Bridenapped The Alpha's Choice Read Free Page A

thinking somebody like him would want somebody like her – as Hilda had made sure to tell her at the time.
    And Jarrod had left town immediately after that, without a word to her, heading off to Alpha College early.
    Shortly after that, her mother had wrapped her car around a tree, for the third time that year. That time, her mother hadn’t walked away from it. It had been a closed casket funeral, and the year from hell.
    “Let me tell you what’s happening. He and his uncle are having a major power struggle, and this is his way of sticking it to his uncle. Back in high school, his uncle couldn’t stand me; he ran into me and Jarrod once and flipped out. I heard him screaming about how he wasn’t going to let Jarrod waste a valuable political alliance on no-good trash like me.”
    And two weeks later, Jarrod had stood her up. Surprise, surprise.
    “Isn’t he Alpha Regent? Why is there even any power struggle?” Angela wondered.
    “Because his uncle has run the pack ever since Jarrod was little, and he’s not thrilled about having to hand over the reins to anybody else. But as soon as Jarrod gets married, he becomes the Alpha.”
    “But…his uncle is the one arranging the bridenapping,” Angela said, puzzled. “So he wants Jarrod to get married. And then his uncle would have no power at all, right?”
    “His uncle has no choice, unless he wants a stranger to come in. You know how every pack has its own laws and traditions? According to Magister Pack rules, if Jarrod doesn’t marry by the time he’s thirty, the Alpha Congress will select a replacement from outside the pack.”
    Angela opened her mouth to say something; Mary held up her hand.
    “I know what you’re going to ask. The uncle can’t be Alpha because he was born with cerebral palsy and he walks with a limp. A very slight limp. Although he’ll kill anyone who mentions it or even appears to be looking at it.”
    “Hey! That’s…able-ist! That’s prejudiced against the disabled!” Angela yelped, always eager to find a new oppressed class to be indignant about.
    “I don’t know, werewolves are different.” Mary shrugged. “There’s a specific pack hierarchy, just like there is with wolves in the wild. The pack Alpha has to be strong. He has to be ready to face Death Challenges and defend his pack at all times. Any type of physical disability is an automatic disqualification.”
    She looked over at Regina and Jarrod. Jarrod was walking away, appearing completely indifferent, and Regina was following him, trying to hang on to his arm and jabbering away.
    “I’m kind of surprised that Regina would even want him,” Mary mused. “He’s gone through this whole courting thing three times over the past couple of years, when everybody assumed he would get engaged…and then broken it off. He’s not known to be reliable.” Not that she’d been checking her social media pages while she was away at school or anything. Jarrod Shaw could do whatever the hell he wanted. He always did.
    “But he’s not courting Regina at all,” Angela said. “He looks like he’s thinking about taking out a restraining order.”
    “Mary!” Hilda barked, making Mary jump. She hadn’t seen Hilda sneaking up on her. “What’s going on with you and Jarrod? You’re about to ruin everything!”
    “Me?” Mary asked, keeping her voice low. “Nothing’s going on!”
    “If this bridenapping goes south, my agency does too. This has to go off without a hitch. And thanks to you, there’s plenty of hitching.”
    Mary reached for her list to make another hatch mark, saw that Angela was watching her, and shoved it back in her purse. She was not a slave to her lists!
    “Nineteen,” she muttered.
    “Nineteen what? Can we please focus here? Why do you keep distracting him from Regina? This is like high school all over again,” Hilda said irritably. Mary felt a sharp jab of humiliation.
    “Um, excuse me, it’s obvious that Jarrod is the one doing the flirting,”