Stealing the Alpha’s Heart

I woke up feeling fully rested and smelling something delicious. Yeah, that was certainly something I could get used to. But then I realized I was too rested and grabbed my phone.

“Crap! I overslept!”

Getting dressed in a rush, I practically ran into the kitchen. “My alarm didn’t go off!”

“Ah, I’m sorry, Lyssa. I turned it off.”

“What? Why?”

“I asked Emmaline if I could drive you in later. She said it was all right, but I didn’t want to wake you, so I went ahead and turned it off.”

Normally, I’d freak out that he just did that of his own volition, but something about his tone and the fact that he asked if he could drive me in late told me that something had happened.

“Is everything okay?”

“Just more of the same,” he said, letting me know that no, everything was not all right.

Mahlan served me breakfast and I paid close attention to his mannerisms. If I had to guess, something had happened to another wolf while I was asleep, which was most certainly not good.

“Hey, I’m going to need your help again soon. I want to put full effort into searching for your family.”

“Okay,” I said cautiously, sensing that there was a caveat.

“I figured we’d start with DNA tests and databases.”

I couldn’t help that my eyes went a little wide. “Geez, are we at that point already?”

“Yeah. After all the research Jacobian did with your old schools, your parents came up as nonexistent.”

…What?

“What are you talking about?”

“The pictures they had on file were stock images that were AI-generated. They’re not real.”

“That can’t be true,” I murmured, shock coursing through me. “You mean someone went in and deleted photos of my parents and replaced them with random google images?”

“Yeah, most likely after you graduated.”

Anger boiled in my belly. It was one thing to be abandoned by my parents, and it was another to know that someone had purposefully tried to scrub them from existence.

“Here, I had Brenton drop off a kit. Open wide.”

I had no idea who Brenton was or where Mahlan had gotten the large cotton swab he was holding, but I opened my mouth dutifully anyway. It was a relatively painless process, even when he took a couple of strands of my hair.

“Thank you for being so understanding,” he murmured, face cloudy as he packaged it up.

“Why wouldn’t I be? You’re helping me figure out what happened to my family.”

“I guess shifters are pretty wiggy about having their DNA everywhere. Probably all the secrecy and fear of being discovered that we’re usually raised with.”

“I get that.”

We finished up our breakfast and then headed out. But instead of letting me out on the sidewalk, he parked and went in with me.

“Hey, guys, did you have a nice morning?” Emmaline asked, bright and chipper.

“We did. Thanks for letting me borrow her,” Mahlan said, giving his sister a quick side hug. “Would you do me a favor and pick out something special for dinner with our parents tomorrow night?”

“Ooooh, you’re finally sitting down with dear ol’ Mom and Dad?” Emmaline asked, grinning like the imp she was.

“Simmer down, Emmaline.”

“Yeah, yeah. I had a surprise in mind anyway. Just don’t expect your love to be ready until right before dinner.”

“Roger, roger.”

He gave a little salute and then k!ssed me on the cheek before heading out. A bit sheepish, I looked to Emmaline.

“So, a surprise, huh?”

---

“Hey,it’s three in the afternoon and I’m hungry again. I know you probably ate a nice lunch with Mahlan, but you want something light?”

“Are you kidding me? Dinner’s still like four or five hours away. Hit me up with a full-sized meal, please and thank you.”

It was true… my stomach was already rumbling. Ever since I started to get meals on the regular, my appetite had steadily increased. I didn’t mind it, but man, it made me wonder how much being homeless had affected me physiologically.

“How about that deli that’s nearby?”

I paled, remembering how Mahlan came bursting in and yelled at me in front of the employees like I was a child. We’d made up since I saw where he was coming from, but geez, I didn’t want to go back and possibly see the same people.

“Uhhh, I really don’t wanna go in there.”

“What? Why?”

“I, uh… I’m just a little embarrassed.”

“What if I head there and grab us something while you watch the shop? Then we can eat together in the office and lock up for half an hour.”

That sandwich had been pretty delicious. “Okay, that sounds good to me.”

“Perfect. Text me your order. That place always has a crazy line.”

I nodded, already craving their turkey, bacon, and avocado sandwich. I hadn’t thought it would be that good when I ordered it, only because it was a part of a special with a free drink and bag of chips, but there was some sort of sauce or something they put on it that took it next level.

Quickly I texted her the lunch combo and drink I wanted, then focused on displaying items left in the dressing rooms, making sure always to keep at least one eye on the door.

Emmaline wasn’t gone for very long when I got an eerie feeling. It wasn’t very specific initially, barely a tingle along my arms. But then it turned into the hair on the back of my neck standing on end, then the sense of eyes on me.

I carefully moved around the store like I wasn’t suspicious, but I was using my peripheral vision to scan for anything amiss. It wasn’t until I went to straighten the racks by the front that I finally saw him, a man standing just across the street, facing the shop entrance.

I didn’t act like I saw him, continuing to straighten things as I studied him out of the corner of my eye. His features were shadowed by the hat he wore, but from what I could tell, he wasn’t too large. Smaller than Mahlan. Something decidedly nondescript about him made my eyes want to slide away, and my mind forget him, like a dream obfuscated by the rush of wakefulness.

Geez, someone had the whole blending thing down.

Honestly, I might have never noticed him if I hadn’t spent the last few years taking care of myself and developing my ability to tell between paranoia and healthy suspicion, But years of watching my back had honed my ability to tell when I was being surveilled.

Moving to the other side of the store, I tried to go through the online orders, but it was hard to concentrate and keep the man in view without giving away that I was positioning myself around him. For what it was worth, he didn’t seem to know that I was watching him back instead of just watching me.

But then my phone rang, sending me nearly up to the ceiling. I picked it up, thinking it might just be Mahlan checking in on me. But instead, it was Emma, telling me they were out of spinach and asking if buttercrunch lettuce was all right.

“Yeah, uh, that’ll be fine.”

“You okay? You sound, I dunno, like something’s up.”

“Everything’s fine,” I answered, uncertain why I didn’t just say what was going on. “Trying to do online orders.”

“Ahhh, those are such a pain and I know you hate them. You don’t have to.”

“It’s okay. I don’t mind it.”

“Well, thank you. I’ll be back in ten.”

I hung up, my eyes sweeping back towards the other side of the street and the man was gone. That probably wasn’t good, and I knew that, but with so much on my plate, I tucked it to the back of my mind to worry about later.

I had a dinner with Mahlan’s parents to attend the next day.

---

I headed into work,a little apprehensive of that strange man from the previous day, but I hardly even made it to the office before Emmaline came hurrying out.

“Is my brother gone?”

“Yeah, he said he needs to catch up on some stuff in the office because he’s gotten behind.”

“Sounds about right. A whole bunch has been going on, that’s for sure.”

“Why do you ask?”

“I ask because we’re going out.”

“Wait, what?”

“I’m closing the shop for today, and we’re going out.”

I frowned at her, feeling a bit like a doll in the wind. “I wish you and Mahlan would tell me about things before just doing them.”

“That would ruin the surprise, though. Come on!”

Grabbing my hand, Emma urged me out, locking the door as we went. Although I was a bit annoyed, I was somewhat relieved to break up my schedule. If I was being followed, mixing up my schedule was the best thing to do about it. It could throw them off completely or even give me a better chance to spot them since they wouldn’t be as prepared for me.

We hopped into her car and drove into the more affluent part of the city. I had no idea where we were going until she pulled behind one of those high-end spas, and it all clicked.

“Oh! The spa day we talked about!”

“What better way to prepare for a dinner with the parents-in-law, am I right?”

I balked. “Technically, they’re not my in-laws. Mahlan and I aren’t married.”

“You’re mated. In wolf culture, that’s way more important.”

“Oh…” I needed to think about the ramifications of that.

“But anyway, come on. We’re about ten minutes early, but we should get in there.”

We speed-walked into the spa, which was attached to a super luxury resort. I’d eyed it plenty of times on some of my city exploration stints but naturally had never gone in.

We went through the entrance, which, interestingly enough, had us walk through the left side of the lobby to a set of crystalline doors. We were almost into what was sure to be quite a lustrous spa when something caught the corner of my eye.

“Sh!t!” I grabbed Emmaline and pulled her behind one of the thick, leafy plants taller than us.

“What the hell, Lyssa.”

“Shh! That’s the CEO guy.”

Peeking my head out, I watched the familiar man walk through the lobby.

“Why don’t we want him seeing us?”

“I dunno. It just seems like we shouldn’t. Crossing streams and everything.”

The man went towards what I guessed was the hall where the elevators were, and I heaved a sigh. “All right,” I said, turning back to Emmaline. “Should be good.”

“I hope so. This is going to make us late.”

We both stepped out from the plant, keeping my eyes on the hall he’d disappeared down. But I was so concerned with that, that I wasn’t quite paying attention to where I was going until I ran smack dab into someone.

“Sorry!” I blurted, stumbling back before realizing exactly who it was. Naturally, it was Rex Bronson. The guy whose company we’d infiltrated.

Just my luck!

“It’s me who should be apologizing,” he said, sounding less imperious than he had the last time I met him. “Are you- Hey, I know you.”

I affixed a smile on my face that I hoped wasn’t awkward. “OMG, yeah. I totally embarrassed myself in front of you, didn’t I?”

I did my best to sound like an airhead. I’d learned long ago that if I presented myself as stupid to men, they would usually believe it and then underestimate me.

“It was a stressful day, I understand. We all have them.”

“Wow, that’s so nice of you to say.” And very different from what Parker had told me later. Mahlan wasn’t happy that the youngest in his pack had blurted Bronson’s insults, but I was thoroughly amused by it.

“Uh, sorry to interrupt, but we only have five minutes until our appointment and these took forever to get.”

“I wouldn’t want to keep you,” he said, tipping his head. “Have a lovely day pampering yourself, ladies.”

“Will do!”

Grateful for Emmaline’s distraction, we both headed into the spa. It was as gorgeous on the inside as I expected, but I wasn’t prepared to be greeted with oversized, incredibly soft bathrobes and champagne flutes.

“Sorry, I can’t drink,” I said, deciding to be honest.

“Don’t worry about that,” the woman handing them to us said softly. “That was noted in your file, so this is sparkling, nonalcoholic rosé with strawberries.”

“Well, in that case, don’t mind if I do.”

It was like something out of a movie. We were whisked to the back to sit in a sauna, sweating it up while sipping our fake alcohol and then cool, refreshing cucumber water. Then it was a massage, followed by a facial. A haircut and a soak in their ‘mountain spring water’ rinse to get any sweat and stray hair from my cut off.

From there, they dyed my hair, doing a subtle sort of honey balayage, then styled it in beachy, effortless waves. It wasn’t something I could ever do on my own, but I felt like a million bucks.

I thought that was it. After all, we’d been at the spa for like six hours. I knew I would be paying well into the hundreds of dollars, but thanks to my contract with Mahlan, I had plenty to spare.

Which was wild, by the way. It wasn’t even a couple of months earlier that I remembered carefully counting my pennies to see if I could buy a bag of microwavable rice to make at a nearby gas station. Now I had over a thousand to my name. Maybe even more. I didn’t really pay attention to my bank account because I still wasn’t used to having it, and since I’d given the information to both Mahlan and Emmaline, they deposited my pay in there without me having to bother to keep track.

Wild how much my life improved because I decided to pickpocket the wrong guy. At first, I’d thought it was a curse, but I was beginning to feel the exact opposite.

I thought I was done after that, but then they pulled us into another area that was much more astringent smelling. Confused, I had no idea what we were doing until I saw big chairs with buckets of water at the base, then racks of nail polish.

Oh! I was getting my nails done!

It was my first ever mani-pedi, and it was an interesting process. I didn’t really like her handling my nails, and she kept pushing acrylics, but Emmaline was pretty adamant I just needed polish. She almost seemed outright irritated by the repeat suggestions, but it wasn’t until she firmly said, ‘our friend group isn’t into that,’ that I realized acrylic nails probably weren’t a good thing for a shifter to have. It would be a shame to spend seventy dollars on a set of magnetic, holographic acrylics just to shift into a wolf and blast them off into space.

Then again, it wasn’t like I could shift. Was Emmaline hoping that would change? It certainly seemed so. But as far as I knew, we hadn’t made any progress on that front. Heck, my DNA test had only been taken the previous day.

By the time we finished, I felt like I was floating on air. If that was a professional massage, I needed those more often. I was sore, sure, but in an incredible way.

“So, how was it?” Emmaline asked as we walked back to her car.

“Amazing. Magical. More than I ever thought of.”

“Glad you had fun. We should do it again.”

“Definitely.” I was so blissed out that it wasn’t until we were pulling away that I realized I hadn’t paid. “Whoa, stop the car!”

“Huh? Why?”

“I just ripped them off in there!”

“Pfft, don’t worry about that. I took care of it.”

“Emma!”

“What? It’s your first ever spa day. Let a friend treat you. If you want, you can pay for the next round.”

“Don’t think that I won’t,” I said, crossing my arms in a pout. But Emmaline just laughed and drove me home, dropping me off and waiting until I walked through the main doors before heading off.

“Hey, Mahlan,” I said as I stepped in, realizing that he wasn’t in the kitchen where I expected him to be. We still had about three hours before his parents were supposed to show up, but I figured he’d start prepping right after lunch.

Before I could panic, however, I heard him shuffling around in his office. Heading there, I found him staring dubiously at his computer.

“Hey, you okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just-” he stopped himself short the moment he looked up, his eyes going wide. “You look incredible!”

I did a little spin, really hamming it up since he looked significantly cheered up. “You like? Emmaline and I did a little spa day.”

He let out a whistle, leaving his desk behind. “It seems we have a habit of making you play hooky, but I can’t complain about the results.”

“It was so much fun,” I said, standing on my tiptoes to k!ss his cheek. The slight stubble of his chiseled chin scraped against me, making a low fire start in my belly. But before I could distract myself with how hot my mate was, I remembered to mention something important.

“I ran into the CEO there, by the way.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, it wasn’t a big deal and he didn’t cause any problems, but it was hella awkward.”

“I’m glad he didn’t cause issues, but I’ll be glad once your self-defense classes start. It will give me peace of mind.”

“Please, it’s not like he would do anything in full public like that.”

But Mahlan just shrugged. “You never know. Until your suppression is lifted, I’m going to continue to be a worrywart.”

“Fair enough.” I didn’t want to go down that rabbit hole, so I changed the topic. “By the by, shouldn’t you have started dinner by now?”

“Crap! I completely lost track of time, yeah. I was supposed to have Taylor pick up the ingredients I wanted!”

“Is there not enough time?”

“Not for her to make it there and come here. I’ll just head out really quick. Would you mind prepping by cutting up the peppers and onions I set out? I’ll do the rest.”

“Yeah, that’s no problem. You do what you gotta do.”

Stepping to the side, I let him exit and headed to our room, trying to pick a casual but somewhat dressy outfit for his parents. I didn’t have a good impression of what style they liked, but I figured if anyone knew, it was Emmaline.

But now that I had a cell phone, it was easy enough to dial her number and wait for her to pick up, which she did on the second ring.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Emma, it’s me. Did I catch you at a bad time?”

“Not at all. I had to stop and get gas, but the line is insanely long.”

“Ooooh, maybe I have good timing then because I’m trying to think of what to wear for your parents.”

“Honestly, they’re just so happy that you exist that you could show up in a trash bag and they’d probably tell you that you look amazing.”

“But still, I wanna at least try.”

“Okay, well, they’re a bit conservative, but not backwardly so. My mom is super in love with retro forties and fifties looks while my dad tends to like monochromatic with a single pop of color.”

“Really? Your dad’s fashion sense is that strong?” Maybe it was prejudiced of me, but I was used to men having zero interest in stylish clothing.

“Yeah, he’s the one that got me into fashion. He was a little mystified at what to do with a daughter, so he’d sit down and watch runway shows with me for bonding. The funny thing is that I probably never would have been into it if not for that.”

“Aww, that’s cute,” I said, imagining a younger Emmaline watching Victoria Secret models strut their stuff down the runway. Granted, he probably showed her less… provocative shows, but it was just what my mind went to.

“Here, I’m gonna gather a few outfits and send you pictures. Is that okay?”

“Sure, whatever helps.”

I went to do just that when there was a ring at the door. “Huh, I wonder who that could be?”

“What who could be?”

“The doorbell just rang. Maybe it’s your brother with the groceries.”

“Isn’t that kind of fast?”

“Yeah, a little. But I think he was just picking them up, not shopping. Here, I’ll put you in my pocket for a moment.”

Heading to the front door, I was ready to flex my muscles and do some real grocery hauling, but when I opened it, it wasn’t Mahlan at all.

It was the man from outside of the shop.

Oh, sh!t!

I yelped and backpedaled on instinct, which usually would have worked great for me but unfortunately allowed him to step into the apartment. I tried to slam the door and shove him out, but the man tried to grab me, so instead, I ducked and rushed towards the kitchen.

It wasn’t the easiest thing to do backward, but I wasn’t about to turn my face away from my attacker. I may not have been a self-defense expert, but I knew that much.

“What do you want?” I screamed, going into fight-or-flight mode. My mind supplied me dozens of factoids, from noticing it didn’t look like he was wearing a jock to the fact that he was weaponless. So far, at least.

The biggest question was… was he just a human or a shifter? If he was a wolf or any other magical person, I knew I wouldn’t get out of this with my skin. All I could do was hope.

He dove for me, trying to grab at my hair, but I grabbed the cutting board and batted his arm away with it. I swung too hard, turning my body enough that he could kick me in my h*p and slam me into the counter.

“F**k!” I gasped, falling to the floor. He tried to stomp down on my stomach, but I rolled so that he only caught one of my bvtt cheeks. Popping to my feet, I dove right over the kitchen island, desperate to get something between us. It worked, but unfortunately, he was on the side of the knives, and I was not.

Probably an oversight on my part.

He grabbed one, because, of course he did, and rushed around the island. I did my best to dodge and keep ahead of him, but he caught the side of my bicep with a thin slice.

“You wanna kill me, is that it?”

We circled the island again, and maybe in another situation, watching two adults playing Ring Around the Rosie would have been amusing. But considering it was my life on the line, I didn’t really appreciate the humor of the moment.

And he was getting closer, lunging forward to slash at me multiple instances. It was only a matter of time before one of them hit home, and then I would be a goner.

I wish I knew what to do, but my self-defense classes weren’t for another few days, and I’d never had to deal with someone with a knife. The couple of times I had been threatened that way, I’d just run for my life until I was practically on the other side of the city.

The man feinted forward, and I dodged, only for him to elbow me in the side of the head. My entire world spun, and when my vision cleared, I was on the floor with the man standing over me, knife in hand.

So, this is it, huh?

At least I hadn’t died in abject misery. I’d gotten to taste food I never thought I would, wear amazing clothes, and make tons of friends. It wasn’t so bad. Still, there was so much more I wanted to try.

But he didn’t stab me. Instead, he grabbed my foot and dragged me towards the door. Wait… if he wasn’t trying to kill me, was he trying to take me?

My thoughts flashed to everything Mahlan had told me about the missing wolves, and I couldn’t help but think that I was suddenly about to become one of them. Abducted, taken somewhere else, and maybe have my body dumped for someone else to find.

“Stop it!” I tried to fight — I really did. But my head was spinning and then he kicked me in my chin, knocking me prostrate again as he dragged me.

And then the door flew by.

Wait, they’re not supposed to do that.

It was like the world suddenly inverted, a dozen things happening simultaneously. The door slammed into the wall, bursting into big, wooden chunks, and a dark shape rushed forward, furry, massive, and full of teeth.

The shape tackled the man in front of me, hitting me with a spray of b***d. Screaming and the noise of flesh ripping filled the place, leaving me lying there while trying to come to terms with what was happening.

Mahlan was definitely going to need to hire a cleaner. Probably one that wouldn’t immediately report him to the cops.

Eventually, the screaming faded into a wet, gurgling sound, and I slowly made my way to my feet. Cautiously, I walked around the kitchen counter, where I saw the man’s body and a reddish-colored wolf standing over him.

The wolf wasn’t as big as Mahlan, but certainly plenty intimidating to me. But the moment I came into sight, it shifted back, revealing Emmaline with b***d smeared across her face.

“Your phone,” she gasped, her visage pale. “I heard what happened and sped here.”

“Thank God,” I managed to blurt out before rushing forward and pulling her into a hug. “Emmaline, you saved my life!”

“I’m sorry you had to see all that.”

“You don’t have to apologize for anything. Seriously, Emmaline, I thought I was dead!”

“Never. You’re here and safe. I’ve got you.”

I held onto her for dear life, not sure if I wanted to laugh or cry. Relief was flooding through me, but I also knew that there were going to be so many repercussions to deal with.

“Hey, this caused a real mess. I need to call my brother. Are you going to be okay if I do that?”

The thought of having Mahlan back in the apartment sent an urgent need running through me. “Yes, please. Call him right now.”

“Okay, I’m gonna let go and do that. But you’re safe now, Lyssa. I want you to know that.”

“Trust me, I do.”