Gluten-Free Gamma

Evernight
Publishing ®

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright©
2014 Angelique
Voisen

 
ISBN: 978-1-77233-076-2

Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs

Editor: Tricia
Kristufek

ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this
copyrighted work is illegal.
 
No part of
this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written
permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are
fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or
persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DEDICATION

To
Evernight
Publishing, for giving my Wolves of New Haven series a home.
To the readers who’ve followed the series,
your comments are always appreciated.

GLUTEN-FREE GAMMA

Wolves
of New Haven, 3

Angelique
Voisen

Copyright
© 2014

Prologue

“Please, Alpha. Have mercy. It was
a mistake to challenge you. I’ll do anything you want,” the fallen giant
whimpered at his feet over and over again.

Jax
Starr, the Alpha to the Starr Mountain Pack—the largest and most influential
pack in the region—looked his latest challenger over. Harlan Priest’s whiny
voice was beginning to get on his nerves. At the very least,
Jax
was pleased he managed to wipe the conceited smirk off
the intruder’s face. No one challenged
Jax
and
won.
 

Jax
didn’t become Alpha by chance. The lands surrounding the Starr Mountain region
may belong to
Jax’s
family, but leadership succession
in the pack was based on strength and merit. When it came to his enemies, he
left very little to chance.

Harlan Priest should have done his
research before foolishly challenging him. There was nothing much left of the
rakish biker. Beaten savagely to a pulp, the half-man, half-beast on the ground
was a bloody mess of claw and teeth marks, too weak to shift back to either
form.

The best the interloper could hope
for was death. It was just too bad
Jax
wasn’t the one
to give it to him. Leaving his crippled enemies alive was the only way to teach
them their place.

A half-shifter monster had no place
in the shifter world or the human world. The rest of his wolves who came to
watch the spectacle had lost interest and were already beginning to disperse
into their own little groups.

“Get this piece of trash out of my
sight,”
Jax
said with obvious disgust to his second.

Reed Williams nodded to him with
his colorless eyes. He was about to lift Harlan when he uttered a last, choking
sound.

“Reed, wait.”
Jax
pressed a bare foot into the creature’s bloody ribs. “What did you just say,
you piece of trash?”

Harlan peeled his obscene lips
back, revealing his sharp canines. His beady eyes gleamed with a mix of hope
and malice. The pathetic beast knew he’d just won his golden ticket. “They say
you’re looking for a secret way into the New Haven Pack.”

“And let me guess: you have a way?”
Jax
asked in a mocking voice.

“Those who want desperately to live
say anything,” Reed said tonelessly by his side, his left hand already changing
into a lethal claw.

“I won’t deny I’m desperate,”
Harlan agreed, spitting out a wad of blood. “Let me live, Alpha, and I can show
you a way to rip that pack out from the inside out.”

Jax
normally would’ve agreed with Reed. He’d seen desperate men on the verge of
dying plead, beg, and make bargains just to outwit death. There was something
else in Harlan Priest’s eyes, though, that made him reconsider the offer. The
gleam in his bestial eyes told
Jax
there was
something more powerful than desperation lurking inside him.

“How does the New Haven Pack
concern you?”

“They stole something important to
me. It’s time I repay them back in full.”

Jax
stared him down and asked flatly, “What did they steal?”

“My former lover and mate,
Terrence,” Harlan growled.

Jax
approvingly watched the shiver of rage take control of the Harlan’s broken
body. Mad wolves driven by their anger and their uncontrollable beasts could
sometimes be effective when pushed toward the right direction.

“We have a deal, Harlan Priest,”
Jax
said. “If you fail me, I suggest you run, because I
don’t give second chances. Reed, help him up.”

Harlan let out a sigh of relief.

“You’re a lucky man, Harlan
Priest,” Reed said.

Although his second would never
contradict him aloud,
Jax
could tell he didn’t like
the idea. Going through an indirect route to his enemies wasn’t exactly
honorable, but his enemies didn’t deserve his honor.

They’d stolen his son, Derrick,
from him. Granted, his son was an embarrassment, but they’d still taken him.
Not only that, they’d also taken two of his wolves, and no one stole from
Jax
Starr without suffering repercussions.

Chapter One

“See here, Jack. Most people don’t
understand what it really means to be gluten-free. Gluten-free products were
created for people with celiac disease, people whose bodies can’t process
gluten—” Alvin Heinz abruptly broke off from his current conversation. Outside
the glass doors, Al spotted the familiar shape of the man, the
wolf,
he craved and wanted so badly ever since the first
time he laid his eyes on him.

“Al? Hello, earth to Al.” Jack
waved a hand in his face, but Al barely paid him any attention.

The bell of the bakery chimed, and
all six foot plus of the sexy, powerful Beta enforcer for the New Haven pack,
Terrence Neo, strode in. In Al’s opinion, the tight-lipped, unsociable man was
a vision in leather and tightly fitting jeans. The scent of diesel oil and
mountains rolled off him and mingled with the scent of freshly baked bread.

If he wasn’t working at Tires on
the Go, New Haven’s only car repair shop, Terrence prowled the mountains
surrounding the town, keeping an eye out for supernatural intruders. Nobody
knew why he preferred to live a solitary existence.
Although
both males and females had unsuccessfully tried to woo him, but not because he
was celibate.
Terrence had proved on more than one occasion he liked
taking what he wanted when he wanted it, but he made it clear all he was
interested is was fucking.

Every Monday he came to the
bakery,
and Al always put down whatever he was doing to
subtlety admire and devour the man candy in front of him. Terrence always wore
his black hair short, almost military-cut, so his dark eyes always stood out,
stark against his handsome face. Under his worn leather jacket, hard and
well-defined muscles stood against his simple shirt.

Al fantasized about accidentally
brushing against Terrence’s harsh chest, imagining all the feel of the yummy
muscles beneath. Ogling Terrence didn’t help his level of control either.

The other thing Al desired with the
same level of heated passion was bread. He’d been baking ever since he could
work an oven. Even being diagnosed with celiac disease and unable to eat most
of his gluten-loaded baked goodies hadn’t stopped him from pursuing his
passion.

“Dude, you’re practically drooling
on the counter,” Jack said unhelpfully from the customer end of the cashier.

“Keep your damn voice down,” Al
hissed.

Terrence didn’t pay him or Jack any
attention. He waved to the only other customer in the bakery—Derrick, Jack’s
impressive mate and one of the most powerful wolves in the pack.

As a Gamma like Jack, Al didn’t
stand out in the pack. He often wondered what a powerful wolf like Terrence
looked for in a mate—if he was interested in finding a mate at all.

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful,” Jack
said, sighing, his gaze glued on Derrick.
“If we can go on a
double date?”

Al snorted. “Sure.
Derrick and you, and me and a French loaf?”

Jack rolled his eyes.
“Of course not, idiot.”
He nodded to Terrence, who was
speaking in soft tones, probably discussing pack business they didn’t want
their lesser wolves to hear.

“Him?
Ha,
I’ll be dust and bones first before he notices tubby and ordinary little me,”
Al muttered.

As if picking up on their
conversation, Terrence turned his head and looked at Al. His gaze speared
through him, making his hands sweat and his heart thump with sheer agitation.

Al quickly looked away. Terrence
noticing him was just a figment of his imagination. He was sure of it. Terrence
continued talking to Derrick, unaware Al existed at all.

“Besides, don’t you do doubles with
Don and Rick?”

Don and Rick’s mating was another
fairy-tale story where a dominant wolf chose a submissive wolf for his partner.
Envy coiled inside him, lethal and furious. Damn. He shouldn’t be jealous.

What Al should be was be happy for
Jack, and Don and Rick. Since Jack and Rick’s arrival in the pack, he’d finally
found friends he could genuinely talk to, who wouldn’t laugh about him being
unable to eat anything with gluten. Jack understood his picky eating habits, as
Derrick was a diabetic who refused to eat meat, while Rick was a vegan.