Alpha On the Run: A BBW Wolf Shifter Paranormal Romance (8 page)

Of course, the tree might not take both of them at the same time.

She was much more willing to risk falling than last time. If they caught her, they'd probably kill her, or torture her, or do other things she couldn't imagine.

Anna stopped when she felt confident going up more would be stupid. She reached in her pockets for anything she could throw at him to make him fall – and found the knife.

She didn't have time to use it earlier, or anywhere to run. But now, distance would be useful. But the knife was so short it might not help much.

Still, it gave her an idea. She snapped the knife open and carefully sawed at a thin but sturdy looking branch next to her.

The tree swayed abruptly and she clutched the trunk. The wolf must have finished changing now. He was climbing the tree.

She got the branch loose just as his face came into view among the leaves. She let out a cry and stabbed the sturdy end she cut off the trunk at his face.

He yelled, but the stick didn't connect. She jabbed again. The tree shifted as he retreated back down, out of her reach.

Confidence rose in her, and she snarled at him. It was true that she couldn't hold three wolves off, but up a tree, she could hold off one – and one was all she needed until Joshua returned. Only one wolf could come after her at a time.

Joshua would have to fight two, and she felt sick just thinking about it. If one of them stayed up the tree, it would make the odds better for him. Maybe she could injure this one and help him more. She came down a branch and stabbed at his face again. A satisfying yell came when she connected with
something
. She twisted the branch and smelled a coppery, tangy scent that her brain told her was blood.

The mate bond, maybe. She stabbed down again, but he'd moved out of her reach down the tree.

She came down again, carefully. He had one hand pressed to his neck. Not a bad injury, but enough to distract him and make it harder for him to climb with slippery hands.

Anna realized she had bared her teeth without realizing it. Did she have wolf instincts now, too? She decided to go with it and let out a growl. He raised his face to her, eyes wide with fear. She aimed the branch at his eyes, but missed as he ducked and then scrambled down the tree.

“What's going on up there?” Stephen shouted. The hair on the back of her neck rose. Another wolf had shifted back to pursue her.

“She stabbed me!” he called, watching her warily. “I need a weapon or something, Stephen!”

“You can't shoot up,” Stephen said with disgust. “The bullets would hit us coming back down. Look, what the hell has she got, a machete?”

“A tree branch!”

“You fucking coward –” Stephen called and kept swearing.

Anna stopped listening, instead creeping down the tree to get a better shot.

He noticed her just before she could thrust and scrambled down again, but the blood on his hands made him slip. He dangled by one hand. Anna rapidly hit his fingers with the side of the branch. At last he lost his grip and fell from the tree with a crunch.

She spared a moment to hope he wasn't dead. Even if he was a jerk who'd kidnapped her, the things Joshua had told her about the pack were horrible.  Now that she wasn't so terrified of him, she realized he looked young. Maybe it wasn't even his fault.

She waited for Stephen to come after her next. Then the sweet kiss of relief flooded her suddenly, without explanation. She reached out, and knew Joshua was there.

Chapter Eight

Joshua came around a turn in the trail and saw them. Stephen stood at the base of an immense tree. He stared up into the branches and shouted angrily. Hunter sat at the base of the tree in wolf form. Joshua smelled Jacky too, but didn't see him. When he got a little closer, he spotted him on the ground. He had a broken leg that made it very clear why he wasn't up and moving. The scent of blood – Jacky's blood,
not
Anna's – was strong in the air.

Had Stephen done it to punish him? Not likely on a job. He reached out for Anna to ask,
What happened?

The red wolf came up after me.
Her tone in his head was breathless. She sounded somewhere between jubilation and terror.
I chased him down with a branch and he slipped and fell.

He wanted to applaud. His mate was more than a match, apparently, for even three wolves. But there was a more pressing concern.

Hunter finally noticed Joshua's scent over the blood and barked twice. Stephen whipped around and stared. Then he smirked.

“The prodigal son, home at last,” he said mockingly.

Tell him I'm not his son,
Joshua thought at Anna.

“He's not yours!” she shouted down from the tree. Close enough.

“Stay out of this,” Stephen said dismissively. “You're still a human even if you're mated to a wolf.”

He walked towards Joshua. “Tell me, have you come to challenge me?”

Challenge?
Joshua thought wildly. Then the thought connected.

There were still two wolves against one of him. Anna had knocked a wolf out of a tree and evened the odds. But she was a civilian and wouldn't be much help in a drag out fight – especially if the fighters were in wolf form.

If Joshua challenged Stephen for the pack's leadership, though, he would only have to fight him. Only mates could defend each other in a formal challenge. If he won, he'd never have to run again. Instead, he could help the others left behind. The others, like Lily.

He raised his head and tail proudly. Stephen nodded in acknowledgment.

Then Joshua retreated a few steps to shift back. A challenge fight had to take place between two wolves in the same form. Stephen had probably just returned to human. The only footprints coming into the clearing were Anna's.

But could he win against Stephen? Joshua had seen him kill three other wolves in challenges.

What's going on?
Anna asked.

A challenge fight is for the position of alpha. There are rules. If this is a challenge, he can't just distract me and order Hunter to rip my throat out while I'm not looking. Or pull a gun from his jeans.
             

No one's allowed to help?
she asked.

Mates can defend each other's claims, but don’t come down. I promise I'll teach you to fight if I win, but you don't know how right now.

Explaining the situation to Anna helped the racing adrenaline fade. He had to fight Stephen no matter what. At least this way he had a fair shot.

Joshua took his human form. He walked to face Stephen, then raised his eyebrows.

Stephen smiled. “Tell her to come down.”

“Why would I do that?” Joshua asked.

“We need an additional witness for a challenge. If she's your mate, she can witness. Tell her to come down.”

Of course, if Anna came down and Joshua lost, it would be much easier for them to tear her to pieces once he was dead. She might be okay in the tree even if he lost. Stephen had to leave to get Jacky medical care eventually

“It's up to you!” he called up the tree.

Anna didn't even wait to answer. Her legs came into view first, and then the rest of her. She dropped to the ground and went over to kiss his cheek.

“You're going to win this,” she told him. Her eyes shone with determination.

“I hope so,” he said.

He turned to find her lips. It was a short kiss, but full of passion. All too soon, she went to sit on the sidelines next to Jacky.

Then the fight began.

Joshua circled Stephen warily, sizing him up. Joshua was a little tired from running all day. Stephen had a shorter path from the car, but had probably sprinted after Anna. On the other hand, Stephen had time to rest while Anna hid in the tree.

He was shorter than Joshua, with a shorter reach, too, but he was damn fast. Joshua blocked out the memories of those previous fights. He couldn't give up now.

All of a sudden Stephen shot towards him. His teeth were bared and sharpened just a little bit with the wolf. Joshua leapt back to the side. The bite didn't connect.

There was normally very little violence in challenge fights. Joshua had heard in some packs the entire fight consisted of posturing. Stephen always killed, but usually in one blow.

He had to move in; he would only get more tired if he stalled. He didn't want to give Stephen more of an advantage. Joshua feigned a punch to the side, then to the other side, and kicked at the same time. His toe just brushed Stephen's leg before the alpha jumped to the side. He retaliated with a punch that Joshua ducked.

Nothing, still.

His right leg twinged. He realized with a sinking feeling that the trek must have strained it again. He saw Stephen's eyes dart to the side to follow the movement.

Well, he might be able to take advantage of it. On his next step, he exaggerated the limp sharply. Stephen pushed in suddenly. Joshua scrambled back, using the leg as well as he could – and again stumbled a little bit over it.

Shit
.

He heard voices from the side. He couldn't concentrate on listening. But he spared a half an instant's thought to hope Hunter or Jacky would like Anna enough to protect her when he was dead. Jacky was a good kid, just a little brainless, and Hunter –

He twisted away from the next blow. It glanced off his hip, stinging but not worse. Still, he was giving ground rapidly. Joshua scrambled to the other side of the clearing to give himself time to meet Stephen's approach. Footwork was most of the work in these fights, and –

“Catch!” Anna called.

When he raised his hand reflexively, the closed pocket knife tumbled into his palm.

Oh.
Oh
.

He snicked it open and grinned, moving forward. Stephen's eyes darted to it and he snarled angrily, but gave ground. Joshua was injured, yes. But the knife
more
than made up for it.

Joshua backed Stephen into the tree. He slashed with the knife and drew blood on the arm Stephen raised to block. Then he stepped inside his reach and put the knife to his throat. And paused.

“Well?” Stephen snapped. “Do it!”

“Do you concede?” Joshua asked.

“You'd be an idiot to let me go,” he snarled. “I will not live like some starving exile, roaming from place to place –”

It was possible, Joshua thought, that Stephen absorbed a little more of the propaganda he spouted than Joshua always thought.

“Jacky,” he said. “You guys brought cuffs to use on Anna?”
              “Back at the car, yeah.” Jacky's voice was thready with pain. Joshua hoped he'd be okay. “You want us to get them?”

“Is the car unlocked?”
              “Yeah. She took off as soon as it stopped. There wasn't much time to worry about that.”

“Good. Hunter, go get the cuffs. If there's reception back at the car, I want you to call the cops. Tell them you've got a young woman here claiming a guy tried to kidnap her. You pulled the guy off her and cuffed him with his own kit.”

Hunter was in wolf form and couldn't talk. Joshua felt a nudge on his leg and looked down to see him wag his tail. Then Hunter took off at a sprint. He wasn't much good in a fight, but he was excellent at the chase.

“So you're going to have me arrested,” Stephen said dubiously. “I'll get what, a few years in prison?”

“You're going to confess,” Joshua said. “And not just to hurting Anna. You're going to confess to trying to kill me and kidnapping my girlfriend to get at me. You're going to confess to murdering Lily Wallace and her husband Dean Wallace. And you're going to confess to every other goddamn murder you can without getting the rest of the pack put in prison, too.”

“And why would I do that?” Stephen's eyes were cool and implacable.

Joshua burned to punch him. He wanted to sink the knife into his throat and remove the threat to his mate forever. But he remembered how killing always felt before. He didn't want to become someone who could do it without guilt.

Joshua leaned into Stephen and stared into his eyes. He let out a snarl directly into his face.

“I will not release you,” he said. “I am your alpha, and you will do as I say.”

Epilogue

Anna went to find Joshua in his dressing room when her makeup was done. The formal acceptance of the two of them as pack alphas was due to start very soon.

Joshua stared at his phone anxiously, sitting on the counter.

“Hey,” she said. “Waiting for someone?”
              “Waiting for my little sister to text me back,” he said.

He had called his mother to apologize a few days ago, despite the terror. He spent an hour locked in the bedroom talking to her on the phone. Anna was barely able to restrain herself from breaking down the door when she heard him crying. But in the end, all had been well after the tearful apologies. Joshua was slowly picking up where he had left off with his family.

“She's probably gone to bed,” Anna said.

“Probably,” Joshua said. He didn't look up.

“It's one in the morning, and humans sleep at night.”

“Yeah.”

“Come help me get dressed?” she said. She hoped that would distract him.

He set the phone down then and finally got up. He turned to face her and his eyes widened. He licked his lips a little. She felt his arousal spike through the bond and shivered. It was still hard to believe that she could do that to him just by standing in front of him half dressed.

“What were you talking about?” Anna asked.

Joshua crossed the room to her and took her into his arms. “Stephen. How I got to talk to them again. Which reminds me. There's one thing I don't get about that fight,” Joshua said into Anna's ear. “How did you know to throw me the knife?”

She grinned at him in the mirror. In her reflection, she spotted a strand of hair that had fallen out of the circlet. She fixed it as she answered. “I asked Jacky if there was anything I could do to help. He saw me get the knife out in the tree. So he told me bladed weapons were allowed.”

Joshua swore. The force of his breath tickled the back of her neck. “If Stephen won he'd have executed Jacky for treason against the pack. That kid...”

“If he didn't help Stephen
would
have won.” Anna got up and out of his embrace reluctantly. “Zip me into my dress?”

Joshua played his fingers across her shoulders. He stroked down her back and traced the skin exposed by the open zipper. The opening went down her spine, nearly to the cleft in her butt. She shivered, enjoying the feel of his touch against her skin. “Think we have time to have a quickie?” Joshua murmured into the nape of her neck.

“Mm!” Anna said. She turned her face into his hand. He stroked her cheek.

“Well, how much time do we have left?” Anna asked. It was hard to think with his hands on her.

Joshua checked his watch. “Just enough,” he said. Then he moved Anna's stool aside. He took her by the shoulders, turned her to face him, and backed her into the mirror.

The glass was cold on her skin. Anna shivered again and smiled at Joshua.

He grinned back. “We have fifteen minutes. Think you have time to take the dress back off?”
              “Definitely not,” Anna said, and almost kissed him. Then she backed off. “Better not smudge my makeup.”

She thought she was good with makeup. Gina, the pack’s disguise specialist, had disagreed. The woman had cornered Anna for over an hour. She would hate to wreck Gina’s hard work, as much as she missed Joshua’s lips on her face.

He could always put them other places.

“Yes, my alpha,” he said teasingly. “I'll just have to kiss you other places,” he added, apparently reading her mind. Then he pressed his lips to her collarbone.

Anna tossed her head back. The circlet clinked against the mirror. She froze, afraid of breaking it. She stayed very still and watched Joshua drop to his knees.

He looked up at her from the floor, eyes smoldering. His hands slid up under the dress, cradling her thighs. She was normally so embarrassed about those thighs – they were pudgy and, she thought, shapeless. But Joshua thought she was beautiful, anyway.

He pulled down her panties. Then he lifted each of her ankles in turn to delicately slide them over her pantyhose covered feet. “No time to rip these, I guess.”

“You had better not,” Anna groaned. “I don’t have time to get new ones.”

“Aww,” he said, mock-pouting, and lifted her right leg again to press a kiss to her ankle, then her calf. The pantyhose caught on his stubble lightly and pulled away a little when he sat back with a soft sigh.

Once her panties were off, Joshua hiked her skirt up to her hips. He took one of her hands away from its place pressed into the mirror and wrapped her fingers around the fabric. “Hold this up?”

“Sure,” she said.

Then Joshua kissed up her thighs. Once he reached the top of her pantyhose, he added tongue to the kisses. He lapped at her skin like it was a delicious treat. Anna jerked and twitched. She closed her eyes and concentrated on sensation as he kissed her labia over her clit. Then he parted her lower lips with his tongue.

He nibbled, licked and stroked between her legs. He gripped her thighs tightly as he did so. Anna leaned against the mirror for balance. It lasted just long enough to make her twitch with excitement before he stood up.

Joshua turned her by her shoulders again. Anna braced herself on the mirror with her forearms and spread her legs. Her breath came in quick gasps. It fogged across the mirror. She heard the condom wrapper open behind her. Very shortly, Joshua's hands settled on her hips. “Still having fun?”

“Mm, hurry up,” she said.

He laughed. The sound went right through her and made blood rush to her cheeks. It was a rich, male sound full of arousal.

Joshua’s teeth grazed her neck again, and he thrust into her from behind.

She gasped and cried out. Her hips rolled with the delicious sensation. She rocked back into him with each thrust. Her eyelids fluttered, but she tried to keep them open. She watched Joshua’s face in the mirror. He was intent, his eyes half closed. He was so handsome, fucking her. The need on his face filled her with ecstasy.

Then she gasped as he bit the back of her neck outright. His teeth marked her skin. She moaned loudly. When they went before the pack, everyone would know she was his mate, not just his fellow alpha.

“Is that good?” he asked.

“God, yes,” she said. “God, please don't stop – yes!”

His golden eyes burned with lust. But his face shone with more, with his love for her.

Anna dropped her eyes from his face. She watched the muscles in his arms and chest tense with each thrust. He bit into his lip with concentration and pleasure. His arms squeezed around her as he came. Watching the desire on his face, and feeling the pleasure in his mind, she fell over the edge herself.

She felt weak and dizzy with orgasm, braced precariously against the mirror and off balance. The tile floor against her stocking-covered feet didn’t help. She had to clutch at Joshua for balance.

Joshua dropped back onto the stool and pulled Anna into his lap. She put her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. His heartbeat echoed against her ear.

“How long do we have?” She didn’t want to move.
              “A few minutes,” Joshua said. He stroked her hair and murmured sweet words into her ear. Their breath and heartbeats slowed again in unison.

Once recovered, Anna got up. She went for a wash cloth to clean up. That dealt with, she fixed her underwear and stockings, smoothed her dress back in place, and turned. “Zip me up for real this time?”

“I promise,” Joshua said with a laugh. He finished washing his hands and pulled the zipper up from her hips to the bottom of her neck. She shuddered with his touch. Once done, he placed a single, chaste kiss on her shoulder.

Anna pulled her shoes on. She grabbed at Joshua's arm. She wasn't used to heels so high. “I don't understand why I have to wear these to a ceremony for
wolves
. Wolves don't wear shoes at all.”

“We're humans, too.” Joshua smiled at her. “Besides, you picked them. You could have gone with something easier to walk in.”

“I must have been suffering temporary insanity,” Anna grumbled. “That, or I was just afraid I'd look short next to you.”

“I'm very sorry?” he asked. He widened his eyes and grimaced in a mocking mimicry of a wolf's submissive face.

She was familiar with that tease by now. She flicked his ear. “Clearly I should have just cut you off at the knees instead.”

“Clearly,” Joshua said dryly. He pushed open the door.

Joshua had told her before that the pack didn't own a lot of real estate suitable for ceremony. Stephen had picked and chose the traditions he felt aided his control the best. He had little use for the supposedly frivolous.

But after his defeat, the pack had put up a stage in the main hall of the pack’s headquarters and took the weapons and trophies down off the walls, and cleaned the long cold hearths at either side. It was almost beautiful.

As Anna and Joshua walked into the room, the hearths were lit. Fire rushed down the room on each side in a flash. Its light cast the dim room in warm shades of light and flickering shadow. Anna looked over the room and the way the light reflected in the eyes of the pack. She corrected herself – it
was
beautiful.

The walk down the aisle took an eternity, and at the same time happened far too fast. She spent an age suspended in what felt like a dream or a fantasy. Only Joshua's hold on her kept her steady. But then they ascended the makeshift steps to the stage and turned to face the room.

“Packmates!” Joshua roared. “Challenge was declared! Challenge is over! Stephen is disgraced! I and my mate, Anna, are your alphas!”

Everyone present already knew. Anna had spent most of the last few days introducing herself to people. Joshua had spent those days sorting out who needed to turn themselves in for crimes and who was safe to keep. The ceremonial part still had to proceed.

It was her turn to talk. “Do you accept us?” Anna asked. She projected her voice carefully. “Are there any challengers?”

There was a pause. The world hung in the balance. Then, like a ripple, the pack dropped to their knees, starting at the back of the room. Finally, when the ripple reached them, Joshua helped her down, and knelt himself. They returned the pack's gesture and accepted it in one.

The fight Joshua had brought into her life was over. The pack now had time to heal. And Anna, as Joshua's mate and a pack alpha, would be there for it.