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CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
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
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE
“Well, then we need to get your sister to help us,” Orsina says. I take my phone out of my pocket, but there’s no way we could call Layla from here - I don’t have any signal on my cell phone out here in the mountains.Instead, I take pictures of the stone, getting it from every angle I can and making sure I have plenty of clear photos of the engraving. “I can send these to my sister once we get back to town,” I promise. “We should get you out of here quickly then,” Orsina says. “I don’t know when my family will be back. If they see us talking, we could all be killed.”“Wait,” Jasper says. “I’m not leaving them alone to poke through my ancestral homeland while I just hang out in town. We came here to stop them in their search.”“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go up there and chase after them,” Orsina tells him. “My dad and brothers and uncles are all out hunting for the cave, and they’d destroy you.”“That’s a risk we’re willing to take,” Zach says. “I
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY SIX
Layla’s explanation of the loyalty spell contained in the stone makes a lot of sense. Jasper’s family dwindling down to a few scattered members, plus the fact that Orsina felt compelled to reach out to us wolves for help as soon as she found the stone - it all fits with what we’ve discovered.I scroll through the translation of the poem Layla sent me, trying to make sense of the rest of it. It talks about love, and the two families becoming one. Is that just a metaphor, or is there something else there? The carving itself is strange and almost magical in its ability to look like a bear from one side, and a wolf from the other. At the end of our phone call, Layla told me that she’s sure there is more to the stone, more to its magic and its meaning. She promised to keep researching, and asked me to take more close up photos of the carving next time I had it in my possession. “I really want to come out there and see it for myself,” she told me. “Where are you in Montana, exactl
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY SEVEN
Orsina doesn’t ask where Jasper plans to arrange this meeting, but from his tone, I’m pretty sure I have a good guess. Sure enough, when he calls the human attorney, Thomas Krat, he gives him the location of his family’s old den.The place where his sister was killed. Where his father came upon him, stunned and injured, half dead, still in human form. Mr. Krat sounds beyond excited to hear from Jasper, and is eager to set up the meeting. Jasper gives him the coordinates, and we plan to meet him and his clients there at 2pm in the afternoon.“Alright,” Jasper says, hanging up the phone. “It’s all set. I’ll let Zach know.”“We’ll see you there,” Orsina says with a hopeful smile. “Good luck.”“To you, too.”Jasper and I go back to our motel room to get ready. Jasper is convinced that he might have to defend me, so he runs both of us through a bunch of training routines. It feels almost like being back in the tree house, practicing various offensive and defensive exe
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY EIGHT
The bear shifters take us back to their camp. The heavy scent of bears is thick, but I can’t see Orsina. Various other bear shifters come out of their tents and campers as we approach. Zach, I see, is awake now, with bruises around his eyes and a glazed expression on his face. I stand next to him, trying to prop him up, and see Jasper doing the same thing on the other side. The three of us huddle together, our arms bound, our muscles aching after the unfair fight.A short, stocky man with a thick beard approaches us. “I am Barrett, the Alpha of this bear clan,” he declares, crossing his arms and glaring at us. “Please, you have to listen to us,” I beg, trying to get through to him. “We aren’t trying to hurt anyone. In fact, we’re trying to fix everything. Your family is under a curse -”“I’m aware,” Barrett snarls. “The curse of the filthy wolves. They’ve been stinking up our territory for generations. You have killed our family members, encroached on our lands, and stole
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The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED
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
