Awakening the Alpha

by Harmony Raines

  “Yes. You must tell me everything.”

  “Must I?” Natalie asked, banging the croissants down so hard one of them flipped off the baking tray. Her normally cool, calm exterior had imploded, leaving her red-hot core exposed.

  “Yes. I want one. So you have to tell me exactly where you found him, because guys like that do not just enter a girl’s life.”

  “Well, he did.”

  “When?”

  “Last night.”

  “And…”

  “I dropped my pendant and he returned it to me.”

  Trudy laughed. “You drop that old fossil and he tracks you down to return it? Wow. He must want you bad.”

  If only you knew. “I think he was just being nice.”

  Trudy turned to go out front and serve. “Oh, honey, if he were mine I would want him to be a whole lot more than nice to me.”

  Natalie turned her attention to her baking. Smiling to herself, she imagined what would happen if Trudy knew about her other side, her wolf. One thing she knew, if Trudy had been an animal, she would have most definitely have been some kind of feline. Long, lithe, and stealthy. Ready to pounce on a man.

  But not her man. Oh no, Riley belonged to Natalie, and her wolf woke up and stretched in agreement. Yes. If they had to, they would fight for their mate. In that one moment, Natalie realised she had accepted her fate, and might even be looking forward to it.

  A weight shifted on her shoulders. It didn’t lift, because she had so much other baggage to go along with it. Baggage she would not readily be able to give up. It revolved around her father and the beta who had let him down. She was mostly convinced that the rift in the pack had helped lead to his death; he had never been the same afterwards. Her mother had then died of a broken heart, fading away to nothing, just as the cohesion of the town disintegrated. Only the old sheriff, Kira’s dad, had held it together, while Natalie had stood by helplessly.

  This was her chance to ease her loneliness, and although she wasn’t sure about going back to Wolf Valley, she was sure she wanted to get to know her mate. Trudy was smiling when she came into the kitchen at half-past-three to find Natalie humming to herself.

  “Now, that is something I have never heard. You are actually happy. You always seem so sad, Nat, so melancholy. Now a man comes along and you are smiling. Love at first sight can be pretty potent: just don’t let it cloud your judgement about him.” Trudy spoke with kindness, and Natalie wanted to laugh and tell her not to panic, that this was more than true love. It was two souls meeting on a different level and knowing they were meant to be together, but Trudy might really think she was stupid.

  “I’ll bear that in mind.” Natalie ran the hot water into the sink and washed her utensils. Then she prepared some dough in advance, trying to keep her mind on her work, instead of watching each minute tick by as the clock hand made its slow way up to mark the hour.

  At five to four, she was standing in the small store saying good-bye to Trudy, full of the knowledge that Riley was across the street. As he came towards her, she felt the connection, the elastic between them growing shorter, thicker, making it harder to breathe.

  “Have a great evening, Natalie! Just remember I need you in the morning, no matter what happens.” Trudy’s words hung in the air, full of meaning. Was this it? Would she take him home now and mate with him? Was that all that this bond was, a connection between their bodies and their souls that led to sex? Natalie wanted more. She needed a connection between their minds too.

  “Don’t worry. Things won’t be moving along that fast,” Natalie said.

  “I wouldn’t be too sure. I’ve seen the look in his eyes before,” Trudy said, nudging Natalie as Riley reached the door.

  “Hi,” he said, smiling at her, making her stomach explode into cascades of butterflies.

  “Hi.” She stood, not knowing what to do, feeling like a bit of a fool.

  “Shall we go?” he asked, holding out his hand to her.

  As if it were the most natural thing in the world, she placed her hand into his and they walked away from the bakery. For several steps she couldn’t speak, the feel of his skin against hers all too consuming. Then she pulled herself together; she wanted to get to know him, which meant talking to him, not trying to imagine what it would feel like to have his hands on the rest of her skin.

  “Where do you want to go?” she asked, thinking of the smell of baking that always clung to her hair and wishing she had time to go home for a shower. But if she took him home, would he expect more than coffee, while he waited for her to change?

  “I don’t care. I just want to be with you. I know it sounds stupid, but I’m still stunned.”

  “Me too.” They crossed the street, still walking aimlessly.

  “Do you want something to eat? I could take you to dinner,” he offered.

  “Maybe later. Look, what I would really like is a hot shower and a change of clothes. But nothing else.” She cringed at the way she put it, but he looked as if he understood perfectly.

  “I will wait outside if that makes you more comfortable.”

  “No. Don’t be silly. I just wanted to get it straight. I’ve been away from Wolf Valley, from the whole wolf thing, for too many years to just suddenly pick up and go back as if nothing happened.”

  “What did happen?” he asked, a little suddenly. Did she really want to tell him now when they had only just met? Yet he was the man she was supposed to be able to tell anything.

  “I’m not ready to talk about it. I haven’t thought about it for so long, and suddenly it’s all come rushing back to me. I need a little time.”

  Riley nodded. “Take all the time you need.”

  “Thank you,” she said and they walked on in silence.

  “This is more awkward than I thought,” he said as they neared her apartment.

  “Weird, more like it. I mean here we are, complete strangers, knowing we are going to be together for the rest of our lives. Not exactly normal, is it?” she asked, casting a glance at him, trying not to stare, although she wanted to absorb everything about him, his face, his body, his scent.

  “We have all the time we need. We take it slow, right?” Although his eyes were devouring her, and she was going to find it hard to resist him for any length of time.

  Still, she agreed with him. “Yes. All the time in the world. Here’s my apartment.”

  “I know. I came by here first.”

  “Of course, I should have figured—you had my home address, not where I worked.”

  “Right. When I knocked on your apartment door an old lady opposite came out and said you were at work and would be home later. Told me that you often brought her some brownies from work. Didn’t take much for her to tell me you make the best chocolate brownies in town and exactly where I could go and buy some.”

  “Resourceful. I like that.” They walked up the stairs. Her apartment was on the second floor, and with each step the air seemed heavier, the rise steeper, or was it just being so close to him that made her feel this way? “This is me.”

  “You want me to wait here?” he asked again, making sure he wasn’t imposing on her.

  “No. Come in.” She opened the door, thankful she had left the place tidy, no dirty laundry on the floor. Even her bed was made, despite the early hour she had left it this morning.

  “Thanks. Nice place,” he said.

  “It’s OK. Where do you live? What do you do, for that matter?”

  “I live in a house on the outskirts of Wolf Valley. Me and my brothers and sister inherited it from our dad. It needs work, but it will be a nice place once I’ve finished it.”

  He sounded as though he was promoting himself; funny, because she would live with him anywhere if he asked her to. Creature comforts died away when compared to being with your mate. But a house would be preferable to some damp, smelly cave in the mountains.

  “And you know Kira?”

  “Yes, my brother is mated to her. She is the sheriff and h
e is the deputy of Wolf Valley.”

  “I’m glad she’s taken over from her dad. I heard the old sheriff was bad news.” A passing comment from a customer in the bakery had let her know Kira’s father was dead and a new sheriff had taken over.

  “He was. But things are looking up. Now if they could just get a new alpha, the town would be back to being a great place to live.”

  Was that why he was here? Why he was so desperate to find her? Kira must have told him everything. She tried to work out if it made a difference to how she felt about him. Needing some time alone to think things through, she excused herself and went to shower.

  “Don’t be long. I’ll wait right here, if that’s OK.”

  “Sure, or make some coffee. I will be real quick.”

  “I hope so, because every minute we’re apart is an eternity.” He grinned at his own corny line, but there was a truth masked there.

  “I’ll be fast,” she said and dived out of the room before she asked him to join her. His motives aside, they were mated and she was fighting herself not to jump on him and mate with him right there. Maybe she needed to turn the water down to ice cold so she could get a grip on her arousal.

  Chapter Nine - Riley

  He went into her kitchen, taking in how neat and orderly it all was. The opposite of his house, especially now Bliss had moved out. Between doing the work at Fara’s place, and looking after Sol, it had all gotten a little out of hand. He made a mental note to get home and tidy up before he invited Natalie back to his place.

  The state of his home had never bothered him before. Brought up with his father’s need for vengeance a constant companion, he was used to living on the outside and not conforming. With his brothers and sister fed the same poisonous thoughts, they had all behaved the same, and had no pride in themselves or their belongings.

  His self-confidence wavered; here he was in his mate’s apartment, wanting to be a good man, hell, even thinking he might be the alpha of Wolf Valley, but was he worthy of any of it, was he even capable?

  “Coffee ready yet?” She must have taken the quickest shower ever; her hair was still damp, hanging around her face in soft, natural curls. He wanted to run his fingers through it, feel the spun gold soft against his fingers, then stroke her cheek and kiss her lips.

  He settled for being pleased she had rushed to get back to him as quickly as possible, the flush in her cheeks a sign of her excitement. She was embracing this, which surprised him after she had run away last night.

  “Why did you run?” he asked, stirring the coffee and handing her a mug. “Not sure if you wanted sugar.”

  “No sugar.” Was she going to avoid his first question?

  Natalie went back out into the living room, going to the window and looking out. Or looking for something. “When did you find out about where I lived?”

  “This morning.” He came to stand behind her, looking where she was looking, but the street was empty.

  She turned, her body close to his. He could feel the heat from her body, wanting to touch her and let that electricity pass between them. But he wanted answers. Searching her face, he could see she was trying to figure out where to start. He gave her the time she needed.

  “The shock of seeing you made my past come back to me. A past I don’t necessarily want to remember.” She sipped her coffee, moving past him to sit down on the sofa. Natalie had sat to one side; was she inviting him to sit with her?

  Riley took it as a yes and eased himself down, resisting the temptation to sit too close. “I don’t care about your past. If there are things you don’t want to share, then that is fine with me.” Goodness knows there were things he didn’t want her to know about him, at least until they had time to get to know each other. Hopefully, she would fall in love with him and when she found out the news about him being part of the raiders, she would let it go. “It’s your future I care about.”

  She smiled weakly at him. “But if I come back to Wolf Valley, then my past will catch up with me.”

  He thought for a moment. He had promised his brother that he would help make the town safe from the threat brought on from Lance and Jed, which he was sure the former sheriff was behind. If he was the new alpha, he would have to fulfil that promise. Which meant she would have to face Wolf Valley at some point, but he would be there for her, giving her strength to face her demons.

  “Whatever you’ve done. Whatever happened, it’s OK.”

  “That’s just it. It’s not what I did, it’s what I didn’t do. When things went bad, I should have stayed around. Instead, I left.”

  “Then we can both make up for that. They are trying to rebuild Wolf Valley, rebuild the community.”

  “But what if my coming back makes it worse?”

  “And what if it doesn’t?” He decided to keep the part about him being a potential alpha to himself. Until he went back there and saw for himself, there was no use burdening her with it. What he didn’t know was whether having a mate was enough, or whether they had to have actually mated. Sex. He didn’t want to pressure her.

  Although his need to be with her, in bed with her, went further than wanting to know if it made him an alpha. The scent of her, the warmth of her body, all made his soul cry out to be with her, joined with her.

  But he had made a promise. On this visit at least, there was no going to bed, no making love to her. He let out a long breath; he needed to get out of there while he still held onto that resolve.

  “Why don’t we go for a run? We could take my car, go over to the mountain, and spend some time fooling around.”

  She looked out at the beautiful day. The autumn leaves were turning, the mountain would be at its most colourful, surely she couldn’t resist the pull of the outdoors. Her wolf would persuade her. At least he hoped she would.

  “OK. I’d like that.”

  He was up out of his seat as if someone had stuck a firecracker under him. Holding out his hand, he pulled her to him, resisting the urge to hold her and kiss her for the first time. He could wait. He would find the inner strength. He would.

  Chapter Ten - Natalie

  This was some kind of madness. After years of staying away from anything to do with Wolf Valley, she was about to embark on an adventure with another wolf. Her wolf. That didn’t matter: she knew how this would work; she would fall for him. Hell, she had already fallen for him.

  No … wait, that was the bond talking. She hadn’t fallen for him; she still had a part of her left that could walk away. As they walked to his car, she realised that, no, she didn’t. There was no walking, or running, or crawling away from him. And that disturbed her. All her life she had been given choices, but now those choices had gone. Did that mean she had to walk away from this life she had made?

  “Doesn’t it make you angry? The fact that I am your mate, no matter what you think or want?” They reached his truck: battered, old, used. She liked that about him, it was comfortable, although he looked slightly embarrassed.

  “I borrowed it from my brother.” He opened the door for her, like a true gentleman. When she had climbed in, he leaned on it, looking at her earnestly. “Natalie. Look, I’m sorry. I know I’m not exactly what you had in mind for a mate. I know I don’t have a lot to offer. At the moment. But I plan to work hard for us. Make a good life for our family and make sure you are happy.”

  “No. That wasn’t what I meant at all,” she said, not wanting to hurt his feelings in such a way. “Material things don’t mean much to me. I walked away from everything once. I can do that again.” Yes, she could, she realised that now. She was scared, that was all. Scared, plain and simple, of a new future, but with Riley beside her she couldn’t fail. “I think you are a good man, Riley. It’s not that I never wanted you. I just never wanted the whole mate thing at all.”

  “Like I said, we all have all the time we need to get used to the idea.” Although his eyes said she had no time at all, that he wanted to rip her clothes from her body and take her under the blue skie
s on top of the mountain. She swallowed down her desire. She was simply projecting her own needs on to him.

  “Then let’s go. I need to run off some of this tension,” she said. Or you could chase it away some other way. She was hopeless.

  He got in, starting the engine. Pulling the big truck out into the traffic, he drove them out of town. She wasn’t sure where they were heading and didn’t ask, her mind too preoccupied with thoughts of him. He had turned her brain to mush. But she would allow herself the luxury of this one day with him before she got back to normal tomorrow.

  She still had a job to go to and bills to pay. She needed to remind herself this wasn’t a fairy tale. She needed her job—or was it her way of hanging on to the past and not moving on? If she stayed working at the bakery, she would have to stay in town, not move back to Wolf Valley, not move in with Riley.

  “I thought we would stay on this side of the mountain. It’s early evening and there may be others about.” He didn’t have to say other wolves, she got his meaning. “I thought we might prefer to avoid anyone else.”

  “That’s a good idea.” She had to admit she didn’t want to share these precious hours with anyone other than him.

  “How long have you lived in Wolf Valley?” she asked.

  “About six months. We kept out of the town for most of that time. Do you ever go there?”

  “No. Not at all, I was only a teenager when I left.”

  “But you know Kira?” he asked.

  “She was my friend when we grew up.”

  “You never visited her? When he father died?”

  “No. I heard about it. But I couldn’t go back.”

  He looked at her and she heard the next question, but he didn’t ask it out loud. Why didn’t you go and offer your condolences to your friend?

  “I felt it was all my fault. What happened in Wolf Valley. I was a mess by the time I left. I wouldn’t have been much help to her or anyone.”

  “You might have been.”

  “Can we drop it? For now.” She frowned. “Past is the past, right?”