The Alpha's Heart (Wilde Creek Two) (2 page)

His wolf rumbled in agreement, but Acksel immediately shoved the hope that bloomed in his mind away into a dark corner.  Any female that he chose as his mate would have a target on her back.  She’d have to deal with the single females in the pack who wished he would choose them as his mate, and she’d be vulnerable to any males who might want to use her against him.  He couldn’t say it wouldn’t happen. Vince and his cronies had planned to do just that with his sister.  Sure, Luke had proven that he could protect Eveny against even the most determined wolves, but what chance would a human female have against a wolf?  A human was far too vulnerable to consider as a mate, even though his cock had perked up at the thought of Brynn’s soft curves and sweet smile.  She worked at the family clinic in town and he saw her from time to time when he was out and about.  Not that he was paying all that close attention to her.

Bullshit
.

Staring into the bottom of his empty glass, he knew he was totally sloshed and that was probably where his ‘wishing for things he couldn’t ever have’ attitude was coming from.  He’d be better off going home and sleeping off the booze and then getting ready for the full moon.  Too drunk to drive, he started to walk home, but caught the scent of something that made everything in his body go tight and hot.  He found the source of the scent.

A woman.

His woman.

Mine.

Chapter 3

Brynn shut down her computer on Thursday evening and pressed the button to send the incoming calls to the answering service.  The office was now empty except for Dr. Kimmi and the nursing staff, who were finishing up their reports.  She walked down the hall towards her locker in the staff breakroom where she kept her purse.

“Heading home?”  Nila Caruthers, one of the nursing assistants, asked.  Then she laughed.  “That’s a dumb question, sorry.  It’s been a long day.”

“It’s okay.”  Brynn smiled at her.  “Yes, I’m heading home.” 
To an empty house, an empty fridge, and an empty bed
, she thought morosely.  Shaking her head to banish the dark thoughts, she forced a smile to her lips.  “Are you taking off?”

“Soon, I hope.  The daycare charges me seven dollars for every ten minutes I’m late if I don’t show up by six.”

Brynn glanced at the clock on the wall.  “You have an hour, I’m sure you’ll make it.”  Nila was the single mom of an adorable eighteen-month-old little boy named Jack.

“I hope so,” Nila smiled back, a dimple showing in one naturally tanned cheek.

Brynn shouldered her bag, said goodbye to Nila and the others who were still in the clinic, and headed out to her car.  It was only five.  The night stretched ahead of her like a gaping maw.

Good grief
, she thought, dropping her purse onto the passenger seat. 
Where did all these whiny, lonely thoughts come from?
  Sure, she wasn’t attached to anyone, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have a good life.  She and her dad were close and had brunch every Sunday.  She had a job she enjoyed and friends she cared about.  So what if the bed was a little cold and empty?  Maybe she’d really hit it off with Xavier.  Maybe he was tall, dark, and handsome, and the sort of guy that would sweep her off her feet with some romantic gesture involving roses and something sparkly.  She smiled to herself as she drove out of the parking lot and headed home.  She was nothing if not an optimistic girl and a romantic at heart.

She rented a small home in a cul-de-sac in Wilde Creek.  The three-bedroom ranch had a cozy fireplace in the living room and a back porch that she loved to sit on in the mornings to have a cup of coffee.  The home belonged to her best friend Mia’s parents, who had moved out of Wilde Creek several years ago when Acksel defeated the then-alpha wolf and took over.  They hadn’t wanted to sell the house, and had offered it to Brynn to rent, since Mia already had a place of her own in town.  After high school, Brynn and Mia had lived together for a while, but when the opportunity came to get a place of her own, she happily accepted it.

Kicking off her shoes, she left them in the front closet, hung her purse up on a hook on the door, and walked into the kitchen.  She opened the fridge and frowned.  Even though she hadn’t had a chance to go grocery shopping, she’d hoped that there would be something edible on the shelves.  No such luck.  Unless she wanted a nice bowl of baking soda washed down with a ginger ale.  With a sigh, she opened the freezer door, rifled through the stack of frozen meals she kept to take for lunch, and made plans to go to the grocery on the way home from work tomorrow.

Her phone buzzed just as she sat down on the couch with a glass of ginger ale and a plate of chicken Marsala and steamed vegetables.

“Hello?”

“Brynn?  This is Xavier.  Kimmi gave me your number.  Are you busy?”

Her stomach growled at the dinner that was already cooling, but she didn’t want to be rude, so she said she wasn’t busy at all.  Xavier lived in Findlay, about twenty minutes from Wilde Creek, in an apartment near the hospital where he worked as an emergency room doctor.  They traded pleasantries about their families and jobs.  He had a dry wit that she enjoyed, and by the time the call ended, she had a smile on her face and a date for Friday night.

Her dinner had sat long enough that it was completely inedible, so she satisfied her grumbling stomach with a peanut butter sandwich, cleaned up the kitchen, and headed back to her bedroom.  Unbuttoning her blouse, she dropped it in the wicker hamper in the closet, divested herself of the rest of her work clothes, and tugged a sleep shirt over her head.  Shuffling to the couch, she wrapped up in a blanket and turned on the television, planning to catch up on some of the daytime shows she recorded while she was at work.

* * * * *

A sharp knocking on the door startled Brynn awake, and she rolled off the couch in surprise.  Her knees slammed into the carpet and she gasped in shock.  She hadn’t meant to fall asleep on the couch.  As she rubbed at her eyes, the knocking on the door continued.  Fixing her blurry gaze on the clock on the television, she saw it was well past midnight.

Standing slowly, she walked to the door.  “Who is it?” she called loudly.  Her mind raced.  Her dad and Mia both had keys to her place and wouldn’t be banging on the door in the middle of the night.

“Open the door.  I just want to see you.”

No.  Way.

There was no possible way on earth that Acksel Moore was banging on her door at this hour.  Or any hour, for that matter.

She flipped on the switch to turn on the porch light and drew in a deep breath.  The lock clicked as she turned it and pulled the door open.  Standing in the harsh light was the most gorgeous man she’d ever known.  The star of every dirty fantasy she’d ever had.

And he looked like someone had shot his puppy.

His gray eyes were red and he reeked of whiskey.  His strong jaw was covered with stubble as if he hadn’t shaved in days.  He leaned heavily on the door frame.

“I just want someone to care.”  His words were raw, his tone rough and full of despair.

Her heart cracked painfully as he slumped forward, too drunk to stay on his feet.  She managed to ease his fall to the floor so he didn’t get hurt.  Leaning over, she stroked his forehead.  “Oh Acksel, I always cared.”

With some effort, she roused him from his drunken stupor enough for him to help as she got him over to the couch.  He crashed down on it with a groan and then passed out.  She undid his boots and placed them on the floor, and then she knelt next to him and picked up his hand.

“What are you doing here, Acksel?” she whispered, not expecting him to answer.  She didn’t know much about the man before her, other than the pack gossip Mia shared and things Brynn had heard and seen around town.  Acksel had never looked like this in all the years she’d known him, though.  Even when he was a scrawny teenager with arms and legs that were too big for his body, he’d never looked so despondent.  So lost.

She’d always thought he was handsome, even back in high school when he was among the least popular and she was at the other end of the spectrum.  Cheerleader.  Honor roll.  Student council.  But she had a rule in life, even back then, that she would always try to be nice to everyone, no matter where they came from or what their circumstances were, and that had included him.

And then he’d shifted in his junior year when he was sixteen and joined the weight-lifting team.  He’d grown up physically, turning from handsome to gorgeous in the space of a few years, but his attitude had taken a nose dive and the shy, nervous guy that had returned her smiles in class suddenly had a chip on his shoulder the size of Texas and a snarl that came with fangs.  She knew that he had to be tough in the pack, because they fought for position, and their ranking was important to them.  If she were pack leader, she’d want everyone to be on equal footing with no rank, but that was probably just her wanting everyone to be happy and for no one to feel left out.  She and Acksel were worlds apart now.  He was alpha, and according to Mia, the alpha had to choose a mate who was strong enough to take on usurpers to the position until they were mated officially, which involved some kind of ceremony on the full moon.  While wolves chose their own mates, that didn’t mean that others would be happy about it, and being the mate of the alpha probably came with a lot of perks that Brynn didn’t know about.  And a lot of danger, too, she suspected.

She frowned as she looked at Acksel.  She was no fool.  She knew that he had sex with the females in the pack who weren’t mated if they were willing.  And most were, according to Mia, although she swore she’d never had sex with him.

Sighing, she leaned forward and kissed his forehead.  “If only you weren’t a wolf, Acksel.  Or I weren’t human.”

Straightening, she pulled the blanket from the back of the couch and covered him up, taking one last look at him before she headed back to her room and climbed into bed.

* * * * *

Brynn felt warm.  Hot, almost.  She drifted in the place between sleep and alertness as pleasurable tingles raced along her skin.  For a dream, it sure felt good.

And then she felt the rough scrape of stubble along the inside of her thigh and became immediately aware that she wasn’t asleep and she definitely wasn’t alone.  The room was still dark when she opened her eyes, but the light from the front room that she’d left on for Acksel shone down the hallway and through the open bedroom door, bright enough to light the figure that was between her thighs.

Acksel.

His tongue curled around her clit and pleasure arced through her.  He growled softly, his teeth scraping lightly against the bud.  She had a million questions, but they fled when two fingers slipped into her pussy and curved upwards, making her vision blur and her body sing.

She moaned loudly and Acksel looked up the length of her body from where he lay between her legs.  Even in the darkness of the room she could see that his eyes were amber and glowing, not the normal soft gray she remembered.  Maybe she should have been frightened, but she wasn’t.

He growled again and the sound slipped through her body like a caress.  She shivered and clutched the sheet.  His tongue moved in quick circles around her clit as his fingers moved within her, drawing her quickly to climax.  Her stomach tightened and her pussy clenched his fingers rhythmically as her body flushed with the rush of pleasure.  She lifted her hips, rubbing herself on his amazing tongue.  He pressed one arm over her stomach, the weight keeping her from moving as he licked her clit in fast circles and fingered her harder and faster.

Her hands clutched at the sheet under her, her fingers digging into the material as she was held captive under his assault.  She couldn’t stop trying to move, even with his arm holding her down.  She wiggled and moaned and he growled, the sound vibrating through her body and drawing her closer and closer to completion.  His tongue laved over her taut bud again and again, until her body trembled and her whole world centered on the rush of heat that swirled through her.

Close.  So close.

Then he sucked her clit into his mouth and fit a third finger into her pussy, stretching her, teasing her, pulling her further into pleasure.  With his tongue wiggling her clit between his lips and his fingers pounding into her with abandon, she exploded, jerking under him and screaming his name as she came.

Wet with her climax, his hand slipped from her body and gripped her hip as he kissed his way up her body, tasting her with licks and gentle bites.  She couldn’t stop shivering as little mini orgasms pulsed through her over and over.  Acksel’s breath was hot against her neck as he settled over her, his cock nudging her soaked pussy.  Never had she wanted anything more in her life than to make love to Acksel; to have him slide into her, fill her, take her.

Wrapping her legs around his waist, she fisted his hair with one hand and gripped his shoulder with the other, angling her hips up as he pushed into her.  He plunged forward, shoving roughly into her body.  His large cock stretched her, pushing past her tightness into the depths of her body until their hips were flush together.  They groaned at the same time, their voices mingling.

His hand gripped her hip tighter as he slid out of her and powered back in, filling her and stoking the fires of pleasure within her.  Her orgasm bloomed back to life as he moved inside her, increasing his pace until he drove the breath from her body.  She held him tighter with her legs and dug her nails into his back, urging him on with moans and panting whispers for more.

She arched up under him, meeting his hips with her own as he slammed into her again and again.  His arm slipped under her lower back and pulled her up into his body as he fucked her harder and faster.  The angle made his cock brush against something deep within her and sparks flashed in her eyes.