The Alpha's Unwanted Mate: (BWWM) Paranormal Romance Standalone Read Online Free PDF Page A

whirled. Mated? Now ? She’d just began to hope she’d be able to avoid the process altogether, that she could speak to her mother about the way the system worked, and Madeline put her name forward now ? 
    Remembering the male that had wandered into her mother’s foyer earlier that day, Angeline’s blood began to boil. He was the one that started all this. She couldn’t, wouldn’t be mated to such a brute. She didn’t care if he appeared cultured, or even if the mere sight of him made her knees weak – he was against everything that she stood for.
    “Mom…I…I can’t.”
    It was the first time she had refused her mother anything. “Not with him.” Nor with any of them, really, thought she. But that was a subject she hadn’t quite been allowed to get into.
    However, instead of appearing upset, Madeline only looked her daughter over, gripping her hand more warmly. “Why not with him, darling? What do you know about Clyde?”
    What a question. “That’s just it!” Angeline said, letting her emotions get the best of her. “I don’t know anything about him, other than it was he who started all of… this! ”
    Madeline arched a brow at the strength of her daughter’s outburst. “And what is ‘this’?”
    Groaning, Angeline shook her head. She hadn’t wanted the conversation to go this way but dammit, if it was the only way she was going to get her opinion heard, she’d take it. “Mom, don’t act like what we do…what you do is normal. You recruit young women of color who have their whole lives ahead of them – college educated, bright and beautiful – and convince them that one of their best options is to be spirited away to some secret rural location to lay flat on their backs for a group of men who are half beasts! I understand the lore and the stories, but this…I don’t know. My stomach has turned sour on it recently. And now…you’re asking me to become part of this…’legacy’?”
    For a moment, Madeline’s gaze searched her daughter’s face. Where Angeline had thought she might become angry or irritated, the elder woman only retained the utmost calm. “Angeline…” The name escaped her on a sigh. “I owe you an apology. I spent your entire life building you up on fairytales and myths without telling you the truth about how the wolves became involved in my life. Perhaps once you understand the truth, both about me and Clyde, you’ll understand why I do what I do.”
    There was very little, Angeline imagined, that her mother could tell her to make her feel better about this entire affair. However, she quelled her protest and simply nodded in silent assent. With a small smile, Madeline captured her hand and began anew.
    “When I was younger, I met a young man who I was intensely interested in. I never met his family, nor he mine, but we developed a passionate, strong love for one another. This love was tested when I found out that he wasn’t entirely what he seemed. He was a wolf – the first I’d met. Though I was frightened at first, I came to realize that it didn’t matter what shape he took. My love remained just as strong.
    However, Madeline’s tone darkened as she went on, “His people weren’t very happy to discover that one of their males had taken to a human female. Because of our differences, we were separated. The wolves of that era knew relatively little of the human world or the people that inhabited it. It was their understanding that humans were a threat to their kind and could never be anything more.
    “I never saw the boy I loved again, but I never forgot him. And I swore if I ever got the opportunity to better the lives of any future wolves I met – to ensure that their world meshed better with ours, I would take it.”
    Angeline could only stare down at her mother, speechless, as the elder woman continued. “You might think these young women could make more of an impact as doctors or engineers, and the fact of the matter remains that, someday, they