by Bryce Evans
“You got it, Alpha. Here’s a purse, I bet it belongs to her.” Bane picked it up and tossed it to Tate.
“Here, Alpha, let me hold her for you.”
“No! I’ve got her.” Arden had never felt such a possessive instinct for anyone in his life. He’d never had a woman make him want to just hold her and gaze at her beautiful face. He got in the back with her, but instead of laying her across the backseat, Arden held on to her as she snuggled up to him in her sleep. Even her scent was unbelievably appealing. He wanted to roll around in it and rub up against her until he couldn’t smell anything but her.
“Alpha, you okay?” Tate asked. Arden pulled her body closer and sniffed her hair before he glanced up. “Your eyes have changed.”
Arden closed his eyes. Her pheromones were unraveling him, and he knew that the woman in his arms was his mate. Her body’s chemistry was already changing, even as he took in the different scents that made her so unique. She smelled like vanilla and coffee. He wanted to laugh. Apparently, his mate drank a lot of coffee with vanilla mixed in, and chocolate too.
“Do I smell vanilla?” Tate asked, scenting the air.
“She drinks a lot of coffee with vanilla and chocolate.” Arden commented then pushed her hair behind her ears. “She’s beautiful,” he muttered.
When he glanced up, Tate was watching him in the rearview mirror. It didn’t matter to him how crazy he sounded. This was his mate. He’d waited for her for a long, long time.
As he watched, her body started shaking in her sleep. The thought of the pain she’d have to endure to become a werewolf broke his heart. Quinn never asked for this, but she was still alive and that meant she was strong. The change was coming on fast. Arden held her closer, knowing that they didn’t have much time left before she woke up, and when she did she would be pissed. It was the nature of the beast, and the fact that another wolf was holding her so close. The type of wolf she would be was still up in the air, but from what he’d just witnessed, she was an Alpha. She didn’t cry or freak out when the wolf attacked her—no, his mate fought back and held her own. Arden figured she would try and fight him when she woke up, and in a way he was looking forward to it.
“Tell Rick to open up the other room and have it ready,” Arden instructed Tate, who was already on the phone. The two rooms they were using to keep the newly turned wolves were usually small conference rooms where pack business was discussed.
The front gate was open, and Tate drove through. Rick opened the door for them when they arrived at the pack house so Arden could carry in Quinn. He could smell her wolf waking up inside her; he only had a few minutes before the fight was on. He ran up the stairs and inside the house.
Finley was standing at the door, watching, as Arden ran past him to the other room. He was a new wolf, and would quickly scent another wolf changing. He laid Quinn down on the bed just as her eyes popped open. They’d already turned yellow, and Arden backed up slowly. Before he made it more than one step, she was up in a crouched position.
“Do you remember me?” Arden asked calmly, being careful not to make any sudden movements. She nodded. “My name is Arden Dixon, and I know this may seem impossible to you, but a wolf bit you and your body is changing. You’re changing into a werewolf.”
He waited, letting that information sink in. She didn’t make any noise until her nostrils flared and she scented the air. Arden knew what was coming when she caught his scent. Her eyes were switching back and forth from human to wolf, until those cold yellow eyes settled on him, where he stood blocking the door. Tate must have seen the look, too. He closed the door, locking Arden and Quinn together inside the room. As the door closed he could see in her eyes she was going to go for it. Like most young wolves, there wasn’t much common sense in her train of thought. Survival was the only thing on her mind, and right now Arden was blocking her one escape route.
“I know you feel powerful right now, like you can take on the world, but you could really hurt someone, and I don’t think you really want to hurt anyone. Especially me.” Arden smiled, but Quinn didn’t smile back. In fact, she started snarling. “I’m here to help you get through the change, and then we can talk about what comes next.”
Arden knew what was going to happen when Quinn narrowed her eyes at him. She was getting ready to bolt, and if it took going through him she was sure going to give it one hell of a try. He could see that she was scared, but he didn’t believe in sugar-coating what was going to happen. Plus, she was his mate, and he planned to keep her safe—even from herself.
“Quinn, take it easy, baby. Just take in some deep breaths.” Quickly, Arden took his coat off and threw it to the ground before it could get ruined, then kicked his boots off. Quinn’s eyes widened as Arden started stripping, and that was when the change struck. She shifted quickly, but her clothes were hung up around her legs, hindering her from charging Arden before he got to her. She needed to learn that he was the Alpha, and unfortunately she would learn it the hard way: by having his teeth sink into her throat.
His jaws wrapped around her neck as he pinned her to the floor. His mate was strong. She flailed around trying to free herself from his grip, but Arden held on and tried his best not to hurt her too badly. He could feel her sharp teeth digging into his leg as she tried to get him to let her go, but he’d been hurt worse. This was nothing. She didn’t have any experience fighting as a wolf, which was a plus for him.
He could feel his teeth slicing further into her neck as he put more pressure on, and the taste of her blood flooded his mouth. If he’d had any doubts that she was his mate, he didn’t now. All he wanted to do was fuck her hard.
Finally she realized that if she continued to jerk away from him he could rip her throat out. She gave up and went limp. He licked at her wounds, and with her new accelerated healing the bite marks closed quickly. The wolf had her eyes closed, trying to calm herself down. Only Alpha wolves could control themselves so readily.
He kept her pinned; to make sure she wasn’t going to attack him again. Within a few minutes she shifted back to her human form. He shifted back as well, still covering her body. She was still breathing hard, but at least she was calm.
“Get off me.” Her voice was still angry, and he didn’t want to have to subdue her again. Reluctantly he slid off of her and sat back in a crouch, waiting. He watched as she glanced over her shoulder at him, and then crawled over to the couch. “I need some clothes.”
He wanted to run his tongue all over her body. She was absolutely breathtaking. She was breathing hard as she continued trying to relax her body, and he couldn’t help but stare at her large, stunning breasts. All he wanted to do was suck on them, then bite down on her shoulder and make her his forever. Before he had time to yell out to Tate to get her some clothes, the door opened and a bag was thrown inside. The door immediately slammed shut and locked again.
*****
Arden grabbed the bag and looked inside. “It’s a t-shirt and sweatpants. Sorry, but you’ll have to wait a bit to get undies.” Arden laughed, but she wasn’t amused. She rolled her eyes and leaned over to snatch the clothes from him.
Arden pulled them away before she could reach them. “Not so fast. I think we need to get something straight. First, I wasn’t the one who bit you and turned you into a wolf, so you can quit being pissed at me. I’m only trying to help. Second, you can drop the bad-ass attitude, because right now you’re in a situation where you need my help. I hold all the control. And third, you could at least say thank you.”
All Quinn could focus on was the word ‘control.’ Her fingertips tingled, and she knew that if she called out inside for her wolf, claws would burst out. Nobody would ever control her again. Not this man, not her father, not anybody else who tried.
“Control?” Quinn laughed. “No man will ever control me. Now give me the clothes so I can leave.”
“I’m sorry, but you can’t leave,” the man said. What did he say his name was? Arden Dixon, that’s it. “Yeah, we
ll Arden Dixon, you can’t keep me here against my will. I don’t care how much control you think you have.”
Quinn watched as the man snorted, dropped the bag down in front of her, then picked up his clothes and walked to the door. The door opened for him then immediately closed again. She could hear the lock click, and that was when she lost her temper. She ran as fast as she could, ramming the door with her shoulder, but it didn’t even budge. Her shoulder didn’t hurt either, which surprised her.
“Let me out!” she screamed, but nobody responded.
*****
Arden and Tate were walking off when they heard Quinn’s body slam against the door. Both of them jerked around as the woman screamed out.
“Shit. Did you hear how hard she hit that door?” Tate asked, but Arden was too busy glaring at it. “Good thing we got those doors reinforced.”
Arden turned back around again, ready to walk out, when Finley stopped him. “What’s going on, Alpha?”
Arden moved closer to Finley’s door. “Another person was bitten, and she’s a little pissed off.”
“Yeah, I can hear that. She doesn’t like you much,” Finley said, then moved away from the window.
Arden didn’t know why, but the statement hurt him for some reason. Quinn was his mate, and he wanted her to feel about him the way he was starting to feel about her. It was too soon for anything as powerful as love, but he’d accept not getting his head ripped off. Because if her anger toward him was as bad as the hit to the door indicated, he was in bad shape.
Arden was sitting down at the kitchen table with his head in his hands when Alice walked in and rubbed her hand down his back. “Hey there, lover.”
This was something—someone—he didn’t want to deal with right now. “I’m not in the mood, Alice.”
“I bet I can get you in the mood, Alpha.” Alice’s voice grated on his nerves. She pushed her fingers through his hair, letting her nails scratch against his scalp. She did know how he liked it, but now he’d met his mate, and her touch produced no reaction except irritation.
“Alice, stop!” Arden pushed her hands away just as Tate walked in with an envelope in his hands.
“Leave, Alice.” Tate gave her a firm stare. She started to walk off, but not before rolling her eyes at him. Once she was gone, Tate handed the official-looking envelope to Arden.
“What is this?” Arden asked, then turned it over and saw the seal. It was from the Council, and Arden knew what was in it before he even opened it.
He broke the seal, read the note, and put it back in the envelope.
“What did they say?” Tate sat down across from him.
“They’re sending a few Death Hunters to help with the search for the rogue pack. ‘Before it gets out of hand,’ they said.”
“Fucking Death Hunters? Damn, they’ll just come in and kill everybody, innocents included,” Tate raged.
“Tate, I need you to calm down. If we panic, the pack will pick that emotion up and they’ll be scared too. We can’t allow them to see that we’re upset. We have to find this pack before it’s too late and the Council sends a whole squad. Right now it looks like they’re only sending two. When they get here, put them on the other side of the house from the pack.”
“That’s where we stay, Alpha.”
“I know that, and I want them close to us. I want to know what they’re doing at all times. Understood?” Arden put his hand on Tate’s shoulder, sending soothing emotions through their bond. He needed for Tate to cool down and understand that they were still in charge.
Tate closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. “You got it, Alpha.”
“Now you go take care of making sure that the rooms are ready for them when they get here, and I’ll go check on Quinn to see if she has calmed down.”
Arden put on the rest of his clothes, but before he went back to Quinn’s room, he remembered something and ran off to the kitchen. “Where do they keep it?”
“Keep what, Alpha?” Jade Cross asked. Arden smiled at Bane’s little sister, although she wasn’t so little anymore. She was a beautiful lady who he’d watched grow up and considered a sister himself.
“Hey there, Squirt.”
“You do realize I’m an adult now?” Jade asked with a smile. The thin scar across her check only added character, he thought. She was still beautiful.
“Of course, but to me you’ll always be a squirt.” Arden kissed her on the head and started pulling open cabinet doors.
“What are you looking for?” Jade asked, still smiling.
“I want to make Quinn some coffee with some vanilla and chocolate in it. You think you can help an old man out?”
“For one, you’re not old, and yes I can.” Jade started pulling ingredients out of the pantry. He chuckled as she pointed to the items, then started making it for him. While she was busy he took a good look at Jade and found that she’d grown up. He still remembered the bear getting a hold of her when she was just a pup. They hadn’t known if she would live, but she was full of fight. She’d survived, but every time she looked in a mirror she would always remember that experience.
“Can I do anything else for you, Alpha?” Jade held the cup up for him. It smelled just like his mate.
He smiled, “Yes, you can.” Arden explained what he needed Jade to do, and then left to bring the coffee to his mate.
As he passed by Finley’s door, he looked in the window and saw Finley was doing push-ups. Then he peered through Quinn’s door and found his mate unscrewing the screens from the vents. He wanted to laugh, but he didn’t want her to be even more furious with him.
He turned the lock and opened the door. “I don’t think you’ll fit through those vents.”
She continued to work without turning around.
“I brought you some coffee.”
“You can’t keep me here, Arden.” Quinn continued unscrewing the vent, with what looked like a butter knife.
He needed to make sure the rooms were cleaned more thoroughly if any more humans were bitten. Someone must’ve eaten in here and left their utensils.
“Sure I can.” Arden couldn’t help but prod her some. He put the coffee down on the counter beside her, and she looked over at it and narrowed her eyes.
“Does that have vanilla and chocolate in it?”
“Yes. I could smell it on you earlier and I figured you drank it a lot.”
*****
Damn, the man was being nice. But why? She took a good look at her capturer. He was handsome, that was for sure. In fact, she would go so far as to say he was downright gorgeous, with his black hair that needed a trim and the five o’clock shadow covering his jaw. Man, would she like to… Damn, she needed to stop looking at him. He was keeping her here against her will, but he did bring her favorite coffee. “Thanks, that was thoughtful of you, but you can’t control me with coffee.” Quinn closed her eyes as a memory of her father flashed into her mind.
“Father, you can’t take my doll away from me. I paid for it with my own money.”
“Sure I can.”
She’s hated her father because he wouldn’t ever give the doll back to her. He kept it to prove to her that he held all the power. After that day, she never purchased anything she loved too much to lose. She opened up a bank account in another town and never told anyone how much money she had in it, so that when she ran away she would have some start-up money. And now this asshole thought he was going to control her? She would never let that happen again, no matter how nice he was being.
Putting her face in her hands, she dropped to the floor. “You’re just like him.”
Arden rushed to her side. “What’s wrong?”
“Get away from me! I want out of here. I have a store to get ready to run. People will know I’m missing. My family will cause all kinds of trouble if you don’t let me out.”
“Quinn, I’m not trying to hold you hostage. I want you to understand that you just turned into a wolf, dammit. Don’t you get it? Life has changed for y
ou, woman.” She could see the frustration in his face as he spoke.
“I understand that, but telling me that I’m not ever leaving isn’t helping me! I have a lot to do before the store opens this weekend,” Quinn answered. The man just didn’t get it. “Look, I understand, and I want to learn how to deal with this. But right now, all I can think about is my future, and that’s making Southern Treasures a success.”
“You changed the name of the store?” Arden sat down on the couch.
She raised her chin. “Yes, among other things.” Arden didn’t speak, but seemed to be waiting expectantly. “Do you want to know what I’ve changed?”
“Yes, I do,” he said, actually looking interested.
Quinn narrowed her eyes, but walked around the chair and sat down. “Well, for starters, I painted the inside of the shop and put up new counters and pictures. Then I put up my collection of clothes and shoes. I also put in a jewelry counter with a lot of pieces from local artists. If all goes to plan, the store should bring in a lot of business for the community, like the diner and the art gallery. Maybe other stores will open up, too.” She crossed her arms and waited for Arden’s response.
“Do you have clothes for me, too?” Arden asked with smirk.
“Yes, I do, but I’m still getting in some more stock for the men’s collection. That’s why I need to get back to the store and unload the shipments that I know have come in by now,” Quinn pointed out.
“Maybe in a few days we can help you with that.” Arden knew a fight was coming now. He wanted her close, and if she went back to the store she would be away from him, and in danger. The rogue pack was still on the loose, and he couldn’t chance her getting hurt. The mating pull was playing havoc on him every time he inhaled her unique scent of vanilla and chocolate.
“A few days? I can’t wait a few... Why?” Quinn sputtered.