Free Saving Serena: The Alpha Wants Curves Bk2 by Arwen Rich Page B

Heath on top, still inside me from behind. We lay gasping together, until our breaths slowed and the sweat cooled on our bodies. I floated on a river of bliss.
    “Now that's focus,” I said softly, and Heath's chest shuddered on my back as he laughed.
    “I'll teach you some more self-defense tomorrow,” he said. “You're doing well – I just have to keep my damn hands off you.” His arms snaked around my body and he clutched my breasts. “Which isn't easy.”
    He slid out of me, and we repositioned on the carpet until we both lay on our backs, with his muscular arm cushioning my head. I felt sleepy, drunk with relaxation.
    “Thanks for teaching me to defend myself,” I said softly in his ear.
    “It's been my pleasure,” Heath laughed. And then his face grew serious. “I just hope you never have to. Because that would mean that I'm dead.” He looked into my eyes, and traced a finger slowly over the naked curve of my waist.
    The way Heath touched me, the way he looked at me in that moment, made me feel beautiful and delicate. Precious.
    “I would die to protect you,” he said.
    Goosebumps raised over my entire body. I wasn't sure whether it was because of his finger trailing over my naked skin, or because of his words.
    At that moment, I felt more safe than I ever had in my life.
    Recently, I hadn't been feeling that way. That's why Heath was teaching me to defend myself – both in human and wolf form. I'd been feeling unsettled. I didn't doubt Heath's ability to protect me, but I couldn't have him watching me twenty-four hours a day – even living with him as I now was. The recent enemy I'd made was preying on my mind.
    Athena.
    It had been more than a month since the incident, but it's not easy to forget an attempt at murder.
    Athena had been vying to become Heath's mate during his recent crowning as pack Alpha, and when she realized that there was a chance he would choose me instead, she tried to kill me.
    I saw the gleam of blood-lust in her eye when she attacked me. I knew she would have murdered me, if Heath hadn't saved me. And her threat, before being exiled from the pack by Heath, echoed through my mind whenever I was alone.
    “You bitch! You'll pay!”
    On my nightly wolf-runs through the forest with Heath, I kept having the faint impression of Athena's scent, plastic and sickly-sweet, drifting secretly through the mist.
    And then there were the dreams. I took my dreams more seriously now, since being told that they reveal the future.
    Dreams of being followed. Blurry scenes of violence – a knife blade, rising and falling, and rising again. The spilling of blood. A swollen crimson moon.
    And then there was the other dream. The one I hadn't told Heath about.
    A naked man, at the foot of our bed. And Heath, nowhere to be seen. The man's intentions are unclear to me, as is his face. But my fear is crystal clear. He holds a snake in his arms.
    I didn't know how to explain that dream to Heath. I felt that he might take it the wrong way, so I kept it to myself.
    My dreams were confusing me, making me afraid of what might be coming. I needed to speak to Jala, the pack seer. She had told me of the prophetic power of my dreams, and maybe she had more answers.
    Heath jerked awake beside me, pulling me from my thoughts. He had fallen asleep, in one of his post-sex comas.
    “What's the time?” he said, yawning.
    “I'm not sure,” I said. “But it's getting dark outside.” The sun was setting, casting a crimson glow through the window.
    “We should leave soon,” Heath said. “The pack will be waiting.” He kissed me on the cheek and rose from the mat, before taking my hand and helping me to my feet. I couldn't help but admire the sexy, bulging muscles of his shoulders as he pulled me up.
    As satisfied as I was, I always wanted more of him.
    Heath and I showered, and by the time we were out, darkness had settled firmly over the sky. I always felt a sense of excitement at this time. The night was