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  “Lindon…”

  “Before we go in, I’d like to make something clear.”

  “But…”

  “If you’re looking for a mate, my hat is in the ring,” he says.

  “But…”

  “I know, you see me as a friend. I get that it would take time. I’m just saying, consider me,” he says.

  And I do, noting for the first time how large of a man he’s become, the wolfish dominance emanating from him. The smartest, most sensitive one of the trio could also be an alpha in his own right if he wanted to. Sometimes I forget that.

  “Okay,” I say, fighting a flush.

  “Alright then,” he says. “Let’s get back inside. Before Rafe explodes.”

  My stomach clenches. “Explodes? What’s wrong? Did something bad happen?” I ask. I can sense his stress from here.

  “Yes,” he says, shaking his head and reaching for the front door knob. He gives me a look that’s both sympathetic and apologetic. “Something bad has happened.”

  * * *

  To be continued in Alpha games 2. Turn the page for next book.

  Alpha Games 2

  Copyright © 2015 by Terry Bolryder

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover Design by Melody Simmons of eBookindiecovers

  Chapter 1

  When I walk in, Rafe and Hawthorne are both standing against opposite walls in the living room, looking moody and troubled. Rafe shoves a hand through his dark hair and Hawthorne folds his arms and stares at the ground.

  Rafe meets my eyes with his, which are back to being intense and icy rather than the calm blue of this morning. I sit on the couch hesitantly, watching them all and trying to read the room.

  “We’ve had an alpha challenge,” he says impatiently. He pushes off the wall and paces the room, seeming bigger when he’s angry and storming about. His silky black hair is ruffled and tortured, probably by his own hands, and his eyes are blazing again. The wolf in him is trying to burst out of his skin.

  “An alpha challenge? What do you mean?” I fold my hands in my lap and look at Hawthorne for clarity. “Aren’t you three the only potential alphas for our pack?”

  “No, not technically,” Hawthorne relies, looking just as upset as Rafe in his own way. “We’ve just had a call from Fang’s pack.”

  “Fang? I didn’t think he moved with a pack. Even before college.”

  “He didn’t. But he did grow up with one, before he went rogue. Apparently after you left he went crying back to them and now they’re saying that you owe him.”

  “Owe him what, exactly?”

  “A chance, I guess. Or an explanation. He claims that he spent two years with you and you falsely led him to think it was to end in a mate claim.”

  “But…”

  “I know,” Hawthorne says. “I know you didn’t. What’s more, I know his pack, they don’t give a fuck about whether he gets fair opportunity with females. But they figured out that you were the alpha female from our pack, and if one of them claims you, they’ll succeed our pack.”

  “You can’t be serious,” I say, looking into their grim faces.

  “Dead serious,” Rafe says. “I even called my dad to confirm.”

  “You called Rowan?” I ask. “But, Rowan’s still Alpha for now, right? We don’t have to worry about it yet.” The grim expressions get even grimmer. Oh no.

  “Rowan is sick,” Lindon says. “It started last year and it’s been getting slowly worse. No one wanted to tell you, we didn’t want you to feel more pressured than you already were.”

  “Oh,” I say. “But…”

  “Look, Aspen,” Lindon says. “This sucks. It sucks for all of us that there aren’t enough females around and that this is how wolf hierarchy works. But we’re your friends, and if you don’t want to take a mate, we’ll make sure you don’t have to.”

  “I don’t understand. Why do they want to take over our pack?”

  “Rowan’s wealth,” Rafe mutters. “Not every alpha has done his duty to provide as well as my father. Some would like to take what he has. Despite all the help he’s always given to anyone who needs it.” He shakes his head. “Packs fighting packs. It’s incomprehensible.”

  “I should have known Fang came from a crappy pack,” I say, slumping over with my head in my hands. “This is all my fault. I just wanted to get away so bad, to get free for a while, that I would have listened to anyone who said I deserved a life of my own. All my life it was expected that the future of the pack rode on me. Do you know how that feels?” I whip my hair out of my ponytail and start to braid it nervously. “But fine. Whine over. What do we do now?”

  Silence in the room, a heavy sigh from Rafe, and a timer beeps on the stove. Rafe goes to turn it off, and when he comes back, we’re all still silent. Me because I’m waiting for an answer. Them because they either don’t have one or they do and they’re just afraid to give it.

  “They’re going to come here at some point. They gave us a month to respond.”

  “Oh. And then what?”

  “Then they’ll come and, if you aren’t mated, they’ll take you back to give Fang a chance to court you.”

  ‘They’d kidnap me?”

  “They wouldn’t see it like that.”

  “Dammit,” I mutter. “This is so fucked up.”

  “We wouldn’t let them take you,” Rafe says. “We’d fight to the death if necessary.”

  “I don’t want anyone hurt,” I say.

  “There’s one other option, but you might not like it. If you took a mate,” Rafe says in a low voice, “They couldn’t contest that. It’d be too late.”

  I look up into his burning blue eyes. “So, once again, it’s back to you wanting me to mate just to save the pack? Like I’m some kind of sacrifice?”

  “And what?” he asks, throwing his arms up and raising his voice. “It’s some kind of sacrifice to be with one of us? What’s wrong with us, Aspen, huh? What’s so freaking wrong with us that mating with one of us would be some kind of catastrophe?”

  I stand up, hands in fists, and toss my braid back over my shoulder. “It’s not mating you that would be a catastrophe, it’s mating with anyone for the wrong reasons that would be the catastrophe!” I yell at him, storming out of the room. I can’t hear this right now. It’s too much at once.

  “Then what are the right reasons, Aspen?”

  I flip around at the top of the stairs and face him, cheeks burning. “I’ve been over this with you once before, and I’m not going to do it again.”

  “Just tell me.”

  “If I tell you, you’ll just say whatever I want you to say. And that defies the whole point.”

  “You don’t make any sense,” he growls, following me up the stairs.

  I turn to run but he catches me around the waist and pulls me easily against him, his flat abs to my back, his strong arm holding me captive. A familiar warmth runs through me, a familiar urge to submit to him, but I ignore it and fight to get away.

  He turns me around to face him, and kisses me hard on the mouth. The second he makes contact, it’s over, and I slump in his arms. So hot. Pleasure floods me as he works with his tongue, stroking, diving, holding me beneath him as he takes what he wants. What is his.

  His?

  That thought sobers me and I pull away and smack him across the face, making him release me and step back, angry eyes flashing above a faint red hand mark on his cheek.

  “Damnit, why run if you don’t want me to chase you?” he asks stupidly.

  “Maybe I just wanted to get away.”

  He waves a hand. “Fine, get away then. And when you come back, you tell us all your bright ideas for getting out of this mess.”

  “Fine then,” I snap, turning o
n my heel. “I will.” I stride away from him to my room and slam the door behind me. Then I sink down against it, adrenaline running out of me like water from a punctured balloon. “Shit.”

  It’s just like another fight we had, another time I wanted to run.

  I can’t help but think back to that day as I sit here against my door, with my friends pacing downstairs. I can’t help but think that in two years, nothing has changed.

  * * *

  I spend the rest of my day seated on my bed, doing homework and enjoying the breeze from the window, which is cracked open just enough to let the early fall air in to cool me off.

  I may dislike the way Rafe phrases things, but he’s right. Everything would get easier if I just took a mate, and there are several great options right in front of me, if I could stop being stubborn.

  I walk over to my suitcase and zip it open and pull out a packet of photos, taken during my travels. Fang and I in front of the Eiffel tower, and then at a hostel in Germany. It was the trip of my life, and I guess it will have to be enough for now…

  Unless…

  I go back to my bed and prop myself up against the wall, thinking deeply. Perhaps we could do some kind of promise, something that said we were planning to mate claim each other, but waiting for the right time to do it. We could use the human custom of engagement. Then perhaps we could avoid a confrontation with Fang but I would still have time to stay here and figure things out with whomever I do choose.

  I get up and yank my door open and go downstairs, where the guys are all still waiting in a huddle. They look up at me with sullen faces, and I give them a weak grin.

  “So, any bright ideas?” Rafe asks.

  “I have one,” I say, sitting on the edge of the couch across from them.

  Hawthorne’s eyes light in interest, and Lindon looks warily hopeful. Rafe’s eyes burn with doubt.

  “I have a proposition,” I say. “We’ll tell Rafe’s clan that I’m already claimed, but I won’t be.”

  Rafe coughs. “If they show up, they’ll know. And if we lie to avoid an alpha challenge…”

  “This isn’t even a legit challenge and you know it. And if you tell them I’m claimed, they won’t question it.”

  “Who will we tell them you’re claimed by? And how are we going to keep the lie going, should one of them visit?”

  “By the time they do, I will have been claimed,” I say.

  “Oh?” Rafe stands up to his full, intimidating height. “And how’s that?”

  “Give me three weeks to choose. Three weeks and I’ll agree to one of you.”

  Lindon and Hawthorne’s eyes light up with anticipation, but Rafe looks angrier still. “Three weeks. Three weeks and you’ll pick one of us at random?”

  “Three weeks and I’ll choose whomever was best to me.”

  “Best to you? Best how?” Lindon asks, pulling out a notepad. “Best lover? Best provider?” He licks a finger and flips a couple pages in. “Because we’re all rich, you know.”

  “What?” I ask. “How so? And why?” I ask, knowing Rafe as future alpha should be the only one concerned with money.

  “After you left, none of us were sure who would be the one to find an alpha female and provide for the pack. I went into fiction. I write thrillers, strictly commercial but they’ve done well. Hawthorne gambles, which as you know is pretty much cheating due to his ability to read people.”

  “Gambling in casinos?” I ask.

  “No, betting on sports matches and fights.”

  “Oh.”

  “And then letting Rafe invest it,” Hawthorne says, flashing a toothy grin.

  “And Rafe?” I ask. “Do I even want to know how rich Rafe is?”

  “Probably not,” Lindon says. “He’s the one who used Rowan’s investment earnings to do venture capital and made a fortune last year when one of his companies went public.”

  Rafe sends him a glare that bespeaks betrayal and slumps in a recliner to sulk. “So this is some kind of competition?” he asks.

  “Yes, I suppose. No one has to compete. But I’m saying that I’m open to it, and in three weeks, to prevent someone trying to take over the pack anyway, I’ll pick one of you.”

  Lindon and Hawthorne high five. It’s probably more than they expected, but Rafe looks uncertain.

  “What’s the matter, big guy?” Hawthorne asks. “Afraid you’ll lose?”

  “I just don’t get it. You left us before because you didn’t want to be mated out of a sense of duty. Now you do?”

  I meet his eyes. “There’s nowhere to run anymore. And if I don’t mate one of you, Fang’s group will come for me.”

  “We wouldn’t let him take you,” Rafe says.

  “I can’t just stay unmated for life when there are so many who would want to. And I guess, I never asked myself what I wanted. I just rebelled against what others wanted. But sometimes it’s okay to do something that you should do. Sometimes, it’s also what you want but didn’t realize in your stubbornness.

  He just stares at me. My eyes run over his firm lips, the stubborn jut of his jaw, the huge muscles. I can’t tell if he’s actually mad that I’m taking a mate after bugging me for so long to take one, or if he’s mad that Hawthorne and Lindon get a shot.

  “I think we should set ground rules,” he says, his voice a low growl that interrupts Lindon and Hawthorne.

  “Oh?”

  “I mean, otherwise this is going to turn into a bloodbath.”

  My eyes widen. “But you’re friends.”

  “Right, and a mate is on the line.” He shakes his head. “And the position of Alpha. Honestly, Aspen, I don’t think even you know what you’re doing right now. It would have been better if you just picked one of us.”

  Better if I just picked you, you mean. Rafe doesn’t say it, but as he stands there, folding his arms and casting his shadow on the room it’s the obvious unspoken assumption.

  “Well, she didn’t,” Lindon quips, coming to sit next to me on the couch. His muscular thighs brush mine as he leans in and runs a finger over the shell of my ear, watching Rafe’s reaction as he does so. “So too bad.”

  “Ha!” Rafe says. “It would take two of you put together to compete with me.”

  My eyes widen. That was unexpected.

  “Well, that can be arranged,” Hawthorne says, sitting on the other side of me and ignoring Rafe’s growl that is quickly becoming a snarl. He puts a muscular arm around me and my body heats up due to the presence of both of them. He leans in and brushes his lips over my temple. “This is going to be fun.”

  I squirm away from both of them and Rafe grabs me by the arm to yank me forward away from them.

  “Hey…” Lindon says, running a hand through his beautiful, light hair. “Wait your turn.”

  “This is why I said we needed ground rules!” He says, shoving me behind him. I peek out and see Hawthorne and Lindon eyeing him with no small amount of aggression.

  Maybe this really was a bad idea. But it’s going to be a lot of fun, probably.

  “Ground rules?” Lindon asks, crossing his long, lean legs primly and putting them up on the table in front of us. “What do you mean?”

  Hawthorne yawns and stretches. “I believe I already know how to claim a female, thank you. I don’t need advice from you.”

  Rafe covers his face with his palm, probably praying for patience, and I stifle a giggle. “This won’t just be a claiming. This is for the right to be selected to claim.”

  “Sounds complicated,” Lindon says.

  It’s a different Lindon than I’m used to seeing. Normally he’s sensitive and intelligent. But seeing him in touch with his wolf, a wolf that would very much like a mate, makes him seem different. There’s an edge to him I haven’t seen before.

  “My only rule is no fighting,” I say.

  “Of course there will be fighting,” Lindon says, flicking hair off his forehead. “What did you think would happen when you told us to compete?”

&nbs
p; “Lindon, you’re supposed to be the sensible one…”

  “I am being the sensible one, Aspen.” He uncrosses his legs and leans forward over his knees. “What were you expecting? Flowers? Roses?” He shakes his head. “We’re wolves, Aspen. We know one way of getting a mate. Well, two. Providing, and mating.” He flashes a fang.

  Hawthorne sighs. “You’re getting ahead of yourself Lindon. You’re scaring her off.”

  Lindon huffs and sits back again, looking off through the kitchen window.

  Rafe keeps himself between me and my former friends. “We’re going to do this how Aspen wants. If she wants civilized, we’ll do civilized.” He turns to me. “Make the rules.”

  I hadn’t really thought this far. Lindon and Hawthorne are already looking like they want to eat me up, and Rafe is waiting impatiently for me to say something to save the situation, when I’ve already screwed everything up.

  “I don’t know,” I say. “But fighting won’t impress me.”

  They all look a little put out by that, including Rafe.

  “The longer you are unmated, the longer more wolves are going to be getting your scent,” Hawthorne says.

  “It’s getting worse by the day,” Lindon says.

  “I’m not sure why,” I say. “I don’t recall being accosted for all of my trip.” Then I look over at Rafe and wonder if he’s part of the reason. If being around him again is making me open to mating and that’s drawing in other males.

  “Oh for Pete’s sake, she’s doing it again,” Hawthorne says.

  “What do you mean? I stink all of a sudden?”

  “No, it’s just something in the air. You can’t put a finger on it, you just…want.”

  Lindon nods. “Damned odd thing.”

  “Fine, so three weeks. But three weeks of what?” Rafe asks. “Being pushed down by competing wolves?”

  “No. That’s not what I want.”

  “Then what do you want?” he snaps.

  “I don’t know,” I say. “I guess the one who figures it out is going to be the one who wins, aren’t they?” I yawn. “And now I need to go finish my homework and get my beauty sleep, so that I’m worthy of competing for.”