Single Wolf Female (Midnight Liaisons) Read Online Free

lead us by the next full moon, we’re going to be taken over by another alpha.”
    Again, the slow pause. “I take it that’s not to your liking?”
    “It’s not,” I breathed, a wealth of tension in that small sentence.
    “You the female alpha?”
    I knew what he was asking – did I come with the package, or would I step down for his own mate? I bristled at that – he could bring a woman if he needed to (Cash had Joanne, after all) but I intended on keeping my spot at the head of the pack. There was also a careful law of dominance to be followed – I had to be stronger than all the other females in the pack and most of the males, but the male alpha needed to be stronger than me. If I could dominate this man, there’d be an uproar and the pack would continue to be unsettled.
    “I’m the female alpha,” I confirmed. “I stay.”
    I knew what that meant for me, too. Accepting this man as my alpha, into my pack and not being related to him? There was only one position for a female alpha that wasn’t related – that of mate. Not only would I be taking a stranger into my pack, and giving him the care of my family, but I’d be giving myself to him as well.
    But then again, my other option was Roscoe.
    “Are you interested?” I said flatly into the phone.
    There was a moment of silence, and I could hear typing on the other end of the phone. “What’s your profile number?”
    “Does it matter?” I said, my tone fierce. “It doesn’t matter if I’m ugly or old as the hills – I’m offering you the chance to lead a pack, if you’ve got the balls for it.”
    To my surprise, he chuckled. “Ah, the female alpha. Delightful as ever.”
    For some reason, that made me blush. I’d worked hard to cultivate my mixture of bossy domineering and motherliness for my pack and my position as head female (but not mate) to Cash. And because I wasn’t mate, I was used to being challenged…and winning.
    “Are you taking what I’m offering or not?” I asked.
    “Where you located?” he asked. “We’re passing through Waxahachie.”
    ‘Passing through’ was a polite term for ‘haven’t found a permanent pack yet,’ and I felt a bit of relief to hear that, though it quickly disappeared when my brain registered the ‘we’re’ part of his words. So he wasn’t alone. I should have guessed. Still, I could challenge whatever female he brought with him.
    I was ready for her. I’d fight for my pack.
    “I’m in Little Paradise, northwest of Fort Worth,” I told him. “Can you get here soon?”
    “Maybe, why? Full moon’s not for a few days.”
    I glanced back at my kitchen, and felt the same skin-crawling shudder of revulsion sweep over me. “Because the guy that wants your position broke into my house tonight and left me a message. And I need someone to change the locks.”
    “I’ll be there in an hour,” he promised.
     
    ~~ * ~~
     
    While I waited for my new alpha to arrive, I put on my pants again, grabbed a pair of gloves and tossed all of my underwear into the trash-burning barrel outside. I hadn’t mopped the floor yet, but I would soon. Ugh. I squirted kerosene into the barrel, tossed my plastic gloves in after it, and tossed in a match. Watching all my underthings burn made me feel a little better, but not much. Roscoe had broken into my house. Gone through my things. Touched them in dirty, nasty ways.
    As messages went, that one was pretty clear.
    A large white truck pulled up, and I glanced over at it in the darkness. My gravel driveway was about a hundred feet away from where I stood near the trash barrel, but with my wolf-eyes, I was able to read just fine in the dark. Jackson Wilder – Plumber and Handyman. Huh. The truck looked a little beat up, but I didn’t know a single handyman that kept a pristine truck anyhow.
    The truck door opened, and a man slid out, his form veiled by the open truck door. I immediately clutched the shovel closer. I’d been using it to poke at the fire, but now