Page 4 of Alpha's Unwilling Mate

As shifters we burned through alcohol pretty quickly. It took a lot to get us inebriated, but I might make the effort tonight. Ivy had me both ready to run and knowing I had to stay. I wouldn’t be a pawn, but I wouldn’t pull away Ivy and Jasmine either. Which left me no further along in my thinking than I’d been before I’d gotten to the bar.

“Here you go, ladies.” Fresh beers and a new bottle of tequila were set on the table. “Band is setting up now. Give me a wave if you need anything else.”

“What if you take the initiative and pick the one you want?” Ivy suggested after a few more shots. “Think about it. You turn the tables. Pick one of them, and say you want him or none at all. Hell, you could demand Bastion James himself. See how he likes the shoe on the other foot.”

“The whole point is I don’t want to be mated to any of them,” I reminded her.

She waved her hand, and I realized she was feeling the effects of the alcohol. Ivy’s personality was so large I sometimes forgot how much smaller than me she was. While I topped out at five-feet, eight-inches, Ivy was barely five-two in her bare feet. That meant it didn’t take as much liquor for her to feel it.

“Then we should think about running, which means I should probably start sobering up.”

“Not yet,” I said, pouring fresh shots and pushing one toward her. “So you think I should appeal to his reason.”

“It’s as good a suggestion as any. Just be sure not to fall for his magnetism. I hear it’s pretty strong.”

I laughed. “Who have you been talking to?”

“Anyone I could find,” Ivy admitted. “From what I hear, there are a lot of female wolves willing to sprawl out for him to mount. Hell, for any of his group, for that matter.”

I glanced at her over the top of my beer. It cracked me up how we nursed our beers slowly but downed tequila as if it were water. Priorities, right? The music thrummed, and I thought it was time we exercised something more than our minds and mouths.

“Let’s dance,” I urged, needing to get lost in something other than my head. My thoughts raced, and my wolf pressed against my skin. Right now, the best thing was to get up and move.

I’d just started to lose myself in the music when I felt the charge in the room. I lifted my eyelids to see a bunch of lethal-looking wolves making their way across the room. Other shifters moved out of their way. My gut told me who the new group was before my ears caught the whispers.

Alpha pack. Bastion James.

I stayed where I was on the dance floor. Either Ivy hadn’t noticed the change in the room or didn’t care as she continued to dance. I saw several of the men with James watching her ass shake then found myself captured by a pair of dark eyes. I swear the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. Or maybe, it was just my lungs. Either way, the heat he put off singed me. I felt it in the soles of my feet, working up my legs to pool between my legs, making my most intimate parts moist and achy. I licked my lips, feeling parched. Ivy said something, but I couldn’t tear my attention from the man I knew had to be Bastion James. I couldn’t look away. A shiver worked through me. My breasts swelled as my areolas tightened, turning my nipples into taut buds. I ached. For him.

One arrogant brow lifted, and a corner of his mouth twitched insolently. That was all it took for whatever spell he’d had me under to snap, freeing me. I returned the look with interest, letting my gaze skim over him from head to toe. The man was huge. He’d easily tower over me, and that was saying something. His chest was broad, thick with muscle, and part of me wanted to rub all over him, marking him with my scent. I blinked with shock at my thoughts. Mark him with my scent? What the fuck was my wolf thinking?

I flicked out my tongue to slick my lips, feeling parched and ready for more tequila. His gaze narrowed, and my belly tightened. I forced my gaze from his, glancing around the room, noting other females preening and posing in attempts to pull attention their way. When I glanced back toward him, his attention hadn’t wavered. His gaze was still glued to me. He said something to one of the men with him, and the guy nodded. A few of his men fanned out across the room, and the bar began clearing out. The band kept playing, and I kept moving, waiting to see what he planned.

The music moved me. I swiveled my hips and ran my hands over my body as I gyrated to the beat. It wasn’t long before more eyes than his followed my movements. He didn’t seem to like that, and I smirked. A few of our community still hung out, and apparently, one of them was feeling ballsy. I didn’t mind when he joined Ivy and me on the dance floor. I did mind when he reached for me. A growl built in my throat, and I was ready to embrace the mean coming on when he was suddenly gone. A huge beast of a guy stepped in front of me, the same one James had spoken to earlier.

“It’s time for you to go home, Miss Byrd.”

What the ever loving fuck? Seriously?

“Funny,” I countered. “I’m pretty sure it’s time to dance.”

“Your father would like you to go home,” beast man said again, probably tacking on the father bit in hopes of getting my ass moving. The joke was on him.

I glanced around the room, making a point of peering around his massive chest. My gaze skimmed over Bastion. I registered amusement on his face.

“My father wants me home? Do I look twelve to you?”

“What the hell?” Ivy demanded as she moved between me and beast man. She slammed both her palms against his chest, but I knew he stepped back only because he wanted to. “Step off, asshole.”

“We’re dancing. Now, if you’ll excuse us.” I turned, refusing to allow my attention to stay on him. I resumed dancing, really getting in to it. I bumped into him a few times, noticing every time I did he backed away. So beast man didn’t like to be touched either. Good to know.

I swiveled my hips, backing my ass up…and encountered a set of hard thighs. A large hand wrapped around my waist, the palm splaying wide over my abdomen, anchoring me to the solid frame behind me. My breath seized in my lungs. I’d felt this heat earlier. Only not nearly so close. Liquid pooled between my thighs as my channel grew damp for the taking. I was so out of my league here.

---