Alphas Prefer Curves Read online

  Now, as she sat on the roof of the building that housed the offices of Ulmer Environmental Services, all of that seemed very far away. All bets were off. The structure that had confined Vanessa in her very small life—one the impetuous curvy girl had always been too big for, in so many ways—had shattered utterly. There were no rules now, or expectations, or even guidelines on how to navigate this strange new life of being a prized latent, a werecat in a world of hidden shifters.

  “I’d lay odds Pietr’s men won’t look for us up here,” Eric told her idly where he sat next to her on a blanket he’d brought up from the office. “Too obvious. Keep in mind that cats are too clever to ever consider the obvious, and you’ll be able to slip away from Pietr and his minions whenever you need to.”

  Vanessa folded her arms and regarded Salo with a nonplussed expression—until she realized how feline that must have looked. “Too clever to consider the obvious? And what is it I’ve missed that’s so obvious, Eric Salo?”

  The blond shifter stared steadily at Vanessa for a long moment, so long that she had flushed and was finding it hard to breathe under the smoldering weight of his attention by the time he finally spoke. “I was born Alexander Eric Salo, but I’ve used about every combination and bastardized version of the name to keep the police from connecting my illustrious chain of arrests across more states than I can reliably recall. Fighting, racing, petty theft, vandalism, public indecency—.”

  “Public indecency?”

  “We’ll get to that shortly, little one,” he promised her with an unexpected gleam in his eye. “I don’t know who my father was, and I was too much for my mother to handle along with my three sisters. Half-sisters, not shifters. I suspect I come by my wolf’s blood by way of my father, a drifter, and I doubt my mom knew or understood why the strange instincts inside me made me so angry, confused, sometimes even frightened. Ron is our pack alpha, and he knew. Once we’ve shifted, we can smell wolfkin who haven’t. I’m his second in command, intended to be Ron’s successor when the time comes—when he dies or when the wilding takes him. I’ve never mated with anyone, although I’ve fucked my share of females, obviously, so don’t give me that sly little look, kittycat. I hate sushi, wine gives me a hangover, and I’m compulsive about bathing before I get into bed at night. And I never ever pursued you with the thought that you’d somehow save me from the wilding. That werelion is full of shit.”

  Sitting shoulder to shoulder with the massive shifter, Vanessa leaned back to look him in the face—that broad, handsome face. “Sushi? Wine? What are you trying to….?”

  “I don’t know if a werewolf and a werecat can ever mate,” Salo blurted.

  “You’ve said that before, Eric.”

  “Think about what that means. If you get involved with me, and the mating doesn’t take, you could have to watch when… when the wilding….”

  “Or you could die in battle,” Vanessa added softly. “Or the Agency could find us both. Or the world could end for no reason any of us would ever know. You’re going to have to explain why you’re telling me all this, because I’m not seeing the obvious.”

  “I want you to know me.” It was a simple, stunning pronouncement. Then Eric sighed and added, “And what you’re getting into, and that we might not—.”

  “Be able to mate,” Vanessa finished in a rush. “Yeah, I get that.” Then she was on the wolf shifter’s lap, straddling his hips again the way she had earlier on the couch. And he was, instantly, hard and ready for her. “Does it really matter if your wolf and my lion won’t play nice together? Do you only want to be with me if we can mate?”

  “No,” Salo groaned and closed his eyes as Vanessa slid her hands up to his cheeks and traced her lips along his brow and the bridge of his nose. How could a man be so fucking gorgeous, taste so good, feel this firm and strong and solid? “I just don’t want….”

  “What? Say it.”

  “I don’t want some little werecat breaking my heart so bad I’ll never heal. If we’re mated, there’s a bond between us that will never break, and—.”

  “And you think you need some primal shifter bond to keep me with you?” Vanessa asked, looking Eric hard in the eye. A human wouldn’t have been able to see the intense green of his irises in the combination of dim lamplight and bright starlight, but the lioness could.

  “It wouldn’t hurt,” Salo admitted sheepishly, shifting uncomfortably under her as his erection and his need grew.

  “You don’t need it.”

  Vanessa surged forward then against Salo, her mouth on his, her hips grinding insistent circles against the ridge of his cock jutting against his jeans. She didn’t know how much patience she had left for coaxing her wolf shifter to take her again, to tie up with her, to open her deep for the length of his swelling dick.

  Eric didn’t need her teasing and coaxing this time, though. In an instant, he had flipped himself and the lioness over and pushed her into her hands and knees and somehow gotten her own jeans and panties down even as the two weres writhed and bucked against one another. They were like animals, with her demanding wolf lover mounting her from behind in one fierce drive of his cock root deep into the accommodating body of his lioness. She had no chubby girl self-consciousness about her body, no good girl reluctance to give herself over to the pleasure of their wild mating. Vanessa was all lioness, full in her sensual glory, as she leaned down onto her elbows to open herself to Eric and his thrusts. As the burning ache between her legs flared and grew, part need for release, part pain from taking Salo’s full length and girth, Vanessa’s sense of anything beyond their coupled bodied blurred and faded out of importance, out of existence. She was only vaguely aware of Eric’s shirt dropping discarded on the rough roof pavement, and then her own, and her bra, wrestled cleanly and swiftly over her head by her insistent lover.

  Pulling Vanessa back and up to her knees, Salo bound her tight to his chest, arms wrapped around her, hands gripping and kneading her heavy breasts. “Breathe with me, little one,” he rasped low against her ear, breath swirling hot against her neck and cheek. “Move with me. Feel with me.”

  He didn’t have to explain what that meant. Vanessa had felt it once already. When Eric laved her neck with wild, ravenous kisses, she felt not only tingling delight from the scratch of the five o’clock shadow roughening his face but the satisfaction he found in the taste of her skin. She felt his wolf’s urge to sink its fangs into her skin and hold her still the way it would immobilize small, tender prey. When he twisted and plucked at her pebble-hard nipples, she squirmed not only at the aching bliss but at his barely restrained need to suckle and bite at the rosy nibs. And when the pounding rhythm of his cock in and out of her sex became a primal drive beyond thought or control, she felt the deep need to mate, to breed, to reach a joined climax that would leave their bodies exhausted and their beasts sated. She felt the need in both of them.

  And when it came, when Vanessa came, her orgasm shivering outward from her throbbing clitoris, there was no pause for question, permission, hesitation, doubt. Eric’s beast rose in a growl that welled up from bottom of his belly, through his chest, through Vanessa. Fangs extended, the wolf shifter pierced the skin of the lioness’s plump, soft shoulder.

  Vanessa threw her head back and keened through the pleasure-pain. A wave of vertigo made the stars above her spin. She was only bound to the world, safe from flying off into oblivion, because her body was tied up with Eric’s. And then he was coming, too, emptying all his frustration and need into the deepest space inside his lioness. Every inch of her was bristling, every point throbbing and twitching. Every muscle in his massive body tensed against her. And then he shook. Her huge werewolf Adonis was trembling as he held her so tight her shoulders hurt, as he let himself go completely, teeth still embedded shallowly in her flesh.

  Should she have asked? Vanessa wondered as she lay stretched out naked in the dark, under the open sky and atop Eric Salo’s powerful body. And she wasn’t a bit concerned if she was too heavy
for him. No chance, not in any sense.

  But did it take? Were they mated? Was that the reason she felt his contentment and physical relief as much as her own? Hadn’t she felt that already, their first time, before he had tasted her blood while taking her body? Fuck, did it even really matter? Before she knew it, she was sleeping on the gently rising and falling chest of the wolf shifter.

  “You ever going to wake up?”

  “M-hm,” she moaned, not bothering to open her eyes or ask where she was. Cool air blew along her skin, raising goose bumps that felt heavenly in contrast to the warmth of the man beneath her.

  “You know you’re naked right?” Eric asked in a low, lulling grumble that passed for his whisper. “And it’s morning, and we’re still on the roof.”

  “Are we?” Still unconcerned.

  “Know what else?”

  “Hm?”

  “You didn’t sleepwalk.”

  THE END

  Erika Masten is a lifelong writer and award-winning author with a wicked streak (and an addiction to sexy high heels). She loves writing erotic love stories with literary flare and a dirty mouth.

  Bear Biker Love

  By Harper Ashe

  About Bear Biker Love: A BBW Shifter Romance

  An Alpha Bear Who Must Find His Mate…

  When his small clan of bear shifters is murdered, Alex Andreas embarks on a quest to find more of his kind. But before the lone Alpha can begin his search by heading to the Colorado Rockies, he must lose the band of Hunters that are pursuing him and find his mate: a curvy, brunette beauty who isn’t even aware that a touch of bear blood runs through her veins.

  A BBW Who Takes a Chance on Fate…

  Nina Parks is having a lousy night. First, her ex-boyfriend’s new fiancé ruins Friday night happy hour. Then she finds a crashed motorcycle in her driveway. Not only that: the hunky, leather-wearing rider is injured and refuses to go to the hospital. Nina agrees to help the sexy biker, only to find that his injuries aren’t from his crash and now they’re both in danger!

  Will They Take a Ride with Destiny?

  Pulled into Alex’s world, where nothing is quite what it seems and she isn’t sure who to trust, Nina finds herself torn between the man of her dreams and the life he wants her to leave behind. When the truth is finally revealed, will she follow her heart and join Alex on a romantic ride with destiny? A Taste of the Romance Inside

  ~~~

  Prologue

  The young Guardian stood before the Council of Paranormal Creatures, nervously awaiting her first assignment. A Page handed her a scroll titled “Bear Biker Love”. When she finished reading it, he took it back from her and retreated.

  “Do you understand what we need you to do?” the head Councilman asked, speaking for the collective.

  “Yes, your honor,” the Guardian replied. The instructions on the scroll were very clear. “I must retrieve and deliver the scarf to the Elder, and make sure the Alpha uses it to find and claim his mate.”

  “Your assignment will not be complete until the Alpha and his mate have consummated their love.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I get it.”

  “We would caution that, while this mission may seem easy, there are many variables at play here, including humans with free will.” The Councilman’s disdain for mortal men was apparent.

  “I understand, your honor. Remember, I was mortal not that long ago. And I used free will to really screw things up.”

  “Yes, of course. Your human misdeeds are why you are here, working as a Guardian for the Council of Paranormal Creatures.”

  The Guardian stopped herself from disrespectfully rolling her eyes. Her ‘misdeeds’ weren’t that awful, especially when compared to the other Guardians. She may have been a wild child, but it’s not like she robbed a bank or killed someone. “I’m sure everything will be fine. But just in case, what happens if something does go wrong?”

  “We will be watching over you, just as you will be watching over your charges. The locket you were given at graduation is a messaging device. We will send alerts as needed.”

  The Guardian’s hand automatically went to the heart-shaped pendant that was suspended on a long chain around her neck.

  “Do we need to remind you of what’s at stake here?” the Councilman asked.

  “No, your honor.” She had already heard the speech a dozen times. If she failed her assignment, survival of the planet’s paranormal creatures would be in jeopardy. Yada, yada, yada. She didn’t need to be told again, even though she didn’t fully understand how a silly scarf and a single were-bear mating could be so important to the fabric of paranormal society.

  What the Guardian did understand was this: if she wanted a chance to be reincarnated as a human again, she needed to redeem herself by successfully completing a series of assignments for the Council. That was the bargain she had struck.

  The head Councilman stood, which was her cue to get going. “We wish you well, Guardian.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Chapter 1

  Alex knew something was wrong. Despite the early spring freeze, he didn’t spot smoke rising from the treetops. The villagers had to be up and about by now. Why weren’t their cottage chimneys showing signs of that?

  After waking up well before dawn, Alex had gone for a ride and ended up being gone for several hours. He had needed time to think, and riding his motorcycle fast and free was the best way to clear his head so he could contemplate his new role as clan Alpha.

  In grand clan tradition, the ceremony had taken place three days earlier on his 30th birthday. It was then that Anthony had stepped down as Alpha and Alex, his first-born son, had taken his rightful place within the small clan of half-breed were-bears.

  From an early age, Alex knew what his role would be in the bear shifter clan. It was his birthright. His fate. But even at 30, he didn’t yet feel like the leader he was born to be. And he wasn’t sure if he was ready to seek out his mate and start a family to ensure that his lineage continued. But ready or not, his destiny beckoned, which was why he needed to clear his head with a long, lone ride.

  Pulling back on the throttle, Alex slowed his bike to crawl as a sense of foreboding settled deep in his chest. His inner animal rumbled in response, but he managed to keep it in check.

  The village was in sight now and not only were there no fires burning, no lights were on, and not a single clan member was out and about. His heart raced and his entire body tingled as his innate transformation from man to bear began. Swift, automatic shifting was a sure sign that danger was near, but he needed his human body.

  Alex cut the engine to his bike. After taking a few deep breaths to clear his head and get his bear under control, he stripped off his leathers and hid his bike in the trees at the edge of the clearing. Making his way into the village on foot would give him stealth and agility, two things he might need under the eerie circumstances.

  As he entered the clearing, he crouched down low and used his heightened senses to assess the situation. Using his acute shifter sight, he scanned the area before him, detecting no movement. After listening intently, he realized an eerie silence permeated the village; the only sounds he could hear were his labored, adrenalin-infused breathing and the beating of his own heart. The absence of movement and sound told him that the pungent scent of blood that hung in the chill air did not belong to the enemy.

  By the time he reached the first cottage, Alex knew what he would find inside. One by one, he searched the small, sturdy houses, looking for signs of life. But all he found was death. From the looks of things, most of his clan members had been murdered in their beds, unaware that they were about to be slaughtered like cattle. The few shifters that had been awake appeared to be taken by surprise. Why hadn’t they sensed something was wrong?

  Alex’s stomach churned as he stood outside his family’s cottage, unsure whether he had the courage to enter, even while knowing that he must. He suppressed the urge to weep like a child when he found the
bloody, lifeless bodies of his mother, father, sister, and brother. Rage bubbled up from his soul and he roared long and loud, his grief pouring forth as he vowed to seek revenge. Before his body could complete its change, he heard something.

  “Alexander.” His name was but a whisper in the wind, so faint that he wondered if he imagined it. Then he heard it again. “Alexander.”

  There was one cottage left to search: the home of his grandfather, the clan’s Elder. With a final, silent good-bye to his family, Alex made his way to the Elder’s home. Entering without knocking, he found the old man in front of the fireplace and dropped to the ground next to him. The Elder’s breath was shallow and his pulse was weak and thready; it was obvious he didn’t have much time left.

  “Alexander,” the Elder whispered as his eyelids fluttered open.

  “I’m here, grandfather,” Alex responded, taking hold of the old man’s frail, furry hand. “Who did this?”

  “The Hunters.”

  Alex had never seen the Hunters, but he had been told of them. The small band of vigilante humans hated shifters, even the half-breed kind that were as much man as they were animal. Even though the Hunters were a well-funded underground network with significant resources, Alex’s people worked hard to blend into the background of rural Pacific Northwest life. How had they discovered that this small community was comprised of shifters? This was another question that would likely never be answered.

  “This wouldn’t have happened if I had been here,” Alex said with anguish. He berated himself for going on such a long, selfish ride and leaving his clan to perish at the hands of the enemy.

  “Nonsense,” his grandfather whispered. “If you had been here, you would be dead, too. Fate kept you away, my boy, so you could live to continue our lineage.”