Chained To The Alpha: A Paranormal Shifter Romance Standalone
CHAINED
TO THE ALPHA
A PARANORMAL SHIFTER ROMANCE
JJ JONES
Copyright
©2015 by JJ Jones
All rights reserved.
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About This Book
Fynna has woken up in the middle of woods not sure where she is or how she got there. She has also found herself chained to a complete stranger who calls himself Devin.
Devin also claims to have no idea how they got into this situation and the two of them realize they must now work together to get out of it.
Bound together by handcuffs and with danger lurking all around them, the two of them find themselves getting closer then either would have ever expected.
However, Fynna's were-instincts are starting to tell her that this man's scent is quite familiar to her and she is about to find out why..
I smelled the earth, pinched in my hands and loved it all before I opened my eyes. It was an amazing feeling and I managed to forget the fact that I wasn’t supposed to be there. Still, I breathed in the earthy aroma that surrounded me. It was loamy and fresh and natural, and it brought out the beast in me. I wanted to howl at the moon—no, perhaps that’s a bit cliché—I wanted to run through the undergrowth and bring down a rabbit. I wanted to feel the fresh air through my fur and to enjoy the sun on my flesh. That was what I wanted. I squeezed the earth in my hand; it was where I was meant to be, at peace and a part of the natural world.
The beast in me wanted to come out, but I wasn’t supposed to be there. I had to open my eyes and find out why I wasn’t in my apartment anymore. It was good to be in the natural world, but something was strange here. I couldn’t quite place what was wrong, but I was looking up toward the sun and I could feel the cool fall breeze rushing over my body. I was in a forest. I could smell the pine trees and I could feel a pine cone sticking into my back. I wondered why I hadn’t noticed that before. I groaned and rolled over, reaching under me to help dislodge the offender.
“What?” My arm was dragging something along with it. I could feel the pressure on my wrist. Whatever it was, it was heavy. My eyes snapped over to whatever had a hold on my arm. “Metal?” I followed the chain with my eyes.
“Who are you?” I heard the question, but didn’t know how to respond.
My eyes reached the arm that was chained to mine. “Where are we?” It would do no good to freak out, so I bit back my fear.
“I don’t know.” Whoever was there with me sat up.
He pulled my arm along with it and I chose not to fight it. I sat up too. I examined him carefully, studying his dark hair and hazel eyes. He was a handsome man, someone I would definitely have given a second look back in my regular life, but in this situation, adding to the fact that I was chained to him, I was willing to take a third or fourth look. I stared at him and he was doing the same to me, looking up and down my body. I felt exposed, even though I could feel the sturdy clothes on me.
“Who are you?”
“Fynna.” It was all that I needed to say. I noticed that he had a nice tan that laid over his naturally white skin. My eyes snapped around, taking in our surroundings. “Who are you?”
My stomach suddenly started to feel a bit heavy. I wanted to puke. Something was terribly wrong. I felt dulled somehow, like I was trying to think through a fog.
“Devin, Devin Gold.” He reached his free hand out to me and I shook it. “Nice to meet you, maybe.” His eyes narrowed in confusion. “Do you have any idea where we are?”
I could smell him; he was a wolf too, just like me. That was strange. Still, he didn’t smell like he was lying. He was just as confused as he looked. There was something in his pheromones, something that told me that he wasn’t comfortable.
“No, do you?”
“Do you feel strange?” He looked down at his wrist, lifting it up and examining it. The cuff looked ancient in origin.
“Fuzzy, strange, somehow. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s whatever they drugged us with?” I followed his lead, carefully looking at the strange runes that covered my side of the cuff. “This is going to chafe soon.” I couldn’t recognize the runes, but I felt the need to say something useful.
“Who made this?” He showed me the cuff, as if I couldn’t see it already.
“It seems like we don’t have any answers, but we seem to have enough questions.” I was trying to make a joke.
He didn’t laugh. I didn’t know if it landed poorly or if he just lacked the necessary sense of humor that would be required to have any fun in life. “I guess.” He shrugged. “We need to do something.”
“We’re taking this really well.” I was just starting to feel a little strange about the way we were handling it. “Normal people would be screaming in terror and trying to kill each other by now.”
“Screaming in terror doesn’t accomplish anything.” He still seemed dull, unaffected by what was happening.
“Does anything get to you?” I was starting to suspect him, but I could smell the strange combination of fear and confusion from his pores.
I wanted him to show some kind of reaction, something that would show me that this man had any instincts or emotions at all. This wasn’t the kind of situation that should be taken with dull words and no display of the freaking out that was rushing through my head. Still, I wasn’t freaking out. My stomach started to churn.
“I don’t feel so hot.” I groaned and held my gut. “Something weird is going on here.”
“I know.” He still lacked any emotion in his tone. Maybe it was because it felt odd to him as well, but it still kind of frustrated me. He didn’t respond to the strange scenario that we had found ourselves in.
“Is that all you can say? I think I’m gonna ralph.” I groaned and leaned away from him.
My stomach heaved, but nothing came out and it was a worse feeling than if I actually had thrown up. There was nothing in my stomach. That’s not the way it was supposed to be.
“Try to keep it together. We have to figure this out.”
He was looking around, taking in the sight of our surroundings. It was a broken down old town, the kind of place that tourists wanted to come to in order to relive an Old West experience. I couldn’t tell you what part of the country that we were actually in, but that’s what I was thinking about when I looked around at a town that had obviously seen better days.
“There has to be a reason that we’re here.” His hand brushed his head. It almost looked as if he was rubbing a headache. I couldn’t tell though—the movement was quick as if he noticed what he was about to do and made a conscious decision not to do it. “This isn’t good.”
“Understatement of the century.” I was scoffing. Something about this man was starting to frustrate me. “I feel funny. Can you change?” It had occurred to me that a wolf paw is smaller than a human hand should be able to easily slip out of the cuff that we had been held in.
He concentrated for a moment. “No.” It was all he said, but I could hear the frustration behind it. There was something horrible about being denied our basic bestial nature, about being trapped in one form when we were meant to have two. It wasn’t right. Nothing about this was right. “Can you?”
“No, I feel strange, fuzzy almost. Like everything has been dulled.”
“Is this what normals feel like?” He was pondering.
“I don’t know, but this probably isn’t the same as them. I can still smell. There have been others around here.” I mentioned it and we rose to our feet together, helping each other up.
If you haven’t had to stand up while connected by a tiny chain to another person, take my advice, don’t do it. It’s not an easy thing and we literally felt like we were climbing each other while we got to our feet. There was no room for error. We had no space to do this without working together. We struggled our way to our feet and looked at each other.
“Did you do this?” It was time to ask the question that had been plaguing me.
“No.” It was all he said. He offered no defense; instead he was studying the buildings that surrounded us.
“Are you sure?” I wanted to give him another chance to fess up.
“I’m sure.” It was his only response, taciturn and completely blowing off my concerns. I had a sudden urge to punch him in the face.
I resisted the urge. “Is that all you’re going to say?” I demanded answers instead.
His head snapped around to face me. There was pure rage in his eyes, the dangerous nature of his wolf instincts. He glared at me, his eyes hard and steely-grey in the morning light. They told me of the storm that was coming.
“Look, I could sit here and wonder about what’s been going wrong, even though I already know that you have to be behind it, or I could try to figure out how to solve this problem. I can only do one of these things and the blame game isn’t going to get me home any faster.”
That was all I needed to hear. I exploded. “My fault! You honestly think that this is my fault? What the hell is wrong with you? I know you did it. You had to have done it. I didn’t do this. What possible reason would I have to do this to you?” I jabbed my finger into his chest. He took a step back, taken by surprise at the rage that I was showing. “I don’t even know who you are, so why would I do this to you? Maybe you should be asking that question.”
“Hey.” He was ready to fight me. We started to circle each other. “I don’t know you either, and I don’t know if I can trust you.” He reached up and grabbed my hand. “You don’t lay a hand on me. I am alpha of my pack and I deserve respect.”
“I’m not going to just lie down and submit to whatever you say. I’m not that kind of wolf. I refuse to Omega to you.” I laughed at him and yanked my hand away. “You must be from one of those nutjob packs that thinks it’s okay to abduct potential mates.” I continued to accuse him, but I didn’t touch him again.
“I am not a nutjob.” He was growling now.
I didn’t care about that. I growled back, making eye contact and keeping it, refusing to back down. I wondered who was going to back down first. Whoever broke contact first was going to have to follow orders. I was determined to be on top. That was what I needed, to be in charge of this situation. I felt the loss of control, and I didn’t like it, not in the slightest.
“I think you are.”
His growls grew louder and mine grew to match it. Our vision-based joust grew more intense. “You have no right to speak to me that way. Who are you anyway?”
“Fynna.” It was a strange way to introduce myself, but at least he wasn’t sniffing my butt.
“I already know that.”
“Someone who’s not going to take your crap.” I didn’t know how else to answer his question. I didn’t break eye contact. I wasn’t going to. “Just back down. I have you beat.”
“No.” It was all he said, another answer that was going to drive me crazy. He didn’t elaborate, just told me how it was going to be and I didn’t like that at all.
“What qualifications do you have to lead?” It was turning into an interview.
“I’m already the alpha of a pack.”
“You’ve already said that.”
“It’s experience.” There was a shrug in his voice, but he didn’t make the physical movement. His steel eyes stayed steady and his hair was dark brown, with shimmering highlights. I knew a lot of women that would have killed to get the same volume that he had. “What did you do to deserve to lead?”
“I didn’t kill you yet.”
“If you killed me, you would have to drag my body along.”
He was being completely reasonable with that flaw in my reasoning, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. We were in a battle for dominance, typically reason had very little do with it. I tugged on the cuffs, hoping to force him to lose eye contact by putting him off balance. It didn’t work, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I growled at him and pushed him with my free hand. It was a hard push with two fingers on the shoulders. At the same time, I pulled on his chained arm with my own. I was hoping to push him off balance, and it nearly worked. Still he didn’t break eye contact, his growls getting louder.
“Stop. We have to work together.” He made the demand in his most commanding voice.
I generally don’t have much respect for authority figures, so I didn’t want to back down. Still, we weren’t exactly in a place or a situation that would allow us to go through an entire struggle for dominance. “Give up then.”
“How about this,” He didn’t break contact, but his voice turned into the sugary sweetness of a reasonable suggestion. “We stop competing for who’s going to be on top, and we just agree to work together. We can end this. We can make that choice.”
“Is this how you got to be in charge of your pack? You offered to work together and then stabbed them in the back?”
“You can watch me if you want to. I don’t care, but I have no interest in dragging your corpse through the woods.”
That pretty much made the decision for us. We broke our contact on the count of three and started to search through the abandoned settlement for something that would help us get out of these chains.