Drawn To The Alpha 2 (4 page)

Chapter 7

When she woke, she was running once more. Well,
she
wasn’t running, but someone was carrying her and running. Pebbles crunched underfoot and bright morning sunshine blinded her. Her head lolled and bumped against a firm chest.

A firm chest. A man’s chest. Van.

She squinted up at his face. He had that wild look about him that he got after transitioning back to a man and was perspiring heavily. His dark hair hung in his eyes as he glanced down at her.

‘Are we home?’ she asked weakly, but he didn’t hear her. The question was soon answered, though; Van pounded up the steps of Fir Lodge and threw the front door open. He went directly to the lounge and placed her down on the couch. Sophia lay numbly for the next several minutes as Van busily stripped her damp clothes off and covered her with towels and blankets. He ran to the kitchen and came back with warm packs which he placed under her arms and across her stomach. He talked all the while.

‘We need to bring up your core temperature. These heat packs will help – you want them warm, not hot. We also don’t want to rub your skin to warm it; that’s a myth. Now, the room’s cold. I’ll get some wood and light a fire.’

Sophia guessed that he was talking to keep her awake, and it worked. Her heart felt warmed from the inside to hear the sound of his deep voice in the open air once more, rather than inside her head. She watched him as he brought in an armload of wood and set about building a fire. Only once it was roaring and the deep chill was beginning to rise out of Sophia’s bones did he sit down as well. He positioned himself on the floor beside her but then suddenly jumped up again to make Sophia a hot drink. When he finally settled down, he looked at her with a concerned face.

‘How do you feel now?’

‘I’m still very tired. But my mind feels a little less fuzzy.’

He rubbed his hands over his hair and face, looking utterly exhausted.  ‘You scared me, there, Soph. Your lips were so blue. During that last leg with you on my back, the thought started to creep into my mind that you wouldn’t make it. It was terrible.’

‘I don’t remember much about it aside from telling myself to keep holding on. Just keep holding on.’

‘When I saw you taking off your jacket beside the lake I wanted to yell at you to stop. But you didn’t look at me and I couldn’t risk barking. Being cold in the forest at night is one thing, but being cold and wet is deadly.’

‘I just didn’t want the Colti to see me wading across,’ she said weakly. ‘Lesson learned. Thank you for helping me.’ She reached out her hand and he gave it a squeeze. ‘On the bright side; I’m so pleased I was unconscious through the portal. I was dreading it.’

‘I understand why now; I wasn’t lucky enough to black out this time. I had visions. Terrible visions. As if every evil image I’ve ever stored in my brain was being squeezed out and displayed in front of my eyes.’

Sophia nodded. The same frightening experience had struck her on the way to Oak Tree Forest, and she’d dreaded it happening again on the way back.

‘There was one that was stronger than the others,’ he continued, his face taking on a haunted look. ‘I was looking at myself as a bent over old man, and I was desperately telling myself to go back home, and to never use the portal again.’

Sophia gasped. ‘I saw the same thing last time. It’s the one vision that stood out for me the most too as it was the only one that was trying to warn me. What do you think it means?’

‘I have no idea. Maybe it’s just a representation of our fears about travelling through the portal. There’s no doubt that it’s dangerous.’

‘I hope it’s nothing more than that.’ Sophia put down her mug and held out her arms to Van. He took off his shirt and slid under the blankets beside her. It was a tight squeeze on the couch, but there was nothing Sophia wanted more than to be pressed closely against him. His skin felt wonderfully silky and smooth against hers and she buried her face in the nook under his chin, breathing him in.   

‘Oh, Van. I’ve missed you. I know you never went away – you’re still
you
when you’re a werewolf, but it feels like so much longer than a few days since we’ve lain together like this.’

He kissed her gently on the top of her head. Desperate to feel his lips on hers, she raised her face up. Looking into his eyes, just before they kissed, it seemed like some of her telepathic abilities still remained. She was certain that she could hear Van’s voice in her head.

I love you, I love you.

Then she realized it was not telepathy at all, but her own thoughts shouting loudly in her mind. She kissed him with the full force of her emotion, happy tears spilling down her cheeks.

Sophia spent most of the next three days recovering in bed. Van insisted upon it. Sophia protested at first but surrendered herself to the indulgence once it became clear that Van wouldn’t be moved on the subject. The fuss was very indulgent and more than a little overwhelming. He brought a steady stream of hot soups and mugs of sweet tea up to the bedroom as well as running a deep, hot bath for her each evening. On the second afternoon she woke to find his collection of clear quartz crystals positioned all around her body on the bed. The sun was streaming through the window, reflecting off the crystals and sending beams of rainbow colored light around the room. It was a magical moment.

‘Clear quartz is a very healing crystal,’ Van explained later. ‘It’ll help to expand your energy field.’

They looked at each other, both aware of the undercurrent of his words. By the third afternoon of her recovery, Sophia had certainly recovered from the hypothermia, but she was still noticeably weaker than a few short weeks ago, as if she had a dose of the flu that she just couldn’t shake.  It was happening quickly; Van was taking over her energy, and it seemed that they had even less time than they thought to find the grey werewolf and enact the alternative. She gave herself a stern pep talk and swung her legs over to the floor. The time for lounging about in bed was over. They needed to get down to business. But, a little pampering was in order first.

She took a shower, washing her hair, shaving her legs and applying a nourishing face mask. Sure, they needed to get on and find that werewolf, but she was also a woman who had slept in a cave full of wolves and fought vampires off with her bare hands. She deserved an extra treat. And besides, the lengths of her leg hairs were outrageous. She applied a little makeup and slathered on thick body butter before blow drying her hair. When she emerged from the bathroom wearing her light pink cotton robe, she felt fresh and pretty and for that moment the weight of everything that was to come was lifted.

Van met her on the other side of the bathroom door. For a moment Sophia was entranced by the glow of his skin, the brightness of his eyes, the general vibrancy of his presence. Any trace of fatigue from their ordeal in oak tree forest was gone and he looked younger, intensely alive. He held her at arm’s length and admired her.

‘You’re beautiful,’ he said with a loving smile curving his lips. ‘I’ve missed seeing you in pink. It suits you.’ He pulled her close. She wrapped her arms around his broad torso and kissed the section of skin at the bottom of his t-shirt v. He ran his hands down her back and cupped her plump butt through the thin cotton. She wasn’t wearing any underwear. She moaned and gently rubbed the length of her body against his. The only thing that separated their naked skin was two layers of clothing and she made it her immediate concern to shed the first of them. 

Van gave a little sigh as her robe slid to the floor. He nuzzled into the soft curve of her neck, finding a ticklish spot and making her giggle. He turned his face to meet hers and they kissed tenderly. A wonderful, warm feeling spread from Sophia’s chest out and down her arms and legs, as if a flower was opening in her heart. She had discovered not long after meeting Van that when they kissed whatever emotion Van was feeling at that time, she experienced as well. They figured it was a Pure Soul thing. Right now she felt deeply and utterly in love and the thought that Van was feeling the same thing made the sentiment that much more meaningful. They’d been through so much already and there were great obstacles ahead. But if they could keep this feeling going she was certain they’d be just fine.

Then, all of a sudden, Van stepped back.

‘I can’t do this,’ he said, holding his hands up with a pained expression on his face. ‘I can’t make love with you while being unsure about what will happen to you as a result. I’m already robbing you of energy just by being around you; I don’t want to speed up the process any further.’

Bitter disappointment rushed through Sophia. All she wanted in that moment was to be intimate with Van. ‘Let’s just do it anyway. Throw caution to the wind. What do you say?’

‘But you’re already getting weaker. I can see it in your face, in the way you move.’

‘So what’s another day in bed to recover?’ she said, setting aside her earlier desire to get on with finding that grey wolf. ‘I’ve already had three of them. Besides, there’ll be nothing wrong with the way I move on that bed. I promise you that.’ She stood close to him and brushed her lips against his. Her nipples grazed against his t shirt. ‘So much of what we’re doing at the moment is about the bigger picture; Pure Soul, The Mother…’ she said. ‘I want to do something that’s in the here and now. Spontaneous. Just about us, in this moment, not worrying about tomorrow.’

He hesitated a while longer, then murmured, ‘If you’re sure.’

‘I’m sure.’

He peeled off his t shirt and jeans in response. Finally they were naked together. He slowly walked around her body, admiring her from top to toe, skimming her collarbone and shoulder with his fingertips as he moved. He stopped behind her and reached around to gently massage her full breasts. With the length of his front body pressed against her back, she could feel his coarse pubic hair and hardening cock grazing her butt. He kissed down the length of her spine and knelt behind her, admiring the curve of her derrière. He lightly squeezed her plump skin between his fingers.

‘Your butt is so sexy,’ he said throatily. 

He slid back up her body and this time his cock was rock hard as it pressed into her. Remembering the sensual massage that he’d given her before they travelled through Trinity Rock, an idea came to Sophia. She stripped back the bed covers and fetched a clean towel from the bathroom.

‘Lie down on the bed on your stomach,’ she instructed him. ‘Please.’

He raised his eyebrows a little, seeming to enjoy the fact she was taking control. While he positioned himself, she went to his side table.

‘Do you mind?’ she asked, gesturing towards the drawer.

‘Not at all.’

She opened the drawer and found the bottle of massage oil. Turning back to Van, she took a moment to admire the sight of him spread out in front of her; the sweeping curve of his back and bum, the firmly muscled arms and athletic legs, the thick head of dark hair. He really was a glorious specimen and it felt a sensual treat to pour a trickle of oil over his olive skin and watch it spread through the dips and hollows. Standing beside him, Sophia slowly began to spread the oil. She started with his back, from his narrow waist up the deep grove of his spine to his broad shoulders. She spent extra time on the back of his neck. There was tension there and she also just loved the shape and feel of it. With the locks of hair hanging down over the skin she was reminded of his wolf-neck; how powerful and capable he was as she clung onto it through the forest only a few nights before. She bent down and peppered it with kisses before moving on to his arms. Those strong, muscular arms that promised so much strength yet delivered so much tenderness when he wrapped them around her.

When she reached the ends of his fingers he turned over his hand, which was positioned right at the height of her inner thighs and gently probed between her legs with his oily fingers. She was already hot and wet and she allowed her eyes to close for a moment as he gently slipped over her mound. But she wasn’t done yet – he had to wait and so did she. There was nothing like a little anticipation to heighten the end pleasure, so she moved onto his gloriously firm butt and down his legs. This, of course, was no chore and by the time his whole back body was glistening from the touch of her hands she couldn’t help but rub a little oil into her own breasts and between her legs.