Claimed by the Alpha (3 page)

Luka was suddenly above her, his large hand pushing the damp tendrils of her hair out of her face. The firelight flickered over him just as she’d imagined it would, gliding in a spray of gold over his hard-muscled body, but for a moment, Marijka was sure she saw beneath the skin. She’d known he wasn’t human, but what she saw in that moment was a horror she couldn’t process and fear paralyzed her.

“Marijka?” he asked softly, as if he were gentling some small, terrified animal.

And once again he was simply Luka—a beautiful specimen of Alpha male. His skin was real and warm beneath her hand, his cold eyes weren’t so frigid, and she could feel his heart beating against his chest in a rapid tattoo.

Damn it
. She refused to let her fear of the damn dogs ruin this for her, too. Luka Stanislav wasn’t a werewolf. She didn’t know what he was, but it wasn’t that. The moon was full and he was inside with her. None of them could resist the lure of the pale goddess unless he was an Adam. The Alpha and Omega of the species, not just a pack, and no Adam would stoop so low as to be an enforcer for the Aeternali. An Alpha would perhaps, but he would be drawn by the moon as the rest of his brethren.

No, she was safe with him. At least as far as the wolves were concerned.

“Did I fail in my task?” He brushed his lips across her mouth.

She’d already shown him too much weakness. She was a Guild cop and Gypsy magic ran in her veins as sure as her blood. Marijka narrowed her eyes at him. “No, I’m not afraid. But it’s my turn.”

He eased from her and rolled onto his back. “By all means.”

“Hands above your head,” she commanded. The smile on his face was indulgent, as if there were no chance she’d ever hold the power, but he raised his arms as she instructed.

Marijka was ready to have him inside of her, but she wanted to taunt him and pleasure him just as he’d done to her. She trailed her fingers down the broad expanse of his chest and lowered her mouth to his abdomen, drifting lower still—all the while holding his intense stare with her own.

Luka broke the connection first as his attention jerked toward the window. Those masterful hands flung her to the floor on the opposite side of the bed and before Marijka could scream, the glass of the window shattered in a brutal spray across the room.

The enforcer moved faster than her eyes could follow, and when he came back into focus it was as if she watched everything through time-lapse photography. Marijka didn’t even see the beast until Luka held it suspended in the air by its throat, snarling and salivating. It gnashed its teeth at his flesh, clawed at him. But Luka held it aloft as if it were no more than an errant puppy—though she saw his muscles shift beneath his skin, flex and bulge. He seemed bigger, as if that were possible.

He was already a giant beast of a man, but whereas the creature he held should have been larger and more powerful, it was helpless against him. It continued to thrash to get at Luka until it snapped its own neck with the effort.

Luka dropped it, disgust carved into his hard features, then narrowed his eyes. He quickly scooped it up again with no more effort it would take to lift a toddler—and flung it back out the way it had entered.

He stood in the outline of the broken window, the shadows falling over him in a mantle and the moonlight pale and silver on his golden hair. He was fearless, showing the beasts what he’d done—owning it and inviting them to take what action they could. Daring them to defy him. Marijka was struck again with the certain knowledge he was not human, but an elemental thing spawned from the dark places in the earth.

When he turned his attention back to her, she wished for a moment to be invisible. She didn’t want that intensity focused on her, that power. Luka held out his hand to her.

“You can come out. You are safe.”

“You said they couldn’t pass through the walls,” she said as she scrambled for her gun.

“A little late for the gun, don’t you think?” He cocked his head to the side, curious rather than chiding.

“What the hell are you?”

“I told you, I’m an enforcer.” He stepped toward her. “Did I not protect you, Marijka? Twice now, I have saved you. Why do I smell your fear?” His frigid eyes narrowed and he laughed, that low sound still like liquid velvet. “And arousal. The more you fear, the hotter you get.”

Marijka scrambled away from him, but he was faster. She knew he would be. He slammed her up against the wall roughly.

“Don’t you know better than to run from a predator?” he whispered against her mouth and then scraped his teeth lightly along the edge of her throat.

Yes, she knew better. But she
liked
this. She liked the power that radiated from him in endless waves, his strength. “Maybe I like it when you chase me.”

Goddess above, what was wrong with her? The wolves—

He spoke as if he knew her thoughts. “They will not enter here again. I killed one of them, and they did not come for retribution. In fact, they feed on him now, if you care to see.”

The images his words wrought were like something out of a horror movie. She could almost hear the wet crackling sound of bones crunching in those horrible jaws. “You said they wouldn’t before—”

He cut her off again, but this time with his mouth on hers, crushing her against him. Luka’s kiss tasted of savagery and sin, the power he wielded thrummed with its own electricity and echoed with his heartbeat as it pulsed against her...through her.

She could no more deny him than she could change the tide or even the orbit of the moon. All she could do was submit, but there was a certain freedom in her submission. The only thing she had to do was feel; experience every sensation he chose to wring out of her with his skilled hands and mouth.

When he lifted her, Marijka wrapped her legs around his waist. She bit him again, her blunt teeth marking his neck with her desire.

He responded by lifting her higher, supporting her with one arm, and freed his cock with his other hand. Luka pushed into her with no ceremony, but none was needed. She was slick with her need, her channel ready for his cock.

Luka pulled away and angled her chin so she’d look at him as he thrust into her. Her eyelids were heavy with her need. She wanted to close them and get lost in the sensation, the bliss, as he drove into her and hit the core, but he wouldn’t allow it. So instead, she fell into the endless dark abyss of his eyes. Later, Marijka would swear he’d been looking into her very soul.

She arched against him, bucked her hips to meet his thrusts and clawed at his shoulders. He drove into her steadily, his body drilling her like a machine, but Marijka was determined she wouldn’t be the only one so affected. She clenched around his cock, pulled him deeper—his response was to move both hands to her ass and anchor her where he wanted her.

Luka was already shoving her over that edge again—to free-fall into bliss—but Marijka didn’t want to fall alone.

“Come with me,” she whispered. “Come
inside
me.”

“Say you’re mine,” he demanded.

It was what he didn’t say that was the loudest.
Say you’re mine
,
and I’ll brand you.
Say you’re mine and I’ll mark you.
Say you’re mine and I’ll fill you with my seed—with all that is me.

And in that moment, Marijka didn’t care what the implications were. It was something forbidden to be uttered in the heat of the moment, some primal claiming that wouldn’t matter after their passion had been spent.

“I’m yours, Luka.” She grit her teeth against the building orgasm, determined to fight it until he’d reached his pinnacle, too.

“Don’t fight it, or it will hurt when I make you come again.” His voice was full of dark promise.

He took her mouth again and the onslaught of his hands, his cock and his mouth broke her feeble control. Luka moved them to the bed, sat down with her straddling him, his body still driving toward release.

She remembered how her bite had spurred him and how he’d made her submit for her culmination. He’d played her body like a master, but she wouldn’t be outdone. “Say you’re mine,” Marijka ordered, parroting his words back to him.

Her only response was a growl.

“Say it!” she demanded, tightening her walls hard around his cock.

His body stiffened and the tension built. “Marijka.”

“Say it,” she said again, more softly this time as she took control and it was
her
hips guiding their motion now, not his.

“Yours,” he managed to respond in a hoarse grunt.

A warm satisfaction bloomed and she bit down on the defined muscle between his neck and shoulder. Her little teeth wouldn’t break the skin, but it gave him that edge he so obviously craved.

His arms tightened around her and his body stilled as he spilled inside of her. Luka rested his head against her breasts as his ragged breathing returned to normal. Marijka stroked his hair and smoothed it away from his brow.

She couldn’t help but feel powerful—she’d had control over him, an Alpha. That felt as good as the orgasm.

Almost.

His touch was a drug and it made her thankful this was only for one night. Marijka would never allow anyone who could make her need anything from them into her life.

She knew better, but she’d wring everything from this one night that she could.

Chapter Four

Marijka awoke with dawn’s first trembling touch on her face. It was a gentle light, drawing her carefully from the warm cradle of sleep. She yawned, inhaling the scents of the morning.

The aroma of sizzling bacon and morning dew on young grass was not an unpleasant blend. Although, she hoped there was coffee. Her stomach growled in protest and she remembered she hadn’t eaten any of the tempting stew.

She’d been too busy fucking the Aeternali enforcer.

His arm was thrown over her waist and his even breath ghosted over the nape of her neck. His solid body was like a wall of living marble and Marijka felt safe for the first time since her mother’s death when she was ten. Which was just too bad for her because this was where it had to end. Marijka was going on to Ostrava and Luka was...she didn’t know.

But it didn’t matter.

Where could it go from here even if he wanted that from her? As a Guild cop, she barely had time to make friends with her new vibrator, let alone a flesh-and-blood man. Even if they decided to keep it on a strictly sexual basis.

By the goddess, she wanted to fuck him again. And again, and...

She shifted against him, pressing herself closer, and his cock hardened against her ass. His lips were hot on the back of her neck and his hand drifted up to cup her breast.

“Good morning to you, too,
malenkaya
,” he mumbled.

Her stomach growled again, loud and angry like a starving dog.

“So fierce.” He nuzzled her neck and moved to splay his fingers over her belly.

Marijka could eat when she was alone on the train to Ostrava. She had to leave him and Aynkava today. She drew his hand from her belly down to her mound. “I’m hungry for other things first.”

But she gasped when his fingers slipped over her clit. She was
sore
. That hadn’t happened since she’d lost her virginity.

“It must be breakfast instead, pretty little Gypsy.” Luka pulled her closer against him, the act at odds with his statement. “The only train leaves at eight. It will be a long wait in the next village.”

A
long wait?
Images of how to fill that time crashed into her. It was all him—on his knees between her thighs, rising up and taking her from behind, riding his cock... She could fill an afternoon with him. Days. Weeks. This male was surely an addiction. The sooner she got him out of her head, the better off she’d be. She’d had him once; it would have to be enough.

Marijka wanted to lie and say she wasn’t hungry, but her stomach growled again. Her back was suddenly cold where he’d pulled away from her.

“I’d advise you not to shower until you’re ready to leave Ostrava,” he said as he pulled on his slacks.

Marijka turned to look at him. “Why?” Her initial reaction was to wrinkle her nose in disgust—who knew how long she’d be in Ostrava? She’d stink like a dead whore by the time she left. But he obviously had a reason and she knew it would be wise to listen to him.

“Because you bear my mark. They’ll smell it on you and it will offer some measure of protection along with your Guild status. But as you saw last night—” he shrugged his massive shoulders “—even that might not matter.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to ask again why they’d care if she smelled like him, demand to know who he was really, what was beneath his skin. But she knew he’d give her the same answer as last night. He was simply an enforcer and what happened between them hadn’t changed anything. He wasn’t going to suddenly trust her with all of his secrets, even though there was a part of her that craved that. She wanted to know more about him not just as a cop, but as a woman.

These beasts though, they
would
smell his pheromones all over her. Marijka had to take whatever weapons she could get.

The voice nagging in the back of her head asked her why his scent was a weapon yet again, but this time it answered the question and Marijka wasn’t ready to hear what it had to say. She
wouldn’t
hear it. Because it was impossible.

And too horrible to comprehend.

Again, it was as if he knew how her thoughts had turned because he yanked her against the broad expanse of his chest and she couldn’t think when he touched her. Her body melted against his, even as she fought it, struggled to keep her wits about her.

Luka kissed her hard, but abruptly broke the kiss and smacked her lightly on the globe of her ass. “Get dressed, woman.” He still hadn’t let her go, and his hand was still on her ass. “Unless you want to spend another day in Aynkava?”

Another day? With him? Like this? It would be so easy to say yes, to spend the day not worrying about what happened outside the walls of the inn, what he was, or what she had to do.

She’d given in to her desires last night and now morning had come and it was time for Marijka to pick up her badge and find out what exactly was worth Evan’s life—and punish those who’d killed him or die trying.

Marijka wrapped her arm around the back of his neck. “I want to, Luka—”

“I know, Marijka.” He dragged his stubbled cheek against hers as he’d done the night before and she shivered at the sensation. There was so much promise in that action of what was to come, almost like a claiming. Luka brushed his lips against the corner of her mouth. “I, too, have a job to do. An unpleasant one. Perhaps you will share my train compartment to the next village and wait with me?”

It was exactly what she wanted. There was no reason to say no. They both had cause to be there, why not spend a few more hours together? She nodded and leaned against his shoulder. Marijka had to remember this was still nothing more than a fling between them. No matter how he made her blood rush, her slit ache, or even at times how safe he made her feel, she knew he couldn’t be trusted. He had secrets. And if she gave any more of herself to him, he’d hurt her.

But what was one more day?

The road to hell wasn’t paved with good intentions; it was gilded with Luka Stanislav’s touch.

“Only the next village?”

“You want more?” His hand slid up her flank and he cupped her breast again.

Marijka leaned into the caress. “I know you’re going to Ostrava. Why not be honest about it? Then I can have your mark on me no matter what I do.” What was she saying? Her voice had a femme-fatale quality that was so foreign to her. Those weren’t her words and they definitely weren’t her voice. “Unless you’re meeting someone else.”

A man like him was probably taken. She had visions of a hundred concubines and ten wives, and none of them could keep him satisfied. Something new and unfamiliar sparked to vengeful life at the idea.

“No, Marijka. There is no one else.” His thumb stroked lazy circles over her beaded nipple. “Only you,
krasavitsa
.”

“Pretty lies, Stanislav. I don’t need or want them.” But part of her did. That newness that blossomed in her core, it wanted to hear she was beautiful again.
Krasavitsa
. She loved how he sounded. They were in dangerous territory now because she also wanted to hear that she was the only one. That she was forever.

That was ridiculous. Marijka didn’t do relationships and she certainly didn’t do forever. She was a Guild cop; she didn’t have forever to offer. She didn’t even know this guy. One night of hot sex—

His mouth crashed into hers, silencing her thoughts and feeding that little voice. Marijka clung to him, her knees weak, and her head swam with the onslaught of pleasure just from his kiss.

He broke away, eyes dark and hot. She didn’t know how she’d ever thought them frigid. Endless, yes, but she’d burn in their depths rather than drown. They bored into her and she found herself not only allowing his mind to invade hers, but also craving it.

“I do not lie, Marijka Zolinski. Look and see.”

She couldn’t. A black curtain hung between them, and he’d invited her to pull it back and prove he spoke the truth. Invited her to the most intimate of invasions with no hesitation.

Marijka was suddenly terrified there was something dark behind the curtain, something that wanted to devour her.

“Stop.” She turned her face away and his hand dropped to her waist.

“Why are you afraid? A Guild cop who has been through the Abyss, fought demons and devils to come out the other side. What have you to fear?”

“You.” Marijka didn’t look up at him, couldn’t—and she was torn between disgust at herself for her weakness and wanting to burrow into his arms. Intensely stupid, considering he was what she feared.

Only, he wouldn’t let her hide. With one strong finger he tilted her chin so she was forced to look him in the eye. “The offer is always open. You may look whenever you wish.” He studied her for a moment. “I will never hurt you. This, I vow.”

The weight of his words slammed against her. In their world, a vow wasn’t something taken lightly. It was binding. It was always. People didn’t make vows after one-night stands. Unless—Her eyes widened as she cut off the thought. Marijka wasn’t willing to finish it.

She broke away from the circle of his arms. “I have to go.”

His hands fell to his sides and he didn’t try to stop her, or grab for her. “Whether you wish to spend another night with me or not, you still have my protection in Ostrava.”

Marijka paused and looked at him again. In the warm light of morning, he was just a man. A large man, with a tongue like a satyr and the endurance of a god, but just a man. His flesh real, supple and solid beneath her hands. “I’m not good with this people thing.”

For one terrible moment, she thought he was going to tell her that it was good, because he wasn’t a person. He was some horrible beast from the pit of hell, but she already knew he couldn’t be a werewolf. He couldn’t. He was inside with her last night.

“Neither am I.” A half smile curved his mouth and this time, it was Luka who looked away from her. Almost as if he were embarrassed. “It’s been a long time since I’ve courted a woman. Things that are right among my people—” he shrugged “—are not among yours. I forget.”

“Long enough that you still use words like
court?
You are that old, then?”

“I will tell you about it sometime. If you wish.”

“Or you could simply be a master manipulator who saw that the intense approach wasn’t working so you switched to this awkward, harmless facade you thought I’d find more appetizing.”

“All predators are good manipulators.” He laughed. “But no, Marijka. After Ostrava, I will answer any question you ask of me.”

“Why Ostrava? Why not now? We’re both headed there for the same reasons.” She studied him, but his face was a mask—unreadable.

“I can’t.” The guarded expression melted into one of what seemed to be genuine regret.

“So after,
any
question? Regardless of the Aeternali?”

“Yes.”

“I still have to go.” She bit her lip. When he was like this, she wasn’t afraid. He made her feel safe. Though it was a conundrum because he was the one who made her afraid, too. Even afraid, Marijka had a job to do and nothing would stop her.

“As do I. My compartment on the train will be available to you. Last car.”

“What number?” Marijka asked before she could stop herself.

The half smile bloomed into a self-assured grin. “No number. The last car. It’s all mine.”

“Maybe I’ll see you there.” She grabbed her bag and headed out the door without looking back.

Magda met her at the foot of the stairs with a tray full of food, and a basket on her wrist. When she saw Marijka, she set the tray down and handed her the basket.

Color rushed to her cheeks when she realized Magda must have heard them last night. Yes, Luka was most definitely a
good boy
. She blushed harder. While she was comfortable with her body and its functions—one had to be growing up in a caravan—Marijka also had a healthy respect for propriety and her elders.

“I couldn’t accept—”

Magda smiled. “
Vnucka
, you must keep up your strength. Dark times are coming.” She grabbed Marijka’s hand and traced her finger down her fate line and her life line. “You have seen the broken line. It was broken once in the Abyss, and now it will break again. You will face the thing you fear most and you must defeat it.” Magda let go of her hand and shoved the basket at her again. “Not only for yourself, but for all who will come after you. For Luka.”

“We barely know each other.” She shrugged.

“And you, my girl, know better than to argue with your
babicka
.” For the briefest moment, Baba Zoranna looked out at her through Magda’s eyes and was gone. “For Luka,” she reiterated. “The thing that terrifies you most.”

It wasn’t a hard leap to make. Baba Zoranna had seen her future and came to warn her. The rogue werewolves would attack Luka and if Marijka didn’t overcome her fear, it wasn’t just Luka who would lose, it was all of them. The virus would become pandemic.

She didn’t understand this connection with him, or why it mattered so much.