Page 139

“Sounds good,” I say, yawning again. Then I hesitate, glancing between my bed and the shower, torn and trying to decide.

“Take a shower, Nadia,” Cole says, laughing a little. “You’ll sleep better.”

“And what about you?” I shoot back, my hands going to my hips. Even if thatiswhat I was going to decide anyway, I don’t like him bossing me around.

“I’ll sleep better as well,” he says, smirking at me and striding off towards our bunks, grabbing our separate bathing kits. “Because I’m taking one too.”

I stare at Cole in surprise as he comes back over to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and taking me along with him to the shower room at the end of the tent.

Chapter 58 – Alpha Command

Nadia

I scowl as I blush, which feels appropriate when one is stripping down in a little cubicle with Cole Kincaid naked on the other side of averythin wall. There are four little showers here, all in a row, and each not only has a curtained shower stall but also this little dry cell next to it with its own curtain to block out the rest of the room. But luckily, we have the shower room all to ourselves for now, which is rarely the case.

“You good over there?” Cole calls.

I stop with my shirt pulled halfway over my head. “Why would I not begood?” I snap.

He laughs, low and pleased. “I can justhearyou seething.”

“Oh, shutup.” I finish pulling my shirt and bra off in one go, throwing them on the floor.

“Was that your shirt?”

“Cole!”

“Wait, so, are you topless?”

I screech in vile protest, making him burst out laughing as I shimmy out of my pants and underwear, hastily turning on the shower to as steamy a setting as we get out here in the desert, absolutelyfinishedwith his superior hearing.

I step out of my clothes and hop into the stream of water as soon as it’s warm enough. I listen carefully as I tilt my head back, soaking my hair, hearing the tell-tale disruption of Cole’s own shower stream that means he’s inside too.

Which means he’s…naked.

I clear my throat, grabbing my soap and loofa-thing, working up a lather and beginning to wash my body.

But as I do, my mind sorts through memories of the day, and as much as I’m so incredibly proud of the work we did…I honestly still don’t understand how it came together so easily.

“Cole?” I call.

“What’s up?”

I smirk a little, listening to the sounds of water hitting his body, slipping off of him and smacking to the floor. But then I shake myself, clearing my throat. “So, like…why did all of the boys immediately do what you said?” I ask. “Were they just scared of you?”

“Fear had something to do with it,” he says, pitching his voice a little louder so that I can hear him better. “But it had much more to do with the Alpha Command.”

I go a little still, frowning at the wall between us. “Yeah, that’s what one of the girls said! What the hell is that?”

Cole laughs. “Not everyone can do it – just…some Alphas. It’s just a particular pitch of voice, saying things with authority thatmakespeople follow your commands even if they don’t want to.”

“What?” I gasp. “You like…enslave them? With yourwords?”

He laughs again, and I startle out of my shock, beginning to scrub myself more fiercely now. “No, it’s nothing like that. It’s just some function of our biology, I think – our bodies responding immediately to commands of wolves particularly predisposed to protect us. Kids are particularly attuned to it, which is why most of those boys fell in line.”

“And by ‘wolves particularly predisposed to protect,’” I say, quite dry, rinsing my sponge and quickly beginning to shampoo my hair. “You mean big fat stupid bossy Alphas, don’t you?”

Cole laughs again, his shower turning off.