Crimson Heart (Werewolf Alliance #2)

Chapter 1

“You can’t be serious!”

In disbelief, Charlotte stared at her parents, James and Maggie Beaumont.

They were in her parents’ room in a luxury hotel in San Bernardino.

They’d arrived the previous day to visit a werewolf pack at the edge of the San Bernardino National Forest. She’d been under the assumption that this visit was meant to get to know the pack better and evaluate if the Werewolf Alliance should make them an ally.

Her father, an elder in the Werewolf Alliance, often made such trips, and she’d agreed to accompany him and her mother, thinking he intended to groom her to rise in the ranks of the Werewolf Alliance and take on a more active leadership role.

After all, her brother Jude was doing just that: leading a pack that was once on the wrong path.

“I thought you knew what this visit was about,” her father said.

Charlotte shook her head, then looked at her mother for support. “Mom, you can’t let him do that!”

“I’m sorry, darling,” her mother replied, her voice gentle yet unwavering. “You always knew that this would be your destiny.”

“My destiny? To mate with a man who gives me the creeps?”

“Don’t exaggerate,” her father interrupted. “Steve Leon is a perfectly fine young man. And as the alpha’s son, mating with him will give you a high status in the pack. Any woman in your situation would jump at this opportunity!”

“Then let them!” she shot back. “I’m not interested.”

“It’s not up to you. You’ve turned down other matches before. Frankly, I’ve had enough of your fickleness. It’s time you had a firm hand to guide you.”

“A firm hand?” She pointed toward the window in the direction of the Leon pack’s estate. “A firm hand that will beat me daily? Is that what you had in mind, Dad?”

“Just because you don’t know him yet, doesn’t mean he’ll beat you. You’re just making wild accusations. Your mother and I have raised you better than that.”

Yes, they’d raised her. Not to cower but to stand up for herself. And what they hadn’t taught her, she’d learned from her two older brothers, Jude and Austin. She trusted in this knowledge now.

Steve Leon’s handshake alone had sent an uneasy feeling through her body and made the hairs on the back of her neck rise in alert.

She couldn’t put her finger on it—it was a gut feeling—but she knew that the man the Werewolf Alliance had chosen as her mate was bad to the core.

The way he’d looked at her as if inspecting a piece of meat had only cemented her assessment of him.

Clearly, her parents hadn’t picked up on the vibes he gave off—or they didn’t want to see it, because the pack that they wanted to bring under the Alliance’s umbrella would give them access to important resources and more manpower.

“Dad, please, listen to me,” she said with a calmness she didn’t feel.

Maybe he would relent if she employed a gentler tone, a beseeching one that she’d used when she was younger.

“Do you really want your only daughter to live so far away from you? Mated to a man you know nothing about? If I needed your help, you’d be too far away to help me. ”

“I know what you’re doing,” he said in the same stern voice as before. “You’re not a teenager anymore. In fact, at twenty-nine, you should have already given us a litter of pups, but no, you wanted to hold out for the right man.”

The last words were spoken as if he’d put them in quotation marks.

“But—”

“I’m afraid, Charlotte,” he cut her off, “there’s no right man for you, because whenever someone comes close to meeting all your conditions, you move the goal post farther out. As if you didn’t want to get mated at all.”

He wasn’t too far off with his assumption. “I want to get mated, but out of love, not duty.”

“That’s not in the cards. As an elder, I would be a horrible example if my only daughter refused to mate with a man the Alliance chose for her.”

“Oh, so it’s all about your status?” She scoffed. “But Jude was allowed to mate for love! Nobody pressured him!”

Her father’s face turned beet-red. “Jude acted against all the rules. I haven’t forgiven him for that yet.”

“Yet neither you nor the Alliance forced him to perform a blood ritual to reverse his mating to Danielle.”

“You know exactly why we couldn’t demand that. When it turned out that Danielle was indeed the alpha’s daughter, albeit illegitimate, our hands were tied.”

“So you figured since you couldn’t impose your will on Jude, you’re gonna do it with me. Thanks, Dad, that’s mighty grand of you!”

He grabbed her by the upper arm, his claws digging into her flesh, but she barely felt it.

The adrenaline in her body pushed away any feeling of pain.

Besides, as a werewolf, she had a high tolerance for physical pain.

When it came to emotional pain, however, she was just as vulnerable as a human female.

“Don’t you take that tone with me, young lady! Because the more you protest, the more I recognize the need to hand you over to a man who’ll keep you in line.”

She lifted her chin in defiance, pinning him with a glare. “Does that include regular beatings?”

“Charlotte,” her mother interrupted. “Your father only means well.”

She turned her face to look at her mother. She couldn’t expect any help from her. She was loyal to her mate. Her mate had always come first, her children second.

“Is that what he did to you when you were mated to him against your will?”

There, she’d finally said it. She’d always known that her parents’ marriage had been arranged by the Alliance. But she’d never thought she would have to use that knowledge against them.

“Charlotte,” her father growled dangerously, his irises suddenly showing a yellow ring around them as a warning that the wolf inside him was ready to emerge.

“James, don’t,” her mother said, lifting her hand to stop him.

“I was young and didn’t know what was good for me.

It’s true, I didn’t know your father, and at first, I rebelled against the mating.

But in the end, he was the right man for me.

Love isn’t something that hits you like a freight train, but rather like a flower that blooms under the right conditions.

It’s slow, it’s gentle, and it grows with time. ”

She saw her parents exchange a loving glance. She had to try another approach to make her parents understand that while their arranged mating had turned out well, she was certain that a union with Steve Leon wouldn’t end well.

“I know it worked for you, because you’re both good people,” she started. “But not everybody is a good person. All I ask is for you not make a hasty decision that we can’t reverse. The Leon pack might have the resources the Alliance wants—”

“Enough!” her father interrupted. “You don’t know why we wish for a union with the Leons. It’s of no importance to you.”

“So I’m just a pawn in your game,” she replied, bitterness rising in her chest. There was no convincing her father once he’d made up his mind. It was a waste to even try.

Afraid she would lose her composure, she turned toward the door and made a couple of steps before her father’s booming voice filled the room again.

“Tomorrow, the deal will be finalized.”

Not if she could help it. But instead of wasting her breath on another plea, she simply said, “I’m tired. I’m going to bed.”

She opened the door.

“After a good night’s rest, you’ll see it’s all for the best,” her mother coaxed in a gentle tone. “Good night, sweetheart.”

She barely managed to get a Good night over her lips before she left the room and let the door fall shut behind her.

Her own room was several doors farther down on the same corridor.

With a determined gait, she walked to it, tapped her keycard on the lock, and opened the door.

By the time the door clicked shut behind her, she’d made her decision.

She wouldn’t let her parents and the Werewolf Alliance decide her life for her.

She placed her small suitcase onto the bed and tossed all her belongings into it, before zipping it up and casting another look around the room to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything.

At the door, she snatched the Do-not-disturb sign, opened the door, and exited.

She hung the sign on the door handle, then walked toward the elevators.

The sounds of her footsteps and the wheels of her suitcase were swallowed by the thick carpet.

By the time her parents realized that she wasn’t in her room, she would be far away. What exactly she would do now, she wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but what she knew with absolute certainty was that Steve Leon would never lay a hand on her.