Alphas alpha wolf harbor.., p.1
Alpha's Alpha: Wolf Harbor, #2, page 1
Alpha’s Alpha
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By L. J. Breedlove
Published by L. J. Breedlove
Copyright 2022 L. J. Breedlove
ISBN: 9798201675073
License Notes
This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase a copy.
Thank you for respecting the work this author.
Disclaimer
This is a work of fiction. While place descriptions and news events may coincide with the real world, all characters and the plot are fictional.
Contact Information
For more information about this author, please visit www.ljbreedlove.com.
Email address is lois@ljbreedlove.com.
Table of Contents
Copyright Page
Alpha’s Alpha
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Postscript
Further Reading: Power Grab
Also By L.J. Breedlove
About the Author
Alpha’s Alpha
Torn Between Two Lovers, Feeling Like A Fool
Abby Stafford, new Alpha of the Hat Island Pack, has a lot to deal with. The serum the Hat Island Pack has developed will save the lives of shifter girls everywhere — and change the world forever, if the Pack can survive long enough to get it into production.
And she's been a wolf for all of a month. She's in love with her Second in command. And they're scrambling to make a real shifter community on Hat Island, hopefully with some income-producing businesses.
But someone is gunning for the pack — trying to stop the serum, trying to prevent Abby from being Alpha. In the last month there have been seven attempts on her life.
Then someone makes a run at the Tanaka Pack Alpha in Seattle — and the only way to save his life is through a mate bond. Abby knows realistically that Hat Island won't last two weeks with Tanaka's support and backing. And she's aware of her own growing feelings for the man. Why wouldn't she want him? He was urbane, polished, intelligent....
But she loves Jake, her Second. Jake says she doesn't have to choose. She can have both.
She doubts it's as simple as that, but there's not much time, and very little choice. So another new thing in the shifter world: two alphas mated.
She hopes they all survive it.
Book 2 in the new urban adventure series, Wolf Harbor.
Chapter 1
Day 27 of the re-emerged Hat Island pack, Friday, July 4
The gym at the Wolf Harbor Resort had been turned into a boxing smoker — well more of an MMA smoker. The only rule was no permanent damage, and for a shifter, that allowed for a lot of damage. Four sparring rings were set up, and there were more good-looking men dressed in black sweats than any gym had a right to have.
Abby Stafford, Alpha of the Hat Island pack, grinned as she watched her wolves mingle. And the only fights were in the rings. That alone was a success, she thought with a grimace.
She wiped sweat off her forehead and pushed back the straying strands of her red hair. No matter how tightly Yui Yoshida bound her hair into a bun, a few hairs escaped. She blew air out through pursed lips in exasperation. Every day, she was getting younger, healthier, and more fit. Why couldn’t better hair go along with that? Well, at least she was losing the gray. Unfortunately, the auburn red of her ‘mature’ years was reverting back to the brighter red hair of her youth. And it still wouldn’t stay pulled back!
She’d had a bout with her Second, Jake Lewis, as a demonstration round. No one, least of all her, expected her to win. It was more about demonstrating her improving fighting skills to the rest of the pack. She might be the first female pack Alpha the shifter world had ever known, but she still needed to be able to fight off a challenge. To physically fight off a challenge. And her pack was heavily invested in her improving ability to do so.
Her life as a scholar and anthropology professor had left her highly proficient at handling verbal challenges. But in the last month she’d had to fight challenges with her hands.
She looked at her hands — hands that had killed men. She shook her head. She’d do it again if she had to. She expected that she would. It had been a rough month.
Her Second came up and stood at her left shoulder as he usually did. She smiled at him over her shoulder. “I’m getting better?”
“You are,” he agreed. “You might even be able to win a real bout.”
“I win,” she said grimly. “I fight dirty. Someday I’d like to be able to win with skill, not desperation.”
He snorted. “Alpha, you win however it needs to get done. Fight dirty. Fight with words — they’re still your best weapon, I’m afraid.”
She laughed. Jake Lewis was the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen, and she was surrounded by many handsome men these days. Shifters were fit, muscled, and had the vitality that good health brings a man. They were a diverse bunch, and Abby, the anthropologist, was fascinated by the history of the shifter species that accounted for that. But they were all appealing. And the more dominant ones? Damned hard to resist.
Really hard, she acknowledged to herself. She pushed that thought away. It represented an aspect of shifter culture she wasn’t ready to deal with. Might never be willing to deal with.
Her wolf snorted at her. Abby sighed. She had a snarky, opinionated, argumentative wolf. Jake, on the other hand, said he had no arguments with his wolf. She hadn’t told him about her wolf’s snark. Another thing she might never get around to telling him.
And her wolf laughed. Abby could see her in her mind. A red wolf, rare in the wild, and not common among shifters either. And she was laughing at her.
She looked at Jake Lewis, Second in the pack. He was 6-foot-3, significantly taller than her own 5-foot-10, with broad shoulders and six-pack abs. Well 40 years as a Marine would build those, she conceded. A twice-retired Marine who still looked 28 or so. He had a few laugh lines at his eyes, and curved lines around his mouth when he smiled. But it was his coloring that drew her the first time she saw him, and it still did. His father was Filipino-Yakama, his mother was Black, and the combination of heritages had made him beautiful with brown skin and dark hair that curled now that it was no longer military short. She loved burying her hands in it when they made love. He’d hate that she thought him beautiful. She smiled, her eyes half closing, as she thought about making love with him.
“Do I want to know what put that kind of smile on your face?” he asked.
She grinned. “Tonight, I’ll show you,” she promised.
“I will hold you to it, Alpha,” he said, his eyes alight with humor.
“Second! We need you to ref this one,” a man called. He looked familiar, although Abby couldn’t put a name to his face. She checked her map, as she called it, a construct in her mind that allowed her to see the wolves in her territory and even beyond. She searched for the bond to the man and frowned. There wasn’t one. A recent beta, then.
“Jake,” she began, but he was already headed toward that ring and didn’t hear her. Jake as the dominant shifter on the island — well, after herself — was the referee for fights between the more dominant wolves, the alphas.
The etymology of the shifter words for their hierarchy of dominance wasn’t clear cut, she thought as she always did when it came up. There were alphas — dominant wolves — and submissives. She had very few submissives on the island. She thought wistfully it might be nice to have more. Fewer fights at least.
Alphas who ran packs were called pack Alphas. She became one the night she howled at the moon and the wolves of Hat Island responded. Something mystical happened, and suddenly there was a pack again on Hat Island, and she was their Alpha. She smiled at the memory, still in awe from the experience. She savored it for a moment.
In most packs, alpha wolves who were seen as potential challengers to the pack Alpha were banished. They were called betas.
Most of her wolves were betas — had been betas — including Jake who had been banished at age 13. His father was considered somewhat enlightened; he hadn’t killed Jake before he transitioned at puberty. Instead he had sent him to boarding school, to summer camps, and then to college. Jake had joined the Marines like a lot of betas did. The military was a good fit for a male shifter.
Most pack Alphas wouldn’t tolerate a beta in their presence — the possibility of the beta challenging them and winning was too risky. Jake hadn’t seen his father in nearly 50 years.
She pulled her thoughts back to the gym. She had to work to stay in the here and now. Obser ve now, analyze later, Abby told herself, just as she did when she conducted ethnographic fieldwork. Stay present.
Jake hopped up into the ring, and people crowded around to watch. Apparently, this was going to be a fight worth watching. She looked at the other man in the ring, another beta she didn’t know well, but she at least knew his name. Geoff had been a Council wolf and defied an order to keep her on the Council ship. Instead, he and his squad followed her over the side, and then to Hat Island. She owed him for that. He was employed by the pack as security. Did he want pack status? She should ask soon.
She started to leave her hiding spot in the alcove by the women’s locker room and move closer to watch, but a shifter, a stranger, blocked her.
“Alpha,” he said loudly. “I challenge you for the Hat Island pack.”
Jake jerked his attention away from the fight he was refereeing, sensing her distress, and the inattention was enough for the unknown beta in the fight to turn on him. He punched Jake’s jaw, knocking him down and then kicked him in the ribs.
Abby felt Jake go down in the pack bonds, but she had learned. Jake’s training: stay focused on the threat in front of her.
“Benny,” she called loudly and tugged on the bond. He had been headed toward the ring where Jake was, but Pete was already going there. He’d take care of that bout. Benny angled toward her.
“Alpha?” Benny Garrison, usually referred to as the beta from the Okanogan, said courteously. “How may I serve you?”
“This man has cried challenge,” she said. There was a stillness in the wolves around her as they turned to see who threatened their Alpha. “Clear the ring.” She gestured to the one nearest, to her left. Her eyes never left the challenger.
Benny hesitated, then turned to do what she said.
“Who are you that challenges the Alpha of Hat Island pack?” she asked.
“You’re no pack Alpha,” the man said, and he spat. “You’re a woman. There are no female pack Alphas. And I’ll be happy to teach you your place.”
“If I am not the pack Alpha, why are you challenging me for the pack?” Abby asked. This illogic fascinated her. She’d encountered it from the ruling Northwest Council of Alphas down to the lowest of submissives. Focus, she demanded of herself. Her wolf snorted and surged closer to the surface to take more control of the situation. Her wolf had no problem with focus.
The man rolled his eyes. “Do you concede?”
“Who are you?” she asked.
“I am Jonas Bellwether of the Kodiak pack,” he said. “Now beta.”
That put another level of danger to this, Abby thought. Her wolf grew still and cold. Abby knew the name. Jonas Bellwether had been the pack Alpha in Kodiak, a pack that refused to recognize the Council of Alphas. A month ago, the Council had sailed there with a force of wolves to resolve the issue — with a detour here to deal with her, she thought sourly. The Kodiak pack now had a new Alpha, one who did recognize the Council.
“You lost the challenge in Kodiak. You lost your pack,” Abby said slowly. The audience was growing. “How do you still live?”
He grinned at her. “A quid pro quo,” he said. “My life if I challenged for the Alpha of Hat Island. A favor purchased by Jedediah Jones. He said to tell you hello.”
“And would you recognize the Council if you become Alpha here?” she asked curiously. She ignored the others for now. Jedediah Jones? It figured. “Because if you were willing to do that, the Council wouldn’t have forced a challenge in Kodiak.”
He looked almost feral now. “Do you always ask questions?” he demanded. There were snickers in the crowd, and he turned red, thinking they were laughing at him.
“Yes,” Abby said honestly. “I always ask questions.”
Now there was open laughter.
“Enough,” Bellwether snarled. “Fight or concede.”
Abby had moved closer to him as they talked. The other wolves backed away, giving her space. “I will never concede as the Alpha of the Hat Island pack,” she said clearly.
She let her wolf take control. Her eyes flashed blue, the only warning Bellwether got, before her wolf changed her hands to claws and lashed at the man, taking him in the jugular. The man lunged for her, and Abby dodged, then tripped him. He went down. Her wolf raked him again starting at his waist and adding power as she dug deeper into his spine and then up to his neck and the spinal cord at the base of his skull. Bellwether screamed in pain. Abby severed the spinal cord and stepped back to watch the man bleed out.
“We won’t be needing the ring, Benny,” she called. “Haul him out and burn his body.”
The wolves hardly breathed as she looked around. “Well, that’s the last demonstration fight of the evening, folks,” she said dryly. The wolves relaxed at the sound of humor in her voice. “There’s food in dining room, I’m told.”
There was laughter, and the wolves — her wolves — moved away toward the exits from the gym, heading to the dining room. Fights and food, Abby thought wearily. How to control a werewolf pack.
“You’re getting better at that,” Benny said as he gestured to a couple of security guards to haul out the body. “I think that was the fastest one yet.”
“Jake?” she asked. Benny would flip her shit with his last dying breath — thank God. The deference around here got to be too much sometimes.
“I’m fine,” Jake said with disgust, approaching her from the right. “Benny, there’s another body in that ring, too. Haul it out and burn it with the other.”
“Not Geoff?” Abby said.
“No,” Jake said. Abby frowned; he looked a bit woozy. “The other one. It was a set up. Keep me busy, take me out if he could, take out Geoff if he didn’t get a chance at me. So, he’s dead.”
“And Geoff wasn’t in on it?” Abby asked as the two of them fell into their usual strides as they walked toward the dining room. She needed to eat. Being a shifter burned a lot of calories. And a partial shift like that one burned even more.
“Since he’s the one who killed the beta, I doubt it,” Jake said. “Although I would have liked to have asked the beta a few questions. You can ask Geoff.”
She would. An Alpha’s question, with the power of the Alpha behind it, compelled honesty.
“Do you need to see Yui?” she asked softly once they were outside the building. “Are you OK?”
“He got me a good one,” Jake admitted. “Ribs are already OK, a bit of a headache still, that’s all. Food and coffee are all I need.”
She nodded, not convinced.
“I’m OK, Abby,” he said gently. “Check the bonds and see.”
Oh, she thought. Yes, she could do that. She did, tugging gently. Healthy, her wolf said with satisfaction. She smiled at the man who was standing so close. Then she reached up and kissed him, pulling his head down to hers. She felt his smile against her lips, and he kissed her back.
Someone catcalled. Abby jerked, so lost in his kiss she was unaware of the people around her. Dangerous, she warned herself, although her wolf seemed to have been watching out. Abby looked around, saw the flame-red-haired woman laughing at her. Nothing remotely natural about that red hair, Abby thought. “Synde,” she said severely. “Do you have no respect for your Alpha and Second?”
“None,” the woman said cheerfully. “No respect for anyone, actually.”
Abby laughed, and Synde joined them for the last steps up to the main lodge and dining room. Abby liked the woman, a friend she thought, and she didn’t have many of those. Synde Bell, former pole dancer from Las Vegas — among other things — had been a part of her cohort. Six women had been brought here as research subjects for a shifter scientist who wanted to develop a serum to save the lives of girl shifters at puberty. Not that the women were told that — they were told it was research on a supplement that would restore health and vitality to post-menopausal women.
Well, that wasn’t a lie, Abby thought with a mental eye roll. It’s just the unnamed side effects included turning into a wolf. Abby didn’t have any regrets. She liked being a shifter. She liked her wolf, the snarky bitch. She felt her wolf preen. As Benny said once, she would never be alone again.
She hadn’t realized being alone had become a problem for her until he said that, and she’d felt such relief. Was that the right word? Pleasure, maybe. Even now, it brought tears to her eyes. She had been alone for a very long time.
