Her Arranged Alpha Husband by Alicia Banks

Chapter 15

Ben

He yelled at Mark as soon as he saw the scene in front of him. Ben had known Mark his whole life and they had never really fought or anything like that, but that was about to change. Ben was so close to attacking him. When he walked up, he was inches from Teri. It looked like she was about to kiss him, which meant that Mark was using his draw to get her. Ben was so pissed off that he didn’t know what to say for a moment.

Mark immediately backed off and Ben figured that he knew there was about to be trouble. Teri though, she was so entranced with him, that she was still looking at Mark, barely even seeing Ben standing there. He asked her what it was she was doing, and she finally she looked his way, but she had confusion on her face more than anything else. The draw was leaving her, the smell leaving the air and when it dissipated, her eyes were able to focus again.

“What the hell is going on here!?”

Mark stuttered out an answer, how he was trying to make her feel better, but Ben could see his desire just as well as he could see hers. It wasn’t what was supposed to happen. Mark was his friend, his second in command, how was he looking at her and seeing her in a way that she was not mine? He knows what he is doing, and it looks like he doesn’t care. Ben didn’t know what to say. He liked to think that Mark was sorry, that it was a momentary lapse in judgement, but that wasn’t it at all. This was how everyone around was going to be with Teri. She was too scrumptious and even her smell was enough to make him lose his own mind. How could he be angry at Mark?

Whether there was reason to be messing with Teri or not, he wasn’t going to let Mark get near her again. Ben didn’t really care what was or wasn’t going to happen. He would be damned if Mark or anyone else was ever going to put their hands on Teri. Ben decided that it was best to get rid of Mark. He didn’t want him around, couldn’t trust him, so Ben sent him away. Teri wasn’t sure about it, but she was too afraid to say anything. Ben was worked up more than usual, certainly more than she’d seen.

“I am shifting, and you are going to ride me, okay?”

Teri pressed her lips together like she was going to say no to that, but instead she agreed and waited for him to shift. Ben hoped that she could see his anger and betrayal in his eyes. What she was doing to him wasn’t right. The way he felt and how betrayed he was, didn’t feel like it was sustainable.  Teri melted into his arms, but neither one of them made a sound as he ravished her lips. After that, he shifted, eyed her harshly and Teri got on his back. Ben was pissed, but he couldn’t deny the way that he felt with her. He would give up damn near anything to have her.

***

When they stopped a while later, it wasn’t because they were at their destination, though they were ahead of his people now. The fear of something happening to her from an enemy or Mark, kept Ben moving at a clipped place. They would be back to his home by the next day, as long as he didn’t stay for long.

Teri got off of him and her legs were a little wobbly. Ben tried his best to focus on anything but Teri. She had been pressed up against him for hours and he was pretty sure in the beginning that he was turning her on. If he moved with a certain speed, Teri bounced and moaned, and he had almost sent her over the edge several times. Now he had to face her, and it was hard for him to focus when she was looking at him in that way.

“Why did you stop?”

“It seems like we both needed a pause. You’re cold. Where’s your cloak?”

Teri shrugged and said she didn’t know where it was. “I was hoping that we could talk about earlier.”

That was the last thing that he wanted to talk about with her. He knew that there was something going on between Mark and her. He wanted to believe that it wouldn’t have amounted to anything, but that wasn’t necessarily true. She had been so close to kissing him. Ben knew that it wouldn’t be possible once she was connected to him, but that didn’t seem like a good reason to push it.

That look in her eyes though, maybe that was a reason to push it.

“What did you want to talk about?” Ben asked. He didn’t want to talk about it, but maybe it was for the best.

“Well, I want you to know that I didn’t mean to get so close to Mark. I know what it looked like when you walked in, but it wasn’t like that, really. I am so embarrassed, but there wasn’t a choice on my part. It was like I had no say in it, and for a moment he was all I could think about. It was rather strange. I have never felt that way before in my life.”

Ben agreed, he knew what had happened and he knew that she was under Mark’s draw. It wasn’t something he wanted to talk about, because the betrayal was huge, and Ben wasn’t sure how he was going to be able to deal with things the way they were. How was he going to look at Mark, his best friend, without wanting to kill him for even trying to take his fated mate away? If he had done something to her, Ben wouldn’t have been able to stop the violence that even then was threatening to come out. He wanted Mark as far away from him as possible, even though they had been close his whole life. There was nothing that he could do but wait and hope that his feelings for Mark subsided.

“All of us can do that, Teri, you should know that.”

Teri shrugged. “I never worried too much about what went on between men and women. But if you could have done what Mark did, why didn’t you just do that to me on our wedding night? I wouldn’t have been able to stop you.”

Ben agreed that was an option, but he quickly told her that he wouldn’t be able to do such a thing to her and have a clear conscious. It was bothersome to think that was the first idea that came to her head. Did that mean it was what she wanted? Did she want to be taken with no choice? Why did that sound so good to Ben? Likely it sounded so good because then he would finally get what he wanted, her.

“I don’t want you that way. Just because you are under my draw wouldn’t mean that you would remember it the wrong way. You would know that it wasn’t your choice, and I don’t want you if you don’t choose me.”

Teri smiled and then looked away. “So, try me. I want to see if you can do it.”

Ben didn’t know what she was talking about. He was too busy taking in the state of her, and it was hard to ignore. Her body was desperately reaching out to him. Ben hadn’t even done anything yet, and Teri was damn near ready. It wouldn’t have taken much.

“Why would you want that?”

Teri said that she wasn’t sure if she could believe that the “draw” was real. She wanted it to happen to her again, so that she would know that it was real. He didn’t like the idea of that at all, but how could he refuse such a favor? She wanted him to do the one thing he was dying to do the whole time.

“You know that it is real. You felt it with Mark.”

She shrugged. “What if that is just because it’s him? I don’t want to pretend like it could happen to anyone if it couldn’t.”

Ben didn’t know what to say to that. He was about to argue that it wasn’t a good idea, but instead he said that he was going to just do it for a moment to prove his point.

“Why are you so against drawing me in, Ben?” she asked curiously.

Ben started to pull her in without a word. Her expression changed and Ben didn’t like the sudden slack of need that took over. He didn’t like seeing it and not knowing if it was real or not. He wanted Teri desperately, but the only way that it was going to work was if he got her in his arms the right way. Teri was quickly where he wanted her, tiptoeing upward for a kiss. Ben was grimacing inside, knowing that he wanted her so badly he couldn’t say no, not to a kiss.