The Alpha

Chapter 9

      I couldn't sleep. Even the lurking comfort of soft sheets and a foam mattress couldn't pull me into a dream state. My eyes continuously snapped towards where his keys lingered. 'He has to come get them. Eventually. I'm not sure how I feel about that.'
After my mother mentioned his uncle was the result of my mysterious father's untimely demise, I had been on edge. A swirling darkness that grew with each passing moment that began to consume me. 'Luca never told me. He must've known. There's no way the Alpha was unaware of things going on in his pack... And if he did?' I wasn't sure what I would do. I contemplated confronting him. 'I shouldn't want to be associated with someone like that. The nephew of my father's murderer.' I was unsure if it was the lack of sleep, or the way my heartbeat quickened any time I envisioned Luca in my mind, but my anger materialized slowly, until I was on top of my bed, unable to sit still. 'That's just it. I can't mate with him. It would kill my mother if I did... absolutely kill her.'
My mind circled back to the curse. To the way my body was vulnerable and helpless to the spiritual decay that came with denying my mate. With a deep, shaky breath, I pressed my palms against my thighs and went to reach for the bedside lamp when I heard his voice. "Rae. My soul. You knew I'd come." I looked up at him with a guarded expression. "Y-yes."
I was utterly pissed at how breathless my voice was. Absolutely no conviction or firmness whenever he was around, so with a nervous swallow, I clasped my hands together and arched an accusing brow. "Did you know?"
"Know?" He stepped into my room, his arms across his chest as confusion changed his expression. His dark eyes wavered my confidence, but I combated that with a few unspoken words of encouragement. 'Just be strong. You deserve to know.'
"About my father... Did you know your uncle killed him?"
His face didn't change. His brooding eyes drilled a hole into my head as he watched me, and I found myself shifting on the bed, still not fully comfortable with the way he could stare into my soul. "My mother said he killed him. If you are the Alpha, you would know this, no?"
'Why is he not answering me? Oh right. He won't lie. He will just avoid it as if that's not as incriminating.'
"So you're just going to stand there and not say anything?" I scuffed, glancing at his keys. 'I've never been pushed to the point of violence... Then again, I've done a lot of things I never would've done having met him.'
"Tell me. Did you know? Don't ignore it. Don't try to change the subject."
He moved to the end of my bed and my breath hitched in my throat at the electricity that I felt from his closeness. "Stay back." He took another step near me, on the side of my bed and I shook my head, holding up my hands. "Luca —"
"Oh Rae, I just can't keep myself from you."
"Try." He chuckled and the sound loosened the tension in my shoulders. 'Distance is the only remedy from the brain fog his presence causes me.'
"I will give you your answer, as long as you come with me."
"What?"
I twisted my head up when he neared me, looking next to me from the side of my bed. Those wolfish eyes were ever so gentle when they rested upon me, and knowing I was his weakness, I found myself drawn to him. 'Maybe going with him won't hurt.' His voice invaded my mind. 'It won't.' I gasped. "Get out of my head!"
"If you really want me to, I will for now."
"For now?" He nodded. "I won't promise that I will always stay out of your head. Remember, I don't lie?"
"Yes, but clearly you lack self-control." His adams-apple bobbed as he swallowed and he offered me his hand. "Do we have a deal?"
'I don't know... Can you truly trust a man that leave you in the dark?'
"Yes." I scowled at him before eyeing his hand. "Okay, I'll go with you."
"I will have you back before the sun rises."
"You will?"
He nodded, reaching for my hand. He leaned down to place it against his chest and just as I had felt before, his heart was steady. "I will bring you back from our home to here."
"You keep calling it that... our home." My cheeks warmed as I said it because it sounded crazy when spoken aloud. 'We haven't even known each other for a month. Talk about moving fast.'
"It is our home. Time means nothing. It's relative. Our two weeks has been the equivalent of years. I've known you from the moment you were born. I knew you were mine. I could feel it. I could see things through your eyes. In your mind."
'Oh my god he's been connected to me for that long?'
"Yes."
He peered deeply into my eyes and just from his gaze I could see the strong emotions he held. At that moment, I trusted him, so I let him pull me from the bed, the blanket I had been clutching gave away. His fingers glided along my sides and up under my shirt. "Off..." The word was snarled and I found myself compelled to obey. "I just want a glimpse... Just a little taste.." I let him pull the shirt from me and throw it near the closet, revealing my black bra. "Mm, Rae. When you're like this... I don't think I can control myself."
A low growl rumbled in his throat, and the possessive sound made me reach out for his shoulders to steady myself as I became dizzy. "Whoa." He wrapped his arms around my waist, concern breaking his expression of lust. "I'll carry you."
"What?" My voice was high pitched with shock. I started shaking my head rapidly. "No, no, no. It's okay. I'm just dizzy."
"I don't want you getting hurt."
"Okay, carry me then."
"Good." He lifted me, barking for me to wrap my legs around his waist, before he spun on his heel. 'Is this what my life will consist of? Being lifted and carried. Controlled? Like an object?'
"You are not an object. You are a priority and you will be treated like one."
'I can't believe someone so rough and intense can be so gentle.'
"Only with you."
I called out quickly before he left my room with me. "Wait. I'd like to be wearing something other than this."
"Why? I enjoy this look." His eyes flashed with hunger and I rolled my eyes. "Of course you do." He sighed and let me down, placing his hands on his hips to admire me as I moved over to my closet and pulled out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. 'I can feel his eyes on me... The way they slide over my body.'
"Rae —"
There he went, warning me again, but his voice always sounded pained. Like it took everything in him to deny me. Like his erection didn't throb painfully, steel in his pants and only one thing can relieve him of the madness of his arousal. 'Me.'
"You." He stepped forward. "Luca, we shouldn't."
"I know we shouldn't." He stepped forward despite my hesitation, his eyes swirled with lust that was feral, and I could feel my tongue go dry. His muscles flexed along his bare skin and I frowned. "Why are you always shirtless?"
"I hate clothes. Wolf's instinct." My eyes moved to his pants. 'Yet, he's wearing pants.'
"You sound disappointed about that." He teasingly tugged on his waistband and my mouth watered at the muscular V that disappeared beneath his pants. 'He seriously is yummy. Shit! I keep forgetting he can hear my thoughts!' He smirked but didn't address my words. "Just a taste, and we can go..."
'That's what he said about taking my shirt off... He doesn't want a taste. He wants to devour.'
Another step forward, his hands tightening into fists as his eyes rested on my panties, roaming over the damp material. I went to cross my legs and he shook his head. "Don't hide yourself from me." I uncrossed my legs, jeans still clutched in my hand as he stopped in front of me and grabbed the jeans out of my hands, tossing them on the floor. He inhaled deeply, and I realized I had come to love the way he admired my scent. "Irrumbao! You're perfect! Made just for me!" He nudged my thighs apart with his powerful thigh and cupped my chin before lifting it. He used his thumb to tug on my bottom lip which I hadn't known I was biting until that moment. "So pure. My Rae. My soul."
"Luca..." His eyes closed tightly as a low moan slipped from his mouth. "When you say my name, I want to pounce on you. I want to claim you like I know I should. Make you mine so everyone knows."
"Yours?"
"You are so mine." He leaned forward, his lips so close I could almost taste him on my tongue. Dominance and cinnamon. The tang made my head spin. "Tell me, anima mea. Tell me you're mine. Say it."
Although his words were quiet, there was a ferocity behind them; a desperate dominance that made his eyes narrow as he gazed down within my eyes. "I'm yours, Luca." He growled, taking me in his arms, he captured my mouth like he was hungry and all that was left was what my tongue could provide. He glided his tongue expertly in my mouth, tasting every inch until I was the only thing he could taste. 'I'm his.' His voice was in my head again so he didn't have to pull away from my mouth. 'Mine. Forever. Come two weeks from now, I will take you. I will make you mine. Over and over until the night has turned to day and the day has turned back to night. I will break you in. Make you mine completely. Take this purity and fucking bottle it.'
He groaned, moving to my throat where his tongue glided over where my pulse was beating against my flesh. 'Two weeks? That's quick.' I gasped when he got to my collarbone. My mother's voice entered my mind and I was thrown off by it. 'She warned me about him... I need to keep my guard up.' I pushed him away gently. He stepped backward, a frown on his face. "We should go. I don't want her waking up without me here." He nodded and waited for me to get dressed before I took a deep breath. "I'll follow you."
He whipped around, his keys jingling in his hand as I followed him out into the hall quietly. I stopped and reached for my mom's door to check on her when he interrupted. "She's sleeping. I can hear her breathing." I frowned, hand still clutching her doorknob as the desire to go in heightened. "Trust me." For once, I did. I pulled my hand back and nodded, before he continued down the steps and out to his jeep. 'I know this isn't a smart idea. But I haven't made many of those since moving here.'
"You're too hard on yourself, Anima mea. You are perfect."
'He's just saying that because of a supernatural connection.'
Luca hissed angrily as he opened the passenger door for me to get in, before he closed it without another word, climbing into the jeep and starting it before pulling away onto the street. "Where are you taking me?"
"You'll see."
"Luca, tell me."
"You are impatient."
"I don't like surprises... Correction, I don't like your surprises."
'They are scary, or life altering in nature.'
"You are going home."
"To the mansion?"
"Where your pack awaits."
"My pack? I don't even know them."
"You will come to know them. Even love them. As I have."
'He was born into this... it will be harder for me. But I don't want to tell him that.'
"You are the pack's queen. This lifestyle will come easy."
'Dammit I keep forgetting he's in my head!'
"You will come to be close with those you help rule."
'Even the blonde who kept giving me dagger eyes?'
"You don't have to worry about her. We are nothing. I am her Alpha and she is one among many."
By the sound of his voice, I got the idea that they could have been something originally, and my heart skipped a beat. 'Am I jealous? Yes.' Images invaded my mind of him and the naked blonde embraced in passionate sex, using each other violently. 'How many women had he been with?'
"Have you slept with her?" He was quiet, his hands tightening around the wheel. 'Oh god.. He has.'
"Sex for me isn't what you think it is."
"And what is it that I think it is?"
'Two people being completely vulnerable with one another.'
"You have. You've slept with her."
I hated how my bottom lip quivered as if I was pouting and couldn't look at him anymore. My eyes moved out of the window, trying to fixate on something, as if trees and quiet buildings would remedy the hurt I felt inside. "We've had sex. There was no emotion behind it. Only nature." I bit my quivering lip to stifle the snort of sardonic laughter that wanted to leave my lips. 'Nature? Now he's playing the wolf card.'
"There is no card."
"If sex is so meaningless, then what's the point of doing it with me? And why put on this show? Why act... like this."
I gestured around myself wildly, aware that the cap on my emotions had blown off, and I wasn't sure if it was the fact the blue moon will be here soon per Luca's words, or what, but I found myself vibrating with anger. "When I lay with you it will be very different."
"How?"
"It will be... explosive. Mating is life in and of itself. It's over worldly. We will become one. Blood mated forever. The bond we have now will be amplified. I would die for you. I will never touch another woman and no man will ever try and take what is mine. Unless they want their throat torn out." I swallowed nervously at his words. "You are it. All I want and all I need. Talia will bow to you once we are mated, and even now, she will not disrespect you. Not whole in my presence, not while within our pack."
'Whoa.'
"Do you understand?"
I was reluctant to answer but I hummed a quick agreement before I moved my gaze back outside, aware I was now in the more country side of town. 'I don't know enough about his world..'
"You will learn." When we arrived near his Uncle's house, he parked and I got out of the car. "On foot from here." I eyed the dark forest and jumped when he was beside me before I knew it. "Luca!" Jaxon's frantic voice caught my attention. I could barely see him emerging from the trees in the moonlight. Luca threw his arm around my waist and tugged me into his side protectively. Jaxon's eyes slid over me and he nodded acknowledging my presence before he continued. "Luca, it's your uncle." Luca frowned. "What happened?"
"Another pack... He was attacked. He's hurt."
"What?"
That word was a growl that was almost unrecognizable. I reached up for his chest instinctively, fingers going along the stubble muscle and tattoos that lined his skin. He placed his hand on mine, but his eyes didn't leave Jaxon. "Who?"
"Silver Crest pack." Luca spewed an array of curse words, some in English and some in Latin. His hand was back down at his side, but clenched tightly into a fist. "Is Ethan still alive?" Jaxon nodded. "I will kill them. I will fucking kill them all." He took a deep breath as his limbs shook with fury. 'Not that I'm a fan of Ethan but I hate seeing Luca so angry.'
"Gather the pack. I want Donovan, Ava, Anthony, and Leo ready. I will finish that fucking pack like I should've. Irrumabo! I will make sure every single last one of them has their throat ripped out and we will bathe in their blood." My eyes widened as surprised horror knocked the wind out of me. 'I've never heard him speak like this. Not about people in particular. This is the man I'm destined for? He's scary... Very scary..'
Luca tensed beside me like my words affected him greatly, but he was too focused on Jaxon who was nodding. "We may have casualties. I've heard they've gained more members. I don't fucking care."
'He could get hurt... NO!' That word entered my mind swiftly, and I pressed myself into him hard instinctively. "Don't go, Luca! Please, don't leave me." I stepped in front of him. I narrowed my eyes and gave him a serious expression. "You could get hurt..."
'And not come back to me. The thought of him never coming back is...'
"Unbearable."
His hands were caressing the side of my face. Before more words spewed my mouth desperately, he interrupted. "Rae, my love. This is my life. This is who I am. I am the Alpha and I must protect what is mine."