Ripe for the Alpha

He carries me out of the house and shields my eyes as we pass one dead body after another.

“Don’t look, peanut,” he whispers as he steps over a dead body on the porch. “It’s all over now.”

I close my eyes, trusting him completely as he brings me to his Sheriff’s car. He puts me inside and then closes the door.

“I’ll be right back,” he says through the open window.

I watch as he grabs the dead lion’s body and tosses him onto the porch.

He’s so strong. I can’t believe it. He picked up a full-grown lion like he was made of feathers, and now he’s picking up a motorcycle and carrying it up the stairs. He drops it on the porch then kicks the gas tank a few times until it cracks and gasoline starts pouring out.

I’m staring at my sexy savior in complete awe as he walks back down the steps, lights a match, and tosses it at the shack.

It lights up into flames with a whoosh and a grin hits my lips as I watch it burn. It’s all old dry wood, so it catches fast.

My gorgeous guardian gets behind the wheel and I feel a rush of happiness hit my core.

By the time we’re backing out onto the road, the entire shack is engulfed in flames. I watch it collapse through the rearview mirror as he drives away.

“Are you just going to leave it like that?” I ask, looking up at him. There’s a calmness to him. A quiet tranquility that I’ve never experienced before.

“It will burn itself out,” he says in a smooth deep voice that makes my heart flutter. “And it will take all of the evidence with it. I’ll make sure of that later.”

“But if the fire department comes?”

He looks down at me and the look in his icy blue eyes tells me that everything will be okay.

“I know the fire chief well,” he says. “Trust me, he won’t miss the Copeland Lions.”

“They were lion shifters?” I ask as I play with the bottom of my dirty shirt. I’ve been wearing it for the past four days and am feeling a little self-conscious. I know that this gorgeous man wouldn’t be interested in me, but I still wish that I looked a little better and was a little cleaner for him.

“Yeah,” he grunts.

“And you?” I know it’s none of my business, but I have to know. I want to know everything about him.

“I’m the Sheriff,” he says as he gives me a side-eyed look. “My name is Austin.”

“I meant…” I say, trailing off. “I heard a bear roaring. At least, I think it was a bear…”

His jaw does a little clenching thing as he turns to me.

“You don’t have to tell me,” I say, dropping my eyes to my lap. “I was just wondering what—”

“You know about shifters?”

“Everyone in my town knows about shifters.”

He takes a deep breath as he turns back to the road. “I’m a bear shifter.”

“Wow,” I say as I look up at him in awe. My eyes roam all over his body from his big round shoulders down to his hard biceps that are showing through his tattered shirt.

“Polar bear.”

I swallow hard as I look at his massive chest. There’s a polar bear hiding inside there. A polar bear who protected me. That’s so fucking hot.

The heat swirling through me starts to settle between my legs. I turn back to the windshield with my cheeks blushing as he inhales deeply.

Is he smelling me… down there?

“So, you know about shifters,” he says. “But tell me, Ellie. Do you know about mates?”

Our eyes meet and the seriousness of his look has my heart pounding.

I know that a bear shifter would do anything to protect their mate. I know that they get obsessed with her and possessive to the extreme. I know they claim her womb and spend every second they can trying to breed her.

And I know that a shifter’s mate is one damn lucky woman.

“I’ve heard… things…” I say with my cheeks burning. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

“No,” he says with a grunt. “I want to show you.”

Chapter Three

Ellie

“Where are we going?” I ask after we’ve been driving for a while. I don’t care where he takes me as long as he doesn’t take me home.

I still have an uneasiness about that. I can’t get what I saw in my father’s office out of my head. It could just be a coincidence, but knowing my father, it’s not.

“Do you trust me?” he asks.

I nod. “Yes.”

“How come?”

“I don’t know, but I do.”

“You can feel it? In here?” He taps the top of my chest and it sends a tingling rippling through my breasts that make my nipples harden.

I nod. “Yeah.”

He’s not acting normal. There’s something going on here that he’s not telling me. He seems to know something I don’t.