The Tyrant Alpha’s Rejected Mate (The Five Packs Book 1)

I drive my fist into the punching bag. Gael’s holding it. He sways on his toes. I deliver a side-kick dead center. He staggers back a step. Almost got him.

Una Hayes kept her feet at the end. She’s not as weak as she seems. Then again, she can’t be. She went after the alpha female’s daughter in front of the whole pack. And then after she got her ass handed to her, she in essence declared herself the alpha female.

Saying I’m her mate. Holy hell. She’s moon mad.

I puff out a breath and fall into a rhythm. Jab, hook, cross punch, kick. Amuse myself with Gael clinging to the bag to stay upright. Repeat.

I don’t have a mate. It is known. Besides, wolves find their mates when the females go into heat around sixteen or seventeen. Sometimes a little earlier, a little later. But not ten years later.

Una’s close to my age. We rode the bus to the Moon Lake school together back in the day. If we were mates, I would’ve torn those vinyl seats from their moorings to get to her at the first hint of heat. It never happened.

She’s either deluded, or she’s a liar.

Given, it’s a weird lie to tell. Strange time and place to tell it, too. It was never gonna end well for her. She’s never shifted before. Folks figure her wolf is as fucked up as her leg.

She’s always on the outskirts of pack life. Keeps to the lone females. Avoids gatherings except sometimes she shows up at the end of a run for a dip in the lake. She’s got decent tits.

I clumsily adjust my dick with a taped fist, and then I nail the bag. Gael grunts. Sweet. Got him in the gut.

Turns out Una’s wolf is a scrapper who likes to punch above her weight. I sniff and swipe my nose to clear the sweat.

Her animal is a scrawny mutt, gray with no markings and pointed, tucked ears. She lost that fight before Haisley even shifted.

Una’s probably going feral. Lone females lose their minds sooner or later. Something about having no men in their lives—no mate, no father, no uncles or brothers—unbalances them. They start talking to ghosts. Refuse to shave their legs and shit. As far as I know, she’s never gotten dick from any of the pack males—

“Son of a bitch!” Gael shouts as he sails backward through the air, landing on his ass. The bag swings so high it nearly comes off the S-hook. Damn. I put a lot more power behind that one than I intended.

“Should’ve moved with the bag instead of bracing,” I point out.

He flips me off from the mat.

“Well, come on,” I say. “Hop up.”

If he takes this long to get up during a match, I’m putting him back on the maintenance crew.

After playing it up and plucking my nerves, Gael finally springs to his feet, showing off, and resumes his position. I fall back into a pattern. Jab, hook, cross punch. Watch Gael flinch. Kick.

What was I thinking about?

Oh, yeah. Una Hayes has gone nuts. I better pay a visit to Abertha. See if there’s an herb or a spell or something.

Una may be unhinged, and not much more than a mouth to feed, but she’s pack. I’m not gonna exile her to the foothills to die like my dad would’ve done. I don’t know what we’re gonna do with a crazy female, though. This pack doesn’t lock up females anymore. For any reason.

The bag flies again, and this time, Gael soars a good six feet and crashes into a metal beam. My chest rumbles.

“What the hell, man?” Gael touches the back of his head. His fingers come away dripping blood.

This time I go help him up. “My bad. Must be the wolf.”

I know some people talk to their wolves, give ‘em personalities and shit, but mine is simple. He’s an animal. He wants meat and blood. He sees it; he wants it; he goes for it. He’s never let me down, so I give him free reign. Never had a complaint. We don’t need to commune. Feel each other’s feelings. We just—are. As it should be.

But he can get rambunctious.

I twist Gael’s head, check out the cut. I can’t see skull. He’s fine. I punch his shoulder. “Let’s go bench.”

I’m trying to get him up to middleweight by the North Border fight. He could be competitive. Or he could get mauled and thanked for it by a Canuck if he doesn’t stop flopping like a soccer player every time he gets whacked by a punching bag.

“Can I spot first?” He staggers a little on the way to the equipment.

“Nope.” And he’s doing double reps for asking.

While we’re doing sets, Tye and Alfie come back from patrol. Ivo and Finn must have relieved them early. Definitely Ivo who made that call. Finn’s a lazy shit. Thinks ‘cause he kisses Lochlan’s ass, he’s special.

He’s special ‘cause he’s currently top ranked in the circuit for cruiserweight. When his laziness inevitably costs him the title, he’s back to mopping the ring and stacking towels with the rest of B-roster.

I slap Gael’s ass. “Good work. Hit the showers.” Gael’s relief is visible. Dude needs to work on his game face. “Fallon. You’re up.”

I rack my weights and wave the pup over to the ring. He comes. Reluctantly. Scared as a rabbit as my grandad used to say. Kid needs to work on his game face, too. He’s eighteen now. By his age, my father had been entering me in the New Moon fights for years.

I start today’s lesson with an uppercut to the jaw. It’ll be harder for the others to tell he’s a pussy if his face is swollen.

Fallon’s got potential, natural talent for days, but no strategy. He goes for the duck every time. I wait for his head to go down and nail him with a hook around each time he does it, and he still can’t figure out what he’s doing wrong.

It’d be entertaining if it wasn’t gonna get him mauled in the ring.

At least Una Hayes has the excuse of inexperience. She sprinted right into Haisley’s open mouth. Fuckin’ delivery service. I had to fight my wolf hard not to intervene. He must’ve thought a pup was being attacked.

The whole thing still doesn’t sit entirely right with me, but if you’re big enough to go after a packmate, you’re big enough to take your beating. I wasn’t gonna let Haisley kill her or anything. For a second there, I almost tagged in, it was so hard to watch. I would’ve never lived it down, intervening in a female fight.

I have to talk to Abertha. If Una’s not all there in the head, exceptions need to be made for her. We don’t hurt females, young, or the defective anymore. I ended that shit.

Not everyone likes the new world order, but everyone is free to challenge me if they want to go back to the old ways. I only had to put a few males in the ground before the rest decided they could acclimate to change. Fear is a powerful motivator.

Speaking of—Fallon’s getting too complacent. He’s clinching so much, he should’ve bought me dinner beforehand. I throw a flurry into his gut, alternating with some pity pat shots to his thick head, and when he gets nice and disoriented, I drive an uppercut into his ribs and smile at the nice, clean crack.

He groans piteously as he taps my shoulder. “Enough, Alpha.”

I follow up with a sharp jab for good measure. I say when it’s enough. It’ll be enough when he learns he’s not safe in the ring and hugging is for the bitch he’s banging.

“Stop clinching.” I jab him again, right in the broken rib, and he yelps. “Stop ducking.”

I meant for it to be a quick lesson, but I guess my wolf’s got the taste of blood. I have my fist drawn back again when Tye grabs my forearm. When I snarl, Tye immediately drops his hold and shows his neck.

I growl from the chest. My wolf flashes his fangs. Tye lowers his gaze to the ground.

My heart pounds for no reason. Fallon Campbell isn’t a challenge. He’s hardly more of a workout than the bag most days. And Tye is my beta, my right hand. I don’t need his submission. I need him to check my ass when I lose it.

But out of nowhere, aggression is rolling off me like it’s fight night. The hairs on the back of my neck are standing on end. It’s not a full moon, not even close. I take a few breaths, bounce on my toes, and throw a few punches into the air. I’m unsettled. Is there a threat I’m sensing?

“You didn’t smell anything when you were out, did you?” I ask Tye. He’s lounging against the ropes, the fraught moment passed.

“Nope.”

“No tracks?”

“None.”

“No signs?” I push, a dog with a bone.

“A woodchuck took a dump near the old dens. Is that what you want to know?”

“You can tap gloves with me anytime, pretty boy.” I bare my fangs and lick the tip of the incisor.

Tye raises his hands. “You saw me last night. I almost let Lochlan Byrne pin me.”

“Yeah, what was that?” Tye should’ve finished off that upstart in one round. I’d forgotten about it in all the drama afterwards.

Tye shrugs. “Too much turkey and gravy? Fuck if I know. It was a strange night.”

“That it was.” I duck between the ropes and slap his back. “Sauna?”

He nods, and we make our way to the locker room. I kept most things the same when I became alpha, but I did have the old gym restored and the facilities updated. We’ve got a sauna and hot tub now, and I had a ring built in the middle of the basketball court. When you can leap ten feet from flat-footed, dunking isn’t really a thrill.

Before I was born, this camp used to be a nature retreat for school children, church groups, and the like. In the 80s, there were budget cuts, and the county was forced to sell the lodge, a dozen cabins, and fifty acres, including the river, ponds, a tract of virgin forest, and a cross section of Quarry Pack’s claimed territory.

Earning the money to buy our land from the government was my father’s greatest accomplishment. And it made our males what we are now—prizefighters mostly, bounty hunters and hired muscle on the side. It could be worse. We could wear suits and sniff human ass all day like Moon Lake Pack.

It’s an impossible balance—the old ways and the new, the human world and our own. There is no balance, really. It’s not unlike Una Hayes’ gait—steady only because we keep it movin’.

There are only a few in the pack who realize how tenuous our hold on all of this is. Humans are weak, venal, and undisciplined—and they outnumber us by billions. That’s an unstoppable force. They’ve been content to profit off us where they can—bet on our fights, sell souvenirs to the lookie-loos—but how long before they eye our territories?

Our DNA?

Humans are never content to coexist. I see Moon Lake, and I think Man has already conquered us. Wolves in suits. Humans must know they don’t need to do much but let their ways infect our minds. We’ll corrupt ourselves.

I strip, drop my sweats on a bench, and pad out the back of the locker room to the free-standing sauna. The door creaks on its hinges, and I inhale the cedar, sinking down on a hot, dry bench, not bothering with a towel.

Rowan Bell kneels by the fire, ladling water over stones. She casts me a sly look from under her thick lashes and arches her back so her perky tits nearly fall out of her tube top. I close my eyes and tilt my head back to lean against the wood paneled walls.

Rowan’s mated to Liam Hughes. She doesn’t care for the hand she was dealt, so they’re one of those “strictly for heat” couples. Even if I was interested, I wouldn’t go there. I’ve seen “strictly for heat” turn into “my one and only” too often, and I never want to make an enemy of Liam. He’s too good with the engines.

Tye lets the door slam as he comes in and makes the maximum possible noise settling next to me. Hope he’s got a towel wrapped around his waist. He’s got no concept of personal space.

Not content to just harsh my mellow, he digs an elbow into my ribs. “Check out our little sauna maid over there. She’s got something she wants to show you.”

I rest my clasped hands on my belly and exhale. “Not interested. You’re welcome to it.”

He snorts. “Liam’s fixing my alternator.”

“I see we’re in accord.” I open my eyes and snap my fingers, catching Rowan’s eye. She curves her lips into an invitation. She’s got her tits out, shirt bunched around her waist. I jerk my head toward the door. Her smile falls, and she huffs while she yanks up her top, but she goes.

“Rowan better watch herself,” Tye says. “Haisley’s gonna do to her what she did to Una Hayes.”

A snarl escapes my lips. I cough, clearing my throat. I don’t know where that came from.

“I put no claim on Haisley.”

“Don’t matter. The females have their own way of enforcing rank.”

Yeah, and it doesn’t usually involve blood in the dining room. That’s a great way to rile the males. If this shit becomes a trend, I’m gonna have to put the hammer down again like when I first took over the pack.

Tye keeps going. “Maybe it’s time to put the females on the circuit since they’re so eager to throw down.”

We both laugh. Things ain’t changed that much. If I let a female train and fight for real, Eamon Byrne would have no trouble convincing every male to take turns on me until I bled out, honor be damned.

“I wouldn’t give Eamon the satisfaction.”

“He’s the one pushing Lochlan to challenge for beta.” Tye tells me something I already know.

“Eamon wishes it was the good old days.” There’s more than a few like him. What the hell do they miss about living in caves, shitting in the woods, and freezing all winter?

Tye shakes his head, changing the subject. “I’ve never seen anything like that last night. Una didn’t stand a chance.”

“You take her to her cabin?” I don’t know why I’m asking. Or why I’m suddenly anxious for the answer.

And it’s not just me. My wolf’s ears are perked, too. Maybe this is all him. He’s got some weird attraction to crazy chicks.

Of course, that’s not possible. The wolf and I are two forms, but one being. We don’t have different concerns. That’s a faulty construct. Like pain. It’s in your head. It’s not real. We are our wolves. Period. Every pup who was raised right knows that.

Your wolf’s hungry? You’re hungry. You’re pissed? Your wolf’s pissed. Simple.

“I dropped her behind the lodge,” Tye says.

“By the dumpsters?” My shoulder blades clench. I have to focus on the muscles to relax. The heat isn’t doing it.

“Haisley and her crew were gathered up front. I figure I’d give Una a head start.”

“Goddamn.”

My father never had to deal with this kind of shit. Females would have never dared to shift unbidden. Or approach the alpha and lay claim to him in front of the pack.

Or rub up on him uninvited, for that matter.

“Haisley’s getting above herself.” It’s my fault. I guess I’ve let her suck my dick a few too many times.

Tye settles his arms along the back of the bench. “You should talk to Dermot.”

“She’s not gonna listen to him.”

Dermot is Haisley’s mate. They’re “strictly for heat,” too. He’s forty years older than her and kind of done with the drama. She does what she pleases, and he’s happy to let her.

“Maybe it’s time to tell her to move it along, then.” Tye cracks his neck and stretches his legs, spreading wide. My wolf rumbles. He narrows his spread.

“Maybe it is.”

“Pack comes first, right?”

“Always,” I agree. That’s why I’m careful not to get too close to any of the females. A blow job is one thing, but you don’t want to give anyone any ideas. Packs are built on rank, and there’s two ways to gain status—who you fight and who you fuck. Clearly, I’ve given Haisley too much of my favor.

I need to diversify the roster.

I’ve never touched Una Hayes.

I mean, why would I? It wouldn’t be right. She’s got that messed up leg, and obviously, there’s something wrong with her wolf. And now, maybe her head.

She always seemed smart. She was one of those kids who was early to the bus stop and sat right up front behind the driver. Teacher’s pet. Always eating lunch in the classroom so she could play on the computer.

In my grandfather’s day, she wouldn’t have gone to school. My generation was the first to send the females, and only because Moon Lake Pack wouldn’t let the males go if the females didn’t.

At least my father saw the value in education. There were plenty of packmates who thought schooling was a waste of time for males as well, but if we didn’t know enough math to grow the money we make on the circuit, we’d still be huddling in piles to survive the winter.

Soft gray fur, wriggling and warm. Tucked ears. Small paws kneading my belly.

My breath catches in my lungs, and my wolf growls low. Almost a purr. What the fuck?

Tye drops his arm and raises his eyebrow. I scrub my chest and toss a shoulder. “I don’t know, man. He’s been making weird noises.”

“You hungry?”

“I mean, I could eat, but it’s definitely my wolf, not my stomach.”

“Hot for your new mate?” Tye snorts.

Aggression crackles along my nerves. I punch his shoulder. “She’s not my mate.”

“Obviously.”

I nod and force myself to chill out. This is bullshit. Now I’m hot, sweaty, and uptight. And I got a semi from thinking about a sleep huddle, and Tye’s eyeing it.

“If she were my mate, I’d know.” The bond is unmistakable. That’s what everyone says.

“Of course.”

“I wouldn’t have been able to reject her.” A male cannot resist his mated female. It is known.

Tye nods slowly. He’s not saying something. He’s got that douchey know-it-all look he gets when he’s watching his mouth.

“What? Spit it out.”

He runs his fingers through his hair. He’s got so much gunk in it that it stays perfectly messy. He gets my cousin Ashlynn to do it for him. Vain bastard.

His musk is annoying. I don’t want him near—

I shake my head to clear it. The heat’s getting to me. I don’t notice male musk. I spend eighty percent of my time in a gym.

“Say what you’re gonna say,” I tell him.

“I don’t know, man.” He moves, bracing his forearms on his thighs and staring at the cedar slats. “The old timers say a lot of shit. You know your mate at her first heat. There’s only one. You can’t fight the bond. It’s the greatest happiness a wolf can know.”

“Yeah.” That’s the way it works.

“But, I mean—” He slides me a glance. “Haisley’s sucking your dick. She’s banging Finn. Jaime.”

“So?” We’ve got rules for the lone females to keep the peace and keep them safe, but if a female has a father or brother or mate to make sure shit doesn’t get out of hand, she can do what she wants.

“Dermot doesn’t seem to mind.” Tye raises an eyebrow. “And she’s happy enough.”

‘Cause she likes to lord “my favor” over the other females. “And your point is?”

“Jimmy is mated to Dierdre, but he’s living with Conor,” Tye goes on.

“Ain’t our business.” Eamon and the other elders keep bringing it up, and I keep tellin’ ‘em that love is love. Got that off a dude’s shirt at a cage match down in the valley.

“Dierdre’s been sneaking off on runs with Liam.”

“No shit?” I don’t know anything that’s going on in my own pack. I guess if folks keep a lid on the drama, I don’t have to.

“All I’m saying is if you open your eyes, there’s a lot of evidence that the old timers don’t know what the hell they’re talking about when it comes to mating.”

“That fits the pattern.”

The old timers are—collectively—morons. They want to be back in the dens. They think it’s disrespectful that a female won’t present on command. I installed solar panels on the lodge to cut the electricity bill, and they’re worried the place will catch on fire. You know, like ants under a magnifying glass—‘cause that’s how solar energy works.

“All I’m saying is—” Tye draws in a deep breath to make the pause all dramatic. “What if she’s your mate?”

“She’s not my mate.” If she was, my wolf would’ve claimed her. Period. End of story. He ain’t shy.

“How sure are you?”

“Completely.”

“I looped past the lone female’s cabin on my way back from patrol.”

“Yeah?” My adrenaline spikes. I’m only interested because every packmate is my concern.

“She wasn’t there.”

“I’m sure she’s got work.” The females are always doing something.

“She’s not in the commons.”

That’s not surprising. She’s probably running the woods now that her wolf’s wide awake. And she’s got to be embarrassed. She’s not gonna want to bump into Haisley or her mother any time soon.

“Una’s scent is stale. She didn’t go home last night.”

I snarl. My incisors descend, pricking my lip. “Son of a bitch.” I suck the cut. I didn’t see it coming.

That’s not possible.

My wolf and I are one. We act as one.

I’ve already got hair sprouted all up my back and my vision’s going dichromatic. I fight the shift. I’m not going to track Una Hayes and get people’s jaws flapping again. That’s not happening. She can go hide in the woods and nurse her wounds if she wants.

It doesn’t bother me.

It shouldn’t.

“Hey-oh!” I holler. Fallon sticks his head in the door. Not the male I’d have chosen, but he’ll do. “Go find Una Hayes.”

“And then what?”

“Come back. Report.”

“You want me to bring her here?”

“I want you to come back. And report.” I don’t hide the irritation in my voice.

“Yeah. Right. On it.” Finally, he shifts and races off. He’s fast. I’ll give him that.

I settle back against the wall. I’m amped. The steam’s doing nothing for my tension. I’m not gonna go chasing off after Fallon Campbell and rend him limb-from-limb. That’s crazy. He’s just a kid, and he’s just doing what I asked.

I’m going to sit here and relax.

Nothing’s changed. I am who I’ve always been.

I don’t have a mate. My wolf and I are one—the only flip-shifter in three generations.

Everything is as it should be. As I’ve made it.

The pack is good. All is well or soon will be.

A low rumble sounds in my throat. I swallow it down.