Ruthless Alpha Beast (Roseville Alphas #3)

Chapter 1 - Tara

The morning light wraps its warm glow around Roseville in a way that makes me feel like I’m still dreaming. All the greenery that's glittering beneath the sun lies out before me, quietly as though it has never been touched.

I hate that I have to spoil it with my fumbling humanity.

Somehow, the supernatural part of the valley is more beautiful than the natural surroundings in my old human town.

There’s nothing physically different here, but there’s a unique charm to the place that makes it feel special.

It might have something to do with all the witches and shifter werewolves who reside here.

This place will always feel special to me.

But I’m taking a new route today, looping around instead of going straight toward the market like I usually do. My lone walks are fun! As a human living in a shifter pack, it’s not like I have much else to keep busy with. I’m not exactly useful.

But I’m not complaining, not complaining at all. I’m just grateful they’ve let me join.

Laughter fills the air suddenly, and my stomach tightens. An anxious tension fills my chest. I stop in my tracks.

Lacey, my best friend and the wife of one of the pack leaders—Sawyer—told me not to worry when walking alone. She said as long as I stay within the areas of the neighboring packs, the markets, and the closest towns, then I shouldn’t run into any problems.

Anyone who knows who I am will know whose protection I’m under. But still, I can’t help but flinch when I hear a group of people coming toward me. All I have is my phone, and all I can do with said phone is call a friend.

But even that isn't a bulletproof plan. I know that within seconds, a wolf could tear my phone from my hands and devour it between its jaws before I even get the chance to press Lacey’s contact.

Life is full of risks, I suppose.

“Tara!” A familiar voice calls. “Is that you?”

I release the sharp breath I was holding. My right palm, intuitively pressed against my phone in the outer layer of my satchel, falls slack.

Oh, thank goodness.

I bob my head awkwardly, raise my left hand, and smile as calmly as I possibly can at the pack heading my way.

Could I look more suspicious?

“Hey!” I call back.

Move, Tara.

Oh, right, yes. Move.

I readjust my bag and start walking toward the group of shifters being led by their Alpha, Sawyer.

I suppose, given the fact that I live in his pack, Sawyer is technically my Alpha too. Honestly, at first, I was pretty nervous to meet him.

When Lacey and I first met, she was living in a witch’s coven long after Sawyer broke her heart. Then, she returned to the pack, they got married, and saved the valley together in a way that I’m definitely way too human to fully understand.

While I knew that Lacey was happy with Sawyer (you don’t tend to marry someone unless you are), I didn’t know what to make of someone who caused my best friend so much pain.

Especially a shifter, Alpha someone.

But Sawyer shocked me with his kindness. He’s such a good dad to their daughter; he’s a good husband and a good leader, too.

Honestly, he’s pretty hard to fault.

“What are you doing out here?” He smiles warmly. The others look tired, but they gaze at me with nothing but kindness.

“Oh,” I wave my hand, “just going for a walk. I think I’ll check out the witch’s market in a little while.”

“Hey, did you tell Danielle and Monroe that you’re going? I recall them mentioning wanting something, some kind of herb.”

“Oh yeah for sure,” I nod enthusiastically. “I’ll just ask them.”

A task! A way to be useful! I’ve got this.

Danielle and Monroe are twin witches, close friends of Lacey, and now my friends, too. Danielle is married to Ellis, the Alpha of one of the neighboring packs. They’re such good people.

“Do you have their numbers?” Sawyer asks.

“Yes,” I say. “I definitely have Danielle’s and Monroe’s on our group chat, but I think she might have changed hers recently. I’ll text her. Where are you all heading back from anyway?”

Sawyer’s now my friend, a lot of the shifters in this pack are now my friends, but as a true loner without any biological family left, I’ll never not be awkward.

Conversation just isn’t something that comes easily to me, although I wish it were. Maybe if I had been born supernatural, it would.

“Just a hunt,” he says, then his expression changes. “And a general check-up.”

I nod. “Is everything okay?”

Lacey explained a little about the situation in the forest, how an old witch’s curse keeps threatening to destroy the land. She doesn’t like to talk about it too much, though, and I understand it’s something the Alphas have control over.

I think.

“Yes, don’t worry, Tara,” he says. “Just standard surveillance.”

“Tara, I still have your book,” Peter, a young shifter around the age of twenty, says. “I know I keep forgetting, but I’m going to leave it by your cabin tonight, I promise.”

I think the book I lent Peter was some sort of fantasy, detective thriller—I don’t remember, I’ve lent out so many books at this point. Even though they have a library in the pack, they don’t have what I have.

My book supply is unparalleled, even among overachieving shifters.

“Keep it!” I say. “I’ve read that one too many times anyway.”

“Really?” he says, enthusiastically, and then cools his reaction as he glances around at his packmates. “I mean, thank you. That’s super cool.”

“It’s no problem.”

We exchange a few more words before the group heads back toward the pack.

“Remember, Tara,” Sawyer calls. “Stay on the path!”

“Oh, I will!”

I really will. I hover my hand back over my phone as a precaution.

But as I continue to walk through the shrubbery-lined path, gazing out at the majestic mountains, taking in the melodic sounds of the birds, I forget to be anxious.

A deep wave of euphoria floods through me.

Years ago, if you’d have told me I’d be living in a world surrounded by shifters, magic, and witches, I wouldn’t have believed you. Part of me always knew that there was stuff like this out there, but I never thought I’d be someone to have access to it, let alone live among it.

I’m not special.

As much as I’ve always dreamed of being like one of the heroines in my books, caught up in a whirlwind romance, saving the world, casting spells—that kind of life just wasn’t made for someone like me.

And that’s okay. It truly is. If this is the closest I’ll ever get to my fantasies, I’m completely cool with that. All I am is grateful to be accepted into such a wonderful new home.

I continue to walk in silence, savoring the warmth of the sun on the back of my neck and the gentle breeze that lightly tickles the soft fabric of my T-shirt.

That reminds me, suncream.

I fish my way through my satchel to find the little bottle I know I’ve bought with me. It’s definitely here somewhere. I’d never go for a walk without my water or my suncream.

I push past my book, past my water, my sweater, my keys.

There we go.

Just as I feel the small plastic surface roll beneath my fingertips, I freeze.

Ironically, even the sky seems to cloud over above me.

I’m approaching another pack, not just any pack. But the one that has made it very clear they don’t like me.

I swallow down a flood of nerves and decide that the sunscreen can wait.

Do I go back?

I turn behind me, considering.

Shrubbery blows in the breeze, and the mountains are as still and answer-less as ever.

But I’ve come such a long way…

I sigh.

I knew that there was a possibility I might pass this pack, given that I’m taking such a long way around. I suppose I pushed the thoughts to the back of my mind.

Thoughts that I’ve been determined not to let tarnish my experience here. Because the truth is, everyone else has been so welcoming, the other pack neighboring Sawyer’s, run by the Alpha Ellis, has treated me like one of their own.

They treat me as though I’m a shifter, for the most part.

But I remember the expression the other Alpha made when it was announced that I would officially be living among them. He looked shocked, and then disgusted. He made a sound that I still remember to this day. It haunts me, that arrogant grunt of disapproval and disbelief.

What was it that he said again? Oh, yeah. ‘Since when did we all agree to letting a weak human live among beings like us ?’

To which Sawyer chimed in and said that it was his and Lacey’s decision, given that I would be staying in their pack, and asked him if he had a problem with that.

‘A problem?’ He gawked, his eyes furious.

Both Ellis and Danielle stood up for me too, saying how it was mentioned at the allied pack meeting after the party, I was initially introduced to all of them at the one that Jasper, the arrogant Alpha, missed. Apparently, due to a hangover or something.

Whatever.

I try to ignore him and his shifters, who so often refer to me as ‘human’ even though by now, I’m certain they all know my name.

I decide to keep walking.

The market is so close, and I know that I can’t go on avoiding them forever—although the flutter of nerves in my stomach tells me otherwise.

As I pass as quickly as I possibly can, I dart my eyes continuously from the path ahead to the shifters in the pack.

What am I looking for? I’m not sure. What could I do if I spot a threat of some kind? Nothing.

I’m defenseless, but keeping my eye on them feels like it’s helping.

Luckily, I don’t see their arrogant Alpha anywhere. I also don’t see anyone else I recognize, and they seem to be so caught up in various tasks and conversations that they don’t even notice me go by.

Phew.

I’m sure they can ‘smell’ the human, though. Poor them, must be awful.

***

Entering the witch’s market already puts me in a better mood. I forget all about my near run-in with the prejudiced, arrogant pack and remember just how wonderful it is to be in this place again.

The market is like something out of a fairytale; wooden crates are filled with all kinds of different herbs, vegetables and spices. Magic charms swirl through the air as witches test out spells and potions.

There’s so much color, so much laughter, and so many sparkles! It’s hard to even remember what it’s like to be in a bad mood or upset.

After walking around a little, I whip out my phone to text Danielle.

I mention that Sawyer said there’s something she might need and that I can get her anything she wants.

I tell her that I’d be more than happy to do it—I usually just come to the market to walk around, or get some vegetables.

I'm usually too shy to ask about any of the magic, although I’d really love to find out what everything does.

OH, Danielle texts, YES, I actually have a list hold on.

Then she texts again. Can you see if there’s any dream root first?

Sure!

I lift my head from my phone to scan for dream root, when suddenly, I see him. Blonde hair golden as though it’s reflecting the sun, gray-blue eyes that sparkle, and a build that makes him look as though he’s been made from a whole tower of bricks.

My face drops, and with it, my phone nearly falls too.

The Alpha. Jasper. The arrogant asshole who hates me.

I consider hiding, but he notices me too and starts coming toward me with typical, over-confident, Alpha strides. I tell my legs to move, but I’m stuck; my chest is frozen, as though it's been filled with blocks of ice.

Am I imagining that he’s looking at me?

Those eyes, like two moonstones, are fixed on my face. There’s no way he’s looking behind me, or to the side of me, or below, but why is he looking at me like that?

Like, he doesn’t want me to move. Like he’s determined, on a mission.

Even if my legs could move, and I had the confidence to blow him off, I still don’t think I’d do it. There’s this pull, maybe it’s the whole Alpha thing, although as a human, I’m not sure that I’m affected by it.

It’s a pull that makes me want to obey. Even though I know he’s probably about to talk some shit, to make fun of me, to derogatorily call me ‘human’ and ask what I’m doing here, I don’t want to move away. I can’t.

I brace myself, ball my fists, and as he towers above me, blocking out all of the sun, I gasp. Would he actually hurt me in front of all these witches?

He’s getting too close... he’s going to...

He’s…

Jasper gently takes my face into his hands and brushes his lips over mine. My eyes close, I uncurl my fists.

I can’t think.

My stomach drops, and my whole body sets alight as he darts his tongue deep into my mouth. I stifle a groan.

I don’t know what to do with myself, but he kisses me with passion, maneuvering my mouth where he wants it to go.

Massaging my tongue, non-reactive, in total shock, with his.

That smell. The scent of him brings back a flood of memories. The way he holds my body as though it's his, the way he claims my mouth, I’m reminded of things I’ve been adamant on forgetting.

I can’t protest as his passionate kisses turn soft and sweet. I stifle a groan as a deep warmth spreads through my body to places I don’t want to give to him. Places that he has so much control over.

When he stops, I miss his mouth, and I completely forget where I am.