Alpha Temptation: Sanmere Shifters Romance Collection

by Lola Gabriel

  They kissed again, a deep, loving kiss that made Bastian feel as though his heart was finally whole. They pulled apart and Rachel finally put the car in gear, starting the long drive home. After a few minutes, Bastian spoke up.

  “Rachel, what you said about embracing your bear, was that true or did you just say it so we could be together?” Bastian asked.

  “It’s true,” Rachel said. She gave him a flirty smile. “But I’ll admit, you’re a nice bonus.”

  Bastian laughed and shook his head.

  “I’m serious, Rachel. Because if you don’t want to join the pack, then you don’t have to. Ending Lewis was my last gift to my pack before I left them. For you.”

  “You were really willing to do that for me?” Rachel asked, sounding shocked.

  “I’d do anything for you,” Bastian smiled.

  “Then promise me that once we get settled in together, you’ll take me out into the middle of nowhere and turn with me and we’ll just run and run for hours,” Rachel said.

  “Done,” Bastian said with a smile.

  Epilogue

  Two Years Later

  Rachel knocked on the door of Bastian’s home office.

  “Come in,” he called.

  She opened the door and smiled at him.

  “Hey,” he said. “What are you doing home from work so early?”

  “I asked for a half-day so we could celebrate,” she said.

  “Celebrate what?” Bastian asked, confused about what he was missing.

  Had he forgotten their anniversary? Rachel’s birthday? He knew he hadn’t.

  “This,” Rachel smiled.

  She pulled her hand out from behind her back and showed Bastian a positive pregnancy test. He jumped up from his seat, laughing with joy. He pulled Rachel into his arms and kissed her full on the mouth.

  “This is the best news ever,” he said, when he pulled his mouth from hers.

  “I know,” she laughed. “Three is about to become four.”

  Bastian grinned and then he picked Rachel up and sat her on the edge of his desk. He kissed her again, his hands roaming over her body. Rachel felt desire and complete and utter joy fill her all at once, and she knew she had made the right choice embracing her bear, joining the pack, and mating with Bastian. She had no idea what the future might hold for them, but she was excited to find out with her soulmate by her side.

  Matchmaker Curse

  Matchmaker Curse

  Text Copyright © 2020 by Lola Gabriel

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First printing, 2020

  Publisher

  Secret Woods Books

  secretwoodsbooks@gmail.com

  www.SecretWoodsBooks.com

  Prologue

  Raina Delaney turned to Logan Prince and shook her head, smiling at him in wonder.

  “I still can’t quite believe it,” she said, her voice low and breathy, her awe clear to hear.

  “You should believe it,” Logan said, reaching out and taking her hand in his. “Ten years we’ve spent trying to track this guy down and now we have finally done it. You don’t need to worry that it’s not real, because it’s not like it’s just a coincidence or anything like that, Raina. We worked damned hard on this for a decade and we made it happen.”

  Raina smiled and nodded her head. She knew Logan was right. It wasn’t like this thing had been too easy. If anything, it had been harder than she had expected it to be, and it was still far from over. In some ways, they still had the hardest part left to do. They had to… No, Raina thought to herself. I’m not going to let myself go there. I’m getting ahead of myself again and it only stresses me out when I do that. I’m just going to take things one step at a time and deal with stuff as it happens instead of worrying about something that may or may not happen down the line.

  Instead of focusing on the task ahead of them, Raina focused on the feel of her hand in Logan’s. She had been his mate now for almost fifteen years, but even after all of this time, his touch still excited her and she felt her body responding to Logan’s touch, her bear stirring within her.

  Over the last fifteen years, Raina and Logan had traveled the world. For the first five years, they had tracked down Matchmakers, horrible creatures that hunted down human women with the Sanmere protein in their blood, a protein that allowed them to be turned into shifters safely. Once they found these women, they abducted them and sold them to the highest bidder to mate with them whether the woman wanted to do that or not.

  Raina understood the need for human women to become shifters—the two-hundred-year-old curse put on shifters by a vengeful witch meant that no shifter could produce female children, and all of their species would be wiped out eventually if no human women were turned. Human women who became shifters could produce girl children and they were like gold dust in their packs. But Raina couldn’t tolerate the abduction, the fear, the forced mating. And for that reason, she had dedicated her life to hunting down Matchmakers and ending them.

  She had met Logan on one of her missions to end a fearsome Matchmaker and he had joined her cause. After five years, though, their cause changed and when it changed, it became all the more important. While they still occasionally took down a Matchmaker if they encountered one on their travels, their main priority of the last ten years had been trying to track down a black dragon named Atlas.

  They had stumbled across a prophecy produced by the magic of the original witch when she had cast the curse. A curse so dark always produced a prophecy for breaking it, and usually they were found much more quickly than this. The fact that this one had taken over two centuries to find didn’t bode well for them—it proved how dark the curse was and how powerful the magical creature binding it must be.

  Finally, after a long and disappointing decade full of false hopes and failures, Raina and Logan had located Atlas. And the irony of the whole thing was that he was in the United States, just an hour or two drive away from the bear pack that Raina had originally been a member of and was still an honorary member of today.

  Raina and Logan had returned instantly, where they were welcomed with open arms by Noah, the pack alpha, and Chessa his mate, not to mention their four children. They were staying with the couple now, waiting for news as Noah tried to contact Atlas’ pack’s alpha and get word to him that Atlas was needed here.

  “What’s wrong?” Logan asked, squeezing Raina’s hand where it still sat in his and sending another little shockwave through her.

  She smiled at him and shook her head.

  “Nothing is wrong. I was just thinking,” she said.

  “Rubbish,” Logan said. “You forget how well I know you, Raina. I know something is wrong. Talk to me, tell me what it is. We’ve waited for this day for ten years and now that it’s here, you’re sad. Is it because deep down, you’re not really ready to stop traveling and settle down here?”

  “No,” Raina said quickly, smiling sadly and shaking her head. “It’s actually the opposite to that. I’m more than ready to rejoin the pack and have babies and all of that. I’m just afraid that if something goes wrong, we will never get to move forward with a normal life.”

  “We’re going to do it, Raina,” Logan said, stroking her hand. “I promise you we are. I don’t care if this Atlas being is powerful enough to break the witch’s curse. He’s still not going to be brave enough to say no to the infamous Raina Delaney.”

  Raina looked at Logan and laughed softly, shaking her head. She opened her mouth to argue the point, but then their eyes met, and Raina felt the familiar feeling of her co
re clenching as she looked at Logan, her one true mate. The laughter died in Raina’s throat as the air around her became charged with sexual need.

  “In fact, I’m so confident about all of this working out for the best, that I think it’s past time we practiced trying to get pregnant, you know, for when this over,” Logan said with a lust-filled grin.

  Raina opened her mouth to respond to him, but Logan’s mouth covered hers and she gave up any attempt to speak, instead giving herself over to Logan completely.

  1

  Atlas Drayburn walked along the street, glancing idly into the windows of the stores that lined it. He barely registered the wares that the shops had for sale as he was so lost in his own thoughts. He felt trapped, claustrophobic almost, and he didn’t know why. All he knew was that he had felt this way since he turned twenty-nine years old and stopped aging, and the feeling had gotten gradually stronger over the years.

  Atlas felt like he had a destiny that he needed to fulfill, something meaningful, but he had yet to discover it. He felt that if he could find this purpose and do whatever needed to be done, this feeling of being trapped and filled with nervous energy would leave him.

  Some days when he thought about the feeling that he was destined for something more, he thought it was just an innate arrogance inside of himself, something that tried to convince him he was special and destined for great things when really, he was just a normal, run-of-the-mill dragon shifter. Atlas thought a lot of his unrest came from the fact that he had big ideas, big ambitions on how the pack could be more successful, but he wasn’t a part of the elite inner circle that got to bend the pack alpha’s ear. He was just a normal pack member, a drone, he supposed, and he found that so frustrating. And it was something he would definitely change given the chance.

  In his mind, all of the pack members had skills and talents that they could put to better use, and he believed that the pack alpha should be accessible to the whole pack and be willing to listen to their experiences and learn and grow with them. Of course in reality, it didn’t work that way. Instead, the alpha gave instructions and the pack followed them whether they agreed with them or not. It was either that or voice an objection a little bit too loudly and be exiled from the pack.

  Atlas had learned to keep his mouth shut when it came to the running of the pack, but his frustrations leaked out in other ways. Only two days ago, he had told his boss at work exactly what he thought of his stupid procedures and he had been fired. It hadn’t been a big deal to Atlas—his parents had given him his trust fund when he turned twenty-nine and there was more than enough money to last him for centuries—but it would be a big deal to the pack if Atlas didn’t find another job fairly quickly.

  The pack alpha insisted that all pack members do something to earn money to keep suspicions away from them. He didn’t want the IRS or anyone else digging around in the pack’s business, questioning how they all seemed to be able to survive with no income, and perhaps finding out too much.

  Atlas jumped slightly as his cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and frowned at the unknown number on the screen. His frown turned to a half-smile as he thought that maybe, just maybe, today was his lucky day. He had applied for a job running a small office yesterday and he figured this might be them calling to discuss his application. He felt powerful in that moment, as though thinking about his situation had conjured up a solution to it, and when he answered the call, his voice was strong and confident.

  “Atlas Drayburn,” Atlas said into his cell phone after accepting the call.

  “Mr. Drayburn, good morning,” a voice said. The voice was polite and efficient and Atlas figured he had been right about it being about his job application. “This is Max Bleet.”

  Atlas felt a wave of dread pass over him. Max Bleet was the assistant to the pack’s alpha and for him to be calling Atlas, something serious had to be happening. Atlas realized that in some ways, his earlier thought had been right; it was indeed as if what he was thinking about had conjured up this call. Only instead of it being good news about a job application, it was the reaction to his thoughts of breaking the pack’s status quo instead.

  He told himself that wasn’t possible. The alpha and his inner circle were damned good at finding things out, but they couldn’t read minds and Atlas had always been careful to keep his ambitions and ideas to himself. It was more likely to do with him getting himself fired. That was likely to have gotten back to them without them having to start reading minds. There was always someone who would run to the inner circle with news of other pack members, hoping it got them seen in a better light.

  “Mr. Drayburn? Are you still there?” Max said in Atlas’ ear.

  Atlas was tempted to just cut the call off and later claim his signal had dropped, but what would be the point of that? If Max Bleet wanted to speak to him, he would find a way to do it, and whatever this was, Atlas would rather get it over with than have to wait to hear what was going on, imagining worse and worse scenarios the whole time.

  “Yes. I’m here. Sorry about that, there was a bit of interference on the line for a moment. Can you hear me now?” Atlas said, playing it much cooler than he felt.

  “Yes, I can hear you now, loud and clear,” Max confirmed. “I have a message for you. Your presence is required at Christian’s office at ten a.m.”

  Atlas felt as though the bottom had fallen out of his world. This had to be more serious than just a slap on the wrist for getting fired. If Christian, the pack’s alpha, wanted to see him personally, then something had to be very wrong. He swallowed hard, trying to keep his fear at bay. He glanced at his watch. It was nine forty and he figured he could just make it to Christian’s office block in time if he hurried up. Being late wasn’t an option. Whatever punishment he was going to get for this would be twice as harsh if he was late. Christian didn’t like to have his time wasted, especially by those people whom he considered to be beneath him, and Atlas had no doubt in his mind that he was one of those people.

  “Okay. I’ll be there,” Atlas said.

  “Don’t be late,” Max said and then the call ended, leaving Atlas holding his now silent cell phone to his ear.

  At exactly nine fifty-nine a.m., Atlas stepped into the foyer of Christian’s office building. He breathed a sigh of relief when he noted that he had made it on time. He moved quickly to the reception desk where a beautiful woman with ice-blonde hair gave him a cold smile.

  “Atlas Drayburn,” Atlas said. “Christian wanted to see me.”

  “Take a seat, please,” she said, nodding to the row of easy chairs along one wall of the foyer.

  Atlas did as he was asked. The blonde woman stood up and headed for a door marked “Private”. She stepped through it and disappeared from sight. Atlas could feel sweat coating his back and his upper lip. He reached up with a slightly shaky hand and wiped his lip and then he wiped his palms on the knees of his pants. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.

  After a couple of minutes that felt like a couple of hours, the blonde-haired woman came back to the foyer. She smiled at Atlas, and this time, her smile didn’t look quite so cold. Atlas tried not to read too much into it, but he couldn’t help but wonder if that meant he wasn’t in trouble after all, or if it meant he was in way more trouble than he had anticipated and this woman enjoyed seeing men be broken. Or maybe it was neither of those things and Atlas was just tormenting himself with the presumed meaning of things that weren’t even there.

  “Christian will see you now,” she said. “Follow me, please.”

  She turned away and started through the door again. She didn’t look back to see if Atlas was following her or not, she just stood with the door held open. It was obvious she was used to being obeyed and Atlas, for a fleeting second, wondered what would happen if he resisted following the instruction. He grinned at the thought of her surprise and indignation, but instead of going through with it, he hurried across the foyer and took the door from her.

  He
followed the woman down a short corridor where she knocked on a second door.

  “Come on in,” a male voice called out.

  Atlas felt a shiver go through him as he recognized the voice from public announcements. Christian’s voice. He was about to come face to face with the pack alpha. It was something he had wanted for years, but not like this, and that irony wasn’t lost on him. Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it, Atlas thought to himself.

  The blonde-haired woman pushed the office door open, stood aside slightly, and gestured for Atlas to step inside the room. He took a final deep breath and did just that. Standing just inside the doorway, he looked around. The office was tasteful, modern, and huge. Behind a sleek glass desk sat Christian, who studied Atlas intently for a moment.

  Atlas jumped slightly as the office door clicked shut behind him and Christian smiled. Atlas felt himself relax a notch. The smile wasn’t predatory; it was warm and welcoming. It was seeming less and less likely that he was here to be punished for something.

  Christian got to his feet and stepped around his desk, beckoning to Atlas.

  “Come in, come in,” he said. “Don’t hang around the doorway like an unwanted guest.”

  Atlas stepped closer to Christian and they shook hands. Christian had a good, firm grip, but not a crushing grip. They dropped hands and Christian motioned for Atlas to sit down. Atlas did and Christian made his way back around his desk and sat back down in his own seat.

  “You’re probably wondering why you’re here,” he started.

  Atlas nodded. He had to bite his tongue to keep from blurting out that he had figured it was because he had been sacked. If it wasn’t that, he didn’t want to give Christian any ammunition to use against him. Despite his silence and his plan, Atlas knew his nerves must be showing in the way his right leg bounced up and down slightly and the sweat beaded in his hairline. So much for him starting to think he wasn’t here for a punishment. All of the doubt was back now that Christian was about to address his reason for calling Atlas in here.