Mated To The Alpha (A Billionaire Shifter Romance) (The Chosen Book 1) (8 page)

"Just a minute," Kim said, glancing to the sky. The eastern horizon was already lightening, silver instead of gold, and she knew what would happen next. "Sit back, and just let it happen."

"I'll try," Shane said. Kimberly let go of his hand, and stepped back herself. Shane got down on his hands and knees, shaking like a leaf in the night air. He was nude, his clothes packed away in the backpack that Kim had over her shoulder. This first night, there would be no control or Changing back until moonset.

The first rays of moonlight crept over the field, and Shane collapsed to the turf, screaming. Kimberly stepped forward, shocked. She knew the Change was painful, but she had never felt the sort of pain that she could see etched upon his features, as he writhed and clawed at the grass. "Shane?"

Shane's only reply was a growling cry as she saw his body start to ripple, his muscles reforming and shaping into the familiar wolf-like pattern. He continued to growl, his voice deepening and reaching the animal pitch. She watched as the last moments of his Change happened, and she stood back as his eyes opened again, flamingly green. "How do you feel?" Kim asked, kneeling next to her lover.

He didn't even reply. Instead, he swung a massive paw, backhanding her and sending her flying through the air. As soon as she landed she rolled, getting to all fours. Shane ignored her, looking towards the moon before sending a screaming howl towards the sky, and bounding off towards the dorms.

"He had gone insane," Kimberly explained, her horror written plainly on her face. "What nobody had ever told me was just how painful the first Change is. I've lived with it my entire life, and my first change happened when I was still an infant. I grew up with it, and my body was used to it. Shane hadn't, and the pain drove him mad. His mind was literally gone, and he was on pure predatory wolf instinct."

"What did you do?" Melanie asked, terror struck.

"I changed myself, and chased him down. I caught up to him just outside the primary quad, and put him down."

"Down?"

"I had to, you see. If I hadn't, he would have slaughtered most of the dorms. So I... I killed him, and buried his body nearby. I told my Father what happened, and he called in a favor with Clan Mac Tíre, they helped make sure the body was moved and never discovered. I.... I killed my first love," Kimberly broke down, sobs again racking her body. Melanie held her Sister, giving what faint comfort she could.

T
hree months later
, Melanie woke up one morning, surprise written on her face. She looked around, wondering what had happened. Then, it happened again. She could feel it down near her bellybutton, which was just starting to swell outward. Reaching over to Keith's sleeping form, she shook her Mate awake urgently. "Keith, Keith, wake up!"

Keith groaned, before rolling over. "What is it?" he asked, "Is everything okay?"

"Better than okay," she sighed, taking his hand and placing it over her womb. "Can you feel?"

Keith held his hand still for a moment, and then Melanie watched as a rapturous smile spread across his face. "Is that....?"

"Our baby," Melanie whispered. "I've felt him growing for weeks now, and I can feel him in my mind sometimes. He's going to be strong, like his Father."

Keith smiled, and leaned down to kiss his Mate. "I like hearing that."

"Father?"

"Mmmm-hmmm." He kissed her again, and Melanie felt her body respond to her beautiful Mate's. She felt herself swept away in the sensations again, and the two made love tenderly, gently, until both were satisfied.

At breakfast, Melanie glanced around while Keith finished the bacon. "Hey, where's Kimberly?" In the five months she had been Keith's Mate, not once had she woken up without her Sister somewhere in the penthouse.

"She's going to prepare the estate," Keith replied, putting the last few scraps of bacon into the eggs in the frying pan. "We are going up there next week."

"We?" While the hair coloring and some facial prosthetic implants had altered Melanie's appearance enough that she no longer felt afraid to go out into the city, she had been so busy learning about werewolf politics, biology, and how to have a werewolf baby that she had started to feel a touch of cabin fever.

"We," Keith said, plating Melanie's breakfast and handing it to her. "Kim and I both feel that your lessons are going along wonderfully, and you can handle the upcoming meetings. Every three years, all of the Clans in North America meet for what is officially called a Gathering. What it means is a lot of handshaking, hobnobbing, and Clan politics. Most of it can be rather boring, but there are still a lot of important Alphas there, and they'll want to meet you."

Melanie suddenly felt nervous. "But, I haven't even met any other werewolves other than you and Kim," she said, her voice shaking slightly. "I mean, I haven't even met your parents. Are you sure I can handle a giant gathering of Alphas?"

Keith smiled his confident smile, the mere flash of which soothed her feelings like a cooling balm. "Melanie, I haven't introduced you yet because my Mother is out of the country. Since my Father passed and I became Alpha, she's enjoyed her retirement, and has become quite the globe trotter. She'll be there though, rest assured. She sent me a mental message. She wants to meet her daughter in law, and her grandchild."

"I keep forgetting, you've got mental connections with more than me and Kim," Melanie said, tucking into the fluffy eggs. They were just as she liked them, a touch salty, with a hint of oregano. "So how do we get there?"

Keith thought melodramatically for a moment, before capturing her eyes with his again. "I was thinking.... how about we take the corporate helicopter?"

Melanie squealed in excitement, setting her fork clattering down on her plate. It was going to be her first helicopter ride.

"
T
he time has come again
."

"Yes. The Gathering of the North American Clans."

"We've never known where they were going to gather before," the one dark garbed man said, as he and his colleague walked through the marble floored hallway. Around them, minions scurried, their busy action masking their fear at being in the presence of the two powerful men. "But Yankowitz's death put us on the right path."

"Yes." The second of the two men, a towering man with a dominating presence, was soft spoken, his voice oddly out of place on such a huge figure. "Our plan?"

"We track them, and listen," the smaller colleague replied. "I understand your desire for direct action, but you know the enemy. If you cut off the head, no matter how strong these Alphas may be, they will not die. Instead, new heads will emerge, and they will scatter. If we gather though, wait, and set a trap, we can destroy whole Clans at once, and not just random Alphas."

The larger man tensed at the lack of action, his entire body thrumming with desire to destroy the hated enemy. But, the older man was his superior. He'd obey for now. "One request, sir."

"What is that?"

"The woman who killed my brother..... I want her dead."

The older man smiled, and the chilly visage looked bloodthirsty and maniacal. "Of course, dear boy. By the time of the end of the Gathering, Melanie Richter will be dead."

"
I
still can't believe
it."

Melanie stood atop the Lockwood Towers, near the helipad, gazing over the city. Running her hand over the slight bump that contained her baby, she thought about all the changes she had been through in the past six months. She had been a cop. Technically, she guessed she still was, although she was also had a warrant out for her arrest, so she wasn't sure what her job status was. Not that it really mattered, as she had gone from a dateless single to the First Mate of the Alpha Male of the Lockwood Clan, Keith Waldwyck. Of all her changes however, the biggest had to be her baby, which she never would have even considered before all of this.

"What can't you believe?" Keith asked her, his strong hands comfortingly stroking her shoulders. He looked out on the city, and kissed his Mate on her temple. "I'm sure you have seen the city from up high before."

"It's not that, it's you, it's the baby, it's.... Jesus, what a six months."

Keith turned her around gently, concern written across his face and deep in his amber eyes. "Do you have any regrets? Is there anything I can do to help you feel better?"

Mel wrapped her arms around his massive shoulders, pulling her Mate down for a hug. "Just keep being you," she demanded, "and perhaps offer me more helicopter rides."

Keith's grin at her facetious request was soon turned to a squint as he looked at the eastern horizon. "Speaking of helicopters, here comes ours now."

Mel peered as hard as she could in the direction Keith was pointing, but could see nothing. "It must be those wolf senses of yours, but I can't see anything."

"Give it a minute."

Melanie waited patiently, before she could just see a black dot appear against the bright blue of the afternoon sky. Shivering in the late winter cold, she started to feel excitement as the black dot formed curves, and eventually definition. As soon as she could make it out, a grin spread across her face and she slapped her mate on the arm. "You prankster!" she laughed, as the Bell 222 hovered and sank down on it's tricycle landing gear. "You do realize that going around in a copy of Airwolf is not the way to be at all discreet?"

Keith's returning laugh, even as he squinted against the rotor wash, rumbled through her chest. Once the rotors stopped, she could make out what he was saying. "It's actually one of our older helicopters," he said, as he led her towards the side door. "My father bought it after he saw how much I loved the television show as a child. He even paid for it to be specially modified to exactly replicate the interior and exterior models on the show. Of course, since so much of it is fictional, sadly this chopper cannot go supersonic or anything like that, but still, it's fun to pretend, and she is still the fastest helicopter in the Lockwood fleet."

Looking through the cockpit glass, Mel was hardly surprised when she saw the familiar knockout figure of her Sister, Kimberly. As Keith's twin sister and Alpha Female, the woman was sometimes a complete enigma to Mel. Tender, intelligent, but every time she turned around, Kimberly was showing her a new skill. Computer hacker, expert hunter, fashionista, yoga expert, and now.... helicopter pilot.

Sliding through the cockpit door and finding the rearmost seat, Mel had to laugh as apparently Keith's father had even had the helmets from the show copied down to the last detail for his son. Sliding hers on, she was impressed by the reduction in sound. "So, does this thing have internal communications?"

"Of course," Kimberly's voice came back in her ear. "Now, since you're sitting in the co-pilot's seat, I'd ask you politely not to push any buttons over there."

"Why? Keith, you told me your father bought a mock-up, not the real thing."

Keith's chagrined voice from the rearmost seat made her laugh almost as much as his sister's slapping of his shoulder. "Uhhh, yeah.... about that. Well, I said it couldn't do everything that the TV show helicopter could. Emphasis on
everything
. Father was a stickler for realism though."

"I see. Should I give a call to my former friends at the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Bureau about this thing?"

"I can categorically state there is no alcohol or tobacco on this helicopter," Kimberly said from her seat as she revved the throttle, and the helicopter lifted into the air.

Melanie spent the next hour being thrilled as Kimberly deftly maneuvered the nimble chopper up the northern river valley, dropping down near the river level once they were clear of the major city scenery and moved into the highlands that led upstate. The hunched, ancient stones of the highlands rose around them, thick with forests that were older than the United States itself. Melanie couldn't think of a better setting for a werewolf den. As they flew, a question came to her. "Hey, Keith."

"Yes, love?"

"Why is it that Kimberly is flying instead of you? You're the one who loved the show so much, right?"

"Because every time Keith flies, most of the passengers get motion sickness," Kim answered for him. "And I don't want to spend two hours cleaning your breakfast out of the upholstery."

"Hey, that only happened twice," Keith mocked.

"Yeah..... after that nobody but me was willing to fly with you," his sister replied, causing all of them to laugh. "Well, we're almost at the end of the ride anyway. Mel, if you take a look up ahead to your left, you'll see your new home."

Melanie's breath caught in her throat as she saw the grounds before her. Looking like it was carved out of the ancient granite itself, a Gothic style manor castle sprung out of the hillside, complete with four towers at the corners. On the river side of the estate, the grounds dropped off into an almost fifty foot sheer cliff to the river below. The immense grounds surrounded the castle on three sides, with well manicured gardens, pools, what Melanie thought might have been a stable, and all of the trappings of a country manor. On the side opposite the river, there was a long tree-lined driveway, which led to a main gate and the road about a mile in the distance. "My god, it looks like it came out of a Scottish fairy tale" she said, "How did your family do it?"

"The castle has been in the family for five generations, stretching back almost all the way to the founding of the United States," Keith replied. "During the Colonial days, this entire area was granted to my family via Royal Decree. During the Revolution, my great great grandfather was smart enough, or lucky enough, to side with the Colonials, and so the land remained ours. Since then, it's been the home base for Clan Lockwood. We've struggled at times making tax payments, and at one point the estate wasn't exactly in the best of repair, but it's always remained in our hands."

Kimberly swung the Bell helicopter around the manor once, giving Mel a three hundred and sixty degree view, before setting down on the south lawn. Once the rotors stopped, the trio got out, only to be greeted by a statuesque woman, who looked to be about sixty years old. Mel could quickly see the resemblance, and knew she had met her Mate's mother. "How should I greet her?" Mel asked Keith quietly as they approached.

"Be yourself," Keith laughed. She saw his mother laughing too, and realized that she had heard the entire thing through her psychic connection with her son.

"Failing that, you can give an old werewolf a hug," the woman replied coming within normal conversation range. "The time for formal trappings and titles is days away still. For now, please just call me Valeria, or Val if you like."

"It's a pleasure, Valeria. Please, just call me Mel."

The older woman chuckled. "I'll try, but please excuse me if I might slip in some
sweethearts
and
darlings,
and of course, the ever popular 'dears' in there. I'm an old lady, and I've never been good with names."

"You're hardly old, mother," Kimberly said, giving her mother a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "You barely look a day past your one hundredth."

"One... hundred?" Melanie stuttered. She knew that as a born werewolf, the Waldwycks aged slower than normal humans, but one hundred? She didn't even think she'd be around at one hundred.

"Yes, you will," Keith replied to her unspoken thought. "As we are Mated, you share in my life force. From the point we joined, your aging slowed to about that of a werewolf's. You can look forward to at least another eighty or ninety years of active life, at which point you'll look about sixty."

"Wow. Just think, there are millions of people around the world who would pay an arm and a leg for that."

"Enough with the talk of getting old," Valeria said, chuckling. "It's time I got to meet my daughter in blood."

For the rest of the day, Melanie was pleased to explore the grounds with Valeria, while Keith and Kimberly were taken up with preparations for the Gathering. "I'll be honest with you, I was somewhat glad when I didn't have to do this anymore," Valeria confided in her. "When my husband decided to retire and pass on the Alpha status to Keith, I was so relieved."

"I am sure. But I am still unsure what my role in the future will be, Valeria."

They passed the stable, which Mel could see contained various motor vehicles. There was a four-wheel ATV, two dirt bikes, a lawn tractor, and a small truck that looked like it was meant for off-road work. It made sense to keep vehicles in a stable, she thought, considering that horses were probably a poor choice to keep around a pack of werewolves. "I'm sure Keith, Kimberly and yourself will figure it out. Oh, back in my time, you would have been expected to take over the role from Kimberly totally, and she be Mated off to another Clan in the hopes of strengthening political ties. However, my children are not of my generation, thankfully. Unless you wish to press the issue, I am quite sure that Kimberly would like to stay within our Clan, and if possible her status as Alpha Female."

"That’s my wish as well," Mel stated, as the pair reached the riverside cliff, and gazed out at the sunset. "She is a very talented woman, and you must be proud of her. I could never replace all of her skills. I think I’ll be happy being First Mate, and perhaps helping both of them as best I can."

Valeria glowed at the compliment to her daughter, and patted Melanie on her upper arm gently. "Well then, a word of advice. While the Gathering itself is supposed to be a friendly event, like all lycanthrope Clan events, there is a fair amount of political bickering, backstabbing, and alliance making going on. Be very wary about what you say to those not of Clan Lockwood, but also don’t be afraid to appear strong. Your presence will cause scandal, that is for certain. The other Clans have been made aware of your presence, and for you, this will be the equivalent of a débutante event, except you will be the only deb at the ball."

"Thank you for your wisdom, Valeria. I’ll do my best to make my Mate proud."

"Of that, I have no doubt Melanie. Don’t be afraid however, for I get to be right by your side. If you have any questions, I will assist you."