Huntress and The Alpha King

Mate!

Quinn

The dawn light woke me, it streamed in through the balcony doors we had left open. The hot tub fizzed, and some birds chirped. Irina’s vanilla and honeysuckle scent enveloped me. In the night she had snuggled deeply into the fur on my flank and snaked her arms around me. I closed my eyes and savoured the peace I felt in this moment.

Irina stirred and I braced myself for the peace to shatter. She stiffened for a second and withdrew her arms. I felt their loss keenly. After a moment she tentatively stroked my fur, and I suppressed a shudder of pleasure.

“Thank you,” she said, so low I barely heard it.

Anytime, always. I wanted to answer. My wolf just huffed and nuzzled her side.

“I’m going to shower. Your warriors need some work.” She disappeared into the bathroom.

I groaned internally and shifted back to my human form. The alluring scent of my mate coupled with the sound of the shower did nothing to abate my morning wood. My d**k would just have to be patient like the rest of me. I wasn’t stupid enough to assume one night of sleeping together in my wolf form had changed much. A full night of sleep was a precious thing though.

*******

A groan came from my throat as I stared up at the sky. Every muscle was on fire. I was paying for razzing Grady yesterday. Today I had the full two and half hour’s treatment. The ‘VIP package’ as Grady had wheezed at me earlier.

Irina stood a few yards away, drenched in sweat, her eyes lit by a manic energy she’d used to bring the pack to its knees. I had to hand it to her, I’d learned a lot about killing vamp-hybrids. My body protested strongly at learning all the new moves.

“Come on, Alpha. You are making us look bad.” Duncan loomed over me and offered his hand.

I scowled up at him

“f**k off, teachers’ pet,” Grady said, from the ground nearby.

Duncan grinned. I’d told them what Irina had said. Duncan had puffed up like a cockerel and Grady had barely said a word and trained like a demon. He was uber competitive and just as Irina had predicted, he worked harder at the negative comparison.

“Oh dear, someone’s feeling a bit jealous.” Duncan grinned, he looked as tired as I felt.

I sat up and bent forward across my knees. Brian walked over and crouched down next to me as he rubbed his neck.

“I think I’m out of a job.” He shook his head and stared at Irina, who had just flipped a warrior onto his back. The cub let out an ‘oomph’ as the wind was knocked out of him. Dust rose around his body on the ground. No one had the energy to offer him a hand up.

“Nah, this is more of a master class,” I said.

He chuckled. “Master class is a good way to put it. Those vamp-hybrids sound like tough bastards.”

“They are.” Irina joined us; her voice emotionless.

“How many have you taken out?” Duncan asked.

She took a long swig from a bottle of water. I watched her throat work. Heat suffused me, she looked glorious.

“Three.”

“There haven’t been many made then,” said Duncan.

“Plenty have tried but experiments are rarely successful,” she said.

“Tell us about the ones you took out,” I said.

She stared at me for a long moment. “One was a newly turned vamp-hybrid we found in a laboratory bust. He was the easiest to take out. The second had ripped through a remote village in Russia. He was contained by the elements, but he put up a hell of a fight.” She cracked her neck to each side. ”You will have heard about the third.”

“Really?” Grady propped himself up on his arm.

“The Madrid m******e two years ago.”

“That was vamp-hybrids?” Duncan asked aghast.

“One vamp-hybrid before I ended him.”

Brian whistled low.

I remember reading about it, hundreds were killed. They’d blamed it on an ex-military human with a gun and a vicious dog. They’d painted it as an internal terrorist attack, a psycho angry at a government decision.

“How the hell did they cover that up?” I asked.

“Witches.” She looked away into the distance.

I knew she was thinking of the humans she couldn’t save. Hundreds more that no doubt sat heavily on her conscience. I rose quickly and gathered her into my arms. For the first time she didn’t flinch, merely offered me a faint smile. My heart flipped over.

“Vamp-hybrids are very strong but rabid. If Demetri truly unlocked the key to stabilising them and his alpha did survive, we need to be ready.” Her voice still distant.

“We will be.” I kissed her hair and she leaned on to me slightly.

Warmth filled me. We were moving forward. I resisted the urge to fist pump.

“We done here for today, baby?” I whispered into her ear.

We looked around at the slightly desperate looks on the warriors faces. A few still scattered about on the ground groaned.

“Yes, I think so.”

“Let’s get showered and head to the office.” I squeezed her waist.

This time she stiffened. s**t, too fast.

“I’m going to hit the gym for a bit then I’ll meet you up there.”

So much for steps forward. I trudged back up to the alpha suite and showered off. Tiny cuts healed under the spray and steam. I took myself in hand and imagined Irina was with me. I came against the tiles in possibly the most unsatisfying orgasm I’ve ever experienced. I’d made progress but my c**k wasn’t convinced it was nearly enough.

Time slipped by as I ate alone in the alpha suite and considered my next steps with Irina. Duncan was in my office when I finally made it downstairs. He paced the floor and fiddled with his tie. Nervous energy hummed off him. He gripped a small, wrapped box in his hands. The wrapping was damp and crumpled.

“What’s wrong with you?” I felt his agitated energy, it clashed with my internal state. Irritation rose within me.

“Huh?” His hair was rumpled.

“Are you going to the office today?”

Was something going on at the company? Duncan had been managing a lot of the day to day with the senior management team.

“What?” He looked confused.

I clenched my fist. I walked over and gripped his upper arms he still seemed miles away as he stared at the rumpled present in his hand.

“What’s going on, Duncan? You are the sharpest person I know; you’re acting like you’ve taken too many blows to the head.”

He cleared his throat and swallowed repeatedly. “I’m sorry Quinn, I’m just nervous is all.”

“Nervous about what?”

Sarah walked into the office and stopped frozen, her eyes on Duncan. Duncan’s muscles stiffened under my hands.

“Mine!” A guttural growl came from Duncan.

Sarah’s eyes went big, her breathing came in pants. “Mate,” she said.

Duncan brushed passed me and snatched Sarah into his arms where she melted against him her tiny hands gripped the back of his blue shirt. Duncan buried his face in her neck and the smile that spread across her face could have warmed the room.

My gut clenched and I drew a breath through my teeth. Something ugly and green gripped me painfully. My hand flexed and closed on fresh air. Instead of happiness that my gamma had found his mate, an ugly anger tore through me. I’d never experienced anything like it before. I needed to say something. I needed to congratulate them. I swallowed passed a lump. They stared into each other’s eyes, wonder and love evident even across the room. I needed to look away, move away, leave the office, go sit somewhere else.

What was wrong with me? When did I turn into this person?

Irina appeared in the doorway and took in the scene before her. Duncan and Sarah entwined around each other as they breathed each other scents. So easy, so comfortable. Friends to lovers, no conflict, no fighting, no silver bombs. Well, unless you counted the one that had gone off in my gut. It wasn’t fair.

“Happy birthday, Sarah,” she said wryly, looking supremely unsurprised at the scene.

Duncan and Sarah sprang apart as if they’d been burned.

“Luna!” Sarah squeaked, wide-eyed.

“You’ll have to stop being afraid of me, you are the gamma female now, Sarah.” Irina walked over to the bar and poured herself a Jack Daniels. “To the newly mated!” The smile she adopted was tight as she tipped her glass to the couple then slung it back.

“Congratulations both of you.” I managed to choke out. It sounded ok? I think. “Take the day off go enjoy yourselves.”

Get out of my sight. I added internally. I twisted my lips into what I hoped was a smile.

Duncan blinked at me for a second his brow furrowed slightly. “Thank you, Quinn. Yes, that would be great. I have somewhere I’d like to take Sarah.”

“Bedroom.” Coughed Irina across the room.

Sarah’s face flooded with colour and Duncan frowned. “Thank you Alpha, Luna. Have a great day.”

He scooped up Sarah bridal-style. She let out a yelp and threw her arms around him. They swept from the room. Her laughter rang in the corridor and punctuated the silence that descended on my office like smog.

I ground my teeth. “Did you have to embarrass her?”

Irina snorted and poured herself another drink. “She’s easy to rile up. One of us had to be happy for them. You looked like you were about to banish them.” She stared at me with eyes that laid me bare. Clearly, I hadn’t masked my unwanted reaction.

I grunted and went to sat behind my desk.

“Did you used to drink all day when you hunted?” I shuffled some papers.

Glass scraped on the bar top; the sound burned through me. I refused to lift my eyes. She drank too much. End of story.

Suddenly the papers on my desk shuffled to the side. She stood on the other side of the desk, she’d crossed the room silently. She leafed through the pile and extracted the Italian document my grandfather had sent me. Without a word she turned to leave the office.

“Irina, I..”

“I’ll bring this back translated.” She paused on the threshold of the door and met my eyes. “Passive aggression doesn’t suit you, Quinn.”

She was gone. I was an i***t. Heat flushed through me, and I grabbed a crystal paperweight from my desk. I threw it against the opposed wall with a roar. It smashed against the wall and shattered into a thousand tiny pieces.

“f**k!” I shouted at the dent in the wall.

The shiny glass sprayed across the carpet in a hailstorm of sharp pieces. It wouldn’t be fixable. Maybe some things that broke aren’t meant to go back together again.