The Alpha's Mate (8 Sexy, Powerful Shifters and Their Fated Mates)

by Lynn Red

  Dee raised her hands, and the murmuring of the crowd ebbed into silence. Julia took her place in front of Dee, just across from Damien, and smiled nervously at her grandmother. Dee smiled back, lowered her hands, and spoke.

  "We gather here in moonlight to mark the bonding of one heart to another," she said. "Let us hear first the story of bonding, as it has been told since the first day of the first year of the world.

  "It is said every animal is born in the sky first. We travel here to earth to seek out our bodies, and live our days before returning to the sky. In the early world, before Time was broken into pieces, there was only one of each creature. We came to earth whole and lived our lives separately. But the gods saw that although there was peace, we were lonely creatures. They did not know how to solve this problem and Araken, god of living creatures, was sent to find a solution.

  "But Araken was lazy, and did not love the creatures that had been given to his care. He came up with an idea to break apart the animals in the sky before they came to earth, to solve the problem by getting rid of the animal souls. He reared back to deliver the blow with his paw. But he did not realize his strength, and with that one blow he shattered all of the matter in the universe. Stars broke apart into chunks of rock and fire, and souls broke apart into hundreds of shards.

  "Knowing what he had done, Araken hid from the Lord of the universe, Kar. Kar looked down and saw her creation smashed to pieces. She wept for the destruction that Araken had caused, and then she set to fixing it. At first she tried to gather the pieces of the stars and souls with her hands and weave them back together, but she soon realized that it would take her longer to mend than even creating the universe had taken. There must be another way.

  "Gathering all of her energy, she sent out a pulse of thought that rippled through space from one end of the universe to the other and set all of the particles in the sky to vibrating. In them, the vibrations created a hunger."

  Dee paused and looked up at the sky. The stars overhead seemed to twinkle and glow with the truth of her words. Goosebumps rose on Julia's skin, though she was not cold. She clutched the candle in front of her, looking at the light from Damien's own candle playing over his features. He was more handsome than ever, she thought, and she ached to throw her arms around him right then. Dee continued her story.

  "This hunger guides all of us, from the highest of creatures to the lowest of atoms. There is in all of us a need to draw together with our soulmates. And when we find them, we bond and hold fast, for we know that without them we are lost forever.

  "Kar looked down on her creations and saw that though there was still loneliness among them, the hunger she had brought into their beings gave them meaning. And every time two pieces of a soul or star bonded, a burst of loving, joyful energy was released. And this was good. She sought out Araken and told him that as punishment for his laziness, he would spend the rest of eternity finding out soulmates and guiding them towards each other. In this way, he would speed the progress of unity. And when he was done and all beings were united, he would have to break apart the universe again and again, and again reassemble it. This, she said, would be both his punishment and his reward, for wherever he went and brought two pieces of soul together, he was bathed in happiness and love. And so the universe is broken and repaired in an eternal cycle. Araken guides us toward the other being that houses the part of our soul that had previously been lost to us."

  Dee looked from Julia to Damien and back again.

  "By Kar's light and goodness, we come together tonight to see these two pieces of soul united. Our pack embraces their bonding and wishes them well on their paths, now united. And when they return to the sky, they will come together as one soul. We begin with two flames of light coming as one."

  Dee held out her unlit candle, and Damien and Julia held out theirs. Julia guided Damien's hand, trembling, and they both lit the candle in the middle. They blew out their own candles and Dee put them aside, keeping the middle one lit between them.

  "No longer two separate beings, you are bonded for life. You must hold each other tightly, and protect each other, from now until you return to the earth. Have you your vows written?"

  Julia nodded and pulled out a piece of paper. Damien tapped the side of his temple with his finger, and Dee laughed in apology.

  "Damien," Julia began, taking his hand with hers. She had written ten different drafts of her vows, and thrown them all away. Last night, though, they had slept apart and she had realized what she wanted most to say.

  "When we first met, I knew that you were the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. You treated me with kindness and love. Now that I've come to know you in a deeper way, I want to be with you more than ever. I promise to be faithful to you, to support you when you need support and to lean on you when I am weak.”

  Julia swallowed hard. Choking back her tears, she continued reading. Damien squeezed her fingers in support, and she looked up into his tender expression. She spoke the last part of her vow without looking at the paper she was holding.

  "How can I express my love? How can I tell you the feeling in my heart when you take my hand? This is a feeling that I can't even understand myself. It takes me up and lifts me into a sacred place, it makes me realize that I am not a whole person without you. It hurts me. It heals me. It is a feeling that binds me so tightly that sometimes I can't breathe. And when you kiss me, I know that I am yours forever and for always, and the whole world lights up with my love. Damien, you are special to me and I promise that nothing will ever come between us. I vow from this moment on to keep you in my heart, just as I hope you will keep me in yours."

  Julia folded the paper and put it aside. When she looked back up at Damien, she saw that his lips were trembling slightly. He smiled and took her other hand, pressing them tightly in his. When he spoke, though, his voice rang out in confidence.

  "Julia, my love, my heart. I was lost before I met you. Now that we have found each other, I can't say or do enough to show that I want to hold you to me forever and never let go. In the darkness, you are my light. In sorrow, you are my joy. I promise to cherish you, to be faithful to you, to love you without any hesitation. I promise to protect you and keep you by my side, to treat you as my equal even though you're way, way, way better than me."

  The pack members laughed lightly and Damien grinned. Julia felt tears welling up again behind her eyes as he spoke.

  "I want to share everything with you, Julia. I want you to be my mate, and I want you to mother my children. I want you so much that it takes my breath away. Be mine, and let me be yours, and I promise you that we will make a beautiful life together."

  Julia could not help the tears streaming down her cheeks as he finished his vow.

  "Now," Dee said, "Damien, do you bond yourself to Julia by the light of the moon?"

  "By the light of the moon, I bond myself to thee, Julia, my one true mate, now and forever."

  "And do you, Julia, bond yourself to Damien by the light of the moon."

  Julia could barely choke out the words through her joyful tears.

  "By the light of the moon, I bond myself to thee, Damien, my one true mate, now and forever."

  "Then go and be blessed," Dee said.

  Damien took Julia into his arms and swept her up into a deep kiss. All of the guests cheered, and Julia closed her eyes, feeling Damien's lips pressing against hers, taking her breath away. At that instant, she felt again the connection that had drawn them together and would stay with them for all of their lives. Julia broke the kiss, wiping her eyes with her hand and then throwing her arms back around Damien's neck in a tight embrace. Although her arm still ached from the accident, she could not feel the pain past all of the joy that rushed to her heart at that moment. His lips brushed her ear.

  "My mate," Damien whispered. "Mine forever."

  "Yes," Julia said. "Forever and ever." Her heart swelled as she took his hand and turned to face the guests.

  It was time
to start their lives together.

  <<<<>>>>

  About the Author: Aubrey Rose

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  *** New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Aubrey Rose lives in sunny San Diego, where she likes to lay around in a hammock reading her favorite romances. When she's not writing steamy stories, she can be found dancing naked in front of the mirror to Abba while her cat watches disdainfully.

  Or follow me on Twitter @TheAubreyRose

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  Curvy company executive Ruby Thomas has the worst assignment EVER: managing a botched company deal in the cornfields of Omaha, Nebraska. Even worse, on the way to Agricorp, her rental breaks down and she's stuck walking down the hot highway with nobody but the crows and corn for company.

  Enter Josh. On a motorcycle, of course. He's a small-town boy who's keeping a strange secret...a secret Ruby can't quite put her finger on. It doesn't help that she's distracted by his luscious light-gray eyes and his bad boy appearance. Underneath all that there's something...different about him.

  Something wild.

  Ruby has never lost control before, and certainly not in bed! But as they say, there's a first time for everything...

  Shifting Hearts by Adriana Hunter

  Chapter One

  The rain was falling softly, like a cloudy mist, coating Clara’s thin black dress in a sheet of moisture. She barely felt the cold as she stood in the grass, her spine rigid as the priest’s voice droned on and on, reciting the funeral rites. Her eyes remained fixed on the two wooden caskets that sat next to the freshly dug graves, and she wondered how she could feel nothing at all. No anger, sadness, fear, or regret. She had loved her parents dearly, and their deaths had been both painful and unfair. Shouldn’t she feel something?

  When the rebels had taken control of her family estate she had felt something then. The terror had ripped through her like jagged shards of glass as the rebels broke through the heavy oak doors of her home, and as they’d hacked and slashed at not just family heirlooms, but at flesh and blood. The lovely tapestries her mother had painstakingly hand-woven were sliced to ribbons, the marble statues her father had looked so fondly upon smashed beyond recognition. Spatters of blood had stained the rugs and the walls, and if one of the servants hadn’t quickly smuggled her out, she knew her own lifeblood would have been spilt as well.

  It was only later she had discovered that her parents hadn’t made it out alive. The constable hadn’t permitted her to view the bodies—one of the neighboring nobles had been called out to identify, likely so that she could be spared the horror of their mutilation. She remembered being angry with that. After all, they were her parents. It was her duty to ensure they were taken care of. But no, she hadn’t even been allowed to handle the funeral arrangements. Everything had been taken care of, so that she’d been forced to sit aside like a lifeless, useless doll.

  Hot tears pricked her eyes now as she stared hard at the caskets. She longed to rush over, to rip open the lids and drink in her fill of their faces before they were forever lost to her. She knew in her heart that the sight would probably give her nightmares for years to come, but something inside her was restless, unsatisfied, despite the numbness she’d allowed herself to sink into these past couple of days.

  The tears scalded her cheeks, startling her into the realization that the rain had chilled her skin almost unbearably in contrast. She felt the moisture begin to cool on her cheeks, but did not wipe it away until after the priest had finished the rites and her parents had been lowered. As their only child, she was the first to step up and toss flowers into the graves—a parting gift for them to carry into the afterlife. As she looked down into the deep, dark holes, she briefly contemplated what it would be like if she fell in and was buried right along with them. Would she be at peace, like they were? Or would she shriek and writhe as the darkness closed in around her?

  Shuddering in revulsion, she moved away, for the first time thankful that she was alive, that they hadn’t dug a third grave for her today.

  At the end of the procession, her Aunt Eve approached her; a small woman with silver hair and round spectacles perched on a pert nose. Clara’s heart filled with dread—she’d known this was coming.

  “It’s very hard, I know...” Aunt Eve said, taking Clara’s arm. She brought the black lace parasol she held in her gloved hand up to shield them from the rain—an accessory Clara should have remembered, but had forgotten.

  “Yes.”

  “I understand that the rebels destroyed everything and took all the family jewels and gold.”

  A lump formed in Clara’s throat. “I have nothing.”

  Her aunt patted Clara’s arm sympathetically. “You have me. My home is always open to you.”

  Clara glanced askance at her aunt. Eve lived in a small cottage on a farm in the countryside—the same farm she and Clara’s mother had grown up on. They were the daughters of an impoverished nobleman who had to resort to working the land to make a living. Clara’s father had owned property out there at one time, and during his country escapades met and fell in love with her mother. She’d come here to live with her father, but Eve had been content to live her life on the farm as a spinster.

  “I have never lived on a farm,” Clara said softly. “I’m not certain how I will do.”

  Eve smiled slightly. “I won’t work you to death, child. But you’ll have a warm roof over your head, a full belly, and clothes on your back. And you won’t be beholden to another noblewoman as a companion or a governess or have to deal with the whisperings of society.”

  Clara nodded. That much was true. The nobles would likely be divided between sympathy and scorn over her downfall. They were like a ravenous pack of wolves; pouncing on every tidbit of gossip they could get their greedy paws on. Clara had never taken to that sort of behavior, which was why she’d never made very many friends among them. There were certainly none now rushing to her aid when she was most vulnerable and in need of it.

  “What shall I pack?”

  * * *

  They traveled by stagecoach a few days later, with what was left of Clara’s belongings packed into the valise she had clutched in her lap. It was a miracle she’d had anything left at all to bring. The dress she’d worn at the funeral had been loaned to her and was now returned, and none of her black clothes had survived, so she was dressed in cream sprigged muslin, with a black armband around her wrist to signify she was in mourning.

  The grief had weighed heavily in her heart as she and her aunt had made the last of the arrangements, selling what they could and tying up any legal ends they had to with the family solicitor. Now that they were in the coach, moving away from the tragedy, she felt some of the weight lift from her body. Sitting close to the window, she inhaled deeply now that her chest was not so constricted with sadness, and tasted the spring air. It cleared away the ashes of death that seemed to coat her tongue so liberally these past few weeks.

  Eve nodded in approval. “I think the country air will do you some good, Clara.”

  The stagecoach traveled a full day before they finally arrived. Clara stepped out of the coach and onto a gravel path, wishing for a bath. She swore she could practically hear the granules of dust rubbing against her skin through the muslin.

  Trying to ignore it, her eyes traveled over the plot of land as she waited for her aunt to disembark, taking in the grassy field peppered liberally with tiny white and yellow flowers. Smack in the center was a charming thatched cottage with baby blue windowpanes and new paint on the walls. Not far off stood a stable and a pigpen, and from the smells wafting her way she gathered both were occupied.

  “What do you think?�
�� her aunt asked after paying the driver and sending the stagecoach on its way. Clara wondered how she’d managed to get the driver to drop her directly at the farm—usually stagecoaches had specific places they stopped at. But her aunt had always had a way about her.

  “It’s... charming,” she managed, trying her best not to wrinkle her nose.

  Laughing, her aunt patted her on the back, and then moved past her and down the path toward the house. Clara followed her in, and was shown to a small, but serviceable room at the end of the hall. After washing up, she allowed her aunt to show her around the farm, introducing her to the dairy cow, the plow horses, the chickens and the pigs. She was taught how to feed and water all of them, and where the tool shed was for days when they would have to muck out the stalls. She was shown where the vegetable patch was as well, and they dug up some carrots, onions and potatoes, and then took them inside for a beef stew.

  The sun had well gone down, and they were sitting at the small wooden table in the kitchen spooning up their bowls when Clara heard an eerie howl. Her head came up sharply as chills ran down her spine.

  “Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what?”

  “That howling.” It came again, more sharply this time. “There, that. Did you hear it that time?”

  Her aunt nodded. “Wolves roam the nearby forest,” she said conversationally, but her eyes shifted uneasily. “I would strongly suggest you stay away from there after the sun goes down, or really at all. They are not known to be forgiving creatures.”

  Clara nodded, but her eyes narrowed slightly at the undercurrent to her aunt’s tone—there was something she was not saying. “I’ll make sure to stay away.”

  They cleaned up and retired early, exhausted from the day’s travel. Clara slid into sleep as soon as her head touched the pillow. Immediately, a dream that was becoming familiar rose up to greet her—an image of her parents walking hand in hand on the manicured lawns of their estate, faces wreathed in smiles as their cheeks were kissed by the sun’s rays. Clara was a young girl, rushing up to greet them, carrying a small bouquet of freshly picked flowers in her small hands.