Her Alpha

Chapter One

Reagan's POV

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I asked my father as we sat in his office, waiting for my new bodyguard to arrive. He'd called me in an hour earlier than the man was set to show, knowing full and well I'd give him a piece of my mind about this. And I did. Now he would be there any minute, and I was out of logical arguments--Dad had debunked them all.

He eyed me, preparing to verbally spar with me again if needed. "We can't ignore threats, Reagan. You and your brothers are all I have. I want you safe." That was as close as he was going to get to saying he loved me right now, and I was okay with that. It was more touchy feely than he usually got. My father was not a touchy feely kind of guy. Which was not surprising, considering he was the beta of our pack. Top ranking wolves were nearly always gruff.

I sighed. Not like I wanted someone to murder me. But... "I understand needing a guard. I can live with that. But does it have to be a vampire?" The word dripped with distaste.

Dad's eyes narrowed. "He is a strong ally to our pack, and you will show him respect. Not all vampires are repulsive." Yeah, he'd been trying to drill that into my skull for a while now. Hard to agree when it was vampires who killed my mother when I was a baby, though. Even harder to agree when vampires were the ones threatening my life now.

But if he can forgive and work with vampires, can't you do the same? my wolf whispered in my head, apparently deciding to be the voice of reason. That was a rare occurrence. Normally she'd be down for ripping her teeth into some vampire flesh. We need to stay safe, she told me. Of course. Those survival instincts did tend to win out, didn't they?

I held up my hands defensively, hoping to ward of the lecture I knew my father could give on the topic. "I know, I know. But honestly, isn't this why I have big brothers? Shouldn't they be the ones making sure I stay alive?"

Lincoln, the second oldest of aforementioned big brothers, scoffed. "We've got better things to do, Ray."

"Yeah," Smith, the oldest, agreed. "Sorry to break it to ya."

I rolled my eyes. "As if you haven't been preparing since forever. Can't you spare a little time to protect your favorite sister?"

"No," they said in unison.

I glared at them, crossing my arms over my chest. Before an actual argument could break out, Dad cut in. "Little One, you know they have responsibilities. They're both getting initiated in less than two months--along with an alpha they haven't yet met. It's important they are all three prepared."

Another thing he'd been trying to convince me of for the past fifty-something minutes. As the first born son of our pack's beta, Smith was to take our father's place in the pack this coming January. In an uncommon occurrence, Lincoln was also taking a place of leadership, as well, since the alpha's third had no children. As the second born son of our beta, it was Lincoln's duty. A duty he was thrilled to accept.

But in an even more rare occurrence, the alpha was also childless. Though he wasn't always that way--his wife and son were murdered along with our mother. He never took another mate, so he had no son to take his place in January. Instead, he'd outsourced from another powerful pack. The second born son to their alpha was joining our pack and taking the role as alpha.

Only problem there was that the new alpha wasn't at all familiar with my brothers. And they needed to have some kind of a rapport to work together. They had to gain each other's trust. The alpha and his second and third had to be a strong cohesive unit, otherwise our pack would suffer. We'd grow weak and vulnerable, susceptible to attack.