Alpha Temptation: Sanmere Shifters Romance Collection

by Lola Gabriel

  Archer shook his head. He had definitely picked the wrong time to become the pack’s alpha. Not that he had been given a choice in the matter, but still. It didn’t reflect well on him. For centuries, his pack had lived in peace, and within just a few years of him taking over, they were being hunted. Although his pack was loyal, and no one had come out and accused him of any wrongdoing, he still felt the guilt bearing down on him. The responsibility for the lives of his pack members was a heavy weight to carry, but Archer was determined to find the hunter and end him.

  That was easier said than done, though. No one he had spoken to, in his district or in any of the other ones, had any leads on the Venandi Lupi, although it seemed every wolf pack had a story from some point in their history. Most of those stories ended one way: the pack almost decimated and having to be rebuilt. Archer was determined not to let that happen to his pack.

  A knock on his office door pulled him out of his thoughts, and he pressed Send on his email.

  “Come in!” he shouted, looking up from his screen. Sven, his beta, came into the office. Archer knew instantly by the way his shoulders were slumped and the way he wouldn’t look Archer in the eye that something was wrong.

  “Bad news, I’m afraid,” Sven said.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s Brody. The hunter got to him.” Sven looked down at the ground. Archer felt every muscle in his body tense up. Brody was like a brother to him. They all were.

  “Is he…?” Archer trailed off, needing to know the answer to his question but not wanting to voice it out loud.

  Sven had no such compunctions. “Dead? Yes. Silver poisoning,” he confirmed.

  “Fuck!” Archer roared, anger seizing him.

  How dare some hunter take one of his pack, one of his family? How dare they come into his district and start a goddamned war?

  Archer slammed his fist down on his desk hard enough to make his computer monitor rattle. He felt the anger leave him in a rush, replaced with a quiet sorrow and the throbbing need for revenge. He could feel the wolf inside of him snarling, dying to get out, sniff out the hunter, and end his miserable life. He knew he had to bide his time, though. He had no idea where to even start looking for the hunter yet.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  Sven sat down in the chair opposite him and shook his head. “No one really knows for sure. Brody left his apartment as usual yesterday morning, heading for work.”

  That gave Archer a tiny bit of relief. At least the hunter hadn’t managed to infiltrate their building. His pack occupied a full apartment building that sat above a boutique and a small office. The office was his, and the boutique was run by the pack to pay for maintenance on their building. If the hunter had gotten into their home, then it would have been much worse than Archer could even have imagined.

  “He was meant to be going to a poker game with a couple of the others that night,” Sven went on. “When he didn’t show, none of them thought it was unusual. They assumed he’d changed his mind and gone out for drinks after work or something. But when no one had heard from him by the next morning, a few of the pack started to get worried after what happened with Charlie. They went to his apartment, and there was no sign of him. His briefcase wasn’t there, and they figured he hadn’t been home overnight.

  “They brought it to my attention, and I was starting to organize a search party. At that point, part of me was still waiting for him to walk in and announce he’d spent the night with a girl. But then I got a call from the sheriff. Brody’s body was found a couple of blocks away by a jogger. The sheriff reckons he’s been dead twenty-four hours, meaning he never even got to work yesterday. I’ve sent some guys from the pack to retrieve his body.”

  “You know what this means, don’t you?” Archer said. “The hunter knows where our building is. He’s stalking the place, waiting for a chance to pick us off one by one.”

  “I agree he knows roughly where we are, but I don’t think he knows as much as he wants us to think he does,” Sven replied.

  Archer raised a questioning eyebrow.

  “If he knew for certain which one was our building,” Sven went on, “he wouldn’t be taking us out this way; he’d have blown the building up with a silver bomb. And he doesn’t know us all. He must have recognized Brody, but he’s not the only pack member to have left the building since yesterday morning. We’ve all been out at some point, and no one else has been targeted.”

  “So maybe the hunter only recognized Brody and Charlie,” Archer said.

  “Hopefully,” Sven agreed.

  “Send a couple of our best trackers out to the location where Brody’s body was found,” Archer instructed. “See if they can pick up a scent.”

  “I will,” Sven said. “But you know we might have to end up using Charlie as bait, don’t you?”

  The hunter knew Charlie. He had made one attempt on his life, and since then, Charlie had been lying low. They could use him to draw the hunter out and end him, but it was risky.

  “I know. But not yet. We have to try every other option first,” Archer said.

  “I was hoping you would say that,” Sven said.

  Archer raised his eyebrow again. Sven obviously had something else to say, something he had been holding back because he thought Archer wouldn’t like it. Archer didn’t like any of this, and if Sven had something that didn’t involve using a pack member as bait, Archer would most definitely consider it.

  “Out with it,” he said.

  “I had a call early this morning from Caroline Maynard. She knows about the hunter, and she said she has information. She requested a meeting with you at the mall. At ten-thirty this morning.”

  Archer glanced at his watch. It was only nine forty-five, and he could easily make the meeting. But did he want to? Caroline was a Matchmaker, and those people made his skin crawl. They made it their life’s work to find mortal women who carried a rare protein, Sanmere, in their blood. The protein allowed them to be turned into an immortal successfully and bear female children, something female immortals could no longer do, thanks to a witch’s curse. These Matchmakers would abduct the women with the Sanmere protein in their blood and sell them to the highest bidder.

  A shudder went through Archer just thinking about it. While Matchmaking wasn’t illegal in the immortal community, it was frowned upon, but until a better solution presented itself, one that didn’t end up with immortals becoming extinct, most of them were willing to turn a blind eye to the practice.

  Archer had promised himself he wouldn’t turn a blind eye; that when he was alpha of the pack, he would make it his mission to end Matchmaking in the district, but then he had become alpha, and other things had always taken priority, and now, he had been given a much bigger problem to solve.

  The last thing he wanted to do was cozy up to Caroline Maynard. But could he afford to refuse the meeting? Matchmakers were scumbags, but they always had an ear to the ground, and if she said she had information on the hunter, Archer was inclined to believe her. Said information would of course come with a price, but Archer wasn’t worried about money. Even though his pack wasn’t exactly rich, they were more than comfortable.

  They ran slightly differently to the other wolf packs he knew of. Because they were only seventy members, they didn’t need a huge amount of money behind them, and it had been decided by the last alpha that several wolves would be involved in the pack business, and the rest would go out to work normal jobs. The money was pooled, and after each pack member was given enough to live comfortably, the rest went into the pack fund. There were millions of dollars in the fund now, and Archer guessed Caroline would demand somewhere in the region of half a million.

  He could condone spending a large chunk of the money if Caroline’s information was good and the hunter was found. He might even be able to find a way to end both the hunter and Caroline and keep the money.

  “Archer?” Sven called him. Archer realized he had been thinking too long, weighing up hi
s options and leaving Sven hanging. “What are you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking that the last thing I want to do is meet up with a Matchmaker. But if she has information, then I can’t very well refuse. Not after one of our own has been killed. The pack would rebel.”

  Sven nodded.

  “I’m also thinking that the meeting could prove useful in another way. I’ll finally be able to put a face to the name Caroline Maynard. And maybe when this whole hunter business is dealt with, I can deal with her.”

  “She’s dangerous, Archer,” Sven said.

  “Oh, I know,” Archer said with a tightlipped smile. “But so am I, Sven. So am I.”

  Sven returned his smile. “You’d better get going, then. You don’t want to be late. She wants to meet at the mall, right in the center by the fountain.”

  Archer had guessed as much. Caroline was dangerous, all right, but she was smart as well, and she wasn’t about to meet Archer somewhere he could kill her without witnesses. Even the sheriff would have trouble explaining away a murder in the middle of a packed mall. One or two witnesses could be convinced they remembered something wrongly, not a whole mall’s worth of people.

  Archer dismissed Sven, reminding him to send trackers out to the spot where Brody’s body was found. He told Sven to make sure the trackers stayed alert; they were assuming the hunter wouldn’t recognize them, but they could be wrong.

  Once Sven left his office, Archer pulled on his jacket and headed outside. He debated taking his car, but the mall was close, and the day was warm. He could walk there and still have plenty of time to spare. He set off in the direction of the mall, and by ten past ten, he was there. He pulled open one of the doors, feeling the coolness of the air conditioning. He moved directly to the center of the mall and sat down on one of the benches that lined the fountain’s walls.

  At exactly ten-thirty, a pretty blonde woman with tight little curls sat down beside him. She was a tiny thing, petite and almost fragile looking. Archer glanced at her and looked away. This might ruin everything. Caroline might not approach him while the woman was sitting beside him, and if she did, it might put the woman in danger.

  He was debating moving to a different spot when the woman spoke to him.

  “I wasn’t sure you would come,” she said.

  Archer frowned. There was no way this tiny slip of a girl was the fearsome Caroline Maynard. She looked at him and laughed softly.

  “Don’t underestimate me because of the way I look, Archer. Many have made that mistake before you, and none of them have lived to tell the tale.” She smiled again, apparently enjoying his complete confusion. She put her hand out. “Caroline Maynard. At your service,” she said in a sarcastic tone.

  Archer shook her hand on autopilot, still shocked. He had been expecting a different type altogether, someone who looked fearsome and strong. He told himself to get a grip. Caroline had been right about one thing. Underestimating her would be a fool’s move.

  “Archer Malone,” he introduced himself. “But you already know that, right?”

  “I know a lot of things,” Caroline said. “Including how the hunter killed one of your pack yesterday.”

  Archer felt his temper surge.

  “Are you working with the hunter?” he demanded.

  Caroline smiled almost shyly and shook her head. “Of course not. You might not like what I do, Archer, but it’s a service, one that many supernatural creatures use. That doesn’t make me a murderer. Do you think the hunter would spare me simply because I’m despised by some of my own kind? I’m in as much danger as you are while he lives.”

  “So you tracked him down, and now you want me to do your dirty work for you?”

  “Exactly. You catch on quickly. I like that.”

  Archer ignored her sarcasm and focused on getting what he had come for; information he could use to find the hunter.

  “What do you know?” he asked.

  “The hunter isn’t working with the Venandi Lupi. He used to, hence the branded weaponry, but he was exiled after he fell in love with a fairy and let her escape their hunt. He was ready to give up his life as a hunter, but the fairy had used him to find the location of the Venandi Lupi headquarters. By the time she got there, they’d moved on, of course. She left the hunter, and he was bitter enough to continue his life working solo.”

  Archer raised an eyebrow. Caroline sure knew more about the hunter than he had been able to find out.

  “That’s a great story, but it doesn’t help me to find the hunter, does it?” he demanded. He couldn’t let himself sound impressed or too eager, or Caroline would up her price.

  “No.” Her smile widened. “But I’m sure his full name and the address he’s currently living at would.”

  “Yes, I’m sure it would. So, are you going to tell me, or are you going to keep playing these games?” Archer asked.

  “Ah, come on now, Archer. I think we both know I’ve told you everything I’m going to reveal for free.”

  “I figured as much. What’s your price?”

  “What’s the information worth to you?” she asked in a teasing voice that made Archer’s temper rise a notch. If she kept talking to him that way, he wasn’t sure he would be able to control the wolf within him, crowd or no crowd.

  “Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,” he said.

  “It’s tempting,” Caroline admitted. “But my girls make me more than enough money. I don’t want money from you.”

  That caught Archer on the back foot, and he couldn’t help but show his surprise, which got another soft laugh from Caroline.

  “So what do you want?” he asked, knowing he would likely regret the question.

  “A mutually beneficial working arrangement,” Caroline replied. “You’ve made no secret of the fact you want the district free of Matchmakers, myself included. I have no intention of dying, Archer. Or giving up my business. But I have to admit it would be a little easier if I was the only Matchmaker in the district. So here’s the deal. I’ll tell you everything you want to know about the hunter, and once you’ve taken care of him, I’ll also tell you everything I know about every other Matchmaker who operates in this district. In return, you’ll leave me alone to conduct my business as I see fit. I’ll even give your pack first refusal of my wares. You know, I’ve had to enroll in medical school for my latest find. A teacher. Very intelligent. She would be perfect for you, Archer. I’ll throw her in as a freebie.”

  Archer felt his temper threatening to get the better of him. Not only did Caroline want free reign to hurt mortal women as she saw fit, but she seemed to think giving him one of her victims would seal the deal. He fought with everything he had to keep his wolf at bay. Caroline took his silence while he fought for control to mean he was considering her offer. She smiled at him.

  “You know it makes sense. And it would stay between the two of us, if you would prefer. Your pack will never have to know.”

  “You are disgusting,” Archer hissed.

  “So I’m told.” Caroline shrugged. “But it’s funny how many of those people who find me so disgusting come to me for mates when they realize they’re going to live a very long and very lonely life without my help.”

  “I would rather be alone than be with someone who doesn’t want me,” Archer said.

  “Suit yourself. Helen will make a great price for me, so if you don’t want her, I’m more than happy to keep her. Do we have a deal or not?”

  Archer wanted so badly to say yes. Caroline could give him the information he needed to avenge Brody and keep the rest of the pack safe. But her price was too high. He couldn’t let her roam the district, picking off women. And the way she talked about the poor professor turned his stomach. He could agree to the deal and then end Caroline anyway at a later date. But that would be too late for Helen. Besides, Archer’s word meant something. It was his bond, and he couldn’t break it.

  He slowly shook his head. Caroline raised an eyebrow.

  “I’d so
oner scratch out my own eyes than let you have the freedom to do what you like in my district,” Archer said.

  “What do you think your pack will say when they find out you had a chance to find the hunter and you turned it down?” she asked, her eyes amused.

  “When they find out what you wanted in return, they’ll understand.” He wasn’t so sure that was true, but they would never find out. He would make sure of that.

  Caroline stood up and shook her head. “I thought you were a rational man, Archer, but it seems you’re letting your own prejudices come before your pack’s safety. Shame. We could have been good together.”

  She walked away, slinking in between the crowd. Within seconds, Archer had lost sight of her. It didn’t matter. She had shaken his hand, and he could use her scent to track her. She clearly didn’t know quite as much as she thought she did.

  He stood up and casually wiped his hand over his face, taking in Caroline’s scent. He moved his hand and sniffed the air. Her trail was as easy to follow as it would have been if she’d left a trail of red paint on the ground behind her.

  He wasn’t going to let Helen become her next victim. He was going to end her today, as soon as she was somewhere out of sight. And then his pack would never know what he had turned down. He would simply tell them she had been lying, toying with them, and for that, he had killed her.

  He fingered the gun in his pocket, the one loaded with silver bullets. He upped his pace and stepped back out of the mall. He hung back when he spotted Caroline, but she wasn’t looking back. She was holding her cell phone and casually moving through the crowd with no idea that today would be the day her career choice finally caught up with her.

  3

  Brianna had headed back home after finding Caroline missing. She had planned to get showered and changed and then text Caroline to see what had happened to her. She brushed her hair into place and added a slick of lip gloss. Her cell phone pinged, telling her she had a new text message. She smiled when she saw Caroline’s name on her screen. It seemed Caroline must have had the same idea. She was glad they had all swapped numbers yesterday now.