Page 6 of Fated to the Alpha

They climbed the metal treads, and Kimberly noticed that Kaelyn was still in her light blue polo with the logo of the Little Pups Daycare. Kaelyn’s blue eyes sparkled with interest as she, in turn, looked up and down Kimberly’s outfit.

“I love that dress,” she fawned, her half-pinup of golden curls swinging like ribbons on a birthday present. “It shows off your figure so well.”

“Thanks,” was all Kimberly could manage.

In her head, however, a nasty string of insults and biting comments played in her head, the same ones she wished she could have said aloud but didn’t have the courage. Despite the way she treated Shane, Kimberly was not into confrontation. She didn’t go looking for fights and definitely didn’t want to argue. If Kaelyn wanted to be a two-faced, back-stabbing, traitorous—

“You seem a little stressed,” Kaelyn said, interrupting Kimberly’s thoughts. “I just need to drop off these leftovers, and I could come over if you wanted to hang out or talk.”

They came to the second-floor landing and were about to part ways, Kimberly to the right and Kaelyn to the left. Keys at the ready, so close to sanctuary that she could smell the soil in her dozens of potted plants and flowers on the other side of her door. But that invitation nearly sent her spiraling again.

She looked Kaelyn dead in the face and opened her mouth to say what she really wanted to say. You practically left me to die at the hands of your own packmate and never even fessed up to it. You are the last person on earth I would ever want to sit down and have a heart-to-heart with at a time like this.

But then again, she could think of another person who was down there at the bottom of her list of people she wished would just get the fuck out of her life.

Instead, she took a breath and said, “I’m just a little tired. It’s been a rough day. Thanks for your concern, but I’m all right.”

All right. Fine. Okay. Getting by. All were phrases she threw out like candy off a parade float to everyone who tried to get too close and fix her these days. Her pack, her friends, her coworkers at the flower shop, all of them tried to make sure she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she wasn’t alone in this fight. They were all wrong, of course. They might have known about the attack, but nothing about her inability to shift. If it were up to her, none of them would ever know. This was her fight that she had to battle in her own head. No one could do it for her, but there were plenty of people dragging her down and keeping her from dealing that knockout blow. Kaelyn was one of them, someone who could have used what Kimberly didn’t possess to keep her safe. Her father, Shane, and Isaac Snyder were the others, those who reminded her that she was unlovable and invaluable as she was. If she couldn’t keep these dark reminders of her failures and worthlessness out of her head, she’d never be in the right mental space to start shifting again.

Kaelyn seemed to study her for a second, then nodded. “My door is always open, if you need it.”

She turned, and Kimberly waited until the last of her perfect little blonde curls were behind her apartment door before she flipped Kaelyn the bird. A hot cup of chamomile tea, a session of quiet meditation, and a good night’s sleep would fix Kimberly’s attitude … she hoped.

Chapter Two

Shane never thought shifters could get this tired or worn out. Alone in the apartment space above Renewed Relics, he waited for the other alphas of Tolstone to arrive for their biweekly meeting. Below, he could hear Dominic Beaumont, Prime Alpha of Tolstone, negotiating with a customer over the price of a china cabinet.

When he had learned that Dominic owned an antique store off the main town square and used the upstairs to meet with the other alpha shifters, Shane thought it pretty brilliant. It made perfect sense and likely ensured their secrecy, maintaining a low profile in a town this size. If anyone asked why a bunch of guys met at his store every two Fridays, the Prime Alpha could pass it off as a poker night or something benign like that. His father, Isaac, wouldn’t have thought the same. Shane had heard his father talk about the Prime Alpha only a handful of times, and none of his opinions were favorable.

Isaac Snyder believed in maintaining a strong persona to the world, not just to his pack but to humans. He expected Dominic to follow that same pattern and be someone of importance like the mayor, not a common shop owner. Isaac, himself, had been a highly in-demand lawyer in their county, and prided himself on that reputation. Shane fought fang and claw not to follow in his father’s footsteps and enroll in law school, as Isaac had pushed for years. He made the constant excuse that it wasn’t the right time, or he didn’t feel ready. Instead, Shane did the opposite and preferred the life of a freelance farmhand. It gave him far more satisfaction to help his community on the ground level. Rankling his dad was just a bonus.

Shane was just thankful for the little nugget of privacy above the antique store as he stretched out his aching legs and slouched in one of the folding metal chairs that formed a circle in the big room. Shane hadn’t had the chance to sit and chill practically all day.

If running through Larson Caves Park on Thursday night wasn’t enough to make him this bone-tired, working long hours as a carpenter for Ferrin Williams Construction did him in. He got maybe three hours of sleep on his lumpy, thrift store mattress back at his studio apartment before starting his eleven-hour shift. Those three hours were shit, though.

His rambling mind kept him awake, trying to think through a plan to get his pack back on its feet. It was his responsibility, as the alpha, to make sure his pack found a new home. Tolstone was simply a layover. A temporary residence. It was up to Shane to find something more permanent. Yet, all he could think about was their old home and how no place could truly measure up. His childhood home became an utter hell after he became alpha, but the nostalgia for the simple days was a mighty memory.

When Shane’s father died the previous year, his body broken down by decades of acute stress, their pack of thirty-six became his. Shane decided it was time to change things. No more micromanaging, no more iron-fisted authority. He would run the pack the way he believed was right, with mutual respect and courtesy.

Some seemed to welcome the change. Others, like his beta, Kevin, did not. Shane regretted not reassessing the pack hierarchy when he took over. He should have picked his own beta to replace Kevin before it was too late. He should have seen that Kevin, who had been his father’s beta, was cut from the same cloth as his father. Hard, driven, a take-no-bullshit-from-anyone type of guy that saw kindness as weakness. As beta, it was Kevin’s job to maintain order, and he did it with all the flair of a Nazi concentration camp commandant.

Shane had been naïve to think Kevin would bow to his alpha rank, despite the fifteen-year age gap. Instead, Shane saw it all slowly crumble and slip through his fingers.

Kevin turned the pack against him. It started simple enough, at first. Kevin planted little rumors that made Shane look too soft. Most of the pack began to see him as too weak to lead, too unlike his father, too radical. A snowflake alpha, they called him. Previous generations of alphas had their own brand of leadership, but Kevin poisoned their minds to believe that the new ways were ineffective. How could an alpha effectively lead if he didn’t lay down the law with traditional corporal punishments, duels, and banishments? What was a wolf shifter pack without the occasional fight for dominance and setting the example by shedding the blood of a transgressor?

Shane addressed the rumors and even told Kevin that if he didn’t like him as an alpha, then he could leave. Shane shouldn’t have given him the option. He should have shoved Kevin out the door and out of Warrington completely. Maybe then, the pack wouldn’t have split the way it did.

Kevin led the shifters who wanted to be controlled, and Shane had his measly six remaining, along with their families. Whether it was out of fear of Kevin, loyalty to the Snyder legacy, or a genuine preference for Shane’s style of leadership, he didn’t know. All he knew was that the majority faction that sided with Kevin wouldn’t let them rest. Shane’s shifters were bullied everywhere, forced out of public spaces, and had their homes and property vandalized. When the fights broke out and the Matthews children were hurt in the crossfire, Shane had to act.

He challenged Kevin for Warrington. And he lost. That was when he applied for sanctuary in Tolstone, and that was why they were there. He lost to a wolf with more strength and more years, but less dominance. Over and over, he replayed the fight. At first, he couldn’t understand why he lost. All the odds were in his favor, especially when considering his own dominance. But somewhere in the fight, Shane froze in what he could only describe as a mild panic attack. It gave Kevin the edge, and Shane was beaten down like he was a freshly turned pup.

It wasn’t until recently that it finally clicked in his head. Kevin and Isaac, Shane’s father, were practically the same. And Shane could never stomach the idea of actually injuring his dad, not even as he grew older and could almost match him in strength. They’d butt heads and argue, they’d yell at one another, but Shane could never return his father’s blows when their fights got too heated.

He could never raise his hand against his dad when he was alive, and he hesitated when it came time to fight Kevin. He reminded Shane of a younger version of Isaac with all the arrogance. In the fight, for just long enough, Shane felt like a kid being threatened by a man bigger and meaner than him. His stupid subconscious made him lose, and he lost the only home he had ever known. Or, more accurately, if it hadn’t been for the memory of Isaac Snyder, Shane would have won.

But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that. He had to make it right for those who followed him. That was why he didn’t just call out sick that day when he could barely drag himself out of bed. Every shifter that came to Tolstone was assisted in finding employment. Shane, with his background in manual labor, was pushed to Ferrin Williams, one of the local contractors who needed help building a few new homes in the area.

Shane not only had to keep that job, but he needed to make sure he earned enough money to pay back what he’d owe Dominic once their pack left Tolstone. They had to reimburse Dominic for the rent they accrued while living under the Prime Alpha’s hospitality. While they could defer that repayment until they were settled in their new place, Shane didn’t want it to be a burden to his pack.