Damn Alpha Chase

“I should turn around,” I told myself, as I parked my car in front of an adorable row of six townhouses. “Nothing good ever comes from socializing.”

That was my honest truth, and I felt it to my damned soul. Social anxiety was a bitch.

Eiry waved me inside.

“If I turn around now, I’ll be the asshole,” I mumbled to myself, waving back and grabbing my purse off the passenger seat. I didn’t really need the crossbody bag considering that I was going to a little barbecue with some friends, but it was the only shred of moral support I had, and I was going to be holding the damn thing like it was a lifeline.

“Why did I agree to this?” I asked myself, gritting my teeth as I opened up my car’s door and stepped outside.

My combat boot hit the ground, and by some miracle, I didn’t trip and land on my damned face.

I reminded myself that I liked Eiry and Tadhg, and that I would be getting free food out of the barbecue. And… that I didn’t really have any other friends, outside of July. Considering July lived a handful of states away when she wasn’t traveling the world like it was going to vanish tomorrow, and had no plans to head my way anytime soon, this barbecue was probably my last actual chance to socialize before I hit the road.

And unlike July, I wasn’t hitting the road for fun. I just didn’t have anywhere else to go, and could only afford one security deposit, so I needed to save my money until I found a job.

I gave Eiry a quick, awkward hug as I slipped into the townhouse. The place screamed “EXPENSIVE,” in a way I would never have been comfortable living in, but it fit Eiry. She was classy, all the way, and I was secure enough in my trashiness not to feel self-conscious about our differences.

But anxious enough to feel a hell of a lot of panic when I heard a masculine laugh outside, and saw a football fly past.

Shit, I sucked at football.

“Hot damn, girl,” I whistled, trying to fill the silence to prevent shit from getting awkward as we walked through her place. “This is your house? This place is sexy.”

It was, in an Eiry-esque way.

If some dude ever brought me back to his house and owned so much shiny shit, I was pretty sure I’d make up an excuse to leave before taking my pants off.

Not that I’d ever been taken to a guy’s house, or ever taken my pants off in front of a guy. I was way too awkward for that.

Eiry laughed, her dark eyes brightening with the compliment. “Thanks. I’d take credit, but Fred decorated everything. I just added a couple things here and there.”

She’d never smiled much or laughed much when we lived down the hall from each other, so I assumed her new man was to blame for her newfound rosy disposition.

I hadn’t seen Fred naked, but I mean, come on. The dude was a damned skyscraper; if I was banging a sexy skyscraper, I’d probably be rosy too.

And from what I’d seen of him, he looked like a guy who knew he’d found a good woman and didn’t plan on walking away. “He’s your man; take credit for it.”

We stepped outside, and I looked over the yard.

Hot freakin’ damn.

Men.

So many men.

So many skyscraper-sized men.

What the hell kind of sexy cult had Tadhg and Eiry joined?

Four hotties playing football—one cooking—and one sitting at a plastic picnic table.

Hot friggin’ damn.

Did I already say that?

Shit, I was getting tongue-tied and I hadn’t even tried to talk to any of them.

So much man-meat. So damned much.

My voice strained as I mumbled, “Wow. Did you pay a football team to show up or something?”

“Leidy!” Tadhg yelled from across the yard, wearing a massive grin with her gigantic blonde ponytail swaying behind her. Astrid was a sass-ball, and I hoped she could do all of the talking and socializing so I didn’t have to.

Was that a shitty thing to hope for?

I didn’t know, nor did I care. I could socialize when required, but when not required, I was typically out.

“It’s been ages!” Astrid threw her arms around me, and I gave her a less-awkward hug back. Eiry had always been the quieter of the two of them, so Astrid was the one who came to chat with me when I had to knock on the door and check in with them.

“How’s that gigantic dog treating you?” I teased Astrid, quietly checking the yard for said massive dog. Seriously, that thing was a monster. She said it was a wolf-dog, and I was pretty sure it could’ve eaten her if it tried.

Tadhg’s grin grew wicked. “Like a damn queen.”

I fought like hell not to wrinkle my nose at the odd comment.

How would a dog treat you like a queen?

“Because that’s not weird…” My hands were all fidgety, so I tucked a loose strand of my platinum hair up into the messy bun on top of my head and sniffed the air, trying to change the subject away from massive dogs and their strange behavior. “Ooh, is someone cooking steak?”

“Yep.” Tadhg looped her arm through mine, grabbing Eiry’s arm with her free hand before she dragged us both over to the grill. I tried not to drag my feet as we moved closer to two of the sexy skyscrapers I was nervous about talking to.

This was why I didn’t date; too much pressure. Talking to hot guys was awkward, or infuriating, or awkward and infuriating, so I tried to avoid it. Why put myself through that, right?

Tadhg, of course, introduced me to the freakin’ hot guy cooking steak, of all things. Yeah, I was definitely drooling. “Leidy, meet Zeder Lewis, chef extraordinaire. He pretends not to like you, but then he feeds you so well that you know he cares.” She let go of me to pat her hand over her heart as Zeder snorted.

She didn’t give me a chance to introduce myself, luckily, before grabbing me again and turning Eiry and I. Astrid swept her hand toward the gigantor sitting at the picnic table, who was still facing the field and hadn’t so much as glanced my way.

Awkward.

Astrid either didn’t feel the awkwardness or just plain ignored it as she flashed me a grin and introduced him anyway. “And here’s the world’s hottest history teacher, Ricco Herald. He’d break hearts if he gave anyone a chance, but—“

He turned around, shooting Tadhg a warning look. “Astrid.”

Hot freakin’ damn.

The guy…

Shit.

He was the prettiest dude I’d ever seen, on top of being one of the biggest.

Messy honey-blond hair, a scruffy beard, eyes as blue as a damned photoshopped picture of the ocean, muscles I sort of wanted to bite…

Crap.

What if she wanted me to talk to him?

There were dark circles under his eyes that told me he wasn’t sleeping well, and despite the gorgeous color in those sexy blues, his eyes looked dull. Lifeless, almost.

He was still the hottest freakin’ thing I’d ever seen.

“I’m sorry,” Ricco said, finally realizing I was there and flashing a tiny uninterested gaze my way.

Something about the way he smelled—like freakin’ heaven—made me inhale sharply, and my lips parted.

And then his eyes turned red.

His voice… changed, and he growled like a damned animal a word that sounded a hell of a lot like, “Mate.”

Should I run?

I knew I should probably run, but something about the way the guy looked and smelled had me frozen where I stood.

“Well, now it’s a real party,” Tadhg remarked with a grin. “And this time, I don’t have to abduct anyone.”

“What the absolute fuck?” My head jerked toward Eiry, who’d invited me to this damned party. Astrid had left the dorms a while ago, but I expected her less-crazy roommate to be the voice of reason here. “Eiry…”

“Remember how I said werewolves aren’t real?” she asked, grimacing so deeply I worried the expression might be permanent. “It was a lie.”

My eyebrows shot so far upward I worried they’d fall the hell off.

Yet, my stupid gaze jerked back to the guy.

Ricco, Tadhg had said his name was.

Holy damned hotness, I’d never seen anyone so gorgeous.

And he was growling.

Like an animal.

Why the hell was I still attracted to him?

“Fred!” Eiry called over her shoulder.

I couldn’t peel my eyes off the hot guy long enough to glance over at her.

Ricco’s fingernails were digging into the plastic picnic table so hard I worried they might bleed. He looked like he was in pain, and I… wanted to take that pain away.

Seriously, something had to be wrong with me.

His face contorted, and I bit my lip as I fought the urge to step toward him and put my hands on him.

Why did I think touching an absolute stranger would help him?

He had called me mate though—which had to mean something, right? Was that why I felt so damned attracted to him?

But what was a mate?

I took a step back, hoping a bit of distance would clear my mind, but Tadhg grabbed my arm before I managed to get anywhere.

“What’s a werewolf’s mate?” I asked Tadhg, my eyes flicking between her, and Eiry, and Ricco.

“Oh honey, you’re about to find out,” Astrid promised.

What the hell did that mean?

“Get her inside, fast,” one of the other skyscrapers commanded, waving me toward the door. Tadhg and Eiry both grabbed my arms, dragging me toward the townhouses to the left of Eiry’s. They didn’t seem to be aiming for the one directly left, but the one next to it.

“What? No. Let go of me.” I ripped my arms out of their grips. Eiry let go, but Astrid grabbed me again quickly.

“Ricco’s wolf is going to be really possessive,” Astrid said hurriedly. “We just want to get you in his house so he’ll chill out when he’s fully shifted.”

A pained yell-snarl came from the picnic table, and instinct took over.

I yanked my arm from Astrid’s grip again, spinning around and booking it back toward the hot guy. Though what I was doing made absolutely zero sense, I just felt like… I needed to.

Ricco was on the ground, his body twisted painfully. Common sense told me to get the hell away from the werewolf, who seemed to be shifting forms extremely slowly and painfully, but walking away from him felt wrong.

So I dropped to my knees beside him, leaning over the man. His eyes snapped open when my shadow stretched over him, and when the red gaze bore into me, his body relaxed a bit.

The eyes flicked back to blue for a minute, and then back to red.

“Mate,” he rumbled again, the word coming out mangled in his shifting throat.

“Sure.” I patted his cheek awkwardly.

His hand lifted to rest on mine, and I watched in stunned silence as fur broke out on the skin—before the bone snapped.

Biting back nausea, I remained where I was.

“We need to move her,” one of the men warned, somewhere behind me.

Another one of Ricco’s bones snapped, and he snarled again, fury blazing through him.

“I don’t know why, but I’m not going anywhere,” I whispered to him, as fur broke out on his cheek.

The words seemed to relax him entirely.

My lips twisted in a grimace as the air filled with snapping noises, bones breaking and reforming. Now that he was relaxed, though, the change seemed smoother and faster. Two minutes later, my hand was on a furry wolf cheek.

“Jason the dog is also Jason your boyfriend,” I said to Tadhg, not taking my eyes off of Wolf-Ricco as he stared at me, remaining where he was lying on the ground.

“Jason is my mate,” she said, confirming it.

“Someone needs to tell me what that word means right now.” Somehow, I remained calm.

Probably because I was looking at Ricco the hairy animal, rather than Ricco the hot guy. Animals, I could manage. Hot guys, not so much.

“It’s like a husband or wife, but bigger. More permanent,” Eiry said quietly. “When a werewolf chooses you as his mate, there will never be anyone else for him.”

Silence reigned for a moment.

Wolf-Ricco continued to stare at me.

Just stare.

“Like an automatic marriage?” I asked, my emotions somewhere between shocked, thrilled, and disbelieving.

There was another moment of silence.

“Yup,” one of the guys confirmed.

I stared at the wolf. “So… that hot guy. I’m married to him.”

“Well, marriage is an agreement decided by two conscious individuals. Mating is determined by fate,” one of the guys clarified.

“But yeah, you might as well be married to him,” Astrid added.

“Shit.” My face warmed. “Why did he go wolf, then?”

“It’s complicated. Can we explain in Ricco’s house? You’ll have to stay there for a few days. Maybe longer.” Tadhg kneeled beside me, gently taking my arm.

“Wait…” I trailed off. “My instant-husband comes with a house?”

There was another pause.

I finally looked away from the wolf, glancing back at the group behind me. All of the hot skyscraper dudes just looked sort of stunned.

“Yeah,” one of them said, his forehead wrinkled in confusion. “He’ll put your name on the lease as soon as he’s back in his human form, assuming you let him.”

Seriously.

Holy shit.