Alpha’s Moon: A special forces shifter romance (Shifter Ops series Book 1)

Sadie

I wake in a warm bed. Alone, but there’s a note on the pillow from Deke.

Gone for a run.

I smile and stretch, feeling good from my hair-sprayed head to my pointed toes. Mission Seduce Deke went well.

We’re leaving today. Our fake boyfriend operation will be over. No promises on how our relationship will continue, but after the talk we had last night, I have so much optimism that we can work things out.

I pull on my hiking boots and head outside. The resort is quiet this morning, with barely anyone about. The rest of the wedding party will be sleeping late.

Outside the air is fresh and clean. It’s the perfect morning for a hike. Hopefully, I’ll run into Deke, and we can pick up where we left off.

I bounce down the hiking trail, quickly leaving the green resort grounds for a worn, rocky path. A twig snaps behind me.

“Deke?” I call, turning and heading back the way I came.

“Sadie.” Scott steps out from behind a bushy bristlecone pine tree.

Ew! Total creeper! I skid to a halt. “Scott.”

“We need to talk.” His voice is hoarse. He’s still in his tux from last night. His eyes are red and his breath stinks like vodka.

Yuck.

“Did you even sleep last night?”

“Can’t sleep.” He seizes my arms, and I get a whiff of his foul breath mixed with stale cologne up close. I gag, trying to push him off.

“Go away.” I manage to get free. He trips on a rock, trying to follow.

“Sadie, I want to be with you.”

“No. You just think someone’s playing with your toy. I never meant anything to you. It was about my dad’s contacts. You can’t get development projects through the town council without his support.”

“Fuck, Sadie, no.” He staggers forward and falls on me, his heavy weight dragging me down. I scream and try to wrench my jacket out of his grip.

“Scott, you’re hurting me—”

A savage growl sounds from the slope above us. Every hair on my body bristles in warning.

Predator!

My muscles turn to stone, and I stop fighting Scott, who fumbles, pawing at me, before standing straight, belatedly turning towards the threat. There’s another growl, and a huge black shape bounds down the slope toward us.

“Wha—?” Scott’s question is cut off by the giant shadow slamming into him. He goes down flailing, and I scream.

Scott lands on the ground, and over him stands the biggest, baddest black wolf I’ve ever seen.

I stumble backward. My boot hits a rock, and I fall, catching myself at the last moment. The wolf’s head turns toward me, and I flinch.

Then it swivels back to Scott, opens its giant jaws and lets out a growl that’s more like a roar.

Run! Adrenaline screams in my veins.

Scott lets out a high-pitched squeal. Fudge, he’s about to get eaten. I have to do something! My legs wobble.

“No!” I snap in my sternest teacher voice. Without thinking, I grab a branch to beat the wolf off of him.

Before I can swing, the wolf backs off. Somehow Scott scrambles upwards.

“Hey!” I try to distract the wolf, so Scott can get away—and he does, hightailing it up to the resort, his shredded tux tails flapping in his wake. Leaving me with the wolf.

Alone.

What a prick.

I take a backward step and adjust my grip on the branch. Fudge.

“This is not how I thought I’d go,” I tell the wolf.

To my utter shock, the wolf sits and whines.

Like a freaking pet!

“Um… okay. Good wolf.” I take a slow step backward.

He watches me. There’s no sign of his teeth, but I’ll never forget the sight of them. This beast is a killer. And I can’t outrun him—I saw how fast he came down that mountainside.

What am I going to do?

He starts toward me—not in a lunge. More of a trot, but I flinch. The moment I do, he stops and sits again. Then I catch a glint of silver in the thick ruff around its neck. The wolf turns its head, and the flat silver rectangle catches the light more clearly.

I gasp. “Th-those are Deke’s! You’re wearing Deke’s dog tags.” What does this mean? Goose flesh crawls up my arms.

I put my hand over my mouth. There are two options here. The wolf either ate Deke and is wearing his dog tags as a trophy or…

“Sherlock Holmes said, Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains must be the truth,” I say in a shaky voice.

The wolf cocks its head to the side, like it’s listening.

“You either ate Deke, or… you are Deke.”

The wolf chuffs and jerks its head like it’s nodding.

But no. That’s impossible. “You better not have eaten Deke,” I laugh-cry, semi-hysterical. “He’s my boyfriend, and I really like him.” I lift the branch, fully prepared to avenge my lover.

The wolf drops to its belly and crawls forward in supplication.

“D-deke?” It’s so ridiculous, so impossible, and yet… those green eyes. I’ve definitely seen them before. Now I understand why they glowed in the dark.

The wolf gets up and trots behind some bushes. A low growling sound makes tingles rise on my skin, and then Deke, my giant, muscled boyfriend rises from the wolf’s hiding place.

I stagger backwards because my legs are confused. Fight or flight? Run or hug Deke?

I settle for licking my lips. “You’re a wolf,” I state the obvious. The impossible.

Deke hesitates, like he’s not sure if he should approach. “Don’t be afraid,” he murmurs, hands open. Deke prowls out from the brush. Without the bushes between us, I realize something else.

My lips twitch. “Um, you’re naked.” Except for the dog tags. Those glint on his impressive chest, drawing the eye to the cut rows of his abs, then down, following his happy trail to…

Okay. So evidence suggests he and the wolf did not switch places. That they are, in fact, one and the same.

“You’re a…” I can’t say it. It’s too insane.

He nods. “That’s my darkest secret.”

I drag my eyes back up to his face. It’s hard. There’s so much of him for my eyes to feast on. “Okay.”

His brows shoot up. “Okay? Is that all you’re going to say?”

“What should I say? Did you expect me to run screaming?”

He shrugs. “Pretty much.”

“Well I’m not. I’m not sure I can run, actually. Excuse me.” I drop down onto a large rock because my legs stop working.

Deke squats slowly, tucking his entire body into a crouch, so our eyes are still level. His movements are eerily fluid. Like the wolf’s.

“You’re a wolf,” I repeat.

He nods.

I reach out and touch his wolf tattoo. “Oh my God.” I pass a shaking hand over my face. I have this insane urge to laugh. “Oh my God. This is your secret.”

He’s motionless, waiting. Waiting for me to pass judgement or tell him to leave or something. Just waiting.

“You’re a wolf,” I say wonderingly and touch his face. He closes his eyes and turns his head, so I’m stroking back his hair. Petting him. “Deke,” I whisper.

“Sadie,” he groans into my palm. He nips at my skin.

And then I wrap my arms around him and kiss him. He kisses me back. I surge over him, bearing him down to his shins, so I can straddle his waist. “Is this okay? Am I hurting you?”

“No,” he says between rough kisses. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

Before I can ask what he means, he’s got his hand down the back of my leggings. I groan as he cups me from behind, his fingers seeking my heat.

It’s the work of a second for me to kick off my boots and wriggle and tug them off. He’s already naked, all six feet plus of him.

“I don’t have a condom, Sadie-girl.” He looks pained.

“Oh.” Nope, I do not accept clam-jam this time. “You could pull out?”

“Deal.” His biceps bulge as he picks me up by the waist and lowers me over his dick. He’s unbelievably strong. Now I know why it was so simple for him to just pick me up and carry me off whenever he had the urge.

Deke lifts and lowers me over his cock, slowly at first, then working up to a bounce. My breasts rise and fall with the momentum, and I feel porn-star sexy. It’s delicious. I’m screwing a werewolf. Under the open sky.

It’s perfect.

His stubble scrapes my face as we kiss. I cry out as all the danger and adrenaline and threat roll into some primal feeling, an epic orgasm to celebrate the way I faced the wolf and survived. I’m alive.

Deke groans his eyes changing to green. “I can’t,” he mutters. I catch the glint of wolf-teeth in his mouth. “I can’t.”

Can’t what? I want to ask but he’s still bouncing me, pushing me towards another climax. This time, when I break, he curses, lifts me off him, and pumps his cock to release onto the soft earth. His breath blows harsh against my jacket, and as he comes, he slashes his lip with a sharp tooth, sending blood dripping down his chin.

Deke

“Fuck, I’m sorry,” I apologize, even though we’d agreed I would pull out. Still, it felt disrespectful. Disappointing.

Unnatural.

Fate wants us to mate.

That’s the thought that flits through my head, and this time the idea goes beyond just marking Sadie as mine. It goes to our future. To living together. Making pups. Raising a family. Everything Sadie said she wanted, I crave to give her. I want it, too. The whole package.

“You’re bleeding,” Sadie exclaims, bringing her thumb to my chin.

I hurriedly swipe the evidence away. “Sorry, I—”

She studies me, concern and curiosity glinting in her warm brown eyes. “What are you sorry for?”

I swallow. I should explain it all to her. But is she ready? Are we there yet? I haven’t even talked to Rafe. I don’t know what I’ll do if my alpha stands in the way of me claiming Sadie.

“Wolves, uh…we mark our mates.”

“What?” She doesn’t sound shocked. Only confused.

“With our teeth. That’s why I’ve been going for so many runs and not sleeping in the same bed as you. I, ah, have the urge to claim you.”

“Claim me?” Her eyes are wide. Not frightened, though. That’s good.

I scrub a hand over my face then pick up her yoga pants from the ground and hold them open for her to step back into. “It may not work,” I admit the sour truth.

She draws in a gasp. “Do you mean, like, turn me?”

A surprised chuckle pops out of my throat. “No. We’re not vampires.” I can’t stop smiling. She’s so damn cute. “We’re a different species. We usually mate our own kind.”

Her disappointment is palpable. My wolf wants to howl, to fix it. He wants to make her happy for the rest of our lives. So do I.

I tug her back onto my lap. “I want you for my mate.” I need to make it clear.

She touches my face. “I want that, too. I mean, I think I do. I want you, Deke.”

“Then we’ll work this out. We’ll figure it out, together. All right?”

Her smile is brighter than the morning sun. She presses her lips over mine. “I love you.”

“Fuck, Sadie. I love you, too.”

I detect the sound of voices coming up the trail. Scott may have returned after his supreme show of cowardice to “rescue” Sadie.

“Someone’s coming, Sadie-girl.”

She kisses me again. “I don’t care.”

“I’m naked.”

“Oh!” She laughs and scrambles off me.

“I’ll meet you back at the resort in twenty. Okay? Are you all right on your own?”

She lets out a soft scoff. “Of course.”

Of course. She was the one prepared to fight off a giant wolf with nothing but a branch. My Sadie can handle herself.

I shift, my wolf preening when Sadie gasps and buries her fingers in my fur. I risk another moment to let her stroke my ears and rub my head, then I bound up the mountain in the direction of my clothes.

When I reach the top, I turn and look down at Sadie, unable to keep my back to her for long.

She’s still standing there, watching me with a wondrous expression on her face. She waves, and I lift my snout. But Scott and two resort employees are rounding the bend, so I take off, getting out of site as quickly as I can.