Alpha Curves (Paranormal BBW Shifter Romance): Wolf Clan Book 3

1. About Alpha Curves
   
2. Alpha Curves
   
3. Chapter Two
   
4. Chapter Three
   
5. Chapter Four
   
6. Chapter Five
   
7. Chapter Six
   
8. Chapter Seven
   
9. Chapter Eight
   
10. Chapter Nine
    
11. Chapter Ten
    
12. Chapter Eleven
    
13. Chapter Twelve
    
14. Chapter Thirteen
    
15. Chapter Fourteen
    
16. Chapter Fifteen
    
17. Chapter Sixteen
    
18. Chapter Seventeen
    
19. Chapter Eighteen
    
20. Chapter Nineteen
    
21. Chapter Twenty
    
22. Pesky Legal Junk
    

About Alpha Curves

This is the third book in the Wolf Clan series. Titles should be read in order, starting with Wolf Curves.

Nine months have passed since the influx of latents onto clan lands began. For Cade Mercer, the time has been a season in purgatory as he leads his team on a series of dangerous runs to locate mates for other shifters -- a sour, jagged pill to swallow when his own mate disappeared more than a dozen years ago.

When the current rescue goes south in a hurry, Cade is more than a little tempted to follow his teammate’s suggestion and throw the woman they seek back into the "latent pool."

Until he smells her and all hell breaks loose...

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Alpha Curves

Rain fell on Columbus in thick sheets, muting the city's odors and chasing the last of the natural light from the sky. Head sticking out the van's passenger-side window, Cade Mercer inhaled slowly, filling his lungs to capacity as his face grew wet. Nostrils flaring and twitching, he searched for something -- for someone. A female, maybe a wolf cub or human and older.

Immediately west of downtown in an area called The Bottoms, he discreetly stuck the tip of his tongue out, cautiously sampling the flavor of the surrounding area and its inhabitants. Palpable emotions of fear and anger coated his taste buds and soured his stomach. Beneath it all, he detected lingering traces of feminine appeal, but none felt like the woman he had been sent to collect.

He jerked his head inside the van and closed the window. Whoever the target was, he didn't want to find her in a neighborhood like The Bottoms.

Mathis, his driver, shoved a paper towel at him. "Damn, boss, you look like you just stepped out of the shower."

"Thanks." Grunting, Cade dried his face then grabbed the radio set. "Tanner, anything on your end?"

Cade shifted restlessly in his seat as he waited for the man's reply. Counting his own warm body, he had a four-wolf team split between two tactical vans. More than a hundred miles from clan lands in a city of almost a million humans, he didn't like the numbers for the night's mission.

Hell, he wasn't sure he understood the mission.

Tanner's gravelly voice crackled over the radio. "Nothing, boss."

"Keep looking." Cade dropped the radio into the cup holder.

"Gotta take a piss." Mathis signaled a right turn half a heartbeat before he pulled into the parking lot of a coffee shop. "You think she's wrong on this one?"

"She" was Esme Foster, soon to be Esme Gladwin once her bonding ceremony with the new leader of the Tennessee clan occurred. Cade had known Esme and Dana from childhood. Both had been outcasts the first time he met them -- a round, pretty witch-in-training and the orphaned cub always at her side. Now they were among the most powerful people in the seven North American clans. Certainly, Esme was the most powerful witch across all the clans, this generation or any other.

He grunted at the memory of his last conversation with the witch. Powerful, lovely to look at and bossy as hell, Esme had all but ordered Cade to Columbus in search of a mystery woman.

"Can't imagine her being wrong." Seeing that the rain had stopped, Cade opened his window as Mathis parked. "We just need to wait until the target settles down for the night. Once she does, Esme will be able to cast better coordinates."

"So it is a latent we're looking for?" Mathis' voice dropped in speculation and a small grin pushed up one bristly cheek. "Maybe more than one?"

"Who the hell knows, but I haven't heard Esme this excited about finding someone before."

She also had never been so vague, a fact that had its cold fingers wrapped around his intestines. Forcing the unease away with a shrug of his shoulders, Cade stepped from the van to stretch his legs. "She said something was way off about the energy -- maybe more than one latent, maybe even a female cub."

The grin on his driver's face disappeared at the mention of a cub. Too many orphaned wolves had been found in the last few months, every last one of them male. No one could identify the boys. They appeared out of nowhere with memories as clean as the day they were born.

No question about it -- Mathis and the rest of the team would much prefer to find a nubile woman who didn't realize she had enough shifter DNA in her genetic makeup to mate with a werewolf and bear his children. Finding a cub would add another layer of dread to the already immense cloud hanging over the clans.

The thought had been rolling around inside Cade's head like an iron-spiked bowling ball the entire drive. He shoved it aside as he closed the passenger door and nodded at Mathis. "Hey, get me a triple with extra cream while you're in there."

"Sure thing, pussycat." Mathis disappeared into the coffee shop wearing a fresh smile.

Cade used the time alone to pace, loosening muscles that had cramped on the two-hour drive and a third hour spent searching the city with little guidance from Esme beyond a twenty-block sector in the worst neighborhood Columbus offered. He paced for several minutes, circling the van half a dozen times before Mathis exited the bathroom and ordered the coffees.

His cell phone vibrated in his pocket as he completed his seventh slow circuit of the van, jolting him from the mental haze into which he had prowled. He fished the phone from his jeans and opened it to find new GPS coordinates from Esme. The twenty-block area had narrowed to one precise location. Stomach dropping like a load of bricks, he sent the coordinates to Tanner.

Each extraction carried its own unique risks. The latent could be unwilling or she might have drawn Hunters to her. Powerful enemies skilled in magic and murder, Hunters were out to harvest the energy in wolves and latents before driving both to extinction. Two vans carrying two shifters each left no margin of error if they encountered Hunters on the mission.

The timing of the run made matters even worse. The missions were coming faster than the witches could keep up with the crafting of charms that kept his team and any cubs or latents they encountered shielded from Hunters off clan lands.

They would be going in bare.

Feeling the hairs rise along the nape of his neck, Cade climbed into the van and plugged the coordinates into the GPS unit. The route appeared with a few lines of text next to it. He read them, a fresh growl rumbling through his chest. No cub tonight -- not when the destination was a strip club. So a latent, in a bar, surrounded by men and liquor with bouncers at the door and nothing to shield his team from the killers who wanted them dead.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

Apprehension ghostwalked the length of his spine before it settled in his testicles. If he was lucky, the woman wouldn't be compatible with any of the men on his team. Otherwise, all hell would break loose if a wolf's mating response was triggered while some guy had a hand on the chick's ass. Heaven forbid a lap dance was in progress -- the scent of arousal from the human male was as good as a signed death warrant.

Mathis opened the driver side door, interrupting the scenario running through Cade's head. He handed a coffee to Cade then climbed into the van. "Got anything?"

Bringing the cup to his lips, Cade nodded and tapped the GPS screen. "New location -- looks like a latent."

"Yummy." Mathis pulled the seatbelt across his chest before noticing the scowl on his alpha's face. "Problem, boss?"

"She's at a strip club." Cade couldn't keep the snarl from his voice.

"Totally not a problem." Mathis laughed the location off, his face splitting into a glittering, wolfish grin. "You know what all the latents say -- once you go wolf, you never go back!"

Seeing that the joke hadn't cracked Cade's stony façade, Mathis tried again. "Come on, boss. This might be your night to find a mate."

"Just get the van moving before the night gets any worse." Cade checked the sidearm under his jacket then fastened his seatbelt. "I want to know what we're dealing with before Tanner and Remus show up with their dicks out and guns blazing."

"Seriously, dude, you should at least try to get some pussy before the decade is over." Mathis threw the van in reverse, grumbling as he pulled from the parking space. "We'd all be a lot happier if you did. I mean--"

Cade responded with a side glare that abruptly ended the conversation. Satisfied Mathis would remain quiet until they reached their location, Cade eased back against the seat and kept one eye on the GPS while he argued with the beast inside him.

Unlike all the other latent runs the team had made over the last eight months, his wolf had been twitching since Esme's call to action that afternoon.

The latent doesn't interest us
, he reminded it.

A tail flicked inside his skull, the fur soft as silk and caressing him in a way that reminded Cade of his hand in the shower that morning.

We're just here for the extraction.

The soft tease of fur turned to nails scratching along the back of his sternum. He grabbed his wolf by the nape of its neck and gave a hard shake.

She's not ours.

Ours is gone.

The wolf quieted at the reminder and Cade sighed. With regret, not relief. No matter how many women Esme located, he held no illusion that he would find one with whom he was compatible. He'd met his mate when he was six. The she-wolf had rejected him and left the clan when he was twenty. A dozen years' distance didn't make her any less his mate. He couldn't unpromise his heart -- even if she had never really wanted it.

Chapter Two

Lights strobed red and blue against the brick façade of the Pony Express Gentlemen's Club. A crowd had gathered near the entrance, drawn either by the cop cars with their flashing lights or whatever had drawn the police.

"Tonight just keeps getting better." Mathis drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. The menacing rumble underlying his words contradicted the chipper tone. "Maybe we just throw this one back in the latent pool. What do you say, boss?"

"You know we can't. If she's a latent, then she's discoverable and it's only a matter of time before the Hunters locate her." Stepping from the vehicle, Cade pushed the radio set at Mathis. "Tell Tanner and Remus to hold position. Keep the engine running while I--"

The instruction died on Cade's tongue as he caught his first whiff of the female they sought. Even unseen, she defied all expectations -- not a latent nor a cub, but a she-wolf in heat.

Heat…

A meaty chuckle vibrated low in his throat as his cock surged a hard line to kiss at his navel. "Heat" was the wrong fucking word, one better reserved for the tepid breeding periods of the last decade among the clan's females. Inhaling, he growled. This was not heat. The woman's scent scorched his face and made his tongue and balls sweat.

Hearing Mathis open the driver side door, Cade growled. "I said stay."

Mathis challenged the order with a low snarl.