My Alpha Mate is a bully

Chapter 1 - Georgia

I knocked on the door

uneasily.

“Enter,” the commanding

voice behind the door said. I took a deep breath and turned the knob.

“You wanted to see me, Uncle Callum?” I asked.

Uncle Callum was a big man. Even

sitting behind his desk, he seemed to take up half the room. His muscles

rippled beneath his shirt, and every step he took screamed “power.” His

brown hair was graying, and his face

was wrinkled, but his dark eyes were as

sharp and intelligent as ever. He

regarded me with a cool indifference

that I pretended didn’t make my hair

stand on end. Something about the situation spelled “danger,” but I wasn’t sure why.

“How are you doing, Georgia?”

he asked. It was perfunctory. I knew

he didn’t really care.

“I’m fine,” I said. “And

yourself?”

“Not good.” He stood up and stalked over to the window, looking

out at the town square below, where

people ambled about, enjoying the warmth of early summer. But his next words drew my attention back to him. “I’ve gotten word that there’s a group of ferals nearby.

A large one.”

My stomach clenched. Ferals were dangerous shifters who were wild and erratic, unable to even shift back

into human forms. They were usually loners and easy to take out. But when a

pack got together, they were

dangerous and would destroy everything that got in their way, including an entire village.

But confusion pierced through the cloud of horror even as I

absorbed the information he had just given me.

“That’s terrible,” I

said slowly. “But…I’m sorry…why are you telling me this? I’m not exactly…” I trailed off. But I

didn’t

need to finish the sentence. Uncle Callum already knew what I’d been about to

say.

“No,” he said. “You’re not important. You’re about as low in the hierarchy as

you can get, save maybe your child.” He sniffed

derisively. “Normally, I wouldn’t tell you anything. I’d tell your father out of courtesy and

loyalty to blood, but that’s it.”

I shifted uncomfortably, looking down at the wooden floorboards.

He was only telling the truth, but the blunt nature of his statements still

stung, and the jab at Elle made me bristle.

The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. But I swallowed the temptation

to snap back at him, knowing it would only get

me in trouble, and I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of

knowing he had gotten to me. Besides, there were more important things to deal

with at the moment. I looked back up at him.

“Then why are you

telling me?” I asked.

He came up to me, towering a good foot over my head. “There’s

a small pack that moved into the

mansion by the lake, up in the hills. Do you know the place?”

I nodded. I’d gone

swimming there before and had always

admired the grand house standing above the lake, with a path from the back leading down the slope to the water’s

edge. I still had no idea where this

was going, though. “I think I heard

something about a pack moving in. What about them?”

“Their alpha introduced

himself when they moved to the area,” he said. “I was able to size him up: young, strong, dangerous-looking, and he seemed the type of man

who could keep his wits about him. He said they didn’t want to cause trouble or

friction and would keep out of our way.”

“So?”

“So that is no longer an

option,” Uncle Callum said. “If we’re to kill the ferals before they get to us,

we’re going to need their help.”

“I still don’t

underst—”

“Are you really this

dense?” he snapped. I flinched backward. “You

know who the alpha is, don’t you?”

I shook my head.

“His name is Jameson Redding.”

I recoiled without meaning to, taking a step

away from my uncle. An image flashed before me: a handsome man, tall and

muscular, with sandy hair and

piercing green eyes. We were sitting

in a clearing in the woods, one

streaked with moonlight. He was

grinning as he leaned toward me, our lips moving closer as he wrapped a strong arm about me.

I shook my head, trying

to clear the memory, but it did

nothing to stop my pounding heart or

the thought of his touch. Finally, I

managed to ask, “Jameson Redding? He’s here?”

If Uncle Callum had any idea what had just passed through my head, he

gave no indication. He stepped away and strolled back to his desk.

“I’m surprised you didn’t

know.” He paused. “No, I’m not

surprised. It’s no wonder your

parents kept it from you. They probably didn’t want you getting hysterical or trying

to see him. Normally I would agree, but times have changed.”

“You’re not telling me you want me to go talk to him?” I asked.

A knot formed in my stomach and

tightened.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” he said. “You know the man. I’m sure he’ll be more

amicable to helping us if someone he knows is negotiating rather than a complete stranger or myself.”

Jameson and I had grown

up together in a different pack that

was maybe a hundred miles away. Well, I say “together,” but I had never really fit in. My

family was even more of an outcast there than we were here. And Jameson had

held that knowledge over my head for nearly my

entire childhood. He and his friends had

tormented me for years. That was, until we were about seventeen.

I opened my mouth, about

to ask Uncle Callum exactly how much of our history he knew, then closed it. If he didn’t know who Jameson really was to me, that

was probably for the best.

“I don’t want to talk to him,” I said. “We didn’t

part on the best of terms. I’m actually surprised

my parents thought it was a good idea

for me to talk to him. They hate Jameson.”

“They made that very

clear,” he said. “But given

your…intimate history with him, I thought you might have a better chance of convincing him than

anyone else in the pack.”

So he did know the whole

story. I shouldn’t have been surprised. We had to explain why we left our last

pack in such a hurry and came here.

My parents hadn’t wanted anyone

there to find out about the pregnancy,

let alone Jameson himself.

“He bullied me for

years. We don’t get along, and when we finally did become…” I coughed, not

wanting to think about that night. “Well,

that didn’t work out, either. There’s

no guarantee that he’ll talk to me.” In fact, based on our last conversation nearly ten years ago, I didn’t think he

would want to see me. Or if he did, it was only to use me, like he had last

time. “Truthfully, I’d rather never see him again.”

Uncle Callum glared at

me. “I wasn’t asking for your opinion,” he said. “You’re acting under the assumption that I’m giving you a choice.” His voice was a low growl, and I knew I was in trouble. Still, I

raised my head and looked him in the

eye.

“I don’t think this is a

good idea,” I said.

“I don’t care what you think,” he said. “You’re already an outcast in the pack. Don’t make it worse for yourself or your

family by being this stubborn. You’re not in a position to bargain.”

I wanted to argue. I wanted to say no. I wanted to laugh

in his face and storm out.

But he was the alpha, and I was an outcast in the pack. There was really only one thing

I could say.

“Okay.”

As I stepped out of his

office, still shaking violently from

what Uncle Callum had told me, I turned left to take the long route home,

hoping the summer air would clear my head. But it didn’t. All it did was leave me thinking about the things Jameson

had done when we were kids.