Ultimate Alpha Boxed Set: A BBW and Wolf Shifter collection

by Bolryder, Terry

  I sigh, then groan a bit. “Yeah, Rafe would want to keep an eye on me, I guess…” I trail off.

  “Or just things in general,” she replies reassuringly. She seems to sense that I’m oddly disturbed by what I just said.

  “Hm,” I say.

  “Frankly, it was kind of a fluke you were assigned to me,” she says, still trying to lighten the mood.

  “Well, if I had to get a professional stalker, I’m glad it’s you,” I say, smiling at her again. That seems to put her off guard and she shifts restlessly in her seat.

  “So, who do you think is after us?” I ask, crossing into a new subject.

  The houses are getting nicer and farther apart now. I’d almost forgotten how different this part of town was. This neighborhood is quite ritzy, and the properties are all well-kept.

  “I have some ideas,” Rose says. “I mean, I know the guys who took you and who they work for. They’re mad because you’re messing up the bets.”

  “So they said,” I agree.

  “But honestly, I don’t have any real leads right now as to who would be trying to kill me.” She shrugs, looking stumped. “Most of the time I’m just a desk jockey, so I have no clue who would want me, us, dead.”

  “Welp, here we are,” I say, pulling into a giant circle driveway in front of a spacious, multi-storied mansion.

  Rose goes silent, seemingly in utter shock.

  Home sweet home. Looks like it hasn’t changed a bit.

  Except emptier, I guess.

  I pull my duffel bag with a few things out of the trunk and turn around to see Rose has gotten out and is standing beside the car, eyes agape and mouth parted slightly in shock.

  “What is this place, Hawes?” she asks, slightly stupefied.

  “Home, I guess. What did you expect?” I reply, trying to keep things light despite the heaviness that surrounds this place.

  “I don’t know. Something slightly better than what you lived in before, which was only slightly better than a typical sloppy bachelor pad,” she says, still staring at the house.

  “Hey, I liked that place. And it could be burning down to the ground right now, thank-you-very-much,” I chide. “Thanks to the danger we’re in…”

  For a second I see her shock turn to worry. Oh crap, not the intended effect…

  I can’t resist walking up to her, putting a comforting arm around her waist and pulling her close. Letting her know that she’s safe with me. She frowns for a second, caught off guard, but then softens and looks back at the house with awe.

  “Well, I’m glad you like it, Rose,” I tell her, joining her in taking a look at the mansion.

  It’s funny how things and places can feel completely different based on the experiences we’ve attached to them. Looking at it from a fresh pair of eyes, I guess it is pretty luxe. It’s several stories high, not including the basement.

  The grounds crew has kept the place spotless and the trees and shrubs are all well trimmed. I imagine the garage is mostly empty now, so I’ll pull the Ferrari in later, after Rose is settled in.

  Rose turns to me, looking at me with those sharp, searching eyes. Looking for something.

  “This isn’t a trick or something, is it? Is this the place you were referring to so nonchalantly?” she asks, wanting a straight answer.

  “No, it’s for real. And yes, this is the place I meant.” I start walking toward the steps leading to the house, my arm still around her. I could get used to this. “It’s perfect. It’s distant but not remote, completely secure, and well…er. There’s plenty of room.”

  We both laugh at the absurdity of it as we reach the front door. I leave her side and pull out my key to put it in the lock. I turn it and it meets no resistance. Someone’s inside.

  Funny, I recall the house being mostly abandoned these days.

  Rose waits patiently, arms behind her back and rocking a bit back and forth from her toes to her heels.

  “Why so anxious?” I ask, putting my keys back in my pocket and picking my bag up off the ground from where I put it a moment before.

  “I dunno. I’ve never been in such a big place before. I was raised in the city. Even a really expensive place downtown is not nearly this big. This is like something from a book, or a movie,” she says, biting her lip at the end, pensively.

  “Well, luxury awaits, my dear…” I open the front door and beckon her in with a ridiculous bow and a sweeping gesture, hoping to ease the tension.

  She walks in with a smile, and I follow her, turning to close the door behind me.

  “Hawes? What the hell are you doing here?” A voice interrupts from the living room.

  Oh shit, there is someone living here now.

  Lindon.

  Chapter 10

  Rose

  This place is incredible so far. Like something from a fairy tale. The white turrets and rising columns, the perfectly trimmed grass and freshly planted flowers, the shining windows and perfectly plush exterior.

  It often felt like there was never enough space in the city. Even it was just my parents and I most of my childhood, everything felt too close, too cramped. After my mother died, and my father threw himself into work, it just became lonely and cramped.

  We had money, so we could afford to live in a nice apartment downtown. But even still, for some reason my wolf always felt trapped. When I moved out, I got my own apartment and got a job, and that helped. Being away from my family, from the memories, feeling independent. But then sometimes the city feels like it’s torture to your werewolf. I just learned to tamp down that feeling and just focus on my work.

  Hawes is acting somewhat odd. One second he looks like he’s carrying a backpack of bricks, and the next he’s bright and energetic and flirtatious again. I’m really glad he has this place though, it should be a great spot to lay low for a bit.

  Hawes open the door and lets me in. I see a gigantic living room, with a soft, beautiful cream-colored carpet and spotless sage couches. A large chandelier hangs from the ceiling, and the room is well lit.

  On one of the couches sits a figure, a man, with gorgeous golden-blond hair falling softly over his face as he looks over something. He hears us comes in and speaks.

  “Hawes, what the hell are you doing here?”

  Hawes freezes at the door, and then turns around slowly. “Nothing. Just in town for a bit. What are you doing here, Lindon?”

  “Living here. What does it look like?” The blond man puts a book down on the coffee table in front of him and sits up, looking at me now. His annoyance has turned to curiosity, and something else.

  “And who is she?” he asks, a little warmer in his tone now.

  “Just a friend,” Hawes replies, trying to sound casual, but still seeming a little bothered.

  Hawes comes in, and gently beckons me into the living room. I sit down on one of the empty couches circling the coffee table, the one across from Lindon. The couches sit in front of a huge fireplace. There’s a small fire burning in it, cozy, but not heating up the room.

  Hawes tosses his bag in a corner, and spreads himself across the couch next to mine. Lindon just eyes me curiously.

  “Lindon, this is Rose. Rose, meet my brother, Lindon.” Hawes makes a casual sweeping motion between both of us as he introduces us.

  Lindon stands up and walks over to me. He’s about as tall as Hawes, only a bit more lithe, and wearing a fancy looking sweater with khakis. His features are more intelligent, more scholarly than Hawes. He reaches a hand to me. I take it for a handshake.

  “Nice to meet you,” I say cordially.

  Lindon comes down to my hand and looks into my eyes. They’re a shocking light gold color, cool and collected. He places a kiss on my hand reverentially.

  “Charmed,” he replies.

  I can see Hawes out of the corner of my eye grimace a little and shift on his couch uncomfortably.

  The kiss lingers a second longer than I’m comfortable with, and I gently pull my hand back. Lindon looks
at me again and smiles, then returns to the couch where he was sitting before. He has a certain smugness about him as he looks at me and Hawes.

  “So Hawes, how have things been lately?” he asks, suddenly interested in us when a moment before he was acting like we were intruding upon his personal space.

  “Not much, just hanging out in the city. Stuff like that.” Hawes yawns and stretches out on his couch. His long, muscled body fills up the couch and his feet hang over the armrest.

  “Interesting,” Lindon says in a tone that sounds entirely uninterested in what Hawes has to say. He props his arms on the chair he’s sitting in and tents his fingers, looking at me intently, studying me. I’ve had guys, shifters and humans, check me out before, but this is different. It’s like he’s found some fascinating new species and is cataloging it mentally.

  But there’s also something else, a tension in the air, though I’m not sure if it’s between him and Hawes, or him and me. A sort of intensity hanging between us that feels slightly foreboding.

  “So, what brings you out here?” Lindon’s voice is addressing Hawes, but he’s still watching me.

  “Vacation. Just getting out of town for a bit,” Hawes replies, sounding a bit bored.

  The difference between Hawes and Lindon is quite polarizing, and yet I can still see ways they’re related. The high cheekbones, stubborn jaw. I was given very little info going into this situation. The files I was given on Hawes and his family were surprisingly sparse. Not many details on Hawes and fewer still on his brother, just threadbare factoids.

  Rowan and his pack, though well-renowned, were known for being fairly solitary and keeping to themselves, which is generally the way wolves who still live in secluded areas act. Shifter packs in the city are quite different. There’s lots of intermingling, and the lines defining pack hierarchies or territories are often blurry. Whereas packs outside the city usually only associate with neighboring packs, and territories are much more clearly delineated.

  While I’m lost in thought for a moment, Lindon just observes me. Then he speaks.

  “If you’re just on vacation, then why did you bring a female with you?” He pauses and looks at Hawes, who has sat up and is looking more tense now. “An unmated, alpha female, to be exact?” He turns back to me, something burning in his eyes.

  Hawes jumps up from his seat onto his feet, looking bewildered. “What?!” he says, half to me and half to Lindon.

  I have no clue how Lindon found out, but it’s definitely not a good thing. I glare at him, angry that he’s revealed my secret, trying to communicate clearly my disgust and dislike for this unscrupulous werewolf.

  Lindon just grins discreetly, golden eyes glaring right back.

  Chapter 11

  Hawes

  This is crazy. How could I have not known that Rose was an alpha female? Especially an unmated alpha female? I mean, I knew she was a shifter, I could scent that much on her, but how was she able to hide that?

  I’m not mad, just confused, and a little excited, I guess. Shifter females are scarce, and alpha females are even more scarce. And even though I may technically only be half-alpha, the instinct to claim another alpha is incredibly strong.

  I see Rose, who appears to be locked in a staring contest with Lindon right now, and decide to speak up.

  “Wait. Lindon, how did you know?” I ask.

  “It took me a second, but I was able to recognize the scent. But it’s hidden. Obscured very effectively somehow,” he replies.

  Rose looks at me but says nothing.

  Lindon stands and begins pacing in front of the fireplace, arms crossed and looking at the ground, calculating something in his mind.

  “I’ve read a lot of shifter texts recently, and apparently ways have been discovered to obscure shifter scent. This was used originally to help with hunting, to keep prey from being alerted to the scent of a predator. But I’ve heard rumors that there have been other applications. I would postulate that, if done right, it could even disguise something as powerful as an unmated alpha’s pheromones.”

  Rose stays seated but nods.

  Lindon paces more energetically, as if cracking some sort of code. “It makes sense, if you think about it. Living in the city. Lots of shifters from different packs. A much higher ratio of males to females. Fractured pack dynamics. A difficult environment for unmated alphas.”

  “My father wanted to protect me,” she says. “He spent a lot of money researching techniques in the field of pheromone regulation. He wasn’t interested as using me as some sort of political pawn to join packs, and especially didn’t want me to running off with some overeager shifter hoping to increase his status by mating an alpha female,” Rose speaks confidently and without excuse. Like a true alpha.

  “But how?” Lindon asks. “Whatever it is, Hawes clearly wasn’t astute enough to pick up on it.”

  Hey, low shot, bro.

  Lindon continues. “But it’s probably because my sense of smell has always been much better, and frankly it was only by a bit of a fluke that I picked up on it when you walked inside. It was practically gone by the time you sat down by yourself on the couch.”

  Rose glances at me, looking tentative and nervous about something for a split second, then turns her attention back to Lindon.

  Lindon is still pacing, talking to himself. This would be hilarious if it were any other subject.

  “It took me a while to recognize it, to be honest. I haven’t been around any unclaimed alpha females since…” He pauses and stops, then looks over at me, unspoken words hanging between us. We both know what he’s referring to.

  Since Aspen.

  Since the last time there was someone wonderful in my life that made everything better, richer, fuller.

  And then I lost her.

  “So what of it?” Rose asks sternly.

  Lindon appears interrupted mid-thought. “Nothing, I guess, just an intriguing observation,” he says. But there’s something else in his tone that implies it’s more than just something he happened to notice.

  “If that’s the case, Hawes?” She stands up, cutting the conversation short, and looks at me. “Could you show me around?”

  Lindon, appearing a bit stunned by her assertiveness just now, picks up his book, nods to us, and heads off to his room. I hear his door open and close. Then the house is silent again.

  Rose lets out a long sigh, and rolls her shoulders forward, as if shaking something off.

  “So, Rose, what would you like to see?” I ask, trying to not sound awkward.

  “How about a room?” she asks, looking a bit weary.

  “Certainly!” I head upstairs and motion for her to follow. The second story is a long line of rooms on both sides, and I head to the end of the hall. Thankfully, all of the rooms are furnished, so she could choose any one she wants, but I figure a secluded room with it’s own bathroom would be good.

  At the end of the hall, on the left, is a nice room that, to my knowledge, has never been used by anybody except visiting guests on occasion.

  “Where’s your room, by the way?” Rose asks, looking a little bit more excited as we move deeper into the mansion.

  “We actually just passed it,” I say, scratching the back of my head. It doesn’t hurt that the room I have in mind for her happens to be next to mine. I want to be close by in case something happens.

  “Oh, really?” She raises an eyebrow. “You’ll have to promise me no funny business then.”

  We reach her room. Dodging her previous comment, I open the door for her. “This is it, your chamber awaits.”

  She walks inside and smiles widely, her eyes sparkling.

  Inconsequentially, this also happens to be the biggest room in the house. “I figured you’d like something roomy for once,” I say.

  It’s bigger than I remember, too. More of a suite than a bedroom. The high vaulted ceiling make the room feel spacious, and the pretty light blue paint is illuminated by windows on several sides, made possible by
the fact that it’s the corner of the mansion. The furnishings are similar to the living room, cherry wood dresser and desk and sage green couches in a small area next to a brick fireplace.

  Rose closes her eyes and spreads her arms out, taking in the space and openness of the floor plan. “I love it, Hawes. I’ve always wanted a room like this. It’s like something from dream.”

  Seeing her smile like that fills me with happiness, a specific kind that I feel like I haven’t felt in a long time. There’s something about making her happy that turns me on and fulfills me at the same time.

  Like I’m waking up after being asleep for months.

  “You haven’t even seen the best part yet.” I close the door and throw my shoes off, then run to the large, four-post bed and hop onto it. I smile at her and pat the sheets next to me.

  Probably the best part of this room is the bed. I never stayed in this room because it was too big to feel comfortable, but I sometimes came here to nap on the bed because it was so nice. The posts are intricately detailed, and there’s a silk canopy above us. The sheets are a deep burgundy, and incredibly soft, and the pillows are plush and fluffy.

  Rose eyes me suspiciously, then bends over to take her shoes off one at a time. I catch a glimpse of her cleavage in her blue tank top, and stifle a gulp at how hot she is.

  She smiles and walks over to the bed and hops on the other side. It’s a king size bed though, so there’s a fair amount of distance between us. She leans back and closes her eyes, running her hands over the covers and giving a long, relaxed sigh.

  Damn, I think I’m falling for this girl.

  Chapter 12

  Rose

  This is the nicest place I’ve seen in my life. I could live here forever.

  Since my dad was in business, we traveled quite often. I recall staying in some nice hotels, but none of them were like this. This place is somehow both inviting and fancy. The furnishing are really expensive from what I can tell, but it doesn’t feel like a museum. Instead, it’s the kind of place you can just crash and feel spoiled in.