Free Alpha Wolf: Black Mesa Wolves #2 (Werewolf Shifter Paranormal Romance) by J.K. Harper Page A

feel better about themselves. But it
hasn't helped me get more respect from the Pack.”
    Now his expression radiated incredulity.
    “Sara, of course you're respected. You help protect this
pack, and you wouldn't be able to do that if no one took you seriously.”
    “But most of them don't.” Sara's voice began rising.
“Because all I've shown is that fun side, that party girl side.”
    Rafe barked out a short laugh. “You are hardly a party girl,
Sara!” He swiped at his face with his hand as if brushing away cobwebs, then
shook his head. The sun glinted off his hair. “You can't be serious about
this.”
    “I am. I want to prove what I'm capable of, what I'm really
capable of. That's why....” She struggled for the right words in the face of
his expression that dared her to keep going with what he clearly saw as
ludicrous thinking on her part. Her voice dropped to just above a pained
whisper. “That's why I ran away the other night.”
    “Explain.” She blinked at the hard tone. It was his most
alpha-like voice, the one she'd sometimes heard him use with other wolves who
were not pulling their weight. He'd never used it with her before.
    She forced her arms back to life and reached out a tentative
hand toward him. When he didn't move, she let her fingers rest on his upper
arm, now tightly crossed over his chest. The prickling behind her lids moved
into her throat, making her words thick as they left her mouth.
    “I haven't felt that way since we were together before. When
you touched me in the hot springs, I thought I was being shot to the moon and
back.” She paused to compose herself. Her wolf bolstered her and she went on.
“That was unbelievably amazing, Rafe. It's never been like that with anyone
else. Never.” She might have imagined it, but she thought his muscles twitched
under her hand.
    “I just look at you and I'm wet,” she admitted. He inhaled
sharply at those words. She could almost hear his increased heart rate. “But
it's more than just the fact we had great sex before, and that you blew my mind
again with that orgasm the other night, and that you were more concerned about
my enjoyment than your own. And it was really, really enjoyable for me.”
    Sara stopped to clear her throat, choking back the sting of
tears. She didn't even know where they were coming from. The sound of voices
and laughter drifted over from the house. Hopefully no one was witnessing their
raw moment out here.
    “Rafe.” She let one finger press against him, then stroke
tiny circles against his hard muscle. His arousal flared again. Biting her lip,
she pulled back her hand. “You want more from me than just a fling, don't you?
More from—us.” She hadn't thought of them as an “us” before, but saying it
aloud made it simple reality. There could be an “us” with Rafe.
    Her wolf whined in eager agreement, nudging hopefully at the
corners of Sara's mind.
    Rafe took a long, measured breath in through his nose. As he
let it exhale slowly through his mouth, he also seemed to let off some of the
coiled energy still clinging to him. All other sounds faded to inconsequential
background noise as she waited for his reply.
    “I knew from the very first moment we ever kissed, Sara,” he
finally said. “Over a year ago. But you weren't ready, so I let you go.”
    His eyes, still darkened to indigo, lasered into hers and
didn't let go. The hair on the back of Sara's neck almost crackled from the
electricity bouncing between them. Rafe's eyebrows lowered and cast his face
into that possessive expression she'd seen at the hot springs. Damn her body,
it once again responded with hardening nipples, wetness pooling between her
legs, and a shortness of breath that had nothing to do with tears.
    “I'm not letting you go again, Sara. Regardless of how you
see yourself, I know who you are. You're the only woman for me.”
    He stepped forward in a graceful motion, gently caught the
back of her head with his hand, and pulled her