The Alpha's Mail Order Mate: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (2 page)

“W-what? What do you mean, with you?” she stammered, blushing furiously.

“As I told you before, it’s mostly men here, and the safest place for a girl like you will be at my side,” he said, clearly amused. “I have a house just over there, and it happens to have a spare bedroom. It’s not very big, but then again neither are you. You should fit comfortably enough.”

“I want my own house,” she informed him. “The very idea of being in there with you alone is completely indecent. How do you expect these men to keep their thoughts towards me respectable if you’ve got them all wondering what sorts of things we’re doing out of their sight?”

“What sorts of things did you have in mind?” Night asked innocently.

“Oh!” she growled. “I’d just as soon sleep out in the woods.”

“You’ll do nothing of the sort,” he told her then. “I’ll not allow you to put yourself in danger of being treated indecently in your ridiculous attempt to keep up appearances. Have you no idea how tempting you are to the likes of them?”

“And what about you?” she asked hotly. “Your eyes have hardly left my person since I got here.”

“As to that, I think I am capable of handling myself,” he shot back, making her blush even more at the image his words evoked, especially when she remembered the image she’d probably given him earlier when she had used them herself.

“My dear, I’m sure that Lord Nightsky is correct in this matter,” Boris said gently. “But if it will make you feel any better, perhaps he will allow me to find a spot to sleep in his home as well. They would hardly get the wrong idea about things if they knew the two of you were not completely alone.”

“I suppose you could sleep in the so-called living room, but unfortunately it doesn’t have a bed in it,” Night conceded. “Besides, Nick mentioned that you had something to discuss with me anyway.”

“Yes, but it can wait until no other ears are present,” he said, glancing down at the girl from behind her back.

“I can take a hint,” Chastity grumbled. “Go ahead and talk behind my back. It’s not as though it’d be the first time, is it?”

“Such a fiery little wench, aren’t you?” Night chuckled. “Come, let me show the two of you to my home. And if you’re going to want a snack later on, best to get it before we go.”

Grimacing guiltily, Chastity grabbed the chocolate bar that she had been surreptitiously wishing for all this time, and Night laughed outright. “Grab one for each of us, too, Chastity. I’m sure you’re not the only one in this group with a sweet tooth.”

Chastity did as he asked, and then followed along with Boris as Night led them to one of the houses near the edge of town. She was surprised to see that it did not seem any bigger or grander than any of the others.

“One would never have guessed this house belonged to a lord,” she said to Night with a smirk, as she looked around at the recycled furniture with fur and leather trappings. The curtains were tanned deer hides, and in the middle of the floor of the smallish main room, he actually had a bearskin rug. “Well, unless this thing is considered a luxury around here, that is.”

“Somewhat,” he conceded as he gave her an enigmatic stare. Chastity unaccountably felt herself blushing again, and she turned away from him.

“So, which of these rooms am I to have?” she inquired. “Perhaps I could go rest, and leave you two to your private chat.”

Night stepped over and opened a door, not quite moving enough for her to get past him as she stepped inside. She bumped into his chest as she went, and it seemed like he leaned into her as she did so. But she tried to convince herself that he had done nothing of the sort as he let go of the doorknob and moved to open the closet, pulling down a blanket from the top shelf.

Chastity took one end of it, but he didn’t let it go right away, instead giving it a bit of a tug so that she almost lost her footing before he let the other end go. Their eyes met and held, amber to blue, and she cast him a quelling stare.

Night chuckled and turned to step out again. “Have a good sleep,” he told her, and then shut the door behind her, leaving her alone with her roiling turmoil of thoughts.

*

As Night stepped back out into the other room, he saw that Boris had taken a seat on the rickety old sofa in the area that served as the living room. Smiling politely, Night took a seat on the chair just to the left of him and settled in comfortably. “You had something you wanted to discuss?”

“Indeed, yes,” the man replied. “But I’d give Chastity time to fall asleep first, if I were you. The walls can sometimes have ears.”

“I see,” said Night, smirking. “Quite an interesting assistant you have there, Boris. How long have you been saddled with the intrepid little wench?”

“She’s my niece, actually.”

“That makes more sense,” he said with a thoughtful smile. “No wonder you are unaffected by her allure. However, if we’re going to wait, perhaps you would care to join me in a glass of water? It’s the best I can offer right now, although I did ask Nick if he could get his hands on some wine. But if he has, we certainly wouldn’t know where to find it right now.”

“As it happens, I have a bit of whiskey in my flask,” said Boris with a grin. “Would you care for a sip?”

“It’s been years,” he admitted as he took a pull off the gold-toned metal flask the other man handed him. He examined the etching on the side, a wolf’s claw. He smiled at the choice, and added, “And years since this blend was made. How old is it?”

“It’s been aged fifty-two years,” Boris said.

“By the moons, that’s good!”

Night pulled a hand through the length of his light brown hair as he removed a tie from it, sighing with relief as he raked it over his shoulders. He gave the flask back to Boris with a bit of a smile. The pair sat companionably for a while, passing the flask between them, as the evening wore on.

“All right, she should be well asleep by now,” Boris said with a bit of a slur. “I’m just trying to figure out the best way to deliver the message with which I have been charged.”

“Why don’t you begin at the beginning?” suggested Night. “That’s always a good place.”

“Okay, I will,” he agreed, leaning back a bit and taking a deep breath. “Julian got your letter and it wasn’t long before he called me in with an idea he wanted to run past me. You see, he understood from what you told him that most of your pack is probably made rather than born, and he knew that there was no point working hard to preserve a pack that’s not likely to live over time.

But he also knows you, and he knows that you yourself would make a fine Alpha to lead, if you had a pack worthy of that leadership. He also thought the idea of creating a stronghold in the woods, filled with werewolves who were thriving within it, was something to be desired. And I agreed with him.”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right,” Night conceded. “But what has that got to do with anything? Is he planning to send me some new blood? I sure could use some.”

“Well, our own pack is overflowing as we speak, and some of them could really use a place to go,” he explained. “But they couldn’t possibly come to this place in its current condition, as I’m sure you must agree. First, it will need steady power, and a better water supply, and sturdy buildings to house the children. This here is a mining town gone bad, but what these folks would want would be a home.”

“Okay, I understand, he wants to help make this place into something better,” Night said. “But why have you told me that, when I’ve been told it’s Rick that’s interested in tech? Why would a doctor bring such news? For that matter, why send a doctor at all?”

“It’s because of what we’ve been doing in our own pack to make it stronger,” he said. “Julian thought a letter would be too impersonal to explain what he’d like to have you do. He’s been helping breed stronger wolf-borns using a mixture of techniques. His hope is the same as yours, that someday a thriving wolf colony could live without the need of human dependency. And a place like this, cut off from the outside world and hidden from the view of the satellite cameras that float above us up in outer space, could be just the thing. He wants you to succeed, and so he’s willing to make certain of it.”

“Are you trying to tell me that Julian hopes to breed super-wolves out here?” he asked, somewhat stunned. “But why?”

“To improve the longevity of our race, nothing more,” Boris told him. “Even if we must contend with humans, it would still be far better if we did so with the clear understanding that we are not their enemies, but rather just another sentient race they must share the earth with. We pull this off, we’re one step closer to the ability to do that.”

“Okay, great, I understand his motivations,” Night said as he raked at his hair again. “But just exactly who does he think he’s breeding? The only women out here are made, and none of them are particularly what I would consider people a wolf would want as a breed mate. In fact, Emily Ross couldn’t get anyone to touch her with a ten foot pole.”

“No, these women do not appear to be overly appealing, I’ll admit,” smirked Boris. “But I do believe you’ve been staring right at the answer to your question ever since she arrived.”

Night gasped as he realized what Boris was trying to say. “He sent Chastity out here to be bred?”

“Precisely,” said Boris as he placed a finger to the side of his nose. “And I do believe that the Alpha male is the man to whom the females usually belong in such matters.”

“Does she know about this?” asked Night, feeling nervous now.

Boris laughed. “Of course not. Julian is no fool. However, this girl is one of the super-wolves herself. She doesn’t know that either, of course. All she knows is that I’ve brought her along to show some of the pack how to apply werewolf-style first aid, so that they might be able to live longer as a result. And of course, to be helpful in any way she can. If she had known about Julian’s true plan for her, I doubt we would have gotten her to come out here at all.”

“You do know the girl better than I,” Night conceded. “Still, I would not feel right about any of this if we didn’t explain everything to her before we began. As to all that, what exactly do you want to do in order to enhance any offspring we might end up having. I won’t allow you to harm Chastity in any way to obtain your results.”

“Oh, no, Chastity would be in no danger,” he reassured Night. “Neither would you be, though I notice that you did not ask. I simply intend to put supplements into a drink that will make subtle changes to you genetically. It may also increase your libido and stamina as well, but I doubt that’s a side-effect either of you would find disagreeable.”

“What if she proves unwilling?”

“If we tell her that her Uncle Julian has asked it of her, she won’t refuse,” Boris said with a decisive shake of the head. “He pretty much raised her from a pup, just as he did you.”

“I prefer to think of myself in more human terms,” Night grumbled. “The more these people liken themselves to forest creatures, the more likely they are to return to their feral ways.”

“Yes, of course,” said Boris. “I quite understand.”

“About the girl,” Night said then. “Give me a few days to see if I can get her to like me first before we drop the bomb. I think it would be much easier to—well, to seduce a virgin who is willing, instead of a test subject who is not.”

“I will do as you think best,” Boris agreed. “Best we get some sleep now, though. I believe that whiskey has hit me in just the right spot.”

“Yeah, I think it’s starting to hit me, too,” Night agreed with a yawn.  Then he got out a pillow and blanket for Boris, and headed off to bed.

CHAPTER TWO

Night was beginning to think he’d been laced with some of the enhancer already, the way he felt as he woke the next morning. His cock was so hard it took him twenty minutes to coax it into behaving in a more suitable manner. Just the thought of Chastity and trying to catch her interests had him up again even as he headed for the bedroom door. He could hear her out in his living room talking to Boris, and his palms actually began to sweat.

He could not believe he was acting like this. He was a hundred and eight years old and acting like some wet-behind-the-ears teenager. It was truly pathetic. With a deep breath and a long sweater to cover his affliction, Night finally emerged from his room with a polite greeting on his lips.

“Good morning, you two,” he said. “I trust you slept well?”

“Considering the fact that I passed out, I hardly think I was sleeping at all,” said Boris as he held his head up with his hands. “The headache I’ve got as a result only serves me right. I’m amazed your own head isn’t pounding as well.”

“Trust me, it is,” he answered, although he wasn’t talking about the same one. They didn’t know that, however, and he didn’t plan to enlighten them. Instead, he grabbed up the hair tie he had left on the coffee table last night and began to pull the length of his hair through it. He stopped for a moment when he saw that Chastity’s eyes were tracking the movement of his hands as he did so.

“What about you, Chastity? How did you like my bed?”

“I was quite comfortable, thank you,” she said with a slight blush over the deliberately chosen words. “In the city, a girl can hardly find a place to lie down, there are so many of us. Back there, we double up in bunk beds. It was quite a change being able to stretch out for once.”

Night chuckled. “Mm, maybe after three months of that you won’t even wish to return to the city at all. I’ll have you completely spoiled for the place by then.”

“Oh, really?” she scoffed. “And how did you intend to do that?”

“Oh, the usual, I suppose,” he grinned. “Best cuts of meat, pretty compliments, unexpected gifts, and anything else I might think up along the way.”

“If you start handing me posies, your diabolical plan to seduce me will become blatantly obvious,” she mentioned with a smirk.

“Diabolical, is it?” he asked innocently. “I’ll have you know that if I plan to seduce you, it would have nothing to do with deception, whatsoever. Why shouldn’t a man wish to obtain the affections of a beautiful woman? Especially one with a quick wit and a sassy demeanor like yours?”

“Wow, I’m starting to feel like a third wheel around here,” Boris mentioned with a smirk.

“Don’t you dare go anywhere, Boris, or he’ll begin his nefarious seducing tactics already,” Chastity teased as she began to rub the back of the older man’s neck in the exact spot she knew would help the headache most.

“You’ve got a real knack for that, my dear,” said Boris appreciatively. “And are you going to help get rid of Night’s headache as well?”

Night had begun to sip at some of the coffee that Chastity had apparently brewed, and he almost snorted some of the liquid up into his nose. “What’s that?” he asked as if he hadn’t heard.

“I asked Chastity if she intended to help relieve your headache,” said Boris, and Night began to suspect the man was well aware of his true affliction.

“I will if he sits down with that drink at the table,” she offered. “I made us some porridge as well.”

“That sounds like an easy enough request,” Night agreed as he took a seat. Boris got up and sat in the chair across from his, which would of course mean that Chastity would have to sit closest to Night. This action was not lost on her as she glanced briefly at the smallish table, having come to the same conclusion.

“Right, then. You two make yourselves comfortable and I will prepare each of us a bowl, and then I’ll help you, Night. Okay?”

“Sure,” he answered, trying to keep a smirk off his face. Chastity stepped back over to the little potbellied wood stove she’d been using to cook, and began to ladle porridge into the three bowls she found in a cupboard.

While her back was turned, the two men exchanged knowing grins, which they quickly wiped away again. Night sat up straight in his chair once Chastity had set the three bowls down, and allowed her to massage his neck. Boris was right; she was good. She even managed to find a pain he hadn’t even known was there.

By the time she had worked the kink out, Night was groaning with pleasure and Chastity had a little smile plastered on her face. Boris was almost finished eating before either of them even took their first bites.

“Thanks, Chastity, I didn’t even know I was that tensed up,” Night said around his spoon as he placed it in his mouth.

“I imagined that out here, you’d do a lot of lifting and such, but I wasn’t sure if you would work right alongside your men,” Chastity replied. “But with your muscles in that state, you had to have done that. I’m glad to know all of their ‘my lording’ hasn’t ruined you completely.”

“No, no, you misunderstand,” said Night with a chuckle. “I never asked them to do it in the first place. They actually came up with it on their own. I guess that was how their old township used to be run before the place got overrun by the werewolves back in the twenties, or sometime thereabouts. Trouble is, since their lord and half the people were killed, and those remaining had no idea how to keep the place going. I’ve asked them more than once to stop, but they said they would only stop calling me ‘lord’ if I stopped being the man in charge.”

“Which of course, you have no intention of doing,” Chastity smirked.

“Of course not,” he agreed. “I’m the best man for the job, since I was practically raised by an Alpha myself, and also because I am the one who stepped up and helped these people get back on their feet. It makes perfect sense that I’d be the Alpha of this pack.”

“I didn’t see many women or children among your people yesterday,” Chastity mentioned. “Don’t you have any children here at all?”

“Well, you met almost all the women yesterday, except for Em,” Night said. “There are only three women in the entire town, and two small children belonging to one of them. All of the women here were made into werewolves rather than born to it. The real truth is, this place is in desperate need of a complete upgrade into the twenty-first century. It really hasn’t managed to join even the twentieth yet. Boris says that if we got everything whipped into shape around here, that Julian might even be willing to send me some of his own pack to flesh out the place.”

“Damn, there goes my leg room,” Chastity teased.

“But baby, you don’t need to worry about that,” he laughed. “By then you’ll have been good and seduced, and the only person you’ll have to share your bed with, is me.”

“No lack of confidence there, I see,” she said, brow raised in reprimand. “But no matter, there are more important issues to tend to at the moment.”

“Such as?” Night inquired.

“Such as, what needs to get started first, and when we intend to start it,” she replied. “Rick surely must be up and examining the water wheel by now. We really ought to follow his example and start planning a few things, don’t you think?”

“Oh, yes, I most definitely agree,” said Night with a grin. “No better time than the present.”

“Good, then we can start by figuring out where my house is going to be,” said Chastity with a smile as she stood up and removed the bowls and spoons and set them into the sink. “I’ve always wanted to have a real house to call my own.”

“Then you’re planning on staying all ready?” Night teased her.

“Mr. Nightsky, you know a woman must have a few secrets to call her own,” she reminded him with an impish grin as she stepped past him out the door.

*

A songbird was singing in the background as Night and Chastity walked together toward the water source. Night was carrying a bag, which contained bathing supplies, not that he’d told her about the contents as yet, while Chastity brought along a little basket containing some food. She had decided that since they were headed out to a lake, a picnic was clearly in order.

“Here we are,” said Night when they reached the edge of the lake. “This is the only drinkable source around for a few miles. It’s a bit of a walk, I admit, but at least the lake water came fresh off the mountain.”

“I think we’re going to have to dig a well,” Chastity mentioned as she dipped a little metal bucket in and pulled the water out. Using a small cup, she dipped out a drink and sipped at it, sampling the contents with a discerning eye. “There’s a lot of iron still in this,” she announced then.

“Yes, there’s an old iron mine just north of the ridge up there,” Night explained as he pointed to the peak they could see in the distance. “Pretty sure this old town was built when the thing was still being actively mined, which can’t have been for many years now.”

“No, not since they abandoned iron in search of titanium,” Chastity agreed.

“You’ve read a bit about this place, I see,” said Night.

“Yes, it seemed the appropriate thing to do at the time.”

“You’re a very smart girl,” Night told her with an appreciative smile. “Julian must be very proud of you.”

“He’s very proud of you as well, Night. He talks about you all the time,” she told him. “Even before he found out where you were and what you’ve been doing out here. He misses you, I think.”

“I was very much like a son to him,” Night said with a nod. “Sometimes I really miss him, too.”

“Why did you never return to him, then?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” he said. “I suppose it’s because he always expected me to go out into the world and find more of our kind, maybe even form a pack of my own. And now, that’s exactly what I’ve done—such as it is.”

“You hope that Julian will send you some wolf-borns so you can start a real pack,” said Chastity astutely. “I can see it in your eyes.”

“Let’s eat our lunch by the water, shall we?” Night suggested, evading her question for the time being since it was far too close to the topic he and Boris had discussed last night.

Chastity dutifully pulled the blanket out of her bag and laid it down, followed by the food. Night couldn’t help but admire her lovely backside as she did this, all the time wondering what she would say if he mentioned they ought to bathe while they were there. Of course, in humans it was advisable to eat after the bath, but werewolves had no such difficulty so he decided to bide his time.

Seeing the way he had reacted to her inquiry, Chastity did not continue in her line of questioning. Night smiled at this, well aware that she had taken note of his discomfort and modified accordingly. He wondered if that was part of the super-wolf thing, or if it was just her. It probably didn’t matter one way or the other, since she’d been born that way to begin with.

“Well, I appreciate you showing me the location of the local watering hole,” Chastity said. “Now I’ll know how to get back to it again.”

“We’re not quite done here yet,” said Night with a smile that gave Chastity pause as she had just been getting to her feet to gather up their things.

“Oh?”

“There’s no running water in town, you know,” he said. ”I don’t know about you, but I could use a good washing.”

“In the drinking water?” she asked, appalled.

“Of course not,” he said, laughing outright now. “There’s a cave on the other side of the lake with a nice bathing pool in it. The water runs downstream from the lake. Unless you’re afraid to ruin the water just from swimming across?”

“Let’s go, then,” she said boldly, and she began to unbutton her blouse.

Night shed his clothes as well. The two of them jumped into the water together, swam across, and headed for the mouth of the cave. Chastity looked around at the rock formations jutting down from above with a curious light in her eyes, at the same time carefully avoiding looking at Night’s naked form.

Night, of course, felt no desire to repay the favor. His eyes drank in every bit of her exposed flesh with a pleased smile. If any woman could ever be called perfect, Chastity would have to be that woman. Short and slim, the dark gold thatch between her thighs a match for her tawny mane of barely managed curls that surrounded her pretty face. He would have no problem mating with her, as his body could attest since it was reacting to her even now.

“I thought we were in here to get clean, not to get dirty,” Chastity reminded him with a wry smirk as she saw the state of things.

“Mm, you know that one could always get dirty and then wash up after,” he pointed out, feeling unaccountably vulnerable under her unhindered scrutiny now that she was actually looking.

“Flirting a bit is kind of fun, Night, but I don’t know if I want the entanglement,” she said as she looked away again. “I don’t know exactly what he has in mind, but I’ve always had the feeling that Julian is grooming me for something, since he made it clear he wished me to remain untouched. Once, I suspected he wanted to mate me himself one day, but he has never acted in any way toward me but fatherly, so unless things change drastically, that really cannot be it. Either way, I don’t think I should be considering something like this without his permission.”

“Then you are at least considering it?” he inquired.