Page 20 of Cruel Alpha

“What? No, no, of course not. It’s just—you’re the target, and I’m not arrogant enough to think that my defenses are impenetrable.” That was news to me, but I wasn’t about to question him. “If it comes down to it, I need to know that you can defend yourself. Are you ready to let off that steam?”

With that, he put a hand to the nape of his own neck, pulling off his shirt in one swift movement, and any objections I’d had—along with all other coherent thoughts—fled my mind. I’d seen him without a shirt plenty of times, yet the sight took my breath away regardless. I tried not to linger on his toned stomach and the cut vee that disappeared into his jeans, but clearly, I was blushing because when I met his eyes again, he was grinning, smug.

“A little privacy, please?” He put a hand on his zipper, and I almost turned away on instinct before I mastered myself. He wasn’t going to embarrass me that easily.

“Nothing I haven’t seen before,” I said with a shrug.

“Suit yourself.”

I kept my eyes firmly on his face as Caleb dropped his pants and his underwear in one swift motion. I stared purposefully at the wall as he bent to gather his discarded clothes. Caleb Thorne was an asshole, I reminded myself. He was an asshole with a huge ego and a mean streak and pretty eyes and a perfect butt that I absolutely was not looking at.

He straightened up, clearing his throat, and I jumped.

“You ready?” he asked, a note of teasing in his voice.

“Are the Arbor wolves going to ask me if I’m ready?” I countered, and he smiled.

“I guess not.”

Then he shifted. Contrary to what humans thought, shifting was a skill. Sure, some of us were born with the ability to do it, but very few shifters ever really perfected it the way Caleb had. One second he was there, smug and naked and human, then I blinked, and he was a wolf. I knew, I’d always known, how big his wolf was, yet it took me by surprise every time. The beast toward above me, so black he was like a great void in space, broken only by a flash of white between his shoulder blades and two utterly human blue eyes. Eyes that were watching me like a predator watches prey.

He didn’t come at me straight away. He circled me as if he was sizing me up. It was a mistake on his part—while he was wasting time, I was finding my magic. I’d never been trained in how to use it properly—witches might not avoid Lapine the way they avoided Arbor or Cunic, but they far preferred places like Argent and Ferris and Opifex—so the little of it I could wield was purely instinctual. It still didn’t come straight to me unless I was in danger, but it felt closer than it ever had before. I only had to reach out, to take it, and it was there in my hands. I waited.

Caleb leaped forward, but I was ready for him. My arms went up, and instead of catching me in his jaws, he smashed straight into a wall of energy that sent him sprawling back. For a moment, I laughed at the way he scrambled back to his feet, but he was coming at me again, too fast for me to enjoy my victory for long. This time, he saw me prepare the shield, and he leaped over my head, coming to land behind me, and then it was my turn to hit the floor face-first. For a few moments, I could feel the heavy heat of him at my back, his wet nose on the back of my neck, before he pulled away, giving me a few seconds to get to my feet before he attacked again.

This time, I chose fire. When Caleb made his third attack, I sent flame arcing through the air in front of me, like I’d done on the night I fled from Arbor, and the smell of singed hair hit my nostrils as Caleb flinched away and out of range. In an instant, he’d turned and come back at me from a new angle, and a heavy paw landed against my ribcage. His claws were sheathed, the blow soft, and it sent rage shuddering through me.

“Stop it!” I snapped. Caleb sat immediately—the hulking beast suddenly an obedient dog—and tilted his head, confused.

“You’re going easy on me, I can tell. Stop pulling your punches.” I readied myself again, but Caleb remained where he was, sitting in front of me with his head cocked to the side. His eyes were sharp and blue and so human; they examined me like a laboratory experiment, and I cringed.

Conjuring a handful of flame, I hurled it at his head, but he dodged it easily. I tried again. And again. And again. With each failed attack, he came closer to me; I could feel his hot breath on my face, and if this was real combat, I’d be dead in an instant with my head between his jaws. He didn’t strike me, though, only nudged his nose against my cheek as if to say, “I win.”

To my surprise, I felt a growl rumble in my chest as my hands began to glow, and I pushed him back with all my might. If he wanted me to be ready for a fight, he needed to fight me properly, with claws and teeth. I wanted him to be as merciless with my body as he had been with my heart, if only because I could not stomach the strange tenderness of his wolf’s nose on my skin and the softness of his fur.

“Again,” I said, pushing forward, this time with the fire held in my hands. He’d have to come close, have to use all his strength to stop me from burying my flaming hands in his fur, but he never did. Every time I lurched forward, he only danced out of my path, avoiding the swing of my flaming fists, refusing to engage me. My lungs were burning, heart pounding, breath coming in ragged gasps by the time he saw an opening and lunged, pinning me to the ground with one smooth motion. For a moment, I saw stars, and when my vision cleared, he had shifted back to his human form.

Caleb loomed over me, his hands holding my wrists against the stone floor of the hall. Bracketing my legs with his own. It was an awful facsimile of the embrace we’d shared three years and a lifetime ago, down to our heavy breaths and sweat-shiny skin.

“Are you done?” Caleb asked quietly.

“Why won’t you fight me properly?” I demanded, bucking up my hips in an attempt to break free, but he only squeezed my wrists, looking pained.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Alyssa,” he breathed, and I couldn’t hold back a laugh. Looking up at him from my back, our bodies pressed together from our chests to our toes, I said,

“It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?”

Chapter 10 - Caleb

The arrival of the A-Team was like a breath of fresh air. Sure, the name was kind of corny, but we’d been teenagers when we made it up, and none of us had the heart to stop using it. The five of them were like brothers to me, and finding their friendship in the year I’d left Lapine for my Heir’s Tour had felt like lifting a weight off my shoulders.

It had been lonely, growing up with no one but subordinates, no one who appreciated the weight of what being Alpha meant. It had been freeing to talk about those responsibilities with other Alpha Heirs, with guys who understood. We’d all been there for Xander when his father died just a couple of months after we met, and he became Alpha of Ensign. I’d told them all, shame-faced and regretful, about what had happened with Alyssa, and they’d helped me adjust to life as Alpha after my father passed, so when Leo had radioed the other four to let them know what had gone down on Arbor, they’d all been ready and willing to lend a hand however they could.

Noah hit me first—his wolf might have been the smallest, but he was the fastest motherfucker in the Nightfire archipelago—then Leo, then Jace, then Xander. Ethan declined to join the pile of fur that had me pinned to the floor of the hall, choosing instead to shift and glare down at the rest of us. He’d taken the responsibility of Alpha as seriously as a heart attack since day one, and I knew he looked down on Leo and Xander a little bit for mucking about with the two Heirs.

“Let him breathe, you mongrels,” said Ethan, giving Xander’s huge jet-black monstrosity a shove. Xander growled at him, but only for a moment before he rolled off the top of the pile and shifted back to his human form. The rest of the guys followed suit, and Jace held out a hand to pull me up off the floor. We jostled each other as we made our way up the stairs and into the gym above the main hall. Below, school was in session, and the various sounds of enthusiastic children drifted up through the boards.

“What the fuck, Man,” Xander said as the door swung shut behind us. “Leo says you’ve gotkidsnow?”

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