A True Alpha Christmas (4 page)

Mia gave a short laugh then shook her head. “Okay, fine. Just don’t get your hopes up about Colin calling you anytime soon.”

“He already did.” Jeeter smirked.

“Really?” Mia’s hand froze on the way to picking up her fork again.

“This morning. Said he needed a date for this big thing SparkTech is putting on this weekend.”

Mia was truly stunned. “He invited you to the Tree Lighting party?”

“Don’t look so surprised.” Jupiter put on her best offended face. “I can be pretty hot, too. And besides, he said everyone was supposed to bring a date, and I’d be really helping him out by letting him bring someone his father already approves of.” Jeeter held her head high, and Mia had to give her that. With everything Jeeter had done to help the pack, the senior Mr. Sparks had practically adopted her. Mia could see why wild-streak Colin might want someone the senior partner in the firm would welcome to the party anyway, rather than some one-night stand he dredged up and dragged along.

“All right, I can see that,” Mia said. “This party is supposed to a pretty big deal for the pack. Something about the full moon and Christmas and… I don’t really know what all the fuss is about, but Colin wouldn’t want to piss off Mr. Sparks by bringing someone less…”

Jupiter arched her eyebrows. “Less what?”

“Less well loved.” Mia smiled. Her stomach took that moment to grumble about the lack of a decent lunch, and she needed sustenance to get through tonight’s encounter between Lucas and her mom. She gave up on the salad and reached over to help herself to one of Jupiter’s fries.

Jupiter scowled at the stolen lunch. “Well, you get first prize for being most well-loved in the pack. Those guys still brag about laying down their lives to save you. And any fool can see Lucas is crazy in love.”

Mia sighed. “I just wish things outside the pack were as simple as they are inside.”

Jupiter sopped her gourmet French fry in ketchup. “What are you talking about?”

“Lucas is meeting my mom tonight.” Mia grimaced.

Jupiter’s red-drenched fry froze midway to her face. “Get out.” Her ex-roommate was Mia’s only non-shifter friend who knew she was a shifter.

“I know, right? It’s going to be a disaster.”

“But your mom doesn’t know, like,
anything,
right?”

Mia nodded.

Jupiter whistled low. “Are you going to tell her?”

Mia reached over to steal the last of Jupiter’s fries. “I don’t know, Jeeter. Either she thinks Lucas is a rich creep who’s keeping me at his apartment until he tires of me, or she finds out he’s a shifter, and she thinks even
worse.”

“Well, tell her
you’re
a shifter. She loves you… that’s got to soften the blow.”

Mia just shook her head. “I don’t know.”

Jeeter frowned. “I’m total fail as a friend here. I don’t have any good advice about coming out of the closet as a shifter. I mean… most people aren’t as awesomely open-minded as your ex-roommate.” She sighed. “But I’m sure it will work out. Just… call me after?”

Mia nodded, but she wasn’t sure at all that things would
work out.
And it wasn’t just her mom finding out that she and Lucas were shifters that weighed on her. It was the party last night… and the party tomorrow… and every time going forward when she would have to keep the fact that she and Lucas were bound for life a secret.

Mia sighed and scooped up the last of Jeeter’s fries. “I have to get back to work.”

“Find out what the dress code is for tomorrow’s party!” Jupiter called after her.

That was the least of Mia’s problems, but it would give her something to distract her until tonight.

The office was decked out with holiday trimmings, although the festive scents were kept to a minimum—there were a lot of shifter noses to offend in SparkTech’s office on the 32
^nd
floor. It was Friday afternoon, the week before Christmas—most of their current projects were either completed or mostly suspended for the holidays. Which meant lounging instead of working was at an all-time high, and gossip was at a premium.

With the party last night, there had to be a lot to talk about.

Mia’s finals at the University of Washington had been over for a week, so she’d picked up more hours at SparkTech, but with projects on a slow-down, she didn’t have any more to do than the rest of them. But she still had a mission.

Mia pushed open the frosted glass doors at the entrance to the office, cruised past the dark burnished wood of the receptionist’s desk, and sailed through the second set of frosted doors that led into the main office. She scanned the glass tables and trim, off-white couches of the wide-open floor plan, but she didn’t see Rebecca, the new intern and in-demand female shifter. Air purifiers whirred enough to cover up any conversations leaking from the offices around the perimeter, and most of the office doors were closed anyway. Given that the doors and walls of the offices were made of frosted glass lit from within by a rare winter-sunshine day in Seattle, Mia could see by the shadows that most were unoccupied. A few had clusters of people gathered within them.

She only hoped that her trip to the closet last night with Lucas wasn’t making the office gossip rounds.

The guest office where Rebecca worked appeared to be empty. Mia bit her lip—if she couldn’t catch Rebecca alone before the end of the day, her mission was going to be a failure before it even got launched. Mia poked her head into the coffee room first, disturbing an energetic card game in progress, then ducked back out. She was afraid to try Lev’s office, in case he managed to get her alone without Mia’s help, but it was empty in any event. Colin’s office was bustling, but there was
no way
she was going in there. Lucas’s office looked empty from the outside, but she knew he was one of the few people working—as a managing partner, he had a lot of responsibilities on his shoulders. Finally, she noticed Steven’s office had a small party going on—and he was one of the cluster-of-five who had been vying for Rebecca’s attention last night.

Sure enough, the intern was cornered inside.

Mia’s entrance into the office only garnered the attention of two of the five wolves. The others were fixated on Rebecca’s cascading brown curls and curvaceous figure, making no attempt to hide their lust. The room was so thick with male shifter pheromones, Mia nearly choked. Rebecca was smiling, but it looked strained.

How long had they had her trapped with their attempts at wooing?

“There you are!” Mia said brightly to Rebecca, finally wrenching the other three wolves’ attention away. Momentarily. “I could use your help, Becca. I’ve been going over that Blue Wave report and some of the numbers aren’t adding up.”

“Really?” The relief on Rebecca’s delicately beautiful face was plain to see, not that the wolves panting after her seemed to notice. “Sure. I can help you with that.”

She practically needed a wrecking ball to work her way through the blockade of male shifter bodies between her and the door.

Oh, for the love of everything magic.

Mia met her half way, reaching out her hand to pull Rebecca through the rest. “Don’t you guys have some work to do?” Mia growled.

“We were working on getting a date, but you interrupted us,” quipped Steven.

Mia gave him a
ha, ha
look. Definitely nowhere near as funny as Lev. Rebecca hooked her arm around Mia’s, like they were best friends since kindergarten, and practically hauled Mia out of the room in her haste to leave. Mia quickly matched pace and steered her toward Mia’s office.

Once they were inside, Rebecca closed the door and leaned against it. “I owe you big time.”

Mia smiled wide. This was even better than she hoped for. “You looked like you were drowning in there.”

“No, no.” Rebecca’s hands were up, like she was afraid she had offended Mia. “They’re all really super nice, and sweet, and cute, too—”

“Cute?” Mia asked. She had settled back against her desk and folded her arms to study the distraught Rebecca. “That sounds… platonic.”

Rebecca’s shoulders slumped. “I know, I’m supposed to be finding a mate.”

Mia unfolded her arms, a wave of sympathy washing over her. It wasn’t so long ago that she had been the one struggling to decide who she wanted for a mate. And Rebecca was only a couple of years older than Mia—in the real world, most girls would be looking for careers, not husbands, at their age. But in the shifter world, everything happened faster.

“You’re pack-raised, aren’t you?” Mia asked, gesturing Rebecca over to a chair by her desk.

“Yeah, I spent my whole life in one small pack in Redmond.” She flopped into the chair, leaning back like she had collapsed into it. “I mean, I dated guys—human guys, you know—but it was never serious. I knew I would find a shifter and mate some day, so that was all just for fun, right?”

Mia dragged over a chair to sit next to Rebecca. “And now everyone wants you to have their pups.”

A laugh erupted from her, almost like a hiccup with wings. “Yeah, it’s kind of… unsettling.” Then she peered at Mia with her soft brown eyes. “How did you know Lucas was the one for you?”

Mia had to hold in the grin. She was
so
going to be Mission Accomplished in getting Lev and Rebecca together. “It’s a long story, but I knew from the beginning there was something different about him. Something special.”

Rebecca nodded then looked a little sheepish. “Is it silly to want something romantic like that? I mean, it’s not like I’m looking for an alpha—I don’t need someone to come in and sweep me off my feet—I just want someone who will make me laugh.”

Mia seriously had to hold herself back from jumping up from the chair and doing a victory dance. Instead, she asked, “So you’re not interested in Colin?”

Rebecca made a face. “Colin? Uh… no. He’s… not my type.
At all.”

At this point, even Mia’s wolf was prancing around with glee. “Colin
is
really intense.”

Rebecca nodded emphatically.

“And those other guys…” Mia gestured to the door and the salivating wolves they left behind. “No chemistry there, either?”

Rebecca sighed. “I guess I need to give it some time. I’m just not used to all the attention, you know? Back home, everyone knew I would find a mate somewhere else. It’s kind of my alpha’s rule about the pack.” She puffed out her chest in a hilarious impression of her commanding alpha, whoever that was.
“No mating within the pack. We’re family.”

Mia chuckled at the deep tone of voice, but her head was quickly putting the pieces together: small town shifter, cloistered at home, protected by an overbearing alpha. Sweet, inside and out. And pretty and fun. This girl was
perfect
for Lev.

“So this is your first time outside your own pack?” Mia asked.

Rebecca took a deep breath and let it out slow. “I’m screwing this up, aren’t I?”

“What? No.” Mia put up her hands for emphasis. “What about Lev? Have you had a chance to meet him?”

“Oh. Yeah.” Rebecca bit her lip and dropped her gaze to the floor.

Mia frowned. What was this? Was Lev holding out on her? “What happened?”

“Oh, nothing happened, it’s just…” She grimaced and looked out the windows toward the glittering towers of downtown Seattle.

Mia leaned forward and patted her knee. “You can tell me, Becca. I’m not going to rat you out to the ravenous wolves of the Sparks packs.”

That brought back a little bit of her smile. Then she shrugged. “I just got the impression Lev didn’t really like me. I don’t know why, I mean, he doesn’t even know me.”

“No, he doesn’t.” This was totally something she could fix. “Why don’t you go with him to the Tree Lighting party tomorrow? You have to bring a date, right?”

She frowned, looking vaguely horrified. “Oh, um, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“He’s, like, the son of a pack leader. And it’s the pack’s party. And I’m just a visitor…”

Mia frowned. “You mean, he’s the only one who hasn’t asked you yet.”

“That too.” Her shoulders fell.

“Becca, come on.”
He’d be perfect for you.
But Mia held those words back. It was too early to say them, even if she was completely convinced herself. “What could it hurt to ask? Or… maybe I could, you know, let him know that you might be interested…”

Rebecca grinned. “Okay, why does this feel like high school all over again?”

“Because everything’s different inside the pack?” Something Mia was learning was all too true.

Rebecca’s smile faded, and she was back to biting her lip. “No, don’t say anything. I mean, if you go tell him I think he’s hot, then it’ll just be awkward when he says he’s not interested.”

Mia pointed a finger at her. “You think he’s hot.”

Her brow wrinkled up, like Mia must be blind not to see this. “He’s one of the Sparks brothers.”

“You have a point there,” Mia said. “So
ask
him.”

“Okay, okay.” Rebecca held up her hands. “Maybe. I’ll think about it.” She rose up from her chair. “I’m assuming you don’t actually have any work for me to do.”

“Guilty,” Mia said with a smile.

“Thanks for rescuing me.” Before Mia could respond, Rebecca was giving her a hug. It was entirely sweet and sisterly and made Mia wish all the more that Rebecca would find a mate, and a home, here in the Sparks packs with her. Rebecca peeked out her door, checking for ravenous wolves, before making a bee-line back to her own office.