Page 81 of Specter Bred

She stopped directly in front of me and stepped between my knees, looking down at me with an expression that made it suddenly difficult to remember how breathing worked.

This close, I could see every tiny detail of her face, every shift in her eyes and every twitch at the corner of her mouth.

Alphas wore their emotions closer to the surface than the rest of us. They felt everything bigger, harder, louder, and Maeve was no exception. I’d gotten embarrassingly good at cataloging hers over the past few months.

Slight narrowing of her eyes told me she was irritated. The twitch in her jaw meant she was holding back something particularly violent. Then there was the almost-smile she tried to hide when I made her laugh. I’d learned her one reaction at a time, collecting each new tell like I’d cracked another piece of the impossible puzzle that was Maeve Archer.

But the look on her face now?

I’d never seen this one before.

She stared down at me with a predatory hunger that sent my pulse tripping over itself. There was nothing guarded about her expression, nothing for me to decipher. Her eyes dragged over my face before settling on my mouth, and every muscle in my body locked beneath the weight of that stare.

Desire.

I didn’t need alpha senses to recognize that.

Maeve Archer wanted me.

The woman has terrified half the recruits at Fairfield. She was a powerful alpha who could probably break me in half and had threatened to do exactly that on more than one occasion. This beautiful, impossible, warrior goddess of a woman was standing naked between my knees, looking at me like I was something she wanted to devour.

I said a quick prayer that I wouldn't end up like the praying mantis Alvarez had mentioned, but as I looked up at her, I figured that if getting my head bitten off was the price of being with a woman like her, I'd pay it gladly.

“Take your pants off. Now,” she ordered, impatience sharpening every word.

“Yes, ma’am.”

I shot to my feet so fast I nearly tangled myself in my own pants and ate shit on the floor.

Maeve’s mouth twitched. “Graceful.”

“I’m under a lot of pressure right now.”

“You’re taking off pants, Boy Scout. Not defusing a bomb.”

“You’re naked and giving me orders. This is significantly more stressful.”

That earned me a full smirk.

I finally kicked the damn pants free and straightened, standing there in nothing but my shirt, boxers, and socks.

Maeve looked me up and down, then frowned pointedly at my feet. “The socks are an interesting choice.”

“I panicked.”

“I can tell.”

“Could we maybe focus on how impressively fast I got the pants off?”

Her gaze traveled slowly back up my body. “Now the rest, Boy Scout.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Are you going to say that every time I give you an order?”

“If it keeps you giving me orders? Absolutely.”

Something dangerous flickered in her eyes.