by T. Cobbin
The Alpha’s Chick
by
T. Cobbin
The Alpha’s Chick
Copyright © 2016, T. Cobbin
ISBN: 9781944270315
Publisher: Beachwalk Press, Inc.
Electronic Publication: July 2016
Editor: Pamela Tyner
Cover: Fantasia Frog Designs
eBooks are not transferable. No part of this book may be used or reproduced without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in articles and reviews.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Back Cover Copy
Danger follows an injured woman with no memory of her past, but one man is determined to keep her safe. She’s in for a surprise when she discovers her protector is really a leopard shifter.
Harris, a snow leopard shifter, is Alpha to a clowder of feline shifters living in a small, remote English village. One morning, while he’s out for his regular prowl, he hears a weak call for help. He finds a woman trapped in a crevice in the earth. She’s injured and close to freezing. They’re miles from any road, so how did she end up there?
He takes the woman to his house and nurses her back to health. When she regains consciousness she can’t remember anything, not even her name. All she can recall is waking up in a damp, dark hole in the ground, freezing her butt off, and being…guarded by a leopard? She must have hallucinated that.
Falling in love while trying to remember a life that you’ve forgotten can be a painful path. As her memories slowly start to return it quickly becomes apparent that she’s on the run. When men show up in the village searching for her, she knows her past has caught up with her.
Harris is determined to protect the beautiful woman from whatever danger is following her, but what will happen when she discovers the man she’s falling for is a shifter?
Content Warning: contains strong language, some violence, and lots of hot, steamy sex scenes
Dedication
To those who are suffering or have suffered. You are stronger than you think. This one is for you.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to my wonderful publisher, Pamela Tyner and Beachwalk Press, for giving me another chance to tantalize you, my readers, with my imagination.
Author’s Foreword
Abuse comes in all forms. Don’t suffer. Get help before the final blow comes. There are all kinds of help out there; seek it out, don’t hide in shame. You aren’t the only one, and alas, never will be. Don’t ask why someone keeps hurting you, ask why you keep letting them.
Chapter 1
Harris loved this time of year. November and winter. The air was crisp. The grass beneath his feet would crackle in the mornings before the sun warmed it up. The remnants of autumn leaves were scattered on the ground underneath the trees. Snow could be felt coming in on the wind.
His huge paws padded across the rocky ground until he reached the spot he was aiming for. Sitting on his haunches, he looked over the land, catching the early rise of the sun as the day began. Red, orange, and yellows filled the sky.
He loved this land. His great-great-grandfather had traveled around looking for his mate over a long period of years only to find her in Britain in a small out-of-the-way place in Yorkshire. But his mate came from a conflicted pride, and she had suffered at their hands. So he built his house in the middle of the Yorkshire moors and over the years built up a sanctuary for stray cat shifters looking for somewhere to settle their bones. A quiet place to live in peace.
Harris looked down at the small village from his high perch on top of a hill. It was at least an hour in any direction to a town or another suburb. For the last ten years he’d been Alpha of a clowder of cats. He’d taken over from his father at the age of twenty-five after a freak car accident killed both his parents. It also left him a younger brother and sister to care for. They were snow leopards and the only three that he knew of in Britain.
He sighed in his leopard form, feeling the overwhelming urge to mate once again. His leopard was becoming more depressed as the years went by, constantly pushing to find its mate. Each time a new kit—the feline shifters’ word for child—was born in the community Harris’s leopard would yearn for its own. Bringing up his siblings wasn’t the same as having his own son or daughter. He thought it was only women who heard their biological clocks ticking. Alas, he and his cat were certainly hearing theirs.
His ears twitched, hearing something else, and it wasn’t metaphorical. A weak cry and sob. He twisted his head, trying to find which direction it was coming from. East. Standing up, he moved silently like the predator he was. Crouching down, he sniffed the air and stopped to listen again.
“Please, someone help me.” A faint feminine sob.
Harris stretched his head up into the wind, scenting the area. Whoever she was her voice was very faint, but judging by the scent he was getting close. The smell of her revealed fear, pain, and blood tinged with something else...violets and homemade bread.
He had to be careful. Not only was he close to a hiker’s path but men with guns came around once or twice a year looking for the famous moor beast. With the technology these days sometimes the occasional shifter in their cat form had been photographed. The men who came to either hunt it or photograph it would camp out for a few days, hunt around, then disappear until the next photograph or hint of a large cat was found.
“Help.” The cry came again, but even weaker this time.
He walked toward a large crack in the earth. Several of these breaches could be found around there, it was the lay of the land. There were one or two trees around, but the rest was earth, grass, and plenty of rocks. Crouching low, with his stomach touching the ground, he looked down and discovered a narrow chasm big enough for a small truck to fit into it. On a ledge near the top he spotted a pair of bare, bloody feet. Carefully sticking his head further into the hole, he saw the feet belonged to a young woman lying on a ledge below him. His cat purred deeply, the woman’s scent appealing to it straight away.
Mate, his leopard growled inside his head.
Hold your horses, fella, Harris told him. Let’s investigate this more before we set the wheels in motion.
She mate, his leopard grumbled and purred at the same time.
Harris examined the woman below. She was dressed in only a pair of filthy jeans and a pink t-shirt with the word Wow printed on it. She was a bigger-sized girl than his sister. He couldn’t help but look at her breasts, watching them as they lifted up and down with her breathing. She had quite a rack. Although he enjoyed looking, he was a little dismayed at himself. Damn, really? She’s injured and in a fucking hole. You pervert. His leopard however was agreeing with Harris’s assessment of her breasts, and he was glad Harris liked what he saw.
Lifting his eyes to the woman’s face, he could see it was streaked with dirt and tear stains. It was also very pale from what he could make out, but she was a stunner too. Heart-shaped face, pert little nose, and light brown hair. Her eyes were closed so she hadn’t seen him yet. She was cradling her right arm with her left, and there was a ring of purple bruising around her left wrist. He noticed she was shivering, not only from the cold but from shock he thought.
He couldn’t leave her lying there, but there was no way he could get her out of the crevice on his own. For her to be this far out and with no shoes she must be in more trouble than falling into a hole. He lifted his head and looked around, taking in all the scents. He didn’t smell anything unusual, other than the female below. Looking back down, he knew he would have to contact his brother. Opening up a mental path to
his brother, he spoke to him.
“Felix?”
“Yo, bro. What’s up?”
Mentally rolling his eyes at his answer, he replied, “I’ve found a woman who’s fallen into a small crevice. Bring the doc and some clothes for me. Bring two enforcers, Larry and John, with you so they can scout around.”
“She hurt bad?”
“Not sure yet, but she seems pretty weak and I smell blood coming from her.”
Harris dipped his head again into the hole. The woman was still breathing, but she was shivering bad enough he was worried she would fall off the small lip and hurt herself more by falling the rest of the way down.
“Doc says keep her warm,” Felix said.
“Okay, but get here soon. The way she’s shivering I suspect she’s suffering from shock or hyperthermia. I’m going to jump down and try to keep her warm and hope she doesn’t freak out when a huge arse leopard tries to curl up beside her.”
“Then shift.”
“Yeah, right. Waking up to a naked man lying beside you instead?”
“Umm. Yeah, okay. Tell me where you are and we’ll be on our way.”
Harris relayed his location to Felix. He knew that even in shifter form it would take them a good ten to fifteen minutes to reach him. With his cat pushing to be nearer the female, he leapt down beside her. He placed his nose near the pulse on her neck. It was weak but there. Her skin felt cold to the touch. Taking care, he laid next to her, cuddling as close to her as he could, hoping he could transfer some of his heat to her. He caught the hint of violets and homemade bread again. He loved bread just out of the oven. His cat began to purr unconsciously. It shocked him. Again, he reprimanded himself and his leopard.
Geez, the poor woman is injured, not even conscious.
Yeah, but she’s our mate. Allowed to purr and look.
Shush, you. Let’s get her out of this hole before going there. He couldn’t help the hope that thrummed through his veins at the thought his ticking clock could finally be allowed to tock.
* * * *
Warmth bathed the left side of her body. It helped a little against the freezing air around her. She could feel a slight vibration too. She frowned and slowly opened her eyes. Her memory was hazy. Where was she? Come to think of it, she couldn’t even remember her name.
Looking around in the dim light, she found she was lying on a small patch of earth in some kind of hole. She could see the blue sky and clouds through the small crack in the earth above her. All around her it smelled musty and damp. She moved her arm only to moan in pain.
The heat beside her moved. Her eyes widened in shock. It moved? Turning her head slightly, she stared right into the piercing blue eyes of a cat. A huge fucking gray spotted cat. Was that a leopard?
Her whole body froze. The animal sidled up beside her even more, and she caught sight of its paws. They were the size of plates. Shock had her tensing, thinking she was going to end up a meal for one big pussy cat. It nudged her arm and gave it a gentle lick before placing its head down on its forepaws. It looked at her with sorrow in its eyes, as if it was sorry she was where she was. A small purr left its throat when it moved its head and rubbed it gently along the top of her arm. She had the strange feeling it was trying to comfort her.
“I’m dreaming. I must be totally out of it. Maybe I’m dying and you’re my guardian?”
The huge feline licked the side of her face this time with its rough tongue, then proceeded to rub its face under her chin.
“Well, that felt icky and warm, so you must be real. I must be really fucking out of it, because I would have thought you would want to eat me instead than sitting here and keeping me warm.”
“Hello,” a deep voice shouted from above. Then the face of a man peeked over the edge of the crack.
Her heart pounded. Fear, dread, and panic hit her, which was odd. Why was she scared of being found? The cat beside her continued to nuzzle her, calming her a little.
“Hey there, I see you now. I know you’re hurt. I’m going to slowly lower down to you and see if we can find a way to get you out, okay?” The man spoke to her as if he couldn’t see the huge bloody feline beside her. Maybe it wasn’t real.
“Okay,” she replied weakly.
She hadn’t paid much attention to her body but gradually she took account of it. Her feet hurt like a bitch. Her right arm felt like someone had taken a hammer to it. Then there was her head—everything felt hazy, muggy, and like a woodpecker was constantly trying to break in.
The cat lifted its head off her neck and looked straight at her. It had such sorrowful eyes, like it was trying to tell her something.
Releasing her injured arm, she reached down with her left hand, moving it closer to the feline. She had to see if it was real or if she was just delusional. Her fingertips felt the first signs of fine fur. As she moved further they slipped into the thicker stuff. It was so soft. The cat didn’t move. It lay beside her, watching with its piercing blue eyes. She felt the vibration from its purr, and she couldn’t help the tiny smile that lifted her lips.
The edges of her sight began to get dimmer, and she found it harder to breathe. Not giving a shit anymore as to who she was, why the hell she was in a hole in pain, or even that a huge bloody cat was lying next to her, she welcomed the oblivion her mind sought. The purr from the cat was the last thing she felt or heard.
Chapter 2
“Doc says she’ll be out for a while. He plastered her broken arm. It’ll be about six weeks ’til it comes off. He also had to put a few stitches in a couple of deep gashes on the soles of her feet and bandaged them both up. He says both ankles have sprains, but the head wound is superficial. Just a concussion.” Harris stood next to Felix as he reeled off what Ben, the village doc, had told him.
They were both standing in the doorway to his bedroom watching Terrie, their sister, wash the grime off the woman’s face. With each piece of pale skin she revealed Harris swore his cock got harder. There you go again, fucking perv, he reprimanded himself.
“Did the doc say how she got the injuries?” Felix asked.
“With her feet being so messed up and her slight hyperthermia, he says not only had she been running a while, but she’d been down the hole a good couple of hours. He thinks that her arm was already broken before the fall, but that the head injury happened when she fell in that crevice. Oh, and she has bruises on her ankles and wrists. It looks like she’d been restrained.”
Female needs us. Needs protecting. His inner leopard crouched down and growled, preparing for a fight that might come.
“If she was bleeding before she fell, the enforcers can follow her trail. If she was restrained and held, maybe she escaped and whoever had her is looking for her,” Harris said, looking toward his brother briefly. Over the years he had watched his sibling grow from a boisterous teenager who didn’t have a care in the world to the beta he was now. Harris was sure their parents would be proud of him.
“Already got them on it, bro. I’ll spread the word to be on the lookout for strangers.” His brother slapped his shoulder. “What are you gonna do with her?” he asked.
“Can’t let her go just yet, have to see if she remembers why or how she found herself in her situation. She might need help. Plus, she can’t go anywhere with her feet like that.”
“She saw your cat, right?”
“Yeah, she did, but I’m not sure if she’ll remember it.”
“You could just drop her off at the local hospital. No one is really going to believe her seeing a cat.”
“No. There is something about her. I’m not letting her out of my sight just yet.”
“Harris, do you realize you were fucking purring when we found you both?”
He turned to look at his younger brother with a scowl. “Tell anyone and I’ll cut your dick off in your sleep.” He didn’t want anyone to know he purred. He was Alpha! He shut out the noise of his cat snickering in his head.
Holding his hands palm up, his brother backed
up a step away from him. “Calm down, dude.”
Harris turned back to the woman in his bed. She looked so tiny and too fucking pale for his liking. He’d briefly seen and felt her body—lush curves, big tits—and her scent was driving him wild. That combination wasn’t helping to deflate the erection pushing against the zipper of his jeans.
“Are you two going to stand there all day staring? Go. Mush. I have to take the rest of her clothes off to wash her.” Terrie shooed both brothers away from the door and closed it.
Spoilsport. He moved downstairs to his office with a grumble. He would see the woman’s creamy skin soon enough, he vowed.
“You better make sure you spread the word about watching for strangers,” he told Felix. “If people want to shift, they need to take someone else with them.”
“Aye aye.” His brother gave a quick salute then walked out of the house they shared.
His brother was fourteen years younger than he was. He was not only his beta, but his best friend too. Harris had been twenty-five when their parents died. He had taken both his siblings and brought them up the best he could. His brother was twenty-one now and getting itchy feet, he wanted to travel around a while and see the world. His sister had just turned sixteen and was off to college next year. His family was growing up. Maybe that was why he had been hearing that fucking biological clock ticking. The woman currently upstairs in his room could be the answer.
You don’t even know her name. No, but he planned to.
Harris was so engrossed in the paperwork on his desk he barely heard the knock on his office door. He looked up as the door opened.
“Hey there.” He smiled at his sister.
Over the years he had seen her grow up from a small girl with pigtails and ribbons to a young woman who was filling out and becoming a stunner. Her hair fell around her shoulders in waves of naturally highlighted browns and blacks. Her eyes were the same piercing blue as their mother’s had been. In fact, they all had her blue eyes. Suitors would be turning up soon, sniffing around his little sister. He cringed at the thought. He had no idea how to deal with it, but hopefully he had a little bit of time to gain some more patience. At the moment, if anyone came around they’d probably find their heads on stakes in the front garden as a warning to others. His fingertips tingled, his claws already preparing to come out and make their mark.