Chapter 3
Anna Makes a Discovery
Anna had felt tricked and betrayed, but on learning Conor hadn’t really changed her, only given her a short reprieve, another emotion occurred. Disappointment. It felt like the first time she thought she was pregnant. She hadn’t been ready for parenthood, hadn’t been sure if she loved Robert enough to share the responsibility of a child, but when the test had been negative, she’d mourned for all the possibility of that new life. She hadn’t wanted Conor to make her a lycanosapien, but now that she knew he hadn’t, she grieved the life that might have been.
She’d been prepared to let him go, but when the tall and lanky woman, with her perfect face and perfect body had skulked into the room, Anna’s disappointment turned into bitterness and jealousy. If she rejected Conor, his life would go on without her. Worse, his life would go on with Rebecca and her perfectly buoyant breasts.
Even when she’d been married to Robert, she’d never been the jealous type, and he’d given her plenty of reason to go through his clothes and check for lipstick stains on his collar.Maybe I didn’t care because he wasn’t Conor.
She yanked Rebecca’s hair again, resisting the urge to punch her. The man-stealing bitch rolled to the side of Conor, coming up on the balls of her feet and fingertips. An attack stance. Rebecca’s lips curled back revealing sharp canines, unnaturally large, designed to tear into prey and enemy alike. Her eyes were golden and wolfish, her nails elongated into claws, and her muscles bunched on the edge of transformation.
Anna should have been frightened. The display should have made her recoil in terror, but she was a dying woman with little to lose but her life. So instead of cringing and cowering, Anna barked a laugh.
The abrupt sound stopped Rebecca better than a full on assault. The woman jerked her head to one side, as if the noise Anna made confused her.
Anna fixed her gaze on Rebecca until she forced the other woman to look away.That’s right. I’m not scared of you.“Come near Conor again and I’ll give you the fight you’re spoiling for,bitch.”
Conor stared at Anna as if she’d just grown a second head. “Go, Rebecca. Now.” His expressions shifted as if he were sifting through a gambit of emotions and couldn’t land on any of them. When Rebecca withdrew from the room completely, he sat back on his heels. “Does this mean you want me, Anna?”
His hesitant question gave her pause. She could see a fragile hope in his expression. So fragile, she worried the wrong word might shatter him. Did she want him? Yes. She’d wanted Conor Evans since the first time they’d met. But she had other responsibilities, even now. How could she justify having an existence where she would outlive her own child? Dying before he could marry and have children of his own was bad enough, but to outlive him, outlive his children—the idea was too painful to consider.
Did she love Conor? Yes. Did she love him enough? The answer came with two suitcases full of uncertainty and doubt. “It’s not that easy, Conor.”
“Because you won’t allow it,” he said with a rise of irritation. “I’ve always known you were more, Anna.”
“More than what?”
“I don’t know if I can explain it in a way you’ll understand.”
What did he see in her? She’d never been certain. “Try me.”
He rubbed his face briskly, his eyes turning up in concentration. Finally, he looked down at Anna. He held his hands out. “Okay. For lycanosapiens, there is a structure. A hierarchy.”
Anna remembered him telling her about this when she worked for him. “An alpha system.”
“You remember.” He smiled and took her hand. “You are a rare anomaly. A human who has the traits of an alpha, even if you don’t have the supernatural strength.”
“I don’t get it.”
“You made Rebecca look away.” He circled her palm with his thumb. “You dominated her without lifting a finger.”
“You knew I could do that?”
“I suspected.” He shook his head. “I’m very dominant, Anna, and there have been times when I’ve felt the strong urge to bend to your will.” He shook his head. “I’m doing a lousy job of explaining. You drew me, Anna. From the first time we met, I never wanted another woman the way I want you.”
She wet her lips, her breath hitching while her lower parts tightened with desire. “So, you are like… what? A moth to my flame. A fly to my bug zapper. PMS to my chocolate.”
“I wouldn’t put it that way.” He leaned in close to her again and brushed his lips against her ear. “But if you want me to eat you, I’m definitely up to the task.”
Anna’s pussy clenched with a jolt of strong desire as she imagined Conor “up to the task.” She craved his hot mouth all over her body. When the heat of his hard length brushed against her thigh, she groaned. “Why are you naked?”
Better question, why wasn’t she naked? The bra and panties she wore might as well have been chastity belts. They were thin reminders that she had a choice in what happened next.
“I went for a run while you were sleeping.”
“You mean unconscious,” she quipped. She narrowed her gaze. “You don’t mean jogging, do you?”
He smiled sheepishly. “No, not that kind of running.”
