Curves For The Lone Alpha (A Big Girl Meets Bad Wolf Romance) (8 page)

- X -

Once again James wasn’t beside me when I woke. Naturally
part of me was already thinking it was all a dream. But the ache in my thighs
(and elsewhere) and a painful tightness in my back told me otherwise. I stood
and twisted my head trying to get a look at it. Ragged scratch marks ran from
my shoulder blades to the small of my back. They looked nasty and they stung
like hell, but I still couldn’t help smiling at them.

I turned back to look at myself straight on. For the first
time in as long as I could remember I didn’t hate what I saw. Yeah, I could
probably do with joining a gym, although I’d take the previous night's
exertions over a step class in ill-fitting lycra any time. But other than that
I was a woman, with a woman’s body. Full, soft, ripe and desired by a man, who
was something more than a man.

I didn’t need crazy heightened dream senses to smell bacon
sizzling in the kitchen. Yeah, that was my kind of man. I found his shirt and
pulled it on because that’s the fantasy isn’t it? To walk out of the bedroom
the morning after the night before, clad only in the t-shirt of the man who
rocked your world.

No... the fantasy was more than that. I looked at the mirror
again. The round globes of my breasts pressed heavily against the fabric,
shaping it to my ample body. I turned a little to see the cheeks of my ass
peeking out from beneath the hem. The fantasy, the real fantasy, was to walk
out of the bedroom the morning after the night before wearing nothing but his
t-shirt and then see the look on
his
face and know for certain that
you
rock
his
world. I deserved that. Every woman deserves that.

“Wow.”

“I know right?”

“That shirt is
really
... filthy. Seriously there’s
blood and God know’s what all over it. It’s really gross.”

I poked my tongue out at him even as he stalked around the
counter to embrace me. We fit together perfectly, like we’d being doing it our
entire lives.

Breakfast was bacon and a choice of water or flat champagne.

“We need to do some shopping.”

“True. I should get some stuff to fix the door as well. You
never know what’s lurking out there in the woods.”

I rolled my eyes, “I meant food and stuff, but sure.”

“Carrie I…” His tone took a turn for the melancholy and he
hesitated, his brow furrowed. “I’d stay here forever if I could.”

But…
I knew it was coming. Last night was amazing,
but guys like him don’t end up with girls like me. It’s the way of the world.

“But, my life is… complicated. There are things I need to
take care of. Things I have to do alone.”

I prodded the bacon around my plate, unable to meet his
eyes.

“And then I’ll find you again I promise.”

“You promise?” My voice was meek and needy, on the verge of
breaking.

“It’s more than a promise. A promise is a commitment that
you try and keep. This is something more than that. Do you understand? I can’t
explain everything but there is something between us and whatever it is it’s
stronger than words and it’s stronger than empty promises. I’ll
need
to
find you again. I can’t conceive of a world where I don’t find you again.”

I understood. I understood because I felt it too.

“But before I go. I want to show you something. There’s some
people I want you to meet. We need to go shopping and then I’ll take you to
them.”

When I looked up I was surprised to see his piercing blue
eyes were damp with tears.

- X -

As much as I really wanted a ride on his motorbike, he
insisted we take the pickup. Although by way of compensation he promised that
we’d keep an eye out for a store that sold helmets so he could take me for a
ride later. I tried to spin that into some kind of humorous double-entendre and
managed to get a half-chuckle out of him before he stopped and froze in his
tracks.

He sniffed the air and looked concerned, then he sniffed the
truck, before turning to me.

“Whose truck is this? It’s not yours.”

“No, why? What’s the problem?”

A growl, “Whose is it?”

He sounded angry and upset and I didn’t appreciate the way
he was speaking to me. It reminded me of our first encounter, when he’d
suddenly freaked out and started accusing me of being sent by someone. I really
had no idea what he was on about, but had to admit that the violent mood swings
were a bit of a concern.

“It’s my father’s OK and do you think you could tone down
the asshole, just a little bit?”

“I… sorry. I just… there’s some things I can’t…”

“I get it. Secret missions and all that. You don’t have to
tell me if you don’t want to, but you can’t turn on a dime and start talking to
me like that. It’s not how people who...”

People who what? I’d backed myself into a corner. People who
love each other? We’d only known each other for a day at most. Of course it had
been a fairly eventful day, both in and out of the bedroom.

He apologized and then grinned when I tossed him the keys. I
didn’t feel like driving and he, like pretty much every man I’ve ever known,
was much more comfortable behind the wheel than in the passenger seat. However,
on the long ride into town I did notice him sniff the air and frown on more
than one occasion. Something was bothering him.

- X -

I gathered the ingredients for a nice meal. Nothing too
heavy. A way to a man’s heart was through his stomach and all that, but it if
this was going to be our last day together for a while, it wasn’t just his
heart I was interested in.

Once I was done James took control of the trolley and
steered it towards the pharmacy. He grabbed handfuls of aspirin and bandages
and a couple of first aid kits. He was a man on a mission and it didn’t seem
right to interrupt him for an explanation. From there he headed to the tinned
food aisle and once he’d cleaned that out he left me with a trolley so heavy I
could barely push it, while he went to get another. He filled the second
trolley with bottled water, followed by dozens of packets of dried fruit and
nuts. The teller probably assumed we were a couple of survivalists as he rang
up our impressive haul.

But he wasn’t done yet. After we’d loaded up the truck we
crossed the road to visit another store and fill another trolley. This time it
was clothes. Just simple stuff, underwear and plain t-shirts, in all sorts of
sizes, and a lot of cold weather gear: jackets, gloves and scarves. That’s when
I figured it out. Where we were going and why we were on a shopping spree.

On the way to the checkout we passed the toy section
and something caught my eye. A cute little toy wolf, sitting proudly, its head
held high. I picked up the soft toy and held it up for his appraisal. He nodded
back at me and even though he was smiling I saw a sadness in his eyes that
moved me so much it hurt. I managed to hold back the tears until we were back
in the truck. I couldn’t help it. There was just so much sadness in him.

We didn’t speak. I just leaned against him as he gunned the
engine and headed back towards the mountain. Once we hit unpaved roads I
straightened up and took a deep breath before wiping the tears from my eyes. I
looked at James and he smiled back at me.

My new boyfriend was taking me to meet his family.

- X -

I was only here to ID the body and didn’t need to stick
around, but curiosity got the better of me and I had nowhere better to go. So I
spent the best part of the morning lying prone in my hide, watching through the
scope and waiting.

I was just about to pack up and bug out when I heard a
vehicle heading back towards the camp. The prodigal pack leader had returned to
the scene of the crime. Interesting. I’d assume that once the deed was done
James would be long gone. But instincts are a bitch I guess. James is built to
protect and defend the weak and as much as he likes to pretend he’s dead
inside, my big bad pet can’t resist a lost cause.

I located the truck with my scope as it swung into the camp.
He’d brought the woman with him. Very interesting. She was a wild card. She
definitely wasn’t a player. Nothing came up in her files. But then, on a whim,
I’d run a check on her old man and oh boy! Daddy set all sorts of alarm bells
ringing. Alarm bells that were way above my pay grade.

Cute though. A real woman. My kind of woman.

As he got out of the pickup James sniffed the air and looked
in my direction. Damn, he was good. All these state-of-the-art high-tech
gadgets and gizmos and he’d made me in seconds. The rest of this sorry excuse
for a pack hadn’t so much as looked in my direction all morning.

I watched for a while as he unloaded the back of the pickup.
The adults were suspicious and guarded and accepted his charity without any
open displays of gratitude. The kids ate it up. It was like Christmas.

I kept my crosshairs over his heart as he moved through the
camp like a big, scruffy messiah. He’d done his job. Travis was dead and all
was right in the world. If he knew what was good for him. He’d stay here and
take over as pack leader, keep his head down and be a good dog.

I didn’t hate him as much as he thought I did. To be honest
I’d actually grown kind of fond of him. He was an effective assassin and I
admired that. He just asked too many damn questions. I didn’t hate him. But
when the order came, I’d put him down without thinking twice. I wouldn’t have a
choice.

I stood, stretched and slung the rifle over my shoulder
before heading back down the mountain to the ranger’s station.. There didn’t
seem too much point in hanging around or trying to remain inconspicuous now
that James had my scent.

Before I left I took one last look at the woman. Yeah,
definitely my type. Shame she had such terrible taste in men. I may not be an
expert on matters of the heart, but the two of them looked like they were
joined at the hip. And they’d known each other what, thirty-six hours tops?

I made a mental note to look her up once the dust settled.
If she survived.

- X -

If you made it this far thank you so much for reading my
novella. What started as a simple tale of lupine lust became so much more as I
wrote. Between the lines I was building a whole world of shifters, the women
who love them, the dark forces that hunt them and a centuries old war that
threatens entire species.

While this can be read as a complete stand alone story there
are still unanswered questions and I’m looking forward to diving back into the
world of James and Carrie and others like them if you want more. So if you do
want more, please let me know. Either drop me an email at
[email protected]
, check
out my blog (where you’ll find more background information about this world) at
http://mollyprince.com/
or sign up for my
mailing list at
http://eepurl.com/I3UZf
.

Of course the best way to tell me you want more and support
my work as a self-published author is to leave a positive review.

And before anyone points it out… yes Jimmy has a hairy
chest, but my cover model does not. I hope you can forgive me but come one!
Those abs! That chin! That please-take-me-home-and-look-after-me posture. I
just couldn’t bring myself to change him.