The Alpha's to Share: A BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance Read online

  The Alpha's to Share: A BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The Alpha’s to Share

  A BBW Shifter Ménage Romance

  Primrose Peak Shifters #1

  Alanis Knight

  http://www.AlanisKnight.com

  http://www.Facebook.com/AuthorAlanisKnight

  Smashwords Edition

  This is a standalone novel in the Primrose Peak Shifters series. Each couple will get their own Happily Ever After in each book!

  Everyone knows that shifters need human females to breed. It’s a common fact that females of their own species are almost always infertile. The trouble is that finding a human female who won’t run away in terror is a lot harder than one might think!

  Enter the Mail Order Mates Agency! Their one purpose is finding mates for eligible shifters who can’t otherwise find that perfect female.

  Seth is the Alpha of the Primrose pack, and his brother, Wyatt, is desperate to convince him to take a mate and secure an heir to his title before someone else challenges him for his position and turns their pack upside down.

  Callie Reynolds is about as down on her luck as one girl can get. She’s lost her job, her friends hate her, and her family has disowned her. All because she was accused of something she didn’t even do!

  When she’s approached by a little old woman who claims to be a fortuneteller with the secret to a happy life, she’s naturally skeptical. But with nothing to lose, city girl Callie accompanies the elderly lady back to her tiny cottage on the outskirts of the forest.

  What she discovers will change her life forever, and just might truly be they key to everything she’s ever dreamed of, landing her smack in the middle of two gorgeous brothers who are suddenly both desperate for her attention!

  Will Seth be willing and able to share his new mate with his brother, or will the fur fly as the two brothers both try to claim the curvy redhead?

  © Copyright 2014, Alanis Knight, All Rights Reserved

  Chapter One

  “Seth, you cannot put this off any longer,” said Wyatt, the Alpha’s younger brother and second-in-command. “If you don’t take a mate soon, someone is going to challenge you for your position as Alpha. Please, Seth, just consider this. You need an heir!”

  “You’re asking me to put my faith in that old woman?” Seth argued. “She’s a little on the nutty side, don’t you think? And besides, she’s a raccoon. They’re thieves, the lot of them!”

  “Madge is a good woman, Seth,” Wyatt said. “She’s doing a good thing. She’s helped a lot of Alphas find mates over the years. What could it hurt?”

  “And what if she sends me some whiny little girl who is a spoiled little princess and complains constantly?” Seth asked. “Or some stuck up snob who thinks she’s better than us because we’re shifters? What should I do? Just send her back where she came from to tell the whole world where we are?”

  “Or you could just kill her,” Wyatt shrugged. Seeing the incredulous look spreading across his brother’s face, he quickly added, “Kidding! Jeez, lighten up, would you? Seriously, just give it a chance. If it doesn’t work out, Madge will clean it up.”

  “I don’t like this,” Seth said. “I like being free. I don’t want some bossy, overbearing woman trying to tell me what to do all the time.”

  “You’re Alpha,” Wyatt pointed out. “You don’t have to stand for that if you don’t want to. You can put her in her place.”

  Seth sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose. Why couldn’t Wyatt just leave well enough alone?

  Of course, he did have a point. He needed to ensure his genetic line. He needed to be sure that someone from his family would be next in line as Alpha. Wyatt was only a Beta, so he could never take Seth’s place. But Seth was an Alpha, which meant his offspring were quite likely to be, too. At least one of them.

  “Damn it,” Seth muttered. “Fine. I’ll write her and see what she comes up with.”

  “Thank god!” Wyatt said, throwing his hands up in excitement. “But why don’t we go see her in person? Aren’t you excited to hurry this along?”

  “What’s this ‘we’ thing? Someone has to stay here and watch over the pack,” Seth reminded his brother. “I’ll go. On my own. But I’d rather just write. It is a mail order bride agency, after all.”

  “Fine,” Wyatt groaned. “But she doesn’t live that far away, Seth. No use writing when you can go see her in person. Besides, I wanted to see who she picks for you.”

  “You’ll see her soon enough,” Seth said. Then he muttered under his breath, “And so will I, unfortunately.” Then he added, “Shall I send word that I’m coming?”

  “You don’t have to,” Wyatt said. “She’ll see it.”

  “Oh, right, the fortuneteller thing,” Seth groaned. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”

  Wyatt shrugged and said, “Everyone says it’s true.”

  Seth rolled his eyes and shook his head. Wyatt was so gullible. He couldn’t believe he’d let his brother rope him into this. He was going to trust the choice of his mate to a little old lady, a raccoon shifter, no less, who was crazy, to boot.

  Oh, well. If he was going to do this, he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. It was only a few days walk in wolf form to reach the old lady’s cottage. It would take longer in human form, so he wouldn’t pack anything. He’d just have to wing it as far as clothing once he arrived.

  He had traveled for two days, hunting along the way for food, when he detected the scent of rain in the air. This was no ordinary rain. This was certain to be a deluge that would continue for days. It was thick and heady with the musk of dust. It would be no simple afternoon shower.

  This would undoubtedly slow him down. Even a wolf was slower on muddy ground with wind and rain driving against his face and chilling him through his fur. But he had no choice other than to continue on.

  As the storm clouds rolled in black and ominous, he pressed forward. The thunder rumbled and the lightning crashed, but still he went on. He could have taken shelter. He could have found an abandoned hunting cabin or an empty cave and hung around until the storms passed. But something was pressing him onward. There was an urgency deep within him that he refused to acknowledge, but it kept him driven toward his goal.

  Seth shook his head and body as the first drops of rain began to patter against him. He hated the feeling of raindrops falling on fur, and each and every individual droplet made his skin twitch upon impact.

  He relished the feeling of rain against his human skin, but he could not shift. He would lose enough time as it was due to the rain. He couldn’t afford to lose even more by traveling in his slower human form.

  He had himself convinced that he was in a hurry because he needed to return quickly to his pack. He was Alpha, after all. And his pack was constantly under the threat of human encroachment or other groups of shifters.

  There were few areas of true wilderness left in the country, and shifters
had claimed nearly every area already. His pack was small, and they’d stand little chance of surviving an attack from either a rival shifter gang or a group of humans bent on taking the pack’s territory for their own.

  Still, something crept into the back of his mind and refused to let go. He wasn’t sure quite what it was, but it kept him pressing on through the storm, through his hunger, through his exhaustion. He stopped to hunt only when his hunger would allow him to go no further, and he rested only when he found suitable temporary shelter, choosing instead to keep moving until his body was so weak he was forced to rest, if only for a short while.

  On and on he traveled, through the driving rains, the vicious winds, and the lightning that had caused him to smell the pungent bite of singed wood in the air several times.

  My brother better be right about this Madge, Seth grumbled inwardly. I can’t afford to be away from my pack this long only to end up with some horrid wench that will just make my life ever harder.

  Chapter Two

  It was a cold, wet, miserable day as Callie Reynolds huddled under the soggy newspaper – the only thing she currently had to shield her from the elements. She couldn’t help but wonder how she got here. How someone who had once had it all together, someone with a college education and a great job, could now be living on the streets like a vagrant and hiding from society.

  It wasn’t her fault. She’d either been set up or it was all some horrible mistake. To think that she would risk everything she’d worked so hard for, everything she’d fought and clawed and scratched and scraped to get… it was preposterous.

  But not only did society at large think she’d embezzled millions from her employer – her closest friends and even her family did, too. Her own family! They’d turned against her as if they’d never known her at all! Disowned her.

  Everything she owned was now loaded into a storage unit that she was afraid to go anywhere near, for fear of being discovered. The police could be watching every single place she might go, waiting for her, stalking her. No, she couldn’t risk that.

  But where could she go? Her bank accounts and credit cards had all been frozen. Her car was impounded. She had no friends or family that hadn’t turned their backs on her like she was a leper. She was truly alone.

  Callie gritted her teeth and huddled into a tighter ball underneath the newspaper, listening to the pitter-patter of the rain on the soaked newsprint above her. Her stomach growled fiercely. The scent of warm soup wafted from the soup kitchen nearby, but she couldn’t risk going in because someone might recognize her from her picture, which was plastered across every news broadcast for miles around.

  “Excuse me, dearie, but do you need some help?”

  The sound of a human voice startled her, and she glanced up at a frail old woman peering down at her with a friendly smile. She was hunched over underneath an umbrella and extending her hand warmly.

  “N-no,” Callie said. “I’m fine.”

  “You don’t look fine, dear,” she said. “Come on. Come with me and let’s get you somewhere warm, out of this rain. Maybe a bite to eat?”

  She’d always been told not to trust strangers. Her parents drilled that into her from the time she was first learning to walk. But she couldn’t trust them anymore. They’d disowned her and threatened to turn her in to the authorities if she so much as contacted them. So maybe a stranger was the only one she could trust.

  “I really shouldn’t,” Callie said.

  “Listen, dear,” said the old woman. “I know who you are, and I know you’re in trouble. I can help you if you’ll let me. I know it’s not your fault. I can help you find a brighter future if you’ll only trust me.”

  “Please… don’t turn me in,” Callie begged, the bitter sting of tears welling in her eyes. “I didn’t do what they said I did!”

  “Shh,” whispered the old woman soothingly. “I know you didn’t. I can see it clearly. You’re not meant to be here. You’re not meant to be caged up like some poor animal in a zoo. Come with me. Let me help you!”

  Slowly, cautiously, she slid her trembling hand into the gnarled, wrinkled one the woman had extended to her, and the woman, surprisingly strong despite her apparent frailty, pulled Callie to her feet. She hooked her arm protectively around Callie’s waist and brought her under the safety of the umbrella.

  “There, now let’s get you home and get you something to eat,” said the woman.

  She pulled Callie down the street to a parked car and opened the door for her. Against her better judgment, but having no other real option, she slid into the passenger’s seat and the old woman slammed the door behind her.

  The car was an old beater. It must have been at least forty years old. The doors creaked loudly, rust covered nearly every part of the exterior, and the interior smelled of… fish?

  The old woman smiled as she got into the car, thrusting the key into the ignition and turning it, bringing the car, coughing and sputtering, to life.

  “Cold?” she asked Callie, whose teeth were chattering loudly.

  Callie only nodded, unable to form words through the clatter of her teeth. The old woman turned on the heat, and a rank, musty smell flowed through the vents.

  “It takes a while to warm up,” the old woman explained. “But once it does, it’s nice and toasty.”

  The woman pulled away from the curb and Callie stared out the window, wondering if perhaps she’d just made the worst decision of her life. There was still time to jump. Flinging herself from a moving vehicle seemed to pale in comparison to the other available options in her life. But if she did that, she might survive, and if she ended up in the hospital, someone would definitely recognize her from the news.

  She leaned her head against the icy glass of the window and watched the blur of the sidewalk whiz by. The vibrations of the rickety old car were somehow soothing, and they almost began to lull her to sleep.

  The car puttered its way out of the city, turning onto a long, winding country road that led toward the mountains. Just before they reached them, the woman turned down a tiny dirt drive, which was mostly mud due to the rain, and they drove through a wooded area into a clearing at the base of a mountain.

  “Here we are,” said the old woman, turning off the car and getting out.

  Callie opened her door with a loud metallic screech and stepped out into the muddy yard, slamming it behind her. The view, despite the gloominess caused by the evening storm, was breathtaking. She froze, devouring every inch of her surroundings.

  “What’s the matter, dear?” the old woman asked. “You act like you’ve never seen the mountains before!”

  “I haven’t,” Callie muttered. “I’m a city girl.”

  The old woman clucked her tongue and said, “Those days are over. You’re about to be a mountain woman.”

  “Huh?”

  “Come inside out of this rain this instant!” snapped the old woman. “Let’s get you into some dry clothes!”

  The interior of the cabin was small, but cozy. The woman had a fire blazing on the hearth before Callie knew it, and she began rifling through an old wooden chest. She pulled out a long white dress and said, “Here, try this on.”

  Callie held it up to herself and it seemed as though it would fit. She couldn’t imagine this had ever belonged to the old woman, though. Callie was a little on the plump side, and the woman was a tiny thing.

  “Hurry up before you catch your death of cold!” the woman demanded.

  Callie peered around, looking for a bathroom or bedroom in which to change. But the cabin was a single room, and she clutched the dress to her body instinctively.

  “There’s no one here but us women! Now get out of those wet clothes this instant, young lady!”

  Her face flushing, she slipped out of her soaking jeans and peeled away the clothes that stuck to her body like cling film. She slid the dress over her head, and it fit perfectly.

  “There! Now, Callie, let’s get you fed!”

  “How did�
�”

  “Hush, girl! I told you, I can see the future. I know a lot more about you than you think. Your name is Callie Reynolds, and you’re being accused of something you didn’t do. Your friends and family all think you did it, and you’ve lost everything. But there’s something much better in store for you.”

  “You could have gotten most of that information off the news,” Callie pointed out skeptically.

  “True,” the woman allowed. “But I also know your favorite color is olive green, your favorite food is roast duck because your grandma used to make it every Christmas, and until this week you loved the rain.”

  “Ok, impressive,” Callie admitted. “You’re either a real fortuneteller or your stalker level is legendary.”