Page 40 of The Denver Alpha

I’m holding onto her for dear life.

She tastes as sweet as she smells, feels like heaven against my skin, and my body’s blazing so hot that I feel like I might die if I don’t claim her right now.

I shift Juliet in my arms, trying to move her body lower and get my dick positioned at the apex of her thighs, when she suddenly pulls back, breaking the kiss. Her head jerks to the side and I instinctively look that way, my eyes landing on Kaiser Thomas, one of my warriors on patrol tonight.

He quickly averts his eyes, taking a step backwards and wringing his hands in front of himself. “So sorry, Alpha, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” he stammers. “I was just, er… I was looking for a wolf that wasn’t pack, like you said, and…”

Juliet puts her feet down and slides out of my arms as Kaiser struggles for words, stepping behind me to hide her nakedness.

“Tell the others I found her,” I growl out in annoyance.

“Right away,” he replies, turning and bounding away, shifting back to his wolf mid-stride.

I spin around to face Juliet, still breathless from our kiss and painfully fucking hard. I reach out to draw her back in, but she dodges me with a sidestep, a mischievous smirk sliding across her lips.

“Race ya back to the packhouse?”

It’s not what I’m expecting after I was a millisecond from being inside her. I furrow my brow, giving a little shake of my head. “But you don’t even know the…”

I don’t get a chance to finish that sentence before the air is shimmering around her with her shift, and I’m forced to follow suit so she doesn’t run off and get lost.

Again.

Because despite what she claimed before, she was definitely lost, dangerously close to the edge of my pack’s territory. The little brat should be thankful that I found her when I did.

Although now that things have escalated between us…

A shiver of excitement runs through me as I take off in pursuit of Juliet. The game has changed now, and I hope she realizes what she just got herself into.

16

It’s not like me to be nervous, but here I am, heart pounding, palms sweating as I approach Cole’s office in the packhouse. I can’t remember the last time I was ever this jittery. Maybe I shouldn’t have had that third cup of coffee this morning.

Things weren’t weird between us after what happened in the office at Jokers, so why should they be now? I mean, that kiss last night was far more chaste than what we did in the office. Except for the fact that we were naked. And the kiss was crazy intense. And things were escalating so quickly that I’m pretty sure he was about to bang me right there before we were interrupted.

Yeah, that’s totally grounds for things to be weird between us today.

Damnit.

Breathe, Jules.

I pause just outside of Cole’s office door, drawing in a deep breath and steadying my composure. This is fine. People do this all the time. I can’t go in there like the blushing virgin that I am or he’ll pick up on it right away and I’m betting it’ll spook him. He already has reservations about my age- I’m sure my inexperience would just be one more excuse for him to use to deny us both what we really want here.

I’m calm. Composed. Confident.

That’s the mantra on repeat in my head as I linger in the hallway, wiping my sweaty palms off on the front of my Cedar Ridge Brewery t-shirt. I can hear Cole and Sam speaking in low voices just inside, and after one more deep breath, I step into the doorway, rapping a fist against the frame to get their attention.

Cole looks up from where he’s seated behind his desk, his dark eyes boring into mine. The man looks fucking delicious as usual in his typical slacks and button-up shirt, and every time those eyes are focused on me my insides turn all gooey.

My face heats instantly. I force a casual smile, hoping my blush isn’t too obvious. “Hi.”

“Hi,” he replies evenly, his face betraying no emotion.

Silence falls over the room for a beat as Sam’s gaze pings between the two of us, like he’s trying to figure out what’s happening here.

Same, dude.

Cole doesn’t make a move to get up from his seat behind the desk. He just looks at me expectantly, like he’s waiting for me to tell him why I’m here. And here I thought I’d earn some brownie points with Sergeant tightass for being right on time.

---