The Alpha's Mate (Werewolf Romance) (13 page)

I let him sleep while I prepared a quick breakfast of cereal
and fruit for the girls. They’d stayed the night again because I didn’t want to send them back to their grandmother just yet. Not until I had time to go up there and check out their living situation. Their Grammy didn’t come looking for them either, which told me my instinct to keep the girls close was a good one.

They
watched cartoons quietly while I prepped their breakfasts and made coffee. Same as the day before, they’d woken at the crack of dawn. I wasn’t quite as sleep deprived as the previous morning, but the early hour still required large amounts of caffeine. My body didn’t mind as much as my brain. I could be up and moving, but couldn’t form coherent thoughts. At least, not until the second cup of coffee.

“Good morning
, ladies,” I said brightly as I walked into the living room. I’d just filled my mug with a third helping of strong coffee and caffeine jangled through my nervous system like an electric shock. I could feel my brain becoming more alert by the second.

“Morning,” they said in unison not taking their eyes off the television. The cartoon was an old Scooby Doo episode and apparently it was fascinating.

“Breakfast is on the table. Jackson is in bed, but, if you need anything, wake him up, okay?”

They looked at me then, eyes wide
with fear at the idea of pulling Jackson out of bed.

“Don’t worry, he won’t bite.” I’d forgotten how intimidating an alpha wolf could be to folks.

“Miss Chloe?” Sara asked. “Can I wear the pink pants with the unicorn t-shirt today?”

“Yes, of course you can. The only things off limits are the fancy dresses Miss Kelsey bought you. Those we’re saving for Christmas, okay?”

They nodded as they ambled into the dining room to eat.

I grabbed my purse and
ran into the bedroom to give myself one last look over in the full length mirror there. Inspired by Kelsey, I tried to up my fashion game by wearing my nicest jeans and a pretty angora sweater in baby blue. Instead of my worn Nikes, I’d put on a pair of calf length leather boots and I’d pulled my hair back into a sleek ponytail. I probably didn’t come close to Kelsey’s infallible Vogue sensibilities, but I was a fashion plate by Huntsville standards.

On my way out, I called to the girls, “Be good for Jackson
. I’m leaving his truck so you guys can go somewhere if you want. Oh, and, if he’s not up by noon, wake him up.”

Their eyes went wide again.
I hoped a day with the alpha as their babysitter would help them bond a bit. Unless their parents suddenly reverted back to human form, Jackson and I would be a big part of the girls’ lives going forward. The sooner they got used to us, the better.

***

Kelsey was there waiting when I pulled into the hotel’s parking lot. She wore indigo jeggings with black calf boots and a matching leather trench coat. A burnt orange sweater peeked through the opening of her coat, contrasting nicely with her red hair. Bright red lipstick make her pale skin glow and expert, smoky make-up darkened her green eyes. She looked like she belonged in New York, not the rural back waters of Appalachia. Instantly, I felt frumpy and underdressed.

I parked my little Toyota pick-up
and stepped out. “Morning, Kelsey.”

She
flashed a wide smile my way. “Hey yourself, Chloe. How are the girls?”

“Dying to wear their new clothes and scared to death of Jackson.”

She laughed. “I used to be terrified of my pack’s alpha as a little girl. He was so growly and big. I sometimes thought he might eat me if I was bad. Jackson takes after him, you know.”

“He does?”

“You’ll meet him sooner or later and you’ll have to tell me if you don’t think they are twins borne twenty years apart.”

I laughed
. “One Jackson is about all I can handle. Two ought to be interesting. I guess I’ll find out at the wedding, won’t I?” I gestured to my truck. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah, but,” she held up her car keys, “you mind if I drive?”

“Sure, I just thought since I know the area it might be easier for me to drive.”

She shook her head and headed toward her red Corvette. “I know Nashville pretty well. I did some of my undergrad up here.”

I followed her and went around to the driver’s side. I liked the idea of riding in such a fancy car. It was the kind of vehicle you drove to buy a wedding dress. My truck was more of the hauling tools and dirt variety. Not nearly as glamorous as the Corvette. “What was your major?”

“Chemistry
.” She unlocked the car then and stepped inside.

I
opened the door and then recoiled as the strong scent of lavender assaulted my nose. Covering my nose with a hand, I looked at Kelsey.

Catching my reaction, she laughed. “Yeah, sorry about that. I broke a bottle of lavender essential oil in the car. You’ll get used to it.”

“Okay,” I mumbled from behind my hand, not so sure I believed her. The lavender was hitting my senses like a hammer. I could already feel the pulse of a headache beginning to pound.

“We can roll down the windows if that’ll help,” she offered.

I nodded and shrugged off my jacket before joining her in the car
. My puffy winter coat made me look like a five-year-old next to her sleek trench coat. At least I looked halfway decent in the sweater. I set my purse on the floor and topped it off with my coat.

Before I’d even fastened my
seat belt, Kelsey had started the car and pressed play on the radio, blasting us both with dance music. With an expert turn of the wheel, she screeched out of the lot and headed for the hills.

“Hey,” I yelled over the radio
, wincing as lavender air poured down my throat. “Where are you going? Nashville’s the other way.”

She gave an absent nod and kept driving.

I reached over and turned off the radio. “Kelsey, we’re going the wrong way.”

She laughed. “I know that, silly. There’s something I want to show you. A location you might like for the wedding.”

“You’ve been out in the woods by yourself? That’s not safe, Kels,” I said using Jackson’s nickname for her.

Kelsey just waved a hand. “Eh, I’m not worried about the big, bad wolf
anymore. He’s probably some short balding guy with a carpet on his chest who couldn’t get a date if his life depended on it. Besides, I can only go to the mall so many times before I go stir crazy.” She turned the music back on and shouted, “Now, let’s go plan a wedding!”

I laughed
, giving in to her ebullient mood, and we sang along to the chorus of the latest pop song together. The fall landscape zipped by as she drove faster and faster. The smell did diminish a bit as we went, although I ended up cracking my window a bit for fresh air.

After a half hour of whipping around the curves of
Appalachia, she pulled into a look out. The valley below was a mix of trees that had lost all their leaves and the few lucky ones that held onto the last vestiges of fall as if that would ward off the encroaching cold.

I turned off the radio and said,
“I’m so glad we are getting to know each other.” It had been fun zooming along with her and belting out songs. Lavender assault notwithstanding.

“Me too. Being your friend was essential.”
She rooted around in her purse, looking for something.

The odd choice of words gave me pause.
“Essential?”

“Yes, I needed your trust.”
She pulled something out of her purse, hiding it in her hand.

“My trust?
Why?” The strange turn in the conversation made me uneasy. Where was the Kelsey of two minutes ago? The one who was planning my wedding with me and singing songs like a karaoke star? I wanted her back. I liked her.

“So I could get close enough to do this.”  She poked me in the arm with
something sharp, moving so quick I didn’t see what it was until she was finished. Wolves are fast like that. Normally I would’ve seen it coming, but she caught me completely off guard.

I blinked. The world went
blurry at the edges and the middle rippled like a pond, distorting everything in its wake. Even so, I could see the needle she held in her hand just fine. “Wha--?” I couldn’t form the word, my lips were too heavy to move.

“
Nighty night,” she said cheerfully. Her red lips curved into a smile as dangerous as a poisonous apple. Innocent on the outside, full of treachery beneath.

I lost consciousness
before the full impact of her betrayal even hit me.

Chapter Thirteen

When I woke, the sun still shone high in the sky, so I hadn’t been out long. I’d been taken from the car and dumped, face first, onto the frosty ground somewhere that felt higher than the look out. My sense of direction wasn’t as good as Jackson’s, he’d had more practice, but I could feel the slight change in elevation. Not a smell exactly, but a sensation and a minute change in air quality.

Movement took an enormous amount of energy,
but I managed to flop over onto my back and take in my new surroundings. I was in a campground ringed by evergreens. Three camouflage tents stood in a row. Off to the side, someone had built a crude shelter with unfinished logs. The air smelled crisp and clean, like deep Appalachia forest. Not a whiff of lavender to be found.

“Welcome to your new home,
” came Kelsey’s voice. “Do you like it?” She squatted down next to me, watching with open amusement as I tried to form words and move my limbs. All that came out were howling vowel sounds while my limbs flailed like a seal having a seizure. My body resisted movement as if I’d been frozen in place.

She
bent down and put a finger to my lips. Her musky, self-satisfied scent filled my nose, cloying as heavy perfume. “Shh. Don’t talk. Listen. Do you want to know my secret?” She laughed. “I’m a chemist, Chloe. A very smart one. The event planning thing was just bullshit I fed you guys. Jackson’s not too observant and you wouldn’t know any better. I figured it would give me an in and I was right.”

I
made a face or at least tried to. What did chemistry have to do with any of this?

“In fact
, I invented the drug I gave you. It has many interesting properties.” She stood up and began to pace next to me. “However, even more importantly, I found that testosterone injections can create a rogue alpha.”

She paused and grimaced. “Well
, to be honest, I didn’t start out trying to make a rogue. The reality is, there are lots of packs like yours, Chloe. Packs without enough alphas and my hope was to help a beta wolf become alpha. We need more leadership in the werewolf community and, short of a breeding program, this was the only way to do it. Except, as you know, the experiment had surprising results.”

Kelsey
resumed pacing, tapping her chin with a finger. “The big question then became not how to make an alpha, but what to do with a rogue one.” Kelsey squatted back down beside me and brushed my hair off my face. “So I brought him up here to solve my little problem.”

She le
aned in close until we were eye-to-eye. “You.”

I grunted, a sound that was meant to come out as ‘what the fuck.’

Kelsey ignored my reaction and patted me on the cheek. “You’re a nice enough girl, honey, but not the mate for Jackson. I’m his true mate, and, with you out of the picture, everything will be right between us.”

My stomach dropped.
Fucking bitch.
I did my best to get up and attack her, but all I could manage was more flailing. While I could move, I couldn’t coordinate and I’d lost my strength. Worse, when I closed my eyes, my wolf didn’t seem to be in better shape. She was awake, but eerily still as if she couldn’t move freely either.

“I drove
him out to your house the night I called you, hoping to finish you off then, but that other wolf, Vicki,” Kelsey frowned, “interfered with my plans.” She brightened then, a small, cruel smile on her lips. “At least it wasn’t a total loss, he managed to snag that other bitch on his way back to the car. She’s just as much of a problem as you are.”

Understa
nding dawned. No wonder she used such strong air freshener in her car, she was covering the rogue’s scent. And, if she’d been driving him around, that probably explained why his scent disappeared. She probably picked him up at the road and drove him back to camp so no one could track him down.

Well, damn.

Another thought hit me, one that made my blood run cold. Mara and Sara had been in the house that night. Would Kelsey have stopped her rogue from killing them? She’d been so nice to them the day we went shopping, but I’d  met the real Kelsey and I could see her not blinking if the girls died. That scared me more than anything else that had happened.

“Ronald will be here soon and I’ll give him one last injection. Then
, you’ll be his to play with.” She looked down at me, her eyes gleaming with twisted amusement. “He loves it when the girls fight back and he owes you one. You grazed him with a bullet that night. That’s what drove him off.”

As if he’d been off-
stage waiting for his cue, Ronald crashed into the clearing. I smelled him first, that strong peppery scent making my eyes water. When he came into view, I gasped.