The Alpha’s Fated Mate

THE ALPHA’S FATED MATE

(CLEAR RIDGE PACK)

By C.J. Colton

****

PUBLISHED BY:

C.J. Colton, 2015

PROLOGUE

Wyatt

“I can’t put this off any longer. It needs to happen. Even with the merger of our packs our numbers are dwindling.” My words were weary and resigned. The mood in the room was somber. I tried not to react to the five looks of understanding as I felt the hope I’d held for the better part of a century crumble into dust under the necessity of survival. My wolf howled. It hated what we had to do as much as I did.

“
We
can’t put this off any longer. We understand the necessity, Wyatt. We will all have to do our duty to ensure the continued survival of the Clear Ridge pack,” Ryland said. The grim swirling of his gray eyes was the only indication that the decision we’d all come to was affecting him as much as it was me.

We weren’t the only ones though. Everyone in this room had just made the decision to put aside their own chance of happiness and it was a heavy one.

For longer than I could remember I’d dreamt of meeting my fated one, my destined mate. To finally know that I had the other half of my heart and soul in my arms, and that the next several centuries I had left wouldn’t be spent in in this long yawning moment of perpetual waiting. I’d had eleven decades of searching and my chance had finally run out. Now there was no more time.

The alphas of six separate packs, before our merger two years ago we’d each suffered the fear of dwindling numbers and the very real possibility of our packs dying out, and now once again we were dealing with the prospect of our fears coming true.

Mortality rates were rising with our older pack members reaching the end of the long life spans of our kind but our birth rates weren’t high enough to replenish our diminishing numbers. A decade down the track and we would be back to where we started before we merged into the Clear Ridge pack.

We all knew what had to happen. Each of us alphas would have to do our duty and breed. Unlike the pack members we led, alphas were able to reproduce in litters. It was our job to replenish our numbers and the time had come to shoulder our responsibility, regardless of our other primal instinct—to find our respective mates. Once we started producing offspring the chance to find our mate died. Our bodies would automatically claim the mother as our intended mate and bind them as such. We wouldn’t be able to reproduce with anyone else, but the emptiness in our hearts would remain. We would remain incomplete.

This wasn’t such a big issue to some wolves, sexual compatibility and genuine love and fondness went a long ways in keeping that emptiness at bay, at disguising what it really was, but I’d come to know it all too well and having witnessed the depth of love and trust between true mates—my parents—I craved it for myself. I wanted someone who was made for me, not because I was an alpha and had all the status that came with leading, but because they knew I was made for them too.

I knew one or two of the other alphas probably didn’t fully comprehend the extent of what we were giving up by agreeing to do this—they were still young, barely half a century old—but in time they would know, and by then it would be too late.

I knew what I had to do. I was the eldest in our group and as such had had the most time to find the other half of my soul. It wouldn’t be much or all that sufficient, but the least I could do was be the first to do what was necessary and give the other alphas more time in their own search. I hoped that they would have more luck than me before their time was up.

“Do you have your candidates picked out?” Hayden asked. He was probably the one with the most to lose out of all six of us. He knew who his mate was, knew they were out there, but his mate had been taken before Hayden had been able to make the claim. He’d spent years looking for the clues to his mate’s whereabouts but all leads had turned up empty and now he was going to have to stop.

My heart clenched for him. I gave a small nod. “It will either be Maria or Rose.” I didn’t like what I would have to do but I’d do it. It was my responsibility as an alpha and our pack was my first priority.

“They’re good choices,” Soren said from his seat by the window.

“They will make good mates,” Grey agreed. Even though he spoke softly his gravelly voice still grated over the room like rocks sliding across glass. His rough voice, courtesy of his fight with a rogue wolf years ago, belied the gentleness that flickered in his blue eyes.

“When will it happen?” Brevyn asked.

“The new moon. I’ll claim the one I choose at the new moon.” Restless, I pushed off my seat and walked over to the big bay windows. The woods stretched out dark and free behind the house and I had to fight the urge to shift, to let my wolf out and escape from our grim reality.

“That’s in three days,” Ryland said. “We’ll have a party the night after tomorrow.”

My mouth twisted in a grim smile. “A premature celebration?”

“I hear the humans have a tradition of getting the groom drunk before their wedding. Consider this your bachelor party.”

I gave a mirthless laugh. The restlessness was too much. I pushed open the window and pulled off my clothing. The shift was fast and the flare of pain brief as my bones popped and readjusted themselves and my powerful body grew sleek beneath my blond pelt. I landed on all fours as my senses, already sharp, became even more crisp, every touch, smell, sound and sight amplified.

I sent a look to the other alphas over my shoulder before leaping through the window and dashing towards the woods. The scent of the night was crisp and clean in the air as the wind ruffled through my fur and the forest floor crunched beneath my feet.

This was freedom and three days would come all too fast.

Chapter One

Seth

“Hey, look who just got here,” Gabby, my best friend and waddling pregnant she-wolf, whispered loudly as she elbowed me in the ribs and gestured not so subtly to the door.

I handed her her White Russian minus the vodka and Kahlúa and pulled my shot of tequila towards me. Due to our metabolisms it took a lot to get drunk but I was steadily getting there and the arrival of my unrequited love wasn’t going to delay what I believed was necessary.

I’d been in love with Wyatt ever since the pack merger. Tall and powerful, every inch of the eldest alpha radiated dominance and lethal authority. Not only dangerous and deadly, the alpha was a walking wet dream from the tips of his thick, short blond hair to the heels of his size fourteen feet. The guy wasn’t just big there either. No, his six-foot-four frame had to be comprised of slabs of muscles stacked upon slabs of muscles that drove me crazy and had me panting as though I hadn’t gotten the memo that I was no longer in my shifted form.

It wasn’t just the body that I wanted to climb and the black, sinful eyes I wanted to lock onto as I came beneath him, there was something about him that called to me. He made my wolf want to rub against him and offer comfort, and lend my human ear to the problems I sometimes glimpsed flickering across his impassive, sharp boned face. There was more to Wyatt than the tough, dominating alpha he presented with that unbendable will, and I wanted to get to know him. But I’d been given two years worth of chances and I’d never taken them up, and now he was to bond tomorrow night.

The excuse I’d made, that he’d never be interested in an omega, much less a male like me, didn’t seem all that important now and my regrets were staggering as I stole a glance at him. He was surrounded by a group of she-wolves all too eager to find out if he’d picked one of them. No one was going to find out until the full moon tomorrow night though. That’d also be when my last bit of hope died.

I’d spend the night wallowing in self-loathing and a broken heart then I’d do my best to push it aside and get on. There wouldn’t be much else I could do at that point anyway. Unlike humans, whether the mate bond was through destiny or choice, when we mated we mated for life. Maybe I’d try and think about taking Gabby up on one of the guys she kept trying to push at me to get my mind off him.

“He’s so damn hot,” Gabby sighed. “I’m telling you whichever wolf he chooses tomorrow night, she’s not going to have the strength to walk around until she has his litter. From what I’ve heard Wyatt’s got enough stamina to keep an entire pack satisfied and with what he’s packing, his chosen’s going to be waddling, pregnant or not after he’s through with them.”

I pulled a wedge of lime from the container of them on the bar and threw back my shot, doing my best to ignore Gabby’s words. The alcohol burnt going down, joining the growing warmth in my stomach as I sucked on the lime wedge then threw it in the empty shot glass.

“You know if I weren’t pregnant and madly in love with Kenneth, I’d—” her words cut off as she caught the look on my face. She winced and tried to hug me over her protruding stomach. “Ohmigod, I’m so sorry Seth. Shit, you know my hormones are making me tactless. I swear the only reason I’ve gotten so fat is because Kenneth keeps feeding me so I don’t totally ostracize his mom and those cousins of his.” Her voice wobbled and I knew she was going to start crying soon, or screaming. These days it was a toss up.

I signaled the bartender for another shot before wrapping my arm around her waist and pressing a kiss to her forehead. Despite what she said, she was nowhere near fat. If you caught her from behind you’d never even guess she was two weeks away from popping out her first pup. I let her go and gave her a wan smile. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s not your fault I’m hopelessly in love with the guy.”

“No.” The tears were gone in a flash. Damn, she was getting that stubborn look. “It’s
your
fault for never making a move, and
his
fault for never noticing you.” She tossed back her drink and slammed the glass on the table.

I winced and eyed the hard grip she had on it, fearing it was going to shatter any second. Thankfully she noticed my look and let it go, apologetically pushing it to the bartender.

“Two years, Seth. I’ve watched you pine for him for two years, and even though you never say anything unless I drag it out of you, I know how much you wish he’d give you a chance. So why don’t you do it tonight before it’s too late.” She placed her hand on mine, giving it a squeeze as she looked at me entreatingly. “Make a move! What have you got to lose?”

I slipped out of her hold and pulled out another wedge of lime. “It’s not that easy, Gab.” If I tried to make a move and he turned me down in disgust I wasn’t sure how I’d deal with it. It was that fear that had kept me away from him.

“Sure it is, hun. I mean, what do those she-wolves have that you don’t have?”

I gave her a look, cocking a dark brow at her. “Boobs and no cock?”

She rolled her eyes and punched me in the arm. If I’d been human I’d likely have a nice fist sized bruise on my upper arm tomorrow.

“Seriously. You’re the sweetest wolf I know and while you’re no Jacob—” Gabby got a serious kick out of the Twilight movies. She was obsessed with the way they’d portrayed werewolves—found it hilarious—and had blackmailed me into three Saturday night marathons of them so far. “But you are so totally hot in the whole gray eyes, brown hair way.”

Yeah, I needed that shot. I partook of the saltshaker this time before tossing the drink back and sucking on the lime. I didn’t really need to answer half the time. Gabby was great at filling in the blanks.

“Okay, so you could do with a little more muscle definition, not that you wouldn’t put Christiano Ronaldo to shame—” He was another of her obsessions when she’d found out he was part wolf. “But you’ve got the whole sleek omega thing going on in your what—?” she eyed me, “five-foot-seven frame?”

“Five-foot-eight.”

“Exactly. So how could he not want you?” She grinned, looking pleased with herself.

I decided I’d remind her with some hard undeniable facts. “Did you forget that I’m a male? And as far as we all know, Wyatt likes them with something bigger than triple A cups and less junk.”

“So? You could show him exactly what he’s missing out on. I know once I tasted cock I never went back.”

I didn’t even wince anymore at Gabby’s moments of crudity. I gave her a droll look. “You never batted for the other team.”

She grinned. “That’s because I came out of the womb knowing the only way to heaven is riding on a cock.”

Another shot coming right up
.

The alphas had rented out the restaurant and bar of the hotel for this celebration and the tab was unlimited. The pack had never hurt for funds as far as we all knew, and was in fact one of the wealthiest packs in this part of the country. Wealth didn’t mean anything if the pack was dying out though, hence why Wyatt was bonding tomorrow night.

I hadn’t even raised my hand to signal him when the bartender who’d been serving me since I gotten here and zeroed in on the bar slid another shot across the table. It was sweet of him to add a glass of water to my order. Sweet but unnecessary. No way was I going to make it harder for myself to get drunk. Nevertheless I sent him a smile and blinked when he gave me a smoky smile in return and winked back at me. I felt myself flush, or maybe it was the alcohol—I was up to what? My fourth shot? I ducked my head feeling shy—definitely not enough alcohol yet—and tried to tune back into what Gabby was saying. It wasn’t that I didn’t like listening to her. I loved her like a sister, had done so after forgiving her for trying to shave me when we were still pups, but tonight I wasn’t really in the mood. I just wanted to get drunk, watch Wyatt and imagine the hot monkey—
wolf
—sex we could have had if I’d gotten over my fear and him his love of boobs.

“…Told me the alphas have rented out an entire floor of the hotel for those who want to spend the night. Too bad Kenneth has to work early tomorrow. I’ve always wanted to stay in a five star hotel,” she pouted.

I stilled, my back tingling and my hair on end as I felt Wyatt’s sudden presence near me. From the moment he’d been introduced as the alpha of one of the merging packs I’d been intensely aware of him. It was as if my body was connected to his, drawn to him like a magnet. That’s why it stunned and saddened me that it seemed totally one-sided. My body prickled and heated the closer I felt him get and then his large body was sliding up next to me at the bar.