Guarded (True Alpha 2)

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Guarded (True Alpha, Episode 2)

Copyright © 2014 by Alisa Woods

September 2014 Edition

All rights reserved.

Sworn Secrets Publishing

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author. For information visit:

Alisa Woods
 

Cover by
Steven Novak

Guarded
 (True Alpha 2) - New Adult Paranormal Romance

As Lucas fights his instinctual attraction to Mia, focusing instead on guarding her and keeping her safe from the Red pack, Mia tries to discover the truth about Lucas’s dead mate. 

Guarded
(True Alpha 2) is 70 pages or 17,000 words. It’s the second of six episodes in the 
True Alpha
 serial.  

RELEASE SCHEDULE - 2014

9/2 -
Desired
(True Alpha 1)

9/2 -
Guarded
(True Alpha 2)

9/16 -
Hunted
(True Alpha 3)

9/30 -
Captured
(True Alpha 4)

10/14 - To Be Named (True Alpha 5)

10/21 - To Be Named (True Alpha 6)

10/28 - Box Set (True Alpha 1-6)

PRE-ORDER

Hunted
 (True Alpha 3) 

releases 9/16

OR

PRE-ORDER 

the full season

True Alpha
 (Vol 1-6) 

releases 10/28

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I killed her.

Lucas’s words froze Mia’s body against the door where they just had sex, but her mind spun like a carnival tilt-a-whirl. He couldn’t possibly mean what he said… not
literally.
He had said,
My mate is dead
. She assumed that meant his wife.

Did she just have sex with a wife killer?

A chill raced up Mia’s body, from her bare toes on Lucas’s impeccably polished wooden floor to her naked arms, where she clutched the tattered remnants of her bra defensively to her chest. The chill swept up her face to the top of her head, and the realization that Lucas might actually be a
killer
lifted her sex-mussed hair straight off her scalp. She tugged at her slim black skirt, still hiked up around her waist—a pretense at modesty that seemed more urgent the more the chill seeped into her body and chased away the remnants of heat-filled pleasure he had given her. A pleasure she had never experienced with anyone before. And yet all those passionate kisses, all those expert touches with his hands and mouth, the urgent way in which he said he couldn’t resist her any longer and had taken her against the door… were those the acts of a killer?

She shook her head, not believing it. Not with the way he looked at her, cared for her…
protected her.
When all he had to do was walk away. Mia didn’t know what dark thing in his past had taken his wife from him, but she knew this much: Lucas Sparks was no killer.

“You don’t really mean that,” Mia said to him.

He had turned his back on her. “I don’t say things I don’t mean, Mia.”

“I don’t believe you,” she said, standing straighter. “You just blaming yourself for your wife’s death or something—”

He whirled on her, instantly looming over her and menacing her with a dark look. The fear-chill raced through her again as he forced her back against the door with his powerful presence. “Do
not
presume you know anything about me. You don’t belong to a pack. You hide your wolf from your family. You know
nothing.”

Moments before, he had been pinning her to the door with his thrusts deep inside her. Now, he kept her there with the disdainful gaze he raked across her nearly-naked body. But even that look welled up heat across her skin. And holy hotness, the pleasure he’d wrung out of her in that short tryst against the door… in spite of the warring emotions in her head, her body still sang with the thrum of it. But now he wasn’t just angry that she lied about being a shifter—there was something else fueling the darkness in his eyes. Besides, he was right: she
could
shift, she just
didn’t
. At least not very often and usually at night when she was dreaming. Or when she was in the throes of passion, like she had been with Lucas.

“You’re right. I know nothing,” she said softly. Mia met his challenging look with one of her own. “Teach me.”

He was close enough to kiss her. Her inner wolf whimpered for him to press her into the door again. But he only let out an exasperated huff and turned away, shaking his head.

She couldn’t see why being a shifter would matter to him.
He
was a shifter, after all. The fact that her claws had come out and sliced into his back and shoulders hadn’t bothered him a bit. He was
wolf
—she could see those scratches were already healed. But there was something about her being a shifter that made him want her
less…
when it just made her want him
more.
Only a shifter could pleasure her like that and not wear scars as a result. But it was much more than that: her inner wolf yearned for him in a way she’d never felt before.

She
belonged
with him.

Only he didn’t seem to think so.

It had something to do with his dead mate—Mia’s mind flashed back to the darkened office at SparkTech with
T. Sparks
on the door. Whatever had happened, however his wife had been killed, it took part of him with it… and that darkness still sat inside him, like the shrine of his wife’s office, kept shrouded and silent. How could he work there every day, seeing that?

A new sympathy welled up inside her. Whatever had happened, Mia wanted to help him get past it. To understand that it wasn’t his fault, and that they could start something
new.

If only he would let her.

He was attracted to her, she was sure of it. She just had to convince him to give in to that force pulling them together, to give them a chance. But to do that, she would need more than angry stares and turned backs from him. And she would need to understand more about shifters and packs and…
him.
There were dozens of questions buzzing her brain.

Lucas had picked up his shirt from the floor. He pulled it over his head.

She scooped up her sweater as well. “Those men who tried to kidnap me were the same ones from the alley. Why are they after me? Do they think I’m going to turn them in for being shifters?”

It wasn’t like being a shifter was a crime in and of itself, but shifter DNA had some kind of magic—the DNA itself would shift, changing to wolf or human, depending on what form the shifter took. When Mia was wolf, she was truly
wolf—
her DNA matched her wolfy cousins in the wild. When she was human, her DNA was unique to her, but just as human as any other person
.
Magic allowed them to shift, but science measured the result—which meant shifters in wolf form could commit crimes without leaving human DNA at the scene. And turning shifters in to the police so they could obtain samples of both sets of DNA for their databases was considered your citizenly duty.

“Those wolves are from the Red pack,” Lucas said, not looking at her as he fixed the buttons on his shirt. “And the last thing they’re worried about is you turning them in.”

She fussed with her sweater and skirt to smooth them down. “Then why are they after me?” She reached down to pick up the tatters of her underwear and bra, then realized… she popped back up and met his gaze. He had been watching her, once her back was turned. “Wait… you
know
them?”

The muscles in his jaw tightened momentarily. Then he said, “They’re from Red Wolf Development.”

Her mouth dropped open. “The
internet
development company?”
No. Way.
Red Wolf was a direct competitor for SparkTech.

His gaze dropped, then found her shredded undergarments. He winced and dragged his gaze back up to meet hers again. “The Red pack has been a bitter rival of my father’s pack ever since they started up here in Seattle.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Mia held up her hands. Her underwear dangled from one. Frustrated, she threw it back to the floor. The lump of material skidded across the polished wood to the thick stone tiling of Lucas’s kitchen. She’d hardly had a chance to check out his apartment before, what with the rapid entry, fervent sex against the door, her secret revealed, and Lucas’s sudden withdrawal and anger. And now
he
had been holding out on
her.