Page 10 of Unexpected Alpha's Claim

“Alright, Dr. Greenwell. You win,” I said, my tone wobbly. “I’ll show you why, but you have to promise me that it’s going to stay between us. No one else can find out about this.”

“You’llshowme?” Her eyebrows popped up. “What…?”

“Promise me,” I interrupted her, my tone stiff.

“Okay.” She gave a nod of agreement. “I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

I peeled off my coat, knowing what I had to do. It would add to her confusion, but I needed to be straight with her. A long narrative wouldn’t quench her curiosity. It would only invite laughter and mockery. I hadn’t been raised near humans, but my father's and grandfather’s stories had been engraved in my memory. Humans tend to ridicule anything their small minds can’t grasp. Monica’s mind was anything but small, but she was always going to be a human. I couldn’t take any chances.

“Here,” I said, setting my coat down into her embrace. “Hold this. I’ve got to warn you. I’m going to take everything off.”

“What do you have to dothatfor?” Her voice rose an octave, her curiosity starting to get on my nerves.

“Trust me, it’s necessary,” I assured her. I couldn’t go on and explain to her that, by keeping my suit on, I’d have to go back home in wolf form. My other option was returning to the ball naked, just like she had found me in my truck. Pulse rising, I kept my eyes on myself. This was hands down one of thetoughest calls I’d had to make. I was about to reveal to her who I was in a vain hope that she would forget I existed. Forhersake.

7

MONICA

So, the hunky Mr. Crawford was at last willing to be level with me. By stripping off…

I couldn’t conceive what in the world he had in mind. It was not as if I hadn’t seen him naked before or that I hadn’t liked it. Very much in fact. He was a tall, well-built man, who had spent a lot of time working out. Many men his age didn’t have a clue how important exercise is. He did, and he had poured tons of sweat into sculpting his body like that. But I think I would have noticed anything that would explain my questions.

My heart was running wild in my chest, and I couldn’t keep myself from staring at his nakedness. At least this time, there wasn’t a single drop of blood on him. All his bruises, cuts, and scratches had healed, not leaving so much as a scar to mark where they had been. I swallowed hard as Raul set his boots down by my feet.

A rapid, gunfire-like sound initiated a spectacle beyond my craziest dreams. Or nightmares. Yes, nightmares, not dreams. In front of my eyes, the human being disappeared. His bones cracking loudly as his body contorted and twisted tortured myears. His legs shortened and his arms twisted, thinning, and changing. In moments the two legs and two arms had been given place to four, shorter, leaner legs. As they did his entire figure shortened. His handsome face, the face my friends and I had marveled at, lengthened and turned into a muzzle. Light-green eyes were replaced by a shade I’d seen before.Those eyes.I knew them and their bright, reflective yellow.

Long, dark-brown fur spread over his massive back. A big patch of white graced his chest. A tail waved behind him as our gazes found each other and I was staring into those cold, calculating, animal, yellow eyes. I was too scared to move, standing stock-still as images from Sunday night flashed through my head. This wasn’t our first encounter… and now I know what he, it, whatever, is capable of.

“Oh, my God…” Came out of me unbidden, a whisper of utter disbelief. “It wasyou! You stopped Jack from hurting me.” A soft bark, high in pitch, is it… happy? A happy sound? How do I tell? “This is…” I shook my head sideways, closing my eyes for a moment, and then let them travel across his body. “God, I can’t find the words.”

He padded forward and his forehead nudged my chest, then he stepped back and sat on his haunches.Haunches. Oh god.He continued to stare at me in silence for a long moment while I tried to process what was happening.

Then the same, gunfire-like noise of bones cracking and twisting in unnatural ways echoed through the forest. He was reverting to his human form. I guess he didn’t wish to flaunt the strangeness of his animal form anymore.

Assuming his human form, costume? Disguise? Which was real? Which was him? He was close. Raul towered over me.Incongruous as it might be one thing stuck out in the swirling confusion that filled my head. He and his wolf shared a trait. The look in his eyes and the wolf’s. They both had the same sorrow in them. A deep hurt that he hasn’t shared with anyone.

“Now you know,” he said, his voice was tender with what I could only think of as a note of pleading. “For the record, I’d brought you some flowers to thank you for what you did for me, but…”

“Yeah, flowers,” I laughed, recalling the mangled lily stems on the sidewalk.

I shook my head, still struggling to wrap my mind around it all. Despite the swirling mix of disbelief and confusion, the rational, clinical part of my brain exerted itself. Just like handling any emergency, compartmentalizing, and focusing. He shrugged and he looked sheepish.

“What you did was very… noble,” I said, raising my hands and dropping them. “I don’t mean the flowers, well, not only the flowers. I have to say though, I was baffled to see… a wol—no,you, in my living room. And it was even more of a shock when you broke his arm.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sca—” I raised my hand and cut him off before he could finish.

“But I get it. I think I know why you did it. You were trying to protect me, weren’t you?”

He frowned deeply then broke eye contact and looked down at the ground. He moved his hands to cover himself as if only then remembering that he was very, very naked.

“Yes,” he confirmed with a nod, bending down to pick up his pants.

One more question burned in my head, and I couldn’tnotask it. I had to know.

“I don’t mean to complain, but, uh…” I faltered, suddenly feeling shy and uncertain. “Why did you stop? You know, earlier?”

“Because you’re human,” He said with a harsh bluntness to the tone of his voice. “There are rules regarding our relationships with humans.”

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