The Tyrant Alpha’s Rejected Mate (The Five Packs Book 1)

She chooses to walk. She won’t let me help her up the stairs. I’m gonna have to get the maintenance crew out here to make a ramp.

She’s been hopping up and down stairs this whole time. In the rain. In the dark. One wrong step, and she could fall and break her neck. Her wolf’s not saving her. Not with how tortuously slow she shifts. It’s like watching a baby chick fight its way out of an egg every time.

And there are stairs to every single cabin in camp. And the lodge. The commissary. Shit. Maintenance crew is gonna have to build a lot of ramps. How did so much escape me all this time?

Truth be told, I’ve got the sinking feeling that I’ve missed a hell of a lot. Like how our lone females have been running a side hustle in the human town for an entire decade. And it did not escape my notice which truck she was drivin’. It’s the one I learned on. There’s a trick to getting the engine to turn over the first time.

Liam and I have a date. I’m gonna hang his pelt from the flagpole in front of the lodge.

Later.

Right now, my mate is finally in my den. The rightness settles in my bones, and the bond pulses. It’s growing stronger by the hour. It’s more than a vague sensation now. It has a physicality, a location. The end anchored in my chest throbs with life, and then it dwindles into a cold nothing except for the slightest thread drifting toward her in the dark space between us.

I scrub my pecs. I’ll fix this. My mate is here. That’s all that matters.

She’s almost across the threshold when she stops mid-step and sniffs. Her face screws up like she’s sucking lemons.

“What?” I don’t smell anything unusual.

“Nothing.”

She’s trying to cover her tits and her pussy again. She can hide those dark curls, but she’s got too much up top. Her breasts spill from her arm, sweet and ripe. My cock swells to full length yet again. I try to keep my eyes above her neck. I don’t need to antagonize her any more than I already do with my mere existence.

This is so fucked up. Every other member of this pack will bend over backwards to appease me. Everyone is always angling for an invite to my cabin. Making up excuses to drop by. And here’s my mate. She won’t even come past the welcome mat.

It’s meant to scrub the dirt from your soles. It’s gotta be rough on her bare feet.

And she’s shivering. She’s cold.

My wolf whacks me upside the head. Shit. I’m terrible at this mate shit. “You want clothes?”

She nods.

I stride to the back bedroom and find myself some track pants. I grab her a hoodie. I don’t want her covered—my wolf in particular disapproves—but her unhappiness is sour, and it abrades my nerves.

I’m all jangly and uptight. I want to fight something. And I don’t like her being out of my sight. I trot back to the big room. She’s right where I left her, same prune-ish scowl.

I hand her the sweatshirt, and she practically dives into it. My wolf grumbles, but the tightness in my chest lightens a touch.

I like her in my clothes. It feels right. I don’t like her body hidden from me, but her ass needs to be covered. Males come by all the time with one problem or another. They don’t need to see her until she has my scent coming out of her pores. My seed inside her. Dripping from those dark curls between her legs.

My wolf surges, a giant wave that almost knocks me unsteady. He wants to mount her now, and he’s losing patience. He was pissed as hell back in the windbreak when I forced him out of our skin. He was pushing too hard, though. Her wolf was down to fuck, but she was nowhere near ready.

Later. Soon enough.

I jerk back on the reins.

I can’t handle her rough. She’s—I don’t know the word. Delicate doesn’t seem right. But instinct tells me I gotta be gentle. Tread carefully. Unfortunately, that’s not my forte. Nor my wolf’s.

My hoodie comes to mid-thigh on her. Doesn’t really hide many of the scars, and they’re bad. There’s a Frankenstein quality to them, as if the wounds were stitched in haste. Who tended to her? Couldn’t have been the crone. The crone would’ve never abided such shoddy work.

Out of nowhere, Una makes a soft little harrumph, her wolf adding a little growl. She gives me her back, shoulders up to her ears.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“Thought you’d like the rear view. So you can take it all in.”

She’s shaking. Vibrating with anger and hurt. The thread may be slight, but the feelings stream into my chest, toxic and awful.

I didn’t mean to upset her. Again. I suck at this. I tilt my face to the ceiling, cracking my neck. What do I do?

Usually, when a female drops by, she takes the lead, asks for a cup of sugar or suggests a game of cards or something. Or just gets on her knees.

I’ve got my mate in my den, and she’s glaring at the front door, tense as hell, and her wolf’s growling low, riling mine.

“Come on. Sit down.” I back away, give her space. Gesture to the sofa. She finally turns back to face the room.

I take a seat. Put myself below her level. Try to calm her wolf. Let her take the dominant position for a while. Females love that feeling of power.

Una shakes her head. “No, thanks.”

I almost say, “I don’t bite.” I swear, it’s my wolf who stops me.

“We can talk,” I say instead.

“I can’t sit on that thing.”

A bright red flush has creeped up her neck and stained her cheeks. She re-braided her hair in the truck, but a strand’s come loose, and she’s winding it tight around her finger.

“Why not?” I try to smile. Let her know I mean no harm. I’m not really a smiler, though. She kind of grimaces in response. “Can’t we have a conversation?”

Her blush darkens. “I can’t. It stinks.”

It’s leather. It smells good. I draw in a deep breath. All I smell is her—her warm deliciousness and her tart displeasure. I almost like her scent better with an edge.

“Like what?” I ask.

Her gaze skitters wildly around the room. I hope she notices how big it is. I renovated it myself when I became alpha. Doubled the square feet. Added the loft. It’s got Energy Star appliances.

“You gonna keep me in suspense, shy girl?”

She glares mutinously at the rug halfway between us. “Females.”

“Nah.” I give the cushion a good sniff. I mean, yes, I’ve gotten my knob polished plenty on this sofa, but I have the cabin cleaned on the regular. It’s immaculate. “I don’t smell it.”

She closes her eyes. She’s got her hands jammed in the hoodie pockets. “Haisley. Rowan.” She scrunches her nose. “Maeve. Shalene. Finley. Siobhan. Tierney. Iona.”

I, uh. Damn, she’s accurate. “It wasn’t, uh—” I don’t know how to tell her that it was only oral. Does that even matter?

She grimaces. “Their smell is everywhere.”

“It bothers you?” I kind of perk up. She minds. She cares.

She crosses her arms. “It’s not my business. You can do what you want.”

“Then sit down next to me.”

She’s shaking her head vehemently before I get the words all the way out. “I can’t.”

“You can’t stand in the doorway forever.”

She casts me a dark look. “Yeah. You’re right. I’m going out on the porch. If I stay in here, I’m gonna throw up.” And she turns on her heel and does just that.

She turns her back on her alpha. Me.

No one does that. No one. Even my father never walked away from me. He was too good a fighter to make that kind of mistake. And here’s Una, giving me her back at every opportunity.

My lip quirks up. She knows I won’t hurt her. Maybe not consciously, but something inside her—maybe her wolf—recognizes that in our pack of two, she outranks the hell out of me.

If she ever realizes the power that gives her, I’m fucked. But I can’t bring myself to mind.

My mate could stalk off up the hill to her place, make this is a real fight, but she doesn’t. She pokes around the front porch a little and then manages to lower herself to the top stair, stretching the hoodie over her knees as far as it’ll go to cover herself. That’s right. That body is only for me.

I’m gonna have to rethink the full moon runs. She can shift now, and I don’t think my wolf will be able to handle her naked around the other males for the swim afterwards. I’d be cool. I don’t have human hang ups. But my wolf, though. He definitely wouldn’t be okay with it.

I watch Una from the front window while I make a few calls. A few packmates pass on the path. She ignores them. They eye her, curious, but not curious enough to talk to a low-ranking lone female. She looks like she’s in time out on the alpha’s porch.

Rowan and Tierney strut past, and they bend their heads close, whisper and laugh, and glance in her direction. She doesn’t blink. Her back is straight, and her chin is up.

She’s a tough female. It’s a quiet strength. Not showy in the slightest. She’s the kind of fighter that makes a killing on the circuit. Everyone bets against the standoffish, silent guy, and then he’s always the one to come back with the KO in the fifth round.

Shy does not exclude fierce.

After I check in with our patrols—no news from the northeast quadrant—I call Ivo and tell him to post a male at the access road exit onto the highway. No one in or out. Then, I call Cheryl to get a crew over to do a deep clean. Replace the rugs and the sofa. I don’t take females to my bed, but I figure a new mattress and linens won’t hurt either.

Then, I check in with Tye. He’s pissed that I disappeared. I’m supposed to be meeting with the lieutenants to finalize the plans for Cadoc Collins’ training. The alpha of Moon Lake Pack is sending his heir to us for a few months to “hone his skills.” It’s gonna take almost the whole time to unteach him what he’s already learned. Moon Lake pack fights like bitches.

It’ll give me and Una a place to go, though, while Cheryl works her magic. I’ll take her by her old cabin first to get something to cover her legs, and then we’ll go to Tye’s.

I want to throw her on my bed, and fuck the salty out of her, but I’m gonna have to be patient. She’ll come to me in her own time.

Meanwhile, I satisfy myself by watching her out of the front window as she touches my bite mark with her fingertips.

Walking to Tye’s, it’s like I’m driving straight down a goddamn rumble strip. My chest is numb from my wolf’s constant growl. He doesn’t like males anywhere near Una, and of course, like always, a half dozen folks crawl out of the woodwork as I pass through the commons. Everyone wants something.

I cut each one off before they have the chance to get started, but they all come too close. And apparently, too close is within five feet of Una. Then ten and then twenty. By the time we get to the path to her cabin, word has spread, and packmates are gathering in clusters, gossiping. But at least they’re keeping their damn distance.

I’ve never felt this before. The growling rubs my nerves raw. My fangs have descended with no sign of retracting. Makes my mouth fill with spit. And then I get hungry.

Shit.

Does Una need to eat?

It’s not dinner time yet, but she must’ve missed lunch with her little escapade into town.

She can miss a meal. It’s not gonna kill her.

But now my wolf’s grumbling about that, and truth be told, I’m uneasy about it, too.

Una needs to be fed. She’s sturdy, but how long would that padding last in a survival situation? Not even a couple weeks.

I don’t know why it’s of essential importance to my wolf and I that Una be able to live through a hard winter right now, in this very moment, but it’s at the top of my brain. She also needs to learn to fight. And how to shoot since fighting is probably hopeless with a wolf as small as hers. And a healer needs to see that leg. I can’t believe that’s as good as it can get.

Everything’s fucking rearranging itself in the natural order—with Una crowding out every other concern—and it’s disorienting as hell.

I think about the pack, twenty-four seven. The circuit. Which males need their asses kicked? Who’s ready to move up? I think about threats and security and the goddamn utility bill way more than I want to, that’s for sure.

And then there’s pack politics. What’s Moon Lake doing? How close to anarchy is the Last Pack today? When is Lochlan Byrne gonna make his move? Would it make life simpler in the long run to kick the shit out of Eamon and those other old timers who are filling his head with dreams of a position he cannot possibly take? How wrong is it to give an elder a beatdown if it keeps the peace?

Except for in the gym, that’s what goes through my head, an incessant whirl, mostly questions I can’t answer and shit I don’t know.

Not now. That’s background noise. Una is the center.

Her wonky shuffle. Her swinging braid. Her downcast brown eyes.

She slows as she climbs the path to her cabin. Why did I never consider that I put the female with the bad leg halfway up the steepest hill in camp?

She won’t accept help. I go to grab her elbow, but she tucks it to her side.

And how did I ever think she was plain? Her face is calm, like the surface of the quarry lake on a windless day, but it speaks volumes. And it’s beautiful. Her lips have the sweetest divot at the top, her nose tilts just at the end, giving her a snooty air that’s cute as hell. And she has honest eyes.

Everyone in the world wants something from me. Approval. Status. Protection.

And they’re trying to hide shit, too. Failings. Weakness. Ambition.

Not Una Hayes. She would like me to fuck myself, and she makes no effort to conceal the fact. It’d be adorable if I knew without a doubt that this shit ends with us mated like Fate intended.

I need to put babies in that curved belly.

I need her to smile at me.

I need not to have fucked up the best thing that’s ever happened in my life before it even happened.

I had accepted that I would always be alone. But acceptance is a stage of grief, isn’t it? It’s not joy. It’s not right. A part of me knew this was out here, waiting. That’s why I never got too close to another female.

Every moment with Una, my end of the bond thickens and surges. It was a shadow, a cloud floating across the sun, but now it’s a living thing, strong, seeking.

How did I not recognize it?

Thankfully, my brain gives it a rest when we get to Una’s place. As soon as she mounts the stairs, the door flies open, and Mari’s curly mop boings out. Annie and Kennedy crowd behind her. Their eyes pop simultaneously when they catch sight of me.

“Oh, shit,” Kennedy whispers. They shuffle backwards, necks bent. The stench of fear reaches me at the same time Una’s back straightens.

“They had nothing to do with it,” she says to me over her shoulder.

“Don’t lie to me, mate.” I walk her through the doorway, the others backing up, clustered tight together, guilt written all over their faces.

Do they think I’d hurt them? They’re females. Everything I’ve ever done is to keep them safe.

But as soon as she crosses the threshold, Una scurries away, putting space between us. Every foot of distance raises my hackles higher, but I let her go to her friends. I want to grab her, yank her back to my side, but following my gut has not been standing me in good stead these days.

The females’ arms reach for her and pull her close as they shuffle and fuss until they surround her. They’re protecting her from me. They’re terrified, especially Annie, but all of their wolves are close to the surface, rumbling a warning.

My wolf is smart enough not to take it as a challenge. He stays silent. The last thing I need is him ripping out a snarl that makes three lone females piss themselves in their own living room.

“W-what is he going to do?” Mari says under her breath to Una, those ridiculously big blue eyes trained on me. I get why Darragh thinks she’s too young to mate properly. She looks like a living doll. It’s kind of unsettling.

Una draws herself to full height and looks at me, raising her eyebrows. Now that’s an unmistakable challenge.

What am I gonna do?

Females aren’t allowed off the territory without an escort. If the Last Pack knew our unmated females roamed unprotected, they’d snatch them, and I can’t say I’d blame them. If we can’t keep our females safe, we don’t deserve them.

But I’m not gonna shoot myself in the foot, either, and sentence Una and her girls to any kind of punishment.

I can’t sweep it under the rug. I heard the police sirens back in Chapel Bell. Once the local officials grab their balls, they’ll head out here for “a talk.” It won’t come to anything. It never does. The locals don’t want the hassle of feds swooping in. But I won’t be able to keep humans in our territory under wraps. The elders will be knocking on my door the second they catch wind of the aftershave and tobacco.

Luckily, Una saves me for the moment.

“He’s not going to do anything.” She hikes her chin and glares at me for a full three seconds before she slides her gaze to the side. My quiet lion.

“Not true. I’m gonna have a guard posted across the path from here, and if he doesn’t scent three females at all times, I’m gonna move all of y’all into the basement of the lodge.”

Mari’s hand flies to her mouth, a sob escaping. Annie whimpers. Now I feel like an asshole. What’s wrong with the lodge basement? It’s finished. There’s a pool table down there.

Una winds her arm around Mari’s waist, tucking the younger female under her arm, shuffling her body to block Annie. “No, he’s not.”

“Yes, I am.” I’m not gonna let them take risks with their lives ‘cause they cry when they get busted.

“No. He’s not.” Una glares daggers at me, and it hits me—what used to happen in the lodge basement when my dad was alpha. Fuck. That’s not what I meant. I would never—

“Shit, I won’t put you down there. I, uh—” I scrub my neck, at a loss. I look to Una, and she’s got her stance wide and shoulders squared like she’ll fight me. “You’re just grounded to the cabin.”

“But we have to leave for work.” Kennedy’s face is turning purple, her fists balled. If she throws a punch, I’m screwed. She’s ballsy for a female. There’d be no subduing her without a bruise or two, and Una would never forgive me.

But I can’t backpedal anymore and keep any authority. “No, you don’t. You stay here.”

“For how long?” Kennedy asks.

“Until Una convinces me you all are never going to do something so stupid and reckless again.”

Una’s teeth grind. A cord in her neck strains, disappearing into the collar of the hoodie. She’s got it zipped all the way up, and I can’t see my bite, but I know it’s there. My dick twitches, and at the same time, my brain refocuses.

Una.

Mate.

Unhappy.

Fuck.

“Or a week or so. Maybe a couple days. I don’t know.”

I glare at Una.

“Get dressed.” My voice is sharper than I intended. Annie chokes off a yelp.

The females bend their heads together and murmur, more sound than words, before Una finally obeys and heads off down the hall. I force myself to stay in the front room, and after her scent clears a little and I can think, I start to notice shit.

There are obvious empty shelves on a console along the far wall, and a strangely placed candle, right in the middle of a dust-free rectangle. And there’s a cord hanging out of a drawer. My guess is they’ve got themselves a widescreen TV, and at least one gaming console. Maybe a DVD player.

TV is allowed, but shifter ears are hyper-sensitive. We keep the media at the lodge, and most families don’t have it in their homes.

The females have gotten away with a lot up here on the outskirts.

And none of them have been winning any fights. The money came from somewhere. Yeah. Dealing with humans. For ten damn years.

Holy fuck. My heart thuds with delayed panic.

Shifters are exotic; shifter females even more so. Shit happens. A North Border male was killed, his female taken and never recovered. A Moon Lake scavenger was lured off by a sweet-talking human, hooked on their drugs and turned out. When the pack finally found her, she was broken. Her wolf gone.

And those are the human dangers. Last Pack is always looking to poach females. They’ll steal young, too, to lure away their dams. They don’t care if the females aren’t their mates, or if they’re someone else’s. They’re animals.

It could have happened to our females. On my watch. Because of my lack of attention.

This is on me. I deserve the punishment.

Maybe that’s how I present it to the elders. Ultimately, the females’ transgressions are my responsibility, so I should bear the consequences. Lochlan’s gang will get off big time, watching me take a beating in the commons, but it’d be a pleasure to go a round with each of them straight afterwards and whup their upstart asses. So they remember just who and what they’re dealing with.

I guess the girls are getting accustomed to me in their space because slowly, their huddle disperses. Kennedy goes to lean in the kitchen doorway. Annie and Mari perch nervously on the edge of the sofa.

The cabin is nice. There are paintings on the wall. I don’t recognize the artist, but the scenes are from Quarry Pack territory. The old dens. The river. The foothills. There are pretty curtains and embroidered pillows. It smells amazing—like Una’s warmth is baked into the hardwood floors.

I lower myself into a recliner. It creaks, but it’s comfortable. I resist popping the footrest. The way Kennedy’s glaring at me, I’m pretty sure I’ve made myself at home in her chair.

In fact, all the females are giving me the stink eye.

“There something you want to say to me?”

Three sets of eyes go bigger and wider.

“Now’s the time. Later might be too late.” I go ahead and pull the lever on the footrest. Now I’m fully reclined. There’s no way I can look less intimidating.

Mari draws in a deep breath. Her eyes are shining. If she cries, I’m waiting out on the porch.

“Don’t hurt Una,” she says.

“I-it w-wasn’t h-her f-f-fault.” Annie fights to get the words out. Her long face is a pasty green. “S-she did it for u-us.”

“What do you mean?” I ask Kennedy. She’s the least traumatized by my presence. She keeps her mouth shut, though, her expression mulish as hell.

It’s little Mari who answers. “She did it so that we would have nice things. Something to look forward to, you know? And we helped. So if you punish her, you have to punish us.”

A tear dribbles down her cheek. If Darragh Ryan knew I was here, making his mate cry, he’d kill me. Good thing he’s still hiding from her up in the hills.

All three females look so defensive. So small and fierce and scared.

This isn’t what I want.

My father was the one who wanted females to reek of fear. He got off on it. I never developed a taste for it. Smelled like defeat to me. Like a weak pack and weak males who confuse respect with mere compliance.

Submission—now, that’s another thing. I wouldn’t mind filling my nose with that. Later. When I have Una alone back in our den.

Now, though, I have to soothe these three before Una comes back and hates me even more for terrorizing her friends. And to be honest, their distress isn’t sitting well with me or my wolf either.

“Was she the only one who left the territory?” I ask.

Not one of them will meet my eye. I sigh. They’re not making this easy.

“What is it you need that the pack doesn’t provide?”

Anyone can take what he needs from the commissary. It’s been that way since I took over. Cheryl might give you the stink eye and come bitch to me about it when folks get greedy, but there are no limits. No old carved up bench out back where females pay for extras with what’s between their legs.

All three are blushing like a bushel of tomatoes, staring holes in the floor.

“Like, is it female shit you need or something?”

Mari squirms and looks at Kennedy. Kennedy’s face is contorted in horror.

The air’s so thick, it’s getting hard to breathe, but I’m afraid if I stand, the stench will get worse. Fate, I hate the stench of fear. And what have I done to them to earn it?

I’m lounging here, very reasonable, feet in the air like an idiot. Never laid a hand on one of them. Or raised my voice. Much.

I shimmy down, make myself as low and small as I possibly can. “Come on. Help me understand. I’m not the enemy.”

Kennedy huffs and stomps over to a closet, throwing open the door. Annie gasps and tucks herself behind Mari.

“See?” Kennedy cocks her hip, points a toe to the side, and glares mutinously. On the shelves behind her, there are a shit ton of cords, not a single one properly coiled. She huffs again, grabs a box, and turns to face me, glowering and unrepentant.

It’s a PlayStation.

I try really fuckin’ hard not to crack a smile. I also know that later, at the gym, I’m gonna absolutely lose my shit. My mate risked her life so she could buy her roommate video games.

But I’m not stupid. I keep my eye on the prize.

“Where’s the TV?” I ask.

“In the kitchen cupboard.” Kennedy tosses her head to get her shaggy bangs out of her eye.

“What games do you have?”

“God of War. Uncharted 4. Cage Fight Takedown. Horizon Zero Dawn.” She narrows her eyes. “Want me to keep going?”

“I’ll get the TV. Let’s play Cage Fight Takedown.” It was worth it to see how big their eyeballs popped.

I like being unpredictable. Once in a blue moon.

I hop up, find the TV stowed under a nice stash of girly liquor, and I carry it back to the living room. Mari jumps to move the candle back to a shelf that has the rest of the set. Kennedy rigs the machine up in no time, and we actually get to play for ten minutes or so before Una rejoins us.

Kennedy shows no mercy. She also calls me a “bitch-ass fuckboy” under her breath. I ask Mari to crack a window, and by the time Una joins us, the place smells like nothing but wholesome competition.

Una wanders into the room tentatively, keeping her distance. She took a shower, rinsed our scent off. My wolf growls. I don’t like it either. She’s folded my hoodie, and it’s draped over her forearm.

I dig her outfit. A long corduroy skirt with buttons down the front that I can picture myself slipping one by one through the slits. Or popping all at once with a quick rip.

She’s got a scoop neck white T-shirt on, and my bite mark is visible, red and jagged against her smooth skin. She fingers it self-consciously, tucking her chin, but it’s too vivid to hide. It draws the eye.

I shift in the chair, hard again. The wolf is riding me. What am I doing? I need to take her home.

Hell, why bother? I could take her twenty feet down the hall and fuck her until she can’t deny who she belongs to.

My wolf is all over that idea, but he doesn’t know females in human form.

Neither do I, but I’m not stupid.

Una’s wary, taking it all in. She sees the TV and the controller in Kennedy’s hand. I can tell the second when she decides not to say one word about it.

She’s got discretion. That’s a good quality to have. Half of being alpha is dialing shit down when everyone around you is cranking it up.

When she can’t avoid it any longer, Una crosses over to me and holds out my hoodie.

“Here.” She sets it on the armrest when I don’t reach for it immediately.

I stand. Her eyes drop to where my cock has popped my zipper. I can hear the glug as she swallows. The flesh under my bite hollows and smooths. I want to lick her. It’s so natural, I have to consciously draw my tongue behind my teeth.

“Arms up,” I tell her, stepping close.

She shivers, and her sweet scent thickens. She raises her arms begrudgingly. I slip my hoodie back over her shoulders, and I zip her up, but not all the way. I leave my bite mark showing.

“Your girls have been sticking up for you,” I say quietly. The others are already making themselves busy elsewhere. I guess now that they know I mean their leader no harm, they’ve decided to give us a little privacy.

“I told you. It was all me. Don’t listen to them. They had nothing to do with it.”

“Do you play, too?” I hold up a controller.

She glares at me. “All of it was my idea.”

“Now, that I believe.”

“What are you going to do to us?” There’s a tremor in her voice, and it’s like nails on a chalkboard.

“You said it. I’m not going to do anything. And you’re gonna convince me I don’t have to ‘cause you’ve all learned your lesson, and I don’t need to ground your girls.”

“How?” Her eyes narrow. What will they look like when she comes on my cock? I bet they’ll blow wide open.

“You’re gonna be a good mate,” I say, guiding her toward the door. My phone buzzed several times already. It’s Tye. I should’ve been at his place a half hour ago.

“I’m not your mate.”

“You can make my lunch all the same.” I don’t wait for her to navigate the stairs. I gently lift her down, ignoring her prune face. She’s gonna need to get used to it. Until I get those ramps built, I’m her elevator. “Wash my laundry,” I go on. “Clean my cabin.”

She’s scowling. “That’s what you think a mate is for?”

I stop her at the crest of the hill leading down to the commons, and I tug her close. She stumbles, but I’ve got her. I hold her flush so she can feel how hard I am for her. How my body knows her. Needs her.

For a moment, I let myself have what I crave. Her in my arms. Her chest rising and falling against mine. She shivers like a fawn, and she smells like heaven.

“No.” I bend to whisper in her ear. “What I really want to do is take you back to my den and eat your pussy until you come, squeezing my head with those sweet thighs. And then I want to hear you wail my name while I tap that delicious, plump ass.”

Yeah. Her eyes blow wide when she’s astonished.

I keep going. “You’re gonna come on my cock so hard, you’re gonna forget everything but that you belong to me, and I was put on this earth to pleasure you and put pups in that little round belly.” I rest my palm over her womb. “That’s what I think a mate is for.”

I bump noses with her and then I step back. “But I didn’t figure you’d be down for that quite yet.”

Her arousal teases my nose. It’s faint, but it’s there. I step back.

She tries to shove her hands in her pockets, but her skirt doesn’t have any. She forgets the hoodie does and starts wiping her palms on the corduroy.

I know that was a lot. Frankly, I didn’t know I had it in me. Usually, with females, I don’t have to lay it out like that. They come on to me.

I’m willing to drop it—for now—but she exhales a long sigh, and her eyebrows gather, creasing her forehead.

“That’s the whole thing, though. That’s why I sell things at the market. I don’t want to be just a female. Or a mate, or whatever.” She says it slowly, as if she’s working it out in her head as she speaks. “I want my own thing.”

There are responses on the tip of my tongue. Of course she feels this way. She thought she was mateless. She had to make peace with her lot. She doesn’t need mushrooms anymore. She’s my mate.

Or I could remind her that mated females are happy. Satisfied. Complete. And she’ll be happy, too, once she settles in. I believe that’s true. I’m gonna work to make it so.

I know my pack thinks I’m a tyrant. When it comes to training for the circuit, I am. But I’m also a smart alpha. Coming up, I had the perfect example of what a ‘dumb as shit’ alpha does. I molded myself as alpha by thinking about what Declan Kelly would do or say, and then I did the opposite.

A smart alpha doesn’t take something shared from the heart and say, “You don’t feel what you feel. You don’t think what you think.”

That’s how you teach folks to lie to your face.

So I say, “Okay.”

And I offer Una my hand as we walk down the hill.

Of course, she doesn’t take it, but I grab hers. And she leaves it be all the way to Tye’s cabin.

I will take my victories where I find them.

And it is shaping up to be a glorious day. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and in their wisdom, Fate has given me a headstrong mate.

It’s gonna be a sweet victory when I change her mind.