Alphas Gone Wild

by Unknown

  An alpha female at her core, Theresa Sanchez struggles to protect her young daughter, but rivalries and politics create volatility in the pack. As Theresa comes into heat, lust and need rule her body. Her pack demands only the most virile male have her. How can she choose only one mate when her body craves two—the virile beta and the man she loves?

  Zachary Hunter will do anything to take Theresa as his mate, even if it means killing his best friend. However, Robert Blane is just as determined to ascend to Alpha. Both their beasts howl to mark her flesh, but only one can survive to claim her.

  But with enemies circling, they must fight…for the pack, for Theresa, and for a future together

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Melissa Snark is a paranormal and romance author with a particular interest in werewolves and Norse mythology. Her Loki's Wolves series combines elements of both in a contemporary fantasy setting. She lives in Northern California with her husband, three children and a glaring of cats.

  Visit Melissa at

  http://www.melissasnark.com/ or http://www.thesnarkology.com/

  Join her mailing list to be notified of new releases.

  BOOKS BY MELISSA SNARK

  A Cat's Tale

  Learning to Fly

  The Mating Game

  Cuffed (Free Read)

  The Child Thief (Loki's Wolves #0)

  Hunger Moon (Loki's Wolves #1)

  Battle Cry (Loki's Wolves #2)

  Wild for the Lion

  By Kristen Strassel

  Chapter One

  “You better watch out, Daphne,” my mother raised an eyebrow as my little sister did a dance in front of me. I’d just sat down at the kitchen table and she couldn’t wait to give the piece of paper she was holding. “I think somebody wants to steal your boyfriend.”

  “Oh yeah?” I took the present Dakota so proudly offered me. It was a crayon rendering of a lion, complete with the full artistic license only a five-year-old could get away with. “Thank you! Is this for me or Leo?”

  “For Leo,” Dakota scoffed, like it should have been obvious. Chloe, my best friend, laughed from across the table.

  “She’s been drawing pictures of him ever since you brought him here for Christmas.” My mother sighed in defeat. It wasn’t bad enough that one of her daughters had fallen in love with a lion. Two out of four girls in the family was a pretty high percentage. My sisters and I were does, and even though many residents of Woodland Park shifted into some animal, mating outside of species was simply not done. Until this fall, anyway, when I did it. Mom was usually pretty open minded, but even she was having a hard time with this one. So Dakota fangirling over Leo was pretty hysterical.

  “You have?” I pulled Dakota into my lap, tickling her until she squealed. “How about I bring you up to the mountain before the season ends and Leo can give you a snowboarding lesson?” Ever since the mate, I’d been living with Leo on Soldier Mountain. Now that the worst of winter had passed, I was able to come back into town to help Chloe get ready for her bonding ceremony.

  Dakota’s eyes grew wide, like I’d just told her she’d won the kindergarten lottery. “Awesome!”

  “He’ll be super excited to see you.” I slid her off my legs. “Now go draw a picture for me so I can talk to Mom and Chloe.”

  Chloe was absolutely beaming. We’d been friends forever, and it made sense that we shifted the same year, even though I was three years younger than her at eighteen. Spend too much time together, you get on the same cycle. Deer in our herd shifted with the intention to find their mate and have babies. Chloe had always been obsessed with the mate, she thought it would be like her very own fairy tale. I’d always thought it sounded like some sort of backwards arranged marriage.

  Things didn’t go as either of us expected, but we’d both found our mates. Chloe was pregnant and bonding with Cane. Leo and I…well, that was a little more complicated.

  The ceremony was going to be in Chloe’s grandmother’s back yard, small and intimate just like she always wanted, and my mother had volunteered to make the food. The two of them worked together planning the menu, and as her maid of honor, I made notes on what I needed to do.

  “We should head out.” I said after I’d joined Dakota at her little table. As promised, she’d drawn me another lion. I chuckled to myself, looking over the drawing to Delilah and Darlene, my other two sisters. We looked like one of those Russian doll sets with the identical pieces that fit one inside of the other. Long, straight brown hair and our telltale huge brown eyes. There was no denying we were doe. “I don’t know how many more days I’ll be able to get down here, and we have a ton to do.”

  I wanted to make sure Chloe got the fairy tale she’d always wanted.

  My mom stood up and hugged me. “Be careful, up there on that mountain,” she said. “I worry about you, all alone with those lions.” She spit out the last word.

  I tried not to take it personally. “I’m not alone, I have Leo.” I smiled, hoping she would, too. She didn’t. “And they don’t bother me.” That wasn’t exactly true, but she worried enough already without hearing all the details.

  “Does that happen to you?” I asked Chloe once we got back in the car. “She always makes me feel guilty every time I talk to her.”

  “At first, Gram had her doubts.” Chloe and Cane had got off to a rocky start. “But once Cane showed her he was serious, she changed her tune.”

  I sighed. “Maybe if Leo and I had a bonding ceremony, everyone would take us a little more seriously.” He hadn’t brought it up. It didn’t bother me, after all it was really just a piece of paper and a party. It wouldn’t change how we felt about each other.

  Chloe bit her lip. “I don’t know if you’ve talked to anyone else in the herd, but they’re all freaking out about you being with Leo. They think you’re shunning the herd’s traditions. That’s why your mom is so on edge. They probably wouldn’t even let you get a license.” That was one of the things on our to-do list today. “The only reason I’m getting one is because Gram works at town hall and she can push it through, since Cane’s only half buck.”

  “Oh.” My heart sank. I hadn’t talked to anyone in the herd outside of my immediate family and Chloe. Leo and I had been in our own little world, and I liked it there. “I didn’t realize everyone was so pissed off about this.”

  “I didn’t want to say anything, but you need to know.” Chloe reached over and squeezed my hand as we sat at the stoplight. “But you and Leo are meant to be together, and it will all work itself out.”

  Chapter Two

  Leo met me at the bottom of Soldier Mountain that evening in an ATV. This time of year it was the only way to climb the snowy brae to the hamlet of cabins. He kissed me like I’d been gone a month instead of an afternoon.

  “I missed you,” he said against my lips, his blonde curls tickling my cheeks in the wind. “How did it go?”

  “Okay,” I hesitated. “It was really good to see everyone.”

  Leo drew away from me, his hands still cupped my face. “But?”

  I didn’t want to tell him. “I’m tired of defending myself.” I looked down. “Us.”

  “You don’t have to explain yourself to anyone.” Leo turned to the steering wheel, shaking his head. “Let’s get you home.”

  He drove up the brae faster than he should have, probably as stuck in his own head as I was in mine. I followed him into our cabin, and he backed me against the wall. Pushing a knee between my legs, he rested his arm over my head and picked up where he left off at the bottom of the hill, running his fingers along the seam of my lips. He covered them with his own, running his tongue over my bottom lip before coming inside.

  Heat radiated from his body, mixing with the cold air that still rolled off of his ski jacket. This wasn’t much different than any other night. I always liked to welcome Leo back home this way, but after seeing my family today I was aware of how different my life had become since I’d found my mate.

  “What’s th
e matter?” Leo could tell I was distracted.

  I smiled up at him, and gave his jacket a yank. It caught him off guard, and we both laughed as he stumbled into me. Leo didn’t miss a beat, unzipping my jacket and sliding it off my shoulders. We let it fall to the ground.

  “I was thinking.” His grin was devilish and his breath became noisy. Whatever he was thinking about made him purr. I liked it already. He pulled my sweater up over my head, and it joined the jacket on the floor. He ran one cool finger along the edge of my bra cup. My body came to attention under his touch. “I want you to shift.”

  I closed my hand over his and held it close to my chest. My heart thundered beneath our palms. I needed him to help me keep it in. “Why?” I asked. I’d only shifted twice in my life. Once to doe when it was my time for the mate. And then when Leo, my mate, found me, I shifted back to my human form.

  “I’m going to do it too.” He took advantage of my parted lips, catching the bottom one between his teeth. The purring grew louder. I loved when he made that sound and his body vibrated just for me. “You won’t be alone.”

  I knew he said that to comfort me, but it sent a shiver down my spine. Leo was a lion and I was a doe. In human form, our animal attraction was magnetic. But in our primal form, he was a predator and I was his prey.

  “Don’t you think it’s dangerous?” I asked. Leo shifted often. Always to hunt. I hated it when he came home tasting like someone else’s blood. “What if we can’t control ourselves?”

  “That’s what I’m kind of hoping for.” He pushed my bra straps down my shoulders, his purring louder now. “Why do does shift in the first place, Daphne?”

  I unhooked my bra, dropping it to the pile of my clothes on the floor, and surprised Leo by moving past him to the couch. I needed to think, not breathing in his air, under his spell. He followed me, stripping off his jacket and sweatshirt. His muscles were so taut from a long season of snowboarding. I couldn’t wait until this summer when his body would be kissed by the sun.

  “To find our mate,” I said slowly when he joined me on the couch. I wasn’t sure where he was going with this. Leo was the only man I’d ever been with, and the only one I ever planned to be with. Sometimes this being sexy thing came with a learning curve.

  Leo took my hand and lifted it to his mouth, he kissed each of my fingers. “Exactly. Lions don’t only shift to hunt. We’re not that different than deer. It’s foreplay for us as well.”

  As he came closer to me, I leaned back on the couch. His hand was on the small of my back as I hit the cushion, and his lips danced against mine after we fell. I fumbled with his fly, he was still wearing way too much clothing. After he kicked off his pants, I wrapped my hand around his shaft, and started to move my fingers in the same frantic rhythm as our lips.

  He gasped when he pulled away from my mouth. I followed his momentum, then fell back on the couch, but I didn’t let go of his cock. “Not so fast,” he panted. He squeezed his eyes closed, it was taking all the control he had to tell me to stop. “Shift with me, Daphne. Please.”

  Something inside me was rising. I’d felt it several times since I’d met Leo, and the same thing always made it stir. Fear. I wasn’t afraid of him at all, but we’d run into some shifters who would be all too happy to take advantage of me as a doe. I’d always managed to push it down before I turned, because Leo was there to protect me, every time. “Okay.” My voice was raspy, doubting the words it was saying. “I’ll do it.”

  Leo’s hazel eyes lit up, and the purest smile spread across his face. Like the first snow fall of the autumn. He rolled back on his heels, and even though he hadn’t shifted, his body was absolutely majestic. Power and control coursed through him. Broad shoulders, rippling muscles leading to his narrow hips. And that V. I could hardly take my eyes off of it. I sat up, pulling my ponytail over my shoulder, and twirled my fingers through it while I stared at his still rock hard shaft. I’d rather stay here and finish what we started, but whatever was rising in me couldn’t be stopped.

  He caught me off-guard by cradling my face in a kiss. “This is going to be amazing.” Leo looked around the room, his hands still on my cheeks. “We’ll shift here, it will be completely safe.” This obviously wasn’t the first time he’d thought about us shifting together. He rested his forehead against mine. “We’re totally in control of this.”

  I nodded. My doe side frightened me. I’d resented its possibility my entire life, and once it happened, I pushed it down every chance I had. Leo was right. I needed to embrace being a doe.

  Leo got up and opened the front door just a crack. Smart thinking, since in a few minutes, neither of us were going to have thumbs. Then he came back to the couch, and hooked his fingers in the waistband of my pants. His gaze warmed my skin. “These need to go.”

  I lifted my hips and let him strip me bare. We’d done this so many times, pretty much every night since Leo had found me as a doe in the forest. But tonight wasn’t like any other night. I was finally going to let myself be wild.

  Chapter Three

  “We need to figure some things out before we do this.” Waves of animal energy rolled through my body, and we were running out of time. Unless I slammed on the brakes, I was minutes away from turning doe. “We won’t be able to talk to each other when we shift. How are we going to communicate?”

  Leo furrowed his brows, he hadn’t considered that. “Stay close to me,” he said. “Tap me twice with your hoof if something’s wrong. Three times if you want to come back to the cabin. I’ll do the same for you.”

  It wasn’t a great plan, but I didn’t have any better ideas. I nodded then slid off the couch, landing on my knees in front of Leo. He smoothed my hair as I began to shake. The last time I went this far, I had no idea what was happening. Now I did, but it didn’t make the panic subside.

  My fingers retracted into my palms, and rock hard hooves burst through my skin. I screamed, but the sound wasn’t human anymore, it was doe. With my mouth open, my face twisted, reforming. My skin rippled, fur settling in its place.

  No going back now.

  In full doe form, I stood up in the middle of the living room. It seemed so much smaller looking at it through my animal eyes. Leo was still human. He ran his hand through my fur, manipulating my ear between his fingers. If I could purr as a doe, that would have been the noise I made. It felt that good.

  “I’ve never had a chance to really look at you like this before.” Leo placed a kiss right above my nose. “You’re so beautiful. I mean, you’re always beautiful, but like this it’s magical.” Another kiss. “I’m psyched that you’re doing this with me. But being so close to you like this I need to change, too.”

  Leo dropped down on all fours, his whole body shaking. I stepped back, more of a gallop, surprising myself by how awkward yet graceful moving my legs felt. It had been four months since I’d last shifted, and everything was foreign. My eyes were glued to Leo. Claws broke through his fingers, and he held his hand up to his face, the leather pad of a paw covered his palm. Blonde fur covered his skin and his body expanded right in front of my eyes. He threw his head back and his roar rocked the cabin. When he quieted, his face was fully lion, a golden mane framing his face like a halo.

  A rumble came from his throat and I jumped. Being so close to a lion was always going to be unsettling, but Leo had always taken care of me. I had to remember it was him inside of that animal.

  And being with him like this I think I actually loved him more. I didn’t know that was even possible.

  With a shake of his mane Leo trotted to the door, pulling it open with his paw. The snow crunched under my hooves. The air tasted crisp and clean.

  I let Leo take the lead. This mountain was his home, and he knew all the trails. He led me behind our cabin. The terrain was steep, and we climbed down the brae slowly, winding through the trees.

  Once the ground leveled, Leo rolled on to his back. I nudged his face with my nose, and he nipped at me. I jumped again, and he stood
back up, rubbing against me, purring.

  We may not have been able to speak to each other, but that I understood.

  Leo broke away from me, trotting down the path. I chased after him, my hooves moving so fast I felt like I was gliding over the snow. He stopped short and circled me. When he closed in, I went down on my front hooves. He nuzzled my face then settled in front of me. Now I felt comfortable enough to play with him.

  Our heads bumped, and Leo curled his body around mine. We pawed at each other, both of us seemed to know the rules of a game that didn’t exist before this evening. Time didn’t move the same way for us like this, and I had no idea how long we’d been out there when I lay my head against his shoulder, his mane tickling my face. My body vibrated in rhythm with Leo’s purring.

  We weren’t alone. I jerked my head up at the sound of rustling leaves, trying to figure out who the footfall belonged to. Hunting season was over for humans, but that didn’t mean that everyone followed the rules. And on Soldier Mountain, guys with guns were the least of my worries.

  A very feline howl shattered the silence. Leo tapped me twice, then tapped me three times. Danger. Go home. I jumped to my feet, and he nodded, and I was pretty sure he intended for me to go first. Leo stuck close to my side as I trotted up the dark path. I bleated with every unfamiliar roar, the echo making it sound like there were lions everywhere.

  I wasn’t completely sure where I was going, but Leo had yet to correct me. I knew our cabin was at the top of the brae, so that’s where I headed. Up. Leo quickened his pace, cutting me off, and tapping my leg twice.

  Danger.

  I looked up at him, cursing that we couldn’t speak to each other. He had already been noisy when we lay in the snow. Before it had been purring, now a growl rumbled through his body.

  Three lions broke through the brush. None of them had long manes like Leo. Oh, crap. These were cougars. Before I moved to Soldier Mountain, I’d never realized that the women of Leo’s pride preferred to be referred to as such. Or that every single one of them would hate me.