True Alpha (33 page)

He withdrew his fingers slowly from her body and rose, finally getting rid of his clothing.

He was just as hard as he’d been the night before; the sight of his cock protruding, rigid, from between his leanly muscled hips made her pulse leap and sent a shiver of need down her spine. He’d gotten her so worked up the night before, it was almost a mercy that she’d been knocked unconscious by a blow to the head – nothing else would’ve been able to tear her out of the haze of raw longing she’d been walking in. Even now, her skin seemed to sizzle at the thought of it. He leaned over the bed and grasped one of her breasts, massaging her nipple. It tingled, going a little harder, and an answering throb made her clit ache for his touch.

The mattress shifted and the bedclothes rustled as he climbed back onto the bed, his normally sharp golden eyes looking a little hazy. As soon as he was near enough, she reached out and wrapped a hand around his shaft, pumping it from the tip to the root and back again. Soon, it would be her pussy wrapped around his cock, so tight it would feel like he was a part of her. The best part. Her channel tightened, ready to be filled, ready to let him claim her as not just his mate, but his bride, and to drive out the deep ache the night before had left her with.

He moaned, even as he caught her wrist, stopping her mid-stroke. Gently, he pried her hand from his shaft. “I don’t wanna wait any longer to be inside you.”

It was as if he’d read her mind. She pressed her hand against the mattress instead as he reclined on one side, positioning himself to enter her in the position they’d been favoring ever since her pregnancy had begun to show. She raised her feet and let them rest lightly on his thigh as he took his cock in his hand and rubbed the head against the seam of her sex, brushing her clit and causing fresh moisture to dampen her pussy as he teased her. She could have come like that, with the blunt tip of his erection creating heavenly friction against her clit. When he stopped, she was close, her body aching, tingling and burning – reaching for climax.

He almost pushed her over the edge when he slid inside her, filling her channel with one long, slow stroke that left her breathless. Her pussy stretched, accommodating his hardness as he sighed, pulling back and flexing his hips, sinking deeper with the second thrust.

She reached out, found one of his hands and squeezed it as her breath hitched; the pleasure his third stroke brought had taken her by surprise.

He squeezed back as he continued to rock into her, and her pussy seemed to become tighter with each stroke. Tension coiled in her belly, forcing her to take deeper breaths as she squeezed her eyes shut and let the pleasure take over every corner of her mind. When Jack placed his free hand between her thighs and pressed his fingertips against her clit, beginning a slow massage, she gasped.

Her climax was fierce and almost electric in its intensity, shocking a ragged moan out of her and causing her channel to clench around his hard cock. In that moment, she forgot about everything but the feel of Jack’s hand wrapped tightly around hers and the breath-taking pleasure of feeling him thrust hard inside her. Her channel was wracked by contractions that seemed to be pushing him over the edge, too.

He moaned as he drove himself into her, tightening his grip on her hand. The entire bed rocked as the heat of his release filled her and her pleasure ebbed, fading to a sense of satisfaction, of completion – there’d been a lot of bloodshed along the way, but they’d finally made it back into each other’s arms and had their wedding night.

The metal of her wedding band seemed a little warmer against her skin as he withdrew and settled beside her on the bed, wrapping an arm around her and drawing her close. A light breeze rushed through the room, causing the red curtain that hung over the only window to flutter. “The window’s open,” Mandy said.

“Must’ve forgotten to close it yesterday. I had it open while I was changin’ clothes for the wedding. Between the nerves and that hot, black tux, I thought I might spontaneously combust.”

“You were nervous?” Mandy asked, rolling onto her side to watch him as he stood and walked across the room to the window. Of all people, she wouldn’t have thought Jack would get worked up over a wedding – especially not when he was already mated to the bride.

“Yeah.” He pushed aside the curtain and moonlight poured through the window, illuminating his muscled frame and casting deep shadows across his broad shoulders. “Not because I was unsure about marrying you – I was already more committed than any ring or piece of paper could make me – but because I wanted to make everything perfect for you.” He closed the window, shutting off the flow of cool night air. “That, and I’m not used to wearing so much clothing.” His shoulders twitched, as if he were trying to shrug away the memory of the confining tux.

Mandy laughed. “You looked great in that tux; I’m glad you wore it.” Of course, she had a healthy appreciation for his usual attire, which typically consisted of well broken-in jeans and – occasionally – a t-shirt or open flannel that revealed more of his body than it left to the imagination. But it had been nice to see him dressed up for their wedding. And way beyond nice to watch him strip the tux off. “And everything
was
perfect.”

“No it wasn’t,” he said, a shadow darkening his eyes as he climbed back into bed and wrapped an arm around her again. “Being abducted is hardly what I’d call a part of a perfect wedding night.”

Mandy opened her mouth to protest, but he silenced her with a light kiss, brushing his lips against hers. His scent surrounded her, woodsy and masculine, an aroma she couldn’t fall asleep without breathing in anymore. “It’s all right,” he said, pulling the quilt up over their naked bodies and drawing her close, “things are perfect now.”

Epilogue

“Okay, push.”

Mandy had been pushing for the past hour. She gave it another try, heeding Clarissa’s advice though at this point, she didn’t really need it – every fiber of her being was screaming for her to push. She couldn’t have resisted if she’d wanted to. She’d been in labor for twelve hours, and she was so eager to hold the baby she’d been waiting nine months to greet that the desire almost overshadowed the pain. Almost.

“You okay, sweetheart?” Jack pressed a dry cloth to her forehead, tentatively wiping her brow, fighting the light sheen of sweat that seemed to be a permanent part of her now. She could feel the occasional bead of moisture trickling down her temple, tickling her jaw. After so much pushing and deep-breathing, she was hot despite the fact that it was flurrying outside and the cabin had been dusted with a light layer of snow – she could see flakes dancing past the bedroom windowpane if she turned her head. “Sweetheart?”

She did her best to nod, unable to speak. Each contraction tore the air right out of her lungs and made breathing a challenge, let alone speaking.

Poor Jack. The birth of his child had temporarily overshadowed his alpha status, putting him at the bottom of the short chain of command in the birthing room – which was their bedroom, temporarily transformed by Clarissa into a suitable facility for a very natural birth. Not for the first time, Mandy wondered what it would be like to have an epidural. Like liquid magic zooming through her veins, probably. Too bad she wasn’t human; she’d just have to endure this the way nature intended.

Mother Nature was cruel.

“You’re almost there,” Clarissa said, her voice clear and steady. “It’ll all be worth it Mandy, I promise.”

Mandy didn’t have a hope of returning Clarissa’s smile. Instead, she managed another nod. When the contraction finally ended, nothing seemed to have changed. Mandy breathed a sigh that was part exasperation and part exhaustion. “It seems like I’ve been pushing forever.” Between contractions, the pain eased, allowing her to talk. It was like standing in the eye of a hurricane, knowing you’d be swept up again in a matter of minutes.

“You’re doing great,” Jack said, squeezing her shoulder lightly. “Do you want some ice chips?”

He sounded so desperate to help somehow that she nodded.

By the time he returned from the kitchen with a cup of chipped ice, the next contraction had seized Mandy, causing her belly to ball up, tense and impossibly hard.

“Good, good, good…” Clarissa said, standing at the end of the bed, watching intently as if she expected the baby to emerge at any moment. Hopefully, that was exactly what would happen. “You’re doing great, Mandy. Can you push any harder?”

Mandy didn’t have enough breath to spare for an exasperated sigh. As Jack settled beside her, an ice-filled tumbler in hand, she bore down with all her strength.

“The baby is crowning!” Clarissa declared, her brown eyes gleaming.

The contraction ended, leaving Mandy right where she’d started, or so it seemed.

“This next one might be it,” Clarissa said. “I caught a glimpse of dark hair. Jack, we might have a little carbon-copy of you on our hands in a minute.”

Mandy smiled. A little boy, a miniature Jack, would be adorable. A girl would be too – a daughter with his thick, dark hair, and maybe his golden eyes, too.

“If the baby’s lucky, she’ll have her mama’s eyes,” Jack said.

“She?” Mandy asked as her smile widened.

He shrugged. “Well, I didn’t wanna call our baby an ‘it’, and I’ve always kinda imagined havin’ a little girl that looked like you.”

“Well, whether it’s a girl or a boy, I hope our baby looks like you.” They’d waited for nine months – why did these last few moments feel so long? She couldn’t wait to find out if they were having a son or a daughter, if she’d be buying tiny dresses or someday struggling to get a little boy to wear a shirt in the summertime instead of running around in just jeans all day like his daddy.

Jack held up his cup and rattled it lightly. “Ice chip?”

She agreed and let him press one to her lips. It quickly melted, cooling her tongue and trickling down her throat. It had barely made its way to her stomach by the time the next contraction began, startlingly strong. This was it – it had to be. Unfortunately, she couldn’t say so – she could only push.

“The baby’s crowning.” Clarissa looked ready to cradle a slippery little newborn. “I think we’ve got it this time. Mandy, you’re—”

For a moment, it felt as if everything below Mandy’s waist had burst into flames. Then the pressure was gone and she felt the baby emerge, headed for Clarissa’s capable hands.

Mandy collapsed against the pillows, every ounce of her energy evaporating. She was vaguely aware of the pressure of Jack’s hand squeezing hers.

“It’s a girl!” Clarissa said. “Congratulations, you’ve got a daughter. Jack, do you want to cut the cord?”

“I reckon so.” He stepped forward, took the scissors Clarissa handed him and snipped the cord where she indicated without even flinching.

In her current position, Mandy couldn’t get a good look at the baby, but she could see Clarissa hurrying to pat it down with a clean white towel and then bundling it in a receiving blanket.

A fresh surge of energy hit Mandy as her baby was placed in her arms. Wrapped in a blanket, only a round face and one chubby little fist were visible. Big, dark blue eyes blinked up at Mandy as she finally locked gazes with her daughter.

“She’s beautiful,” Jack said, leaning over Mandy’s shoulder and reaching around her to pull down a layer of the receiving blanket, uncovering their daughter’s tiny chin. “Just like you.”

She smiled as he pressed his lips against her temple, his kiss feather-light.

“Ella?” he asked as he pulled away, his eyes meeting hers.

Mandy nodded. That was the name they’d chosen together for their child if it was a girl. “Here, you hold Ella.”

Jack scooped Ella out of Mandy’s arms, so careful he might’ve been handling glass. “This is the first time I’ve ever held a baby. Am I doing it right?”

“Really?” Mandy’s heart skipped a beat as she watched him cradle Ella protectively, his large arms draped in the printed cotton blanket. “You’re doing fine.”

Ella managed to kick her wrappings loose and when one of her little feet emerged, he tucked it back inside and adjusted the blanket. Maybe there would be a few things he’d have to learn, but he looked like a natural at caring for their daughter. When he pressed a gentle kiss against Ella’s forehead, Mandy’s heart melted, and she’d never been more glad that she’d decided to stay for good in the Great Smoky Mountains.

About the Author

Ranae Rose lives on the US East Coast and is an avid reader and writer who can’t resist a good love story, and the hotter the better. You can learn more about Ranae and her books, including the Half Moon Shifters Series, at:
www.ranaerose.com