True Alpha (2 page)

“And Noah’s,” he said, indicating the woman with the sleek bob.

“I’m April,” she said. “This is my sister, Violet.” She reached out and took her sister by the hand, pulling her close. Violet nodded silently, her mouth pressed into a thin line as her gaze darted from person to person.

“This is my mate Mandy,” Jack said, wrapping his arm a little tighter around Mandy’s shoulders.

Something flickered across the others’ faces – was it surprise? It was gone too soon to tell. Mandy let Jack hold her close to his side as the reality of the situation sank in – she was standing within a few feet of five other werewolves. Other than Jack, she’d never met another wolf shifter. Now, their little pack had more than tripled in size. It was almost too strange, too sudden, to believe.

“Nice to meet you, Mandy.” Clarissa was the first to break the awkward silence.

“You too,” Mandy said. Out of all of them, Clarissa seemed the friendliest – with her young, innocent-looking face, she was hard not to smile back at.

“Well, I guess we’ve got a lot of catchin’ up to do, seein’ as how this is the first time I’ve heard from either of you in months,” Jack said, eyeing his cousins. “Let’s go for a walk.”

Noah and Daniel nodded.

Jack smoothed his hand over Mandy’s back in a comforting gesture. “Think you can stand to miss me for another hour or two?” One corner of his mouth quirked in a teasing smile.

“I’ll survive somehow,” Mandy said, smiling back, though she wished he didn’t have to go. Spending an awkward couple of hours with three near strangers wasn’t how she’d envisioned unwinding after her crappy interview.

“All right then,” he said. “Don’t you girls worry about whatever luggage you’ve brought; I’ll get you and your mates settled into one of the vacation cabins on this mountain when we return.” He pressed a quick kiss against Mandy’s temple. “See ya, sweetheart.” He, Daniel and Noah disappeared into the woods before the heat of his kiss had faded from her skin.

After staring at the trees for as long as she could without looking like a complete idiot, Mandy turned to face Clarissa, April and Violet. “It’s a little too hot out here to be standing in the sun for no reason. Why don’t we go inside?”

All three women agreed politely, but as Mandy turned on her heel and strode around the corner of the cabin, her cheeks heated, and not just because of the sun. It was still hard to believe she’d walked outside and approached a group of strangers with her shirt hanging open, no matter how hot it was.

The inside of the cabin was cooler than the sunny outdoors, and Mandy resisted the urge to sink onto the couch and give her feet a break. “Would anyone like a drink?” she asked, crossing the small living area and approaching the fridge. “I’ve got a pitcher of sweet tea in the fridge.”

“Sure,” Clarissa piped up.

April echoed her, but as Mandy pulled the pitcher from the fridge, Violet was silent. The girl’s flirting fit hadn’t exactly left Mandy in the mood to go overboard with Southern hospitality. She was pulling glasses from a cabinet when Violet finally spoke up. “That would be great.”

So Mandy poured four glasses and carried them two at a time, relishing the short trips across the room because as long as she was busy, she didn’t have to make small talk. When everyone held a tumbler full of tea, there was nothing left to do but stand there with the other three women, trying to wrap her mind around the fact that they were going to be members of her and Jack’s pack. Sure, she’d known that being Jack’s mate made her the alpha female, but that hadn’t seemed like much of a responsibility when it had been just them. What was an alpha female supposed to do in a situation like this? “Please, have a seat.” She didn’t know, exactly, so she gestured toward the couch, which had been softened from long years of use and was surprisingly comfortable.

Clarissa plunked down first. April followed, and Violet sank down onto the arm of the couch, sitting close beside her sister. Though the sofa wasn’t large, they’d been careful to leave enough room for Mandy to sit.

Barely stifling a sigh of relief, she lowered herself into the empty space beside Clarissa. Her feet tingled with the sheer joy of not having to carry weight. “So, Alaska…” She tried to imagine the three women and Jack’s cousins traveling all the way from there in that little car, but it wasn’t easy. She’d lived in Tennessee her entire life, and all she’d ever seen of Alaska were calendar and internet pictures, maybe the occasional wildlife documentary on TV. “What brought you all here?”

“We want to join the Half Moon Pack,” April said.

“Right.” She’d already known that much.

“It was Daniel’s decision,” Clarissa added. “And of course, I’m his mate.” She shrugged and looked like there was nowhere else in the world she’d rather be. “I’m sure it’s a good idea. He’s told me so much about Jack and the Smoky Mountains where they grew up…”

“Noah wasn’t going to stay behind in Alaska without Daniel,” April said. “They might as well be brothers.”

Mandy shot a quick sideways glance at Violet, and their eyes locked. “I don’t have a mate. I wasn’t going to lose my sister.” She sounded defensive, but sure of her decision.

“This must be a serious change of scenery for you all. Aren’t you going to miss Alaska?”

“Well, yeah.” April nodded. “But we all think this is for the best.”

Mandy could’ve believed it if it hadn’t been for Violet’s frown. Even if Clarissa and April were happy to be there, it was obvious that Violet was less than thrilled, even if it had been her decision to come along. Not that Mandy blamed her, but… “I’m sorry if I seem rude. This is just so unexpected, and I’m not really used to being around other shifters. Not wolf shifters, anyway.”

“Daniel told me that Jack was the only wolf shifter in these mountains, but I didn’t really believe it.” Clarissa shook her head. “So it’s just you and him, then – it’s true?”

Mandy nodded. “We’re the only wolf shifters here.”

The silence that followed Mandy’s statement was so absolute that had it been evening, she would’ve been able to hear crickets chirping. She sipped her iced tea, hoping the motion would hide her faint blush as all three of the other women stared at her with wide eyes. “You’re really a shifter?” Violet asked.

“Yes.” Mandy lowered her glass slowly, trying not to let her annoyance show. What had she done to make them think she wasn’t a shifter? Had it been her use of the word werewolf? Maybe shifters didn’t use that term – was it just something dumb she’d picked up on TV? “What did you think I was?”

Violet pressed her glass to her lips and mumbled something that sounded distinctly like “human”.

“Do shifters usually mate with humans in Alaska?”

“No, not often,” Violet said, “but I thought that maybe since there aren’t any other wolf shifters out here, Jack decided to go for a human.”

“Violet!” April frowned at her sister.

“You mean settle for a human?” Mandy gripped her glass too tightly, and the condensation caused her hand to slip. She fumbled for a moment, but it was too late – her glass tumbled from her grasp and spilled directly into Clarissa’s lap.

“Oh! Wow, that’s cold.” Clarissa leapt up just as the glass shattered on the floorboards.

“Careful!” April seized Clarissa’s hand and pulled her back, away from the glass shards that were glistening in a pool of sweet tea. “Don’t step on the glass.”

“I’m not, I’m not.” Clarissa glanced apprehensively back at her seat. “But the couch…”

Though Clarissa had absorbed the majority of the tea and most of the rest had spilled onto the floor, a little of the liquid had splashed onto the couch cushion. “Don’t worry about it,” Mandy said. “It’ll come out, and this couch is probably older than I am anyway.”

Tea dripped from Clarissa’s jeans and the hem of her t-shirt, splattering onto the floor.

“Clarissa, if you’ll come back to the bedroom with me, I’m sure I’ve got something you can wear.”

Clarissa nodded and followed Mandy across the room, leaving a sweet tea trail in her wake.

Mandy did, in fact, have plenty that Clarissa could wear. “I was about your size before I got pregnant.” She opened a drawer in the cherry wood dresser that stood in one corner and began rummaging through stacks of clothing. Clarissa was slightly rounder in the hips than Mandy had been, but anything with a little stretch would fit her just fine. “How about a pair of shorts?” She lifted a pair made of a stretch cotton fabric and held them aloft for Clarissa’s inspection.

“That’s fine. I’m not very picky when it comes to clothing.”

“All right, then.” Mandy tossed the shorts onto the bed and selected a matching tank top. The robin’s egg blue and white stripes would look pretty against Clarissa’s creamy-tan skin tone. “This should fit too.”

“What do you want me to do with these?” Clarissa had wasted no time in peeling off her tea-soaked clothing.

“Give them here; I’ll put them in the wash.” Mandy turned, reaching for the damp jeans and t-shirt, and nearly dropped them when Clarissa placed them in her hands.

“Is everything all right?” Clarissa’s eyebrows crept up her forehead, nearing her hairline as Mandy recovered, tearing her gaze away from Clarissa’s right shoulder.

“Sure. I’ll be right back.” She left the room, and though she didn’t look back, the image of what marred Clarissa’s shoulder was burned into her mind. As she started the small washing machine that sat in the back corner of the cabin, opposite the kitchen area, her stomach knotted with guilt. She never would’ve chosen a tank top for Clarissa if she’d known. And then, she’d made such an ass of herself by almost dropping Clarissa’s clothing in surprise. After tossing in a capful of detergent and lowering the washer lid, she hurried back to the bedroom.

She was just in time. “Clarissa.” She stopped her just inside the door. “I’m sorry.”

Clarissa’s smile faded and was replaced by a look of confusion. “Sorry?”

“About the tank top. I wouldn’t have chosen it for you if I’d realized…” Her gaze drifted to the brutal semi-circle of puncture wounds that stood out, each one a lurid bright-pink dot, beside Clarissa’s collarbone. They were healed over, and Mandy was no doctor, but wounds that color couldn’t be very old. Whenever and however they’d happened, they stood out like a sore thumb, only half obscured by the narrow tank top strap. “I have plenty of tops with sleeves that would fit you just fine, if you’d like one of those instead.”

A glimmer of something strange – surprise, or maybe misunderstanding? – passed through Clarissa’s eyes, and then her smile returned. “This is fine. Really. The stripes are cute.”

“Are you sure? I’d be glad to let you choose something else, or even bring your suitcase in if you’d prefer your own clothes.”

Clarissa waved a hand dismissively. “My suitcase is buried at the very bottom of the trunk under everyone else’s.” She lowered her voice to a stage whisper. “And no pregnant woman should be lifting anything as heavy as April’s suitcase. This top is fine.”

“Hey!” April called from the couch. “I heard that.”

“It’s true,” Violet piped up, sounding the liveliest Mandy had ever heard her – well, since she’d been attempting to flirt with Jack, anyway. “You always overpack.”

April released an exasperated sigh. “We just moved all the way from Alaska! How is it possible to overpack for a cross-country move?”

“It’s very possible when five people are traveling in a mid-sized sedan,” Violet said drily.

Clarissa laughed, padding out into the living room in her socks, which, miraculously, hadn’t been soaked in tea. Mandy followed and was surprised to find that the liquid and broken glass had been cleaned up.

“I think we got all the pieces,” April said, “but be careful – there could still be a few little ones.”

Treading carefully, Mandy walked back to the couch and took her seat again. She wasn’t really looking forward to resuming the conversation, but short of shutting herself in the bedroom, there wasn’t anywhere else to go in the cabin. Remembering the look Jack always got in his gorgeous eyes when he talked about his family, Mandy decided to give civility another go. “So tell me a little about yourselves. What did you all do in Alaska?”

Unsurprisingly, Clarissa was the first to speak up. “I was apprenticing to a midwife.”

“A shifter midwife?”

Clarissa nodded.

“Wow. Out here, those are few and far between.” Even while in their human forms, shifters were physically different from regular humans in several subtle ways, including their higher body temperature, so it wasn’t like Mandy could just waltz into a regular doctor’s office or hospital for prenatal care. She’d been seeing a shifter midwife from Kentucky, and paying for the woman’s travel to Tennessee hadn’t been cheap.

“There are more shifters in Alaska than there are here,” Clarissa said. “But it’s still a bit of an unusual occupation.”

“Did you like it?”

“I loved it.” Clarissa’s smile took on a wistful edge, and it was hard not to feel sorry for her, knowing that she’d abandoned her home and a job she’d loved for her mate – something Mandy could easily relate to.

“I worked at a gun and ammunition store,” April said. “Most of our customers were hunters.”

“As someone who can shape-shift into an animal, wasn’t that a little scary at times?” Mandy asked.