All Chapters of THE ALPHA’S UNWANTED PLUS-SIZE MATE: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

Clara’s povThe music was too loud, the kind of bass that rattled the plastic cups on the table and made the floor vibrate under my boots. Someone had strung fairy lights through the trees behind the pack house, and the whole clearing looked like it was trying too hard to be festive. Twenty-one. That was a big number. The one everyone kept toasting to like it meant something.I stood near the edge of the crowd with a half-empty bottle of beer I wasn’t drinking. My cousin Maya kept elbowing me, grinning.“You look like you’re waiting for the sky to fall,” she said. “Loosen up. It’s your night.”“I am loosened,” I muttered. “This is my loosened face.”She snorted. “Sure. That’s why you’ve been scanning the trees for the last ten minutes.”I hadn’t meant to. Alpha Kael’s pack always showed up to these things, protocol, politics, whatever. But he’d never come to one of mine. Not once in the five years since I’d moved back after my parents died. I told myself I didn’t care. I almost bel

Clara’s povThe diner smelled like coffee and bacon grease the second I pushed the door open.It was early, not even seven yet, and the place was already half full with men in work jackets and a couple of older women sharing a newspaper. A bell over the door jingled. I stood there in yesterday’s jeans and a clean shirt, duffel still in the truck, and waited until the woman behind the counter looked up.She was maybe fifty, gray streaking through dark hair pulled back in a messy knot, eyes sharp but not unkind.“Help you?”“I’m looking for work,” I said. “Anything. Waiting tables, kitchen, cleaning. I’m a fast learner and I don’t mind early shifts.”She wiped her hands on a towel and looked me over. “Are you local?”“Just got in. Staying at the motel for now.”“Name?”“Clara.”She nodded once, like that was enough. “I’m Marnie. Have you ever waited tables before?”“Diner worked back home for a couple years. I can handle a full section.”Marnie studied me for another few seconds, then

Clara’s povMarnie set a plate of eggs and toast in front of me before the diner even opened.“Eat,” she said. “You’re running on coffee and stubbornness again.”I pulled the plate closer. “I ate last night.”“Leftover soup doesn’t count. Sit.”I sat. The kitchen was still quiet, just the low hiss of the grill warming up and the smell of fresh coffee. I ate without arguing. The eggs were good. Everything Marnie cooked was good when she decided you needed it.She leaned against the counter and watched me for a second. “You been sleeping?”“Enough.”“Liar. You’ve got that look again. The one you get when something’s chewing on you.”I shrugged and kept eating. “I’m fine. Just thinking about the tips from last week. I want to put more away.”Marnie nodded like that made sense. “Good. Bank’s open till three if you want to start an account. Or keep it under the mattress if you don’t trust banks. Either way, don’t leave cash in the apron overnight. Someone’ll walk off with it.”“I won’t.”

Clara’s povThe second letter arrived the same way the first one had, tucked under the napkin holder like it belonged there.Marnie slid it across the counter during the mid-morning lull. “Another one. Same handwriting. You going to burn this one too, or actually read it this time?”I stared at the envelope. My name in that same dark ink. No return address. The new heat in my chest, the one that had nothing to do with the old bond, flared once, sharp enough that I had to set the coffee pot down before I dropped it.“I’ll take it upstairs later,” I said.Marnie raised an eyebrow. “Suit yourself. But whatever’s in those letters is clearly not done with you. You’ve been jumpy ever since the first one showed up.”“I’m fine.”“You keep saying that. One of these days I’m going to stop believing you.”I shoved the letter into my apron pocket and kept working. The heat stayed, low and steady, the same way it had for days now. My wolf watched it the way she watched everything else lately, qu

Clara’s povThe first sign was the way my wolf went still.I was wiping down the counter after the lunch rush when it happened, sudden silence inside me, like she’d stopped pacing and locked onto something outside the diner walls. The heat in my chest flared once, sharp, then settled into a low, watchful burn. I paused with the rag in my hand and glanced toward the front windows.Nothing looked different. Main Street was the same as always, two trucks parked outside the hardware store, a woman walking her dog, the usual afternoon quiet.Marnie came out of the kitchen with a stack of clean plates. “You freeze up for a reason or just daydreaming?”“Thought I heard something.”She set the plates down and followed my gaze to the window. “Street’s empty. You good?”“Yeah.” I went back to wiping, but the feeling didn’t leave. My wolf stayed locked on whatever she’d noticed, tense and quiet in a way that made the hair on my arms stand up.Frank came in a little later for his second coffee