Reluctant Alpha (20 page)

“
Alastriona, what do you want me to tell them? They want their queen, tonight. But if you aren’t up for it then they will understand. They’ll be disappointed, but they’ll understand. The stories surrounding your torture will be something they tell their own children’s children.”

“
They truly will, dear. I’ve never seen a…Airic, you’re marked! I…I’ve never…Bradley, quickly take off your shirt. I need to see, are you marked as well?” She started tugging at his shirt and when he pulled it over his head, she stood to look at his print.

“
Grams, what is it? Mel said I’d been born finally; I never got a chance to ask her what she meant. And who marked Alastriona?” He pulled Airic to her feet and held her close to him as he looked at her marking that was the exact duplicate of his, size, color, and location.

“
You are the true king and queen of the wolves. It has been said that you would come and lead your people with a woman worthy of you at your side. She is even dressed in the traditional colors and style befitting the queen. Where did you get this, dear?”

When Airic put her arms around his waist and pulled him closer to her, he responded in kind.

“
This queen somebody brought it by and said I was to come here. It needed to be finished tonight. I’m not sure what she meant, but I wanted to be with Bradley, so here I am.”

Bradley kissed her head. His queen. He watched as his grandda came forward, Mel at his side. He’d never seen him look so happy in all his life. When he started to stand on the stone, he moved to give him a hand up and moved back to Airic when he waved him away. Grams moved to his side when he held out his hand to her. The crowd, already quiet, silenced at the raising of his hand.

“
Today we rescued our alpha’s mate. We all brought her home and helped her heal. The man who kidnapped and hurt her is still at large, but we will get him.” Grandda waved his hands again to silence the crowd. They had cheered at his declaration. “But tonight…tonight, we are here to celebrate. Our alpha has found his true mate. A woman with great courage and strength. A woman who would sacrifice her own life for others. But that isn’t all. I have just been informed that they carry the mark of royalty, that the marks of their race have changed and made them leaders of all time. Our alpha and his bitch have been marked as our king and queen. Tonight, when he claims is mate, our alpha claims your queen, our queen. Tonight, it is my greatest honor and privilege to present to you Bradley and Alastriona Wolff.”

Before the crowd could react to the news, there was a single clapping. Bradley turned to look at the source and pushed Airic behind him.

“
So lovely of you to bring everyone here for my claiming of my mate. Bitch, you are going to pay for this.” And the whip lashed out toward Airic.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Before anyone could react, Bradley had the whip in his hand. He had jerked it away from Christopher so quickly that the other man didn’t have time to fight him for it.

Terror ran through Airic so deeply that she couldn’t breathe or move for several precious seconds. His voice had chilled her, terrified her, and brought back the memories and pain like it was happening all over again.

She watched in abject horror as Dom rushed the wolf and was slashed across this throat and thrown back against a tree several feet away. He had been protecting them, her. She wanted to help, needed to help, but she was too terrified to move. No matter how much she begged her body to move, it wouldn’t.

Bradley moved forward to challenge him, she was sure to kill him, when a shot rang out. Bradley dropped to the ground, blood pouring from a wound in his stomach. The smoking gun in Christopher’s hand helped her in a way she would never had thought possible.

“
Stop! You will not move another step. Drop the gun. Now!” She could hear the command in her voice, and apparently, so could he. She watched as he started to move, to fire the gun again at her beloved. Glancing quickly at the wolves behind him, she spotted Leif, the doctor who had come to see her today.

“
See to them. Christopher Felix Alastair, you will drop that weapon now! You have shot the alpha of this pack, what do you have to say for yourself? And do not lie to me.” She stepped forward when the gun dropped from his now limp hand and kicked the gun away. She looked over at the doctor and at his nod that Bradley and Dom would be all right, she turned back to the man who had hurt them.

“
You bitch! When this night is over, my name will be on the lips of every wolf in the country. Every bitch will know what I am, who I am. I will be remembered for all that I have done. I killed him, just like I’m going to kill you. I am the alpha, the greatest wolf of all time.” He looked as if he really believed what nonsense he had just imparted. He probably did, she thought. Well, I can help him with that. Smiling, she raised her hand toward him.

“
Shift.” She watched as his body twisted and shaped into a wolf. His screams of pain could be heard all the way to the back of the pack. It did not move her. She felt nothing as she watched his bones break and reshape into a wolf. Nothing at all when his jaw lengthened and stretched, teeth filling in where there hadn’t been any before. When he finished, a mere three seconds later, he lay there panting and whimpering.

“
I have not yet been claimed by your alpha, so it isn’t within my rights to kill this wolf. I give to you, pack of the Brotherhood of Gray, his punishment as you see fit. You may render your own judgment against him and carry through on the punishment that fits the crime. I only ask that wolf should deal with wolf.” She turned her back to him and the crowd and dropped before Bradley. He was sitting up against the stone and watching her.

She never took her eyes off the man before her when she heard the crowd shift as one, the magic rippling along the air like a lover’s caress. She never stopped her forward motion to his mouth as Christopher started barking and snarling at the approaching pack, their own vicious growls soon overriding his. When her mouth covered his, her tongue swept against his, she didn’t so much as flinch when the scream he issued was cut off with the sound of breaking bones. It was over in a matter of seconds.

Christopher Felix Alastair was no more.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

“
I claim you, Alastriona Airic Bennett, as my mate before my pack. I claim you, Alastriona Airic Bennett, as the alpha bitch to my pack, the Brotherhood of Gray. I claim you, Alastriona Airic Bennett, as my true love, the woman of my heart. I will protect you with my life. I will honor you with my heart. Alastriona Airic Bennett, with your permission, I claim you as my bride in the way of our people, of our clan. Do you accept me as you mate?”

It was full dark now. The moon was high in the sky and shining full and bright down on the couple standing near the stone, looking only at each other. Bradley’s voice carried well to every wolf standing there waiting for them, waiting for her to say yes and become one with their alpha.

“
Yes, Bradley Thornton Wolff, I accept. I will give my life for yours and each member of our pack. I will stand beside you throughout eternity. You are my heart, my life, and my love. I love you, Bradley Thornton Wolff.”

He winced; he wondered first of all who was kind enough to help her with the verse that would unite them and then who he was going to have to kill because they had given her his middle name. He glanced over at David and knew without a doubt his brother had sold him out. He was so dead after this. He looked at Airic and realized that his grin might have been a little to manic for this right now. “I love you, but I’m killing David tomorrow,” he told her as he kissed her.

Now was the hard part for her, he knew. They would need to undress and shift, then as wolves, he would need to claim her. He gently turned her around and with her back to his chest, he began.

Kissing her neck just where her shoulder met her neck, he reached around her and slowly unbuttoned the top to her dress. He wanted her to forget the people, wolves watching them. Maybe if he made this just the two of them, she’d be less nervous.

“
Bradley, we’ll never make it as wolves if you keep touching me this way. Let me shift and we do this. Then I want to take you back to the house and fuck you all night.”

He grinned at the howling of the wolves around them. “They can understand you now, you know? Once you took me into you and agreed to be their bitch, they now understand you as well as they do me.” When she stiffened slightly then shrugged, he knew she was going to be fine.

He had stopped unbuttoning her and watched as she turned toward him and finished off the task of removing the dress. His mouth dried up. She stood before him in the skimpiest little bra he’d ever seen, and her panties were nothing more than a triangle between her legs and two strings at her hips.

“
Fuck me,” he breathed quietly, and stood admiring her luscious body. His cock hardened in his pants, and when he thought of taking her as his wolf, he nearly leaped atop her.

When she reached between her breasts to free them, he stopped her. Enough was enough, and she didn’t have to bear anymore of herself to the crowd. Besides, he could feel the lust rising from them, especially from the younger wolves. He would be very surprised if there wasn’t a huge increase in his pack ten months from tonight.

“
Shift, love. Shift now.” He could tell the moment she felt it too. Her body responded to the scents and pheromones in the air. When he felt the first ripple of her shift run along his skin, he pulled his wolf forward too. Their shift was quick and beautiful.

He moved along her body with his larger one and marked her with his coat. This scent wouldn’t last long, only until they shifted back, but any wolf coming upon her would know that she was not only claimed, but who had claimed her. No one, wolf or human, would touch her again.

When he moved along her neck, pressing his against hers, she lifted her muzzle in the air and gave him her throat to nip. He needed to draw her blood so that his pack could smell it. It wasn’t much, only a few drops, but it was enough to get them into a frenzy of howling.

He moved behind her and could smell her arousal, her need. He had made love to her before, but this was different. She couldn’t be a participant in this, but would have to submit to his dominance over her.

“
Alastriona Airic Bennett, I love you.” He swept through her mind, giving her his need, showing her what he wanted, needed from her.

“
Please, Bradley, please now,” she purred back into his mind.

His cock hardened and readied for her. He moved up behind her and pressed her shoulders down against the ground as he covered her. She resisted at first and he sank his teeth into her shoulder. Surging forward, he entered her. His cock went deep and he felt her tightness around him. He rocked into her again and felt her responding to him. Not pulling his canines from her, he fucked her hard and quick. It wasn’t long before he could feel himself ready for his release into her. She wouldn’t be able to come this way, or so he thought, until she started whimpering and moving back against his thrusts. He pumped harder and harder into her until he felt her explode beneath him, pulling him along with her. His cum jettisoned into her, hot, hard, and fast. Over and over he pumped his seed into her womb until he emptied himself and collapsed atop her.

Neither of them moved for long moments and would probably have stayed that way longer if the pack had not brought them back to earth with their howls of approval. They had their queen; Bradley had his mate.

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

It was several hours and nearly dawn before they made it to the cabin in the woods. David had told them that he had had it prepared for them, stocked it with food and fire wood. He said that some of the women had gone up just today and cleaned it up. He admitted that he hadn’t thought about it being closed up for all this time until Donna had said something about the dirt.

Bradley and Airic had run as wolves with the pack for hours after the claiming. He had taken her twice more, in private this time, and in wolf form, both of them nearly cross-eyed with need both times. She wanted him as a man, but was enjoying this time together as wolves.

She had never run with another wolf before, always hiding and keeping to herself when she had to change. And having an entire pack to run with was something she had enjoyed completely. They had run and played, splashed through the shallow waterways, and had even chased a deer or two. Once they had come upon a scent that was familiar, but not welcome, and Bradley had simply lifted his leg and marked the area with his own scent, bringing peals of laughter from her.

When they got to the cabin, they shifted and were suddenly shy with each other. They had had sex as animals, but now as humans, they didn’t know what to do, how to be a couple. He suggested they move out to the hot tub and relax. There was an outdoor shower just outside the enclosed tub area that they rinsed off in. The shower water was very cold, so when they sank into the hot water of the hot tub, it was wonderfully welcome to their bodies.

“
Thank you for allowing Diana to be there during the ceremony. It was nice having someone there I knew.” She was sitting across from him in the huge tub.

“
You’re very welcome. Peter asked me tonight if he may take her as his mate. I asked if she was and he said yes. I told him that it would be up to her. He said that he is going to convince her over the next few days. He is going to become the alpha of his brother’s pack, as he should have been before.” He watched her. She was looking at everything but him.