Page 15 of Alpha Wolf (Return To Fate Mountain #6)

Chapter

Fourteen

Valeria sat on the edge of the narrow bed, arms wrapped around her knees as she stared at the gray sweatsuit Dom had pulled from the closet.

The fabric looked soft and clean, and infinitely better than the stiff, sweaty uniform she’d been wearing since the ambush.

But accepting it felt like acknowledging she needed his care.

“It’s just clothes,” Dom said quietly from across the small cabin. “You can make yourself comfortable.”

She snatched the sweatsuit without looking at him, hating how her hands trembled with exhaustion. “I don’t need your permission to change clothes.”

“I know.” His voice carried the same careful patience that made her want to scream.

Valeria clutched the soft cotton to her chest, and her bear stirred weakly beneath her skin.

“I’m taking a shower,” she announced, standing abruptly.

Dom nodded, settling into the chair by the window. “Take your time.”

The small bathroom barely had room to turn around, but the promise of hot water felt like salvation. Valeria locked the door and started the shower.

Steam filled the tiny space as she stripped off her uniform, letting each piece fall to the floor.

The practical cotton underwear, the regulation bra, the socks that had been soaked with sweat.

Everything that connected her to Officer Reynolds—the professional persona that had failed to protect her.

The hot water hit her shoulders, washing away the scent of smoke and gunpowder that had clung to her skin. For the first time since the ambush, Valeria allowed herself to unwind, letting the heat penetrate muscles that had been locked in tension for hours.

But as her body relaxed, her mind began to race.

Dom’s evidence seemed legitimate. The incorporation papers, the military records, the photos of other communities that had suffered Crown Mountain-style attacks.

His explanations made sense in a way that her original theory didn’t.

Professional mercenaries wouldn’t investigate their own crimes.

They wouldn’t set up legitimate businesses with public documentation.

And they sure as hell wouldn’t rescue a police officer from an assassination attempt.

The water cascaded over her face, washing away the last of her certainty about his guilt. Maybe Gabriel was wrong. Maybe she’d been wrong. Maybe Steel Protection really were the good guys, and she’d spent a week building a case against an innocent man.

Her bear stretched beneath her skin, testing the boundaries of Dom’s alpha suppression. The animal had been mostly quiet since the cabin, subdued by his overwhelming presence, but now it stirred with the first tentative acknowledgment that maybe she’d been fighting the wrong battle.

Valeria’s body betrayed her with a flush of desire. Dom’s scent seemed to permeate everything, even through the steam and soap. Pine, leather, and alpha musk that made her bear purr with need.

She pressed her forehead against the tile wall, fighting the arousal that built between her thighs. This was insane. She was a police officer investigating a murder case. He was her primary suspect, or had been, or... God, she didn’t know what he was anymore.

The mate bond pulled at her, insisting this was what she’d been waiting for her entire life. Her bear wanted to submit to his strength, to let him claim and protect and possess her completely. Valeria bit her lip to stifle a moan, hating how much she wanted exactly that.

She turned off the water before she could do something stupid like touch herself while he was twenty feet away. The gray sweatsuit was enormous on her smaller frame, the sleeves hanging past her fingertips, and the pants pooling around her ankles. But it was clean and soft and warm.

When she emerged from the bathroom, Dom’s eyes tracked her movement across the small cabin with predatory focus. She felt exposed despite being fully clothed, hyperaware of his gaze on her body.

“Better?” he asked, his voice rough.

Valeria nodded, not trusting herself to speak. The cabin felt smaller somehow, the walls pressing in as his alpha energy filled every available inch of space. She needed to move, to pace, to burn off the restless energy building in her chest.

But there was nowhere to go. Three steps in any direction would bring her back to where she started, always within his reach.

“You can’t just keep me here like a prisoner!” The words exploded out of her before she could stop them, all her frustration, fear, and unwanted desire channeling into anger.

Dom stood slowly, his expression patient. “I’m not keeping you prisoner; I’m keeping you safe.”

“This is kidnapping! You’re controlling me!” She began pacing the narrow space between the bed and the kitchenette, energy crackling through her like electricity.

“You think I wanted this?” Dom’s voice carried a note of frustration that matched her own. “You think I wanted my mate to think I’m a killer?”

“Don’t call me that.” The words came out laced with poison. “I’m not your anything.”

“The hell you’re not.” His voice dropped to a growl. “You felt it the second you saw me. Don’t pretend you didn’t.”

Valeria spun to face him, anger flaring bright in her chest. “What I felt doesn’t matter. What matters is that Becca is dead, and you…”

“I what?” Dom stepped closer, his presence overwhelming in the small space.

“I saved your life? I brought you somewhere safe? I’m trying to protect you from the same people who killed her?

” He faltered. “I can’t lose you before I even have you.

” The desperation in his voice made her chest ache.

She could see the truth in his eyes. He was as trapped in this situation as she was.

“Valeria, please…” His voice softened, hands raised in a gesture of peace.

The mate bond pulled at her with increasing intensity, his scent filling her nostrils, her bear demanding she submit to his strength. The conflict between what she wanted and what she knew was right tore her apart.

“Let me GO!” She shoved him hard in the chest, all her pent-up frustration channeling into the blow.

Dom didn’t fight back, didn’t retaliate. He caught her wrists as she swung at him again, his grip gentle but implacable. “Stop,” he said quietly. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”

That only made her fight harder. She twisted in his grasp, trying to break free, trying to get past him to the door. To escape this cabin, this situation, these feelings that threatened to drown her completely.

Dom backed her against the wall, using his body to cage her without causing pain. His hands remained gentle on her wrists despite her struggles, his touch careful even as she fought him.

“I’m trying to protect you, not hurt you,” he said, anguish clear in his voice.

Their faces were inches apart now, both breathing hard from the struggle. Valeria could feel the heat radiating from his skin, could smell the desire mixing with his scent. His body pressed against hers, every point of contact sending electricity through her nerves.

“Do you have any idea what you’re doing to me?” Dom’s control was cracking, his voice rough with need. She could feel the change in the air between them. His scent spiked with arousal, and her bear responded with a purr that she couldn’t suppress.

“I can smell how much you want this,” he growled, his nose almost touching her neck.

“I don’t want anything from you,” she lied, even as her body leaned into his heat.

“Your body’s telling me something different.” His voice dropped to a rumble that vibrated through her chest. “You’re wet for me right now, aren’t you?”

Heat flooded her face at the blunt accusation, made worse by its accuracy. She could feel the slickness between her thighs, her body preparing itself for his claiming, despite every rational thought in her head.

“Keep fighting me and see what happens,” Dom warned, his alpha energy surging.

Valeria struggled against him one more time, a token resistance that they both knew was meaningless. She couldn’t access her bear strength, couldn’t match his power, couldn’t do anything but stand there and let him cage her against the wall.

“Enough.” Dom’s patience snapped like a breaking wire. His lips crushed down on hers with bruising force as his tongue possessed her mouth.

Valeria’s shock lasted exactly one heartbeat before her body betrayed her completely.

Her knees went weak, her resistance crumbling like paper in the rain.

She kissed him back with desperate hunger.

Her bear purred with satisfaction, finally getting what it had been demanding since the moment she’d first seen him.

This was her alpha, her mate, the man destiny had chosen for her.

When they finally broke apart, both gasping for air, Valeria stared up at Dom’s face in shock. The careful control he’d maintained was gone, replaced by raw hunger that made her stomach flutter.

“This doesn’t change anything,” she whispered.

Dom’s smile was sharp with satisfaction. “It changes everything.”

He was right, and they both knew it. And now there was no going back.