16

Book:ALPHA'S SECRET Published:2024-6-2

“While you’re with me, I want you to look good. Not makeup, but take care of yourself. If I find out you went without because you didn’t want me to have to buy it, I’ll go buy twelve of them for you.” I dip my head closer, making sure the cashier can’t over hear us. “And then I’ll punish you.”
Her pupils dilate, like that excites her, but she nods and scrambles down an aisle. I follow, grabbing a handful of chapstick and throwing them into her basket.
I shake my head. For someone who hates the dom/sub power games, I sure like getting my way.
“Sir?” she asks. She’s poised at the entrance to the brightly lit makeup aisle. Cardboard cutouts with celebrities’ painted faces greet me at every turn. Fucking clown house.
“No make up-” I start to say when she whispers,
“Just some foundation. To cover up the scar.”
Shit. Can’t say no to that.
“All right. Cover up, or whatever. And…” I glance at the painted faces with disgust. “Whatever else you want. But nothing too crazy.”
“Thank you,” she skips up to me and kisses my cheek.
“Don’t mention it,” I mumble, and turn away, stomping down another aisle. I saw some things I want for her.
A few minutes later, the cashier’s ringing everything up while Jordy crouches nearby, fingering a candy bar longingly.
I grab the candy bar and add it to the pile then jerk my head to the junk food aisle. “Go get us some snacks.”
“What do you like?”
“Meat.”
I send her off with a gentle pat on her butt. While she’s gone, I pull out the stuff I found for her, and get the cashier to ring it up and hide it in a bag before she returns. A little surprise.
Back in the car, I toss the bags onto the back seat and roll into traffic.
“Get what you need, Kit?”
She nods.
She’s happy, I can tell. Her cheeks are flushed, and she’s braiding and re-braiding her hair, using the hair shit I just bought her. She finally settles on two auburn pigtails.
I stop at a fastfood joint and order twenty burgers. Jordy’s eyes go round when I hand her the bags.
“Um, Grizz? I’m not really hungry. Breakfast was really big.” She looks guilty.
“Not for us, babe.” I roll up to a stoplight and put my hand on her knee, giving her my full attention. “You get hungry later, I’ll get you whatever you like. This is for someone else.”
She’s silent. Content to let me take her wherever I need to go. I head to the Fight Club and try to ignore how great it feels to have a willing woman riding shotgun.
We stop at a light and I look over. She’s leaning her head against the window, the reflection showing a lightly freckled face and faraway gaze. Her expression is thoughtful, but a smile isn’t far away. It hits me then, she’s content with me.
I shouldn’t encourage it. I really shouldn’t. But I can’t help it. When it comes to her, I just can’t help myself.
“Here.” I reach behind me and pull out another bag from the pile on the backseat. “I almost forgot. I grabbed these while you were in getting dresses.” I hand her a pack of colored pencils and an adult coloring book. Her eyes go wide but she takes them before the light turns green and I hit the gas.
“Saw you doodling on my stuff.” I keep my eyes on the road.
“I’m sorry-”
“Don’t apologize. It looked really good. I figured you’d like to do it, if you’re grabbing pieces of trash to doodle on.”
“I do.” She holds the book and pencils to her like an award for best submissive in Club Toxic. Like it’s a treasure.
“Well, now you don’t have to use trash. I’ll get you a sketch pad, too, if you want.”
Her face lights up. She practically bounces in her seat, so sweet and beautiful my chest tightens.
“Thank you, thank you,” she breathes and before I can stop her, she leans in to give me a peck on my scarred cheek. My cock perks up and I’m a second away from letting her know how she can show her gratitude when she pulls away and looks up at me adoringly. Fates, just the expression on her face is enough to get me off. No good. I gotta shut this down.
“It doesn’t mean anything.” I announce and she pulls back, still glowing.
“I know,” she says, but she’s lying. But, when it all comes down to it, so am I.
Jordy
GRIZZ GLARES AT THE ROAD, growling when a dark blue Jetta gets too close to our truck. The Jetta driver glances up and turns white, immediately throwing on the brakes. The dark blue car drops behind us and Grizz’s body rumbles as his bear claims victory. Any other shifter, I’d be cowering in my seat, but I sit up straight, watching Grizz scare off human drivers, feeling totally contented. My fox perks her head up, studying our captor with rapt attention. She’s enamored with him. Totally.
For a second he softened. He tried to hide it, but I felt it. His walls came down. He’s trying hard to keep his walls high and not to get involved with me, but he already is. He took me out of the cage, he helped me. He says I’m his captive, but I’m sitting free, surrounded by stuff he bought me. Actions speak louder than words. Augustine said he’d provide and protect me. But Grizz actually does it. Better than Augustine, if I’m allowed to think that.
I should hate being Grizz’s captive and want to get back to my master, but I don’t. If this was a loan, I’d have to crawl back to my master and beg him to forgive me, to punish me for being disloyal. But this isn’t a loan. Grizz saw me, he wanted me, he took me.