by Tamsin Baker
‘Amelia fainted, Alpha. She’ll be awake soon.’
An instinct as old as time tugged his gaze back down to the woman on the ground and she began to stir, her head rolling from side to side as a soft groan left her parted lips.
His heart kicked out at him again and he gasped at the strength of the pull to a woman he had never taken notice of before.
His wolf howled inside him and he swallowed the urge to let the noise rip through his throat. The instincts were there, but the pain too. Without his mate the strength to be the true Alpha was often a struggle.
‘Who is she?’ he asked Maree, not taking his eyes off the woman on the ground. She had long brown hair, full pink lips and a figure that was obviously made for bedding. His cock throbbed in agreement and he almost groaned at the heat flooding his groin. When had he last had such a surge of lust?
Years.
‘She’s the daughter of Angela and Michael Miller. They passed on a few years ago.’
Grayson’s brain kicked into gear as he shifted on his feet. His balls were aching now from long abstinence and his fingers itched to reached out and grab her.
His nostrils flared as his keen nose caught her scent, the delicious flavours making his mouth water. Vanilla and an earthy scent that reminded him of what a woman should smell like.
A groan escaped his throat and he stepped back, jolting his gaze up to Maree’s eyes.
‘How old is she?’
He didn’t care whose daughter she was, he was sure she came from a good family if he was being draw to her like this. Their pack had more than five hundred people at its core and although he tried to know everyone by name and face, he had not succeeded.
‘She’s not yet twenty-five, Alpha.’
Maree dropped her gaze and tilted her head in a submissive gesture. Grayson twisted away, his ribs squeezing tight around his lungs. His breathing became painful as he balled his hands into tight fists at his sides.
She wasn’t of age. Oh fuck he couldn’t have her.
Hot tears stung his eyes and he threw back his head, his wolf leaping forth and taking dominance of his skin. A howl ripped through his throat, his skin crawling with sensation as he began to change. He ripped off his clothes and shifted on the spot, sprinting away without a backwards glance at the woman who was meant to be his next mate.
Chapter 2.
Amelia pulled herself up into a seated position and took the cup of water being offered to her.
‘What happened?’
‘You fainted.’
Amelia hid her embarrassment in her cup of water, the cold liquid sliding down her parched throat as flames lit up her cheek bones.
How absurd. She’d never fainted once in her life.
‘I’m so sorry to have caused any alarm.’
She got to her knees and slowly pushed herself up from an all fours position so that she was finally standing. Her legs wobbled and her head felt too heavy, a few stars dancing in the periphery of her vision.
‘Steady Amelia.’ Maree took her hand with a surprisingly strong grasp and gave her a place to focus.
Amelia locked her knees and stared into the old woman’s large grey eyes.
‘I’m sorry, do I know you?’
Maree gave her a gentle smile. ‘Not really, but I have watched you grow up. Your parents were good friends of mine before they passed.’
Amelia squeezed tightly the hand being offered to her even as a sadness washed over her like a cold shower, chilling her skin and making goosebumps rise.
Her parents had died just after her twenty-first birthday, forcing her already quiet personality into pure hibernation. She’d been working from home and only socialising within a very small group ever since.
‘Well, it’s nice to meet you.’
She straightened her shoulders and took several deep breaths in through the nose.
‘Our Alpha came by and saw you passed out.’
Amelia’s belly clenched, making her gasp for breath. ‘Wh … at did he say?’
‘He was upset you weren’t of age to present.’
Amelia glanced away, swallowing hard as heat flooded her whole body. The Alpha … she’d waited too long.
Oh why did they have to call the viewing now?
She lifted her eyes again, looking down on the much smaller woman. ‘Do you think they could put it off for a few months? I mean … I …’
She looked away again, the gaping hole inside of her lengthening as cold filled her once warm insides. She’d been left with such a huge space in her heart when her parents had died and she desperately needed a family. She’d tried to date within their pack but could not bring herself to mate with any one of them. They were all wrong for her, she felt it a core level. There was only one she wanted. She dreamed of him at night and she ached for him during the day.
‘No. The Alpha himself has called it and there is no going back now, even if he wanted to.’
She swallowed hard. ‘So not even the Alpha himself can’t postpone it?’
Maree smiled gently at her. ‘You can try, but there is a certain magic to the words Grayson spoke this evening, and I don’t believe he can undo them.’
Amelia’s shoulders slumped and hot tears pooled in her eyes. Her life was over.
‘Maybe you should ask, Amelia. It can’t hurt.’
She blinked and lifted her gaze once again. Yes, it was true. What else did she have to lose now?
She squared her shoulders and straightened herself to her full height. The future she would lose if he chose someone else was something truly worth fighting for.
****
Grayson got back from his second run for the day and stopped for a drink of water just beside his house. His legs ached and his mind was a blur of white noise. What could he do to change what he’d done? He’d found the first woman he’d been attracted to in years and she was officially off limits, not only that, he had decreed it himself.
He rinsed his mouth out with water and spat into a nearby bush. If only he could undo it, take back the words that now tasted so vile in his mouth.
He had to choose a new mate tomorrow night, and he’d pushed the age limit up way beyond normal limits. The mating age was twenty-one, and he’d broken the age old rule when he’d mated Natalia at nineteen. People had said she was too small, too young, but he’d been foolish and headstrong and killed them both with his poor decision.
It had been fifteen years and the guilt still ate at him like a cancer, gnawing at his gut day and night. The nightmares were bad enough but waking to a cold bed and an empty house were even worse.
He trudged up the steps to his home and stopped dead, his eyes widening at the sight of the woman sitting beside his front stoop.
‘Alpha.’ She surged to her feet and then dropped her head into a submissive position that made a pleased purr rumble through his chest.
He blinked once, his eyes roaming over the lush curves of her wide hips and full breasts, partially disguised by the large t-shirt and jeans she wore. But nothing could conceal the scent that was only hers. The blend of vanilla and oak that made his cock awaken and throb with blood behind his zip.
He cleared his throat and stepped forward, the healthy shine of her cheeks settling his thumping heart rate. She was all right.
‘We have not been officially introduced, Amelia. I am Grayson Mead, Alpha of our pack. I’m sorry we have not met earlier.’
She lifted her head and their eyes met, the cornflower blue of her irises so like his own mother’s that Grayson’s breath caught in his throat.
‘No, it is not your fault. I have kept to myself a lot and my parents were never ones for socialising.’
He took a careful step forward, saw her shoulders rolling in a strange mirror image of his own. ‘I’m sorry, I have to ask this. Are we related somehow? Your eyes look remarkably like my mother’s.’
He grimaced as he tried to take a deep breath, the lump in his throat as tight as a fist squeezing his windpipe. She
couldn’t be a relative, she just couldn’t. He’d been taught that their genes would set in a natural block to any attraction that would hint at incest.
Amelia smiled and tucked a strand of long auburn hair behind her ear, the endearing movement making Grayson groan and lean against his house as lust hit him square in the gut. She was too delicious for words.
‘Ah, not really. My mother told me stories when I was younger about our distant relationship. My eyes are the same as my grandmothers, who had the same as her grandmothers. I believe six generations back … our great, great, grandmothers were sisters, but that doesn’t quite make us cousins.’
Nowhere near it, thank the fates for that.
Grayson exhaled and pushed himself up once again, moving forward to measure himself up against the girl standing on his balcony. She straightened her spine and stared up at him with those clear blue eyes.
He grinned and stepped back once again, large butterflies of excitement stretching their wings within his chest. She was barely three or four inches shorter than him, and since he stood at six foot four, that was beyond remarkable. The average female wolf was five foot six, which made Amelia a giant amongst her peers.
But what beautiful strong sons she would bear.
He waited for the old pain to hit him at the errant thought and nothing came. He imagined it again. Amelia, round with his child, bearing him an heir.
Nothing. Wow.
He huffed out a laugh and she cocked her head at him. ‘What is it?’
He shook his head. ‘Oh nothing.’
He couldn’t believe it. Every time over the past fourteen years, if he’d even considered taking another mate, he’d be sick. The fear he felt imagining losing another woman to the same fate made him literally vomit.
But Amelia was young, strong and would carry a babe well. Every cell in his human body, and all of his wolf knew it to be true.
‘I’ve come to ask you to postpone the presentation.’
Yes!
He opened his mouth to respond and nothing came out. His jaw clenched and the ancient magic of the Alpha rolled inside of him. He couldn’t.
When he realised that he had no choice but to continue, his jaw unlocked and he answered her.
‘I’m sorry, I can’t. The decree has gone out and I can’t change it.’
Even though I’d like to.
Her brow furrowed as her voice rose in pitch. ‘But … you set the age too high! Well above mating age.’
‘That is because of my size and age. I can’t risk destroying another life like I did with my first mate.’
‘You’re not that old, Grayson … Oh ... Umm ... Alpha.’
Grayson laughed and let his eyes roam over the smooth perfection of the skin the woman in front of him possessed, her tongue curling around his name like the smoothest chocolate.
‘I am forty years old, beautiful girl.’
But I could still fuck you well into the night.
The errant thought came out of nowhere and Grayson flexed his shoulders and arms, rolling the massive muscles to remind himself of how prime he was. He set his jaw and tossed his head.
Not many wolves made maturity before thirty-five, and he was no different. He was at his strongest and healthiest, but he wanted Amelia to know his true age.
She rolled her eyes as though the number meant nothing.
‘Yeah, and if I’d been born ten years earlier like I was meant to, we wouldn’t be in this mess.’
‘Pardon?’
Amelia gasped and slapped a hand to her mouth. ‘Oh, I’m so sorry. Forgive me.’
Grayson’s eye brows drew down over his forehead and his wolf paced inside him, restless.
‘What did you mean by that?’
She turned and fled.
‘Stop!’ Grayson yelled out with his deepest Alpha voice and Amelia kept running, her hair swishing behind her until she ran out of view.
Grayson recoiled backwards. Hadn’t he used his Alpha voice? Why hadn’t she stopped?
He shook his head and opened the front door, going straight to the shower. He must be off somehow to not have wielded any power over her. The stress of the day perhaps?
He dismissed the anomaly and played over her words in his head.
If I’d been born ten years earlier we wouldn’t be in this mess.
Did she believe herself to be his true mate? Surely not. He’d never even noticed the girl before, surely she knew very little about him.
And yet the attraction was there, the undeniable connection that only generations of Alpha blood could make him understand.
He stripped himself of his dusty clothes and turned on the water, rolling his neck and shoulders to alleviate some of the tension.
He stepped beneath the spray and moaned as heat infiltrated his skin. Tomorrow, beneath the full moon he would choose a new mate, no matter what. He would have to stare at their naked bodies and reject or accept them on sight and scent.
He growled into the shower. How ridiculous.
His wolf settled inside of him and he took some calming breaths. They’d been doing it this way for centuries. The Alpha would reach maturity and call the women to him.
Grayson had been unique, choosing his mate on love and attraction before he’d reached prime age. It had been reckless and stupid and too many people had paid for it.
He would not make such a mistake again.
He climbed out of the shower and dried his tired body, his arms aching and his shoulders stooping as the responsibility of his pack’s happiness lay upon him.
Tomorrow he would follow tradition and hope that it would lead him, and his pack that was counting on him, into a better future.
Chapter 3.
Amelia paced her living room for the thousandth time that day. Her feet kept time with the ticking of the clock and her fingernails were biting into the palms of her hands, reminding her that she was indeed awake and not in the middle of some terrible nightmare.
It was almost time and she didn’t have a plan!
Shit! What do I do?
How could she stop the viewing tonight? Grayson was about to make a huge mistake!
She was his intended mate, the one he should have chosen four years ago, when he reached maturity and she turned twenty-one. She’d known it all her life, but had never had the courage to voice it to anyone.
She’d been drawn to the strange young alpha, even as a child she’d been able to sense when he was about, feel his emotions as though they were her own. When he’d taken a mate, it had saddened and confused her despite the news being met with happiness and surprise from the rest of the pack.
When she’d turned twenty-one and the attraction to him had blown every other feeling she possessed out of the water, that she’d known he was the one meant for her.
She was intelligent, loyal and hard working. She’d never believed herself to be leader material, but her mother had taught her that love came from within, and that her heart would guide the way.
Then disaster had struck and she’d lost her guides in this lifetime, and the Alpha who should have seen her was too lost in his grief to see anything.
‘Argh!’ She stopped and gripped her hair, tugging from both sides until the pain made tears sting her eyes.
He’d totally trapped her! He hadn’t noticed her until too late and now he was going to choose the wrong woman, again!
Something strange stilled inside of her and her wolf rose and bristled, her silver fur rippling with anger.
Strength and a sense of powerful frustration flowed through her in hot waves and she gasped at the strength of it, staggering back a few paces and holding onto her chest.
‘Ok, alright. I’ll try.’
Her mother had always said her wolf was powerful, but she’d never admitted to it. Always the gentle giant, she’d tried to hide any strength she possessed. It had frightened off many male suitors and female friends.
She marched to the mirror and stripped her clothes from her body. T
hey fell to the floor like the shell they were, and revealed her in all of her feminine glory.
She was not thin, or perfect. But she was the right woman for her Alpha, and she knew it.
Amelia strode over to the front door, opened it and walked through. Each strike of her foot to the floor strengthening her resolve in what needed to be done.
The full moon sung to her, her skin tingling as she walked beneath the bright light and made her way into the town square.
A few people glanced at her, but as they all shifted regularly, nakedness was not something unusual or shameful in their community. Especially tonight.
She stepped into the town square and gasped at the number of women presenting. Some young like herself, many older. All naked and being inspected by the Alpha who stalked down the long line.
He was naked also and although she had seen Grayson nude before, a wetness spread between her thighs as his body took full effect on hers.
He was magnificent. His shoulder’s breadth was massive and his chest was strong, his muscles thick and defined. His arse clenched as he prowled and sniffed each woman, occasionally licking one of them on the shoulder and then moving on. He turned once and she saw his cock swinging between his thighs, long and beautiful.
Her belly tightened again, heat swimming through her legs and causing a strong throbbing in her clit.
She had not been taken before, yet her body craved the touch of that man, and only that man.
She walked forward and joined the end of the line, her pulse hammering in her body like a frightened bird trying to escape its cage.
He slowly approached, his body moving with grace and controlled speed, yet he showed no sign of being either interested or aroused by any of the women he touched.
Her heart thumped louder and stronger in her chest, until she could barely hear the people around her over the pounding in her ears.
He reached the end of the line, and her.
He gasped and stepped back, his eyes running up and down her body with a heated look that sent hunger straight to her pussy.
‘No. Get out of the line. You’re too young.’
His breathing was ragged and his cock changed before her very eyes, the thick shaft standing out proudly against his body even as he shook his head and backed away from her.
