Keeping the Wolf

by E A Price

  Keeping The Wolf

  By E A Price

  Copyright ©2017 by Elizabeth Ann Price

  All rights reserved. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

  Disclaimer

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  No wolves were hurt, nor any hearts broken in the making of this story.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Epilogue

  The path of true love… and all that.

  Wolf shifter, Harold Buchanan knew he would have an arranged mating since the day of his first shift. He always expected to mate a spoiled pack princess who would be no more interested in spending time with him than he would with her. But when he first catches a glimpse of the beautiful she-wolf with an abundance of freckles and wild red hair, he quickly realizes his mating may not be as straightforward as he expected.

  For Christine Morrow, the arranged mating came as a complete surprise. She had a happy life with a good job, handsome boyfriend and was surrounded by a family and pack that loved her. But in the blink of an eye, she finds herself in a strange city and mated to a male she doesn’t know anything about.

  With a mating born of a business deal between two packs, and interfering parents and exes, can they learn to love and keep each other for the rest of their lives?

  Prologue

  The shift had been painful. Nothing his father had told him had prepared him for it, but it was worth it. Harold glanced down at his paws, and let out a bark.

  He’d known he would one day turn into a wolf – it was the first thing his parents had ever told him. But now, at age thirteen, it had finally happened.

  Usually, he stayed with the other kids on the full moon. But this time, his grandmother had looked down her nose at him and sniffed. She snapped her fingers at Harold’s dad and said, “It’s time.”

  His parents had brought him out to the woods with the other older members of their pack. His mother had taken off all his clothes while they looked on stony-faced, and his father, his alpha had ordered him to shift.

  Harold had been hesitant, uncertain, embarrassed in front of the whole pack. His grandmother tapped her cane and snarled at him to shift. It was the tone she used when she was impatient and angry – Harold and his brothers heard that tone a lot. But Harold hadn’t wanted to shift. He had wanted to be at home with his brothers. They rarely wanted to play with him – he wasn’t good at sports, he didn’t have much imagination, and he didn’t like getting into trouble – but being with them would have been preferable to being yelled at by his grandmother.

  But something within him, something wild, something yearning to be free heard that call, and with a cracking of his bones, the boy became a wolf.

  He tried walking a few steps, wobbling as he tried to navigate four feet instead of the usual two.

  His father stood before him and stilled him with a pat on the head. Harold growled at the touch, and his father smiled in a cold way.

  “My son,” he declared, “has shifted. He has proved he is worthy to be alpha.”

  Harold blinked up at his father as the rest of the usually stiff and elegant pack mates howled into the air for a few moments before each running into the woods. Only his parents and his grandmother remained behind.

  “Shift, darling,” cooed his mother, Marguerite.

  “Yes, son,” added his father, Harold Sr., “shift.”

  Harold did not want to. It had damn well hurt to go this way; he knew it would also hurt to go the other way. But something in his father’s voice got through to him, urging him to obey, and after a few painful moments, he was the scrawny boy again, panting on the ground.

  His mother kneeled and patted his shoulder. That was perhaps the most surprising moment of the evening. His mother didn’t do hugs or displays of affection – far too messy for his pristine mother.

  Harold relaxed on the ground. Twigs pressed into his backside, but honestly, that pain paled in comparison of the agony of his first shift.

  His parents continued to smile at him. They seemed pleased, displaying warmth that wasn’t present in their other interactions. His grandmother looked like her usual stern self – that was a little more reassuring.

  “Well done, Harold,” said his mother.

  “Don’t mollycoddle the boy, Marguerite,” scolded his grandmother. “Shifting is hardly an achievement. We all do it.”

  “It is important,” insisted his father. “Harold is a wolf, and therefore he will be the alpha one day. Today, my son is a man and a wolf.”

  Harold looked up at his father. Of course, he understood that his father was the alpha wolf over their other pack mates. He led the pack in their business; he made the necessary decisions. But he did not know he was supposed to be the alpha after his father.

  His grandmother sniffed and looked down her nose at him. “Yes, miracles do happen.”

  He had been a sickly child. Always ill, always in hospital needing tests, needing transfusions of blood. But a few months ago that all stopped. He started getting better. Though that had not stopped the callous remarks of his grandmother – her regret that his brother Arthur could not be the eldest son. His grandmother did not say it aloud, but she made it known she believed it would have been better if Harold had never gotten over his sickness - if he had never made it.

  Harold scowled to cover up the tears that threatened. Men and wolves did not cry. Alphas did not cry.

  None of them had believed in him. They all looked at him as if there was something wrong with him. Well, that changed today. He was going to be the alpha.

  Harold shook off his mother’s arms, and despite the agony, he clambered to his feet to face his father.

  A twinge of pride shone in Harold Sr.’s eyes. “Being alpha comes with a lot of responsibilities.”

  “I understand.”

  “You will have to work harder than anyone else. Devote your life to the pack. Your duty to t
hem is more important than anything you want.”

  Harold puffed out his skinny chest. He could do that.

  “You will…”

  “And one day,” interrupted his mother, ignoring her husband’s glare, “you will have an arranged mating to another wolf – you will never be able to choose your own mate.”

  Harold blanched thinking of the pretty red head in his Spanish class. The one who made him tongue-tied and blush to the roots of his hair.

  “Do you accept this?” asked his father.

  The redhead flashed before his eyes, and he quickly banished her. She was dating the captain of the tennis team – it was unlikely Harold had any chance with her anyway. Perhaps it would be better this way.

  “I do,” he said in a loud, clear voice.

  His parents looked relieved, but his grandmother sneered.

  He would show her. He would show them all.

  Chapter One

  Twelve years later

  Harold growled at his watch. If only a growl would scare it enough to give him more time. He stormed through the restaurant, waving away the maître-d and waiters as they tried to take his jacket and show him to the table.

  The restaurant was owned by his pack. He knew his way around, and his parents and grandmother always used the same table – the one in the center of the room, slightly raised so that they could look down on everyone else.

  His day was back-to-back meetings, but his parents and grandmother summoned him, and ignoring the summons was not a good idea. As a wolf shifter, he felt the need to obey his alpha. Plus, his family members could be pretty damn annoying when they wanted to be.

  Since graduating, Harold had slowly been taking over his father’s duties – running the pack businesses. He was slowly preparing to take over as alpha. Though, the way his father had quickly handed over his responsibilities was hardly slow. His father seemed to enjoy being the alpha without the responsibility of the actual pack’s welfare hanging over him. It gave him so much more time to golf, down martinis and chase after waitresses. Indeed, his father already appeared to be on his third martini as Harold joined them.

  He kissed his mother on the cheek and sat down, pointedly gesturing at his watch. “I’m late for a meeting, can we make this quick?”

  “Very,” sneered his grandmother. “We’ve chosen your mate. The wedding is three weeks on Saturday.”

  “Mother!” growled Harold Sr.

  “We said we would ease into the subject,” hissed Marguerite.

  His grandmother smiled in grim delight. The older wolf shifter delighted in upsetting people. Harold’s grandfather had been alpha, though never a very strong one. His grandmother, on the other hand, was more formidable than a terminator. She had loved being the alpha’s mate, loved her power, and she clung to as much power as she possibly could. She managed to keep his father in line because of her majority shares in so many of the pack companies.

  “I see,” said Harold.

  His mother smiled a tad patronizingly, “This may be difficult to understand...”

  “No, I understand. It’s my duty.”

  “I’m sorry if this is a disappointment…”

  He had considered what it might be like over the years – to marry a woman he didn’t know. Then he looked at his parents’ marriage – born of an arranged mating – and decided not to think about the possibilities.

  “It isn’t. I’ve known this was coming. Who is she?”

  “The daughter of a red wolf pack alpha in Texas. They have some considerable assets, but are in financial straits right now,” explained his father. “The alpha wishes to retain control of his oil, but wants our money to bail him out.”

  “And he wants to cement this deal with a mating?”

  “Actually no.” Marguerite flicked a look of annoyance at her mother-in-law. “He wasn’t altogether keen on that aspect.”

  “It was our suggestion,” said Harold Sr. smoothly. “He is dragging his heels right now…”

  Harold’s eyes widened slightly. Not much surprised him about his family anymore, but this did. “They haven’t agreed, and you’re already arranging the wedding?”

  “He will agree; he’s just trying to drive up the price. We might be willing to go a little higher based on the conditions of the agreement. He needs us. If he doesn’t take our money, his whole pack will lose everything. They’re desperate for our money.”

  Harold smiled wryly. He wondered whether the Texas alpha was really so calculating or if he was balking at the thought of giving his daughter to a stranger.

  “Who is she?”

  His mother beamed at him. “Her name is Christine Morrow. She’s twenty-three, has a degree in design and from what we can tell has only had two boyfriends…”

  His grandmother sniffed. “Not a virgin but she will do.”

  Harold quirked his lips, though he shouldn’t have been surprised to hear this. “You hired an investigator to look into her?”

  “Of course,” snapped his grandmother. “We had to make sure she was suitable before we suggested her as a mate for you. We could hardly allow her into our family if she were some kind of harlot or kleptomaniac.”

  “She seems quite sweet,” said his mother encouragingly. “Not gorgeous, but quite cute. She’s not overly bright, but she’s not stupid.”

  “Good birthing hips,” put in Harold Sr. - that earned him a glare from his wife.

  “Her pack is so much smaller than ours, and from Texas to boot so she may be a little uncouth, but I’m sure with a little training she will be the perfect alpha wife.”

  Harold stared at his mother for a moment. She considered anyone who lived outside of their city to be uncouth. As for being the perfect alpha wife… his mother seemed to embody that by shopping, spending money like it was going out of fashion and sleeping with her tennis instructor.

  Harold Sr. handed him a file. “Just take a look at their holdings. The pack has had a few investments fall through, and a few unfortunate accidents have brought them to the brink of ruin, but this is a sound investment. There are other companies making offers, but they want to buy them out. We want this to be a partnership. Goodness knows we don’t want to have to move any of our pack to Texas. This way we can earn the rewards, expand our business and allow other people to do the work.”

  Harold flicked through the file. “Why is the mating necessary? It seems like the alpha desperately needs the money.”

  “We believe that once his business is back on track, he will try and force us out.”

  “But you wish to retain overall control.”

  His father smiled. “Of course, and a mating would ensure that. He wouldn’t dare try anything if we had his daughter. He seems very fond of his offspring.”

  Most parents are thought Harold sourly.

  “It’s important that you make this work,” rasped his grandmother impatiently.

  Marguerite gave him a rare pat on the arm. “If it’s any consolation, darling, she really is quite a pretty thing. I imagine she’ll have an accent and Texas manners, and probably won’t be much use in social circles, but I’m sure we can mold her to what we want her to be.”

  Harold said nothing. Looks were not important to him, and as for an accent and table manners – who cares? He had long ago pushed his own desires aside, knowing that ultimately he would marry whoever he was told. Sure he had crushes on girls he liked over the years, girls he was drawn to, but he pushed those feelings down and sought out the company of women who didn’t incite such yearnings.

  He would do his duty. He would marry this woman, and they would have at least one pup. He would treat her with respect, and they would live together. Stated like that it sounded cold, but they had to do what was best for both their packs. As the children of alphas, they had responsibilities. Their own wants and needs came second. He just hoped she was as amenable as he was to the situation.

  *

  “Sweetie, we need to talk to you.”

  Christine threw
her phone in her bag and smiled as her parents came into her bedroom. Her dad closed the door behind him and leaned against it, a somber expression on his face.

  “Sure. I’m on my way out to see Roark, but what’s up?”

  Her mom looked pained. “Perhaps that’s not such a good idea.”

  Christine smiled indulgently. Her dad didn’t particularly like Roark, but then her dad never liked any of the guys who dated any of his three daughters. It got worse as things got progressively more serious with Roark.

  “I know you don’t like him, but I think that he’s going to propose any day now.”

  Her father growled while her mother let out a small sound of dismay.

  “Oh, sweetie,” murmured her mom, “come and sit down.”

  Her mom took her hand and pulled her onto the bed. She stroked the back of her hand while giving her the same sad eyes she had when Christine’s pet bunny died. Another member of her pack ate him on a full moon. Lord, she hoped the big lout hadn’t eaten anything else of hers.

  “You know we’ve had some financial difficulties…”

  Christine nodded. “I know, do you need me to start paying rent for living here? I really think I should…”

  Her dad snorted. “You don’t have to pay rent to live here – this is your home!”

  “But I don’t mind. I want to help out.”

  Her mom grimaced. “That’s very nice, sweetie, but the amount of money we need to cover the pack debts and buy the new equipment we need – it’s out of your league.”

  Things had been getting worse over the past year – one setback after another. Her father was worried, though he tried not to let it show. He always tried to protect them. He was a wonderful father and a kind alpha. “I wish there was some way I could help.”

  A look of unhappiness passed between her two parents. Her mom nodded at her dad.

  With a grunt, he pushed away from the door and sat on the other side of Christine. “A red wolf pack in Virginia is willing to bail us out.”

  “Virginia?” Christine frowned. She didn’t think her parents knew anyone in Virginia. “What do they want?”

  Her dad fidgeted with the cuff of his sweater. “They're quite reasonable about the terms. They’ll give us money in return for a minority share in the business. Considering how things are right now, it will take them years to recoup their money. But they see this as an investment. They are a very large pack, and they own dozens of different businesses. Their offer is generous, except for one thing.”