This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons--living or dead--is entirely coincidental.
The Wayward Alpha copyright @ 2014 by Joanna Wilson. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
The Wayward Alpha
“Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to play with your food?” I taunted the vampire in front of me.
It was nineteen degrees out and I could smell a snow storm on the breeze. The last thing I wanted to do was fight with a vampire. But then again, my job didn’t really take requests, because if it did, I’d be relaxing on a cruise to Mexico.
“You really want to die, don’t you, babe?” the vamp sneered and flashed me a wicked pair of fangs.
If I were a human, or even an omega, I might have taken the threat seriously, but this vampire had no idea who I was or even what I was capable of. Not that he’d live long enough to discover that anyway.
Who was a fledgling vampire compared to a werewolf who had been a high council knight for almost a hundred fifty years?
My job was broken down into two roles: peacekeeper and enforcer. Right now, I was the later.
“Promises, promises,” I batted my eyes at him, which gave the vamp just enough time to use his super speed to come at me… and fall right into my trap.
I was quick and efficient, shifting my fingers into claws and widening my stance. The vamp charged me with all the new powers he possessed, but as he looked into my neon orange eyes he realized his mistake. Too little, too late, sweetheart.
I swiped my claws up, slicing through skin, muscles, and ribs to his heart. The claws tightened and the organ was crushed in my palm.
“What are you?” the vamp whispered shakily as his skin began to pull back and turn grey
If I had a nickel for every time a person had asked me that question, I could have stuffed them in a bag and bludgeoned him with it. Most of the supernatural creatures I had met asked me the same question. It was in the eyes. Gold was the usual color for werewolf’s when they called on the power, but mine were orange, bright, really-hard-to-miss orange!
“Knight Jade Klein, at your service,” I pushed his corpse off me and sighed, wiping my bloody hand on my leather pants. He had been going around murdering unsuspecting college girls and had needed to be put down. But still, it was my vacation!
I whipped out my cellphone and punched in the council office number. “It’s done.” I said without preamble.
“That was quick. Easy one?” Alfred Green, the council representative asked.
“He was a new blood, so it was really easy.” I stretched out the words, making sure he knew that any knight would have sufficed in the situation. Why Green had decided to yank me off my cruise just as I’d been boarding and give me a newbie vamp disposal puzzled the hell out of me!
Maryland was bitterly cold in the winter. The wind was so sharp that it penetrated your bones. The constant rain was depressing and soured my mood considerably. “Why did you need me again?” I couldn’t help but ask as raindrops pattered on my head again, cursing quietly as my nice, soft, and straight brown hair started to curl up. I’d decided to splurge and get a Dominican blowout, mani-pedi, and a facial before the cruise. I should have known better.
Green sighed on the other end. I could practically see him rubbing his neck. “I know you’re upset, Jade—”
I cut him off, needing to vent a little. “That’s an understatement, Green. It’s been over half a century since I—”
“But it’s for the greater good and you love your job, so—”
“I was on vacation. Loving my job has nothing to do with it!”
“... You won’t be upset when I tell you the council needs you to go on another mission.” Green finished
I bit my tongue so as to not say something I’d regret.
Pressing the mute button, I swore like a sailor and ran an angry hand through my hair. Things were finally starting to make sense, not that I cared. The reason the council had wanted me wasn’t for some newbie vamp, but for something bigger, something that they needed the big guns for.
And yeah, I was the big guns.
“What’s the mission, Green?” I asked after I collected myself, knowing that I’d regret it. I loved my job, but lately It’d become my life. I’d settled into the pattern of waking up, eating breakfast, and going on missions for the council. Did I save lives, prevent wars, and serve the greater good? Yeah, but even superman had sick days.
“We need you to go to Istanbul to track down Alpha Redthorn. Seems he’s gone on some sort of revenge trip, and left his pack in crisis mode.” Green filled in and I could hear him shuffling through papers.
I ran another hand through my wet hair as I watched two black sedan’s pull out and a group of “scrubbers” hop out. Scrubbers were the people that swept up after I’d made a mess with weres, vamps, or other supernatural creatures. They made hair, fingerprints, and whatever else vanishes into thin air.
I turned away from the team and wondered what the alpha was thinking. Redthorn had just become alpha of the Vermont pack via a coup d’état. No one had batted an eye at the hostile takeover because the alpha before him had deserved everything he’d gotten.
I still remembered the first time I met the old alpha, known to everyone as Steel. For the longest time, I thought everyone said steal as a play on how he stole girl’s innocence, young wolves lives, and the only means a pack family had to survive. He’d been a sorry excuse of a man and a monster instead of a wolf.
Redthorn might have murdered the man in cold blood, but he’d also weeded out the bad seeds and helped restore the pack to its former glory. The man was a youngster compared to me, but I still held him in high esteem even if I hadn’t met him.
“I’m sure he’ll come back.” I shrugged. From what I knew about Redthorn, he’d been a pretty consistent alpha, I couldn’t believe that he’d just up and leave the pack without some kind of help. “Isn’t there a beta managing the place?” Why do I have to go get the alpha when it was well known he had two of the best betas around with him?
“There were, but both of them were poisoned.” Green growled through the phone. “They’re in custody and undergoing treatment right now. And it just so happens, Steel’s son is sniffing around in Vermont.”
I slapped my palm on my forehead. It all made sense now, and I finally understood why I’d been called. This was a high priority case. The Vermont pack wasn’t small by any stretch, and while killing an alpha and taking over his pack was okay, taking over his pack while he was away was unacceptable, and—in my opinion—the cowards way.
I tried to find the anger I’d had just a minute ago over my vacation being ruined, but it had all but vanished. No doubt Green was happy about that.
“Have you even—?” I began to say, wondering if anything had been arranged or I’d just wing it like I've done a time or two.
“Wait for it.” Green cut me off over the phone.
On cue, a black town car pulled up and one of the council drivers hopped out. I turned back to the scrubbers and the dead vamp, but the team had packed up, the scene looked spotless.
Green couldn’t have timed the entire event better even if he’d been a seer. And as far as I know, he wasn’t.
“Will wonders never cease?” I chuckled and walked over to the car, nod
ding to the driver as he held the back door open for me.
I could practically see Green’s self-satisfied smile as he answered me. “Your suitcase is in the trunk—I had Vera pack it for you. I got you a present since I’m stealing your vacation. It'll be on the plane. Your flight leaves in an hour. Ride and hotel are already booked for arrival in Istanbul.”
I crossed my legs and switched the phone to my other ear, thoroughly impressed with Green. “Got to hand it to you, Green, it's perfect.”
For some reason, knowing Green and the council had gone to such length—and working for them for over a century and a half, these were great lengths—I just couldn’t stay mad. Though offing a killer vamp might’ve also softened my mood.
“Only the best for you, pup.” Green hung up before I could chew him out. I hadn’t been a pup for a very long time, but Green had a half a century on me and he loved to flaunt it.
I shook my head and looked around the car for an envelope. I always got a manila envelope with all the information I could possibly need for whichever assignment I took, it was a precautionary method I’d worked to have enforced. But instead of an envelope I found a grey tablet in the seat back pocket with a yellow sticky note on it.
Hope this makes up for it. -G
I bit my lip and smiled like an idiot. A tablet, a present, and another chance to do some good that didn’t involve my neck being on the line? Yup, that definitely made up for everything.
*****
I was in Heaven. Well, not literally, but my body sure felt weightless as I got in the elevator.
Green hadn’t lied about the present. After one bottle of champagne and an oh-so-relaxing full body massage, he could have asked me just about anything and I would have done it.
I really couldn’t complain about anything, not even the conversation I was on my way to having with an alpha who had a revenge hard-on. No, I was as cool as a cucumber and as happy as Jell-O.
I fingered the sealed letter in my hand, turning it over again. I thought I’d have to go and lay it out for the alpha, but Green had called and told me all I need to do was deliver it, answer any additional questions, and help him with any travel and accommodations the alpha needed. Could this assignment get any easier?
I looked up as a soft burst of wind hit me and the elevator doors spread wide. “1739 here I come!” I mumbled as I walked out of the elevator and began walking down the hallway checking doors.
“1735… 1737… Ah! Lucky 39.” This was all way too easy.
I didn’t even palm one of the ceramic knives under my skirt as I knocked. “Concierge,” I announced, just in case he wasn’t fond of the council. Some alphas weren’t and I’d had to learn that the hard way.
I didn’t hear any movement or sense a presence, but then the door was suddenly yanked open. Surprised, I instantly took a step back, palm sliding down the side of my skirt where my knife was hidden.
A man who I could only assume was the alpha, stood framed in the doorway, a towel haphazardly tied around his waist, dark red hair slightly damp. The guy looked like a Viking just after a swim.
“Mr. Redthorn?” I tried my I’m-so-innocent voice knowing that the perfume I’d used cloaked my scent. No reason that the alpha needed to know I was a wolf.
“Yeah.” his voice held just a hint of a laugh and was so low it rumbled. I couldn’t help but do a quick perusal of the wolf in front of me.
The man looked like a wolf too, rocking the hairy chest, legs, and arms. Not to mention his abs looked like six little bricks under his skin, and everything on his bulged. I wasn’t into the super macho guys, but Redthorn pulled it off. If I were an Omega or a human, I would have stripped naked and thrown myself at him, but Jade Klein was made of sterner stuff.
I cleared my throat and waved the letter at him. “I have a letter for you.”
He smiled at me like he was humoring me. That smile did funny things to my insides, things that—were it another time, place, and guy—I would have acknowledged.
Redthorn stepped aside and gestured for me to enter. “Come on in. I just have to get changed and then you can give it to me—” he paused as I entered the room, and locked the door behind me. “—knight”
Oh, busted.
I didn’t even try to pretend anymore as I went and flopped on the couch in the middle of the room. “What gave me away?” I asked him over my shoulder as he disappeared into the bedroom.
“Everything.” he called out and I couldn’t help but laugh.
Maybe I’d been pampered too much on the plane and was way more relaxed then I should have been. There had still been a lot missing from Redthorn’s file, and even after I’d read the thing twice on the tablet, I was still missing a whole bunch of info. Information like where he was born, if Redthorn was his real name, and who his revenge targets were. I didn’t even know if he liked the council.
I reached under my skirt and palmed one of the knives. Better safe than sorry.
A second later Redthorn came out in a navy sweater and dark wash jeans. The outfit totally conflicted with the Viking look he had going for him. A broad sword, long beard, and chainmail would have looked a whole lot better.
“Going to stare at me all night?” Redthorn lifted a brow as he took the couch across from me and popped his bare feet up on the coffee table, nodding at the knife I hadn’t bothered to hide. “Going to use that on me, little wolf?”
I narrowed my eyes at him and leaned forward to slap the knife on the table and pass him the letter. “Not unless you provoke me. And I’m a century you’re senior, show some respect.”
The alpha had the balls to laugh at me as he took the letter and tore it open. “You might be older, but I’m bigger, stronger, and an alpha. You will always be a cute, little wolf to me.”
I decided to just hold my tongue. I couldn’t tell if the alpha was flirting with me or just insulting me, it had been a long time since I’d encountered either. I just watched him scan the letter, his expression never changing. I hadn’t read the missive, knowing that whatever was in it was for Redthorn’s eyes only, and besides, it was rude to open other people’s mail.
“They want me to come back.” he threw the envelope on the table and folded his arms behind his head.
Crossing my ankles, I nodded at him.
“And they sent you here to make sure I went back?”
Again I nodded, but this time I added a sweet smile and tilted my head. “I was given strict orders to take you back… by any means necessary.”
Redthorn didn’t as much as move a muscle at the threat. He stroked his newly shaved jaw, and regarded me curiously. “I didn’t come here for fun. I have a score that I’m very close to settling.”
I waved my hand and looked directly into his eyes. They were nice eyes too, the color of a new leaf during the first days of spring. “Revenge can always wait. Your pack needs you now.”
Redthorn shrugged. “My pack will survive a little while longer.” His eyes hardened and his jaw clenched. “My revenge can’t.”
I couldn’t help the shiver that raced up my spine at his words. Even when I’d been at my lowest, in my darkest place, my words hadn’t been that cold. Whatever these people had done to him must have been pretty bad. While I understood the need for vengeance, even supported it, there was a time and a place to deal with it, and it wasn’t now.
I decided that stroking his ego might be best. “I understand the desire, Alpha Redthorn.” I leaned forward and dropped my voice to a sultry purr. “But your pack needs you. Your betas need you. I need you.”
If working for the council had taught me anything, it was to use every weapon in your arsenal. While I knew I could probably hold my own with the other wolf, he was still an alpha and—like he’d said—was bigger and stronger than me. Speed and accuracy might be on my side, but the barely leashed power running under the alpha’s skin was more than I could handle. And I knew it.
So, female wiles it was.
Redthorn moved his feet off th
e table and dropped his elbows onto his thighs as he leaned closer to me. “Is that how you plan to incentivize me, little wolf? I won’t refuse you if it is.”
Sex in exchange for an alpha going back and taking care of his pack, I could do a lot worse. While the thought of pimping myself out for any reason, even the greater good, made my skin crawl, tumbling into bed with Redthorn had the opposite effect.
As much as I hated to admit it, indulging in a night of hot, steamy sex with the big Viking wolf did have its appeal. So much appeal that I was seriously considering doing it.
“Will you come back with me?” I asked, needing to know what I was about to do wouldn’t be for nothing.
“Are you seriously considering having sex with me?” he asked me curiously, and I blinked back in surprise.
The Wayward Alpha (Paranormal Werewolf Shifter Romance) Page 1