by Lynn Red
The Alpha's Mate (8 Sexy, Powerful Shifters and Their Fated Mates)
Lynn Red, Aubrey Rose, Adriana Hunter, Marian Tee, Liliana Rhodes, Krista Lakes, Mina Carter, Milly Taiden
Published by Zirconia Publishing, Inc., 2014.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
THE ALPHA'S MATE (8 SEXY, POWERFUL SHIFTERS AND THEIR FATED MATES)
First edition. April 21, 2014.
Copyright © 2014 Zirconia Publishing, Inc. and 24 Karat Romance
Written by Lynn Red, Aubrey Rose, Adriana Hunter, Marian Tee, Liliana Rhodes, Krista Lakes, Mina Carter, Milly Taiden.
Table of Contents
To Catch a Wolf by Lynn Red
Sometimes a werewolf's gotta fight and growl and bite. But Erik? He just needs a mate.
Erik Danniken is the alpha of Jamesburg, a small town hidden from the world and full of shifters of all stripes. But underneath it all, he's just a muscled-up, rough-shod bad boy of a werewolf with a tattoo that goes all the way up his chest and sticks out the collar of his shirt. He's down to his last nerve, but he's willing to fight one last time... for the woman he loves.
Sometimes a girl needs romance and wine and sweet kisses. But Izzy? She just needs a job.
Isabel Taylor was more than a little frustrated when she answered a very vague job ad to be the personal assistant of a mayor in a town she didn't know existed. That was two years ago. Curvy, tough and with more than a little bit of a naughty streak, Izzy has long since gotten used to the weirdness of everyday life in Jamesburg... but she's fallen hard for Erik's rough charm.
Erik wants to claim her forever, marking Izzy as his honest-to-goodness mate. Izzy wants him to quit being such a coward and just come out and do it, but will a good old-fashioned small town scandal make them keep their love a secret, and in the process, kill it before it can grow?
Blind Wolf by Aubrey Rose
Julia has never been on a date in her life. She's a curvy girl with no money, no education, and no way out of the town she works in as a library assistant... until Damien shows up. He's just like the prince charming Julia always imagined would sweep her off of her feet. There are just a few things standing in the way of true happiness: he's blind, he's dating someone, and he's WAY out of her league.
Oh, and he's a werewolf.
Damien lost his eyes two years ago in a wolf battle. Ever since then, the straggler pack of disabled wolves he leads has been searching for a place to call home. One house seems like the perfect choice, but Damien realizes too late that the person who lives there is the girl he met at the library. The human girl. Damien is torn between loyalty to his pack and raw lusting desire for the girl who haunts his dreams day and night.
She's a human. How could she be his true mate?
Perfect Mate by Aubrey Rose
Julia always thought that she was human. When the blind leader of a pack of straggling misfits claims her as his one true mate, she accepts that she is in love with Damien despite their radical differences.
But after another shifter wolf attacks them, he points to her as he dies and utters words that will change Julia's life forever:
"...she’s not what you think she is..."
Shifting Hearts by Adriana Hunter
Clara has lost everything. Both parents, her family estate and the only home she's ever known. Forced to move to the country with her unusual aunt Eve, the last thing she wants, or expects, is to find herself torn between two very different men.
Lucas, the gorgeous cowboy, is a man of strength and kindness, a loyal protector and someone she knows she can rely on.
Kellan, the sexy, brooding stranger is a man of secrets with the power of persuasion. A man that quickly captivates her every thought.
Both men are determined to make her their own and neither will let her go without a fight. Clara will have to surrender her body and soul to one sooner than later.
Time's up.
Wolf Fight by Marian Tee
Calys Adelardi, the princess also known as "the human monster", may only be alpha if she can find a strong, kind warrior to champion her cause. She’s determined to marry for the good of her pack, but meeting a playboy werewolf prince makes Calys think twice about her noble priorities.
His name is Alejandro Moretti. He’s the strongest shifter she’s ever met, but he seems prouder of his skills in bed than in battle. When he tells her he’d be her Cavaliere, Calys is overjoyed...until she finds out his offer comes with a price. For every instance he does his duty, Alejandro expects Calys to pay it in his bed, whenever and wherever he wants.
Resisting the Alpha by Liliana Rhodes
Faith Galloway is an orphan, a witch, a powerful charmer, and still in love with her high school sweetheart. But Abel Barlow isn't the man she fell in love with, instead he's the cunning coyote Alpha behind the kidnappings and killings of wolf shifters in Leeds Point.
While Faith isn't completely innocent, she realizes someone has to stop Abel and contacts the Kapok Shifter Council where she meets grizzly bear Alpha Erich Krause. Faith awakens the bear within Erich, making him realize she is his true mate. Erich will do anything to help her, even if that means risking his position with the Council.
As the secrets of Faith's family are revealed, she discovers her role in an old curse that Abel plans to use not only to control shifters, but to open a gateway between the human and spirit worlds. Will Faith remain true to her love for Abel or will she follow her heart which is leading her to Erich?
Wolf Six's Salvation by Krista Lakes
A concerned sister...
Chloe Madison would do anything to find her missing brother. When she stumbles upon some information that leads her to a nearby military science facility, she doesn't hesitate to sneak under the barbed wire fence and steal some files. Everything seems to be going to plan. That is, until a handsome soldier finds her with her hands in his filing cabinet. Instead of reporting her, he lets her go. She hurries home, his golden eyes all she can think of.
A broken soldier...
Captain Jackson Wolfe just returned from a hellish tour of duty in Afghanistan. Scarred and hiding terrible secrets, he is sent to a desk job. He just recently found out the hard way that he was a werewolf. Not only that, as far as he knows, he's the only one of his kind. He knows he shouldn't be around people and keeps to himself until he sees Chloe stealing files. He knows he should stop her, but her scent and something in her eyes stops him.
A coverup worth killing for...
When Wolfe follows Chloe to the library, he discovers that he's not the only one of his kind. Someone doesn't like that Chloe has been digging around, threatening to expose the secrets of her brother and the wolf shifters. In fact, they're willing to kill to stop her.
Wolfe knows that he must protect Chloe. After all, she may be the only thing that can save him from himself.
Midsummer Heat by Mina Carter
Ten years ago, werewolf Kelli Copeland ran from Stratton to avoid being claimed by the new pack alpha, Max Daniels. Since then, she's made a life for herself in the city, free of the pack and living amongst the humans. Happy with her life, she's never thought of going back, until her brother decides to get married. Now she has to go back, but surely a decade is enough for Max Daniels to forget about her?
Pack alpha Max Daniels could have the pick of the pack females in Stratton, but he doesn't want them. He only wants one woman, the one who ran from him years ago. The only woman he'll ever love. When he gets word that Kelli is back in town, he swears to do everything in
his power to make sure she doesn't leave again. Up to and including kidnapping her...
But he isn't the only wolf in town with an agenda. And this time, Kelli's departure might be permanent.
Wolf Fever by Milly Taiden
Changes she can't understand...
When Raine Bowe volunteers for a sleep study for the extra cash, she didn't expect to wake in a lab or to be victimized by a mad scientist. She escapes with one objective—to find someone strong enough to wage war with the evil growing inside her.
A job he won't accept...
Ryder Storm is a man with a reputation—the bad boy of his own universe. He doesn't take prisoners, won't give into a sweet smile, and doesn't cut his pack an inch of slack. He knows the desperate woman in his bar is his the moment he lays eyes on her. He'll give her anything she wants, except the one thing she's begging for. Death.
Passion neither can fight...
Raine enlists Ryder’s help to unravel the mystery surrounding the hours she lost in the lab and to help tame the beast inside her. In their search for answers, the road will lead them to a twisted experiment involving shifters, humans, and the creation of the ultimate Alpha. He's ready for the adventure and she's ready for her answers. Neither are ready for the lust that calls down from the mating moon. But a wolf knows its mate, and an alpha will not stop until he or she gets what they want.
Check out these other great romance bundles from Zirconia Publishing!
About The Authors
About the Author: Lynn Red
About the Author: Aubrey Rose
About the Author: Adriana Hunter
About the Author: Marian Tee
About the Author: Liliana Rhodes
About the Author: Krista Lakes
About the Author: Mina Carter
About the Author: Milly Taiden
Check out these other great bundles from Zirconia Publishing!
About 24 Karat Romance
To Catch a Wolf by Lynn Red
-1-
“Enough!”
Erik slammed one of his fists onto the lectern, then grabbed his gavel and pounded the wooden podium. “Calm... down!”
Furiously, I typed away on my keyboard, trying my very best to keep up with the near-constant noise from the audience, but there was no way. Questions were coming from the left, and then an insult from the right, and someone even threw a bottle from way in the back.
“Alpha!” Seth, a young wolf, shouted above the crowd. “This is court! You can’t just show up and make us listen to you rant for half an hour and then tell us to be quiet! We’re wolves—”
“Some of us are,” Clay Tomkins, a proud hyena-shifter added. “Don’t be so exclusionary.”
Erik bared his teeth and for a second, his eyes went yellow. I swallowed hard, hoping he managed to control himself. If he lost his temper in the middle of a pack meeting, there would be a massive brawl and I’d be serving alcohol-soaked bandages at the reception instead of cocktails.
“Izzy!” Erik hissed. I typed it down.
“Isabel! Pay attention to me,” he said. Erik bent down to talk in my ear and narrowly avoided a chair that crashed into the wall above his head. “We need to go. I’m about to throttle that prick.”
“Which one?” I asked.
He didn’t answer except to snarl.
I took a deep breath and pushed my carriage return. No matter what happened, I had to keep typing. It might sound crazy, but part of my job as the alpha’s personal assistant is to go to all these insane meetings and try to make sense of it so he can read over the notes later.
Don’t ask.
I heard the wood on the podium top start to crack. Erik wore out two or three lecterns a year like this, habitually stress-squeezing until they finally gave out.
Real bad month at the courthouse.
“I’ve made my decision,” Erik growled. “If you want to hear it, sit down and shut up!”
The crowd just kept on. Shouting, complaining; the whole courtroom was an endless drone punctuated with screams.
“Izzy?”
I turned to see Erik’s bright gold eyes flash. When he does that little thing with his eyes, it makes all my girl parts clench up. It’s some kind of werewolf magic, he’s told me, that makes human women ache for them. But he seemed to be doing it more lately. For a split second, I wondered if there was any significance to that, but then he smiled and my head started spinning.
“Izzy? You okay?”
“Yeah,” I said shaking my head. “Sorry, you stared at me in that way you have, and...”
“Oh,” he shook his dark hair from side to side and smiled at me, flashing his dimples and his eyes. “Sorry, didn’t mean to do any charming.”
How he could do that – make the whole chaotic shit-fest of a world around us vanish – was beyond me, but there he was, forcing my attention on him in the midst of a pack of screaming shifters.
Someone threw a chair.
“I want you,” he whispered, “to duck.”
“What?”
“Duck. I’m going to take care of this right about now.”
“I—”
“Now!”
I hesitated long enough to see someone else rear back and sling a briefcase toward Erik.
“Get down,” he shouted, pushing me off the chair and to the ground.
As quickly as I could, I scurried under the table, peeking around one of the legs in time to see the lectern that I had just ordered go sailing across the room and catch one of the chief complainants in the side of the head.
He might’ve well pulled out a hand grenade and yanked the pin.
No one moved.
The only thing I could hear was Erik’s ragged, heavy breathing beside me. He reached down and wiggled his fingers. Tentatively, I took his hand and pulled myself up. As soon as my eye-level went above the tabletop where my typewriter sat, I couldn’t believe what I saw.
Every single person in the room – be they wolf, coyote, fox, or whatever the hell Leon is... some kind of lizard – was dead quiet and staring, open-mouthed, at Erik.
Duggan Degger, the town historian-cum-hedgehog, was characteristically tugging on his suspenders and shaking.
“Good,” Erik said, in a satisfied voice.
I hunched my shoulders and slid as quietly as I could into my chair.
I just about threw up when I adjusted my carriage return, and it let out a ding that turned a whole bunch of heads in my direction.
“Sorry,” I mumbled.
Erik smiled at me again. Those damn eyes flashing, those stupid dimples that got me all clenched up... if it weren’t for all that, I’d want to punch him right in the mouth. Maybe I did anyway.
“It’s fine, Isabel,” Erik said, giving me another dashing smile and turning his attention back to the previously-rowdy audience. “Good! I’m glad we could come to an understanding about proper courtroom procedure. Now, could someone check on Devin? He’ll heal pretty quickly, but someone make sure he doesn’t have a concussion.”
I watched, wide-eyed, as Leon the mystery shifter crouched down and checked Devin’s pulse, then his eyes. He nodded, and returned to his seat.
“Excellent! Now, as you all know, we were here in the first place to work through a little problem that came up in the last week. One of our townspeople, Lucien,” he stuck his hand out, indicating the black-haired wolf with the ponytail, “wants to file a claim that his mate has been stalked and stolen by Flavius.”
Erik rifled through a folder.
Two years ago, fresh out of school and without a shred of experience to my name, I saw an online ad.
How many stories start like that?
This ad, it said there was a small town mayor in the Appalachians who needed a secretary. No experience necessary, it said. Oh, and also, there was in innocuous note in the ad about the town being ‘an organization looking to expand’ which is one of those phrases that just sorta flies past when you’re out of work and needing to pay bills.
Good God was I ever in for a shock.
Upon arriving, I was shown around town, and needless to say, the first time you see someone strip naked, crouch down and turn into a horse, it’s a whole different sort of immersion learning.
“Are you getting this down?” he asked me. I nodded.
“What is it, then?” I’d recognize Lucien’s high-pitched voice anywhere, even if I was face-down to a typewriter. “Do I get my request?”
Erik took a deep breath and heaved a sigh. “I can’t go around letting everyone challenge each other to duels whenever the mood strikes. If you look around, the entire pack, minus a few of us who had to work or whatever it is that keeps them from mandatory meetings... we’re all here. And if you notice, we’re not as numerous as we were. I can’t have you killing people just because you feel like you’ve been insulted.”
I looked around the room in the second’s worth of a pause. I never noticed before, but he was right. Just last year, when our weekly shifter court convened – which, by the way, gives very different meaning to the term ‘monkey trial’ – this room was packed full. As it stood now, there were a handful of empty chairs in the front row, and scattered throughout the hall.
“I... I know that, Alpha,” Lucien said. He was so whiny that even I wanted to smack him one across the mouth. I’m not exactly the smacking-in-the-mouth type, either. “But I’ve been wronged, and this is the way of our pack! When someone steals your mate, you have the right to challenge them to a duel.”
Going back to my typewriter and adding what Lucien just said, I let my mind drift a little.
I’m so not like that. It’s crazy what being around a bunch of testosterone-pumped, muscle-bound, machismo-dripping werewolves, werebears, werefoxes and weregators can do to a person. As I looked around the room, Leon flicked his tongue out and licked an eyeball.
I never did figure out what he actually was. He got really mad when you called him lizard.
These days though, it was harder to think about going home and dealing with normal human drama. The shifters I had gotten used to, but Judgmental Uncle Ted? Ugh.
