Once I came to the stream I often visited, I took a long drink. Trout swam through the water, my eyes watching them as they scurried away from my hungry stare. With a quick precise movement, my jaws snapped around one. It wiggled and fought to free itself from my sharp teeth, not knowing it didn’t stand a chance. Lying down with my paws outstretched, I bit a chuck out of the fish. The breeze stirred, crickets chirped, and the sky was filled with twinkling diamonds—I loved the peacefulness of the night.

As I was about to take another bite, a jet black wolf stepped through the trees. Its eyes were the color of citrines and stood out against its ebony fur. This wolf demanded my respect and servitude, and my inner beast cowered in its presence. Forgetting about my dinner, I rolled onto my back to expose my belly and throat—the two most fragile parts on a wolf.

The black wolf sauntered over to where I lay submissive and sniffed my belly. My wolf whimpered. The black wolf moved its mouth to my throat and clasped my jugular between its teeth, but the pressure I expected didn’t come. The black wolf removed its mouth from my esophagus and licked the side of my jaw. The action caused confusion and relief in my wolf—and a bit of excitement. This was her alpha, my alpha, and he’d shown affection towards her, towards me. Adam barely spoke to me unless he was lecturing on the ways of the wolf. It was against the pack rules to wander off by myself, but I did anyway. Adam should’ve punished me, not licked me.

Rolling over, I nudged the fish with my nose, an offering to my alpha. Adam eyed the half eaten fish, turned towards the stream, and grabbed his own. We ate side by side for the next ten minutes like equals.

“Shift,” his voice penetrated my mind. It freaked me out the first time he’d spoken to me through telepathy. Only the alpha could speak to us that way though, so at least I didn’t have the entire pack inside my head.

My skin itched and the hair on my back prickled and thinned as I obeyed his order. When the sensation subsided, I lay on the dewy grass fully human again and naked. I stashed my clothes at the entrance to the tree line and hadn’t expected to change forms until I returned home.

Adam transformed as well and stood in front of me as nude as the day he was born. Nudity was another insecurity the pack didn’t share with humans. For all intents and purposes, they were animals through and through. I hadn’t been a wolf long enough for my human side to not be embarrassed about walking around in the flesh.

I stared at the ground and waited for Adam to make his move. Why in the hell was he here? I’d been sneaking out of the house and running through the forest since I built up a tolerance to the pain. My wolf yearned to feel the wind through her fur and taste the spoils of a fresh kill. Adam never once met me in the woods or even mentioned he knew I did it.

“Stand,” Adam said. He wasn’t much of a talker, at least not to me. Our conversations usually consisted of him giving me one word commands.

Trying to cover all of my bare bits with my arms and hands, I stood awkwardly. I wrapped one arm around my breast and placed my other hand in front of my dark curls. It did little to hide my body, but it was enough I didn’t feel completely exposed.

Adam walked closer and my wolf panted in excitement. She wanted her alpha to take her right then and there. I, on the other hand, did not. I would not become a mistress for anyone, not even the alpha of the Everwood pack.

“Look at me,” Adam said softly.

I dragged my eyes from the ground up to his. My chest rose and fell as my breaths became labored and nervous.

“Stand with your arms at your sides, Anna.” When I hesitated he said, “Please.”

There was something intertwined within me that couldn’t defy his orders. While I hesitated, I couldn’t refuse. My arms fell to my sides while we stared at each other. His eyes broke contact with mine as he trailed them down the length of me, drinking in my body. My wolf scratched and moaned for his attention, absorbed his presence and begged for his touch. I shuddered against the feel of my inner beast’s anticipation. There was no clear way to describe what it was like to have an animal lying in the wait just under your skin. It was like being possessed. Like two souls were occupying the same body—my body. She had separate thoughts than I did, and they came through strong. I figured out how to please her when she became aroused, but I didn’t think starting a fight with the alpha would be smart.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me, Anna,” Adam spoke gently as he closed the space between us with a single step.

“I’m not,” I lied. It was as obvious as the moon in the sky I was absolutely terrified. My voice shook as well as my body. My heart jack hammered in my chest, and if I could see my face, I’d say it looked just as frightened.

“What did you think of Sawyer? Will he become your mate?

He wanted to talk about Sawyer? “I don’t need a mate,” I told him.

With one finger, he started at my collarbone and trailed it downward between my breasts. I could feel his excitement press against my leg, and it made me want to turn and run as far away from him as possible. If he forced me to have sex with him, I’d be gone before the sun rose. My wolf may be anxious to feel him inside her, but I wasn’t. I didn’t want to be labeled as the alpha’s mistress—I was better than that.

“Don’t you crave a man, Anna? You’ve been here three months and haven’t let one male experience your body,” he paused. “Or do you prefer women?”

“No.”

“No you don’t crave a man or no you don’t love the ladies?” He laughed and my wolf whimpered.

“No to both.”

“What about me, Anna? If I was to offer myself to you, would you accept it willingly? Do you crave me?”

My wolf screamed yes! I found him attractive and not just because he was my alpha. He had the looks and body of a God many women would love to worship. I wasn’t blind and I wasn’t gay. I could appreciate how beautiful he was. But that was all ruined by his way of thinking—primitive.

“You’re very good looking and many women here would eagerly be your mistress, but that’s not the type of woman I am. I’m sorry,” I said with as much confidence as I could muster.

“I admire that about you, and I will not force you to do anything you do not want to, at least in this manner,” he laughed. “You’re still expected to do your chores.”

A smile broke against my lips as some of my muscles relaxed. I hadn’t expected him to not force himself on me, most alphas would have from the stories I’d heard.

“I know you don’t want a mate, but that won’t always be the case. One day your wolf will want a companion, Anna. When that time comes, come to me. Let me be the first to taste you, to fill you, to please you.”

“Why? Because you get first dibs on all of the women here? Eve is such a lucky girl,” I muttered.

Adam growled, and I immediately cowered. Maybe I misread the situation, and we weren’t having an open discussion.

“I’m the alpha. I don’t waste my time with simple women even if they’re willing to spread their legs. What I offered you is more than I’ve offered any other. It’s a compliment. Don’t turn it into something foul and meaningless.”

Staring at the ground again I said, “Sorry.”

“You’re strong and not just physically, but mentally. You don’t show cowardice toward the men, even me. You’re only three months old, and you’ve already got the personality of a leader, an alpha. How many women have you seen look me in the eyes?”

“None,” I whispered.

“Except you. You don’t fold under my stare, and I suspect the only reason you advert your gaze is because you’ve been taught to. But the ones teaching you are followers, and you, Anna, are not. I offer myself to you as a man, an equal, not as your alpha or superior.”

Fire burned behind his sapphire eyes as he waited for my response. He laid out a good speech, but that didn’t change my mind. When I was with a man, I didn’t share, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to share Adam with Eve.

“Thank you for thinking so highly of me,” I started. “But I still cannot be your mistress. If I should want a mate, that man will be mine completely, and I’ll be his. I know you guys have a different way of thinking, but I still hang onto the ways of my human world. I have no plans to share my mate or jump from one bed to another simply because my wolf is a horny bitch—”

My words were cut off when Adam burst out laughing. Maybe I held the tiniest bit of resentment towards my inner beast. She didn’t make refusing a man easy.

“I’m offering right here and now to satisfy her,” Adam stated. Wrapping an arm around my waist, he pulled me against the plains of his hard body. My breasts smashed against his chest and his dick teased in between my legs—rock hard and ready to drive into me. I could practically feel my wolf drooling. “I’ve fantasized about having your body wiggling and moaning underneath me. How you’d taste and the look of desire in your brown eyes. Put me out of my misery and give into me, Anna.”

I didn’t get a chance to respond, his mouth found mine and cut off my protests. Anger radiated through every last one of my veins. Hadn’t I just got done telling him no?

Pushing against him, I broke free of his embrace, changed into my wolf and ran like hell back to the house.

Chapter Three

It’d been two days since the night Adam offered himself to me. Every night I snuck out, changed, and ran to the stream. It was a ritual I’d adopted for escapism, but now the place felt different. My wolf expected Adam to pop through the woods and offer her company while she devoured whatever fresh kill she made. Needless to say, I wasn’t as upset about Adam keeping his distance.

Sawyer and I hunted together last night, a wolf’s way of taking a girl out to dinner. Was it too much to ask for an actual restaurant, instead of ripping into the flesh of a deer we took down together? I learned that romance was nonexistent in the pack. A part of me wondered if I’d be like the rest of them someday. Granted I wasn’t a mushy type girl, but I did believe in the basic type dates.