by Renee Rose
His.
Every cell in my body knows it. I belong with him. To him.
He turns to the tables of Americans and says, “To say I am honored to take Sedona as my mate would be an understatement. She is my life, my light. The angel who helped me see the way to clear the oppression and corruption that’s plagued my pack. I will spend every day of our lives making up for the wrongs done to her here.” He makes a point of looking at my father, then my brother as he delivers this.
My father nods, as if he’s been waiting for this pronouncement, and he leads me in. We’re not having a real wedding ceremony the way some American wolves do. This is just a celebration of the mating that’s already taken place. Even so, Juanito, shined up in a suit, holds out a small jewelry box to Carlos and my mate takes out a ring which he slips on the tip of his index finger.
He only has eyes for me as I come toward him. My father stops in front of the raised platform and kisses my cheek. Carlos reaches for my face with both hands, and pulls my mouth up to his, slanting his lips over mine.
I moan softly into his mouth and he smiles against my lips. “I love you, my white wolf.” He picks up my hand and slides a slender gold band with three oval emeralds on my finger. “I’ll get you a real ring soon, but I wanted to give you something tonight. This was my grandmother’s.”
It’s loose, so I take it off and slide it on my middle finger, instead, where it fits.
He holds both my hands and gazes into my eyes. “Marry me.”
I laugh. “Again, I think the deed is already done. I’m wearing the ring.” I hold up my hand and wiggle my fingers.
He slides his nose over mine. “I want it all ways—legal marriage, family ceremony, moon-marked.”
I press my lips to his. “You have me. I’m in. I’m all in.”
Carlos grins and holds up our intertwined hands in a clear gesture of victory, turning to face the tables again. “I have found and claimed my mate. Please, let the feast begin!”
The mariachi strikes up and I lean into Carlos, soak up his presence, so solid and warm. So right.
“I love you, Carlos.” He already knows, but it feels important to say it now, in this moment.
He tips my face up and stares down at me without moving.
“What are you doing?”
“Memorizing this moment. I never want to forget how wonderful it feels to know you’re mine.”
I rise to my toes and stamp my lips over his. “I claim you back, black wolf. You’re as much mine as I am yours.”
A boyish grin spreads across his face. “Promise?”
THE END
Other books in the Boy Alphas Series
Alpha’s Challenge (Bad Boy Alphas, Book 4)
How to Date a Werewolf:
#1 Never call him ‘Good Doggie.’
I’ve got a problem. A big, hairy problem. An enforcer from the Werewolves Motorcycle Club broke into my house. He thinks I know the Werewolves’ secret, and the pack sent him to guard me.
#2 During a full moon, be ready to get freaky
By the time he decides I’m no threat, it’s too late. His wolf has claimed me for his mate.
Too bad we can’t stand each other…
# 3 Bad girls get eaten in the bedroom
...until instincts take over. Things get wild. Naked under the full moon, this wolfman has me howling for more.
# 4 Break ups are hairy
Not even a visit from the mob, my abusive ex, my crazy mother and a road trip across the state in a hippie VW bus can shake him.
#5 Beware the mating bite
Because there’s no running from a wolf when he decides you’re his mate.
Alpha’s Obsession (Bad Boy Alpha’s Book 5)
A werewolf, an owl shifter, and a scientist walk into a bar…
Sam
I was born in a lab, fostered out to humans, then tortured in a cage. Fate allowed me to escape, and I know why.
To balance the scales of justice. Right the misdeeds of the harvesters.
Nothing matters but taking down the man who made me what I am: A monster driven by revenge, whatever the cost.
Then I meet Layne. She thinks I’m a hero.
But she doesn’t understand—If I don’t follow this darkness to its end, it will consume me.
Layne
I’ve spent my life in the lab, researching the cure for the disease that killed my mom. No late nights out, no dates, definitely no boyfriend.
Then Sam breaks into my lab, steals my research, and kidnaps me. He’s damaged. Crazy. And definitely not human.
He and his friends are on a mission to stop the company that’s been torturing shifters, and now I’m a part of it.
Sam promises to protect me. And when he touches me, I feel reborn. But he’s hellbent on revenge. He won’t give it up.
Not even for me.
Alpha’s Desire (Book 6)
She's the one girl this player can't have. A human.
I'm dying to claim the redhead who lights up the club every Saturday night.
I want to pull her into the storeroom and make her scream, but it wouldn't be right.
She's too pure. Too fresh. Too passionate.
Too human.
When she learns my secret, my alpha orders me to wipe her memories.
But I won't do it.
Still, I'm not mate material--I can't mark her and bring her into the pack.
What in the hell am I going to do with her?
Publisher's Note: Alpha's Desire is a stand-alone book in the Bad Boy Alphas series. HEA guaranteed, no cheating. This book contains a hot, demanding alpha wolf with a penchant for protecting and dominating his female. If such material offends you, do not buy this book.
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About Renee Rose
USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR RENEE ROSE is a naughty wordsmith who writes kinky romance novels. Named Eroticon USA’s Next Top Erotic Author in 2013, she has also won Spunky and Sassy’s Favorite Sci-Fi and Anthology Author, The Romance Reviews Best Historical Romance, and Spanking Romance Reviews’ Best Historical, Best Erotic, Best Ageplay and favorite author. She’s hit #1 on Amazon in the Erotic Paranormal, Western and Sci-fi categories. She also pens BDSM stories under the name Darling Adams.
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Excerpt: The Alpha’s Promise by Renee Rose
Be sure to check out the Alpha Doms series by Renee Rose
The Alpha’s Promise
A Bad Boy Shifter Romance (Alpha Doms Book 3)
By Renee Rose
Chapter One
Melissa headed up the sidewalk to the rundown rental house where she and her loser, soon to be ex-boyfriend had lived for the past eight months. She couldn’t wait to be done with the place. Her heels clicked on the concrete, pencil skirt too constraining in the early June heat after a long day showing houses.
She braced herself for the annoying clutter of half-filled moving boxes. At least it meant that in less than a month Jeremy would be out of her life, forever.
The relationship never should’ve happened in the first place. She’d mistaken bonding in a crisis situation—Jeremy had saved her life after he and his buddy had kidnapped her last year—for true love. Maybe she’d just wanted what her sister had with her new husband.
In another of her classic bad judgement moves, she’d forgiven him
for the kidnapping, been grateful for his change of heart. Moved in with the guy who’d put her life in danger. That f-ed up statement pretty much summed everything up. She was too loyal, too trusting. Thought that the attraction would last. It hadn’t. Four months later she’d been totally over him, but it had taken her four more to figure out how to get out of their lease, even after they’d broken up. Her stuff was already packed into boxes. By this time next month she’d be free of Jeremy and this dump.
She unlocked the door and pushed it open, then stopped dead with a gasp.
The place had been wrecked. Destroyed.
Boxes had been opened and emptied—stuff was strewn everywhere. The pottery dishes she’d bought from her artist friend in college lay in a broken heap, paintings had been torn from the walls and smashed.
A sob rose in her throat. She turned in a slow circle, her heart thumping hard in her chest. When she saw the maroon spray-painted words scrawled across the back wall, she screamed.
Pay up by Friday or you both die.
A sheet of ice flashed through her. She literally couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. Her body trembled all over. Her hand closed around her cell phone, but something stopped her from calling 911.
This wasn’t just a break-in. It was personal. And it had something to do with Jeremy. Had something happened at the dispensary? He was always afraid they’d be robbed at gunpoint—it had happened at other dispensaries because they took in a large amount of cash.
Oh, God. She should’ve known. She should’ve run fast and hard from Jeremy the moment they were free of the kidnapping trauma.
He had a knack for landing in trouble. He associated with the wrong sorts of people. He liked to party and used drugs. He might even deal harder stuff out the back door of the dispensary—she didn’t know, she’d been turning a blind eye to all that.
Would calling the cops ensure someone’s death? She gulped. Hers?
With trembling fingers, she dialed her twin sister instead. Ashley and Ben had gone to the Canary Islands for their honeymoon. She shouldn’t bother them, but… she really didn’t know what else to do.
“Hey, Mel,” her sister’s voice called gaily through the earpiece.
“I’m sorry to bother you.”
Her sister instantly picked up on the pinched, wobbly quality of her voice. “What is it, Mel? What happened?” Ashley asked sharply.
“I-I’m not sure. I just came home and the place has been wrecked. And there’s a spray-painted message on the wall.” She told her sister what it said, without having to voice her suspicions about it being some trouble of Jeremy’s. Ben and Ashley already had the lowest opinion of him.
“I’m going to check upstairs, do you mind staying on the phone with me?”
“Of course I don’t mind, but do you think you should call the police?”
She walked up the stairs, holding the phone tight against her ear, as if it somehow made her sister closer.
Ben’s sharp tones had started at the mention of police, and she listened to her sister explain to him what had happened.
The intruders had trashed the bedroom upstairs, too. Her dresser drawers had been dumped onto the floor, hamper unloaded. It looked like they’d even torn the carpet up from the floor. What had they been looking for? Money?
“Mel? Ben’s going to call someone he knows in Colorado Springs, so just sit tight, okay?”
“Okay.” She was more relieved than she cared to admit to hear that Ben knew what to do.
“I’ll call you right back,” Ashley promised.
She hung up and stared at the mess, tears burning her eyes. What should she do? She wished she could pack up all her stuff and get out that second, but she didn’t know where to go. Where could she rent a place on such short notice? And she didn’t want to rent, dammit, she’d been so excited to buy her own place.
Ben Stone, her twin sister’s wealthy new husband, had offered to help her with a down payment so she could buy a house of her own.
The sound of a car door slamming made her look out the window. Jeremy had better have a solution for—
But it wasn’t Jeremy.
Three lethal-looking guys got out of a dark blue Range Rover and strode purposefully to the front door. They didn’t bother knocking and she stupidly hadn’t locked it.
Holy hell. They were here, in the house. They were going to kill her.
Heart jammed up high in her throat, she dived for the closet, squirrelling back behind the clothes.
Please don’t let them search the house.
Her phone lit up, the first note of the ring sending her into a wild swiping frenzy to shut it off. It went silent. She held her breath, listening to hear if the men downstairs had noticed, but only heard the sound of their voices calling to each other. Were they moving in to wait for her and Jeremy?
Her hands shook so hard, she could hardly read the phone, but saw it had been Ashley calling.
She texted her back.
They’re in the house.
Cody Steele washed the plaster off his trowel and wiped everything clean. Almost finished—just a couple of quick coats of paint over this repaired hole in the wall and the house would be ready to go on the market. Buying historic buildings and homes, fixing them up and selling for a tidy profit had put his restless, hands-on personality to good use. CJ Steele properties had become well known in Colorado Springs for their real estate successes and his company provided jobs for most of the wolves in his pack.
Not bad, considering his dad had thrown him out of the pack at sixteen, saying he’d never amount to anything. It was a source of pride that he’d started and made his business successful completely on his own, starting a pack in a city where they’d previously been loose members of the Denver pack.
His cell phone buzzed and he pulled it out of his pocket and frowned. Ben Stone, the alpha from Denver. What in the hell did he want?
He answered it. “Cody speaking.”
“Cody? Ben Stone, from Denver.”
“I know who you are.”
“I need a favor from you—a big one.” There was a curt sense of urgency in the guy’s voice.
He ground his molars. Pretty presumptuous for a guy who hadn’t offered him or his pack even a hello since he took over as alpha nine months ago. “I don’t recall owing you one.”
Stone didn’t hesitate. “I’ll be the one owing. My sister-in-law lives in Colorado Springs and she’s run into trouble. I’m out of the country or I’d come down myself to handle things.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“Her place got broken into. There’s a threatening message spray-painted on the wall. Probably her loser ex-boyfriend got himself into some trouble, but she’s not involved. I need you to keep her safe.”
Fuck.
This was the last thing he wanted to get involved in. But having Ben Stone in his debt would only be a good thing for his pack. Ben had all kinds of resources, money being at the top of the list. He also had a large pack with members of every skill set, and being friendly with them would mean he’d never have to turn to his father’s pack for help. And he’d rather die than do that.
“Steele?”
He blew out his breath. “Yeah, okay. What’s the address?”
“I’ll text it to you. You’ll go right now?”
“I’ll go. What’s her name?”
“Melissa. Steele—alpha’s promise you’ll give her pack protection.”
Shit. What in the hell was he getting himself into? Stone wanted him to vow his own life to protect her. Well, that’s what wolves did.
“Yeah,” he grunted. “Alpha’s promise.”
“Thank you.”
He closed his eyes and rubbed a hand across his face. He’d live to regret this.
Because his pickup was full of painting supplies, he left it in front of the house and jogged the few blocks to his own place, where he hopped on his motorcycle and checked the address Ben had texted.
His wolf instincts
kicked into gear before he got there, putting him on high alert. He cut the engine and coasted silently up to a small two-story house. A dark blue Range Rover was parked in front, behind a white Toyota pickup. Tingles of warning raced across his skin.
The front door stood open and male voices barked inside. He skirted the building to peer through a window. Three guys sat on the couch. They all sported guns and one wore a fancy suit.
A chill made the hairs on the back of his neck bristle. Looked like Junior Rabago, a drug dealer out of Denver. He moved heavier drugs like cocaine and heroin through one of the local marijuana dispensaries. If Ben’s sister-in-law was tied to him, this was bigger trouble than he’d imagined.
Fuckity fuck fuck. He should not have offered an alpha’s promise to Ben for this. Now protection had just turned into a rescue. And he didn’t even have a gun on him.
Ben had said his sister-in-law was here now. Had they killed her already? Or had she managed to escape in time? He scented the air. He didn’t smell blood. Only the fresh scent of humans—mostly male, maybe one female. No wolves. He looked up the building. A window stood open on the second floor.
Was he nuts for thinking about climbing up there? Probably. But he couldn’t see what other choice he had. It was that or camp out here to wait for the guys to leave and they didn’t look likely to leave any time soon. He gripped the rain spout, hoping it was strong enough to hold his weight. It creaked, the metal scraping the side of the brick building when he swung onto it, but it didn’t pull away from the building. He scaled it to the roof, then crept to the area above the open window and lowered his body down over the side, his toes landing on the sill.
The screen came out easily and he tossed it down to the grass below. He crept into what appeared to be a bedroom, which had been completely trashed. The human female scent was stronger here—an alluring smell, despite the fact that it didn’t come from a she-wolf.
