The Alpha's Hunger (9 page)

“Don’t,” he said, covering her hands with his own and pulling them away from him. This time, it was his hands that shook.

“Why not?” she asked, her voice husky.

“I’m losing control,” he said, picking up the shirt Shayla had given her and pulling it over her head.

She slid her arms through the holes and pulled the shirt down. It was too small—the fit was skin-tight, showcasing her perky breasts and flat tummy, making her look like a Playboy bunny. He couldn’t stay locked in the bathroom with her a moment longer. He turned and walked out, no longer concerned about what she might do in there. He vaguely heard the sound of running water as he walked away, trying to clear his head.

Shayla had put the teakettle on, despite their refusal of her offer, and was preparing the tea when he returned to the kitchen. He filled Shayla in on the evening’s events, glossing over Ashley’s part in the plot.

“Did you call Stanley?” Shayla asked tightly.

He blew out his breath. “Yeah. Mark Ruhl helped me with the bomb and Stanley and some guys met me at headquarters, but Stanley wasn’t thrilled about me asking for favors.”

Shayla traced a line on the table. “He never wanted to lead the pack,” she said without lifting her eyes.

He heard the blame in her voice.

“He only stepped up to keep the Boulder pack from taking over, and already, their alpha Bruce is poaching all our members who are dissatisfied with weak leadership.”

“You think my leadership would be any less weak?” he snapped, then immediately regretted it. It wasn’t her fault he didn’t have the balls to do what he’d been expected to do. “Never mind, forget I asked.”

“Why are you here, Ben?”

He rubbed his eyes. “I have a suspicion who’s behind this.”

Ashley appeared in the doorway, eyes wide.

“Who?” Shayla asked.

“Well, one person knew about Ashley’s new role and that she’d have the opportunity to switch out my laptop. And that same person would know the importance of what’s encoded on the laptop.”

“Jack.”

“Yeah.”

Ben had come to Shayla, because if it was Jack, he needed to know how much affection she had for the man who had been her husband’s best friend and business partner.

She seemed to understand because she said, “Do what you need to do,” in a hard voice.

He raised his eyebrows. “Are you sure?”

She nodded once, decisively. “If Leon had trusted him, he would’ve left the running of Stone to him. After all, Jack knew everything there is to know about it and he’s been there from the ground up. Why would he choose you? I mean, yes, you have a business degree from Harvard, but you’d never even worked for him.”

And he’d been gallivanting around like a party boy while Leon had worked his ass off to build a multi-million dollar company.

She left that part unsaid, but even so, it lay between them, along with all his other failures to meet his brother’s expectations. The teapot whistled and Shayla and Ashley had some conversation about which kind of tea she preferred while he wallowed in a moment of self-hatred.

“Mama?”

He whirled to see his little niece padding in her footed pajamas. “Ellie,” he said, jumping from his chair and swinging her up into his arms.

“
Tío,
” she exclaimed, wrapping her tiny arms around his neck in a strangling hold.

He pretended to eat her neck, making chomping sounds.

She squealed in delight. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I came to make sure you were in bed. What are you doing out of bed, young lady?”

She laughed, not taking his mock sternness seriously for a minute. “You woke me up,” she said.

“I’m sorry,
mi amor
. I’ll tell you what—how about if I read you a story and put you back to bed?”

“No,” the four-year-old said stubbornly. “I want to stay up with you.”

“Well, I’m not staying,
angelita
. I just came to ask your mommy something and now I’m leaving. What do you say, want that book?”

The child looked indecisive. “Did you bring your girlfriend?” she asked, changing the subject and staring at Ashley.

He ought to tell her Ashley was his employee, not his girlfriend. But the idea of having Ashley really being his mate, having her at his side at family functions, the way Shayla had been Leon’s, hit him with such a stroke of longing that he just wanted to pretend, even if it was only for a moment. “This is Ashley,
muñeca. Es muy bonita, verdad?
”

Ellie giggled. “
Tío
has a girlfriend
, Tío
has a
girlfriend!” she chanted.

“
Ya, mi amor.
Let’s get you to bed.”

“No,” she squealed, kicking her feet.

“I’ll take her,” Shayla interrupted, reaching for his niece. “You should probably go.”

“I’m sorry,” he said to Shayla as Ashley sprang to her feet.

“It’s fine,” she said in a voice that really meant it wasn’t. “I think you should talk to Stanley again.”

He didn’t answer. He had a whole heap of shoulds hanging over his head as it was.

Chapter Five

Zolla’s house was dark and quiet. Ben knocked on the door, but no one answered and his wolf senses didn’t detect anyone inside. He sighed and called the phone number Mark had given him for the omega. An omega was the lowest ranking in a wolf pack, usually because of size or some other weakness.

Zolla answered the phone by saying, “Ben Stone,” with a note of surprise. Obviously he had Ben’s phone number programmed into his phone, which would seem odd, except that the wolf was the kind of guy who was all about information.

“Hey, are you around? I was wondering if I could meet with you tonight.”

“Oh, yeah? I’m not home right now, I’m at El Parador, the salsa club on Speer.”

“I’ll meet you there in twenty minutes.” He hung up and ushered Ashley back to her car.

“Now where are we going?” she asked.

“Salsa dancing.”

“Really?”

He didn’t answer.

“Wait… really?” she repeated. “Are you serious?”

“Well, we’re going to a salsa joint.”

“Do you know how to salsa? Well, of course you do, you’re from South America. You probably were born dancing.”

“Pretty much,” he said. In Latin America, every party had dancing, even the most simple get-togethers. He hadn’t meant they would actually be dancing, but she seemed so stunned by it, he found himself asking, “Do you?”

“Um, not exactly, but I’d really like to learn. Will you teach me?”

His skin prickled at the thought of holding her close to him on the dance floor. It would be too much. But he couldn’t make himself say no to her—she looked so cute looking over at him with pleading eyes. “We’ll see,” he said.

They arrived at El Parador and went inside. Ashley tugged at her too short t-shirt, looking embarrassed.

“You look fine,” he said. In fact, she looked smoking hot. Still in her tight little work skirt and high heels, the t-shirt took away the business look of the outfit, leaving pure feminine pizzazz.

A band was playing on the stage and people were out on the dance floor. Tables were scattered around the perimeter and couples sat together, heads inclined toward each other. He didn’t see any sign of Zolla.

He swept the room again, stopping short when he realized the omega was playing conga drums in the band. Zolla lifted his chin in greeting. Ben picked a table and sat down, ordering them drinks in Spanish.

When the song ended, Zolla appeared at their table. He wore a faded t-shirt with what looked like a coffee stain on the front. His hair needed cutting, hanging in his eyes and curling over his ears. He looked from one to the other of them.

Ben waved him into a chair.

“Okay, why are you here?”

“I need your help,” Ben said.

“I’m not in your pack anymore.”

“I don’t have a pack. Someone’s trying to kill me and they kidnapped Ashley’s sister. I’m hoping you can trace a call and a license plate.”

Zolla’s eyes turned to Ashley, naturally dropping to her tight shirt.

He tensed. “Don’t look at her,” he said, trying to keep the menace he felt from his voice.

Zolla’s eyes immediately lowered submissively. He held out his hand. “Gimme the phone.”

Ben nodded to Ashley, who dug it out of her purse and handed it to him.

Zolla started scrolling through the screens. He was an omega because of his size. In human form, he stood at five-eight, tops, and while his body was all lean muscle, he was scrawny. As a wolf, he was the size of a canine, while most shifters stood at least half again as tall as an ordinary wolf. He freelanced as a computer programmer, and specialized in security, which made him an excellent hacker. He had set up the internal security software at Stone under Leon’s direction.

Ben didn’t know Zolla well, but he had a distinct memory of his brother praising him in front of the whole pack for removing the tracking devices from all their phones and providing other technology help to the pack. Leon had been good about signaling out individuals’ achievements, showing his appreciation where all could hear and see it.

A heavy stone sank in his gut as he realized he had done none of that since he’d taken over Leon’s company. No wonder the managers had lost interest in achievement. Had this been what Ashley had been trying to help him do by including people in meetings? Giving them buy-in and empowering them? He stabbed his fingers through his hair. God, he was awful at all of this. Having a dominant personality didn’t make him a decent leader. In fact, he’d been the worst kind. He’d been like his father—a dictator. Well, at least he hadn’t tried to lead the pack, or he would’ve run them into the ground, too.

“This phone was tappable and traceable,” Zolla announced.

“Yeah, I figured. Can you clean it up?”

“Not if you want me to be able to trace calls that come into it.”

“Oh, right. So can you? Trace incoming calls?”

“I can try, yes. Not from here, but from home,” he said, without looking up. “And it depends on if they’ve removed their location software.”

He exhaled. “Great, thanks.” Writing down the license number he’d memorized from the car in the parking lot, he slid the paper across to Zolla. “This is the license plate.”

Zolla nodded. “That will be easy to trace.”

“Thanks.”

Zolla looked at him speculatively. “So what happens to me if it’s Bruce, my new alpha, who’s trying to kill you?”

Ben’s eyebrows shot up. “Why would he want me dead?”

“Come on, Stone. A lone wolf who’s alpha material? Every pack leader around will be thinking you’re angling to steal his pack. Maybe it’s Stanley, have you thought of that?”

“It’s not Stanley. And I’m not interested in stealing any pack.”

“I know that, but what if Bruce thinks you are? What if I’m acting against him by helping you right now? Are you going to have my back?”

Ashley was listening intently. Zolla’s eyes went to her and Ben growled.

The omega dropped his eyes again. “You should really mark her if you’re that territorial.”

“Consider what you just said to me and tell me that’s a good idea,” he said.

Zolla looked thoughtful and then nodded. “I see.”

A wolf didn’t put his mate into danger, and Ben was a walking target. If he even set foot in Venezuela again, he had no doubt he’d be marked for death by Sandoval, the pack leader and drug tycoon who took down his father’s pack. And here in the States, someone had already ordered his death. Whether they were human or shifter didn’t matter. He wasn’t about to tangle Ashley in it any more than she already was.

“Well, we’re back to my original question, then,” Zolla said, levelling him as much of a challenging look as subordinate wolf would dare.

Ben blew out his breath. He didn’t want to be responsible for anyone. He could barely handle his own screwed-up life, and now he had Ashley to protect and deliver from evil, too. He definitely didn’t need anyone else on his tab. But what choice did he have?

“Yeah, I’ll protect you.”

Zolla grinned. “Pack of two, then.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You’re leaving your pack to follow me? You must be nuts.”

“Nah. I’ve always known you were my pack leader. I’ve just been waiting for you to come around.”

A strange sensation ran through Ben’s body—a shudder of something—recognition? Acceptance of his fate? He didn’t know. He swallowed the lump forming in his throat. “Thanks,” he said.

Zolla nodded. “I’ll search the data from the phone and keep tabs on future calls. Do you two want to stay at my place tonight?”

He looked at Ashley. No way was he letting her spend the night anywhere near another wolf. “Nah, I’ll go find a motel nearby. Thanks for your help. You have my cell number, right?”

“Yep. You should stay a while—we’re about to play another set.”

“No,” he said, and then hesitated when he realized Ashley was giving him puppy eyes. He shrugged. “We might stay for a dance or two,” he said, wondering what had come over him.

Zolla grinned, not missing any nuance. “Enjoy.”

Ashley beamed at Zolla as he departed and Ben had to bite back the territorial snarl in his throat.

* * *

Her insides melted like hot butter just thinking about dancing with Ben. Somehow she’d never pictured Stone Man as a smooth dancer, but she’d never pictured him as a giant werewolf, either.

Mr. Macho had ordered drinks and tapas from the waiter in Spanish without asking what she’d like, but she hadn’t minded—she enjoyed the sound of the r’s rolling off his tongue, the sexy lilt to his voice in a language foreign to her. And the sangria and little plates of food the waiter brought were delicious.

“Are you going to teach me how to dance?”

His lips twisted into that faint glimmer of humor she’d come to relish. He stood up. “Yeah.”

She rose and he reached for her hand, his eyes skimming over her breasts, which she knew looked huge in the too-tight shirt. She glanced down and realized her erect nipples were poking through her bra and the shirt.
Great.
She flushed, then lost her breath at the way his eyes devoured her as he led her to the dance floor. Before she could think of anything to say, he spun her to face him, holding their clasped hands high and resting his other hand on the back of her ribs. His touch was light, but he controlled her body, propelling her forward and backward in a series of steps she didn’t know. She looked down, trying to watch his feet to figure out what to do.