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  A BABY FOR THE ALPHA

  BAD ALPHA DADS

  Marissa Farrar

  A BABY FOR THE ALPHA

  Copyright © 2018 Marissa Farrar

  Warwick House Press

  Edited by Lori Whitwam

  Cover art by CT Cover Creations

  License Notes

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of these authors.

  Publisher’s Note

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  A Baby for the Alpha: Bad Alpha Dads

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  About the Author

  Also by the Author

  Further Reading: The Spirit Shifters: The Complete Series

  Bestselling and Award Winning Paranormal Romance authors are bringing you the baddest of the bad ALPHA dads. Keyword bad. So sexy, you’ll want to teach them to be good. These shifter dads need all the help they can get, and we want to give it to them. Check out our website www.BadAlphaDads.com for the release schedule and more about our fabulous authors.

  Chapter One

  SHE RAN THROUGH THE forest, her breath heaving in and out of her lungs. Above her head, the moon hung low. Its white glow peeped through the spindly branches of the trees, never quite coming into full view, as though, like her, it didn’t want to be seen. Night was her cover, but she didn't know how much use it would be. Her kind was as comfortable during the night as they were in the day.

  Clutching all her worldly goods in a bag, which she held against her body, she moved as fast as she could. The baby inside her was bigger now, pushing up her internal organs, taking up the space where her lungs should be. This made it harder for her to breathe, but physical issues weren’t the only reason for her shortness of breath. Fear clutched at her heart, and, as she ran, she turned to glance over her shoulder, certain he would be pursuing her.

  He would kill her when he found out she had gone, but she had no choice. Her body was changing now, her bump too big to be able to hide much longer. She’d been lucky in that the baby had been positioned closer to her back, making her growing belly less noticeable, but soon it would be impossible for him not to notice, and when that happened, she knew it would be all over.

  When it had just been her, she’d been able to put up with how things were, but now everything was different. As the pregnancy progressed, and she’d experienced the wonder of feeling the movements of her baby inside her, she’d known she wouldn’t be able to let her child live through the life she’d been forced into. So she’d done the only thing she could.

  She ran.

  How many miles lay ahead? She had no way of knowing. All she focused on was putting as many between her and the place she had once thought of as home. Though on foot right now, because, despite her pregnancy, it was the safest, most reliable way for her to move, she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep it up forever. The baby drained her energy, and soon enough she would need to find transport other than her own legs.

  She could try to hide among the humans, but a shifter’s gestation period was far shorter than a human’s. If she needed to seek medical attention, or if the baby needed to be born in the hospital, what she was would be noticed immediately. Humans knew of the existence of supernaturals, but it wasn’t them figuring out what she was that worried her so much. No, the reason for her concerns were that it was unusual for a shifter to give birth among humans, and that news would travel, no matter what distance she’d put between herself and the place she’d once thought of as home. And when that news did travel, it would eventually reach his ears, and, when it did, he would find her.

  And then he would kill them both.

  Chapter Two

  “I’M SORRY, CARTER. This just isn’t working. We’ve tried. You know we have. I can’t waste my life like this.”

  Alpha of Silver Creek Pack, Carter Reed, put out a hand to try to placate her. “Just one more cycle. Please. You never know.”

  Kimberly exhaled a deep sigh. “I’m not getting any younger, and neither are you, for that matter. You’re almost thirty years old, and if this was going to happen, it would have by now.”

  “We don’t know that.” He hated the pleading tone in his voice—he wasn’t a man who begged—but he couldn’t help it. Desperation was starting to set in. As her alpha, he could have commanded her to stay, but he’d never had to force a woman into staying with him, and he wasn’t about to start now. “These things take time.”

  She shook her head. “Not for an alpha male and alpha female, they don’t. This obviously isn’t right. I’m sorry. I can’t give this any more of my time.”

  Carter watched as she turned from him, her tiny waist flaring into wide hips—child-bearing hips, he’d thought when he’d first seen her—and she sashayed away without even a backward glance, her shiny dark hair swinging down her slender back.

  He grabbed the edge of his front door and slammed it shut with a bang that rattled through the rest of the house. He balled his fist and punched the wood. “Goddamn it!”

  His anger wasn’t heartbreak. He’d enjoyed the time he’d spent with Kimberly, but they’d both known why they were together. It was a mutual, unspoken agreement—with her wanting something from him, the opportunity to be alpha female, and him needing the one thing that would secure his place as pack leader. That wasn’t saying he wouldn’t miss her. She’d been filthy in bed, and he’d enjoyed having her willingly spread her legs for him at any moment. But as the months went by, and there had still been no sign of anything happening, they’d both started to get frustrated. Sex had never quite become a chore, but it was certainly heading in that direction, and he knew she’d been able to sense it, too. They’d been sniping at each other about ridiculous things, and the passionate sex had turned into angry sex. Not that he was complaining too much, but they’d both known it wasn’t working.

  Shit.

  Kimberly had been the latest in a line of failed relationships. Hell, they could hardly be called relationships. They were arrangements. Agreements. He hadn’t found his mate yet. In fact, he was starting to think such a thing didn’t even exist. Everyone talked about a mythical mate, a bonding, but he thought it was as likely as love at first sight. You didn’t need to find a bonded mate in order to have pups. His mother and father had been an arranged bonding, and they’d produced him just fine.

  Before Kimberly had been Sara, and before Sara was Lizbeth. There had been at least a few before Lizbeth, but both their names and faces were starting to blend together now. With each arrangement, he’d done his best to get the female pregnant, but nothing had worked. His f
irst mating, Allison, had left him because of it when he was twenty-three. They’d tried for two years to get her pregnant, doing ridiculous things before and after sex to try to get something to stick—him keeping his balls at a certain temperature, which wasn’t easy as a hot-blooded shifter, and her lying with her legs up in the air. Nothing had worked, and in the end Allison had announced she wasn’t wasting her life in this way, and had mated with another wolf in his pack. That had hurt. He’d actually cared about that girl.

  Now, six years later, he was running out of nubile young women in the pack. He could have any of them for the taking—he only had to say the word—but he’d known some of the girls only just turning eighteen since they were small pups, and he couldn’t bring himself to think of them in that way.

  He’d never liked the idea of a single mate for the rest of his life, anyway. Who the hell would want that? It would be like spending every day surrounded by the most sumptuous buffet, but being told you could only eat one item on the table every day forever. It didn’t matter how much he liked the one dish, he was going to get sick of it eventually and start longing for all the other delicious things on offer.

  But his time was running out. He needed to provide a child—male or female, didn’t matter—to continue his family’s hold on the position of alpha. He could sense other males in the pack already sniffing around, knowing the chance to challenge his place was coming up soon. What the fuck was wrong with him?

  Carter couldn’t stand to spend the rest of the day holed up inside the walls of his home. He’d smash the place apart before the end of the day. He wasn’t someone who coped with emotions well, preferring a physical outlet to anything that was troubling him. A run through the forest in wolf form would soon put any worries out of his head. Problem was, even after the run, he still had to come home and face things. The pack would hear of Kimberly leaving soon enough, and then he was going to have some questions to answer. The pack couldn’t continue with him at its head if he was unable to provide them with an heir to take on his role of alpha or female alpha when the pup came of age.

  No, he preferred to be as wolf when he was feeling like this. Hell, he preferred to be as wolf, full stop. Life was easier as a beast. Fighting, fucking, feeding. That was all it came down to when he was in animal form. At times, he could see the appeal to becoming a lone wolf and living his life that way, not needing to worry about pack hierarchy and expectations. But the truth was, he loved his pack. Yes, it was frustrating at times, but his family had been alphas for generations now, and he wanted to remain as head of the pack. The thought of being forced to step down because of something that was completely out of his control filled him with shame. He was the biggest man and wolf in the entire pack, and he could fight off any of the other wolves sniffing around his position as alpha, but if they could get a female pregnant and produce the pack’s next generation of alphas, and he couldn’t... well, then, he’d have no choice but to willingly step down.

  Carter left his house—the largest in town, and another thing he’d be forced to relinquish if he didn’t produce the next generation of alpha—and crossed the compound. The house had always been a place filled with family. Cubs, aunts, uncles, and of course the alpha and alpha female, looking down on what they’d played such a huge part in creating. That was how he remembered his family, but fate hadn’t been kind. He’d lost his mother when he was sixteen, and his father two years later, which was when he’d taken over as alpha.

  The small town which housed the Silver Creek pack consisted of Main Street and a couple of blocks behind on both sides. It was barely a town, really, but there weren’t enough pack members to make the place any larger. Other supernaturals, like the vampires, preferred to be alone, and tended to blend with the humans, but shifters were different. They liked to form communities of their own and stuck to their own kind. Outsiders weren’t welcomed, and the idea of a human or vampire attempting to move into a place run by a pack was laughable.

  Carter’s motorcycle sat on the street outside. He didn’t need to worry about a helmet or leathers. Not only did he have supernatural agility and senses, he also healed faster than humans, so if he were to come off, it was unlikely that he’d do himself any permanent damage. He swung his leg over the seat. It wouldn’t take him long to get out of town, but he didn’t want to walk. All he wanted to do was escape and put as much space between him and Kimberly as possible.

  About to kick the bike into gear, someone jogged toward him, his hand lifted to catch Carter’s attention. Carter groaned inwardly. This was exactly the thing he’d been hoping to avoid by getting out of town quickly. Perhaps he should have stayed in the house and locked the door instead.

  Liam Goodman was only a couple of years younger than Carter. Good-looking, with a muscular frame and a natural charm, he was most likely going to be the one after Carter’s position as alpha if things didn’t work out.

  “Hey, Carter. I just passed Kimberly. She said things hadn’t worked out between you.”

  Carter scowled. “You’re not sniffing around my leftovers again, are you, Liam?”

  Liam laughed, and then threw Carter a wink. “How do you know I hadn’t already been there first?”

  Carter’s fists tightened around the handles of his bike. “You know who you’re speaking to? Don’t be so fucking disrespectful of your alpha.”

  “Might not be for long, though, huh? Everyone is talking, Carter. It’s not even like you can hand over to your beta. Everyone knows James wouldn’t be cut out for the job.”

  It was true. James Salter wasn’t alpha material. Carter had chosen him as beta because the other man was so different from him. James was a gentler soul, who was happily mated to his childhood sweetheart, Anna. He liked his books and handled the pack’s finances, plus James never made any noises about wishing he was able to take the next step up in the pack. James was the brains, while Carter supplied the brawn.

  Carter wished he had a younger brother, or hell, a cousin, even, so he’d have someone he could hand over the role of alpha to, and hope they’d do a better job at maintaining their family’s bloodline, but he didn’t. Carter was too proud a man to ever admit that he was lonely in his world. He was surrounded by other pack members, but they each had families of their own. He, of all wolves, should be confident in his place within the pack, but often he experienced a pang of envy toward the subordinate wolves, with their big families and content lives. At least he assumed they were content. It wasn’t as though he’d ever taken the time to ask one of them.

  He remembered Liam still standing there, smirking at him. Carter hated that the other shifter knew exactly what was going on in his personal life.

  He roared the bike to life. “I’ve got places to be. Now, stop wasting my time.”

  Not giving the other shifter time to reply, he released the throttle and got the big bike moving. He glanced in the wing mirror and exhaled a breath as Liam grew smaller in the glass.

  Chapter Three

  HE SHOULDN’T HAVE FELT better by leaving his pack behind, but he did.

  Once he got out of town, Carter swerved the bike off the road and into the bordering forest. Instantly, he was able to breathe more easily. The bike bumped and jolted over rough terrain, and he slowed his speed and took the time to maneuver around fallen tree trunks and clumps of bushes. He wanted to get deep enough into the forest that he didn’t have to worry about another of his pack noticing either his bike or his scent and following him out here. Most wolves liked to run as a group, but today he just wanted to be alone with his own thoughts. Or even better, not to have to think at all.

  Carter stopped the bike and climbed off. He kicked down the stand. No one should come across the bike out here, not unless they were specifically looking for it. He reached up into the air, stretching out the muscles of his neck and shoulders. The tension from his fight with Kimberly had knotted everything up. He was a big man, bulked with muscle, and when he was stressed, he felt it in every inch of his bod
y.

  Already more relaxed, he reached to the bottom of his t-shirt and pulled it up over his head. He dropped the material onto the seat of the bike. His hands went to the button of the soft, worn jeans currently encasing his ass and thighs, and he popped it open and unzipped the fly. Toeing off the boots he wore, he left them tumbled together. Finally, he shucked the jeans from his hips and kicked them away. He didn’t need to worry about underwear; he never wore any.

  Naked in the forest, he rolled his shoulders and planted his bare feet in the dirt. He inhaled the pine scent of the trees and listened as the birds grew quiet in the trees and insects departed the area. It was as though he gave off a type of radiation that allowed the other inhabitants to know something supernatural was around. Things were normal when he was in man form, and also as wolf, but when he was in that in-between point, just as he was on the brink of change, the rest of the forest grew quiet.

  His wolf form was always right beneath the surface, waiting to be called upon.

  As he threw himself forward, he shed the skin of his human form. By the time he hit the ground, his hands and feet were already paws. A bushy tail sprung out from his spine, and large ears folded from the top of his head.

  Carter was as big a wolf as he was man. Thick, luxurious black fur covered his heavily muscled body, and he paused to shake it out before continuing on his run. Fallen leaves crunched beneath his paws, and the earthy scent of the forest floor filled his nostrils. His sense of smell was acute as a man, but in wolf form it became a hundred times stronger. All around him, small creatures darted away, worried they’d become a snack, but Carter wasn’t interested in eating. All he wanted to do was run until he was so exhausted he could no longer think.

  But as he ran, a different scent drifted over to him, stronger than the pine infused air. What was that? Something sweet, yet warming, like vanilla cupcakes recently taken out of the oven. His nostrils flared, and he slowed his pace. He had to find the source of the scent. It pulled him, leaving him no option but to follow. As both wolf and man, his sense of smell was always heightened, but this was on a whole new level. It seemed to filter through his olfactory channel, sinking into his body, swimming through his veins and becoming a part of him. All other thought fled his mind. Only one desire filled him—no, it was more than a desire. It was a need to find it. Something he couldn’t control.