Mated to the Alpha and His Beta

Zane

Xander and | locked eyes, then glanced at the twins sound asleep in their bassinets beside us. “It has to be her,” Xander said.

| looked at the door.

F uck, it was open.

Only a little, but enough for a shifter to hear through

We heard another baby’s cry, and then a shushing noise.

| marched up to the door and threw it open, Xander trailing just behind me.

And there, a few steps away was Katie, her eyes as wide as saucers:

My eyes traveled down, pausing when | saw that her breast was out.

S hit.

She was obviously trying to feed Stella, so it shouldn’t have turned me on.

But Blade was a whole other beast.

He was pawing at me so fiercely, it was like he was digging up my insides.

“Mine.” He growled the same way he had the first time I’d laid eyes on Katie. “Mine” | heard Xander’s labored breathing behind me.

He was wrestling with Hunter, too.

I turned around to face him.

“What the f uck?” | asked.

“| told you,” Xander said. “This can’t keep happening. She needs to get out of here.”

“NO!” Blade roared.

| placed my palms on my temples. Between his and Xander’s voices, my head was literally spinning.

| didn’t want her to go either. Truthfully, | couldn’t bear the thought.

How had Katie gotten under my skin like this so quickly?

She was Mason’s mate.

Stella’s cry ripped me back to reality. Katie yanked up her shirt and bit her lip, casting her eyes around like she was looking for an escape.

| didn’t think or listen to either of the voices in my head. | just stepped forward and held my hands out for Stella. Katie eyed me suspiciously but handed her over.

| held her gently to my shoulder, patting her back and cooing to her. “Do you not like what we've done with the place?” | asked jokingly.

Stella stopped crying, and Katie breathed out a little laugh.

I

| turned and walked back into the library, and Xander motioned for Katie to follow.

| set Stella in the bassinet with Lanie. They were both so tiny that they fit with room to spare.

We all stood back and gazed at them. A warm, soft sensation settled around me at the sight of the pups together and the feeling of us together.

It felt like home.

| chanced a glance at Katie, and she was wearing a smile so bright it even lit up her eyes. But suddenly, her face twisted up in some unreadable expression, like she was struggling to process whatever emotion she'd just been feeling. “Sorry,” Katie blurted out “I didn’t know if | was allowed to wander. And then | got super f ucking lost.”

| watched Xander’s lips quirk up in a goofy smile, all traces of our concern from moments before were fone How did she have that effect on us?

“All good,” Xander said. “You looking for Mason?”

She nodded.

“He went for a run with his wolf after our meeting.” | said. “It got a little....tense. He didn’t wanna bring the negative energy back to you guys.”

She raised her eyebrows and then smiled warmly to herself.

| had the fleeting thought that I'd love nothing more than to make her smile like that every single day.

What the f uck was wrong with me?

“You guys are good with them,” she said, nodding toward the twins. “It's cute.”

“Cute?” Xander asked teasingly, but | could tell the compliment had hit him like a lightning bolt, the same

as it had me.

She shrugged sheepishly, then took her hair down.

It was long, all the way down her back, and a beautiful red-brown.

She tossed her head over, then back up, piling it on top of her head again.

When she did, her scent hit me like a silver bullet to the gut. Sweet and heady, and thick enough to choker 2/3 us.Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

“You wanna come sit closer to the fire?” | asked her.

I needed her next to me.

Xander watched her closely, his eyes dark and intense, like he was drawing her in.

“Oh, I’m okay,” she said in a shaky voice.

But she was fidgeting, shuffling her feet like it was taking every ounce of her energy not to move closer to Suddenly, her face turned a deep shade of red, and she turned away, breathing deeply.

And then it hit me.

Another scent.

Something much more animal.

And then | lost it.