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CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY SEVEN
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The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY EIGHT
“Let’s talk about this,” Sarah says, approaching the bear clan’s Alpha slowly. “I think we can figure something out.”“What do you mean?” Barrett asks.“A truce,” Nash says. “No one here wants this mountain to blow up. It would destroy your clan and your home as well as that of the wolf pack.”“I have no choice,” Barrett says. “It has to happen. If some of us die, then their sacrifice was necessary to rescue our clan.”“Rescue your clan from what?” Sarah asks. Her voice is gentle but firm, the same tone she uses to talk to Stella and Samuel when the two children are squabbling or misbehaving. “From whatever destruction those wolves have been bringing down on us since long before I was born!” Barrett shouts.“That sounds really hard,” Sarah says. “I bet it feels like your clan has been cursed.”“We have! It’s a curse! And the only way to end it is to finally destroy them!” Barrett points accusingly at Jasper and Zach, now huddled together behind the San Diego pack.
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY NINE
No one in the San Diego pack was able to talk Greyson out of his insistence that he ought to be the one to carry out the potentially fatal rescue mission. He says a grim goodbye to Nash and leaves to creep up the side of the ridge where he can sit, unnoticed by the bear clan, until and unless he needs to leap into action and sacrifice himself for the rest of the pack.As for me, I’m determined to make Greyson’s sacrifice unnecessary. He won’t need to come down on Barrett and try to wrestle the detonator away from him if I can just convince the bear clan’s Alpha to listen to us.We decide that I should be the one to try and talk to him. He trusts me, or at least he knows me, after our time together. I’m not exactly the sorceress that Layla is, but I am her Star Twin. Plus, I know all about the carving and its inscription, and the blessing and curse that form its two sides. “I’m coming with you,” Orsina insists. I open my mouth to protest, but she just takes me by the hand and
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY
One member of the bear clan steps, skinny and ruddy faced, steps forward. “Could the wolf girl read the poem again?”Barrett hands the carving back to me with a commanding grunt. I obey, reading the inscription slowly, clearly, and loudly.“Yeah, I know some of those lines,” the bear says.“Where from?” Barrett asks.“My mom used to sing a song like that,” he tells us. “But it wasn’t about a blood feud or a curse or anything like that. It was longer, and kind of different.”“Different how?” Barrett sounds like he’s getting impatient now, and I don’t exactly blame him.The tall bear clan member looks nervous, twisting his hands together. “I’m not sure if it means anything, or what it means…”“Damn it, Rocky, just tell us what the song said!”“It was a love song,” Rocky says. “About a great love. She used to say it was about the two mountains, a girl and a boy, but there are lines in the song about wolves and bears. It’s all romantic, lots of kisses and longing lo
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY ONE
“WHAT!?” Barrett’s eyes look like they’re going to burst out of his skull. “Zach and I are in love,” Orsina says with a wide grin. “And we are going to be mated.”“No, no, no no no no no.” Barrett crosses his arms and shakes his head. “I’m on board to make a truce with the wolves, and see if this blessing thing is real, but I draw the line at a member of my own clan becoming mates with one of them.”“But that’s how we end this thing once and for all,” Orsina pleads.“This has gone too far. I won’t have it.” Barrett reaches out to take Orsina by the arm and pull her back toward him. “We’ll let your new wolf friends go, but we bears are going back to our camp site to talk this over.”“No!” Orsina yanks her arm back from Barrett and stands beside Zach. “I’m not leaving him.”“Well I’m not allowing this,” Barrett says. “Just because you kids found some cool rock down by the stream doesn’t mean we’re going to change how we do things after hundreds of years.”“But doing
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY TWO
We all stand in reverent silence for a moment. Then Norah, the wolf who appeared to explain the origins of the carving and its blessing, nuzzles against Orsina. At the same time, Arlo pats his heavy paw on Zach’s shoulder again.Before our eyes, the wolf and bear disappear, their bodies flowing into small images now visible on Orsina and Zach’s skin. On Orsina’s upper arm, the image of a wolf, and on the exact same place, Zach has an image of a bear.The carving is no longer. Now, Norah and Arlo and their legacy live on in the strange, beautiful tattoos marking Orsina and Zach.Bears don’t do claiming marks as part of their mating ritual - Orsina told me that, when we were stuck in the prison trailer together talking - so this seems to be taking their place. Zach and Orsina are now sealed into their mated bond, marked with and for each other.“Well then,” Barrett says, coughing awkwardly. “I can’t say I fully understand everything that’s just transpired, but as the Alpha of
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY THREE
Things are looking like they’re going to settle down in Montana, so Jasper and I decide it’s time to go home. But we don’t want to head straight back to the Santa Cruz tree house. It seems like Isaac and Regan have things well under control there, so we hop in with the San Diego caravan and plan for some relaxing beachside time.Jasper and I still haven’t actually sealed our mating bond, but our friends Sarah and Nash take it upon themselves to get us a beautiful hotel along the way, a massive penthouse all to ourselves, overlooking the granite cliffs and blue lakes of Glacier National Park.“Don’t worry about keeping up with the rest of the caravan,” Sarah tells me, pressing the lacquered wood hotel key into my hand. “We’ll have everything nice and ready for you when you get home.”“Take as much time as you like,” Nash tells Jasper. I can see in both of their expressions that Sarah and Nash are so happy for us, especially me, finding a new mate after the heartbreak of losing
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY FOUR
SIX MONTHS LATER“Regan, are we all set for the self defense overnight this weekend?”“Absolutely, boss!”I smile and head back down the hallway toward the bedroom wing that Jasper and I now share. We’ve converted my old living suite into a temporary guest space for clients who want to stay for a more immersive experience. After six months, we have our training business off the ground. Howling Wolf Tactical Trainings has become a huge success, especially now that we take human and pet dog clients as well. People come from all over the country to work with us, training guard dogs, search and rescue canines, and even the occasional service dog for paralympians and other outdoor, active service dog teams. “How are things going with this overnight?” Jasper asks me, pulling on his workout gear as he steps out of the shower.“Regan says everything is all set up,” I tell him. “The first night, they’ll be sleeping up here, and then we’ll do a beachside campout with tactical e
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY FIVE
It’s been a long morning out on the beach. We’re training wolf shifters, which mean we’re a bit more casual and friendly with them, more open about who we are, than when we’re with human clients. But this group has been slow to warm up to us. They’re from a wolf pack out in Maine, sent out by their Alpha to train with us, and it’s clear that not all of them were too thrilled to spend a few weeks out in California getting run ragged by Jasper and me.“It’s miserably hot out here,” one of the shifters whines as he grabs a towel and wipes his face. Santa Cruz isn’t exactly a tropical paradise, but there’s no shade out on the beach, and it’s probably warmer than wherever they’re from in Maine.“We can go for a swim in the water later,” I promise him, handing him a fresh water bottle.“That’s too cold,” he says.“Not in wolf form,” I tell him. “Have you ever gotten in the ocean as a wolf?”He shakes his head. “Always figured the salt water would be bad for my fur. Plus, the o
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