The Tyrant Alpha's Rejected Mate (Five Packs, #1)

by Cate C. Wells

I wait for my heart to sputter to a stop. It can’t endure. It isn’t possible that it’s still beating.

And then when she reaches out to pet him, he lunges up and slobbers on her face again. He loves her shrieks. He thinks this is the best shit ever. And she’s smiling. Maybe I’d be, too. If I were in my human skin.

I’m jumpy—he’s a monster, and he’s losing it on my porch, and I can’t forget what he interrupted—but I’m not scared. Because my wolf’s not scared. She’s put his wolf in time out. And I’m a million miles away from cracking a smile, but—it’s funny.

If I were to fall in love, she’d be an alpha. A badass with big ol’ titties. Una’s no badass. I mean, she’s all right.

He said witches dance between raindrops. Any male who thinks to control one doesn’t understand nature.

“I’m thinking that I have a mate,” he says softly. “And she’s cold and angry and sitting in the dirt. I’m thinking I’m an asshole.”

I hold my head high as I pass him. I refuse to cover my butt. He’s seen it before. And he can kiss it.

“Can you stop? I’m getting pissed.” “Stop what?” And he’s already pissed. So am I. “You smell sad. It’s stinking up the cab. And it’s fucking with my wolf.” Un-freakin’-believable.

Truth be told, I’ve got the sinking feeling that I’ve missed a hell of a lot. Like how our lone females have been running a side hustle in the human town for an entire decade.

My lip quirks up. She knows I won’t hurt her. Maybe not consciously, but something inside her—maybe her wolf—recognizes that in our pack of two, she outranks the hell out of me. If she ever realizes the power that gives her, I’m fucked. But I can’t bring myself to mind.

I don’t know why it’s of essential importance to my wolf and I that Una be able to live through a hard winter right now, in this very moment, but it’s at the top of my brain.

I need her to smile at me. I need not to have fucked up the best thing that’s ever happened in my life before it even happened.

If Darragh Ryan knew I was here, making his mate cry, he’d kill me. Good thing he’s still hiding from her up in the hills.

My father was the one who wanted females to reek of fear. He got off on it. I never developed a taste for it. Smelled like defeat to me. Like a weak pack and weak males who confuse respect with mere compliance.

A smart alpha doesn’t take something shared from the heart and say, “You don’t feel what you feel. You don’t think what you think.” That’s how you teach folks to lie to your face.

I’m not in heat. I remember heat; it’s seared into my muscle memory. It’s unadulterated misery. Mind controlling. Madness making. This is not that. This is a queasy stomach.

“I don’t want a mate.” “I do.” I— My brain kind of stutters. Males always complain about being tied down and leg-shackled and ball-and-chained. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard the older males wistfully expound on how Killian Kelly is the luckiest shifter alive—alpha, unmated, and drowning in eager pussy.

He should be still. I’m dangerous. He has wronged me, and I haven’t decided yet whether he is forgivable or not.

“You’ll forgive me for this, won’t you?” He licks at my lips, and I welcome him, let him taste. Plunge. Own. “You’ll forgive me everything, won’t you?” he mumbles against my mouth.

It’s like a killer lion is really infatuated with you—but not quite in a “wants to eat you” way. Do you feel scared? Or excited?

at least it’ll make it clear who’s highest ranked in this pack. It’s the female stewing in the corner who can’t help but watch as I dispatch five males, including my beta, in quick succession in tented frickin’ pants. She owns me, and that makes her the most powerful wolf in the five packs. And I don’t think she has a clue.

She’s got that leg, though, and that small ass wolf. It’s not a problem. She’s never gonna not have protection from this moment on. Still.

“You don’t need to win an alpha challenge. An alpha belongs to you.”

Her usual defensiveness is gone. There’s a vulnerability there now which scares me shitless. This female can be hurt. I can hurt her again. I can lose everything in this second, and I am not equal to the moment. At the end of the day, I’m nothing but a brawler. All fists and fangs. None of those will do me any good here, with my mate considering her nest, her raw heart on her sleeve.

If it comes down to it, I will beg this female. I will give her anything she wants. I am weak for her, and I don’t give a damn.

“Alpha doesn’t pity me. Alpha belongs to me.” Hell, yeah, I do.

“You lead me on a leash.” I slap that swaying ass. Can’t resist.

“I wanted to be gentle.” But I wasn’t. My shoulders bunch. I was an animal.

Our mate is scared, and that’s not right. But is she ours? She’s fucked other males. They need to die.

Killian gazes up at me, and even in the dim light, his eyes twinkle. “Are those all your demands, Alpha?” My stomach flips. Oh, I like him on his knees in front of me, calling me that, looking at me like that. It’s heady.

Killian is not an easy male to live with, but loving him comes as natural as breathing.