A Mate for the Alpha and His Brothers [The Cat Burglars 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  The Cat Burglars 4

  A Mate for the Alpha and His Brothers

  Elsie "LC" Parker needs to return a stolen jeweled dagger given to her brother JJ before leaving town forever. The Alpha of the panther pack to whom she takes it has no intention of letting her go. He wants her to be his mate.

  Amory craves her with every breath he takes, but he doesn’t want to touch her because he feels guilty about claiming a mate when so many of his men don’t have a woman of their own.

  His brothers, Favian and Brayden, really like Elsie as well, but don’t want to claim her and share her when Amory so clearly wants her. They don’t understand why he doesn’t ask her on a date or at least try to kiss her. Amory might be the Alpha of the pack, but when it comes to romance, he obviously needs his brothers’ help to get moving, before Elsie gives up on them all and really does leave.

  Genre: BDSM, Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Shape-shifter

  Length: 35,739 words

  A MATE FOR THE ALPHA

  AND HIS BROTHERS

  The Cat Burglars 4

  Cara Adams

  MENAGE EVERLASTING

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting

  A MATE FOR THE ALPHA AND HIS BROTHERS

  Copyright © 2015 by Cara Adams

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-63259-279-8

  First E-book Publication: May 2015

  Cover design by Les Byerley

  All art and logo copyright © 2015 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of A Mate for the Alpha and His Brothers by Cara Adams from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

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  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Cara Adams’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Cara Adams’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  About the Author

  A MATE FOR THE ALPHA AND HIS BROTHERS

  The Cat Burglars 4

  CARA ADAMS

  Copyright © 2015

  Chapter One

  Amory Willard, Alpha of the Yooper panther pack, set his enormous mug of coffee down on his office desk with one hand while switching his computer on with the other. He’d left his office door open. It was barely seven on a Monday morning, and he didn’t expect anyone to want to speak to him for at least an hour yet.

  Recently his younger brothers, Favian and Brayden, had become his right-hand men, doing all they could to ease the load of managing a pack of over one hundred men, women, and children. One of them would be here in an hour to refill his coffee mug and help him deal with the business side of running the pack.

  Meanwhile, he needed to check his e-mails and get his butt into gear to begin the working week.

  Amory slid his ass into his comfortable, ergonomically correct chair and waggled the mouse. The top right-hand corner of his screen was still showing the view of the CCTV camera overlooking the main gate of the compound from last night. He always kept it on in the evenings when he worked late. Which seemed to be almost every evening of his life at the moment. Whoever was rostered on guard duty would be there in an hour in case of visitors and to escort people with an appointment into the main office.

  The pack ran a reclamation business, locating missing items of worth. That included things like laptops or cell phones holding confidential information left behind on public transportation or lost in cafes and movie theaters to items that had been stolen. The pack called themselves “The Cat Burglars” because of one aspect of their business, and as a joking reference to their shape-shifter status.

  It wasn’t the kind of business that had people dropping in to see them without appointments. Those who knew about their skills tended to be government officials at the highest level who dealt directly with Amory.

  Amory clicked on the icon for his e-mail and sipped his coffee. A movement flickered at the top of the screen, and he looked up to see a woman with very short hair press the buzzer on the gate. Immediately, he clicked on the security tape, activating the sound and making the vision full-screen, and stared at the woman. She seemed young, not very tall, and her face was narrow with pronounced cheekbones. She gazed into the camera while she waited for a response.

  “Good morning, ma’am.”

  It was one of the twins. The Alpha listened harder, but the person on duty had stopped speaking. Nevertheless Amory’s brain supplied the answer. It was Nelson, not Nahum.

  “Please let me in. It’s very important. I can’t stay here where I might be seen for very long. I have something to give the Al—the manager. Please, open the gate.”

  Her voice was light but firm, and the glances she was shooting all around her indicated clearly that she didn’t want to be standing around for long.

  “Just a moment, ma’am.” Nelson’s voice hadn’t changed, but the Alpha assumed he was sending one of the other guards out to check her.

  Amory clicked the rotate button at th
e bottom of his screen, panning the camera around, but the area surrounding the gate was empty. Out on the road there was a constant stream of cars passing. Already traffic was getting busier even though rush hour hadn’t officially started yet. The panther warehouse occupied the entire block, with the building itself set in a large parking lot. Since most families shared a vehicle and used the pack cars for pack business, the lot was never more than half full, but that suited them fine. It made it appear as though the building wasn’t especially important.

  In their work, invisibility was good.

  Nahum was crossing the parking lot now, and he unlocked the gate just a small amount and let the woman in, locking it behind her. “This way, ma’am.”

  Obediently she walked with him, but now Amory could see her nervousness, as she was constantly moving a little faster than Nahum, hurrying toward the building.

  He changed screens to the camera over the front door as they approached.

  Nahum unlocked the main door into the warehouse, which led into a reception area, and Nelson was standing there at the reception desk.

  “Now, ma’am, what is your business here?” Nelson asked.

  The woman looked from one of them to the other, likely just discovering that they were identical twins. She stiffened her spine and said, “I have something to give your …um…manager. It came into my possession, but it isn’t mine. I’d like him to return it to the rightful owner.”

  “Yes, ma’am. We’ll do our best, ma’am. Just give it to me,” said Nelson.

  “No. I’m only going to give it the Alpha himself. It’s not meant as a slight to you, but…” Her voice trailed off, and once again, she looked nervous, but she made no effort to give anything to the men.

  Amory looked more closely at the woman. Her hands were empty, and she wasn’t carrying a bag or a purse. If fact… He looked more closely at her. Her face was fairly narrow. There was no roundness in her cheeks or fat in the flesh of her neck. Her hands likely were thin, her fingers narrow, yet her body inside that coat didn’t look slender.

  Fuck! Was she wearing body armor or a suicide vest?

  He hit the microphone button. “Take your coat off, now.”

  She looked all around the room but obediently unbuttoned her coat and slid it down her arms. Her body was revealed as slender, matching her face, neck, and hands.

  “Throw that coat outside,” he ordered, more worried than ever that it was a bomb.

  She’d found where the camera was and looked up at it. “This coat holds all my worldly possessions. There’s no danger to it. I’m happy to put it outside as long as you promise no one will steal anything from it.”

  “What the fuck?”

  Nahum grabbed the coat from her and spread it on the counter. Inside were rows of pockets, some small and others much larger. She must have done the sewing herself because different fabrics had been used for various pockets. Nahum pulled several pairs of panties out of one pocket and hastily pushed them back in again. His next find was a wallet and a passport. He left them on the counter beside the coat.

  One of the larger pockets revealed a couple of T-shirts. Before long the counter was piled with her possessions. It was a lot of things to have hidden in a coat, but it wasn’t all that much when viewed critically. A pair of jeans, three T-shirts, three sets of underwear, four pairs of socks, a pair of woolen mittens, a flash drive in an envelope labeled photos, the passport, one of those cheap, prepaid, throwaway cell phones, and a wallet that was so thin that it clearly didn’t hold a lot of money.

  The final item was in a soft fabric bag, and when Nahum went to open it, she said, “Be very careful.”

  Amory found himself leaning forward, peering at the screen as Nahum cautiously opened the bag and took out an old dagger with the flashing fire of jewels in the hilt.

  He knew instantly what it was. It was one of the items on the list of things his men had been asked to search that criminal Lewis Lutterworth’s house for. His panthers hadn’t found it, but their search had been interrupted. It looked as though it hadn’t been there to find.

  “Now, can I speak to your Alpha, or do you want me to strip off the rest of my clothes?”

  Amory’s lips split into a grin, and he was glad no one could see him. He wouldn’t mind at all if she undressed. She had an abundance of strength and spirit inside that slender body. A body that he anticipated would look very nice indeed unclothed.

  Nelson coughed, and Nahum replied, “Maybe remove your boots, ma’am.” She did so, and he realized they’d had high heels. She was even smaller than he’d thought. She picked up the dagger, tenderly placing it back in the fabric bag and said, “I’m holding you responsible for looking after my things. I don’t want anything stolen.”

  “No, ma’am,” said Nelson.

  Nahum looked at the camera and said, “Shall I bring her to you, sir?”

  “Yes, thank you. And ask Brayden to bring us some coffee, please.”

  He couldn’t wait to see this woman up closer. How had she known to come to him? And who the fuck was she anyway?

  * * * *

  LC Parker, known to everyone, including her own family, as Elsie, had understood that coming here to the panther headquarters was a huge risk. But since she’d determined to return the dagger to its rightful owners, instead of helping her brother give it to the man the gang called The Fixer, her life wasn’t worth shit anyway.

  Actually her life hadn’t been worth shit for quite a while. Not for over a year since her mother had finally died from the cancer that had slowly and painfully sucked the last little bit of life out of her. Elsie straightened her shoulders. She wasn’t going to think about that anymore. Her mother had moved on and was out of pain now. It was up to Elsie to save herself since JJ was likely to get them both killed the way he was acting lately.

  She was led down a hallway of regular offices. She could have been in any office building in the city, instead of in the building she knew housed a pack of shape-shifting panthers. She ought to be scared witless. She was a human, and not a very big, strong, or brave one at that. Any of these men could snap her in half like a carrot stick, and likely chew her up and swallow her down like a carrot stick as well.

  But they were her only hope. However, she wasn’t stupid. As soon as the Alpha promised to return the dagger to the person who owned it, she was out of here. Not just out of the panthers’ building, but out of town, and out of Ohio as well. She didn’t know where she was going, and she had no money to buy a bus ticket. The few dollars she’d managed to save she’d need for food.

  There was a diner on the outskirts of town where trucks stopped. She aimed to beg a ride with one of the truck drivers and go wherever they went. As far as possible from here. She wasn’t naïve. She knew some of them would expect sex in return for the ride, but surely one among them would be a family man who’d help her. Or a gay man who wasn’t interested in females. That would work.

  Her guide, the security guard, a big man in a black uniform, and the twin of the one who’d stayed back in the entry foyer, knocked on an open door. This must be the Alpha’s office. It was a big room but not at all luxurious. The man she supposed was the Alpha sat behind a large desk, but it was littered with piles of papers. In front of it were three plain wooden straight-backed chairs. At the other end of the room two sofas faced each other with a coffee table between them.

  Her escort stopped and waited in silence until the Alpha waved him in. He handed the dagger to the Alpha but made no attempt to sit in the straight-backed chairs, so she didn’t either, although her knees were a little wobbly with fear. Being at the mercy of people she didn’t know was terrifying. But the alternative was worse, so she straightened her shoulders, raised her chin, and looked at the Alpha.

  “What is your name?” he asked.

  “LC Parker, sir.”

  “Why are you here, LC?”

  That surprised her. He definitely said LC, not Elsie. Almost no one picked up on that tiny distinction
.

  “To return the dagger. You know that. You were watching and listening on the TV.”

  He shot her a fierce look from gray eyes under heavy, dark brown eyebrows. Oops. She ought not to have answered him like that. She’d been out of society for too long and needed to reclaim her manners really quickly.

  Elsie felt the presence of someone behind her and spun around. It was a man carrying a coffeepot and a pile of disposable cups. He put the coffeepot on top of one of the shorter stacks of paper on the desk and set the cups beside it before going over to the far wall and leaning against it, his arms crossed over his chest.

  The security guard nodded at the Alpha and left.

  “Sit down and pour yourself some coffee then tell me the full story, from the beginning.”

  Elsie had to tense her muscles so her hand didn’t shake when she poured the coffees. She poured three, one for each of them, handing the Alpha his, and walking across the room to give the new man his, before sitting down and taking her own.

  It was black, but she didn’t mind. Cream and sugar were luxuries her household couldn’t always afford, and this was nice coffee, a good quality blend, not instant.

  “My brother, who is much younger than me…um…came across the dagger. His friends wanted to give it to a person they know who pays for such items, but I wanted it to be returned to the person who owns it, so I brought it to you.”

  “How do you know about me?”

  The scary, fierce look was back on his face. Elsie refused to be cowed. “I play chess. I used to belong to a chess club.”