Keeper of the Alphas - Complete (8 page)

He could still smell her.

The Keeper bitch’s scent clung to Aldric’s fur, inside his snout, making him hungry and needy. She should have been
his
tonight, his kill. The last thing keeping him from full reign of Tyburn. With the Keeper dead, he was free of the woods. Free to rampage through the town and chase the humans out or kill any that got in his way.

He was Alpha of this land and he was tired of being chained to the woods.

And then Marcus the Outcast had to ruin it.

It made a dent in his plans but it didn’t derail him.

But until he could wring her neck, he had another pressing need. The fight with Marcus was still coursing through his veins and his pride was damaged. More than that, she smelled of sex; it was a spicy perfume that ignited his blood.

He ran through the woods, digging up mud and leaves under his huge bear claws. He shook his fur, stuck his snout in the air, and sniffed.

There was another. Close.

She darted through the bushes and tried to make it past him, but his paw stepped on her tail. The small red fox tipped and scratched at the ground in an attempt to escape.

His shoulders rolled back,
fur easing back into his skin, and his eyeteeth pulled back under his lip. Soon, his human hand was gripping her tail and he held her up, letting her dangle.

“
Human
,” he told her.

She shifted in a quiet crack of bones. Soon, a pale young woman was lying in front of him, gasping in small, quick pants, her vibrant eyes darting back and forth over him. Long auburn hair covering her small breasts, and a thatch of hair between her legs. He held her ankle in his strong grip.

Young, at least. She had Cami’s innocent face. Even if she wasn’t as well fed; the woods got scarce through the approaching winter.

She would do. He released her leg and grabbed her hips instead. “Over,” he demanded.

He was the Alpha of Tyburn. She obeyed. It was his right to take anything he wanted of the woods, even her. She knew what he wanted and she scrambled onto her hands and knees for him.

His long dreads rolled over her back as he mounted her. He wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and remembered how the young Keeper had squirmed in his grasp.

Aldric grunted as he thrust into the woman. His chest still bled with scratches from Marcus’s claws and teeth, but he ignored it and let it burn as he rammed into her. She was wet, obedient and ready for her Alpha, and despite her human form she still squeaked and whimpered like an animal with every thrust. Her fingers dug into soft dirt and he pinned her down, feeling his own pleasure spike. His blood was pumping hot and wild with violence, with Cami, and he thought about the Keeper bitch when he came.

The fox woman whined through it as he pulled out, finished with her. She remained in position, with her ass in the air, even after he climbed off of her and pulled back. And then, wordlessly, Aldric turned his scarred face and his bones snapped into bear form.

Back to his den. To lick his wounds.

He’d return for Cami yet.

Steam rose from the coffee mug and Cami stared off into nothing. Out the window. Watching the trees and bushes for any sign of movement. She hadn’t slept all night. It took an extra layer of makeup to hide that fact. She wore a black dress. Black stockings. Black shoes. Her mother would have liked the adherence to tradition.

Her phone clattered noisily on the kitchen table as it buzzed. She lifted it and checked her messages.

Fr: Sadie

Be there in 5!!!

Cami finished her coffee (she’d need it) and dropped the mug in the sink. She felt entirely disconnected from her body, numb, like she was floating a couple feet off the ground. A ghost barely tethered to her own skin. She looked nice, at least. That was all that counted. Lynn would have appreciated her daughter wearing a pretty face to her funeral.

She poured a cup of water and stepped into the dining room before heading out. Marcus was still breathing, and that was progress or something. When she stepped in, his eyes opened.

“Morning,” she said, setting the glass of water down beside him.

He winced. Grunted. “How long…?”

“You’ve been asleep for twenty years. Missed a lot. They’ve got flying cars and people living on the moon and heels that don’t crush your toes.” Marcus shot her a look. She shrugged. “Or, you know. Through the night. But it’s almost noon, so that must be like, forever for you.”

He tried to get up, but his muscles seized and he collapsed again, clutching his shoulder.

“Don’t strain yourself,” she said. “Last time you were in pain, you nearly took my head off.”

Fear shot through his eyes. He looked at her, glanced her over, and said, “Are you okay?”

“Oh, you know. It’s my mom’s funeral today and I’ve got a man-bear on my table. The
ushe
.”

He tried to get up again. Stubborn bastard. Grimaced again (she could’ve told him it was going to hurt) and he said, “I’m sorry you had to see that.”

“Yeah, well.” A pregnant pause.

“What now?” he said.

Cami heard a car horn blare outside. “That’s my ride,” she said and grabbed her purse. “Try not to…you know. Die or anything. I’ll be back.”

“Camilla—”

But she was already halfway to the door. By time she opened it, Jenny was on the other side. Dressed in all black as well, looking sour as usual. Which, Cami had to admit, was a look she at least pulled off well.

“Hey,” Cami said and immediately wedged herself in the open door gap, trying to block her view from the bear-man spread mostly naked across her dining room table.

“Hey,” Jenny said. Without her cellphone blocking her face, Jenny looked pretty. Conventionally so, with an upturned nose and mascara-framed eyes. A look of genuine sympathy rose to the surface of her dark expression and she added, “Today’s going to be a shitstorm. You ready?”

Cami shrugged. “As I’ll ever be.” Her cousin’s concern was appreciated, but Cami was too busy turning off all the parts of her that
felt anything
about today. The service hadn’t even started and she already wanted it to be over.

Marcus groaned, audibly. Jenny leaned to peak over Cami’s shoulder, but Cami quickly closed the gap with her body. Her eyebrows scrunched, Jenny turned back to Cami and said, “Is there someone in there?”

“Hm?” Cami asked as though she hadn’t heard the question and looked behind her.

“Oh, shit, you okay?” Cami’s twist must have bared her neck because Jenny’s hand motioned over her own throat, gesturing to Cami’s.

Shit
. She’d forgotten to cover the finger-sized welts on her neck where the man in the woods had grabbed her. Her fingers automatically went to her throat and she reached for her hair to cover it. “Yeah…just…a long night.”

That drew a knowing grin from Jenny. The first smile Cami had seen from the other woman. “I like the way you grieve,” Jenny said, then reached back to unwind her own black scarf from her neck. “Here.” She held out the scarf and shrugged. “Small town. People talk.”

“Thanks,” Cami said, genuinely touched, and wrapped the scarf around her own neck.

“Got everything you need?”

“Yep.” Cami slipped out of the door and hurriedly closed it behind her, shutting Marcus in.

Marcus could feel the silver poison in his veins, making them burn, forcing his heart to work twice as hard. He’d grin and bear it for Cami, but once she left he felt the feverish pain-sweats take over. He twisted on the sheets as sharp pangs unfurled inside his chest, spreading.

Felt like dying. He growled through it.

“Hush.” That voice. He knew that voice. Calming, soothing, like a cold aloe balm on his hot forehead.

Her fingers slipped through his hair. Lynn was in her twenties, porcelain skin, a long braid tied neatly down her back. Her eyes were blue ice; she wore a white oversized turtleneck, black slacks. She leaned over and patched his wound gingerly, with precise fingers. “You know, if you keep this up, I’m going to think you’re hurting yourself just to see me.”

A laugh rattled in his lungs. “Am I your best customer?”

She shook her head. “Close. I had a fox that came in twice in one week.”

“Thought they were supposed to be clever.”

“They are.” She finished patching him up and lingered beside him.

“What’d we do without you, Miss Lynn?” he asked, looking up at her.
We
, he said, as in the surrounding animal kingdom that populated the woods. What he meant to say was
me
.

Her lips pressed into an endeared smile. A knowing smile. She drew her fingers over his scalp, petting his hair back. “You would survive, I imagine.”

“Bruised. Battered.”

“And better for it.” Lynn leaned over and kissed his forehead. “Be good, buddy.”

She drew back, but only by an inch. Her head tilted down further and her lips warmed his own. Her kiss un-tepid, thin and deliberate, her tongue delved into his mouth.

No.
Wrong. This was all wrong.

“But isn’t
wrong
so much more satisfying than right?” Cami pulled back from the kiss and giggled, her light, airy laugh like bells. Her blond hair bounced free on her shoulders, her breasts hung full in front of him.

This is a fever dream.

He knew that, in the back of his mind, and yet—

He didn’t want it to stop.

“Be wrong with me,” she murmured, her voice low and throaty as she trailed wet kisses down the center of his body. Her swollen lips trailed over his bandage, big eyes still on his own, and she purred, “Let me kiss it all better, Daddy.”

Her mouth butterflied down his chest, his abdomen, and he felt her hot breath inches away from his straining cock. She left him hanging there and her mouth curved in a smile as she climbed back up him like a tree, her legs straddling his hips. She wasn’t wearing any panties under her dress and he could feel her heat rub against him.

His breath pattered on her lips for only a second before his resolve broke completely. He grabbed Cami by her hair and yanked her against him. His mouth crushed her soft lips and he was rewarded by a gentle whimper from her.

With a handful of her hair still trapped in his hand, he reached a free hand down between her legs. She parted for him easily, slick, like breaking open a dam. She gasped, her body buzzing over his as he pressed one finger inside her, fully, and then another to test her. Her body greedily swallowed them both and she whimpered and gasped with each ministration of his fingers.

She was ready. He removed his hand and lifted her dress up over her head. Her blond hair fell softly down her shoulders, framing her large breasts. Sweet, yellow-warm skin, it made him hungry. Marcus guided himself inside of her and groaned at the feeling of her tight, velvet warmth.

Marcus propped a hand behind him for balance and rose with her so they were nose to nose. She rode him and he grabbed her hip, determined to set the pace. His arched up against her with hard, reckless thrusts and panted, his body damp with fever and exertion.

Her eyes held his—sly and fiery—and she accepted his challenge and met his pace. She gripped the back of his neck and her fingernails dug into his skin. The look in her eyes, savage and uninhibited, drove him faster, and he plunged into her again and again. They tangled together, breath beating against sweaty skin, blood pumping, her gasps and moans coming quicker and more frequently, building,
building
, to the ultimate crescendo—

Then there was that urge, stronger than any sexual lust. The Beast thumping hard inside of his heart, electrifying his veins, begging to sink his teeth into her skin. To bite her and give her the Mark, to make her his—

She drew back before he could so much as bare his teeth. Cami moved her hands to his chest and shoved him back. There, she hung over him, her body undulating deliciously in time with his. She smiled at him, her own teeth bared.

Sharp, pointy teeth.

Her eyes flashed orange-red.

Marcus yelped. Like a too-taut rubber band, his dream snapped. Cami vanished into smoke, but his body was still alive, still aching for a warmth that wasn’t there. He snarled, a spike of pleasure teetering too close to the edge, and he felt his hips buck uselessly. He gripped the table and felt his extended claws rip through the towels beneath him and dig into the soft wooden table beneath.

Hell
. He was worse than a cub in mating season. Marcus struggled to rein in his Beast that wanted, more than anything, to fight and fuck and lose itself in animal nature. He tried to take a couple deep breaths to clear the lust haze in his head, but the smell of Cami still lingered strong.

What the hell—?

He twisted his head, grabbed a handful of the towel under his head, and sniffed.

Honeysuckle sweet. It burned straight through his center and made his cock twitch.

Dammit! She’d used this towel. No wonder. She was practically marking this place as her territory, leaving her scent everywhere. He balled up the towel with a growl and threw it across the room. It wasn’t helping.

The silver had made him weak. The film between Marcus and his Beast was thin. Lynn had found a way to tame it, but Cami…

Cami didn’t have the power to tame it. Not as untrained as she was. And he feared what would happen if he lost control around her.

He shut his eyes, tight, and he breathed through his teeth.

(Down, boy.)