Engaged to the Wrong Alpha
Author:© WebNovel
Chapter 1: Chapter 1: The Ultimatum
Chapter 1
Reyna
It was still early in her shift when she got a text from her sister teasing the end of the world.
At noon, she’d attempted to gather some context through various contacts, and failed. This wasn’t unusual. Between her numerous family members, all of who had working cell phones, the response rate hovered at a consistent twenty-five percent.
Reyna was pulled into assisting with a fall trauma in the emergency room shortly after she’d clocked back in from lunch and hadn’t thought about it again.
Getting to her car obstacle-free after a twelve-hour shift was a milestone and she celebrated a calm moment with her head back, the stress of the day slowly seeping away.
Her phone rang.
“Hello?”
Her sister’s voice was terse.“Are you on the way?”
“Not yet. I’m still in the parking lot. Why?”
“Didn’t you get my text?”
“You mean the vague ‘our lives are over’ that could literally mean anything?”
Reyna, though still unconvinced, cranked the car. “What’s going on Nina? With some details this time, please.”
“I can’t. We have company. Just… come home. Quickly.”
Now that was odd. Reyna put a little extra oomph into weaving out of Warm Springs’ weekday traffic and then punched the gas when she hit the highway.
Warm Springs, Montana wasn’t a metropolitan city with blocks of high rises and trendy townhouses. The highway speared through miles of valley surrounded on all sides by the Bitterroot and Sapphire Mountain Ranges, snow-tipped even now, in mid-September.
Reyna’s commute was rarely less than forty-five minutes. Today, she made it in thirty-seven. Nina, the most obnoxious gossip Reyna knew, was outside as she pulled into the drive.
Reyna slowly eased out of the driver’s seat, eyeing a sleek, black SUV parked on the curb. “Our visitor,” she surmised. “You didn’t say who they were.”
“I couldn’t get far enough away. We’re probably still not safe out here.” Nina met her at the front of her car and glanced back, nervously watching their parent’s front door. Her voice dropped to a whisper.
“Zack Courtier is inside with his goon squad. They’re —” she canted another sharp look over her shoulder. “You know how mom’s been dropping all those sly comments about money, about being careful with the business?”
Reyna nodded, watching the living room window. If she stretched her senses, focused singularly on the sounds, she could hear a few voices mumbling back and forth. Nonsensical from this distance. She refocused on Nina. “What about it?”
“Apparently the business crashed. Mom said there were a few months of slow supplier shipments, and then the shipments would show up cut in half. Half the material meant half the product. The warehouses couldn’t keep up with demands, orders were canceled, customers wanted refunds. Sales plummeted. And now everything’s just… sunk.”
“Sunk.”
Reyna processed it all carefully, watching her sister’s expression remain frighteningly sincere. Their family’s business, Navarro Custom Furniture and Home Decor, had built this community.
Her great-grandfather had started it all with dining and living room sets he’d made on his own, and then his son had spent his life nurturing and expanding the business so that when he passed it down to his son, it would be worth something.
Reyna’s father inherited it when her grandfather died, along with the Alpha position of the Warm Springs Pack, and he’d continued the success of his predecessors.
Now it was gone.
She shook her head. “There has to be something we can do.” She thought of her own debt and her salary as a nurse, wondering if she could take out a loan. If they all could. She frowned.“What does any of this have to do with Zack Courtier?”
“Glad you finally caught up,” Nina groused, pretty face pulled into a scowl. “He’s offered to buy out the business. Says he’ll keep it open and let our family retain some of their agency —”
“ — If,” Reyna assumed.
“Yes. If dad agrees to his terms.”
“Is that what they’ve been talking about? Shouldn’t they call in the lawyers? Have some papers drawn up or something? This is sketchy as hell. What interest does Zack have in a damn furniture retailer?”
Zack Courtier was Alpha of the Deer Lodge Pack, just north of Warm Springs, and head of Percepta, an outrageously successful data analysis and security firm that swallowed businesses like her family’s whole.
He’d taken the idea of secret integration with humans from a passing idea to full reality. Deer Lodge was the largest city in southwestern Montana — maybe even farther out, now — where humans unknowingly lived side-by-side with wolf shifters. None of this made sense.
Nina thought it was obvious. “C’mon, smart ass. Think real hard.”
A ridiculous thought breezed through her head. She decided to ignore it. “He wants us to redecorate his office?”
“Funny. But no. I’ll give you a hint: she’s about 5’6”, light brown skin, dark hair, green and brown eyes, about 120 give or take —”
Reyna shook her head and moved around her sister, walking to the front porch. “You’re wrong,” she said, mostly to herself.
She’d met Zack a few times. Her father was an Alpha, Zack was an Alpha, and they lived in neighboring territories. They corroborated, sometimes, to show solidarity.
An Alpha and his family might attend the wedding of another Alpha, or a birthday celebration. She hardly remembered what he looked like. To think he’d ask to marry her, a stranger, in exchange for saving their business was absurd.
“Here she is.” Reyna’s mother, Adalita, stood from the couch as Reyna stepped into the living room. “Reyna, you remember Mr. Courtier.”
The living room felt full to bursting. Her father was standing in one corner, arms folded, eyes studying the floor, while Zack lounged comfortably on the loveseat across from him. Alphas weren’t always compatible.
When one was significantly more dominant, or powerful, than another, it made being in the same room, even the same territory, uncomfortable.
Reyna had never put much thought into her father’s rank. The Warm Springs Pack was young by comparison to most in the state of Montana. They didn’t have many powerful wolves.
“It’s a pleasure to see you again,” Zack said.
He didn’t bother to stand. Two of his wolves — his Beta and a closely ranked third, Reyna’s wolf sensed — were occupying themselves in the kitchen. You don’t concern me, their actions said. It made the hairs on Reyna’s neck prickle.
She smiled through it. “You, as well. A bit of a surprise, though.”
“Apologies. I’ve been monitoring the business closely since June. At your father’s behest, of course. That we’re now at a crossroads called for an in-person conversation.”
Daniel Navarro had the decency to look contrite when Reyna’s eyes darted to him. “I see.” She sucked in a deep breath and remembered to tread carefully.
Alpha wolves were famously irascible when dealing with lower ranks — especially outside their own packs. “We appreciate your care in dealing with this… sensitive situation. I do think contacting our lawyers and —”
“ — We’re well beyond that now, I’m afraid. I’ve offered to buy your family out — including the debt — and allow your parents to continue managing the day-to-day operations. Considering the state of your pack’s financials spanning the last five years, this is a risk for me. But I’m willing to take the risk for something worth my time and effort.”
It was all news to her. Reyna hadn’t been interested in working within the scope of Navarro Furniture. She’d done exceedingly well in high school and followed her interest in the medical field to nursing school immediately after.
Her parents were disappointed. Her siblings had all shaken their heads at her, giving her narrowed side eyes, silently asking hows he could do this to their parents.
Because she had her own career, Reyna wasn’t kept in the business loop. She didn’t know Navarro Furniture was struggling. That Zack was telling her made her angry and guilty in turn.
“A generous offer. I do think my family will want to explore their other options before committing to something under the table.” Reyna’s chin lifted, though her eyes remained at his chin, unwilling to meet his gaze.
“That’s what this is, right? Some kind of quiet, unofficial agreement?”
Zack’s lips curled into a sharp, white-toothed smile. “What other options will you explore, little one?”
Little one. Reyna’s jaw ticked. He wasn’t so much bigger than her, was he? Taller, but certainly skinnier than some of the other Alphas she’d met. More corded muscle than bulk and width.
If they were human, she would’ve let him know she was onto him. But they weren’t human. Reyna could sense his wolf. He was more powerful than her and her father. It chafed, but she was no fool. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
“I’ll take out a loan. So will my siblings. We’ll pay off the debt.”
Zack tilted his head. “Only three of you are able. The younger two are, what, seventeen and… eleven? Do you even know how much is owed between the bank, the suppliers, and the distributors? That’s not accounting for the current employees.”
“I don’t, but —”
“ — But, even if the three of you applied, you won’t qualify, on your incomes, for anything close to the number. And even if you miraculously find a way to pay off the debt, you won’t have enough left over to keep the place running.”
Reyna didn’t dwell on his mention of their incomes. He’d obviously done his homework. “So be it. We’ll be cleared of debt and able to move forward.”
“And what of your pack’s debts? Your Alpha has depleted the community accounts. Navarro Furniture has been the bread and butter for Warm Springs since the beginning. Without it, who will keep these shifters safe and hidden? A fed wolf, a housed wolf, is a happy wolf.. This isn’t just a Warm Springs concern — it’s a concern for all shifters in Montana.”
Zack was pleased with himself. Reyna could feel his smug confidence filling the room. Denying him would all but ensure the collapse of Warm Springs as they knew it today. Their entire pack was at stake.
Reyna took a deep breath. Exhaled slowly. “You’ve clearly discussed this with my father. Would you mind repeating the terms for my sake?”
“Absolutely.”
Zack stood and adjusted his suit jacket, buttoned it at the center. He looked and even smelled expensive. An odd combination of scents. Something impossible to pin down. Her nostrils flared around it as he approached. He noticed.
“It’s the cologne. Oud Wood. Rustic, don’t you think?”
She didn’t say it was insane that he’d pay to smell like fake woods when he could simply walk outside for the real thing. They lived in Montana. Instead, she tried to smile. “Very.”
“As I said, I’ll bail out the family business. I’ll provide resources to restabilize it. I’ll fund the pack while your parents get back on their feet. All I ask is that you agree to marry me.”
It was hard not to scoff; is that all?
She asked, “Why? I’m sure you’ve no shortage of women who would gladly accept. And what of your fated mate? Why not use all your resources and search for her?”
“Fated mate,” he repeated, snide. “Nonsense. Who were the last you knew to find their fated mates? Your parents? Whatever magic designed them for us is failing. It’s less and less common. I don’t have the time or interest.”
Zack leaned in and that false-woodsy smell intensified. She glanced up and his eyes were a cool blue, rimmed with his wolf’s golden presence. “Our packs will be united by our business dealings and our marriage.”
“And my father will remain Alpha?”
Zack glanced over his shoulder, at Reyna’s parents, watching with tight-lipped resignation. “Of course he will.”
Reyna looked to her mother, to her father, for some sort of guidance. Did they want her to do this? Had they asked Nina to call her? Was Zack telling her the truth about everything?
Her parents, all her life, had been supportive and present and in charge. They were the Alpha and Luna of Warm Springs. Well known and liked. Friendly, compassionate, and loyal. Right now, all of that was gone. Her father looked small. Her mother looked lost.
What choice did she have?
With a predatory gleam in his eye that said, I win, Zack asked, “Shall we begin the wedding preparations?”
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone