The Alpha's Naughty Christmas

7: Dinner with the Wolves

Zolani’s POV

“Damn! Who’s she?”

A deep voice rumbled from somewhere below as I hit the second-floor landing, and every hair on my body stood up like I’d been electrocuted.

Be confident, Zolani. Be f*****g confident!

I screamed at myself inside my skull, but my hands were already shaking, knees threatening to knock together under this ridiculous silk dress.

This wasn’t me.

The low-cut neckline plunging so deep my t**s were one deep breath away from a full escape. The thigh-slit riding high enough that every step flashed skin all the way to the promised land.

I only dressed like this when Aradia was around to egg me on, to laugh and call me her “sexy little virgin bombshell” and make it feel like a game.

Alone?

I felt like a lamb wearing lingerie to a butcher convention.

The ground could open up and swallow me right f*****g now. Please.

“That’s the human girl,” another voice answered, lazy and amused, closer this time.

“Aradia’s best friend. Bridesmaid. She’s hot though...wanna go try your luck?”

Laughter rolled up the stairs, low and hungry, a pack of wolves scenting fresh meat.

I should have kept walking, head high, hips swaying, pretending I was the kind of girl who owned rooms like this.

Instead, my feet betrayed me.

I spun on my heel and bolted back upstairs, heart slamming against my ribs like it wanted out. Change of clothes. Something safe. Something that covered me from neck to ankle like a goddamn nun.

I couldn’t do this.

Not alone.

Not with every eye in the house about to strip me bare.

I reached my door in record time, hand on the knob, ready to slam it shut and hide until Aradia rescued me...

“Running already, little human?”

The voice stopped me cold.

Cassian.

He leaned against the wall at the end of the hallway, arms crossed over that massive chest, still wearing the same black trousers from earlier but now paired with a crisp white shirt, sleeves rolled up, top buttons undone, blood long gone but the memory of it still staining my brain.

His storm-grey eyes pinned me in place.

Dark.

Knowing.

His lips curved in that arrogant half-smirk that made my p***y clench like a traitor.

I froze. One hand on the door. The dress slit falling open to flash way too much thigh.

“I...” My voice cracked. Brilliant. “I forgot something.”

He pushed off the wall, stalking toward me. Slow. Deliberately. Every step eating the distance like he had all the time in the world to watch me squirm.

The air thickened with that spiced scent, pine, smoke, raw dominance.

My n*****s hardened painfully against the silk.

“Forgot something,” he repeated, voice low and mocking, stopping just close enough that I had to tip my head back to meet his eyes.

“Or did the dress suddenly feel too honest?”

Heat flooded my face.

“I’m just...changing. Into something more… appropriate.”

His gaze dragged down my body.

Slow. Filthy. Possessive.

Lingering on the plunge of the neckline, the slit, the way the fabric clung to my hips like it was painted on.

When he met my eyes again, his were darker. Pupils blown.

“Appropriate,” he echoed, tasting the word like it amused him.

“You think covering up will hide what every wolf downstairs already smells on you?”

My breath hitched. “I don’t know what you...”

“Don’t lie to me, little human.”

He stepped closer, crowding me against the door without laying a single finger on me.

But f**k.

The heat rolling off his body hit me like a wall of pure sin, dark spice, blood-tinged sweat, raw Alpha power that made my n*****s tighten painfully against the silk and my bare p***y throb like it had its own heartbeat.

His voice was a low growl that scraped down my spine and pooled hot and wet between my thighs.

“Do you need help?”

My breath caught so sharply it hurt.

I was pinned. Not by his hands, but by those storm-grey eyes that stripped me bare layer by f*****g layer.

My mind screamed run.

But my body arched toward him like a slut begging for more.

“PAAPA!”

Aradia’s voice exploded up the stairs like a grenade, shattering the moment just as Cassian’s lips brushed dangerously close to my ear.

I jerked away from him so fast I nearly tripped over my own feet. My heart slamming against my ribs, slick sliding further down my inner thigh like my p***y was trying to betray me in real time.

Aradia marched up the last steps like a furious general, eyes narrowed on her father.

“Stop scaring my friend, seriously, Paapa.”

She snapped it with that effortless authority only she could pull off, the untouchable princess of the most feared Alpha alive.

Then she whooshed to my side, planting herself between us like a shield. Her hand grabbing mine, concern softening her wild features as she looked me over.

“Love, did he scare you?” she asked quietly and protectively, thumb stroking my knuckles in that big-sister way that always made me feel safe and guilty at the same time.

I wanted to blurt the truth so bad it burned,

'No, he doesn’t scare me. He’s got me so f*****g horny I’m one deep breath away from drto my knees and begging him to ruin me right here on the hallway rug.'

Instead, I forced the good-girl smile, the one I’d perfected for church, for Evan, for every time I had to pretend I wasn’t a walking contradiction of repressed filth.

“No,” I said, voice steady even though my c**t was pulsing. “He was just… asking some questions.”

Aradia’s eyes narrowed past me to her father, cheeks puffing out in that adorable, pissed-off way she did when she was challenging him.

It was almost funny. Tiny, fierce Aradia staring down the most terrifying Alpha on the continent like he was just her overprotective dad being annoying again.

Cassian didn’t flinch.

He leaned against the wall, arms crossed, that arrogant smirk playing at the corner of his mouth like he knew exactly what game we were all playing and he was already three moves ahead.

His gaze flicked to me. Slow, Deliberate p

Promising.

The temperature in the hallway spiked ten degrees. I swear it did.

“Questions,” he repeated, his voice smooth and twice as burning.

“About house rules. Safety. Making sure our… guest feels welcome.”

Aradia rolled her eyes so hard I heard it.

“Yeah, sure. Your version of welcome usually involves growling and blood.”

She pointed a finger in his direction.

“Play nice, Paapa, or I’ll tell Kyle and Alex you’re being mean to my maid of honor and I'll not hold the wedding here.”

The threat was playful, but there was steel under it, was a reminder.

Even the big bad Alpha had soft spots, and his daughter was the biggest one.

Cassian’s smirk deepened, eyes never leaving mine.

“I’m always nice, princess.” He said calmly.

“Especially to pretty little humans who wander into places they shouldn’t.”

My p***y clenched so hard I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from moaning.

The bastard knew exactly what he was doing.

Aradia huffed, turning back to me, looping her arm through mine like armor.

“Come on, Zee. Dinner’s waiting, and half the pack is already drooling over you. Let’s go show them what a badass human looks like.”

She tugged me toward the stairs, throwing one last glare over her shoulder at her father.

“Behave Paapa.”

Cassian pushed off the wall, falling into step behind us.

Close.

Too close.

I felt his heat at my back, his scent wrapping around me like invisible ropes. Cigar. Tobacco. Something dark and intoxicating that made my thighs slide together instinctively.

“Always,” he murmured softly.

My wetness made the movement obscene as we descended the stairs . Aradia chattered beside me, something about seating arrangements and which cousin I should avoid because he howled when he came but I barely heard her.

Because every step down those stairs felt like walking deeper into his territory.

And the wolf at my back hadn’t stopped watching.

Dinner was going to be f*****g torture.

The delicious, ruin-me kind.