Page 8 of The Alpha’s Promise (Alpha Doms #3)

Cody pushed open his front door quietly and carried in the bags from Walmart. The house seemed quiet, and his sensitive ears detected the slow sigh of breath from Melissa in the bedroom. Still asleep. He was glad—she needed it.

He’d slept less than an hour all night. When he’d smelled her tears from the bedroom the night before, he’d been horrified.

If they’d come during the spanking, it would have been bad enough, but for her to cry after he thought he’d eased the tension between them—or at least her sexual tension—made him want to smack his head into a metal beam.

He didn’t know the first thing about comforting a woman—had never tried it in his life, but the compulsion had been overwhelming. When she’d fought him off, confirming his fears that she’d never forgive him, he simply couldn’t get up and walk away.

His mate was in need. He had to provide.

That was how it felt, anyway. But he didn’t think of Melissa as a mate. Not even close. She was human, and not his type. They didn’t even get along.

But the chemistry between them, or at least his for her, was off the charts.

Once he’d comforted her, he’d been unable to sleep or even rest. Something about her nearness had his blood singing.

His brain had gone around and around in circles—about his inexplicable attraction to her, about the trouble she was in, about how he might win her trust so she would follow his orders and he could keep her safe.

He wondered what her ex-boyfriend was like and he experienced violent thoughts toward the guy for putting her in this situation.

He put the milk and other staples in the refrigerator. Finding he had no idea what Melissa liked to eat, he’d stalled at the grocery store, then ended up buying everything in sight.

Behind him, he heard the rustle of movement from the bedroom and then the flush of the toilet. The door pushed open and the soft pad of bare feet sounded behind him.

He continued shoving groceries in the refrigerator to stall as he tried to figure out what to say.

When she didn’t speak either, he turned and reached for one of the bags from Walmart. “Here are some clothes. I’m sure you’ll hate them.”

She reached for the bag. Somehow she managed to look even more beautiful with her hair all rumpled, her cheeks still stained with sleep. His eyes traveled to her lips, which looked bee-stung, swollen, and oh-so-kissable.

He tossed her a second bag. “There’s a burner phone in there. And a Chromebook, so you can work.”

Her jaw dropped. “You bought me a phone and computer?”

“Just a Chromebook.”

“But I can’t afford that,” she said immediately, then blushed as if she didn’t want him to know.

Her words surprised him, although he should have gathered that from the location of her house.

She had acted so stuck up that he’d assumed she came from money.

But no, she was a wanna-be rich girl, the type who spent all her money to look rich, and fell into credit card debt to keep up appearances.

“Your brother-in-law can,” he said gruffly. He wasn’t sure why he didn’t want to tell her it was no sweat off his back, that he had plenty of money and didn’t mind buying her things. Possibly it was because she had been so stuck up about Walmart and his place. Like she’d been too good for him.

He didn’t want to impress her with money, because she was a superficial girl who cared about stuff like that.

There was a flaw in his logic, but he didn’t care to tease it out at the moment.

She rolled her eyes and snatched the bags, opening them. She looked back up. “Thanks,” she said grudgingly.

“What’s missing?” He could tell she wanted to say something but had bit it back.

“Makeup,” she mumbled.

He frowned. “You don’t need that.”

Her eyebrows lowered. “Whatever. You’re the one who has to look at me.”

He laughed. “What I see looks just fine, baby. More than fine.”

Pink tinged her cheeks, making the blue of her eyes pop. Yeah, that girl did not need a drop of makeup.

“I got a bunch of food. I didn’t know what you like to eat, but you should be able to find something. I gotta go get some work done.”

She raised an inquisitive brow. “What kind of work?”

He hesitated. “Construction.”

“Mmm.” She looked properly unimpressed, as he’d expected. “Is there coffee?”

Damn, he hadn’t thought of coffee. “No coffee,” he grunted.

She stared at him in surprise, like he’d denied her a basic right, like the use of a toilet or something.

“You’ll have to suck it up, princess.” He entered his number into her phone. “My number’s in there. Call me if there’s any trouble. Do I have to put a guard on the house, or are you going to stay put?”

Her eyes narrowed. “I’ll stay put.”

He stared her down for a beat, alpha style, but since she was human, she didn’t quite get it. Her eyes never lowered, although an adorable blush did start to creep into her cheeks.

Though he knew it was unwise to get too close to her, he couldn’t stop himself.

He stalked around and leaned one hand on the table in front of her, bringing his face nose-to-nose with hers.

“If you set foot out of this house, I’ll spank your ass again,” he warned in a low voice with a flick of his brows.

Her eyes dilated like she loved the idea. Well, that was one thing they had in common. He inhaled her scent before he walked away, and smiled when he detected the beautiful musk of arousal.

He headed out, calling Ben as he walked the few blocks to his current house project. He just had a few more rooms to paint and then molding to put on around the floors.

“This is Stone.”

“Cody Steele. Checking to see if you found anything out on your end.”

“My pack mate Mark Ruhl is DEA in Denver. He knows the guy Rabago that you saw. Word on the street is that someone stiffed Rabago on a huge shipment to Colorado Springs. He’s coming down to question Melissa, but he already has an APB out on Jeremy, her dickwad ex-boyfriend.

Best guess, Jeremy or one of his friends was behind the bad drug deal and they think he has the money.

I’m willing to pay it off to get the hit off Melissa, but we need a plan to contact him and make the offer.

Do you have any connections to this guy? ”

“None.” His pack mates weren’t angels, but he’d helped most of them become semi-contributing members of society. He’d know if any of them were into anything that deep.

“Okay, I’ll keep working on my end. You just keep Melissa safe, and try to get your hands on her asshole ex.”

The alpha in him bristled at Stone giving him orders, but then he experienced a stab of doubt about leaving her alone at the house. Maybe he should’ve put a guard on her.

“What are you doing with a human wife, Stone?” he blurted.

“Fuck you.”

“No, really. I want to understand.” He sounded rude, but he couldn’t explain to Ben Stone that he found his sister-in-law utterly intoxicating. He just had to know if Ben had felt the same about Melissa’s sister. Had he wanted to mate her right from the start?

“She’s part wolf,” Ben growled.

Cody stopped halfway up the walk to the house he was working on. “She is? Melissa too?”

“They’re twins,” Ben said drily and it pissed him off he didn’t know that. He didn’t know anything about her, really, and that annoyed him, too. He didn’t plan to have this conversation with Ben, though. He’d ask Melissa, for fuck’s sake.

He unlocked the door to the house and headed in to prep the house for paint.

Knowing she was part wolf changed everything.

Explained everything. There wasn’t something wrong with him—she had wolf blood that sang his song.

It still didn’t make her a worthy choice for a mate.

He needed a she-wolf who could produce pups, not human babies.

But at least he understood the attraction now.

He stretched out the drop cloth and shook a can of paint, wondering if he’d bought anything she liked for breakfast. That was stupid. He shook his head to clear it of thoughts of her. What did he care if she liked what he bought? It wasn’t like he was courting her.

Melissa made an omelet for breakfast. She followed it up with a fruit smoothie, since Cody had bought fresh blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. Funny, she didn’t think a guy like him would buy fresh berries. He seemed like the boxed cereal and canned meals type. Were they for her?

She didn’t want to cancel any of her appointments that week, nor her volunteering commitments with Big Brothers Big Sisters, but she couldn’t see any way around it.

She called into the office on the burner phone and told them she was going to work from home because she had a sore throat.

It rang again just as she finished eating.

She wasn’t sure if she should pick up, but then she recognized her sister’s number.

“Hey, how’s it going? Cody texted Ben your new number.”

That was nice of him.

“Did you survive the wolf domination?”

She snorted. “Okay, first of all, you weren’t kidding. He spanked me!”

Ashley laughed. “Are you okay? Did you…”

“What?”

“Have sex with him?”

She choked on her smoothie, spraying it across the kitchen table. Grabbing a napkin, she mopped the dribbles. “Not exactly.” Her voice sounded strangled.

“What happened?” Only a twin would have zero boundaries with demanding every dirty detail.

“He, um, brought me to orgasm.” She laughed.

“Nice. Was it good?”

Why was she blushing when her sister couldn’t even see her face?

“It was good.” That wasn’t true. It had been spectacular. Cody had done more with his fingers than any guy had done with his mouth, fingers, or manhood. The orgasm had been explosive.

“Just good? What aren’t you telling me? Did you hate the dominance? Is that why you’re upset?” Ashley probed.

“I’m not upset. What makes you think I’m upset?”

“Maybe that’s not the right word, but your voice is all tight like there’s something you’re not saying.”