Catching Him (How to Catch an Alpha 1)

Now I want to see my boy. He’s not my dog, but I’ve fallen in love with him, and I don’t know what I would do without him.

An arm circles my waist as soon as I wrap my fingers around the handle; then the door is tugged from my grasp as Tyler spins me around. His face lowers toward mine so all I can see are his eyes, and he looks angry. “You ever jump out of my truck before I’ve put it in park, baby, and you and I are going to have a conversation about spankings.”

“W-what?” I stutter, searching his gaze.

“Don’t do it again. I know you wanna see Bruce, but I’d like to keep seeing you, so help me out with that,” he growls, and I nod, wondering why I am all of a sudden turned on.

I shouldn’t be, should I? I’ve never been spanked in my life. My parents didn’t even spank me when I was little. The idea of him doing it should not cause my nipples to tighten and my clit to pulse, but it does.

I lick my lips and then say quietly, “Okay, I’ll help you out and not jump out of your truck again.”

His eyes search mine, and then his expression shifts, growing dark in the blink of an eye. “Fuck, now I wanna make out with you but can’t because we need to get Bruce, and then I need to get to work.”

“Then maybe you should let me go so we can do that,” I suggest softly while dropping my eyes to his mouth.

He makes a frustrated noise before letting me go. He opens the door without another word and ushers me inside with his hand on my lower back. When we get to the front counter, we ask for Bruce, and they tell us they’ll bring him out. I wait with my hand held in Tyler’s, bouncing on the balls of my feet. As soon as Bruce comes through a door at the side of the desk, he pulls against the leash around his neck and drags the guy behind him toward us.

“You scared us so badly.” I get down on my knees and wrap my arms around his big furry neck as he licks my face and wiggles in happiness against me. “I’m so glad you’re okay.” I stand back up, and Tyler takes over, giving him attention, and then he orders him to sit, and he does.

“If you guys didn’t come to pick him up, I was going to take him home with me,” the guy announces, still holding the leash attached to Bruce. “He’s a great fricking dog. You really need to make sure he’s got a collar and a tag.”

At his statement, I glance down and see his collar is missing. “He has a collar. Or he had one.”

“I’m the one who picked him up after we got a call about him. He didn’t have a collar on when I got him. If he did, I would’ve called the number on the collar.”

“Where did you pick him up?” Tyler questions, and the guy rattles off our street name and then describes my house. “You said someone called about him?”

“Yeah, they said there was a dog that seemed unstable, and they were worried he might hurt someone. When I got there, I found him and brought him back here.”

“We’ll make sure to keep a better eye on him from now on,” Tyler says through clenched teeth. “He’s also chipped. Did that come up in the system when you scanned him?”

“Don’t have a reader in my truck, and I was going to do a scan this morning when I came in. You called before I got to that.”

“Thank you.” I grab Tyler’s hand and give it a squeeze. “We really appreciate you taking care of him last night.”

“No problem, and like I said, he’s a great dog—friendly and well trained.”

“Do you need anything from us before we go?”

“Nope, you’re good. Just get him a collar and make sure he’s always got it on. You can keep that leash.” He hands it over to me. “We’ve got a stockpile of them.”

“Thanks.” I tug on Tyler’s hand and get him to follow me outside, and when we reach his truck, he takes it from me. He helps me in before slamming my door and opening the back door for Bruce to hop in. When he’s behind the wheel and backing out, I ask, “Are you okay?”

“Not real happy about one of our neighbors calling animal control on my dog, especially when they all know he belongs to me. Everyone around us has spent time with him, and they all seemed cool.” I reach over, touching my hand to his, and he flips his over, lacing our fingers together. “If they weren’t okay with Bruce being out, they could have said something to me instead of having him picked up.”