Bridenapped The Alpha's Choice Read online

  Jarrod had kept his word after all. He’d been polite, if not warm, to Regina, and he had showed up to every single “accidental” meeting arranged by Matched and Mated. He had ignored Mary as if she didn’t exist.

  Mary doubted Regina cared about his obvious lack of enthusiasm for her. What women like her wanted was the prestige that came with being married to the Alpha. She’d be the Alpha Queen. She’d have a lady in waiting. She’d have maidservants. Pack members would genuflect. It was as close to royalty as one could get, for an American.

  Working on this bridenapping had set a constant dull ache in Mary’s heart. They had two other bridenappings scheduled, and Mary had offered to work on them instead, but Hilda had insisted that she finish Regina’s bridenapping first.

  “You’re the one who royally screwed this up, so you’re going to see it through to the end. This is for your own good. For once, you’re going to do something right,” was the way Hilda had put it.

  Mary could have pointed out that she wasn’t a screw-up, that she showed up on time and kept the agency running like clockwork for half the salary of an executive secretary, but she was too depressed these days. The fight had gone out of her. Jarrod was getting married to Regina, Hilda spent every day reminding Mary that she had no useable skills and she was lucky Hilda had hired her, and even though she and Angela had scrapped all day long while she was there, now that she was gone Mary missed her fiercely.

  She glanced over at Regina.

  Funny, Regina didn’t look as happy as she should have. She’d won. She was getting bridenapped, and Mary would have to stand there and watch. She wasn’t smiling, or smirking, though; she was pacing, looking anxious and distracted.

  Of course, Regina looked fabulous, as always. She was styled to perfection. Her hair was flat-ironed and shiny and swung like a sheet of shimmering gold silk. She’d chosen a pink silk pantsuit in case Jarrod grabbed her and slung her over his shoulder, which was popular in bridenappings these days. Of course, some particularly naughty brides anticipated this and chose to wear short skirts and thongs – some even went without underwear – but Regina came from a family who liked to think of themselves as respectable.

  The paparrazi were standing at a distance, cameras trained on the scene. Mary had to agree with Angela’s original assessment; this kind of pre-arranged bridenapping really sucked the joy out of it. Or maybe it was just her.

  Regina’s parents were standing nearby, cameras clenched, talking to several of their staff members. One of them looked vaguely familiar to Mary, and she kept staring at him until he caught her eye, turned, and walked away. And then it hit her.

  It was the man who’d attacked her. Hired by Regina’

  “What is she doing here?” Hilda’s voice raked through the air, and Mary flinched. Now what?

  A taxi had just pulled up and Angela was climbing out. She headed towards Mary with a determined look on her face. Her hair was dyed mermaid blue and she had a new lip ring. Not surprising. Whenever she was forced to spend time with her parents, she got more and more rebellious.

  “Typical,” Hilda said to Mary, with a look of disgust. “Our biggest day, and you can’t go an hour without screwing up. She looks ridiculous, and I don’t want the photographers to associate her with our firm. Get rid of her.”

  “You know what?” Mary said with a sudden flash of heat as Angela reached them. “You can jab at me all day long, but do not insult Angela. I happen to think her hair looks lovely.”

  Hilda reared back, her eyes widening in shock and anger. “You’re lucky I ever hired you, with your complete lack of skills. You know what? I should—”

  “Look for someone else? Do it.” Mary returned Hilda’s glare. She’d be better off flipping burgers, she realized. Of course, that wouldn’t even begin to cover her expenses and student loans, but…

  Hilda looked like she was about to respond, but then she realized that the paparazzi were starting to look at her with interest, so she turned and hurried off.

  “Angela! I missed you, you enormous pain in the ass.” Mary threw her arms around her and hugged her, hard. Then she stepped back. “What brings you here to this sad circus?”

  “I missed you too, you uptight, list-making gramma. I came here because I wanted to tell you something. I’ve figured out something important.”

  “Alarm clocks are not meant to be used as projectiles?”

  Angela waved her hand impatiently. “Ha ha ha. Of course they are. No, something about Hilda.”

  “I’m listening,” Mary said, although she was also scanning the street. Jarrod should be arriving soon. He was supposed to come in his pickup truck, spot Regina strolling in the park, grab her, and carry her away.

  She felt her breakfast rising into her throat, and swallowed hard.

  “Go on,” she said, returning her attention to Angela.

  “Hilda knew how much you and Jarrod liked each other in high school, right?”

  Mary winced. “I guess.”

  “And she keeps saying that she wants everything to go off without a hitch, but she kept you on as coordinator even though she knew how much Jarrod likes you and knew it would risk the whole bridenapping. She’s not stupid. She may be an angry, uptight bitch, but she’s not stupid. She knows Jarrod likes you. She knew that it wasn’t you pursuing him, it was the other way around. You know why she made you do this bridenapping?”

  A park custodian wandered by in a dull gray canvas jumpsuit, wearing a big hat that obscured his face. He was poking at debris with a stick. He stood about twenty feet away with his back to them. A city truck was idling next to him, with the driver sitting there texting on his cell phone.

  Waste of fuel, Mary thought with mild irritation. And it was polluting the air. Somebody should call the city and complain. She’d add it to her daily list. The prospect didn’t cheer her up as much as it should have.

  “Why?” she asked, returning her attention to Angela.

  “Because she knew it would hurt you.” Angela’s gaze bored into Mary. Mary flinched.

  “That’s why I came back. I had to tell you that. You need to get out of there, Mary – she’s poison. She’s just an angry control freak, and she’s picked you as her little punching bag. Because, frankly, nobody else would put up with her crap.”

  The usual defense leaped to Mary’s lips, but with less passion than usual this time. “She had to drop out of college for two years to support me after Mom—”

  “Who the fuck cares?” Angela exploded with exasperation. “How do you even know that she dropped out because of you? That’s the kind of thing she’d say just to make you feel guilty. You were sixteen, you didn’t need babysitting, and I’m sure she got social security money from the state to take care of you, so you weren’t costing her anything.”

  She heard footsteps clomping towards them. She turned to look. It was the park custodian. Wow, he was unusually big for a human. He was werewolf-sized, a good six-foot-five.

  His big scraggy beard, and the way the hat obscured his face, was creepy. It made him look like a homeless serial killer. Mary instinctively stepped in front of Angela.

  “Excuse me? Can I help you?” she asked in an annoyed tone.

  In one swift motion, he ripped the beard off his face and then tore off his hat.

  Jarrod.

  Before she could say a word, he’d moved so fast he was almost on top of her.

  “Mary Farraday, you’re being bridenapped,” he announced, and grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder as she shrieked in outrage and surprise.

  The door to the city truck flew open.

  The next thing Mary knew, the truck had pulled away. She looked out the window to see Regina’s mouth stretched in an O of shock. Hilda’s face was red and contorted with rage. Mary felt sick.

  “You lying son of a bitch!” she cried to Jarrod, her heart pounding wildly. Ohgodohgodohgod, Jarrod had just bridenapped her.

  “What did I lie about?” He looked puzzled.

/>   “You promised you’d go through with the bridenapping!”

  “And I just did. I never said I’d bridenap Regina, did I?” He cupped her chin in his hand and forced her to look into his eyes. “It was always you, Mary. It would only ever be you.”

  Chapter Eight

  The road wound through thickly forested land and led to an enormous set of iron gates decorated with elaborate scrollwork, with the Magister Pack’s giant “M” in the middle of each gate. It was the second set of gates they’d passed through.

  “Why are there two sets of gates?” Mary asked.

  “Oh, now you’re speaking to me?”

  Mary had sat there in furious silence for half an hour as they drove.

  “Don’t get used to it.” She scowled.

  “This is the Alpha’s compound. Pack tradition says that now that I’ve bridenapped you, we must remain in here until the wedding.”

  “For the next three weeks?”

  He grinned wickedly. “I promise to keep you entertained.”

  “In your dreams.” But her mind was immediately flooded with erotic images of him keeping her entertained.

  “You’ve got that right. However, all I meant is that we’ve got plenty for you to do here.”

  Craig kept driving, past hillsides with scatterings of houses grouped together, and farmland, until finally they pulled up in front of an enormous Gothic revival house which fittingly enough looked like an old castle. It had steeply pitched roofs, arched, leaded-glass windows, and tall spires jabbing at the sky. The front-facing gables were adorned with exquisitely carved lacy wood trim. Liveried servants who would easily have graced an eighteenth-century estate stood at attention by the front steps, and next to each servant stood a wolf, holding a basket of flowers dangling in its jaws.

  Jarrod, Mary and Craig climbed out, and Mary stopped where she stood, sucking in her breath in amazement at the beauty of their surroundings.

  Acres of flowers flowed around the house in rivers of brilliant color. Red and yellow tulips echoed the colors of her apartment’s décor. The blue trumpet flowers on the morning glories twined up on wooden lattices and made her heart sing. She envied whomever Jarrod was really going to end up marrying, for a million reasons, not least of which was that they’d get to call this amazing paradise home.

  She imagined strolling through the gardens, snipping flowers and arranging them in crystal vases… No, that wouldn’t be her, it would be someone else.

  “Man, this sucks,” she muttered.

  “It sucks?” Jarrod asked, sounding surprised and shaken for the first time ever. “You don’t like the flowers? I had the gardeners start on them months ago. I picked all your favorite colors and… It’s okay, I’ll get them removed immediately.”

  He was going to rip up acres of flowers, just for her? And what did he even mean, he’d had the gardeners start months ago?

  The look on his face was so genuinely hurt that she felt a lance of remorse stab her right through the heart.

  “The gardens don’t suck. They’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” she rushed to explain. “I just mean it sucks that you’ve only pretended to bridenap me to get back at your uncle, and I don’t get to stay here.”

  “Oh!” Jarrod said with an expression of relief. “So you do like them, and the only problem we have to deal with is that you’re crazy enough to think I’d fake a bridenapping. I can work with that!”

  “I don’t like them – I love them to a degree that’s obscene,” she said, looking at the gardens with naked adoration.

  “Now we’re getting somewhere,” Jarrod said happily. “Tell me what else you see around here that you love to an obscene degree. Emphasis on obscene.” He gestured at himself. “Hint, hint.”

  Before Mary could scorch him with an appropriately sarcastic answer, a pack member rushed up to them.

  “Sir, there’s a problem,” he said in urgent tones.

  “Not right now. My future bride is about to tell me how much she appreciates me.”

  “Sir, it can’t wait.”

  Jarrod spun angrily to glare at the man. His face went hairy and he snarled at him.

  “Not right now,” he growled. “I’m about to bring my bride-to-be into our home. Do you want to keep your face attached to your body?”

  The man cringed away from him.

  Craig frowned. “With respect, Alpha,” he said in formal tones, “perhaps you should let him speak in case it’s a matter of pack security.”

  Jarrod nodded reluctantly. “What is it?” he growled at the man.

  He gestured at the truck. The rear door was wide open. Angela stepped out, looking sheepish.

  “It seems we have a stowaway,” he said. Then he bowed deeply to Mary. “Your Majesty. I am Theodore. It’s an honor.”

  “Oh, the honor is all mine. I mean… Just ignore me. My brain is kind of scrambled right now.”

  As she spoke, a young woman in a pantsuit bustled up to them holding a clipboard. Her hair was scraped back into a bun.

  “Your Majesty,” she said, bowing her head. “Constance Jensen, pack secretary. Delighted to make your acquaintance.”

  “Me too. Excuse me a second, I just have to murder my cousin real quick, and then we can chat some more. Angela!” Mary bellowed.

  Angela strolled over to them, eyes wide, looking innocent. “Wow. Fancy meeting you here?” she said hopefully to Mary. “We’ve got to stop meeting like this? Don’t kill me – I’m young and have so much to live for.”

  “Oh. My. God. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any more out of control.” Mary threw up her hands in despair.

  “Hello, Mary’s equally crazy cousin,” Jarrod said.

  “What do you mean, ‘equally’?” Mary yelped indignantly, at the same time that Angela replied, “Ciao. Pleased to meet you, again. You made the right choice, by the way.” She nodded approvingly at Mary.

  Jarrod shook his head in bemusement. “I hope you don’t have anywhere you have to be for the next three weeks.”

  “Me?” Angela answered cheerfully. “Oh, no, I’m good. I don’t have anywhere to be. Nowhere at all.”

  “Why did you stow away?” Mary asked her cousin.

  Angela’s face turned pouty. “Because I have nowhere else to go. I’m sick of sitting around all day long getting my butt chewed out by my parents, and I don’t know what to do next.”

  “There’s got to be a friend you could crash with,” Mary said desperately. She had enough to deal with right now as it was.

  “She’s not going anywhere until after the wedding, which is in three weeks,” Jarrod said firmly. “It’s Magister Pack tradition. It’s not just you and me who are required to be inside the compound. It’s everyone. We’re in for the duration.”

  “But…there must be hundreds of people in this area alone,” she protested. “They all have to stay here?”

  “Yep. Several different clans who have served my family for generations. Woodworkers clan, farmers clan, medical clan, gardeners clan, the housekeeping staff, members of the pack Enforcers…close to a thousand people live in the compound. It’s like a city within a city. They’re prepared for it. We have a medical clinic, and if there were a life-and-death emergency we’d make an exception and take them to the main hospital on our grounds. We have several farms in the family compound, where we get all our food.”

  “But why?”

  “It’s an ancient tradition designed to ensure that nobody compromises the honor of the Alpha’s bride until the wedding day. Foolish, I know, but tradition is of supreme importance to our pack.”

  “This is my cousin we’re talking about. My female cousin. My aunt’s daughter. Odds are pretty good she won’t compromise my honor,” Mary said, raising an eyebrow.

  “I might compromise his honor, though,” Angela said, her head swiveling as Craig walked up the front steps to talk to one of the servants. “Who is that guy?”

  “Craig. He’s a good man,” Constance said.<
br />
  “Don’t say that,” Mary said quickly. “I’m sure he’s a low-down rogue with bad intentions.” Angela started to look even more interested.

  “Craig? No, I’ve known him for ages.” Constance frowned in puzzlement. “He’s dependable, trustworthy…”

  Angela gave Craig a long, searching look. “Hmm. Still hot,” she said, but Mary thought she detected a little less enthusiasm.

  Mary sighed. Maybe she could convince Angela to like a decent guy for once, and if Angela was on pack lands, she’d be safe from the man hired by Regina’s dad.

  “Pack tradition says there are three times we’ll leave the Alpha compound before the wedding,” Jarrod continued. “After this weekend, I give you a tour of the entire property. Then a few days later, I introduce you to the Pack Council. Then you and I tour the Banquet Hall.”

  Part of Mary was wondering how she’d get out of this ridiculous bridenapping, which Jarrod had only carried out to thumb his nose at his uncle’s orders. Part of her was leaping into “psycho organizer” mode, in which she’d have to plan a wedding in three weeks.

  And part of her was wondering, yearning, hoping that Jarrod really wanted to be married to her.

  Chapter Nine

  “This suite of rooms is yours for as long as you want it,” Jarrod said.

  The suite was big enough to swallow her entire apartment times three. Somehow Jarrod had found out her decorating style and he’d had the rooms splashed out in bright reds and yellows with retro 1960s style artwork.

  “And our room is right down the hallway,” he added, gesturing at an enormous set of oak double doors. It was a long, long hallway, but then everything about this place was oversized.

  And he’d called it “our room”. She gave an unladylike snort, and he broke into a grin.

  “What?” she demanded suspiciously.

  “I’m glad you’re here. I’ve always loved your laugh. I missed it.”

  “Don’t you dare make fun of me!” She glared at him.

  “I’m not.” He looked puzzled. “You have a big, enthusiastic laugh. It’s contagious.”