Fate of the Alpha: The Complete Bundle Read Free

lawsuit over their sexist hiring policies. The management had agreed to bring him on as a waiter, with the stipulation that he wore a white button down shirt, red pants, and white apron. He’d lasted about a day.
    A town as small as Tarker’s Hollow was lucky to have a diner and Grace had drowned many a sorrow in their bottomless coffee - first as a teenager during late night study sessions, and especially now, as a Tarker’s Hollow cop, patrolling at all hours.
    “Do you think I pissed her off?” Landon asked in a stage whisper.
    He cocked his head, and the gesture was echoed in the movement of his mop of chestnut curls. Grace was tempted to tousle them, but this was only their third date.
    “It wouldn’t take much.”
    The diner stayed open twenty-four hours a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year. And any waitress who stuck it out more than a year or two had to be tough as nails for dealing with the drunk kids on weekends.
    “Sorry,” Landon said. “Is she a friend of yours?”
    Grace sighed. This was the problem with dating. How much of your life did you have to share with someone before you decided whether or not they were important enough to keep around?
    “She’s sort of friends with Ainsley.”
    “Ah,” Landon said, in a way that made it sound like he didn’t understand.
    Which made sense, since there were probably no two people in the world less likely to be friends than Ainsley Connor and Cressida Crow.
    “Ainsley’s got a lot of friends,” Grace offered.
    “Of course she does.” Landon reached across the table, deftly avoiding the coffee and juice glasses, and took one of her hands in his. “She’s a nice girl with a hot best friend. What’s not to like?”
    He traced a line on Grace’s palm with his index finger.
    She smiled and waited for a shiver of pleasure that didn’t come. What was wrong with her? She pictured herself as a wizened old crone drinking a cup of coffee alone at this very table forty years from now, watching Landon come in for ice cream with his grandkids.
    “And if my sources are correct,” Landon continued. “A hot best friend who is soon to be sheriff.”
    “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Election’s still a long way off.”
    “So?”
    “So…I’m pretty new to police work, and pretty new to the Tarker’s Hollow force…”
    “Everyone loves you, right? And they know you know your stuff. What was your major again?”
    Grace smiled. Landon had a gift for getting people to talk about themselves. He would be good in the interrogation room.
    “I was a double major,” Grace said. “Criminal Justice and Forensics. Not that there’s a lot of call for forensics when your biggest cases involve who stole some change from an unlocked car, or which kids egged houses on mischief night.”
    “See. You’re overqualified.”
    “That’s not how it works.”
    “Can I ask you a question?”
    Grace wondered if he was even capable of opening his mouth without a question coming out. That was what you got when you dated a reporter, she supposed. At least he was a good listener.
    “Shoot.”
    “What really happened to Sheriff Warren?”
    Grace sighed. She hadn’t been ready for that one. Her parents had always hammered into her that a relationship couldn’t go anywhere without honesty. On the other hand, she couldn’t tell anyone outside the pack a damned thing about what happened to Clive Warren - especially a reporter.
    “It’s very sad. Sheriff Warren suffered a mental breakdown.”
    Which was mostly true. He had been so insane with rage after he challenged Ainsley for control of the pack, that he’d shot her, with a silver bullet. Grace had arrived on the scene a moment too late to stop him. It was the only time she had ever fired her service weapon at another living person.
    “Is it true he actually fired a shot at Ainsley.”
    Grace only nodded. The memory of cutting the bullet out of her best friend was still too raw to talk about.
    “Wow. What