A Tinder Date With The Alpha

Cascade

DILLON

She barely touched her food, so I slide her plate across the table to myself and eat it. All of it.

“Mr. Barlowe,” a female voice calls just when I’m about to exit the restaurant. I turn and watch as an Asian-looking woman scurries towards me, the echoing click-clack sound of her shoes against the tiled floor an irritation to my ears.

“It was lovely seeing you here after such a long time,” she says, panting. “Funny how this is the second time I’m meeting you in the three years I’ve worked for you.”

I force a smile and she returns it with her pearly whites, the corners of her eyes creasing. Definitely Asian.

“I hope you enjoyed your food.”

“I did,” I manage to say and she nods, securing the scarf around her neck.

“I’m glad you did, I just wanted to say thank you for offering me a job here.”

“Get back to work before you lose it then,” I say, walking out of the restaurant.

The weather outside is cold, just how I like it. Had I been within the confines of the pack right now, I would have shifted and let my beast run me around the forest.

I open the door to the driver's seat and slide in, driving off almost immediately. I can’t stop thinking about Olivia. No, not me but my beast. My beast can’t seem to quiet down. Apparently, he thinks she’s my mate but I’m thinking he’s mistaken. I can’t have a human mate. My beta, Michael can’t be right. At least not on this one. I’ve searched several packs for a mate from the time I turned eighteen and on my twenty-nineth birthday this year, Michael suggested I search the human world.

“She could be human,” he said, setting up my Tinder profile. “Even if she’s not, having some fun on human dating sites wouldn’t hurt.”

“Whatever,” I said as he showed me how to navigate through the site. I swiped left on most of the profiles and swiped right on a few. Olivia was my third date and evidently the worst of them. It was the worst because I made it so. My beast’s reaction to her patchouli fragrance made it clear to me that she is the one. She is my mate but wrapping my head around that the moment I realized it wasn’t easy. Perhaps it won’t even be possible.

Ted and Bill open the gate when I get to the pack and I drive straight to my house.

“Welcome home, alpha.” My house-help, Lilian says when I walk in. “Dinner is already served.”

I walk past her and up the stairs to my office without saying a word.

I slide my hand into my coat’s pocket and take out the instant photograph I took of Olivia, pinning it to my corkboard.

Michael, through mind link, asks if he could get into my office and I permit him.

He bursts into the office almost immediately and walks to the corkboard, standing next to me.

“How was today’s date?” He asks, looking at the picture, “And who’s that hot girl up there?”

“She’s human,” I say, unable to keep it to myself. “You were right, my mate is human but I think my beast is mistaken.”

“Come on,” Michael says, “you know Brian can’t be mistaken about such a thing.”

I guffaw at that, we haven’t called each other’s wolves by their names in a long time. Growing up, Michael and I named our wolves. His Ryan and mine Brian, and we used those names whenever we talked about our wolves.

“Well, I’ll make Brian realize that he’s wrong to even think we could have a human mate,” I say and Michael nods.

“Let’s see how that works.”

Most beings my kind hate humans, I too would if my grandmother weren’t one. That, though, doesn’t make my situation any better or even acceptable.

I move backward and lean against my desk, getting my phone out of my trousers’ pocket. I open Tinder to message Olivia again but her profile is gone.

“Damnit!” I snarl, smacking the table. “She deleted her profile.”

“Why does that seem to annoy you?” Michael asks, “Last time I checked, you wanted nothing to do with her.”

Goddess knows I want nothing to do with the mate she gave me but there’s nothing I can do about it. Well, there’s something I can do about it and that thing is rejecting her but I’m twenty-nine and if I turn thirty without a Luna, I’ll lose my place as alpha. It’s a rule in this pack. That’s how my great-grandfather, who was then beta, earned his title of alpha and passed it on to us. He was a replacement for an alpha that had not found his mate by thirty years of age and I can’t lose the position in the exact way it was earned. That would be a shame to me and the entire bloodline.

“I need to bring her into the pack and make her my Luna,” I say, pushing myself off the desk and walking around it to sit in my chair.

“How will you do that?” Michael asks.

“Leave, I need to think.”

He obliges without hesitation, he knows best to leave me alone whenever I need to think.

Unable to think clearly, I leave my house and head into the forest. There, I strip naked and shift, allowing Brian to take over. I gallop around the forest like I had wished earlier on until I get my thoughts straight and come up with an idea.

I return to my usual point of shifting and shift back into my human form. I walk under the cascade of water flowing over rocks and stand there, panting as the cold water runs down my body, washing away my sweat. Washing myself under the cascade every time I let my beast run me around the forest is a routine I developed ever since I discovered the waterfall-ten years ago.

When I’m done, I walk away from the cascade and grab my clothes from the rock where I had put them earlier before I shifted. I get into my pants and drape my shirt over my shoulder, and then I head back to my house. I sit behind my desk and open my laptop, sending a message to Olivia through a different site, thanks to Google for leading me there. She’s on the professional site hunting for a job and I’ll give her one.