Bride of the Alpha (7 page)

Chapter Seven

Maxwell wore a towel wrapped around his waist as he walked to the door and handed our used sheets

over to his brother Lance. I thought Lance would just take the sheets and leave, but he gestured at Max to come out in the hallway to talk to him.

Max stepped out and talked to Lance a minute, then came back holding a dress for me. It was a tye-dyed

rainbow cotton design, and it was the right size.

“Rise and shine, princess. We need to go run an errand,” he said.

“What?” I sat up in bed, scrubbing at my face with my hands. I was sticky and sore and dazed with

exhaustion. “We need to go out? By the way, how did Lance know I’d need a dress?”

Max flashed me a wicked grin.

“It’s my wedding night. And he knows me.”

I found that last bit a little unsettling. It made me think of other women who Max had been with before me – so, obviously, I wasn’t the first woman whose clothes he’d ripped off.

Who were these other women? How many had they been? Were they prettier than me? Skinnier than

me? Did he still talk to them? Were they from his pack?

I did my best to banish the thoughts from my mind. Fake marriage, I reminded myself. I can’t stake a

claim here.

I went into the bathroom to take a quick shower, then ran a comb through my tangled hair and came out

looking reasonably presentable, or at least less frightening.

Max met me with a steaming mug of coffee when I came out of the bathroom and kissed my lips. “You

look beautiful,” he said, and bless him, he really sounded as if he meant it.

“You look sexy as hell, and I hate that you wake up looking like that,” I said sincerely.

“Life’s just not fair, is it?” He flashed that sexy smile at me and I wanted to drag him into bed and

ravage him all over again.

Instead, I took the mug that he held out, and sucked down the coffee greedily. “Where are we going?

Breakfast?”

“We will definitely get breakfast,” he said. “First, I thought you might want to go bail your friends out of jail.”

“My friends –
Oh my God
.”

I followed him out the door to his pickup truck, heart pounding in my chest. Bess and Corwin. I had

totally forgotten to call or text Bess and tell her not to come get me at the Gas N Gulp. How could I have done that?

Because I’d let lust hormones fog my brain, that’s how.

“What happened? How did they end up in jail?” I said, as we drove out of the Timber Valley pack’s area

and towards the town of Timber Valley.

I pulled out my phone and looked at it as we drove. I winced. 76 text messages, all from Bess and

Corwin. Awesome.

“Your friends came to the front gate of our property and demanded to see you immediately, claiming

that we’d kidnapped you.” Maxwell, thank God, looked amused rather than furious. “When the guard on

duty refused, they pretended to leave, but they just drove up the road a ways and shifted and tried to sneak on to our property. They’re not very good at sneaking. They were apprehended and taken into town, and

jailed for trespassing.”

“Oh. Dang it, why didn’t someone just come to our suite, and…I don’t know…”

“Interrupt the Alpha on his wedding night?” He barked out a laugh. “Because the shifters in this pack

have a strong survival instinct.”

Timber Valley was a beautiful little town. It mostly consisted of a big circular road called Green Street,

off the main road, with little shops and restaurants and a feed and grain store lining the circle. In the middle of the circle was a park with a gazebo and benches and trees. Couples strolled hand in hand, or lolled in the grass in animal form. Shifter cubs played in the trees; I saw a leopard cub chasing a wolf cub along the branches, with a shifter mother standing by the tree, hands on hips, yelling at them to get down.

“Does Kray’s pack hang out around here much?” I asked nervously.

“Not any more. They used to, but since Kray took over, they’ve gotten in so many fights that we told

them to stay out of our territory. Now that we’re allied, Kray may want to change that, but for right now we don’t have to worry.”

We pulled up in front of the sheriff’s office, halfway round the circle. It was a red brick building with broad marble steps leading up to it; the jail was in the back of the building, Max told me.

As we walked in, we were greeted by the sheriff. The sheriff, if I do say so myself, was quite hot. He

was also a Battle, according to the name tag on his broad chest.

Sheriff Steele Battle, to be specific. He was big and burly and had straight, close clipped black hair. If I hadn’t been with my husband, I would have been tempted to fan myself and simper at the sight of him.

He touched the brim of his cap and nodded politely to me. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am.

Congratulations,” he said to me. “Sorry to interrupt your wedding weekend.”

“Oh, no problem at all. And thank you,” I said.

Steele flashed a grin at Max. “Let me know if you want to borrow my handcuffs.”

Argh! I blushed, but Max just laughed. “Please. I’ve got my own. Do come out here this weekend,

though. Good times to be had. The band is still there, the feast’s going on. Hot women everywhere. Leave one of your deputies in charge for once, for God’s sake.”

“I may do that,” Sheriff Battle said. Then he led us through the building to the jail, where Bess and

Corwin were locked in a small cell, sitting on a bench and glowering sullenly.

The sheriff grabbed a set of keys from his belt, unlocked the door and let Corwin and Bess out. Their

clothes were wrinkled and both of them looked as if they hadn’t slept much.

I rushed to hug Bess. “I am so, so sorry!” I cried out. “I totally forgot to call you back. It’s a really long story, which I can’t fully explain, but…” I glanced around and lowered my voice. “I’m staying for three more weeks so that Camille has a chance to mate during the full moon. Then, her uncle won’t be able to

force her to come back, even if he manages to track her down.”

“What? You’re staying?” Bess gasped. She and Corwin both looked shocked.

Corwin looked at my neck, then glared at Max. “You monster! You left bruises on her neck!”

“Those are hickeys!” I said hastily. Damn Max. He’d really taken that whole “marking his woman” thing

way too seriously.

They both started growling at each other and bristling and turning hairy. Claws were springing from

finger tips, ears were going pointy, jaws were lengthening.

“Stop!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.

I turned to Corwin. “He did not hurt me. I swear to God.” Well, he’d only hurt me in ways that caused

me to beg for more and have multiple orgasms, but I wasn’t about to share that information with my

friends.

Corwin’s fur receded, but he was still glaring and growling.

“Corwin, be careful,” Bess pleaded, clutching at his arm.

The sheriff stood there, tense and watchful, but he didn’t make a move. Would he intercede if the two

macho men decided to throw down? Possibly not. He was a Battle, so he had to back Max, and also, if

Corwin challenged an Alpha, the Alpha was within his rights to smack Corwin down.

Corwin had grown up with a dad who’d beaten and abused his mother, so he tended to react strongly if

he thought a woman was a victim of domestic violence. What was scary was that he might go too far. He

might actually challenge Max, and then he’d die.

“Corwin, come on!” I said. “You know me. I would not put up with being abused by a guy. I’d literally

fight to the death rather than put up with that.”

“This is not your affair,” Maxwell growled at him. “This is my wife. Stay away from her.”

“Your wife? Oh, you haven’t told him?” Corwin sneered.

That was too much for Max. He cuffed Corwin so hard that he knocked Corwin back several feet.

Corwin bounced off a wall, and then fell on his ass, momentarily stunned. A trickle of blood ran from his split lip. Bess screamed.

“Stop, please!” I begged. “This is my fault. Let me just talk to them alone outside for five minutes.”

I helped Corwin up, and Sheriff Battle led us out the back door to the parking lot. Max followed us and stood watching us and glowering from a short distance.

“Come on, Corwin, that was stupid and uncalled for,” I said to him. “I appreciate your concern, but you all but challenged an Alpha back there. He would have had every legal right to kill you.”

“He’s holding you prisoner,” Bess protested.

“No, he really is not. I could leave any time I want. I thought about leaving yesterday, and I changed my mind and decided to stay. Voluntarily.”

“He’s standing there watching you to make sure you can’t escape!” Her voice went high and there were

tears in her eyes.

“Listen up, both of you. You know I can handle myself. I’ve been taking care of myself since I was a

cub.”

“You’re not alone. We’re like your family,” Bess said, tears glittering in her eyes.

“I won’t let that bastard hurt you,” Corwin choked out, shaking with anger.

As if Corwin could stop him, I thought, but didn’t say it, because Corwin meant well.

“Okay, here’s what’s going on. First of all, yes, marrying him turned out to be way more complicated

than I thought. I shouldn’t have underestimated it. However, Max knows why I substituted myself for

Camille, and he has agreed that we will pretend to stay married until Camille can mate during the full moon.

This is what I want to do. After that, we will get a divorce, and I will come back home. He is not abusing me. You guys know me better than that. Understand?”

“Why is he standing there watching you, then?” Bess asked suspiciously.

“Because he is being a typical Alpha male.”

“You’re not really his wife, though, so I don’t understand why he’s acting like that,” Corwin protested.

“I kind of do,” Bess said reluctantly. “He is an Alpha. He has an image to maintain. He can’t let you grab Josephine and run off with her.”

“Thank you,” I said fervently. “Everything will be fine. I swear it will. And by the way, he was the best sex ever. Oh, my God.”

Corwin clapped his hands over his ears. “Nooo! Remember how we just said we’re your family? Think

of me as your big brother. Do not think of me as your girlfriend you can confide everything in. Would you tell that to your big brother?”

I burst out laughing. “No, for God’s sake. Okay, Bess, this is very very important. Remember that blind date that I have on Sunday?”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to text you his name and number. You need to call him and cancel. I’d do it myself, but I

don’t actually want to tell Maxwell that I made a date on our wedding weekend; it’s possible he might not be really understanding about it.”

“Huh. Who could have seen that coming,” Bess mused thoughtfully.

“Yeah, yeah,” I said. “You were right. I was wrong. Happy?”

“I won’t be happy until you’re out of that place,” she said. “I still really don’t like it. What if he doesn’t want to let you go?”

“He’s not the type to hold a woman prisoner. Honestly,” I said.

As we drove back, I thought about asking Max about his plans to start his own pack in the Timber

Valley territory. How far away would he move? Who would join his pack?

I didn’t really want to know his plans, though, because then we’d have to start talking about a future

that wasn’t going to include me in it.

He’d already admitted he wasn’t in love with me. I was beginning to suspect that perhaps he’d gone

through with the wedding because he was a really decent guy, and didn’t want to embarrass me, or maybe

he was even trying to protect Camille somehow.

However, I couldn’t expect him to stay married to me forever. Once Camille had mated during the full

moon, he’d want to end things.

That was what I wanted, wasn’t it? No matter how hot Maxwell was, no matter if he was the best sex I’d

ever had, I wouldn’t want to trap a man into staying with me out of a sense of obligation.

It was very rare for Alphas to divorce, but not unheard of. I was sure there’d be no shortage of eager, and much more appropriate, candidates lining up to take my place once I was out of there, and he’d be able to move out and start his pack.

The thought stung, so I didn’t talk about it.

“Your friends have an attitude,” Max said, scowling as we drove back towards his place. “Is the jealous guy an ex-boyfriend or something?”

I laughed at that. “Didn’t you see Bess’ ring finger? That’s her fiancé. He’s from the Briarthorpe pack, she’s from the Redwoods.”

“He seemed jealous,” Max insisted.

Actually, Max was the one who seemed jealous. “Oh, good heavens. Corwin is totally besotted with

Bess. Let me bore you with our history. We all went to college together. We all started out as friends, and then he started acting all weird and distant, and then I found these love poems that he’d written to Bess. He wrote these poems about her shiny hair and beautiful eyes and blah blah blah gag me. Long story…I told

Bess…she’d always been in love with him…so she called up her pack Alpha to get permission for her to

marry him. She had to beg and wheedle, because she was from a very wealthy pack and Corwin’s pack is

poor. The second he got permission to marry her, he was all over her. All the time. I mean ALL the time, it was one of those things where I was constantly having to leave the room.” I laughed at the memory.

“Well, all right,” Max said, but he didn’t seem mollified. “Why were they acting like I was kidnapping

you?”

“They’re just very protective of me,” I shrugged. “I don’t have any family, really, so when I showed up at college they kind of took me under their wing.”

“What do you mean, you don’t have any family? What about your pack?”

I grimaced at the painful memory. “My father got my mother pregnant, and my mother was…troubled.