Heir to the Alpha: Episodes 1 & 2: A Tarker’s Hollow Serial Read online

  Now it was out, free to feed on the souls of the living. And able to camouflage itself by taking on the forms of those it destroyed.

  Cressida still burned for vengeance against it.

  Her fury was out of proportion to her own personal stake. She should be scared - she should at least want to protect her pack. But this anger she felt was like a living thing inside her, boiling and bubbling for revenge - like she was made to fight the thing.

  It had been afraid of her.

  But why?

  Her grandfather had always told her they were Native American. Of course she’d assumed it was like one-millionth Lenape on her stepmother’s side or something. A myth - something for poor trash like the Crows to be proud of.

  But the experience of standing up to the moroi and watching it cower before her had stirred her curiosity about her heritage. Maybe there was something more to her after all.

  She thought about asking her grandfather for more info, but doubted he had any real interest in American Indians beyond the velvet painting of a topless Cherokee woman he displayed proudly on his bedroom wall.

  She wished there were someone who knew more about it.

  Someone who did not work in the town Historical Library. Those nerds would only want to bore her to tears with a bunch of dusty books about Native American suffering.

  Cressida wasn’t so much interested in where she came from. She wanted to know what she could do.

  She lifted her snout from the creek and tasted the air.

  Something was off about the woods tonight. It was creepy somehow - she couldn’t really place why. It made her fur ruffle up around the neck though.

  Her belly twisted and she realized she was hungry. The sun was sinking in the sky. Time to go home for dinner.

  She turned and trotted back through the forest, wondering whether she could get Mac to go to the library for her to learn about the Lenape, when the unmistakable sound of someone following her reached her sensitive ears.

  He was close. How had she let that happen? She must have been too distracted. Dammit.

  Cressida broke into a run. She could be faster than a deer when she really let herself go. And she knew every tree of these woods like it was her own backyard.

  Taking a huge curve at top speed, she sailed off the path at the last moment and lowered herself behind a stump.

  She waited for the dark shape to pass, then pounced.

  Mid-leap she caught a snoutful of his familiar scent.

  Instead of clamping her teeth down mercilessly on his neck, she crashed into him instead and rolled them both down.

  The rough fur against her shifted into smooth muscle and Cressida followed suit, shifting back into her human form as they tumbled down the small slope and came to a stop, with her astride him.

  “Hi, Cressida.” Javier grinned up at her. He had an angel’s smile and his thick, muscular body felt right at home under her.

  “Hi, Javier.” She smiled back.

  “I almost had you that time,” he told her.

  “You’re getting better,” she allowed.

  “I’ve been practicing,” he explained.

  She raised an eyebrow at him and felt something else rise between her thighs in response. Javier was always good to go.

  “Got any other new tricks?” she asked.

  He rolled them over so that he was on top. “Well, there is this one thing…”

  “Mmmm,” she hummed appreciatively. “Who’s been teaching you?”

  “Erik, mostly,” he said.

  “What?” she asked, shocked.

  “I mean, about the tracking,” he said quickly. “Not the other stuff. I guess the other stuff has been what you would call independent study.”

  “Whew,” she sighed. “Not that it wouldn’t be hot - you with another guy…”

  His dark eyes went wide.

  She was teasing him, but he obviously wasn’t so sure.

  “Would you, um… be into that?” He swallowed hard.

  She could almost feel him willing her to say no, and she wondered if he would actually sleep with another guy, just to please her.

  “Cause if that’s something you wanted,” he continued after a moment, “I guess we could…”

  She grinned up at him, then wound her arms around his neck to pull him down for a kiss and let him off the hook.

  “Oh, thank god,” he whispered into her ear. “Don’t tease me like that, woman.”

  He brushed her lips with his and she was surprised to feel herself almost swoon in response.

  Time on the road was really not helping her sex life. She was starving for release.

  She latched her lips onto his and sank her nails into the round muscles of his shoulders.

  Javier froze for a second and she felt the evidence of his building lust swell against her belly. God, he was hung like a horse.

  But instead of responding to her invitation to speed things up, Javier slid a hand through her hair and kissed her slowly and thoroughly.

  Cressida moaned into his mouth and wrapped her legs around his hips, angling herself against him to urge him on.

  Javier pulled back from the kiss to nuzzle her neck.

  “You missed me, huh?” he teased. His breath tickled her sensitive skin and she shivered in response.

  “I missed him,” she whispered back, sliding a hand down between them to stroke his thick cock oh-so gently with one finger.

  Javier tensed and she felt his resolve slip.

  That would teach him to put her off-balance.

  He dove onto her breasts, licking and biting her stiff nipples. Then moved downward quickly, his rough jaw abrading her skin, and making her almost frantic for what was coming.

  She threw her head back and laughed with delight.

  But when he reached his destination, Javier took a deep breath as if he were trying to calm himself.

  Cressida angled her hips up to him in offering and he growled and pinned them to the snowy ground.

  Leaning in, he nosed at the air above her for a moment, like a billionaire in a movie, sniffing a glass of wine. Then he lowered his face to her.

  The first stroke of his tongue sent Cressida into a spiral of need. She cried out and let her head fall back against the ground.

  Slowly, slowly Javier lavished her with his tongue until she saw stars and had to grit her teeth not to beg for release.

  Only when she was keening and shaking did he finally suckle her clitoris into his mouth, slip a finger inside her, and bring her instantly over the edge.

  Cressida howled with pleasure. It seemed to go on and on forever, as Javier sucked and stroked every tremor out of her.

  When she finally came down she felt light-headed.

  She opened her eyes to find him gazing up at her, his eyes clouded with lust.

  “Wow, you did practice,” she said wonderingly.

  “Nope, I just missed you,” he shook his head.

  “Well, come have me then,” she laughed, holding her arms out to him.

  He crawled up to her, his eyes burning with need. And something else.

  She found herself reaching out to cup his cheek and stroke his dark hair.

  He turned his face to kiss her palm as she stroked him.

  Javier was so… earnest.

  She had never been with anyone so eager to please her.

  It was sweet, but Cressida didn’t really know how to deal with it. She was busy trying to find herself. The last thing she was looking to do was lose herself in someone else.

  She wrapped her legs around his hips, pulled him closer.

  He sighed and then guided himself against her, pressing slowly inside her as he studied her with his beautiful brown eyes.

  Cressida enjoyed the slight sting of stretching to accommodate him. When she was ready, she moved against him and he thrust gently.

  She crunched her pelvic muscles to squeeze him tighter.

  “Jesus, Cressida,” he groaned, finally breaking that in
tense eye contact to close his eyes.

  He thrust again and again, but she could feel his restraint.

  Then he was slipping a hand between them, massaging her clit again.

  Letting go, she chased her pleasure, finding it just as he cried out his own.

  She clung to his neck, panting and giggling when it was done.

  “Wow, Cressida,” he said.

  “That was nice,” she told him approvingly.

  He rolled onto his back and pulled her onto his chest.

  Cressida wasn’t much for cuddling but Javier was so huge and warm, there was a spot just her size in the crook of his arm that was unbelievably comfortable. She settled in just for a few minutes.

  “Are you back for good?” he asked after a bit. His voice was more than a little hopeful.

  “Nope,” she said.

  “Where are you headed next?”

  “Not sure.”

  “Anywhere but here, huh?” He sounded a little hurt.

  “It’s not like that,” she explained. “We just don’t have a lot of leads. Grace is working on it now.”

  He nodded and they were quiet for a few minutes.

  “I could help you,” he offered.

  “Ainsley needs people here she can count on,” Cressida said, feeling guilty about abandoning her alpha even as she said it. “And this is something I need to do for myself.”

  “With Grace,” he said. There was no resentment in his voice, only a trace of pain.

  “I don’t think I can do it without her,” Cressida told him honestly. “We’ve both got a score to settle. Something personal.”

  It was obviously personal to Grace. The moroi had killed her boyfriend.

  But Cressida appreciated that Javier didn’t ask why it was personal for her.

  The truth was that Cressida had spent most of her life trying to avoid doing the things she didn’t want to do.

  Now, suddenly, she had found something she did want to do. The hunt was satisfying, even though so far she had nothing to show for it. She had put herself out there and she wasn’t coming back until the job was done. She felt a sense of her own power that was unlike anything she had ever felt before.

  “How long will you be gone?” he asked.

  “However long it takes, I guess,” she told him.

  “I’ll be here when you get back.”

  Shit.

  “Javier, I don’t want you to wait around for me—” she began.

  “—I don’t think I have a choice, baby,” he told her simply. “I feel drawn to you, Cressida. Bonded, like I’ve never felt with anyone else.”

  A little voice in the back of her head reminded her that it did feel different with Javier.

  But Cressida didn’t want to think about that. She certainly didn’t want to start throwing around words like bonded. She wasn’t looking to be beholden to a man for her happiness, or to answer to anyone but herself and Ainsley Connor.

  Javier was a great guy. He was in his rights to want a mate, and he deserved one too.

  But Cressida wasn’t ready for that nonsense. She wasn’t sure she would ever be ready. Not for anyone.

  “I’ll race you back,” she offered, unable to bear the conversation or the stillness for another moment.

  Before he could answer, she shifted and leapt into the trees.

  A few seconds later she heard his big form crashing after her.

  He was still willing to chase her.

  How long would that be true?

  Chapter 4

  Erik Jensen looked out over his pack.

  They were a small but noisy bunch, and it was an odd juxtaposition to see the residents of Copper Creek here at his own house in Tarker’s Hollow.

  The group crowded inside his immense screened-in porch. He’d originally arranged their meetings in the meadow, since most wolves liked to be outside whenever they could. But it quickly became apparent that the wolves were uncomfortable there, and eager to disband after each meeting.

  “Are they cold out there or something?” he’d asked Bonnie Summers, the Copper Creek librarian he’d befriended during his stay in that town.

  “We’re used to the mountains, Erik,” she’d explained with a wry smile. “That field of yours is so open. Feels too exposed.”

  “Exposed to what?” he’d asked.

  But she just shrugged as if it were normal for a group of adult wolves to be afraid of an open field.

  The idea was so foreign to him that he had wondered for days if he was really the right wolf to lead this broken pack.

  But they kept coming, and he kept leading. Another week, another meeting - this time indoors.

  He wondered lightly how long it would be before the two packs truly merged, and this was simply home to these wolves and they looked to him and to Ainsley equally for leadership.

  Based on the reason he’d called this meeting, it would probably be a while.

  He cleared his throat.

  Bonnie Summers sat on the leather couch against the stone wall of the house.

  LeeAnn Miller chased her young ones to get them seated while several others chatted loudly.

  Ansel Martin shushed his wife, Maria who was whispering animatedly with one of the younger girls. The man seemed eager to show his submission to Erik. Ansel had been ill the day of the mine collapse, making him one of the few adult men to walk away from Copper Creek. Erik could see that he had a touch of survivor’s guilt. He suspected this was why the man was so eager to help.

  Mary Miller sat next to Bonnie on the sofa. The teenager had drawn his alpha back in Copper Creek after he had imploded the mine there to seal the portal, a stunt that had nearly cost him his life. That night she had made a badass speech to a rapt pack, her dirty little face convulsed with righteous fury, and her dusty hair flying in the wind.

  Today she was neat and tidy, sitting up primly and paying serious attention to Erik, as if he were planning to give a quiz after the meeting. The duality of the kid’s personality was enough to give him whiplash.

  No wonder she got along so well with Ainsley.

  The room was settling down, but Jenny Wilks was still wandering around looking for a seat.

  Jenny was one of the many displaced women of the Copper Creek pack who had lost a spouse in the mine collapse that happened before Erik got to town. But she was younger than most.

  She was an attractive enough woman, with long, straight, blonde hair. Her belly was broad, as she was expecting a baby, an idea that tugged at Erik’s heart. Of course he knew that a baby in any circumstance was a blessing, even if this one would never meet its father.

  Jenny was normally thick as thieves with another of the young women, Megan Abbott, but she wasn’t here today. As a matter of fact, Erik hadn’t seen her in a few days.

  He hoped that she hadn’t left.

  After the mine collapse and then Erik’s arrival and sealing of the portal, plenty of the Copper Creek pack went their own ways. They would find new packs in their travels, wolves never stayed alone for long. But they weren’t ready to bury their sorrows and move east to a town like Tarker’s Hollow.

  Erik was eager to keep as many of the women and children as he could. He felt a bond to his pack, but he also knew that practically speaking, the Tarker’s Hollow pack was dwindling and his was downright tiny. The Federation might not tolerate either standing alone for long.

  And the Tarker’s Hollow pack had too large a share of young males. Whereas the Copper Creek contingent was primarily female, a fact that had not escaped the men that worked on his construction crew.

  A handful of the women had lost their husbands, but all of them had lost someone to that mine collapse - a father or a grandfather…

  Erik knew there would be mourning time for them all, but it was his hope that some of the women of Copper Creek might be willing to give the boys of Tarker’s Hollow a chance, once they had settled in and found their rhythm in this new life.

  However, despite everyone’s best
efforts to help the Copper Creek women feel at home, it seemed like a few slipped away every week. Most of the time they didn’t even bother telling him they were going.

  Erik tried to keep his alpha ego in check and focus on doing everything that was in his power to make the transition easy for them.

  Which was why he was dreading having this conversation today.

  “Thank you so much for joining me,” he said warmly. “I’ve been glad to hear from several of you with your troubles this week and I hope you’ll continue to let me know when you can use my help in making this new life as comfortable as it can be.”

  There were dopey grins and a few sighs.

  Damn his good looks. Erik had never had any problems when it came to the fairer sex, but he wasn’t used to having a group of women who would most likely do anything he asked.

  He remembered Ainsley’s father, Michael Connor, telling him that a powerful alpha could command anything from his pack, but a true alpha would never need to.

  He ran a hand through his dark hair and gave them a perfunctory smile.

  There was no other woman on Earth for Erik but Ainsley Connor, and he was pretty sure she knew it. But Erik had a feeling Ainsley’s alpha side might be prone to violent jealousy, and he didn’t intend to find out the hard way by giving any of these females a chance to make a move. He wondered how long he could fend them off by ignoring the signals.

  “There have been a few reports of wolf sightings by the locals,” he said carefully, then paused to let his words sink in.

  There were one or two guilty faces and one or two more looking at him with studied expressions of unblinking innocence - an even greater admission of guilt.

  “It pains me to ask you to repress your nature,” he said gently. “But our exposure could mean trouble for packs everywhere.”

  They gazed at him sadly and his heart broke for them as he thought about their former home of Copper Creek - a town where there were no humans for miles, where wolves could be themselves all the time.

  “I remember when I was a teenager,” he told them. “My dad had this same talk with me, because as soon as I could shift I wanted to be with my wolf all the time.”