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CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY SIX
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY SEVEN
“What was that all about?” I ask, but Jasper isn’t listening. He’s already in his bedroom, hauling out his scuffed up suitcase from beneath the bed and frantically tossing all his stuff into it.“I’ve got to go,” Jasper says, shoving a pile of workout shirts into the suitcase. “You and Regan and Isaac can watch over things here for a while.”“Where are you going?” I feel despair slice through my heart at the thought of being separated from Jasper, especially now, after we just decided to start spending more time together and letting ourselves grow closer. “Montana,” Jasper says, which doesn’t really give me any kind of an answer. “I’ll be fine. I’ll come back when I can. You be in charge while I’m gone.”“I want to come with you,” I plead. “Let me help. I can be on your side - we’re partners, remember?”“Not in this. This is old stuff. Personal stuff. Has nothing to do with the business.”“But the lawyer came here,” I protest. “He got me involved. Now you can’t say i
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY EIGHT
We drive for days, leaving the misty redwoods of Santa Crus and heading into the dry, dusty deserts of Nevada. Pale scrub brush the color of my straw blonde hair stretches out in all directions, waving in the desert wind. Then we hit the cliffs and canyons of Idaho, spending one night in Twin Falls, where we fall asleep to the heavy roar of the waterfall just outside our cabin room.I like riding with Jasper - even Regan herself couldn’t have put together such a perfect opportunity for us to hang out and talk. I tell him about Layla, and some of the funnier predicaments we found ourselves in. He opens up a bit and tells me about a few of his adventures from his mercenary days. It’s obvious that there’s still a lot he’s holding back, but the more time we spend together, the more his walls come down. We pass through Yellowstone, where herds of elk tempt our inner wolves’ hunting instincts. Jasper mentions that his family used to vacation in the area, and suggests that we get out a
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY NINE
“You go first,” Jasper snaps at the other shifter who has just burst into our motel room.“Why me? You go first.”“I don’t care who goes first,” I shout, “just as long as one of you tells me what’s actually going on here.”“Fine,” Jasper sighs, sitting down on the other bed, refusing to look at me or the other shifter. “That’s Zach Whismore. He’s my cousin.”“Though you wouldn’t know it,” Zach grumbles, “based on the fact that you ran off and abandoned the family.”“I did what I had to do,” Jasper snaps. “I was trying to protect you.”Zach snorts. “Some protection you offered, running around in California being a mercenary. Do you know how many more of us have been killed since you disappeared?”Color rises in Jasper’s cheeks again, and he clenches his fists against the motel bedsheets. “What makes you think me sticking around would have stopped any of that?”“Well now we’ll never know,” Zach huffs.“Okay, okay,” I say. “I hate to interrupt whatever weird fam
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY
We finish our dinner, and Zach says his goodbyes. We make a plan to meet with him the next morning at a breakfast diner in town. Zach says it’s owned and operated by humans, and it’s uncommon for the bear shifters to hang around there. Jasper cleans up after dinner while I get ready for bed. Even though the motel room has two beds, we end up snuggled up together in the same one. Jasper rests an arm around me and I settle my head on his chest, breathing in his scent. It’s gotten stronger since we arrived at his ancestral homeland, and I can feel myself being even more drawn to him than usual.We turn out the lights, but I’m not exactly ready to go to sleep. I lift my head and give Jasper a kiss, stroking his cheek with one hand. Then I work up the courage to ask him the question that’s been burning in my mind ever since Zach arrived. “Jasper, can I ask…why did you leave Serpent Creek in the first place?”Jasper sighs, a heavy movement. He wraps his arms around me and nuzzl
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY ONE
Jasper is quiet for a while, having finished his story. He seems tired, like telling me all that has exhausted him somewhat. But he also seems relieved, like he’s been able to put down a heavy weight that he was carrying.I let the silence envelop us for a bit, then ask him one last question. “Jasper,” I whisper, “is that why you didn’t want to be my mate? Because you’re worried that since you couldn’t protect your sister, you wouldn’t be able to protect me?”Jasper hesitates for a moment, then his answer comes, a whisper even softer than mine. “Yes.”“Oh, Jasper,” I say, rubbing his back. “Just because of one tragic event in your past, that doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve to be mated, or that you wouldn’t be an amazing mate for someone out there.”“If you say so,” Jasper murmurs. “My dad always told me that since I was so obsessed with being like a human, that I wasn’t a real wolf. I figured any wolf shifter wouldn’t want someone like that to mate with.”“Hey,” I sa
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY TWO
We wake up at the same time the next morning, stretching and tugging open the motel curtains to let the sunlight in. In the daylight, the damage done by Jasper and Zach’s fight the evening before makes me wince. “I hope they don’t charge us for this,” I say, picking up a broken piece of the treasure chest lamp.Jasper just shrugs. “In a town with feuding wolf and bear shifters, there’s a lot of property damage. The humans just seem to go with it.”“Huh.” Maybe things are different in a rural mountain town out here in Montana. I do my best to tidy up our room, then Jasper and I get dressed and showered before heading out to the diner.It’s called the Rocking Ranch All Day Breakfast Diner, a mouthful of a name that’s painted on a peeling yellow sign above the low brick building. Jasper and I slide into a booth with cracked, faux leather seats and page through the sticky, laminated menu pages. “I wonder where Zach is,” I ask, glancing around the restaurant. There are some
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY THREE
Not only is Zach not in his cabin, the whole place looks like it’s been ransacked. It’s far messier than our motel room was this morning, and it looks like a much more vicious struggle took place. The small table in the kitchen has been knocked over, and the dresser drawers have been dumped out.Jasper stands in the center of the wreckage, anger and grief plain on his face.“It’s alright, Jasper,” I say, placing a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll find him.”“Do you smell that?” Jasper asks, his voice low and serious. “Bears. Bear shifters.”I sniff the air, and sure enough, there’s a thick, strange scent in the room, one that doesn’t smell like any wolf shifter I’ve ever been near. “They took him,” Jasper says, nearly quaking with rage. “Again. It’s happened again. I can’t believe I’ve let this happen - let them take yet another member of my family.”“It’s not your fault,” I insist. “You couldn’t have known, or prevented this.”“I shouldn’t have let him out of my sigh
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FOUR
Jasper seems to know exactly where he’s going, and all I need to do is keep up. It’s not hard to stay at a full sprint, since it feels so good. The wind in my fur, the mountain air rushing past my snout, the ground firm and sure under my paws - it’s a fantastic experience.We leap down rocky ravines, jump over clear babbling creeks, launching our powerful bodies down the mountain. We reach the valley in between, a relatively flat meadow filled with golden prairie grasses and tiny wildflower blossoms. I smell their fragrant aroma, as well as the birds nesting among the grasses.But this isn’t just a fun adventure. Ahead of me, Jasper is determined, his snout close to the ground as he follows the scent trail of the bear clan. Occasionally he lifts his head, his ears pricked up, listening to the wind and getting a better sense of where we are. He seems to know this land like the back of his paws, and I feel sure footed and confident following in his trail. As we start to leave t
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Damian is a healthy baby, well loved, and by the time he’s a few months old, it’s obvious that Jasper and I don’t need to stick around in Serpent’s Creek. The mansion is nearly full to bursting with wolf and bear shifters excited to be part of this new family and to dote on the precious baby whose existence symbolizes a fresh start for everyone.Jasper mentions going home to Santa Cruz a few times before I’m happy about it, though. I tell him that Orsina could still use my help, or that there’s still some magic I want to learn from Clara. He sees right through my excuses, though. “Are you nervous and going back to live somewhere with those guys in the basement?” Jasper asks me one evening, sliding his hands around my waist to nibble at my earlobes as he asks. “Maybe,” I say. “Now that he’s not a rabbit anymore, and he’s seen me and spoken to me, and he’s already gotten out once -”“He didn’t get out,” Jasper reminds me. “We let him think he escaped.”“I know, but he th
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY NINE
My eyes fall shut easily, after such a long day. But I don’t sleep very deeply. Instead, I get caught up in a long, complex dream.In the dream, I’m back in the celestial realm, standing in the same dungeon cage that Coello used to keep me in. Sterling is there, too, walking up to me with those piercing gray eyes and that familiar smile. “Hello,” he says. He leans in to kiss me, and I think that the bars will prevent him from being able to, but he just passes right through. I feel his hands on my face, his lips on mine, and he kisses me for a long time.When I open my eyes after the kiss, I’m no longer in the cage. Now, Sterling and I are standing on top of the massive tower where we found him, high up above the rest of the celestial realm. But when I look out, I don’t see the rolling, starlit darkness of the celestial realm. I see the golden yellow plains of Montana, the valley that stretches out around Serpent’s Creek.“Where are we?” I ask, feeling strangely dizzy.
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY EIGHT
Clara and Zach arrive soon enough, and we all go careening up the mountain. With Clara behind the wheel, we get back to the house in record time. Orsina is sweating now, her breaths coming heavy and hard, and Zach has to help her out of the truck and into her room.“Can you shift?” Clara asks her, gently lowering the laboring mother down into her bed. “It’s so much easier if you shift.”“I think so,” Orsina says. She squeezes her eyes shut, holding her breath. It takes a few tries, but soon she’s a bear, curled up on top of the quilts in her bedroom.“Perfect, perfect,” Clara coos. “There you go, mama bear.”“Could that cause a problem for the baby?” Zach asks, hovering in the doorway. Clara asked him to bring towels, and he’s already brought twice as many as we’ll need, but he has yet another armful. I don’t even know where he’s getting them from, at this point. Even a mansion like this can only hold so many towels.“What do you mean?” Clara asks, her voice calm and unf
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY SEVEN
When we call home to let Regan and Isaac know what’s going on, they’re thrilled to hear that Barrett is okay and that Zach and Orsina have a safe place to land. They tell us that Howling Wolf is doing amazingly well - after so many volunteers and friends came to help us with the battle, we’ve gotten tons more clients in the shifter world, and we’ve been able to hire a handful of new employees.Since they seem to have things well in hand, Jasper and I decide to stay in Montana. We set up in one of the westward facing bedrooms, next door to Zach and Orsina. Clara and Bennett take an upstairs bedroom, smaller but cozier and with more privacy. With Weston defeated and his supporters scattered after our Santa Cruz victory, the rest of the bear clan needs a leader and a place to stay. Through a peaceful process, Clara and Barrett become the Alpha and Luna for the bear clan. Bear clans don’t typically refer to their Alpha’s mates as a “Luna,” but Clara is a wolf, and the title just see
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY SIX
“Barrett!” Orsina rushes to his side, laying a hand over his forehead. He lifts his head weakly at her voice, then his eyes spark with recognition.“Orsina…” he croaks, his eyes fluttering shut again. “Help…”Everything then happens in a flurry of activity. Clara sends everyone but Orsina out of the room, giving each of us specific directions. Jasper is sent to get a bowl of hot water and towels, I’m supposed to find a medicine kit under the sink in the kitchen, and Zach is told to go secure the perimeter of the house, especially the rear door.I return with the medicine chest in my arms. It smells familiar, full of the healing herbs and magical potions Layla often uses. It’s also got modern medical stuff like clean white bandages and stitching kits.Clara instantly sets about getting Barrett to sit up. She holds a glass of water to his lips, encouraging him to drink and take a handful of pills and capsules she’s picked out of the medicine chest. She works on Barrett fo
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY FIVE
We barely have time to process everything Clara has told us before she’s packing us a picnic dinner and ushering us out the door. We pile into her battered, ancient Jeep, which is almost definitely running more on shifter magic than gasoline at this point, and she heads out toward the mountains. “So, uh,” Orsina asks, after a bit of silence, “does that mean this is, like…you?” She rolls up her sleeve to show the tattoo mark of the wolf that appeared on her arm after the spirits from the carving gave their blessing.“It is perhaps an image of me,” Clara says in her cryptic way as she careens up the switchbacking roads. “Or, perhaps it is another manifestation of my spirit. There have been many over the years.”“What about your beloved?” Orsina asks. “The bear shifter you fell in love with. Where is he?”“That is a lovely question,” Clara says softly. “At times, we have found each other. At other times, our spirits have been far from one another. Since the curse took a deep
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY FOUR
It takes Malcolm and Coello a little while to accept the reality of their new situation - that Malcolm is irreversibly bound to Coello, and that Coello is bound to us by virtue of some very powerful magic Layla cooked up for us. They snarl and fight, argue and wheedle, and even try to bust out of their chains by brute force. But nothing works. We’ve won. Malcolm and Weston are both banished to cells in the basement, very far apart to prevent them trying to scheme together. Maybe someday we’ll have another use for them, but for now, it’s a breath of fresh air to know that my biggest enemy, and the biggest enemy of my pack, are both completely neutralized. I had hoped that we would be able to relax and settle down for a bit now that this problem has been solved. In fact, we had a lovely day after the battle, with all our friends and volunteers and former trainees lounging on the beach and splashing around in the cool water.But something is bothering Orsina. She paces, agitate
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY THREE
The Moon Rabbit doesn’t waste any time once Malcolm agrees to the binding spell. With quick, almost spider like hands, Coello spreads the stalks and herbs out on the rocky beach, fluttering them into complex shapes. I stand on my tiptoes, peering out from behind my hiding place. Coello’s form of magic is rough and brutish, nothing like the delicate work Layla does. But it does the job. Malcolm steps over the edges of the intricate shape Coello has created on the ground, and even I can feel the burst of intense magic that snaps through the air as the spell takes effect. “I look forward to having you in my service,” Coello says with a low bow. “For now, however, I must depart. Do enjoy your newfound power.”Malcolm smiles, flexing his hands like he can somehow feel himself getting stronger. Then the two separate, Coello sneaking back into the tree house before anyone catches him outside.I’m surprised, but not entirely so. Some of us thought Coello would try to get as far a
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY TWO
The various wolf shifters staying with us to help out have been instructed not to speak with the Moon Rabbit, but to keep a close eye on him. Coello soon gives up trying to draw them into conversation and instead just wanders around the busy tree house, doing what he clearly thinks is subtle reconnaissance in preparation for his escape attempt. What he doesn’t know is that his ability to slip out of here isn’t going to be the result of his own careful cleverness. It will be perfectly engineered by me and my team, right down to the very moment. It’s early afternoon when we get the signal. We’ve had scouts placed in inconspicuous locations all around the forest and the town of Santa Cruz watching for any sigh of Malcolm or Weston. Sure enough, they roll into town with a huge entourage of bear shifters and werewolves. Our scouts say that they’ve set up a campsite near the beach about a mile south from our location, and that Malcolm is heading our way on his own, apparently to chec
