The Alpha's Mate (8 Sexy, Powerful Shifters and Their Fated Mates) Read online

  I swear, nothing in the world felt as good as throwing my leg over that motorcycle and feeling it roar to life.

  But then I put my arms around Erik’s waist, squeezed him tight, and suddenly, the motorcycle thing took a distant second place.

  -10-

  “What’s going to happen?”

  I pushed the mini blinds in Erik’s street-facing apartment window open and looked out over the town. Behind me, Erik poured himself a drink – a regular sized one this time – and offered a glass to me.

  Erik shrugged. “To Jenga? He’ll do some time, some community service. I mean, admitting to a conspiracy is a lot better than getting caught with your pants down.” He laughed a little. “Between you and me, I think we could prevent this happening again by cutting back some of those trees and putting some solar panels on his house. Actually I’m gonna push for that at the hearing.”

  I nodded. “But all that money he stole, and putting everyone in danger. How can that happen, and then he gets solar panels out of the deal?”

  Erik shrugged. “I guess love made me go all soft,” he said. “As far as the money he actually did steal? He’ll pay it back, plus interest. If he can’t, he’ll have to work it off. He ran a weird snake-oil medical practice for a while... anyway, we’ll find something for him to do.”

  “I do feel sorry for him, in a weird way,” I said. “Only friend is a zombie?”

  “Witchdoctors do what they do. Sometime we’ll have to go up there and I’ll show you his house. Quite a site. Usually wide open, buncha toads and snakes and stuff running around. And you can’t forget the television. Best picture I’ve ever seen.” He sipped his scotch and watched me. “I get you though, it is sad. But still, he broke the law. Gotta pay the price.”

  God those eyes could make me stupid on the smartest day of my life. I stared back, into the glittering yellow of his irises, and tried to think.

  “I’m just... if he did something like that out in the normal world – er, I mean, discounting the zombie – he’d be in jail for the rest of his life.”

  “Uh-huh,” he said. “We don’t do things the normal way here. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure if there were a serial killing were-rhino on the loose we’d have to do some really tricky maneuvering to keep the FBI from barging into town, but for the most part, we’re just out here, being us. Doing our own thing.”

  He took another drink and looked out the window.

  In the early afternoon sun, Erik was bathed in orange. He smiled and sucked his bottom lip under the top one, which accentuated his already sharp cheekbones. “I wasn’t just making things up,” he said.

  “About what?”

  “We’ve got something we still have to do, you and I.”

  Erik turned and brushed his dark hair back, out of his eyes. That familiar tingle crept down my stomach, making the muscles between my legs clench despite my best efforts to keep myself clear-headed. It wasn’t working as well as I hoped.

  I decided to take that drink after all.

  “You think they’re fine with it? The council, I mean. From the way you talked earlier, they’d string us both up if we were officially a thing.”

  Erik finished his drink and watched me finish mine. “I’m sure there will be talk, and probably some fretting. But they’ll get over it. After all, you’re the one who linked up the whole thing with Jenga and the theft. If that’s not good enough for them, I don’t know what is.”

  He took the empty tumbler out of my hand and set both glasses down on the desk with a soft clunking sound. “But we still have other business to attend.”

  “Yeah?” I asked, bending my head back and tasting the smoky liquor that lingered on Erik’s lips. “What kind of business?” I asked as soon as our lips parted with a gentle suck.

  Outside, a couple of cars went past and someone shouted at someone else.

  It occurred to me that no one in the town, except the four people – five counting me – at that meeting, knew what had happened.

  Then I realized it didn’t matter. This was the way of things, the way it worked. I had to admit that it didn’t make much sense at all to me, but then again, it seemed to work.

  Mostly.

  “You, my dear,” Erik kissed me again, slowly, deeply, swirling his tongue against mine and breathing my breath. “You have only been half claimed.”

  “I... wait, what did you say? How can someone be half-claimed?”

  Erik stared into my eyes for just a moment, refusing to look away. To test him, I glanced out the window that had him framed in light, but he just stood there smiling and staring, until I felt his eyes burning in my soul.

  “It’s... something we do to show that we fully, completely, totally trust our mates. It takes both sides being as careful and gentle as possible, and then when it all goes right, magic happens.”

  I closed my eyes and felt a wave of heat rush up my throat when he touched my neck with his lips, and another one as his fingers fell along the curve of my sides. “Everything about you, Izzy,” he said softly, “just perfect.”

  My mouth fell open and I drew a gasp that he interrupted with another harder, deeper kiss. Erik’s scent permeated every pore of my body, his hot, heavy taste rolled over my tongue like sweet wine.

  His fingers trickled all the way to my waist where Erik curled them, holding me tight in his huge hands. “I’m... I’m safe with you,” I said when he pulled away, sucking the end of a kiss off my bottom lip. “You make me feel like nothing’s going to go wrong, not ever.”

  “You are,” he said, brushing his lips against my prickling throat. “And it won’t. Not as long as I can help it.”

  Against the bare skin on the top of my arms, Erik’s smooth, supple leather jacket slid as he moved his arms up and wrapped them around me, pulling me in close. With my head in the crook of his neck, every note, every hint of oak and leather and spice in the vague afterglow of the cologne he put on hours before filled my nose.

  “As long as you’re sure this is exactly what you want, you’re about to make me the happiest wolf man on the planet.”

  “Why wouldn’t I?” I asked, open mouthed. I extended my head to try and kiss him again, but Erik pulled back and avoided my lips, instead pecking me on the cheek. “Unless there’s something else about me you don’t trust.”

  “Isabel, I—”

  “No,” I said softly. “I just need to know that you actually believe in me. That you’re not just telling me you do because you love me, or you’re addicted to me or whatever. I don’t want to be – no, I won’t be strung along again.”

  Erik tightened his jaws. The cords in his neck stood out, and his cheekbones looked even sharper for a moment. “I said those things because I was... scared. I didn’t know what to think. And so, instead of believing you, like I should have done in the first place, I fell back on the story I’d always heard.”

  “How do I know it won’t happen again?” I asked.

  Cupping my face in his hands, Erik stared straight into my eyes. “I had faith in you, right? With the council?”

  I nodded.

  “Okay. Then have faith in me. I promise I won’t doubt you again. All right?”

  I took a deep breath. “I think I can do that,” I whispered.

  “There’s just one other thing,” Erik said, finally kissing me again. “Are you sure you want to be here? I mean, not a whole lot of big concerts come through Jamesburg.”

  “Yes, of course,” I said. “I love it here. I never want to leave.”

  He shrugged and smiled. “Some people think they like the idea of being here, but—”

  Immediately, I shook my head. “I’ve never been happier anywhere. Hell, I’ve never been happy anywhere, not like this. Not like I am with you. I’ve never felt...” I swallowed, hard. Just thinking what I was thinking hurt a little, but to say it made it real.

  “What’s wrong? You can tell me anything,” he urged. “Even if it seems like I’m kinda, I donno, aloof and have
my head up my ass, I’m always listening. Especially to you.”

  “It’s just that I’ve never felt... special before. Not like you make me feel.”

  He took my hands and held them down at my sides. I kept breathing harder, but not knowing exactly why. Nothing was happening. Erik and I were just staring at each other, watching one another breathe, like we had done a thousand times before. But there was a kind of energy in the air right then, a sparkle that I’d never felt before, that lit on my skin and made my whole body tingle.

  “What is it?” he said with a grin that made the rest of my guard simply drop. “I can always tell when you’re thinking about something really hard.”

  I blushed deeply at the compliment like I always did. “Oh yeah? What’s my tell?”

  “You’ve got a dimple right here,” Erik paused to kiss my cheek. “But that’s normal. The one here,” he said, kissing the other cheek, “only shows up when you pucker your lips a little. And that only happens when you’re thinking about something. Don’t make me torture you to get an answer.”

  “Torture? You gonna put me on the rack?” I asked, looking up at my huge Erik and biting my lip gently.

  I couldn’t help but smiling at him as the sun behind Erik cascaded down his shoulders. The huge tattoo that covered his chest poked out the top of his slightly-open shirt collar. The part I could see was a green and black leaf, part of a branch that was part of a tree. I’d seen the thing a thousand times, but never really studied it before right then.

  Tracing the visible edge of the leaf with my fingertip, I pulled his shirt down slightly. “Well?” I asked. “I thought you were going to torture me.”

  Lifting my shirt, he kissed my chin, then my neck, and then the hollow between my collarbones. Warm, vibrating groans thrilled me as he went lower and lower, but he never let go of my hands. He moved them around to the small of my back where he flattened his hands against my skin, pinning mine against my back.

  “You’re brilliant, you’re gorgeous,” he said, pausing to kiss me again, a little further down my chest, right above the last of my shirt’s open buttons. “I don’t know if I’ve ever known anyone more amazing than you are, and I’ve got you,” he whispered when he came up for air. “How did I manage to luck into this?”

  “I don’t think the person getting tortured is supposed to hope that it goes on forever,” I said with a smile stretched across my face. “Aren’t you supposed to make me tell you what you want to hear?”

  “You will,” Erik said. “The best torture starts slow. If you go too fast, it’s over all at once. That’s no good.”

  Releasing my hands, he moved a finger around my waistband and slid it underneath both khakis and panties and ran it against my softest skin. Almost immediately, I sucked in a sharp breath and I let my head fall backwards in a mixture of pleasure, relaxation and anticipation. He knelt, pushing my shirt up with the tip of his nose and kissing me right above the belly button.

  “You never kiss there anymore,” I said with a little wiggle. Every time he kissed me there I got the shivers, and that time was no different. “It’s been so long that I thought you’d forgotten.”

  “I never forget a good spot,” Erik whispered. “I just stop doing it for a bit so you get more excited when I finally do it again.”

  “God,” I moaned. “You’re making me think my knees are about to give out. How long has it been since we did this?”

  “Depends on what you mean.” He kissed me again, warming my flesh with a circling of his tongue before sucking me right above the top of my slacks. I felt myself go by turns hot and cool with each of his gentle, nipping kisses. “If you mean in general, about... four hours? If you mean what I’m going to do to you specifically today, then... never.”

  “I like the way you talk,” I breathed. “Although I can’t think of anything we’ve never done, except... Oh no,” I said. “Oh no, no, no, not that.”

  “Relax,” Erik said, kissing me again. “I promise I’ll go as slow as you need me to go. If you trust me, then this is the last part of the marking ritual. If we go through with this, we’re one forever.”

  A thousand things went through my mind at once. Erik and I had done just about everything I had ever imagined with the exception of two things. First, it was always just he and I. He’d never shared me, he said out of jealousy, although for me it was hard to imagine sharing him either. The other thing was that he’d never put it... there. I’d used my mouth and... but never there. He was so big that just the thought was a little chilling, even though that fear was mixed with equal parts excitement.

  “You’re shaking,” he said softly. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

  “It’s just... I’m scared,” I admitted. “I’ve never imagined doing that and... well, you’re sorta big, so...”

  Erik squeezed my hand. I expected some kind of joke, or a sexy glance, but instead, he just held me against him and stared into my eyes. “I’ll never hurt you. Never in my whole life will I hurt you. You’re my mate, Isabel, and I’m going to protect you until the day I die.”

  “But... won’t it hurt? I mean, not that you’re going to hurt me, not on purpose anyway, but won’t it just...”

  He stopped me with a look so tender, so loving, that I almost melted right then and there. Those cool yellow eyes warmed me all the way to my core and sent heat radiating through me. “You trust me?”

  I bit my lip and nodded. “It took me...” I swallowed. Saying what I was about to say was hard, but I wanted – no, needed – to get out. “Trusting you is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I don’t think I’ve ever let myself fall for someone like I did for you.”

  It all came out at once, in a big long rush. I was scared that I was going to screw everything up. That I was going to mess this chance up like I had most of my others by being afraid. This time was different though.

  “And, well, it took me a lot more than it should have for me to say that just now. I really hope this doesn’t change your mind about anything. About me, or about us, or—”

  Erik’s answer was to shush me with a kiss. His lips against mine so hard and deep and hungry, filled me with such warmth and security that I could hardly stand not having him completely right then and there. He took a breath, pushing my lips apart and swirling his tongue against mine for a moment.

  When Erik pulled away, he slid his teeth – that I noticed were starting to get a bit sharper – along my lip, and sucked as it popped back into place.

  “Nothing you could ever say would make me regret what we’ve done, what I’ve got. Nothing in the world could make me regret you. You understand that, right?”

  “It’s just hard for me after everything to sit back and think that, finally, something good is happening to me and that I’m not going to ruin it. I never thought, never in my whole life, that taking some dumb job from an online ad was going to change my whole life, you know?”

  Erik studied my face for a second. He opened his mouth, then reconsidered. “It changed mine too, you know,” he said a moment later. The fingers against my sex slid upward, and he cupped my face in his hands.

  “It’s okay, Izzy,” he said. “Whatever you’re feeling, whatever you’re going through, I want you to tell me about it, all right?”

  I nodded, the tears came. “It’s just... after my whole life, this is really happening, and I can’t let myself believe that it’s really happening.”

  Erik watched and waited. “Anything you need to say,” he kissed me again, “never feel like you have to keep secrets. Never feel like you have to be afraid alone. All right?”

  With him holding my face in his hands, I just let go.

  “I thought we were at goodbye,” I said sniffing. “I thought the other day, we were over, and I thought I’d gone and messed up yet another good thing by being... me.”

  “Hey, hey,” Erik said, wiping the tears out of my eyes with his huge thumbs. “That wasn’t your fault. That was me bumbling around and...
and me being afraid.”

  “What?” I said, sniffling harder. “You? Afraid?”

  He nodded. “I had to realize that the only reason I was holding off on marking you was... well, I didn’t trust myself not to make a stupid decision. So I was hunting for any damn excuse I could. But now—”

  “Don’t say that,” I said. “You’re not stupid, you were just being careful.”

  “No, I was being a coward. When you left, I felt my heart jump right out of my chest. I was afraid you were serious. You have no idea how glad I was when I saw you looking down at me from that window. It was... I don’t know how to explain it, but it was like find someone I thought I’d lost.”

  “No,” I said with a smile through the tears rolling down my cheeks and into Erik’s hands. “That’s exactly what did happen.”

  He kissed me again, the sweetest, softest, most gentle kiss I’d ever experienced. He caressed my lips, then my cheek, before warming my neck and sending goosebumps down my chest. “I never wanted anything as bad as I’ve wanted you, Isabel,” he whispered. “I don’t know how or why, but I feel like everything up to this point was just waiting. Just build up. Just... wasting time for you to come along.”

  “Really? You really think that?”

  He nodded. “The first time I saw you get out of that half-broken Bonneville with the one window that didn’t go down, I couldn’t take my eyes off you. I watched you. You know that?”

  I shook my head. “You did? When I first showed up?”

  “Yeah. I remember it like it was yesterday. You had a white coat, blue knit hat thing, and those knee boots that I love so much. You looked around when you got out of the car like you were trying to figure out which building to go into – because you know, there’s so many courthouses in Jamesburg’s town square.”

  He smiled, and I laughed. It was just like he said. It was exactly the way he told it.

  “You looked left,” he kissed me. “Then right.” And again, this time on the other cheek. “And then you finally looked straight at the building, and I saw your perfect face. The second I saw your face, I fell in love with you, Isabel. And I never fell out, not even for a second.”