Alpha's Howling Desire (BBW Paranormal Romance) by Meg Ripley Page B

fingers to the collar of black sweater and adjusted the waistband of her jeans. “All in due time. For now, I just want to make sure you two know your little plan to ambush us didn’t completely work. I still have lions all around the country, after all.” She stepped over to Natalie and pressed a hand to her cheek, laughing bitterly when the lioness jerked away in disgust.
    “Yes, you wouldn’t want my comfort, would you? Too proud. There was never any hope for you. Too bad; you’re awfully powerful. Both of you.” Her tone was mocking, a simpering drawl that showed she took far too much pleasure from watching them suffer in silence. “That little cub was going to be a piece of work! Probably already is.” She sauntered over to Charlie and placed an oddly cold hand on his jaw.
    “I’m Ali, by the way. You’re a lot more handsome in person,” she purred, lowering her lips to his cheek.
    She pressed her mouth against him, and it was like being doused in ice. Her laugh was high and cruel as she pulled away. “So much fear. So much…righteous anger. And I can feel that ancient power waking between you and your wife…I came just in time.” The artificial warmth dropped out of her dark brown eyes, and her smile faded. “In fact, as much as I love soliloquizing…there is work that must be done.” She stood straight and pulled a slim black club from her back pocket; Charlie realized it was a cop’s riot stick.
    “Sorry about this,” Ali said sweetly. “There really isn’t a better way.”
    Charlie kept his eyes on Natalie as the club came crashing down, and the last thing he saw before his vision cut to black was a look of cold murder sweeping over his wife’s features. He hoped it would be enough to save him, but somehow, the hope felt in vain.

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    He dreamt of the night they got pregnant. Natalie was reclining on the pink satin sheets—a gift from her to herself, she’d joked on Valentine’s Day the year before. If they were aiming for a cub before he shipped out, she needed to feel regal, queenly, divine; her words, all spoken casually as though these were everyday demands. Charlie would have brought her the ocean if he could, and she knew it; luckily, all she’d ever needed since they’d met eight years before had been him, his heart, and his body. Natalie made him feel complete without implying that he wasn’t whole without her. Her constant strength fed directly into his. Other prides avoided their dynamic because masculine mates felt they wouldn’t feel right showing submission, but it had only ever been a source of tenderness and love between them.
    So that night, he rubbed scented oils down the curve of her back, massaging the plumpness of her ass as she undulated in bliss on the sheets below him. The golden brown of her skin against the pale pink satin was so beautiful that soon he was planting kisses on the backs of her soft thighs and calves, licking and nipping the sensitive skin and relishing her sharp, delirious cries as he slipped a finger into the warm nectar between the folds of her vulva.
    “Charlie,” Natalie moaned after his tongue as tasted her, raising her hips slightly as Charlie rose and rested his naked body on hers. His rigid cock nestled between her warm cheeks, and she eagerly ground her ass against him, the slickness of her warm, oiled skin allowing his long shaft to glide between her flesh. “Please, just take me. I’m so fucking wet.”
    “Are you?” Charlie teased, pressing his hips against her round ass and slipping one hand beneath her to knead her breast. Natalie cried out as his fingers dug into her soft tissue and thumbed her soft nipple, his breath coming hot and fast against her ear. “Let’s see.”
    He pulled back his muscled hips and pressed the head of his cock against Natalie’s slick opening, groaning softly as he submerged his head between her tight walls. She gasped and arched her back, trying to push herself further down his thick, heavy