Mated to the Grumpy Alpha

Chapter 1

CIARA | CORBETT’S LANDING

I ORDERED THE SIGN MYSELF. IT HAD ANOTHER PERSON’S NAME ON IT.

“Marchetti Veterinary,” the man on the phone read back. “Black letters on a white board, and you want it by Friday. That’s an eighty-six dollar deposit.”

“Put it on the card,” I said. “The clinic can pay for its own bad news.”

I had run Corbett’s Landing Animal Clinic for eight years. I knew which drawer stuck and which supplier padded his invoices. I also had eleven thousand four hundred dollars saved to buy in someday.

Someday had come and gone on Monday, and nobody had told me.

Dr. Bhatt was at the back counter with his thermos. I put the receipt down in front of him.

“Your sign is ordered,” I said. “Why didn’t you ask me first?”

He took a long time with the thermos lid. “This thing always sticks.”

“I’ve been saving since I was twenty-two, Amrit. I would have made you an offer.”

“Theo is a vet, Ciara. You are a technician.”

“Then I’d have hired one, because people do that all the time.” My voice shook and I let it. “You sold the place I built and I found out from a fax.”

“It was complicated.”

“So explain it to me. I have a dog coming in at one, which gives you forty minutes.”

He looked down at the floor, and that was my answer.

I know what you’re thinking. I should have spoken up years ago. I thought being good at the job was the same as asking for it.

“Theo wants you to stay on,” he said. “He asked for you by name, and he’s offering a raise.”

“That’s a job. I wanted a door with my name on it.”

“He starts on Monday. Be kind to him, because none of this is his fault.”

“I’m always kind, Amrit. That’s how I ended up ordering his sign.”

“Your grandmother would have told you to be content.”

“Gran haggled over every jar of jam she ever sold. Don’t tell me what she’d say.”

The front bell rang before he could dodge that one too.

***

A small boy stood at the front desk with both hands flat on it. Two men stood behind him. One was grinning, and the other filled most of the doorway and did not seem happy about it.

“Hi,” the boy said. “Do you have a bird? Mommy said no puppies, but she never said anything about birds.”

“We have six that need homes,” I said. “They’re free and they come with a lecture. I’m Ciara.”

“I’m Dustin and I’m five. That’s Jonah, and that’s my Uncle Dec. He’s grumpy.”

“Enough,” the tall one said.

It was the first word out of him, and he said it to my name badge. Then he looked up at my face and stopped moving altogether.

I waited for him to finish the thought, and he just kept staring.

“Do I have something on my chin?” I asked. “It’s usually jam.”

“No.” His voice came out rough. “You’re… it’s nothing.”

“He means hello,” Jonah said. “He’s better with bridges than he is with people.”

Dustin walked the whole row and picked the finch nobody else had looked at. Biscuit had hit a window and wore blue tape on one foot. When the uncle crouched by the cage, the bird hopped straight over to his hand.

“He hasn’t left the floor in four days,” I said. “What did you do to him?”

“Nothing.”

He said it to me and not to the bird. His eyes were grey and he had not blinked in some time.

“He needs a heat lamp and soft food for a week,” I said. “Change the tape every morning. Are you listening, or should I write it down for your friend?”

“I heard you.” He swallowed. “Tape. Every morning.”

“A grown-up has to sign for him. Can you manage that part?”

He signed in square capitals that said DECLAN LEVESQUE. Then he walked to the door, turned around with his mouth open and left without another word.

“He does this,” Jonah said. He frowned at the door. “Well, no. He has never done this in his life.”

“His name is Steve now!” Dustin shouted from the parking lot.

Nancy leaned over the desk to watch them go. “Who was that, and does he have a brother?”

“A rude man with a nice nephew.”

He did smell of woodsmoke, though. I kept that part to myself.

***

Hollis’s Feed closes at five and the strays eat at six, so I walked over at four. My Corolla was at Ferris’s garage making a noise I couldn’t afford.

“Tell Amrit his account is two months behind,” Maud Hollis called from the till. “I run a feed store and not a bank.”

“He sold the clinic on Monday, Maud. You can send the bill to the new owner.”

“He sold it out from under you? After everything Pilar did for that man?”

“I’m just here for kibble,” I said. I did not trust my voice with the rest.

I was dragging a bag of senior kibble off the bottom shelf when I heard his voice. It came from the next aisle, so I backed up to look and my boot found a spill of birdseed.

The floor went out from under me. “Oh no,” I told the ceiling.

I never hit the ground. An arm caught me around the waist and I hung there with his face a few inches above mine.

“Mate,” he said.

He sounded surprised by it. Up at the till Maud put down a roll of quarters.

“Excuse me?” I said.

“Declan Levesque.” Maud’s voice had gone sharp. “You said it in front of me and I can’t unhear it. You know the law as well as I do.”

“She’s human, Maud. She doesn’t even know what I am.”

“Then you should have kept your mouth shut. Claim her or do the other thing, but do it now.”

He shut his eyes for a second. Then he set me on my feet and took his hands away fast.

“Could somebody explain?” I asked. “I was upside down for most of that.”

“I’m sorry,” he told me. His jaw was tight and he would not look at my face now. “This is the only way you stay safe.”

“You caught me before I cracked my head. I should be thanking you.”

“Ciara Cortez, I reject you as my mate.”

The store went quiet. Behind a stack of salt blocks Corrie Pruitt had her phone up, and the red dot was on.

I waited to feel something. All I felt was my face getting hot, because a stranger had just dumped me in aisle four. We had never even had coffee.

“Okay,” I said. “I don’t know what that was, but I’m going to buy my kibble now. Corrie, I can see you.”

I picked up the bag and carried it to the till. My hands were not shaking and I was proud of that. I put a twenty on the counter.

Maud did not take it. She was staring past my shoulder with her hand over her mouth.

I turned around. Declan Levesque was down on one knee with his fist against his chest, and his face had gone grey.

“That’s not right,” Maud whispered. “It’s supposed to hit her.”