Page 43 of Brutal Alpha

“That you thought I was beautiful?” A lock of black hair had fallen over her face. My fingers itched.

“Are you fucking with me right now?” She flinched because, of course, I’d chosen the wrong words. I tried again: “No one in this entire archipelago holds a candle to you.” Shit. That was too much. Dial it back. “You’re also stubborn, annoying, and often wrong, just for the record.” I tried to sound nonchalant, as if the question and its answer were all one big joke, but that was Julia’s area of expertise, not mine. I only sounded breathless and a little desperate.

“Just for the record,” she echoed, her voice barely more than a whisper. A tiny smile was beginning to curl at the corner of her mouth, and her blue eye sparkled. I couldn’t see the other, though—the magic one—so I reached up without thinking, brushing that loose strand of hair back behind her ear.

I felt her breath hitch, and a spark of want rushed through me. After almost two weeks of close contact, I was growing used to the pull I felt when her skin touched mine. It didn’t overwhelm me the way it once had, but I felt its presence nonetheless, and I wanted so badly to give in to it. This was our last chance. Once we were back in our respective Packs, back to normal, there would be no excuse. We’d declare the marriage null and void, and be done with it. If I wanted to be weak one last time, it was now or never.

My nose brushed hers as I leaned closer, feeling the warm puff of her breath against my lips, and I stayed there, inhaling her chocolate-and-berries scent, content to linger until she moved away or met me in the middle. For a long moment, she did neither, but her breath came heavier, a little unsteady, until she gave a low whimper and pressed her lips to mine. She tasted of sunshine and summer and the lemonade she’d been drinking, and I couldn’t get enough. It was too easy to pull her into my lap, to let her sit astride me, to push my tongue past her lips and drink in the taste of her moan. Not to be outdone, she sucked my tongue lightly, and I felt my dick twitch in my shorts.

It was a sensory overload: the weight of her in my lap, the warmth of her body, the silk of her hair between my fingers, the taste of her mouth, her lips, her skin. I kissed down the long length of her neck, nosing at the spot where it met her shoulder, where her scent was strongest. I salivated, my canines lengthening just enough to bite down, mark her, claim her.

I pulled away to kiss her again, needing the distraction of her mouth if I was going to get through this without doing something stupid and irreversible. Her hands were cupping my face, keeping me there, and it was easy to lose myself in the slide of her lips on mine and the roll of her hips in my lap. If she kept this up, I was going to be rock hard in a matter of seconds, unable to resist the sinful, sinuous roll of her body.

Dimly, I was aware that we were, once again, outside. There was a stick jabbing me in the ass, but I cared about that almost as little as I cared about anyone coming across us. They should see us here, see her give herself to me and me alone. I gripped her hip hard, fisting the linen of her sundress as I pulled it up and over her head. When she was all but bare in my lap, I could hold myself back no longer.

Rushing forward, I captured one perfect pink nipple in my mouth, and Julia whined, her hand flying to my head, tugging and stroking my hair as I suckled on her. Her tits were so small and perfect, I could probably fit the whole thing in my mouth. The idea made me harder, if that were even possible, and I opened my mouth wide, sucking the little mound of tender flesh inside. Julia squirmed and gasped, and I reveled in the overwhelm of it, the way she filled my mouth so completely, spilling out as I brushed her skin with my tongue, trying to cover every inch of her that I could.

“Ethan,” Julia moaned, rocking her hips insistently against my groin. “I need, I need—”

Reluctantly, I let go of her breast, peppering little kisses over the flushed skin of her chest.

“What do you need, beautiful?”

“Please don’t make me beg again,” she gasped. Her eyes were screwed shut, her mouth open and wet and soft, and I couldn’t have denied her anything.

I wasn’t letting her get far enough away from me to remove her underwear properly, so I resorted to pulling aside the crotch, dipping my fingers into the scorching heat between her legs. She was so wet, and we moaned together as I sank two fingers inside her to the knuckle. She pulled my face back to hers, kissing me hard and long as I pulled my fingers out and pushed them in again, curling them just so, and she whimpered into my mouth.

This time, she didn’t ask for anything, only reached between us to pull down the waistband of my shorts and boxers, freeing my cock. I was rock hard, my knot already formed, and Julia bit her lip as she looked down at it, stroking an exploratory hand up and down its length. I shuddered beneath her touch, bucking up into her hand, and she smiled: she loved to have me dancing to her tune.

The novelty of it must have worn off pretty fast, because she only spent a moment teasing me before she rearranged herself in my lap, lining me up with her dripping, hungry pussy. I gripped her hips hard enough to bruise as she took me inside, and she threw back her head in pleasure, her chest heaving and her black hair flowing like a river down her back. She was so beautiful, so tight, so hot and slick and perfect inside. This was where I belonged: inside her, surrounded by her. I needed her closer.

Fisting my hand in her hair, I caught her mouth in a fierce kiss as we began to move together. With every roll of her hips, she opened up a little more, taking my knot sliver by sliver until we were locked together again. I wanted it to last forever, to spend the rest of my life here in the dappled summer shade, withJulia’s mouth on mine and my cock buried deep inside her. It wasn’t long, though, before I felt her begin to twitch and clench around me, her mouth opening against mine so that we were no longer kissing, simply gasping out breaths against each other’s lips.

Her nails dug into my shoulders as her peak approached, the grinding of her hips growing harder and more insistent until they lost all sense of rhythm, and I felt her clamp down around my cock, pulling me over the edge with her. Even as we rode out the high, our bodies didn’t seem to know it was done, her pussy twitching and clenching around my dick like she wanted me to stay inside her just as much as I did.

We sat, wordless and spent, as the song of the cicadas started up and the sun dipped down beneath the trees.

Chapter 19 - Julia

The journey from Ensign back to Ferris was surprisingly uneventful. According to Ethan, who was paranoid, this was deeply suspect.

Xander had seen us off that morning with much pretend crying, an impassioned bro-hug for Ethan, and a real hug for me, which Ethan very bravely didn’t growl about; I had bid goodbye to Eve with genuine gratitude and very little warmth; then it was just me and Ethan and a fourteen-hour run back to Ferris.

On the upside, being in our wolf forms meant that we didn’t have to talk about what had happened the previous evening after Ethan had wordlessly carried me upstairs and left me in the bathroom to clean up with nothing more than a kiss to my forehead.

On the downside, our wolves were nothing but excited by the development (not that it was a real development, because it still didn’t mean anything), and we both failed miserably to rein in their enthusiasm as we bounded through the forest together. My wolf’s joy was irrepressible, and I found myself nipping playfully at Ethan’s heels as we ran. Far from snapping a reprimand at me, he only yipped and sprinted faster: an invitation to chase.

Argent passed in a blur as we intermittently sprinted and rolled through the grassland. I’d never seen Ethan or his wolf act like this, but my wolf was delighted by it, running and jumping on him, letting him playfully nip at my haunches whenever I overtook him, rubbing her head against his neck whenever we stopped for more than a few seconds together. It was the opposite of what we should be doing. We should be keeping ourdistance and being careful, and not letting ourselves get caught up in the moment.

Then again, I could hardly talk. I’d been so weak when he kissed me gently in the evening light; it would have been hypocritical to deny my wolf the simple pleasure of play.

It was early evening by the time we reached Ferris, and one of Ethan’s Betas was waiting for us at the bridge with a small pile of clothing and a grim expression.

Ethan wasted no time on pleasantries as he pulled on the sweatpants his Beta offered him.

“Status update?” he demanded. The Beta looked back at him, vaguely shell-shocked, as if Ethan had grown a second head since he’d last been on Ferris. His eyes darted between Ethan and me, and I realized with a sharp jolt of mortification that we must smell of each other. I pulled on the vest top I’d been given, trying not to look guilty.

“The uh—the leak in the washing cabin was dealt with, but Joe wandered into the forest again,” he said eventually.

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