Alpha (5 page)

"You can stare at me and lift your chin all you want, sweetheart, but I can see your desire to give in as plain as I'm looking at you right now. That's more than enough for me."

Garret stepped away from her, still smiling that stupid smile, as if he were the one to win the argument.

And for some utterly stupid reason, the way he walked away, all confident in his own victory and his command over her and her body, made him that much sexier in her eyes.

He opened the door. "Come now, you need more food for energy."

"I'm not hungry."

Miranda's stomach decided to growl the loudest rumbling noise it had ever made in her entire life just to embarrass her. It was a noise to rival the rumbling grumble Garret made when he was in... that other shape.

He laughed at her. "Woman, stop being stubborn and come eat with me."

He walked out without her, totally confident she was going to follow him, regardless of whether or not she was only wearing a sheet.

Miranda folded her arms and sat back down on the bed, just to be stubborn. Fuck him and fuck his stupid commands.

Woman
. He called her
woman
. What the hell was he? A caveman? Just because he was good-looking and apparently rich didn't mean he had permission to call her that.

It did sort of ease the ache and make it kind of endearing, however. Did that make her a hypocrite? Probably, but she didn't much care in that moment.

Her stomach growled again, and Miranda let out an angry snarl as she stormed to her feet and followed after Garret.

S
he was behind him
. He knew she would be eventually. He hadn't gone far. His home was a large place, many people lived in it, and she still had no clothing to wear yet because her clothes were still being boiled to remove her human scent from them, so he'd waited at the end of the hall for her. She spotted him immediately, and that adorable, angry blush returned to her cheeks, making her look lovelier than before.

She approached him, refused to look into his eyes, and cleared her throat. "I decided to go with you after all."

"Did you?"

Miranda nodded. "If I'm going to be staying here, I need to learn more about what you all are. What I am. I'm not going to do that by hiding away in your bedroom."

It was
their
bedroom, but he didn't correct her. Even Garret knew a prideful woman could only take so much teasing before she was genuinely offended, and he was still trying to impress her.

So he let her believe he was accepting her excuse as true, and he led her down the stairs, carefully watching the sheet around her feet so she would not trip.

"Are you sure I can't wear my clothes yet?"

"They are still wet, and they will remain that way for another day or so."

Hopefully, when Anna returned with the new clothes, Miranda would be so pleased with them that she wouldn't want to wear her old clothes ever again, and then Garret could bury them.

The last thing he needed was Dennis tracking her scent here, trying something else against her life.

Dennis was an idiot, but to attack a human woman who had done nothing to him was low even for him. Garret understood as much as the next shifter the importance of fighting and defense. Had Miranda been a warrior woman who attacked first, then it would have been understandable, but she was not a warrior. She had been helpless, and Dennis would have killed her to satisfy an old wrong.

So foolish and stupid.

When they arrived at the dining room, he noted the way his mate turned her head this way and that, glancing up at the crystal chandelier above the long mahogany table. Then her eyes shifted to the wine glasses at each table setting and the fine china.

"Are you sure you're not royalty or something?" Miranda asked.

Garret sputtered a laugh. "Royalty? Hardly."

"Okay, then you're secretly a drug trafficker, is that it?"

He shook his head again. "No, nothing like that." He gestured to the room around her. "Much of this was inherited from the previous alpha, my father. He lived long enough to acquire a decent amount of wealth. The rest came from his father before him. Honestly, with everything put together, it amounts to a little over a billion dollars."

He might as well tell her this now, let her know what he planned on sharing with her.

Miranda's eyes popped wide open. She shook her head. "No, you're not serious."

Garret smiled. "Very serious. Your name will be going on my account, so you might as well know what you have access to."

She sputtered. "You can't give me access to a billion dollars!"

"Why not?"

Her mouth opened and closed. She seemed flabbergasted, like she didn't know how to answer that. "I don't… I don't know, because it's yours, not mine."

It was hers now, but he could sense her discomfort. Garret wasn't an idiot. He knew how money could make people uncomfortable. It was why he didn't like wearing expensive suits, aside from the fact they frequently got ruined when he shifted in them. It was one thing for him to be a shifter, but a billionaire shifter complicated things on a whole new level.

"If it's the inheritances you're worried about, some of it is genuinely mine. The rest of the money comes in and is maintained through a shipping company I run. So don't worry, if I decide I want to spoil you, I'm not spend my great-granddaddy's cash on it. This will be all on me."

She blinked at him. "Wait, you run a shipping company?"

He smiled. "Yes, it's all very anticlimactic, isn't it? My father bought older companies and sold off the assets, and my grandfather was a lawyer, all perfectly normal, boring stuff."

That same cute blush returned to her cheeks. "No, it's not boring or anything. Just different from what I thought."

That was the point, and it was good.

Garret didn't tease her further. He pulled a chair out, noting the increase in color in Miranda's cheeks as she sat and he pushed her chair forward.

Dane walked through the doors, spotting them. "Oh, good, you're here."

He left without another word and returned with Jax walking behind him. They both carried two platters, one in each hand, and they were filled with meats, cheeses, breads, and salad.

Garret heard the grumble of Miranda's stomach at the sight of the food.

"No peanuts?" he asked, just to be sure.

"I checked the packaging and everything," Jax said. "All is nut free. I have to go back for the salad dressing, drinks, and mayo, though."

"Thank you," Miranda said as the platters were set in front of her. Since the table was already set for over a dozen people, all she had to do was grab her fork and take what she wanted.

"I'll come and check on things later," Jax said, and he and Dane took their leave.

Garret waved them off and smiled as he watched his mate, immediately pleased at the healthy appetite Miranda showed when she grabbed turkey shavings, cheese, and bread, and stacked it all together to make a sandwich.

She took big bites, chewed not as much as Garret would have wanted her to, and licked her fingers when she finished.

When Jax returned with the mayo, she added that to her next sandwich, then drank a full glass of apple juice before eating a salad and making yet another sandwich.

"God, that was good, thanks so much."

"Would you like more?"

"No, I'm way too full," she said, even though she reached over to one of the plates, grabbed a cheese cube, and nibbled on it. Garret could tell she was somewhat embarrassed, though he couldn't figure out why.

"Your body is warm. Are you feeling well?"

That dark color rose up her neck and settled into her ears. "How can you tell if I'm warm or not?"

"I'm sitting beside you. I can feel you. I can always feel you."

She shivered.

"Does that bother you?"

Miranda shook her head.

Garret pressed his elbow to the table, leaning his head on his fist as he observed his woman. "Then what troubles you?"

A soft groan escaped Miranda's throat as she squeezed her eyes shut, and only then did Garret realize this might be serious.

"I didn't want you to see me eat."

He blinked. "Why not? You're going to see me eat. You're going to see me hunt and kill something and eat it like you ate that rabbit."

"Oh
God
, don't remind me of that. I still feel horrible about that."

"So why are you uncomfortable letting me see you eat?"

Miranda pressed her hands together on the chair between her knees. The sheet around her middle was startling to slip down, revealing more of her creamy peach skin, but she didn't seem to notice.

"It's not just about seeing me eat; it's about seeing how much I eat."

"I eat a lot."

"That's different. I'm a woman."

Garret sat back in his chair, arms folding as he turned his head to stare. "That is by far the most foolish thing I've ever heard in my life. You're a woman. What of it?"

She shook her head. "You just don't get it because you're a cool alpha wolf right out of a shifter romance novel. You probably eat ten times a day and never put an ounce of fat on all those perfect muscles you have."

Garret had another moment where he blinked stupidly at his woman. "Is that what you think it is? You think I would see you as being
fat
?"

"Don't sound so shocked by that."

"You're not fat."

"Can we not talk about this anymore?"

Garret shook his head. "No, of course not. I am the alpha and my woman said something irritating and wrong. That needs to be corrected. You are not fat. I can't believe I'm being reduced to arguing with you about this."

"So don't argue."

"Don't pout and don't call yourself fat." He let his eyes roam over her skin. He didn't see the problem. Perhaps she was not bone skinny like some humans strived for, but he would hardly call her fat.

Now Garret felt a warmth building inside him. He couldn't look at her as he cleared his throat, squirming in his seat like an adolescent. "I enjoy your curves quite a bit."

"
Curves
is the new polite word people throw around for overweight, which I technically am, and you just saw me scarf down four sandwiches like they were going out of style."

Garret exploded. "For Christ's sake, you are not fat!" He jumped from his chair, knocking it over, and stared down at his woman. He pounded a fist to his chest. "I am a red-blooded male, and I am also sexually attracted to you. I am attracted to your hips and thighs, your thighs especially," he added, because it was true. "I enjoy a good pair of heart-shaped thighs on my women."

"Okay, I get it."

He didn't think she did. "Your breasts are heavy and full, and I want to kiss, suck, and bite them until you moan with pleasure for only me."

"Garret!" Miranda spun her head around, as if expecting an audience to suddenly appear.

"And I also enjoy a woman who can eat as much as I can, though to be honest, I could still eat more than you. I would have eaten ten of those sandwiches and gone back for more. You are not fat. I'm shallow enough to know the difference, and I will not have my woman insulting my mate in such a way."

Miranda said nothing. She stared up at him, big bright hazel eyes blinking wide and doe like.

Then a small noise left her as she jumped up and curled her arms around his chest.

Garret didn't move. He held perfectly still and even held his breath.

What was she doing? He did a mental scan of his body to ensure she was not actually attacking him and he simply didn't know it yet.

No. He felt no knives or needles pressing into him. Without any weapons, there was zero risk of any attack she inflicted on him succeeding with her hands around his back like this. There was nothing tender or fragile there, no veins he needed to protect.

She was actually hugging him.

He didn't get it, but he still curled his arms around her. She felt good to hold. "Does it please you so much to hear the truth?"

A small laugh escaped her throat. "We'll debate on whether or not it's true later. I just like… I like that you seem to believe it."

Garret growled, gripping her body tighter. "Tell me which human made you think such terrible things about yourself, and I will rip their fingernails out and force them to eat them."

Miranda laughed. Did she think he was joking?

"No, no, you don't have to do that. Just, whenever I'm embarrassed and naked in front of your friends, do me a favor and keep telling me how great I look. It helps."

Ah, so that's what that was about? Just leftover humiliation from being exposed in front of Jax and Dane?

Garret would wait until a proper time before he revealed to her that nudity was far more common among the pack than she was probably going to be comfortable with. Even then, Jax was too much of a gentleman to embarrass Miranda over it, and Dane was a former Navy Seal; he knew how to show proper respect for his alpha's mate.

He also decided not to reveal to her that she was naked right now. The sheet she had been wearing had fallen down her body, revealing her round, perfectly swollen ass cheeks to Jax, who had walked back into the dining room, spotted her and Garret, and then promptly walked out again without another word.

T
he clothes came sooner
than Garret had said they would, and Miranda sighed and thanked God for that. She didn't think she could handle walking around with a bedsheet around her middle for one more minute. She was pretty sure it made everyone who saw her think she'd just come from Garret's bed, which was only kind of true.

Miranda had never really been one to care too much about what people thought of her, but walking around like this seemed a little too on the slutty side for her liking.

She just hadn't expected so many clothes to show up, or for Anna, the woman who'd gone out to buy them, to take Miranda by the hand and insist on bringing her to her room for a fitting.

Garret's eyes clouded, as if he wasn't pleased over the idea of letting Miranda go, but he did. Miranda wished he wouldn't. She didn't know this girl. Anna couldn't have been older than twenty.

And she was beautiful. A total knockout.

Despite that, Anna had several men and women follow them to her bedroom, carrying the three-dozen shopping bags that presumably held Miranda's new clothes.

It was the boxes that concerned her especially. Boxes were the sort of things expensive clothes went into.

"You're going to like all the stuff I got you, but first I bet you want a shower," she said, opening the door to her room. Miranda was not shocked at all to see pink walls and teddy bears on a princess canopy bed.

Garret had a canopy bed, but maybe it was all the dark colors that made it look manly compared to the white-and-pink lace on that monster in the middle of the room.

Anna didn't seem to notice Miranda staring at her bed. The trim blonde, who had her hair up in a high ponytail, bounced around her bedroom and actually pulled out a folding screen with flowers and butterflies painted on the white wood.

"You can get changed behind this after. Then you can model the clothes for Garret if you want."

The mention of Garret's name, in a tone that suggested Anna wasn't some jealous ex-girlfriend, kind of made things a little easier. "Oh, so, do you know what kinds of things he likes?"

Okay, she'd gotten over her kidnapping fear pretty quick and was willing to admit she thought Garret was cute and she might be so insanely attracted to him that he'd been able to smell her arousal back at that stream.

"Not really, but that's what you're for, right? You're his mate. Anything you wear, I'm sure he'll like. The bathroom is through that door. I stuck out a fresh razor for you if you need to shave."

A shower and shaving her legs sounded amazing. It was almost enough to make the word
mate
sound a little less jarring.

"Thanks," Miranda said, quickly rushing to the bathroom as the men and women carrying the bags and boxes set them all down on that wide pink bed before leaving. They shut the door behind them, as if this was the most normal thing in the world.

Were all those seriously for her? Miranda hadn't thought Garret would have so much purchased for her. Even if he'd had someone else do the actual shopping, it seemed way too generous.

It felt like Miranda hadn't thanked him nearly enough for it all.

Though Miranda wanted to stay in that shower for hours, she was still aware of the fact that she was in someone else's bathroom, and she didn't want to be rude. She scrubbed her hair quickly with the shampoo she'd been given, and though she didn't know Anna, Miranda was desperate enough to shave her legs that she was willing to trust a stranger on the fact that this was a fresh razor. It was a real one, not like the one that had been in Garret's bathroom.

She hoped someone had picked that up before a little kid could get at it.

Miranda stayed in the shower for a solid ten minutes, too long and not long enough, but she felt great when she emerged, like how a caterpillar must feel when it emerges from its cocoon as a butterfly.

She took a few minutes to look at herself in the mirror after toweling off.

Garret had seemed so sincere when he'd talked about liking her curves and hips and breasts. She looked at herself from a side angle, searching for what it was he'd claimed to see.

She supposed her legs and hips weren't so bad. The stretch marks she could do without, but Garret had definitely seen those and didn't seem to mind. When she straightened her back and sucked in her stomach, her breasts lifted, and with her hair tousled from the shower, she looked pretty good.

Huh.

"Are you almost ready?" Anna called. She sounded excited. "I want to see what all this looks like!"

Anna was still arranging the boxes and bags on her bed. There were six pairs of shoes. A pair of runners, two pairs of heels, two pairs of sandals with beads on them, and some stylish boots.

Below all that were the jeans, the T-shirts, sweaters, socks, and more embarrassing, the bras.

Anna smiled at her, as if nothing was amiss. "Feeling better?"

Miranda clutched the towel a little tighter around her body and nodded. "I think so."

"Great. What do you think of this haul I got you?"

Didn't she buy it all with Garret's money? Did they share it?

Miranda told herself not to panic. Maybe as the alpha he shared his money with the members of his pack?

That didn't seem likely.

"It's very nice, thank you so much."

It was very nice and way more than Miranda would be able to pay back. No matter what Garret said about this being her home, she'd only been here for… well, not long enough to think of it as her home. She was still waiting to wake up.

Even if she did wake up and the sexy Prince Charming with a beastly secondary look turned out to be real, well, she was still going to have to be careful with all the gifts he wanted to bestow upon her.

Just because he happened to have a ton of money didn't mean she was going to let herself go insane with it. Mate or no mate, she didn't want to be one of those girls who used their boyfriends for their wallets.

Even though he wasn't her boyfriend. Not really.

Ugh.

Miranda had some questions about that now that she had Anna all to herself. "So, before, you said mate, right?"

Anna pulled another gorgeous blue sweater from one of the boxes. It was a relief to see she hadn't bought everything in pink. "Yeah?"

Miranda figured she was only getting over her kidnapping fear because of the… unique circumstances, but she had to know for sure. She had to know what was going on from more than just one source.

"So, that's like, a real thing? I'll be with him for the rest of my life? That's what it is, right? No one else seemed shocked when you used that word."

Anna's eyes widened. She put down the sweater and turned her head to look at Miranda.

Miranda wasn't sure she liked the pity she was seeing in those big blue eyes.

"You only talked to Garret about this, didn't you?"

"Well, yeah," Miranda said, and now that she'd been out of the shower long enough, she was starting to feel cold. "Can I put on some clothes?"

"Oh! Yeah, sure. Here." Anna opened a few boxes and grabbed several shirts, jeans, panties, and bras before walking Miranda over to the screen. "We can talk while you're behind this."

"Great, thanks." Miranda took the clothes, stepped behind the screen, and dropped the towel she'd been using.

"So, about Garret?"

"Yeah! Right, sorry," Anna said. "What did he tell you about it?"

Miranda looked over the lacy panties. There were thongs, boy-brief styles, and stuff with ribbons and bows. She took the lacy briefs.

"He told me that I'm basically his for life."

Anna snorted. "That idiot. Whatever."

Was she allowed to call her alpha an idiot? Maybe it was because he wasn't there to hear it.

"That's not true?"

Why did that thought make an icy hole appear in her chest? The fact that she wasn't his for life shouldn't have been hurtful in any way at all.

"Well, no, not really," Anna said.

And the painful hole closed. "Really?"

The bras all matched the pairs of underwear they came with. Miranda had only ever had one pair of panties match a bra before. Usually, she had to buy the three packs of bras for ten dollars at the local Walmart, so it was hard to find anything that matched.

Not that she'd been clothes shopping in several months.

"It's only kind of true," Anna said. "Don't let him trick you into thinking he can push you around. He's just as much yours as you are his. That's a big thing that all the guys like to forget to tell their mates."

"He's mine, too?" That thought brought a flurry of glee to Miranda's gut, but then she remembered how Garret had so easily ordered her to run on all fours out in the woods.

"Are you sure?" she asked. "He already had me do something, and I really felt like I had to do it."

"Nothing bad though, right?"

"No! No, not at all," Miranda said quickly, even though it didn't sound as if Anna was seriously entertaining the thought of Garret being cruel with his commands. "But, well, the point is the same. He ordered me to do something and I really felt like I had to do it."

"That's just 'cause you're not used to it yet," Anna said. "Here, try on this sweater. I bought you some necklaces and earrings, too."

Miranda tensed. "You what?"

"Don't worry, don't worry," Anna said. "Garret didn't give me a big budget, so the jewelry I got you all came from Ardene's and Claire's. I like their stuff better anyway, even though it's all fake. It has more color."

Miranda thought of those boxes and bags. What was this girl's idea of a big budget?

All the same, Miranda was familiar with those stores. She hadn't had much money even before living in her car, so they had become her favorite place for fake jewelry. The necklace and earrings Anna passed her were cute dangling hearts. "You're not allergic to the fake earrings are you?"

"No, my ears can handle them. Thank you," Miranda added, trying not to feel like a kid at Christmas.

Anna had picked all this out, but it had also come from Garret, too. It was flattering to be given presents from him that had been picked out with such care from a girl who knew fashion.

"That's good, because just so you know, you're probably allergic to silver now."

Miranda tensed. "Really?"

She peeked around the side of the screen, and Anna nodded solemnly.

Suddenly, Anna's love for fake jewelry made more sense.

"Oh." Miranda went back behind the screen.

"Yeah, so be careful when you go shopping. What were we talking about before?"

Miranda thought about it. "Uh, Garret ordering me around. You said I just obeyed because I'm not used to it yet?"

"Oh yeah, anyway, I've lived with Garret my whole life, right? I still feel the need to obey a command, and sometimes I do, but other times, when it's something dumb, I fight the urge. You'll get used to it. He doesn't totally control you or anyone else in the pack. He never will."

"That's good," Miranda sighed.

"Yeah, really good. Especially with more than one alpha around here, but like I said, I've gotten used to it."

She kept referring to it, but what did Anna mean about living with him her entire life? There had been other women in the building and a lot of men. There were also quite a few bedrooms in this enormous house. Did she mean she lived with him because she was pack, or something more? Did the regular members of the pack live in this house? Or did they have their own houses?

"Can I ask you another question?" Miranda pulled the long-sleeved red shirt over her head. It really seemed to make her boobs stick out in this bra.

"Sure thing."

Was she always so chipper and cheery?

"Are you… related to Garret?"

It wasn't exactly the smoothest way to pry about her and Garret's relationship, and the second the words were out of her mouth, Miranda thought for sure Anna would see through to her real question.

Were they seeing each other? Was Anna part of his harem of shifter girls that Miranda had just joined? What was she?

"You could tell, huh?" Anna asked. "Garret's my big brother."

"I…" Miranda damn near choked on her words. "Really?"

She hadn't been able to tell that at all. Okay, sure, they both had blond hair, and Miranda recalled how brightly blue Anna's eyes were….

But they were nothing alike. Anna was chipper and sweet and Garret was dark and gruff.

Both were good-looking people though, so there was that aspect of it.

"Yup. I'm the baby sister."

"Oh, so you must be what, ninety years old?"

Anna laughed.

"What?" Miranda asked. "Garret said he was 102." She stepped out from the side of the screen when she finished dressing. Anna was nearly bent over at the waist, slapping her knees.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry. It's just weird sometimes, thinking about how old he is compared to me."

"How old are you?"

"I'm twenty-three. See? I meant I was the baby sister, get it?"

Miranda got it, and though Anna's age was probably the only normal thing about her, it was hard to swallow after Miranda had seen so much already.

Then something else got her curious. She might never stop being curious with everything that was around her.

"Hey, you mentioned more than one alpha in the pack?"

"Mmhm," Anna said. "There's a couple of alphas in this pack, so it's always good to know when you should fight back. Keeps you from being bossed around."

Miranda didn't get it. "I thought there could only be one alpha? I mean, that's what I heard…"

Heard from nature shows, movies, and books. She didn't want to reference those as her sources just in case it was offensive.

"Yeah, we're weird like that," Anna said. "I don't know if you met Dane yet, but he's not even a wolf. He's a bear shifter. He used to have his own pack, but then left it behind. He's a Navy Seal, so he knows how to take orders from someone else."

"Are you serious?" Miranda had to look around the screen again just to see if Anna was messing with her.

She looked serious as she nodded. "Yeah. I guess being in a boot camp getting screamed at teaches an alpha when to follow and when to lead. That's how he described it."