Page 31 of Brutal Alpha

“Mine.”

There was no defiance left in me as my orgasm rocked every inch of my body. Clutching the tree for support, my toes curled into the dirt even as my legs gave out entirely, held up only by Ethan’s strength.

“Yours,” I panted with every gasp of breath I could steal, and then he was inside me.

The stretch of him sent fresh sparks of pleasure dancing through my body, and I tumbled over a second peak, clenching and twitching around his length as he buried himself inside me, where he belonged.

Every stroke of his cock was like some divine torture; I was over-sensitive and strung out already, yet with every snap of Ethan’s hips I was building to another earth-shattering crescendo. I couldn’t control the breathy moans that escaped every time he bottomed out, morphing into a long, unbroken whine as I felt his knot begin to form. We must look like every human fantasy of shifter debauchery, rutting in the forest, uncaring of who might come across us.

“Please,” I gasped. “Please, please—”

I hardly even knew what I was begging for, but Ethan did. His hands left my hips to pull me upright, one hand clamped possessively around my neck while the other tugged down the neck of my sundress to expose my breasts, pinching and grabbing at my hard, aching nipples.

I couldn’t think. I had become something entirely carnal, wanting and wanting and wanting. Ethan’s knot was pressing against my entrance, stretching me almost to the point of pain, and I needed it so badly I could barely breathe. There were lips on my neck, on my shoulder, and then a set of teeth nipping at the skin of their junction, right where the mating mark should be.

My neck bent on instinct, granting him access to the soft skin, inviting him to sink his teeth into my flesh, to mark me as his. I felt his growl as it rumbled up through his chest, and he nosed and nipped at the offered spot, his breathing comingheavy as he continued to thrust roughly into me. Each one went deeper than the last, and then I was spread around his knot, stretched and filled until it almost hurt—and perhaps that was what brought me enough clarity to warn him.

“Only—only if you mean it. Please.” I desperately wanted his mark, but not if he was going to take it back when we returned to our senses. To be knotted and rejected was one thing—I’d lived through it once, and for the sake of the pleasure that was driving me higher and higher with every passing second, I could live through it again—but marked and rejected? It would be too much, even for me.

With a roar, Ethan’s hands on my body tightened, and he shoved the rest of his knot inside me, filling me completely. The thrust of his hips didn’t stop, hitting every sensitive place over and over and over, but even as I braced myself for it, no bite came, no sweet pain to push me over the edge. Instead, one of Ethan’s hands came down to my clit, rubbing me in tight, fast circles until I seized and clenched and came again, pulling him with me. My pleasure stretched on and on as his hot come filled me up and his fingers stroked me through it, and by the time I came down, I couldn’t tell if the tears streaking my face were from ecstasy or heartbreak.

Chapter 14 - Ethan

I had known, intellectually, that fucking Julia again was not going to solve all my problems. In fact, I was very aware that it might cause more problems, or at least exacerbate my existing ones.

Unfortunately, knowing this did not stop me.

At the very least, the incident assured me that she was well enough to make the journey to Ensign. That was useful. It was also the best sex of my life—I couldn’t stop thinking about the way she’d shuddered and come apart over and over again, on my fingers and my cock and knot—but that was irrelevant. Also irrelevant was the way my wolf had whined and howled and insisted that I sink my teeth into the tender flesh where her shoulder met her neck. I’d managed to hold the instinct at bay, but only just. I might know better, but my wolf was still convinced that Julia was my mate, and he was nipping at my heels, demanding I mark her as mine.

I wasn’t going to do that. I was planning to take her to Ensign until I was certain that Arbor was no longer on our tail; we were going to find that damn witch; and then I would take her back to Lapine where she belonged.

We bid goodbye to Leo in the early afternoon, the day after our tryst, and I had the awful feeling that he knew exactly what had transpired between us after I’d chased off Cody. Far from scratching the itch and getting her out of my system, sleeping with Julia had only worsened my wolf’s infatuation with her. Even thinking about that smug Beta set my wolf’s teeth on edge, and it was probably for the best that we made ourselves scarce before I ripped his head off for looking at her wrong (or looking at her at all).

“You got enough food?” Leo asked, like a worried grandmother. I patted the stuffed backpack he’d given me only a few minutes previously.

“For an army, bro.”

“It’s a long crossing.” He was right about that. The bridge between Arbor and Ensign was nearly ten miles long, and it took the average shifter about three hours to cross in human form. It would be quicker to run as wolves, but also far more conspicuous—Arbor favored their wolf forms and tended to assume that other Packs did too. Our human forms also benefited from Julia’s magic; if she could cloak our crossing, it would be harder for any lurking Arbor hunters to track us.

Either way, the whole endeavor was risky, but it was riskier to stay put where Arbor knew we were sitting ducks. Argent might be rich, but their reputation wasn’t for combat—Arbor had never held them in high esteem, and while they might not risk a full-scale attack, they didn’t fear Leo or the Argent hunters enough to prevent them from attempting another kidnapping, or worse. Even if they did successfully track us to Ensign, they wouldn’t dare set foot on that island. I wasn’t enormously keen to spend time there, either—Xander was my friend, but the culture of Ensign was pretty far removed from that of Ferris or Lapine or Argent—but it was our best bet for now.

“Don’t kill each other on the way!” Leo called after us as we set off up the Ensign road.

“No promises!” Julia called back, waving enthusiastically. Her smile was bright, her black hair shining in the sunshine, and I had to stop myself staring at the length of her pale legs in denim shorts.

“You’ll have to kill me if you want one of those little strawberry cakes,” I told her. Leo’s mother was an incredible cook, though I’d never had much of a sweet tooth, her strawberry cakes had long been a favorite of mine.

I’d expected Julia to challenge me, to needle me about hogging all the food or say something scathing about how much male shifters ate, but she only gave a disinterested little hum. As little as I wanted to admit it, she’d been subdued since yesterday. When the high of our mutual climax had faded, I’d braced myself for another fight, but she’d only tugged her dress back into place and asked which of us should walk back to town first.

I should have been glad of the quiet as we trekked through town and then began the hike over Argent’s rolling hills north toward the Ensign Bridge, but rather than peaceful, the quiet felt oppressive and wrong. When she’d been younger, Julia was an endless stream of babbling commentary on the weather and the surroundings and whatever thoughts popped into her mind. Once, when she was eight and I was thirteen, I’d snapped at her to shut up, that her constant rambling was annoying; back then, it had been easy to cow her, and she’d snapped her mouth shut immediately, tears brimming in her big blue eyes. I’d felt awful about it, but my father said that Alphas never apologized, so I didn’t.

Julia was probably owed a lot of apologies from me, but now wasn’t the time to bring that up. I really didn’t need to get into an argument on this trip, and as much as it perturbed me, the quiet was a blessing as far as stealth was concerned.

We timed the journey, hoping to reach the bridge in the late afternoon, when the shadows were long. Sure enough, when the stone structure came into view, it was dappled with warm sunlight and the dark shadows of trees. I held out a hand to stop Julia in her tracks—concerned yet relieved that she didn’tcomplain about it—so I could take a moment to scan the treeline. It was still and quiet, with no unfamiliar scents in the air. Either Arbor hadn’t tracked us here, or they were keeping their distance until we were on the neutral territory of the bridge itself.

In any case, time was of the essence. We jogged the last hundred yards to where the stone of the bridge met the Argent road, and Julia wasted no time. As she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, the shadows began to elongate, growing even darker and swirling around us until it seemed like the sun had set early. When I looked back across the Argent hills, they remained bathed in warm light, appearing like another world.

“Ready?” I asked, and Julia opened her eyes. Her expression was hard and determined, and she walked onto the bridge like she was walking to war. The shadows followed her. With every step, our cloak of darkness moved with us, as though we were walking through water. Ears pricked for any sound beyond the rush and crash of the water beneath us, noses twitching for the scent of any other wolf, we walked one mile, then two, then three, until I became used to the ever-present shadow that engulfed us.

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