Her Alpha

Ceremonies were never really my thing.

Too much posing. Too many wolves pretending they don’t all gossip like pups the second someone turns their back. Still, I was here, wearing my big biker boots in the dirt, watching Kael Thorn bind his life to his new Luna like it meant something. The pack loved this stuff. Sacred rites. Moonlight rituals. Destiny and devotion dressed up in ceremonial robes and matching flower crowns.

Me? I just liked the open bar. I mean I really like the booze; I would even pay for it if I had to. Not in like I’m a drunk kind of way. In a I like to live kind of way.

Kael looked good, though. I’ll give him that. Broad shoulders wrapped in ceremonial leather; hair brushed back like he didn’t usually stumble around half-asleep in track pants. There was a brief moment, when his gaze swept over the crowd and landed on me, that his jaw tightened.

I raised my glass in a silent cheers.

He looked away first. Sucker!

We’d slept together, once.

Okay, three times. Four if you count the time in the weapons shed, which… I probably shouldn’t. Although I did orgasm twice, so may I should count it. Ok fine, four times.

But it was just sex. I never mistook it for anything more.

I’m not the kind of woman who sees a hot body and loses her spine.

The pack didn’t know, of course. Or maybe they did, people always assume a woman like me has something to prove. But I’ve never chased titles. Let someone else play Luna. Let someone else stand in the Alpha’s shadow and smile at the right times. I prefer the view from the edge of the room.

“You look weird,” came a voice at my side.

Emily, my best friend. Her eyes were sharp, like always, her mouth pressed into that half-smile she used when she thought I was about to start trouble.

“Do I?” I said, finishing my drink. “Must be the lighting.”

She laughed. “Kael’s mate is stunning.”

“Of course she is. Alphas always pick the shiniest toys.”

Emily elbowed me, amused but curious. “No regrets?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Emily. It was just sex. Not a blood oath.” I paused a moment, then added “ok I will miss never bouncing away on the big guy ever again. Alas! I shall go forth and seek out a new!”

She gave me an exasperated sideways look. “I’m just saying, you’re watching him get mated under the Moon…”

“and I’m mentally making a grocery list.”

Which was half true. I needed milk. And maybe more tequila.

The drums changed rhythm, signalling the bond was sealed. The pack howled in celebration. Kael kissed his new Luna’s knuckles, all honour and solemnity. The whole thing was sweet, really. If you’re into that.

I’m not.

“Wanna bet how long it lasts?” I murmured to Emily.

“You are terrible.”

I shrugged. “You used the wrong word there. I think you meant honest.”

The thing is, the Moon doesn’t always get it right. Fated mates, destined pairings, the whole mystical entanglement of it all, sometimes it’s true. And sometimes it’s a convenient excuse for poor decision-making.

Either way, it wasn’t my problem. But damn, I was going to miss that man’s cock. I mean, I’ll mourn the loss of that particular piece of anatomy. It was a very generous donation to science, and I was an enthusiastic researcher.

I slipped away from the crowd, already bored of the ceremonial haze. Let them dance. Let Kael play King of the Pack. I had better things to do than watch wolves pretend mating is the answer to everything. Soon the Alpha will release his mating pheromones and the whole place will turn into a giant orgy.

No thanks.

I like sex. Very much. I am up to try most things once. I’m not a screwing in front of an audience kind of girl. I don’t need to try it and see if I like it.

Oh, how rude of me. I am totally just talking at you, and I haven’t even introduced myself! I’m Cami, Cami Lane. Keep any stupid jokes about my name to yourself, they won’t be funny and I will have heard them. I am twenty-eight and single, very happily so, thank you. I run The Dive, local bar, owned by the pack, but it’s basically mine. Ok so it isn’t mine, but whatever. Oh, my pack! I am a member of the Moon Ridge Pack, I am not an omega, gamma, beta or an alpha. In those romance books, those people rushing around doing chores and fawning over the alpha in the background? Yeah, that’s me. Well, except the fawning. And the running around after the alpha. I don’t do that either.