The Alpha's Mate (Werewolf Romance) (4 page)

Jackson shifted uncomfortably next to
me. “That was a long time ago. We were just kids.”

She tossed her head, flipping her long hair over her shoulder
. “Yeah, like I said, ancient history, but for a while we thought we were meant for each other.” She sighed. “Those were the days, but now you have Chloe.” Her glance fell on me and then quickly slid over to Jackson.

“Yeah, I do.” He gave me another squeeze and I leaned into him. “How about you,
Kels? You find your mate yet?”

She pouted
and shook her head. “Not yet, but I keep looking. You ever hear of Moonpair dot com?”

We both shook our heads.

“It’s a wolf dating site. No one in my pack is my mate so I’ve branched out. That’s part of the reason why I’m up here. There was a promising candidate in Nashville.”

“Oh?” I asked. “How did it go?”

She looked so crestfallen I almost felt sorry for her. My sympathy didn’t last long, though. Kelsey was trouble, I could smell it. If I went soft on her, she would destroy me. Just like Vicki.

Her gaze dropped to her lap where she fiddled with her napkin.
“Not a match.”

“Sorry to hear that,
Kels.”

She shook her shoulders and sat straighter in her seat.
“All in good time, right? Let’s talk about your wedding. Have you made any plans yet?” Now she looked at me, finally.

“I’ve ordered a few things and looked at lot
s of magazines.”

Kelsey
frowned. “Magazines are so last century. Honey, all the wedding action is on Pinterest these days.” Her mouth split in a wide grin. “Don’t worry, I’ll hook you up. Where’s the hall going to be?”

Jackson and I exchanged glances.
This was the most we’d talked about the wedding since we’d decided to have one. “There isn’t one,” I said. “We do outdoor weddings in our pack.”

“Perfect. No contracts or fees. Very budget friendly. I approve.” She
winked at me conspiratorially. “I have some great ideas for the decor.”

“I was thinking of a wild flower arbor,” I said. It would mean a late summer wedding so
we had time to grow extra flowers as well as harvest wild ones at the peak of the growing season, but the pictures would be stunning. I’d been to a pack wedding when I was little and never forgot the beautiful archway of flowers framing the happy couple.

She
raised an eyebrow. “That sounds nice, very country, but Jackson’s family are city folk. You need a more cosmopolitan twist.”

“Like what?”

Her eyes lit up. “Chrome accents.”

I made a face, I couldn’t help myself.
“Chrome?”

“Yes, industrial stuff is very trendy right now. It would be
a great contrast with your old-fashioned flowers.” Her gaze fell on my left hand as I lifted my glass to take a sip of beer. She reached out and touched my naked ring finger and gave Jackson a speculative look. “He didn’t give you a ring?”

Jackson shifted uncomfortably. “It’s only been two weeks
, Kels. Cut me some slack.”

“We’re moving as fast as we can,” I said
, feeling the need to defend him even though I often wondered when a ring would make an appearance myself. I also sometimes wondered if marriage to Jackson was really what I wanted. We hadn’t even said ‘I love you’ yet, which made me nervous. The fact I was nervous made me more nervous. Matings weren’t supposed to come with doubts. Not in Huntsville where the divorce rate was zero.

Kelsey locked eyes with Jackson
for far too long. “Well, let me know if you want some help.” She looked down at her own perfectly manicured hand and sighed. “I’m a bit of an expert on the subject and I know all about diamonds.”

“I think Jackson can handle it,” I said. The last thing I w
anted was a ring that Kelsey helped pick out. I wanted it to be from Jackson alone. “We just haven’t had a lot of time to focus on the details.

She leaned back as the waitress set our burgers on the table. “That’s why I’m here. Weddings need a schedule and a plan.”

“I think we’ve got it,” I said as tactfully as possible.“Thanks though.” When I blinked I caught sight of my wolf, her hackles ran down her back in a mohawk and there was a murderous gleam in her eye. If Kelsey kept pushing buttons, I would lose it like I had with Vicki earlier. The last thing I wanted to do was lose control, not when I wasn’t sure of my wolf or her strength.

Unlike Vicki earlier that day, Kelsey didn’t push me
any further and I was grateful it didn’t come down to another confrontation. We dove into our burgers and ate in silence. Once I’d finished mine, I excused myself to use the restroom.

As I washed my hands, Tonya, one of the barmaid
s came in. We’d worked together once, before I quit in anticipation of leaving town. The owner had offered me my old dishwashing job back, but I declined. Alpha’s mates had jobs; they worked on behalf of the pack. Soon, I would be way too busy to chase a paycheck.

When our eyes met, she worried her bottom lip for a moment and thrust her hands in her apron’s pockets. Finally, she took in a deep breath and said,
“Hey, Chloe. How are you?”

I shrugged. “Okay.”

“Sounds like you’re planning a wedding.” She smiled at me and I returned the smile. Tonya was a sweet girl with blond hair and light blue eyes. She always had a kind word for everyone and was the closest I came to a friend during my time as a null.

“Yeah, it does, doesn’t
it?” My words came out a little less ebullient than I’d intended and Tonya didn’t miss the nuance.

“Everything okay? Jackson seems like a great guy.”

“Yeah.” I ran my hand through my hair. Maybe I wasn’t as skinny or fashionable as Kelsey, but I was at least having a great hair day. My sable brown hair still had blonde highlights from the summer sun, along with the bounce and body of a Pantene shampoo commercial. “It’s just been a stressful day.”

Tonya
stepped closer to me and patted my shoulder. “I heard about Vicki. Don’t worry about her. Even if she gets Cal to make you prove your blood, you’ll be fine.”

“You think so?”

She nodded. “You’re not an Omega, Chloe. Vicki’s just mad that Jackson mated with you and not her.”

“I noticed,” I said dryly. “I’m surprised she’s been the only one to bother me.”

Tonya shrugged. “Eh, you know wolves. We’re practical. We want to mate with our mate, not worry about a wolf who’s already claimed his. People are upset, but we’ll get over it.”

“
We’ll
?” I looked at her, eyebrows raised.

Tonya gave an uncomfortable laugh. “Yeah, well, I...you see
, this one night--”

I raised a hand and cut her off. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.” I was surrounded, I decided. Simply surroun
ded by dozens of women who’d lusted after my mate. Now they were even coming in from out of town. If this kept up, I would soon be drowning in angry female wolves. Forget ‘Call of the Wild’ this was ‘Call of the Women Scorned.’  I just hoped Jackson and I survived it intact. Maybe a wedding wasn’t such a good idea. Maybe we should elope and not rub everyone’s noses in our mating.

“Hey,” Tonya said, interrupting my thoughts. “I wanted to ask you something.”

“Okay, shoot.” I watched her, wary.

“
Since your momma’s gone and all--” She looked at the floor and rocked back and forth on her heels. “I wondered if you’d want to go to Nashville together to shop for wedding dresses? I thought you might like some company.”

Her invitation
touched me. Tonya was a little older than me, but she’d also lost her mother at a young age in a car accident down in Hudson. Wolves can survive a lot, but not a head on collision with a fully loaded semi. Sometimes I wondered if that was why she was nicer to me than most of the other wolves in Huntsville. Out of everyone, she knew what I’d been through.

“I would love some company, Tonya. Thanks.” I rolled my paper towel into a ball and tossed it in the garbage. “I was supposed to go down to Nashville today
, but my plans went sideways on me.”

“Well, I’m off tomorrow
, if you want to go then.”

“That would be great. Pick you up around nine?”

“Sounds good.”

I left the bathroom feeling oddly buoyant. Yeah, Vicki hated me and Kelsey was a problem with a c
apitol P, but maybe Tonya’s offer meant there was hope. Maybe someday not every female in town would hate my guts with such fierce passion.

Then I saw Kelsey and Jackson
, and my bubble burst. She’d moved to sit next to him during my absence. Jackson had an arm draped over her shoulder and she leaned into him shamelessly. I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed. Everyone in the bar was watching her, and, now that I’d appeared, their attention transferred to me as if to ask, ‘what are you going to do about this?’

I knew this was bad. The
wolves watching me, waiting for my next move knew it was bad, but somehow Jackson and Kelsey remained oblivious to their transgression. I stalked across the bar, my gaze drilling into Jackson, willing him to look at me, to read my mind. Anger burned so hot in me, I couldn’t even see straight as I made my way back to our booth. Inside my head, my wolf growled, loud as a lawnmower.

“Jacks,” I said, my voice deadly soft.

He looked up at me and his eyes widened as he saw I was unhappy. Kelsey pretended not to notice and deliberately snuggled in closer to him. Once again she didn’t look at me, not out of submissiveness, but to show me how insignificant I was. I held my hands behind my back to keep myself from clawing her throat out. Briefly, I wondered if other wolves fought their violent urges as much as I did, or if my itch for violence was a side effect of being a new wolf not fully in control of herself yet.

“Hey babe.” He shifted slightly away from Kelsey as if signaling her to leave and go back
to her side of our booth.

S
he didn’t move.

Afraid I would snap, I did the only thing I could to avoid a confrontation. “I’m leaving. I’ll see you back at the house.”

Jackson reached for me, trying to grab my arm.

I twisted away from his grip. “No,
I really have to go. Why don’t you two catch up and we’ll talk later?” My gaze drilled into Jackson’s with an unspoken demand:
Get rid of her before I do it for you.

“
Clo,” Jackson started. From the way his eyebrows had shot up, I could tell he was surprised at my reaction. He had no idea I was upset or that his childhood ‘friend’ was being rude. How could a man with the heightened senses of a werewolf be so dense?

I cut him off. “I have stuff to do.” Not waiting to hear what else he said, I spun on my heel and walked out. As I went
, her high-pitched laugh followed me. I resisted the urge to plug my ears. Once inside my truck, I rolled down the windows and blasted rock music all the way home to clear my head.

As I drove, I saw Huntsville through her eyes. The pockmarked paved roads, the shabby city square and mud splattered pick-up trucks. We weren’t glamorous people. Fancy meant washing the truck and putting on fresh jeans. We were simple because we knew better than to compete with nature. Just a few miles up the mountain we lived on, there was a view that even chrome couldn’t outshine.

Kelsey had obviously spent too much time in the city to understand this.

Chapter Four

The second guessing started
when I pulled into Jackson’s long winding driveway. After we mated, I’d moved in with him. He owned the bigger house and it would’ve been a hassle to buy mine back. I’d sold it to Cal back when we all thought I was a null. He would probably let me have it at cost, but I liked the fresh start.

My house had held
my old life, the one where my parents were dead and I was alone, living on the edges of a pack that couldn’t accept me. Letting go of my house meant leaving the loneliness behind too.

I wanted to move forward, to jump toward the
future I’d always dreamed of except...I’d just left Jackson behind. Now I thought maybe it was a mistake. I didn’t like Kelsey. It was an instinctive dislike cemented by her behavior at the bar, but I shouldn’t have left him alone with her. My wolf stared me down in my mind’s eye, her disapproval almost palpable.

You don’t leave your mate,
she seemed to say.

Well maybe if he acted like my mate, I wouldn’t
, I snarled at her.

She turned her back on me.

“Damn it.” I hit the steering wheel. Pulling out my phone, I navigated to Jackson’s number, finger hovering over the call button. What to do? Call him and say what? No words came to me so I put the phone in sleep mode and tossed it into my purse.

I wasn’t going back. No way. It would make me look weak and that was the last thing I needed to be in front of Kelsey or the gossip hounds at the bar.
Not that running away helped things either, but the damage was done. There was no use in compounding it with more bad behavior. Heaving a sigh, I went into the house, shivering as a cold wind slapped my skin.