LOGINAt 6 AM the next morning, Alek lifted me out of the bed, cradling me against his chest as he walked out of the room, while I grumbled under my breath as I snuggled into his neck.“Why did we have to fly out so early?” I whined. “We could have taken my private plane and left whenever we wanted to.”“You’ll see why in a little bit. Now, go back to sleep. I’ll wake you when we get there.”“Okay.”I closed my eyes to sleep, but it never came. Instead, I spent the ride to the airport on his lap with his arms around me, breathing in his scent. I knew he knew I was awake based on the way his hand massaged my thigh. Not that I was going to complain. After only making love to him once when we got home, I was starving for his touch. When the car was put into park, Landon sighed heavily.“Boss, I know you’re awake,” he said.I groaned as I lifted my head to narrow my eyes at him. “You couldn’t just let me enjoy being with my mate?”“I just wanted to apologize to you for mine and Preston’s behavi
As we were eating, Galen stood up, moving to the center of the room, clutching his drink in his hand, where ChyAnn handed him a microphone. He brought it to his mouth, clearing his throat to get everyone’s attention.“Hello, everyone. As you all know, my name is Galen, and I’m the groom’s brother and the beautiful bride’s new brother-in-law.” He turned his head to grin at Alek, who was growling lightly with his teeth bared. “And when I say beautiful, I don’t mean her appearance. I mean her heart, but we’ll get to that in a moment.” He turned to look at his brother, his love for Alek clear on his face. “Growing up, all we had was each other. When our pack was destroyed, we lost our parents and were left to be raised to be perfect little soldiers by the very person who led the attack on our people. This man raised us to believe that we would never find or have the other halves to our souls, even though both of us still thought about what it would be like.” He paused as he turned his att
I swallowed hard as the emotions that were already coursing through my body doubled in intensity, threatening to choke me. I gave Alek a soft, watery smile as I tried to push my emotions down enough to be able to speak well enough that he would be able to understand me.“Before I met you, I hated myself. I thought that I didn’t deserve love.” I paused before shaking my head. “I didn’t think that I would ever find love. And then you came into my life, not caring about that at all.” My lips curled up as I thought about the morning after our first night. “Men didn’t survive being involved with me. I didn’t let them. I had just given Storm the orders to hunt you down when you walked into the room with your eyes promising me all sorts of things. At first, I just wanted to be physical. And for a while, the first few hours, actually, all of my thoughts became focused on you. All I wanted to do was be around you, even when I wanted to kill you, but I didn’t even want to admit that to myself.”
When we got down to the waiting area to wait for the ceremony to begin, I leaned toward the curtain that separated the bridal party from the rest of the ceremony area. Landon’s eyes were glued to the curtain, while Preston and Galen were speaking quietly to Alek, who had his back toward the curtain. When Landon took a helpless step toward the curtain, Preston growled loudly at him. I understood why, but it still made my hackles rise. Alek, who kept our link slightly open to know how I was feeling, grabbed Preston by the lapel of his tux, forcing his attention back to the conversation. I snuck into my link with Alek, and instantly relaxed when I heard what he was saying to Preston.“Watch it, Preston! If you ruin this for Tawnie, you won’t have to look over your shoulder for her. I will be the one coming for you. You can handle your issues with Landon later. After the reception. And Landon, you will obey my order to behave, or I will come for you as well. Am I understood?”“Yes, Alpha,
Two Weeks LaterI took a deep breath as I looked around the large room I was in. Jill, Charlene, Storm, and Alex were all dressed in their dresses, watching as ChyAnn put the finishing touches on my makeup. Landon, as per Preston’s instructions, was getting ready with the other men. The last two weeks had been one hell of a time. During Jill’s fitting, Preston had stood guard outside the boutique doors, while Charlene and I had accompanied her to the alteration department. Not that he had any reason to be worried. Landon hadn’t even asked to attend. Nor had he left the casino. With all things considered, I was actually really proud of Landon and how he was handling things.He didn’t seem to be bothered by the fact that his mate was just out of reach. Preston, on the other hand, was taking his fatherly duties very seriously. Anytime he saw Landon, he bared his teeth and threatened to eat him. Landon just smiled, shrugged, and wandered off to do whatever it was that I had asked him to d
Thirty minutes after the end of our appointment, I found myself once again in Alek’s arms as we headed to the clinic for my ultrasound. About halfway there, Landon silently fell into step beside us. I glanced at him as Alek opened our link.‘Why is he looking at you like that?’ he asked jealously, making me grin at him as I ran my fingers through his hair.‘He’s waiting to hear an update about Jill, but he won’t ask for it. I let him choose the dress for her,’ I replied.‘Ah. Yeah, I’d be looking at you like that, too, if you were holding secrets of my mate just out of my grasp,’ he chuckled.“So, Tawnie, my gorgeous woman, how was the fitting?” he inquired out loud, making my lips twitch with the desire to curl up.“It was great! They had to take three of our dresses out,” I laughed as I waved at my stomach. “Storm and I are huge, you know? But not only that, but Charlene requested her dress to be taken out a little so it wouldn’t be too tight on her. She’s worried she’s going to squ
Five days later, after we escorted the girls to ChyAnn’s house on the outskirts of the city, I headed to my office, while Storm went off to do her own thing. I didn’t ask. I didn’t have to. I knew that whatever she was going to do was exactly what I would be doing. It didn’t matter that she was onl
7 hours later, I pulled into a McDonald’s parking lot, groaning as I rolled my shoulders back. It wasn’t that I was sore. None of those motherfuckers had been skilled enough to sense me coming, let alone land a blow on me. After putting the van in park, I got up to check on the still terrified girl
TawnieAlek got settled on the couch next to his brother, who looked eerily similar to him. The similarities made me wonder if they were twins or not. Maybe if they were, that meant that my identity, along with my involvement with Alek, would be kept under wraps. I didn’t even want to think about w
I paced back and forth in my living room in front of my open door while I waited to see what Tawnie's decision would be. It was too late in the night for me to go to her. Even in Talon’s body, it would take me a little over an hour and a half to get to her. That plus the run back would have only gi







