Alpha Shifter Bride Service: (A Paranormal Romance Series)

by Serena Meadows

  Jasmine was freaked out even more than she had been a few hours before. Now she was supposed to deal with him changing, looking like someone else? What was going on?

  There was a knock on the small cabin’s door, and he told her to prepare herself for guests. “It is time that the other ceremony begins. You will get something nice and shiny out of it. Girls like that, don’t they?”

  Jasmine sighed and agreed. They did, but she just wanted answers. No pretty little bauble was going to change her mind.

  Until she saw the bauble, Jasmine didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t a bauble, though. It was a damn tiara, and she was on top of the world, and apparently some kind of royalty.

  The ceremony wasn’t done in English, and she didn’t understand any of it. Dustin gave her a rough translation through most of it, but Jasmine felt like he was leaving some serious information out, like what kind of queen was she? Queen of what?

  There was chanting, costumes, and then there was a part of the ceremony where all of the people lined up and bowed to Dustin. She stood there by his side, tiara on her head, but she felt foolish. Jasmine didn’t know what was going on, and several times she thought it was all a joke. But then she saw the look of revelry on everyone’s face. There were probably two hundred people there, and they were all taking it seriously.

  Jasmine thought it was about over when another man came up, pushing people back behind him. He stopped in front of Dustin and spit on the ground. Jasmine didn’t know the words he spoke, but whatever was being said wasn’t very good. The man was obviously mad at Dustin.

  After a moment of her husband and a man that looked much like him arguing, Jasmine could swear that her husband's eyes started to glow. It reminded her of animals in the night that had a light shone on them. Jasmine couldn't understand what was happening, but she knew that it wasn't right. Nothing going on that day was natural.

  Then, right before her eyes, the two men started to fight. That was bad enough because Jasmine really wasn't used to violence. She had gotten into it with her brothers and sisters sure, but nothing like that. It was a vicious kind of attack, and while she feared for her husband for a moment, it became clear that she shouldn't need to. Dustin was used to fighting, and he seemed to be quite good at it.

  What was more than her brain could handle was what happened next. One minute, it was two men fighting and clashing with fists, and the next, it was something else. They transformed. Her husband was now a large beast with wings and a head that was bigger than her whole body. Her hands were shaking as they rose to her cheeks, and Jasmine started to feel awful. Her heart was swimming in her chest, and then blackness overtook her. She heard her own body fall to the ground like it was far away, and then, nothing.

  Chapter Eight

  Dustin had figured that his brother would try to break up the wedding. He was surprised that he hadn't tried to stop it from happening, but he had come to stop the alpha ceremony. He professed that he was to be the leader, but nobody listened to him. Nobody wanted Dalton as a leader because he didn't know how to act. He was up and down too much, and the only thing that could be counted on from Dalton was an overreaction.

  That's exactly what he got, and Dustin had to fend him off. When his brother started to shift, he didn't even really think about it because they had gotten into it so many times that it was natural for them to fight. What he hadn't thought about was the fact that his wife was only a few feet behind him. She saw it all, and once Dustin had pushed Dalton away, and the man had left in defeat again, he came back down to her.

  At first there was alarm, because she was on the ground. She obviously was unconscious and he looked around, asking people what had happened to her. It wasn't really asking though, he was barking orders and yelling at everyone. Dustin wanted to know what the hell had happened to his bride, and if nobody talked, he was going to lose his shit.

  Dustin wasn't usually like this. That was his brother that was so aggressive, but the idea of something bad happening to her was more than he could bear.

  He scooped her up into his arms and flew up into the air with her. Dustin didn’t even know where he was taking her, just that he was taking her away. Jasmine was so fragile. She was a human, and even back then, when he had a crush on her before, he knew that they were made for each other in some way.

  Over the years, since she disappeared, he replaced her with many women. Dustin took the advice of some of his uncles and tried a little bit of everything. He had tried shifters, and witches, and even a fairy that he’d met. None of it had mattered because he had always thought about that weak-ass human. They could never compete.

  Dustin had always chalked it up to her being the one that got away. He figured that every man had that one woman that they couldn't have, and it was just his destiny to think about her for the rest of his life. He never would have imagined that he would have her as a wife, just a few days before his twentieth birthday.

  Dustin hadn’t thought he would be an alpha yet either, but there he was. The Rose clan was always going to be his. His father had told him so, but Dustin never thought it would be like it presently was.

  He still had his father's death to avenge and to investigate. There were so many things on his plate, but all he could think about was the woman in his arms. His wife. His fragile human that he promised to keep safe for as long as he drew breath.

  He was hovering hundreds of feet above the ceremony and Dustin hadn't really thought it through. He had not anticipated what would happen when she woke up, realized where they were, who was holding her and freaked out completely. She actually managed to get out of his talons, and he had to scoop her up from a free fall that she had caused trying to escape them. Everyone below was trying to figure out what was happening.

  “You really should rethink your current actions, my dear.”

  “How are you talking to me? What the hell are you? Put me down!”

  “I’m your husband, and we're talking through our thoughts. I'll answer all your questions once we get back to my place. There are a few more things we have to finish for the ceremony. Do you want me to take you there now so that you can be alone with your thoughts?”

  “Am I supposed to be there?”

  The dragon nodded his head, and the frail human understood.

  “Then I will be there. Let's get this over with. I really don't like being up here. I guess I should have mentioned that I'm afraid of heights.”

  She was taking it a lot better than he thought she would. Considering she had passed out cold from seeing it, Dustin was sure that she would lose her mind. It wouldn't be the first time that a human had seen more than their brain was capable of processing.

  “Are you sure?”

  Jasmine agreed, even though she didn't look too sure of herself. Maybe that was all he could hope for. Dustin had replayed her finding out, but it had always been with him telling her gently. Never with an impromptu fight.

  He got her back to the ground, and the ceremony continued. There were no more interruptions, and Jasmine stood at his side the whole time, even if she swayed a bit. He had to shift into his dragon form once more to accept the brand that made him leader. After that, he was able to prepare them both to leave.

  “I thought that the cabin was where you lived.”

  He chuckled. “God, no. That's just tradition. I will take you home now if you like. It takes about half an hour in the air, and about four hours on the road. You choose.”

  To him, it was a pretty clear choice, but she actually mulled it over for a moment. He thought at one point that she was going to go for the slower mode of transportation, but she finally agreed to flight. Even though she was trembling and obviously afraid, he admired the courage that it took to do it anyway. She agreed and only swayed a little bit when he turned into his dragon form again. Climbing on the back of him, Dustin wasn't sure how to feel. He felt a mix of elation and something else, something that he wasn't quite ready to think about or even hope for.

&n
bsp; What was worse was her physically being on top of him. When he took off in flight, her thighs naturally tightened up around him. That just made the throbbing heat in between her legs even more prominent to his thinking. Dustin tried to ignore it. He knew that it was going to do him no good to get all worked up. She wasn't ready for it, and he wasn't the type to take it. That left him in the position of being quite miserable at the moment.

  It actually only took twenty minutes to get there because he was going faster than usual. All he could think about was getting her off of him. She was really messing with his head at that point, and he knew that the best thing to do was to get a little space between them so he could think again and his body wasn't fighting the urge to copulate with her.

  When they got to his place, he practically pushed her off of him and tried to pretend like it was for no big reason at all. He didn't want her to know that just that little ride had driven him crazy. It would not do him any good.

  She smiled at him, and he was afraid that she knew anyway. There was almost a snicker on her face when he finally got the guts to look away. Did the innocent woman know what she had done to him?

  It wasn't that though, he was soon to find out. She was just elated to have been flying in the air. The fear of heights had been replaced with joy. Dustin should have been happy that she felt that way, but he didn't. He was quite disturbed that she wasn't as needy as he was. It just reiterated the fact that those emotions were wasted. At least at the moment, so he tried to think ahead to more fruitful endeavors.

  Chapter Nine

  Jasmine had really been taking the day as it came. She got married the day before, and now she was standing in front of a mansion. When she asked him if that was where he lived, he reiterated that it was her house too. Jasmine couldn’t imagine living in such a place.

  “I live here now?”

  He smiled at her and agreed. He had looked a little bothered when they first arrived there, but now he was looking more like himself, and she was feeling more comfortable.

  “Yes, this is where we live.”

  “It's ridiculously huge.”

  “My family is old, and they have found lots of ways to make money.”

  That made her smile. “I bet.”

  While Jasmine had figured that her new husband would have money, she had no idea what that exactly would entail. It was obviously more than even her wildest dreams could come up with.

  There were more important things to talk about at the moment, though. One thing in particular that she was very interested in was what had happened earlier. Jasmine just wasn't sure how she was supposed to broach the subject. With little tact, she just blurted it out, asking one question that had been on her mind since the ceremony.

  “So, you're a dragon, huh?”

  He chuckled like it was something funny, however, Jasmine was not finding the humor in it at the moment. She was still trying to hear it said by another, to remind her it was real.

  “It would seem so.”

  “I didn't know that dragons really existed or that they could turn into people.”

  “Every fable comes with a shred of truth.”

  “I guess.”

  “I'm sure the longer we are together, Jasmine, the more you will come to see that the world as you know it is probably a little different. I will be here for you to help you understand it all. I know that this is all new to you. I am glad that you are in my world. You don't know how long I wanted to bring you into it.”

  When she asked what it all meant, Dustin had another strange look on his face. Maybe it wasn’t just talk.

  “Let's just say, Jasmine, that I’ve had a crush on you since we were in high school. I told you that. I’ve had a crush on you for quite a while.”

  “So, that's why you had me brought to you by Jamie?”

  “It was really coincidental, actually. It seems too good to be true, honestly, but that's exactly what it was. I couldn’t have picked a better bride, truly.”

  “Does Jamie know that you’re a dragon?”

  He nodded his head. “She does. I would have thought that you would have known, but apparently, she is okay to leave some things out. That was quite a risk. I mean, you did pass out when you saw it.”

  “Well, it was certainly a surprise.”

  She looked over at him while they were walking up to the door. “Are you sure that this is all a coincidence, Dustin?”

  He looked at her, a little confused, and told her that it was.

  “What else could it be?”

  She shrugged and said that she wasn't sure. Jasmine hoped that he hadn’t paid for her, but someone had. Someone had paid her parents, and now Jasmine wasn't sure what to believe. She didn't know who was behind it all either. That was probably the scariest part of all, the not knowing.

  “I don’t know.”

  Jasmine stopped mid-sentence because the door was open in front of her and the place was huge. There was gold trim on the walls, lined with pictures of times past. Jasmine had never seen such lavish surroundings before. It was like one of those places that could have been a museum, and she was afraid to touch anything.

  “It's fine, go in. You're not going to break anything by touching it, Jasmine.”

  She pulled her hand off the stair banister that she was presently touching and asked him how he knew what she was thinking.

  “Let's just say that I get vibes from people and sometimes, their actual thoughts.”

  “You're telling me that you can read my mind?”

  Dustin agreed and she scoffed. That was the last thing that she wanted. Now she didn't even have the freedom of her own mind.

  “Can you please not do that then? I mean, turn it off or something, because that is kind of creepy.”

  He chuckled and said that he would try to stay out of her mind as much as possible.

  “If you have too many strong emotions, though, it becomes too loud, and I won’t be able to stop from hearing it. It would be like you shouting at me. You will be heard.”

  “Noted. So, if I am going to get mad at you, then I need to get away from you. Is that right?”

  “Just say what's on your mind either way and you won’t have to worry about it.”

  Well, Jasmine actually liked the idea of that. She wasn't interested in the conversation at the moment. She was interested in looking around, and there was a lot to be bothered with. The whole place was just more than she could have imagined.

  “Do you like it?”

  “It's a lot. What exactly do you do, Dustin?”

  He shrugged and smiled. “I don't really have to do anything. My family is quite well off, as you can see.”

  “So you don't have a job?”

  He agreed that he didn't. “Money makes money, so I don't really have to do anything. I do what I choose to.”

  “You're so young now. Don't you want to do something?”

  He hadn't really thought about it. All of this was supposed to come later in his life, when he had time to live how he wanted first.

  “I'm not sure what I want to do. My father died very recently. He was murdered. That meant that somebody had to take over, so I kind of took over the reins. I would have liked for him to have been around a little bit longer and for me to have had more time to explore, but this is where we are now. This is really my father's house. I don't think I would ever want to live somewhere quite like this. I would want more privacy and less bravado, I suppose.”

  She touched his arm briefly. “I'm sorry to hear about your father. And the house is beautiful. He had good taste.”

  He waved her off and told her that she was just trying to make him feel better. It was probably true, but Jasmine wouldn't let him know that. She couldn't even imagine living in such a place. Even if she lived there for years, Jasmine didn’t believe that she would ever feel quite at home. How could she ever feel at home in such a place? How could she ever feel at home with such a man? He wasn't even her own kind after all.

  It w
as clear that Dustin did not want to talk about his father. She didn't ask any more questions either because the last thing that Jasmine wanted to do was make him upset. She wasn't sure how recent his father’s passing was, but she had an idea that it was not too long ago. Maybe that was the reason he had to get married so quickly. Jasmine still had a lot of questions about how it all worked, but she thought that it would be better for later.

  Instead of asking all of the burning questions that were on her mind, she asked him to give her a tour. Jasmine was just hoping for a distraction. They both needed it.

  “Not the whole place, of course, just maybe a few places I will use, like the kitchen, and the library, and my room?”

  She asked hopefully. Jasmine couldn’t imagine having to share a room and a bed with him another night. Then she realized that he could probably read her mind, and she didn’t want that. So she tried to think of something else, with her eyes going back to the bedroom and making it feel impossible. Why was it so hard to think of something else?

  He smiled at her as he took her down the hallway. Jasmine ignored it, sure that it was all because of something else. It wasn’t because of her thoughts. He had promised not to, after all.

  Jasmine was more impressed with the place as the day went on. It was clear to her that his family had more money than they knew what to do with. Several random objects were found throughout the house, completely coated in gold. She’d never seen a fan on a ceiling that was gold, but there were two. When she started to say something about that, the next room had literal gold on the walls, and Jasmine just tried to keep her mouth closed.

  “Do you really think that you wouldn’t be happy here?”

  Here was a large room that was probably bigger than the room she’d shared with three other girls back in school. There were French doors that surely went into a lavish bathroom and another for a closet that she could get lost in.