Alpha's Revenge (Shifter Ops 3)

I would try to sort through his statement, but I can’t because he’s moving inside me, sending tidal waves of pleasure crashing through me with each perfect stroke.

“Let go, princess. I’ll give you what you need.” He increases the force of his thrusts.

My brain scrambles. “Yes,” I babble, not meaning to say anything at all. But it’s too late, it’s like the cork is out, and I’m spilling my truth everywhere. “This is what I need. This is exactly what I need.”

“Fuck, yes,” Rafe exalts behind me, thrusting with more vigor, his loins slapping against my ass. “I’ll give it to you,” he promises in the same uncorked babble-tone I had.

“Can you come on demand, Adele?” he asks, surging behind me, driving me wild.

I don’t understand the question, so I can’t answer. I’m pretty sure my brain checked out the moment he started undressing me.

“Hmm?”

All I can do is buck against him, show him how badly I want it. How much more I need.

“When I say now, I want you to come for me. Do you understand?”

My mouth opens on a silent cry. I’m so close.

“Now, Adele,” he commands.

My body obeys like a runner released by the starting gun. The climax uncoils in a wild release, sending me catapulting into outer space, my eyes rolling back in my head, my face buried in the covers.

Dimly, I’m aware of Rafe’s shout and his beautiful finish, timed perfectly with mine. He continues to ride me, to ride out the orgasms until he’s moving in slow undulations, stroking my insides like a love song. Like a tender caress.

His lips find my shoulder, then the back of my neck. He releases my arms and brushes my curls to one side to kiss along my jaw. “You’re so beautiful, Adele. So glorious.”

Rafe

“Y-you’re glorious, too,” Adele pants.

I push away the crowding awareness that I’d had the urge to mark her. That what my pack brothers have been pointing out is true.

Adele is my mate. I can’t unpack that, just like I couldn’t let my wolf off-leash to claim her. I’m in no position to mate. I’m the alpha of a mercenary shifter-ops pack that engages in the most dangerous missions invented.

Adele, this incredible, talented, feisty, gorgeous female, is a human. Fragile. Delicate. If I mated her, we could have children instead of pups. They, too, would be fragile. I can’t live knowing someone I love could be ripped from my life again. I won’t live that way.

It’s simply too much to bear. Fearing for her safety tonight was bad enough.

“Are you going to let me take care of you now?” I can’t stop myself from getting bossy again.

She rolls over on the bed and blinks up at me with her cinnamon-shadowed eyes.

“What was that fight about? With Channing and then Deke? You acted crazy.”

“Did I scare you?” I murmur. “Princess, I would never hurt you.”

She huffs. “I know that. But you wanted to hurt them.”

I shrug. I can’t explain pack dynamics to her. “Just letting off steam.”

She rolls her eyes but lets it go, muttering something about “macho men” and “too much meat.”

I stroke my thumb down her cheek. “You scared me tonight.”

“Did you lose someone?”

I suck in my breath, drawing back. It takes me a moment to find my voice, and when I do, the words come out sounding rusty. Haunted. “What makes you say that?”

“Is that why you work so hard to keep everyone around you safe and managed?”

I let out the air in my lungs with a puff. “I don’t know how you could know that.”

She shrugs. “You were special ops in the military. It’s not hard to fathom you might have lost brothers-in-arms.”

She’s right. I’ve seen combat. There have been human casualties that still haunt me. “True.”

She tilts her head, studying me in the dark. “There was a specific trauma.”

I’m surprised at her perceptiveness. I haven’t seen it before because we’ve always been at odds. When she was giving me sass and baiting me, there was no place for vulnerability. Maybe that’s why we both like sparring so much. It’s a form of self-protection.

I crawl off her and dispose of the condom.

She doesn’t move, like she’s waiting for my answer.

The room is dark. Probably too dark for her to see me well, which helps. I return to the bed and lie down beside her, trailing my fingertips lightly over the soft plane of her belly. She’s still wearing her sexy ensemble, except for the panties I tore off her–I’ll keep those as a souvenir.

Having her close is balm on a half healed wound. Her presence helps me continue.

“We lost our parents,” I admit. “Lance and I. They were…” I hesitate, not wanting to expose Adele to the gruesome story. “...killed.”

Her breath hitches, and she rolls into me, molding her body against mine.

I want to tell her more, even though I’ve never told this to a human before. The words spill out of me like a confession, “They were murdered. Lance and I found their bodies.”