Shifters Gone Alpha (45 page)

Chapter 7

“How can you be so damned relaxed?” Adam grumbled at Declan.

Declan looked up from his book and smirked. “Because I’m not the one who’s going to get naked and boned in front of the whole pack.”

Quinn smacked Declan in the chest. “Matings are supposed to be romantic, Declan. It’s not ‘getting naked and boned’. It’s declaring their love in front of their friends and family.”

Adam made a face at his alpha and resumed pacing the room. It was on the tip of his tongue to ask why Dec and Quinn hadn’t had to do the whole thing in front of the pack, but then he remembered the condition Quinn had been in at their mating.

Besides, he had been the one to suggest the public part of their mating.

Declan stood and stretched before helping Quinn to his feet. “You ready, Adam?”

God, he was about to hyperventilate.

Quinn was at his side in a second, patting his arm. “Why are you so nervous?”

“He’s probably got performance anxiety.” Declan flinched when Quinn swung at him again.

It wasn’t performance anxiety. Hell, he was catching tonight. He technically didn’t even have to get hard—although he was pretty sure Cullen would make sure he enjoyed it. He just wanted to make sure everything was perfect for Cullen, that was all.

There was no way he was going to admit that in front of Declan though. The man would never let Adam live such a sentimental thought down.

“Don’t be so sure about that, Ad. Quinn has totally changed my way of thinking. I know what it’s like to be so in love with someone, you’re willing to make a fool out of yourself for them. Things are perfect. Quinn made sure of that, remember?” Declan draped a heavy arm over his shoulder and pulled him close in a one-armed hug.

Apparently he’d spoken his fear out loud. He took the comfort his alpha offered before pushing away.

Quinn tiptoed over to the window and peeked out through the drapes. “Looks like everything is set.”

It was time to put on his big boy underwear. Or take them off, as it were. Throwing his shoulders back, Adam blew out a deep breath and nodded at Declan, who smiled at him encouragingly.

Declan squeezed his shoulder before he walked over to Quinn and then through the back door.

Adam could hear the alpha announcing the ceremonial words and waited for his cue to step onto the back porch, where Cullen and the rest of the pack would be waiting for him.

“Adam?” Declan called.

Shit, he’d missed his cue. He rushed out, stumbled over a loose board on the deck, and nearly fell flat on his face. Strong arms wrapped around him, saving him from breaking his nose and bleeding all over the beautiful deck Declan had had stained the year before.

Cullen held on to Adam until he was steady on his feet. “Thanks for not letting me fall,” Adam murmured gratefully.

“I’ll never let you fall,” Cullen whispered back.

A hot rush swept through his belly, little butterflies taking up residence in his stomach. “That was so cheesy,” he commented, cupping Cullen’s cheek.

Cullen grinned and turned to press a kiss into the center of Adam’s palm. “But you love it.”

“Yeah, I do,” Adam admitted.

“Yeah, yeah,” Declan said, pushing his way between them. “Now, can we get back to the matter at hand? Please? Because Quinn just told me he has a surprise for me and that usually means I end up balls deep in him.”

Cullen looked into his eyes, and Adam could see the love sparkling in those beautiful blue eyes. “You sure you want to do this?”

Oh, God, he was never more sure about anything in his life. “Yes, I am.”

“Then let’s do this,” Cullen said. He turned Adam around so he faced Declan and the rest of the pack. “I choose this man as my mate.”

Declan stepped forward. “I acknowledge this mating, as Alpha of his pack.” He threw back his head and howled.

The rest of the pack howled back, and Cullen gently pushed Adam to his knees. The pack’s collective gaze was on him. Rather than feel insecure, Adam’s heart began to pump and his dick twitched.

Cullen’s hands traced up the backs of his thighs and paused to tickle his ass. God, what a feeling. “You have a little bit of an exhibitionist streak, huh?”

“Apparently,” Adam grunted, his cock going from interested to full mast in a matter of seconds. “Although I think it has more to do with your hands on my body than everyone watching.”

“If you like my hands so much, you’re going to love this.” Cullen separated Adam’s cheeks with two hands and licked along his crease.

Oh, holy hell, that was wonderful.
Cullen worried his tongue around Adam’s pucker until Adam thought he would pass out from pleasure. There was no way things could feel any better. But then Cullen inserted two fingers
and
licked delicately at the stretched-tight skin, and Adam’s pleasure ratcheted up to a whole new level of sweet-baby-Jesus-please-don’t-stop.

The muscles in Adam’s abdomen cramped painfully as he fought against the urge to come with nothing but the warm spring breeze brushing against his cock. Cullen nudging his prostate with those questing fingers didn’t help matters.

He didn’t even have enough breath to warn Cullen about his imminent explosion, but his mate seemed to know exactly what was happening.

Cullen slowly freed his fingers, and Adam felt him kneel between his legs. The already damp tip of Cullen’s cock, pushing insistently at his opening, told Adam just how aroused Cullen was. “I’m probably not going to last long,” Cullen muttered.

“S’okay,” Adam managed to grit out between his clenched teeth. “I’m already right on the edge.”

Cullen’s thick shaft breached his body, and Adam gasped. Full. He had to work to relax around his mate’s cock.  Cullen hadn’t stretched him out completely, but that was okay. He liked the burn.

By the time Cullen was balls deep, the slight pain morphed into a pleasure so deep, so intense, Adam had forgotten how to breathe.

“Shit.” Cullen pulled back a little. “Sorry, babe. Can’t hold back.” He slammed in and pulled Adam up by the shoulders so that they were pressed together, chest to back.

Wrapping his hand around Adam’s straining shaft, Cullen stroked him off. “Want to feel you come. Fuck, need you to come, Ad.”

Well, that was okay by him. He only needed one little thing to push him over that edge. “Bite me, Cull.”

“Yeah,” Cullen agreed. “Mine.”

“Yours. Always.”

Cullen grunted and sank his teeth into the fleshy part of Adam’s shoulder.

The first, stinging sprays of Adam’s orgasm were almost painful in their intensity before they melted into spine tingling pleasure. The climax went on forever and Adam only vaguely felt Cullen pulsing inside him.

The ties that had formed when Adam first took Cullen as his mate tightened into something unbreakable. He felt Cullen’s pleasure like it was his own, felt his mate’s satisfaction that nothing could tear them apart and gloried in the same feeling.

Cullen finally freed his fangs from Adam’s shoulder and let out a joyful howl.

Adam’s muscles were no longer able to support him, and he flopped forward to collapse on his belly, wincing when the action caused Cullen’s softening cock to slip out of him.

A warm body snuggled close to his, and Adam managed to throw his arm around Cullen’s waist and drag him close. Declan was standing over them, addressing the pack. “This mating has been witnessed and approved. Tonight, we celebrate this long-awaited event.”

“What Dec really meant to say was: let’s party!” Quinn exclaimed.

Cullen got to his feet and hauled Adam up. He was shaky, and he doubted his legs would support his body weight, so he leaned in to Cullen, confident that his mate would hold him up.

He smiled and accepted the congratulations from his pack members as they filed past to lay waste to the spread Quinn had put out in the Alpha’s house.

Some of the females glared at them, though, narrowing their eyes and pouting. “What the hell is the matter with them?” Cullen asked.

Adam was just as bewildered. He hadn’t thought they would meet any resistance to their mating. After all, they’d been together forever. Besides, the alpha had mated a male.

“Are you kidding?” Declan said with a smirk. “Those girls have been vying to have the first mating of the spring.”

“Yeah,” Quinn said, slapping Adam on the back. “They’ll be spring mates, but you’ll always have the distinction of being the first mates this spring.”

Hmm. Spring mates. Adam followed his alpha and Quinn into the house, still wrapped up in Cullen’s arms. He liked the sound of that.

“I think spring is my new favorite season,” Cullen murmured against Adam’s temple.

“Me, too,” Adam replied quietly. “Me, too.”

The end.

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About the Author

Lynn Tyler, erotic romance author, has been writing since she was young. An Amazon bestseller and a strong believer in happily ever after, Lynn writes predominantly male/male paranormal romance. In her spare time, she attempts to decide on the perfect name for her pet unicorn, should she ever discover one.

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Paranormal Shifter Romance

By Sedona Venez

Blurb

SHIFTER. ROCKER. CHEATER. CURSE. 

THE CURSE 

Curvy Storm Credence was destined to succumb to the Credence family curse…they all did. 

THE PASSION 

When Storm meets sexy band front man Knox Gunner, there’s no denying him. Willing to take a chance on love, Storm breaks the most important Credence rule, no relationships ever. A mistake that results in heartbreaking devastation. 

THE GAME 

Storm is put to the test one more time. When the one man that she never wanted to see again, ‘Rock Star’ Knox Gunner comes blowing back into her life. He’s back to claim what's his, curvy Storm. This time he will stop at nothing to prove that she belongs to him in every sense of the word. 

NEWSLETTER

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CHAPTER 1

I was totally screwed and with no sleep… cranky. No matter how many different scenarios I concocted in my mind—there was no way I was getting out of this unscathed. I had been staring at the contract for hours, scanning for anything that would give me a way out of being Knox's sex toy, and I found absolutely nothing.

Desperation had set in, and I was tempted to beg Reason to find some loophole. Something I knew didn't exist in any of her ironclad contracts. That was why we paid her outrageous fees—she was that good of a lawyer.

Taking another sip of coffee, I tried to calm myself before calling her. On the second ring, she answered.

She yawned loudly. “Storm?”

“What’s the deal with not responding to my text about last night’s tiger debacle?”

I heard shuffling before she responded. “Storm, it’s fucking six o’clock on a Saturday morning. Sleep for me is a necessity.”

“Oh, don’t try to pull that vampire shit on me. You’re a hybrid vampire—a latent one at that. You don’t need to sleep through the daylight.”

Reason laughed. “Now you’re just being mean by pointing out all my genetic flaws. You’re lucky I’m not a sensitive kind of girl.”

I smiled, enjoying the banter. That was why she was my best friend, and I loved her like a sister. Practically growing up together formed a tight bond between us. Her family was a long line of lawyers who have handled all our legal affairs for centuries.

“Please. If you could, you would have a T-shirt printed boasting your hybrid status.”

Reason was the black sheep in the family. Her mother a human, her father a vampire. Her birth was a shame to her blueblood family; they did everything in their power to ostracize her. Her saving grace was that her father was a very powerful and ruthless man who literally loved her more than life and did everything in his power to make her fit into the vampire world. But Reason wanted no part of it, totally ignoring his attempts, much to his embarrassment. She was like me. We lived more comfortably in the human world.

“So what happened last night?”

Reason shuffled her cell. “Another client chose to ignore civility and got into a scuffle in a club with another music artist over who had the right to take over a damn VIP section.” She scoffed. “What morons. Anyway, as you can imagine, it got rough, wicked, and wild, both camps brawling like MMA fighters. They tore the fucking club up. Patrons and employees were injured. And of course, my client called me all panicked about getting arrested.” She sighed. “I told him to leave the club before the media got wind of it. So in a nutshell… I had to disturb a perfectly good Friday night to go sweep things under the rug… again. The life of a celebrity lawyer sucks, my friend.”

I swung around to look at the Manhattan skyline. “What are you complaining about? You’re a well-paid celebrity lawyer. Suck it up.”

Reason responded with a laugh. “It’s more like being a well-paid babysitting service that keeps me rolling in the bucks. People would be surprised at the magnitude of shit that doesn’t get into the papers all due to my creative sweeping abilities.”

I rolled my eyes. “Blah—blah—blah—stop bragging… Back to my contract issue.”

“It’s airtight. I’ll call Tiger Lady this morning and explain the finer things in life—like the huge penalty fee associated with lying and wasting company time. Then I’ll hit her with the fact there’s also a fee for any hint of her defaming Credence O. And if that’s not enough, I'll also point out that if we have to drag this shit before the Other Council, my legal fees alone will drag that bitch under.”

I cringed at the mention of the Other Council. “Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Credence O. can’t afford a scandal.” Never mind the fact that most of the Council members hated my family. The only redeeming factor was that my family had a seat on the Council. Aunt Trulista would ensure we had a fair court hearing if it came down to that.

I sighed. “Call her and let me know if I have to get involved.”

“Okay, talk to you later, baby cakes.”

I swung around when I heard rustling. Light sauntered in wearing low-slung sweatpants and a tight white T-shirt that read: “Bite Me.” I smiled with satisfaction. At least I wasn't the only one who had a rough night. The shadows under her eyes said it all. She carried two extra-large cups of what I knew were lattes and an expensive black shopping bag from an exclusive boutique in SOHO that catered to celebrities. It wasn't unusual to see the clothes from there on the red carpet.

She plopped down into the chair in front of my desk and sighed. “It's six in the morning. What are you doing up so early?” She took a huge swallow of coffee.

I looked at her with an arched brow. “Uh… working.”

She took in my scrubbed-clean face and hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. “You look like shit. What time did you get in last night?”

I didn't need her pointing out the obvious. I looked like crap and felt like it, too. “Are you the damn warden now?” I snapped.

Her eyes narrowed. “What flew up your ass this morning?” She threw the bag at me. “This is for you.”

“What is it?”

“Open it and find out. Some hot-looking guy just dropped it off a couple minutes ago.”

I looked at it like something was going to jump out and bite me.

“Didn't you hear the doorbell ringing?” she grumbled. “Freaking doorbell disturbed my beauty sleep.” She took a sip of coffee. “All I know is whoever sent what's in that bag has damn good taste. A pair of thongs in that shop cost a pretty penny.”

I pulled out the card, reading it aloud. “
Storm: My driver will be at your house at 9:00 p.m. sharp. Wear everything. No panties. KG.
” I pulled out the nude, backless dress that was so short that if I bent over, you would see my crotch, which was probably the point.

Light took a large sip of coffee, eyeing the dress enviously. “Whew, baby… that dress is smoking hot. Me likey. Who's KG?”

“Knox Gunner.”

Light choked on her coffee. “I'm sorry—what are you talking about?”

I bit my bottom lip and waited as she continued to stare. “The client is Knox Gunner. Apparently, he's Ryker's friend.”

“Holy smokes… and?”

“He's pissed off at me.”

“For what? He was the one caught with his pants down. Literally.”

“That night I said some ugly things to him about me just having fun with him for kicks and that I was still seeing Luke.”

She waved her hand impatiently. “And you think he's still pissed about that? Granted, you said some ugly things, but that was years ago. Both of you need to let that shit go.”

“I was willing to do that. But by virtue of Ryker's refusal to budge on the escort issue, that was not an option.”

“Wait! Ryker pushed for this?”

“Yes. You interested? Because he was very blunt about the fact that he has a thing for Credence women.”

Light sat back tiredly. “Oh, hell no! He's too much of a project, and I'm not willing to put in the work. Instant gratification… that's me all the way.”

“You did say you were looking for a Dom.”

She plopped her feet on my desk. “Yeah… a Dom who will occasionally let me top from the bottom. From what I heard about Ryker, that could never happen. Nope, not interested. Now how do we solve the she-wolf issue?”

I gritted my teeth. “I sort of resolved it.”

She leaned forward with wide eyes. “Sort of? This should be good.”

“I made an agreement to be his escort in lieu of a she-wolf.” I took another big sip, looking at my nails like it was the best manicure ever.

“Holy shit! When I said break some rules… I didn't mean all of them.”

Swinging the leather chair around, I walked over to the safe, pressing my thumb to the sensor to open it. I placed the contract back in, slamming it shut. I shrugged. “I had no choice. I'll honor the contract. He'll get bored within a couple days. He'll chalk it up to getting his revenge and move on with his life. I can deal.”

“You can't have sex with him. Shit, you can't even go out with him. It's the Credence rule.”

“I made that very clear. No sex. No kissing. Straight business and I guess lots of humiliation.”

“He's a Dom?”

I nodded my head.

She clapped her hands with delight. “Oh damn… this keeps getting better and better. I told you it would happen.”

“I'm not a submissive, Light. I love power. I refuse to relinquish that to anyone.”

Light looked at me with disapproval. “Storm, get over this prejudice that you have against submissives. They hold all the power. It's just not supposed to feel like it.”

I was resigned, knowing what he truly wanted. “He wants me to feel powerless, but I'm not sure how far my dominant personality will take this shit before calling it quits.” I wasn't a quitter, just realistic about the power he held over me. It made me fucking uncomfortable.

She arched a brow. “I'm sure he thought of a way to ensure that doesn't happen,” she stated flatly.

I looked at her with shock. “How did you know?”

She shrugged. “He wouldn't be much of a Dom if he didn't.”

“If I quit, he'll ruin the business by essentially tarnishing our name.”

She raised a brow. “Oh, that's hardcore. But it also means he wants you bad.” She stared into space before smiling softly. “Would it be so hard to see where this takes you?”

I sighed. She was right. When it came to sex, I wasn't a prude. And if I were truthful with myself, I wouldn't mind closure with Knox. In fact, I needed it. But D/s was not something remotely on my wish list

Light continued. “It's exhausting to be in control all the time… at work, in bed. Let him drive for a while. Admit it. This is the sweetest deal ever.”

“But it's not going to be easy, Light. You know me.” I smiled. “I'm an Aries. We don't give control. We take it.”

“Well, welcome to a whole new frontier, baby, because the power dynamic has just shifted in Knox's favor.”

“Yeah, that's what makes this so fucking scary.”

She smirked. “So you're going to be a rock star's groupie for a while. Whew, lucky you. And you know blowjobs do count as sex? Just so we're clear.”

I ignored her, looking at the dress again. “How the hell did he know my size? And I'm not wearing this shit. If I bend over, you'll see my crotch.”

“Well, I hope that Brazilian wax is still in effect, because he seems to be the type to like it well-groomed down there.”

“I'm really happy this is so amusing to you. I don't like this shit at all. Telling me what to wear. Where to be. It's disgusting.”

She smiled cheekily. “I hope the irony of this situation is not lost on you. This is exactly what our escorts feel with every client. But the difference is they enjoy it.”

“I'm not an escort.”

“Look, Storm, stop complaining. The worst that can happen is that at the end of this assignment, you learn something about yourself.”

“And that is?”

“That's the journey you have to take. It's not ideal. I recognize that. But you need to loosen up a bit here. Besides, I think we both agree that you and Knox have some unresolved issues. Just fix them. And move on.”

“It's easy for you to say that when you don't have to put up with the depraved things I'm sure he's planning for me. I can deal with straight-up sex, but the other stuff is a bit more challenging for me.”

“He may go easy on you since you’re a newbie. But either way, several rounds of rough-and-tumble sex might make you a new woman.”

I rolled my eyes. “So, in essence, your answer to this mess is to fuck it out? And whoever’s left standing wins?”

“Yep, there's nothing that a good lay can't resolve. Just don't get all emotionally involved.” She looked at me pointedly. “Look, he wants revenge? Well, the sweetest revenge is turning the table on his ass by getting something out of this deal. No-strings-attached sex from the hottest man alive.”

I couldn't help but wonder how Mom would’ve handled this. I wasn't her. I knew this. But she wouldn't be around to clean up our mess forever, which was something she’d been trying to tell me for years. No, this Knox issue was one I had to fix myself. I never understood the lifestyle of our escorts—didn't want to, frankly. But it was hypocritical of me to want to bask in the money that came from their efforts while I looked down my nose at them for it. Light was right. This I had to do.

“The goddess of fate has truly screwed me over.” I sighed. “There's nothing left to do but go through with this.”

“Exactly! He wants to make you squirm. But think of this as a fantasy rock camp except with a hundred percent chance of getting laid.”

“You know our mothers will kill us if they ever find out about this, right?”

“What happens when the hags are away… stays between Team Us.”

I sighed heavily. “That's what I'm afraid of.”

* * *

I clenched my teeth as I sat in the SUV, refusing to get out. This was ridiculous. I looked at the entrance, trying to calm the disturbing excitement that was building from finally seeing Knox again.