Untamed: An Alpha's Kiss (Paranormal Werewolf Shifter Romance)

This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places, events, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons--living or dead--is entirely coincidental.

Untamed: An Alpha's Kiss copyright @ 2013 by Evelyn Glass. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Untamed: An Alpha's Kiss is Part 1 of the Untamed series published by E-Book Publishing World. To get the latest news on Part 2, be sure to follow author Evelyn Glass on Twitter at
@EvelynGlass9

PROLOGUE

A velvet cover of darkness blanketed the valley
and muted the sounds of the tiny downtown nestled at its center. Here in the outskirts, though, she heard the rustle of the wind in every leaf and the breath of each slumbering animal. Her own breath was even and her lungs felt limitless in their capacity. She had run for miles, stopping only twice to lap at the cool stream beside her.

He ran with her. She could hear the pads of his paws meeting the earth as he surged slightly ahead, always surveying the landscape with his alert green eyes, attuned to things even she did not perceive. She inhaled the scent of her Mate, his musky odor enhanced with the smell of the wind, and the aroma of the pines. From time to time he ran close and nudged against her, letting her know that she was protected, always.

He stopped suddenly in the clearing and growled low in his throat, a warning that made her hair stand on end. There would only be one warning; the next thing would be iron jaws clamping down on an exposed throat and a merciless crunch as a life was extinguished. A wolf from another pack had crossed into their territory. She waited, tensed for a fight. Her Mate would seize the enemy in just seconds. She whined at the strangely familiar scent of the other wolf.

A whimper of submission escaped the unseen enemy, and she knew her Mate would let the wolf go free. Still alert, he continued blocking her but the immediate danger was over. It was a precaution. He nuzzled her reassuringly and stared with his green concerned eyes concerned.

Suddenly she saw a flash of russet fur as the beaten wolf turned tail and raced through a patch of moonlight into the thicket, yipping in relief as he dashed unharmed into the night. A howl burst from within her, mournful and echoing into the hills. Far off, she heard a symphony of answering voices.

***

With a jolt she started awake and realized she was in her bedroom, alone.

It was the seventh dream like this she'd had this month and Charmaine Vella was getting impatient with the amount of sleep she was losing over this recurring nocturnal interruption. The dreams always unsettled her and after she woke up, she had a hard time going back to sleep. It was 2:45AM and she couldn't justify staying up. It was that or risk being wrecked for her morning run. Not to mention that she had a very important sales appointment first thing in the morning. It wouldn't do to be yawning through the entire pitch, not when so much depended on her closing the deal.

She sighed and rolled over, willing herself to focus on something that she could escape into, not something she wanted to escape from. Beneath the down-filled comforter she squeezed her eyes shut and imagined herself standing alone in the middle of the showroom floor at the end of the day and drifted back into restful sleep.

CHAPTER
ONE

The heavy wheels of the Jeep sprayed stone and dirt as it roared into the parking lot of Gillis-Vella, Incorporated the next afternoon. Through her dusty windshield, Charmaine Vella
saw the shades in her father's office twitch as he noted her arrival. No doubt he was mentally calculating the wear and tear on her tire tread and thinking about how quickly he could wrangle the keys away from her and give the Jeep a vigorous scrubbing. No matter. She was too elated from her sales meeting to let his comments about vehicle safety or cleanliness ruin her mood.
He'll forget about all that when he hears
my news
, she assured herself as she walked in.

"That car looks like gypsies have been living in it," César grumbled through his reading glasses at Charmaine when she arrived breathless in his office.

"Pop, that's totally racist. What have I told you about the importance of being politically correct in the workplace?" she teased and kissed the smooth dome of her father's head before dropping a folder on the blotter in front of him.

Her father raised his bushy eyebrows.

"Go ahead." She was gleeful. "Open it."

His eyes scanned the page twice, then a third time. "He ordered three machines?" He was as incredulous as she'd hoped. He'd only sent her to sell one, but she was nothing if not an excellent saleswoman.

"He was practically begging for more," she boasted.

The grin on her father's face was exactly what she had pictured the whole drive back from the farm in Juniper. She tried not to be smug, but she couldn't resist throwing in, "I've now officially sold more this year than Christopher has." Her brother Christopher had always been the best salesman.

With an indulgent chuckle, he patted her on the back and nodded to the door. "Go put it on the board, then." She glowed as she erased the number next to her name and proudly rewrote the new sales figure while her father watched.

César Vella learned the business from his mentor, Toby Gillis, as a young immigrant with neither wife nor family to sate his hunger. Through the years he worked hard and became the right-hand man of Gillis, a Lycan whose name opened doors throughout the state. Gillis grew to love the young César like a son, and before he passed, he promoted César to Alpha. 

Through the years César expanded his empire, first with the help of his new bride, Gillis's daughter Crystal, and then with the help of a few trusted pack members. By the time Charmaine was born, César already had four strapping sons and Gillis-Vella, Inc. had become the leading dealer of agricultural machinery in the state, making all who worked there very wealthy. A black and white photo of the two men from the early days of the dynasty still hung on the showroom wall.

As she strode down the hall, Charmaine reflected on how lucky she had been to be raised in the bosom of the company. Some of her earliest memories were of sitting on her father's shoulders watching the behemoths roll into the lot of their dealership in town. She had her own desk and computer in her mother's office by age twelve, and by the time she was in high school she was spending every afternoon at the dealership, absorbing as much as she could about the business. The other kids she grew up with had parents who went to jobs. But Gillis-Vella was different. It wasn't a
job
, it was a
life
.

Her childhood best friend Scottie had been there often when they were kids, mostly because his mother was César's accountant. With Scottie around, Charmaine got far less work done, of course, since they often wound up idly gossiping and catching up instead of doing any real work. But by the end of high school she regarded her part-time job at the company as the beginning of a real career. Of all her siblings, she knew she was the most capable, and she spent her time learning at the feet of her father so she could someday fill his shoes.

These days, she stayed until her father locked the doors and sent everyone else home. She loved to watch his end of the day ritual, when he stood quietly in the middle of the showroom floor, head bowed reverently, giving silent thanks to Gillis and the universe for his many blessings.

"You did well, Sweetie." Her father's gruff voice broke her reverie. She flushed with overwhelming pride to be praised by the man who was, in so many ways, her everything.

***

But tonight she would miss the evening ritual, because she had dinner plans with Scottie. She waited at the front for his old pickup swerve into the customer lot. Unlike Charmaine, Scottie had no interest in the business and rarely came through the employee entrance. Usually he sauntered in the front door, hoping to harass some new sales associate by telling them that he was looking for a riding lawnmower. She spared herself that particular painful exercise today by meeting him halfway out the door.

"I'm starving and these shoes are
killing
me," she moaned. "What took you so long?"

"You weren't even back yet the first time I showed up, so I went and got some gas." He was three steps ahead of her all the way back to the truck, but in true Scottie fashion, he stopped and held the door for her. Once in the truck, he grimaced at her feet. "Those shoes are too hideous to hurt. Why are you even wearing those god-awful things?"

"I need to get better at walking in heels."

He shook his head, "You really don't. You shouldn't even wear heels... they're not practical in your line of work."

She recalled her six-foot-plus client from that afternoon and retorted, "Actually, you'd be surprised how practical they are in my line of work. No one wants to order giant farm machinery from someone who looks like they can't even reach the pedals in a car. And seriously, I'm like the only twenty-year-old girl in the world who can't walk well in heels. I'm deficient as a woman."

Scottie laughed and steered the truck toward town. "You're ridiculous, is what you are. Beautiful, but ridiculous." And then, changing the subject, "Pizza or Chinese?"

"Hmmm... I really want pizza, but I haven't had Mr. Chang's in
so
long, and I'm really craving an egg roll. But then... garlic knots... I don't know, you pick."

He sighed dramatically and turned into the parking lot of Mr. Chang's, shaking his head in pretend irritation. "Egg rolls it is, then."

"So..." Scottie began as she poured their tea a few moments later. "You should come to this party with me Saturday night."

"Oh, I can't. This weekend is the West Valley Council Summit. Why, what's happening this Saturday?" She raised a suspicious eyebrow. "And why do I get the feeling it's going to be trouble?"

"Party on The Ridge." Scottie grinned wickedly. "And it's only trouble if you get caught." He absently scratched his fingers through his close-cropped red hair as his amber eyes met hers.

It took a minute to register. "The Ridge? Are you insane?"
No one's been to The Ridge in twenty years, at least
.
That's why the death count has been so low for the past two decades.
But that was the thing about Scottie. It was best not to argue. It would pass like all his other crazy ideas.

"Not like I'm special enough to be invited to the Council Summit," he continued, an unfair dig considering the amount of work she had done to try to earn that invitation. "And I feel like getting into something, anyway." Another sly grin, more of that devil-may-care Scottie charm. "It is that time of year."

"Maybe 'getting into something' isn't such a great idea," she scolded, giving him stern look. "Remember what happened at the quarry last year? I'd like to avoid reliving that particular fiasco. Stay away from Kreuger territory, Scottie. The Treaty exists for a reason."

He merely grabbed her hand and squeezed. "You need to let loose a little," he teased. "Stop being such a princess and come party with us peasants for once. Let your hair down. Get good and properly..."

She snatched her hand back, her face instantly flushing crimson. "Stop it, Scottie."

"I was going to say drunk!" He protested, laughing. "Come on...relax... Anyway, since you won't give me the time of day, maybe I'll run into that sexy brunette I met last year."

Despite not feeling ready to date Scottie herself (at least not
yet
) Charmaine did find herself a bit jealous hearing about his attraction to other women. Particularly about anyone he referred to as
sexy.
She was many things to Scottie but never sexy. .

"Maybe you will," she replied pointedly. "You'll have to tell me all about it after I come back from the Council Meeting."

"Never know," he mused through a mouthful of chow mein. "She could be my Mate. I had a pretty strong reaction, if you know what I'm saying." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Charmaine snorted. "That's ridiculous! How can you think she's your Mate? You spent one afternoon with her a year ago. She's not even from your own Clan, let alone your own Pack."

"Oh now
I'm
the crazy one?"

"I didn't say crazy." She pointed. "I just think it's one of those things that our parents tell us so that we mate young and keep breeding. Think about it--if we didn't do that, we'd all go off to college or move away. This way, our hormones keep us occupied and close to home. We all hook up young and that's it... Mates for life. Everyone's in their 'rightful' place and the whole cycle starts all over again."

He laughed. "You can't be serious."

"Totally serious. I think all that crap about Mates is archaic and ridiculous."

"Based on your vast experience." His eyes twinkled damnable amber mockery.

"My experience is irrelevant." She meant it to be curt but it came out downright chilly.

"Char," he sighed, his gravelly voice uncharacteristically tender, "I know love hasn't happened for you yet. But I'm telling you, when it does, it's going to knock you on your ass. You're going to feel things you won't be able to wrap your mind around. And I promise, then you'll see what the fuss is all about. You will never look at the world the same way again."

She looked away, but not before glimpsing the plaintive look in his eyes.
That's a giant detour
, she told herself. And then,
forget detour, that's a train wreck.
Leave it alone. Don't even think about it.

"Right." She took another big bite and sighed as she chewed, aware of Scottie's disappointed silence but choosing to ignore it. She wasn't ready to be knocked on her ass, not for something as frivolous as love, or even worse, sex. It wouldn't do to throw her years of hard work away just because some good-looking guy who thought with his inner wolf had some idea that she was meant to be his.