Alpha's Last Fight: A Paranormal Shapeshifter BBW Romance (2 page)

“Tommy, I don’t—”

“Just relax,” he murmured in my ear. His breath tickled my ear and I wriggled underneath him, trying to regain control of my body. It was hot, so hot—

“
Relax
,” he repeated, and his hand went down between us. I heard a zipper being undone.

No!
I wanted to open my mouth and scream it, to stop whatever was happening to me inside. There was no way to control my other self. The animal in me seeped up through my pores, curled around my nerves and took me over. My pulse pounded in my ears.

“Tommy—”

“It’s okay.”

“But I—”

“
It’s okay
,” he hissed. He pressed his mouth down on top of mine and kissed me hard, the ridge of his teeth coming down on my lower lip. A jolt of pain flickered through my nerves. I couldn’t breathe.

Hot
, it was so hot. The air closed in like wet cotton. Tommy’s glass had spilled. The bed reeked of whisky.

I opened my eyes and saw myself in the ceiling mirror, half naked, my breast pulled out of my bra. Tommy’s pants were down and he was on top of me. My vision spun, but I could see my eyes, my pupils growing. My other self was coming. It was coming. It was…

It was already here.

“
Stop,
” I said, or tried to say. My throat was hoarse, and I took a ragged breath before I felt Tommy’s fingers pull my underwear to one side. He kissed my ear, my neck.

“God, you’re so beautiful,” Tommy mumbled into my hair.

No! No! No!
There was no time to say it, no time to pull back. I tried to roll over but I was pinned, and then he was pushing against me down between my thighs, and it hurt,
oh god, it hurt
!

My other self exploded through my body.

In the ceiling, I saw the animal in me take over before Tommy could push his way in between my legs. I opened my mouth to scream but instead it was a howl, the sound filling the room and echoing in my ears. It was too late. No time to stop. The monster was out of its cage.

Then I was gone and it was Tommy screaming
no, no, no!
and my claws slashing red and blood, blood everywhere, blood all over my dress and the creamy white sheets and I tried to pull back, I tried to stop it, I tried to hide, but I couldn’t.
I couldn’t.

You can’t hide from the monster when the monster is inside you.

Chapter Two

Hutch, Five Years Ago

Sabine was magnificent.

Of course she was magnificent: she was the mate of the legendary Tyler Quinn, our pack leader for now. She walked as if her spine was a rod of iron, but clad in a body that shimmied with the most luxurious, womanly curves at every stride. She was a wolf molded into the body of a woman.

We all dreamed of her. We dreamed of her before we knew what desire meant and, after, we dreamed of
more
. We dreamed and gossiped and boasted about being the one who would bag a woman as desirable as our lead bitch.

She knew it, too. You could tell by the way she looked at us, flashing her eyes and gracing us with a secret smile. An expression of pure adventurous arrogance.

I saw a different expression on her now. A vacant, glazed look of ecstasy that grew more rapturous with each thrust. At least, I assumed it grew more rapturous. At times it was hard to draw my gaze away from the gravity-defying bounce of her spectacular breasts.

She insisted on being on top. Despite the fact that I tended to favor a more traditional position—well, traditional for shifters—I’m always open to new ideas. I mean, the view was nice. But if she thought her position, within the pack or a more literal interpretation of the word, would afford her any measure of control over our coupling, she was going to be surprised.

Lead bitch or not, she couldn’t change my nature. I was an alpha. I was born to fight. I was born to fuck. I was born to lead. So lead I did, arching my back and thrusting my hips to meet her. My arms wrapped tight around her, grasping her butt and pulling it towards me with a force that would leave both of us bruised and tender.

She fought for control and I saw a flash of fear in her eyes. Not of me, but of herself. To embrace the animal without fully giving into it brings with it benefits. It gives us strength. It gives us endurance. It enhances our senses. It enhances everything.

So, kind of stating the obvious here, it has the potential to make sex something pretty fucking amazing.

“No... we can’t… we can’t…”

She cried out and put her hand on my chest. Fingers splayed, her nails almost clawlike where they pressed against the skin of my chest.

“That’s… why… it’s so... fucking… good.”

That almost raised a smile. But, before it could register, it was replaced with another groan. I felt it through my whole body as her control slipped, just a little. I felt it, I felt her change… just for a moment, just long enough to give my cock a wonderful little squeeze.

I wanted this. I more than wanted it. I was an alpha and I had a need to share my genetic payload with the most suitable vessel, just as much as she had a need to seek out the very same.

While his fame as a fighter was well known, Quinn had been found... lacking in other areas. He had produced no heirs and would leave no genetic legacy. The pack would pass to whoever took him down first. The pack would pass to me. She knew it and I knew it.

In the end she won the battle for control. Even as her delicious body rumbled through another orgasm, she dismounted me and I was left thrusting at nothing as I desperately searched for release.

“We can’t tell him. It would kill him.”

My complaints died in my throat as she descended on me, lips parted, mouth warm and welcoming. I could live with that. I lay back, mouthed a howl of pure pleasure as the woman who had been my childhood crush brought me to a mind-blowing climax with her talented mouth.

These were the days I lived for.

***

“You won’t beat him. You’re not ready.”

As amazing as I was in bed, it didn’t seem to take her long to get over it and back to business. She brushed her hair out, sitting on the side of the bed. Her ass was magnificent.

“He’s old. He’s slow. He’s holding us back.”

“Bullshit. It takes more than a big cock and the ability to get the crap kicked out of you in the ring to lead a pack. You’re not ready and you need to give all this loan business a rest.”

I sat up. Usually I’d be sniffing around her lap, working my way up to round two by now, but her lack of faith had taken the wind out of my sails.

“I’m sorry Hutch. You’re… incredible. One day you’ll—”

“One day doesn’t cut it. We’re talking about a lot of money here and it’s not an offer they’re going to leave on the table. These abandoned factories and mills are just sitting there and no one wants them. We could have a home for next to nothing. Somewhere big enough to set up a proper arena. Like the one out near Reno. That place rakes it in. Fights every night. Fat whales flying in on private jets from all over the place and dropping tips like nobody’s business.”

“But who gets the money, Hutch? You think their pack leader gets to fly around in a private jet? Do you even know his name?”

“I don’t give a fuck what his name is. They’d know my name. That’s all that matters.”

“You sound so sure about that.” She turned to look over her shoulder at me, her hair falling like water down her smooth back.

“I challenged Quinn. I’m going to win.”

“That’s what you said last time and he put you in a hospital. Save it for your cheer squad.”

“You’re not part of my cheer squad?”

“Shut up. Speaking of hospitals, how’s that sick cub? What’s her name, Kimberly?”

“She’s fine.”

“I thought the doctors said she needed a liver.”

“Nah,” I said, waving it off and bringing my hands back to Sabine’s hips. “Just, like, part of a liver. It’s cool. I got it.”

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah, they said they have to take part of my liver. I’m the... uh, the match person. Whatever.”

Sabine raised her eyebrows. I could smell her arousal and it made me grin.

“Jeez, Sabine, if I knew you were gonna get this hot about helping some dumb kid, I’d be giving out livers left and right.”

“You really don’t care about anything but the pack, do you?” she asked, a strange look on her face.

“I care about
this
.”

I lunged forward and nipped her on the ass. She squealed and I pulled her back into bed, throwing her down under me. I would take her again, and this time she wouldn’t have any control. She placed one hand on my chest and a look of worry in her eyes made me pause.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Just make sure you shower before the fight. If he smells me on you he’s going to make you regret it.”

***

The ring was a big circle of dirt about twenty feet in diameter. Or radius. Or whatever. I really had no idea how big it was, it was just a place we fought until one of us got knocked out of it, or pinned to the ground for a five count.

There was already a crowd. Not just what was left of our pack, but local folk too. People who lived off the grid and didn’t act surprised when you told them there were men and women who could turn into wolves. People who lived in the hills and liked a drink and a wager, who wanted to leave behind the shitpile they called home. People who would pay a couple of months’ earnings to spend one night with something exotic and strange.

We fought. We fucked. It was what we were good at. And if people were going to pay us to do it, so much the better.

Tyler Quinn was as impressive a man as he was a wolf. Six foot something and a broad barrel chest that was almost bear-like. But when he moved, all comparisons to our ursine cousins ceased. His movements were lean and fluid. He wasted no energy, conserving everything for the fight.

He needed to conserve it. He knew it and I knew it. The last time he fought me I left the ring bruised and bloody. But not before I had catalogued his weaknesses. I had discovered where he was coming apart at the seams. Years of pushing his body to the limits. Years of being the best. The years were taking their toll.

Apart from that, I had a secret weapon.

I had ignored Sabine’s advice to shower. To do so would wash away the true purpose of our frantic coupling. I
wanted
her scent on me.

It wasn’t just Quinn’s body that was failing him, but he was losing control as well. In his prime Quinn could have wiped the floor with me. One day I’d be as good, but not yet. Now, the match was closer to even and time wasn’t on my side. I had to take advantage of every opportunity that presented itself to swing things in my favor.

I didn’t feel guilty for using our lust for one another in this way. It wasn’t as if this was the only reason Sabine and I fucked around… or the first time. But I did feel a twinge of regret, as there was a good chance it would be our last. Sabine may have liked me, liked fucking me anyway, but she loved Quinn.

As I stepped into the ring I brought my hand across my chest to tap the bare flesh over my heart with two fingers. I scanned the crowd and my eyes landed on Gina. Fair enough. We’d grown up together and I guess she’d be a suitable mate, for tonight anyway. She’d have to settle down and give up the fighting if she wanted anything more. While I was a fan of her ferocity, in the ring and in the sack, a mother would need to be a protector, not an aggressor.

Still, tonight, we could just fuck. I pointed the two fingers directly at her and winked.

She rolled her eyes, but her grin told me she was on board. The gesture was kind of cheesy and the other shifters might have mocked me for it when I was younger. But, to date, no woman I’d pointed to had gone on to say no after I stepped out of the ring at the end of the night. Hell, they wanted to fuck me even if I lost, even if I was carried out of the ring.

“Hutch. Kid. Ready to get your ass kicked again?”

I nodded. Quinn wasn’t the only one who needed to conserve energy. He had me on strength, reach, weight and experience. Secret weapons or not, this wasn’t going to be easy. I had to beat him, though. For the good of our pack, I had to. He was old and it was long past time for him to go. It was the natural order and he knew it as well as I did.

Formalities over, it didn’t take long for the two of us to get down to business.

We circled at first. Exploratory jabs and low kicks, testing each other out even though we had fought half a dozen times before this and trained together since I was a pup. He wasn’t taking any chances.

His nostrils flared as he caught a whiff of Sabine’s unmistakable scent. And then it was as if his body
rippled
. He embraced the animal inside him and drew on its essence. I had expected to catch him by surprise. Maybe throw him off guard. But it wasn’t as if he didn’t know Sabine had many other partners. He wasn’t exactly monogamous himself. Many wolves mate for life, but it’s rare they don’t stray from time to time, more often than not with the full blessing of their partner.

I hadn’t expected anything like this. The ferocity and speed with which he turned on me defied everything I had observed by watching him fight. He didn’t want to kick my ass. He wanted to kill me.

I didn’t react fast enough to dodge the first blow. A punch to the chest with the full force of both man and animal behind it. I was sent reeling to the dirt, struggling to draw breath. I desperately searched for the animal inside me. Drawing it out.

Even down on the dirt and short of breath, I had complete control. No one could control it like me. Even the greatest fighters, our mythological heroes, lost it now and then. Let the wolf take over and lose the man. But I never did. Not unless I wanted to.

Before I had a chance to fight back, he was on me again. But he was no longer a man, he was a solid mass of fur and muscle and snarling, snapping jaws. The crowd was stunned into silence. They knew that fully shifting during a fight was rare between experienced opponents. Rookies and pups did it all the time, but us? No way would we lose control so quickly.