Page 5 of The Alpha’s Protection (Alpha Doms #4)

Mark

The four of us stand in line for the Dragon Wing, one of the rides at Elitch Gardens, Denver’s amusement park. The pups are on a high from waffle cones filled with ice cream and the five rides we’ve already been on.

Colleen’s face goes soft and beautiful every time she looks at them.

“You look younger, Momma,” Angie tells her, looking up. She’s as cute as they come, with a blonde ponytail high on her head and the same big blue-green eyes as her mom and brother. I’m already as fiercely protective of the pups as I am of my unclaimed mate.

I rest a hand lightly on her hip. She does look younger. Every hour seems to roll back the effects of time on her appearance. “How old are you, babygirl?”

“Twenty-eight.”

I glance at the boy. “How old are you, Jayden?”

“Nine and a half.”

The rattle of the ride keeps the humans around us from hearing the growl in my throat. The wolves hear it though, and all three of them stare at me.

“I was eighteen when my father arranged my mating,” Colleen says, correctly guessing at the cause of my rage. “Just legal.”

“Was that… normal in your pack?” I ask through clenched teeth. I want to kill both her father and the alpha who claimed her.

She shakes her head. “I don’t know. It was horrible for me. I had to forget about college and leave everyone I knew to live with a tyrant.”

The kids listen with big eyes, like they’ve never heard this before.

“You mean Dad?” Jayden asks softly.

She nods. “He had just become alpha of his pack after his father was killed. He was worried about his position being challenged because he was young to lead a pack. He went to grandpa, and they made some kind of deal.”

“We’re not going back there, right, Momma?” Angie asks.

“Never,” she promises, and one small part of me relaxes. At least we agree on that.

“You’re going to stay with me now,” I say firmly, even though Colleen hasn’t accepted it yet.

Jayden stays silent, but he watches me with that wary gaze.

“Are we, Momma?” Angie asks.

Colleen looks away, her lips pressing together. “We’ll see,” she murmurs.

“Can we keep the bikes?” Angie wants to know.

I bought both the kids bikes this morning at Target. I put everything any one of them looked at or picked up in the cart. Colleen took about half the things back out, but when I picked up the two bikes, she didn’t dare override me. Not when her kids looked so excited.

She just stood there with tear-bright eyes and nibbled on her lips.

“The bikes are yours,” I say. “No matter what. But I want you to stay.” It’s our turn at the front of the line. I escort the pups forward then hold Colleen back. “We’ll wait for you where it gets out,” I tell Jayden. “Take care of your sister.”

He nods, like the responsibility was his honor. He’s an amazing kid.

I put my arm around Colleen and usher her to the place where the ride lets out. “For every lie, you owe me a truth,” I tell her.

“I didn’t li?—”

I stop her with a finger on her lips. “Don’t do it again. Remember my tally.”

Her lips move up at the corners, but her smile is sad. I would bust this world apart to figure out how to make it shine.

She turns into me and puts her hands on my chest. “A truth,” she murmurs. “Okay. Here’s a truth. I never orgasmed with a male before last night. You were my first.”

Aw, fuck. I shouldn’t be so goddamn proud—it’s been over twenty years since I first learned how to get a female off—but I am.

I wrap my arms around her and hold her against my body. Her cinnamon scent nearly turns me feral. “That’s a good one, babygirl.” But because I’m a greedy fucker, I push for more. “Give me another one. Tell me something, angel. Are you not sure of me or not sure what you want?”

Pain flits across her face, and the need to avenge her for every wrong ever inflicted nearly makes my wolf canines pop out. “Not sure of what I want,” she croaks in a rusty voice, but it smells like a lie.

I narrow my eyes, thinking hard. She doesn’t seem scared of me, so it must be something else. I have to prove myself in some other way.

If only I could get her to open up, to tell me what’s going on in that gorgeous head of hers.

“One more,” I say.

Vulnerability flashes in her eyes, like I’m asking far too much of her. “What is it?”

“If your future hadn’t been sold at age eighteen, what would you have done with it?”

Her lips tremble, and she rolls them inward to hide it. “I don’t know. I planned to go to college, but I hadn’t figured out what I wanted to study. I wanted to get out of our small town, maybe live in the human world. Earn a decent living.”

“What did you like in school?”

She shrugs. “I was good at math and science. I liked to draw. I thought maybe I could go into architecture or engineering. But that ship has sailed.”

The gate opens, and people pour off the ride. She pulls away from me to open her arms for Angie, who barrels into them.

“Right. Ride over. Okay. What’s next, kids?” I ask, letting them lead.

I didn’t think I’d have pups or a mate. At age forty, I’d long since discarded any hope of a family, but here I’d found my mate, and she came with two precious pups. I’d thought my calling was law enforcement, but that all changed yesterday.

Now I’m sure of my life’s purpose. It’s these three shifters right here. I just have to get them to let me care for them.

At the next ride, I excuse myself to make a call.

“Jenson, it’s Mark Ruhl.” Jenson is on the shifter council. He’s an old bear shifter from Wyoming and is the councilmember who I report to.

“What’s up?”

“There’s a she-wolf and two pups under my protection. They ran away from an abusive male—the alpha of a pack outside of Lexington, Kentucky.”

“The council doesn’t get involved in domestic quarrels.”

“I’m not asking the council to get involved. I’m putting the council on notice. I will not hesitate to put that alpha down if he comes near her again.”

Jenson is silent for a long moment, then he blows out his breath. “Noted.”

“That’s it,” I say and end the call.

Due process doesn’t exist in the shifter world.

Generally problems are solved by physical aggression.

But seventy years ago, when the human population began to grow and spread and bleed into shifter territories, the council was formed.

It’s less about governing our own than it is about keeping shifters out of trouble with humans.

I’m the guy who puts down shifters who go feral.

Or who murder or take advantage of humans.

I might not have owed the council an explanation for defending my mate, but putting them on notice in advance may help with any fallout.

Still, I hope it doesn’t come to that. I don’t want Jayden and Angie to have to live with the male who killed their father. That doesn’t sit well with me.

But neither does having that man looming over Colleen and the pups as a constant fear. The sooner this gets solved, the better.

Colleen

The pups are exhausted by the time I get them to bed. The amusement park and a steak dinner at Outback wore them out.

Mark caught me before I followed them up the stairs to the guest room.

He wrapped a fist in my hair and tugged my head backward.

“I’m going to need you in my bed tonight, babygirl—don’t even think of refusing me,” he growled, turning my insides to molten lava.

Then he trailed his tongue over my pulse.

“After the pups are asleep. In my room. Understand?” He slid his fingers between my legs and pushed the seam of my jeans against my clit.

“Y-yes,” I answered.

Now, as I push the door to his bedroom open without knocking, my heart pounds against my chest.

Mark’s demand sounded lustful, not angry. His brand of dominance never scares me. Never offends me. It just makes my nipples hard and my panties damp.

So even though I know walking into his bedroom at night is a bad idea considering every time I get near him I risk being marked—I do it anyway.

“Clothes off.” Mark speaks from the doorway to the bathroom.

He’s taken another shower. Either he has obsessive compulsive tendencies toward cleanliness, or he really is using cold showers to tamp down his lust. I prefer to believe it’s the latter although I don’t mind the clean part.

The scent of soap that mingles with his deliciously male aroma.

I unbutton the new skinny jeans he bought me and shimmy out of them. I’m wearing a pair of red satin panties and a matching bra—also his purchase—and when he sees me in them, his eyes turn silver.

“What color is your wolf?” I ask.

“Black. Yours?”

“Tan.”

He stalks closer. “I haven’t seen your wolf eyes yet.”

No. I still don’t know if I can shift. I haven’t shifted in years. Another byproduct of being mated to Dirk. It’s the reason my healing fled. But maybe now… maybe my true fated mate has already healed me.

I stand in my new bra and panties, my knees trembling for him.

He shakes his head and spins me to face the bed, pushing my torso down. “I didn’t say you could leave the panties on tonight.” His hand crashes down on my ass, sharp and punitive.

A little sound of protest leaves my lips, but Mark has forgotten to be careful with me.

His wolf is going feral, and it's running the show. His dominance doesn’t produce even an ounce of fear in me, though.

It feels natural. His wolf comes to the surface because he wants me so badly, not because he needs to hurt me.

I somehow know if I protested, he’d pull back immediately.

He slaps me again on the other cheek, even harder. “Did I, babygirl?”

“No, Daddy.” The moniker just rolls off my tongue, but it feels right.

I like calling Mark Daddy . I like the idea of Mark being my daddy.

Protective. Caring. Dirty and demanding when it comes to sex.

Fates, it’s only been twenty-four hours, but this male has already wormed his way into my very guarded heart.

And it’s not just the pheromones talking.