Chapter 1
Alpha Karl wheeled the SUV into a dead-end mountain track, and the downpour hit. Just like that.
Rain slammed onto the hood, a dense, brutal drumming, like a hail of bullets whizzing past.
The back was crammed with hunting competition spoils: two bloodstained gear bags, thick, stiff ropes, and Eric’s folded waterproof parka, suffocating the already cramped space.
I was wedged against the door, not even enough room to plant my feet.
“Nora, come closer,” Eric’s voice rumbled from the shadows on my right.
As an Alpha at his prime, he stood at least six-foot-four.
Right now, he sat with his legs splayed, knees practically bashing the front seats, his massive frame dominating the cabin.
He lifted his sharply angled chin, hawkish gaze fixed on my waist. He was telling me to sit on his lap.
I glanced at the driver’s seat, pleading with my eyes.
Karl gripped the steering wheel like he was trying to crush it, his neck muscles rigid, not turning around.
As the Ashridge Pack Alpha’s son, and my fiancé of three months, this was the first time he was in the same car as my adoptive father.
The whole way, Karl had been lost in his own world of frustration and cold indifference over the competition results, completely oblivious to the predicament I was in.
The passenger seat was piled high with heavy supply boxes. Karl made no move to clear even an inch of space for me.
I don’t have a choice.
Biting my lip, a barely perceptible shiver running through me, I backed into the space between Eric’s legs.
His thighs were wide, solid as iron, unyielding beneath my weight.
He was my adoptive father, the man who had ruled my world since he adopted me at twelve.
The Ironpeak Pack’s most ruthless wolf. I had called him “Dad” for over a decade.
But now, it was just full moon less than 48 hours ago.
The scent radiating off him, that heady mix of cold pine, dangerous liquor, and scorching sweat, signature of a mature male Alpha, was so potent it felt like it was seeping into my bloodstream.
And thanks to my Omega instincts still riding the full moon’s high, every breath felt like my lungs were being filled with molten lava.
Eric reached for the rough waterproof parka in the dark.
Without asking, he unfolded it and draped it over my legs, completely covering me from my narrow waist down, concealing the intimate space where our bodies touched.
“Cold,” he rasped, his calloused hand pressing on my hip through the coat, his voice rough.
It wasn’t cold in the car, it was a freaking furnace.
Karl stared straight ahead, the windshield wipers slashing frantically back and forth, a grating sound that set my teeth on edge.
The silence in the car was deafening. My spine was as taut as a bowstring about to snap.
I clenched my jaw, trying to shift my weight forward, trying to create some space between my ass and that terrifying heat source.
But under the cover of the coat, nothing was visible.
From an outsider’s perspective, this was just a thoughtful elder making space for a young girl to sit on his lap on a bumpy road.
But only I knew the temperature under that coat was spiraling out of control.
Up front, my fiancé Karl was a stiff, unyielding silhouette in the darkness.
The rain came down harder.
Suddenly, Eric’s hand on my waist moved.
Through the thin fabric of my clothes, the heat of his rough palm was intensely invasive.
His thumb pressed into the small of my back, then began to slide down, slow and heavy.
The movement was excruciatingly slow, the edge of his nail even digging into my skin through the fabric, tracing the sensitive nerves on my inner thigh with pinpoint accuracy.
My breath hitched in my throat, terrified to make a sound.
Just then, the SUV slammed into a deep pothole, the whole vehicle tilting violently to the right!
“Ah...” Before the sound even escaped my lips, the lurch of the vehicle sent my body crashing backwards.
I didn’t want to move, the car was doing it.
But Eric was already tightening his arm around me.
Like a vise, he locked onto my waist, using the momentum to pull me hard against his groin!
My back was pressed flush against his broad chest, my ass settling, with the full force of the impact, perfectly between his thighs.
I could feel it, with excruciating clarity, through the layers of fabric: a thick, burning hot, hard monster on the verge of eruption, pressed firmly against my tail bone.
Even bumping against me with each sway of the car.
His heartbeat was steady, slow, arrogant, a stark contrast to the chaos of the storm raging outside.
“Rough road,” Eric said, his chin resting on my shoulder, his low chuckle sending shivers down my spine. He was looking right at Karl’s head.
Up front, Karl’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel, knuckles white.
“Almost to the foot of the mountain,” Karl said, his voice tight with suppressed anger.
He paused for half a second, his nostrils flaring. “Wait… what’s that smell in here? Something sweet?”
