Drawn to the Alpha

Carter “You really think that’s going to last?” I ask Ethan as he deals the cards. “You think you and her are just going to live happily ever after like this forever?” “Yeah,” he says as he tosses me a card. “I do.” I laugh as I look at it. s**t, a two of hearts. “Then you’re even dumber than I thought,” I say with a laugh. “Everything ends eventually. This poker game will end. The sun burning will end. Our lives will end.” “When will this conversation end?” Rylan asks with a groan. “And your intense love for your mate will end,” I tell him. Ethan just shakes his head. I’m trying to prepare him for the inevitable, but I can’t get through his thick skull. If he was smart, he would have ran in the opposite direction when he first smelled his mate, Chloe. Instead, he’s trapped. They’re living together and she’s pregnant. The poor bear is caught in something worse than a bear trap. He’s caught in domestic hell. “I’m glad for Ethan,” Westin says as he gets his second card. “I can’t wait to find my mate.” I sigh as I look at my second card. A seven of clubs. The worst possible hand you can get in Texas Hold ‘Em poker. I’m playing with Ethan, Westin, and Rylan in the fire station while we wait for some action. It’s been quiet for the entire fall and we’re starting to go nuts. It’s mid-November now and the last time we got a call for a fire was in July. Our Chief, Blake, was playing, but he bowed out when the mayor called about half an hour ago and he’s been on the line with him ever since. “I’m excited too,” Rylan says with a youthful smile as he picks up his card and frowns. This guy is so easy to read. “I can’t wait to put my hands on her thick curves and just dive in.” “How do you know she’s going to have curves?” I ask with a grin. “Maybe she’s going to be ninety-eight years old and only weigh sixty pounds.” “I’d still love her,” Rylan says and my eyes roll so far back in my head that I think I just sprained them. “You would,” Ethan says with a nod. “Don’t listen to this grumpy old bear. Finding your mate is going to be the most amazing thing to happen to you. I had given up on ever finding her and then bam! she was there.” “And you acted like a total d**k,” I remind him. “Remember that? You were growling at everyone in sight. If anyone even dared to sniff the air around her, you bit their damn head off.” He looks embarrassed as his cheeks start to blush. “My bear went a little crazy. I’ll admit that. I couldn’t control my primal urges around her. He wanted to claim her and mark her so badly that I couldn’t think straight. But once my mark was on her neck, everything calmed down. Sort of.” “I can’t wait to find my girl and have someone to protect,” Westin adds. “Why bother?” I ask. “It’s better on your own. You don’t have to worry about anyone but yourself. Being stressed and worried about another person is no way to be happy. And then what happens when everything falls apart? You’ll be miserable.” “As opposed to you, Mr. Sunshine over there?” Rylan says with a chuckle. “Look at Ethan,” Westin says. “He’s happy. I’ve never seen anyone more happy in my life.” Ethan smiles. “It’s true, Carter. I am pretty f*****g happy.” I let out a long sigh. Why is this so hard to get through their thick heads? “Because it hasn’t hit him yet,” I explain. “He’s in the eye before the storm. He’s walking on train tracks listening to love songs on his Walkman and he’s too stupid in love to realize there’s a train bearing down on him about to smack him senseless.” Westin frowns. “What’s a Walkman?” Another sigh from me. “You don’t know what a Walkman is? You’re a child.” “I’m twenty-seven!” he snaps back. “Exactly.” “What the hell is it?” Westin asks again. “Is it like an MP3 player that plays CDs?” Rylan, the other young twenty-six-year-old genius jumps in. “No, it plays A-track tapes.” A-track tapes? Geez, I’m only forty-two. I’m not that old. “It plays cassettes, you morons.” Rylan’s face scrunches up in confusion. “Did it at least have a phone on it?” Ethan is laughing. He’s thirty-six, so for sure he had a Walkman at some point in his life. And knowing him, he probably only listened to romantic love songs on it. We go through the first round of betting and the flop comes out with two kings and a ten. Not good for me. At all. “What happened to you, Carter?” Ethan asks as he narrows his eyes and studies me from across the table. “Who broke your heart? Do you have a heart? Are you a robot?” “Nothing is wrong with me,” I say with a shrug. “There’s something wrong with all of you. I’ve seen what mates do to shifters. They turn them inside out and twist them around like cold spaghetti. I like my life. I don’t want it to change.” Rylan laughs. “You just microwaved six hot dogs and ate them with hot sauce and bacon that was a week old.” “So?” “So, if anyone’s life needs to change, it’s yours.” I shake my head as they all laugh. “I don’t want it. I don’t want a mate. I don’t want to fall in love. I don’t want any of it.” “What about your bear?” Westin asks. “You can’t tell me that your grizzly isn’t itching to find his mate.” “My bear sleeps all day and night,” I tell them. Sometimes I even forget that I have an animal inside me. “He’s been in hibernation mode for the last twenty or so years. I don’t hear much from him. Probably because he doesn’t want a mate either.”