Chosen, p.1
Chosen, page 1
CHOSEN
THE NIGHTWOLF PACK BOOK 1
TIFFANY PATTERSON
Copyright © 2022 by Tiffany Patterson
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
Untitled
The Black Burles Series
Rescue Four Series
The Townsend Brothers Series
The Townsends of Texas Series
CHAPTER 1
Chael
“I need you to watch over Reese for me,” I told my cousin, Micah Townsend, as I sat across from him in his private investigation office.
Micah lifted an eyebrow and looked at me sideways. “Ace told me what happened at the hospital.” Micah was a distant relative that lived in Central Texas. Hours from where most of my pack dwelled, in the outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Neither Micah nor the rest of his family were shifters like I was or the rest of my pack. Micah’s mother’s great-grandmother had been an Apache and part shifter. Her grandmother raised her among our pack during her formative years. As a result, Micah and his brothers knew our secret. I trusted them even though they were full-blooded humans.
I nodded at Micah’s comment. Ace was Micah’s younger brother, and six weeks earlier, I visited Ace and his wife, Savannah, in the hospital after she’d given birth to their daughter. That was the day I finally scented my mate. The memory of that day washed over me.
Six weeks earlier…
Some instinct I hadn’t quite identified pushed me to visit my cousin Ace and his wife Savannah on that day. I received a text message from Micah, telling me that Savannah went into labor the night before. The original plan was to see the couple a few weeks after their new baby was born with the gifts a few of my packmates made for them.
However, my gut instinct pushed me to make the drive early that morning from New Mexico to Central Texas. I’d texted my younger brother Chance a few hours into the drive to let him know I was on my way to Texas. He was already in the state, handling some pack business. He planned to meet me at the hospital soon.
As I strolled down the hospital’s corridor toward Ace and Savannah’s room, a tingling started at the base of my spine. A whiff of something caught my nose, making my wolf stand up. I stopped a few feet from hospital room 302, where my cousin, his wife, and new baby girl were.
I sniffed at the air, not believing what my mind and heart told me. With a vigorous rub of my face, I knocked on the opened door. Savannah spotted me first, and her smile broadened. I hadn’t seen Savannah in years, but she looked the same. There was an evident glow of love that shined in her brown eyes.
“Chael,” Ace said as he rose from Savannah’s bedside, greeting me. He widened his arms, hugging me as I entered the room.
“Congratulations,” I told them both, looking over at the bundle in Savannah’s arms.
Savannah held on to her baby girl, Parker, like the precious gift she was. I stared down at the tiny infant whose eyes were closed and nodded.
I patted Ace on the back and leaned down to tell him, “I knew you would end up here, cousin.”
“You were right,” Ace replied.
I held up the gift box full of fresh pack-grown coffee beans, homemade lotions, and soaps made especially for infants. The closer I moved to the bouquet of sunflowers on the windowsill, the more intense that tingling in my spine became. I paused by the flowers and leaned in, inhaling deeply. The feeling shot up my spine, overtaking my entire body.
Not only did my wolf stand up, but he howled inside of my head.
“Mate!”
My mind went blank as what felt like a rush of water passed over me, catching my breath. “Mate!” my wolf screamed again.
After ninety years of waiting, fifty years after becoming alpha of my pack, and more than seventy years after most shifters found their mate, I finally found her. I glanced at the card stuck in the flower arrangement and saw the name of who they were from.
Reese.
I sniffed again and knew I had to go.
Without a second thought, I turned to my cousins. “I must go. You both have done well.”
I shot out of the room, not bothering to ask them any more information about the woman who’d brought them the flowers. I would let my nose lead me to her. She was still close. I could feel it. Instead of waiting for the elevator, I took the stairs, two at a time, down to the hospital’s ground level. When I burst through the door, I ran out to the parking lot, scenting the air. Her smell was weaker out there, but I could catch it.
‘Beep!’ A car honked at me as I stepped right into its direct path in the middle of the parking lot.
The driver’s eyes widened in fear when I glared at him and bared my sharpened incisors. My wolf was on edge, anxious to lay eyes on our mate. Anything standing between me and her, was in danger of losing their life. Slowly, I moved forward, searching left and right for
her.
When I spotted her, I knew right away, even though her back was to me. As if an invisible string was pulling me in her direction, I followed. She wore a pair of salmon scrubs, stood about five feet six inches, and though the clothing she wore was slightly baggy, it showed off the ample curves of her thighs and backside. I caught a glimpse of her face when she stopped to look in one direction for oncoming traffic.
I watched as something caught her attention and she waved. An elderly woman in a wheelchair being rolled by a younger woman in scrubs, approached her. Reese turned, taking the older woman’s hand. She smiled and that was the moment my heart leaped into my throat.
Sunshine after months of rain, the sound of small children laughing as they played, and the delight of my wolf running for hours in the mountains after being caged up in my human for weeks. None of those occurrences compared to the miracle that was her smile.
“Mine,” my wolf groaned.
My wolf howled and whimpered to be closer to her. My heart played a rapid beat in my eardrums. I couldn’t believe it, I finally found her. A handful of steps, and I would have my mate in my arms for the first time.
I took another step, only to be confronted by my brother. “What are you doing?” Chance asked, grabbing me by my arm, moving in front of me.
“Move,” I growled at him.
He didn’t budge as he looked me up and down suspiciously. “What is the matter with you?”
“My mate,” I told him telepathically.
His eyes widened from tiny slits to saucers at my declaration. “Where?” He looked around the parking lot and sniffed at the air.
“There.” I nodded in Reese’s direction before I started to push him out of my way.
Again, Chance refused to move. He peered over his shoulder before turning back to me. “She’s a human.”
His words were like throwing cold water on a flame. I realized that Reese wasn’t a shifter from the moment I smelled her. But I didn’t give a shit.
“She’s my mate.” I went to bulldoze through my brother, but he caught me by the arm again. Only the fact that we were brothers saved his life at that moment.
“The Alliance, Alpha,” he said, using my title to remind me of my responsibilities. I knew that’s what he was doing. “She’s human.”
“Fuck!” both my wolf and I said at the same time.
Of course, after all of this time, I found my mate, and I wasn’t free to make her mine.
“This will cause problems,” Chance added when I continued to stare over his shoulder.
I watched as Reese got into a light-blue car across the street from the hospital’s parking lot. My wolf whined when we stood there while she drove off.
I wanted to hate my brother in that instant. And for the first time in my life, I loathed being a shifter. With regret I felt deep in my soul, I snatched my arm from my brother and turned away.
“I will make her mine.”
Chance patted me on my shoulder. “I know. We’ll do whatever we need for you to have your mate. But you will have to be patient,” he said.
I gritted my teeth. Patience was a word I often lived by. As alpha, I knew the patience required to lead a large pack, to bring peace to a people that had lived for generations as raiders and warriors. But this one time, the patience I’d garnered over the past fifty years didn’t feel like enough. I wanted my fucking mate now.
“Soon, brother,” Chance added, probably sensing my desire to shirk my responsibility and find my mate. I suppressed the anger and rage of my wolf and nodded.
“Soon.”
My body tingled from the memory of scenting her fo r the first time. An electric current, unlike anything I’d experienced, flooded every cell in my body.
After years of waiting and hoping, I knew I’d found my mate, my intended.
The fact that she wasn’t one of us made the situation complicated.
“I’m surprised you haven’t claimed her yet,” Micah said. “Or whatever it is that you do.” He shrugged but peered across his desk at me, a wrinkle between his brows.
My jaw worked in irritation.
Since Micah and his family weren’t part of the pack, the amount of information that I could confide in him was limited. There were contingencies among shifters who were disturbed that I bothered to keep in contact with this side of my family.
“That’ll change soon.” I sat up in the chair and planted my elbows on my knees, leaning forward. “I need you to watch out for her. Make sure she’s okay.”
“Is she in some kind of danger?” Micah asked.
I hesitated, a growing discomfort rose in my gut, along with the growl of my wolf in my ear. Any thought of a threat to our mate sent my wolf into a rage. He didn’t care that she was human and not one of us. All my wolf wanted was his mate.
“Not on my watch,” I told Micah.
My comment hung in the air.
I wouldn’t go into the details. The truth was, however, that Reese being my mate, did place her in a certain amount of danger. The National Shifter Alliance, or the Alliance for short, had strict regulations around shifters intermingling with humans. Multiple shifters and their mates were held captive or killed when they tried to be together without the Alliance’s confirmation.
It’d been over a century since the Alliance approved any mating between a human and a shifter.
“Are you in danger?” The worried note in Micah’s voice was evident.
“Nothing I can’t handle.” I quickly dismissed his concern. “But until I can get what I need, I’ll need you to keep an eye on her for me.”
Micah didn’t immediately answer. That wasn’t surprising. Micah was smart, and I rarely asked him or his family for favors. He likely picked up on that if I was asking him for something, then it was serious.
“And you don’t plan on giving me any more information than what you’ve already shared?”
“No. You know how this works, cousin.” A year earlier, I’d gotten Micah and his brother, Ace, out of a problem that went deeper than their human world. I’d had to be scant on the details of that situation also because telling them the truth would expose them to more of my world.
That could place my pack under threat with the Alliance, and that was not something I would ever do. As the alpha, it was my sole responsibility to ensure the safety of my pack. And now, my mate. But I planned to wait to approach Reese until I could guarantee that she wouldn’t be in danger with the Alliance.
My gut twisted with the thought that this decision would somehow come back to haunt me. My wolf howled at the moon every night since I first scented Reese because we had yet to meet in person.
All I had was her scent and a glimpse of her from behind. Not enough for my wolf or for me.
“Will you do it?” I asked Micah, still not revealing more than I needed to.
Micah lifted his hands. “If you’re asking me for a favor, I know it must be serious. Yes, of course.” There was a pause. “You seem to be in luck anyway.”
I jutted my chin forward. “How so?”
“From what I know about her, she’s not the type who gets into a lot of trouble. Danger doesn’t follow her.”
From what he knew…
It caused my palms to itch that Micah knew Reese better than I did. She was a friend and colleague of his sister-in-law, Savannah. I still had yet to be in the same room as her. A surge of anger flowed through me, and I clenched and unclenched my fists to relieve it.
I would do this the right way. I would go to the Alliance and get their approval to be with my mate.
My wolf growled, rebellious that we had to seek consent to claim what was ours. But not doing so could harm my pack. I was raised since birth that my number one job was to protect my pack at all and every cost.
We will not be like our father.
My wolf countered.
My stomach clenched at the reminder of how my father’s desire for the preservation and growth of our pack led to my mother’s death. I wouldn’t be like him.
I didn’t respond to Micah because as much as I hated it, the truth was that by the very act of being born as my mate, Reese was in danger.
Micah started to say something, but in an instant, my attention on him faded. With my excellent hearing, I heard the main door of the PI firm open. A second later, I caught her whiff.
My wolf stood up as an anxiousness tightened around my chest. He whimpered, and I stood to my full six-six height. I sniffed at the air again, and the band around my chest squeezed. An urgency like no other filled my entire body.
I turned to Micah. “She’s here.”
I started for the door, forgetting my cousin in my all-consuming need to get to her.
It’s her! my wolf declared cheerily, eager to come face-to-face with our mate.
“Chael, wait.” Micah came up from behind me in the hallway. He tugged me by the arm, rounding in front of me.
I snatched my arm away, ready to listen to my wolf and barrel right through him to get to her.
“You’re going to scare her if you go out there charging like this,” he said.
I rocked back on my heels and pushed out a deep breath. Micah was right about Reese. She wasn’t a shifter. And I knew that at my full height, piercing copper eyes, and overall demeanor, I could come across as a bit intimidating, especially to humans.
“I’m not staying back here,” I told Micah despite my reservations. There was no way in hell that I could be this close to her and not make my presence known.
Micah straightened to his full height, which still gave me a three-inch advantage.
“Let me introduce you, at least.”
I swallowed, hating the idea of needing a fucking intermediary.
Ours! my wolf growled in my head.
I clamped down on his animal instincts and slowly nodded. “Let’s go,” I ordered.
Micah chuckled and turned, leaving me to follow him the rest of the way down the hall to the lobby of his firm.
“Reese,” Micah announced as we rounded the corner into the main entrance area. His wife, Jodi, sat at the long wooden and glass counter.
“Micah, look who came in for a visit,” Jodi said as she stood.
I ignored my cousin and his wife, peering over his shoulder to stare down the woman who stood opposite Jodi. My heart palpitated wildly as I stood there, watching her.
Reese stood about a foot shorter than me, with skin that reminded me of the smooth, rich coffee beans that a family from my pack grew and sold throughout the state of New Mexico.
I bet she tastes even better.
“It’s you.” The two words tumbled from my mouth, causing her to look up and finally see me.
When her eyes widened, I had to fight back a groan. Her light-brown eyes stood out against her darker skin tone. Her perfectly rounded face flushed.
I stepped around Micah, essentially moving him out of the way. Fuck taking his lead. I finally was in the same room, face to face with my mate.
My eyes traveled over her body, soaking in every detail. She wore a pair of dark-blue scrubs, likely courtesy of her day job as a medical receptionist. She worked with Savannah at an urgent care clinic. The scrubs didn’t hide the curve of her hips and the thickness of her thighs. Though she was shorter than me, her thickness would be just enough for my hands to hold on to while I drove into her from behind.
I allowed my gaze to travel over the white faux locs that hung over her shoulders. The white contrasted her darker hue and made her eyes stand out even more.
