Free Alpha by Mandy Rosko Page A

Miranda damn near choked on her words. "Really?"
    She hadn't been able to tell that at all. Okay, sure, they both had blond hair, and Miranda recalled how brightly blue Anna's eyes were….
    But they were nothing alike. Anna was chipper and sweet and Garret was dark and gruff.
    Both were good-looking people though, so there was that aspect of it.
    "Yup. I'm the baby sister."
    "Oh, so you must be what, ninety years old?"
    Anna laughed.
    "What?" Miranda asked. "Garret said he was 102." She stepped out from the side of the screen when she finished dressing. Anna was nearly bent over at the waist, slapping her knees.
    "I know, I know, I'm sorry. It's just weird sometimes, thinking about how old he is compared to me."
    "How old are you?"
    "I'm twenty-three. See? I meant I was the baby sister, get it?"
    Miranda got it, and though Anna's age was probably the only normal thing about her, it was hard to swallow after Miranda had seen so much already.
    Then something else got her curious. She might never stop being curious with everything that was around her.
    "Hey, you mentioned more than one alpha in the pack?"
    "Mmhm," Anna said. "There's a couple of alphas in this pack, so it's always good to know when you should fight back. Keeps you from being bossed around."
    Miranda didn't get it. "I thought there could only be one alpha? I mean, that's what I heard…"
    Heard from nature shows, movies, and books. She didn't want to reference those as her sources just in case it was offensive.
    "Yeah, we're weird like that," Anna said. "I don't know if you met Dane yet, but he's not even a wolf. He's a bear shifter. He used to have his own pack, but then left it behind. He's a Navy Seal, so he knows how to take orders from someone else."
    "Are you serious?" Miranda had to look around the screen again just to see if Anna was messing with her.
    She looked serious as she nodded. "Yeah. I guess being in a boot camp getting screamed at teaches an alpha when to follow and when to lead. That's how he described it."
    "You said he was a bear shifter?"
    Anna opened another box, pulling a shirt out and holding it over her chest. "Yup."
    Miranda thought about her attack. So many things had happened, it was hard to see things clearly in her mind, but two of the shifters had looked so much different from the others. One could have been a bear, but she also remembered wings.
    "What about the other alphas? What are they?"
    "The only other one is Jax. He's a dragon shifter."
    The big, sweeping wings she remembered made more sense, but it was still shocking to hear. "A dragon? Seriously?"
    Anna looked at her, still smiling. "Get back there and get dressed!" she said, waving Miranda back.
    Miranda stepped back behind the screen, her mind still reeling. A dragon. Wow.
    "So, why is there a dragon here? Are there any other types of shifters in this pack?"
    "We're mostly wolves. It's just Jax and Dane who are different."
    Anna's voice changed. She no longer sounded so excited. "Jax has been in the pack longer than I've been alive. I don't know much about what happened to his nest, but Garret found him one day and brought him home. He's been part of the pack ever since. That's all I know about that. Do me a favor and don't bring it up though. Jax doesn't like talking about it."
    "I won't. I promise," Miranda said quickly.
    Anna's voice changed again. She was back to sounding chipper and happy. “Garret says there are two sorts of packs that take in shifters of a different species. Assholes like Dennis's pack who want the muscle, and good packs like this one who just want to help people out. The fact that three alphas can get along in the same space means my brother's a good leader."
    This girl definitely had big brother worship, and Miranda thought it was endearing, and maybe a little effective in making her soften to Garret.
    She stepped around the screen, showing off Anna had picked out for her. "What do you think?"
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    G arret paced the sitting room . Dane sat in