ALEXANDER
Well, that was an interesting way to meet my mate, to say the least. It almost wasn’t surprising when it happened. Okay, it was very unexpected and shocking, but I’m also one of those people who attracts drama and crazy situations. Needless to say, it is never a dull day in my life, and I never run out of stories to tell at parties.
So, it was almost expected that I wouldn’t meet my mate the normal way. Most people meet their mates at a party or a café, they lock eyes from across a room, they go to the same park one day. You get the picture—there are hundreds of normal ways to meet a mate. Of course, I’m the one that meets my mate at my father’s murder scene, my mate being the number one and only suspect. If it weren’t so disturbing, I’d laugh about it. The Moon Goddess clearly has a sick sense of humor.
Granted, my father was not exactly in the running for father or, heck, person of the year. But I’m not quite sure what crime he committed that deserved murder. Okay, okay, there have been many times I’ve wanted to murder him myself. But it’s something completely different when a stranger does it, eh?
Although murder aside, she was quite captivating. She was tall and beautiful, with very long brown hair that blew seductively in the wind coming through the window (objectively, it probably wasn’t that seductive, but it felt seductive). And, oh man, those eyes. It was like they could see into my soul. They were the most distinct shade of blue. Granted, I knew nothing about her, but physically she was perfect—exactly my type.
And then she was gone. I could sense fear permeating the air around me as she jumped from the window, tearing all her clothes. I stepped forward, past my father’s corpse, far too captivated to bring my attention to him. All I could do was stare out the window as she disappeared into the dark night. I turned back around and knelt down to pick up her clothes, now just scraps, before bringing them to my nose and inhaling her intoxicating scent. A moan escaped my lips as I did so, the scent was so enchanting and sensual. It was the same scent I’d caught in the woods behind the packhouse, not knowing at the time what it was. I finally understood what people meant when they talked about the scent of a mate. It was tons better than all my other favorite scents: fresh laundry, cinnamon buns, cookies fresh out of the oven, freshly cut grass, new car smell. I’d be willing to never smell any of those things again in exchange for smelling her scent every day for the rest of my life.
My sister and mom caught me in the act as I inhaled my mate’s clothing scraps. Clearly, that was not the correct reaction for stumbling upon my father’s murder. My mother screamed—the correct reaction.
“What the fuck?” Sara, my sister, gasped as she walked into the room and squatted next to our father. A large puddle of blood had formed by his face, seeping out from his mouth and nostrils. She pulled a dart out of his arm and smelled it. “Wolfsbane,” she said.
“How ironic,” I responded.
“What?” She looked at me, confusion on her face.
“Well, it was his idea to use wolfsbane darts in battle. It’s pretty ironic that that’s how he dies in the end, eh?”
“Did you do this?” She glared at me. “Did you kill Dad?”
“What? No!” I replied in shock. Although, that must show how good our father-son relationship was for her to accuse me of that. “Anyway, if I did kill him, it wouldn’t be using darts.”
“Who did this? Did you see them?” she shouted at me.
“Yes,” I replied. My mom shrieked.
Sara looked over at our mom and sighed. “Stay here,” she said, going to my mom. She helped my mom get up and led her out of the room. I did as commanded and didn’t move from the place where I was sitting, inhaling the scent of my mate again. Goddess, she smelled amazing.
After some time, Sara returned. “Who did this?” she demanded.
“I don’t know,” I replied, my thoughts returning to the beautiful mystery woman, sighing to myself.
“But you said you saw them.”
“I did, but I’d never seen her before.”
“Her?”
“Here, smell this,” I said, handing her a clothing scrap.
“Rogue,” Sara said, looking evil as she sniffed. As she said the word, I instantly recalled that one of our pack members had asked to bring a rogue into the territory as a temporary living situation thing. It seemed innocent enough at the time. My beta, a man I trusted with my life, had checked her out and approved her moving here.
“I think I know who it is. Or at least who brought the rogue here,” I said.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s go get them!” She shot up, looking ready to kill.
“Under one circumstance. The rogue is mine, and nobody touches her but me.” I looked fiercely at Sara. I couldn’t exactly have someone killing my mate. And Sara was not someone who hesitated when it came to killing. She took far more after our father than I did.
“I’m not promising that,” she replied.
I grabbed Sara by her arms, holding her in place, staring into her eyes. “She’s mine, and if you touch her, I will banish you from the pack.” I glared at her.
“Are you fucking serious?” She looked shocked, struggling to free herself from my grasp. Sara was tough, but she wasn’t as strong as I was.
“Yes, 100 percent. You lay one finger on that rogue, and you are dead to me. She’s mine to do what I want with. So you better fucking promise that you will hand her over to me alive and in one piece.”
“Fine!” she cried as I tightened my grasp on her arms.
“Promise me now,” I demanded. I wasn’t usually like this with my sister, but I felt very possessive of my mate, and I couldn’t trust that my sister wouldn’t take matters into her own hands if she got to her before I did. My hands were tightening around her arms—any more and I’d likely snap her bones.
“I promise!” she screamed in agony.
I let her go. “Good, now let’s go find her.” I led Sara to Hugo’s house. He wasn’t someone I knew well. We were a few years apart in age, and he wasn’t one of my warriors. During our drive over, I mindlinked the senior warriors on duty to see if any of them had spotted a rogue leaving the territory. One of them mindlinked me back a couple of minutes later to confirm that a rogue had sprinted out of the territory. “If the rogue comes back, grab her, and put her in a cell immediately,” I mindlinked all of the senior warriors.
It was around two in the morning when we banged on the door of Hugo’s house. His brother, Rocco, answered it groggily, his eyes shooting open in shock to see the two of us standing there. “Alpha, how can I help you?” He straightened up.
“Where’s Hugo and the rogue?” I asked.
He widened his eyes. “Not here. Did something happen?”
“Stay here.” I used my alpha aura on him, forcing him to stay put as Sara and I pushed past him to search the house. It was a small house and a quick walk through all the rooms. His mom was shocked to see us, waking when we entered her room, but I quickly commanded her to stay still until I left.
“No fresh scent anywhere in the house. Neither of them was here recently,” Sara reported.
“Hugo is at work. He works until four or five on Fridays normally,” Rocco said once we stepped outside.
“Where does he work?” I asked.
“A brothel near Calabogie.”
“I know it,” I said, looking at Sara. “You’re free to go.” I turned to Rocco, undoing my alpha aura. We got back into the car and drove just over a half hour to get to Hugo’s place of work. I was familiar with it as that was where we got our wolfsbane darts supply, which would explain how the rogue was able to obtain them.
We stormed in to be greeted by the brothel’s madam, an older lady who was desperately hanging on to her youth through Botox and hair extensions. I’d met her once before. Normally my father picked up the supply, but I’d gone with him a couple of times to become familiar with the operation.
“Mr. Adalwolf.” She nodded at me. “Here without your father?”
“My father is dead,” I replied. “Which is why I’m here. One of your employees is likely responsible for his murder.”
She gasped. “It can’t be!”
“Yes, it is. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to speak to Hugo Bernardi immediately.”
“Of course,” she replied, nodding at a couple of men behind her. We waited until they brought him over to us.
“Alpha,” he said, looking at me, appearing shocked to see me.
“Come with us quietly and we won’t make a scene,” I said. He nodded and followed us outside. We walked across the parking lot, over to where I was parked. After checking to see no one was around, I asked, “Where’s the rogue?”
“Back at my house,” he replied.
“We just checked your house, and she wasn’t there. Now, I’m going to ask you again, and you better answer. Where is the rogue?”
“I honestly don’t know if she’s not in the house. I can call her if you’d like.” He pulled out his phone and showed that he was calling her, putting the phone on speaker so we could hear. It rang and went to voice mail.
Hi, you’ve reached Talia. Sorry I missed your call. Leave a message after the beep!
“Let’s take him to the cells for interrogation,” I said, turning to Sara. We each grabbed an arm and threw him in the back seat. We drove to the pack jail where I chained him to a wall.
“Okay, start talking,” I said once Hugo was chained in place. “Where is the rogue?”
“I don’t know. I’m sorry, Alpha. She’s staying with me and will probably return later tonight if she’s not there now.”
“I have reason to believe she won’t. Now, where would she have gone otherwise? You must know her well if you were keeping her at your house.” I pulled out a knife, threatening him with it. I wasn’t opposed to torture. I had been trained by both my father and my university in the art. While it wasn’t my preferred activity, it was effective for getting answers.
“I honestly don’t know. Her mother is dead, and she doesn’t have a father. I think I’m her only friend. Alpha, may I ask why you are looking for her?”
“She killed my father.”
“Fuck.” Hugo's chin trembled and muscles tensed..
I brought the knife closer to him, making a shallow cut in his neck so that blood trickled down it. “Now I have reason to believe you may be involved.”
“Please, Alpha. If you kill me, my mom and brother won’t have anyone to support them.”
“Maybe you should have thought about that before you brought a murderous rogue onto our territory.”
“I didn’t think she was capable of murder—I swear. And I never would have assisted her in any way. In fact, I advised her against it.”
“But you knew she wanted to kill my father, eh?”
When he didn’t answer immediately, I shoved the knife into his thigh. He screamed in agony as I withdrew it. I waited for him to begin healing and stop screaming. “Now, tell me the whole story, and don’t leave anything out.”
“Alpha, I’m sorry. It was a mistake. But you have to know something. Your father killed her mother.”
“What!” I roared. “Tell me the whole story now!” I bellowed using my alpha aura. I probably could have done that from the beginning, but, okay, there was a part of me that may enjoy torture just a little bit. Especially after the murder of my father.
“Talia’s mother was a sex worker at the brothel where I worked. Your father was her number one client and, from what I understand, had been going to see her for years, possibly decades. Talia was raised in the brothel. I became friends with her after I was hired as a bouncer. A couple of weeks ago, Talia discovered her mother’s corpse, with her heart ripped out, and your father’s scent was the only other scent in the room. Based on the scent, that he had just been in to see her, and the way that Talia’s mother was killed, there is no question it was him who did it. Talia was kicked out of the brothel and had no other place to go, so I offered for her to stay with me until she could get back on her feet. She did ask me how to kill a werewolf and I replied honestly, but I also told her that she’d more likely get herself killed than accomplish what she wanted to do.”
“What the fuck?” Sara gasped. “Dad was going to a brothel regularly?”
“Well, it explains a lot. Like where he disappeared to on his nights off and why he always smelled like rogue when he’d get home,” I responded, then turned back to Hugo. Using my alpha aura, I asked, “Where did she get the wolfsbane darts?”
He looked at me, eyes widening. “I don’t know.”
“Where is she?” I asked using my alpha aura again.
“I don’t know.” He let out a long, low sigh and in an emotion-choked voice, asked, “Are you going to hurt her when you find her?”
“None of your business,” I replied.
“Please don’t hurt her, Alpha,” he pleaded with me.
“You have no right to ask anything of me. You brought danger into the pack, and you’re lucky I’m not banishing you. I think it’s best if you stay in the cells for now. And you better pray to Artemis that we find her because otherwise you might find yourself rotting in here.”
He nodded sadly at me. Sara and I unchained him and led him into a cell, locking the door. I nodded at the guard on duty as we exited.
“Well, I guess that leaves only one option,” I said, looking at Sara as we walked back to the car. “You are our best tracker.”
“My pleasure,” she said, grinning.
“But my directive stands. You better bring her back alive and in one piece.”
She rolled her eyes and said, “Fine. Why do you get to have all the fun?”
“Because I’m the alpha.”
Before going into the packhouse, we walked into the backyard, sniffing the area. Her scent led us to a small purse that was left in the woods behind our house. I picked it up to find a small wallet and cell phone inside. The cell phone was locked, so I wasn’t able to open it, but there was a picture of her with her mom on the lock screen. The two of them looked very alike, like sisters. I opened her wallet to see there wasn’t much in it. She didn’t even have a driver’s license. There wasn’t much money in it either, just a few loonies and toonies.
Sara left me and headed into the woods, hot in pursuit of my mate’s scent. She returned over a week later, empty-handed. “This rogue bitch loves to swim,” she whined.
I returned to the cells to visit Hugo. “Well, we weren’t able to track your rogue friend,” I said. “Any ideas on how to find her?”
He sighed and said, “I don’t know. I honestly have no idea where she could have gone. Maybe you can go through her things in my bedroom. Maybe it will give you a clue as to where she went. We did speak about her joining a pack. I mentioned that her mom may have been part of a pack before she came here. If I had to guess, I’d say that may be where she went.”
“Any idea where her mom’s pack was?”
“I’m not even sure if her mom was part of a pack. The only thing I know is that Talia’s not from Canada. She told me she’s not here legally.”
“Well, you better start coming up with some more ideas. You don’t get out of this cell until we find her. But thanks for the tip on the pack.” I walked out of the jail heading straight for Hugo’s house. Just as he suggested, I searched his room. I found a backpack inside with different notebooks and books. Pulling everything out and going through it all, I came across a folder with an American passport and two birth certificates. Bingo!
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Thanks for reading the preview of the next book in the series, Wolfblood! If you'd like to keep reading, please search for 'Wolfblood', now complete on Goodnovel. While this book does introduce some new characters, it also continues the story of Jasmine & Blake. Happy reading!
*** Two years ago *** JASMINE Rules. I was good at following rules. Rules like always bring home report cards with a vertical line of As; go to temple to worship the Moon Goddess, Artemis, every week; prepare dinner for the family on weeknights; help keep the house clean. My parents had lots of rules, and I followed them, the number one being: never ever date anyone who isn’t your mate. I liked rules. They kept my life simple. If I followed the rules, my parents would be pleased, and I’d be rewarded with future success and happiness. At least that was what I believed for a long time. Looking back, I could pinpoint the day my feelings began to change—exactly a month before my eighteenth birthday. It was one of those perfect days at the end of August where the sun didn’t scorch you, and the breeze was cool on your skin. Engrossed in a book, I had lost track of time when the loud drumming of a woodpecker broke my concentration, and I realized—shit!—I was late meeting my best friend, L
*** Present Day *** JASMINE After I spent the last hour putting together dinner that consisted of crispy, oven-baked chicken thighs, twice-baked potatoes, and a garden salad, my parents and I sat down to an early meal. We always ate early on Sundays so that we’d make it in time for the weekly temple service that started at six thirty in the evening. As I was cutting into my chicken, my dad looked over at me and asked, “So, Jasmine, have you given any more thought to your college major?” It was mid-June, and I had just completed my freshman year of college a month earlier. Although I was quite clearly an adult now, my parents still treated me the same way they had in high school—micromanaging my life. “Honey, she’s going into biochemistry as we did of course!” my mom jumped in before I could reply. “Then she can work at the pharmaceutical lab just like us. I mean, clearly, there aren’t many career options around here, so this would be perfect for a smart girl like Jasmine.” “Is tha
JASMINE A few days after the beach trip, I entered the café in our downtown area to start my shift. I was on the early shift that day, so I had to be there at five in the morning to clean and prep everything. I always started by wiping down all the tables and counters and sweeping the floor. Even though this had already been done the evening prior. Valerie, the owner, was very obsessive about cleanliness, which I appreciated. I then went to brew the drip coffees. Valerie was busy pulling everything out of the oven and into the displays. She had arrived even earlier than me. Valerie almost never took a day off and often worked twelve-hour shifts. She was very curvy with curly red hair and a fiery personality to match. She never took crap from anyone. As all the different coffees were brewing, I went to open the register. At six, we switched the sign to Open. When I had first started the job, I thought I’d never learn everything, but now I was an expert at all the different types of es
JASMINE The following weekend, Lucy invited me to attend a friends-and-family plated-dessert experience at her culinary school to celebrate the end of the school year. She had to be there early to set up, so she took the family car. In turn, I borrowed my parents’ Tesla SUV and drove down with her mom, Ivy. Because we lived in the middle of nowhere, it took us an hour and a half to get to her school. She had told me how long the drive was before, but I couldn’t believe how far she commuted now that I'd actually done it myself! We parked and entered the school, following the sound of people until we found where tables were set up with white tablecloths and desserts displayed. As soon as we walked in, Lucy spotted us and came over wearing a white jacket and hat, her eyes lighting up, greeting us both with hugs. I looked around and saw that everyone had put out intricately designed dessert plates. They looked more like art than food. I’d only ever seen desserts like this a few times in
BLAKE My father and I were, once again, in a heated argument. He always played the nice, fatherly Santa-type in front of the pack but, behind closed doors, he terrorized my mother and me. I wouldn’t be surprised if his goal in life was to do as much psychological damage to me as possible before his ultimate death. There were days I considered killing him myself. It was common in some packs for an alpha son to kill his father to assume the alpha title, especially when it wasn’t handed over peacefully, but I had yet to be driven to that point. He was still my father, as much as I hated him, and I wasn’t in any rush to assume his title. I had been eager five years ago, ready for the power, but things changed. . . “I compromised and let you have your fun for four years,” my father raged. “You think Siberia is fun?” “I don’t give a shit if it is or isn’t. It is your duty as my heir to assume the title of alpha, and I’m not allowing you to put it off any longer. The pack is becoming weak
JASMINE In early July, my parents and I were sitting together at the Monday-morning service. It was a small crowd that day—only the totally devout along with the alpha and beta families. I was having trouble concentrating during the meditations and kept sneaking looks at Blake while everyone else’s eyes were closed. Suddenly, Blake opened his eyes and looked up at me, catching me staring. He gave me a quick wink and then closed his eyes again. Was I developing a crush on Blake? How basic, having a crush on both the alpha and the beta. Could I be any more of a cliché? After the service, I excused myself to go to the bathroom while my parents mingled with the congregation, as usual. It seemed like they came here more for the gossip than the actual service. When exiting the bathroom, I almost crashed into Blake, eliciting a gasp from me. “We meet again!” he exclaimed, smiling widely. “Hi, Blake,” I replied, not knowing what else to say, smiling back at him. He did have a really nice
JASMINE He led me down a different path this time. It took about another hour to get down to the bottom. He was not wrong. The sun was beating down on us. By the time I reached the water, I was ready to jump in. He started peeling off his clothes until he was only wearing his boxer briefs, his muscular body on full display. My breath hitched as I tried hard not to stare while the sun reflected off his broad shoulders and bare torso. Damn, he was so jacked and sexy. Before I could lose myself in my gawking, he sprinted to the water on his bared, muscular legs and jumped in. “The water feels great! Come on in! I know you want to!” I had an internal argument with myself. It was ridiculously hot, and, logically, underwear wasn’t much different than a bathing suit. Thank Goddess I had chosen dark-colored underwear this morning. The devil over my shoulder won this time. I gestured for him to turn around. He rolled his eyes but still did it. Once his back was to me, I stripped down out of
LUCY It was well into summer and hot as hell. We didn’t have central AC in our house, so we relied on window air-conditioning units. It also didn’t help that our gas oven was old and baked the entire kitchen every time I went to use it. Today I was making cookies to put in a care package for Luke—something I had done weekly for two years. I chose today to bake because it was my day off but was now regretting my choice as I unstuck the front of my shirt from my wet body. We were in the midst of a heatwave, and I felt as if I had just showered, sweat dripping down my face and back. I, with all my brothers, still lived at home. There were seven of us living in a small, old four-bedroom house. My parents had five kids that they had to support on just my dad’s modest warrior salary. That’s why everything we had was old and in need of updating. Our windows were drafty, and many of the tiles in the bathroom and kitchen were cracked and in need of repair. I was the middle child and the odd