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CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY EIGHT
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY NINE
We keep talking during the drive. Isaac is driving, with Regan by his side in the passenger seat. Jasper sits in the back, with me, staring out the window. Once Regan is done talking, Isaac tells us his story. He was raised by a single dad, also a mercenary. He never grew up with a pack or anything like that. Isaac tells us about how he felt when he met Regan, a shifter with ties to a strong pack with a long history.Regan reaches over and takes his hand as he talks about what it was like to be around her at first, to want her desperately, to know that she was his mate, but too frightened to pursue anything. “I didn’t think I was meant to be with anyone,” Isaac explains. “I’d never seen my dad with a mate or anything like that. But I wanted so badly to be part of Regan’s life.”“We did a lot of awful things together,” Regan whispers, “but I can see now that we were just trying to be with each other, no matter what.”“Those shifters in Arizona,” Isaac says. “They wanted
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY
Dinner was late, and as we finish it, the sun is already fully gone. The stars are twinkling in the sky, and it’s dark throughout the tree house.There’s been no sign of Jasper. Isaac and Regan decide to light a fire in the fireplace and sit together on the couch, but I don’t really feel like joining them.The last time I was snuggled up on that sofa in front of a roaring fire after sunset, it was with Sterling. We were talking about becoming mates, and we had a whole future ahead of us.Now that there’s no more work to be done for the day, and nothing left to distract me, my heart is feeling heavy. I miss Sterling, and this whole place reminds me of him.I say goodnight to Isaac and Regan and slip off to my rooms. There’s the bed where I slept as Sterling watched over me all night. There’s the balcony where he stood guard, keeping me safe and letting me relax. There are the blankets we covered ourselves up with, making a cozy little cave to snuggle the day away afterwa
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY ONE
It takes us a few weeks to get fully settled in the Santa Cruz tree house. The plan is for Jasper to take over all of Sterling’s operations, with me at his side to help out, and Isaac and Regan as the first team members for the new project.After a plenty of work, and a bunch of phone calls to Sterling’s brother Greyson to get all the security codes that we need, we’re ready to re-open the doors.Sterling’s mission was to train shifters, especially those serving as Alphas and Betas, in combat, stealth, scouting, and defensive strategies. So the first thing we do is gather the shifters who were training under him when he disappeared.Jasper wants a chance to re-introduce himself to everyone as the new leader, so Isaac and Regan are helping host a huge bonfire and barbecue out on the beach. We’ve invited a bunch of local shifters, and everyone whose contact information we could find in Sterling’s most recent records.The evening of the bonfire, I throw on a dark gray hoodie a
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY TWO
The crowd laughs and jeers as Jasper leaves. They seem to think they’ve won some kind of victory. As Jasper heads off by himself, someone hits play on a boom box they’ve brought, and loud hip hop music starts blasting. It becomes a loud party, shifters dancing and shouting, after Jasper disappears.But I’m not interested in a party. I follow Jasper. He’s moving quickly, and I’m struggling to keep up and follow his scent. Then I remember that I can shift now. In wolf form, he’s easy to find. I catch up with him sitting on a flat boulder, resting his elbows on his knees, staring out into the darkness.I return to my human form as I approach. “Hi,” I say gently, sitting down on the boulder beside him. Around us, the redwoods tower and the air buzzes with the sound of insects. In the distance, we can hear the party music and smell the cooking barbecue.“You don’t have to be here,” Jasper mumbles. “You can go have fun at the party.”“I wouldn’t have any fun hanging out with
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THREE
I don’t know why Jasper stopped kissing me. I want to understand what’s going on with him - we seem to have a strong connection, but all he does is deny it and avoid me.I go back to the party, hoping to find him there, but he’s nowhere to be found. I hang out with Isaac and Regan, introducing them to the other fighters I know from my time with Sterling, and eat a few burgers before the bonfires start to fade and the party dies down.The next day, I look for Jasper, hoping to get a chance to talk with him about what happened. I go into the kitchen, but he’s already made his breakfast and gone down to the beach for a run. I can see him through the tree house’s tall windows, racing back and forth on the beach, swapping methodically between his wolf form and human form to get the right muscle conditioning.I decide to wait for him to come back in for lunch, but when he does, he has his workout headphones in, still blasting music. He grabs a protein smoothie from the fridge and di
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FOUR
Jasper looks startled - which makes sense, considering we basically just ambushed him. Regan says a chipper goodbye and leaves with Isaac, giving Jasper no choice but to follow me into the gym room.“So,” I say, flipping open the binder, “it looks like we need to find the serial number for each piece of equipment and write it down here, then find the warranty paperwork for that thing, and put the expiration date right here.”“Okay,” Jasper says, looking around the gym like it’s the first time he’s ever seen it. “You know, I could probably do this by myself, if you have other stuff you want to do.”“Nah,” I say, “I’m happy to help out! This business is mine as much as yours, and I don’t want to leave you to do all the work.”“Right,” Jasper mumbles. “Well, I have awful handwriting anyway, so maybe you should write the stuff down while I figure out where the serial numbers are on these things.”“Sounds great!”We head over to the first piece of equipment, a squat rack s
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FIVE
“Jasper, wait!” I follow him out of the gym and down the wood paneled hallways of the tree house. I can’t let this opportunity slip away from me. I might not get another one.Jasper goes into Sterling’s rooms, where he’s been living since we all moved in to the tree house. This wing of the tree house is dark, like Jasper hasn’t been willing to turn on the lights. Looking around, I can see that he’s left everything nearly the same as Sterling had it. It doesn’t look like Jasper has done anything to make the space more comfortable for him, or personalized it for himself.I find Jasper in his bedroom, sitting on the edge of the perfectly made bed, his hands on his knees. “Jasper,” I say, stepping in to the bedroom. “Please. Just talk to me. What’s going on?”“I don’t want to talk about it,” Jasper snaps. “But I do,” I plead. “I’ve always wanted to know who you are. Where you come from. You won’t share anything about your past, and you keep me at arm’s length all the time.
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY SIX
As we snuggle up on the bed, I let myself get lost in the sensation of Jasper so close to me. His scent, his touch, his warmth. He seems to be enjoying my scent too, pressing his nose into the crook of my neck and inhaling. It tickles and I giggle a bit, which makes him raise his head and give me a questioning smile.“Is this okay?” Jasper asks, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.“More than okay,” I tell him. “This is exactly what I hoped for.”He raises his eyebrows. “You were planning this?”“Thinking about it, at least.” “I think about you a lot too,” Jasper admits.“Well, now you can do more than just think about me,” I tease, lifting my head to kiss him again. But we’re interrupted by a strange sound - someone is pounding on the tree house door and leaning on the security buzzer. “What?” Jasper sits up, rubbing his face like he’s just been yanked from a pleasant dream. “Who could that be?”“Probably just Isaac and Regan,” I grumble, standing
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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
