Page 15 of Training the Alpha

When our eyes lock, the easy-going, casual facade I usually wear transforms into something heavy and charged. My heart rate picks up, the invisible thread between us suddenly tugging me towards him, although I resist it.

Jed notices me too, slinging an arm around Marcus’ shoulders and whispering something in his ear. Marcus nods, mouthing my name, his grip tightening on his glass.

And I brace myself, expecting him to look away. Expecting him to play it cool in front of his friends, to maintain his reputation in front of his powerhouse fighters. My stomach twists with a sudden, painful prickle of that familiar dread.

But Marcus doesn’t look away.

Instead, he drains the rest of his beer, setting his glass down sharply as he stands and slides out of the booth. He pushes through the crowd easily, his massive bulk parting the revelers without even trying as he carves a path straight for me, completely ignoring the sweaty bodies and clashing scents all around him.

“Fancy seeing you here,” I drawl when he finally reaches me, my voice a little more breathless than I’d like. Up close, he lookseven better, the dark stubble on his strong jaw slightly thicker than the last time I saw him, his shirt clinging to his impressive biceps just right. “Didn’t think this was your scene.”

He steps close enough that the scent of amber and tobacco overwhelms the smell of cheap alcohol, and I notice his hand twitch before falling limply at his sides. I wonder if he’s resisting the urge to reach for me as much as I am.

“It’s not, usually,” he says, throat bobbing as he swallows. “But Dyl won his fight, so we’re celebrating.”

“I can see that,” I chuckle, looking in the direction of the booth, where some guys I don’t recognize have just brought over a tray of shots to raucous cheers. Max catches me looking and tips his head to me. Marcus glances back, shaking his head with a fond smile.

“What about you? I thought you needed all the rest you could get,” he says, turning back to me with the same small smile still on his lips, no malice behind his words.

I tilt my hips against the bar, placing down my empty glass. “Celebrating a successful dress rehearsal. They had to drag me out, honestly.”

“Good,” Marcus grunts. “You deserve it.”

My heart flip-flops in my chest. “So, did you come over here to ask me to dance, or…?”

I leave the teasing question hanging in the air as Marcus’ eyes glaze over, his gaze turning intense as it drops down to the exposed column of my throat and the sliver of chest peeking out from beneath the undone buttons of my shirt. An omega, their scent sweet and floral, presses up a little too close behind me, and I can almost feel the growl that rumbles from his throat before I hear it. The heat of the pulsing bodies presses in around us, and I notice a pearl of sweat rolling down Marcus’ temple.

God, I want to lick it off. But I know he won’t do anything here, not with his friends so close.

He takes a step closer—so close, and yet not nearly close enough. “Bathroom.”

His large fingers wrap around my wrist, wheeling around and tugging me through the dense crowd. I stumble after him, my blood thumping against the pulse point in my wrist, clamped in his grip. I’m so focused on watching the back of him, I barely have a chance to register the corridor he leads us into, the music fading to a dull thud when he hauls open the door to the—blessedly empty—bathroom, and manoeuvres us into a single-occupancy stall. He twists the lock behind us, crowding me until my back rests against the stall door.

I gasp on a relieved moan as he pins me against the door with his weight, his lips crashing down on mine in a desperate clash of soft lips, teeth and tongue. He tastes like liquor and sweat, a groan vibrating out of him and straight through me as I grip his shoulders and kiss him back with just as much urgency. His hands slide to my waist, lifting me slightly, just enough that the hard outlines of our erections slot together perfectly.

The heat between us builds too fast, the familiar, intoxicating scent of him threatening to pull me apart way too soon. But as his lips trail down my jawline and my head thunks back, looking up at the dim, flickering bathroom light as his scent flares with a sharp, possessive hunger, something ugly grips my insides.

Because I’ve been here before. Locked away in a public bathroom. Hidden from view.

“Marcus, wait—stop,” I breathe out, my palms flattening against his chest, not to push him away, just to get some distance.

He freezes instantly. He doesn’t move for a few seconds, his forehead resting against my collarbone as he catches his breath and fights down his instincts. But then he moves back, looking at me with a mixture of heat and concern. “What is it? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I—” I take a breath, shaking my head, my voice breaking despite my best efforts. “Maybe not. I just—I can’t do the dark hallways anymore, Marcus. The public bathrooms. The locked doors. I’ve been the dirty little secret before, hidden away because he were terrified of what people would say if they saw him with another alpha. I told myself I wouldn’t let myself get into that situation again, but…” I gesture around us, at the flickering lights and the graffiti on the wooden stall, “here I am. And the longer this goes on, the harder it’s getting for me to step back from it.” I smile weakly. “You’re just too damn good, coach.”

The words hang heavily in the tiny space. Someone turns on a tap outside the stall, and I wish I hadn’t done this here. But I know if I didn’t say it today, I might never get the words out.

Marcus looks shattered. I’m not sure how someone can look so strong and so broken at the same time, but the softness that takes over his expression makes me want to curl up against his chest and take it all back, to tell him to forget it and just kiss me again. He reaches out, his large hand cupping my jaw gently, his thumb swiping across my lower lip.

“I’m sorry,” he says, his voice unsteady. “I didn’t know.”

I shake my head, willing my eyes not to sting. “I don’t make a habit of talking about it. Full disclosure, he ended up with an omega. I saw them walking down the street one day, he blanked me and… that was that. Never heard from him again. Two years of—ofsomething—ended without so much as asee ya. And I don’t care about him anymore, I swear, but ifyouwere to do that to me, Marcus, if you were that ashamed—”

“I could never be ashamed of you, Alex,” he says brokenly. “Fuck, look at you. You’re fucking incredible. I think about you all the time. You’re so deeply under my skin I couldn’t forget you even if I tried. Let alone cut you out of my life. Jesus, the second you walked through that door tonight I was so fucking—” he pauses, scrambling, and I know what he’s going to say:scared, terrified, panicked, “—happyto see you. Relieved. I could barely stay away from you for five minutes.”

Oh. My chest squeezes, and Marcus looks around like he’s trying to find words that are just beyond his grasp. He closes his eyes for a moment, his gaze locking on mine when he opens them again.

“I know we haven’t defined what this is yet,” he says, gesturing between us. “And I know that’s probably because of me. I just—I’ve spent a really long time telling myself I wasn’t someone who’s interested in romantic relationships because the traditional ones didn’t do it for me. And then you come along, and you’re the furthest thing from traditional, andfuck, Alex, I want you so badly I don’t know what to do with myself half the time. And I don’t even know if you want me back the same way, god knows you probably have people of all dynamics throwing themselves at your feet—”