“The campus is only a ten-minute drive, and my job is flexible. I’ll make sure she doesn’t miss any more classes.”
The sheriff’s announcement shocked the heck out of me. “Hold up! Are you trying to say Allegra is moving in with you? After only one night?”
“Good question.” She tilted her head back to stare up at him. “Are you?”
He nodded. “Absolutely.”
She beamed a smile at him before looking back at me, her brown eyes full of happiness. “Yup, that’s what we’re saying.”
“I don’t even know what to say to all of this.” My brain felt as though it was about to explode. I shook my head and pinched the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger.
Allegra’s grin widened. “Is it really that much of a shock? You know that all I’ve ever wanted is a family of my own. I finally found a guy I could picture myself growing old with, so why should I go slow?”
Her guy stunned me by offering, “I’ll be more than happy to give you as many babies as you want.”
“You’re already talking about babies?” I sputtered. “Do I need to remind you again that you only met this guy last night? You haven’t even had time to introduce him to your best friends.”
“I can fix that with half of my best friend duo right now.” She patted his chest. “This is Zeke. I get that it’s super crazy, but I’m already falling in love with him.” Then she pointed at me. “Zeke, this is Larissa, one of my best friends in the whole wide world.”
“Nice to meet you.” Zeke jerked his chin in my direction. “Allegra has told me a lot about you.”
All I’d gotten from her about him on the phone last night was what he did for a living. “I wish I could say the same. If my mind is blown by all of this, I can just imagine how your parents are going to react.”
Her eyes went wide at the reminder of how badly they would take the news of her having a boyfriend. “I think I’ll wait until Christmas break to tell them about Zeke, and then I’ll have a whole month to decide if I want to take any classes next semester.”
Allegra was kidding herself if she thought the holiday was going to help her family accept Zeke more easily. I snorted, “Good luck with her mom.”
A wide grin split Zeke’s face as he looked over my shoulder. “Good luck with my alpha.”
His alpha? What the heck did he mean by that?
“Huh?” My brow wrinkled in confusion, but I didn’t get the chance to ask what Zeke was talking about before strong arms grabbed me from behind. I was tossed over a broad shoulder, and some random guy carried me away while I pounded on his back with my fists. Allegra just whispered, “Oh, boy.”
Being kidnapped while my best friend did nothing to help me was beyond wrong. Especially when she was the reason I was there in the first place. If love at first sight made her look at everything with rose-colored glasses, I wanted nothing to do with it.
2
Kace
Tossing my human mate—who didn’t know shifters existed—over my shoulder and carrying her away might not have been my smartest decision ever, but I didn’t regret it. Not when she was exactly where I wanted her to be—under my roof where nobody else could see her. The mystery of my wolf’s reaction to Allegra’s scent had been solved the moment I stepped out of my house and the sweet aroma with a hint of chocolate hit my nostrils. When my wolf had caught the faint trace of it on Zeke’s mate earlier, he’d wanted to hunt the source down.
I’d had to force him to stay inside my human skin when I’d left without the information I needed. Nothing but a mating would’ve made me walk out before I got the answers I wanted. Zeke and Allegra were in the early stages of theirs, and privacy was a necessity. The last thing I wanted was for my beta to challenge me because the mating urge whipped him into a jealous rage. Now that I had found the woman who was born to be mine, I wished I had those lost hours back. She, on the other hand, did not seem to be thrilled with me as I set her on her feet after slamming my door shut and flipping the lock.
Her blond hair was disheveled, with one long lock curled around a plump breast. Twin spots of color filled her cheeks, standing out against her fair skin. If she had the power to kill me with the glare from her pretty blue eyes, I would’ve died on the spot. She was a fierce little thing, and both sides of my being heartily approved. Being mated to the alpha was a challenge for shifter females and even more so for a human. Her intensity would serve her well as she took her rightful place at my side. But first, I had to convince her that was where she belonged…before my wolf broke free and clamped his teeth into her shoulder when she didn’t even know what the hell was going on.