Page 15 of Forced By the Alpha

“Blushing like a virgin,” Emma drawled. “You can drop the innocent act, Bethy. You’re one of us now. A bloody White Winter.”

All of the emotions Beth had managed to stamp down flooded back. Her eyes brimmed with tears. Quickly, she turned away from Devon and the rest of the pack.Don’t let them see you cry,she thought to herself, clenching her hands until her fingernails dug into her palms. The pain distracted her enough to stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks.

“Can I go now?” She bit the words out. She didn’t want to be there, surrounded by those wolves and their joy for one more second. Their levity mocked her pain. Their good humor rubbed her raw.

“We’ll go together.” Devon held tight to her hand.

Beth didn’t miss the look he gave Emma, one that wiped the smirk off Emma’s face. There was something between them that ran deeper than sibling rivalry. Something she could exploit.

They made their way back up to the house, Devon’s arm moving to hold her around the waist, taking most of the weight off of her leg. It wouldn’t be long until she was healed and didn’t need the help, but it couldn’t come soon enough.

The silence between them was heavy. She felt the heat of his hand through the delicate dress and imagined his fingertips sinking into other parts of her.Get it together,she chastened herself.

At the bottom of the stairs, he swept her effortlessly into his arms. She gasped, caught by surprise, and flung her arms around his neck to secure herself.

“Don’t hate that,” Devon said with a laugh.

“Don't get used to it.” She held tight as they climbed the stairs.

If it taxed him at all to carry her up to the house’s porch, it didn’t show. He wasn’t even out of breath by the time he reached the top. She breathed in the scent of him. The spice of his skin mingled with the fresh smell of his hair. It drove her to distraction.

“I’ll just take you all the way,” he said when she twisted to drop from his arms outside the door.

She shook her head. “I can walk.”

“Not very well.” He turned his head to look at her. It brought his face close to hers, his lips just inches from her own.

“Whose fault is that?” She turned away, scowling.

He freed one hand and opened the door. The house was silent with the rest of the pack outside, his footsteps echoing in the hallway. They were headed toward her bedroom.

“Well, I heard you were injured before the pack found you, so… yours, I guess.”

She could see the curve of his smirk from the corner of her eye, and she let her nails dig into his back as he pushed open the door to the bedroom. The bed was still rumpled from where she’d been lying on it before the ceremony.

“I’m not—“ She swallowed and tried again. The words seemed to catch in her mouth. “We’re not… doing that.”

Devon said nothing. He crossed the room and set her down on the bed. She tried to read his face, but as always, it was closed to her. Where had that hint gone, of the boy he’d been? She’d seen a flash of it at the ceremony, but he was all alpha now: taciturn, thoughtful, and cold.

His hair fell forward over his eyes as he looked down at her. “I won’t force you.”

But the truth hung in the air between them like a glaring neon sign, one Beth couldn’t look away from. The mating ceremony wasn’t just a declaration in front of the pack. It was not complete until they mated. Her hands shook. She laced them together to keep them still.

“Not yet, you mean.”

She knew it would happen, it had to.

Chapter 6 - Devon

Devon watched the fear swell in Beth’s doe eyes. Fear of him. He deserved it, he knew that, after kidnapping her from her pack and forcing her to be his mate, but he wished he could make her understand that there was a reason for it. He’d only done it because he’d had to.

“We don’t have to. Not today,” he said.

He wanted to, though. His desire for her filled his every nerve. Her scent hung in the air, blown toward him by the breeze from the open window. If he let go of the restraint that made him human, he’d have her pinned down on the bed, moaning his name right then. But he wouldn’t let go.

Instead, he reached down and tucked a loose wisp of hair behind her ear, letting his fingers linger on the soft skin of her neck, her pulse strong and jumping beneath his fingertips. A frightened rabbit’s heartbeat.

He thought she would push, demand to know when, demand for him to leave, but she stayed silent, gazing down at her hands. Was she thinking of home?

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