Bitten by the Alpha

Quinn

“Mate?” I said, staring blankly at the near-perfect man standing before me.

I mean, he could’ve easily been on the cover of People’s “Sexiest Man Alive” issue, which I kept hidden under my bed in the cottage.

And now he was saying some nonsense about me being his mate?

“How?” he repeated again. “You haven’t even shifted into your wolf yet…”

Excuse me, sexiest werewolf alive. God, not him, too.

This really felt like an elaborate prank. A joke, where I was the punchline.

“Why did you call me your mate?” I demanded. “I don’t even know your name.”

I felt rage pulsing through my veins, making my muscles tense, my hands shake, and my bones begin to split and crack wide open.

I was shifting out of pure, blinding, animal rage.

“Hey, I asked you a question!” I yelled.

His golden eyes snapped to me and I felt a surge of desire.

How did he do that?

I hated how easily he was able to make me want him. I’d never even had sex before. Hell, I’d barely left my bedroom. Steamy romance novels from the library were my only source of pleasure.

And now, here I was, wishing Mr. Six-Pack would fuck me right here in this hospital bed.

My hand shot over my mouth at just the thought of the word “fuck.”

Why am I suddenly having these sexual urges? It’s like my body is having some kind of awakening…

Considering the way that his hard pecs were peeking through his tight shirt and the way sweat was collecting on his brow, I could tell he was also thinking about sex.

“You need to rest,” he said abruptly. “You still have to heal.”

“Why won’t you tell me your name?” I asked again.

“Later. We’ll talk later,” he said, flustered.

As he left the room, I couldn’t help feeling that as weird as all this werewolf nonsense was, this odd, almost supernatural connection I felt to a complete stranger was even weirder.

Jaxon

I stormed out of the hospital and got into my truck, slamming the door.

I needed space to think. To deconstruct this mess.

I couldn’t believe this girl, who hadn’t even shifted yet, was my mate.

MY MATE.

What the fuck?

She knew nothing about our world. She didn’t even know what a mate was.

How would I even approach this? She was still a human…

She wouldn’t understand our ways.

And with her inevitable transition happening soon…

She’d need to be prepared. To be trained.

Or her body might not be able to take it.

As much as I was annoyed with the situation, there was an excitement within me that I couldn’t stifle.

My mate.

But who was she? Why was she wandering through the woods in the middle of the night with a backpack full of supplies?

Was she running from something? Or someone?

We couldn’t risk our secret getting out to the humans.

If someone came looking for her…

I’d need to teach her how to control her shifting before that happened. A wild werewolf on the loose was the last thing our Pack needed.

Even though I could tell she was going to drive me crazy, I couldn’t stop thinking about her.

“Quinn,” I let the name roll off my tongue.

***

Quinn

“You’ll need to walk slowly for the next few days until your leg is fully healed,” the Doctor said.

It was a relief to talk to someone sane for a change.

That is, until I realized this hospital visit was going to cost a fortune. And I had nothing.

“Uh, Doctor,” I said hesitantly, “I…I don’t exactly have…insurance. How am I supposed to pay for all this?”

He just looked at me and laughed.

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that, Luna. Your mate’s insurance will cover you.”

This is the damn Twilight Zone. I’m sure of it.

Mate.

Luna.

This quack is just as crazy as the rest of them.

I’d never been more confused in my life. Why did everyone know what was going on with me except me? It was like everyone else had a script, and I was just improvising.

“Knock, knock,” Sky said, peeking around the privacy curtain. “Can I join you?”

“As long as we don’t talk about werewolves, sure,” I sighed.

“Pinky promise,” she said interlocking fingers with mine.

As the Doctor left us alone, I wanted to ask more about this mystical “Mate Insurance” I seemed to have, but I felt it was better not to question financial matters at the moment.

“I’m actually here on a mission,” Sky smiled slyly. “To bust you out.”

“What do you mean?”

She looked at the hospital gown I was wearing and my tangled hair.

“You’ve been cooped up in here all day. I’m taking you shopping!”

Finally, someone is saying something that makes sense.

***

As I hobbled in front of a mirror, wearing a dark green sundress, I smiled at my appearance.

My mother never bought me clothes or took me shopping at the nearby outlet mall, so this was a brand-new experience for me. One I immediately liked.

“Anything you want, it’s on me,” Sky said, slipping into a pair of heels I’d never be able to pull off.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” I questioned.

Sky bit her lip like she wanted to say something, but she held herself back.

“Here, you have to try this on,” she said, helping me into an expensive leather jacket.

It did complete the ensemble. I never knew I could look like this.

“We’ll take the whole outfit,” Sky said to a sales girl. “And these boots, too.”

Sky held up a pair of leather boots to match my jacket. She took a look at my messed-up leg, and then the splint on it.

“Uh, on second thoughts, we’ll just take the one boot. You can wrap the other one up.”

I had to laugh. This girl was so weird, but I liked her so much for some reason.

She stared at me cautiously, then grabbed my hand and helped me sit down on a couch.

“Listen, Quinn—we need to talk.”

“Okay, I’m listening. As long as it’s not about…”

“It is,” she cut me off. “Please, just listen to what I have to say.”

Were these clothes just a ruse to lure me into another pitch about “joining the pack?”

“Quinn, you were bitten by a werewolf. Not a normal wolf. Werewolf. And you’re very lucky to have survived.”

“Sky, not this again…”

“Not everyone who gets bitten survives it,” she continued. “You have to have a werewolf gene in your DNA, either dominant or recessive, otherwise the bite would’ve killed you. I’m guessing someone in your family, maybe distant, or maybe even someone you know, was also a werewolf.”

Okay, what she was saying before was weird, but this was getting out of hand.

A werewolf gene in my DNA?

“This is insane,” I said, starting to get angry. “I’m clearly not a werewolf. I’m a human. Sorry to disappoint you. No fur or fangs here.”

“Not yet,” Sky said warily. “But you’re going to shift. Probably soon. Maybe in a few weeks, maybe a few months, but when the recessive gene becomes dominant…you won’t be able to control it.”

I tried to stand up, but Sky clasped my hand.

“Quinn, you need to let us help you. Trust me, you don’t want to go through this alone. You’ll need training, so your body becomes stronger, so it can withstand the transition.”

“Now you’re trying to get me to sign up for a gym membership, too?” I said, incredulous. “Sky, I’m over this. I don’t get the joke and I’m over it.”

“It’s an extremely painful process, shifting,” Sky said in a serious tone. “You think your ankle hurts? When you shift for the first time, all of your bones break. All of them. Do you think that’s something you can handle on your own?”

That was the last straw. This was getting so messed up.

“I’m leaving,” I said, getting to my feet and hobbling toward the door. “Don’t follow me, or I’ll scream for help.”

“Quinn, I put my number into your phone. So, if you come to your senses and realize you can’t leave, just know that I’m here if you need to talk.”

“Can’t leave?!” I asked, feeling like I was being driven insane. “What are you even talking about, Sky?!”

“You don’t understand,” she said, shaking her head. “Leaving is physically impossible. Now that you’re bonded to the Alpha, you’re connected to him. Where you go, he’ll go. Your bodies will crave each other when they’re apart and it will become unbearable.”

“Sky, I really hope you get the help you need. I really, truly do. But I can’t help you.”

I pushed out the door and moved as fast as my messed-up leg would let me.

I didn’t know where I was going to go, but it would be far away from here. Far away from these psychos.

I suddenly felt myself being lifted off my feet and dragged into an alley. I tried to scream, but a large hand covered my mouth.

As I leaned back against the wall, nowhere to run, I saw it was the man from the hospital who had pulled me into the alley.

My so-called mate.

He looked absolutely furious. I could feel his rage inside me.

His golden eyes started to glow.

His shirt started to tear as his bulging muscles ripped through it.

His fingernails began rapidly growing, turning into sharp claws.

Fangs protruded from his snarling mouth.

Oh my God.

They’re real.