Chapter 1
I’m sitting in my office with my feet propped up on my desk, breathing in the rich scent of my chair’s dark brown leather upholstery and tapping my pen on my teeth in my slightly open mouth when I hear my Beta practically yelling at me.
“Alpha Scarlett”! Cayden nearly shouted, snapping my focus back to him. Cayden Fenn and I have known each other our entire lives. His father was my father Beta and now Cayden is mine. That’s how I know I must have allowed my mind to start wandering a while ago; when it’s just the two of us, we’re very casual with each other, so the fact that he’s using my title with my name grabs my attention. The look on his face, with one eyebrow raised while the other is furrowed and the slight scowl on his face tells me that he’s both annoyed and concerned by my zoning out.
“Sorry! Sorry, Cayden. I don’t know where my mind is today, I apologize. What were you saying.” I say, giving him an apologetic smile, while also pushing the sincerity of my apology through our mind link.
“I bet I know what’s on your mind.” He says, this time raising both eyebrows at me and giving me a look that clearly says, “Don’t make me pull it out of you, you stubborn Alpha wolf.”
I sigh. “Did you get the invitation to Alpha Merrick’s wedding?” I ask, already knowing the answer but using it as a way to open the door to this conversation that I don’t really want to have with my best friend but will before he starts to become a pest about it. Weddings aren’t common practice in the werewolf community, but Alpha Merrick is mated to a human (also not common practice in the werewolf community) and he wants to give her a wedding to honor her human traditions.
“We did.” The “we” referring to him and his mate Zella. “I’m assuming you did, too?”
I nod, slowly.
“Are you planning on going? I don’t think he’d be offended if you didn’t, but it would be strange for you to not be there since you’re both Alphas and we have an alliance with the Blood Moon pack.”
“Yeah, of course I’m going.” I say, sounding almost bored by it. I’m not bored by it, though. After all, why wouldn’t an unmated female Alpha wolf not want to go to a wedding and see all the other happily mated couples with their offspring? “Are you Zella going?” I ask in part because I’ll feel better having Cayden and Zella there as a buffer but also because if we’re both going, I’ll need to make sure our Gamma and Delta will be around to run things while we’re away.
“I was going to talk to you about it. That was actually one of the reasons I came in here. I was going to tell you that we’re planning on going and see if you wanted to come with us after we were done talking about the strange scents that our patrols picked up last night. But then you started daydreaming and not listening to a damn thing I was saying.” He says with a slight chuckle.
“Yeah, that would be great. Makes more sense to all go in one car. We’ll just need to make sure that Bree and Jacob are all set.” Naming our pack’s Gamma and Delta, respectively.
“You know, you don’t have to be mated to have a pup. It would still be your heir.” Cayden says gently, giving me a lopsided smile with his mouth, while his eyes, “just talk to me about what’s really going on.”
“What? Where’d that come from?” I exclaim, trying to laugh it off. But I already know where it came from. I’m one of the only female Alphas in the country, I’m unmated and I don’t have an heir. As my Beta, Cayden is of course aware of this, but as my lifelong best friend, he knows what I don’t talk about with other people: that being a female Alpha is lonely. And, despite living in a large pack, I’m often lonely. At 28 years of age, I still haven’t met my mate and at this rate, I’m not sure I ever will. I still have several more pup-bearing years ahead of me, so I have time to give the pack an heir, one way or another, but as we all know, the older you get, the greater the risks. So, here I am, one of the most powerful women in the country and I don’t have anyone to share it with or anyone to pass it down to. I know my parents aren’t concerned – if I never have pups, then one of my brothers’ mates can produce an heir. But it’s not just that. I may be a tough, badass Alpha b***h, but I also have a lot of love to give. I want a partner, not only in the pack, but in life. And I want our love to give us a family that only allows the love to grow.
