Taming The Alpha: A Wolf Shifter Mpreg Romance (Savage Love Book 3)

by Preston Walker

  Ulysses pointed over to the corner. “What are those for?”

  Brody scratched his head, leaving flakes of rust in his hair. He shrugged. “Hell if I know. What’s anything for? Why are we alive? Are there aliens?”

  “100% there are aliens,” Ulysses said, allowing himself to be sidetracked. Maybe the mystery of the parts wasn’t so important after all. “There are shapeshifters. There are vampires. You expect me to not believe in aliens?”

  Brody just rolled his eyes, assuming Ulysses was joking. “Look at Mr. Conspiracy Theory over here.”

  “You started it.”

  As their conversation took a turn, as Ulysses lost himself in his work, he more or less forgot about the pile of black car parts that looked very much like they could have come from a certain stolen 2016 Nissan Altima, reported upon in the news. And when he came in to work the next day and the parts were gone, he didn’t notice at all.

  9

  Another week went by and Ulysses found himself walking down a street in the middle of a business district in Pensacola, whistling as he went. He was not a whistler by nature, but the joviality of the moment dictated he acquire this new habit. He had just placed his first order for some parts for the motorcycle he was going to build and he could not have been happier. His hands were restless and fidgety, like he was already deeply immersed in the work on his upcoming project.

  He simply couldn’t wait for those parts to arrive.

  And the icing on the cake, the cherry on top of the good news sundae, he was heading to a restaurant to have an early dinner with Robbie. Some part of Robbie’s work the past couple days had gone astonishingly well, he had said, and he had a large quantity of free time to spend.

  Once they had dinner, they were going to head to a park near a beach and would hopefully be able to watch the sunset together. The entire thing sounded sappy and romantic, and Ulysses honestly couldn’t wait for that, either. He wanted to deliver his good news, and then he would gladly spend the rest of the evening listening to Robbie droning on and on about whatever occurred to him. It was going to be so good. There were bubbles inside him that he had never felt before, bright and shiny and silvering things of excitement and anticipation.

  He was honestly in such a good mood that he found himself smiling at the people he passed.

  Unless you were Robbie, random smiling in a city setting was more apt to get you beat up than to elicit a positive response. City-goers were an oddly private sort of people, who preferred to mingle in crowds and become one with a pattern. Upon being singled out, they felt threatened and would act accordingly.

  If you were Robbie, however, everyone on the street turned into a friend.

  Ulysses found himself having significantly less luck, though he wasn’t exactly intending to bring attention upon himself by smiling. He was simply enjoying himself.

  Many people ignored him, or perhaps didn’t notice him at all. Most of the handful of people who did notice suddenly switched paths, jostling into others next to them as they tried not to get too close to Ulysses.

  And then there were the one or two who saw him smile and smiled back, though the lightness this brought to their faces was nothing compared to Robbie’s beauty.

  Ulysses was so close to the restaurant he could practically taste it, scents of garlic and tomato sauce flowing to him on the salt-laden wind. He couldn’t see Robbie, not that that meant anything. Robbie might already be inside, having begun the wait to get a table, or he would be sitting in his car, vigilant and smiling.

  Ulysses was so caught up in his imaginings that he only noticed the stagnated human at the very last moment, when he didn’t even have enough room to swerve around him. He jerked to a halt and then took a few steps back, automatically opening his mouth to give some sort of response. He normally would have said something like, “Watch what you’re doing,” but he was in a good mood today and decided to try out something different at the last moment.

  “Sorry,” he said. “Didn’t see you there.”

  “Yeah,” the human said, and his voice was low and somehow menacing. His eyes glittered and Ulysses realized with a shock that the emotion contained within those orbs was a fury so intense it bordered on loathing. “I guess you didn’t.”

  What the fuck is his problem?

  He didn’t even have time to complete the thought before the human acted, his fist flying through the air in front of him.

  Acting on instinct, Ulysses lifted his hand and caught the fist in his palm. Deflected but not discouraged, the human swung out with his left fist. He must have been right-handed because this punch had significantly less power behind it, and Ulysses caught it again with no difficulties.

  Snarling wordlessly, in a garbled and decidedly non-menacing way that reminded Ulysses of a kitten, the human tried to grapple, pushing and shoving with his captured hands out in front of him. Digging his heels against the concrete sidewalk, he gave it so much force his face started turning red.

  Ulysses held him easily. He was no stranger to fights and this one, however odd, gave him a real appreciation for how fast he had healed. His doctor told him that a human would still be dealing with differences in strength and flexibility and endurance at this point, but Ulysses felt absolutely nothing right now. He was aware of the way his muscles moved, the slight strain put upon them, and everything was as it should be.

  Letting out a cry of frustration, the human reversed direction and backed up. Ulysses let go of his hands and watched as the man staggered, only preventing himself from falling by grabbing onto a nearby trash can. A brief flicker of disgust crossed the human’s face and he straightened up on his own, wiping his hands on his pants. His attempts to remove the grime must have been ineffectual, because Ulysses saw streaks of a dark substance on the man’s hands when he brought them up in front of his face and clenched them into fists again.

  “What is your problem?” he asked, this time out loud.

  How odd, to be voicing the same question that was asked of him so often in the past.

  “You are my problem!” the man said, and thrust out his fist. He must not have learned from last time.

  Ulysses caught his hand but instead of holding onto it, he pushed back and watched the human go stumbling away. Satisfaction curled through his body, making him feel like a cat that had gotten into the cream. God, he loved being dominant. No one could touch him.

  I’m different than that now, he reminded himself. However, his conviction was pale in comparison to the desire to use more force, to show this human who was boss.

  The man had said something he missed. “What was that?” he asked.

  “My fucking van, man. Don’t play dumb!”

  Ulysses shook his head, curling his lip. “Not sure what you’re on about, guy. I’m just headed to a date. I haven’t done anything to bother you, so why don’t you just fuck off and not bother me? Or I’ll call the cops and tell them you assaulted me.”

  An empty threat. Ulysses had no opinions on the police one way or another, except to acknowledge they existed. He would rather not involve the cops if he could help it, especially when Robbie was waiting on him. They had both been waiting to have this chance for ages now.

  “Yeah,” the man said, panting now he was so angry. He looked around as if searching for help but their section of the sidewalk was miraculously clear. No wonder, there. No one wanted to get involved in a street fight. “Yeah, you just call the fucking cops, okay? I bet they’ll be real interested in what you got to say for yourself.”

  “I doubt it.”

  “Where the fuck is my van?” the man demanded. “Just tell me how I can get my fucking van back and I’ll drop it. No more cops involved if you just tell me where the fuck it is.”

  “Man, the only van I’ve touched recently was one I picked up for work.”

  “I watched you take it! I just caught up and I saw you take it!” The man was acting like a volcano about to blow, shaking with an intense anger that Ulysses just couldn�
�t understand.

  “Well, if you want it back, you’re going to have to talk to the guy you sold it to. Not me. I’m just a delivery boy.”

  “A fucking crony is what you are! Maybe I’ll beat the answers out of you.”

  “Or, you could stop down by the shop and have a civilized conversation. Seems to me like that’s the more sensible option.” Ulysses straightened up to his full height. He was only an inch or so taller than the human attacking him, but much broader and more physically imposing. As he had been hoping, the human seemed to suddenly reconsider his stance in life. Up until now, every one of his attacks was deflected without so much as an ounce of effort. There was no telling what would happen if Ulysses actually fought back.

  “Fuck you, man,” the human said, sounding wounded. “I need my van. What am I supposed to do without it?”

  “You should have thought of that before.”

  Ulysses was going to say more, because he was beginning to get the idea that this human didn’t quite understand what he’d signed up for. Maybe he’d been high or drunk, or made a spontaneous decision and was now regretting not having all the facts.

  Maybe he had been under the assumption he would get his van back, though Ulysses didn’t know how he thought that would work. Then again, the general population thought many implausible and misguided things because they didn’t know any better.

  Either way, there had been some very big misunderstanding here.

  Before he could say anything, the man clenched his fists and took a step backward. He looked like someone who had been staunchly defeated before they even got a chance to try.

  “You’re going to regret this,” he said.

  “I’m sure I won’t,” Ulysses replied. “Go talk to Wheeler if you have complaints. Now, please leave me the fuck alone.”

  The man obeyed, slinking off desolately down the sidewalk as if all his will to live had been leached from him over the course of their conversation.

  Shaking his head, Ulysses continued in the direction of the restaurant and found Robbie waiting for him just outside the entrance.

  His heart lifting, Ulysses hurried forward and wrapped his arms around the omega. “Hey!” he said, hugging the other man close.

  “Hi,” Robbie said.

  Something was clearly wrong.

  Still holding onto Robbie, Ulysses leaned back and looked into his gorgeous blue eyes. “What’s up? Tough day?”

  “Let’s talk about it when we’re inside,” Robbie replied.

  This was not like the other man at all, which was very worrying. Something must have happened to dampen his mood. Whatever it was, Ulysses felt determined to find out and fix it to the best of his abilities.

  Just then, a voice came on over the loudspeaker, calling Robbie’s name and letting him know that his table was ready.

  “Shall we?” Ulysses held out his hand, offering it to Robbie.

  Robbie smiled and accepted his hand, which gave him hope that whatever was wrong could easily be fixed. If Robbie could still smile so easily, it must only be a minor inconvenience and not a tragedy of some kind.

  They headed inside the crowded restaurant together and were quickly shown to their table at the very back of the restaurant, near the kitchen. Despite the fact that they had been put on a waiting list, the building was not nearly as packed as one would have thought. They must have been low on staff for the day and were having to compensate for it, not that Ulysses really cared. He didn’t mind the wait, and he was glad that the atmosphere was quieter than he’d been expecting. At their position in the back, they were sheltered from much of the overwhelming din and really only had the sounds of clattering and clunking from the kitchen to contend with.

  A waitress with a harried look in her eyes arrived shortly to take their drink orders and then went away again.

  The moment she was gone, Ulysses looked into the eyes of the man sitting across from him. “What’s up? You seem a little out of sorts.”

  The last thing he wanted in the world was for Robbie to be feeling bad about literally anything. If something was within his power to fix, he wanted to get it fixed.

  A shadow covered Robbie’s gaze as he leaned forward. “Who was that guy?”

  “What guy?” Ulysses asked.

  “That guy who was attacking you! That guy. Who was he?”

  “You saw that all the way from the restaurant?”

  “I’m not blind, you know.” Robbie flashed a small smile, though it sat oddly on his full lips. “I was waiting for you and then that guy came out of nowhere and tried to hit you.”

  “I wasn’t really paying much attention to where I was going,” Ulysses admitted. “I was thinking about you. I didn’t see where he came from.”

  “It might have been from the store you were in front of, or maybe the alley beside it. I couldn’t really tell. But he just came out of there and started trying to hurt you. What the hell was that all about? Did you do something?”

  “No, I didn’t,” Ulysses growled. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled, his hackles rising at the accusation.

  “Okay,” Robbie said, very softly. “I’m not trying to pin you with a crime or anything.”

  Ulysses pulled in a breath, trying to calm himself. Robbie was right. He’d jumped to a conclusion again. “Sorry. It was really weird.”

  The conversation paused as their waitress came back, not that she looked like she would have noticed a scheme to bomb the White House. She was far away, probably thinking of the dozen things she had to do next, and maybe the responsibilities she had outside of work. She took their meal orders and then hurried off, only to dart back a second later because she had forgotten to give them straws for their drinks.

  “From the way he sounded, it was like he thought I stole his van.”

  Robbie sipped on his glass of strawberry lemonade, then stirred the contents with his straw so bits of shredded fruit swirled around like fish in an aquarium. All the while, he was shaking his head. “You didn’t, did you?”

  “No, I didn’t,” Ulysses growled. “I’m not a thief and I have no idea who that guy was. Never seen him before in my entire life.”

  “Remember, I’m not blaming you for anything,” Robbie said, his voice lowered and soothing now.

  Ulysses actually felt himself calm down slightly in response to Robbie’s tone this time. He relaxed his grip on the edge of the table, even though he hadn’t realized he had started holding onto it. “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. You just went through something stressful, so it’s okay to feel a little stressed.”

  I guess that makes sense.

  “Is that why you looked a bit out of sorts when I first saw you? What’s got you stressed?”

  “Well, I just watched a random guy try to attack you, so that was pretty awful.”

  “He had nothing on me.”

  “No, but he could have, if he surprised you.” Robbie stopped in his restless stirring. “Why would he have thought that you stole his van? Did something happen at work that would have maybe given him the wrong impression?”

  Very quickly, Ulysses told Robbie about all he knew on the subject, how obtaining new parts worked, and that he had gone to pick up a van and bring it back to the shop. He also gave his theories about why the man might have misunderstood.

  “That’s all really weird,” Robbie said. “Is it possible you maybe picked up the wrong vehicle or something?”

  “No way in hell,” Ulysses grunted. “The van is the exact make and model of the one I was supposed to pick up. Gray 2014 Dodge Grand Caravan. Left in literally the exact spot where it was supposed to be.”

  “I mean, there have to be at least several of those in the city. Right? It’s not like there are infinite dealerships to choose from. Could someone with a similar vehicle have parked in that spot, unknowingly?”

  Ulysses frowned. He felt very much like they were starting to reach for impossible coincidences at this point. “I guess,
maybe. But the odds have to be against that. And what about the license plate? And the key was even tucked in the exact spot where it was supposed to be. I can maybe get behind someone with the same type of van parking nearby, but in the same exact spot, with the same plate and hidden key? No way. It’s just not possible.

  “And even if it was, Brody and I looked over that thing from top to bottom for several hours once I got it to the garage. If something was amiss, two pairs of eyes would have noticed. Hell, three pairs of eyes, because Wheeler would definitely have noticed if I got the wrong van. No way. Not a problem on our end.”

  “That’s weird,” Robbie mused. “Very weird. And you know the part I really don’t like? That guy had to have been waiting on you or something. There’s no way he would just be out shopping and randomly see the guy he thinks stole his van, you know? I guess maybe it’s possible but like you’ve said, the odds are really against it.”

  “Pensacola’s number one unsolved mystery: what the fuck is that guy’s problem?”

  Robbie smiled at him. “What are you going to do about it, now?”

  “Not much I can do. I told the guy to talk to Wheeler if he was having second thoughts.” A new idea suddenly occurred to Ulysses. “Maybe he hadn’t gotten his check yet. If I gave my van up to be stripped for parts, I’d probably feel like it was stolen from me if I hadn’t gotten paid.”

  “Oh, good point!”

  “Tomorrow I’ll talk to Wheeler about it but other than that, nothing I can do.”

  Their conversation wound down at more or less the perfect time, because their entrees arrived only a few seconds later.

  The rest of the evening couldn’t have been more perfect. With the topic of the weird man firmly put behind them, they were able to get on with all the things they had been looking forward to. Ulysses delivered his good news about the motorcycle parts he had coming in, and Robbie responded with the utmost enthusiasm before talking about how things had been going with him.

  Dinner finished, stomachs full, they took Robbie’s red van for a drive, ending up at William Bartram Memorial Park. The park was towards the east end of the city, which would normally have been smack dab in the middle of Lethal Freedom territory. Being a Shadow Claws wolf himself, Ulysses would not normally have chosen to go there. However, since the two packs were now meant to be acting as one, he could go anywhere he pleased.