Awakening the Alpha (3 page)

Tough. She didn’t want anything to do with that life, she reminded herself again. It was too late, and the people of Wolf Valley would never forgive her. All she could do was run, hide her wolf, and try to forget what she was, or what she should have been.

Turning the radio on, she tried to fix her head in the mundane world around her. There were no shifters here, no alphas. Everything was normal; to the people who lived in her apartment block, there was no such thing as shifters. That was what she reminded herself when she parked her car and got out.

Breathing in the cool air, she took in the smell of the fast food joints, the sound of the couple arguing on the corner—no fated mates here, men and women met, hooked up for a while, and then parted. Why couldn’t she do that? Why did she have to have a mate at all? But she did have one, and right now he was probably feeling just as bad as she was.

Clutching her hand to her chest, she wondered how she was ever going to live like this. The knowledge that he was so close was overwhelming; a part of her had been ripped out and now belonged to the man she had met tonight. The thought that he was suffering like this made it ten times worse.

Trembling hands took her key from her pocket, and she only just got the door open before the first sob erupted within her. This wasn’t right, it would never be right. Slowly, the realisation dawned on her that her choice had been taken away. Fate had decided who her man was, and fate had placed him in her path. Natalie had then decided to shun fate and run. But fate was a force out of her control. It now drove a sharp stake into her heart, twisting it sharply, making sure she would never be free of it.

But she was strong, and she would live her life on her own terms.

Gritting her teeth, she went to the kitchen, put the kettle on, and made some tea. Back to the living room, she turned on the TV. She would block out the call of her mate by watching some show, or a movie. However, when she tried to settle down, her mind kept replaying the scene where he had stood before her, all that love, hope, and expectation in his eyes.

Her wolf whined, projecting his image into her head. Tall, broad, strong. Everything her wolf wanted, everything
she
wanted.

Switching the TV off, she decided to go to bed. Tomorrow she would get up early and go to work, pouring all her energy into her job at the bakery. She would get herself through this.

Cleaning her teeth, she avoided the haunted look of the woman in the mirror. Keeping her head down, she concentrated on the water going round and around in the sink before it disappeared down the plughole. That was what she wanted, her fate to be washed away, to fade away to nothing and leave her free.

Shaking her head at the unfairness of it all, she went into her bedroom and pulled the drapes to. Something caught her eye. Or someone.

Down there on the street a man stood, staring at her window. Her heart faltered:
he had found her
. Somehow, her mate had followed her back here. He had run after her and now he would move in to claim her.

The rapid beating of her heart made her feel faint. What should she do? Go down and confront him? Tell him to get lost; she didn’t want him.
But she did
. Or wait for him to break in?

Standing perfectly still, her eyes fixed on his, she waited for the hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end, for them to signal to her, that her mate was close. Nothing.

Instead, the eyes that stared up at hers were cold, with a hint of menace, and when he turned away from her and laughed, a feeling of dread crept up her back. That wasn’t her mate.

“Stop being stupid, Nat,” she told herself, “You are seeing things now. Go to bed and forget all about it.”

That didn’t happen. Her mate haunted her dreams. Her wolf ran over the dew-slickened grass, the full moon shining down on her. There in the distance, watching her was the big wolf she had met today, his dark brown coat thick and luxuriant, begging to be stroked. He came closer. She tried to tell her wolf to run, but she wouldn’t, the pull of their mate was too strong, his big amber eyes mesmerising. Her wolf whined and whimpered, rolling over on her back, submitting to the wolf.

He touched her, his nose sniffing her fur, sending a static shock across her body, and in an instant, she changed. In her human form, she lay before her wolf, her mate. The male wolf took a step back, and then the air shimmered, electricity arcing through the air. In place of the wolf stood a man, but he was blurred; she couldn’t see his face, but she wanted him all the same.

He reached out to her, but when he touched her, she woke.

“Damn it.” Her alarm was loud in her ears, and she fumbled to switch it off, wanting to lie down and recapture her dream, but it had gone and she had to get up for work. If she was late, then the bakery would have no cakes or bread and she would be out of a job.

The sun hadn’t yet risen. She dressed quickly by the light of her lamp. All the time, the feeling of unease that had accompanied her when she looked out the window the night before remained. When she threw open the drapes, she half expected the strange man to be there, staring at her window, but the street was empty.

It didn’t stop her heart beating hard, with an undercurrent of fear, as she walked to work. Her wolf stayed close, ready to spring forth and protect them. Natalie soothed her. If she changed, it would give them away, and she still clung to the hope she would be able to forget what happened yesterday and carry on with her life here.

But her wolf didn’t agree. As it lay whimpering in the corner of her mind, she knew it was going to be a long day. A thumping pulse in her temple told her she was about to get a headache, but this was one day and she would survive it.

“Come on, Sol, I want to go into town.” Riley was up and dressed, breakfast was made, and now he needed his brother to get a move on so he could go and question Kira.

“I want to go and see the puppies,” Sol answered petulantly, sitting down and digging in to his cereal.

“We can go after we’ve been to town. I need to speak to Kira and then go to the hardware store. Maybe you can even visit the pet store and see if there are some puppy treats. If not, then we could get a treat for the puppies’ mom. How about that?”

“Yello would like that.” Sol looked happier and ate faster.

“That the mom’s name? Yello?”

“Uh-huh. Fara called her that because she always has to yell for her to come back.”

Riley laughed. “What you going to call your pup?” Riley asked, feeling in such a good mood even the thought of Sol having a puppy running around the house didn’t seem so bad.

“Not sure. Bacon, maybe cookie.”

“Two of your favourite things. I like it.” Riley hummed to himself as he washed up the breakfast dishes; he mentally made a list of the things they did need in town. The trip wasn’t all about his mate.

Who was he kidding? It was
all
about his mate. Everything else was inconsequential now. His sole goal was to find out who she was and persuade her to be his. Hell, she already was his. He just had to convince her to let him into her life. And her bed. Most definitely her bed.

“Ready,” Sol said, returning to the kitchen, washed and dressed.

“You look good.”

Sol smiled happily. “Fara told me I have to look after myself first, if I’m going to be responsible for a puppy.”

“Did she? Sensible lady. You have to prove to her you are going to take good care of that pup, or she might chase after you. I’m sure the old woman has a wolf lurking under her skin.”

“A big black wolf. She told me. She said that she would run with me one day if her old hip didn’t play her up so much.”

“She likes you, Sol.”

“I like her. She lets me feed the animals.”

“Then let’s go into town, get what we need, and then you can go and help her some more. I am going to start painting her house today.” Unless he got a lead on his mate’s whereabouts, in which case he would be too busy and the painting would have to wait...

“Great,” Sol said and was out of the door and into the truck before Riley even asked him to. This was getting easier and easier. Before Fara, it would have taken several attempts to get Sol to be compliant enough for them to go anywhere without a danger of him running off. Riley had found it easier than he thought to look after his brother alone.

Which was a good job; Cole and Kira had been working some long, hard hours to get things straight in Wolf Valley. And Kira was busy making Hugo’s house into a den for the baby that was on the way.

His family were doing all right. That was what he was thinking as he drove into Wolf Valley, seeing the buildings on the outskirts, some still shut up, others having a new coat of paint and new windows. The town was starting to come together; word had gotten around that the law was back to being on the side of the victim, not the perpetrator. All they needed was a new alpha.

And Riley knew just the man for the job.

No. That wasn’t the only reason he wanted to find his mate. Although he couldn’t deny he would like having some authority in town, instead of being seen as the black wolf of the family. Since Cole became Kira’s mate, and deputy, it seemed the rest of Wolf Valley was too quick to jump to conclusions and think that it was Riley who had been the mastermind behind the raids, and had somehow dragged an unwitting Cole into them.

In short, Cole was the darling of Wolf Valley, and Riley couldn’t help feeling jealous.

“Well, look at you, all smart in your uniform,” Riley teased Cole as he walked in to the sheriff’s office. “You have a collar and leash back there too?”

“Morning to you too, Riley. Sol, how are you doing?” Cole smiled and went to hug his younger brother.

“Can I try your hat on, Cole?” Sol asked.

“Sure. Here.” He put his hat on Sol’s head and then said to him, “You’d better let Riley have a turn later. You know he wants one of his own. Just too proud to admit it.”

“I am not in the business of law enforcement, not unless it’s as the new alpha.”

“Well, for that you need your mate,” Cole said, and then added, “Even then, it’s not a forgone conclusion it’s going to be you.”

“Who else is it going to be? I am the last Merric child not to have a mate. Of course it will be me.”

“You forget about Sol,” Cole said winking.

“That is not funny.”

“How do you know he won’t be the next alpha?” Cole teased.

“You just can’t stand the thought of it being me, can you?” Riley said, his temper rising.

“Are you sassing my deputy, Riley?” Behind them, Kira had walked in. “Because as sheriff I have the authority to make this a sass-free zone if it impacts on my deputy’s work.”

“Morning, Sheriff.” Riley grinned at Kira and pulled her into a warm embrace, kissing her on the cheek. “Sorry. It’s been a tough day.”

“It’s only nine thirty, how tough can things be? Sol didn’t run off again?” She gave Sol a hug. “The hat suits you, Sol.”

“No. Nothing like that,” Riley assured her.

“Riley’s mate ran off without saying hello,” Sol said absently, looking at himself in the faint reflection of the window.

“Damn it, are you all ganging up on me?” Riley shook his head at Sol.

“This true, Riley?” Cole asked, no longer teasing his older brother.

“Yes. Met her last night on the mountain.” A knife punched a hole in his heart at the thought of living without her, and the intense need to find her, to be with her, consumed him. It took all his self-control to keep himself focused on what Cole was saying.

“Why did she run off?” Kira asked.

Riley shrugged. “I have no idea. I went for a run last night, and we saw each other. She was some way off on the north side of the mountain. I was a wolf, she was a woman.”

“So she’s human; she probably just didn’t understand what you were.”

“No. She knew all right, because when she turned tail and ran … well, she turned wolf. I chased her; eventually she let me catch up with her. I changed into a man—you know, I wanted to talk. She ran off. Got in her car and drove away.” He struggled to keep his sentences straight; he was going to be a mumbling idiot if he didn’t find her.

“Definitely the right woman?” Cole asked.

“Absolutely, took my heart and my soul with her.” Riley smiled sadly, and Kira came up to him and hugged him. “You have any idea who she was? Someone from town maybe that knows of your … past.”

“You mean the fact that the whole of Wolf Valley is happy to blame the raids on me has made my mate run away?” Riley asked, his hand going into his pocket and pulling out the pendant when the others didn’t answer his question. “She dropped this.”

Kira went pale and took it from his hand. “You sure?”

“Yes. You look as if you’ve seen a ghost. Don’t tell me my mate is dead and was haunting me on the mountain.” Riley was genuinely worried by Kira’s reaction.

“Not exactly. But she did leave Wolf Valley years ago.” Her finger rubbed over the tooth dangling on the end of the pendant. “I’ll write down the name of the town and the only address I have for her. But the trail might well be stone cold.”

“Hang on. You’re the sheriff. So can’t you access some kind of database to find her address?” Riley asked.

“You know, I keep forgetting about things like that,” Cole said hopefully.

“But it’s for personal, not professional reasons. I don’t know if we should,” Kira insisted.

“I think it would be worth it just this time. If Riley does find his mate, then there is a chance he could become the alpha of Wolf Valley and we won’t have to put up with the trouble the bikers are causing.”

“You’re experiencing trouble? I thought that was all in the past now, with you two running things.” Riley noticed an exchange in looks between Cole and Kira. “Come on, spill. I won’t tell anyone. Nobody talks to me much anyway, they all still think I’m the bad guy, remember?”

Cole nodded to Kira, agreeing to share the details. “The old motorcycle gang is causing trouble. We think Frasier is behind it.”

“You mean the old sheriff? Figures he wouldn’t leave without a fight. Well, except the one you had with him.” Riley remembered only too well seeing Cole on the ground, looking beat, while the sheriff let his guard down. His brother had punched him in the face, finishing the fight and Frasier’s term as law enforcement in Wolf Valley, all in one go.