by T. S. Ryder
She and the Alphas had only had that one date thus far, although they had been texting and calling each other every night for the past couple weeks. Life was so busy for all three of them that this was the first time they had been able to get together again, and now she was going to meet the packs.
Shifters, it seemed, had no concept of going slow. But, then, she supposed that they weren't looking for a dating experience. They wanted a mate, and they wanted her to be their mate. Jumping off the deep end directly into the werewolf waters was probably the best way to do this… It was better to find out as soon as possible whether she was going to go through with this.
What made her really nervous was the fact that the Alphas had warned her that not everyone was happy with their decision to mate with a human. She had no idea what that meant. Was she going to have to engage in a fight to the death to prove her worthiness?
Her fears ended up being unfounded. The moment they arrived at the packlands, dozens upon dozens of werewolves were hugging her and kissing her cheeks and asking when the mating would occur. They also seemed to think it was appropriate to pluck at her hair and sniff it. When she demanded to know what they were doing, she was told they wanted to know if she was pregnant yet. Xavier and Timothy plastered themselves to her sides, fending off the worst of the attention, though they couldn't protect her from it all.
Having two guys is really nice sometimes, she thought, smiling, as both loaded plates of cookies for her from the potluck table. Not long after this, and an older man with a cane walked over to the trio. Xavier and Timothy both tensed. Amelia could feel their mood go instantly from proud to protective, and she swallowed as they pressed in on her.
"You're crushing me," she complained, using her elbows to push them apart. She looked at the old man and stuck out her hand. "Hi. I'm Amelia. It's nice to meet you."
The old man stared at her with slightly narrowed eyes. This must be someone unhappy that the Alphas had decided to look for a mate among humans. A shiver ran down her spine, but she refused to back down. Instead, she smiled and did what the werewolves had been doing with her this whole time–she stepped forward, throwing her arms around the old man and kissing his cheek. She drew the line at sniffing hair, though, especially with a man who smelled like licorice. Amelia hated licorice.
"It really is so good to meet you," she repeated and turned back to the Alphas to kiss their cheeks. "I'm going to go get cake, darlings."
She left before any of them could stop her, and let out a pent-up breath as she approached the dessert table. She needed a cream-filled donut after that! Amelia wasn't usually one to initiate physical contact with strangers – at least not hugs and kisses. Yet, she did like catching people off guard, and it appeared that she had definitely caught the old man.
A pretty woman stepped up beside her as soon as she got to the dessert table. Amelia smiled vaguely at her.
Please don't sniff my hair.
"Hi, my name is Lucinda," the woman said holding out her hand.
"We might as well hug. Everybody else has," Amelia pulled her into her embrace.
Lucinda laughed. "Well, that was unexpected. I can see this is a little overwhelming for you. Why don't we step into the house?"
Amelia sighed in gratitude. "I think I love you."
The other woman laughed again as she led her inside. The din lessened, and Amelia gratefully bit into her donut. Mmmmm. Heaven! She closed her eyes in rapture. There was no way this was store-bought. Whoever made this ought to have a shop, if they didn't already.
"I'm glad to see you're so comfortable with me. I didn't expect it," Lucinda said. "I have heard that humans can be skittish with multiple partners."
Amelia's brow furrowed. "Well, we're taking it slow but… What do you mean you're glad I'm comfortable with you?"
Lucinda's eyes widened. She pressed a hand to her mouth. "Didn't they tell you?"
A ball of dread slipped into Amelia's stomach. "Tell me what?"
***
As soon as she got home, Amelia phoned her brother. She knew that he'd give her a lecture about dating men he hadn't vetted first, but she was too heartbroken to keep what had happened to herself. Her fantasies of having found not one, but two perfect men to spend the rest of her life with was shattered. She had been so upset that she hadn't even waited for them to drive her home, instead asking Lucinda to do so after the female werewolf told her the truth.
They weren't looking for a female for their alpha triad. They had already found her in Lucinda. They wanted Amelia not to be their mate, but a broodmare and nanny. Apparently, it was an Alpha's duty to have as many children as possible, but Lucinda would have too many duties herself to spend time popping out babies and then raising them.
It was no wonder they lied to me, Amelia thought bitterly. Who would agree to that?
Yet, what upset her the most was that she actually believed that she had finally met men that didn't put themselves first in everything. She had believed that before and she always ended up heartbroken. Why should this time be different? Because they were shifters? Men were men.
"Why did you get involved with werewolves in the first place?" Adrian's voice was pitched in anger when she finished telling him what had happened.
Amelia choked back a sob. "The whole true love thing sounded good. I'm tired of the losers I keep dating… I guess I just don't know how to pick them."
"No, you find one tiny flaw and decide it's a deal breaker. I'm going to call Daniel and you two are going to start dating again."
Mr. Abs? She wasn't that heartbroken. Amelia protested, but Adrian wouldn't hear it.
"You never gave him a proper chance. If nothing else, at least he won't ask you to have group sex!"
Amelia pressed her lips together. That wasn't something she could argue with. There was hardly enough room in Daniel's bed for anybody other than himself, let alone her. Unlike some others, he never cheated on her or tried to pressure her into sex while they were dating. She wanted nothing to do with Mr. Abs or his self-worship, but she had to admit that she could do worse.
Besides, she would just sit around sobbing her heart out over her shattered fairytale if something didn't happen. Maybe a date or two, even with a loser, would help her come back to the real world. It might lower her expectations for next time. Sighing, she agreed to call Daniel the next day.
She had just hung up on Adrian when her phone rang. Timothy. What could he say to make this better? Amelia turned off the phone and went to the freezer. A tub of ice-cream sounded good right now.
Make that two tubs of ice-cream. One for each broken heart.
***
The phone went right to voicemail. Timothy hung up, shaking his head. It hadn't taken the Alphas long to realize that Amelia had left early. When they called her, she had sent a text back telling them that she was tired and had gotten a ride home since they were busy. All attempts to contact her since then had failed. Timothy was kicking himself as he paced, phone in hand.
"It was too soon," he said. "We should have waited until we had sex before introducing her to the pack. I'm surprised she didn't run away screaming at the first moment she was sniffed! One or two others at first, not all of them at once – didn't I tell you?"
Xavier ground his teeth. "Something happened, Tim. Amelia isn't the kind of woman who lets herself get overwhelmed like that. A woman as assertive as she is getting overwhelmed that easily? I don’t think so. Somebody must have said something that offended her."
Timothy wanted to believe that, but he was a realist. They had always known it was a long shot that a human would accept them and their lifestyle. He knew they should have eased Amelia into it. Now they'd frightened her away, and it was doubtful she was ever coming back. This was the exact reason the council didn't want them looking for a mate among humans, and he hated that they had been proven right.
"Tim, I can see what you're thinking and you have to stop," Xavier said firmly. He grasped Timothy's shoulders. "Amelia is to
ugh and smart. Even if she was overwhelmed, she'll come to grips with it. She's the one. I can feel it. Can't you?"
"I thought I did, but if it starts like this, we’ll end up like my parents."
"Their union was arranged; they were never true mates."
"Does it matter? If Amelia left us once, she'll leave us again."
"Tim—"
"I'm going for a run." The Lakeland Alpha pulled away and began peeling off his clothes as he headed for the door. "Don't wait up for me."
"Tim!" Xavier called after him.
Timothy ignored him, shifting as he leapt through the front door. Right now, he didn't want to think. He just wanted the dirt beneath his paws and the wind in his face. He wanted to leave all his memories and hopes and dreams behind and focus on reality.
Chapter Four
Compromise.
Amelia ground her teeth as Mr. Abs began cursing up a storm because the idiot on TV didn't catch the stupid ball that all the other idiots were running around trying to get.
It was like no time had passed since she broke up with the idiot on her couch a year ago. 'Looking good, babe. Why don't we stay in?' meant 'Why don't you cook me dinner while I watch the game?’ She had insisted that he take her out to dinner, and after some back and forth, they had agreed on ordering in a pizza instead. That was compromise.
"Babe, get me a beer."
But was this compromise? Amelia tucked her legs under herself. What exactly had she been thinking, consenting to 'date' him again? Oh, right… the two Alphas had lied to her about their intentions, and she wanted something to distract her. Mr. Abs wasn't doing the job, though. All he was doing was make her miss them even more. Xavier and Timothy would never order her around like this.
It doesn't count that they lied about what they wanted from me.
"Hey, where's my beer?"
"I don't have any beer."
"No beer?" Mr. Abs looked shocked. "Sheesh, I thought you were gonna be ready for a date."
Her brother's voice flittered across her mind. Don't be so picky and learn how to compromise. Seriously? Was holding out for someone who didn't treat her like a waitress being picky? What was she supposed to compromise on? Her standards, her self-worth? Was she supposed to learn to just lie down and take disrespect? Or was she supposed to be so grateful that he didn't treat her like a sex doll that she happily did everything else for him?
The funny thing was, Adrian had once gotten into a fistfight with Mr. Abs over the way he treated Amelia. But he seemed to have forgotten about it. Or maybe he decided he had overreacted.
"Maybe you can go to the store and pick some up."
"I joined AA," Amelia sarcastically replied.
Mr. Abs stared at her. "You don't have to drink it."
This had been a bad idea. A terrible idea – quite possibly the worst idea she had ever had.
No, the worst idea I ever had was leaving the packlands before I actually talked to Xavier and Timothy about what Lucinda told me. I'm an idiot.
More of an idiot than Mr. Abs.
"Babe, quick, make me a sandwich."
Okay, maybe not quite.
"You have half a pizza right there."
"I gotta have a sandwich at halftime or my team will lose! Now make me one! I got fifty bucks riding on this, do you want me to help pay for the pizza or not?"
Grinning, Amelia got to her feet. She wasn't angry at Mr. Abs. No, she was too angry at herself to bother with him. What an idiot. Well, her brother would be hearing an earful about this experience! It was a shame she hadn't thought to film the exchange… Even Adrian wouldn't be able to argue that she should keep dating Daniel with evidence like that.
He'd probably excuse it because of the game.
Amelia got the squeeze bottle of mayo out of the fridge, along with a slice of processed cheese, salami, and a handful of lettuce. She grabbed the bread on her way back to the living room. She would make a sandwich all right…
Mr. Abs didn't even notice that she had come back in – until she slapped the cheese and salami to his cheeks, squeezed half the bottle of mayo over his head and stuck the bread to it.
"There." She smiled as she admired her work. "You're a sandwich."
***
It took a while for Amelia to get Mr. Abs to understand that she had made him a sandwich, just like he asked. He then took all the pizza and left, as though he was actually doing something that would bother her. She would have just thrown it out anyway. He'd put sardines on the pizza.
Sardines.
After she had reclaimed her home, Amelia took a moment to tidy it up, more as an excuse to delay calling the Alphas than anything else. After the way she ran away and then refused to take their calls for two days, she wouldn't be surprised if they didn't want to talk to her again. After all, Alphas couldn't have a mate that believed everything she heard! And didn't Timothy say he wanted someone he could talk to? Instead, she ran. How was she ever going to apologize?
Eventually, she grabbed her cellphone and called him. Communication was important to him, so reaching out to him first seemed like the best idea. He answered quickly, but his voice was cautious. Amelia bit her lower lip.
It's not too late. One freak-out isn't the end of the world.
"I'm sorry," she said, even before hello. "I'm sorry that I left the way I did, and I'm sorry for not calling. Is Xavier with you?"
"No," Timothy replied. He was panting, as though he had been working out. Well, with his physique, of course, he had to work out. "He's in a meeting. Why did you leave, Amelia? Why…? Did we scare you off?"
If what Lucinda said was true, wouldn't she have told them that she revealed their secret? Already, Amelia knew it wasn't true. She could have kicked herself. "No. It's not that. I'm just an idiot. Somebody said…"
Timothy's voice turned soft. "What did they say? Who was it? What happened?"
"I don't want to talk about it over the phone. Can we meet tomorrow? I'll drive out to the packlands, if that's okay. I just… I just really need to talk with you."
Timothy paused a moment. "I'm actually almost at your house. When you didn't call back, I got worried…"
Amelia flinched, but at the same time, she beamed at his concern. How could she have ever thought that the Alphas were like the other losers she dated? "No, that's fine. That's great. I'll see you soon."
After she hung up, Amelia looked around her home. It would be the first time either of the Alphas were actually inside of her house, and what seemed tidy enough for Mr. Abs suddenly looked like a disaster.
She flew around the house, trying to make everything perfect, at least on the outside. So what if that meant that books got shoved into the closet instead of going back on the shelf, or if she pulled her couch over a pile of pizza crumbs instead of bringing out the vacuum cleaner? He wasn't going to snoop through the house.
After the living room looked decent enough to welcome Timothy in, Amelia turned her attention to getting herself ready. She had gone for comfortable and cozy for her date with Mr. Abs, wearing a nice-looking T-shirt and a pair of jeans that weren't awful but didn't really help her figure, either. Dashing to her room, she yanked out a pair of shorts with the image of a unicorn bedazzled across the butt and a V-neck tank top that showed off so much cleavage that it had been banned from her brother's house.
She was just swiping on some lip-gloss when the doorbell rang. Holding her breath with nervousness, Amelia rushed to answer it. Maybe she should have worn something that wasn't so sexy. She didn't want Timothy to think she was trying to seduce him into forgiving her. And what if he wanted to go for a walk?
But when she opened the door, she didn't find her Alpha.
It was Mr. Abs.
"Daniel, what are you doing?" she snapped at him, her hand instantly rising to cover her cleavage.
He looked her up and down with a gleam in his eye – one she didn't like. "I understand why you were so upset with me, babe."
"Because you're an asshole wh
o won't stop calling me babe?"
"Nah, it's because you were feeling like I was neglecting you… but don't worry, I'm here to make it all better."
He grabbed her and kissed her full on the mouth with his stinky, disgusting sardine breath.
***
Timothy wasn't lying when she said that he was almost at her house. But it wasn't exactly like he had been driving. He hadn't intended to go anywhere near Amelia's house when he took his usual afternoon run to clear his head. Somewhere in the woods he had decided to see if he was correct when he supposed that, despite the drive from the packlands to her town taking two hours by car, it would actually only be an hour if he went straight through the forest rather than twisting and turning with the road.
He'd been fifteen minutes away when he got Amelia's call. His heart had leapt and for a moment all he wanted to do was run to her and pull her into his arms, kissing away whatever fears she had. It had taken some strength to answer the phone first.
Yet, he had decided to take it slow. He wasn't going to assume that she was going to ask for them to take her back. Still, he hadn't been able to suppress his hope and kept thinking about what Amelia might say to him when he arrived at her place. Nor could he stop the daydreams about how overwhelmed she was by the strong sense that she belonged with the pack.
So, when he emerged from the trees dressed in the simple sweats he had brought with him on his run, the sight that met him tore his heart out.
Amelia stood on her front porch. Her back was against the wall, and she wore skimpy, sexy clothing. And a man was with her, body to body, gripping her hands as he kissed her. The passion in their kiss was evident, even from this distance.
So that was the truth of why she left. Amelia had somebody else. She had strung him and Xavier along, all the while knowing that they had no future together. What was her game? Was she trying to get money from them? A snarl tore out of him and he stalked forward–he was not going to be used in such a way!