Saved by the Shifter (Paranormal BBW Werewolf Mini Novella, Alpha Wolf Mate) Read online

  Copyright © 2013 by Cassie Laurent.

  Kindle Edition

  v1.0

  Saved by the Shifter is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. This book or portions thereof may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any form whatsoever without direct permission from the author.

  This book is intended Only for Mature Audiences 18+. It contains mature themes, substantial sexually explicit scenes, and graphic language which may be considered offensive by some readers.

  UUID: 847a7dab-b107-4af6-8575-4b4346d7501b

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title/Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  More from Cassie

  About the Author

  Other Paranormal/BBW titles by Cassie Laurent:

  Xander's Mate

  Claimed by the Alpha Prince

  Pursued by the Wolf Pack

  My Boss's Werewolf Secret

  Seduced by My Werewolf Professor

  Taken by My Werewolf Boss

  Crazy for the Werewolf

  Rocked by the Werewolf

  Curves for the Werewolf

  CHAPTER 1

  ———

  ~ Kara ~

  L-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10

  Ding!

  The doors opened and I found myself ten stories up in an apartment building on the upper west side of Manhattan. Walking down the hallway, I looked for the door that read 10F. Habitually, I glanced at my watch, already wondering how long I would be forced to stay at the party. I sighed. I don’t know why I’m like this, but there’s something that bothers me about showing up to parties, pretending to have fun, wasting my time on useless chatter with uninteresting people I’ve never met before.

  But really, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be so cynical. It’s just been a hard couple of months for me and it’s been difficult for me to loosen up. Maybe if I made an effort, I’d have more fun at these things. But seriously, why did I have to try so hard to have fun? Wasn’t fun supposed to be natural and lighthearted? I don’t know, I guess I’m just a pessimist after living in the city for so long. I no longer believed in love, happiness, romance or anything like that. Maybe it made sense that I no longer believed in fun.

  Or maybe it was just that I believed in a different kind of fun, like curling up with a good book late at night, or falling asleep watching a stupid movie. Those sounded infinitely better than talking with a bunch of drunk strangers. All the same, I did get lonely sometimes. Maybe I would meet someone at this party.

  Yeah, right.

  I’d never met anyone at these things that I felt like talking to for more than ten minutes, a half hour tops. What reason was there to believe that tonight would be any different?

  As I walked up to the door of Marcy’s apartment, I plastered a smile onto my face. Even if I wasn’t having fun, I would at least pretend to be doing so for her sake. She was a good friend after all, and I appreciated her trying to include me whenever she put these social events together. I knew she loved to entertain, so it was the least I could do to support her.

  Music was blaring inside 10F, so I decided to forego the knock that wouldn’t be heard and walked right in. Inside I was shocked to find everyone wearing masks. For the briefest second I thought I might have a panic attack, before I realized what date it was: October 31st—Halloween. Was I supposed to wear a costume? Marcy hadn’t said anything about that. But all the masks were the same, those black masquerade masks you sometimes see in operas. I noticed a bin full of them on a table by the door next to a bowl of candy. A woman in a mask and a sleek black dress was walking toward me, and her bright red heels let me know immediately that it was Marcy.

  “Kara! You came!” she screamed, opening her arms to give me a hug, the vodka soda in her right hand dangling over my shoulder as we embraced.

  “Of course! I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” I said, my voice high and imbued with fake enthusiasm. I don’t want to brag, but I was getting pretty good at feigning excitement at these things.

  “Here, let me get you a drink,” she said, taking my coat from me. “But wait, put on a mask first. Everyone has to wear a mask.”

  I rolled my eyes, half-jokingly, but half-seriously, too.

  “Really?” I asked.

  “Yes, it will be fun! You just have to trust me on this one.”

  Reluctantly, I slid on the mask. It was slightly uncomfortable and a bit difficult to see out of the eyeholes, but mostly it just made me feel silly. I followed Marcy into the kitchen so she could mix me a drink—if I was going to feel this foolish tonight, I’d at least need a drink or two to help me relax.

  Marcy handed me a cold glass. The ice clinked against the delicate body of the tumbler as I took a small sip of the bitter, yet relaxing liquid inside. Marcy had made this one strong, but that was alright with me.

  ~ Alec ~

  Alec walked down the hall and into the apartment; he was early for the party. He always arrived early, not because he was so excited to be there, but because he hated walking into a crowded room; it put him on edge, threatening to push his true nature to the surface.

  He’d spent years fighting his identity, trying to live a normal, human life. But how could he? His very nature forbade it. He’d had these animalistic impulses since he was young, and forcing them below the surface sapped almost all of his energy. But now, at the age of twenty-eight, he at least maintained some semblance of control. He lived an outwardly normal life as a successful attorney. Yet on rare nights…

  It was his job as an attorney that brought him to apartment 10F today. No, he obviously wasn’t here in some official legal capacity, but Paul, a fellow lawyer at his law firm, was dating the woman throwing the party. Marcia, he thought her name was, or something close to that. Mary? He couldn’t remember.

  The truth was he didn’t care much for these types of social gatherings; they were just part of keeping up the ruse of his ‘normal’ life. Parties were a surprisingly big part of this life; humans liked parties, and they liked being social. If shallow conversations with boring strangers every now and again were what it took to allow him to live peacefully in the human world, then so be it. Alec would do what was necessary.

  He rapped his knuckles deftly on the door to 10F. He looked down at his watch—time to put on his acting mask. A smile worked its way across his face, warm and seemingly genuine.

  “Hello, Paul,” said Alec as the door swung open. He reached out his hand for a strong handshake. “How are you?”

  CHAPTER 2

  ———

  ~ Kara ~

  I stirred my drink, enjoying an occasional sip as I looked around the room. The masks added an interesting element to this otherwise mundane party. I found, at least to some extent, that I was enjoying myself more than usual. Then again, maybe it was the stiff drink I had in hand.

  I had to admit there was something intoxicating about the mask. There was this aspect of anonymity that allowed me to be less reserved than I usually was in similar situations. Part of the reason I hate parties is that I feel so insecure around some of the people I meet in New York, al
l so happy and confident and self-important.

  And since this was NYC, many of them were exceptionally attractive as well. Meanwhile, there was no denying my curves. They were something that were a part of me that I just had to deal with. I was perpetually self-conscious about them, and this sometimes had the unfair result of impeding my interactions with other people; my insecurities about my body tended to show through in both my actions and my words. It was a constant source of dissatisfaction with myself; it made me shyer than I needed to be.

  But that wasn’t the case tonight. Hiding behind the mask, I was less concerned about what people thought of me. I was Kara, but, at the same time, I also wasn’t. It was like I had two natures, somehow existing in combination as a duality.

  The masks had an interesting effect on how I perceived other people as well; because their faces were obscured, I couldn’t tell who was pretty and who wasn’t, who was handsome and who was not. This allowed me a freedom I’d never had before; since I didn’t know what people really looked like, I wasn’t intimidated. I actually felt kind of confident. It was an admittedly very pleasant surprise.

  At the moment, I had a rather tall man talking to me, some kind of businessman or investment banker or something. It wasn’t quite clear, but I think he told me early on that he worked in finance. I listened as he droned on and on about his job, his long hours, his money, etc. People could be so boring. Did he really think he was impressing me?

  It was then that I noticed a set of eyes staring at me from across the room. They were hard to see because of the mask, but a slight glow seemed to emanate from them, a cool grey-blue just very visible, so slight I had to wonder if my eyes were playing tricks on me. I shuddered as a chill came over me. Apparently, the shudder was visible, because the dull man I had been speaking to seemed to notice. He asked if I was OK.

  “Oh, yes, just a bit cold. This fall weather changes so fast. I can’t believe that it’s November tomorrow.”

  He said something back, but I was no longer paying attention; I was concentrating on those eyes staring back at me. Thank goodness for the mask; without it I would have been too shy to look in the mysterious man’s direction. I said something to the financier absent-mindedly, excusing myself from the conversation.

  Before I knew it I was walking towards the strange man who I’d locked eyes with. I didn’t know what I was doing; it was almost against my will that my body made these movements toward him. It was as if I couldn’t help myself.

  ~ Alec ~

  Alec cradled a glass of scotch in his hand, leaning on the back of a couch in the living room. He was positioned over near a window that overlooked Central Park, its appearance exceedingly eerie on this Halloween night. Sometimes Alec wished he could get drunk; it would make it easier to socialize with these humans. But it was impossible, no matter how much he drank his body seemed to tolerate it. His instincts always kicked in, and he was always on high alert, aware of his surroundings and constantly on his guard.

  A young woman was talking to him at this moment, skinny and presumably pretty by human standards; one could tell that even despite the mask. She worked in marketing or something, he didn’t quite remember because his mind was elsewhere. He had a habit of immediately assessing any woman who interacted with him solely by the standards of his other nature. He could tell immediately that this woman would not make a suitable mate. And so he’d immediately lost interest.

  This thought had set his mind wandering away in another direction. Part of Alec feared he would never find his true mate. This was a shocking proposition for him to contemplate, since mating was a thing of fate, a thing of destiny in most cases. The fact that he had not found his true mate, even at the age of twenty-eight, made him worry that he might be left to die alone.

  He had heard of such sad stories of shifters who had searched high and low and never found their other halves. While rare, it did happen. And when it did, the magnitude of the tragedy was undeniable. Was his story to be tragic too?

  He shook his head, as if to banish that heinous thought from his mind. Twenty-eight wasn’t that old. There was still time. But he was waiting for that sign, that unmistakable sign that would point him to the one he was meant for, the one who was meant for him.

  Perhaps it was a mistake to strike out on his own, to think he could try to live a normal human life, to balance both natures inside of himself against these complex surroundings. He could have stayed in that other world, the world of wolves and pure instinct. It would have been easy to find a mate there.

  But no, that wouldn’t have been right. Because while he had those instincts, he had others, too. His problem lay in the fact that he wasn’t one thing, but two. A life of a wolf was simple, the life of a human more complex, but still relatively simple. For a shifter, one who felt the pull of both worlds, life was irreducibly complicated. This made finding his mate all the more necessary, he needed someone with whom he could confide in, a foundation of mutual trust to help each other through the vicissitudes of this strange and challenging life.

  The point, in the end, was that this girl standing in front of him in a slinky black dress was almost certainly not his mate. And really, what were his chances of running into a suitable mate at a Halloween party in Manhattan? It was overly optimistic to even entertain that possibility.

  CHAPTER 3

  ———

  ~ Alec ~

  Alec took another sip of scotch, if only for the rich, oaky taste. Then a strange feeling came over him. He couldn’t exactly explain it because he couldn’t quite understand it. It was something completely novel, like nothing he had ever felt before. His senses were heightened, but not as they were before a fight. There was something light and ecstatic about this sensation; he felt powerful and energetic, and despite his usual demeanor, exceptionally happy. He also felt driven by desire, a desire with a boundless strength he’d never experienced before, seemingly of a different quality altogether. But a desire for what?

  Alec looked away from the young woman in the mask as the door to the apartment opened. He watched as Paul’s girlfriend led someone into the kitchen. The woman was slipping on a mask, but for a split second he caught a glimpse of her face. His heart jumped and his senses reached the height of intensity: this was perhaps the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

  He sipped his scotch, but could not take his eyes off of the woman who’d just entered the party. He nodded as he pretended to converse with the marketing girl still in front of him.

  “Your job sounds really interesting,” he said with a nod and a wry smile.

  She couldn’t tell he was being sarcastic, that he couldn’t give a damn about her job. She couldn’t tell that for all intents and purposes, his energies were focused on the woman who had just come through the door of the apartment, the curvy girl whose mask covered such a beautiful face. He watched as a tall man struck up a conversation with her over by the stereo.

  Alec continued to look on as the woman engaged in idle conversation. He saw her smile here and there, but he could tell she didn’t feel anything, that she didn’t mean any of the words she spoke. Was it possible that she was just as bored as he was? He laughed to himself, realizing she was acting a part, just like he did at parties. She was doing her best just trying to blend in at a party she clearly didn’t want to be at.

  He wanted to talk to this woman, but he wasn’t sure exactly why just yet. He tried to make eye contact with her, to send her a subtle hint to come over to him. Alec wasn’t stupid, he knew how attractive normal human females found him. Perhaps he could pull her over to him with his very will. A strange thought, but one that seemed logical enough right now.

  Alec took another deep gulp of his scotch, feeling at the heights of his power. Just below his conscious thoughts, in that wolf nature that formed the other half of his constitution, Alec realized that this woman was the source of these new feelings, this heightened sensitivity, this robust new sense of power her felt.

  Yes, he perha
ps could draw her over to him with his very will, but it was only because this woman was meant for him. This was his mate. If he couldn’t have her, he would never be happy and his life would be an utter and complete a failure.

  But Alec didn’t realize this just yet. He didn’t know just how high the stakes were on this dark night. He looked away from his conversation with the marketing woman and back out into Central Park. Then he looked back and nodded his head politely, still pretending to engage in the conversation he happened to find himself in.

  Soon enough he saw a woman walking towards him; the woman who’d entered the party late, the one whose beautiful face would become the touchstone of the supernatural lust pent up inside Alec and his shifters nature.

  ~ Kara ~

  I suddenly found myself walking across the room, inexplicably drawn to the strange man who looked back at me. I made my way toward him, our eyes still locked. I just had to speak to him, to find out who he was. I didn’t know exactly why. But my heart was racing and I couldn’t control myself.

  Normally, if I felt this nervous I’d be more likely to leave the room, to go out in the hallway or to the balcony and calm myself down, or maybe just leave the party entirely and go home. Tonight, however, I was facing the source of my nervousness, because it wasn’t just nerves, but also excitement that was at play. I’m not lying when I say I was drawn to him. I was only five steps away, when…

  “Kara, come here! There’s someone I’m dying to introduce to you.”

  I was startled to find Marcy at my side, tugging at my left arm and holding a glass of champagne in her other hand.

  “What?” I asked, somewhat disoriented, the momentary trance now broken.

  I really hadn’t heard what she’d said, my focus was so fully on the man across the room.