Alpha Mate: BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance (3 page)

“
Don't look at me like that.” Charlotte's
voice was hard.

“
Like what?”

“
Like...like you pity me.”

Jasynta rocked back on her heels, and shrugged. “I
don't pity you. I do have a smidgeon of pity, not much,” she
added hastily. “—for the rogues you'll be hunting
though.”

Charlotte swiveled to gape at her. “What are you
talking about?” She resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
Witches, with all their hocus-pocus, mumbo-jumbo. She had heard some
of their chants, and they sounded like tongue twisters. They should
just make their spells short and to the point. She continued staring
at Jasynta, who looked pretty young to be a practicing witch and
healer. She appeared to be around Charlotte's age, appeared being
the operative word. She knew of some paranormals in her office who
looked like they were in their early twenties, when they were
actually born in the early twenties—of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries.

“
You see,” Jasynta said, stuffing her hands
into her pockets and looking mighty pleased with herself. “The
Potion of Promise works on the principle of give and take. To give
something, it has to take something. A Promise. So...to get your
life back,” she said slowly. “You made a Promise.”

“
I did?”

“
Yup. You promised to kill all those murderous
rogues,” Jasynta announced proudly.

“
What did you say?” Charlotte sputtered.

The witch's forehead creased in a worried frown. “You
can't hear? Oh no. Could it be one of the side-effects?” She
paled and began to root through a whole assortment of bottles, jars,
wands and instruments scattered on a trolley at her side. “I
was so sure that loss of hearing wasn't one of the side effects,”
she mumbled furiously. “How could I have missed...”

“
Jasynta!”

“
What?” She whirled round to face
Charlotte, her eyes wide. “Oh. Yes, Charlotte?” she
hollered, at a volume loud enough to raise the dead.

Out of the corner of her eye, Charlotte saw a few
heavily bandaged vampires bolt upright in their hospital beds.

“
I can hear very well, Jasynta,” Charlotte
told her.

The witch exhaled a long sigh of relief.

“
Oh, you really scared me. I'm so glad. My
potions have all been checked and certified. Nothing should go
wrong,” she said reassuringly.

“
So, in exchange for my life, what was it I
promised again?” Charlotte prompted, making her tone casual
and nonchalant.

“
Oh, right. You promised to hunt rogues. The
Potion of Promise works on the principle of give and take, as well as
cause and effect. You were attacked and nearly killed by a rogue.
Now that you have your life back, you will hunt and destroy what
destroyed you. That was the promise you gave, and which the Potion
accepted. If your promise wasn't suitable for the Potion's purposes,
it wouldn't be accepted, and the Potion wouldn't have worked.
You...would have died. Your injuries were very serious,”
Jasynta said gravely.

Charlotte glanced down her soft, curvy body. She was
dressed in a loose hospital gown, but her injuries, which were
supposedly very serious, all seemed to have healed. All that were
left were scars.

She lifted her arm tentatively and frowned. Her arms
were still fleshy and round. So was the rest of her body. She was
not hard and muscular. How was a soft, curvy human supposed to hunt
and kill paranormal rogues? Paranormals were faster and stronger
than normal. There was a reason there was a
para
, in front of
their normal.

Blowing out a breath, she finally articulated the
question niggling at the back of her brain. “I've drunk this
Potion of Promise, so—am I...still human? Or...”

“
You're human,” Jasynta assured her.
“But...”

“
But what?” Charlotte said slowly. Buts
were never good.

“
But—changed.”

Charlotte bit her lip to prevent her voice from coming
out as a squeak. Instead of speaking and sounding hysterical, she
motioned with her hand for Jasynta to please continue and explain.
Pray, in what way am I changed?

“
You're a new and improved human,” Jasynta
declared happily. “Your senses, strength, speed and stamina
are all greatly improved. And—your lifespan is longer. Much
longer,” she said emphatically.

For a moment, Charlotte sat very still, taking all this
in. “I see,” she said, blinking slowly. And see she
did.

Her sister had been mauled and killed by a rogue
werewolf. And she had been brutally attacked by that rogue. She had
nearly died, or perhaps she
had
died for all intents and
purposes. But this witch's Potion of Promise had given her a second
chance, a second life. And she was to use this second life to hunt
and kill rogues.

A slow smile spread across Charlotte's face.

“
Is...everything okay?” Jasynta asked, her
brown eyes searching Charlotte's face for any signs of stress or
denial.

Charlotte turned to her, her smile widening into a grin.
But her eyes remained grim.

“
Everything is perfect.”

The Paranormal Affairs Council (PAC) had an Alpha, not a
chairman. And the newly elected PAC Alpha for the current term was
Lucas Rieve, a werewolf. The previous Alpha, Helen Satchi, was a
weretiger. Helen stayed on the Council as an honorary member in an
advisory role. She did not have voting rights on the Council. Her
role was to offer advice, constructive advice, and assistance, as and
when requested by the Alpha and the Council.

On a number of occasions, Lucas had had to remind her
that she was no longer the PAC Alpha. And she usually didn't take
too well to the reminders, however diplomatically and politely they
were couched and delivered. This was one of those occasions.

Helen's claws were out.

Literally.

“
I tell you, you're employing too many humans!
During my time, we kept PAC business strictly to ourselves. Humans
should have no place on the Council.” Helen shot a look at
Jett Riley. “We're becoming too lax, and weak.”

Lucas glanced at Jett, who had his arms folded over his
muscular chest and was leaning back in his chair nonchalantly. Jett
was the only human on the Council. The other seven seats on the
Council were taken by a Master vampire, a demon prince, a witch, a
warlock and three weres—a bear, a panther and a dragon. But
Jett Riley was no lightweight. Besides being a PAC member, he was
also the Chief Trainer and Head of the Enforcement Unit.

Ever the gentleman, Jett tipped his head and flashed
Helen a megawatt smile as she glared at him. Lucas had headhunted
Jett and got him to join the PAC a year ago when he took over as
Alpha. The human was the best of the best when it came to
enforcement and security work. He had risen through the ranks of the
New Moon City Police Department (NMPD), and subsequently ran a
successful security and investigation firm. Jett's security firm had
helped the police crack a number of high profile cases, and had
worked closely with the PAC Enforcers in staking out—and
staking, rogue paranormals. Lucas had been Head of the Enforcers
before he became Alpha. When Helen was Alpha, she had never taken
much interest in the Enforcement division, leaving it to Lucas to run
it.

More than sixty percent of the population in New Moon
City was human, so paranormals were still the minority in the City.
While Helen knew the rogues had to be contained and the general
population—both human and paranormal, protected, she had been
more interested in the bottom line. She focused more on expanding
PAC influence and businesses. She wanted New Moon City to have more
paranormal owned and run commercial enterprises and she had focused
her efforts on getting funding and grants for paranormal
entrepreneurs. Among the paranormals, she was pretty popular as
Alpha.

But her term was up.

And the Head of the PAC Enforcers had been elected.

With his appointment, Lucas promptly put the enforcement
of PAC law and order as the top priority. The training budget of
Enforcers was increased, and their old, antiquated equipment and
weapons were replaced. Lucas had been fighting for better pay,
better conditions, better weapons, and a bigger training and
recruitment budget for his Enforcement Unit for the longest time.
Now that he was Alpha, he would make sure that every Enforcer was
well trained, well tested and well armed. He had seen too many
Enforcers get killed in the line of duty. Their deaths could have
been prevented, if they had been armed with the proper weapons for
hunting rogues. With their measly budget, Lucas, together with some
of his Enforcers, had had to invent and forge some of their weapons
themselves. Those were good men and women, human and paranormal.

Lucas swung his eyes over to Helen, who was gouging into
the wood of the long conference table with her claws. This designer
table had cost the Council a bomb. He had vetoed it, but Helen had
used her casting vote as Alpha to approve its purchase. This
conference table was very expensive PAC property.

“
Helen,” Lucas said, his tone low and very
quiet.

She stopped mid-sentence through her rant.

Everyone in the room turned to look at him. The silence
was so absolute it seemed that no one was even breathing. Glenn
Constantine, the Master vampire, didn't need to breathe, but the rest
of the members still needed to draw breath to function.

“
Helen,” Lucas said evenly. “You need
to—”
Zip it.
“—remove your claws
from the table, sit down and relax.”

“
Don't tell me to relax,” she snarled,
stripes appearing on her cheeks.

“
I just told you to.”

“
How can I relax when you're running the Council
to the ground? The PAC is going to hell on your watch!” she
spat.

Lucas looked her calmly in the eye and repeated, “Relax,
Helen. It's an order from your Alpha.” There was no tension
or anger in his eyes, but his tone was firm and commanding.

Helen's tiger stripes disappeared from her face, and her
claws retracted swiftly. She sat back down in her chair with a thud,
swallowing and blinking rapidly.

“
Samantha,” Lucas turned to the red-haired
witch, who was already wrinkling her nose and muttering under her
breath at the ugly scratches in the polished oak table. “If
you'd...”

“
Done!” Samantha smiled, as she finished
chanting her spell. In a sprinkle of colorful sparks, the gouges
sealed up and the polished surface was back to smooth and shiny,
without a single mark on that shimmering surface. “Good as
new!”

“
Thank you, Samantha.” Lucas nodded his
appreciation. “You've worked your magic.”

She wiggled her black nails in a wave. “You're
welcome, Alpha.”

Grayson Volan the warlock, leaned forward beside
Samantha. “I'd say Helen has a point,” he said, looking
at Lucas and Helen, who as Emeritus Alpha, was seated to Lucas's
left. “Not only have we admitted a human council member, it
seems that we are also increasing the number of our human Enforcers.
While I have nothing against humans—” He held out his
hands in a gesture no doubt meant to be placating, but which Lucas
found to be highly hypocritical and annoying. “—it is a
fact that they are physically and mentally weaker than us
paranormals.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Lucas saw Ella Wong, the
werepanther raise a brow and flick her eyes to Jett. Lucas
suppressed a smile. Lucas had worked with Jett long enough to know
that physically and mentally, Jett was as strong as, or even
stronger, than a lot of paranormals.

“
So how can we entrust the city's safety to a team
of Enforcers, who are trained and led by...”
A mere human.
Grayson trailed off, leaving his unspoken words circling the
conference table like vultures.

Lucas locked eyes with the warlock. He knew what
Grayson wanted. The ambitious warlock wanted Jett's position in the
PAC. The Head of the Enforcers would gain popularity and a high
enough profile for the next election. If Jett was a paranormal, he
would be well-placed to be the next Alpha. A lopsided smile began to
tug at the corner of Lucas's lips as he pictured a human being
elected as the PAC Alpha. He would definitely throw his support
behind Jett when he stepped down, that was for sure. And well, who
knew what could happen in six years' time? He chuckled inwardly as
he regarded Grayson.
My money's on you, Jett.

“
Jett,” Lucas said, his eyes still on
Grayson. “For the benefit of some PAC members who may not have
kept up to date on the latest and toughest training program of the
Enforcement Unit, could you please brief the Council on what the
trainees undergo when they are recruited as Enforcers? And, let us
have the names of the latest graduates from the training program. I
think some of the Council members may want to shadow these rookies
and assess their physical and mental strength for themselves.”