Alpha Doms Box Set: 9 Delicious Stories + 10 Sexy Heroes = 19 Reasons to Indulge (40 page)

Jay and Eddie had been
there for me from the day we met in high school. They were my best
friends. According to them, I was their mate.
Whatever that means.

Oh, did I forget to mention that they’re
werewolves? They’re alphas to be exact.

We live in a city, a city that warrants two
packs; a city that spans too many miles with lack of a modern
metropolitan transport system. We live in hell…or so it feels a
good nine months out of the year. We live in a place global
families flock to; a place where retirees and South Americans have
turned migration into an art form.

We live in Orlando, Florida, in the middle
of the devil’s fire pit, as Eddie says.

Another swell of tears rushed me. I
swallowed hard, wiping my fingers across my cheeks incessantly. A
brief glimpse around the small Starbucks showed no one was paying
attention to the fat girl crying in the corner.

Yeah, I’m the fat girl, have been most of my
life. It’s what made me appreciate Jay and Eddie even more. They
treated me as an equal, as if my outer beauty was on par with
theirs. They loved me just the way I was.

I couldn’t say the same for many of my past
boyfriends. They never lingered once they met Jay and Eddie though.
If I wanted to determine a man’s lasting ability, I introduced him
to my two roommates. Typically, they were gone within a week.

I wished a boyfriend stayed long enough to
warrant my tears. No, today I was crying out of frustration, major
pent up anger.

It took me six years to earn my Bachelor’s
Degree. I had a massive amount of student loan debt and after six
months, I still didn’t have a job to begin paying the upcoming
first month. You sacrifice your social life; you suffer endless,
sleepless nights studying for exams with the jaded idea that it
will all pay off. It didn’t, and I couldn’t help but feel like I
wasted the last six years of my life.

Worse, Jay and Eddie insisted that I not
work while earning my degree. Each pack has its own business. Upon
graduation, they were immediately gainfully employed. When they
reached the age of twenty-one, they fought for their alpha status,
simultaneously earning the CEO position of their companies. For
Jay, that meant at the packs digital media marketing firm; for
Eddie, that meant running a multi-million dollar software
development company. They were both successful in their own rights.
They worked hard; they earned their positions and were brilliant at
what they did. Two years ahead of me in school, they paved their
paths to success.

I didn’t have their connections though, nor
did I have a brain for computers or business. I was a psychology
major with an emphasis on criminal psychology. I wanted to be a
detective. I wanted to study crime scenes from a new vantage point:
the killer’s perspective. I wanted to get inside the suspects’
heads and work the cases backwards from there. I wanted a position
that wasn’t available across ten counties.

I’d given up on a career in criminal justice
by month two. Now, I spun my degree for high school and college
counselor positions, to magazines and newspapers as an
investigative journalist, to many other potential employers
offering employment titles I never thought I’d have to
entertain.

I was single minded, focused in my studies.
Jay and Eddie were single minded, focused on getting me through
those studies. They were amazing mentors, but after six months with
only two second interviews and no other call backs, I couldn’t help
but feel like a failure. I could handle failing myself, after all,
I’d allowed myself to get to the weight I was; that was a failure
in and of itself, but I couldn’t handle telling them that I’d
botched my chances again. I couldn’t face their hopeful expressions
when I walked in the door knowing their features would cloud up and
their eyes would hold sympathy, moments later.

They’d helped me so much, especially
financially over the past six years, and after six months, I
couldn’t even begin to repay them. I felt like one of their buckle
bunnies; you know, the typical gold diggers who practically stalked
them. The big difference was I didn’t want to be one. I felt sick
knowing how much money they’d spent on rent, groceries, and
shuttling me places. I felt worse knowing that every day I wasn’t
working, I was costing them more.

I sighed, closing my eyes, fighting back the
urge to crumble, more so than I already was. A degree was supposed
to empower me. The guys were so happy at my graduation ceremony.
They hollered and whistled, embarrassing my conservative parents
and me when my name was called. They were so proud of me. They made
me feel amazing, as if school was this grand accomplishment to
celebrate. I thought it was too, at the time. Fifty-seven
interviews and zero job offers later, my past, my college
graduation, was now a tainted memory.

—

Chapter Two

JAY

I speed dialed Eddie. It’d been hours since
Callie left for her interview. Usually she called one of us by now.
I couldn’t help but feel anxious. My wolf paced, his tail swishing
like an aggravated feline. He didn’t like the absence of his mate.
I had to agree.

“
Hey,” Eddie answered in a
rushed greeting. I could tell he was on the move, walking briskly
somewhere.

“
Where are you?”

“
A few blocks from my
office.” The street traffic became louder. “You heard from her
yet?”

“
Nah. That’s why I was
calling.”

He stopped moving. I knew he was frowning; I
just knew him after all these years of friendship. “Damn.” He
expelled a heavy sigh. “She doesn’t say anything, but I know she’s
frustrated.”

“
You’re preachin’ to the
choir, man.” I rubbed my forehead, trying not to worry. “Where do
you think she is?”

“
My guess? Probably hiding
out somewhere. She really wanted this job.” He began moving again,
faster than before.

I listened closely as he sniffed the air
around him. “You smell her?”

“
Smell and see her.” A low
growl erupted from him, setting me further on edge. My wolf was
instantly on high alert. “She’s in the Starbucks at the south end
of downtown. Shit, man. I can tell she’s been crying from across
the street. You better get down here.”

“
Be there in five.” I hung
up before he could reply.

We were on the same page when it came to
Callie. She was our mate, our shared mate. We’d accepted it a long
time ago and had worked together since to make her as happy as
possible. Unfortunately, these last few months, nothing that we did
seemed to change her defeated disposition.

Grabbing my keys off the rack, I bypassed
the questioning gazes from my pack members as I raced out of my
office. My wolf and I fought for control through ten blocks of
traffic until I spotted the Starbucks, the tension mounting in my
muscles the closer I got to her.

—

Chapter Three

CALLIE

I swallowed hard, taking a deep breath as I
lifted my head. I jumped at the sight of Eddie, standing beside the
table. His features were turned down as he watched me.

Dark hair touched his brow, brows that
framed chocolate eyes. His lips were mashed together; his strong
jaw clenched as his nostrils flared. Muscled arms flexed as he
tightly gripped the back of the chair beside me. He was upset. It
was too late. He’d already seen all I was trying to hide from Jay
and him.

I bit my lower lip, sucking
it tightly between my teeth. I had hoped the pain would keep the
tears from welling again, but it didn’t.
Damn it.

I quickly turned my head, gazing out the
window. I wanted to chastise myself for sitting near the window,
but I knew he would have found me regardless. Wolves apparently
have the scenting ability of highly trained police dogs. According
to the guys, they could pick my scent blindly out of a crowd.

The chair slid out beside me. His presence
engulfed me; his warmth surrounded me. I wrung my hands together,
fighting not to fall into his arms like I always did.

“
Come here, sweetie.” He
didn’t wait for my reply; he jerked my chair closer, enveloping me
in his arms. Kisses rained down on my head. “It’s gonna be okay,
sweetie. You’ll find something soon, and it’ll be better than this
job ever could have been.”

I didn’t trust myself to speak. I was barely
containing my sobs, barely stopping myself from making a spectacle
of myself. I simply nodded my head, willfully trying to pacify him
as he tried to pacify me.

“
Why don’t you let me buy
you dinner?” He ran a gentle hand up and down my back.

“
You buy all my dinners,” I
bluntly stated.

“
Hey, not all of
‘em.”

I jerked my head up to find my other
roommate, a Channing Tatum double with a wicked pair of green eyes,
gazing intensely at me.

Jay pulled out the chair across from me. He
was still dressed in the suit I chose for him this morning; his
cropped brown hair was a bit disheveled, as if he’d been running
his fingers through it all afternoon. Either that or he banged one
of his gold diggers on his lunch break…

I cut my eyes at Eddie. “Really? You
couldn’t leave me a semblance of my pride?”

He merely stared at me, quietly watching
me.

“
I was worried,” Jay said,
running his finger along the side of my coffee cup, testing the
temperature.

My stomach chose that moment to growl. Heat
touched my cheeks as I tried not to look directly at either of
them.

Eddie sighed. “Why didn’t you eat?”

Keeping my gaze averted, I shrugged my
shoulders.

“
Callie, baby, we gave you
the card for days like this.” Jay touched my forearm briefly before
pulling back.

The last of my ego ruffled my confidence to
the surface. “I hate using that card. Anytime I have to use it,
it’s a reminder that I’m not self sufficient, that I’m a liability
rather than an asset. Plus, it wasn’t like I was going to waste
away if I waited until I got home. Even there you technically paid
for my meal, but at least I don’t have to swipe that card to open
the fridge.”

“
So, let me get this
straight. You’re okay swiping that card for coffee, but not for
food?” I heard the agitation in Jay’s voice.

His accusation stung. I knew my eyes were
wide and glossy as I faced Jay, momentarily stunned. I drew my
brows down, glaring at him, grinding my teeth. A mix of emotions
sat in my chest, tarnishing my shield. “The coffee was free. I had
a reward on my Starbucks card.” I hated that my voice cracked in
several places.

Jay winced, masking his reaction beyond
that. For a brief moment, I saw the apology in his eyes. I knew he
didn’t mean to upset me. Jay was the crass one of the group, the
one who spoke without thinking. In business, it made him slick. In
his personal life, namely with me, it kept up the love-hate thing
we’d had since the day we met.

The guys exchanged looks. I hated when they
did that. They silently communicated; they made decisions without
me. They took control of every situation with an exchange like
this.

I braced myself, waiting, watching them. I
never learned anything. I didn’t know or understand their code.

A few seconds later, they both faced me.

“
Let’s go, Callie Cat.” Jay
winked, standing and grabbing my coffee. He frowned, shaking his
head in dismay as he registered the weight as a full
cup.

“
A big, juicy steak sounds
good to me. What about you?” Eddie smiled easily, moving from his
chair. He extended a hand to help me up from mine.

I declined, shaking my head negatively. I
gathered my purse and shoved out of my chair, immediately pushing
it against the table. I knew at this point, there was no use
arguing with them. They were stubborn wolves, willing to allow
their wolves to surface if I dared to decline.

—

Chapter Four

EDDIE

Every protective instinct in me roared to
the surface. We hadn’t said anything, but the tear stains on her
round, flushed cheeks were obvious, if the fresh ones in the basin
of her eyes weren’t proof enough. We didn’t need physical proof
though. We scented and sensed her emotions long before she ever
revealed them. It was part of being our mate.

We’d tried on several occasions to convince
our buxom mate that she was meant for us, that we wanted more than
friendship. She declined us every time, dismissing our advances.
Repeatedly we were forced into the friend zone to the point that we
gave up. The elders and our parents assured us she would come
around. They continually reiterated that it was different for a
human, especially a human woman.

Jay discarded her full cup of coffee. I
didn’t need to pick it up to know she hadn’t drunk much, if any.
When Callie was upset, she rejected anything of substance. She
claimed she didn’t want to become an emotional eater, that she was
big enough already.

There was nothing that set me off quicker
than hearing her degrade herself. She was a gorgeous woman. She
wasn’t a thin, petite wafer; she was a sturdy and curvy woman. She
had rounded edges that fit perfectly within a man’s palm. When she
wore her hair down, her brown locks cascading around her face,
falling just beyond her shoulders, my fingers itched to slip
between her strands and cradle her head as I kissed her
insecurities away. The tight bun she wore now beckoned me to
unravel it. Her honey brown eyes seemed more playful, more sensual
when her hair was free.

Jay cleared his throat, drawing me back to
the present. Callie stared up at me. Apparently I’d been gaping
back at her.