Curves for the Alpha Wolf

Curves for the Alpha Wolf

 
Caroline Knox

When Justin
appeared outside of my cage at the pound, I let out a dismayed whimper. Of all
the werewolves in the pack to witness my shame, why did it have to be him? Why
Justin, the sexy alpha I’d had a crush on forever?

“Yes, she’s
mine,” he told the interested female employee, who trailed her fingers over
Justin’s large hand as she handed a thin nylon leash to him. I growled at her.
Justin’s eyes laughed at me but he kept a straight face. “
Good
Chrissy. Good doggie. I know it’s been traumatic for
you, but I’ll take you home and everything will be okay.”

For a moment I
was tempted to believe that everything would be okay. I wagged my tail at the
thought of going home with Justin. If anyone could make my life okay again it
was Justin. But then I remembered. I’d turned into a dog. Not a wolf.

Not even a
predator of a dog. I looked down at the black fur covering my plump figure, the
gentle swell of the little belly, the long pointed tail. I shook my head to
clear it. Floppy ears flapped. Adorable. Domestic. Embarrassing as hell. I was
a Labrador Retriever.

Nobody had
warned me this could happen to me.

Of course, the
pack members who might have warned me had collectively turned their backs on me
the night that skinny bitch Meredith brutalized my pet. Hunting in her werewolf
form, she’d caught my dog Digger. She’d proceeded to play with her like a cat
with a mouse. She broke all four of Digger’s legs, blinded her in one eye,
sliced deep enough into her abdomen that viscera bulged out, and ripped open
her throat. It was a miracle my dog lived.

I guess people
were surprised by my response when I caught Meredith still at her play. I tried
to kill her. I didn’t succeed at killing Meredith—werewolves are much
tougher than teenage girls—but I managed to inflict a permanent scar. One
little scar at the corner of her vicious mouth.

That, however,
was one scar too many. Pack rules were absolute: any human who injured a
werewolf on pack land had to leave. No further contact with werewolves was
permitted. Pack law allowed no exceptions.

At the time of
the incident l unfortunately still qualified as human. Since I hadn’t changed
into a werewolf yet, even at the relatively mature age of seventeen, it seemed
likely I never would. Most people managed the trick during puberty or just
post-puberty.

Being thrown
out of the only home I’d ever known had hurt. I hated leaving the house where
my parents had raised me before the car accident claimed them. I hated saying
goodbye to both my heritage and my friends.

I hated leaving
Justin.

But I hadn’t
had a choice. I took Digger and found a cheap apartment down in the city, a
tiny place of my own where I could nurse the poor dog back to health. She still
had trouble walking.

As if I didn’t
have enough problems, this afternoon while walking to work I turned into a dog.
My memories are hazy after that, but I remember sniffing at bushes and peeing
on someone’s lawn. Animal control picked me up.

I walked around
my cage, exploring. I glanced at Justin. He was suddenly looking at me like I’d
grown another head. I realized I’d forgotten about him for a minute. Had I been
barking at the beagle in the cage next door?
Barking
? Oh, crap. I sat down abruptly with a distressed
whine. I was losing my identity, my memories of being a human. That was bad.

 
Justin’s eyes tracked every small
movement of mine. His mouth hardened and his brows came together in a slight
frown. “Chrissy, I’ve got to get you out of here now.” He looked at the female
attendant and for the first time I felt his alpha power surging. “Unlock the
cage,” he commanded her in a seductive growly tone.

His eyes
watched her with a predator’s gleam. I knew Justin targeted her to make her
submissive and compliant for his own purposes. It was an alpha’s right. His
voice did delightful things to my nerve endings, but of course I wasn’t the
voice’s target. The very thin and pretty woman was. She looked stunned and
delighted by Justin’s attention.

It shouldn’t
have made me so jealous.

I watched Justin’s
alpha magic work on her and ate my doggie heart out.

The woman leapt
to do his bidding, her gaze going dreamy. She contrived to brush her hips
against Justin’s leg as she bent over to unlock my cage.

A fury of
possessiveness filled me as my rival opened the cage door. The feral emotion
fired through me. I snarled at her. My hackles pointed toward the roof like
porcupine quills.

When I tried to
bite her she fell back. She glanced at Justin in consternation. “Are you sure
she’s safe? I can go get a muzzle.”

The scent of
the woman’s fear drove me into a frenzy of barking.

“That won’t be
necessary.” Justin pushed past her to open the unlocked cage, entered it, and
patted me on the head before clipping the leash to the cheap collar I’d been
fitted with upon arrival. He smelled confident and good. At his dominant touch,
his power surged over me. I relaxed as alpha messages of peace and submission
trailed through me.

My human
memories continued to fade away.

Justin swore
softly, then walked me too quickly to his large pickup truck, dragging me when
I wanted to investigate the fascinating scents near the parking lot. He opened
the door, tossed me into the back seat of the extended cab, and climbed in
after me before pulling the door shut behind him. “Change,” he commanded.
“Now.”

I could hear
the urgency in his voice but I didn’t understand it. I wagged my tail
uncertainly. I only wanted the alpha to accept me and to not hurt me. I licked
his nose.

He responded by
grabbing me and shaking me. “Chrissy! Remember who you are. You’re a shifter.
Shift back.” He narrowed his eyes and stared hard into mine. I stared back,
utterly fascinated by him. That’s when he sent his alpha power crashing over me
more strongly than ever, scouring my brain and my body with the force of it.
“Change, Chrissy. I want you back in your human form.” I yelped as my nerve
endings twitched and my pelt rippled. Then, nothing. I squirmed, puppyish.

“Please,
Chrissy. I want you… I
need
you to come
back to me.” This time Justin’s magnetism wouldn’t be denied. Fire shot through
my bones and the deep ache of change began. When my pelt rippled, it kept
rippling over my shifting muscles and bone. The ache quickly vanished. Fur
disappeared, leaving my human form bare and smooth almost everywhere.

I gasped,
staring up at Justin’s fierce golden eyes inches from my own. His feral gaze
made him look ready to change, himself. Had Justin actually said he needed me?

I realized I
was lying in the backseat of Justin’s truck and he still held me pinned down.
The woodsy, musky scent of him filled my nostrils. My human form appreciated
the smell of him almost as much as it did his large, very masculine body poised
so close to my own. Our legs were tangled together. Mine were bare.

Wait a minute.
I was naked. Completely naked in Justin’s truck. Justin’s strong, masculine
body held me pressed to the seat.

It was exactly
where I’d fantasized about being for years.

I made a small
shocked sound.

Justin’s mouth
curved into a relieved smile. “Welcome back.” He glanced down my nude body. I
felt a certain large part of him respond with an instant hardening that I could
feel through the jeans he wore. A muscle quivered in his jaw. His eyes flared
even more yellow and wolf-like. “You’re so beautiful.”

I folded my
arms over my breasts in an effort to hide my naked body. “You don’t have to say
that.” I knew I wasn’t beautiful. A prickly ball of hurt formed in my throat.
My curvy body wasn’t anyone’s idea of beautiful, especially someone as handsome
and charismatic as Justin. A man who could have any woman in the world.

He growled low
in his throat and moved against me, a clever shifting that pressed his thick
bulge directly against the juncture of my thighs. The sudden shock of sensation
distracted me so much that when he leaned in to kiss me, I just went with it.
Justin pressed his warm lips against mine and an arc of pure lustful
electricity seemed to connect us. His chest pressed my arms firmly to my own
chest, making me helplessly immobile while his mouth had its way with mine. The
kiss was beyond perfect. Powerful shivers wracked my body as the heat from his
lips radiated into mine. When he parted his lips and his tongue glided into my
mouth in a delightful invasion, a fire ignited at my core.

I couldn’t help
moaning and moving my body against his. I raised my legs, locking them around
his thighs to keep Justin close.

He groaned, a
vibration I felt as much as heard.

He finally
broke away and looked down at me. At my body. He took several deep breaths. “We
should stop. This isn’t... we shouldn’t. Here.” He unbuttoned his flannel shirt
and tossed it over my hands still covering my breasts. “Take this.”

My cheeks
burned with humiliation. “Thanks.” At the painful reminder of how undesirable I
actually was, I remembered why I’d forced myself to abandon the useless dreams
of Justin coming after me, telling me the pack master had had a change of heart
and would make an exception for me. I used to have such silly fantasies about
Justin tracking me down after I’d been evicted from pack land, sweeping me off
my feet and claiming me. In my dreams he brought me home with him.

Justin spoke as
if he’d read my mind. “I’ve got to bring you home with me.”

I blinked.
“Whoa.” Things were clearly moving too fast for my comprehension. I said the
first thing that popped into my head. “But I’m not allowed on pack land
anymore.” I put on his shirt. It was not long enough to sufficiently cover my
curvy thighs. I tugged it as low as it would go. My fingers toyed with the edge
of it nervously. Wearing Justin’s shirt made me feel like he’d marked me
somehow. I liked the idea of being marked by him.

He’d already
climbed into the driver’s seat. I scrambled into the front as well. He threw
his truck into gear and peeled out of the parking lot. “You’d have been invited
back a year ago if I’d had my way. It came down to a stubborn pack master who
left it up to Meredith. Meredith blocked my request for a reprieve. You know
how she is. She’s not favorably disposed toward you.” He delivered the
understatement with a wry tone. “I tried convincing her to forgive you, to
appeal to her better side. To make her take some damn responsibility. No dice.
She had pack law on her side. Meredith sees you as a threat.”

I frowned at
the thought of Justin trying to sway Meredith. Had he used his alpha power on
her? Or something more intimate? He’d dated her at one point—every guy in
the pack dated Meredith sooner or later—so he must have. Even so, I
figured he never got to know Meredith very well if he thought she considered me
any sort of threat. I mean, look at me next to her. She was slender, blonde,
glamorous. She was a gorgeous woman and a thoroughly vicious werewolf.

I was a pound
puppy.

The
overwhelming urge to just go back to my safe little apartment, where cruel werewolves
never hurt or disappointed me, crashed over me. I needed to check on Digger
anyway, take her for a long walk, feed her. I craved my normal routine. “Just
take me home,” I said around a lump in my throat. “My home, I mean. I’ll handle
it from now on. But, um, thanks for your help.”

I watched his
lips thin into an uncompromising line. His broad shoulders moved enticingly
under the form-fitting tee. “Handle it, like you handled your first change?”

I was about to
answer when he shifted gears. His truck leapt forward and onto the narrow road
that snaked through a forest of increasingly larger pine trees. I reached for
the grab bar to stay centered in my seat. He drove fast and confident up the
sparsely populated mountain that hosted the local pack that had evicted me the
year before. Justin visibly fought to keep his temper. “You don’t have any idea
what’s going on. You don’t know the danger you’re in.”

I could hear
his sincerity. I stared at his handsome profile, so fierce-looking and
determined. “Danger? What do you mean?”

He growled, a
rumble slightly deeper than the engine noise. “Didn’t anyone teach you anything
about shifting? How could you be left in such ignorance? I can’t believe you
know so little.” He glanced briefly at me. His eyes glinted yellow. The color
of passion, probably anger.

My own lip
lifted in response for a brief moment in a silent snarl. I’d forgotten what it
was like to be around fiery werewolf temperaments.

He drove
without speaking for a while.

His
straightforward ire had snapped me awake like it was a splash of clear, icy
mountain spring water. In the last year I’d lived around and worked with
people. Noisy humans with their blunted communication styles that didn’t use
nearly enough body language. I never got used to that, or how they judge girls
like me who aren’t skinny and spend hours working out. Human girls my size had
it hard. I’d been homesick for pack land to begin with but the extra pain from
all the insults I got had reduced me to a near-recluse—a person who goes
from work to home and back again, month after month, nothing much to live for.

While nursing
Digger back to health, I often longed for my old life, but now I realized what
I’d really been missing. I’d not only ached for the forest, and my former
friends, and of course I’d missed seeing Justin around so I could hopelessly
pine for him. I could now see how emotionally muted my life had been since
being evicted from pack land.

Justin’s
presence—his mannerisms, his bluntness, his scent—felt like home to
me.

Too bad it was
temporary. And Justin dared lecture me on not knowing enough about shifting?