by Jade White
THE ALPHA'S
RELUCTANT MATE
AN EPIC PARANORMAL ROMANCE
JADE WHITE
Copyright ©2017 by Jade White
All rights reserved.
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About This Book
Gerda's wolf pack were facing the biggest possible threat to their survival.
The only way to survive was for her pack to combine with a rival pack and fight the threat together.
And to make this happen Gerda was slated to be the mate of the rival pack's Alpha.
However, Gerda hated the Alpha and everything about his pack. She was going to find it very hard to be with him and if she couldn't please him then the worst fate possible awaited her.
DEATH.
Could Gerda succeed in giving the Alpha what he wanted? Or could there be a better solution to her predicament?
This is a werewolf romance that will definitely appeal to fans of “Game Of Thrones” and Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance in general. Download now and start enjoying this epic novel!
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER ONE
The Land of Andoullin was a primitive land with three nascent countries on the largest continent. Since the people were still primitive, they had no names for the direction they were located in relation to each other, and in each country, lived primitive nomadic peoples who could change between humanoid and animal shapes, at will.
To the mountainous, arctic north and the temperate east, the Wolf Packs waged an endless war among each other. This is where our story begins.
***
The battle raged around Geri Fenrison as he loped down the hill towards the thickest part of the fight. What started this war between the Eastern Wolf Pack and the Northern Wolf Pack, nobody knew. All he knew was that his father was killed during one of these senseless battles. He was tired of fighting; he just wanted this constant war to end. Too many senseless deaths over the years had decimated both Packs of proper breeding stock and they were nearing extinction.
His long, pink tongue lolled out of his mouth as he surveyed the battlefield. Two warriors had their jaws locked around each other’s grey ruffs. The Eastern Pack had sent scouts and stole sheep from them this time, and in this time of famine, that was unforgivable. He had to look out for his Pack and since the wasting sickness had taken most of their flocks, any losses taken would hurt come wintertime, and fall was almost over.
Geri looked at the sparse branches of the oak trees that dotted the battlefield and shuddered at the thought of going another winter without adequate food for the pack. How many more will perish? he thought. Those who robbed them must pay, and from the looks of things, they were paying dearly.
Furti had one of the Eastern wolves on his back, jaw clamped firmly around the other wolf’s throat, growling, waiting for him to submit or die. He was the only one of the Eastern Pack left on the battlefield, and once he either turned tail, or perished, the battle would be over. The interloping wolf curled his tail between his legs and began whining pitifully, tapping out of the struggle. He rose to his paws and ran back towards his pack.
The battle was won, for now, Geri thought. He started to pad away to his village with the rest of his Pack when he smelled something strange on the wind.
His ears went flat and he turned towards the source of the strange, musky sweet scent that wafted on the breeze drifting from the south, as did all the other wolves on the field. Both Northern and Eastern Packs laid their ears flat against their skulls and curled their lips as they smelled a new kind of invader into their lands.
Geri took charge like he usually did. “Wolves, I don’t like what I smell. It’s time to set aside our differences for now and join forces to drive this invader out of our lands.”
The rest of the wolves howled in unison as a rallying cry. They all knew that food was scarce and they would die to defend their pack. This scent was so alien that it frightened them at a base level. It smelled primitive, yet, cunning and highly intelligent.
“In the trees!” Geri barked as he saw a bright green flash between the dark tree trunks of the boreal forest that bordered the Northern and Eastern lands. “What are they?” he asked as he extended his nose cautiously, sniffing, but not smelling anything else other than the sweet musky scent that was permeating the area.
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a large lizard type creature with green feathers jumped on Furti and eviscerated him with its razor sharp claws.
Geri growled deep in his throat and pounced on the raptor with fangs bared. He sunk his teeth into the scaly flesh of the bright green reptile and closed his powerful jaws around the vertebrae in its neck, crushing it. The lizard fell to the ground twitching as its life ebbed from it and it transformed into a slightly built male with olive skin and black hair.
He spat out the acrid blood from his mouth as it burned his tongue. What in the nine hells is that thing? Whatever it was, we need to regroup and plot a defense. There might be more on the way, he thought to himself.
“Everyone, we need to regroup before we lose any more to these lizard beasts, there has to be more out there,” Geri commanded.
A large grey-maned wolf with only one eye loped up next to him. “Geri, I know we’ve been at odds for generations, my southern scouts have just come back and said there are more of these things coming up from the south. We need to hold a parlay and see what we can do to ward off these creatures, together.”
“Agreed, Onris. We’ll meet at the Speaking Stone in two days’ time. I’ll need time to get my pack's demands for peace.”
“Same. We need to mull over what conditions are needed for the merger of our two Packs,” Onris replied.
“Well, I do have one idea before we head to the Stone. You have a daughter. She’s a very fetching woman. Is she of age yet?” Geri had an idea brewing in his head.
“Yes, she is. Why do you ask?” Onris replied as he changed into his human form. He was tall, muscular and imposing. His silver hair and beard flowed in the breeze as he adjusted his black eye patch.
Geri shifted back into his human form as well. He raked his straw blonde hair out of his eyes and stroked his full beard thoughtfully. “Well, I was thinking, what better way to unite our two Packs again by mating your daughter?”
Onris looked at him with a puzzled look on his face. “Are you sure? She isn’t your typical female,” he said as he watched his tall, blonde daughter stride through the battlefield putting the criti
cally wounded out of their misery with her silver dagger.
“Oh, I know that. Anyway, discuss it with her. It’s about time I took a mate, and all the females in my Pack are related to me. We need fresh blood as much as you do,” Geri said as he walked away.
“You have a point,” Onris replied as he gathered up his troops and the dead and proceeded to go home. He walked up to his daughter and touched her on the shoulder to get her attention. “Gerda, we need to talk when we get back.”
“Yes, Father,” She said as she wiped her dagger on the cloak of one of the fallen warriors.
Onris wisely waited for Gerda to sheath her silver knife before proceeding. “It’s about mating with Geri, the head of the Northern Pack.”
“What? Are you insane, Father?” she shouted as she spun on her heel to face her grizzled father. Her blonde braids whipped about her face and her blue eyes gleamed furiously.
“It is the only way for our packs to make peace. There is a threat rising from the south and we need to be united to face it. I am old; Geri is young. You’re my only child. You will wed Geri and I will pass leadership of the Eastern Pack to him, uniting us."
“How dare you use me as a pawn for your political games!” she shrieked. “I will not have it. I will run away!”
“You foolish child.” Onris growled. “You have no idea what we will be up against in three weeks’ time do you?”
“No, and I don’t care. I refuse to marry that insufferable ass!” Gerda said as she stormed off.
Onris ran his hands through his thick, silver hair and sighed. “What did I do to deserve such a rebellious child?” he asked no one in particular.
“That’s what you get for mating with her mother.” His second in command sneered. There were still fresh blood marks on his skin as he walked next to his leader.
“You have nothing to say to me after turning tail like you just did, Astri,” Onris sternly chided.
“What, and risk getting my throat crushed?” the thin red-haired man said. “Look, I overheard what you were telling Gerda. Don’t give leadership to Geri, give it to me, I know the needs of this pack better than he does!”
“My word is final. You are not leadership material, and if you keep this up you’ll get demoted to Omega and be made to serve the males that have no mates,” Onris snarled.
Astri backed off and shook his head. That old fool doesn’t know what he was doing. He decided to come up with a list of impossible demands to bring to the Speaking Stone when they negotiated. It needs to be a solid, unanimous agreement for a pack merge, and if there was one dissenting voice, it couldn’t happen. He slunk off towards home to mull over his plot to gain leadership of the Eastern Pack.
Meanwhile in the Northern camp…
“So, you’re going to mate to that Eastern bitch?” his younger brother Freki snarled as Geri entered the tent, his blue eyes flashing angrily. Freki looked almost like Geri but chose to go clean shaven.
“What of it? It needs to be done,” Geri said as he sprawled out onto his bedroll. “And anyway, she’s not hard on the eyes.”
“The pack won’t have her. They won’t even listen to her or acknowledge that the union is legitimate!” Freki exclaimed.
“Look, there is a threat coming from the South and we need to be united as one to turn it away,” Geri patiently explained.
“What threat? Threat of an early thaw? That will be welcomed.” Freki sneered as he pushed his blonde hair out of his youthful face.
“I slayed one of their scouts,” Geri said softly.
“Oh really now? You slayed a wolf from the south?”
“It wasn’t a wolf. It was some sort of two legged lizard with feathers. Had one large clawed toe on each foot. It eviscerated Furti before I could even act,” Geri said sadly. “I can still taste its acrid blood in my mouth. Get me some wine.”
Freki handed him a horn filled with sweet honey wine and sighed. “So we really need to join with them?”
“Yes. It’s the only way. Onris said that his scouts down by his southern border noticed these lizards amassing their troops for an invasion. Maybe the famine hit them hard as well.
“Well, it doesn’t matter. We hardly have enough for ourselves right now, we can’t afford to share with an invading pack,” Geri explained. “Look, I’m as eager to fight as the next guy, but we need to get our heads in the game. If what Onris’s scouts say is true, there is a huge lizard army amassing at our southern border and we need to be united to stop it.”
Geri’s brother was the younger of the two, and generally the one with the hotter head as well, but even he saw the reason in this. “Our survival depends on this mating, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, it really does. I hope she agrees to it. If not, our people, as a whole, might get annihilated and there isn’t much we can do about it,” Geri said as he sipped on his wine. The burning sensation on his tongue finally ceased as he sipped on the wine, but he couldn’t taste it at all. “Freki, hand me your dagger.”
“Why can’t you use yours?” Freki snapped.
“Because, dumbass, I broke it off in some Easterner’s skull two weeks ago and the smithy hasn’t been able to make me a new one.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot. Here you go,” Freki said as he handed his older brother his dagger.
Geri stuck out his tongue to examine it in the mirror-like blade. He saw a thick white coating covering the surface of his tongue and decided he would go see the medicine woman to get it scraped off. Probably that acrid blood that reptile thing had, he thought.
“Wow, what the hell did you eat?” Freki said as he saw Geri’s swollen tongue.
“I bit that lizard thing, its blood did this.”
“Yeah, you should get your ass over to Holda. She’ll get you patched up. You’re going to need that tongue for your mating night,” Freki said as he punched Geri in the shoulder.
“That’s if Gerda lets me keep it,” he said dryly. “She’s a pretty strong-willed female. I will be lucky to consummate it that night.”
“Well, you know if you don’t, you won’t get the Eastern Pack’s allegiance. Let’s hope she doesn’t go off with another man to bust her maidenhead to ruin the union. No blood, no proof.”
“Yeah, either that or we have her old man or old Holda watching us, and that would be awkward,” Geri said shuddering with disgust. “I don’t know if I’d be able to get it up if that happened.”
“Yeah and then it would be null and void as well. Anyway, you get your furry ass to Holda to get that tongue looked after.”
Geri stood up and exited tent while finishing his wine. There’s no need for his breath to smell like a latrine. He hoped his breath didn’t smell too horrendous, but he had his doubts. He made his way to Holda’s tent and scratched at it to announce his presence. He heard an ungodly scream from the inside and Holda’s stern voice telling someone to stop being such a baby.
“Alright, you can come in now,” her quavering voice announced from the other side of the hide tent flap.
Geri pushed his way inside and saw an unconscious pack mate lying on some furs in the corner. “What happened to him?”
“Oh, he got scored by a silver blade, you know how it is…” Holda said as she washed her hands in a basin of water.
Geri definitely knew. Silver was highly toxic to his people and a scratch can cause a severe reaction, full penetration is deadly. That’s why they carried silver blades, so they could defend themselves against those who belonged to other packs.
“So, what’s the problem with you, young Geri?” Holda said as she sat down. Her sparse white hair glimmered in the light of the rudimentary oil lamp as her rheumy pale blue eyes peered at him.
“Well, after the battle, we were attacked by this green lizard thing on two legs, it had feathers like a bird. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Well, it attacked and killed Furti before I could do anything, but before it could devour him, I bit down and snapped its neck.”
Holda’s ey
es went narrow. “Open your mouth.” Geri did as he was bidden. “You didn’t swallow any of it did you?” He shook his head negatively. “Good.” Holda looked around and found her blunted obsidian scraper. “Now hold still, this is going to hurt,” she said as she began scraping the white film off of Geri’s tongue.
Geri winced as the scraper removed the entire top layer of his sensitive, pink tongue. He felt his mouth water and drool as Holda worked her medicinal magic. After a few minutes of intense scraping, she handed him a cup of tea.
“Rinse your mouth with this, spit it into the chamber pot, don’t swallow it.”
Geri swished the cool liquid around in his mouth for a few moments then spit it out. He noticed it was red with blood. “What the hell?”
“What you saw and attacked, was a raptor. They're a pack of shape shifters that live in the southern area. It is hot and moist down there all year round, so it is the perfect climate for them. They are matriarchal and have a very strict religion.”
“Really?” Geri scoffed. “Why would they be up here?”
“To convert,” Holda said quietly. “They've wanted nothing more than to make every person in this land follow their crazy cult.
“So why the crazy blood? I don’t get it, they’re just like you or I, just able to change into…raptors right?”
“Their blood is like the liquid that bubbles from the yellow pools around the Lokamount to us. Our blood is red because it’s made from the same thing that makes up the red ochre in the fields. Their blood is blue, because their element is silver.”
“That explains everything,” Geri said after he swished more of the tea in his mouth.
“You don’t have to keep doing that. One rinse of the comfrey tea will seal the wound up. I had to scrape it all off or it would have festered; anyway, you’re good to go now. When the time comes, you don’t fight them in your feral forms. It will end badly. Fight them like men,” Holda said as she checked on her other patient.