Free The Wayward Alpha (Paranormal Werewolf Shifter Romance) by Joanna Wilson

 
    The Wayward Alpha
     
    “Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to play with your food?” I taunted the vampire in front of me.
     
    It was nineteen degrees out and I could smell a snow storm on the breeze. The last thing I wanted to do was fight with a vampire. But then again, my job didn’t really take requests, because if it did, I’d be relaxing on a cruise to Mexico.
     
    “You really want to die, don’t you, babe?” the vamp sneered and flashed me a wicked pair of fangs.
     
    If I were a human, or even an omega, I might have taken the threat seriously, but this vampire had no idea who I was or even what I was capable of. Not that he’d live long enough to discover that anyway.
     
    Who was a fledgling vampire compared to a werewolf who had been a high council knight for almost a hundred fifty years?
     
    My job was broken down into two roles: peacekeeper and enforcer. Right now, I was the later.
     
    “Promises, promises,” I batted my eyes at him, which gave the vamp just enough time to use his super speed to come at me… and fall right into my trap.
     
    I was quick and efficient, shifting my fingers into claws and widening my stance. The vamp charged me with all the new powers he possessed, but as he looked into my neon orange eyes he realized his mistake. Too little, too late, sweetheart .
     
    I swiped my claws up, slicing through skin, muscles, and ribs to his heart. The claws tightened and the organ was crushed in my palm.
     
    “What are you?” the vamp whispered shakily as his skin began to pull back and turn grey
     
    If I had a nickel for every time a person had asked me that question, I could have stuffed them in a bag and bludgeoned him with it. Most of the supernatural creatures I had met asked me the same question. It was in the eyes. Gold was the usual color for werewolf’s when they called on the power, but mine were orange, bright, really-hard-to-miss orange!
     
    “Knight Jade Klein, at your service,” I pushed his corpse off me and sighed, wiping my bloody hand on my leather pants. He had been going around murdering unsuspecting college girls and had needed to be put down. But still, it was my vacation!
     
    I whipped out my cellphone and punched in the council office number. “It’s done.” I said without preamble.
     
    “That was quick. Easy one?” Alfred Green, the council representative asked.
     
    “He was a new blood, so it was really easy.” I stretched out the words, making sure he knew that any knight would have sufficed in the situation. Why Green had decided to yank me off my cruise just as I’d been boarding and give me a newbie vamp disposal puzzled the hell out of me!
     
    Maryland was bitterly cold in the winter. The wind was so sharp that it penetrated your bones. The constant rain was depressing and soured my mood considerably. “Why did you need me again?” I couldn’t help but ask as raindrops pattered on my head again, cursing quietly as my nice, soft, and straight brown hair started to curl up. I’d decided to splurge and get a Dominican blowout, mani-pedi, and a facial before the cruise. I should have known better.
     
    Green sighed on the other end. I could practically see him rubbing his neck. “I know you’re upset, Jade—”
     
    I cut him off, needing to vent a little. “That’s an understatement, Green. It’s been over half a century since I—”
     
    “But it’s for the greater good and you love your job, so—”
     
    “I was on vacation. Loving my job has nothing to do with it!”
     
    “... You won’t be upset when I tell you the council needs you to go on another mission.” Green finished
     
    I bit my tongue so as to not say something I’d regret.
     
    Pressing the mute button, I swore like a sailor and ran an angry hand through my hair. Things were finally starting to make sense, not that I cared. The reason the council had wanted me wasn’t for some newbie vamp, but for something bigger, something that they needed the