The Vampire's Alpha Mate: A BBW Tiger-Shifter Romance (Arcane Affairs Agency) Read online

  THE VAMPIRE’S ALPHA MATE

  An Arcane Affairs Agency Novel

  by Amethyst Peters

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2016 Amethyst Peters

  Amazon Kindle Edition. Cover by Amethyst Peters

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any similarity to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is purely coincidental. Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18 and all characters are represented as 18 or older.

  Dedication:

  This is dedicated to my family and to the Arcane Affairs Agency members.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  EPILOGUE

  THANK YOU

  WEBSITE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER ONE

  *Cade*

  AGENT BOYD RAMSEY WAS KNOWN for being blunt. He was a senior homicide agent for the Arcane Affairs Agency. I looked up in the middle of a powerful swing from my anvil at his approach. The sleeves of my coat pulled up just enough that others could see some of the tattoos on my arms. I no longer worked for them, and I wondered what had made him come here to Shadow Falls?

  Without being prompted to, Agent Ramsey took a seat in front of me on an opposite log. I stopped my anvil’s swing. Why was he here? Secretly, I wished Agent Ramsey had come after the steel had cooled.

  I brushed some fallen, black hair from out of my emerald eyes and leaned my powerful tool against a tree—right beside my great ax.

  “What do you want?” I asked.

  “Cade, it’s been a long time,” he said.

  The sun was still out, and being as old of a vampire as I was, I was strong enough for it not to cause me pain. But the memories Agent Ramsey brought with him—now that was a different case altogether. Seeing him made me think about the partner I’d had with the agency and what had happened. I winced. Yeah, even five years later, those memories still hurt.

  There could only be one reason he’d come. He missed me and had come out of curiosity to see how one of his best homicide investigators was doing in retirement…or somewhere there had been a murder. I doubted he missed me.

  He held up his hands as if to say he came in peace, wearing casual burnt orange slacks and a red and black plaid button-down. His ash hair tufted around his ears, accentuating his oblong, thick, pasty cheeks.

  I wondered if he positioned himself across from me in such a dominant position on purpose. Yeah, he did, Cade. Nothing Agent Ramsey did was accidental. I knew he was an Alpha wolf... but then again he knew I was an ancient Master vampire.

  We didn’t necessarily cancel out each other—unless I was feeling particularly irritable. I grimaced. I was a lumberjack, and I forged steel. Some would argue a vampire shouldn’t have worked with wood or fire, but I’d mastered handling both. It’d been my job over a thousand years ago before I became a vampire.

  As a big, tall, strapping young man of twenty-three, I’d thought I was invincible. I squinted my eyes. I’d believed I was invulnerable to anything and everyone. Now that I was immortal, I knew better.

  I couldn’t honestly say what was worse, my desire to cleave close to the long-gone comforts of my lively youth, his sudden visit…or my growing hunger I’d kept hidden from my workers for the majority of the day.

  The sun dropped a little lower. I rolled my neck to get some of the kinks out. Things like sunlight bothered me some, made me get tired, and that’s what I felt. Tired. I made carriages year round but for Christmas, I made sleighs. Thank goodness I had three men that helped me cut wood. Otherwise, I’d have to do it all myself.

  “Why you here, Ramsey?” I asked it another way hoping he’d cut to the chase of whatever he wanted so I could refuse and get back to work.

  We had quite a few shifters and vampires that lived in the cabins in these woods—none of them worked for me.

  He grinned. Didn’t he know I could see the humor didn’t reach his eyes behind the opaque sunglasses? “Nice hideaway you got here.”

  I stared at the lumberjacks who worked for me and the one apprentice I had who was learning to forge steel. Humans weren’t allowed to know we existed. “You boys’ve done a real good job,” I said. “I've decided you all can go home for the day.”

  Not much of a surprise, Page, screwed his face up in a way that had me wondering if he was in pain or about to say something important. He ran his fingers through his dark-gold hair flexing his arm and trying not to show how much the news affected him.

  Definitely pain. I knew he really liked his job—least that’s what he was always emotionally projecting—loudly. What could I say? I had a way with people.

  “I’d like to stay on and cut some more logs if I could,” he said.

  Shrugging, I clarified. “Leave early with pay, of course.”

  That seemed to make all the difference in the world. Especially with the guys staring daggers at him, I believed he realized the wisdom in saying nothing more, packing up his things, and going home. These guys, unlike me, had families. Didn’t mean I didn’t long for a woman to call my own and go home to.

  Didn’t mean I envied them, either. I just didn’t think any of my workers would pass up this opportunity to spend quality time with their loved ones or appreciate anyone trying to make me withdraw my offer. Not that anyone could make me change my mind when I had it set.

  My smile was pleasant, eyes neutral, face unassuming as my workers took off. The trouble with being around as long as I had was that I did have particular talents. Lock-picking and pickpocketing were my favorites. Sensing emotions and thoughts based on emotions were more. Muting my voice for only one individual to hear even when a few stood beside the person was another. And there was my telekinesis which I’d developed right after I’d turned five-hundred.

  Agent Ramsey appeared not to notice all of my workers were human. He also seemed to ignore the signs of my hunger—and not because I was good at concealing them—which I was.

  He was good at picking up the little things that no one else observed, thought was important, or cared about. I doubted he was unaware of my thirst. We were similar in that we noticed a lot, after all, and I was fully aware he was hiding something.

  He was one of the top in his field, and we were
in Shadow Falls, where it actually got cold in winter. And another few weeks, it’d snow. Nothing like a white Christmas.

  “Looks like you take good care of your men,” Agent Ramsey said.

  “They need to provide for their families—what they do here allows them to,” I said.

  “Still don't have one of those for yourself, do you?”

  “I got my cabin and my work. Every now and then, I got extra time on my hands and I spend it wisely.” I had plenty of women but I had a personal rule never to see the same one more than once.

  Sometimes I had to travel far to keep from breaking the rule. I ducked my head. My age also meant I didn’t have a problem with being invited in. When women just assumed I’d follow them inside, I normally did.

  I never took advantage of the donor feedings the agency had set up in select cities. Instead, I had blood delivered to my cabin. I took care of my uniquely sexual nature with willing women and hadn't had any complaints yet. Seemed to me I had all the bases covered. What more did I need?

  “Is there a reason you came?” I asked.

  He sighed. “Sooner or later you'll realize eternity isn't meant to be lonely.”

  Somehow, I didn't get the feeling that Agent Ramsey was here for pleasantries or to see if he’d made it onto my Christmas list, or to discuss my lack of a regular lover in my life.

  “You mean to be so hard to find?” he asked.

  “Didn’t know anyone was looking for me,” I said, “Or care.”

  “You don't think I care what happens to you?” he asked.

  I shrugged. “Don’t really care that you came all this way to find me.”

  He played the dominance game for a minute. After a bit, I believed he realized he wasn't getting anywhere with me by doing so. I sighed. Agent Ramsey was no longer my superior. I didn’t have to pretend to be affected by his power.

  “Can’t run from who you are,” he said.

  My gaze snapped to his, the bloodthirst peeking out at him deliberately, angrily. Was he talking about what happened so long ago—why I’d left the agency in the first place? It was best he didn’t bring that up to me ever.

  He continued calmly. “You were one of our finest.”

  I stared at him, releasing a bit of my strength. The sun was low enough now that it barely even bothered me. Consciously, I pushed at his wolf, testing his hold on him.

  Agent Ramsey growled low, but caught it on a soft whine and shook his head. “Well, I imagined you would make it difficult for me. Just didn't think you’d be impossible. Are you always this welcome to visitors these days?”

  Sharply, I glanced at him, wondering why I was giving him such a hard time. It wasn't as if he'd been able to do anything about my partner. I couldn’t go back in time and change a damn thing. I shook my head. Those memories, they messed with my mind.

  I sat down on a stump, picked up a dark bottle, tilted my head back, and slowly drank it. Tasted so good. When I was certain I’d quenched the bloodthirst, I squared a gaze at Agent Ramsey. “I haven't sent you packing, but I can't say I have much more patience for this conversation. With all due respect sir, what do you want?”

  “I thought we’d take this slow, seeing as you’ve made this your new home. I see you don't want to.”

  “Slow?” I asked. “When have you ever been anything but brutally honest? You got something to say, just say it. I have a sleigh to make. They don't build themselves.”

  He sighed. “Here on official business to let you know a vampire has died in your area. Unofficially, it’s a murder. No one knows this place better than you. I want you to investigate it.”

  Had he forgotten I no longer worked for the agency? I tossed him a quick glance, not looking at him too long because doing so would make him think that I was interested. I just wanted to be left alone, and yet trouble seemed to always find me. I looked at his expensive white gold watch. He wore sunglasses even though it was winter time. Either it was my imagination, or Agent Ramsey had moved up inside of the agency.

  “Business you’re in, Ramsey—I’m not. I make sleighs.”

  “It used to light a fire under your tail if someone was slain.”

  I saw what he did there. Agent Ramsey had a way of taking words and arranging them to fit the song he wanted to sing. But I wasn't listening.

  “Retired. I no longer do investigative work on the side, and certainly not for the Arcane Affairs Agency.”

  He shook his head. “Don’t you even want to know who it is?”

  Of course, I did. Who wouldn't? But the more information I received, the more invested I would get, and I wasn't going to fall into that trap with him. If he wanted this case investigated, then he needed to step away from whatever desk the agency had given him, and get back in the field.

  “I know what you're thinking,” he said. “Why don’t I take it since I’m concerned about it, correct?”

  Last I knew, thought tracking based on emotional insight was my talent, not his. Didn’t mean I wasn’t impressed that he still had his uncanny ability to read situations and people.

  Carefully, I shook my head. I wasn’t heartless, just tired. “And you're probably thinking, if you tell me a little bit more, about who the victim is, that I'll change my mind.”

  “You will want to know about this one, Cade.”

  The sudden seriousness of his voice hit me in the pit of my stomach, and I felt dread as though it were a donkey kick to my gut.

  “I’m certain you remember that wealthy guy who came up here on a getaway, and then he liked the land so much he became interested in purchasing it?” he asked. He pulled out his phone and glanced at it. “Yes, it says here that you were seen a few times around town with Slade and considered him a friend.”

  He acted like he was telling me, so I answered him. “Go on.”

  “Also, you must remember Odra Vandewater.” He flipped through his phone. “The girl was found dead—”

  “Knew them both.” What the hell was the agency doing keeping tabs on me? “But I don't think Slade would have done anything to Odra.”

  He continued. “Beside her lover.”

  More than one victim?

  “Given the way the bodies were found at her house, the crime scene, it seems like you're wrong about Slade—but I believe you’re right,” he said. “The way they were next to each other—the agency believes it was a murder-suicide.”

  What in the world was going on? The agency thought Slade had killed Odra? “I know Slade. Sometimes he rubs people the wrong way, but he doesn't have a murdering bone in his body. He's not your perp.”

  Agent Ramsey glanced at me, as still as I’d ever seen him be. “No, he's not.”

  “You think she killed him and then herself?”

  “I believe they both are the victims. Despite the agency’s conclusion, I don’t think this is a murder-suicide.”

  They’d been together as a couple? Odra was a vampire—a young one. And Slade was human. It was one of the frowned upon matches unless documented with the agency. The only thing worse I could think of was for a vampire to fall in love with a shifter. In some circles, that was disapproved of as well as forbidden.

  “She’d gotten permission from the Arcane Affairs Agency?” I asked.

  “It’s why I’ve taken such a huge interest in it. They’d planned to go through a binding ceremony.” He sighed. “Since it appears to be a murder-suicide, the case has been closed as such.”

  “Have you notified their families?” I asked. Then I thought of something troubling. “Who would have killed a vampire and a human?”

  “Their families have no idea I’m opening this as a murder investigation. As to your second question—don’t know,” he said.

  “Why do you think it isn’t a murder-suicide?” I asked.

  “Because I knew Odra and she introduced me to Slade. There was something so pure about their love.” He looked off into the distance. “It made me wish I was youn
g again. Slade swore to me he’d protect her with every ounce of his human body.”

  I nodded. “Doesn’t explain why you think they were murdered.”

  “Listen to this,” he said.

  He held up his phone and played a message for me. It was Slade who must have called him the night they died. He sounded frantic and terrified. “Something’s wrong with Odra—with me too. Please help us. She said to call you. I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”

  Then there was nothing more from him. In the background, Odra’s faint voice said, “Find out who did this to us.”

  The phone went silent.

  Agent Ramsey glanced at me in a decisive way, as if that phone call was conclusive evidence it wasn’t a murder-suicide. “Did you let anyone else hear this?”

  He nodded. “But they disagree with me and think it was a call made in a moment of regret after the consequences of one of the lover’s actions became apparent.”

  “What was the murder weapon?”

  “Personally, I think someone put something in the chocolates and possibly even the wine but nothing out of the ordinary was found.”

  Death by chocolate and wine?

  “I want you to investigate it because I think you’re the best candidate to catch whoever committed this double murder. If it isn’t what it looks like, then the murderer is still out there. You do know the implications of that firsthand, don’t you?”

  I whipped my gaze to his. A moment later, I was in his face. When he’d opened his eyes from a single blink, I was there. He hadn’t seen me coming or heard me move. I could see by the way he held himself completely still, it unnerved him.

  The leaves in the trees began to whistle and the wind stirred, ominously. “You trying to guilt me into taking this case?”

  He swallowed. The hairs on his arms stood on end. “I’m not your enemy.”

  Seeking to gain control of myself, I closed my eyes. Just as I’d thought. His telling me this did prickle my desire to see justice served—even though I’d done everything these past few years to suppress it. Back then, I’d have dropped everything I was doing, picked up this case, and worked it until it was solved.