Alpha Contender Boxed Set
Terry Bolryder
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Alpha Contender 1
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Alpha Contender 2
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Alpha Contender 3
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Alpha Contender 4
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Epilogue
More From Terry Bolryder
Copyright © 2015 by Terry Bolryder
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Design by Melody Simmons of eBookindiecovers
Created with Vellum
This boxed set is dedicated to Cheri: a loyal fan and an awesome friend.
Alpha Contender 1
Hi! This book was released as a serial in multiple parts with cliffhangers, and thanks to requests from fans, it’s all now here in one easy set for those who just want to go through the whole thing at once.
Hope you enjoy!
Sincerely,
Terry
Chapter 1
Two weeks ago, my life changed completely. There I was, sitting at one of the empty tables in the bookstore I work at, eating a powdered donut and trying not to get it on the romance novel I was reading on my break, when the most beautiful man I’d ever seen in my life walked in.
I dropped my donut on the table when I saw him standing in our doorway. He had one hand casually in his pocket and was tall enough that he had to duck slightly to get through the door frame. His shiny black hair had little wings of white at the temples, and light streaks of gray throughout. But his deep blue eyes and handsome face were sparkling, youthful.
I averted my eyes, blushing deeply, and furiously started brushing crumbs of powdered sugar off my lap and the table. Stupid, addictive, delicious donuts. Not convenient for meeting hot men.
Luckily, my boss, Lacy, saw him and came over to greet him. I buried my nose in my book. I’ve never been able to face men like that in person. Only in words on a page.
I scanned back to where I was reading, eager to see the next development in my novel.
Oh, Sylvester. You naughty duke.
“Ahem.” A low voice clearing its throat caused me to freeze, embarrassment washing over me like a bucket of cold water dumped on my head. I bit my lip, hoping that maybe, despite that sound being very close, and a very nice pair of masculine legs being at eye level, maybe he was still talking to Lacy.
I stayed silent. Maybe he wouldn’t see me if I didn’t move. He cleared his throat.
Damnit, Misty, he’s a hot guy, not a T-Rex.
“Miss,” he said. Oh Gosh, that deep voice affected me down to my toes. I squirmed in my chair. This was what came from making it to 28 as a virgin…no good.
“Miss, would it be alright if I talked with you?”
I took a few breaths, hoping the redness had gone out of my face. Then I calmly closed my book, bookmarking it with the last piece of donut, and turned to face him.
He was standing with both hands on the table, leaning forward across from me, and the scent that hit me, wafting off him, nearly made me faint. Sex. He smelled like straight up sex. If sex also smelled like a mountain spring, and a night in the forest, and a wind through the aspens in the fall. I tried not to choke.
He took a seat across from me, seemingly unaffected by my slack-jawed state. He wore a tailored white shirt and he adjusted the cuffs while he waited. I didn’t know they made business shirts that size. He was huge, easily 6’5”, with refined but masculine features, and a slight grin on a mouth made for sin.
“Nice to meet you too,” he said. Then he did the weirdest thing ever, and tilted his head back and inhaled deeply. Then he looked back at me. “I’ve been looking for you.”
I glanced at his hand. A ring. Damn. Well, not like a guy like him would have been interested in a girl like me anyway.
“Why?” I asked, sending a glance over at Lacy, who was making little humping motions in the background. I waved a hand at her, begging her to stop before I burst out laughing and made this situation more ridiculous.
“I knew your parents,” he said.
“My parents are dead.” I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself. I had a good life with them, but they were quite old when they adopted me, and I knew when I was an adult there was the possibility they’d be gone.
“Not those parents, your birth parents,” he said, pulling out a photo and sliding it across the table.
I looked down at the photo. A man and a woman standing together, arms around each other. The woman was beautiful, dark skinned with pretty, tight curls. The man, dark haired but white like the man across from me. I squinted at the couple. Could those really be my parents? I mean, it made sense with my coloring, medium brown skin with dark curls and warm brown eyes.
But these people were gorgeous and I was…well…tragically average. I pushed the photo back. “You’ve got the wrong girl.”
“No,” he said, taking the photo back and putting it in a pristine, expensive looking wallet. “I’m afraid I have exactly the right girl. And I’ve been looking for you for a very long time.”
I shrugged. “Well, good for you.” I looked at my watch pointedly. “Look at the time, my break is up.” I grabbed my book and started to stand up.
“There’s no one here,” Lacy called unhelpfully. Traitor. “Go ahead and talk if you need to.”
I reluctantly sat back down, slamming the book on the table.
“There’s no reason to be angry,” he said. “I’m here to help you. I have good news.”
“No,” I said, sitting up straighter and folding my arms across my considerable chest. “The good news is I had good parents. They took care of me, and they are all I need. They loved me. Whoever this other dad was, he wasn’t my real dad. My real dad loved me when whoever you knew abandoned me. So he can eff off. And so can you, frankly.”
My eyes widened and I tried not to look shocked at the crap that just came out of my own mouth. Generally I’m never the one to say anything outrageous, except in my own mind. Something about this stranger’s unmitigated arrogance just pulled it right out of me.
He laughed gently, a sound that hit me low in my belly. “I’m glad you had good parents.” His blue eyes went serious. “I’ve been so worried for you, you have no idea. Your parents, I loved them…”
“Well, that’s nice, but I didn’t know them.”
“Your mom, she gave her life for you. Keeping you safe.” He lowered his voice. “Hiding you in the human world.”
“Um, you mean the world world, right?” I asked.
He sent a meaningful glance over at Lacy, then turned back to me. “Can we go for a walk?”
I sighed. If I didn’t, he would probably be back to keep bothering me anyway. “Sure.” I stood. “Lacy, I’ll be right back,” I called out.
She nodded, giving me another thumbs up when the handsome stranger wasn’t looking. I shook my head and grabbed my coat off the rack by the register and followed the stranger out. He held the door and I ignored him as I walked past. I just didn’t need someone showing up at random to tell me all about myself.
He put both hands in his jacket pockets and looked thoughtfully ahead as we walked. “You know, I understand that I’m disrupting you now. I’m too late, and you’re settled here. I get that.”
Could he read minds?
“But it’s a matter of survival for our race. Who you are. And we need you.”
“What do you mean, you need me?” I waved a hand at him. “You’ve done without me for twenty-eight years, I’m sure you can go a little longer.”
“Don’t you even want to know anything about those who gave their lives for you? Who loved you enough to send you away?”
I shook my head. “No. It sounds sad. And I’m pretty sure I can’t do anything for your race, anyway.” I shrugged and kept walking. “Sorry, but like I said, you’ve got the wrong girl.”
“I don’t. And I’m positive.”
“Yeah, well… whatever.”
He stopped and eyed me, checking me out from head to toe like I was some kind of exotic statue. “You know, if you come with me, you won’t need to keep hiding.”
“What do you mean, hiding? I’m not hiding.”
He tilted his head, that small, irritating smile was back again. “Yes you are. Hiding who you are behind all…” He motioned at me in general. “That.”
I frowned in offense. “Sorry buddy, but there’s no Cinderella hiding under here.”
“Hm. I smelled differently.”
“Excuse me?!” I took a step back.
He frowned. “Sorry, I’m messing this up. Look, I can’t explain here. We need to go somewhere alone.”
“Oh no you don’t,” I said. “I’m naive but I wasn’t born yesterday. I’m not going off alone with you to find myself.”
“Look. You’re awakening. Even as we speak. You’re going to be in trouble if you don’t come with me. Here, I’ll show you. Smell me.”
“What?”
He sighed. “Just inhale deeply, and listen to what you smell.”
I didn’t want to. I knew what he was talking about from just smelling him when he first came in. “No,” I said.
“Suit yourself. But as good as I smell, you’re going to smell even better. I don’t even know how you’ve stayed hidden this long. I presume it has something to do with the way you conceal yourself. Like that lumpy…”
“Sweater. It’s called a sweater.”
His lips curled slightly. “Sweater.”
“Look, just tell me who you are and what you want. I need to get back to work.”
He folded his arms and seemed to think deeply for a moment. “What was that book you were reading?”
I shrugged. “A romance novel, so what?”
“Ah. There are good looking men in that book, right?”
“Sure,” I replied, not getting where he was going with this.
“So, what if I told you that there were men much hotter than the man in that book, men who look like me, but younger, more virile. What if I told you that if you came with me right now, you have men like that fighting over you, and you’d have your pick of them?”
I pulled my open jaw up before I could make a fool of myself by drooling on the ground. “I’d say you were crazy.”
“I’m not crazy. My kind, we are naturally good looking.” He pulled out his wallet again. “Here, a picture of my family.” He handed it over and I looked over it, eyes catching especially on three stunning men in the back row, each a beautiful specimen of the finest the male sex has to offer.
I tried to act cool. “So what? You have good-looking kids. Not a surprise. Besides, this ‘looks’ thing, it seems to have skipped over me, so I doubt anyone would be fighting over me. I’m not the type of female men would fight over. Look at me.”
“I am,” he said. “And I assure you, in our world, men would fight. Will fight. So will you come?”
I looked back down at the photo. “So, guys like this?” I pointed at the men in the back row, liking especially a guy with dark hair and blue eyes.
“Well yes. Two of my sons are mated, but the one on the end, Lindon, he’s free.”
“Which one?”
“The blond.”
I found him and my jaw dropped again involuntarily. He was the spitting image of Sylvester, the naughty duke in my book. But more beautiful. Perfect, angelic features, but a hungry look in those light golden eyes. “So, he’d fight for me?”
He took the photo back and looked at it thoughtfully. “Well, Lindon is kind of a special case. I can’t say what he’d do. But he’s available to participate in the challenge if he wants to.”
“What about you?” I couldn’t resist asking, even knowing the age difference was inappropriate.
He gave me a smile that was slightly sad. “I’m afraid I’ve had my one great love. It’s time for the other males to have a chance.” He put the picture away. “Listen, Misty, I can’t tell you everything until you agree to come with me and keep our secrets. But I can tell you we need you. And you’ll be happier than you ever thought you could be.” He gestured back at the shop. “This isn’t your world. You know that, right?”
I thought about it. I guess I never felt like I fully fit in, but lots of people felt that way, didn’t they? I was sure every girl wished she could be whisked off away from this world to be some sort of princess or something. But that just didn’t happen in real life.
“Look, I still think you’ve made some kind of mistake…but if…say I was to go with you, if I change my mind, can I come back?”
“I can’t promise that,” he said. “But after I tell you about who you are, I’m willing to bet you won’t want to.”
I thought about the blond man, Lindon. His beautiful face was stuck in my mind. Whatever that world was, there was someone there who intrigued me more than anyone I had ever met in this world. If I walked away now, I wouldn’t ever know what I could have seen.
And there was something about this man and his arrogance, and his family, that made me think I could trust him. That gave me confidence in him, despite wanting to simultaneously slap him and chew him out for coming into my life and turning everything upside down.
“Alright, take me to meet Lindon.”
He raised an eyebrow. “That’s your condition? To meet my son?”
“Why? Something wrong with him?”
He put his hand up to his chin and thought for a moment. “I guess I’ll let you decide that for yourself.” A grin spread over that handsome face, and I could see some resemblance to the beautiful blond in the photo. “Alright, I’ll take you to meet Lindon. Might be good to have some motivation while you have to take it all in anyway.”
“Sure,” I said.
“Alright, how soon can you be packed? And you’ll need to take work off.”
“For how long?”
He shrugged. “Indefinitely, I guess.”
I couldn’t believe I was even considering it. But I knew if I said no, I’d go back to a life of lonely bookshelf stocking and reading at night about things I’d never get a chance to experience. This man offered me adventure, and something deep inside me was saying yes.
The blond man popped into my mind, and I swear I could see him smile.
“Alright, I’ll go with you, Mister…?”
“Rowan,” he said, pulling my hand to his lips to place a gentle kiss there. “I’m Rowan, and I promise you won’t regret it for a second.”
We
ll, he was dead wrong.
* * *
That was two weeks ago. If I’d known back then what an overbearing jerk Rowan could be, I like to think I’d never have gone with him.
But Rowan, like any of his spawn, can be extremely charming when he wants something.
I slump over the table in the living room of the huge mountain lodge where I’ve been staying ever since I agreed to go with the aggravating man that day in the bookstore.
And it doesn’t look like I’ll be going home any time soon.
Let me recount the things I’ve learned.
Rowan and his family are werewolves. People that can turn into wolves, and used to do it often. I’m an alpha female, something very rare in their world, especially the fact that both of my parents were alphas. Apparently ordinary females in their world are rare, those with alpha blood are rarer, and those with pure alpha blood are exceedingly rare.
So I’m basically an endangered species within my species. Yay.
Also, my parents left a huge fortune to care for the pack, when I start one, which I’m expected to, as the last of my family line. Also, the person after that fortune is the one who killed my parents while seeking it, and he’s still out there somewhere, probably.
At least so far he’s eluded Rowan’s attempts to kill him.
It’s not that Rowan’s mean to me. He’s already become a father figure in the time I’ve been staying here, which is weird considering how hot I thought he was when I met him. But I’ve realized since I’ve been here that he wasn’t kidding. Men of his kind are, to put it lightly, exceedingly hot. And from the minute I met one my age, I was able to let go of my girl crush on the older man.
Too bad that man turned out to be a douche-canoe.
That man walks in as I sit moping, arms resting on the romance novel that I never seem to get to read anymore.
Lindon.
Even more beautiful than his photo, but cold and unwelcoming. Nothing like the heroes in my books. I should have known.
Alpha Contender Boxed Set: BWWM Paranormal shifter romance BBW Page 1
