Submitting to the Alpha

Chapter 4

Students filed out of the classrooms, glancing strangely at me, and hurried out the front exit doors. I pushed myself off of the cold blue lockers and took a deep breath. Roman hadn’t even done anything to me yet, and I was aching for him. And … why were my lips tingling like that again?

And … why were my lips tingling like that again?“What was that all about?” Derek asked a few minutes after the bell rang, tossing me my backpack.

I walked with him down the hall. “Nothing,” I said, heat crawling up my neck. Absolutely nothing.

He raised a brow. “Alpha Roman doesn’t just pull students out of class for nothing.” A small smirk stretched across his face. “So … what’d you do?”

nothingThe last few students pushed past us, and I pulled Derek to the side.

“I kinda did a thing,” I said, lowering my voice. “A really bad thing.”

A thing I planned on doing again tonight.

Vanessa sashayed out of the classroom, her black velvet heels clacking against the beige-tiled floor. She was typing on her phone, her short, manicured fingernails hitting her screen about a hundred miles a minute.

I quieted down and waited for her to pass, but she didn’t. Instead, she lingered in the hallway a few feet away from us. Her back was turned, and her Coach purse with a small red-pink-and-purple pin hooked on to the strap hung off her forearm.

“Isabella, Goody Two–shoes, did something bad?” Derek asked, giving me a fake, overexaggerated gasp.

Vanessa lifted her gaze from her phone to the empty hallway in front of us. I knew she was listening to every single word we were saying, probably trying to figure out how she could get called out in the middle of class by her hunk of a crush, Roman.

I tugged Derek down the hallway and to his car, away from her curious ears. “Okay, so …” I said, gushing about last night. I told him everything, from the past week to how I’d gathered all of my courage to look him right in the eye when I was touching myself yesterday to the tingles I’d felt a few moments ago.

Roman had been watching me for weeks. Every night, I could smell his minty scent drifting through my open window. Every night, I could see his golden eyes piercing through the forest. Every night, I could only imagine how he would feel inside of me.

“You’re such a ho,” Derek said when I finished, pulling on one of his sponge twists.

I playfully pushed his shoulder. “I am not … but I need you to bring me home.”

Derek chuckled and opened his car door. “So you can strip for your alpha tonight?”

“Stop it! It’s not my fault. He’s the one watching me; I didn’t ask him to do it.”

Derek rested one forearm on the hood of his beat-up white ’95 Chrysler and leaned over it. “I’m all for it, Izzy, but just be careful with Roman. He always keeps his promises.”

always“Is that a bad thing?” I asked, leaning against the hot car and batting my lashes at him.

He arched a thick brown brow. “We’ll see.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’ll see when you turn eighteen in a couple weeks and find out who your mate is.”

“See you tomorrow,” I said, hopping out of the car.

“Don’t forget to bring your workout clothes tomorrow. We’ve got tryouts for the warriors,” Derek shouted from the driver’s seat.

“You know that I won’t forget, Derek.” I waved at him and walked up the cement path to the house. “Don’t forget your stuff,” I said over my shoulder. “Roman won’t be assigning you to the hospital or anywhere else with your grades.”

yourHe lifted his middle finger at me through the windshield and chuckled.

I smiled back at him and entered the quiet house. Mom and Dad were still at the hospital, working, and would probably be there until later tonight.

So, after tossing my backpack onto my bed, I sat at my desk to study the Lunar Battle Manual for the hundredth time. I had memorized every move and practiced each one at least a thousand times; I even dreamed of them now and then.

Lunar Battle ManualNothing would stop me from achieving my dreams of becoming a warrior and protecting each member of this pack, especially those who couldn’t protect themselves … like Roman’s mother couldn’t.

My gaze shifted from my journal to the forest outside. On the windowsill, there were seven pots filled with moonflowers glowing brighter than I had ever seen them. I brushed my fingers against their soft leaves and smiled.

Dad always joked that I had too many in my room, but since I had been a little girl, I’d loved watching them glow brighter and brighter when the full moon approached each month. And besides, Dad had no room to talk. He had a whole garden of them out back. They glowed especially bright near my birthday but never like this. Lately, they’d been glowing with such intensity that they could suffice as the Moon herself.

There was a small moonflower keychain that Luna Raya—Roman’s mother—had given me before she died. She had told me to never give up on my dreams, no matter how hard they might become. And I wasn’t going to.

After reminiscing on better days when Luna Raya had still been alive and would invite me over to play with eight-year-old Roman, I climbed into bed. Trying to shake the stress of tryouts tomorrow and … maybe wanting to make Roman a bit angry again tonight.

Since he’d pulled me out of class, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. His strong arms wrapped around me, his c**k pressed against my ass, his fingers so damn close to my p***y, the way he’d made my heart race faster than it ever had.

I pushed a hand between my legs, rubbed my clit, and pictured one of his rough, callous hands wrapped around his c**k, stroking it back and forth as he watched me from the forest.

Was it wrong? Yes. I didn’t even know if we were mates yet; I would find out when I turned eighteen.

Though s*x between two werewolves who weren’t mated was frowned upon and werewolves were expected to be virgins prior to mating, alphas tended to stray from that rule. They were notoriously known to sleep with a handful of women before finding their mates.

I didn’t know about Roman’s s*x life. All I knew was that I couldn’t keep it together with him. Every time I saw him training, his thick muscles glistening under the sun, I just wanted him to push me against the nearest tree and f**k me until I could barely move.

A wave of pleasure rushed through my body. I continued to rub my clit in small, quick circles, thinking about him. His hand around my neck, pulling me to him with each thrust. Pumping in and out and in and out.

Oh Moon Goddess. I grasped the bedsheets and moaned softly.

Oh Moon Goddess.His minty scent filled my nostrils, yet I didn’t see him in the woods. He smelled like he was closer.

Someone knocked on the front door, and I ignored it, deciding to sink further into my silky gray sheets instead. Mom and Dad always told me never to answer the door for strangers, so for once in my life, I was planning on listening to their advice.

Heat warmed my core, making my whole body tingle. I was so close to coming; I wasn’t about to stop.

My door was suddenly slammed open. I pulled my hand away from my panties, sat up, and yanked the blankets over my body, my heart racing. Roman stood in the doorway, golden eyes ravishing me. I gulped and pulled the sheets closer as he walked to the bed.

Sure, having him watch me from deep in the forest was fine. But now, he was here. So close and so f*****g angry.

He growled, “What did I f*****g tell you?” His jaw twitched. “You don’t listen.”

Why was he here? It wasn’t even dark out yet. He should be at the pack house, doing alpha stuff—training people, yelling through his phone at someone, giving orders to his guards. Not in my bedroom, not stalking closer and closer to me like I was his prey, not staring at my body like he wanted to destroy it.

He yanked the sheets off me, his gaze lingering on my n*****s poking through my thin white T-shirt. “Here I was, thinking you were some sweet, innocent girl.” He sat on the bed, making it dip, and pulled me over his knee. He rubbed his large, callous hand over my bare ass. “I’m going to show you how I treat people in my pack who don’t follow orders.”

One of his fingers hooked under my panties, and he pulled them down my thighs. After gently rubbing my ass one more time, he smacked it hard. I bit my lip, trying to hold back a moan. Then, he did it again. And again. And again. Until my p***y was dripping wet. I crossed one leg over the other, so he couldn’t see just how much this was turning me on.

“Are you going to be a good girl from now on?” he asked.

His c**k was hard against my stomach. I paused, my core clenching.

“Answer me, Isabella,” he said, his hand grasping my ass.

“No,” I whispered.

“No?” He pulled some hair out of my face and roughly forced it back. “No?”

“No.”

He gripped on to my thighs, forcing my legs apart, and pushed two fingers against my folds. “Does disobeying me make you this f*****g wet?” he asked, fingers sliding up to my clit. He rubbed small circles around it and inhaled my scent deeply.

“Yes,” I moaned.

“Look at me when you’re talking.”

I gazed up at his golden eyes and furrowed my brows together. “Yes, Alpha.”

His fingers moved faster, and I squeezed my eyes shut. This had to be a dream. This had to be a f*****g dream. Here I was … lying over my alpha’s knee, letting him touch my p***y like he owned it, while my core pulsed with pure pleasure.

The tension built higher inside of me, so high that I could feel myself about to explode. But he slowed down his fingers, and the pressure disappeared slightly. He glanced down at my parted lips and started back up again, fingers moving faster than they had before. My brows knotted, and his lip curled into a smirk.

I didn’t know how many times he’d stopped and started again. My p***y was aching for a release, and I wanted to come for him.

“Please, Alpha. Please let me come,” I said, digging my nails into one of his muscular thighs.

“Is that what you want? To come?” he asked.

I nodded, and he tilted his head, his smirk widening.

“Only good girls get to come.”

I stared up at him, brows creased. “I’ll be a good girl, I-I promise.”

His fingers sped up one last time, and I clenched. I was … I was going to …

He pulled his hand away from my p***y and tossed me onto the bed. “We’ll see about that.” He grasped my chin in his hand, his lips brushing against mine. “If you can prove to me that you can be good, I’ll reward you, my dear Isabella.”

My breath caught in my throat, and I vaguely nodded my head, feeling as if I was in a daze. I didn’t know how he did it. It was wrong. So wrong. Yet it felt so right.

wasI leaned against the headboard, wanting him to leave so I could finish what he had started, but he stayed in my bedroom with me, lingering for longer than he should have. Staring at my moonflowers. Looking over at the journals and textbooks about fighting. Glancing my way a few times.

He stood up and walked around the room. “So, this is what the self-proclaimed warrior’s bedroom looks like.” He cracked a smile at the manual. “I didn’t expect any less.”

“Watch what you’re doing,” I said, covering my body with the blanket. “I don’t need you messing anything up. I have the exact page open to where I need to study after you leave.”

“Still the same old Isabella.” He flipped through it, doing exactly what I’d told him not to do. “Always training to be the best.”

“Still the same old Roman. Always trying to annoy me.”

He walked around the bed and sat down, resting his forearms on his knees and looking back at me. He didn’t say anything for a long time, and my p***y continued to pulse. I let my eyes close briefly, just enjoying his scent, and reopened them.

Moonlight flooded into the room from my window, and a chilly summer breeze rolled in. I listened to him rub his palms together and sank further into my bed, staring at the muscles in his back ripple against his shirt. He looked back at me with eyes so soft that I felt those tingles again.

“You remember when we used to stay out all night long?” he asked, smiling softly to himself.

I played with my fingers. “When your mom used to invite me over so we could play-fight until midnight, and then she’d make you walk me home?”

His smile faltered for a fraction of a second, and then his eyes lit up with excitement. “Remember that one time you bit me?”

“I did not bite you.”

He inched closer to me, resting his thigh on the bed and letting his knee graze against mine. “Yes, you did, Isabella.” He shook his head and touched his finger against one of his abs. “I still have the scar to prove it.”

“No, you don’t.”

“You want proof?”

“You just want to take your shirt off for me, so I can see just how ripped my alpha really is. If you’re so inclined to show me this scar, then”—my heart raced—“I guess so.”

He raised a sharp brow, pulled up his shirt, revealing his toned abdomen, and brushed a finger against one of his abs, as if he had done it so many times before. “If you’re so inclined not to believe me, what’s this then?”

If you’re so inclinedThe small scar glistened under the moonlight, and I rolled my eyes. “That’s just …”

He cracked a smirk and inched closer to me. “A what?”

“Just a … line.”

He shook his head, his eyes dropping to my lips for a quick moment. I sucked in a breath. That look. That same look he had given me at the lockers earlier. That look that had made my lips tingle, that had made me feel this weird feeling that all she-wolves being pursued by alphas must feel.

After another moment, he pulled down his shirt and stood. “Still up to no good, Isabella.”

“Always up to no good, Roman.”