Page 55 of The Alpha and the Baker
“Y-yes,” she breathed, letting her eyes flutter closed.
My thumb found its way to her clit, which was already so slick and swollen and waiting for me. Despite everything, I was gentle. Felicia was a woman, not a record in a DJ booth. But I ramped it up in accordance with her reactions, until finally—just when I thought I was about to blow—she tightened all around me and would have jackknifed off the bed if it weren’t for my grip on her.
The way her walls fluttered around me was my undoing, and I managed a few more thrusts before I spilled inside her, my vision and mind going completely white under the full onslaught of unequivocal gratification.
“God…” Felicia wheezed as I held myself above her, pulsing my hips slightly through the aftershocks of our climaxes. Hers lasted longer than mine, and even though my arms were trembling, I kept myself there as long as she needed.
When the trembling faded, I collapsed beside her, breathing hard. I couldn’t recall the last time I’d been so…contented.So sated. It was so easy to forget that we’d only just met each other because it felt like she’d been part of my life for months.
The comfortable rest could only last for so long, however, as nature called, and we both needed to be responsible with a post-sex pee. Not exactly romantic, but necessary if she wanted to avoid a UTI and I wanted to look like a regular human.
Felicia went first, and I took the opportunity to stretch out on the bed, reveling in both our scents as I did. Once more, I was struck by just how incredible her scent was. She’d always smelled lovely, but tonight it was pushed to the next level.
“I don’t know whatever your perfume is, but I have to say it’s incredible,” I said once she stepped out of the bathroom, all flushed and dreamy-eyed, a glass of water in her hand.
“Do you like it?” she asked, then gulped down the water.
“Yeah, I have to say I’m a fan.”
“I shaved a bunch of Irish Spring and mixed it with my deodorant and some in my lotion.”
“Irish Spring?” I asked, more than a little surprised. “Like the cheap bar soap?” I wasn’t judging—the fragrance had smelled like something high-end and fancy.
“Yeah, I saw in a nature documentary that a lot of wolveslovedIrish Spring, so I wanted to see if it worked.”
I chuckled for a moment before her words caught up with me. My blood ran cold. “Wait, what? Wolves?”
“Well, yeah. That’s what you are, aren’t you?”
Castiel
Cut and Run
I ran.
My entire world came crashing down with just a few words, and all I could do was run.
The second I’d fastened my pants, I split, sprinting out the front door and leaving my car behind. I couldn’t think, couldn’t calm down. I had ruinedeverything.Not just for myself, but for my whole family.
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
The expletives repeated in my brain as I burst into my wolf form in an alley and ran all the way home, panic pumping through me in a sticky, awful sludge. What-ifs flooded my mind like acid, burning me from the inside out.
What if Felicia was a hunter? They were incredibly rare, more like boogeymen that we told children about to make sure they behaved, but I’d heard stories about them tricking shifters and wiping out entire packs, or scattering them by taking down the alpha. I couldn’t imagine sweet, kind Felicia being anything like that, but what other explanation was there for her knowing exactly what I was?
What had tipped her off? I thought I had been so careful! Clearly, I was an utter moron, because she’d somehow puzzled it out before our first date. Had it been something at the reunion? That was the only thing that made sense to me.
I didn’t stop, didn’t slow down, until I reached Chris’s house. I barreled through his front. Normally, I had the good sense and manners to knock, but this was far from normal. Truthfully, I didn’t even remember entering. One moment I was a wolf, all four feet pounding against the ground while terror and stress rolled through me, the next I was a human stumbling into my beta’s living room.
“Cas?” I heard Chris’s uncertain voice call out to me.
Shaking my head, I came back to reality enough to realize that my best friend and second-in-command was standing in his kitchen, a jar of pickles in one hand and a glass in the other.
“I fucked up,” was all I could say, because how could I even begin to explain how monumentally I had ruined things?
Ever since I was young, I’d wanted to follow in the footsteps of my father to be the best alpha that I could be. I wanted everyone in my pack to feel safe, supported, and help us continue to flourish the same way he had. But now I had possibly invited calamity and extinction right to their door. And for what? For a woman I barely knew?
