Unleashing His Alpha (14 page)

“You’re so great,” she exhaled. “How do you do those things to me?”

“Me?” He laughed as he collapsed next to her, sweaty and exhausted as well. “How do you do that to me?”

* * *

They watched television and laid together in bed after they’d taken a shower and ended up making out while they were trying to put together something that resembled dinner. It was harder to stay focused on something when all you wanted to do was have sex with each other. She would smile and say something teasing to him and he’d suddenly unleash his primal urges upon her and that was exactly what she wanted him to do.

There was no way that she was ever going to let him get away with not pouncing on her and taking advantage of her. She loved it when he did that. There was nothing sexier than him wanting her and this was a feeling she wanted to maintain for the rest of her life. She wanted him to desire her more than anyone else and she was going to fiercely guard that. Without him in her life, she knew she would have nothing.

“Katie,” Shane said after a moment, his arms wrapped around her naked shoulders as she leaned against him, feeling the heat radiating off of his chest and wondering how she was going to be able to handle that during the summer. How was she going to survive it when it was too hot to be next to him? Maybe that would change with the seasons. She hoped so, because being in his arms was the best feeling in the world. She smiled and looked at him, eager to answer any question that he had. She was going to say whatever she needed to to keep him happy with her.

“Yes, my love?” She was stroking his cheek and gazing into his eyes.

“Why don’t you ever talk about your life before I found you?” He was staring at her with curiosity and confusion. She knew it was a topic that would eventually come up and she wasn’t eager to share about it, just like someone who had been in prison or war wasn’t excited to share their darkest realities with the person that they loved either.

She looked at him and didn’t really know what to say to him right then.  She wanted to tell him the truth and she wanted to explain everything earlier to him, but there just didn’t seem like a right time to tell him how screwed up her life had been.

“You know about my past, but you don’t talk about yours. Why is that?” he asked, locking gazes with her.

She felt like she was cornered and it scared her. Of course, the past was inevitably going to come up, but she didn’t want him to think less of her. When she thought about that fear, she felt a little bit silly for even being worried about it. After all, she had given him more than enough reasons to want to run and head for the hills up to this point.

It wasn’t like she was a white virgin waiting for him in the top of a tower somewhere. In fact, she was as close to a whore in the local tavern as you could get and that made her feel dirty and useless. Maybe she wanted to preserve the illusion he had of her for a little while longer until it was time that he knew. She didn’t want to scare him off, as strange as that seemed.

“It’s not a good story,” she told him honestly. It was the kind of story that would make people look at her differently and she didn’t want that from him right now. She didn’t want his pity and she didn’t want him feeling sorry for her. She wanted him to love her and to see her for what she was without knowing why she was the way she was.

It was too much to ask a person when you had a dark back story. People inevitably treated you different, even if it was only for a little while. People would eventually go back to normal, but that period in between telling them and everything just slipping back into the usual was so unbearable that she had stopped talking about her past altogether.

“And being a Shifter is a good story?” he asked her with a bit of suspicion in his voice. Nice try, but he wasn’t buying it. She knew it was a long shot, but it had been worth the shot, anyways. She smiled and shook her head at him. Yeah, she was wasting her time trying to scare him off or be mysterious about it. He had both of those things down to a T. She was just going to have to come out and say it.

“My father was a drunk and my mother was an addict,” she said with a shrug. “We grew up in a really shitty town where no one ever became anything other than a drunk or a broken down husk of a person working at the factory or in the mines. People kind of just melted away in that town and everyone looked away from each other, pretending like things were normal. I never wanted to stay there and I never respected my parents and they knew it.

“It drove them crazy. My mother thought I was under the impression that I was better than her, which I was. So, when my father would get drunk and start slapping me around, she’d let him and egg him on, telling him all the things I had said behind his back. It taught me one thing and that was the simple fact that I wanted out of that town.

“When I was a teenager, just starting high school, I was more developed than the other girls and I was already aware of what was going to happen to me if I didn’t hold myself to a higher standard than my parents did. I knew I would get fat like my mother and probably start drinking. So, I wanted to be the best that I could be for as long as I could be and that meant being fit and men started to objectify me.

“When guys from the factory and the mine started asking my father how much it would cost to have me disappear for an hour in their truck, I knew I had to leave. There was no other choice at that point and I was already planning on getting out of there.

“I grabbed my bag full of clothes and as much money as I could steal from my parents and I hit the road, running. I stuck out my thumb and I was picked up by a truck driver who was heading west and I was with him until I hit that dumpy little town where you found me. It wasn’t much better than the world I had left behind, but I knew I would at least have a chance and that meant it was worth it. There were opportunities there that I could get work and avoid my parents.

“So, I bounced around foster homes, picking up work wherever I could until I was eighteen. I went to the courthouse, changed my name and I never looked back. I floated from apartment to apartment with guys I was dating until I could finally afford somewhere for myself.

“By the time that I could afford my house, I was already working at Big Mikey’s and I was lucky enough to be given one good gift on this green earth and that was the ability to handle money. So, I paid off my debts, paid cash when I could, and lived like I was homeless so I could prepare for a life that was better for me. I’ve been on the run since I was fifteen and I don’t think that it’s by coincidence that I met you, either.

“After I met you and you explained everything to me, it was like there was a moment of clarity in my mind that hit me like a meteor. You were like a lighthouse on the horizon and I was drowning before I met you. It was the greatest day of my life and I’m always going to cherish it.”

He looked at her with the eyes that she hated so much. It was the expression that showed he was feeling sorry for her and that was the kind of expression she didn’t need. She knew she shouldn’t have told him her story. She didn’t want to tell him about all the guys she would use in order to have a place to live. She would always pick the party boys who couldn’t handle their liquor very well and who liked to enjoy it. She would make sure they were always too drunk to perform and would pass out quickly.

Boys were always willing to party with her and whenever sex involved alcohol, they seemed to think they would enjoy it a lot more. The key was waking up curled against them and talk about how incredible they’d been the night before.

She hated herself when she thought about her past and the things she had done. She had been a monster and she had been a whore, but it had been for the greater good. She had compromised others, but she had rarely compromised herself beyond the point of return.

The moment she had her own place, she had practically lived like a saint and that had left a bad taste in her mouth. She always felt like a charlatan on the run and she would probably never forgive herself. But she truthfully felt like a new person now with Shane.

Shane had been her savior and when he looked at her with all that pity and all that sorrow in his eyes, she wanted to tell him that it was better now than she could ever imagine. If she had known that Shane was on her horizon, she would have worked twice as hard and would have been standing in that darkness with a smile on her face.

He was worth all of it and she was going to show him what a wonder he was to her and that was something she had promised herself, and him, the moment she knew what he was capable of and that he was her mate.

He kissed her tenderly on the lips and she kissed him back, eager for his lips like a person who had been wandering through the desert for ages and had finally found a well to drink from.

He was refreshing and with each kiss and each moment and each touch he gave her, she knew she was getting the revitalizing power that her soul needed. He was the perfect man for her and she knew she was the perfect woman for him. This was fate and no matter what was waiting for them on the road ahead, she knew they would be able to handle it together.

CHAPTER NINE

It was strange being in the car with Shane as they roamed around the country. They had been going east for a few days until Shane suddenly stopped and shook his head. He looked at her and laughed like he was just getting the punch line of a joke that had been at his expense. Throwing the car in reverse, he turned around and started heading west as fast as he could and they didn’t look back.

There was something about that moment as he shook his head and was muttering curses to himself while they were hitting the road, chasing the horizon as quickly as they could that made her uncomfortable.

“What’s going on?” she asked finally, tired of sitting silently in shotgun, waiting for him to tell her what had made his mood so sour and caused them to backtrack several days in the opposite direction. He turned his head and looked at her with an expression that was mildly embarrassed and ashamed at the same time.

“They found out that I was tracking them,” he said. “I decided that I should use my instincts and try to connect with my pack, just in case someone had found the bug that I put on their trailer and sure enough, they’ve known that I’ve been tracking them. They must have found out recently though, because they’re not that far ahead. We might be a week behind them, but I think we’ll be able to make good time.”

“Why do you think that?” Katie asked, feeling like she didn’t understand a word he had just said.

“Because packs tend to roam,” Shane answered with a shrug.

She was constantly reminding him that she had no idea what he was talking about when it came to his pack or being a Shifter. It was a constant reminder to him that his life was not the norm in this world. He would explain things to her and she would find them absolutely fascinating, but they were also extremely bizarre to her. It was like she had been blind to half of the world and now it was visible.

“They take their time going wherever they’re headed because they don’t really have a destination. You just head whatever direction you want and you’ll eventually make camp somewhere new. It’s hard to motivate people to pick up the pace, especially when they’re being tracked. Shifters always want to stand their ground and pick a fight rather than run,” Shane told her.

“So they’re running from you?” Katie asked him, not sure why they would be afraid of him. Sure, Shane was a formidable person and he had definitely taken care of himself, but he was up against who knew how many adversaries at this point. They had to have anticipated a threat would eventually come for them and the fact that they hadn’t seemed kind of silly to her. Wouldn’t they be afraid there were hunters or another pack that was coming for them?

“Definitely,” he said with the most confidence she had seen in him yet. That kind of confidence seemed to inspire him and seemed like a good thing to him, but she still wasn’t understanding why they’d be running from him. Maybe he was more powerful than she knew and maybe her effect on him was starting to show results she hadn’t been anticipating.

If that were the case, then she would sleep with him every night and do whatever she needed to ensure that he was going to be safe. She couldn’t imagine there being a world where Shane wasn’t safe.

They were going to battle and that terrified her, but she knew there was a chance they would be victorious. Shane wouldn’t have been willing to do this if he’d thought he’d lose in this fight. So, as they drove down snowy roads, she thought about what she could do to help him. He’d already been hitting the gyms hard at the hotels they were staying in. He would work out for hours and he was always eating healthy whenever they stopped for a meal. His body was as built and cut as a man who was ready for anything.

There was no stopping him, but was this going to be enough? She thought that maybe she should try to learn how to fight from him so she could be some use to him in the fight, but that seemed silly in hindsight. If she fought with him, he’d be more likely to screw up because he was worried about keeping her safe. No, she was going to have to trust that he could do this himself and that was going to have to be enough.

The thought of that was killing her. She couldn’t imagine just sitting by and waiting for him to survive a fight against three tough enemies. After all, these enemies had a psychological element on their side as well, and that was the fact that they had killed his parents. If they got inside his head, they might get him to do something stupid. She felt a shiver run down her spine. No, she had to be brave for him.

Looking out the window, she wondered if there were any other packs in the area, heading in their direction. He had told her that there were hundreds of packs moving across America and that you rarely found them at hotels or anywhere like that. He said that most of them moved in RVs or in trailers so that they could set up camp at a national park or a campground for a while before picking up and moving on.

She had been curious about that, wondering if he could get help from another pack, but he had been adamant that other packs don’t help with the internal struggles of other packs. He claimed that it would be like another country interfering with the elections of another sovereign nation. It was just a line that no one dared to cross.

She thought this was odd, since the survival of all the Shifters depended on packs that were dangerous and didn’t cause harm to each other, but clearly she was wrong on that account. It was a bizarre, primal society that believed in the ideals of Darwin in that the strong survived and the weak were destroyed.

The fact that Shane’s parents had been killed was something that hung around his neck like a millstone and she knew he was fighting his own ego as well. That was why he had been so afraid to actually go back and face these murderers. He was afraid that he was unworthy because his parents had been killed.

Kate hadn’t believed any of that and she forced the idea into his mind that the strong were not just the physically superior, but the intelligent and the wise as well. Despite the fact that his parents had been killed, Katie was certain their wisdom and their intelligence was going to live on through the physical strength and superiority of Shane.

He was going to find these killers and he was going to end them for their crimes against his family and his pack. It was something she had been certain of since the moment he had told her that this was his destiny.

Maybe that was her greatest contribution to him and his cause, but she wanted to provide more for him. She wanted to make sure his confidence was absolute and that he wasn’t afraid of anything when he went up against them. Until she completely severed that millstone from around his neck, she was going to be terrified that he would sink into that depression.

It wasn’t all battle plans when they were in the car or on the road. There were plenty of times where she would reach over and play with him or show off the gifts that she had been given. She would do anything he wanted, even if he was afraid to vocalize it. If he was getting restless, she’d pull up her skirt or dress and slip her fingers under her lacy underwear and start to moan as she played with herself, or she’d lean over and give him road head to make sure that he was alert and focused on the task at hand.

It was fun and they laughed a lot as they explored each other, mind, body, and soul. There was something about him that made her come back for more every time they were done talking.

He also educated her on the weird language of their people. Every time they would stop at a rest stop, he’d sneak her into the men’s bathroom and show her the strange language his people had on the walls. He would talk about what they meant and why they were put there. There were Shifter packs that were heading in this direction or that.

The messages would be about campsites that were friendly and safe or places they should definitely avoid. She would look at it and marvel, never once having thought twice about the writing on the walls of bathrooms. But, his people had their customs and it was obvious that they were everywhere.

When they stopped at a rest stop one night because they couldn’t find a hotel, he would go outside into the forest and came back with three long, flat rocks that he stacked right next to the passenger tire. She had thought it was odd, but when he got back into the car, the grin on his face told her that it was yet another one of the bizarre and confusing rituals of his people.

He told her that the stacked rocks would warn anyone who was passing by in the middle of the night who might be a Shifter, that he was also a Shifter and that he should be left alone. The implications that there were rogue Shifters out there, stalking people in parking lots, terrified her, but he assured her that at the very worst, they would steal from them and not kill them. He laughed and said that Shifters liked to scare people to keep the urban myths alive, but they were far from the bloodthirsty savages the legends would have her believe. Katie wasn’t sure if she believed that.

She looked at him with a suspicious eye and told him that she never wanted to hear about him stealing from someone or scaring people just so that he could keep the myth alive. He had laughed and told her he was well past the time in his life when he thought that scaring people was fun or a good idea. He told her that there were groups of men who hunted Shifters and they usually followed the legends that popped up on the internet or in the news every now and again.

You scare someone and all the hunters in the area would head to that location and that meant they would probably pick up your trail and come for you, thinking you were a threat to the local populace.

As far as Katie was concerned, it served them right to be chased by men who wanted to skin them and make a rug out of them if they thought that scaring and stealing was funny. It sickened her that there were people out there with Shane’s power that could be such animals.

She knew it was probably an elitist mentality, but she thought that Shane was far above that and he would never stoop to that kind of behavior in his life. She was confident he was better than all of that and she wouldn’t have to worry about childish antics that might get them killed.

* * *

It was several days before they finally ended up in the town that Shane was certain they were going to find them in. She had asked him how he knew about their exact location and he told her it was part of being a Shifter. A Shifter, he said, was tied to his pack intimately and there was a sort of hive mind that drew them together so that they could never lose a member of their pack. It was a kind of way to make sure they were all together, especially if they were ever separated. It was also a kind of skill that worked on the larger, grander scheme of Shifters that told him if a person nearby was a Shifter or not. She thought that was cool until he told her what the one hitch was.

They could tell when he was reaching out to touch them and see where they were, which meant that the element of surprise was all but gone. This was terrifying, but she tried to also see it as a good thing.

Shane had told her he had used a tracking device when he was younger to track their movements so he would know how they were moving and where they were. Essentially, they had thought that he was dead since they hadn’t felt him reaching out to them.

But, the fact that he was back and he was steadily getting closer, meant their rightful ruler was coming back to them and that felt like a homecoming to Katie. She saw this as a chance for all the supporters of Shane’s parents who had been silent when they had been killed could rise up and join him. She hoped they would see that they had let themselves and their pack down.

However, she knew it all depended on the fact that the new trio of leaders was terrible at being leaders. If Shane’s memory of them were true, then there was a good chance they were stagnant now and that their hopes and dreams of stepping ahead and being more than wild animals was gone. She looked at Shane as they stepped out of the car and hoped they would see the kind of man that he was when he came into their company.

The town he had led them to was called Wallace and it was the smallest, most charming little town she had ever seen before. It was the kind of place nestled against the base of a steep pair of mountains that felt safe and forgotten. It would make perfect sense to her that they had come to a place like this to set up shop and to hide out for the winter.

There was a long drive into Wallace and the snow on the sides of the road was higher than their car.  She was surprised that the whole town hadn’t been snowed under, but it was quaint, charming and it was so close to Christmas that the air around her felt like it was charged with the very magic of the people.