The Alpha Wolf's Bride (The Necklace Chronicles Book Four)

by R. E. Butler

  The Alpha’s Wolf’s Bride

  The Necklace Chronicles Book Four

  By R. E. Butler

  Copyright 2018

  The Alpha Wolf’s Bride (The Necklace Chronicles Book Four)

  By R. E. Butler

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

  Cover by CT Cover Creations

  This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is coincidental.

  Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content and is intended for those older than the age of 18 only.

  * * *

  Editing by Hot Tree Editing

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  Thanks to Joyce & Shelley for beta reading

  * * *

  For Bonnie. You are dearly missed.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Coming Soon

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  Other Books by R. E. Butler

  Coming Next in The Necklace Chronicles Series

  The Alpha Wolf’s Bride (The Necklace Chronicles Book Four)

  By R. E. Butler

  Ryde Mitchell, alpha of the largest wolf pack on the Eastern seaboard, has no time for anything but ruling his pack. The only bright spot in his life is his daughter, Brigelle, who at age seven has managed to wrap him entirely around her pink-polished fingers. He knows that Bri should have a mother, but he can’t spare the time to even consider choosing a female from his pack to mate, and assures his sweet daughter that he’ll have time for her as soon as pack tensions settle down. When Bri decides to cast a spell on her father’s behalf to bring him the perfect mate, she has no idea the storm of trouble she’s bringing their way. All she wanted was for her dad to have a mate and for her to have a mom. She didn’t want to put her father’s life, or her own, on the line.

  As the sister of the vampire mistress of the city of Arbor, Dominique Tremaine has seen her share of weird. Born into a powerful family, she spends her time dealing with the vampires in their large kiss and helping keep their city safe from encroaching shifters, who would just as soon stake them as form alliances. When she finds a beautiful necklace hanging from her vanity mirror, she assumes it’s a gift from her sister and puts it on. The instant the medallion touches her skin, she passes out and wakes up in the most unlikely of places – an alpha wolf’s bed.

  Ryde is furious that his daughter went behind his back and spelled for his mate. Not only does he have zero time to woo the utterly sexy blood drinker, but with all the pack unrest, the last thing he needs is to mate with his people’s mortal enemy. If he keeps Dominique, he could lose his pack and his life, but he doesn’t know if he can walk away. Especially not when he witnesses how connected his daughter and his mate are. If he takes a stand for Dominique, he could lose everything, but he’s not sure he can let her go.

  Chapter 1

  Ryde Mitchell ran his hand through his hair and put down the pen he’d been using to jot notes in the pack law books. Things were changing for their people, and the laws had to change with them. Generally speaking, he enjoyed being alpha of the largest pack on the East Coast. He could snap his fingers and have any number of females in his bed at a moment’s notice. Which he’d enjoyed a hell of a lot more when he was younger. Now that he was thirty, and he had a seven-year-old daughter in the house, he didn’t tumble in the sheets as often as he used to. He pretty much only fucked on the full moon, when his libido would ramp up until he assuaged it with a willing female.

  There was a knock at the door to his office. “You’re still up?” Finn, his second-in-command, asked.

  Ryde settled back in the chair and looked at him. “Just finishing. What’s up?”

  “Broke up a fight tonight.”

  Ryde’s brows rose. “Between who?”

  “The Tanners and Pohlens.”

  Ryde rubbed the space between his eyes with his thumb. Family units within the packs were always at war with each other. One group thought they were getting the shaft over another, or thought they were favored more than another. Although they were all part of one pack, and he was alpha, it was really almost like there were a hundred small packs that he was managing.

  “Why were they fighting this time?”

  “A fence on the Tanners’ property was broken overnight, and they were certain it was the older boys from the other family. I couldn’t get anyone to confess, so I just threw both of the elder males into the cage.”

  The cage was essentially a jail that had been created in Ryde’s forefathers’ time out of a barn. When he took over as alpha five years earlier, he’d renovated and staffed it appropriately. He would prefer it if he never had anyone in the cells, but the truth was that wolves were volatile and shit happened.

  “I’ll stop in tonight.”

  “I can take a message on your behalf.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  “It’s late.” Finn’s gaze darted to the framed picture on Ryde’s desk.

  Brigelle, his seven-year-old daughter. The apple of his eye. The only bright spot in his life.

  “She’s in bed already.”

  He assumed. He actually had no idea. He’d been dealing with pack shit so much lately that he couldn’t even remember when he’d done more than just kiss her cheek in passing or stuck his head in her room to see her sleeping. She-wolves from his pack took care of her for him. He hadn’t been in love with her mother, and they weren’t truemates, but she’d wanted a pup and he’d decided it was a good time in his life. That was before he’d become alpha, and he hadn’t known how busy he would be once he took over.

  Unfortunately, when the pup turned out to be female, her mother decided she was better off with a male from another pack and had dropped Bri off on his doorstep when she was only a few weeks old. Ryde’s mother had raised her on his behalf until she died two years before, and he’d eagerly passed her off to the pack females at that point. He knew it wasn’t fair, but there really wasn’t anything he could do about it until he settled the unrest within the pack. If his people would quit fighting internally and realize the real threat to their borders were the vampires, then they could focus where they needed to – on securing their borders against the bloodsuckers and ensuring their next generation survived to take over.

  Finn cleared his throat. “Ah. Okay. I’ll leave you to it. If there’s nothing else?”

  He shook his head. “See you tomorrow.”

  “It already is tomorrow.”

  With a snort, Ryde dismissed his second. He glanced at the clock and closed the book. He’d deal with the males in the cage, and then he’d check in on Bri.

  Leaving a note to himself to draft a letter to the family group leaders about focusing on the vampires and not their own petty squabbles, he left the office
on the first floor of the mansion he called home and walked the hundred yards to the cage. He glanced behind him and saw his daughter’s bedroom window on the second floor of the three-story home was dark, save for the pale blue glow of her nightlight.

  Turning his attention back to his duties, he entered the code to unlock the building and walked inside, a growl in his throat and his fangs at the ready.

  Chapter 2

  Dominique Tremaine stood to the side of her sister’s throne and watched as she slowly ate a green apple in front of a group of vampires. She supposed it looked terrifying to the males on their knees waiting for Natasha to render her verdict, but all Dominique saw was her sister exaggeratedly eating an apple. With her fangs.

  Natasha let the core drop to the floor, and then she dabbed at the corner of her mouth with a silk napkin. Straightening her shoulders, she slipped her manicured fingers through her pale gold hair and said, “We’re fighting with each other when we should be fighting against the wolves, who threaten to stake us at every turn. Every day I mete out punishments for those vampires who fight each other, and I’m weary of it.”

  Natasha cast her silver gaze to Dominique. “Make an example of them.”

  She opened her mouth to ask how she wanted that done, then snapped her teeth together with a click. Natasha didn’t like being questioned in public. Or ever.

  Nodding, Dominique gestured to the guards. “Take them to the courtyard and chain them. I’ll be along shortly.”

  The males on their knees begged for mercy as they were dragged away from the throne by the guards, burly vampires who had vowed themselves to Natasha’s service when she killed the previous mistress of the city of Arbor twenty years earlier.

  “You could have just punished them yourself, or killed them outright,” Dominique said as she faced her sister.

  “It’s easier when you do it for me. Plus it’ll be good for your reputation for the upcoming ball.”

  She tried not to roll her eyes. Her sister was forever trying to get her to mate with a master of another city so she could have more allies. Natasha wouldn’t mate with a male herself because she’d have to share her rule with him, and male vampires didn’t like playing second fiddle to females, especially publicly.

  Not that Dominique was looking for a mate, either. The masters of the cities around Arbor were either old or assholes. Of course, being immortal meant they didn’t age once they reached maturity, but some of them were so old that they had super-outdated ideas of a female’s place in the home. The last thing Dominique wanted was to be mated to a male who wanted to take her independence and make her a broodmare. She was Natasha’s chief advisor, the one person in the entire coven who was closest to her. She’d earned her place by learning about coven politics and studying their laws when she was young. She’d always known her sister would become mistress of a city someday, and she’d wanted to be there to help her.

  Their father had been a renowned warrior who had died in the great wolf-vampire war of 1993. Their mother had returned to the coven of her birth and married another male. Neither of them had spoken to her in years, even though technology was so much further along now than it had been decades before.

  Dominique turned to her sister. “Do you think Father would be proud of us?”

  Her pale brows rose. “Of course. He’d be even prouder after you take a powerful male as your mate and join our cities together.”

  “I suppose you have someone in mind?” she asked dryly, not bothering to hide her irritation.

  She looked somewhat aghast at the notion, but Dominique wasn’t fooled. “Jahnpaul is powerful, and handsome.”

  “If you say so.” Actually, he wasn’t. Dominique and her sister clearly had different ideas of what handsome meant.

  “The ball is in two weeks. You’ll need to find a mate. It’s time.”

  “Are you saying this as my loving sister or my mistress?”

  Natasha adjusted the enormous diamond on her index finger and smiled sweetly, flashing her fangs. “As your sister. For now.”

  Which meant Dominique had about two weeks to figure out how to change her sister’s mind before she did something irreparable, like make it a decree that she had to be mated. Or chose the male for Dominique herself.

  And no thanks on that.

  She bowed to her sister, left the throne room, and headed to the courtyard to punish the males who had annoyed the mistress.

  Natasha only looked at power. She didn’t care if Dominique loved a male or found him attractive – she just wanted to use her to elevate herself. Dominique was thirty, although she didn’t look like she was out of college thanks to her immortality. She did think about finding a male to mate and start a family with, and she would certainly like her mate to be a powerful male who wouldn’t be threatened by her independence. But what she didn’t want, was for Natasha to choose a mate on her behalf.

  Entering the courtyard of the mansion, she saw the four males were chained on their knees on the raised stone dais. A small crowd had gathered at the commotion. The moon shone overhead, and torches lit the area with flickering golds and reds.

  “These males are being punished for fighting among themselves when the real threat is outside our gates – the shifters who would kill us and take our land for themselves. Make no mistake, the mistress sees and knows all, and any in our city who choose to fight each other over petty things will be punished as these are.” Dominique turned to the guards. “Remove their fangs.”

  The crowd gasped. It was a harsh punishment. It would take two decades for the fangs to grow back, which meant the males would have to use a blade to feed from a live donor or drink a manufactured blood substitute. But it was better than staking them or cutting off their heads, which was a far more permanent punishment.

  She watched as the guards pulled their fangs, then collected the bloody teeth and brought them to her. “Take them to the mistress,” she said, “and leave the males until just before dawn. They’re on house arrest for thirty days and are not allowed to attend the ball.”

  Spinning on her heels, she walked down the steps of the dais and headed back into the mansion to the east wing she called home. It was on the opposite side of her sister’s opulent quarters, and she liked it that way. Her suite had a beautiful view of the city. She could see the security wall that ran the perimeter, and just beyond that, the fields that were neutral territory as decreed by the previous mistress of Arbor and a wolf leader. Beyond that space was the territory of a wolf pack. Every now and then they’d push into the neutral territory and draw close to Arbor, but only when vampires happened to move into the pack’s territory did they attack, staking them and sending their bodies back to the castle in warning.

  Wolves.

  If only their people weren’t always at war. It would be nice if there was peace, but the only way vampires thought there would be peace was if the wolves were wiped out.

  And she was sure the wolves felt the same way.

  Chapter 3

  Brigelle sat at the dinner table, her feet swinging, wearing her prettiest dress and her new favorite shoes, the shiny black ones with a strap. Mary Janes, her playmate Elsa’s mother said they were called. Bri didn’t care what they were called; they were pretty and shiny, and they made wonderful clickety noises whenever she walked on hard floors. She thought she could even tap dance with them because they sounded so cool.

  Elsa’s mother, Debbie, glanced at her watch. She tried to do it in a way that Bri wouldn’t notice, but she always noticed. It was after seven, and that meant Daddy wasn’t coming to dinner. Again. And after he’d promised he would be there when she’d begged Debbie to take her to his office earlier that morning.

  Poor Daddy. So busy. Being alpha was hard.

  But poor her. She just wanted her dad. Why did he have to be the dumb old alpha anyway?

  “We should eat,” Debbie said. “Everything’s going to get cold.”

  Elsa made a face. “It’s already cold.”

/>   “You don’t eat without the alpha at his own table,” Debbie said as she began to serve them the pot roast and vegetables their cook had made for them. Daddy only liked red meat, so on nights when he was going to eat dinner with them, that’s what they had. He said wolves should only eat red meat. But Bri preferred other things like chicken and ham.

  “You need a mommy,” Elsa said. “Then it wouldn’t matter if Alpha was busy, because you’d still get to eat with someone in your family.”

  “Shush!” Debbie said severely.

  “What?” Elsa said. “It’s true. My daddy’s busy, but you and I eat together all the time. Bri’s sad because her daddy’s in the office and not at dinner like he promised. You don’t let Daddy break promises to me.”

  Debbie let out a short growl and Elsa dropped her head. “First of all, it’s not nice to talk about the alpha or what he chooses to do with his time. And second, your dad is my mate and I can’t make him do anything he doesn’t want to do. He wants to be with you as much as he can, and he makes time for it.”

  “Sorry, Mommy.”

  Bri tilted her head. “How did you find your mate?”

  “We met at a gathering of packs during a full moon.”

  “Do we have those?”

  “Not like we used to. Now we’re concerned with keeping our borders safe from the vampires, and there are skirmishes within our own pack that keep the alpha busy.”

  Elsa shivered. “Vampires are gross and scary.”

  “Thankfully we don’t have to worry about them.” Debbie lifted her head and looked out the large window. “They’re all the way beyond the neutral territory and trapped behind their big wall. As long as they stay there, there’s nothing to worry about.”