Page 2 of The Alpha’s Protection (Alpha Doms #4)

The delirium of our stolen moment is gone, and the more familiar sense of urgency and fear creeps back in. I quickly yank on my clothes.

Mark picks up Angie, my six-year-old. She whimpers in her sleep, but her head falls heavy onto his shoulder. “I’ll carry her upstairs,” he tells me.

But there’s no way Jayden would allow himself to be carried. His life has been as hard as mine has. I gently wake him. “Time to go to bed, buddy,” I say quietly. “Come on.”

He rolls swiftly to his feet, blinking and alert. My little warrior, always trying to protect me or his little sister.

On the way up the stairs, I catch sight of my reflection in a framed mirror and stop to stare.

I look younger than I did yesterday—by at least five years.

More my actual age. My skin, which had grown sallow and pale from the stress, glows in the lamplight.

I touch the place in my mouth where I’m missing two teeth.

Dirk knocked them out the day I left him, and they haven’t grown back.

My natural shifter healing abilities became suppressed as a result of the mental and emotional trauma he kept me in.

My gums ache now, and I feel the sharp edge of new teeth coming through.

I let out my breath in a puff of surprise. One orgasm was all it took.

One orgasm on the tongue of my mate, and I began to heal.

It seems too good to be true, but that’s because it is.

I can’t let Mark Ruhl claim me, no matter how he makes my body sing.

I would never endanger his life that way.

Mark

I don’t ever want the taste of Colleen to leave my tongue.

Satisfying my mate is my new mission in life.

I don’t know where that daddy thing came from—the kinky words just slipped from my lips as I was licking into her, but it felt right.

As an alpha wolf, I’ve always been the dominant, but this is the first time I want to shelter and care for a woman.

To spoil her and make sure she knows how cherished she is.

That she’s mine. All mine.

But she’s not ready for that... yet. Right now she’s in survival mode, so I need to make her feel safe and protected.

I lead them upstairs and push open the door to the guest room. I don’t turn on the light, so I don’t disturb the sleeping pup. “The three of you can stay in this room, unless?—”

“This will be fine,” she says quickly, scooting past me to pull down the covers to the bed. I lay the little girl down in the middle, and she sighs and rolls over. The boy crawls in beside his sister and closes his eyes.

I’m not sure how I’ll make it through the night with her unclaimed and under my roof, but I have to. She needs to feel safe.

I will clean out my office and turn it into a room for the kids right away, so they don’t feel like guests in my house.

I want them to know that this is their home now.

To a human, it might seem nuts that I’m willing to rearrange my life for three people I just met, but for a wolf, there’s no question.

I’ve gone forty years thinking it unlikely I’d ever find my fated mate.

I went to shifter games when I was in my twenties, as was expected, but when my alpha asked me to serve as a council enforcer, I stopped looking.

I go to the linen closet and pull out a stack of towels which I bring to Colleen. “The bathroom’s right there. I think I have a few unopened toothbrushes in the top right drawer.”

“Thank you.” She doesn’t look at me as she tucks the children into the bed.

She needs quiet and privacy, but I can’t make myself leave the doorway. I want to pull her into my arms and soothe away the pinched worry that’s returned to her face.

“Come here,” I say softly. I don’t mean to command it, but I have enough alpha in me that most everything comes out that way.

She slips past me to stand in the hallway. I leave the bedroom and shut the door.

“I can ask Cody to pack up your things in Colorado Springs,” I offer in a low voice, so I don’t wake the sleeping child. Cody is the alpha of the small pack there. Colleen had been living there and sought out his help yesterday after Jayden was hit by a car.

For a shifter, a car accident isn’t the problem, it’s having humans witness a spontaneous healing that would cause ripples.

Cody had pulled them out of the hospital before Jayden was checked out and then took her to his place in case the hospital report triggered information being sent to her ex.

I was in the Springs for the drug bust and met them there.

Because Cody’s pack would not be strong enough to fend off Colleen’s former pack’s larger numbers if they came for her, he requested help from the Denver pack, and I immediately volunteered my personal protection.

Colleen shakes her head. “We didn’t have much there. Just a mattress and a few items of clothing.”

I grind my teeth, horrified at the way my mate has been living. “I’ll take you shopping tomorrow, then, for new clothes and toiletries. Whatever you need.”

“Thank you.” Her cinnamon scent fills my nostrils, agitating my wolf.

“Cody told me you require protection from your…” I can’t make myself say the word mate because she belongs to me.

But some other male has obviously claimed her.

Multiple times and in brutal ways, judging by the unhealed scars on her shoulder.

Something has affected her ability to heal—no doubt the stress of what she was living with.

“Our alpha,” she supplies.

I try not to show my rage that any male deemed worthy of leading a pack would harm rather than protect those weaker than him.

“And you think he’ll bring the whole pack when he comes?”

She shakes her head. “Maybe not. I didn’t reach out to Cody until yesterday, when Jayden got hit by a car, and we had to go to a human hospital. I was afraid it would trigger some kind of notification if he’d filed a missing persons report.”

“Right. I will check on that Monday when I go to work. I can access those kinds of records. But I don’t want you to have to hide anymore, sweetheart. It would be better to put him on notice that you’re here and under the Denver pack’s protection.”

“No,” she says immediately.

A growl gets loose in my throat, making her flinch.

I reach out and touch her arm. “I’m sorry, babygirl. I’m not growling at you. I didn’t mean to snarl.”

She ducks her head to show submission in wolf fashion, and I want to punch my own face in.

“Can you tell me why you don’t want to free yourself of him?”

She shakes her head. “I don’t want a war between packs over me. I don’t even know your pack, it’s not fair to ask you to protect me.”

I force down my primal need to tear her enemies apart limb by limb and lay them at her feet.

I exhale slowly to get my violence under control.

“It is fair to ask it,” I say simply. I know she didn’t want to hear me declare that she’s my mate, so I don’t say it now, but I’m certain she knows what I mean.

I can’t decide if she doesn’t believe me, doesn’t agree, or just isn’t ready to contemplate a new mate, but for the moment, I need to be patient and take things slowly.

“There’s something you should know about me,” I say, hoping what I tell her doesn’t spook her more.

She stiffens.

“I’m not just in human law enforcement. I’m an enforcer for the shifter council.

” Essentially, it means I have a gun with silver bullets and a license to kill.

When shifters get on the wrong side of human law or if they become a danger to our species, the council may rule that a shifter must be put down.

I’m the guy who carries out that justice.

It’s a secret role, for the protection of our families, much like the hooded executioner of medieval times.

“It’s a job I would quit the moment I have a mate.

” I slide a sideways glance at her to see how this landed.

I need her to know that I wouldn’t put our family at risk.

But I also want her to understand I’m well-equipped to take care of trouble.

“I just want you to know that if things get difficult, I can handle them.”

She draws in a breath and lets it out slowly. “Good to know.”

I allow myself a moment of relief that I didn’t scare her more with my admission.

I cradle her face with one hand, my thumb brushing down her cheek. “You okay?”

She melts forward, almost leaning into me, but not quite. “Yes. Thank you.” She keeps her gaze lowered in that old-school wolf submission to dominance.

I angle her face upward. “Look at me, babygirl. I want those pretty eyes on my face. I don’t need you to show me deference.” You’re my fucking mate.

The moment our eyes lock a zing of electricity shoots through me. I scent her arousal again and barely keep in a groan. I should say goodnight, but I still hesitate. “Do you need anything?”

A long hard fuck?

My teeth in your shoulder?

Yeah, probably not.

“Just some sleep.”

Right. Sleep.

I want to kiss her—badly—but I know she needs space. I settle for dropping a kiss on her forehead. “Goodnight, little wolf.”

“Goodnight.” She meets my gaze, but her glance is almost shy.

I wait until she shuts the door behind her before I force myself to move down the hall and into my bedroom.

It’s going to be a long night.

Colleen

I find a toothbrush where Mark told me they would be and brush my teeth and wash my face, staring into the mirror some more, drinking in the changes in my appearance. I look younger. So much prettier. Almost normal. I find a comb and spend some time working it through my hair.

I hear the shower running in Mark’s bathroom.

Back in the guest bedroom, my two pups are both already sound asleep.

I kick off my shoes and walk around the bedroom, examining things.

The room is basic, nothing personal on the dresser.

Tasteful watercolor landscapes of Colorado scenes hang on the walls.

They seem to all be by the same artist. I step closer to examine the signature on one. Jeanne Ruhl. His mother? Sister?

I want to go ask. I shouldn’t miss being near a man I only just met, but I do.

Look at me, babygirl.

I love the way he talks to me—that deep voice so gravelly, heavy with sex and desire.

He’s a big male—stocky, with thick muscles that bulge under his uniform.

I want to see him without the uniform, too.

Which is a crazy thought, considering I’ve never taken an interest in a male.

I was mated to Dirk far too young to ever want to think about males again.

I start to unbutton my jeans and pull them off, and then a foolish idea takes hold. Rebuttoning my jeans, I open the door and walk down the hall. The sound of the shower has stopped. “Mark?”

His door opens immediately. His short hair is wet, and he’s wearing a soft blue t-shirt and a pair of boxers.

“What do you need, sweetheart?”

You. Being near him again both ignites and settles me. His coffee and leather scent permeates the room. I want more of what he gave to me on the chaise lounge. A glimpse into something carnal and beautiful that I’ve never felt before.

“Um, do you have a t-shirt I could sleep in?” It’s not an excuse. I swear. It’s not. I really just want to get out of these clothes, and I have nothing else to wear.

“Of course.” He holds my gaze as he peels off the one he’s wearing, causing my belly to do flip-flops.

His chest appears even broader without the drape of fabric over it, and it bulges with muscles and is dusted with soft, dark curls.

The urge to run my fingernails across them makes my fingers twitch.

I lick my lips, and his gaze tracks the movement, his eyes turning silver. I work to swallow as he holds the shirt out to me. “Thank you.” I can’t seem to make myself move to take it out of his hand. To walk back down the hall. All I can do is stare at the gorgeous man standing in front of me.

“Like what you see, babygirl?” His deep rumble washes over me, making all my nerve endings tingle.

Afraid I will tumble forward, into his arms—into his bedroom—I snatch the t-shirt from his outstretched hand and swiftly walk back to my room.

When I’m at the door, I stop and look over my shoulder, knowing he hasn’t moved, sensing his gaze on my back.

“Yes,” I admit, before I open the door and slip inside, my heart pounding.

I detect a low rumble from him as he shuts his door. A growl, but not the menacing kind.

He wants me.

Dirk didn’t want me. He used sex as another form of violence. It was a cruelty, never for either of our pleasure.

And I don’t want to think about Dirk. I strip down to my panties and pull on Mark’s large shirt, letting his scent wrap around me. I know he gave me this shirt on purpose. So I’d have his scent. He’s trying to trigger my body’s response. To show me he’s my mate.

As if I didn’t already know.