His Queen, Her Alpha

Chapter 3

Colton’s POV)

“Hey, Colton, you ready for patrol?”

My brother strolls into my office like he owns the place and flops onto the couch, completely ignoring the door—or the concept of knocking.

He’s such a pain in the ass sometimes.

“Hello to you too. And once again, you forgot to knock,” I say dryly, not even looking up from the stack of paperwork on my desk.

My name is Colton Black—Alpha of the Black Shadow Pack. Yeah, I’m that alpha: the ruthless, possessive, no-nonsense kind. I have to be. It’s been five years, and I still haven’t found my mate.

I’m twenty-three. Most alphas find their mate by now—especially someone of my rank. My Luna should be by my side, leading the pack with me, helping with decisions, guiding our people. But instead… I'm alone.

“I need to finish this paperwork. I’ll meet you at the north border in an hour. Now get out,” I say, flicking my eyes up to glare at him.

Jaxon gives me that annoying little-brother look—the one that says, I’m only doing this to get on your nerves. But thankfully, he gets up and leaves.

Jaxon is two years younger than me. Unlike me, he doesn’t seem to care about finding his mate. Where I’ve waited patiently, he sleeps with anything that moves. I’ve warned him that it’ll backfire when he does meet his true mate—but he never listens.

His words? “Gotta keep the ladies happy. Since you won’t, someone’s got to.”

We both have black hair, but mine’s a bit curlier. I’m about six inches taller and more muscular—that’s alpha genetics for you. We have to be in top form to lead. The one big difference between us is our eyes.

Jaxon has the usual blue-green eyes. Mine? They’re a strange mix of orange and red. Unnatural.

People don’t react well to things they don’t understand, and my eyes are definitely one of those things. My mom always told me there was a reason for them. That someday, I’d find out.

Right on cue, Blaze—my wolf—starts pacing in my mind.

Never a good sign.

Then I smell it: cheap perfume strong enough to choke a grown man... and the scent of s*x.

Great. Miranda.

I don’t even need to see her to know she’s standing outside my office door, probably hoping I’ll let her crawl into my bed. Blaze growls low in my head.

A light knock.

“Come in,” I say flatly, while Blaze rolls his eyes internally.

Miranda walks in slowly, wearing a tight pink dress that shows off way too much cleavage. She reeks of desperation—and worse, I catch a faint trace of my brother’s scent on her.

Disgusting.

She sits in the chair across from me, crossing one leg over the other like she thinks she’s in a romance novel.

“Hi, Alpha,” she purrs. “You’ve been looking so stressed lately. I thought maybe I could help you… relax.”

Let me out. I’m going to tear her apart. Blaze snarls, furious.

He hates this kind of attention. So do I. Most alphas give in to temptation while waiting for their mate. Not me—and not Blaze. We’ve made a pact: no one but her.

While others blow off steam in bedrooms, we train. We fight. We hunt.

Last month, the King himself called us to help another pack. We took down twenty rogues and saved dozens of lives. But all anyone talks about is how ruthless I am—how I killed so many. No one asks why.

“Miranda,” I say coldly, my eyes narrowing, “I won’t say this again. I’m waiting for my mate. You are not her. Don’t come here offering yourself to me. Next time, you’ll find yourself banished from this pack—and whoring with rogues.”

Blaze growls through my lips, reinforcing the threat.

Her eyes fill with tears as she bolts from the room, leaving the door wide open behind her.

Perfect. Might as well start patrol early.

Be at the north border in five minutes, I mindlink to Jaxon.

That’s one of the perks of being a wolf—mindlink. Like a telepathic phone call. Just think of the person, and you're connected instantly.

You should’ve let me kill her.

Blaze sounds genuinely annoyed.

Yeah, well, I reply with a grin, didn’t want you catching something.

Blaze laughs, and I head to my room to change. Shorts on, apple in hand, I head out the back door and jog toward the north border.

When I arrive, the patrol team is already there—half-shifted, murmuring about Miranda.

Apparently, word travels fast.

I growl low, releasing a hint of my alpha aura. The murmuring stops instantly.

My aura is powerful—strong enough to bring grown warriors to their knees if I want. I’ve spent years learning to control it. Blaze once told me:

"Finding our mate will make us even stronger. That’s when our real journey begins."

I’m still waiting.

Sometimes I wonder if I even have a mate. Or if she died before I ever found her.

That thought makes Blaze whimper, deep in my mind.

I shake it off.

“Shift,” I command, and the sound of bones cracking fills the air as my patrol transforms around me.

Most wolves have to strip before shifting, or risk shredding their clothes. Not me. Blaze gives me the ability to shift with them intact—a rare gift, and a useful one.

Especially when you don’t want to hold conversations with your junk out.