Her Alpha Mismatch

by Emilia Hartley

  Table of Contents

  HER ALPHA MISMATCH

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Thank you!

  HER ALPHA MISMATCH

  Emilia Hartley

  © Copyright 2018 by Blues Publishing. - All rights reserved.

  The contents of this book may not be reproduced, duplicated or transmitted without direct written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Legal Notice:

  This book is copyright protected. This is only for personal use. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the author’s permission.

  NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.

  Chapter One

  Regina Woodward tossed her hair over her shoulder and laughed at her friend’s suggestion. It had taken some convincing on Nessa’s part to even get Regina into her office. Regina knew she wouldn’t find anything in the hands of a matchmaker. Love wasn’t something meant for her.

  So, when Nessa mentioned Oscar Torres as a potential match, Regina couldn’t help but laugh. He was the Alpha of the Santa Cruz pack, a man who stood upon a pedestal coated in blood. The rumors that surrounded him made him out to be some kind of Spartan warrior. They stated that he’d championed all over California and parts of Mexico to gather his pack and defeat those who’d threatened them. He’d even pushed the gangs out of his city, removing the human violence to make it a better place for everyone.

  Nessa reached for her iced coffee and took a long drag from the straw, never once breaking eye contact. The kitty-shifter wasn’t having a good day, but Regina couldn’t find it in her to care since it was Nessa’s fault she was here in the first place. If Nessa hadn’t put so much stock into finding Regina’s non-existent mate, then they would both be getting on with their lives.

  “Don’t get me wrong,” Regina began. She pulled her tube of lip gloss from her purse and spent a moment reapplying. Once she twisted the cap back onto the tube and replaced it, she met Nessa’s gaze. “You’re doing amazing things as a matchmaker in the shifter community. Both Lia and Monica are living their versions of happily ever after, and I’m happy for them.”

  “I hear a but coming.”

  Regina let out a breath through her nose. When she looked away, her eyes rove over the little paper hearts and photos of smiling couples. Her chest tightened to the point of pain. Quickly, she looked away again, trying to pull her lips into a smile.

  “Don’t worry about me, Nessa. I’ll be fine. Just toss out my folder and get back to helping other shifters.”

  Nessa’s brows came together, a look of soft concern filling her eyes. “You can’t live your life alone. That’s not healthy for shifters.”

  Regina laughed. “Says the shifter without a pack. Look, Nessa, I’m going to be fine. I have my Pack and my friends. What more could I want?”

  She watched Nessa’s lips twist to the side, something unspoken trapped behind them. Regina didn’t ask. She wanted out of this office. The walls were closing in on her. She could barely breathe. Everything was shades of red and pink. Everything reminded her that her own future was empty.

  Before Nessa could say goodbye, Regina leapt out of her seat and threw the door open. Outside, on the small patio, she gulped down breaths of fresh air. Behind the chain link fence, a doe eyed her warily. Regina’s beast was not interested in such a large quarry and the doe could tell. The creature returned to nibbling at the long grass.

  At the sound of Nessa moving in the office, Regina dashed toward the path that led back to the street. The walk to work didn’t take long, the tall hill leading down toward the library in town. There, she helped curate the children’s books and spent her early Tuesday mornings reading picture books to small children.

  Unfortunately, it was only Monday. She did not have droves of children to look forward to. There would be no smiling face, no laughter to keep her mind off the inevitability of her loneliness. She was trapped with the reminder, circling her head like a pack of vultures waiting to pick clean her spinster bones.

  She was being dramatic, of course. Regina was good at that. Nikolai had found her tiring, unable to keep up with her wild tirades. Of course, sleeping with your Alpha led to a lot of mistrust and a strange feeling of isolation since she hadn’t been able to tell anyone. Her mother would have frowned, unhappy that Regina had given her virginity to someone that wasn’t a fox—which happened long before Nikolai, even if her mother didn’t know it. If the Pack had known, things would have become awkward. They might have treated her like his mate until it ended and then…what? The fallout would have been terribly awkward and what family she had would have treated her different.

  They decided that it was better just to be friends when it was over, never to cross the boundaries of the physical again. When she’d watched Monica slowly fall in love with her former lover, Regina had been happy for both of them. She wanted them to have everything she couldn’t. Yet, the reminder of their happiness, the happiness that had failed between Nikolai and Regina, continued to be a barb in her side.

  She never told them. The idea of confessing her pain, of causing them any kind of discomfort, was appalling. It was easier to hang around Lia and Miles. While Nikolai had tried to use her to seduce Miles, there was no physical bridge between them. There’d never been any kind of emotional connection like the one she’d tried to hide from Nikolai.

  Besides, it wasn’t like she could mate with either of them anyway. She knew how it was for her kind. There was one choice. It was less about fate and more about rules. Her mother would call every week and ask her daughter when she planned on hunting down a nice fox shifter, as if that might make up for sleeping with someone who wasn’t a fox.

  Every time, Regina had to remind her mother that fox shifters didn’t just walk into everyone’s lives. She was the only fox shifter in Nikolai’s Pack since her mother left. Most of the fox families lived in the Midwest or on the East Coast. So few of them ever bothered to move any further west than that. The lifestyle was arguably more liberating than foxes liked.

  She’d tried Nessa’s matchmaking service, making it clear that she was looking for other fox shifters. Nessa did her best, but the choice pool was slim to none and it left Regina with no options. Date outside the rules or face a life of loneliness.

  Regina wasn’t sure she even wanted a fox shifter. Her experience with them left a bad taste in her mouth, from her father to the vixen boys that teased her as a child. Even her mother’s mate irritated her. He would always poke and prod at her life, asking her if she was being what he considered to be a good girl when she was clearly a woman with her own life.

  Fox shifter culture never left the fifties, Regina realized. Women were commodities, married off so they could cook, clean, and provide litters. She didn’t want any of that. What Regina wanted was a stack of old movies, shelves f
ull of books, and love. She wasn’t a caretaker or a housekeeper. She wanted to be a mother and a lover. None of those things would happen if she married a fox shifter.

  Maybe it was for the best that she pulled her profile. Nessa was never going to find Regina a match that gave her any kind of happily ever after. The whole notion belonged to story books. She would keep reading them to the kids at the library, but she wouldn’t put her own heart into them.

  Work offered her a welcome reprieve. The smell of books and ocean air surrounded her once she stepped inside. She set about prepping the space for the reading hour, collecting books and the themed displays that went with them. The best part was picking out the sticker rewards that kept them quiet while she read.

  Thoughts of mating were pushed to the back of her mind. She didn’t have to worry about that. Not if she kept working, kept moving forward.

  ***

  Oscar Torres busied his hands with making coffee. He poured a careful amount of coffee grounds into the filter, measured just the right amount of water for the reservoir. Behind him, a pair of his shifters waited on him. He liked to test their patience, but right now he needed to steady himself.

  They’d brought news of a wild shifter between his city and Big Basin. They knew little about this shifter other than it was male and causing trouble up that way. Red reported sightings of a young man wandering the streets and pilfering trash bins. Every now and then, the report would detail the young man running to hide only for someone to find a scared red fox in his place.

  Oscar sighed. He wanted to help the young man, he really did. Yet, when he finally turned around to regard his shifters, he wondered if this truly was the best place for the wild shifter. Oscar knew that Monica’s leaving was in part because of Red and Jorge. He’d raised them to be his stout defenders. They were all muscle and narrow-minds, set on upholding the protection of the Pack above all else.

  That mindset was rot in the foundation of everything he’d built. Oscar wanted to build a strong Pack, one that cared for one another with a wild fierceness. He knew they looked out for one another, but after Monica’s stabbing words, he realized that it was all superficial. He felt as though he’d used duct tape to slap the Pack together and now it was fraying.

  “What would you have us do?” Jorge asked. The shifter moved to the cupboard near Oscar to grab three mugs. “Since Monica abandoned us…”

  Oscar cut him off. “She didn’t abandon us. She left for her own happiness.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Jorge sneering. “Pack is supposed to be her happiness. There was something wrong with that one, anyway. She never wanted to be a part of our family.”

  Oscar snarled. Before he could stop himself, he grabbed Jorge by the front of his shirt and yanked him close. Oscar’s growl was swallowed by the crash of ceramic on the floor.

  “Don’t speak ill of her.” He let go of his shifter, shoving him back. “Or, anyone else in you Pack. We are a family, no matter how far we go.”

  Jorge didn’t look convinced. Oscar retreated in search of a small broom and dustpan to clean up the shattered coffee cup, leaving the two block-headed shifters to themselves. Oscar couldn’t help the soft spot he had for Monica. Over the years, he’d watched her out of the corner of his eye. He’d brought her into the Pack, helped her through the transition after her attack, and given her an outlet to drain the pain.

  No matter what he did, she continued to drift further and further from the Pack. He’d spent nights worrying over her, yet unable to approach her and ask what it was that pushed her away. He’d stayed at his post, watching it all from afar.

  He would admit that he was happy for her, but he wasn’t sure how he felt about her leaving. Of course, Nikolai’s pack was essentially around the corner. Monica wasn’t any further away than she’d always been. The only difference was that she’d found happiness in another pack.

  Oscar knew change had to come, but he didn’t have the faintest clue as to how he would get it. He wasn’t even sure he would survive it.

  When he returned, Red and Jorge were seated at the table once more. Both cradled mugs of coffee, another set on the opposite end of the round table for their Alpha. Pride swelled from the fact that they still respected him enough to meet his needs, even if it was something as small as a cup of coffee.

  They sat in silence as Oscar scooped up the shards of the broken coffee mug. Once they slid into the trash bin, Oscar spoke again.

  “Would you have me hunt down the shifter and bring him back? Do you think this is home enough for him?”

  Red cocked his head to the side, clearly not understanding the question. Jorge’s face scrunched with confusion. They were in so deep that they couldn’t see the issues right in front of them. As long as the Pack was strong, they would survive. And, the Pack was strong. Most of Oscar’s shifters were larger beasts. Both Red and Jorge were black bear shifters. There were a couple of big cats and wolves among them, too.

  Physical strength was not a thing the Pack was lacking. He worried there was another kind of strength they were all lacking.

  Chapter Two

  Regina was cleaning up fallen stickers and leftover fruit snacks when she looked up. A small herd of children rushed past the knees of one of the most imposing men she’d ever seen. Oscar Torres looked out of place in the library. Tattoos climbed out from beneath his t-shirt—no, they clawed their way out. His ink was dark and smoky, like the shade of his skin and the depths of his eyes.

  Quickly, she looked away. Heat climbed onto her cheeks. Her skin was far too fair to hide such a creeping blush, but she hoped the thin layer of make-up might. She shook her head, trying to dispel Nessa’s match offering, but it clung to her mind and only made her blush deepen.

  “To what do I owe this visit? I’m assuming you didn’t drive all this way just to have me read you a children’s story.” She spoke without turning toward him, pretending to busy herself with the task at hand—even if there was nothing else to clean.

  Oscar’s laugh was a rumble that overturned things inside her that hadn’t been touched in years. She clenched her jaw and turned away. She busied her trembling hands by replacing the books on the nearby shelves.

  “I think I’m a little to old for your group.” He came to lean against the shelf she was at, putting his face into her field of view. Her cheeks warmed more, becoming a hotplate, even though he kept a respectful distance. “Looks like I missed it, anyway.”

  “There’s another reading in a couple of hours. It’s an older crowd, eight to ten-year-olds, but I’m sure they’d still welcome you.”

  Oscar’s brows leapt. Regina found herself entranced by the small quirk at the corner of his mouth. Had she gotten a smile from Oscar Torres, the most widely feared Alpha of California? Hell, of the entire West Coast?

  No, it was nothing, she told herself. She’d imagined it.

  “I could stick around. It’s quiet here. I like it.”

  Regina laughed this time. “It’s definitely not quiet during reading hours. Children don’t subscribe to library rules and we aren’t about to enforce them.”

  He frowned. “You let them scream while you read to them? That seems a bit uncouth.”

  “No. The moment I begin reading, they know they have to be quiet. As a group, they understand that if they want to hear the story, they need to be quiet. Any other time, they’re veritable howler monkeys.”

  Oscar nodded and scratched at the scruff growing on his chin. Silence stretched between them, increasingly uncomfortable by the moment. Regina turned to go back to her job, but Oscar pushed off the shelf to follow her. He trailed behind her, through the twisting labyrinth of books, even as she climbed the stairs to her office.

  When she claimed her seat at her desk, her office-mate’s desk vacant for the moment, she turned to find Oscar in the doorway. He looked out of place, like he knew he shouldn’t be there. Still, he didn’t explain why he’d come to visit her. She had a notion that Nessa might have ca
lled. The kitty-shifter was strangely determined even though Regina had made it clear she wasn’t paying for the service anymore.

  “There’s a matchmaker in town that’s famous for pairing fated mates,” Regina began. “I visited her the other day and she had the wildest notion that my best match would be you. Can you believe the audacity?”

  Oscar’s face didn’t change. “I don’t understand. Why is that so audacious?”

  Regina fumbled, catching her guffaw before she embarrassed herself. Oscar held her gaze, unflinching while he waited for a response. She was forced to turn away from him and gather her thoughts.

  ***

  Oscar found himself entranced by the pink that darkened into blood red on her cheeks. When she turned away from him and hid her face, his eyes grazed down her pale legs. Her skin was milky white, dotted with freckles from the California sun. She dressed like a movie star from the forties, but had the sharp mind of a modern woman.

  He was amused by Nessa’s conclusion that they would be a good match. He wondered what it was that Nessa saw that made her think so. He’d seen the matchmaker work miracles on shifters, and so he trusted her judgement, but he couldn’t see what it was that she did. Regina was a lovely woman, stunning, but Oscar felt a gap widening between them.

  Regina let out a nervous laugh. “I guess you’re right. As long as you didn’t come here to ask me on a date. I told Nessa I was pulling my profile.”

  He wanted to ask why, but the question stuck in his throat. It lingered there like a lump until he gave up on it entirely. Instead, he turned the conversation toward the real reason he’d visited the library.

  “I have a problem and I thought you would have a better understanding on the subject.”

  This caught her attention. Slowly, Regina spun her seat around to face him. The blush on her cheeks had faded. He wasn’t sure if the pink that remained was nerves or if it was just make-up.