Rejecting the Alpha

Kylie curled up against me like she was made to fit me, soft and supple in all the right places, but I could not really focus on the pleasure of having her willing to be so close when every few minutes her body stiffened with pain.

I hardly knew anything about the Stonemason alpha, but I already knew enough to know that I wanted him dead. He didn't deserve to live, not with what he was doing to Kylie, who was supposed to be his mate.

My mind wandered through ways I could take him down. I didn't have the power of an alpha, with the support of an entire pack behind me, although I could hold my own against most in a one on one fight. What I did have was plenty of resources, having partnered with Darlene's brother in a tech security start up a few years back. We produced the premier software for protecting wolf packs' networks against possible data breeches from both human hackers—who remained ignorant of our existence as per the accords—and other supernatural species.

The darkest part of me wanted to go straight to Jack and abuse our resources to get into the Stonemason pack and mess with their existence. Data was a power all its own.

However, there was no way Jack would let me put the company at risk for my own selfish revenge plots. And he would be right. It was safest to lie low and not draw Stonemason’s attention. And I imagined the shareholders wouldn’t be pleased if they found out about the abuse of resources.

Kylie's breathing had slowed, and she was undoubtedly asleep. She felt good, and I was already half-hard at her proximity, although there was nothing I could or would do about it under the circumstances. From the moment I saw her I could see her vulnerability, and I wouldn't exploit that. More than anything I wanted to protect her from Stonemason and anyone else who might threaten her.

My wolf wanted to run there—even though driving would be faster, he was far from thinking rationally—and rip out her sick joke of a mate's throat. He hadn't felt this level of interest in anyone other than Darlene, which had caught me off guard. He was fully convinced that she was ours.

And it was hard to argue with him when Kylie was the first woman I'd felt any stirrings of attraction to since my mate's death, and it was far more than stirrings. I'd been bullied into a couple of blind dates with females who had also lost their mates and there had been nothing there.

And this was a lot more than nothing. She was driving me up the wall just by existing.

Kylie moved in her sleep again, her ass moving against my groin unknowingly. I held in a groan at the sweet torture.

It wasn't what she needed, at least not yet.

I didn't sleep well that night, both because I had already slept for the nightshift I had gotten out of, and because several times, Kylie thrashed around in her sleep, clearly in the midst of nightmares. I just held her closer and she calmed each time. The last time she had a tear running down from the corner of her eye.

In the end, I did finally fall asleep, and I awoke when she stirred. Somehow we had turned so that we were facing each other, so I had the pleasure of those pale green eyes, the colour of a forest meadow, opening and looking straight into my own.

She blinked a couple of times and smiled. Her hair was in wild disarray, falling onto my pillow. "Good morning, beautiful."

"Good morning." The slightly embarrassed face she made was cute. I wanted to kiss her, but I held back for the same reason I had stopped her.

"Hungry?"

She paused, and then admitted, "Yeah, I am."

"I'll make breakfast. Bacon?"

"Sure." I wasn't surprised, what werewolf turned down bacon? It satisfied both sides nicely.

I pulled away from her, becoming aware of my reaction, but I stealthily hid it as I got out of bed. "Help yourself to anything you need," I offered as I left the room. My urge to provide for her was strong, too. If it was not for the fact that she already had one, I would have sworn...

No, I did swear. This was very nearly what I had felt with Darlene. Somehow, the mate bonds between us had gotten tangled up. Somehow she had ended up with two, although that was supposed to be impossible.

As I cooked us breakfast, I couldn't keep my mind off of her.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that she was afraid of the one she had fled. If she had wanted to go back to him, it would be a different story, but I was willing to bet she already preferred me to him, especially after the way he kept torturing her from afar.

I was willing to fight for her, and if that fight was with myself to keep from pressuring her, then that was what I would do.

My mind was caught by the sound of the shower turning on, and my brain's scattered thoughts laser focused on what she was doing. I shoved my imaginings of a naked and wet Kylie away, since it really would not help with my resolve or the situation in my pants.

Bacon, bacon, bacon. I stared at what I was cooking, flipping a pancake and readjusting the meat in the pan. It sizzled merrily, completely unaware of the internal struggles going on above it.

By the time she came out, I was nearly done cooking. I glanced over and felt like my jaw should drop to the floor like an old-school cartoon wolf. She was dressed in my clothes—a t-shirt and drawstring shorts which were too big for her, smelled like my body wash, and my wolf side wanted to go over and claim her in that moment.

No, absolutely not. She was trusting me and the last thing she needed was to be pounced on.

Instead of giving in to my baser instincts, I tilted my head in an indication that she should come closer. "It's almost ready. Want to grab the syrup from that cupboard over there?"

"Sure," she said and rewarded me with a smile. "Thanks for letting me stay, and thanks for breakfast."

"Thanks for staying, and you should probably try my cooking before you thank me too much."

She laughed, the sound made my heart feel as light as when Darlene had been alive. If she wasn't my mate, something was very wrong with my wolf's head—and maybe mine as well.