My Jealous Alpha Stepbrother
Chapter 85

Misha

My breath is mingling with the one belonging to Josie. She is here, in my arms, legs wrapped around my waist. Gorgeous. Beautiful. I swear the world stops spinning when I gaze into her purple eyes.

She is studying me in silence, smile uncertain. It doesn’t take a genius to know she is unsure about me and doesn’t know what I want. But it’s clear to me. In my chest, my heart is thrumming hard. The mate-bond has flared to like, and its song is wildly desperate.

I’m barely able to cope with my body’s reaction to Josie. She is wrapped around me, so close, naked, and so cute and sweet that my teeth hurt. My c**k is already stiff in the water, and I hope she won’t notice. It would be embarrassing.

I’m trying to woo her, not get her into having dirty, fantastic s*x with me on this lake… not that I would complain. Hell no. If Josie wanted me to claim her and make her mine, I would do it so quickly that she wouldn’t have time to change her mind.

But my mate wants romance.

“Misha?” Josie’s tone is low, and she looks vulnerable and beautiful all at once, and it’s not fair. I have to remind myself she is for looking, not for taking, even though my body hungers with the need to touch her.

“Mhm?” I hum.

Josie inhales through her nostrils, making them flare. I get the feeling something is on the tip of her tongue. Her mouth opens, and then she screams—okay, not what I expected.

“What is wrong?!” I ask in alarm.

“Get up from the water!” Josie is frantic, and since she can’t reach the ground here, she clings to me. “What are you waiting for? Get up on the sand! Quickly!”

I have no idea why she is panicking, but I replace it amusing. “Why? Is there something wrong with the water?”

Instead of responding to me, Josie slips down from my arms and shape-shifts into a lycan. She goes from small and innocent to hulking and mad about something. I’m entirely dwarfed by her red and fox-looking form, and she takes me into her arms.

I blink up at her. “Well, hello there, big mama…”

She glares at me, and I stifle a laugh.

Note to self: do not tease Josie when she is in her lycan form. I smile, but my demeanor changes when there is a hiss-like screech behind us.

“What the heck?!” I exclaim.

Behind Josie, where we were flirting, I see a large snake head belonging to a shadow creature. It pops out of the water and looks around as if searching for something. There is another screech from the snake, and I realize Josie must have had a vision of it attacking us.

“You saved us!” I exclaim as Josie sets me down on the grass with an irritated look.

She clearly didn’t like me joking around calling her big mama, but I didn’t mean anything bad by it! I just replace it hilarious that Josie’s human form is so delicate while her lycan form dwarfs me. And yes, I get that Josie is tall and built, but in my eyes, she is small and precious.

Josie changes into a human and cranes her neck to regard the monster in the lake. “What is that?”

“A shadow creature,” I tell her, shrugging. “I don’t know if that’s their real name, but we have plenty of those in the vampire realm. They are spreading like a disease, and it’s bad that they are here.”

“No shit… if that thing was seen by human eyes, it would be bad. Also, I’m not sure how humans would defend themselves if that thing chose to attack them. It’s huge.”

“Mhm, but I’m not worried.” I look back at the snake.

It’s monstrous and gives us its entire focus. Most of its black body is hidden in the water, but I can tell from the smoke oozing off its massive body that it’s one of the monsters that don’t belong here.

“Why aren’t you worried?” Josie asks. “Fighting that thing won’t be easy since it’s in the water.”

I glance down at Josie. Normally, I wouldn’t think twice about defeating this thing, but… Josie really seems bitter about my magic. Will she revert to feeling bitter if I kill this thing? Should I pretend it’s a challenge?

The snake hisses and then submerges.

Big waves travel in our direction, and I sigh, realizing it’s now or never. I have to use my magic. It doesn’t matter what Josie thinks. I can cajole her into loving me later.

The snake comes up with a shark hissing sound, ready to attack, and I snap my fingers, freezing its lower body to the lake. It tries to wriggle and break free, hissing when it’s getting nowhere.

Josie stares at the snake with her eyes bulging out of her sockets, and then those eyes slowly go back to me. I don’t meet her gaze. This is why most vampires in the other realm found me scary.

I was ice-cold and unsocial in that realm. I didn’t talk much; the only thing I did was sleep, eat and train. My hunger for revenge and showing my pack that I wasn’t useless fuelled me.

And the best revenge would be to become the alpha by beating every werewolf that tries to defeat me in the tournament.

My lips form a wicked smile before I speak. “I could pretend beating this snake is harder than it is. I could lie and say it takes concentration and effort, but… that would be a total lie.”

I snap my fingers again, and the snake shatters into a thousand pieces that resemble dark embers. They float up into the sky, and my attention flickers to Josie.

She is watching the dark embers with a hard-to-read expression. I have no idea what is going on inside her head. Does she think I’m a freak? That thought worries me because out of all people on this planet, she is the only person I revert to my old self with.

When I’m with Josie, I joke around and don’t take everything in life too seriously. But I’m not like that with other people. I’m more reserved and grumpier and don’t have patience around other people.

It’s just Josie that is special…

“Josie?” I ask, needing her to do something other than stare at the lake with eyes larger than saucers.

She jerks in surprise when I touch her shoulder. It makes my heart rate speed up. Is she afraid of me? No. That can’t happen. Please tell me that isn’t what this is.

I peer down at her, and she… smiles? I’m shocked by it, especially when a teasing light enters her eyes. “From now on, I’m going to be calling you Elsa. You know, the character from Frozen?”

I snort. “Call me whatever you want.”

Just don’t ditch me…

Josie laughs, but I just smile because, for a second, I was worried Josie would hate me. I’m not kidding. My biggest fear is Josie rejecting me because I’m a freakish hybrid.

Becky might be my friend, but that’s because she thinks dangerous guys are hot. She was initially dragged to me due to her attraction. Sure, we are friends now, but… she had another motive from the start.

And Damien? I’m his nephew, so of course, he likes me. Especially since I made his life easier in the other realm. I defeated most of the shadow creatures that harassed us.

But the other vampires?

I care about them, but I’m pretty sure they called me a freak behind my back. And my werewolf pack members at home probably would have felt the same way if it weren’t for Josie.

When she is around, I’m less moody and scary. When the mate-bond struck, and I talked to Josie, I reverted back to the Misha I was before I left home. And that makes me more likable, I think?

But without her by my side, I wouldn’t be as goofy. She changes me for the better, and I want to be good. For her sake, but also for my own. Life is more enjoyable when I smile…

“Do you want to head home?” Josie asks when she has stopped wheezing and laughing at me.

We probably should. It has turned dark, which saddens me. I would love to spend more time with Josie.

“We could.”

“We could?” Josie repeats my words and laughs again. She is beautiful when she does. My heart swells at seeing her smile. “Why does it sound like you don’t want to leave the lake?”

“Because I don’t want to…” I respond in a somber tone. There is no laughter or teasing around right now. I look at her, and my intentions are entirely honest. “I want to spend more time with you. You’re my mate, and every second with you is a blessing, but sleep is important…”

Josie pauses, and then she breaks out into a shy smile. “Well… I’m not that tired yet… do you want to watch a movie?”