Lion In Wait (A Paranormal Alpha Lion Romance) Page 10

  “Izzy!” Erik hissed. I typed it down.

  “Isabel! Pay attention to me,” he said. Erik bent down to talk in my ear and narrowly avoided a chair that crashed into the wall above his head. “We need to go. I’m about to throttle that prick.”

  “Which one?” I asked.

  He didn’t answer except to snarl.

  I took a deep breath and pushed my carriage return. No matter what happened, I had to keep typing. It might sound crazy, but part of my job as the alpha’s personal assistant is to go to all these insane meetings and try to make sense of it so he can read over the notes later.

  Don’t ask.

  I heard the wood on the podium top start to crack. Erik wore out two or three lecterns a year like this, habitually stress-squeezing until they finally gave out.

  Real bad month at the courthouse.

  “I’ve made my decision,” Erik growled. “If you want to hear it, sit down and shut up!”

  The crowd just kept on. Shouting, complaining; the whole courtroom was an endless drone punctuated with screams.

  “Izzy?”

  I turned to see Erik’s bright gold eyes flash. When he does that little thing with his eyes, it makes all my girl parts clench up. It’s some kind of werewolf magic, he’s told me, that makes human women ache for them. But he seemed to be doing it more lately. For a split second, I wondered if there was any significance to that, but then he smiled and my head started spinning.

  “Izzy? You okay?”

  “Yeah,” I said shaking my head. “Sorry, you stared at me in that way you have, and…”

  “Oh,” he shook his dark hair from side to side and smiled at me, flashing his dimples and his eyes. “Sorry, didn’t mean to do any charming.”

  How he could do that – make the whole chaotic shit-fest of a world around us vanish – was beyond me, but there he was, forcing my attention on him in the midst of a pack of screaming shifters.

  Someone threw a chair.

  “I want you,” he whispered, “to duck.”

  “What?”

  “Duck. I’m going to take care of this right about now.”

  “I—”

  “Now!”

  I hesitated long enough to see someone else rear back and sling a briefcase toward Erik.

  “Get down,” he shouted, pushing me off the chair and to the ground.

  As quickly as I could, I scurried under the table, peeking around one of the legs in time to see the lectern that I had just ordered go sailing across the room and catch one of the chief complainants in the side of the head.

  He might’ve well pulled out a hand grenade and yanked the pin.

  No one moved.

  The only thing I could hear was Erik’s ragged, heavy breathing beside me. He reached down and wiggled his fingers. Tentatively, I took his hand and pulled myself up. As soon as my eye-level went above the tabletop where my typewriter sat, I couldn’t believe what I saw.

  Every single person in the room – be they wolf, coyote, fox, or whatever the hell Leon is… some kind of lizard – was dead quiet and staring, open-mouthed, at Erik.

  Duggan Degger, the town historian-cum-hedgehog, was characteristically tugging on his suspenders and shaking.

  “Good,” Erik said, in a satisfied voice.

  I hunched my shoulders and slid as quietly as I could into my chair.

  I just about threw up when I adjusted my carriage return, and it let out a ding that turned a whole bunch of heads in my direction.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled.

  Erik smiled at me again. Those damn eyes flashing, those stupid dimples that got me all clenched up… if it weren’t for all that, I’d want to punch him right in the mouth. Maybe I did anyway.

  “It’s fine, Isabel,” Erik said, giving me another dashing smile and turning his attention back to the previously-rowdy audience. “Good! I’m glad we could come to an understanding about proper courtroom procedure. Now, could someone check on Devin? He’ll heal pretty quickly, but someone make sure he doesn’t have a concussion.”

  I watched, wide-eyed, as Leon the mystery shifter crouched down and checked Devin’s pulse, then his eyes. He nodded, and returned to his seat.

  “Excellent! Now, as you all know, we were here in the first place to work through a little problem that came up in the last week. One of our townspeople, Lucien,” he stuck his hand out, indicating the black-haired wolf with the ponytail, “wants to file a claim that his mate has been stalked and stolen by Flavius.”

  Erik rifled through a folder.

  Two years ago, fresh out of school and without a shred of experience to my name, I saw an online ad.

  How many stories start like that?

  This ad, it said there was a small town mayor in the Appalachians who needed a secretary. No experience necessary, it said. Oh, and also, there was in innocuous note in the ad about the town being ‘an organization looking to expand’ which is one of those phrases that just sorta flies past when you’re out of work and needing to pay bills.

  Good God was I ever in for a shock.

  Upon arriving, I was shown around town, and needless to say, the first time you see someone strip naked, crouch down and turn into a horse, it’s a whole different sort of immersion learning.

  “Are you getting this down?” he asked me. I nodded.

  “What is it, then?” I’d recognize Lucien’s high-pitched voice anywhere, even if I was face-down to a typewriter. “Do I get my request?”

  Erik took a deep breath and heaved a sigh. “I can’t go around letting everyone challenge each other to duels whenever the mood strikes. If you look around, the entire pack, minus a few of us who had to work or whatever it is that keeps them from mandatory meetings… we’re all here. And if you notice, we’re not as numerous as we were. I can’t have you killing people just because you feel like you’ve been insulted.”

  I looked around the room in the second’s worth of a pause. I never noticed before, but he was right. Just last year, when our weekly shifter court convened – which, by the way, gives very different meaning to the term ‘monkey trial’ – this room was packed full. As it stood now, there were a handful of empty chairs in the front row, and scattered throughout the hall.

  “I… I know that, Alpha,” Lucien said. He was so whiny that even I wanted to smack him one across the mouth. I’m not exactly the smacking-in-the-mouth type, either. “But I’ve been wronged, and this is the way of our pack! When someone steals your mate, you have the right to challenge them to a duel.”

  Going back to my typewriter and adding what Lucien just said, I let my mind drift a little.

  I’m so not like that. It’s crazy what being around a bunch of testosterone-pumped, muscle-bound, machismo-dripping werewolves, werebears, werefoxes and weregators can do to a person. As I looked around the room, Leon flicked his tongue out and licked an eyeball.

  I never did figure out what he actually was. He got really mad when you called him lizard.

  These days though, it was harder to think about going home and dealing with normal human drama. The shifters I had gotten used to, but Judgmental Uncle Ted? Ugh.

  “Yes,” Erik said. He was being patient. Way more patient than I ever could have been. He leaned forward on the desk where his lectern used to sit, his knuckles popping. “That is true. However, I’m not sure that she was really stolen, Lucien.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” The wolf, I noticed, wasn’t taking his dressing-down very well. “She was my mate, and then that jackass took her away!”

  I’d be lying if I said I didn’t half expect someone to voice a complaint about the pejorative use of ‘jackass’ but I kept my head down and went right on typing.

  “All right,” Erik began. “What is it you expect to happen, Lucien? Let’s be realistic.”

  “My honor!” the middle-aged wolf was almost shrieking. “My honor is at stake, Alpha! When that monster… that freak took my mate, I was going to murder him, drive a silver spike straight th
rough his heart, to avenge my honor.”

  Erik sighed again. It was really hard not to laugh. “First of all, let’s not start in with the freak talk. We’re all different here, but we’re all one pack. Get it? Werebear or werewolf, there’s no difference in the eyes of the alpha. And, in case you forgot, that’s me.”

  I didn’t look up, but I knew the glare he was giving the room. I’d seen it a thousand times.

  “He threatened me! He stole my mate, he—”

  “What is the other rule about mates, Lucien?” Erik interrupted. “The one that says if your mate wants to leave, then…”

  Lucien shook his head, at least feigning that he didn’t understand. A shifter’s mate leaving was a mark of shame for which we humans don’t have a corollary. The closest thing might be, I dunno, eating your co-worker’s lunch and getting caught on tape.

  Erik gestured with his hand. “Come on, Lucien. If your mate wants to leave, then she… c… c…”

  “Can leave?” Lucien said. I swear his lips were trembling.

  “Uh-huh. So, if she can leave if she falls in with someone else, then I don’t really see what kind of a case you’ve got.”

  “So I don’t get to fight him?” Lucien balled up his fists and stood. Erik hates it when people stand up. “That freak takes my mate and I can’t even fight him over her?”

  Erik half-laughed, and then shrugged. “You can fight whoever you want. That’s not my business, that’s not pack business. But if you want to issue a sanctioned challenge for dominance, you’ve got to play by the rules. If he kidnapped her? Okay. If he swept in, cast a spell on her and took your children? Perfect. But right now, all we’ve got is someone leaving someone else, and no rules have been broken. Now sit down, and stop complaining.”

  Lucien grunted, and he sat down hard. “Okay, fine,” he said, then added a mumbled, “Goddamn assho—”

  “What?” Erik leaned over the table. “What did you say?”

  “Uh… I said yes… I mean yes, sir.”

  Erik’s shoulders visibly relaxed when he checked the clock. This was his favorite part of court days. The ending part.

  “Fantastic,” he said with a sigh. “I thought that’s what I heard. Now, if there’s no other complaints to hear today, I—”

  From the left, someone shouted, “I’ve been waiting all day!” From the right hand side of the room came a “Me too! This is ridiculous!” and then from the back of the room, someone complained that they’d been coming for two weeks and hadn’t yet been heard.

  “Are you sure?” I asked. “There’s a lot of really irritated people. Is this really the time to go hide out in your office?”

  Erik flashed a dimpled half-smile. “Do you remember what Walt wanted me to hear two weeks ago? He has a complaint about his neighbor watering his lawn three times a week instead of two. Oh, and the other one, Greg? Who’s been waiting all day, you saw the report. He is complaining that Leon of all people stole a bunch of DVDs out of his car. I just… I can’t even imagine. Leon can hardly keep himself awake most times.”

  The noise from the audience started to grow, and before I knew it, Erik had my hand in his, and I grabbed the typewriter off the table. “Got everything?” he said.

  “Uh… yes, I think,” I said, stammering as he pulled me to my feet. “Wait!” As he pulled me to the door to his office, which was conveniently six feet from where we were standing, I stuck out a hand and barely grabbed my notes. “Okay, now I do!”

  “Good,” he said. “Court is adjourned! I’ll be in my office until four, but don’t bother knocking unless you have an appointment.”

  “Sir,” I said, “there’s no appointments, you told me not to make any.”

  “I know,” he grinned. My sex muscles clenched. I hated when he did that. Okay, hate is a little strong of a word. More like ‘wish he’d only do it behind closed doors.’

  I started going a little weak in the knees, but before that mattered he shoved me through the office door, sighed and collapsed backward, resting against it. His huge arms strained the sleeves of his dress shirt as he ripped off his jacket and reached for his tie.

  Without looking, he took a second to click both deadbolts and the lock on the door’s handle.

  The grin from earlier came back, this time joined by a flashing pair of pale yellow eyes. His swelling muscles were just about to tear through the slacks that I’d had tailored for him not even a week before.

  “Here?” I said, almost breathless. “But won’t everyone in the room hear?”

  “Oh like it’s the first time,” Erik said. “The way you were looking at me with those side-eyes of yours, I could hardly control myself. I didn’t give a shit about anything going on in there for at least half the day. I’ve been thinking about this since lunch.”

  “About what?” I asked, feigning innocence.

  “Get over here, Izzy.” Erik grabbed me by the wrist and yanked me across the floor. “I can’t keep myself calm much longer. You better either take that dress off, or not care if I rip it to shreds.”

  His words burned my skin just about as hot as his fingers on my wrist did. “I’ve got others,” I said in a breathy whisper. “You keep buying them for me.”

  “You keep making me tear them off,” he said. “What choice do I have?”

  Before my eyes, Erik’s arms swelled, his shoulders and his legs grew larger until the fabric on his clothes gave just a little. He grabbed my modestly-sexy v-neck collar between both of his hands and ripped my dress straight down the middle.

  I unbuttoned his shirt, running my finger from where a tattooed leaf poked out just above his collar, all the way down to where the roots disappeared under his belt.

  “No panties?” he said, breathing hard and ragged.

  “You tore them off at lunch, remember?” I smiled, dragging my fingernails along the curve of Erik’s neck. “And before that, you scolded me for wearing any.”

  Erik took a deep breath, inhaling my scent, and hoisted me off the floor. I wrapped my legs around him and sighed as his cock pushed into me, then let out a long, moaning exhale when he settled in.

  “I’ve missed you,” I whispered, kissing his neck.

  He thrust hard, and I threw back my head, laughing as he went. Every inch of him stretched into me, making my whole body flare to life. He didn’t say anything, but then again, he never did. When he got like this, speaking was about the furthest thing from Erik’s mind.

  Seconds later I felt his burning flesh against the deepest parts of my thighs, I started moving backwards. At the exact same time, I slammed against the couch that he kept in his office for exactly this purpose, and he was all in me.

  I let out a howl of pleasure, and the back of the couch thumped against the wall.

  With each increasingly desperate, wonderful push, my chest heaved harder and harder, my breath came in short bursts.

  After a few hours apart, we were both quick to please. I squeezed him with my legs, reaching down to massage. As soon as my fingers wrapped around his base, Erik started letting air out of his mouth in snorting grunts.

  “Bite me,” I moaned. “Just a little.”

  Fangs brushed my skin, and he gave me a nip that sent a chill straight down me. Underneath my bra, my nipples got all prickly and sweet. With each thrust, he took more and more of my breath away until I thought maybe I’d be smothered in the pleasure.

  Erik took a huge breath and held it tight. Every cord in his neck was taut when I stroked him, and his cock had somehow swelled even bigger when I wrapped my fingers around him and pulled.

  “Can’t… can’t… hold off,” he groaned. “So close, so…”

  I couldn’t even bother with speech. I just squealed with delight. He bit harder, but not enough to hurt, just enough to feel really, really good. Short, hard hairs had started pushing out of Erik’s pores. He was normally pretty good about not shifting, but sometimes when he really got going like this, he couldn’t help himself.

  Something ab
out me – normal, curvy little Isabel Deschaine – being able to drive this incredible hunk of man so wild he turned into a wolf never stopped thrilling me.

  Then, all at once, we both took a breath at the same time, and held it in.

  I opened my eyes to find him smiling at me, staring straight into mine.

  “Let go,” he whispered. “Now, let go… I can’t hold on.”

  I shook my head, trying to protest, but probably not very convincingly. “You first,” I said.

  Erik squinted in silent defiance. Then, he thrust into me again, ending the debate. Every muscle in my body quivered and shook, and before I could think about stopping myself, the whole world went fuzzy, white, and warm.

  For a few moments, we stayed together, our bodies pulsing and gripping at one another until they were satisfied. I wanted him again. I always wanted him again.

  “Well,” he said, pushing off the couch. “I guess now we go from my most favorite part of the day to my least favorite.”

  I knew what that meant, but I wanted him to say it. “Which is?” I asked. I wanted a cigarette. I always did, even though I quit four years ago.

  “Which is,” Erik kissed me as he shrank back to normal size. “Going back to pretending you’re not my mate.”

  “Why?” I asked with a shrug. He’d told me the answer before, but it didn’t make sense. “Why can’t we just be… us?”

  He shook his head. “Can’t happen. Alpha and a normal human? The pack would go nuts. There’d be a damn riot.”

  “Sounds like there already is,” I said, tilting my head to the door behind us and the noise bursting from the courtroom.

  “If you think that’s bad, you ain’t seen anything, little girl.”

  When he called me little girl, my stomach quailed. “So, what,” I said, pulling my dress together enough to keep it from falling open in the middle of everything. “We just keep pretending this isn’t real? We just keep on acting like I’m your… what, your booty-call or something?”