Twin Alphas: Desired (A BBW Paranormal Romance) (2 page)

Instead, she’d given in to her room-mate’s urging and worn a blue wrap dress, which hugged her ample curves and reflected a flirtatiousness she didn’t feel. She’d even let her room-mate pin a blue flower barrette into her big mop of blonde curls.

“You look adorable,” Mackenzie said honestly.

“Are you sure? Maybe I should fix my hair again. Do I have enough lipstick? Or too much

lipstick?” Vita looked at her anxiously.

“You have exactly the right amount of lipstick. How much coffee did you have this morning?”

“Five cups. Was it too much? Do I have coffee breath?” Vita’s eyes widened in alarm.

“No, I can tell because you’re bouncing off the walls. You look lovely, your breath is minty fresh, and you smell like a rose garden. Go forth and flirt.”

“By myself?” Vita suddenly looked nervous. “Aren’t you coming?” They’d just met as Mackenzie was walking in, but for some reason Vita had latched herself on to Mackenzie like a barnacle. Or more like a cute but hyperactive little puppy.

Mackenzie shook her head. “This festival isn’t really my thing. I’m only here because I have to be. But really, there are thousands of hot Alpha twins out there waiting to meet you! Go! Mingle! Meet

hot guys!”

“Why don’t you want to come? Are they mean?” Vita clutched at her sunflower-shaped straw

purse, a fearful expression on her face.

Mackenzie couldn’t imagine anyone being mean to Vita, but she felt a sudden surge of protectiveness.

“I’ll go with you for a little while,” she sighed. “They’re perfectly nice. You’ll see.” Then she could go back to her room and sulk and try not to think about Ajax and Barron hooking up with other women. Or maybe they’d already bonded with someone and wouldn’t even be here. That thought should cheer her up, but instead it just made her queasy.

“Oh, hooray! We’re going to have so much fun!” Vita was dancing around like a five year old about to head out to an ice cream party.

Mackenzie managed a pained smile. “We sure are.”

It was the first day of the festival. Check in day. People were still streaming in. Alpha Twins and human females from up and down the West Coast, thousands and thousands of them.

Last year, Mackenzie thought for sure that she’d hook up with the handsome twin Alpha pair Ajax and Barron.

It hadn’t ended the way she’d hoped, and she still burned with humiliation over it. And she still had no idea what had gone wrong.

Whatever. She just prayed she wouldn’t run into those two jerks during the festival.

“Where should we go first?” Vita was scanning a printed map and schedule of events for the festival.

Mackenzie hadn’t bothered to grab a map, because she wasn’t planning on partaking. She leaned over, looked at the map, and gave it a cursory glance. Then she shrugged. “You pick. I don’t care where we go. It’s all good.”

There was a lot to choose from. There were bands, there were food booths and vendors booths, there was outdoor entertainment with jugglers and fire eaters and magicians, there were snack shacks and indoor restaurants and outdoor restaurants.

The festival grounds were huge and sprawling, the size of a small town. They were also divided into three areas: East, West, and the Central Pavilion. The Twin Alpha pairs traditionally split up at the beginning of the festival, with each one picking a side.  

Vita shut her eyes. “Okay, eenie, meenie, miney, mo...” She pointed at the map. “Ooh!” she

squealed. “That sounds fun! It’s a bar called The Love Connection.”

Mackenzie stifled a groan. Why was the universe out to get her today? There were literally hundreds of bars scattered throughout the festival, and Vita had to pick that one?

The Love Connection was where she and Ajax had hung out the year before he’d led her into the woods, to a mossy spot by a flowing stream.

And they’d had the best sex of her life. Well, she’d had the best sex of her life. Ajax had seemed to agree at the time.

“Are you feeling all right?” Vita asked anxiously. “Do you want us to go back? Are you sick? I’m a nurse’s aide. I could sit with you at the infirmary.” She put her hand on Mackenzie’s forehead.

There was no way Mackenzie was going to make Vita sit in an infirmary with her when there were thousands of fine-ass Alphas milling around.

“I’m fine,” she sighed. “The Love Connection it is.”

They walked through the crowd. Mackenzie, with her plump, full figure, which was much coveted by werewolves, drew her fair share of attention.

A pack of men who’d shifted into wolf form were sitting in the shade of an oak tree, panting in the heat, and they threw their heads back and let out appreciative howls as Mackenzie and Vita walked by. Mackenzie found herself smiling. Okay, so being flirted with was always fun, and Vita’s enthusiasm was contagious.

“So where are you from?” she asked Vita as they walked.

“Well, I was born in San Francisco, but my parents died when I was young so I grew up in a bunch of different foster homes all over the state. So I’m not from any one place.”

She patted the sunflower necklace hanging around her neck. “My mother gave me this before I died. Isn’t it great that I still have something to remember her by?” she said happily.

Wow. And here Mackenzie was feeling sorry for herself because she’d been dumped. Seriously, other people had bigger problems than her. Lots of people did these days, in fact. A year and a half ago, a massive earthquake had ripped through most of the West Coast, killing tens of thousands of people, flattening entire cities, and opening a massive tear in reality – leading in to another world called Earth, where werewolves and magic didn’t even exist.

Mackenzie resolved to stop being such a sour apple. She had a paid week of vacation from her waitressing job, and it was a beautiful day out, and thousands of human women and Twin Alphas were going to fall in love this week. Or at least have totally hot sex.  There was no reason to bring everyone else down just because she’d been disappointed a year ago.

“Hey, maybe you’ll get claimed by an Alpha pair,” Mackenzie said. “Then you’d have a great big

house and a pack, a family, and everything.”

“Wow. That would be amazing. Do you think that would happen?” Vita’s eyes opened even wider.

“Why not? You’re cute as a button.” They walked by a long line of vendor booths. There were

magical bouquets of flowers that changed colors, there were garlands of flowers, there were necklaces

with charms on them, there were t shirts and beer mugs.

“Here you go! For two lovely ladies!” An Alpha walked up to them holding two crowns of flowers, set them on Vita’s and Mackenzie’s heads, and walked off.

“Ooh!” Vita was all agog.

Mackenzie smiled and followed Vita to the Love Connection. It was an open-air bar, with bar stools around the three sides of the bar and music blaring from the speakers. There were café tables with

chairs scattered around outside too. The chairs were already starting to fill up.

“Now, here’s what we do,” Mackenzie said. “We stand here and look cute, and guys will buy us drinks.”

“They will?” Vita looked all around, eyes huge.

“They will.”

Sure enough, a burly, handsome man wandered over immediately. “Can I buy you two lovely ladies a drink?” he asked.

“Oh, wow,” Vita said.

“I will have a...” Mackenzie wanted a Howl At The Moon, but that’s what Ajax had been buying her last year. “I’ll have a Fangs For The Memories,” she said.

“I’ll have a Love Bite.” Vita giggled.

The wolf pulled out a couple of bills as the bartender mixed their drinks.

“I’m Thomas,” he said. “And you’re gorgeous.” He winked at them.

Mackenzie and Vita introduced themselves. As the bartender set a drink down in front of Mackenzie, she felt an odd sensation washing over over. A tingling, a warmth...

She glanced through the crowd. Damn it. It was Ajax, standing at a distance and staring at the bar. It didn’t look as if he’d spotted her yet, or maybe he wasn’t even looking for her.

Of course he’s not looking for me, she told herself firmly. 

She looked away quickly, but the image of him was burned in her mind. His broad shoulders, his strong jaw, the gleam in his eyes, his close-clipped hair, so soft and silky when she ran his fingers through it…

As Thomas and Vita chatted, she took a healthy swig of her drink. She should have just stayed in the women’s quarters, she thought gloomily.  Vita seemed to be fine now; as soon as she finished her drink, she’d head back and stay there.

Despite herself, she glanced over again. Ajax was gone. Maybe he’d seen her and run for the hills. Why? What had she done wrong?

She’d met Ajax and Barron two years before – on the very last day of the festival, in the parking lot, as everyone was heading home. She’d spent the whole year hoping against hope that they hadn’t claimed anyone during the year, and also regretting that she hadn’t chased after them and given them her phone number.

When they’d spotted her on the first day of last year’s festival, they’d both looked delighted.  They told her they’d been looking for her.  They’d spent the day flirting and everything that they’d said had made her think that they were going to claim her.

Ajax had acted jealous and possessive when other guys looked at her. He’d talked about bringing her back to their mating cabin that night.  Tradition held that wolves only did that when they were ready to claim their Forever Mate – after all, if she ended up mating with both of them, the psychic bond would start to form and she would be bound to them forever.

Ajax had taken her out into the woods and they’d made love for hours. He’d been both rough and tender, demanding and giving…he’d made her feel like the sexiest, most beautiful woman in the world.

What had she done to make him run for the hills?

She took another big gulp of her drink and tried not to remember. Ajax’s big, muscular arms wrapped around her, his soft lips claiming her mouth, the feeling of his body pressing her into the mossy earth…

“Mackenzie?” A woman’s voice jerked her back to the present.

She turned, startled.

Her friend Amelia’s sister Karlie was standing there, drink in hand. She was surprised to see her.  Karlie wasn’t from Clair De Lune.  Karlie came from the other side of the Breach, from the world known as Earth. 

Still, Mackenzie knew Karlie was single – she’d had a particularly brutal breakup with her human fiance a while back.

Karlie and her sister Amelia had crossed over to their world the previous year, after the Breach opened.   Amelia had been claimed last year during the festival by an incredibly sexy Alpha pair, and had of course moved to Clair De Lune to live with them. She was already expecting cubs.  Mackenzie visited her frequently; she’d been drafted for babysitting duty, in fact.

“Karlie! Good to see you. Came to scope out the local talent?” she asked.

Karlie stifled a visible shudder. “Good God, no. I am so done with men.”

Mackenzie scowled. “Join the club, sister. I’m done with werewolves. But wait, why did you come?  You’re not required to be here.” Only human females from her own world were required to come to this festival – although there was no rule preventing Earth’s women from crossing over and attending.

There would hardly be such a rule, when nobody had even known about the other world’s existence until after the earthquake hit.