Filed to story: Mated to the Alpha and His Beta Novel Free >>???
In all the stories I’d ever heard about Brightsky, I’d never imagined that eighty-seven floors down there would be an entire underground, small-town street. I had to double-take and look behind me at the elevator to make sure I’d stepped out of the one I’d entered and not some kind of crazy time machine…or portal.
No. This was real. My wolf chuffed happily as she scented grilling meat. I spotted a small food cart at the street’s far end, and just beyond it, what looked like a wall, Proof that all of this was an elaborate set-up.
Fake, like a theater set, but so realistic I couldn’t believe I wasn’t walking the briek street of some charming European village Floor Eighty-Seven was emblazoned on a sign to the left of the elevator. The street itself was lined with small shops and cafes.
Clothing and sundries, a bookstore, a small grocery. I even saw a post office, and when I peeked through the front window, I saw what looked like a parcel-sorting center. More like the mailroom of a big corporation, with rows of boxes labeled with names. A
few people were chatting in front of them, paper coffee cups in hand.
It made sense that a community like Brightsky would need all of these things, but seeing it set up like this was truly an unexpected marvel.
“Gab I looked past the post office to the storefront two doors down. A sign shaped like a coffee-mug swung over the entrance. Lenora waved at me, her face beaming.
We hugged, and she pulled away so she could give me a long, assessing look. Her gray eyes were shadowed and her pale cheeks a little hollowed, but her ebony hair bore the same luster as it had years ago, before the Great Wars. As she twisted a bit, the faintest shimmer glistened from her back and shoulders-her wings, hidden to keep her from bumping into things with them.
She’d once told me how much she missed the freedom of when her people had lived solely in their underhill cities, with plenty of space to accommodate them Humans had chased the far out from nearly every place, all over the world “You look amazing” she enthused, tucking her arm through mine. “Come, I’ve ordered us pots of hot chocolate and some truly decadent cherry biscuits.
Oh and if youd like, I can have them bring some beef skewers from the cart down the street?
“Biscuits will be fine”
“They’re cookies” the coded as you cal We settled at unc eat eat to the wall so I could face the cafe with my back protected instinct i had alla skicking in was worrying about, but of course there was nothing.
Even I couldn’t really be sure what I was expecting.
It takes a long time to catch up with an old friend you haven’t seen in years, especially when you’ve been forbidden from staying in touch through even the most basic means. I was thrilled to hear that she’d married and had many children during the interim She, too, had grandchildren. Nearly a dozen.
“I thought three was a lot,” I told her with a small chuckle.
“Three is plenty.” She poured us both fresh cups of hot chocolate, adding dollops of whipped cream from a small pot. “Triplets?”
“No. Twins, Alaina and Isaac. And a little girl, Stella.”
I waited to see if she’d show any signs that she’d heard about my granddaughter being a Celestial, but Malachi seemed to have kept that quiet for now.
“They have different mothers.”
I paused, for the first time truly considering this.
“Different fathers, too.”
Lenora looked confused. “So…the twins…?”
“Not my son’s. His half-brother’s.”
“So…not blood-related to you,” Lenora said after a second. She lowered her voice. “I heard about Orion.
What he did,”
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak out loud.
“Your daughter-in-law is a strong Luna and very unique. She is the little girl’s mother?” Lenora pushed the plate of biscuits my way.
I took one, although my appetite wasn’t really there.
“Yes. But she is mother to the twins as if they were her own. We’re raising them all together like siblings.”
“If you’d like to talk about it, about anything, Gab…
you know I’m here for you”
My first inclination was to deny I had anything to talk about, but then the words rushed up my throat Raw and burung like bile I was happy hadn’t eaten anything because it might’ve come right back up sloud.
Fleaned forward as my harsh whisper shot out of ing and i told her something i’d never dare spoken Gabriela–
“I hate him,” I whispered fiercely. “The only reason I wish he wasn’t dead is because I’d like to kill him myself!”
“Understandable. In fact, if you’d said anything else, I’d wonder if you were telling the truth.”
I felt better for having said it aloud, but the confession had taken something out of me. I sagged a little, my elbows on the table so I could put my face briefly into my hands. I didn’t want anyone seeing how upset I was, but I also couldn’t hide it.
“It’s bad enough that he didn’t honor our mating bond. Infidelity happens, even among wolves. But he sired a child with another woman and never told me. Never allowed his son to have a brother. Orion’s selfishness caused so much trouble for so many people…! won’t even get into the disgusting things he was doing with hybrids.”
I peeked through my fingers to make sure she knew what I was talking about. It would be a lot to explain.
“Of course there is so much to learn about how traits manifest in hybrids, but a medical torture facility is hardly the way to go about it,” she said firmly. She leaned closer to add, “And I’ll tell you something else, Gab. I never liked him. He was arrogant, and you were far too good for him!”
To my surprise, I laughed. At first just a low chuckle.
Then louder, until I was almost wheezing with it. I had to wipe my eyes of pained tears and hold a hand to my stomach until my rasping guffaws faded.
Lenora gave me a satisfied smile. “There. That’s much better.”
I did feel better, almost like I’d had an infected wound that had been drained of its poison. It still hurt and likely would for a long time…but perhaps I could finally start to heal.
At last, I helped myself to a biscuit. “I just never thought anything like this could happen to my family.
Maybe that was my downfall, you know? I was too proud. Too confident in my role in the pack, too convinced I deserved it.
Maybe the Moon Goddess decided to teach me some humility.”
“If your Moon Goddess is the sort to punish those who follow her simply because of a little pride, I’ve never heard of it,” Lenora said with a wave of her hand. “And besides, that’s nonsense. You were more than deserving of being a Luna. It’s not your fault your mate was a horrible person…even if, by all accounts, he was an incredibly strong and successful Alpha. Like your son, yes?
Xander.”
“Yes. Xander is also a strong Alpha.”
She took a dainty sip from her inug But not successful?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that.
He was happy to be the Alpha, though, yes? I mean, when his father relinquished the role, Xander–
“Of course.” I hesitated. “Why would you think otherwise?”
“He wasn’t Alpha very long, though. He couldn’t have been. But you say he was happy about it, having his father hand it over to him?”
“It’s what he’d been waiting for,” I said after a second “To be honest, I never asked him if he wanted it. I just assumed…..
“Of course, of course. Your boy would’ve been ecstatic to take over from his father without having for it. Or wait for his father to die. I’m sure he meant to be the best Alpha possible.”
I digested her words. The hesitant tone. “But he didn’t have the chance, you mean.”
“Wel…I’m sure in time…” She coughed lightly into her fist. “You know how the young are, consumed with their mates when it’s all fresh and new. Certainly none could blame him for being so focused on his new Luna, particularly since she’s as special as she is. He could hardly help it, could he?”
“Because she’s a hybrid, you mean?”
“Gab, listen. Nobody could blame him for losing sight of his pack. Not when that girl came of age and went into heat. It’s a miracle he was able to think straight, much less competently run a pack.” Lenora added another biscuit to my plate.
I crumbled it between my fingers. “It’s the vampire part of her, isn’t it? That’s what you’re trying to get at.
My son is so enamored of this woman because of that.
“It does make her stronger, Lenora said. She clapped her hands quickly and gave me a wide smile. “Enough of all that. Tell me you’re not dying for a mani-pedi.
We have a delightful place here on Eighty-Seven run by a witch I’ve known forever. She’s got the most amazing herbal scrubs.
You can’t even believe it. She’ll have you feeling like you’re on top of the world…and I don’t mean because we’re in Alaska.”
“That sounds lovely,” I said, but my mind was on what she’d said before.
I let Lenora take me to the nail salon, but I couldn’t stop thinking about everything she’d said about Lanie.
Lanie–
I was losing track of time, but I found I didn’t care.
In the mornings, we had breakfast in our luxurious quarters as a family, then got the children ready for school. After that, Gabriela took herself off to whatever she did all day, while my mates and I spent an hour or so making love. Then the men went off to train with Greyson while I met with Malachi or Charlotte, or spent. time with Delilah.
Brightsky was truly becoming home.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?