Chapter Two
The loud banging woke Laird from a deep sleep. His head was pounding, and that damned noise wasn’t helping one fucking bit. Finally, it stopped, but then he heard the beep of the electric lock being released.
“Laird?” His Beta’s voice rang out from the doorway. “Are you okay? I’ve been knocking for like fifteen minutes. You missed breakfast.”
He tried to take stock as to why his head hurt so badly … and why he was lying face down on the bed, buck-ass naked. Laird remembered going for a late dinner at the bar after their meeting the night before and then seeing—her.
His gaze raced about the room trying to find her, and Jackson’s head whipped around as well, but when no one was there he came back to Laird with a curious look.
“What? What are you looking for?”
Laird took a deep breath close to the sheets, and sure enough, there it was, the unmistakable sweet scent of his mate.
“I found her, Jackson.” His voice betrayed his own surprise. “Last night, I found my mate.”
“You certainly found some female. It reeks of sex in here.” Jackson went to open the patio doors. “Are you hungover? You look like hell.”
Laird’s hand went up to touch the bump that was still aching at the back of his head—and then it all came crashing back to him.
“Fuck,” he growled. “She knocked me out.”
“What the hell do you mean?”
“We had sex—the most un-fucking-believably hot, amazing sex—and then she hit me over the head with the lamp.” He growled, his beast wanting to run right out of the room and find his mate.
Why would she have run from me? Well, she wouldn’t get far. He would find her and show her exactly where she belonged.
Jackson just stood there and stared at him, an almost bemused expression on his face, which only pissed him off more.
“Umm, so you had sex with your mate—and then she knocked you out with a lamp and fled?”
“I marked her, too.” He nodded to himself as the memory of the last few monumental moments of pleasure came back to him.
Still more silence in response.
“What?” he snapped finally.
“Well, I guess she sounds kind of…”
“Careful…” Laird’s growl echoed through the room. No one, not even his second, would be insulting his mate.
“Perfect for you, that’s all.” Jackson laughed, his hands thrown up in surrender.
“Fuck off, Jackson.” Laird sat up on the edge of the bed and grabbed for his pants. “I’m going after her.”
“Wait, you can’t.”
“Of course I can, and I’m going to.”
“No, Laird, the Alpha Council meeting starts in an hour.” Jackson shook his head. “I can send some of the guys to look for her, but you have to be there as Ruling Alpha. You know you have to.”
Fuck, Jackson was right. But mark his words, when he tracked down his little cat, her backside was going to get worn out for running away from him, not to mention the lamp thing.
“No one hunts her except for me.” Laird threw on his clothes, his rage only growing when he could still scent her on them. “Let's go get this damned meeting over with so I can attend to more important things.”
****
An hour and a half later, and Laird was already getting antsy waiting for the meeting, which had barely started, to be over already. He nodded to each of the other Alphas as they entered and sat down at the conference table. Most of them he’d known for years. Laird had only been voted to Ruling Alpha for British Columbia three years ago, and didn’t expect anyone to challenge him lightly—there was a reason he had the job that he did.
“Is that everyone, Jackson?” Laird looked back at his second as the last man took his seat.
“No, we’re waiting for the new Alpha from the Sunshine Valley pard.” Jackson double checked the registration sheet. “Sybella Gandry.”
“A female Alpha,” one of the older men to his left muttered under his breath. “What kind of weak males they must have in their pard to allow such a thing?”
Laird didn’t have the patience this morning to deal with the old man’s short-sighted world views. His fist slammed down on the table in front of him, startling all of the attendees.
“You will show Alpha Gandry the same respect as any other Alpha who sits at this table—or you will answer to me.” His stare held Alpha Barrow’s startled gaze, and he waited for the other man to submit and look away.
“Apologies, Alpha.” Barrow’s downcast eyes satisfied Laird’s agitation for now.
He’d been hearing a lot of the Alphas talking about this very topic for the last two days. A new Alpha that no one had ever met or heard of being registered to rule a pack or pard was a curiosity, but a female Alpha at that? Laird had never even met a female Alpha before.
Then the awkward silence amongst the males in the room suddenly stopped as the conference doors opened, and two more people walked in.
Shocked, golden eyes met his, and Laird had to stop the growl that wanted to roll out of his chest. There she was, his mate … and there was a huge male standing far too close, right behind her.
“Alpha Gandry, I presume?” Jackson asked politely.
“Yes, that’s right,” the statuesque female responded with a curt nod, “and my second, Gage Decker.”
Laird recognized the man standing behind her now. Gage was a giant of a male—one of the largest cougars he’d ever seen when shifted. It surprised Laird that such a strong male would be second to a female Alpha, but he supposed that just reaffirmed how capable a leader she must be. He already knew she was passionate, and fierce—with a lamp—but his cat’s natural curiosity was just itching to learn everything else about their new mate as well.
He took a few seconds to take her in now, in the clear light of the morning. She had to be at least six feet, and she certainly was no delicate female. She looked strong and confident. Her long, dark auburn hair was caught up in a simple ponytail. She wore no makeup that he could see, and the spattering of fine freckles that covered her cheeks and nose were exceedingly charming. She wore a simple pair of jeans and a tight V-neck shirt that showed her lush breasts off to advantage—and he couldn’t help the memory of how perfectly they fit in his hands from rushing back to him. Her lush, pink lips were … frowning right at him now. She seemed to have regained her composure after the shock at seeing him sitting at the head of the table.
“Alpha.” Laird cleared his throat and tried not to mentally take the names of all the males here who were currently leering at his mate. “Take your seat, and we will begin.”