Clayton walked forward and took Jo in his arms. His lips met hers. He could taste the salty tears in her mouth, then kissed her eyes and cheeks. Her body felt perfect in his arms. She belonged with him.
Jo smiled, “Let’s go home.”
Home. She’d called his house home. He’d never heard anything so good in his life.
Three months later Clayton was standing by the door of his house.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” He looked nervously at the luggage being taken out of the house and into the waiting car. He’d hired a driver to take them to the airport and given Lincoln a long holiday so he could visit his family in London.
When Lincoln arrived in London there would be another surprise. Clayton had rented out an airplane and a private island for all of the many cousins, aunts, uncles, children, grandchildren, brothers and sisters that could be found in Lincoln’s family. If Lincoln was anything like Clayton then he would come back to Montana thankfully for some peace and quiet.
“Do you have your passport?” Jo put her last bag down with the others.
Clayton held up his passport.
“Good, that’s the most important thing,” she exhaled loudly.
“Aren’t you going to tell me where we’re going?” Clayton had been given a packing list of clothes and no other indication of where they were off to.
“Nope, you’ll see when we get there,” Jo clapped her hands like it was all a very fun game.
“But what if I hate it?” Clayton hadn’t left his Montana home since he’d graduated and now he was feeling more than a little trepidation.
“You won’t,” Jo kissed him on the mouth.
“But what if I do?” Clayton followed Jo out of the house with the last of the bags.
“Then you can bask in the knowledge that we will be coming back,” Jo double checked the locked door and looked up at the house. She breathed in the fresh air and smiled, “Back to our home.”
*****
THE END
Paranormal Shifter Romance
Alpha’s Awakening
Description
What if her fated mate was a banished Prince who sworn off love? And what if he didn't belong among the pack?
Gorgeous Olivia has always been restless and needing to break away from the pack life. She sees her chance when she goes away for school but is quickly brought back by the sexy new member when the danger of poachers draws near.
Dominic, a reckless prince too rebellious for the crown, is scorned when his twin brother is chosen over him to succeed their father. Dominic's revenge proves to be too much for the King to handle and Dominic is sent away to a protection pack outside of the kingdom.
The only thing that can make it worse is when the pack Alpha— who happens to be Olivia's father, Atticus, commands Dominic to watch over Olivia until they can ensure their safety. But once the two are alone, the heat between them becomes more intense than the danger outside.
Can sexy Dominic settle down, and leave the mistakes of the past behind him? Can Olivia finally find her place in life with the pack? And can they survive it all among the dangers of the lurking poachers?
Chapter One
Dominic
A log in the fireplace shifted, falling into burning clumps of embers as Dominic put a fresh log on the fire. He rubbed his hands together in an attempt to keep warm. How far he’d fallen, he’d thought, from his place in a warm and dazzling castle in the mountains, to a small, damp log cabin in the woods.
A scowl sat on Dominic’s face as he watched the flames lick at the new log, charring it, burning it like it had the others. He still couldn’t believe that his parents had decided to side with his older brother and kick Dominic out of the castle. His twin brother, Ronald, was always getting everything he whined about simply because he was the favorite and recently named the next in line to take the throne and become King once their father’s reign was over. Dominic was a prince too though, and in his own opinion a better one, and his parents should have been more understanding of what had taken place.
After all, it hadn’t been his fault that Cherise, Ronald’s betrothed woman of the pack, had wanted a tryst with Dominic. He was stronger, bigger, more enticing, than his bland brother, and most girls had chosen Dominic’s brawn over Ronald’s meekness. It had been that way since they were kids.
A dripping sound came from Dominic’s little kitchen, the rain seeping in through the roof and leaking down to leave wet splatters on the floor. He rolled his eyes at his destitute situation. Even the view from his window was bleak with dark mud and wet trees out in the woods instead of the lush greenery and houses that dotted the inside of the kingdom.
But after his “inappropriate transgression,” as his father had labeled it, Dominic had been sent away to live with a pack that was just on the outskirts of the kingdom in the dense woods.
“Your strength will be more useful there, protecting the kingdom, than it is here acting as prince.” That’s what his father had told him the day he had sent him away.
Dominic supposed it was true, that his large stature and ripping muscles were better used protecting the kingdom from the mass killings that had been taking place on packs throughout the country than sitting in some fancy kingdom listening to policies and rules. Out in the woods he was allowed to live in more solitude, acting as a lone wolf.
Of course, the pack that he was sent to had called on him from time to time to help with things, but for the most part, Dominic was spending his time as he pleased. Though he was missing the female attention he used to get from living in the kingdom, out in the woods he wasn’t getting much action.
A knock sounded from the front door and Dominic glanced out the window, surprised to have a visitor. But with the blackness of the night, he couldn’t see anything outside.
“Come in,” he called to the visitor.
The wooden door to the small cabin opened and from out of the rain stepped Atticus, the pack Alpha. Closing the door behind him, he shook the rain from his coat, sending more droplets of water flying in his already damp home.
“Atticus, this is a surprise. Is something wrong?”
It was rare for the older Alpha to make a house call to anyone, unless it was absolutely necessary. Like most Alphas, anyone else in the pack was supposed to go to him when called, but Atticus rarely went to anyone himself.
“There’s been another attack,” he told Dominic without hesitation.
Quickly, Dominic stood from his stool by the fireplace and pulled up another one, gesturing for Atticus to have a seat and warm himself while he filled him in on the details.
“Where?” he asked the older man.
“Not far from here actually. Which means that they’re getting closer to the kingdom.”
Dominic felt his chest puff out. “When they get here, I’ll be ready for the fight,” he assured him. After all, it wasn’t just his brute strength but also his knack for wining a brawl that had made his parents decide that he should be protecting the kingdom instead of living in it.
Well, his ability to protect as well as his affinity for getting himself in trouble was what had gotten him sent to the outskirts of the kingdom.
Atticus nodded at him, he knew that Dominic would be ready when the time came. And it was certain that the time would come.
“It was a horrible attack, wiped out much of the pack.” The man shook his head sadly. “Whoever is doing this— these night time attacks— is taking too many of our lives. No one is safe.”
He may not feel like a prince anymore, but Dominic still took pride in his kingdom, it was still home, and the people that lived in it were part of that home. He was going to do whatever he could to keep them safe.
“I’ll start keeping guard at night,” he told Atticus. “I’ll be ready.”
Atticus nodded at the boy’s offer. “Your fighting skills are legendary, there is no doubt about that. But I need you to do something before it is too late.”
“What do y
ou need me to do?”
“No one from any pack is safe, even if they are no longer living among other shifters. In fact, I fear that there are more dangers for those living alone without the safety of a pack. My daughter is away at college, alone, without any members there. I need to ask you to go and get her and bring her to the safety of us. That’s the only way I can be sure that she is ok.”
“Why can’t someone else go? Someone who knows her?”
“Patrick and Ernest would be the other two that I would trust implicitly to go and get her, but you’re the fastest and I want her back here right away.”
It wasn’t exactly the heroic act Dominic was hoping he was going to be assigned; but Atticus was the Alpha and it was his decision what role Dominic was to play in the pack. A shunned prince was little match for an Alpha, and even less of a match for an Alpha as notorious as Atticus. There was a reason Atticus’ pack lived at the outer edge of the kingdom. They were the silent protectors, the brooders, the fighters, the ones who kept the people of the kingdom safe. Dominic fits right in, but still he knew that he was the strongest of them, though young with a lot to learn, all and had been hoping for a bigger task.
“Where is she?” Dominic asked. Hopefully it was close by so he could go get the girl and come back.
“She’s just through the woods— away at school. On foot it should take you a matter of hours to get her and bring her home.”
Dominic nodded at the command. Shifting and racing through the woods would at least give him a chance to stretch his legs. Of course, he didn’t know why the girl just didn’t shift and come home herself, the danger hadn’t yet reached the inside of the kingdom so she’d be safe alone for the time being. But it didn’t matter, he was happy to have something to do rather than sit in the cabin waiting for trouble to strike.
“I’ll leave in the morning.”
“Good, then I’ll expect her home by dinner time.”
Atticus slowly stood from the stool, the age beginning to show in his movements, and walked toward the door.
His grasp was on the door knob before he turned back to Dominic. “Just one more thing, my daughter…she’s not like other women in the pack—or in most packs for that matter.”
“Why’s that?”
“She has a tendency to be a bit stubborn and resentful at her life in the pack. She was the one who chose to go away from us all and attend school further in the reaches of the kingdom.”
Atticus took out a pink scarf from his pocket and threw it towards Dominic. It floated toward him and he caught the silky material in his hands, getting a strong waft of the scent of Atticus’ daughter. She smelled sweet, like vanilla and roses, and something about how intoxicating the mix was made Dominic momentarily dizzy.
“It’ll be easier to find her if you follow her scent,” Atticus told him.
Suddenly feeling at a loss for words, Dominic just nodded. With a scent like hers, Dominic was sure he’d be able to find her immediately. Atticus stepped out of the cabin and into the night and Dominic threw another log onto the fire to keep the home warm. He laid down on the couch and let himself drift off, the cabin feeling suddenly a bit warmer than it had before.
Chapter Two
Olivia
Olivia’s phone began to buzz on her dorm’s nightstand first thing in the morning. Half asleep, she swatted at it unsuccessfully, attempting to stop the noise and continue her warm slumber. There was a reason she had picked all afternoon and night classes, morning was not her favorite.
Instead of stopping the incessant noise of the phone, she knocked it on the floor where it began to buzz beneath her. Maybe it would stop on its own, she hoped silently, but to no avail. Once the ringing stopped and the call went to voicemail, it promptly began to ring again.
With a grumble she finally cracked open an eye and ran her hand along the floor to scoop up her phone, knowing that there was only one person in the world that would call her that many times in a row.
“Daddy, hi,” she greeted with a hoarse, sleepy voice.
“Why didn’t you answer? Are you ok?”
Olivia looked at her nightstand and saw the time, surprised even for him at how early it was. Atticus loved to be an early riser, but this seemed strange. Especially since he knew his daughter well enough to know that she was not a morning person.
“I’m fine, I was asleep. Why are you calling so early, is everything ok?”
“Have you been checking in with the news?”
Despite her desire to break away from pack life and hope to live a normal, human life, she had been checking the news updates from their networks while she’d been away at school. At first it had been freeing to avoid it all and live surrounded by people who had no idea that she was the daughter of an Alpha and came from a line of wolf shifters, but once Atticus had started texting her about the other packs who had been harmed, she stopped avoiding it.
It wasn’t as if she went out on the roof of her dorm and announced it to the world, even her suitemate didn’t know the truth about who Olivia really was, but she did start paying attention again. After all, her pack was her family.
“I saw that there was an attack a few weeks ago,” she admitted. Packs had their own way of getting news to each other, private channels and online pages that you’d only find if you knew what you were looking for.
“There’s been another one, just two nights ago,” he told her gravely.
Olivia bit her lip nervously. “Was it bad?” She asked.
Atticus was silent for a moment before he answered her. “Yes, it was very bad. The pack was surprised by the attack, many lives were lost.”
The news made her sick to her stomach. What if that happened to her pack? Not much was known about who was doing this to the wolves, at least, not that she had read.
“I’m sorry, Daddy. Is everything ok there?”
“You’re coming home.” It was a demand, not a question.
“What do you mean ‘I’m coming home’?”
Surely, she couldn’t have heard him correctly, he wasn’t going to pull her from school and make her go back to the pack, was he? She’d only been gone for a few months and while she missed them all, she absolutely wasn’t ready to go home yet.
“This isn’t up for discussion. Until we learn more about what is happening and can stop the attacks, you will be living at home.”
“You can’t be serious! What about school?” she argued, her voice becoming rather whinny, like a child’s.
“I have already sent someone for you. Pack only what you need, he’s coming on foot.”
There was no use arguing with him, Atticus always got what he wanted.
“And which member from the pack did you send?” hoping at least for a pleasant ride back home.
“You haven’t met him yet.”
How would that even be possible? A pack wasn’t just like a club you could join. It was something you were born into, it was an innate demand of your soul rather than a choice. She had grown up with the members of her pack. Her whole life back home in their small town had revolved around Atticus’ position in the pack, so how was it possible there was someone she hadn’t met?
“I’m sure you’ll know it’s him when you see him. I’ll see you when you get here. Be careful,” he instructed. The discussion was over, Olivia knew she never had a chance of changing his mind. Once Atticus decided something, then there is no persuading him. Olivia couldn’t remember a time in recent memory where her dad had changed his mind based off of someone else’s’ argument.
There was only one person in the world who had been able to do that. Her mother. But her mother had been gone for years and Olivia had never seen anyone else ever hold any power over Atticus again.
She sighed, frustrated that she was leaving and even more frustrated that there was nothing she could do about it. Part of the reason she had needed to get away from home was because she was tired of living under someone else’s’ thumb. Ever since her mother’s death, she
had spent every moment being watched like a hawk. Space and freedom was something she craved, and it was something she’d never be able to get being so close to her pack’s watchful stares.
“I love you, Daddy.” she told him before she hung up the phone.
The phone clattered back to the floor while she yanked her blankets back over her head, wishing that she could go back in time and not answer the phone at all. Or better yet, that she had turned it off the night before and had not gotten the call at all. Not as if it would have mattered much, Atticus would have sent a pack member to pick her up no matter what. At least this way she had been given a warning.
But instead of falling back to sleep, the rest of the morning was spent tossing and turning in her rickety bed as she tried to understand everything that was going on. The attacks, which Olivia was distinctly aware that she knew hardly anything about, this mystery pack member, and most of all, having to leave school.
Eventually she gave up on sleep and flung the covers off of her, edginess growing inside of her. Grumpy over her situation and being woken up so early, she hastily packed a backpack, throwing in only the essentials. When traveling on the back of a wolf, it was always wise to pack light.
Even for all of her exhaustion at having her life revolve around her pack, she did have to admit there was something so majestic when a man shifted to wolf. They weren’t like rearguard wolves that one would see in the woods, they were more than that. Larger, almost like the size of a bear, with fur that was soft like a favorite warm blanket. The speed of them were almost unbelievable so races between them were always an entertaining event. They really were remarkable animals.
Still pouting, Olivia sent a quick text to her suitemate to let her know there was a family emergency and she’d be out of school for a while, and then scooped up her bag to wait downstairs. She still had some animal like abilities, senses of smell and instinct, though so far she didn’t stand out much.
He was getting close, whoever he was, Olivia could feel him, and opened the door the chilly winter air. Why couldn’t Atticus have been normal and simply sent a car instead of a wolf? The ride back would be cold, no matter how much heat his body gave off.
Tornado: A Paranormal Romance (Savage Brotherhood MC Book 1) Page 30