Rebel
Sons
of the Alpha Book 3
by
Addison Carmichael
Genre:
Paranormal Romance
To
avoid a forced, loveless marriage to a man she detests, were-Cougar
princess Jade Lamarche escapes to the neutral territory of Santa
Barbara, California to finally live life on her own terms. But
she discovers this is dangerous country where female Cats are rare
and highly sought after by dozens of vicious rogues, and Jade finds
herself needing the help and protection of a lone Wolf outcast from
his own Pack.
A
Wolf Pack in a blood feud with her own family’s Cougar Pride.
After
failing to prevent his friend’s suicide over an unspeakable crime,
were-Wolf prince Luke Bryant breaks from the unjust and restrictive
laws and constraints of his Pack and disappears into neutral
territory. At last he is free from the suffocating expectations
of his people and the forced control of his High Alpha father.
What
Luke didn’t count on was befriending a lone female Cougar who
requires his help at every turn in this deadly, untamed Wild West.
Or the fact that against every natural law known to were-kind, he’s
impossibly developing feelings for her.
Deep,
taboo feelings.
Because
one thing is always certain—A
Wolf never falls in love with a Cat.
PROLOGUE
“Dammit, Shea, pick up!”
Luke Bryant gripped his cellphone in his right hand, his left clenching the steering wheel of his red and black Camaro. He wasn’t one to break the law by phoning and driving at the same time, but he had a bad feeling about this. A really bad feeling.
“This is Shea Donovan. I’m unable to take your call right now, but if you would—”
Cursing, Luke clicked off and tossed the phone aside. Then he punched the gas, weaving in and out of traffic like a bat out of hell
“Trace Lamarche, I swear by all the powers if you’re sniffing around her again…”
Luke didn’t finish his threat, just kept his focus on making it to his cousin’s apartment before more trouble ensued.
Shea had been his best friend since the cradle, their mothers close cousins and throwing them together often. She was the one person who always seemed to get him, and that included his own family and peers. If it hadn’t been for her, he would’ve jumped ship, or more accurately jumped Pack, years ago. She had always had a way of talking him down off the cliff from renouncing their were-Wolf Pack and going his own way.
Now she needed his help after that mangy Cougar heir seduced her into sleeping with him when he was in their territory during diplomat negotiations with their High Alpha fathers.
Luke blamed himself for introducing them that first night Trace Lamarche arrived at the Great Lodge in the Timber Ridge community and Shea just happened to be with him.
He should have seen it, sensed it, somehow. He saw the intense interest widening Trace’s green feline eyes, but ignored it. Something he shouldn’t have done since the Cat was rumored to be a major player amongst his own kind, even venturing out of his were-Cougar world into the human realm to satisfy his overactive libido. His dark looks, high position and wealth didn’t hurt any either.
But who would have thought Lamarche would try and sleep with another were-kind species?
Who would’ve imagined that Shea as a Bryant Wolf would even fall for whatever lies he spun to get her into bed?
Besides, sex between Cat and Wolf was too disgusting to even consider. It was against all the natural and written were-laws, an unthinkable abomination right up there with cannibalism and necrophilia.
A hard shudder iced up Luke’s spine at the sick thought of it. And the reminder that his innocent cousin Shea had done such a repulsive thing.
Trace Lamarche, yes. He was a lowlife, perverted alley cat that was capable of satisfying his jollies in such twisted ways. But not Shea. Never Shea.
Hell, she refused to have sex with her college boyfriend of two years because they weren’t married. Which eventually drove him off anyhow, and good riddance.
No doubt Trace would have seen her refusal as a challenge he needed to conquer, and he wouldn’t give up until he had nailed her but good.
They were caught in his hotel room his last night there in Seattle, Washington. Worse, they were going at it hot and heavy when their Bryant enforcers barged in after some anonymous tip that Trace was being attacked.
Both were immediately arrested and brought up before the North American Were High Council based in neutral Wyoming. Being the direct heir to the Lamarche Cougar Pride, Trace’s Royal Father, Maximillian Lamarche, was able to get him off, their high priced attorneys claiming his son hadn’t initially known what species Shea Donovan was. A flat out lie, since all were-species could scent the others.
The Lamarche lawyers claimed Shea had orchestrated the whole thing. Out of his own territory and element, Trace had been innocently seduced by an ambitious female Wolf who sought to financially blackmail him. A camera with timed photos snapping every few minutes had been discovered on the counter. A receipt for the recently purchased camera had been found in Shea’s purse, and the store owner recognized her as the one who bought it, a thing she fervently denied.
Luke was the only person who believed her denial and tried to get his own High Alpha father, Rob Bryant, to advocate for her, but there was little he could do. The evidence was too strong, the crime too abhorrent for him to get fully involved.
Their lawyers negotiated probation for Lamarche to stifle the news and clear his reputation around the were-world.
So Shea caught the brunt of it. Four years in prison for premeditated cross-species sex and eight more for extortion. Her reputation, her entire family’s name, was dragged through the mud. The elders forced his father to expel her from the Pack and exile her once she was released from prison. Already she was becoming a whispered byword.
She was being allowed one last weekend with her family under monitored house arrest before the High Were Council soldiers would take her to serve her sentence at an undisclosed location.
And that’s where Luke thought she had been all Sunday morning. Until he drove over to her family’s house in Edmonds to say his own goodbye and she wasn’t there, hadn’t been there all night by the undisturbed bed in her own room. Along with the unlocked and deactivated ankle monitor that had been affixed right after her sentencing.
He had to get to her.
Now, before she got herself into even bigger trouble.
The Camaro squealed to a stop along the city street curb in the no-parking zone in front of Shea’s apartment building. Luke jumped out and dashed up the stairs, not waiting for the slow-moving elevator. Eight flights up, he then raced down the hallway at lightning speed to the end apartment and banged on the door with his fist.
“Shea! Shea, open up, it’s Luke!”
He tried the knob. Locked.
He banged again. “Shea!”
With a shove, the bolted door broke open, and Luke burst inside.
“Shea! Sh—”
It was the sharp, salty, familiar smell that he caught first. Blood.
“Oh God, Shea! Where are you?” he called, searching the immediate living area, the kitchen nook, then jaunted to the only other room.
He pushed open the half-closed door, then halted at the horrific sight of his gentle cousin, his best friend, laying face up across the bed, eyes open, glassy and unblinking, thick blood gushing from the gaping wound across her neck and down her blouse. Multiple bloody stab wounds in her lower belly.
“Noooo!”
Luke ran over to press his hands against the drenched, gory neck wound. If he was in time, her were-skin would close quickly…
He saw it then, smelled the metal—the bloody, silver knife on the floor directly under her outstretched red soaked right hand. “Oh, no, Shea, no. God, no.”
Because silver was the one natural element lethal to all werewolves. One they could never come back from.
Not ever.
Heir
Sons
of the Alpha Book 2
It’s
bad enough Nicole Gabrielle is a low-ranking Sigma Wolf—she
also harbors a taboo secret that would expel her from the Bryant Wolf
pack there in the Pacific Northwest.
Nicki
is half were-Coyote born from the notorious Juarez Coyote Pack.
But
Nicki has bigger problems. Were-Bear gangsters blackmailed her
family, and the only way to pay them off is to doctor her Pack
records and disguise herself in order to hire on at the exclusive
Timber Ridge community. No matter how hard she tries to fly under
everyone’s radar, however, the hot and charming Jake Bryant pursues
her with a royal vengeance, risking exposure to her deadly
secret.
As
the High Alpha’s heir apparent, Jake Bryant must abide by one
specific Wolf law—he
can never marry anyone below his Alpha rank. Unfortunately,
his forced-upon fiancée Eva LeBlanc only loves his half-brother
Neil.
If
only he could locate his mystery “Sheila” who rescued him from
Arcan Hunters one night twelve years ago. She is the only person who
has been able to help him make sense of his chaotic life, and the
only woman he’s ever truly desired.
With
the exception of this intriguing new employee in the Pack
organization…who
seems strangely familiar.
Blood.
Hot, healthy, sweet human blood.
It was nothing she ever smelled before, not like this.
Her eyes enflamed, triggering something deep and primal, igniting the natural bloodlust scorching through her like a blowtorch on dry tinder, tempting her to drink from their spurting arteries until she was gorged.
It was the whine from the injured wolf that distracted her focus, cooling her eyes and the black desire welling up inside of her. It took great strength, but she forced herself to turn from the blood-soaked bodies, lift her muzzle to breathe in the fresh mountain air.
Back in control now, Nicki darted for the wolf, nudging its muzzle with hers. It barely opened its eyes to thin slits before shutting again.
Quickly, she shifted to human form and threw on one of the men’s camo jackets, then hurried back over to check the animal.
Silver liquid oozed from several different bloody wounds. Lethal for were or beast. She would have to haul it back to her hothouse where she was growing herbs that might help the poor thing.
Nicki tried to pick the wolf up in her arms, but it was incredibly huge and heavy. Forcing herself to ignore the nauseating gore around her, she pulled off another one of the dead men’s jackets and scooted it underneath the animal.
Inch by inch, she dragged it up the rocky incline and across the field, and finally into the shack.
She quickly donned her shorts and tee-shirt, then gathered the herbs needed from the potted plants. Her friend Ian had once studied and taught her about many of the natural elements that both hurt and healed various were-kind species. Normal wild animals too. She only hoped now she learned enough to keep the poor wolf alive.
After grinding the herbs, she used honey to bind it together, then applied the sticky mixture into each dripping, bloody wound after digging out the bullet casings. The wolf bared its teeth at her and snapped a couple of times, once even painfully catching her arm. But she continued to push and prod the mixture into each puncture with her fingers.
The wolf finally weakened to the point of limply submitting to her ministrations. It flinched and whined, its narrowed eyes pleading with her to stop her agonizing poking as she stuffed more and more into each gaping hole.
“I’m so sorry,” she said to it as she continued her applications. “But this will help you, honest. There, all done now.”
With nothing more she could do, Nicki sat back and waited for the medicine to do its work. Or not. The wolf weakly inched over to rest its head in her lap, then sniffed and licked her hand before it lost consciousness.
Nicki leaned back against the cabinet with the wolf in her lap, watching the herbs ooze the poison out of its pelt drop by drop. She took a cloth and wiped the bloody silver away each time. The wolf never even moved. If it wasn’t for her were-hearing detecting the faint heartbeat, she would have believed it was dead.
It was a long process, maybe too long and grueling for the animal to live through. If it didn’t survive this though, she planned to bury it right outside the shack next to the cedar tree to give it some dignity. Maybe even a name and a wooden marker.
“Jacob,” she whispered, smoothing back the thick, silky fur between its ears.
That’s what she’ll name him. He had the same clear blue eyes as the man in the portrait. It was fitting.
“Don’t die on me. Okay, Jacob? It would be really nice to have a friend here on the Ridge. I could shift, and we could go running across the field sometime and catch mice or rabbits. So do your best and fight the poison, okay? Don’t let those nasty hunters win. Not that they’ll be bothering any other wolf ever again.”
Nicki continued to stroke the animal’s fur, encouraging it to continue fighting for its life, until she eventually dozed off as well.
When she jolted awake, she saw that it was completely dark inside the hothouse now. The digital clock read that it was after seven o’clock. She had been asleep three long hours!
“Darn it all!” she gasped, knowing her stepfather Frank Braken would be furious at her for not being home to make dinner and take care of her baby sister Sara.
He was going to be late for work now, and she was going to get totally reamed!
Oh, God! She was in sooo much trouble!
Nicki started to scramble to her feet, then gasped and froze at the unconscious man lying there. It was none other than Jacob Bryant, the eldest son of their High Alpha, Robert Bryant.
And in all of his utterly gorgeous, and now naked, perfection!
Oh, God.
Oh, God!
She flushed at the sight, as well as the feel of him resting his blond head in her lap. When he sleepily nuzzled her belly and his arms reached around her hips and gripped them, a thousand unfamiliar sparks shot through her body. He snuggled deeper and held her like a feather pillow, which no doubt he thought he was holding, not helping her now racing blood.
This was innocent really. The man was seriously injured and had no idea was he was doing right now.
Or with whom.
Nicki tried to slip from his grasp, but he only tightened his hold on her.
At least he was alive and looked much better.
Holy cow, did he look better.
Now was the tricky part.
She leaned over and grabbed a blanket and threw it over his lower body. But it was small and only covered the most essential and vulnerable parts below his belly down to his mid-thigh.
Bracing herself, Nicki lightly shook his shoulder. “You should wake up, Mr. Bryant.”
He moaned in complaint as she shook him again, trying to snuggle deeper into her, shooting more sparkling sensations around her lower midsection.
“Five more minutes,” he mumbled.
Knight
Sons
of the Alpha Book 1
Alexia
Raine has a major problem.
She’s
being stalked by very dangerous men for some unknown reason, but one
that will turn her entire world on its axis.
Just
when he’s closing in on a vicious werewolf hunter that is
kidnapping, torturing and killing their people, he’s pulled from
the case by his High Alpha, Rob Bryant, to locate and return the
daughter of their most valuable and gifted shifter. If he doesn’t,
their entire Wolf Pack in the Pacific Northwest might collapse and
lose all hard-won territory, shifting the balance of powers and
throwing the entire were-kind species into a world war.
Problem
one—Alexia Raine never knew her real father.
Problem
two—She doesn’t even know that shifters or were-kind exist.
Problem
three—Their rival Pack wants her and will stop at nothing to
acquire her for several unspeakable reasons.
Problem
four—She’s the most aggravating, infuriating, intoxicating
woman he’s had the displeasure to rescue. And he may very well be
falling in love with her.
Problem
five—A wolf always finds and protects his mate.
Alexia Raine stood frozen from fear or shock or disbelief, unable to move or scream as she stared down at the bloody heap that was her fellow surgical intern and boyfriend. For all of her training, she couldn’t even reach down to feel for a pulse. She only gaped at his eyes staring back—fixed, dilated, glassy.
Dead eyes.
Like him.
“Out of my way, kid.”
The disturbance jolted her out of that horrific memory and back to the present. She might’ve even thanked the obnoxious Cretan cutting in front of her in the Starbucks line for it, except the bulky, smelly man nudged in front of a teenager as well.
“Hey, you can’t cut in line!” the boy protested.
“I was here just a minute ago.”
It was the end of a grueling week medical assisting for her uncle who had a general practice in the outskirts of San Diego. She was just grabbing a vanilla latte before heading to her apartment a few blocks away. Now she wished she hadn’t even stopped at the coffeehouse.
“No, you weren’t,” the kid.
“I was, and now I’m back. Get over it.”
Alexia might’ve let it pass like everyone else in line. Until the boy nudged his way ahead of the man who then physically shoved him aside.
“Hey, jerk face, leave the kid alone and go to the end of the line,” she yelled at him.
The man snarled back at her. “Shut up and mind your own business, girl.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Look, Bad Grandpa, if you don’t step back, I’ll give you a shove in the right direction myself.”
“Just keep your godda—Arrh!”
His arms shot out as steaming coffee splashed down his polo shirt as a four-pack of Grande drips was dumped onto him.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” the lady who lost her load raced out, frantically dabbing his shirt with a bundle of napkins. “Really, I don’t know—!”
“Just get off me!” he shot back, pushing her away.
Alexia should have felt bad for him, but the guy really deserved it. The look on his face was priceless too, making her snicker.
He splashed her with a rough shake of his arms. “What, you think this is funny, bitch?”
One of her worst traits—she didn’t take insults well. And no one called her the B-word who didn’t want to pick his dentures out of the glass entrance door.
Fury prickled her eyes and ears as heat flooded her face and radiated all the way through her veins and down to her fists now clenched at her sides.
“Have a nice fall on your way out,” she stated hard and deadly through gritted teeth.
Instantly the old man was airborne.
There was a thud and airy “oof” as he landed flat on his back in a puddle of coffee. Two seconds later he was yelling bloody-murder.
The baristas went into action, two picking up phones as the others circled around the counter. He thrashed about in his liquid mess like an overturned turtle while threatening legal action as a few do-gooders tried to help.
Panicking, Alexia shoved through the crowd as fast as she could, then locked herself in the restroom. Within seconds she vomited everything but her socks, the dry heaves leaving her flushed and sweaty.
Slightly better, she splashed icy water on her face, rinsed the sour bile from her mouth, then breathed deeply several times as she gripped the edge of the porcelain sink.
“Just a coincidence, Alexia. Not your fault,” she whispered.
Not that it alleviated her guilt any. Not that she had even touched the guy. So, of course, it wasn’t her fault. Of course not.
Just because she wanted to humiliate the old man for being such an obnoxious, entitled jerk and hot coffee happened to dump all over him at that very moment, it didn’t mean anything.
And okay, she also wished that he would fall on his butt after that nasty crack, and he did, hard, it didn’t mean…He probably just slipped on the wet floor. Just a coincidence, that’s all.
Unfortunately, Alexia Raine didn’t believe in coincidences.
And this hadn’t been the first time.
She squeezed her eyes shut for a long moment, then reopened them to look up at her reflection in the dim mirror, gasping at the swirling kaleidoscope of color in her irises—blue, green, gray, lavender, pink. She blinked hard and pinched her eyes until the weird prickly sensation calmed down. When she checked them again, they were light gray as normal.
Okay, what the Sam frigging Hill was that?
An optical illusion maybe?
Probably. Of course.
Brought on by stress mixed with bad fluorescent lighting and the dark walls all Starbucks stores insist on painting themselves to appear trendy.
Alexia leaned closer to the mirror for a better look when spotting another dark, silvery streak of hair, this one framing her right cheek. Added to all the recent others, it looked like she had highlighted her shoulder length blond hair.
The first one appeared six months ago, but the others started a few weeks back after her twenty-fifth birthday. Too minor an issue to ask her uncle about. Too weird to completely ignore though.
Her fingers touched the antique silver rose locket hanging on a thin tarnished chain around her neck, a family heirloom given by her mother on her eighteenth birthday.
“Always wear it against your heart,” Rebecca Raine told her when she opened the gift box. “Use it as a talisman, your protection from the blues.”
Her mom was always saying sentimental, Hallmark channel type of things like that. The locket was so old the two halves were fused together and wouldn’t even open. Still, it was kind of pretty, and it did give her a sense of security. She usually wore it underneath her clothing hidden from view, her secret armor against the monsters of this world.
Alexia stayed in the restroom a few more minutes until she heard the paramedics rush into the building. When she walked out and saw the man sitting upright on the ground, she almost felt bad for him. Until he angrily batted at the female paramedic, demanding only to be aided by her male partner.
Misogynistic old coot. Hope he broke his ass-bone.
The earlier crowd had thinned out now, the only reason Alexia considered still buying a latte before heading home. That’s when she spotted them—two very large, rough looking men, one redhead and the other with curly brown hair and a thick moustache. They were hovering at the furthest end of the store near the pickup counter.
She wouldn’t have cared much, but they were way out of place in their black leather jackets, black shirts, black jeans and biker boots. All they needed were the dark sunglasses to be classic Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminators. Sunny San Diego natives wore light, loose clothing, even in mid-April. Not that there weren’t tourists who soon reversed their error after sweating their family jewels off.
Somehow, though, they didn’t seem to be the typical Southern California visitors on a fun family vacay.
The two men continued to scan the crowd, their duplicate expressions serious, robotic. It was the redhead who froze when locking eyes with Alexia’s, and her stomach did an anxious backflip. He elbowed his partner, jutting his chin in her direction, and the other guy narrowed his dark eyes when honing in on her.
Just my imagination, Alexia told herself.
She looked over her shoulder, expecting to see someone waving them over to confirm her paranoia, but no one was there. She turned back to them. Both now had their bodies shifted away while carrying on a conversation.
Okay, fine. Maybe she had just imagined things. Wouldn’t have been the first time.
Her need for a latte vanished now. All she wanted then was to be home in her apartment a few long blocks away.
Quickly Alexia pushed out the front entrance, venturing a last look behind her shoulder. The two men didn’t move from their spot, both still talking, and she exhaled heavily, everything within her relaxing.
Good. She had enough drama for one night.
Quickly she headed down the twilight darkened street lined with various interconnected shops and cafés. Sometimes she walked to work as a way to force a little exercise on herself. Now she wished she had taken her car this morning, just wanting to be home. Behind a locked and bolted door. With a chair jammed against the knob.
She was only a few hundred yards away from the Starbucks when Alexia ventured a quick look behind. Her stomach dropped when both men exited and turned in her direction.
Swallowing hard, she faced forward again, picking up her pace.
Okay, no big deal. This wasn’t some cheesy action flick. They had every right to leave the building like everyone else. Even walk in the same direction. There were several pedestrians between them in any case, so no worries.
Still, her fingers lightly felt for the cellphone in her blue scrub shirt pocket, ready to call her Uncle Paul who was still at the office. She could casually double-time it back to the Starbucks and have him pick her up…
No. No, she really didn’t want to pull him away from the mound of paperwork he was rifling through before she left.
Plus, Aunt Carla would be majorly miffed at him for coming home even later than normal if he was forced to make a pitstop by her place. Alexia knew she was already a prime source of contention in their stormy marriage—his kid brother’s flaky kid he bailed out of jail and hired a lawyer for six months ago.
Things were better now that Alexia had moved from their place into her own apartment, but not by much. So she refused to inconvenience her uncle and possibly ignite another marital battle just to soothe her ridiculous imaginings.
Poor, sweet Uncle Paul. Alexia tried convincing him that he wasn’t responsible for her after her parents’ fatal car accident two years ago, but he took up the paternal mantle anyhow. Which is why after being forced to leave the intern program because of that horrific incident at the hospital, he took her in and offered her a medical assistant position that bored her to tears. Still, she didn’t look a gift job in the paycheck.
Alexia ventured another glance back.
Drat, those men were still behind her. Not far, in fact. Fewer pedestrians between them now as well.
Beauty
and Her Beast
Prequel
to Sons of the Alpha – Knight
A
tale as old as time--with a
Paranormal twist!
Rebecca
Hartford hates Valentine's Day. That is, until the mysterious,
attractive Erik Leonid bursts into the café where she sits eating
alone that afternoon. Then her entire world, and all of her
preconceptions, turns upside-down and will never be the same.
That means learning to love someone from the inside-out regardless of
her fears and those seeking to harm them both for their forbidden
relationship.
She
only hopes it will be enough.
Addison
Carmichael has been a storyteller since she was a young girl. Even
then every tale she imagined had a romantic element that grabbed
front and center. She is absolutely in love with love—giving it,
receiving it, then sending it back out into the world. She believes
there is something miraculous and supernatural about true love in
every form, and incorporates this magical element into all of her
stories.
Besides
reading and writing (blissful addictions), Addison loves the
mountains and ocean, and enjoys hiking, camping, horseback riding and
star gazing. She also bakes, knits and sews, which she never has
enough time for. She attempted mastering several musical
instruments, singing, painting, photography, dancing and archery, but
always returned to writing and storytelling as the “one true love”
of her life.
Addison
was born and raised in Southern California and has lived and traveled
all over the west coast (and the world), now living
happily-ever-after with her family in the Pacific Northwest in
Snohomish, Washington.
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