Southern Alpha Book Four Read online

  As for me, all I wanted was to win. I wanted to be declared Alpha, to gather the city’s wolf shifters to my side, and to unify them.

  But more than any of that, my motivation was the woman who was currently leaning against the counter in her small kitchen, staring at me like she was afraid I’d crumble to dust and disappear before her eyes.

  “If you win the target-shooting competition,” Sierra said, “then you just need to win one other event to be declared Alpha, right? It’s best of three?”

  I took the cup of coffee she was holding out for me and nodded. “Sort of. In the end, the pack members put it to a vote. That is, if the Marquis and I are both still standing at the end of it all.”

  I watched Sierra swallow. “That’s what’s supposed to happen, right? Both shifters walk away?”

  “Sure it is, if they both have a sense of honor,” I said, my blood heating with thoughts of how little honor the Marquis actually had. There was no way the bastard was going to respect the rules of civility, let alone the rules of the competition. If he could get away with it, he’d bite my head clean off.

  But I knew better than to tell Sierra that.

  “So it’s actually possible that you and the Marquis will walk away from this in one piece,” she said as she tightened her robe around her shapely waist. Only Sierra could make terrycloth look as sensual as silk.

  “Yeah, it’s possible,” I said. “I’ll be fighting fair. I’ll do everything I can to beat him without resorting to killing him. And I’ll do my best to make sure he doesn’t kill me.”

  Sierra went quiet for a moment. I could tell she was deep in thought as she chewed on her lip, her eyes wandering towards the window.

  “What’s going through that beautiful brain of yours?” I asked.

  “I was thinking that I sort of wish you’d end him,” she said softly. “I know that’s a horrible thing to say.”

  I shook my head. “It’s not horrible. It’s honest.”

  “Honesty doesn’t make something right,” she protested. “And it hardly makes me seem kind.”

  “No. But if you’re unkind, so are most of the shifters in this town. There are countless people here and in other parts of the world who want the Marquis dead…including Tristan Wolfe.”

  “The guy in New York?” Sierra said with a look of surprise. “What’s his beef with him, anyhow?”

  “I’ve never known the full story. Just that the Marquis hurt him—a lot. And Tristan’s a powerful man. He’s a powerful shifter, for that matter. I know he’d love nothing more than to get a chance to take the Marquis’ head off.”

  “So why hasn’t he done it?”

  I put my coffee down, stepped around the counter and put my arms around her waist, pulling her close. “I’m not sure,” I said, “but I can only assume it’s because he’s respectful of our pack. He knows this isn’t his territory. He may be Alpha of New York—actually, the whole North—but he’s not stupid or dishonorable.”

  “I see.” Sierra pressed her head into my chest and said, “I guess I was hoping he could come here and do the job for you.”

  “That’d be nice,” I said softly, “but the best of all would be for me to do this the right way. I told you before, the pack is scattered. I need to gather them, to give them one common leader to look up to.”

  “They already look up to you, Trick,” she said, pulling back enough to look me in the eye. “I’ve seen the way they stare at you. At the bash they seemed to worship you from a distance, like you’re their king.”

  “They do respect me,” I said. “Most of them, anyhow. But I’m only just barely in control of them. I need to make my role official, or I’ll lose control of this whole town. If that happens, the Marquis will secure his stranglehold, and no one will be safe or free from his cruelty.”

  Sierra pressed her forehead into my right pec and let out a sigh. “I just want you to be safe,” she said.

  “I will,” I told her, pressing my lips to the part in her hair. “Louis was right, you know.”

  “Right about what?” she asked, pulling back again. Her face was starting to look panicked, like she was becoming consumed with fear about what was going to go down this week.

  “He told me I should find something to fight for. That if I got close to you, I might find that I had more desire to win this thing. He seemed to think I was lacking motivation.”

  “And?”

  “And like I said, he was right.” I pressed my lips to her forehead, holding them there for a few seconds.

  Every time I kissed her a rush of strength coursed through me, like I’d been injected with some magical power-drug. “My pack is important to me,” I said. “I guess I should say they will be important to me, once we’ve regrouped. They give me a drive to win for their sake. But you…you give me a desire to survive. Not to mention a desire to live for a long, long time.”

  “Good,” she said quietly, pressing her face to my chest and wrapping her arms around my back, pulling her body tight into mine. “I need you to survive.”

  “Keep telling me that, blondie. Every day from now until the end.”

  “I will.”

  Sierra and I spent most of the day in bed. Maybe I should have been off in the bayou target-shooting or practicing my hunting skills, but there was no way in hell I was letting the goddamned Marquis show up at her place again, so I fed myself the excuse that I was to be her bodyguard for the week.

  When evening came, we got dressed and went for a walk down Bourbon Street. The sky was dark and clouded over, but the countless lights of the French Quarter lit everything up like it was the middle of the afternoon. Music pulsed out from the various bars and clubs along our route. People sat on patios while up above us, others leaned on railings on the long strip of second-floor balconies lining the street. The place had an electric vibe to it, like it wasn’t just the throngs of people, but the actual city, that was alive.

  “I hadn’t quite realized how many strip clubs there are in this town,” Sierra chuckled as we walked by an open door that gave us an uncensored view of a naked woman pole-dancing inside. The hot red lights around the woman radiated out from the club in waves.

  “Want to go in?” I asked, raising my right eyebrow.

  “You’re joking, right?”

  “I thought maybe you’d like to put on a little show for me.”

  Sierra whacked my arm. “I’ll put on a show in the apartment later,” she said, “but I’m not really into displaying my boobs for strangers.”

  “That’s a shame. They’re really something. Like, I mean, those are some seriously amazing breasts. You could definitely make a killing.”

  “You’re a terrible man.”

  “Yes. Yes, I am.”

  We stopped in a quiet bar on a side street to have a drink. It felt so strange, but so good, to be out on an actual date with someone who knew exactly who and what I was. To enjoy her company just for the sake of enjoying it, without all the usual baggage that came with worrying about divulging too much or agonizing about the future of the pack.

  For a few hours, I wanted to just savor Sierra and everything she was.

  We perched on a couple of tall stools, leaning our arms against the bar. Sierra looked amazing in a pair of tight blue jeans and an orange shirt that accentuated the blue in her eyes. Her blouse was low cut enough that my eyes kept veering to the pretty line and smooth curve of her cleavage, which was distracting me to the point that I kept having to change position in my seat.

  “You okay?” she asked after a time.

  “Yup,” I replied. “Just trying to find a way to sit where my hard-on doesn’t become intolerably painful.”

  “Aw, you poor thing,” Sierra said with a smile. She pressed up close to me, her shoulders leaning in so I could see down the front of her top even more. I could have sworn she was doing it on purpose to see if my jeans would literally explode into a million torn pieces of denim. “What can I do to help?” she asked in a sultry voice.<
br />
  “Stop being so damn sexy,” I growled, pushing forward to nip her lower lip.

  “I’m afraid I’m not sure how to do that,” she said with a faux-innocence that only sent more blood rushing to my dick.

  “That’s too bad,” I said, reaching for her and pulling her close. I didn’t care that there were people around. I kissed her hard and long, then pulled away to look at her again as I combed my fingers through her hair. “I’m just going to have to learn to live with constant, torturous horniness,” I said.

  “If we go back to my place, I can relieve some of the pressure,” she told me. “I think my lips have recovered sufficiently that another visit from a certain fairy might just be in order.”

  With that offer on the table I grabbed my beer, chugged it in a single gulp, and slammed the bottle down. “Check!” I shouted to the bartender, who promptly popped over. I slid him a twenty and looked at Sierra, who was laughing.

  “That was impressive,” she said, gulping down the last of her gin and tonic.

  “You made me an offer I couldn’t refuse,” I told her. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

  “I want you to tell me about them,” Sierra said as we walked hurriedly back towards her apartment.

  “About who?” I said.

  “Your pack.”

  I smirked. “I wish I could really call them mine,” I said. “Anyhow, there are about twenty members. There were more like thirty for a while there, but some of them defected after our last Alpha was killed.”

  Sierra glanced sideways at me, her eyes narrowing as she figured out what I was talking about. “To the Marquis, you mean,” she said, looking around like she was afraid he’d suddenly pop out of the bushes at hearing the sound of his name.

  I nodded. “Those men you saw the other night, in the cemetery…”

  “They were his?”

  Another nod. “They are now. Some shifters do poorly with no leadership. They’re like actors without directors. Always walking around in a daze, asking ‘What’s my motivation?’ They don’t know what to do with themselves. The Marquis offered them the kind of leadership they liked, so they went over to the dark side.”

  “Liked?” Sierra asked. By now we’d come to the steps leading up to her front door. We climbed up and she thrust the key into the lock. “How could anyone like that bastard?”

  She pushed the door open, and I followed her inside. “They’re drawn to his wolf,” I replied. “He’s an animal in every sense of the word. A beast. He calls out to their most primal instincts, I suppose.”

  “I’ll never be able to get my head around his allure,” Sierra said as she began to march up the stairs. “Not in a million years. I’d rather hang out with Satan for the rest of eternity than spend two minutes with the Marquis.”

  “I’m not sure they’re two different entities, to be honest,” I said with a chuckle.

  Sierra spun around on the stairs to glare at me. “Trick, I’m serious,” she said. “That creature is awful. Someone should tell those wolves who hang around with him about everything he’s done.”

  I shook my head. “It’s not so simple. They don’t care. They respect him for his power.”

  She looked like she wanted to put a fist through the wall. “I just don’t get it,” she said, shaking her head. “I’ll never get it.”

  “Shifters are different from average humans,” I said, stepping up to get closer to her. “Our logic doesn’t always line up with the human way of thinking. And don’t even get me started on the other kind…”

  “Other kind?” she asked. “What do you mean?”

  “Let’s get into your apartment, and I’ll tell you,” I said.

  She gave me a quick kiss then spun around to dart up the rest of the way to her place. I followed, my eyes lingering on her perfect ass.

  When we’d made our way inside her apartment, the door locked behind us, I sat her down on the couch. “Okay. Let me see if I can explain. There’s a segment of the shifter population called Lessers. They’re shifters—technically—only they can’t actually shift.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s complicated. They need to mate first. And for that, they need to be granted permission by a strong Alpha, which they only receive after they’ve proven their worth.”

  “I don’t get it,” Sierra said. “If it’s in your blood to shift, then shouldn’t you be able to?”

  “Yes, in theory,” I said. “But that’s not how everything works, as you know.”

  “Right,” she said. “Magic and weird shifter rules and all that.”

  I nodded. “Lessers are like extreme submissives in some ways. They need someone to command them. They gravitate towards men like the Marquis in droves, because he thrives on control, and they thrive on being controlled.”

  “God, that’s awful,” she said. “If you become Alpha, will you be in charge of any of them? I hate to think of them going to him…”

  “Yes, I’d take them under my wing. But I’d never abuse them. Unlike the Marquis, I don’t get off on sadistic control of others. As long as a Lesser shows me that they intend to be good to the pack, I’ll respect them and treat them fairly. All I ask is loyalty.”

  “Of course you do,” Sierra said, edging towards me. She slipped a hand onto my neck and stared at me. “But for now, I seem to recall that there’s a reason we left the bar. You were having an issue with a very troublesome erection. Or is it gone now?”

  I pulled myself to my feet and lifted my t-shirt, which drew an audible gasp from between Sierra’s lips, then the biggest smile I’d ever seen on her face.

  “Oh. My. God,” she mumbled.

  I said, “What?” then shifted my gaze down to the place where the head of my cock was jutting out, engorged, over the top of my belt.

  “You’re unbelievable,” she said. “That’s unbelievable.”

  “Oh, you mean this old thing?”

  “Yes, that!” she shouted, leaping to her feet. She pushed herself down on her knees and wrapped her lips around me without so much as undoing my belt buckle. I let out a moan of pleasure, savoring the pleasure she took in driving me wild.

  She was a perfect woman. My perfect woman.

  I won’t give this up for anything, I thought. I will win the Trials. I will be Alpha.

  For her.

  Chapter 3

  Sierra

  Monday night was amazing. Spectacular. Beautiful.

  I found myself in a constant dizziness every time it hit me that I’d fallen into the deep end of a torrid relationship with a man who had seemed so impossible to get close to just a few days ago.

  By some miracle, Trick had gone from putting up thick walls to being able to talk to me about pretty much anything, from my work to his fears, to my own terror at the idea that I could lose him so soon. We’d been on a wonderful, accelerated romantic path from the start, and we hadn’t slowed down ever since I’d been injured on that first night.

  We’d done everything but use the word love.

  But it was too soon for that, at least that was what I kept telling myself. Love didn’t come so quickly—it was a word to be used months, or even years after a first kiss, not in the first week of a relationship.

  So what was I feeling, if it wasn’t love? How was it that every time I thought of Trick, every time I looked into his eyes, I was overcome with a warmth, a sense of intimacy, that I’d never felt for any man in my life?

  But I knew the truth of it. It was just as Louis had told me that second day.

  It was love; of course it was. I’d found my true mate. Trick was the one man on earth for whom I’d been saving my heart all my life. He was everything I’d ever wanted.

  The only problem was that before the week was done, I could lose him to an evil bastard who would like nothing more than to see him—and me—suffer.

  On Tuesday morning I awoke to find Trick’s arm around me again. I rolled onto my back, and for a time I just lay there, listening to his rhythmic
, calm breathing. I pressed my face close to his chest so I could feel the steady thudding of his heart. He was so still, so peaceful. His face, so gorgeous when he was awake, was somehow even more beautiful when he was sleeping. His lips were slightly parted, his stubble a little more out of control in the morning hours. His hair was spread out on his pillow like enticing tendrils, begging for my fingers to comb their way through its golden-brown strands.

  Even as I looked at him, my insides ached with joy. Then with sadness. Then with fear that everything I was feeling right now would soon be torn away and replaced with a bottomless pit of loss and despair.

  If the Marquis takes you from me…

  The truth was, I didn’t know what I’d do if that happened. I was only human; it wasn’t like I could seek revenge against a powerful wolf shifter—especially if he managed to become Alpha and gather the strength of New Orleans’ entire shifter population around him. Trick had already made it clear that shifters’ lives didn’t intersect with those of law enforcement, so I couldn’t even go to the police.

  The fact was that if I lost my lover, I’d have no choice but to walk away and try to convince myself I’d never fallen for with a mysterious man with the heart of a beautiful beast.

  Half an hour later as we sat perched on the kitchen’s wooden stools and drank our coffee at the small counter, Trick asked what was bothering me.

  “I’m scared,” I confessed. “I have no idea what to expect this afternoon. All I know is that I don’t feel good about it.”

  “It’ll be fine,” he told me for what felt like the hundredth time.

  “Tell me again what we’re about to do,” I said. “Tell me why it’ll be fine.”

  He set his coffee down, reached over to take my hand, and held it tight. “We’ll drive out of town to a neutral location. Every shifter in town will be there, not to mention the Valks.”