Free Under the Alpha's Protection by Doris O'Connor Page A

realized what she was doing.
    "Squirt, don't. You can fight this, I know you can."
    Raoul's anguished tones shook her out of the hypnotic hold Draco had on her, and she wrapped her arms around her middle, and stopped dead.
    Draco frowned and beckoned her over, but she fought his pull with every ounce of her being.
    "Give it up, Draco. You've lost this war." Raoul's father's deep voice held a hint of wonder, but he still watched her warily, and Nikita didn't miss the way his clawed hand curled around Raoul's biceps to stop him from moving.
    "That's what you think, brother dear ," Draco snarled.
    Nikita gasped and Raoul bared his fangs and growled low in his throat.
    "Your little bitch here asked me earlier what I was to gain by this coup. Your entrance interrupted us before I could explain it to her. By the way, she tastes divine, like chocolate and strawberries, quite addictive."
    Raoul shifted in a blur of furious growling and charged, before his father could stop him. Draco moved at lightning speed , and the huge black wolf overshot his mark and skidded into the wall instead. A crack appeared, and his yelp of pain had Nikita shoot across to him in a flying leap she would never have thought herself capable of.
    Raoul recoiled from her touch, before he seemed to think better of it, and he tentatively licked her outstretched hand.
    "Ah, young love, warms the cockles of my soul, it does. Too bad the bitch is marked and you can't kill her. By my reckoning it'll be moments before the transformation is complete, and then she's all mine."
    "Not if we kill you first."
    Raoul's father's voice sounded strained, and he looked every minute of his advanced years. Raoul whined his distress, and Lupe bowed his head.
    "Your beef is with me, Draco. Why take this out on my son ?"
    "Because he is your son, the son that should have been mine. You turned Felicia away from me, with your tales of monsters. I couldn't help being bitten by a vamp , to turn into this monster, the hybrid we're told to fear from knee high. Do you think I fucking wanted this? You were my older brother, the one who should have stopped me from walking into that trap, and instead you abandoned me to that nest of vipers, and saved your own skin."
    Moisture glistened in Lupe's eyes and Nikita's eyes, too, filled with tears. Raoul's fur trembled in outrage, and she burrowed closer into his comforting warmth. She was getting so dreadfully cold her teeth were beginning to chatter. Fur changed to skin and hard muscle under her hands, and Raoul scooped her up in his arms and cradled her in his arms. Nikita closed her eyes and listened to the reassuring thu-thud, thu-thud, thu-thud of his beating heart.
    "Stay with me, baby, please. I love you. You can fight this. I know you can." Nikita latched onto that deep voice calling to her soul. He loved her. Raoul loved her , and she would die without ever having said it back to him.
    "I had no choice, Draco, you know that. I had to act in the best interest of the pack." Lupe's voice sounded from far away , and Draco's inhuman snarl in response raised the beast in her. Her canines lengthened, and Raoul's heartbeat changed from comforting to the sound of prey. She threw her head back and roared, and jumped out of Raoul's arms, claws bared.
    He took a step away from her and shook his head.
    "That's it, Princess, let it come. How fitting that her first meal should be your son, don't you think? Too bad she won't have the control to just turn him. Wouldn't that be a fitting judgment? Would you throw your son into exile as easily as you sold out your brother, I wonder. Would you rob him of his pack like you robbed mine of me and took my mate in the process?"
    "The council made the decision for me, Lupe, I didn't—"
    "Bullshit. Admit the truth on your death bed at least, brother dear."
    "No, Dad." With a growl Raoul shifted, seemingly intent on killing Draco.
    Silly little wolves. Look at them, princess. They think they're a match for us. You