Craved by an Alpha (8 page)

The same rule that Stellan intended to use to make all the unmated females, regardless of their status, submit to him.

Cavanaugh didn’t want such a union with her. It wasn’t right.

It wasn’t what he wanted for them.

He didn’t want a mistress.

He wanted her to be his mate.

He wanted her to love him. To have that, he had to wait until he was free of his status. Only then would he be sure that what she felt for him was real.

It was getting more difficult by the second though. The longer he was around her, her scent filling his lungs and her curves tempting his eyes, the stronger his need to kiss her became. Every tree they passed, he fantasised about pinning her to it and stealing her breath with a kiss that would have her melting into him and moaning his name as she had the last night they had made love.

He palmed the growing bulge in his dark grey trousers, shifting it into a more comfortable position.

She glanced back at him again and he pretended he was fiddling with the hem of his charcoal fleece. He tugged it down a little so she wouldn’t notice the effect she was having on him and kept walking, not daring to look at her until he felt her gaze leave him.

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He wasn’t sure that even a vast distance between them would stop him from giving in to the pressing need to touch her, to kiss her and show her that he wanted her more than anything. He wasn’t sure he would be able to last another night with her.

The need that had been gradually building inside him from the second he had spotted her in Underworld was reaching boiling point and he was burning for her.

The forest began to thin as they ascended and the ground turned rocky underfoot. Eloise continued to lead, stealing more of his focus away from the world around him as they followed a steep trail up the mountainside. There were less predators for him to worry about up here. Tigers continued until several thousand metres up into the mountains, where their territories clashed with those of the snow leopards, but leopards were scarce up here and clouded leopards remained in the forest below.

Eloise skidded back a step on the loose stony ground and huffed as she regained her footing, muttering beneath her breath. Cavanaugh guessed she was blaming the boots he had bought for her again. They were probably too new for such a trek, their thick soles and deep unworn grips making them slippery over some terrains, but they were far better than the ones she had sported before. He doubted she would have made it this far without falling flat on her face, or worse, if he had left her to attempt to traverse the forest and the mountain in her worn out boots.

She trudged on ahead and he closed the distance between them as the path widened, trailing through the odd patch of scrub on the desolate mountainside. It was grey as far as the eye could see. Only the occasional group of trees that were hardy enough to survive at such an elevation broke up the monotonous landscape on the slope stretching ahead of him. The path was a paler wiggly line slowly ascending towards one such patch of trees. Beyond those, the mountain suddenly rose up as a vertical wall that would challenge the most adept of human climbers.

In the distance behind him, a call went out, a low mournful sound that had his ears pricking. A snow leopard. He felt the big cat’s need beating within him too. It was a male looking for a receptive female.

It wanted a mate.

Eloise looked back at him, the sprinkling of rose across her cheeks saying she had heard the call too and knew what it meant. Cavanaugh prowled towards her, narrowing his eyes on hers with each step closer he came to her, and she dropped her gaze, the colour on her cheeks darkening.

Gods, he wanted to kiss her when she looked so shy and beautiful.

“We should hurry if we’re going to start our ascent today.” She scurried away from him and he grunted, wanted to growl out his frustration over the way she kept escaping him, and then stalked after her, driven by a need to hunt her.

His snow leopard form shifted restlessly beneath his skin, wanting out. He wanted to transform and obey his compelling need to walk for a while in his other form, but he couldn’t. It was safer for both of them if he remained in his human one. The big cats in the area would view him more as a threat in this form. In his other form, they might want to fight over territory with him.

He didn’t want to fight in front of Eloise, not after her soft confession last night.

He didn’t want her to be afraid for him again.

She scrambled up the steepest part of the path to join the one that intersected it and led along the ridge towards the trees and the vertical wall of rock they needed to scale.

Cavanaugh followed her, only briefly looking behind him towards the direction the call had come from, unable to deny his desire to see the snow leopard. He hadn’t seen one in years, except for himself in the mirror of the playroom. He hated seeing himself in his snow leopard form though, because it made him think of Eloise. It took him back to all the times they had trekked together and played in their cat forms, and he ended up aching with a need to see her that lasted for days.

She stopped at the base of the wall in amidst the trees and looked up the height of it. Several hundred metres of sheer grey rock, with few handholds and only one place to rest. It was a challenge he relished. This was the point he had always looked forwards to when journeying to or from the village.

Just the sight of it had his heart beating harder, pumping adrenaline through his veins as his body prepared for the exhilaration and strain of the ascent.

He slipped his pack off and undid it, taking out everything that was necessary, including a smaller pack that would have to suffice from this point forwards. It was large enough to accommodate his sleeping bag, the food, the canteen, and a change of clothes. He stashed the bigger pack in a crevice where no one would find it.

Eloise was already stripping down to her base layer of a long-sleeved thermal top. He stared at her, unabashed even when she glanced his way. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. The tight top hugged her breasts and stirred hunger within him, reawakening the fierce need to draw her into his arms and kiss her.

Cavanaugh dragged his eyes away from her and busied himself by following her lead, removing his fleece and t-shirt, and replacing them with a similar black thermal top. It was chilly with only the thin layer, but snow leopards could cope with extreme cold, and it wouldn’t be long before the exertion of scaling the sheer rock face had him warmed up. Even in such a flimsy layer, he would end up hot and sweaty by the time they reached the small cave halfway up the several hundred metres high sheer wall.

He stepped into his harness and made sure it was tight and secure around his hips before picking up the one for Eloise.

She tensed as he approached her, triggering his desire to stalk her, to hunt her and make her surrender to him. He tamped down that need and swallowed hard, fighting to get his mind off what he was about to do and shut down the way his body was reacting to just the thought of it.

It was no use.

The moment he kneeled in front of her, his gaze level with her hips, he lost the battle against his body. All of his blood rushed south, making him instantly hard in his trousers. He drew in a deep breath and it only made things worse, filling his senses with her scent. He wet his lips and held the black harness out to her. She stepped into it, caught her left boot on the straps, and jerked forwards. Her hands came down on his shoulders to steady her, sending fire blazing along his bones.

He growled and she snatched them back, a little gasp escaping her.

He hadn’t meant it as a threat and she knew it. She had sensed the desire within him, the need that pounded in his blood, and had heard it in his hungry growl.

“Sorry,” she whispered and he mentally cursed her for apologising again.

She could touch all she wanted, as long as she initiated things. That was the rule he had to keep in place so he would know that she wanted him, that whatever happened between them wasn’t because he was her alpha.

He had drawn a line between them and she had to be the one to cross it.

She had to be the one to show him that what they had shared a decade ago hadn’t been one-sided. She had been in love with him.

As he was in love with her.

He tugged the harness up her legs, fastened it in place around her hips, and stepped away from her, giving himself a moment to bring his hungers back under control. He grabbed the rope they would be using for the ascent and tugged it, testing its strength. He threaded the rope through his harness and made sure it was secure before taking a final deep breath.

Cavanaugh turned around to face her.

She stood a short distance away, retying her rich brown hair, preparing herself for the climb. It needed zero distractions and one hundred percent of their focus. There were no points on the climb where they could attach themselves to anchors in the rocks. Protecting the pride meant leaving nothing on the wall that could be used by humans to reach the top and the hidden valley there.

The only security he and Eloise would have was each other.

He closed the gap between them and threaded the rope through her harness, his gaze fixed on his work. It was nice to finally be linked to her in a way, even if it was only through a rope. He tugged it, checking it was secure and wouldn’t slip free of the harness. He needed to know that it would take her weight if she slipped.

He couldn’t lose her.

He had spent too long without her as it was.

He would sooner die than face the rest of his life without her.

He lifted his gaze to her face, immediately losing himself in her deep honey-coloured eyes. They bravely held his, even when her heart accelerated in his ears, quickening her breathing with it, and the sharp scent of nerves laced her sweet scent.

“Cavanaugh?” she whispered breathlessly, her soft voice teasing him into drawing her closer to him, tugging on the rope that connected them and not stopping until she was mere inches from him.

Her head tilted back, her eyes still holding his.

His heart beat harder and he couldn’t breathe as he stared down into her eyes, the air growing thick around them once more.

He wanted to kiss her, needed just one kiss to build his confidence, not just for the climb ahead of them but for his battle to win her, but he wasn’t sure how she would react to it.

His fingers flexed around the smooth rope.

He backed off a step and let it slip through his grasp, and turned away from her, lifting his head towards the sheer rock wall.

He couldn’t kiss her, and not only because he had vowed she would be the one to make the first move.

He stared at the dark grey cliff face that loomed over him.

He couldn’t kiss her because he didn’t need to try to climb it with a painful rejection clouding his mind.

One second was all it would take.

One second in which his focus slipped.

One second that would spell the end of their forever.

Eloise gripped with her left hand and swung herself across to her right, reaching for the next hold she had spotted there. She caught it with the tips of her fingers and pulled herself forwards, improving her grip on the narrow gap in the grey rock wall.

She felt Cavanaugh’s gaze on her again, hot and piercing, sending a rush of heat through her. He had to stop looking at her that way.

Her concentration was already shot. She couldn’t stop thinking about how Cavanaugh had reacted when she had touched him at the base of the cliff, using her hands on his shoulders to steady herself. Hunger had flashed in his eyes and his low growl had sent a hot shiver bolting through her, filling her with a potent need to skim her hands over his broad shoulders and tempt him into kissing her.

She had thought that he would when he had pulled her towards him, his eyes filled with desire that she could scent on him. He had released her but she knew he had come close to kissing her, had somehow mastered his desire and stopped himself. Why? She had cursed him for not going through with it. He had fired her up and then backed away, leaving her head filled with thoughts of what might have been and questions about why he would kiss her, why he had stopped, and what the hell was wrong with her. She shouldn’t want him to kiss her. She had to fight her attraction to him. It was for the best.

Her heart called her a liar.

It wasn’t for the best. Resisting him and her need of him was driving her crazy.

He had been on her mind all day, stealing her focus away from the world around her during their trek. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him since he had woken her this morning before dawn, rousing her from a wicked dream of him. She had opened her eyes to find him lying beside her, propped up on his elbow, his face above hers. His silver-white hair had been mussed, as if he had been tugging it all night, ploughing his fingers through it. It had tempted her to do the same. His grey eyes had been warm and bright, filled with a strange light that had left her feeling he was happy and it was because she was with him.

She pushed it all out of her mind and tried to focus on the climb.

Cavanaugh looked back down at her again, sending another fierce hot shiver through her. He really had to stop looking at her like that.

She couldn’t concentrate whenever he did and found herself watching him as he climbed instead.

He was an expert climber, far more agile than any of the other males in their pride. She had forgotten just how skilled and powerful he was. He made climbing the sheer wall of the mountain look easy, the thick muscles of his arms working hard beneath his tight black thermal top.

Cavanaugh looked down and paused with only his right hand and the tip of his left boot on a hold. Her stomach turned. She trusted him, but she wished he would hold on with both hands and feet. If he fell, she wasn’t sure she could support his weight. She would try, but deep in her heart she knew that the force of the rope that linked them snapping taut would pry her away from the rocks and have her falling with him. They were already close to one hundred metres above the path. If they fell from where they were now, they would definitely break enough bones to leave them vulnerable to the predators that made the mountains their homes.