by E A Price
The Alpha’s Mate (Book 2, Grey Wolf Pack Romance Novellas)
By E A Price
Copyright ©2014 by Elizabeth Ann Price
All rights reserved. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.
Disclaimer
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Table of Contents
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
Epilogue
Next Up
Chapter One
26th September
Rosalee Bennett dropped her suitcase to the floor and spun around the room slowly, trying to take it all in. She was stood in the living room of Iris Bennett’s house. Although technically now it was her house.
It was a masterpiece of chintzy furniture, faded floral patterns and tacky porcelain figures. Shelves wrapped around the walls and were filled to bursting point with huge, old dusty books. It was definitely an old lady house.
She wrinkled her nose in thought. There was something off about the room. What was it? A TV! There was no TV.
She investigated the other rooms. A dining room filled with a massive table surrounded by eight high backed chairs, it looked like was borrowed from a medieval castle, and there were yet more books. There was a large much used kitchen which held an unbearably strong smell of disinfectant. Thank god she wasn’t much of a cook, she would avoid that room as much as possible. She had a downstairs bathroom that, unlike the other rooms which hadn’t been decorated since about 1977, actually looked new . There was a small laundry room that for some reason held a washer dryer and a mangle – god she hoped the washer dryer worked. There was no way she would use a mangle.
Finally there was a small office, or at least what she thought was an office. There was no computer, printer, paper shredder, file cabinet or anything else a normal office would have. Instead there was a huge mahogany desk with a battered green leather wing back chair. The surface was empty save for, strangely enough, a magnifying glass. She picked it up and twisted it in her hands. Iris Bennett was certainly old fashioned.
She had never met Iris. She didn’t know of her existence until two days ago when she had been approached by a very harassed looking lawyer. He had been searching for her and apparently resented the fact that she had moved to a different city four times in the past year.
He explained that Iris, who was in fact her grandmother, had died and left her house and possessions to Rosalee. This included a moderately large sum of money to be split between her and her mother Violet who was Iris’ daughter.
Rosalee frowned again thinking of her mother. Her whole life her mother had never talked about their family. At one time Rosalee had been curious and had asked about grandparents and her father, but Violet had broken apart and cried. She begged Rosalee never to ask her again. Rosalee not wanting to hurt her had complied. Anyway, she figured that if any of her family members had wanted to see her they would have made the effort to find her. Who needed them?
It had always been the two of them. And to be honest Rosalee liked it that way. They were more like sisters, fiercely protective of one another and always ready with advice and a shoulder to cry on.
Rosalee went back to the living room and chewed her bottom lip. Had her mother really grown up here? It was a lot better than the hell hole she had imagined over the years, but there something almost suffocating about this place.
Judging by the dusty tomes of books Iris was also a witch. Rosalee had grown up knowing that her mother had some magic, it was never a secret. So it wasn’t surprising Iris would be one too. Rosalee on the other hand was just plain old fashioned human. Couldn’t cast a spell to save her life. Violet had never cared about it, and rarely used magic herself, so it had never really come up much through their lives.
Violet preferred to live as a human. She had only used small spells every now and again, such as a glamour spell to conceal a blemish and to stop it raining on her new suede shoes. Violet was quite adept at manipulating weather. All witches could cast spells using words to varying degrees of success but each had some kind of innate ability that needed no words.
She pulled her phone out of her pocket and tried to call her mother again. It went straight to voicemail again. Since finding out about this place she had tried to call and text Violet dozens of times. All without reply.
Inheriting this place could not have come at a better time. She was in between jobs whilst waiting for a call from her temp agency, she had split with her latest boyfriend and the rent on her apartment was about to double thanks to new management who were trying to drive the tenants out. It was the perfect time to relocate. Things had worked out well. Well not so much for Iris.
On hearing the news she had asked the agency to take her off their books, given notice on her apartment and had given all of her exes belongings he had forgotten to take with him to charity. Cheating butthole. She had packed up her beetle with all her belongings and had headed to the town of Rose.
She wondered at her mother partially naming her after the town she couldn’t even bear to talk about. Driving through it had seemed like such a quiet and sweet little place. Hard to believe her grandmother had been murdered here. The lawyer had been sketchy about the details but he had intimated that it had been pretty bad.
She sighed and she sent yet another text to her absent mother. CALL ME ASAP – IT’S URGENT. I’M IN ROSE, VA!!! XXX. Violet was a moderately successful travel writer and liked to travel all over seeking new subjects. Sometimes she was gone for weeks at a time. Usually she answered the damn phone though!
Rosalee worked as a part-time temp to cover bills but really she was an artist. She had a little success over the years, selling her work to some local art galleries but generally she sold the most at craft fairs. She’d had a few commissions come up as well, usually just dogs and cats. People loved their pets more than their children.
Rosalee explored the upstairs and found four bedrooms and two more bathrooms. Three of the bedrooms looked like they hadn’t been touched in years and contained dozens of books stacked up to the ceiling. The fourth was obviously Iris’ room; the bed was still turned down, almost like it was waiting for Iris to come home.
She sat on the stairs, resting her elbows on her knees. The wall leading upstairs was covered in various paintings but oddly enough no photos. In fact there were no photos throughout the whole of the house. There was no evidence to suggest her mother had ever lived here, no baby pictures, no embarrassing school pictures, no vacation snaps.
Most of the paintings were dull watery landscapes but two caught her eye. One was of a landscape in Mexico and the other was a busy street scene in New Jersey. They were instantly recognisable to her, she’d painted both of them.
She didn’t know anything about her grandmother, but clearly Iris knew about her. Strange that she never tried to make contact.
Rosalee decided she could hang around here for a while, get the house in order and se
ll it. Her mind raced at the thought of all the places she could go and the things she could do with the money. A sharp twinge of guilt assaulted her that her happiness came at the expense of a blood relation. But there was nothing she could do about the poor woman’s death, and besides Iris wanted her to have this.
Her stomach grumbled breaking her reverie. It had been hours since she’d grabbed a burger at a roadside cafe. She was starving. She braced herself and went looking for food in the kitchen. It was cleaned out. Whoever had cleaned up had got rid of anything edible as well.
Only one thing for it. She would go into town and get some supplies. It was 4.30pm. As she drove in she’d spotted a pizza parlour, perhaps she could get some take out. She could quickly unload her car, set up her TV, and be there and back before it got dark.
She surveyed herself in the hallway mirror. She was a bit travel weary and felt a bit grubby but she was tired and didn’t really care what these small town people thought of her. She pulled her hair back and fastened it into a fashionably messy bun on the top of her head. Gingerly she sniffed her armpits. Hey, when you’re travelling it’s not always possible to be a lady!
Hmmm, no time to shower. She retrieved her perfume from her suitcase and doused herself liberally with it, the rose scent lingered on her skin and she inhaled the sweet scent. There, that’ll do.
*
Adam Grey, the Alpha of the Grey wolf pack, stacked his shopping trolley with beer. Acksel, his Chief Enforcer and Alec his Beta, were coming over to his house later that night to discuss pack business. In the last couple of weeks a local witch Emerald Cole had murdered fellow witch Iris Bennett, and then she herself been put down by the pack whilst trying to attack his Beta’s new mate Liv. It had been intense so he figured things would go a little better with a little liquid relaxation.
Not that Alec would actually partake. Since mating with Liv he had barely drunk a drop of alcohol and certainly hadn’t been seen in the local pack owned bar. But then why would he want to go out when he could be at home with his luscious pregnant mate?
Adam felt a little jealous of their obvious happiness and it irritated him. He wasn’t accustomed to being jealous of anyone. Other men were usually jealous of him.
As he walked around the grocery store he nodded and greeted various town people who smiled back at him. He winked at Rena the new cashier sparking a fit of giggles. He smiled smugly. She wanted him. Rena had practically purred at him every time he had been in since she started. Maybe he would ask her to come over to his place tonight after her shift ended. By then Alec and Acksel would be gone and the two of them could have a bit of fun.
Being the leader of the pack he just didn’t have time for a relationship or dating but as a wolf he ran hot and needed regular sexual release. He kept things casual and sought out women who just wanted the same thing as him – no strings sex.
He knew one day he would need to settle down and find a mate. He hadn’t given up hope that he would fine his own true mate yet. He was only 29. He figured if he hadn’t met her within another couple of years he would bite the bullet and settle down with a she-wolf and father some pups. That day just seemed a long way off yet. He thought of Rena again and felt his arousal stir; there was plenty to occupy himself with in the meantime.
He glanced down the aisle and hesitated when he saw a woman he didn’t know. She seemed to be inspecting the peanut butter jars. He guessed she was about 25. She must have only been about five feet five but the three inch wedge sandals made her legs look incredibly long. This was helped by her tiny denim shorts. His wolf stirred with interest at the female.
Her skin was smooth and the colour of almonds. She had long chocolate brown hair pulled up on the top of her head; small tendrils escaped and framed her pretty round face and wide green eyes. He had an irrational urge to walk over to her and pull her hair down so it cascaded over her slender shoulders. He found himself actually taking a step toward her before he managed to stop himself. His wolf growled at the sudden halt in progress to get to the female. Adam soothed his wolf and tried to instil patience in him.
She reached up onto the top shelf to grab a bag of pretzels. The material of her loose vest top strained against her breasts. Adam could see the outline of her hard nipples. Shit! She wasn’t wearing a bra. His sex immediately hardened whilst his wolf whimpered with excitement. Settle down boy...
He would scent the female and then he would strike up a conversation with her. His wolf wasn’t altogether happy with this plan, but then just throwing a strange woman over his shoulder and carrying her back to his house might constitute kidnapping.
Walking passed her nonchalantly he covertly sniffed her. He almost gagged on the heavy fragrance of rose. Who in their right mind could stand that artificial smell? He growled at his wolf who had started pacing and huffing at him.
She was staring at him in mild amusement. He realised he had growled out loud.
“This your way of saying ‘hi’?” She asked with a smirk.
Adam cleared his throat, ignoring her question, and stuck out his hand. “Adam Grey, welcome.”
She swiftly took his hand and he felt a tingling sensation flow through his body. “Thanks.” Just as quickly she dropped his hand and turned back to her shopping.
He was a little punch drunk from the sensation that had just shot through him and almost failed to notice the fact that she had dismissed him. Him the Alpha! She had just turned her back on him like he was nothing. Who the hell was she to do that to him?!
“Excuse me”, he ground out trying to make his voice as even as possible, “it’s customary to show a little more respect round here. Such as offering your name, where you live... that kind of thing.” He drew himself up to his full height, six foot five inches, and towered over her. “I’m used to people showing me more respect”.
Rosalee turned round and cocked her head to one side trying to keep her breathing slow and steady when all she wanted to pant and rub her hard nipples against him. Oh god! He was an Adonis! Tall, broad and well defined muscles barely concealed by a tight black t-shirt and jeans. She was trying to ignore the bulge at the front of his trousers. He had thick black hair and she could just imagine the smattering or black hair on his torso that would lead down to his... oops back to the bulge again! When they had shaken hands she had felt her body immediately warm. Heat had pooled between her legs and she had turned away from him before he could see her blush.
“Where I come from it is customary not to give out your name, where you live... that kind of thing. Unless of course you get a perverse joy out of being robbed.” Her body seemed to want to throw itself at him but her mind, thank heavens, was protesting as loudly as it could.
He growled at her again and god that just made her wetter. He sniffed and wrinkled his nose in disgust but then his eyes started to turn from grey to amber. He wasn’t human!
“Let me try this again, I’m Adam Grey the Alpha of the Grey wolf pack. We live in the woods surrounding this town.” He smiled at her superiorly. He could smell the strong waves of arousal coming from her. Ha, she was already hot for him!
“Oh, good for you.” Sarcasm – complete man repellent... usually.
He leaned one of his arms on the shelf behind her and angled his body towards her. She gulped. It would be so easy to just tilt her head upwards and kiss those delectable lips.
She brushed a stray wisp of hair out of her eyes. Her breasts jiggled delectably with each movement she made. Blood rushed to his groin at an alarming rate.
“Name?” He demanded gruffly.
“Not even a please?”
“Name? Now.” His wolf snarled. He’d never been so aggressive to a woman. He’d always been honey and charm to all women, but then he’d never met this kind of resistance. They’d all just simpered and rolled over for him.
“Bite me furball.” A disturbingly cute smile played on her pink lips. She licked them slightly and he growled at her again.
Adam leaned a little clos
er. “You know if you don’t want me to know your name I could just guess, Winifred perhaps? Constance? Mildred? Hilda? Betty?”
Rosalee raised her eyebrows but said nothing. “What too high brow? Okay, Tawney? Bunny? Buffy? Taffy?”
She snorted. “That’s it isn’t it? Nice to meet you Taffy. So now that we’re old friends what say you let me show you round town Taffy?”
God this man was full of himself, had he never been rejected by a woman? Couldn’t hurt for him to be taken him down a peg or two...
“Gee thanks for the offer Albert –“
“Adam!” He snapped.
“But I’m pretty sure I can find my own way round town.” She looked away from him dismissively and noticed the cashier was staring daggers at her. Before she could help herself she said, “why don’t you ask the cashier? Something tells me she’d love for you to show her anything you wanted.”
The bitter sound of her voice made him chuckle. “Jealous? I can’t help it that women are drawn to me.”
“Yeah must be your winning personality.”
“Well I do have a huge personality...”
Rosalee coughed and decided to change the subject. She glanced down at his shopping cart. “Having a party?” She asked gesturing to the stack of beer bottles.
“Hmmm? No, just for me and my Chief Enforcer.”
She balked. “Just the two of you? You planning on bathing in it?”
“It takes a lot for shifters to get drunk. Shifters tend to eat more, drink more... we have very big appetites.” He winked at her.
Must he make everything about sex? Unconsciously she pressed her thighs together even tighter. They’d probably be black and blue tomorrow! Part of her wanted to just give in to him and climb him like a tree. But she just wasn’t the type to jump onto bed after... wow only ten minutes. She should stay firm, she wasn’t that easy.
“Well, as much as I’m enjoying our little...chat, I really should be going.” She marched over to Rena to pay for her groceries. Rena slammed them through the till in annoyance.
