Free Claimed by the Alpha by Saranna DeWylde Page A

The mark was something to be proud of because of what she’d survived...and she wore the mark of her mate.
    The Alpha of Alphas. The strongest of them all had chosen her.
    “Come to bed, malenkaya .”
    Come to bed? As if it were that easy. Yes, he’d chosen her. She was proud to be his mate, but that didn’t mean he was done working for it. Marijka loved the chase as much as he did.
    She strutted from the bathroom of the suite they’d rented in the Hertelendy Kastély hotel outside Budapest—a lover’s retreat before facing the world again. She’d been in a secret Aeternali hospital for two weeks as she healed and they studied the effects of her blood on the infection. The doctors wanted to keep her, study her, but Marijka refused to be caged. She’d give them all the samples they wanted, but she still had a job to do and that was at Luka’s side.
    But this, now, was just for them and the way she strutted was for him alone.
    His appreciative gaze followed her movements. She twisted this way and that, leaning over the edge of the balcony to give him a good view of her backside. The low, rumbling growl in his chest signaled she’d hit just the right note.
    “Hmm. You think you’re in charge of something here, don’t you? Telling me when it’s time for bed,” she teased.
    “I am most definitely in charge of something here, woman. And you like it.” A wolfish smile curved his mouth. He leaned forward on the bed and she knew he was about to to pounce.
    “I like it when you prove it.” She hopped up on the edge of the balcony. “Catch me if you can.” Marijka leaped into the air, her body stretched and taut as her beast emerged. When she hit the ground, she didn’t look back. She didn’t have to. Marijka knew he’d be right behind her.
    Part of the reason they’d chosen this place was the surrounding countryside. Kilometers of open space to run.
    She pushed herself just hard enough to make him exert effort to catch her.
    His long, sure strides swallowed up the ground between them until she could feel his breath on her flanks. Luka attacked, and they tumbled to a stop, both regaining their human forms.
    The earth was moist and soft under her back, the grass a cool bed. The night’s scents were a complex bouquet, but they’d tattoo this moment into her memory. She inhaled deeply, and looked up into her mate’s face.
    “Why do you like to run so much?” His hands closed gently around her wrists and he held them above her head as he nuzzled at her neck.
    “The same reason you like to chase.” She wrapped her legs around his waist and arched her back to rub herself against him.
    “It won’t be much of a victory if you keep doing that.”
    She bucked up again. “Really? Because you know I like to see what it takes to make you lose control.” Marijka scraped her nails along his back.
    “Doesn’t sound like much fun for you.” He pushed his hard length into her and gripped her hips. “I get to come and you get to watch.”
    “That sounds like fun.” She’d gotten better at using the telepathic link between them for her own nefarious ends—like sending him her fantasies. This time she pushed her memory of their encounter on the train to the forefront of his mind. How she felt while she touched herself for him—when he finally took her. What it was like wanting to break his control even as she feared it. “Turnabout is fair play, isn’t it?”
    “No one ever accused me of playing fair.” He pushed back. His memories of being inside her, what he thought of her wrapped so tight and hot around him, pulling him deeper.
    “So it’s to be dirty? I— oh! ” He sucked her nipple into his mouth, abrading the pebbled flesh gently with his teeth.
    She gave up all pretense of play and rocked against him, clutching at his shoulders to get closer. Marijka could never get close enough to him—she always wanted more sensation, more pleasure, more memories.
    Yet, in that moment, when she opened her eyes