Covet

| The Blood in my Veins

"Dana?" Luke's voice came out in a whisper. What are you doing here?"

Luke rested on the counter on the opposite side of the kitchen. The moon bathed him in a stream of light. A pair of sweatpants hung low around his waist. Like Paul, he was a well-played balance of slender and muscular. For the first time, the claw-like scratches marring his skin were visible and the story of how they had come to be were now familiar. What wasn't was the sudden intensity I wanted to reach out and touch them.

"Dana," he breathed, his ocean-blue eyes wide with an emotion I dared not name.

At the same time as I raked my eyes down his bare chest, Luke unapologetically did the same to me. I shook my head, trying to prize my eyes away. I came here to challenge him not this. Not now. But my eyes weren't going anywhere.

"I came here to challenge you," I affirmed, my voice steady even as the rest of me rebelled. The words were out, a gauntlet thrown. But the declaration felt hollow when contrasted with the way my body seemed to inch closer to his of its own volition. It was as if some primal part of me recognized him as more than an adversary—it saw in him an Alpha, a force that demanded either my submission or defiance. The line between rivalry and something far more dangerous blurred with every step I took forward.

His eyes hooded over as he dragged his bottom lip through his teeth. Silently, he shook his head. What was happening now would carry consequences for both of us. The realization that this union was orchestrated by our Alpha status sent chills, but in the wake of a blind hunger, it only caused me to move faster.

The closer I got, the more his eyes smoldered. Maybe this was a mistake. I suddenly didn't feel strong enough to do what I came to. "I should leave...you should...stop."

He gave a subtle shake of his head as if to ward off the inevitable. "As soon as I knew what you were, I discovered the reason why I have the urges I do around you. I want you," he said, simply. " He paused, allowing the weight of his words to settle. "And if you don't leave, I will make that happen—permanently."

A warning. A promise. A threat. All delivered with a certainty that shook the foundation of my intentions.

My heart raced, my mouth went dry, but I managed to shake my head. Flashbacks of the dreams we shared bombarded me on a reel in my head. My knuckles whitened as I gripped the counter in a bid to shut them off.

"You caused an uprising that sent my grandmother fleeing into the woods. You are not the Alpha of this pack."

"I am your Alpha, Dana. Submit to me. Lucille won't challenge us if you do because of you." Luke's shadow stretched across the tiles.

"Stop this," I said, close to pleading. But for a moment, my words didn't sound convincing, even to me. What exactly was I begging Luke to stop: the dreams, the intense attraction, or the need to have him put me out of my misery by taking me on the kitchen floor?

With the image fresh in my mind's eye, Luke took three strides forward, and before I could think whether I should, my hands operated on their own, yanking and tearing to free him of his clothes.

All control left the room. At that moment, there was no Dana fraught with age-old conflict and indecision—there was only my she-wolf, responding to the call of her Alpha.

A second shadow in the doorway stood immobile, but I was in too deep to stop. "This isn't you," a voice recognizable as Paul's drifted into my thoughts and out just as quick.

"Paul..." His name was a ghost on my lips. I shook his name from my head, and any guilt I may have had at having Paul standby while I acted on Alpha impulses with his brother now felt like they belonged to a stranger. The Alpha's call within me surged, drowning out the plea in Paul's tone, rendering it insignificant.