Read Online Taming the Alpha by Savannah Stuart - Free Book Online Page A

underside to her, she wasn’t sure how she knew, but she guessed he was making himself vulnerable to her. Showing her he wasn’t a threat.
    How could this be possible?
    Even though her brain screamed at her to run she forced herself to kneel on the throw rug covering the hardwood floor and tentatively reached out for him. When she petted the side of his face, he licked her hand then nuzzled it.
    Whatever fear she’d felt dissipated. Well, almost. This was too weird. Drawing her hand back, she sat on the couch once again. As Grant shifted back to his human form she couldn’t think of anything semi-intelligent to say.
    When he was back and standing naked in front of her, his dark eyes searched hers. “Are you okay? I’m sure you must have a lot of questions.”
    Uh, no she wasn’t okay. She didn’t know what she was. But she did have questions. A lot of them. All she knew right now was this wasn’t fake. It was real. She couldn’t refute the evidence. And she didn’t know how she felt about that.
    Swallowing, she found her voice. “You said someone tried to kill you the other night?”
    A pause stretched between them but he finally nodded. “Two vampires caught me off guard after I dropped you off. I killed them both but one stabbed me. There was poison on the blade and it knocked me unconscious until a few hours ago.”
    Her annoyance with him immediately faded to be replaced by concern. She wanted to be angry but if he’d been unconscious, he couldn’t have contacted her. “But you’re okay?” The thought of him dying sent a shiver of fear rolling through her. Try as she might, it was hard to imagine a world without Grant. Or her life without him for that matter.
    “I’m fine. I promise.” His voice had softened a few notches.
    “So everyone I work with is a…shifter? Even Sarah?”
    He nodded.
    Her heart rate picked up. Holy shit. All this time and she hadn’t had a clue. “Why’d you hire me then if I’m not one of you?”
    His smile was grim as he tugged his jeans back on. She knew it was crazy but she was a little sad when he covered all that exposed flesh. “I couldn’t not . The second you walked into the bar looking for work I told Max to hire you and give you any shifts you wanted. I don’t know what it was, but I was instantly pulled to you.”
    “Oh.” She chewed on that for a moment but thought of another question. “So, are you really old or something? I always thought vampires and werewolves were immortal—not that I actually believed in them until now, but according to the movies…”
    Suddenly he looked uncomfortable as he sat down. “I’m almost two hundred years old but I’m not immortal. If I don’t get killed beforehand, I’ll likely live to be about a thousand. Maybe longer. It’s not an exact science.”
    Okay, then. More craziness for her brain to digest. “So what am I? A passing fling? How could things ever work between us if you’re that old and still look, well, like you do?” He didn’t look a day over thirty.
    He shifted against the seat. “That’s something else I wanted to talk to you about. I’d wanted to wait, but I can’t anymore.” His eyes held hers with magnetic force. “I want to take you as my mate, Talia. I want to mark you and claim you so that everyone knows you’re mine.”
    “Your mate?” What did that even mean?
    He nodded, every inch the confident leader he claimed he was. “If I take you as my own, I’ll bite you as we make love. It might hurt a little but once I draw blood and mark you, every supernatural being out there will know you belong to me.”
    “ Belong to you?” She didn’t like the sound of that. Did supernatural beings have different rules than humans?
    He nodded. “Just like I’ll belong to you. Once we mate—if we do—your aging will slow to match mine.”
    More holy crap! That meant she’d live as long as him. Trying to wrap her mind around that was too much at the moment. “So…you want to mate with