“True. My father cannot force me to mate a particr male, but applying pressure to take a mate is a different thing.” We reached her room; she opened it and invited me in. The portable housing was cozy, to say the least. The room contained a full-sized bed, a dresser, television, and a tiny bathroom with a shower. She sat on the bed and patted the space next to her. I pulled an empty drawer out of the dresser, setting it on edge as a table, and set the bottle and the shot sses on top of it before sitting down. “Can I speak frankly, Ivan? Can you hold what I tell you in strict confidence?”


    “I would be disappointed if you did not, Brenda.” I poured us each a shot.


    “My father is not well,” she said. “My mother passed awayst year, and he won’t be far behind. I am the heir to the Pack, and I need a mate to run it properly.”


    “There are plenty of males here who would love to take you on just for the Alpha position, not just because you are a desirable young woman,” I said. “If the word gets out, they will be hounding you.” Of course, she hadn’t found her mate tonight. “Are you disappointed you didn’t find your mate here?” I raised my drink to my lips.


    “I knew I would not,” she said. “I’m gay.”Content rights by N?velDr//ama.Org.


    That was enough to cause me to choke on my tequ. “What?”


    “I’m a lesbian. I have no mate because I have no interest in men, I never have.”


    “I bet that went over well with Daddy.” Werewolves, especially Alpha males, were tradition-bound and patriarchal. Homosexuality might be tolerated in the lower ranks, but there were no openly gay Alphas of either sex. A male might never take a mate and hide his true affections, but a female Alpha could not. I could see the truth in her face. “He doesn’t know.”


    “No one does,” she said. “My lovers have been few, human, and distant. I know what will happen if the Alpha position transfers to me while I’m unmated, or if I was toe out. My Pack and I will be looked at as weak, a tempting target for anyone who fancied a challenge. I wouldn’tst a year before it was taken from me.” She tossed a shot back and poured another. “What I’m looking for is a partner, not a mate.”


    I could see where the conversation was going. “You think I could be that partner?”


    “You do not believe in or expect a mating to result in anything mystical like true love. You are smart, strong, and ready to lead a Pack by my side. A partnership would get you out of your brother’s shadow, and my Pack would gain a strong defender. I would not prevent you from seeking your pleasure in others, just as you would not prevent me from my own liaisons. Both of us would use discretion, of course. We must maintain appearances.”


    “Of course,” I said. It wasn’t that mated pairs couldn’t cheat, they just couldn’t do it without the other feeling it. It didn’t cause pain, but there was no mistaking when your mate was having sex with another. “You can’t fake the mating im, Brenda. I would have to bite you and mate you, and you would have to bite me back.”


    “You wouldn’t be my first man; in my youth, I slept with a man before epting my true orientation. I would be expected to bear an heir, so sex between us will be required to achieve that. In the Pack’s eyes, we need to be a stable and loving Alpha pair. You should not expect it to ur more often than required, though. I’m sure you can find your release elsewhere.”


    I leaned back against the headboard, considering what she was offering. The chance to be an Alpha did note along often. My only other path to the job would be if my brother and his mate passed without an heir, the Alpha mantle dying with him. Having the Alpha Mantle was important; with it, your wolf was stronger, and yourmand over a Pack was moreplete. If I mated with Brenda, the mantle she received from her father at birth would be shared with me. My son or daughter would carry it after I was gone. “So to summarize your offer. We agree to begin a courtship leading to us mating and leading your Pack together, presenting the image of a loving Alpha pair. Both of us may seek our sexual satisfaction, discreetly and freely, preferably far from our home.”


    “It’s not the mating either of us thought we would get as pups, but both of us would benefit, as would our Pack,” Brenda said. “I don’t need amitment to our deal tonight, but I would like to set the groundwork if you are agreeable.”


    “What kind of groundwork?”


    “We clearly aren’t fated mates, but we do need to show interest in each other among the others. You stay here tonight, sleeping in my bed, so our scents mingle. We eat our meals together, we take walks while holding hands, and are seen kissing. I introduce you to my father, and you introduce me to your brother and his mate.”


    “And after this summit?”


    “We date for a few months, each of us traveling to the other’s Pack. Along the way, if we both agree to proceed, we set a date for the mating ceremony.”


    “And then we join together,” I said.


    “Exactly.” She poured us each another shot. “That is tomorrow. For tonight, I want to get gloriously drunk and forget about the shit-storm that my life has be. I’d like you to join me.”


    I raised my ss in a toast to her. “It would be my honor, Alpha-Heir Brenda Petersen.” We clicked our sses together and drank.


    The hangover promised to be epic.


    Leo Volkov’s POV


    Present Day


    After the excitement of the day and evening, Shark Bait was fading fast. Vicki begged me to shift back into Wolfy, but I had too much to exin to Liv. If I couldn’t convince her that I needed to be in their lives, that they all were in danger, I could lose her.


    The evening had gone reasonably well; I had exined to them what werewolves were, how we lived, and what Vicki would be. “Werewolf children normally shift before they can crawl; they will follow whatever form their mother is in. By the time they reach ten years of age, their wolf bes more independent; they will shift on their own unless their Alphamands them not to. There is always a risk of having juveniles out amongst humans. Young werewolves might shift if frightened, or respond with more aggression than another child would because of their wolf.”


    “Like Vicki at daycare,” she said. “She was getting in trouble for biting other children.”


    “Yes. Since you are fully human, Vicki’s wolf has grown without guidance from her mother or Pack. It will push forward, perhaps at an inopportune time. You can’t think of her wolf as being separate from her; they are together and have been that way since birth. Her wolf will want to express herself, and she needs a safe ce to do that. This is why we normally homeschool our children or form private schools that are under Pack control. It is safer for them to remain among us until they learn to control their wolves, usually around high school age.”


    “You would teach her?”


    I nodded. “The first shift is painful, but after you’ve done it once, it is as simple and painless as telling your body to change shapes. Vicki is way behind on the training any other pup would have by this point.”


    “PUP!” Vicki raised tired eyes towards her mother. “I gonna be PUPPY.”


    “That’s our secret,” I told her. “Only your mother and I can know about that,” I said. “If the wrong people find out, they might hurt you, or take you away from Mommy. I will teach you how, and keep you safe while you learn,” I promised.


    “Okay.” She snuggled back into Liv’s arms, her eyes going closed again. As long as she got to be a puppy, she wasn’t going to care about the other stuff. She fell asleep shortly after.


    Liv sat on the couch with Vicki’s head in herp while I told her ‘the rest of the story.’ My younger brother was Vicki’s father, and by now, he knew that she hadn’t aborted the child as he asked. I exined the Alpha Mantle and what it meant for her to have it. “So she can grow up to run her own Pack, but it’s more likely someone would try to kill her so it can go back to your brother’s children with his mate,” she said.


    “Yes. That’s the greatest danger. The other is that Vicki isn’t part of a Pack. Her wolf scent clings to her now; you wouldn’t notice it walking by, but if a werewolf got close enough, they would pick up on it. As her wolf emerges, and after her first shift, you can’t hide that puppy anymore. Werewolves will know as soon as she walks into the room. Wolves are territorial, and as a ‘lone’ wolf in their territory, she would be taken from you. For her own good, of course. An untrained Alpha heir female is a valuablemodity in a world where many Packs do not have Alphas with that mantle.”


    “What would they do to me?”


    “At best, disable you while they take her. At worst, they would kill you because you might know about us, and you’re human.”


    She shook her head as she ran her fingers through Vicki’s hair. “I didn’t ask for any of this, you know. I was just a college kid who wanted to getid.”


    “And my brother should have known better than to have unprotected sex. He will be desperate to find and kill her, because only then can he bring the mantle back to his new Pack.” I shook my head at how screwed up this all was. “Vicki is my niece, and my wolf already imed her as his. He and I will dly train her, and we would die to protect her. For the first time in years, I’m waking up with a reason to get through the day. I have to live and be strong to protect her.”


    “Making it to Prime Rib Tuesday wasn’t doing it?” She sometimes teased me about my eating habits. “You were always nice to me, but I could see your fading. I’m d you’re better now.” She got a text; looking at her phone, she noted the time. “Grandma is wondering where we are, and I have to work the next four nights. Can you take us home?”


    “Of course,” I said. “May I pick Vicki up?”


    “Please, she’s getting so big now,” Liv said. I put her on my shoulder, and on the way out, Liv grabbed her shoes and jacket. I was pleased they both left their snowmobile gear with mine in the garage, but I didn’t say anything.


    Vicki didn’t stir as I put her in the booster seat, and we were on our way. “I know I’ve given you a lot to think about tonight,” I started.