice
was rough, like boots on gravel.

His fingers brushed her bandage. “You reckon
you’ve healed enough to go to bed? I’ll leave the curtains open so
the moonlight can get in.”

She nodded. Now that the excitement had died
down and Ronnie had left, the weight of her exhaustion was
crushing. She paused only to drink a glass of water that Jack
pressed upon her before letting her eyes drift shut. When he picked
her up, she let him carry her, resting her head against his
shoulder as sleep claimed her. When they reached the bedroom he
stepped carefully around the shattered glass that littered the
floor, shook bits of it from the sheets, replaced the quilt he’d
bloodied that afternoon and then lay down with her. She drifted off
in the shelter of his arms.

****

Morning had chased away the night, replacing
the moonbeam that had shone through the bedroom window with a bar
of sunshine. That was all right, because Mandy didn’t hurt
anymore.

“How do you feel?” Jack was curled around
her, his body enveloping hers. They hadn’t moved all night.

“Good,” Mandy said, taking a deep breath of
the woodsy, masculine scent that permeated the linens. Last time
she’d fallen asleep here, it had driven her wild. The effect it had
on her this morning wasn’t all that different. Was Jack smelling
rain and spring wildflowers? Maybe. He was unmistakably hard, and
one of his hands cupped her breast. “Help me take this thing off.”
Her fingertips skimmed over the bandage wrapped around her ribs,
searching for the end.

“I’ve got it,” Jack said. “Just sit up and
I’ll help you out of it.”

He unraveled it slowly, and when it was gone,
she touched her finger to her ribs, just below her breast. The scar
tissue was almost smooth, as if the wound had been sustained years
ago instead of the night before. “How does the scar on my back
look?”

“Bigger than the entry wound,” Jack said, his
fingers fluttering over her spine. “But it’s healed up nicely.”

God, she was lucky to be alive. The truth of
it struck her like a revelation, sending life tingling through her
veins. Everything could have ended so easily last night – her crazy
vacation, her relationship with Jack and ultimately, her existence.
But it hadn’t, and as Jack smoothed his hands over her back, she
felt like she’d won some sort of cosmic lottery. “It’s a beautiful
morning.” The sunlight filtering through the window was golden,
promising a picturesque spring day.

“Yeah, it is,” Jack said, his breath rushing
against Mandy’s neck as he embraced her, cradling a breast in each
hand.

She arched her back, leaning against him. His
touch inspired an ache that made her want to melt right into him.
“That feels good.”

He kneaded her breasts, teasing her nipples
to stiff little peaks with his fingertips. She sighed. “Don’t ever
stop touching me, Jack.”

He released one breast and lowered a hand
between her thighs. “Happy to oblige.” She opened herself to him
and he brushed his fingertips across her sex. “You’re awfully wet
for having just woken up.” His voice was rough, but he sounded
pleased, and his cock was hard against her back as he felt her.

“I had another one of those dreams.”

“Mmm. Me too.” He slipped a finger inside
her, causing her core to tighten in response. “I wonder if all
shifters dream about their mates like that every night.”

She sucked in a breath as he added another
finger, causing her body to stretch exquisitely to accommodate his
touch. He reached deep inside her, touching a place that made her
want to squirm. She arched her hips instead, reveling in the
sensation. He massaged her clit with his other hand, causing her
pleasure to double as she tensed against him. When he began to kiss
the side of her neck, she was done.

Her hips bucked rebelliously, shaken by
sensation, but he held her tight, biting her neck lightly as he
pushed his fingers deep inside her, dragging them down her wall and
making her cry out. Every inch of her body sparked with bone-deep
ecstasy as he drove all coherent thought from her mind with his
hands, his teeth scraping the soft skin just inches from her
throat. When she’d finally ridden her climax out, she melted
against him.

He withdrew his fingers from between her
thighs, wrapping his arms around her body and continuing to kiss
her.

She relaxed in his embrace for a few moments
before turning, straddling him and seeking out his mouth with hers.
She kissed him deeply, and he did the same to her, their tongues
entwining. With one hand, she reached below and found his cock,
wrapping her fingers around it and beginning to stroke him.

He arched his hips, causing her hand to slide
to the root of his shaft. The crown of his erection pressed against
her slick folds and brushed her clit, sending a womb-clenching
burst of sensation through her core. She moaned and he did the
same. “Put me inside you.”

She obliged, guiding his cock so that he was
poised on the brink of entry before letting go.

He slid inside her in one smooth motion,
filling her to her limit. She barely had time to gasp before he
wrapped his arms around her and lowered her onto the mattress,
reversing their positions. She let her head sink back into the
pillows and arched beneath him, letting his cock sink even deeper
into her core.

“God, Mandy,” he breathed. “It feels so good
to be inside you that I don’t wanna wait. But at the same time…” He
slowed, taking her in deep, thorough strokes. “I don’t ever wanna
stop.”

She could feel the tenseness in his hard
muscles as they shifted beneath her hands and hear the longing in
his voice. “We can always do it again,” she said. And again, and
again… It was all right if he finished now. There was no air of
possible finality to this lovemaking, as there had been the night
before, when their lives had been on the line.

He groaned and thrust into her, hard. She
bore down with her hips in response, burying him just a little
deeper. “Go ahead, Jack. I want to feel you come inside me.” Her
body tightened from head to toe at the thought, her nipples
shrinking as she let her nails dig into his back.

He rocked his hips, the pace of their
lovemaking quickening to a rhythm controlled by pure, physical
desire. He moaned, his breath rushing hot against her face. He was
as hard inside her as his muscles were beneath her palms. The wet
heat of his release filled her core as he seized fistfuls of the
bed sheets, pulling them from the corners of the mattress, which
shook beneath them with each thrust. Several more hard strokes and
he slowed, drawing breath in deep, steady drafts. She raised her
head from the pillows and kissed him, slipping her tongue into his
mouth and prolonging their coupling just a little longer. It felt
good to be joined with him, and even better to know it would surely
happen again.

When they finally tumbled apart they headed
to the shower together, where they washed the evidence of their
recent trials from each other’s bodies. Afterward, Mandy felt like
a new woman and didn’t care that her hair was sopping over her
shoulders, beginning to dry into wind ringlets. She patted the
excess moisture out of it with a towel as she watched Jack shave
away his burgeoning beard, his sculpted, naked body leaning over
the sink.

“You clean up pretty well,” she teased,
“though I liked your stubble.”

“Don’t worry,” he said as he ran his razor
under hot water, “it’ll be back before the day’s over.” He laid
down his razor on the edge of the sink and pulled her against him.
His smooth jaw brushed her cheek, and that felt nice too. Beneath
the clean scent of soap, his rich, piney smell was still abundant.
He began to grow hard again as he held her, their naked bodies
pressed together, but apparently he was willing to suppress his
desire. “You want me to take you down the mountain to your car
today?”

“Yes, please,” she said, thinking longingly
of the personal items stashed inside, especially her toothbrush.
She’d gargled extensively with the mouthwash Jack kept under the
sink, but it just wasn’t the same.

A few minutes later they were dressed – Mandy
in a pair of Jack’s jeans, rolled up at the cuffs, and an oversized
plaid shirt. Although she enjoyed breathing in Jack’s scent, which
had permeated the clothing, she was eager to get her own back and
change into something meant to fit her feminine body. They devoured
a hearty breakfast of eggs, toast and bacon before starting down
the mountain in Jack’s old pick-up truck, which did run after
all.

When they reached her abandoned Honda, it was
untouched. Mandy pulled her keys out of her pocket and unlocked it,
thinking back to two nights ago when she’d sat inside clutching her
gun, eyeing Jack from the other side of the glass. This moment was
utterly different. “Guess I’ll drive it up to your cabin.”

Jack nodded and brushed a kiss across her
cheek before climbing back into his truck.

Mandy settled into her car and followed him
back up the mountain.

“So, you want me to show you where your
vacation cabin is?” Jack asked when they were back in his driveway
and out of their vehicles.

Mandy knew her surprise showed on her face.
“I figured I’d spend my time here with you.”

He grinned. “I know, but I’ve gotta go up
there sometime within the next few days anyway.”

“You do?”

He nodded. “Didn’t you ever wonder what I do
for a living?”

“I guess I never really thought to ask, with
all the sexual tension and flying bullets.”

“I’m a caretaker and general handyman for the
vacation cabins on this mountain. The company that owns them hired
me to make inspections and necessary repairs.”

“Oh.” She imagined Jack driving over the
mountain in his pick-up – or maybe taking a short cut through the
woods in his wolf form – to do some light construction. It made for
an appealing mental image, especially when she imagined him working
shirtless, his muscles gleaming under a light sheen of sweat.

“What about you?” he asked. “What’s this job
you’ve got back in Nashville that you’re so fond of?”

“I’m Head of Accounts Receivable for a
regional medical supply company.” It probably didn’t sound very
exciting to someone like Jack, who preferred to work outdoors and
with his hands, but she’d worked her butt of to become head of
anything while still riding the cusp of her late twenties. She’d
achieved it only eight months ago, and she was still proud. But she
couldn’t deny…the thought of her office back in Nashville seemed
stifling compared to the sprawling mountains here.

“Do you like what you do?” Jack asked as if
making polite conversation, but there was a heaviness – a wariness
– in his gaze that betrayed his concern.

She nodded. “The job is nice, but not
completely satisfying.”

“Oh, yeah?” He was leaning casually against
his truck, but his hands were in his pockets, his gaze a touch
defiant. As if he were expecting a rehashing of the argument they’d
had in the den.

“Yeah.” She took a step toward him, reaching
out to touch his shoulder. The flannel of his shirt felt pleasant
beneath her fingertips, softened by wear. The firmness of his
muscles beneath felt even better. “I’m thinking about resigning and
doing something that makes me truly happy instead.”

He planted a hand against the small of her
back and drew her close. “Like what?”

She pressed her cheek against the V of skin
and dark hair that was bared above his shirt buttons. “Like
starting a new life with my mate.”

He wrapped his arms around her, embracing her
fiercely. “I’m glad you finally came around.”

How could she not have? Over the past couple
days, she’d shared things with Jack that made her dates with other
men back in Nashville look like jokes. It wasn’t every day that you
found a man who would be willing to die for you, or someone you
felt so connected to that the thought of leaving them made you feel
like your heart was unraveling. And then there was the fact that
they
were
mates; united in an invisible but undeniable way
that she never would have been able to understand mere days ago.
Yes, Jack was the only one for her. “Why, were you going to let me
go if I hadn’t?” she teased.

“Hell no. I reckon I would’ve followed you to
Nashville if I’d had to.” When she looked up, he was grimacing in
distaste, though the look in his eyes was warm.

“That’s nice to know, but I won’t put you
through that.” Nashville didn’t hold a candle to the wild,
sprawling Smoky Mountains anymore. She’d have to give up her job,
but maybe she could find work in the tiny town at the foot of the
mountain, or – more likely – commute to a larger place. And then
when she was home…well, she could be as wild as she wanted, free to
be herself with Jack.

“I guess we’re officially a pack again.” Jack
grinned, gripping her by her shoulders and leaning back to look
into her eyes. “Just two of us for now, but I reckon we’ll start
growing in number sometime soon.”

She felt herself go pale as his words hit
her. “Jack, shifter women don’t have, like, half a dozen babies at
a time like wolves, do they?” She was uncomfortably aware that she
and Jack hadn’t used any sort of protection during the several
times they’d had sex already. Against her usual nature, she’d
allowed herself to live in the moment, driven by passion and her
sheer, animal attraction to Jack. A part of her had known that they
were meant for each other, even if she hadn’t admitted it then.