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CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY SEVEN
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The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY EIGHT
We drive for days, leaving the misty redwoods of Santa Crus and heading into the dry, dusty deserts of Nevada. Pale scrub brush the color of my straw blonde hair stretches out in all directions, waving in the desert wind. Then we hit the cliffs and canyons of Idaho, spending one night in Twin Falls, where we fall asleep to the heavy roar of the waterfall just outside our cabin room.I like riding with Jasper - even Regan herself couldn’t have put together such a perfect opportunity for us to hang out and talk. I tell him about Layla, and some of the funnier predicaments we found ourselves in. He opens up a bit and tells me about a few of his adventures from his mercenary days. It’s obvious that there’s still a lot he’s holding back, but the more time we spend together, the more his walls come down. We pass through Yellowstone, where herds of elk tempt our inner wolves’ hunting instincts. Jasper mentions that his family used to vacation in the area, and suggests that we get out a
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY NINE
“You go first,” Jasper snaps at the other shifter who has just burst into our motel room.“Why me? You go first.”“I don’t care who goes first,” I shout, “just as long as one of you tells me what’s actually going on here.”“Fine,” Jasper sighs, sitting down on the other bed, refusing to look at me or the other shifter. “That’s Zach Whismore. He’s my cousin.”“Though you wouldn’t know it,” Zach grumbles, “based on the fact that you ran off and abandoned the family.”“I did what I had to do,” Jasper snaps. “I was trying to protect you.”Zach snorts. “Some protection you offered, running around in California being a mercenary. Do you know how many more of us have been killed since you disappeared?”Color rises in Jasper’s cheeks again, and he clenches his fists against the motel bedsheets. “What makes you think me sticking around would have stopped any of that?”“Well now we’ll never know,” Zach huffs.“Okay, okay,” I say. “I hate to interrupt whatever weird fam
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY
We finish our dinner, and Zach says his goodbyes. We make a plan to meet with him the next morning at a breakfast diner in town. Zach says it’s owned and operated by humans, and it’s uncommon for the bear shifters to hang around there. Jasper cleans up after dinner while I get ready for bed. Even though the motel room has two beds, we end up snuggled up together in the same one. Jasper rests an arm around me and I settle my head on his chest, breathing in his scent. It’s gotten stronger since we arrived at his ancestral homeland, and I can feel myself being even more drawn to him than usual.We turn out the lights, but I’m not exactly ready to go to sleep. I lift my head and give Jasper a kiss, stroking his cheek with one hand. Then I work up the courage to ask him the question that’s been burning in my mind ever since Zach arrived. “Jasper, can I ask…why did you leave Serpent Creek in the first place?”Jasper sighs, a heavy movement. He wraps his arms around me and nuzzl
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY ONE
Jasper is quiet for a while, having finished his story. He seems tired, like telling me all that has exhausted him somewhat. But he also seems relieved, like he’s been able to put down a heavy weight that he was carrying.I let the silence envelop us for a bit, then ask him one last question. “Jasper,” I whisper, “is that why you didn’t want to be my mate? Because you’re worried that since you couldn’t protect your sister, you wouldn’t be able to protect me?”Jasper hesitates for a moment, then his answer comes, a whisper even softer than mine. “Yes.”“Oh, Jasper,” I say, rubbing his back. “Just because of one tragic event in your past, that doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve to be mated, or that you wouldn’t be an amazing mate for someone out there.”“If you say so,” Jasper murmurs. “My dad always told me that since I was so obsessed with being like a human, that I wasn’t a real wolf. I figured any wolf shifter wouldn’t want someone like that to mate with.”“Hey,” I sa
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY TWO
We wake up at the same time the next morning, stretching and tugging open the motel curtains to let the sunlight in. In the daylight, the damage done by Jasper and Zach’s fight the evening before makes me wince. “I hope they don’t charge us for this,” I say, picking up a broken piece of the treasure chest lamp.Jasper just shrugs. “In a town with feuding wolf and bear shifters, there’s a lot of property damage. The humans just seem to go with it.”“Huh.” Maybe things are different in a rural mountain town out here in Montana. I do my best to tidy up our room, then Jasper and I get dressed and showered before heading out to the diner.It’s called the Rocking Ranch All Day Breakfast Diner, a mouthful of a name that’s painted on a peeling yellow sign above the low brick building. Jasper and I slide into a booth with cracked, faux leather seats and page through the sticky, laminated menu pages. “I wonder where Zach is,” I ask, glancing around the restaurant. There are some
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY THREE
Not only is Zach not in his cabin, the whole place looks like it’s been ransacked. It’s far messier than our motel room was this morning, and it looks like a much more vicious struggle took place. The small table in the kitchen has been knocked over, and the dresser drawers have been dumped out.Jasper stands in the center of the wreckage, anger and grief plain on his face.“It’s alright, Jasper,” I say, placing a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll find him.”“Do you smell that?” Jasper asks, his voice low and serious. “Bears. Bear shifters.”I sniff the air, and sure enough, there’s a thick, strange scent in the room, one that doesn’t smell like any wolf shifter I’ve ever been near. “They took him,” Jasper says, nearly quaking with rage. “Again. It’s happened again. I can’t believe I’ve let this happen - let them take yet another member of my family.”“It’s not your fault,” I insist. “You couldn’t have known, or prevented this.”“I shouldn’t have let him out of my sigh
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FOUR
Jasper seems to know exactly where he’s going, and all I need to do is keep up. It’s not hard to stay at a full sprint, since it feels so good. The wind in my fur, the mountain air rushing past my snout, the ground firm and sure under my paws - it’s a fantastic experience.We leap down rocky ravines, jump over clear babbling creeks, launching our powerful bodies down the mountain. We reach the valley in between, a relatively flat meadow filled with golden prairie grasses and tiny wildflower blossoms. I smell their fragrant aroma, as well as the birds nesting among the grasses.But this isn’t just a fun adventure. Ahead of me, Jasper is determined, his snout close to the ground as he follows the scent trail of the bear clan. Occasionally he lifts his head, his ears pricked up, listening to the wind and getting a better sense of where we are. He seems to know this land like the back of his paws, and I feel sure footed and confident following in his trail. As we start to leave t
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE
“Well, then we need to get your sister to help us,” Orsina says. I take my phone out of my pocket, but there’s no way we could call Layla from here - I don’t have any signal on my cell phone out here in the mountains.Instead, I take pictures of the stone, getting it from every angle I can and making sure I have plenty of clear photos of the engraving. “I can send these to my sister once we get back to town,” I promise. “We should get you out of here quickly then,” Orsina says. “I don’t know when my family will be back. If they see us talking, we could all be killed.”“Wait,” Jasper says. “I’m not leaving them alone to poke through my ancestral homeland while I just hang out in town. We came here to stop them in their search.”“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go up there and chase after them,” Orsina tells him. “My dad and brothers and uncles are all out hunting for the cave, and they’d destroy you.”“That’s a risk we’re willing to take,” Zach says. “I
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