The Alpha's Mail Order Mate: A Paranormal Shifter Romance

by Jade White

  Night sighed, knowing she would persist. “Before I tell you, I must make certain you understand that nothing Julian had to say, has to do with how I feel about you. I want you to know my attraction existed well before Boris told me what I’m about to have him tell you now.”

  “You want me to tell her, then?” Boris clarified.

  “It might be better, coming from you,” Night said.

  “Chastity, I know that you’ve always suspected Julian intended to use you as breeding stock,” Boris said dryly. “Well, I guess he’s selected the other party at last.”

  “What, just like that?” she asked quietly. “Why? There must be something more to this.”

  “Julian has never allowed me to tell you any of this before, but now that it’s time. I feel it best if you understand the entire situation,” said Boris. “Both of you, in fact, since Night also needs to be told. You see, many years ago Julian got it into his head that we werewolves needed to improve if we were to survive into the future, and he decided to try to create a super-wolf.

  Well, Night, what you don’t know, is that you were one of the first attempts. Your mother only told you you’d come to Julian at a young age because she didn’t want you to know what you really were. And you, Chastity, you are an improvement on that experiment. Julian believes that mating the two of you may create the wolf we’ve all been hoping for.”

  “And so he sent me here to—to have sex with a total stranger in order to make a baby with him?” she stammered, incredulous.

  “Yes, my dear, I’m afraid that’s the real reason that you’re here,” Boris admitted. “But it’s not as bad as it sounds, you know. Night seems to be a pretty straight-up kind of a guy, and he thinks you’re the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen. I can tell by the way he watches you. The two of you might actually enjoy being the parents of the next generation.”

  “And what if I say no?”

  “If you say no, you will crush the dreams and plans of the man who raised you, and who has been working for the betterment of our people for over two hundred years now,” Boris pointed out. “Is that really something that you could live with?”

  “Chastity, sweetheart, Julian means as much to me as he does to you,” Night pointed out. “Besides, you know that we’re trying to build a whole new colony out here. You might as well contribute to it if you’re hoping to stay.”

  “Why do you think I hope to stay?” she asked stubbornly.

  “Well, I don’t think it’d be worthwhile to build you a house if you’re not even going to be here to live in it, do you?” Night asked with a grin. “Unless you want to keep living in this shack while we’re trying to raise our kids.”

  “Our kids,” she gasped, blushing again.

  “Yeah, sweetheart, you don’t think one baby is going to fit the bill, do you?”

  “I suppose not, huh?” she whispered, blushing even more. Night slid his hand under her chin again, tilting her face up so he could see her eyes. He kissed one, and then the other, and then gave her a small kiss on her lips for good measure.

  “Then it’s settled,” said Boris briskly. “I’ll begin supplementing your food right away. All things considered, I may need to move out of here and find a bunk with the men. You two aren’t going to need a third party kicking around while you’re trying to tend to business such as this.”

  Chastity was so flustered that she almost burned the porridge. She turned and took it off the stove without looking at either of them. “I guess I should dish this up then, hadn’t I?” she said. “I still intend to teach my class today. I wouldn’t feel right if the only job I did around here was—well, you know.”

  Night grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Pretty soon, you’re going to know, too.”

  *

  Chastity was feeling a bit nervous as she followed Night out to the main tent. He found her a little corner within the large enclosure and set up a small table for her and her students to sit at as they talked. When he turned to go, he gave her shoulder a little squeeze. “I’ll send you five the first time till we see how it goes, okay?”

  “Sure,” she agreed softly.

  Night’s touch did queer things to her insides, and this fact made her even more nervous than before. She wondered if her reaction was stronger simply because she was well aware of what they were likely to be doing later, or if his touch would have unsettled her this much even without that knowledge. She tried to remember how Night had made her feel beforehand, but she just couldn’t stop focusing on upcoming events.

  What would it be like to have that beautiful, hardened cock she’d seen in the cave, deep inside her, making a baby? What would it be like to give herself to Night completely? She felt giddiness well up inside of her that she couldn’t seem to squash with logic or reason. Nothing she did to quell her thoughts on the matter seemed to help. Obviously, she liked the idea very much.

  Four men and a woman all showed up about fifteen minutes later. Chastity recognized the woman named Tess as the mother of the only two children who lived in their pack. She was wife to one of the wolf-born males who had come with Night when they came to the town. The two smiled in greeting as the four men settled into chairs around the table.

  “So, do you know a whole lot about midwifing?” she asked conspiratorially. “I may have need of that service in about six months.”

  Smirking, Chastity replied, “If Night gets his way, I’ll end up needing one sometime as well.”

  Laughing, the woman said, “Well, I was beginning to wonder if that sort of thing didn’t interest him at all. None of the four women here seems to have struck his fancy. Did he actually try anything with you yet?”

  “This topic should probably wait for later, Tess,” Chastity reminded her as the men glanced over at the two of them expectantly. “Come and see me around dinner time, assuming Night hasn’t got me set possessively on his knee or some such nonsense. Men are weird that way.”

  “Yes, I agree,” she chuckled. “John did something like that with me.”

  “Night’s the Alpha,” said Chastity with a sigh. “My Alpha, Julian, apparently sent me out here to be his mate, and I’ve only just found out about it. You just know that now it’s all decided that he’s going to make sure every man here knows it.”

  “Then you had no choice in the matter?” Tess gasped. “That’s barbaric.”

  “There are many reasons, but now is not the time to discuss them,” Chastity insisted. “I’ve got a class to teach, and these men don’t need to hear anything about this from me.”

  Nodding her agreement, Tess strode over to the table along with Chastity and took a seat by her side. The group spent about an hour discussing how to care for wounds during regeneration, how to deal with substances toxic to werewolves, and what to do in instances of blood loss, such as when limbs were first hacked off or during a particularly violent birthing.

  That last topic made Chastity more nervous than ever. Was she really about to purposely attempt to create babies with a man she didn’t even know? What if they ended up not liking each other? What if once they had sex it was terrible and she was forced to keep repeating the distasteful act numerous other times anyway? The whole thing smacked of disaster, didn’t it?

  But then she thought about everything that might go right as well. Night was handsome, intelligent, and a good kisser. That much she already knew. So unless he was secretly harboring traits that she had not yet discovered, what was there about him that was not to like? So far, she liked him very much.

  Chastity spent hours discussing werewolf first aid to various groups of men. Tess elected to remain with her for the greater part of the day so the two could exchange bits of gossip during the breaks.

  The men gathered at the little table. The last group was the liveliest, and it was this one that Night decided to join.

  “The hunters should be back soon with whatever they managed to catch for the evening,” he told her as he sat in the chair she had formerly been usin
g.

  “Is that how you treat a lady?" she admonished him. The stern effect was completely lost behind the desire to devour his lips with hers. She had been thinking about it all day long, and his sudden presence did nothing but make her wanton thoughts increase in their intensity.

  Tess smirked as she looked between the two and noticed that she and the men were now completely forgotten. Night and Chastity stared at each other until her blatant chuckle snapped them out of it

  “There’s plenty of room on this chair for the right lady," he replied with a grin.

  “So I was right, then,” said Chastity to her new friend. “Started in already.”

  “I don’t think I will bother to ask what that is,” Night commented, smirking in Tess’s direction. “There’s absolutely no way two women sat together all day long without this morning’s events being recounted and thoroughly analyzed.”

  “It so happens that Tess may be having a baby,” Chastity said “We may very well have been talking about that, instead of the rather sudden change of my plans.”

  “Liar,” he chuckled. “Unless you were talking about your babies growing up together, that I might believe, but not that you said nothing to her at all.”

  "Not as much as you seem to believe I have,” Chastity said. “I only said that Julian has sent me to be your mate, and nothing more than that.”

  "Very well, and I suppose I simply added a bit more grist for the gossip.”

  “My Lord, I will never presume to spread such news," Tess scoffed. “That is for the two of you reveal as you will.”

  “Well, get ready, ladies, because it is about to be made clear,” Night smirked as he reached out and pulled Chastity down onto his lap.

  “Night!” she gasped as the men who had been waiting for class laughed. “How seriously do you think this lot is likely to take the teacher if she’s sitting on your lap?"

  Night cast the men a stern look as he said, "They had better take it just as seriously as they take me."

  "Don’t you have some lordly thing or other you ought to be doing?" she complained as she tried not to laugh.

  “This is a lordly thing,” he chuckled. “I’m staking my claim. What could be lordlier than that? It’s not every day a lord chooses his lady.”

  "There is some truth is that, I suppose," she conceded. “Still, I think I might be better able to teach standing on my own two feet."

  “Your wish is my command,” he agreed, letting her up.

  “Thank you, my Lord," she said with relief.

  *

  Chastity still had a bit of pink in her cheeks as she began speaking to the men who had just witnessed the exchange between their lord and the newest girl in town. She imagined that since she wasn’t going anywhere, they would become used to her over time, but that didn’t make her feel better about the teasing light they had in their eyes now. At least none of them seemed to be interested in challenging Night over it. She didn’t think she would be well pleased if they did.

  Once again, she demonstrated the poultices and techniques for speeding up healing time for a werewolf injury. This time, there were seven men, including Night, and Tess. Having sat through the other classes, Tess proved to be invaluable during this one, once she realized just how frazzled Chastity had become when Night had teased her.

  “Yes, the most important thing, as I’ve heard Miss Chastity tell the others, is to keep your wound covered up,” she commented at one point. “We won’t die from infection, but that doesn’t mean that bacteria doesn’t slow down the healing process to some extent.”

  “That’s right, Tess,” said Chastity with a smile. “And of course, that becomes even more important when you are trying to regrow a limb. Thankfully, the process would be much quicker for me as a wolf-born, but I’m certain it would still hurt a bit along the way. I’d just as soon not find out, personally.”

  “Well, let us hope there’s never an occasion for losing limbs out in the middle of a huge forest,” Night commented dryly. “The only limbs I want to see anyone lose out here are some of the lower branches when we start building the tree houses.”

  “Yes, I quite agree,” Chastity said. “Now, one of the things we’ll probably see a lot more of once Julian sends more wolves our way is going to be childbirth. Of course, it’s not something you men should need to concern yourselves with as yet, so for the most part I think we’ve covered everything we needed to at this point.”

  “Julian is sending other wolves?” inquired Amos Little, with a shrewd gaze.

  “Oh, I don’t know if he is, but it was a possibility,” Night replied. “I think we could definitely use some new blood around here. I don’t know if you noticed, but there’s a decided lack of females.”

  “You seem to have found one, my Lord,” he replied.

  “So I have,” said Night with a smile. “And I intend to enjoy that fact very much.”

  Chastity blushed when Night reached out and gave her hand a little squeeze.

  “Well, anyway, I suppose you all may go now,” she said. “Since Night has told me the hunters should arrive soon.”

  Even as the class broke up, the hunters arrived. Chastity willingly joined Tess in dividing up the meat. The only thing she disliked about this was the fact that she had blood all over her hands, but did not know where she was meant to go to wash up. Tess solved the dilemma by ladling some water into a bucket and motioning for her to use it. Chastity did so, with a grateful nod.

  She wasn’t sure if Night expected her to eat with him tonight, since he’d so easily allowed her to join the women the previous evening. When he made no gesture at her following Tess over to sit with her children and two other women, she assumed he was not going to press the issue. However, before everyone was allowed to begin, Night stood up and looked over at her.

  “Chastity? I believe your place should be at my side.”

  Chastity willingly brought her food and joined him at the head of the table. All eyes were upon her now, and she was aware of exactly what Night had chosen to do. By claiming her so openly, he made it clear to the entire pack that she was now his. If she had thought her cheeks were flaming before, they could in no way compare to how hotly they were flaming now.

  She couldn’t help but be struck by how similar the activity around her was, to what it must have been in a medieval great hall, except of course for the sad lack of women, children and servants that probably would have been present. The men were all recounting tales of their days and the exploits they’d gotten up to, while the lord himself took thrilling little liberties with his lady beneath the cover of the table.

  For Night was most definitely doing that. He began by sliding a possessive hand along the side of her thigh, up and down, tantalizing her while they each tore at their serving of raw meat. Being the lord, Night had been given the best cuts, and he had dutifully fed her the best from among them. Boris gave the two of them each a flagon of wine and told them to drink it all. The only indicator that it was different from any of the other wine was it had been doctor who delivered it.

  “It won’t taste bad?” asked Night uncertainly.

  “It shouldn’t,” he replied, and then he was gone.

  Chastity was already sipping at her drink, hoping to calm her nerves with the alcohol. Night smirked as he watched her take a couple of gulps.

  “What’s so funny?” she wanted to know.

  “Boris said that stuff could have possible aphrodisiac qualities,” he replied. “I just wondered if you already knew about that before you drank it so fast.”

  Chastity’s eyes went wide, and her cheeks got hotter than ever. “No, I didn’t know.”

  “Well, considering my intentions for the evening and your virginal state, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt if the stuff took it up a notch,” he teased her. “It’s amazing how much less nervous one can become when they are thoroughly aroused.”

  “Night!” Chastity gasped. “How long does it take to kick in? I hope I don’t turn into a rav
ing sex fiend in front of all these men.”

  “I don’t know about you, but I think mine is in full force already,” he whispered into her ear. “Unless, of course, my current state is completely due to being so enjoyably close to you.”

  “Well, either you’re having the same effect on me, or this stuff is already kicking in,” Chastity whispered in his ear before she kissed it.

  “Mm, this may complicate our escape,” Night chuckled. “Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to decide to celebrate our union with music and dance?”

  “You didn’t?” Chastity gasped. “Where are you going to get the music?”

  “Some of them can sing a little,” he grimaced. “But only just a little.”

  “Damn,” Chastity grumbled. “Damn, damn, damn.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Chastity and Night had tried very hard to remain and socialize with the pack, but dinner was barely over before each of them realized how impossible that was going to be. For one thing, it was much more difficult for a man to hide his aroused state than it was a woman, so there was no way Night could decently remain once he began to feel the full effects. For another, Chastity was feeling so hot and wet by then that she was surprised she hadn’t melted into a puddle on the floor.

  It wasn’t difficult to escape, since it was so very obvious where they wanted to be, and they had simply linked arms and bid everyone good night. They walked away to the sounds of ribald laughter and a few suggestions that left Chastity’s ears burning.

  However, Night was not at all right about arousal reducing the amount of nerves she had as he opened the door. She had little time to think on it, though, because as soon as she was inside Night slammed that door shut on the world beyond it and deftly pulled her straight into his arms. He kissed her, long and deep, savoring her tongue with his.

  Their breaths came in short little gasps as Night lifted Chastity up into his arms and bodily carried her right into his bedroom. There, they stopped only long enough to shed their clothes. Chastity didn’t even think of covering herself for the sake of modesty, or any other maidenly device for that matter. She was a straightforward girl, and as far as she could tell, sex was a pretty straightforward thing. There would be no need to hide when he would shortly be exploring every part of her anyway.