Claimed By The Alpha Wolf (Firefighter Wolves Shifters Book 3) Read online

  Derek shook his head. “You know I don’t do well cooped up indoors. I’ll think of something though, don’t worry about me.”

  “You know I will, man. You’re my family,” Jason said.

  “And I appreciate it, bro, which is why I’m going to nominate you to become alpha in my place.”

  “What?” Jason almost choked on his words.

  “I can think of no one better. And, if you’re alpha, that means you’ll have to help Alicia Ripley find Rebecca Carnegie.”

  “Then I’ll take it,” Jason said, and all three of them laughed.

  Epilogue

  Grace

  It had been four weeks since Derek had been released from the hospital, and into Grace’s care, and she thought things were going surprisingly well, all things considered. Yes, there were difficulties to face, but they faced them together.

  Grace had suggested Derek move in with her so that she could look after him, and Derek had agreed. Derek was sad to leave his pack behind, but he was also excited about starting a new life together. For her part, Grace had moved out of her apartment, and between them, she and Derek now rented a bungalow, that had been fully fitted to accommodate a wheelchair.

  That was the hardest hurdle they had to face. Derek had to have his right leg amputated from the knee down, the shot Rebecca Carnegie had inflicted on him too severe for doctors to save the limb. It was a huge adjustment for them both and changed every aspect of Derek’s life, but he was getting used to it. He was even researching getting an artificial replacement.

  Grace was sad for everything Derek had lost - his leg, his position as alpha of the Shadowbrook pack, his role as a firefighter - but was relieved he was still alive and they had a future together. Even if it was a future neither of them had originally envisioned.

  Her own life had changed drastically since the showdown with the Carnegies. For starters, Grace had left the police force. It had never been her dream, rather Will’s, and she knew now life was too short to live it for someone else. She was still figuring out what she’d do with her life now, but the important thing was, thanks to Derek stepping between her and Rebecca’s bullet, she had a future ahead of her. The other drastic change for Grace was that she was once again seeing a therapist, and for the first time in her life, she was able to admit her role in Will’s accident. The therapy was helping, slowly but surely, and her relationship with her parents was mending, though it would never be the same as what it had been. She’d even confessed to Will that she’d caused his accident, and her brother had just smiled knowingly.

  “I remember,” he’d said one evening when Grace had visited him.

  “What?” she’d spluttered.

  “I remember the air horn in the fridge,” Will had said simply.

  “Why did you never say anything?” Grace asked, her eyes wide with shock.

  Her twin simply shrugged. “I don’t know. Things were fucked up enough as it was. I didn’t see any point causing more heartache.”

  Grace could only state in shock, unable to believe Will had kept her secret all this time.

  “I’m sorry,” she said finally.

  “I know,” Will replied. “You were young, and obviously struggling with how everyone compared us. I don’t blame you. Not anymore at least.”

  Grace stood and threw her arms around her twins neck, hugging him tightly. Their relationship would never be the same, and Grace would have to live with that forever, but she vowed never to keep secrets for the people she loved again.

  Grace had just left a therapy session and was driving home when her phone beeped with a text.

  “I have a surprise for you,” the message from Derek said, and Grace’s stomach flipped. He still made her feel like the only woman in the word - the most loved and treasured woman to ever exist.

  Curious as to what the surprise was, she waited impatiently for the lights to change to green, eager to be with her lover again. As she traveled back to her and Derek’s bungalow, her thoughts drifted from whatever his surprise could be, to wondering how Alicia and Jason were getting along. Her best friend was still in town investigating the Carnegies and trying to find their deranged leader, Rebecca and was going so with the assistance of the Shadowbrook pack. As newly appointed alpha, Jason was more than willing to work with the police department - especially Alicia - to find the Carnegies, though her lover’s best friend was still debating with the rest of his pack if they should reveal themselves as wolf-shifters to the officers they were assisting.

  Grace shook the thought from her head - that was Alicia and Jason’s responsibility now, not her and Derek’s. They had other things in mind - like their vacation to somewhere hot and relaxing. Daydreaming about laying on a beach with Derek, Grace pulled onto their street and parked in the driveway of their bungalow.

  She entered the home and the delicious aroma of food cooking filled her nose.

  “I’m in the kitchen,” Derek called.

  Grace took off her shoes and hung up her coat, and made her way through to the rear of the bungalow, where Derek was in their custom-made kitchen. They’d worked with a designer who specialized in wheelchair friendly homes, to renovate the bungalow so that everything was accessible to Derek when Grace wasn’t around.

  Grace’s eyes lit up and a smile covered her face as she saw Derek at the stove, cooking ramen for them.

  “I made lunch,” he said, as she approached and kissed him on the cheek.

  “I can smell it. And it smells divine. Is this the surprise you mentioned?” She served up the noodles and took them through to the living room, while Derek wheeled himself over to the table.

  “No, this is just lunch,” he said with a mischievous glint in his blue eyes. “How was your session?”

  “It was good. We made some good progress,” Grace replied, slurping up noodles.

  “How about you? How was your morning?”

  Derek grinned and placed down his chopsticks. “Excellent. I’ve had a breakthrough regarding what I want to do with my life?”

  “Go on,” Grace prompted, eager to hear what Derek has decided on.

  “I’m going to start a support group for the kids the Carnegies took. I want to help them through the trauma. After that, I plan on expanding into offering my services to all troubled kids in town. My life could have turned out very differently if Ben Stokes hadn’t adopted me into the pack. I want to repay that, by helping kids who need it.”

  Grace smiled and leaned across the table to kiss him. “That sounds perfect. Let me know if I can help in any way.”

  “Actually,” Derek began uncertainly. “I wanted to ask you if you’d be interested in working with me. I remember how well you dealt with that kid in the cage, and well, you know what it was like to be a teen and feel like you didn’t quite fit in.”

  Grace fell silent as she absorbed Derek’s words and really thought about his proposal. Working, as well as living together, would be a lot and could put a strain on a relationship as new as theirs. But at the same time, the idea of spending as much time with Derek as possible filled Grace with joy. If, after the honeymoon period, they needed space they could re-work their business relationship. As Grace weighed everything up, she realized this is what she’d been missing, this is what she’d been searching for since leaving the force. Derek had already filled her heart with his love, and now he was filling another hole in her life with his suggestion. Working with the town’s troubled teens and helping them have a better life than Derek had had, or helping them make better choices than she’d made, seemed like exactly the sort of thing Grace wanted to devote her life to.

  A grin covered her face. “YES!”

  Derek’s eyes widened. “Yes?” he repeated.

  “Yes, the idea is perfect. I meant it when I said I never wanted to leave your side, so working together sounds like bliss. And the idea of helping troubled teens is exactly what I need right now. I’m with you, I want to repay the community. Joining the police force to honor Will was th
e wrong choice, but honoring him by helping others not make similar mistakes to the ones I made? I think he’d greatly approve.”

  Now Derek’s grin matched Grace’s. “I hoped you’d see it like that. I think it will be good for both of us.”

  “It will,” Grace agreed, then asked, “Was that your surprise?”

  Derek chuckled. “Oh no. My surprise is much more exciting than that. I’ll show you once you’re finished eating. Don’t let your noodles go cold.”

  Grace laughed, positively burning with curiosity and finished her lunch. She took her and Derek’s bowls to the kitchen and loaded them into the dishwasher along with the wok and utensils Derek had cooked with. After wiping down the countertops, Grace joined Derek in the living room, where she noticed an envelope on the coffee table.

  “Is this the surprise?” she asked, eyeing the envelope with curiosity.

  Derek grinned. “It is. Go on, open it.”

  Unable to resist any longer, Grace scooped up the envelope and settled down on the couch, Derek watching her eagerly. She tore the paper open and gasped when she saw what was inside - two tickets for an all-expenses-paid cruise around the Caribbean that left the following week.

  “OH MY GOD!” she cried, clutching the tickets to her chest. “This is the best. You’re the best.”

  Grace jumped out of her seat and crossed the room to Derek, crushing her lips against his.

  “You like it?” he asked when they stopped for breath.

  “I love it. This is exactly what we need.” Grace couldn’t stop smiling. She could hardly believe how perfect and thoughtful Derek was. First his business proposal and now the trip. “I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”

  Derek smirked. “I can think of a few ways…”

  Grace’s heart somersaulted in her chest. She’d been nervous when she and Derek had first moved in together that now he was in a wheelchair, their sex life would be different, but it wasn’t. Her lover was just as passionate as ever.

  “I like your line of thinking,” Grace said with a smirk of her own, as she wheeled Derek to the bedroom.

  With her help, Derek got onto the bed and began undressed as Grace stripped out of her clothes.

  “Come here,” he growled.

  Grace was happy to oblige and settled onto the bed beside him, as Derek pulled her into his arms. Their lips met in a fiery kiss that was just as passionate as the first time. Derek fisted his hands in Grace’s hair, as their kiss deepened and her tongue slipped into his mouth. Never breaking the contact, Grace rolled Derek onto his back and straggled his lap. His hips thrust up to meet hers, his cock already hard.

  Grace intertwined her fingers with Derek and opened her eyes to gaze down at him, as her body moved against his in a slow, sensual rhythm.

  “I love you,” she said huskily, feeling her climax building.

  “I love you too,” Derek said, his gaze never leaving hers.

  Grace moved against him until her inner muscles clenched, and she let out a satisfied moan. Slowing her pace only slightly, Grace continued to grind her hips against Derek’s, until he found release too. She collapsed on top of him, their sweaty bodies pressed together, and his hands once again found their way into her hair.

  Grace pressed her lips against Derek in a slow and tender kiss, and he carefully rolled her over so they were lying side-by-side, wrapped into each other’s arms. Entangled together, they fell peacefully to slip, ready to tackle whatever challenges the world threw at them next.

  Thank you for reading Claimed By The Alpha Wolf. I hope you enjoyed it! If you did, may I ask you to please write a review HERE!

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  ERIC (Excerpt)

  Strauss Bear Shifter Brothers of Colorado

  1

  Eric

  “It’s cold out there!” The guest, still shivering and laughing as he stood in front of Eric and dusted snow off his parka, was not a bear shifter. That was fine, but it was something Eric always inwardly noted with guests. The Black Bear Lake Lodge was so popular with bear shifters who came traveling from all over the world to ski and snowboard or just sip hot toddies before going on runs in the thick woods up the mountain, that human guests were just this side of unusual. As the lodge’s concierge, Eric had a slightly different way of interacting with them. There was an understanding with other bear shifters and a shorthand. Human guests were just a little pickier and harder to please.

  In Eric’s experience, they were also giant dorks.

  Eric smiled widely at the guest and said, “It sure is. I hope the powder was good?”

  “Oh yeah! Great snowboarding! Ha ha!” The human’s family appeared - three daughters and a harried looking wife, and they whirled away from the front desk and into the newly renovated dining hall as it filled up for lunch. Lunch was Cody’s job.

  There were four Strauss brothers and they all ran the Black Bear Lake Lodge together, having bought it out in equal shares after finding themselves to be young and energetic bear shifters with too much money on their hands. Connor was the oldest and the alpha of their little sleuth. He ran the place as administrator. Eric was the youngest and served as concierge, handling all the guests’ requests and demands, even some that seemed ridiculous. Cody was the chef and ran the kitchen with an iron fist, and Nathan was the handyman (though he usually ended up filling more roles than that).

  Nathan had lately been a hard bear shifter to find around the lodge, having met his mate, Alanna, who was pregnant with his cub now. They were still in their honeymoon period and their happiness made everything around the lodge seem brighter.

  The thick of winter was hitting the ski lodge and with it, the busiest season. Families were making their ski trips just before Christmas and the snow was hitting the mountain hard. The lodge was solidly booked and that was good news, considering that some recent shenanigans with a troublesome shifter named Rawley who had gone after Alanna had just shut the entire lodge down for a few weeks following a brawl that had demolished the dining hall. They had only just gotten it up and running again and business was finally clicking along like usual.

  “Hey, is your friend showing up today?” Eric’s older brother, Connor, the alpha of their sleuth, asked as he walked up and leaned on the front desk, casually taking a peppermint from the bowl that Eric kept there. “Lydia, right?”

  Eric raised an eyebrow at his brother. Connor knew exactly who Lydia was. It would have been strange if he hadn’t. She had been Eric’s best friend as a kid and right up through his adolescence until she abruptly ran away. He had been closer to her than to his own brothers as a teenager, if he was honest with himself. There was no way Connor wouldn’t know her name.

  “Yeah,” Eric said, tapping his pen on the calendar. “Lydia. Haven’t seen her in… I don’t know. Five years? She stopped through when we were just opening up the lodge, but we didn’t really talk then. She seemed kind of weird when she texted me though. Hope she’s alright.”

  “I was always kinda surprised you guys never ended up together.” Connor sucked on his peppermint and looked down on his younger brother. Connor had a couple inches on Eric and though Eric worked out regularly and was no slouch in the muscle department, his brother was the biggest and broadest of the four Strauss boys. Yet Eric wasn’t even a little bit intimidated by the alpha (or, that’s what he told himself) and he only narrowed his eyes as Connor tried to goad him.

  “So was I,” Eric said, casually shrugging. “But you remember how Mom and Dad were about it. They didn’t like her sleuth, they thought she was trouble, and bla bla bla. She took that personally. It was hard enough just to be friends. On that note…” He checked his watch and grimaced. It was time for lunch and he had not been looking forward to it. “I have to go break up with a girl.”


  “Ah,” Connor nodded, leaning against the desk. Erik was surprised as Connor was usually bustling about the lodge. He always seemed endlessly busy as the administrator in charge of everything down to the snow boot rentals and the ticket taking at the gondola, especially lately as he’d had to work doubly hard to get the lodge back on track with all the renovations.

  Perhaps that was why Connor seemed a little more relaxed, Eric thought. Things were finally back to normal.

  “Are you breaking up with her because Lydia’s coming-” Connor started.

  “No,” Eric snapped, cutting Connor off. He heaved a sigh and resisted the urge to punch his brother in the arm since his brother would only punch back harder. “It’s just not right. Doesn’t feel right.” He shrugged. “She’s not the one and I don’t want to waste her time.”

  “That’s very smart of you,” Connor said, grabbing another peppermint. “How many times did you guys bang before you decided that?”

  “Ugh, shut up.” Eric couldn’t help himself and punched Connor in the shoulder, refusing to so much as wince when Connor punched him back twice as hard. “I’m going to lunch.” He motioned for Lee Ann, one of the associates who worked the front desk to take over for him and made his way to one of the private dining rooms off the dining hall where Michelle had agreed to eat with him.

  Eric had been dating Michelle for only three weeks. But in that time they’d gone on several dates and spent a good deal of time together. Which was how Eric knew that it was never going to work. Michelle was wildly attractive with her glossy blonde hair and high cheekbones and pouty mouth. She was both a bear shifter and a witch, which had impressed Eric upon meeting her one night in the lodge’s lounge. But there was no spark for him. Things didn’t feel right and as much as Eric felt too soft to admit it, he wanted a mate. He wanted that true love feeling and Michelle wasn’t it. At worst, Michelle gave him an unsettled feeling he couldn’t explain. But it didn’t seem fair to use that as a reason to break up with a girl.