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

I throw my head back, but it rebounds and time blurs as I realize I’m about to mark my female. I manage to cover her shoulder with my palm right before I strike, driving my fangs into the back of my hand.

“Oh!” Colleen’s cry of dismay makes me pull out and step back.

She whirls, her nostrils flaring at the scent of my blood. Her eyes widen when she catches sight of my self-inflicted wounds. “Mark.”

“I’m sorry, baby. It happened so fast, I thought I had it under control.”

She grabs my hand and examines it, her brows knit. “You bit… yourself .”

“Well, yeah. I wasn’t going to bite you. Not without your permission.”

She’s gone stiff now. Tension shows in the set of her shoulders. “You can’t mark me. Not now, not ever.”

Colleen

Mark shows nothing outwardly, but I sense his pain like a sharp knife to the gut. I expect him to walk away. Or try to hurt me. Or do any of the normal things people do when you push them away, but instead he picks me up by the waist and sits me on the bathroom counter.

“Why not, babygirl?” He cages me between his arms, leaning his hands on the quartz.

I try to swallow around the lump in my throat. “I don’t want that.” I curse the quaver in my voice.

He cups both sides of my face, cradling it so gently I want to weep. Lowering his head to mine, he murmurs, “You know I’m your mate.”

Tears pop into my eyes. “I don’t know anything.” My lips tremble, inches from his.

“You’re lying.” It’s no more than a whisper. He’s trying to coax honesty out of me, but I just can’t give it. It’s not safe. Not for him, not for me, not for my pups.

I turn my face away, but he gently turns it back.

No one has ever held me so tenderly. Touched me with such reverence. The sex was incredible, but this? It guts me.

“Let me take care of you, babygirl.”

Babygirl. He called himself Daddy earlier after he spanked me. I don’t know anything about this dynamic, but both my body and my being respond like I’ve just found home.

Tears spill from my eyes. I’m crying because I can’t accept his offer, no matter how badly I want to. Not until I somehow get free from Dirk.

He thumbs away my tears. “Please.”

I duck my head and revert to what I know—showing deference to the alpha. “May I take a shower now?”

I sense his frown before I peek at it. He studies me for a moment, the corners of his mouth downturned.

This is where I’m sure he’ll walk away, but he still doesn’t.

He scoops me from the counter and carries me into the shower where he lowers me gently to my feet and begins to soap every inch of my body.

I whimper at the sweetness of it. The delicious caress.

Having my mate naked in a small space with me.

My legs tremble as he slides his hands up my inner thighs, stroking softly when he reaches the apex.

He kisses between my legs, but doesn’t bring me to orgasm like he did at the pool last night.

Instead, he continues the slow torture of worshipping my body.

“We don’t know each other, babygirl. But I know you’re mine. And I’m sure you know it, too. Let me in, sweetheart.”

“Please,” I weep. Because he’s killing me. Because I want to say yes so badly. I want to be his, to let him mark me, take care of me, call me babygirl and treat me with both passion and tenderness.

He stands and wraps his arms around me, sliding his fingers into the cleft of my ass, soaping my most intimate place.

“I don’t believe you,” he says. When I search his gaze to understand what he doesn’t believe, he says, “I don’t believe you want me to stand down.

But I will, babygirl. Because I need you to feel safe.

I need you to know I’ll honor your wishes.

” The entire time he speaks, he runs his fingers over my anus, sudsing between my cheeks.

I whimper. My bare breasts press against his muscled torso. I drag my lips over the soft hair of his chest.

He curves his fingers lower and sweeps them between my legs. “I’m keeping a tally of your lies, little girl.” His fingers brush over my opening. I press closer to him, hoping he’ll take me again. “There will be a reckoning.”

The way he says it makes punishment sound more like some delicious reward. Of course, I just learned what it feels like to be spanked by him, and I adored it.

I lift my face, letting water stream over it. “What kind of reckoning?” I hardly recognize my own voice, it sounds so husky.

He moves his finger back up to my asshole and circles there. “The kind that ends with this gorgeous ass red and hot and my cock buried deep between these cheeks.”

I almost orgasm right there. Just from his threatened punishment, which sounds far more like a reward than anything.

I reach down to take care of my own needs, since he seems more inclined to tease, but he catches my wrist. “Uh uh. Not when you’ve been naughty, little wolf.

No more pleasure for you until I decide you can come. ”

A mini-orgasm rips through me, and I shiver against him, catching my breath.

Mark chuckles darkly. “That goes on your ledger, babygirl. Disobedience.”

He releases me and positions me away from the spray of water to shampoo my hair. I close my eyes, too dazed with lust and confusion to do anything else. When he’s finished, he turns off the water and wraps me in a warm, fuzzy towel.

“We’ll go to Target to buy clothes and necessities for the three of you today,” he tells me.

I nod, not trusting myself to speak.

“And then, I’d like to take the pups to do something fun. Would they like an amusement park? Or mini-golf?”

I stare at him. Both options seem outlandish to me.

So outlandish, I almost giggle. This is no time for an amusement park.

I have to keep my children hidden from their psychopathic father.

And yet, the idea of denying my kids such an extravagance feels cruel.

Our life in Kentucky with Dirk was horrible, but moving away and staying on the run hasn’t been a picnic, either.

My sister gave me enough money to get away, but because Dirk’s an alpha, I was afraid to ask other shifters for assistance.

Cody, the alpha in Colorado Springs, found us by accident and gave me money and his help, but until then, we were struggling just to eat.

Maybe we could go have some fun. Just this once. I know we can’t stay here with Mark—not permanently. This is just a temporary resting place while I wait to see if Dirk knows where I am and if he’s coming for us. We may have to run again. Maybe soon.

“That would be nice,” I tell him.

He lowers his head and brushes his lips across mine. It’s another tease because I don’t get a real kiss. He tucks the towel around me, turns me around and smacks my ass to send me out the door of his bathroom.

I send a small smile over my shoulder as I scoot back to the guest bathroom where I left yesterday’s clothes. I put them on and open the door to the guest bedroom.

Jayden and Angie are playing Kings on the Corners card game on the bed. “Go and jump in the shower,” I tell Jayden. “Mark is going to take us shopping and then to do something fun.”

“What?” Angie demands as Jayden scrambles off the bed.

“It’s a surprise. I’ll let him tell you,” I say. “You’ll like it.”

“What is it? What is it?” Angie starts bouncing up and down on the bed as I pull my clothes on.

“Don’t!” I say automatically, that familiar rush of adrenaline kicking in, my frayed nerves firing in protective fear. “Don’t jump on the bed, angel.”

“She can jump.” Mark leans in the doorway, dressed in a black t-shirt that molds to his muscles and a faded pair of jeans. He looks sinfully handsome, but more than that, his indulgent smile as he watches Angie makes my eyes smart again.

It’s too late, though. Angie heard the fear in my voice and came down off the bed to glue herself to my side. “What’s the surprise?” she whispers to me.

Mark winks. “I’ll wait until your brother is out of the shower, and then you two can vote.”

“There’s only two of us,” Angie says, warming to Mark far more quickly than I would expect. “Who’s the tie-breaker?”

“Your mom,” Mark says immediately, pushing off the door frame and sauntering down the stairs.

My need to follow him, to stay close to the warm sphere of energy he projects makes me rock on my feet. But I need to call my sister—to find out if she’s heard anything about us through my dad’s pack.

I take my burner phone into Mark’s backyard to call Meagan. He watches me through the window, like he’s afraid to take his eyes off me, but it doesn’t feel controlling. Just protective.

I let Angie come out with me, and she starts picking up fallen leaves, examining them and comparing their colors.

“Hello?” It’s a new number, so my sister doesn’t recognize it.

“Can you talk?”

“Hang on a sec.” I hear the bang of a door, and my sister’s footsteps crunching over leaves. I picture her walking out the back door of the little cabin she shares with her mate and two small pups toward the woods. “Okay, I’m good. How’s it going?”

“Have you heard anything? About me, I mean?”

Meagan is still part of our father’s pack, the second largest pack in Kentucky. She stayed at home and mated her high school boyfriend after getting pregnant. They’re not fated mates, but they do love each other and make a good match.

The largest pack in Kentucky belongs to Dirk, which is why my father offered me up to be mated to him in some kind of medieval uniting of kingdoms. Things were horrible right from the start, but I couldn’t tell my father because Dirk told me he’d kill my father and take over his pack if he ever challenged him.

“No, is everything okay?”

I breathe a sigh of relief. “Good. Yes. Well, no. Jayden got hit by a car and was taken to a hospital—he’s fine, of course—but I was afraid word might somehow get back to Dirk if he’d filed a missing persons report.”

Meagan scoffs. “He wouldn’t do that. He told Dad that you two had a misunderstanding, and you were being stubborn, but you’d be home soon.

” Meagan hesitates a moment then adds “I know you didn’t want me to, but I finally told Dad the truth.

I told him what Dirk had done to you and that you three were running for your lives.

Dad’s beside himself. He hasn’t gone over to challenge Dirk yet because he needs proof to show the pack if there’s going to be a war. ”

I swear softly. “I don’t want a pack war over me, Meagan. Dad’s pack won’t win. Dirk would kill Dad just to hurt me.”

Meagan’s quiet. “I know. But Dad has the right to know. And now that you’re out of that house, I feel like it’s time to stop keeping the horrible secret.”

Tears spear my eyes. “Don’t let him challenge Dirk,” I beg. “Promise me.”

“I’ll do what I can. What about the humans at the hospital? Did anyone witness Jayden’s healing?”

“No. I called the alpha in Colorado Springs, and he just came and pulled us out of there before Jayden got checked or anything.”

“That’s a close call. So you’re under his protection?”

“Not exactly.” I glance toward the house, everything warming as I think about Mark. “I’m in Denver… with my mate.”

Meagan gasps. “Oh my God. Are you serious?” Her excitement practically vibrates through the phone.

“Yeah, but Meagan, what am I going to do? Dirk will kill us both if I let him mark me.”

Meagan goes quiet for a moment then says fiercely, “Fuck Dirk. Why did you leave him if you’re not going to live? Are you just going to stay in hiding for the rest of your life?”

“I’m just trying to keep my pups safe and alive!” I cry, angry tears forcing their way to the outer corners of my eyes.

“Fuck. I know. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Meagan soothes, even though I’m the older sister.

She’s the only reason I was able to get away.

She brought me enough cash to get bus tickets to Colorado and to pay the first month’s rent on an apartment.

We didn’t have time to plan things out—it was a hasty decision after Dirk got violent with me and Jayden.

“I gotta go. Let me know if you hear anything.”

“This is your new phone?”

“Yes.”

“What’s his name? Your mate, I mean.”

“Mark. Mark Ruhl. He’s a DEA agent and a shifter council enforcer. He’s older. Like in his forties.”

“A silver wolf.”

I can’t stop the way my lips curve thinking of him. The way I’m instantly soothed from the anxiety of a moment before. “Not too much silver, but yeah. Super hot silver wolf. And he likes to be called Daddy .”

“Oh my gawd. That’s so hot.”

“Super hot.” I laugh. It’s the first time I’ve ever had anything sexual or fun to share with Meagan. I was just out of high school when my dad pawned me off, and I couldn’t share the joy of Meagan’s exploits when she started sleeping with her mate because my life was so traumatic by then.

“Let him mark you, Co-co. You can’t delay living forever. At some point, you have to claim your own life.”

I don’t answer because my sister can’t even begin to understand the mental slavery I’ve been in for so long now, and I’m not going to defend myself.

“Love you,” I say simply.

“I love you, too. Text me a pic of Mark. I promise I’ll delete it as soon as it comes through.”

I laugh softly because it’s the best thing I’ve ever had to text my sister about. “I will. Bye.”