Read fate of the alpha - episode 1 for Free Online Page A

couldn’t stop wondering if he’d felt the same.
    Of course, his attitude toward her “cottage magic” gave her a pretty clear idea of his feelings toward her. But still…
    No time to dwell on it now. Now, she had to conduct an official interview in a place that looked more like the back room of a Chuck E Cheese’s than a police interrogation room.
    “Come on in.” Grace pushed away the distractions and turned her mind to the business at hand. She had a crime to solve.
    A man turned the corner from the hallway. He was probably in his late fifties and walked slowly with a cane. But his posture was faultless and there was a youthful sparkle in his cornflower blue eyes.
    Dale Evans followed a few steps behind.
    “Hello, Mr. Sanderson, thank you for coming in,” Grace said.
    “I see you got lucky at the slot machines,” he said, nodding at the change.
    “No, this is from the parking meters.”
    He raised an eyebrow.
    “They aren’t water tight,” Dale explained. “We have to dry the change, or the girls at the bank won’t take it anymore.”
    “Ah, the responsibilities of our small town police force. I wonder if any of us are really aware of all you do for the village.”
    Grace wasn’t sure if he was being sarcastic or not, but she was very sure he had no idea about some of the things Tarker’s Hollow officers had to do. She gave him the benefit of the doubt and gestured for him to sit.
    “Can I bring you a cup of coffee?” Dale asked.
    Grace was sure he was only stalling because he was curious about the ‘younger man’ Sadie had been seeing.
    “No, thank you.”
    Garrett Sanderson sat down carefully, elegantly crossing one long leg over the other and holding his cane to the ground like a king with a scepter. The cane was polished black wood with a wrought metal handle.
    Grace thought it might make a good makeshift weapon.
    “I’ll let you get to it then, Gracie,” Dale said, backing out and shutting the door.
    Grace tried to turn her wince into a smile.
    Garrett Sanderson smiled back at her expectantly.
    “How may I help you today?” he asked, gazing earnestly at her with his penetrating blue eyes.
    She tried and failed not to let them remind her of Julian’s sparkling eyes.
    Grace wasn’t sure how to begin. The whole town had been aflutter for weeks because of Garrett’s presence in Sadie Epstein-Walker’s life. Though he was no spring chicken himself, he was much younger than she. And there was not much to talk about in a small town - especially for the non-wolf majority. They had the weather, the Inn, the highway, and Sadie Epstein-Walker’s new beau.
    “I’m sure you’ve heard about Sadie’s injury?”
    “Yes, of course, I’ve been worried sick ever since I heard. I just came from the hospital. Nasty business, taking a fall like that.”
    “Because she isn’t awake to tell us what happened, we need to do a routine investigation.”
    “Ah, I see.”
    Grace looked through the pages on her clipboard.
    “Excuse me for a moment, Mr. Sanderson?”
    “Please, it’s Garrett, and of course.”
    She stepped out of the door and closed it behind her. One of the best tactics she had learned at the academy was that a suspect who was given time to get nervous usually did just that.
    She grabbed a bottle of water out of the mini-fridge in the kitchenette and drank a little. She checked her iPhone and read the headlines and weather.
    When she entered the room, she found Sanderson just as she had left him.
    “Was that a test to make sure I wouldn’t steal any change?”
    Rather than acknowledging him, Grace sat down on the other side of the table.
    “You’re the Department Secretary for Russian Lit at Tarker’s Hollow College, is that right?”
    “I believe the politically correct title is Administrative Assistant.”
    “How long have you been in town?” She ignored his natural charm and focused on his reactions to the setup questions.
    “About three weeks now.”
    “I see. And where