Ravaged By The Pack (The Alpha's Mate)

Ravaged By The Pack

The Alpha's Mate: Volume
1

By
Ellen Waite

Disclaimer:

This is only one installment
in a serialized tale of paranormal erotic romance (Werewolf/BBW/Alpha).This story is roughly 16,000 words in length. New installments in the story are forthcoming. This book is not recommended for readers with an aversion to cliffhangers, graphic depictions of sex or serialized fiction.

This e-book contains explicit sexual content and is not recommended for readers under 18 years of age. Reader discretion advised.

Copyright ©
2014 by Ellen Waite

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights of the aforementioned copyright, no part of this publication may be reproduced in any way without the express written consent of the author and copyright holder. This work is for personal use only. This is a work of fiction. All characters are fictitious. Any resemblance to people living or dead is merely coincidental. Furthermore, the names of locations or trademarked products have been used here fictitiously.

Ravaged By The Pack

1

She opened her eyes. Even before cognizance had fully settled in, she knew herself to be in an unfamiliar place. Studying the ceiling with her tired, unfocused eyes, it was some time before she recognized it.
That's right
, she thought.
The motel
. Peering about, she half-expected to see one of her roommates ambling about the room, but found only the foreign trappings of the cheap motel room. The chipped-up dresser drawer, the flimsy-looking door with the flimsier-looking chain lock, the dusty window.

It took Jenna a few more minutes before she could find the energy to sit up in bed. Her sleep had neither been restful nor especially bad; she was somewhere in between, her mind standing in a hazy middle ground between wakefulness and grogginess. She ran a hand through her blonde hair, her fingers growing tangled as she did so, and eased her way to the edge of the bed. Her bare feet touched the cool carpet, sending a chill through her. It'd been a warm night when she'd settled to bed. Evidently things had cooled down some since then. The sun poured in through the window, the scene outside featuring dense trees and a blue, sunlit sky. She appraised the wilderness for a few moments, the leaves of the trees rustling in a chilly breeze.

Today was the day her new life began, a decision months in the making. The college atmosphere hadn't suited her, too much partying and competition. And too much uncertainty. In her two years at school, she'd switched her major four times. At twenty years old, with a load of debt from a good school and nothing to show for it, she was ready to try something new. Until she could decide on what she wanted to do, she settled on finding an affordable place to live and a decent job. A quiet place and a quiet way of life till she could make up her mind about the future would be good enough. Removed from the University by almost a hundred miles, on the other side of the State entirely, Twinbrook, Pennsylvania had fit the bill.

Twinbrook was a small town, partially surrounded by a densely forested hillside. The town itself, though far from any major city, was surprisingly modern. There were restaurants, a shopping mall, a movie theater and, perhaps most importantly, jobs. The cost of living was cheap when compared to the rest of the State as well. Taking all of this into consideration, Jenna would have been hard-pressed to find a place better suited to her needs. Upon arriving in town, she'd found the locals friendly enough. With an affordable room to stay in till she was ready to settle in, she decided to start exploring the town in the morning.

She stood up and staggered to the bathroom, running down a mental list of the things she still had to do. There were only two that carried any real importance.
Apartment hunting. Interview.
She had an interview for a job with a local businessman, a contractor by the name of Todd Blackston. They were supposed to meet in an hour at his office, which was a mere ten-minute walk from her motel. Afterward, she'd have to go and look for a more permanent place to live. She'd saved up a fair bit of money waiting tables back at college, and had enough to last her until she could find a job. If things fell through with Blackston & Brothers, then she'd look elsewhere. Unlike so many other areas of the country, Twinbrook seemed teeming with jobs. Restaurants, shops and even the motel she was staying at were hiring.

Tossing aside her pajamas, Jenna hopped into the shower. Giving the knob a turn, the shower head fired off a blast of sheer ice, which saw her shriek and fall back against the far wall. After a time, she nervously reached out and tested the water once more, finding it lukewarm even at its highest setting. With a grimace she took a lightning-fast shower, lathering up and rinsing off in record time.
An apartment with a good water heater
, she thought.
Priority number one
.

Cold showers were a little piece of home, as far as she was concerned. She'd lived with a few other girls in a small house near campus up until then, sharing a single, cramped bathroom. Rare was it that she got to the shower first and managed to enjoy warm water. As she finished up, shivering, Jenna was thankful she hadn't told her roommates she was moving to Twinbrook. Leaving college meant cutting ties with everyone she knew. That was the only way she'd ever manage to lay to rest the memories of those wasted years. Not that the student loans she would have to repay in the coming months wouldn't serve to remind her.

Jenna toweled off her hair and looked at herself in the mirror. Studying her face, she was pleased to find it clear. Her eyes traveled about the rest of her body, to her shapely breasts, soft stomach and the curve of her hips. Brushing her hair, she liked what she saw. She'd had trouble back at school with a few who couldn't seem to stop needling her about her weight. There were a few extra pounds there, sure, but it wasn't as though she was unhealthy or obese. Hers was simply a fuller figure-- a figure she happened to like. So many of the people in her life had tried to convince her that she was just a bit too “thick”, or that she needed to diet. Some had been well-meaning, others malicious in their suggestions. Jenna had ignored them all as best she could, though it would have been a lie to say that these constant critiques of her figure weren't grating. One of her roommates, an athlete, had always regarded her as
gross
or
lazy,
simply because she wasn't as petite as she was. She shuddered at the thought, memories of fights and sadness coming to the fore now.

No
, she thought.
No more of that. This is a new start. They don't know you here. Today, you start fresh. It's time to make a good impression
. Finishing her hair, she left the bathroom and rifled through her valise for an outfit to wear. She had a nice skirt, knee-length, that looked dressy and a tapered white blouse that fit well at the waist, accenting her assets tastefully. She put them on and checked herself out in the mirror, doing a turn. “All right,” she said. “Game on.”

She knew little about Todd Blackston and his business, except that both were well-regarded in town. She'd seen an ad in a local paper upon her arrival the day before, and had called to arrange for an interview. The position was a secretarial one, something she felt she could handle. Blackston himself had answered her call, gruff and deep-voiced, and agreed to meet her in the morning for a face-to-face interview. That had been all. The whole thing had been a shot in the dark for her; if she met him and found she didn't like the sound of the job, she'd have a huge list of other positions to choose from. The local paper was teeming with wanted ads for all sorts of different jobs.

Jenna wondered why it was that Twinbrook had so many open jobs when the rest of the country seemed to have so few. An economic downturn had seen people in the major cities fighting tooth and nail for even menial jobs. She'd known a few people with degrees who'd had to face stiff competition simply to flip burgers. Here however, there were a variety of job openings and, so far as she could tell, no one was terribly interested in filling them. The town's population was somewhat older than what she was used to, which probably meant that most people had settled into jobs long ago. She hadn't yet met anyone her own age in Twinbrook, and wondered if college-aged people lived there at all.

Jenna still had a fair bit of time before her interview; time enough to grab a bite to eat and still make it early. The cafe across the street was serving breakfast and she was in need of a caffeine boost to ward off the last of her sleepiness. Checking herself out once more, she grabbed up her purse and set out.

***

Something had come over him. Todd Blackston sat in his office, tensing his jaw as he considered the strange feeling that had so subtly crept into him. The office was silent, the blinds drawn to keep the sun out. He leaned over his desk and drew in a sigh. Perhaps the coming full moon was what had him feeling out of sorts. Though it seemed unlikely. The moon had never managed to instill in him so queer a feeling as this.

It had started only hours ago, while he'd slept. A dream of the full moon, a moon so large that it filled the night sky. In the moonlight, standing at the edge of a crystal lake, he'd cast aside his humanity and become wholly wolf. He remembered it clearly, even now as he sat at his desk. He dreamt it in precisely the same way it always occurred in practice. His muscles had begun to contract and relax spasmodically, his heart had begun to race and his vision grew spotty. And then, in a surge of violent energy which traveled from his feet up to his brain, he saw his body changed. He doubled over as the energy raced through him and clawed at the ground like a dog. His features morphed rapidly into something canine; his face became host to a snout, hands and feet alike were bunched into paws, his body covered in thick, black fur. He'd howled up at the orange moon and the dream had ended soon after.

In his dream, he'd entered into his wolf form, something he'd been wishing to do for some time. There were no conditions that needed met for him to do so; he could do it at will, at any time of day and anywhere he pleased. And yet he stayed his hand. Todd was a Blackston, and the Blackstons did their best to control their animality. It'd been his pack's way since the days of the split, when the Blackstons had decided to live alongside the human beings. The human side, it was reasoned, needed to be embraced. The wolf side was a liability. Now and then, when the urge became too great, the Blackstons would transform. Full moons would usually see them spend the night in wolf form, hunting and prowling through Twinbrook while the townspeople slept. Today however, he was having trouble resisting the urge. Something in the air had stirred his instincts.

The last time he'd dreamt of transforming, Todd had awoken to find his bed marked with the blood of some unknown quarry, his clothes hanging in tatters around him. When he dreamt of such things, it was not unheard of for him to act upon them, sometimes unconsciously. He'd spent that particular night in a fevered state, likely hunting deer until the rising sun saw him retreat back to his home. Upon waking this morning, he'd looked over the bed and checked himself out in the mirror. This time, it had been just a dream, albeit a vivid one. But why? Why the powerful dream and the urges that came with it?