The Alpha by Jenika Snow

16

Evelyn

Half an hour later and I was freshly washed, my hair finger combed, my teeth cleaned with the new toothbrush and mouthwash I found in the bathroom—thank God—and the new oversize clothes on.

I tightened the drawstring of the sweatpants, smoothed my hands down the T-shirt that hung limply on my smaller form, and left the bedroom. I was nervous, not sure what exactly I was jumping into right now but knowing if danger was at the forefront, there was no better place for me to be than with Cian.

I heard the deep voices coming from down the hall and followed, rounding the corner and seeing Cian and an unfamiliar man—just as large and clearly a Lycan, given his similar build as my mate—standing in the center of the living room. From where I stood, I could see the man had a nasty-looking scar that started on the top of one side of his face and cut a line all the way down. He looked younger, late twenties, but after knowing about Lycans and their ages, I knew the male was far older. His hair was a lighter blond that was shorter in the back and sides and longer in the front, the strands hanging over his forehead and long enough to fall into his eyes.

Their heads were low as they spoke softly, their language not something I understood but was starting to assume was Gaelic, given their Scottish heritage.

As if Cian sensed my presence, even though his back was to me, he turned around, his face softening, the hard lines of concentration that had just been in his expression fading away. He was in front of me in a few steps, a massive body looming over mine yet not intimidating.

“Ye shouldn’t be out of bed.” The rough timbre of his voice shouldn’t have done the things they did to my body, causing places to tingle that should have been dormant right now, given the stress. But I let it seep into me. I took comfort in it.

“I feel better,” I said honestly.

The silence stretched out before Cian finally said, “Tog na siùil.” Cian never took his gaze off mine, but it was clear he spoke to the other man, as he left right away after the words were out.

When we were alone, just inches separating us, I had the uncontrollable urge to lean into him, but I needed answers before I gave in to this intense attraction. “Who was that?”

Cian stepped aside and gestured for me to take a seat on the couch.

Once I sank down, I felt a little of the pressure leave my head. He stood there for a moment as if he was contemplating sitting beside me, and I moved over an inch, a nonverbal cue that he was welcome to sit down. I kept it to myself that I wanted him by me.

He dropped his big body gracefully down to the cushion, and I was once again very aware of his sheer size. Even sitting, my head barely reached his shoulders.

“You’ll answer all my questions?” I finally prompted, breaking the silence. He shifted that big, powerful body around so he was partially facing me and inclined his head in agreement.

God, where to start?

“Who was that other man?”

“Odhran,” he said instantly. “He’s a Lycan in the Guard.” At my confused look, he went on to explain. “Soldiers of my kind who I train.”

“So, you’re like the leader?”

His lips quirked. “In human terms, I’m like the general of the Guard. We have a leader of our kind, the king of the Scottish Lycan clan. Banner.”

I nodded mutely. “Oh boy. So much—”

“Insanity,” he said with amusement in his voice. I laughed softly and nodded again. “I can imagine how hard it is tae come tae terms with all of this, tae be thrust intae a world ye only thought was make-believe.”

I nodded slowly. “Yeah.” I smoothed my hands down my thighs and pressed on. “It's a little hard to take in, that’s for sure.” I smiled at him. “So everything Darragh told me was the truth? Like all of it?” I could’ve emphasized everything. Lycans, fated mates, vampires and werewolves and who knew what else there was out there. But I didn’t need to go into detail. He exhaled and inclined his head again, not speaking, just listening, letting me set the pace for this conversation.

I swallowed and looked around the room, mainly just to get my bearings, let his nonverbal affirmation settle into me. The living room followed the same monotone color scheme and bland decor the bedroom sported. Gray and cream shades, tan tweed couch and love seat, coffee table between the two pieces of furniture, home living style magazines on top of that. The few pictures on the wall were of landscape scenes, and there was a potted plant in the corner I was pretty sure was fake.

“Will you leave me alone if I told you I didn’t want any of this?” I whispered and wasn’t looking at him as I asked the question, but I could feel his gaze on me, his eyes hard and penetrating. I finally glanced at him when the silence stretched on, his expression having me suck in a sharp breath at the sheer intensity of it.

He slowly shook his head. “I canna. Ye’re my mate, and I’ll be by yer side until the day I die.”

I worried at my bottom lip, because although his words should scare the hell out of me, the truth was there was this spark of life in me at hearing them. Never alone. Someone always at my side.

“Ye’re my Linked Mate, the one person born tae be completely mine, the same as I am yers.” There was pride in his voice, his chest puffed out, his chin tipped up. “For two hundred and fifty years, I’ve lived a life of solitude—”

“Two hundred and fifty years?” I choked out, my eyes feeling huge. Holy shit. “I’m only twenty-three.” I didn’t know why that mattered mentioning, but to know this man beside me was centuries old on top of being some mystical beast made my head spin even more. Good God, what in the hell kind of world have I been living in?

His lips quirked as if he was trying to suppress amusement. “My kind, the Lycans, are part of the Otherworld, which is made up of many different creatures.”

“Are you immortal?”

He shook his head. “We can live up tae a millennia, though.”

I grew dizzy at what he said and let myself fall back on the couch as I stared at the ceiling, but then I thought of something that had my brows pulling low. “You know a human’s life expectancy is nowhere near yours, right? How does that exactly work? I’d die well before you do—” My words were cut off by the room-shaking growl that came from him.

He leaned closer so we were almost nose to nose, the scent of him so concentrated this close that my mind was short-circuiting. I couldn’t think, let alone breathe.

“When I claim ye—” When, not if, I noticed right away. “I’ll mark yer neck,” he said and let his gaze move down my face to my throat. I felt the spot he focused on tingle wildly. “It’ll ensure our lives are forever connected. Ye’ll age as I do.”

I involuntarily lifted my hand to place it on the side of my neck, my skin feeling ultra-warm. I had to break eye contact because he was too intense, too consuming. I couldn’t think straight. But there was this gravitational pull to him that I just couldn’t deny. My body once again heated as my thoughts went to that kiss we’d shared, my lips tingling all over again.

“What I…” I cleared my throat, as even thinking about it, let alone saying it, made my body light on fire. “What I’ve been feeling toward you, this… attraction”—to put it really mildly—“is it because of this Linked Mate connection?” I felt my face heat at the fact that I was basically admitting I wanted him. Hell, I knew he’d smelled my arousal back at the motel.

His close proximity, his smell, the pure masculinity that spilled from him—it all had my breath coming fast, this ache settling between my thighs, and this need rushing through me.

He purred—freaking purred—as he braced an arm on the back of the piece of furniture, right behind me, and moved forward even more. In turn, I leaned back, but the arm of the couch stopped my retreat. Not that I was trying to escape, if I were being totally honest. This arousal in me had steadily grown since I’d seen Cian, getting even worse—or better, depending on how I looked at it—once I saw him in person.

For a long moment we breathed the same air, and I couldn’t take my eyes off his. I wanted to be so lost in the desire and pleasure that this man brought out in me for the first time in my life that I was oblivious to all the dangers that had been thrust into my life recently. I wanted to fully feel what it was like to be so possessed by the need to be with somebody that all rational thought left and I threw caution to the wind.

And that’s what I wanted to feel with Cian. That’s what I thought as I focused on that and nothing else and closed the gap that separated us.

I kissed him softly, just a brush of my lips against his. His body tensed instantly, but it was only for a millisecond before he groaned, his control slipping. The kiss turned intense, our heads cocked to the sides, lips moving together, tongues pressing to one another. I’d never been kissed before him, but it was as if my body knew what to do, as if surrendering to Cian was the most natural thing on the planet.

He hadn’t even touched me aside from our lips pressed together, him tonguing me, fucking my mouth, but it felt like his hands were all over me, his mouth on every erogenous zone I had. I was panting against him, feeling drugged, drunker than I’d ever felt in my life.

In the next second he hauled me onto his lap, my legs spread on either side of his thighs, the massive length of his hard cock pressed right against my pussy. The sweats I wore were thin, and with the lack of panties—because I wasn’t about to put on the same ones I’d worn the night before—I felt every single inch of that length nestled right against my slit.

He groaned and rested his head back slightly, his eyes half-closed, his irises glowing blue. His lips were parted, red, and slightly swollen from our kissing. Oh God, he had fangs, twin canines that were long and sharp, which I knew were for biting—knew were for marking me.

My neck tingled at the images I conjured of him above me, holding me down with his huge body, my head turned to the side as he bit me and forced me to take whatever he had to give. My pussy was so wet the crotch of the sweatpants stuck to my slit, the seam rubbing erotically against my clit.

His hands were on my hips, gently curling into my flesh, urging me down on him.

And God help me, but I let it happen.

My eyes closed on their own when I relaxed on his lap and let Cian take control. He started rocking me back and forth on his cock, sharp bursts of pleasure racing up my spine and exploding outward to the tips of my fingers and toes.

“This is insane,” I murmured in a half-delirious haze of ecstasy. With my hands on his shoulders, I braced myself as I started moving with him, rocking harder, grinding myself against his dick that felt too long and too thick to fit in me comfortably.

“This is right, mo ghràidh.”

The breath exploded out of me as an embarrassing moan slipped from my parted lips.

“Use me. Come on me.”

I couldn’t stop myself as I writhed back and forth, using him to find that peak of pleasure. Even through the material of our pants, I could feel every hard inch of him. I even felt the definition at the tip, the head bulbous, just as big and round as his dick was. I didn’t care that I was moaning. I didn’t care that it was loud or that Odhran could probably hear me. I didn’t care about anything but reaching that precipice and falling over the edge because of Cian.

I dug my nails into his shoulders and heard his gruff words in Gaelic. They fueled me on, gave me the strength so I didn’t think about how embarrassing I was probably acting right now.

And when he slid his big hands over my hips and up my sides, waiting a second when he was right under my breasts as if he wanted permission, I moaned, “Yes,” just as he curled those massive palms around the mounds. He squeezed my flesh and grunted. My pleasure reached so high I’d touch the sky.

“That's it.” He growled those two words, and I swore I felt them right in my clit, felt the bundle of nerves throb in time with my pulse.

I started moving faster and harder, shamelessly grinding myself against him. I opened my eyes, but my vision was blurry from the pleasure.

“Yeah, that’s it. Hell, Evie. Ye’re so fooking hot. Come for me, mo ghràidh.”

“Oh… God.” I felt the orgasm start to rise and closed my eyes once more.

“No,” Cian ordered in a dark tone. “Look at me when I get ye off. Every single time.”

I tore my eyes open, unable to disobey the command. He lifted his hand and curled it slightly around my throat, his thumb brushing over my pulse point, his gaze fierce.

“Tell me how right this feels.”

I gasped at his sharp tone and became wetter, my pussy feeling achy.

“It feels so right,” I moaned loudly, unabashedly.

“Tell me ye’ve been waiting for this—me—yer entire life.”

I moaned like a wounded animal but didn’t care how wanton I sounded. “Yes,” I cried out. “God yes, I’ve been waiting for this.”

And then the orgasm exploded out of me in blinding force. And all the while, he massaged one breast with possessiveness while his other hand held my neck in clear ownership. There was a sharp stab of pleasure and pain when he tweaked my nipple between his forefinger and thumb that had me spiraling even higher.

I knew my wetness was soaked clean through the sweatpants. But I didn’t care.

“Fook yes,” he snarled, his eyes flashing blue, the male before me very much not human. And God, it turned me on.

He held me the entire time, and when I started coming down from my orgasmic high, he pulled me in closer and kissed me deeply. I let him swallow me whole, just allowed the sensations of him tonguing the inside of my mouth in gentle, thorough sweeps lull me into this safe space that felt equally terrifying and the greatest thing I’d ever experienced.

He broke the kiss and pulled me closer, chest to chest, his arms wrapped around me, his cock still massive and hard beneath me. I couldn’t breathe, sweat lining my brow, my breasts feeling heavier than they’d ever felt, my pussy wetter than it had ever been. He murmured soft words in Gaelic that I knew were endearments as he stroked his hand up and down my back.

I closed my eyes and sank against him, not letting myself think too hard about what I had just done with this virtual stranger. But he was right—it didn’t feel wrong. It felt so right, the most perfect experience I’d ever had in my life.

When there were three hard raps on the front door and Cian tightened his arms around me, a low growl spilling from his throat that vibrated throughout my entire body, I was instantly pulled from that euphoria.