My Best Friend the Alpha

by Marcy Jacks

  

  Wolf Souls 7

  Simple Man, Simple Dream

  Chris Howlett has been friends with Declan MacBride ever since they were kids. Chris didn't mind that Declan was a shifter. It never scared him, though he always hated that he could never sleep over at Declan's house. Then one day, Declan and his pack vanished without a trace. Chris was devastated.

  Years later, after meeting up again in college, and after years of back and forth, and a few drinks, end up in bed together.

  That one fantastic night is all it takes for Chris to know he belongs to Declan, and he wants to be with him for the rest of his life, but all these years Declan has been harbouring a terrible secret.

  Chris is a wolf soul, and Declan's pack has been interested in him for a long time. Now that they'd found Chris again, the only thing standing between Chris and a hellish nightmare, is the best friend he's not sure he can trust.

  Genres: Alternative (M/M, Gay), Contemporary, Paranormal, Shape-shifter, Vampires/Werewolves

  Length: 25,968

  MY BEST FRIEND THE ALPHA

  Wolf Souls 7

  Marcy Jacks

  

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  My Best Friend The Alpha

  Copyright © 2019 by Marcy Jacks

  ISBN: 978-1-64243-566-5

  First Publication: January 2019

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All art and logo copyright © 2019 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  If you find a Siren-BookStrand e-book or print book being sold or shared illegally, please let us know at legal@sirenbookstrand.com

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Marcy Jacks lives and works in Ontario, Canada, with her loyal hound. She loves writing about gorgeous guys, shifters, and true love. Sometimes messy, sometimes not so much. For more books by Marcy Jacks, head on over to Marcyjacks.com

  For all titles by Marcy Jacks, please visit

  www.bookstrand.com/marcy-jacks

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  MY BEST FRIEND THE ALPHA

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  MY BEST FRIEND THE ALPHA

  Wolf Souls 7

  MARCY JACKS

  Copyright © 2019

  Chapter One

  Chris had always liked Declan. Ever since they were kids, and even when they grew into adults.

  Chris’ house had been close to Declan’s pack. So close that all Chris had to do was take a shortcut through the woods and he was there within ten minutes.

  They spent a lot of summers together. Chris’ parents had always warned him against spending too much time with the wolves. Like most people back then, and even to this day, they worried the werewolves wanted to turn anyone they could into a crazed shifter.

  Chris hadn’t been afraid. Not even when there were horror stories on the news about wild packs that went on rampages. He wanted to spend time with his friend.

  Chris lived out of the way of the other kids. He’d hated it for a time. His bus to school took forever and required that he get up in the morning before the sun, and there was no one to play with when he got home.

  Then he met Declan, and that changed.

  Slowly, his mom and dad allowed Declan into their house for sleepovers, supervising while Chris played on his Super Nintendo with the other boy.

  Declan liked Castlevania the best while Chris had been more of a Super Mario kid.

  To this day, even as an adult, Chris looked back on those days fondly. They were some of the best of his childhood. It had been great to say he was friends with a werewolf. To run in the woods while Declan transformed and hunted squirrels, mice, and rabbits.

  Chris had never been allowed to stay over at Declan’s house. He’d hated that rule, but his parents had been adamant.

  If he wanted to spend time with Declan, then he had to do it where his parents could see, or at least somewhere on the property.

  Chris once complained to Declan about that, just to be shocked when the other boy claimed it was probably for the best that he didn’t come over.

  Chris had been hurt by that, but his friend kept coming around. They built a tree house in the woods and played more Nintendo.

  Then, one day, when Chris and Declan had been twelve, Declan vanished from his life.

  Chris didn’t understand, and he feared the military had finally come for his friend.

  It had been the one time he and his father had gone over to the pack territory to check. Chris had been forced to stay in the truck while his dad knocked on the door, but the house had been abandoned, along with every other home and trailer on the land.

  As though no one had ever lived there.

  Chris never saw or heard from his friend again until he was almost twenty years old and in college.

  Declan had been different. Taller. He’d filled out, and his formerly long red-brown hair had been cropped short. Buzzed.

  When Chris finally recognized him and asked where he’d been, Declan had stoically replied that he’d gone to military school, and he hadn’t gone into more detail than that.

  His friend had changed. Declan had always been a little cautious, a little closed off, but now he was now was an entirely different person, but Chris still liked him. He still wanted to be near the other man, and when he introduced his boyfriend at the time, he’d been happy Declan hadn’t made a thing of it.

  Though Rory had been jealous as all hell. He got competitive of Declan, which had been stupid because Declan had a girlfriend at the time.

  When Rory got too clingy, Chris let him go. He’d been sad about it. He and Rory had been together for two years. He’d thought they were going somewhere, but Chris wouldn’t put up with a boyfriend who tried to give him a curfew.

  For a while he’d been single, hanging out with Declan and Amy, a third wheel whenever they went to the movies or dinner.

  That had been strange, so Chris had struggled to find another boyfriend so he wouldn’t feel as though he was going on Declan and his girlfriend’s date with them.

  Then he met Josh.

  Josh had been nice enough. Talked a little too much about his gym routine, but he didn’t get jealous of Declan, didn’t give Chris a curfew, was great in bed, and Chris could take Josh with him on a double date with Declan Amy.

  Until Amy left the picture a few years later.

  Chris had considered himself her friend at the time, so when he asked, he was shocked when Amy revealed she didn’t appreciate how closed off Declan could be.

  Closed off? Really? Didn’t she know what she was getting into? Chris barely stopped himself from defending his other friend to her and letting Amy vent, because he had so much to say to that.

  Declan coul
d seem a little emotionless at times, but that was only to the people who weren’t looking. To Chris, he could always tell when Declan thought something was funny. When he was interested in the conversation or genuinely didn’t care.

  And if Amy couldn’t see those telltale signs, then it was on her, and not Declan.

  For another year or so after, Declan stayed shockingly single, coming to hang out and have dinner with Chris and Josh.

  Josh seemed determined to set Declan up with a girl friend of his, but Declan was oddly not interested.

  “You think he might be gay?”

  Chris had been shocked when Josh asked him that, and he had to think about it.

  “Well, aren’t most shifters bi? I heard something like that.”

  “Okay, sure, but that doesn’t mean you don’t see the ones who hide it,” Josh said.

  “How do you mean?”

  Josh rolled his eyes. “Come on, you know what I mean. There’s always a few shifters who deny it to their dying day that they swing the other way. You can’t tell me a guy like that has been single for over a year now. He’s seeing someone. He’s just not bringing the guy around.”

  Chris thought about that, and the idea that Declan might have a boyfriend, and might be too ashamed to introduce the guy, cut him in a way he didn’t expect.

  Did Declan really think Chris would judge him? Chris was gay, so what did it matter?

  Or had he been judging Chris all that time and he hadn’t known it?

  That put a strain on their relationship for a few months.

  Even when Declan finally introduced another girlfriend, they barely hung out.

  Not until Chris caught Josh cheating on him in one of the bars they frequented.

  Chris just walked in on them in the bathroom.

  Josh tried to make it out as though it wasn’t some kind of big deal, as though it was normal.

  Maybe normal for him, but not for Chris. He didn’t want a boyfriend who snuck around on him like that.

  Declan threatened to find and beat the shit out of Josh for that, and while Chris appreciated his old friend coming to his defense again, he didn’t think it would look good for shifters as a whole if a video of a shifter pounding some human’s face into the dirt made it onto the Internet.

  So Chris held off and left revenge to just a fantasy, and that was how that ended, and Chris once more became a third wheel in Declan’s relationship.

  Chris didn’t like Declan’s new girlfriend. She seemed shallow, and it wasn’t lost on Chris how she often begged and whined for Declan to buy her expensive bags or shoes.

  Often when he went to lunch with them, there was a new shopping bag at her feet, and she hung off Declan’s arm like a trophy.

  He could do so much better.

  But Chris gritted his teeth and put up with it. If this was who made Declan happy, then Chris would be happy for him.

  Eventually, Declan joined the military. Not something Chris expected considering how much Declan had hated military school, but he did, and Chris, his degree in art not getting him many jobs, ended up becoming an aide in a nursing home.

  So he helped to cook and serve meals, putting his degree to good use by putting together knitting and crochet projects for the seniors who wanted to participate.

  Strangely enough, he liked it more than he’d expected, though he worried his and Declan’s jobs would tear them apart.

  Chris met David at the nursing home. A paramedic who came over from time to time to help whenever there was a small emergency, and Chris swore he was in love with the man at first sight.

  The clothes he wore on the job only made the guy that much sexier.

  Declan’s girlfriend walked off when Declan was deployed the first time. Chris didn’t even know it until he got a call from Declan, and when Chris asked, he got his heart broken when Declan explained she’d dumped him over text.

  Chris had been more angry about that than Declan had been. He’d ranted and raved. Wasn’t too shy about telling Declan what a bitch she’d been and how he could do much better.

  Declan laughed at him for that, and because he laughed so rarely, it caught Chris off guard.

  Like, shot to the chest, heat rushing through his body kind of off guard.

  Chris had always been protective of his friend, and Declan had always watched out for him, but now that he thought about it…was there something here that he wanted?

  Chris’ chest warmed, and he barely heard anything else Declan told him. When Declan finally hung up the phone, leaving Chris holding his cell to his ear, the worst sort of realization hit.

  He was madly in love with his best friend. And he had been for a while.

  Maybe it was because, whenever he was single, Declan always had someone. And whenever Declan had been single, Chris had always had someone.

  Turned out Rory had been right to be jealous that whole time. Maybe he’d noticed something was up that Chris refused to pick up on, but now he’d very much picked up on it, and Chris couldn’t believe how stupid he’d been. How in the hell had he not seen this? How had he not felt it?

  Did he feel it before? Chris still felt like himself. He still felt as he always did. He still knew that he liked Declan, still thought of the other man as his best friend, still wanted him to come home safely.

  But now he recognized why these feelings went so deep, and he didn’t know what to do about them.

  David didn’t last for very long after that. Chris tried to hide it, but the other man could tell Chris wasn’t entirely there for him, that he had his mind on something else. Someone else.

  At one point, David asked him if he was seeing someone else. Chris had been glad to be able to tell him no, he wasn’t cheating, but at the same time, deep down, part of him thought it wasn’t true.

  Because ever since that conversation, every time David kissed him, every time they fucked, it had always been Declan Chris thought about. It had been Declan Chris wanted, ever since the first time they saw each other again in college.

  Chris stayed single for a while. He needed time to think, and with Declan out of the country, Chris didn’t want to be dating and worrying about him at the same time.

  Except then Declan came back. His skin more tanned than before, somehow more muscular.

  Chris didn’t know how that was possible.

  And Declan seemed happy to see him. So happy the man wrapped his arms around Chris the first time they caught sight of each other at the airport.

  Chris had offered to pick him up, and when the other man held him, Chris nearly burst with happiness.

  Declan apparently only worked on the vehicles. He didn’t do any combat fighting. But Chris didn’t care. The whole time Declan had been deployed, Chris’ mind had raced with all the things that could have gone wrong, a surprise attack, a new mission that would force him into the front lines.

  Chris didn’t know much about the military, and from what Declan told him, he’d been perfectly safe, but Chris didn’t care.

  Declan was back.

  He invited Declan to stay with him for the night since Declan had moved out of his apartment after his last break-up and would be needing a new place to stay.

  Big mistake, because of course it would turn out that they would end up sleeping together that night after a couple of beers were in them.

  And it was good. Better than anything else Chris had ever experienced.

  He knew the next morning was going to be crazy, but with his leg over Declan’s shoulder and Declan’s cock deep inside his ass, he so didn’t care.

  Chapter Two

  He’d brought Declan to his small home. It was just a one-bedroom apartment, and Chris was lucky enough to be able to afford it. There were no bugs, it was cheap, and with his job, he could put a little money aside and hopefully, one day, save up for a house of his own.

  For now, he wanted Declan to feel comfortable in this space.

  And if he was honest, Chris was a little nervous about having him, but
Chris had always been on edge.

  His entire adult life knowing the man, there had always been a pull to him. The sort of thing that made him want to yank his clothes off and pull the guy's dick into his mouth, but Chris was about to control that.

  Tonight felt different even before he finished closing the door to his place.

  He would have Declan all to himself for the first time since they were kids. No boyfriends or girlfriends to worry about.

  Not that it meant anything, shifters were naturally bisexual, but Declan had shown a clear preference for women.

  Which meant Chris would only ever get to stare at his ass when Declan wasn't looking, and fantasize about what it would feel like to have Declan touching him, stroking his cock…

  Chris had to clear his head of these thoughts. He couldn't do this to himself. Not right now.

  "Thanks for letting me stay," Declan said, for what had to be the fifth time.

  Chris cleared his throat. "Yeah, don't worry about it."

  He felt bad about not having a bed for the man as Declan set his bag on the floor by the couch, but Declan didn’t seem to mind.

  “I’ve been living with a bed, a desk, and the tiniest closet you can imagine for over a year. This is plenty,” Declan said, sitting down on the couch. His eyes lit up at the sight of the Nintendo console in front of Chris’ TV.

  “Is that the one from when we were kids?”

  Chris grabbed a couple of beers out of the fridge, came to the couch, and sat down, offering one to Declan. “No. It got lost when my parents moved. I picked that one up at a yard sale.”

  Declan smiled at him. He only ever seemed to give away a smile like that to Chris, and Chris tried not to look too deeply into it. “Feeling nostalgic?”

  Chris opened his beer and took a swig. “Maybe a little.”

  Declan went to the TV, looking over Chris’ mediocre game collection.