Read Bride of the Alpha for Free Online

the Running?” Vince asked Max.
    He glanced up at a wall clock. “I’m thinking an hour from now,” he said.
    His mother nodded. “That sounds like a good plan. We’ll have time to introduce you around to
    everyone.”
    She led me over to a group of people. “These are my sons Pierce, Lance, and Troy. This is my daughter
    Virginia.”
    They crowded around me, insisting that I tell them all about the Southpaw pack. Somehow, they
    managed to make me feel as if my wacky, hippie pack of misfits was exotic and intriguing.
    Max introduced me to his brothers, Lance and Pierce, who looked a lot like him but had much more of
    a Beta vibe about them, and his younger sister Virginia.
    Virginia was a pretty teenager with shiny brown hair and an unusual eye color; one eye was green, one
    was blue. It was a genetic anomaly that meant that she was a Healer. If someone were gravely wounded, she could heal their wounds and pull them back from the brink of death. At her age, she was just in the training stage, but by the time she was in her mid-twenties she’d be a full on healer and a valuable asset to her pack.
    “So you’re an artist?” Virginia said. “That’s so cool! Your pack sounds like so much fun. I should go
    live out there.”
    “No way in hell,” Pierce and Lance said at the same time.
    She glared at them. “I’m eighteen. Get it through your thick skulls. I can do whatever I want.”
    “No, you can’t. You’re a Battle, which means you are under pack protection,” Pierce said.
    “I’ll show you a battle,” she snapped, glowering at them. “Mom! Tell them to stop trying to boss me
    around!”
    “No, tell her she still acts like a baby and-”
    “Hey, want to see me turn a napkin into a bird?” I said, and quickly grabbed a paper napkin and folded
    it into the shape of a swan. Then I made its wings flap. “I’m a teacher,” I added. “I teach art class. My kids love origami.”
    I’d temporarily distracted Virginia and her brother from their fight, at least. “Show me how!” Virginia said, delighted. I sat there and showed her the folds, and then she made a bird too, and threw it at her brother Lance. It stuck in his hair.
    “Very mature, Ginny,” he said. “I can see you’re all growed up.” She leaped to her feet and tried to tackle him. He turned and ran, with her chasing after him.
    I saw Maxwell standing back, watching me approvingly.
    He walked over to me. “See, that wasn’t so bad, was it? We don’t bite. Well, I do, but you’ll find out
    about that later.”
    Once again I felt that swoony feeling. I wanted to consummate our wedding with him more than I’d
    ever wanted anything.
    I glanced around. “Where’s all the kids, by the way?” I said, to change the subject.
    “Oh, this is a fairly adult ceremony,” Max said. “The cubs are spending the weekend with their
    grandparents and the teenagers.”
    I really, really wanted to know what Running and Claiming involved. Damn it.
    I found out a short time later, when Maxwell led me out of the reception area to a clearing, where Lance was now standing and waiting for us. The woodlands stretched out behind us, vast and inviting.
    We’d be running through ponderosa pines, so tall they shot up into the sky and I had to tip my head
    back to see the treetops. The woods were thick here, and the forest floor was littered with pine needles. The smell was heavenly.
    Crowds of wolves were gathering around, whooping and cheering.
    “So, here’s how this works,” he said. “We’re very big on tradition around here, and this goes way back.
    As you know, it’s vital that an Alpha be perceived as the strongest member of his pack. The way that we used to claim our brides around here up until about a hundred years ago was simply to go to another pack’s territory, run after a bride, and drag her back with us, caveman style.”
    Wolves usually sought out brides from outside of their pack, for genetic variety and also to form or
    strengthen