Thunder (Alpha Love - a Paranormal Werewolf Shifter Romance Book 3)

This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons--living or dead--is entirely coincidental.

Thunder copyright @ 2015 by Olivia Stephens. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Part 3 of the
Alpha Love
series

The surroundings I’m running through seem so familiar, but they don’t provide the comfort of the familiar. Quite the opposite. The further I go into the woods, the more frightened I feel. But it’s not just because of the pitch darkness and the trees that seem to be filled with faces distorted in pain. It’s because of the sense of impending doom that’s rapidly creating a pit in my stomach.

It had started as a game. I had started running, and he was chasing me. It was fun; a prelude to the intimacy that was to come. My body—which had been tingling with anticipation when the game had started—is starting to shake with something closer to fear. I can’t pinpoint the moment when everything changed, but there was a subtle shift around me. The sky became darker, as if all the stars had closed their eyes, and the sound of the wind rustling through the trees became more sinister.

Instead of playing, instead of all of this being a game, I’m not just running for the thrill of being chased anymore. I’m running away from him. And he isn’t just chasing after me; he’s hunting me. I hear the wolf’s howl echo through the woods. It’s louder than it has been. He’s getting closer. The thought should have sent a thrill of excitement through me; instead, it sends a shiver down my spine.

I push forward, running faster, sprinting until my lungs feel like they’re on fire, but I keep it up. And yet, no matter how fast I move, he’s faster. I can hear him crashing through the trees behind me. I can hear his ragged breathing, as he strains to catch up with me. I know that I can’t go on for much longer; I’m using all of my strength to stay ahead of him, but it’s not enough. It’s not enough to get away.

I’m so short of breath that I start to hallucinate. I think that I see Gus’s face in front of me. The anger in his eyes is more heated than I have ever seen. “You don’t belong here. You’re not one of us.” His voice is forceful and full of hate.

“You’re not real. You’re not here.” I say the words out loud to his disembodied head, covering my ears with my hands, trying to block out the words that he’s already said from reverberating in my mind. There’s a twisted smile on his face as it fades away like a ghost.

I push on, shaking my head to get Gus’s words out of it. I can feel the hot tears start to sting my cheeks as the truth of what he’s said hits me like a sledgehammer to the heart.

“Stop running, Sofie. This is what you wanted.” Lindsey’s voice makes me search the trees beside me for her. I can just make out her form in the darkness of the wood. “You wanted Ashton to want you, and now he does.”

“I didn’t want him to chase after me, to hunt me like an animal.” I scream the words out to her, wondering how she can be saying these things to me. “Help me! Why won’t you help me?” The hurt that I feel at Lindsey’s seeming indifference to my plight is worse than even Gus’s words.

But she doesn’t move from where she stands, observing me. “Why would I help you? You’re not like us. You never will be. You will never understand.” She raises her hand and points her finger towards me, her pretty face contorted in rage. “Outsider! Outsider!” Her voice is a growl, and the word echoes through the trees as if there are a thousand Lindseys chanting it, each more outraged than the next.

As I run, I’m pursued by the sound, haunted by the accusation. I try to gulp air while the tears course down my cheeks. What makes it worse is that I know that they’re right. Gus and Lindsey are right. I am not a werewolf. I am not like them, and I never will be. How can I possibly understand who they are, what they are, and what their life is like—when I am not one of them? I’m just someone outside looking in, someone who doesn’t belong.

I trip over the rugged terrain and fall heavily to my knees. I feel the ground graze my skin, breaking it, drops of blood dripping from my hands and knees like a leaky faucet. I try to push myself up from the dusty earth, but I can’t. It’s as if all the strength has been sapped out of my body.

The time has come; I have to stop. My legs won’t move anymore, and my lungs can’t take in enough oxygen to keep me going. I turn around to face him, to face the man that I have fallen for, the man that has changed everything for me. But it’s not the man that I see. Whereas I have been running on two legs, he has been running on four. The wolf in front of me stares me down. There’s no trace of desire or lust in his eyes. He’s looking at me like a predator observing his prey.

“Ashton, it’s me. It’s Sofie. You don’t want to hurt me.” My voice wavers. It sounds weak, even to my ears, and it’s like the wolf can sense my weakness, my fear. He’s enjoying it.

I feel something in my hand, and I look down to see that I’m carrying a flower. But it’s not like any flower I’ve ever seen before, nor do I have any memory of picking it. It’s as if it has just appeared in my hand, out of nowhere. The petals are dark purple, and the leaves are a bright green. The way that Ashton in his were-state is looking at the flower makes me feel like it has some power over him, almost as if he were afraid of it. Out of instinct, I hold the flower close to my heart, like a gift.

I force myself to look Ashton in the eye and try to communicate everything that I feel for him with my gaze; but, Ashton’s eyes staring back at me are golden and not blue. The wolf has taken over him—mind, body, and soul. Ashton is no longer in control; the animal is.

I can feel myself shaking with fear, but I try to repeat in my mind that Ashton cares about me, that he would never hurt me, and that he wouldn’t let anyone hurt me. But then it hits me; whatever is in front of me, it isn’t Ashton—not anymore. It isn’t the man that I know. Without warning, the wolf leaps up at me, and his jaws close around my arm, shaking me like a rag doll. The pain is unbearable. I scream and scream, crying so hard that I can’t catch my breath.

This is it. This is the moment I’ve half-expected would come. This was always how things were going to end up. This is the moment where he kills me.

“Sofie, Sofie!” Ashton is shaking her, desperate to take her away from whatever it is that’s causing her to scream like that.

His voice manages to penetrate the fear and the pain that has taken hold of her. Her screams stop, and her eyes flutter awake. As soon as her gaze lands on Ashton, holding onto her tightly, she backs up, scrambling to the other side of the bed, like she’s desperate to get away from him.

“Sofie, it’s okay. You’re alright.” Ashton talks to her as if she were a frightened deer. His forehead furrows in confusion as he sees just how scared she really is.

The final vestiges of sleep leave her, and she comes to grips with where she is and who she’s with. It was just a dream. It had only been her imagination. It hadn’t really happened. She sighs deeply in relief, but she still can’t help but look at her right forearm where the wolf’s jaws had clamped down. It felt like her bones were being crushed. She strokes her fingers over the unbroken skin in wonder, as if she can’t believe that there’s no permanent damage. It had seemed so real.

“Sofie?” Ashton’s voice is soft and full of concern. “What happened?”

His voice reaches her and pulls her out of the memory of the dream. She blushes, feeling more than a little silly at having behaved like a child, believing that her dream of the bogeyman was real.

“It was just a dream, or a nightmare, I guess.” Sofie moves towards him, laying her head on Ashton’s chest and letting him hold her tightly to his body. She feels safe in his arms, protected. She wonders how she could ever have dreamed that he would hurt her.

But it wasn’t him
, the voice in her head reminds her,
it was the wolf
. Instead, she shuts the thought out and reminds herself that Ashton is in control of the wolf.
He’d told me that it had been a long time since he hadn’t been able to hold it back, and there is no reason to think that would ever happen again. That said, there’s a sliver of doubt that I just can’t seem to shake out of my mind.

“Tell me.” Ashton’s chest vibrates with the depth of his voice. He keeps a tight hold on her, as if he’s scared she might disappear into thin air at any moment.

“It’s nothing.” Sofie wonders if she’s trying to convince him or herself.

“It didn’t sound like nothing.” Ashton pulls away from her a little so he can see her face. His brow is furrowed, and the anxiety in his expression is plain as day. “You were screaming, like you were scared, more than scared—terrified. You wouldn’t wake up. I kept shaking you, but it was like you were somewhere else, like you weren’t here with me anymore.”

Sofie chews her bottom lip, trying to avoid Ashton’s blue-eyed stare without looking like she’s purposefully evading it. She thinks,
It shouldn’t be a big deal. It was just a dream after all, and there isn’t any reason for me not to tell him what it was about. But if that is true, then why does it feel like I’m betraying him just by dreaming that he could hurt me?
She can see from Ashton’s expression that he’s not fooled. He knows that something’s going on.

“It’s no big deal, Ash.” Her voice is soft, as she leans her head towards his so that their faces are almost touching. She can feel the heat coming off of his body, a heat that she’s slowly becoming accustomed to. It was a wolf thing, he’d explained to her vaguely. “To be honest, I don’t even remember what it was about! I had a nightmare and got a little scared. End of story.” Sofie avoids meeting his eyes, focusing instead on his muscular physique peeking out from underneath the sheets of the bed.
Even in a situation like this, it’s impossible to avoid the obvious fact that Ashton is the most gorgeous specimen of a man that I’ve ever seen. He’s anatomically perfect, heartbreakingly so,
she thinks
.

“You know that you can tell me anything, don’t you? You can trust me; I don’t want you to be scared that you can’t. You’re not alone anymore. You don’t have to pretend that you can deal with everything on your own. You can trust me. Why don’t you try it out sometime? Afraid you’re going to like it?” Ashton strokes his fingers through her luscious hair. Neither of them are able to be close without touching, it had been that way since they first met. The connection between them is undeniable. Sofie wonders what that really amounts to; however, she doesn’t entertain that thought for very long.

Ashton’s words touch a nerve with her. He knows her history, or at least part of it. He’s one of the only people who she’s ever confided in about the devastating debt her parents left behind when they died. He knows some of what she’s had to deal with. Some—but not all. Sofie thinks,
When you care about someone as much as I do about Ashton, you should be completely honest with them, right? Isn’t there a rule or something about that? Complete disclosure?

However, she also knows that whatever she’s keeping back from Ashton is matched, if not outweighed, by the secrets that he’s keeping. She’s far from stupid, and she’s well-aware that Ashton hasn’t told her the full story of the werewolves, the pack, or himself. She has to keep reminding herself that they’ve known each other for just over a week. When she thought about it, it was a laughable amount of time to be demanding that there were no secrets between them.
He doesn’t owe me anything
, she thinks. She hopes that these thoughts aren’t plastered all over her face, as she fears they might be.

“I know, and I do trust you,” she says. Then, she quiets the voice in her head that asks if that were true then why hasn’t she told Ashton about the impending collection day. Instead, she flicks the thought away like an offensive fly buzzing around a picnic and says, “You don’t have to worry about me; I’m fine. Really.” She smiles, hoping that the connection between them didn’t extend to actual mind reading.

Ashton’s blue eyes search her face, as if he’s looking for a sign there that will tell him what he wants to know and what Sofie clearly doesn’t want to share with him. It looks like he’s about to say something or call her out on her lie; but, Sofie reaches over to his face, tracing the line of prickly, dark-blonde hair along his jaw. The touch is electrifying, like the first time.

Ashton cradles her face between his hands, pulling her close to him so that their lips are almost touching. “You’re wrong about one thing,” he whispers against her mouth. “I do have to worry about you. I can’t not. I care too much to let anything happen to you.” The sincerity in his words is reflected in his face before he kisses her softly and, as she responds, more insistently.

His mouth on hers, and the taste of him drives her wild. It drives the thought of her dream out of her mind, and all she can think about is the two of them together—in his bed. All she can think about is how much she wants him, how much she needs him.

Her hands are in his hair, as she kisses him hard. He slides his hands down to her ass, pulling her even closer, so she can feel his hardness against her hip. She loves knowing that he’s as turned on as she is. When they’re together, it’s as if their primal desires take over and all they need is each other—again and again.

Ashton ducks his head, taking her erect nipples in his mouth—first one then the other. He licks and sucks and bites gently, making her pussy ache. She’s already so wet. It’s what his touch does to her; it drives her insane. He kisses his way down her body, his tongue flicking along her abdomen until he reaches the tops of her thighs.

He looks up at her, and Sofie returns his gaze, breathing hard. Her cheeks are flushed with desire, and her eyes are bright, wanting him so much she feels like her heart might explode with need. Ashton smiles at what he sees written all over her face, loving that she’s as worked up as he is.

He leads with his fingers, sliding them over the slickness between her legs. “Your pussy is so wet for me, running girl. You’re dripping.” Ashton’s voice is low and husky—and downright sexy.

Sofie can’t speak; all she can do is moan with pleasure as he touches her, his fingers massaging her clit, just like she needs him to. However, it’s not just his fingers he wants to use. It’s almost as if he can’t help himself. He bows his head, licking her folds gently but oh so perfectly. She shudders against him, trying to hold on.

“Ash…Christ, I’m so close.” She can barely get her words out before the ache that had been building between her legs overcomes her, and she climaxes as he licks her juices.

“I love watching you come, running girl.” Ashton tells her, as he travels up her body, kissing her and letting her taste herself on him. It makes her dizzy with lust.

She reaches down to touch his cock, her hand closing around it as she slides up and down it, feeling how hard he is, how swollen. She licks her lips, as she watches him close his eyes so he can really feel her hands on him.

“Turn around, baby,” he says, as his eyes fly open. It’s as if he’s reached his limit, and he can’t wait anymore.

She doesn’t even pause to think before she obeys, flipping herself over so she’s face down on the bed. There’s no worry or concern with him, not when they’re making love anyway. Sofie would do anything that he asked of her because she knows he would never ask her for something that she didn’t want, as well.

Ashton snakes his arm around her hips, pulling her up so her ass is in the air and she’s on all fours. She’s never been a fan of doggy-style; it had always felt impersonal. Plus, she’s never been able to come this way. However, the animalistic side to this position makes perfect sense with Ashton, and she feels the tingle of anticipation as he kisses her back, running his fingers along her spine and sending a shiver along her body.

She can feel him behind her, his cock hovering over her entrance. She can feel the hardness of his tip, and she squirms with need, trying to push back onto him. However, his hands on her hips hold her in place, as he says, “You have the most beautiful cunt, Sofie. So pink and wet for me…so perfect.” His voice is reverent, as he rubs her clit, like he can’t stop himself.

She moans his name, and the sound is filled with need, as she pushes back onto his cock, trying to take him inside of her.

“Greedy girl,” his voice is filled with amusement behind her, “you want more?”

Sofie nods desperately, unafraid to ask for what she wants. “Fuck me, Ash. I need you…inside.” She wriggles against him, and this time he lets his tip slide into her, opening her slowly and pushing through her folds.

She sighs, as he fills her up, burying his shaft inside of her. He’s panting, his breathing getting heavier as he moves his hips, picking up speed and thrusting into her. She moans, pushing back onto him—hard. There’s something so primitive and basic about him taking her this way. It brings out his animal side, and the thought threatens to push her over the edge.

Their naked bodies glide against each other, slick with sweat. Ashton smashes into her, again and again. His swollen cock stimulates all the nerve endings in her pussy, turning her inside out. He grunts, as he pushes into her, holding tight onto her hips as he does, claiming her and making her his. She can hear how excited he is, how close he is to losing control, and that’s what she wants from him. She wants him to feel as overcome and wild as she does.

As if he knows what she’s thinking—their connection at its strongest when he’s inside of her and when they’re one—he holds on tighter to her. Then, he raises her ass up to hit her g-spot. She moans like the sound is being ripped out of her. “I know, baby. I know you’re close. I can feel you.” Ashton’s voice turns into a growl as he thrusts harder, losing himself inside of her. “Come for me, Sofie. Come with me.” It’s an order, not a request, and Sofie is happy to oblige, incapable of doing otherwise.

They both cry out as they reach their peak together, the world fading out until it’s just the two of them left. Her orgasm rocks her so hard that she can’t keep on her knees. Her legs fall out from under her, and she collapses onto the bed, her head hitting the soft pillow, still shaking from her climax.

“You have no idea how important you are to me.” Ashton’s words are a whisper against her ear, as he pulls her close to him, settling her against his chest. It’s still dark outside; they have a few more hours yet until dawn. In the dark, together, it’s almost easy to forget about the harshness of the real world outside. These few hours—where they can lose themselves in each other—are like a present.

“I know; I feel the same.” Sofie breathes the words out in a sigh of pure contentment. This is her favorite place, with him, close enough that their bodies are so intertwined that it would be impossible to decipher where one ends and the other begins.

They haven’t said the words to each other, not those anyway. They had told each other how much they care, how connected they are, and how what they feel isn’t like anything else; but, those three little words, in the traditional order, haven’t passed their lips. Sofie tries to convince herself that she doesn’t need to hear them. They are just words, and Ashton has shown how much he cares about her. But a part of her wonders if the reason that he hasn’t said them is because he isn’t sure if that’s how he really feels.

She thinks back to that night; the night that they had made love and Ashton had claimed her. He told her that if she were like him, a werewolf, then it would have meant that they were mates. Mates. There was a world of promise in that one word. The one time she’d asked him outright if that’s what they were, she had never gotten a response. She knew that some people might say that in itself was an answer. She wasn’t like him; that much was clear. She couldn’t help but wonder where that left them?