Rise of the Female Alpha Read online

  What he’d told her was horrible news for her pack, but all she could think about was his taught muscular stomach and how she’d spend most of the last two months running in those woods in the hopes of catching even a glimpse of him. Now she was about to get her chance, and she worried her growing feelings for him might blind her to the danger he represented.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Sienna arrived at the specified location shortly before midnight. Everyone in her pack had been on edge as the news of the escape spread through the village, and it had been difficult for her to slip away and get past the guards that Kane had ordered to take up positions in the forest. It might have been easy for her to change into wolf form to slip past them, but since she didn’t know what to expect from her meeting with Arric, she thought it best to come as a human so she wouldn’t have to be naked in front of him after switching forms.

  She crouched low, her back against a thick tree trunk, a clump of bushes blocking her from sight, and she scanned the small clearing next to the stream for any signs of Arric. A flitting shadow caught her notice, and she saw him hop over the stream and stride into a moonlit patch of grass where he stood and waited. He’d also come in his human form, and she was glad not to have to deal with the distraction of his naked body.

  “I’m happy you came,” he said when she rose from her hiding place and stepped out to meet him. “Almost as happy as I was when you decided to help me earlier today.”

  “They would have tortured you and killed you,” she said. “I couldn’t have that on my conscience.”

  Arric stepped closer and used his thumb and forefinger to tilt her chin to one side, better illuminating the ragged scratch on her cheek. He ran a finger lightly down the bruised skin, sending a shiver through her body that had less to do with the tingle of pain he’d ignited than it did with the feeling of his touch.

  “Why would you risk your life to warn me?” she asked.

  “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since we first met. I’ve come to believe that it was fate that brought us together that night. There’s something about you that makes me think you’re very special, although I’m not sure you realize just how important you are.”

  Sienna laughed. “Trust me; there’s nothing special about me.”

  “That proves my point,” he said. “The true nature of your talents will reveal themselves over time, but for now you need to learn how to handle yourself when the battle comes.”

  “I don’t want to fight against you or your pack,” she said.

  “Either you fight against us, fight with us, or you go out on your own as a lone wolf. In each of those scenarios, you need to know how to hunt and fight so that you can take care of yourself.”

  Sienna ran a hand through her hair and sighed. “I don’t know about this. If I’m caught out here with you, it’ll be the death of both of us. My alpha already has it in for me, and if he finds out I’m helping you…”

  “The danger is there for me as well,” Arric explained. “My alpha has no knowledge of what I tried to do today, nor would he have sanctioned it if he did.”

  “So what do we do then?” she asked.

  “I smelled a rabbit run not too far from here. Have you ever hunted live game before?”

  She shook her head feeling a little embarrassed. She was a healer and not a hunter. Had she and her pack mates been true wolves, she would have had to know these basic survival skills, but being werewolf meant taking on many of the roles of humans living in big cities. She’d always relied on others to bring food into the village.

  “Change to wolf, and let’s see if you can’t sniff out a hare. I’ll lead you to the right location, then you track and kill it.”

  “I think I can do that,” she said, feeling brave and strong in Arric’s presence.

  Arric pulled his shirt over his head and began unbuttoning his pants. Feeling a little shy, Sienna kicked off her boots and tugged down her pants and underwear, letting her shirt hang down over her body while she unbuttoned it. When there was no way of stalling any longer, she let it slip back over her shoulders and unhooked her bra, letting her full round breasts free. She glanced towards Arric and saw his gaze focused on her body, the barest hint of a smile evident before he shifted into his wolf form.

  Sienna shifted a second behind him, feeling flustered at having felt so self-conscious. She’d been naked around half of her pack at one time or another, and she’d taken a few horny pack members into her bed over the last few years, but Arric made her feel like a shy teenager who was horrified at the concept of having to take off her clothes in order to shift. Back then, she’d been morbidly embarrassed, but now she was more afraid of whether or not Arric had seen how her erect her nipples were around him, or whether or not he could smell the musky odor of the moistness that came with her arousal.

  Doing her best to ignore those thoughts, Sienna loped into the trees after Arric, following him to where he sniffed at the ground and showed her what a rabbit run looked like. When he’d caught a recent scent, he barked at her to take over, and she did her best to lock onto the track. It was easy at first, and she felt a swell of pride as she raced through the forest undergrowth in pursuit of the scent that would lead her to her quarry, but soon the invisible trail she followed mingled with other distracting odors, and she found herself hopelessly lost and running in large circles that kept bringing them back to the same place.

  Arric growled and jumped in front of her, setting off at a furious pace through the trees. He slowed slightly after a few hundred yards, lowered his profile, and then leapt through the air to land on a small furry creature that soon found itself with a broken neck.

  Sienna whimpered in disappointment, but Arric dropped the rabbit to the ground and allowed her to eat first. He stood and watched her as she tore into the rabbit’s and ripped bloody meat from its bones. Some part of her wolf brain knew that her human self would be repulsed by what she was doing, but her wolf self felt invigorated and alive. It had been years since she’d eaten meat fresh from a kill. Not since the few times they’d been allowed raw meat as teens learning to control their shifting ability for the first time.

  They ran back to the stream where they drank deeply and washed the blood from their fur. Once clean and satiated, they shifted back into human form and Sienna gathered up her clothes, slipping them on quickly while facing away from Arric to avoid any further awkwardness. Arric didn’t seem to care about being naked around her, but it was too unsettling for her to deal with. She needed to focus on what she was learning and how she was going to survive the coming battle instead of getting carried away with thoughts about what Arric might do to her there in the clearing.

  “I’m not very good at hunting,” she said when she was fully dressed again.

  “You were doing well until you ran over their warren,” he answered. “There were a lot of conflicting scents there, and it was difficult even for me to keep the one we were after.”

  “Still, it felt good to run and hunt. I’ve spent most of my life in the village, and I never realized that there were parts of my wolf self that I was missing out on.”

  “Every werewolf should know these things,” he said. “Your alpha should really be ensuring that you all get proper training.”

  “Yeah, my alpha and I don’t get along so well. He’s always treated me like dirt.”

  Arric looked at her as though he was about to say something but then seemed to think better of it. “Well that won’t last long with what’s about to happen.”

  “Right, the attack.”

  “Have you given any more thought to what I said? You could help some of your people survive this. It doesn’t have to be a massacre.”

  “I don’t know if I can,” she replied. “It’s complicated. I feel like so many of them could care less about me, but they’re still my pack.”

  “There’s no one you share a special bond with? No potential mates?”

  Sienna laughed at that. “No, not even
remotely. The males in my pack have no interest in me.”

  “I find that hard to believe,” said Arric.

  They stood close together and had been speaking with low voices to avoid anyone discovering them together. Sienna swallowed a lump in her throat and thought Arric might lean in to kiss her, but instead he stepped away and said that they should probably part ways before anyone noticed their absences.

  “Meet me here again tomorrow night. I want to ensure you’re as prepared as possible.”

  “I will,” she replied.

  She watched him turn and leave, admiring his big strong body as he easily jumped over the stream and ran off into the woods. Smiling to herself, Sienna turned and headed back to her own home. She had a lot to think about, not least of which was the strange white wolf who had come back into her life.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Sienna whistled a happy tune as she returned to her cabin. She’d just come from administering an herbal cure for Lashima’s young boy, and even though she’d had to endure a string of bitchy comments about her lack of a love life from the stunning blond woman with an equally stunningly acid tongue, Sienna found that she just didn’t care.

  She’d met up with Arric in secret each of the last four nights, and he’d taught her so many things about what it meant to be a wolf. Her hunting skills had vastly improved, and he’d even managed to teach her how to defend herself in the event of an attack. Sure, he’d easily taken her down and defended himself against every one of her attempts to subdue him, but she was growing stronger and more confident every day, and that was worth more than anything else that had happened to her in the last few years.

  The one black mark on her week had come when she’d taken the risk of confiding her secret to one of the only females in the pack she counted as a close friend. Esther was a cooly intelligent wolf who enjoyed a position of relative power in the pack because of her ability to manage the pack’s finances and do business with the outside world. Most of the Blackstone wolves had little desire to go into the city to buy supplies, or had any need or want for money and the sort of material goods that most humans felt were important, but Esther recognized a need for certain things, and she was the one who took care of them.

  As such, she didn’t care about the pack politics, and was relatively immune to the gossipy females that took every opportunity to sling a snide remark at Sienna. Esther had always been someone that Sienna could trust and confide in, and so she found herself whispering the secret of her late night meetings with a wolf from the other pack one night.

  “Are you insane?” Esther had asked. “If Kane finds out about this, he’ll kill you without thinking twice. What can you possibly hope to gain from this?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, maybe an ounce of happiness?” Sienna had spat back. “You know how people treat me here.”

  “I know it’s not easy for you, Sienna, but please think about the danger you’re putting yourself in.”

  “It’s worth the risk,” she’d said. “Whatever the cost, it’s worth it.”

  Esther had promised not to tell anyone, but a sour note hung over the rest of their discussion, and Sienna had left feeling like she should have just kept quiet. It was too late to change anything though, and she knew that there was nothing that could keep her from visiting Arric. She still hadn’t decided how to handle the fact that his pack was preparing to attack hers, but that didn’t stop her from feeling that she might be slowly falling in love with him.

  The forest was still and quiet when Sienna approached the clearing. Arric had told her to come as wolf, and so she’d left her clothing behind and slipped out into the forest naked before shifting and running to meet him. Now that she was in the clearing, there was no sign of him anywhere, and she circled the edge of it, wary of any sign that he might have been discovered and caught.

  Without warning, something slammed into her from the side and sent her rolling ass over end, coming to a stop with a powerful white wolf on top of her. It was Arric, but he snarled and snapped like he’d been possessed.

  Sienna used one of the tricks he’d taught her to throw him off balance and regain her feet, squaring off against him and settling into an attack stance, her muscles taut and ready to spring into action. They stood like this for a long moment before finally she saw him flex his hind leg, telegraphing his intention to leap.

  Pushing hard off her own hind legs, Sienna lunged forward and met him in the air, her slight advantage in timing giving her just enough extra momentum to send him crashing down beneath her. She bit down on the scruff of his neck, her teeth digging in hard in a way that she knew would not hurt him too badly, and she fought with every trick she knew to keep him from regaining power.

  When she had him satisfactorily pinned down, she bared her teeth and opened her jaws over his throat, snarling her intention to chomp down if he didn’t yield.

  Arric whimpered in submission and shifted into his human form below her, a wide grin plastered across his face. She shifted as well, and sat straddling his stomach, her arms holding his down.

  “What was that all about?” she asked, furious at him for taking her by surprise.

  “You didn’t think that all your fights were going to be face to face, did you? I needed to be sure that you could handle yourself if you were surprised.”

  “You’re lucky I didn’t tear your throat out,” she said.

  “I wasn’t too worried.” The grin on his face grew wider and his eyes sparkled like a mischievous child’s.

  Sienna sat upright, still on top of him but letting him regain the use of his arms. “You let me win, didn’t you?”

  Arric’s hands latched onto her waist, and he flipped her over onto her back, rolling with her until he was on top of her. Her legs were spread wide open to him, and she felt his growing manhood pressing into her belly. Rather than speak, he lowered his head and kissed her on the lips, one hand reaching up to caress her face, the other sliding along her waist and side until it moved up to cup her bare breast.

  Sienna moaned and kissed him back. Her hand slid down between them, grasping his cock and massaging him until he was rock hard beneath her fingers. His hands roamed over her body, squeezing her flesh and making her feel like he wanted to know every inch of her instead of just getting insider has quickly as he could.

  Their lips broke apart, and Arric’s mouth trailed downwards. He kissed her cheek and neck, laying a trail down towards her breasts. His tongue twirled around her already stiff nipple, and he closed his lips around it, sucking until she felt a little twinge of electricity zap through her body. When he’d finished doing the same to her other breast, he worked his way down, making periodic contact with his lips or tongue until he got to the red-tinged furry patch between her legs.

  Sienna gasped when his hot wet tongue first hit her pussy. He ran it slowly up the crack of her opening, flicking at her swelling clit before doing it all again. Sweet honey was dripping out of her in a way she’d never experienced, and she was almost embarrassed of how eagerly he lapped it up and how he licked her clit. None of the males she’d been with had taken the time to go down on her, and she felt herself quickly build to a stomach clenching orgasm.

  Winding her fingers in his hair, she cried out into the night when he doubled the speed at which he was running his tongue around her clit in quick circles. His lips closed down and he sucked hard on her, turning the orgasm into something so much more mind blowing than anything she’d ever given herself under the sheets in the dark hours of the night.

  “Wow,” she said in a breathless sigh. “That was… that was amazing.”

  “I’m glad you enjoyed it,” he said, climbing up and kissing her. She could taste her sex on his lips, and it sent a new wave of wetness dripping from her.

  “Why don’t you let me return the favor,” she said, pushing him onto his back.

  Sienna moved to kneel between his legs, and she looked down at his large thick cock pointing up towards his chest. She took it in one h
and and held it upright, her stomach a pit of nervousness as she lowered her head onto him. She’d never done this with a man either, and she worried that she wouldn’t please him as well as he’d pleased her.

  She used her tongue to lick around his shaft, moving her hand up and down while she licked at the top of his bulging head. By the way his thigh muscles were clenching, and given the tiny grunts he made, she was pretty sure that meant it felt good for him. Sienna opened her mouth and lowered her head down onto his cock, surprised at how little of it she could fit inside. Closing her lips tight around him, she allowed saliva to drip down around her lips and began moving her head up and down, allowing her fist to pump up and down on his shaft in the same rhythm.

  “Squeeze tighter,” he said in a low growl, his hand snaking up under her hair to hold the back of her head.

  He put gentle pressure on her to push her mouth down farther, and she squeezed her fist tightly around his shaft, feeling him twitch a little in response. Sienna pushed her head down as far as she could, choking a little as his cock pushed into the back of her mouth, but enjoying the sensation of having him moaning with obvious pleasure.

  Moving faster now, Sienna twisted her hand a little with each up and down movement, and she heard his grunts grow louder and come more frequently. She lost herself in the action of sucking him off, and was caught by surprise when his fingers tightened in her hair and he pulled her back quickly.

  “Not yet,” he panted. His chest heaved up and down and his eyes had a faraway look. “That was almost too close.”

  “Oh,” said Sienna, covering her mouth and giggling a little. “Sorry.”