The Alpha's Mate

Part 1

Author's Note: This novel started with a short story that ended up selling tens of thousands of copies and has been downloaded as a freebie over 100,000 times with a 4 star review average. Readers clamored for more and so I wrote The Alpha's Mate. For continuity's sake, I'm going to start with the short story and then go into the novel.

Also I do defend my copyright and have an attorney. Steal this story at your own risk. I will come for you.

***

 I raised the wine bottle in a toast. "Happy twenty fifth birthday to me." My living room was empty, so no one answered or looked at me funny when I went on to say, "And to being run out of town." With a morose frown, I tipped the bottle back against my lips and let the fruity wine flood my mouth. Using a glass was an unnecessary formality when drinking alone.

Taking another slug from the bottle, I contemplated my immediate future. Tomorrow I would load up a moving truck and go out to make my life among humans. Even though I wasn't one. Technically. But those were the rules and I didn't belong in Huntsville. Not anymore.

A knock sounded at my door.

"Pizza's here," I said. Talking to myself kept me from being lonely. I fumbled with my purse and extracted the requisite twenty. Flinging my front door open, I accepted the box from Peter. He was seventeen with a lanky frame still waiting to fill out. He'd been my pizza guy for at least a year. "Thanks, Pete." I offered the money.

He held up his hands. "This one's on me, Miss. Stark." He looked at me with pity. He knew. Hell, they all knew. I was the talk of the town. The only null in four generations, and the horror that kept the parents of Huntsville up at night. The frightful aberration they used to make children behave.

Clean your room or you won't change either.

Eat your peas or you'll be homeless too.

I blinked and swallowed back the bitterness. "Thanks."

"Good luck, Miss Stark."

"Luck has passed me by, Pete." He didn't know what to say to that and shifted uncomfortably, staring at his feet. I saved him further discomfort by slamming the door shut, and retreating into the living room with the pizza.

I'd taken two bites when there another knock sounded at the door. I froze and furrowed my brow at the noise. The knock came again. I finished chewing and went to the door, irritation creeping up my spine.

I flung the door open a little harder than I'd intended and it bounced off the wall, forcing me to keep it from closing with my hand. "What is it, Pete?" My tone was hostile.

"Hello Chloe."

I would never mistake that deep baritone for an adolescent pizza delivery boy.

My breath caught in my throat and I looked up, up and up to meet the gaze of Jackson Swift. There are bad boys and there's badass. Jackson was very much the latter. He'd moved to Huntsville at the invitation of the pack alpha. I'd given him wide berth because staying out of pack business was expected of me and a new wolf was definitely pack business.

We'd worked together for a bit at the one bar in town. I'd waitressed there ever since I was of age, and, six months ago, he sweet talked his way into bartending. I'd seen it happen. My boss, Sheila, had swooned like a flower in a wind storm. She was putty in his hands.

Whenever we worked the same shift, he'd watched me like he was hungry and I was raw steak. It weirded me out, and I avoided him every chance I got. A few times he had even tried to talk to me, but I had just turned around and gone the other way, heat burning my cheeks. Eventually whatever interest he had in me cooled and he'd focused his attention on Allison, the bar slut. She went home with everyone.