Mated To The Wrong Alpha
Chapter 43

Ava stormed up the stairs towards the bedroom. The front door slammed behind her as Arthur entered, but she didn’t look back. Her emotions were vacillating rapidly; at the moment anger was foremost. How dare Arthur accuse her of infidelity?

Once in their room, she headed for the bathroom, locking the door behind her. Running cold water, she splashed some on her face, trying desperately to cool down. She was so hot, her nerves were on edge, her skin was crawling… Leaning against the vanity, she looked into the mirror. Oh great! It was last night all over again: eyes dilated, cheeks flushed, rapid breathing. At least this time Arthur was here, but jumping into bed with her probably wasn’t his main priority right now, and quite frankly, she was too upset with him to find the idea very appealing either.

The door handle rattled. “Ava, come out of there this instant!”

“Keep your shirt on!” She shouted back. The sound of Arthur huffing and stomping away followed her comment.

She considered staying in the bathroom but hiding wouldn’t prove anything. As she hesitated, the intoxicating male scent of him drifted under the door and into the small room, teasing her nostrils and elevating her hormones. Against her will, her hand reached for the handle and turned the knob.

As the door swung open, she saw Arthur standing by the dresser, a book clutched in his hand.

It looked like her missing diary. Temporarily distracted, she stepped forward. “Is that mine?” “Well, it certainly isn’t mine.” Sarcasm dripped from his voice.

“That’s personal! You shouldn’t be reading it!” She stalked towards him, intent on retrieving her book.

“Then don’t leave it open on the dresser, especially not to the parts where you’re swooning over that pup.” Arthur fairly snarled at her, throwing the book down in obvious disgust.

“Don’t call Seth a pup! And I’m not swooning over him!”

“Oh no?” Arthur snatched up the diary from the floor and read it in a mocking tone. “Seth’s so good-looking. I love watching him move and seeing his muscles ripple. When he touches me, I can hardly think straight, and his k****s drive me insane.”

Her mouth dropped open. “I never wrote that!”

“Are you saying this isn’t your writing?” Arthur shoved the book at her and she took it, studying the entry. It looked like her handwriting, but she never would have written that. Flipping back a few pages, she discovered that someone had forged several entries after the last one in which she’d said she was meeting Seth. Dismayed, she looked up at Arthur, shaking her head in denial.

“Arthur, I swear I didn’t write that. I don’t know who…” Her voice trailed off as she recalled the day that she’d found Marla leaving their room, claiming to have been looking for a book to read. Well, she obviously found something to read and it was her diary! “Arthur, I’m sure Marla wrote that. My diary went missing the same day I found her in our room.”

“Oh come on, Ava. Quit blaming Marla for your own mistakes. You got careless and left this out.”

“No, it’s true! She’s jealous and wants to break us up.”

“Then why has she been encouraging us to spend time together? Explain that.”

“Well…I don’t know why.” She dug her nails into the book’s cover, unsure of Marla’s motives.

“Because there is no reason. Face it, Ava. I caught you red-handed. The messages, the diary, I even saw you with him.”

“But none of this is what it seems! Before today, we met once to talk, and it was only because he happened to be in town.”

“Right, and I’m supposed to believe that?” His mouth twisted in a sneer.

“It’s the truth.” Her frustration had her raising her voice.

“Then why are there at least three messages from him on the answering machine?”

“We were out for a run. He must have called a few times in one night.” The facts suddenly fell into place. “That’s it! That’s the night Marla told us to go out. She’d heard me on the phone talking to Sarah and knew that Seth would call to confirm a time. Then she made sure we were out and let the machine pick up his calls so there’d be a record of it. Marla was planning to use the tape all along!”

“That’s just wild supposition.” Arthur turned away and stalked across the room, breathing heavily. He ran his hands through his hair, before turning to face her again. “You know what I can’t figure out, why didn’t I smell him on you?”

“Because of Marla and her stupid perfume.” She answered bitterly. “That’s what caused this mess to begin with. If I hadn’t let her—”

“How the hell does Marla’s perfume work into this?”

“When I met Seth for the first time—for a platonic meeting, I might add—Marla scented him on me and said you’d be angry, just like you are right now. She put some perfume on me that masks scents.”

“Oh, so now it’s all Marla’s fault that you decided to hide something from me?”

“I never intended not to tell you. Things kept getting in the way. But I planned on telling you. Really, I did! That’s why I left you that note…” She gestured towards the mirror and then blinked in surprise. The note was gone! Rushing over, she checked the surface of the dresser and even peered onto the floor, but nothing was there.

“Well? Where’s this supposed note?”

“It’s gone. Marla probably took it when she left the diary here.” Arthur rolled his eyes.

Her temper began to override her sense of guilt. “Arthur, be reasonable.”

“Reasonable? I think I’m being damned reasonable. After discovering those messages, I came into town to find you, but you weren’t even at work. You were across the street fawning over Seth. It was amazingly reasonable of me not to go after him and rip him to shreds today, especially after Edward explained to me how he’d overheard you making the arrangements to meet.”

“Edward?”

“My friend, Edward Mancini. Your boss.”

“Mr. Mancini is your friend?”

“Of course!” Arthur snorted. “How do you think you got the job? You had no qualifications. I pulled a few strings to get you hired so you’d be happy.”

She gasped, her pride hurt. “How dare you interfere with me getting a job? I wanted to do that on my own!”

“Well it doesn’t matter now anyway because you’re done working. You are not leaving this property unsupervised again.”

“You can’t do that. It’s not the Dark Ages anymore!”

“I can do anything I damn well please. I’m the Alpha and you’ll do as you’re told.”

“Well screw you, because I’m not listening.” She couldn’t believe the rage boiling inside of her. She wasn’t acting like herself but couldn’t seem to stop the words spilling from her mouth. For some reason, she felt compelled to test Arthur to see what he would do. Twirling around, she made for the door.

“Don’t you dare walk away from me!” Arthur grabbed her arm, yanking her back before she could even touch the handle. He crushed her to him, the look he gave her was hard and she could feel the coiled tension in his body. She’d challenged the Alpha wolf and he was in no mood to be lenient. As his mouth swooped down on hers in a punishing k**s, she knew she’d made a fatal tactical error.

Arthur’s tongue plunged into her mouth, invading every corner while his free hand swept possessively over her body. When he finally lifted his mouth, she was shaking with both anger and desire.

Picking her up, he tossed her onto the bed. Her back came into contact with a brightly coloured box that was lying on the mattress, and she grunted as the sharp corner dug into her shoulder. Arthur grabbed it and threw the package on the floor before crouching over her, his hot gaze pinning her in place.

“I am your Alpha, Ava, and your mate. Don’t ever forget that.”

Despite the fact that her body was screaming with need, her contrary emotions had her shaking her head. “Oh, I wish I could!”

Arthur laughed. “No, you don’t. You want me. Deny it if you want, but we both know the truth.”

He was right, damn him. Pressing her lips together, she tried not to respond when he buried his face in her neck. His warm, calloused hand skimmed up and down her side, stimulating her already heightened nerve endings. While he nibbled and licked the juncture of her neck and shoulder, shivers of delight ran through her as his teeth lightly grazed her skin.

She fought to suppress it, to hang on to her anger but logic was slipping away. Without even realizing it, she was drawing him close, needing what only he could give.

A deep rumble sounded in Arthur’s chest as he stared down at her, his expression almost feral. His rage, just like hers, had been replaced by a hot, hard wildness that demanded he claim her.

And, when he did, she did nothing to stop him, encouraging him with soft whimpers and gasps, caressing his strong body, breathless yet urging him to ease the ache that clawed at her.

She pulled him closer, demanding more, needing more, begging him not to stop. The tension was unbearable. She was on the brink, ready to go over the edge, when the fringes of her mind sensed a change.

Through passion hazed eyes, she saw Arthur looming over her. His lips were pulled back, his canines were extending. A frisson of fear shot through her and she tried to focus, tried to make sense of what was happening except an all too familiar tingle was overtaking her. Her body was responding to his change, her own canines growing. She was shifting too, but for once she seemed to have no control over it and panic filled her. What was going on? She couldn’t do this, not now! Yet, no sooner had the thought formed, when the whole process stopped, leaving her suspended in a mixed state.

Shifting had always provided her with a split second of ecstasy—some likened it to the feelings associated with a sneeze—but now…now she was caught mid-change. Her body quivered in anticipation of a transformation that never came. It was frightening yet exhilarating; her senses heightened to her wolf level, her hearing preternaturally sharp. She could make out her own heartbeat as well as Arthur’s, the sound of laboured breathing, and above it all, her attention was caught by the thrum of b***d rushing through veins.

She stared at the juncture of Arthur’s neck and shoulder. A vein throbbed there, its movement holding her fascinated. From somewhere deep inside a voice arose.

Bite him, it commanded. Taste his b***d. Mark him as yours. Your provider, your protector, your mate, no one else’s.

She raised her head and licked his skin, inhaling deeply.

Yes! The smell, the taste; he is the right one to choose.

She needed to do this, to bind him to her so he would never stray and only be hers. Vaguely, she was aware of Arthur mimicking her movements, but she was too intent on her own mission. Opening wide, she bit into Arthur’s flesh giving a jolt of surprise as she felt Arthur’s teeth puncturing hers as well.

The momentary pain quickly became pleasure and somewhere in the recesses of her mind, something niggled, an awareness that she was not alone. Arthur’s mind was touching hers, she was sensing what he was sensing: tension, excitement, passion, need. It blended with her own, growing stronger every second, taking her to unimaginable heights until she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.

She clutched at him, needing to be closer, needing more and yet unsure she could bear it. Their feelings had melded together into a massive ball of anticipation. His thoughts were her thoughts, his pleasure became hers, multiplying exponentially as they soared ever higher.

Her heart was pounding, her mind exploding with images and feelings, with pleasure too great even to comprehend until…until… her entire being shattered into a million shards and then everything went black.