Alpha's Truth

  A heady wave of power made his body wake up. He wasn’t tired or fatigued. Never had he felt so alive before. Lake’s eyes met his gaze across the baby, all signs of wear erased from her face.

  The small infant’s eyes flew open, and a second later she screamed. Loud. Beaux flinched, and Lake laughed. She thought this was funny?

  His mate grinned. “There. Just what we want to see happen. Josiah, come meet your daughter. She’s going to be fine.”

  Chapter Six

  Lake’s body buzzed, happiness radiating from every pore. She shouldn’t be so happy; it hadn’t been long since she’d been the captive of the True Believers, just days really. Still, damn it, her powers had worked.

  If nothing else, their reemergence meant her wolf hadn’t totally abandoned her. The True Believers hadn’t taken it away. Maybe her powers would fully return.

  She took Beaux’s hand as they walked toward his home, squeezing his fingers tight. Holding hands should have freaked her out only it seemed the most natural thing to do in the world, and she decided not to question it.

  “I’m so proud of you.” Beaux grinned.

  She could feel his pleasure all the way to her bones. Her body buzzed. How could she want to both look down and blush and to throw her arms around him? The two actions seemed in direct conflict with each other.

  The second option promised to be more fun. Lake launched herself at him, and he caught her in a tight embrace. His laugh made the world seem less horrible. Did werewolves really live like this? Could she be surrounded in simple happiness?

  “You made me feel like I could.” Lake pressed her mouth to his.

  She’d meant it to be a quick, thank-you kiss. But it didn’t turn quick. Beaux was heat personified, and his lips caressed hers in such a way that she felt she’d never be cold again.

  Before she could think about it, she embraced him harder. More, she wanted—no needed—him closer.

  He moaned and wrapped her legs around him. She didn’t care why he did it. Was he going to take her right there on the ground before they even got to the house? She was fine with the idea.

  Lake had never been this turned on, not even when she’d been in heat. Sex had always been a means to an end. Now she wanted to melt into Beaux, and doing it in public would be perfectly fine.

  Beaux pulled her head back. “We’re making it to the house.”

  “Fine.” She gasped for air. Had her body been taken over by a sex demon? “Hurry.”

  “Yes.”

  Beaux picked up his pace. She pressed her head down on his shoulder, breathing in the aroma of the woods surrounding his sandalwood scent. Her heart beat fast, and she felt safe, solid within his arms.

  “This is a weird chemical thing.” She pressed her nose closer to his neck. “Whatever connects us like this, makes it hard for us to resist the hormonal pull.”

  “I’m not having this argument now.”

  Beaux kicked open the front door, and she gasped. He always seemed so controlled, especially when they fought. His aggressive actions left her panties wet. He took a deep breath, and his nostrils flared. There was no way Beaux couldn’t smell her arousal. Her nose failed her; however, her mate’s was functioning fine.

  He shoved the door closed the same way he opened it and seconds later had laid her flat down on the kitchen table, the plates and scrambled eggs from earlier crashing to the floor.

  Beaux grinned, a sideways smile. She reached up to trace his face with her fingertips. Whatever happened in the future, she never wanted to forget this moment. He looked beautiful with the moonlight coming through the window, a flush to his cheeks, towering above her on the kitchen table.

  Lake giggled, and Beaux pinched her nose. “I didn’t think anything we were doing here was funny.”

  “I’m about to get fucked on the kitchen table. There is amusement to be found in the image.”

  Beaux shook his head. “It’s hot, darling. Not funny.”

  “Hot and giggle-worthy.”

  The Alpha of Montana looked so befuddled. It was everything she could do to not start outright laughing. To do so might really end the moment, and she was so wet and ready for him that, if she didn’t get taken, hard, on the table, she might explode from the ache alone.

  He tugged at her shirt and flung it to the side. “I’ve been wanting to get a look at your breasts since the moment I saw you. My imagination has conjured them for me several times.”

  Beaux ran his finger down her neck toward her cleavage. “Do you always go braless?”

  “I was in bed before. I don’t sleep in one.” She shrugged. “I could if you’d like to think of me bare. It’s kind of sexy, me imagining you thinking about me.”

  He replaced his finger with his mouth, his lips perched right over her skin. She could barely breathe, barely manage to think for wanting him to reach down and complete the kiss.

  “You’re always going to be on my mind; a part of me will always be focused on you, whether I am acting like it or not.” He blew a hot breath which sent shivers of pleasure along her spine. “So whether you decide to wear a bra or not really doesn’t matter to me. I want you clothed or nude. I simply crave you all the time.”

  “Beaux….”

  She didn’t know what she would have said because he kissed her neck and all thought turned to mush. The world consisted of Beaux and the warmth from his lips on her skin.

  “You taste like cinnamon and I’m going to get addicted.”

  His voice hoarsened, and she squirmed beneath him as he lifted one hand to hold her wrist over her head.

  “You belong to me. You’ll know it soon. I feel it now, in every ounce of my soul, in all the pores of my body. You’re mine, Lake. You were born to be.”

  His words were ambrosia. Lake had never wanted to be possessed, not more than she already was through the allegiance she owed to her pack and her Alpha. However, right at that second, she did want to be Beaux’s. She’d open herself up and give all she was to the man whose wicked tongue was swirling over her breasts.

  He raised his head only long enough to grin at her before he took her nipple in his mouth. Beaux licked her nub before he sucked on it, hard. Her pussy wept, and she longed to be naked, to be skin-to-skin with him.

  “Take off your shirt.” She pushed at the arm holding her wrist down, and he released her. Lake wanted to touch him with both hands.

  He backed off a step and pulled his clothes from his body. She took a second to stare at him. She worked in the medical field. The male body, most of the time, was pretty rote to her. With little time for fantasy, or much of a need for it, she’d never given much thought to the beauty of the men around her.

  All werewolves were built like Greek Gods. It was part of their physiology. Still, Beaux was different.

  She reached out to trace his pectoral muscles and had the pleasure of feeling him shudder beneath her hand.

  The man had muscles to spare, only he was not bulky. No, Beaux stayed lean despite the clear definition of his body and his strength. In fact, she had had no idea he was so well defined because he always dressed so conservatively, hiding himself beneath long shirts and flannels.

  “You’re a beautiful man. You do know that, right?”

  Maybe she shouldn’t have said it; perhaps it sounded cheesy. Still, the words came out of her mouth on a sigh because they needed saying.

  “We spend a lot of time here doing without the niceties provided in the modern world. Hauling our own wood, hunting most of our own food, that sort of thing. I think it makes us stronger.”

  She shook her head. “I’m sure it does. What I mean is you are beautiful, Beaux. It radiates off you. If you sat on a sofa all day long, you’d be a sight to behold. I’m not sure I’m worthy to touch you.”

  He growled, and she shivered.

  “Don’t ever talk about yourself in such a manner. You’re my mate, my woman. You are perfection, and I won’t hear otherwise. Ever.”

  Before she could an
swer, he kissed her again, silencing any remark she would have made. There was no question his embrace meant possession, a claim she as a wolf could understand completely.

  “You know what happens at the end of this.”

  He didn’t frame it as a question, but she nodded to confirm that she knew. When they reached the end of their joining, he would bite her. He wouldn’t be able to stop himself, and she’d wear his bite mark for the rest of her days. If it started to heal, he’d bite her again.

  “I want to deny this.” Her voice cracked, and she hated her weakness. In the moment of passion, her shame remained present for Beaux to see. “Denial feels pointless. I seem to need you more and more. Each second I’m in your presence, it gets worse.”

  He placed his hands on her arms before he moved to straddle her on the table.

  “And why do you want to deny it? Why not embrace the sensation? I’ve never felt more alive in my life.”

  Maybe she shouldn’t tell him. More than anything she wanted him to keep touching her, stroking her—by all that she believed holy, she wanted to come around his hard cock. The truth might end their joining before it went any further. Except she wouldn’t lie to Beaux. Not ever. Other people, maybe, if they needed her to, but not Beaux.

  “Because I’m so fucked up, and the second you bite me, there will never be any getting away from me for you.”

  His eyes flashed wolf before returning to the gentle brown she’d grown accustomed to.

  “Then it sounds like we’re truly made for one another. I’ve got news for you, sweetheart. I’m pretty fucked up myself.”

  He was? Beaux always seemed to have it so together. With a groan sounding suspiciously like a growl, he pulled the remainder of her clothes from her body. She was bare beneath him, while he remained partially dressed. The look he gave her, the heat in his gaze, it could only be called aggressive.

  Her pussy creamed.

  “You’ll learn.”

  She licked her lips. “About what?”

  “You aren’t to criticize yourself, even in your own head. Time with me will teach you not to.”

  He bent over, running his hand up her leg. She shivered, goose bumps popping up on her skin. Beaux looked at her with reverence and talked to her like she mattered. The combination made her head spin. Where was the criticism? Where was the disdain? Before the True Believers took her, she’d always been an outcast. When had she ever felt so special?

  He stroked the outside of her core before he slipped a finger inside.

  “Look at you, so wet, so ready. From tonight on, no one will ever touch you again except me. Do you understand?”

  She nodded, and he raised an eyebrow. When had anyone ever focused so completely on her? When had she really mattered to anyone before?

  “I want to hear you say it. No one, not even you without my permission, touches you here.” He ran his finger on the outside of her again. “Say it.”

  “It’s yours. No one touches me except you.”

  Her heart pounded fast, and her body ached. She longed for the claiming, and the satisfied gleam in his eyes after she uttered her agreement made her squirm. By the Moon, why wouldn’t he touch her some more or, better yet, take his cock and put it where she was desperate for it to go.

  “Good.” His voice sounded husky.

  “Could you move faster?” She raised an eyebrow. Submissiveness worked for her…to a point.

  He grinned. “Look at your impatience.”

  Her hands shook as she undid the button on his jeans. Beaux smiled down at her, and she brushed her hands around the gentle spreading of dark hair on his chest. He sucked in his breath, and she was relieved to see she had affected him. She wasn’t the only one altered by this experience.

  Beaux helped her by pulling his pants all the way down. Dark hair covered his legs, and she raised her foot to run it along his calf and thigh. Her toes tingled from the slight scratchy sensation. To her, Beaux looked exactly as a man should. No shaved, hairless human would ever compete with his sheer masculine force.

  His cock strained against his briefs, and she cupped him on the outside of the fabric, glad to feel it jump in her hand when she did. She’d never cared much about her partner’s cock before. Before, when she’d been in heat, it had been all about getting what she needed because she really, really required the sexual stimulation to live through the days when she burned from the inside out with want.

  She wasn’t under any such duress with Beaux. No biological impulse she had to control in order to survive pushed her forward. If their need for each other, their mating, was hormonally induced, it didn’t feel the same as her prior experiences. Choice determined their actions, decisions they had made together.

  Lake took a second to admire Beaux for the beauty in his form. Hard and scarred from a lifetime of working to perfect himself for the good of their kind, he would probably hate to know she thought of him as being so lovely to behold.

  “Where is your head right now?” His voice sounded gravelly.

  “Here, musing on some girly things you don’t want to know about.”

  He brushed her hair off her forehead. “Sweetheart, there’s nothing about you I wouldn’t wish to understand better.”

  “Trust me.” She yanked down his briefs. “That’s not true.”

  His cock stood before her, thick and heavily veined. Staring at it made her mouth water. What would he taste like if she got the chance to suck on him? She’d never wanted to before. Would he let her? Would it be okay?

  She bent forward and he stopped her progression.

  “Are you thinking about taking me between your lips?”

  Lake nodded. “Do you read minds now, Beaux?”

  “To steal a phrase from you, body language.” He kissed her hard on the mouth. “If you do what you’re thinking, if you put your mouth on me, like the humans do, I’m going to blow this really fast. I want to be inside of you, and I mean inside your hot, wet pussy, not your mouth, right now.” He paused. “Although I’d love to know what a blow job is like another time.”

  She grinned. They were both completely naked on a kitchen table about to officially become true mates. How could this be so amusing? Shouldn’t it be completely serious?

  “Okay. I guess it’ll be something we can both look forward to.” And she would. The idea of having so much control over him? An Alpha with his cock in her mouth? Gaining pleasure because she gave it to him? The idea had serious merit.

  “Next time.” He sighed against her neck. “Please.”

  Beaux moved until he was near the entrance to her pussy. With a swift move of his hips, he entered her, then pressed slowly. Sweat broke out on his brow, and she reached up to wipe it away.

  “I don’t break. You can go faster.”

  “Not yet. We only get to have our first time together once. It needs to be right.” The muscles in his neck strained. “I guess I should say, I need it to be.”

  He pushed in further, and she closed her eyes at the sheer rightness of having Beaux so deep inside of her. He began to move, and she savored the fullness of their joining, loving the jolt of pleasure she got whenever his cock rubbed against her sensitive clit.

  She moaned and let her eyes open to admire the striking form of Beaux above her. He stared down at her, and, although she’d never been able to read minds, she loved the sheer heat radiating in his gaze. What was the emotion contained within his depths?

  Affection—lust—love—?

  You stupid werewolf, you’re never getting out of here intact. If we let you live, you’ll be nothing except damaged goods.

  Arlow. Her torturer’s voice flew through her mind, and she gasped. That man, his voice, his presence, it had no place here, not in this moment with Beaux. Where had the thought even come from?

  It had no business intruding on this time.

  “You okay?” Beaux cocked his head to the side, his thrust slowing slightly.

  “Don’t stop.” She locked her legs around hi
m, drawing him deeper. “Please.”

  His scent surrounded her, pushing out the thoughts of the True Believers. She lifted her head and kissed him as hard as she could. He moaned pushing deep inside her in a thrust to match the delve of her tongue. Yes, this was what she needed.

  We’ll play with her. She’ll never know when it’s coming—when her life will snuff out around her. One second, all will be well, the next, she’ll be too rabid to think. And then, puff, she’ll never know anything again.

  She pulled back, gasping. Yes, her memories were right. Why hadn’t she remembered? Why hadn’t the tests stayed in her head? They’d done something to her….

  “Lake?” Beaux stopped moving. “What is it? Your scent. Your whole body is tense. Did I do something? Am I hurting you?”

  “No.” She pushed at his chest. “Get off. It’s not you. Off right now.”

  “Okay.”

  His body shook above hers, and a vein throbbed in his head. Her heart dove into her stomach. She had to be causing him so much pain. This was a true mating, beyond sex. He had to feel compelled to mark her, to claim her.

  With a groan, he slid from her body, and she winced at the absence of his warmth. Her womb clenched, dying for the completion she refused.

  “Tell me what I did.” He stepped away from the table and picked up his pants. She turned her head. Watching him was too hard, too tempting.

  “You didn’t do anything.”

  She leapt off the table on unsteady legs. A tear slipped from her eyes, and she batted it away. No way could she tell him what she’d remembered. She was a walking, talking time bomb. Drugged to go rabid before she died, and she didn’t know when it would happen. Aaron, the leader, and Arlow, they’d done something to her. Why? She couldn’t remember. The knowledge stayed on the edge of her brain, not accessible, yet frustratingly present. An itch she couldn’t scratch.