Mated To The Alpha: A Standalone Wolf Shifter Romance, стр. 14

The sound of a knock on the front door startled her as she was half-way to Kate's door, so she swerved that way instead. She juggled both mugs, and opened the front door wide, squinting against the sun as it silhouetted a massive, masculine shape on her porch.

She handed a mug to her guest, and used her now free hand to shade her eyes, realizing that it was Elam who filled her doorway. He was dressed in low-slung jeans and nothing else.

His bare chest was flushed, liked he'd been running, or chopping wood, or something else equally manly.

"Come in, come in, have some coffee. Kate can make her own, when she gets her lazy ass up. What time is it, anyway? And why are you naked?"

"It's almost noon, and I'm not naked. I just finished repairing the roof on one of the smaller cabins, and was headed back to mine. I passed your cabin, and realized I hadn't seen you up and around yet. Thought I'd check in on what you thought about Kate. The pack is excited about the mating. Are you just getting up?"

"What mating? Who mated? And what do you mean, 'what I thought about Kate?' Her door is still closed. I was bringing her coffee when you showed up, all...like this."

"Like what?"

She almost said, "All hot and bare-chested," but she let the words trail off with a shrug instead.

She led him to the couch and sat down, nodding for him to sit. When he did, settling into the spot beside her, and turning to face her, she regretted not leading him to the kitchen table. He and his bare chest were entirely too close.

She sipped her coffee, trying to hide her sudden discomfort behind the cup.

For some reason feeling defensive, and needing to put something out there between her and his bare torso, she said, "You were fixing a roof? Aren't you like a prince or something around here? Don't you have underlings, or peons, to do that stuff?"

He laughed.

"I’m the Alpha's son, yes. But that doesn’t mean much in the scheme of things. It does hold certain responsibilities, though. Like helping to keep a roof above our pack's head. Pete was doing fine repairing his own roof, I just wanted to help out. And you’re one to talk about being naked. I don't mind it. My people are very open about it, shifting all the time and such. You look quite fetching in your tiny little shorts, I must say, but you aren't exactly fully dressed either."

Emma looked down at herself, noticing how high her shorts had ridden up her legs when she sat down, and realizing that she wasn't wearing a bra under her thin pajama top.

She felt herself flush bright pink with embarrassment, and tried to cover it with a straightening of her shoulders and an upward tilt to her chin.

She sipped her coffee again, both for something to do as she tried to gain her equilibrium around Elam, and to get some more hot caffeine to flow into her brain.

"You really haven't heard about Kate?"

His question brought her eyebrows high up toward her hairline.

"What about Kate? She isn't up yet."

He laughed a low, sexy rumble and muttered, "I'm not sure she got any sleeping done at all last night. She isn't here. She and Galen are one. The pack is thrilled that Galen finally took a mate. Although there are some very disappointed she-wolves out there this morning. The new blood will be good for us, though. There is to be another celebration feast tonight. I'm glad he mated before Thomas passed. It will be easier on Thomas, knowing the new Alpha has found his other half. Thomas said he'd be even happier if he could see both of his sons mated before he crossed..."

He said the last bit as he looked at her pointedly over his coffee mug, his words drifting off before he took a sip.

Emma didn't catch that part though. She stood quickly, padding toward Kate's closed door, quite sure Kate would have told her before going off and becoming some wolf's mate.

She flung Kate's door open, only to be greeted with the sight of her friend's empty bed.

"Well fuck me!"

She didn't notice Elam's smirk at her heated words as he watched her over his cup while she paced and mumbled and cussed her friend out for not telling her what she was planning on doing.

"How do you just up and become a wolf's mate without telling your best friend? Don't you guys have engagement periods or ceremonies in front of the pack or anything? Her parents are going to flip. We're only here for a year. It's supposed to teach us to be better, more productive members of society or some shit to be here. She's not here twenty-four hours and she's a mate to a son of the Alpha? I bet her dad will wish he'd taken her to Africa after all. What does that mean, exactly? To be a mate? Can she still go home in a year?"

"Wolves mate for life. She can't leave him, it will kill him. And her."

"It won't kill her. She's not a wolf. Human's divorce all the time. She can just chalk this up to a Britney Spears moment, that's all."

"That is not so. Wolves don’t divorce. They are connected now, only death will separate them. If one of their souls cross over, the connection lessens. The one left behind will grieve a very long time, and they can eventually mate again. But not when both souls still walk this earth. When a mated pair is separated for long, they both wither. They are strongest together. Kate is one of us now. She wears his mark, he now flows through her veins. We won't know for a little while, but she may also be carrying his pup."

"Carrying his... You have got to be kidding me. We've been here less