Alpha Prime: Shiftily Ever After(46)

He let go and held her at arm’s length, and she was laughing and crying at the same time.

“I don’t remember anything. How long was I out?”

“Two days.”

“Two days!” He groaned, running his fingers through his tangled hair. “Did I hurt anyone else?”

She stroked his arm gently. “No, and not only that, but there haven’t been any death challenges in the last couple of days.”

He managed a shaky smile. “Because of you.”

“Hey, I didn’t take on a whole pack.”

“No, you talked some sense into the assholes in the eastern territory, which I probably couldn’t have done even if I’d tried. I’m no good at the diplomatic approach.”

Then he groaned again and buried his face in his hands.

“Jamie, I’m…I’m actually scared. I’m scared that I’ll lose you. I’m scared that I’ll lose myself, and if I go dark again, I might kill the people closest to me.” He let out a harsh, shaky breath. “I want to claim you more than I want to breathe, but I can’t.” He grabbed her hand. “You brought me back this time. It was all you. But what about the next time? What if you can’t?”

He was telling her things he wouldn’t tell anyone else, and he was calling her by her fake name.

Dakota buried her face in his shoulder. She thought about all the lies she’d told, and how someday her father would probably find a way to track her down and take terrible revenge on anybody he suspected of helping her. If she told him the truth, he’d probably offer to protect her. And she couldn’t let him do that. Her father’s pack was huge. Things were just starting to settle down here. The Fenris Pack couldn’t afford any more enemies.

She couldn’t think about the future. She couldn’t reassure him, or beg him to claim her, because her whole life here was a lie.

She couldn’t do any more than live day by day.

She looked up and met his gaze wearily. “You’ll be all right, because you’re strong, and you care about your pack more than you care about your own life. And Sarah ran away, by the way. We were staying with the bears. Anders and Jefferson and some other guys went out to look for her.

Miles swore. “Damn it. All right, I’m going to walk you back to my cabin, then head out there to find her. I’m the best tracker we’ve got. Wait here for me?” There was a note of pleading in his rough, husky voice.

“Of course,” she said, and she let him take her by the hand and lead her out of the woods.





Chapter Eighteen




“We’ve found her!” Miles burst through the door of his cabin two hours later. Dakota sat bolt upright in his bed. She was still wearing her pajamas, as she had been when the cubs had first woken her several hours ago. She had been lying there trying to sleep, but every time she closed her eyes, she’d been haunted by visions of Sarah being dragged away in a net, screaming.

“Oh, thank God. Are you all right? Is she all right?”

Miles walked up to the bed and began stripping off his clothes. “I’m fine. She’s fine. I’d like to tell you some great tale of heroism in which I fought off a dozen rabid, slavering Alpha Primes to save her life…”

“But?” Dakota sat up,

“She was actually at the Early Bird Café with Anthea. Anthea was out for a late-night stroll through town and caught Sarah rummaging through a dumpster. I guess old habits die hard. She grabbed Sarah and dragged her to the café, and after a while it occurred to her to call her brother, and he sent one of his men after us.”

Miles pulled the sheets back and slid into bed next to Dakota. “It was very anti-climactic. Anyway, I just dropped her off at Baldwin’s cabin, and Naomi is reading her the riot act.”

Now that she knew Sarah was safe, Dakota could focus on Miles. And how much she’d missed him. Craved him. And now he was right here in bed with her, with that look in his eye, the look that made her feel like the sexiest, most desirable girl in the world.

“Speaking of climaxes…” Dakota grinned at Miles.

He cocked a brow. “Yes, please. Let’s speak of them.”

He practically pounced on her, making her giggle – a giggle that quickly turned into moans and gasps as he kissed her thoroughly. He palmed her breast through the thin cotton of her pajamas and sucked on the blue-and-white striped fabric, tonguing her nipple and leaving a damp spot.

When he tugged at her top, she unbuttoned it and discarded it before he yanked too hard and popped off the buttons, then she shimmied out of her bottoms. She snuggled up against the hot length of his muscular body, running her hand across his broad chest and down over the defined ridges of his six-pack before her hand crept lower and she wrapped her fingers around the hard, pulsing length of his erection. She squeezed gently, ran her fingers along his length from root to tip and back down again, then rolled his balls gently in her palm.