Under the Alpha's Protection (2 page)

Nikita jumped when the door to his bedroom opened and Raoul stepped through. Before he could say anything the howl of
a wolf broke through the quiet room, and Nikita screamed.

Chapter Two

The wolf's howl echoed through the room, and Nikita's terrified scream rang in Raoul's ears. Clutching one of those silly cushions she'd bought him, she'd gone as white as a sheet, and his own wolf snarled, itching to be set free and shred the asshole intent on playing mind games with
his
girl. Something was very wrong here. Raoul's territory was off limits, so whoever was after Nikita was either a fucking fool or a dangerous rogue. His pack knew he'd staked his claim, even without his mark on her, so this threat was an outsider—one who had already left, if the disappearing scent in the air was to be believed. Raoul ruthlessly squashed his need to comfort the terrified girl and opened the window instead.

He glared at his second in command sniffing at the ground, where moments before the intruder must have stood, and Darius bowed his head in submission.

"How was this allowed to happen?"

"I don't know, boss. I'm on it."

Darius's thoughts projected loud and clear as did several of Raoul's other pack members. All were as outraged and intent on revenge as Raoul was. Not only had their territory been invaded, but their Alpha's protection had been breached. Little did Nikita know that his pack had watched over her from the minute she had accepted Raoul's offer of friendship. Of course a poor dumb ass job they had done of that tonight.

"See to it that you do, or heads will roll."

"Don't worry, boss. Just keep your mate with you, until we find out what the fuck is going on."

Raoul snarled at Darius
, and the insolent pup had the audacity to grin a wolfish smirk up at him, before he bounded over the hedge. Not a minute too soon, because Nikita stepped up to the window.

"Is it gone?"

Raoul cursed inwardly at the terror in those few words. If he ever needed any proof that he had been right to not show his true self to Nikita then this was it. Regardless of what his wolf had screamed at him from the minute he'd scented her five years ago, now, he could never make her his mate. Nikita didn't believe in anything that went bump in the night, and confronted with the very evidence of supernatural beings, like she had been tonight, she would no doubt already be scrambling her pretty little brain for a logical explanation.

"Is what gone, squirt?"

"The wolf, thing, whatever it is that chased me. Whatever you saw down there right now."

"I didn't see anything." The lie settled in his gut like lead, and he jerked back in surprise when Nikita punched his shoulder with enough force to hurt.

"Do
not
take me for a fool. You had the same expression on your face that you have when you meet your rugby team." This was news to him, and he turned fully better to see her face.

Some of the color had returned to her pixie like features, and he suppressed a smile at the way her eyes went a bit cross eyed as she tried to focus on him. Without her glasses, Nikita had the most adorable squint, and her little nose was screwed up in concentration trying to see clearly.

"Where are your glasses, squirt?"

She stomped her foot and shrugged her shoulders.

"They fell off when … I mean—"

"When you were attacked?" He said the words for her, and she nodded, wrapping her arms around her middle. The action pushed her breasts up
, and his mouth went dry, as the robe slipped off her shoulder. She didn't seem to notice, and he stuck his hands in the pockets of the jeans he had changed into after his shower, to discreetly adjust his hard-on.

Her gaze flipped to his groin, and heat rose in her cheeks before she hastily brought her eyes back up to gaze at his mouth. Her little tongue darted out to lick her lips, and Raoul groaned.

"Nikita."

That blush of hers deepened and spread right into her cleavage. On anyone else he would have thought she would be doing that on purpose, but Nikita's responses were untutored and unpracticed. Her heart
-rate sped up, and her scent increased. The wetness he sensed between her legs called him to taste, his wolf never closer to the surface than right now. Raoul needed to defuse this situation and fast, before he did something they would both regret in the morning.

"About the attack." He growled the words
, and Nikita shuddered. She took a step back and yanked her robe back up over her shoulder.

"What about it? I was a fool I know. I should have taken a taxi home, but it's a nice night out, so I thought I'd walk."

Nikita jumped when he couldn't stop his wolf's very animalistic growl in response, and she threw him a worried glance.

"You did what? Are you insane?"

She took another step away from him and another until her back hit the wall, and it took all his willpower to not crowd her against the wall, and demand she promise never to do that again. Instead he punched one of those useless cushions and threw it across the room. What he really wanted to do was take her by the shoulders and shake some sense into her, or failing that kiss her until she sagged against him and he could fuck her six ways from this Tuesday. His wolf panted his agreement with those thought processes, and he told the damn animal to
shut the fuck up.

"There's no need to talk to me like that." The words were barely above a whisper, but his little squirt frowned at him
, and he had to laugh.  "And I fail to see what's so funny."

She pouted
, and he slumped against the back of his couch.

"Lord, woman
, you'll be the death of me. Promise me you won't do that again. Call me if you can’t get hold of a taxi. I don't want you wandering the streets at night. In fact, I don't want you working in that café at all. I told you before I'll lend you the extra money you need to subsidize your student loan. You don't have to work—"

Nikita's growl in response would have done any she-wolf proud
, and her eyes flashed fire as she rounded on him.

"And if I told you once, I told you a hundred times, I do not
want
your money."

"It would be a loan, squirt, that's all."

"No, goddammit.
No!
Get it into your male chauvinistic head that I do not need your help."

He raised an eyebrow
, and she bit her lips and colored again. An endearing blush that turned her cheeks scarlet and made him want to kiss her so badly he'd taken two steps toward her before he'd even noticed.

"Male, I give you, but chauvinistic? Since when is wanting to protect the woman I lo … like, being chauvinistic."  He'd caught himself just in time.
Fuck,
this whole evening was messing with his brain. She didn't seem to have noticed his slip of the tongue. Instead she winced and pulled away from the wall in such an awkward manner that all his protective instincts kicked in at lightning speed.

Argument forgotten he stepped closer and pulled her up against him.

"What hurts, baby?" He winced at the endearment he hadn’t meant to utter, and she inhaled sharply when he cupped her shoulder. "Your scratches?" he asked. "Let me see."

Raoul turned her around, pulled her robe of
f one creamy shoulder, and whistled through his teeth. Angry and red the claw marks he had noticed earlier were weeping fluid, and she tensed when he gently pressed on the surrounding tissue.

"This looks as though it's in danger of getting infected. Come and sit down
. I have some ointment that will help. I'm sorry, squirt. I should have done that earlier."

****

A ball of misery and fear sat in Nikita's belly, and she let herself be led back to the couch. They looked infected he'd said. Did that mean she was infected with whatever that man … thing was that had attacked her?
Don’t be so stupid, girl. He was just a man.

Yes, she had been watching too many horror films lately, that was all. She wasn't marked or maimed or would turn into some sort of freak at the next full moon. That was nonsense used to scare small children and bored housewives who got their kick out of reading paranormal smut. Not that there was anything wrong with reading smut. Nikita rather liked her smut if it involved actual people, not freaks sprouting fangs and baying at the moon. Stuff and nonsense
, that’s what it was, and that full moon she could see through the open window did not just seem to wink at her.

And Raoul might have the most delicious growl when he got angry and his eyes seemed to glow in the dim light, but that was just her poor vision playing tricks on her. She jumped anew when his incredibly warm hand brushed her hair off her neck.

"Jesus, don't creep like that. You could give a woman a heart attack."

She glared at him, and he grinned, not the least bit apologetic in her view.

"Sorry, squirt, didn't mean to startle you. And I do
not
creep. I simply walk without stomping about like a herd of elephants."

"You do
, too, creep."

She stuck her tongue out at him
, and he laughed. This was an old and frequent argument between them, and one she never won. For a man as tall and well-built as he was he moved with an uncanny grace and a quiet stealth.  He sobered now, his fingertips tracing the top of her shoulder, and she couldn't help her wince when he inadvertently touched one of the gouges on her back.

"I'm sorry, squirt. I'll be as gentle as I can, but this will hurt when I put the ointment on. And I need you to slip your robe off your shoulders, so I can see your whole back. Don't worry
. I'll keep my eyes closed until you're covered again."

His voice took on that husky quality again, and Nikita clenched her thighs together to relieve the throbbing between her legs. This was insane. He was her friend, and he had already seen her naked when he helped her in and out of the bath, so why did her stupid hormones have to decide to act up now
?

"If you keep your eyes closed then how the hell will you put that stuff on? Besides, I'm fully aware that I'm not God's gift to mankind, so I'm sure you'll be able to control yourself."

Her attempt at lightening the mood fell completely flat when her voice came out like a seedy porn star impression of her usual cadence. She rolled her eyes and held her breath when Raoul's fingers dug into her shoulders briefly before he released her and cleared his throat several times.

"We will have to have a conversation about this warped self-image of yours soon, but now is not the time or the place. You're a beautiful woman, Nikita, and anyone saying otherwise will have me to answer to. Now drop the robe and stop stalling, before I have to drag you to the hospital to get these properly checked over."

Nikita tensed at the mention of the hospital, and he chuckled.

"I'm not going to any fucking hospital. You can't make me." She glared at him over her shoulder, and he quirked an eyebrow at her in that irritatingly superior way of his that always turned her insides aflutter. She dropped her gaze to his throat instead and immediately wished she hadn't. This close she could see him swallow, the movement of his Adam's
apple strangely erotic, and her fingers itched to trace the veins down to the thatch of dark hair she could just about see in the V of his polo shirt. A shirt that clung to his muscular frame and only served to outline the bulging biceps, as he raised an arm to brush his dark hair out of his eyes. He was in need of a haircut, his hair longer than she had ever seen it, the perfect length to grab hold and…

Nikita bit her lip and shut her eyes for a second at the wayward direction her thoughts were taking.

"You know I hate hospitals. I don't ever want to go back there."

Hospitals meant death and grief, and she had sworn on her mother's death bed that she would never set foot in that place again, if she could help it. Unbidden, the tears fell as they always did when she thought of her mum, her grief still as fresh and raw as it had been two years ago.

Raoul made a rough sound in the back of his throat, and then his hands were cupping her face, his thumbs wiping away her tears.

"I'm sorry, squirt. That was thoughtless of me," he said.

She forced her eyes open, and the quiet compassion she saw in his azure gaze made her cry harder.

"No, I'm sorry. It's been two years. You'd think I wouldn't go into fucking meltdown mode every time the hospital is even mentioned. Whoever said time is a great healer is a fucking liar, and I'm such a goddamn watering pot. Dammit, I'm sorry. That's the second time today I got you all wet."

Raoul laughed—a deep belly rumble that trembled through her until she had no choice but to smile back at him. He always managed to do that to her. One of the many reasons why she loved him.

Her heart clenched painfully, as the truth dawned on her. She did love him, and sometime over the last five years, that love had blossomed and deepened, until she couldn't imagine her life without him in it. Nikita wanted more, so much more, but he was her friend and only saw her as the little squirt he always pulled out of one scrap after the other.

"Don't you worry about me, squirt. Now drop that robe and hold still while I see to these."