Page 8 of Alpha’s One-Night Stand (Shifters of Clarion #3)

I can’t take it anymore. Somewhere in the night, her scent got stronger, permeating the walls of my room as if they were awash with it. I feel like I’m drowning in it. I can’t take it anymore. I have to leave. I have to find her.

Nothing in this world ever gets me running unless I’m fighting or defending my territory. Yet, here I am, my heart pounding in my chest, my shoes crushing the damp grass, bounding across campus, and damn well praying that I don’t lose the scent. My nose to the air, I’m closing in on it. I can feel it.

The sun is slowly hovering over the horizon, and the air around me is filled with the excitement of the Awakening Fest. I barely notice it. All that matters is that I find her.

I’m being led toward the campus bar. Moonlight, it’s called. I get to the door and look up at the blinking sign. I don’t sense too many other heartbeats beyond the door. I imagine everyone’s getting ready for the ceremony. I enter the bar, and my suspicions prove correct. The bar is almost empty, save a few people, scattered around.

I scan the room, my senses heightened. It doesn’t take long before I see a flash of electric purple out of the corner of my eye.

She’s sitting on a bar stool, her back to me. Her waves of shiny purple hair pull me in along with that sweet smell. I’ve found her. Finally.

I walk toward her, and I can hear her heart beating. It’s speeding up, syncing with mine. I clench my fists, pushing the wolf back down inside me. I’m a few steps away when she turns suddenly, making me take a step back. Her crystal blue eyes meet mine, and all the air leaves the room. A bit of her amethyst locks move effortlessly around her face, framing it as she puckers her lips slightly.

We stare at each other for a long moment before she slurs, “Who are you?” Her voice buzzes in my chest, striking the wolf within.

“I’m Chad,” I reply, trying to keep my tone steady despite the surge of emotion pulsing through me.

She raises an eyebrow. “Chad,” she repeats slowly, as if testing the name on her tongue. “Are you following me, Chad?”

I blink. “Following you?”

“The airport. You sat next to me, remember?”

I smile and take a seat next to her. “How could I forget? Your scent enraptured me the moment I picked it up.”

She frowns and cocks her head like she doesn’t understand. Then she laughs. “You Moonhelm dudes are weird AF.”

She’s messing with me. Interesting. I’ve had at least two women throw themselves at me since I started this trip, and this woman, with a scent that is driving the wolf inside me wild, appears to be unaffected by my presence. How very odd.

“I had to find you. I was drawn to you. I believe that you are meant to be mine.”

She snorts and starts laughing loudly. “Is that supposed to be some kind of pickup line? Come on, man. You can do better than that.”

She turns to me and takes my hand, leaning into me and looking me in my eyes as her fingers caress the palm of my hand. “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” she says in a low, sultry voice. “When I walked in, I just had to say hello to you. You are a vision.” She tosses my hand back to me. “ That’s how you pick up a girl. Try again, sport.”

I’m shocked silent. I’ve never been thrown off so easily before. “What’s your name?” I ask her.

“Yarra.” She looks back at me and studies me for a long moment, as if weighing some imaginary options. “Buy me a drink?”

I raise an eyebrow and smile at her. “Sounds like you’ve already had a few too many.”

She looks back at her half-empty glass and shrugs. “Eh, maybe. It’s been a weird day.”

“You don’t say.”

She nods, finishes the drink in one swallow, then orders another. “You wouldn’t believe what I’ve been through. I’m actually not surprised that you’re here hitting on me.” She gets her drink and takes a sip, then turns to me and asks, “What cologne are you wearing?”

“What?”

“Your cologne? It smells really good, by the way. I don’t think I’ve ever smelled anything like it.”

She surprises me, but I’m smiling. There’s something endearing about how easily she speaks to me. As if she doesn’t realize our connection.

“Yarra,” I say, “I think we should get to know each other.” My wolf is starting to pace again. It’s making me antsy, and my foot starts to tap to some unknown beat. “Or at least go somewhere more private.”

She nods sagely. “That’s a little better. Much better than the whole ‘You’re meant to be mine’ thing.”

“You are meant to be mine.” I don’t think there’s any denying that now that I’m next to her. My mind is starting to whirl with images of her legs wrapped around me, those beautiful eyes filled with passion.

She tilts her head, considering my words. Then her lips curve into a smile, slow and sultry. “I don’t belong to anybody, Chad,” she says.

“You belong to me. There’s no debating that.”

She regards me while she drinks, and the wolf inside me feels like it’s beating me to death. It wants her. I want her. I don’t know how much longer I can . . .

She takes me by the hand and slides off the barstool. “Let’s go to your place. I don’t think you’re allowed in my dorm.”

She leads me toward the door, and I follow, doing my best to hold myself together.

I lead her back to my room, which isn’t far. As we walk up the stairs, she giggles and says, “I could be walking to my death right now, you know?”

“Your death?” I say as I open the door for her.

“Well, I’m just saying, I don’t know you. And anonymous sex isn’t my normal jam. You could be setting me up right now.”

“It was you who propositioned me. I should think you trust that I won’t do you any harm.”

She gets a look in her eyes like she knows I’m speaking the truth. She walks through the door and says, “Touché, Chad.”

We walk through the hallway leading to my quarters, passing the various paintings of the school’s founding fathers and past Deans. The portrait of the current one, Dean Fowler, is at the end. They’re all variations of the same dignified poses, wearing suits and dresses with splashes of the school colors in ties and flowered lapels.

She’s looking at each of their carefully painted faces with awe, her lips slightly parted. How lovely she looks in this light.

“All the people responsible for Moonhelm,” she drawls. She points to Dean Fowler. “That’s the current guy, right?”

“It is, yes.”

She snickers. “Kind of looks like a bird, too.”

I smile at that. “I assure you, he’s not. Though, I used to say the same thing about him when I was a student.”

“Yeah?”

I nod. “Called him Dean Chicken-Face.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Classy.” She looks back at the paintings and pauses, her smile fading a little. “I think someone removed one.” She points at an empty space on the wall still marked with the imprints of something that had once been hung there.

“Hmm. Perhaps.” I lead her to my door, then unlock it.

“Come.”

She shifts her gaze away, her eyes settling on me. There’s no need for any more words. I can see the passion in her face just by uttering that single word.

As she walks to me, her eyes lock with mine. She moves like a predator, stalking me as I lead her inside.

I reach out and sweep her into an embrace, wrapping my arms around her waist. Her arms drape around my neck, her fingers in my hair. We fit together effortlessly, our movements like a dance to music only we can hear.

We stay that way for a few seconds, an unseen force keeping us still. Her scent engulfs me. The wolf inside me is alive and salivating. She pulls me down to her, and our lips meet, the sweet taste of her mixes with her scent as her tongue finds mine.

I grab ahold of her ass, lifting her up. She wraps her legs around my waist as I swing her around to the desk in the corner of the room. I lean past her for a moment, clearing the surface and knocking away the blotter and penholder. I set her down and kiss her neck, my fangs descending and grazing her skin. My hands move up her thighs and under her leather skirt as she pulls at my shirt until the buttons snap free.

My hands find the silky fabric, and my claws grow and rip through them. I’ve been in this room less than three hours total, and I’m already tearing my way through a woman’s underwear.

I toss the remnants of her panties over my shoulder as she leans in, kissing my chest. She takes a moment and leans back, pulling her blouse off over her head, revealing her pert breasts. I take the first nipple into my mouth, letting my lips close around it and my tongue flick it. Her soft moans are floating through me, driving me to lunacy.

Her hands are running through my hair, and her thighs are high on my waist. I’m so hard from the taste of her skin I feel like I’m going to burst out of my pants. My fangs graze her nipples, and she sucks in a breath. Her nipples get even harder against my tongue.

I can’t stand it any longer. I have to have her now. She senses my need, and her hands move down to my pants, unbuckling the belt and pulling out my dick. She grasps it, twisting her hand around my shaft and whispering, “I want you inside me.”

The sound of her voice, breathy and desperate, brings the wolf almost all the way out of me. I growl, pulling her to her feet and bending her over the desk. With one swipe of my claw, I tear through the leather fabric of her skirt. She gasps with surprise as my hand moves up the curve of her back and down to her round, juicy ass. I squeeze the cheeks, my claws threatening to pierce her tender skin.

She moves her hips back toward me, urging me on. I slide my clawed hand down between her thighs. She’s so wet, she’s starting to drip down them. Her scent is so strong now that I feel drunk off it. I lean into her, moving my hands to her hips and pressing the head of my dick against the sea of desire between her legs. I run my tongue up her spine and feel her skin shiver against me.

I thrust deep inside her. Her gasps give way to loud moans as I fuck her against the desk, my senses starting to slip away from me and my wolf beginning to come out.

“Don’t stop,” she moans, her voice high and desperate. My claws dig in, piercing her skin. The smell of her blood mixing in with her scent is driving me wild.

I grab her hair, pulling her back to me. My mouth finding her shoulder, and an ancient instinct almost takes hold of me. The desire to feel my fangs in her skin, to taste her blood in my mouth . . . the need to mark her as mine forever . . .

Claim her.

The thought echoes in my mind, compelling me. I’m thrusting hard, grabbing her around her slender neck as my instincts force their way forward.

Her moans grow raspy as she leans her head against me, exposing her neck. My fangs are itching to bite into her, to make her truly mine.

I resist, wrapping my arm around her waist instead. My hands move up to her breasts, squeezing them as I let myself go, my climax rising up within me like a tide. She tightens around my dick, her arms wrapping around my head as she leans into me, her legs shaking.

“Oh, God, I’m coming!” she cries out. She grips my dick like a vise. I explode inside her, my wolf howling within me as my moans chorus with hers.

The waves crash over us until I release her. She falls forward on the desk, her back still arched and me still inside her. I lean over her, the wind taken out of me for a moment.

She presses her ass against me, rolling her hips around my dick. “More,” she whispers. “Don’t stop now.”

I lean into her, my face in her violet hair, inhaling her glorious scent. “Yes, my Luna,” I moan. I lift one of her legs onto the table, and I thrust deep, beginning round two.

We’ve been in this room for hours. I’m lying in bed, my hands in Yarra’s beautiful purple tresses, watching her lips as they move up and down on my dick. I move her hair out of her face so I can watch, the sight of her sucking me off the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

I don’t know what comes next. It’s clear that everything my mother said was true about having a fated mate. She is mine. I can see that now. I’ve never wanted to spend an entire evening in bed with any woman before now.

It doesn’t take long for another climax to rise within me. “Faster,” I whisper. She speeds up, my hand on the back of her head. I explode in her mouth, thrusting myself down her throat. Moans shake from me, sounds that I’ve never heard coming out of my mouth.

“Fuck,” I moan, leaning my head back onto the pillow. Her mouth leaves me, and it’s like the world has gotten colder. I look up to see her looking back at me, her head tilted.

“What?”

“Your eyes . . . Never mind. It must have been a trick of the light.”

I smile at her. She’s so peculiar. I hadn’t seen her eyes change to gold as she came, but then, I wasn’t exactly paying attention. I sit up and lean into her.

“Your turn,” I say. She smiles and leans back, opening her shapely thighs to me.

I kiss her stomach, moving my tongue down until I’m circling her clit. She gasps, her hands in my hair as she rocks her hips against me.

I could be here forever. Right here, licking her sweet juices for all eternity. I don’t know why I ever doubted the need for this. I don’t think I can ever live without it now.

And I’ve missed the Awakening Fest.