Page 32 of Forced By the Alpha

Ignoring his yelp of pain that turned to a snarl, she started to run down the hall. She expected to hear the pound of his footsteps behind her at any moment. Part of her hoped for it. Part of her wanted to do far more to him than a swift hit to his balls.

She realized she wasn’t running to her own room, as the now familiar halls began to register in her adrenaline-flooded brain, but to Devon’s. Rather than overthink it, she stopped at his door and knocked, looking over her shoulder in case the man caught up.

He answered the door after the first knock, hair rumpled like he’d been in bed despite his quick response.

“Beth? What’s going on?”

She didn’t answer straight away, pushing past him into the room. His bed was made, but the comforter was creased, and a book was lying facedown on top of it. He shut the door and came to her, taking her in his arms.

“You’re shaking,” he said, chafing his hands up and down over her skin. “What’s wrong?”

“One of your wolves, he—“ she shook her head, cutting the words off before they came out of her mouth.

Devon’s eyes darkened, his hands tightening on her arms. “What did he do? Who was it? Caleb?”

“No! Not Caleb. I don’t know his name, he had blond hair, I think, it was dark and he…” she swallowed.

“Did he touch you?” Devon’s voice had gone cold and flat.

Beth bit her lip. The man had barely touched her, yet his intent had felt so sinister, it was hard to describe in words. But Devon did not need convincing. She had never seen him so angry, he was practically vibrating with it.

“Just to push me. It was what he was saying, the things he wanted to do.” Beth’s voice caught in her throat.

She was so tired of that place. So tired of feeling vulnerable, of feeling hunted. No sooner had she begun to let her guard down than someone came along and reminded her why she could never, ever do that among the White Winters.

Devon wrapped his arms around her and guided her down onto the edge of the bed. He was warm and solid against her. She leaned into him, clutching him, searching for safety in the pit of vipers.

“What do you need?” He asked her, kissing her hair, voice muffled. “Anything. It’s yours.”

His unexpected concern loosened the last hold she’d had on her emotions. Tears flooded silently down her cheeks. She pressed her head against him and let them out while he held her without comment. If he was judging her for her weakness, her softness, he didn’t show it.

When the tears began to slow, she guided him to lie down on the bed and laid her head on his chest. He stroked her, down her back, and up again, over and over.

“I’m all yours, Beth. Whatever you need from me.”

She looked up at him from beneath her wet lashes.

“I want him dismembered, I think. Or maybe off with his head.”

He laughed, caught by surprise.

“I’ll string him up by his toes from the railing outside your bedroom so you can hear his screams. I’ll cut his fingers off and put them in a pickle jar on your shelf,” he offered.

“Devon!” She said, slapping him lightly on the shoulder. “That’s disgusting.”

He bent to kiss her forehead. “You started it. I was just obliging my bloody Queen Mary.”

Draping her legs around him, she cuddled in closer. “Mary would have been driven to new heights of violent desires by your pack.”

The encounter in the hallway was becoming more distant, the longer she spent in Devon’s arms, but she could still the man's eyes on her, his hungry gaze. They didn’t respect her. She’d known that much. But she hadn’t guessed how far they would go, disobeying their alpha’s wishes right under his nose. It never would have happened in the Rosewood pack.

They held each other in silence, listening to the wind shuffle the leaves outside the window. It was hard to resist imagining that those moments were the real ones, tucked away from the rest of the world, when Devon was more than the alpha and the enemy.

“I know what I want,” she said at last, catching his hand and twining their fingers together.

“Anything,” he repeated, his voice sleepy now, his breathing steady under her cheek.

“Let’s go away somewhere. Just the two of us. Somewhere, we don’t have to worry about all of this.” She waved her hand in the darkness, encompassing the whole of the White Winter house.

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