Page 1 of Alpha's Unwilling Mate

Chapter One

Raina

Anger seethed inside me. “What did you say?”

“There’s nothing wrong with your hearing,” my father countered. “You heard me just fine.”

I shook my head. “I couldn’t have because I swear you said something about agreeing to a mating for me, which would be archaic and wrong on so many levels.”

He sighed as if the weight of dealing with me took a lot out of him. Maybe it did, but this wasn’t happening.

“Now, Raina,” he began, but I cut him off quickly.

“No. Not happening. We don’t submit to forced matings anymore.”

“It’s not a forced mating. Stop being melodramatic.”

“You’ve yet to see melodramatic,” I warned as I paced back and forth across the kitchen floor. “We don’t adhere to old law, which means you don’t get to agree to a mating request. I get to choose who I want to spend my life with.”

“Our alpha—”

“We don’t have an alpha!” The words ripped from my throat so harshly that pain shot through my vocal chords.

My father cast his eyes down, unable to look at me. “The James clan has agreed to accept us. The decision’s been made. Only one thing remains. We need a mating to connect us.”

“Not me,” I snarled.

“Your place in the pack makes you the perfect choice to unite us.” His chest puffed out, and I knew what was coming. “My blood runs in your veins. The blood of not just one but two alphas. Our people respect and admire you. The younger wolves look to you for what to do. I know you’ll do the right thing.”

I snorted. My place in our pack. Anytime my father wanted me to toe his line, this was his go-to argument. I wanted to lash out. God knew I’d been doing nothing but that since I’d rushed home from college two years ago, frantic from the call I’d received from my best friend. Our alpha had been killed in a bizarre accident. He’d been checking on some of our elder members when the back tires had blown on his truck. According to witnesses, the vehicle had rolled five times before coming to rest on its crumpled top. Still, he might have lived if it hadn’t caught fire. No one had been able to get to him or his best friend. My father was riddled with scars over his arms and chest from trying. It’d taken six wolves to pull him away from the wreckage and hold him down. Our alpha had been his only son and my older brother, Rowan.

Since then, we’d struggled to come to terms with the loss. The aftermath had left us splintered. The majority of males my brother’s age had left. One large group had taken off together, and though the elders had said they’d left to deal with their grief over losing a friend, I often wondered if there was more to it. With most of them gone, there was no one left to take Rowan’s place. At least, no one the elders would agree to back, and none strong enough to buck against them. I’d known the elders had been courting another avenue, but this scenario had never come to mind.

“I’m not mating one of them,” I reiterated.

“Raina, I know this isn’t what you wanted.”

I opened my mouth to snap a pithy reply, but he held up his hand, and I bit back the words at the visual reminder of what we’d survived.

“This isn’t up for discussion. We’re joining with James. Things are going to change. Starting with your mating.”

I didn’t want to hurt my father. I knew better than most what he’d suffered in the aftermath of the accident, and the last thing I wanted was to make him feel disrespected. Still, I wasn’t agreeing to this. I was a virgin, but I didn’t plan to be a sacrificial one for the sake of our pack. I didn’t know much about James and his group except they were mostly younger wolves, which was why our elders had approached them. While we had a bit of prestige because of our lineage, the James pack was newly formed. They were mostly wolves who’d struck out on their own. Most of them were said to be the bastard sons of rogue wolves, and Bastion James just happened to be the bastard who’d united them.

Gossip was they were a group of alphas, and I’d heard them referred to more than once as the alpha pack. Considering Bastion James had somehow gathered all of them to follow him, I wondered what type of man he was. When already dominant men fell into line behind one bearing alpha qualities, it said a lot about the man. To be honest, it scared me a little, though I’d never admit that to anyone. It definitely didn’t sound like something I wanted to be mated into. I didn’t know any of them, and they sure as hell didn’t know me. How could this alpha of alphas have chosen a mate for me without even meeting me? That told me everything I needed to know about what kind of man he was—one I didn’t want to be around.

I stepped forward, took my father’s hand with mine and gripped it tightly. “I can’t. I won’t. This pack has taken too much from me already.”

“We’ve made a pact. Our new alpha has spoken, and his dictates will be followed.”

“He’s not my alpha,” I snarled.

“He will be,” my father warned.

“I have no alpha!”

“Hold your tongue,” my father snapped, losing his temper for the first time since I’d walked in the door. “You’ll obey me and the command of your alpha. Am I clear?” His emphasis wasn’t missed.

I held his stare for a long moment before dropping his hand and moving away. I grabbed my purse off the counter and headed toward the door.

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