Free Craved by an Alpha by Felicity Heaton

his eyes on hers with each step closer he came to her, and she dropped her gaze, the colour on her cheeks darkening.
    Gods, he wanted to kiss her when she looked so shy and beautiful.
    “We should hurry if we’re going to start our ascent today.” She scurried away from him and he grunted, wanted to growl out his frustration over the way she kept escaping him, and then stalked after her, driven by a need to hunt her.
    His snow leopard form shifted restlessly beneath his skin, wanting out. He wanted to transform and obey his compelling need to walk for a while in his other form, but he couldn’t. It was safer for both of them if he remained in his human one. The big cats in the area would view him more as a threat in this form. In his other form, they might want to fight over territory with him.
    He didn’t want to fight in front of Eloise, not after her soft confession last night.
    He didn’t want her to be afraid for him again.
    She scrambled up the steepest part of the path to join the one that intersected it and led along the ridge towards the trees and the vertical wall of rock they needed to scale.
    Cavanaugh followed her, only briefly looking behind him towards the direction the call had come from, unable to deny his desire to see the snow leopard. He hadn’t seen one in years, except for himself in the mirror of the playroom. He hated seeing himself in his snow leopard form though, because it made him think of Eloise. It took him back to all the times they had trekked together and played in their cat forms, and he ended up aching with a need to see her that lasted for days.
    She stopped at the base of the wall in amidst the trees and looked up the height of it. Several hundred metres of sheer grey rock, with few handholds and only one place to rest. It was a challenge he relished. This was the point he had always looked forwards to when journeying to or from the village.
    Just the sight of it had his heart beating harder, pumping adrenaline through his veins as his body prepared for the exhilaration and strain of the ascent.
    He slipped his pack off and undid it, taking out everything that was necessary, including a smaller pack that would have to suffice from this point forwards. It was large enough to accommodate his sleeping bag, the food, the canteen, and a change of clothes. He stashed the bigger pack in a crevice where no one would find it.
    Eloise was already stripping down to her base layer of a long-sleeved thermal top. He stared at her, unabashed even when she glanced his way. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. The tight top hugged her breasts and stirred hunger within him, reawakening the fierce need to draw her into his arms and kiss her.
    Cavanaugh dragged his eyes away from her and busied himself by following her lead, removing his fleece and t-shirt, and replacing them with a similar black thermal top. It was chilly with only the thin layer, but snow leopards could cope with extreme cold, and it wouldn’t be long before the exertion of scaling the sheer rock face had him warmed up. Even in such a flimsy layer, he would end up hot and sweaty by the time they reached the small cave halfway up the several hundred metres high sheer wall.
    He stepped into his harness and made sure it was tight and secure around his hips before picking up the one for Eloise.
    She tensed as he approached her, triggering his desire to stalk her, to hunt her and make her surrender to him. He tamped down that need and swallowed hard, fighting to get his mind off what he was about to do and shut down the way his body was reacting to just the thought of it.
    It was no use.
    The moment he kneeled in front of her, his gaze level with her hips, he lost the battle against his body. All of his blood rushed south, making him instantly hard in his trousers. He drew in a deep breath and it only made things worse, filling his senses with her scent. He wet his lips and held the black harness out to her. She stepped into it, caught