Chapter 14
Drake Torres didn’t want any part of Roman’s plan for him to join the Alpha Mate.
Whenever Drake he felt overwhelmingly lonely—which, granted, was often—he would venture into town to mingle amongst the humans, where he would find a new willing lady to plow—then dash away from.
No strings attached meant no opportunities for either party to get hurt in any way.
Drake’s sexual encounters provided him with much-needed chances to blow off steam. Humans meant nothing to him, and he meant nothing to the female humans he picked up. And that was the way he liked it.
He didn’t need someone else’s leftovers. Even if that meant giving up a chance with Lana.
He stared at her in the meeting hall, handing out assignments to the various groups of tigers who were headed out on patrol.
As if any of those Inca fuckers are left.
“Hey, Drake,” Lana called out. “Did you hear me? Nine p.m. sharp tonight. You’re on patrol. Don’t be a second late, or I’ll have to tell Roman. I won’t give you a second chance. Comprende?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Drake obediently agreed to her terms without hesitation.
The Alpha Mate grinned at him. “I could get used to you calling me that.”
“Oh, yeah?” God, she was sexy.
And all I’d have to do to make her mine is share her with at least two other men.
Nope. Not even if those two men were his best friend and his alpha.
As if reading his mind, she shook her head and moved across the room toward another tiger-shifter.
“Aw, but I hate when you walk away,” Drake said, falling back into his usual, joking self.
“Yeah, right. You know you’ve been waiting to catch a glimpse of me from behind.” Lana laughed—something she’d been doing more and more often since she’d begun sleeping with both Roman and Jackson a few weeks ago.
What would that be like, sharing a woman?
You don’t want to know, he reminded himself.
No, the only time he was comfortable making love to a woman was when he was absolutely certain she wanted nothing more in the world than him—at least in that moment. With an Alpha Mate, he’d never know for sure.
When Roman had invited him to join in the Alpha Mate group, Drake had told him that he got everything he needed from the humans he fucked.
“What about love?” Roman had asked.
“I love every single member of my streak.”
“No, you damned fool. You know what I mean. What about loving a woman? Being loved by one? Where does that fit into your whole perception of your personal life?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t given much thought to it.” He wanted to snarl at his alpha, but knew that would be a bad idea.
Now Roman was gone, out of town for a few days, and he’d left Jackson in charge. And Jack had delegated handing out patrol assignments to Lana. Who was flirting with him. Again.
And no matter how hard he tried, Drake couldn’t help but respond to her.
“Great,” Drake muttered to no one in particular. “I’ll be in my room until my patrol.”
* * *
Three hours later, Drake stood in the hotel lobby, alone.
What the hell? Where is everyone?
His first question was answered a few seconds later when Lana made her way out of the stairwell that led down to her suite.
“Is this a setup?” he asked, and Lana laughed aloud.
“It’s Roman’s orders,” she said. “We’re supposed to spend the night together.”
“Oh, fuck that.” He spun away from her, but was back seconds later. “What will he do if we don’t follow his orders?”
She shrugged. “You’ve known him longer than I have. What do you think?”
“Shit.” Roman might not punish him, but everything in Drake’s training, in his very being, pushed him to follow his alpha’s commands.
“What are we supposed to do? I mean, other than the obvious.” He crossed his arms over his chest defensively.
“We don’t have to do anything if you don’t feel up to it, Drake. It’s okay. We can sleep all night and pretend like none of this ever happened in the morning.”
He sighed. “But we have to spend the night in the same room?”
“Those are our orders.” She led him toward the stairwell.
“I guess I can do that.” He followed her reluctantly.
Lana shook her head, but she grinned as they made their way toward her suite. “I’m starting to get the impression maybe you don’t want anything to happen.”
Drake couldn’t help but chuckle. “You think?”
“Well, since that’s the case, I can crash out on the couch in my living area while you go into the bedroom. Don’t worry. I won’t bother you.”
“Dammit, Lana. That’s not okay. You can’t sleep out here.”
“Drake, I’m so sorry. I know you don’t want this.” He could’ve drowned in the sadness in her eyes. “But Roman is convinced this will make our streak stronger, and he’s our alpha. We have to at least go through the motions.”
“How?” he asked. “How will making me part of your… harem... make our streak stronger.”
She lifted one shoulder gracefully. “Supposedly it strengthens the magic that binds a streak together.”
He sighed. It was taking everything he had to resist her—as if something about her had become more attractive, more alluring, when she became the Alpha Mate for his streak.
“I don’t know if I can take sharing you,” he whispered.
“I understand.” Her shoulders drooped, and she moved toward the bedroom alone. Her misery cried out to him.
With a curse, he moved toward her, sweeping her up in his arms and carrying her into her room.
* * *
As Drake dropped her to her feet near the doorway of her room, panic flashed through his eyes. Lana didn’t bother to try to calm him, choosing instead to pull his lips down to hers until she was kissing him, first softly, then harder. Even the taste of him seemed right, hot and slightly spicy, his tiger underscoring the taste that was uniquely Drake.
Pulling her closer to him, Drake deepened the kiss, his tongue tangling with hers in a way that was both brand new and achingly familiar, as if she had been waiting all her life for him to complete her.
The shape of his shoulders under her questing hands was uniquely Drake as well. Lana ran her fingertips down the back of his arms, tracing the sharply defined triceps and sliding her palms down to his wrists.
With a strangled noise in the back of his throat, Drake slid his own hands down her back until they cupped her ass, then pulled her up against him, the hard length of him burning through his blue jeans.
Lana wound her arms around his neck, taking a step backwards and tugging him toward the bed.
“Should we talk about this first?” Drake’s actions didn’t match his words, as his fingers worked feverishly at the buttons in her shirt.
“Absolutely not. No talking. Just keep touching me.” With a final triumphant motion, Lana shoved his own unbuttoned shirt off Drake’s shoulders, baring his broad chest and the hard planes of his stomach.
Making a strangled noise of her own, Lana moved her mouth to his chest, reaching up to flick her tongue delicately against one nipple, smiling at both the crisp feel of the hair on his chest and the way he shivered and pulled away from her. “Don’t do that,” he said, but he smiled as he said it.
“What about this?” Lana lightly nipped the other one, until Drake pulled her shirt, finally unbuttoned, off her body. Pushing her back onto the bed, he held her still with one arm as he closed his mouth over one breast, using his tongue to play with the nipple through the silky fabric of her bra.
Giving up any pretense at attempting to escape, Lana reveled in the feel of his mouth on her. As he pulled away long enough to push the fabric out of his way, cool air rushed in, stippling the skin of her breast with tiny chill bumps until he once again claimed the nipple, the flick of his tongue echoing her teasing motion earlier as he gave in to the heat between them.
Drake released her long enough to unhook her bra and toss it and the t-shirt onto the floor, then turned his attention to the other breast, kneading it lightly even as he licked and sucked at it.
By the time his mouth trailed down her stomach to the top of her pants, Lana was trembling. As he licked along the waistband, desire surged through her in a searing wave, rolling from her chest and moving down, as if it had been released directly from her heart. It settled in the deepest part of her as a hot throb of need.
With a deft motion, Drake unbuttoned her pants, sliding them off her hips and catching her silk panties with his thumbs on the way down, dropping them atop the shirt and bra.
Lana tugged ineffectually at the button on his jeans. “Take these off, too.”
One corner of his mouth crooked up. “Is that an order?”
“A request.” She matched his smile, but the expression faded at the sight of him as he stepped back and removed his pants. Her mouth dried and she met his heated gaze with one of her own.
In the shower, they lathered their hands with soap, using bathing as an excuse to rediscover one another’s bodies. Afterwards, they dried each other with towels.
Finally, unable to stand it any longer, Lana pulled atop her. He smiled against her lips and slid one knee onto the mattress between her legs. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Just making sure.” She punctuated her words with tiny kisses. “It took a lot of doing to get you here.”
Gently, he pushed her back, his palms spreading her knees apart until he could taste her. With long, sure strokes, he slicked her with his tongue until she writhed beneath him. The feel of his mouth against her left her wet and panting, aching for more. When she reached down to grab his hands, it only made her want to feel him inside her more.
“Please, Drake.” She spoke in the barest whisper.
He paused, hovering over her, holding her gaze.
“Tell me you want me for me—not just for the streak or for Roman, but for myself.” His own voice was scratchy with need. “I am not just another one of your men. Tell me you know that.”
She paused, torn between the ache at the center of her being that demanded he come into her, and her need to maintain control over the situation.
Who could he be to her, this man she was only just getting to know? This man who always treated her as if she were so precious that he couldn’t let her go once he had her. Couldn’t share her—not easily.
He treats me with love. I can do no less.
“Drake,” she breathed. “You are special to me. You’re mine. And I’m yours.”
At the final word, Drake slid into her with a groan, and she met him, pushing until he touched that innermost part of her, the part that had been aching for him for longer than she had known him.