Page 1 of The Alpha's Mates

Prologue

Five years ago,Capetown, South Africa...

Christoph stepped from his bedroom and stretched. For the last two days, his body ached in weird ways. He didn’t understand why he was experiencing something his father explained wouldn’t come for a few more years. Rut. Not mating. He’d watched his father go through rut with each female of their pride beside his mother, but this low-in-his-gut tightness made little sense to him, since his father said it wasn’t possible. In his mind, for sure, Christoph wouldn’t experience any type of estrus with a female feline until he reached the age of twenty-one or there abouts, yet, he wondered if maybe he’d been wrong.

Or his father lied.

It was the summer after his senior year. He’d already decided to go back to America for college. With a scholarship for football in hand, it meant leaving in a few weeks to join the team. Christoph scratched his chest as he walked into the kitchen, while pushing the unsettled feeling aside. He had more important things to consider. Like, what he’d do with his time before he left home. Pressing a kiss to his mother’s cheek, he went in search of some coffee.

“Sleep well, son?” she asked, placing one of her expensive, thin cigarettes to her mouth that smelled of cloves and tobacco.

“I did.” He narrowed his eyes. “Those things are poisonous to shifters.”

She laughed. “So they are.”

“Where’s father?” He placed the mug against his lips before blowing on the brew. “I wanted to speak to him before I leave.”

His mother frowned. “Where he is every month during estrus.” The jealously rolled off of her in thick waves he wasn’t prepared for. She’d always appeared to take everything in stride, knowing her place as the mate of an Alpha. Though, now, thinking back on it, she wasn’t Alpha lioness as well. No, Keandra acted more like the Alpha than any of the females in their pride.

Again, another issue he’d have to discuss with his father.

“Ah.” Christoph kept his comments to himself. His mother always appeared distant with his father, but he couldn’t blame her. He didn’t much care for the way his father carried himself and over the years, he’d seen some cracks in the veneer of their lives. Including the fact his father’s debts were higher than their income, hence the reason Christoph had taken the proffered scholarship.

“You’ll be expected to join him soon,” his mother said, sitting him at the table. “Are you prepared?”

He shrugged. “I won’t be here in a few weeks.”

“You still have obligations. Don’t be so naïve to believe your father won’t make arrangements in the states for you.” There’d always been an edge of suspicion about his parents, where he’d been concerned. They were Ex-Pats, born in Florida and North Carolina. They’d married and had Christoph within a year. Then everything changed. By the age of three, they moved clear across the world to South Africa. They had a new pride and his father supported them as a developer.

Until everything changed.

Where they’d become South African citizens, Christoph kept his American citizenship. His life in South Africa until then was as an illegal or whatever. He could never piece together why his family did that or if there was even a significance to it. The minute he set foot in the States, he’d be home. The headache of his life being South Africa would, for all intents and purposes, be over, and he could move forward.

“You should know, all of us had an arranged marriage,” his mother stated, drawing Christoph out of his circling thoughts. “You will too when your father finds a suitable mate for you.”

Again, he bit his tongue. Mates weren’t betrothed. They were organic. Being forced to be with someone would kill shifters or lead to a mating like his mother and father. “In due time, mother.”

“Finish your coffee, then get ready. Your father will return soon. You have an appointment with him.” She stubbed out the remains of her cigarette in her clear ashtray. “A man’s meeting.”

He finished the drink in two swallows before grabbing a shower. Nothing his mother said made sense. They were supposed to be progressive shifters, weren’t they? Had he been looking at them through rose-colored glasses for far too long? He allowed the warm water to cascade over his tense shoulders. Even with the caffeine racing through his system, he still couldn’t shake the unnatural feeling in his groin. Christoph glanced down and frowned. His dick wasn’t hard either, so whatever was going on, he couldn’t figure out.

Twenty minutes later, he emerged from his room, ready for his father. The man stepped into their penthouse apartment overlooking the South Atlantic Ocean with his chest puffed up and his eyes glassy. His father also stank. He went straight to the coffeepot and filled a mug before ignoring Christoph’s mother. “Good, you’re ready.”

“What’s this about, father?” He watched the man with cautious interest.

“Today is the day you meet the females of the pride,” his father said. “They will assist you through your first estrus.”

There were many things his father could have said to him, but having sex wasn’t one of them. He’d experimented with some girls at his high school, never going too far because of being a shifter, but hell, he wasn’t some innocent seventeen-about-to-be-eighteen-year-old. “Oh.”

“Yes,” his father continued. “You will be away from home, and you must be able to uphold the St. John's name.”

“No children out of wedlock, either,” his mother admonished.

Never. He wasn’t sure he wanted them. However, he also knew in order to become the Alpha and continue the St. John bloodline, he would have to have them. Again, another question popped into his head. Why didn’t he have any siblings? They were shifters. He should have at least three or four, if not more. However, he’d been an only child. “Of course.”

His father pushed away from the table and sighed. “All right, boy. Let’s go. We don’t want to leave them waiting.”

His mother’s snort of laughter drew Christoph and his father’s attention. “Don’t mind me. I’m a cynical old woman.”

---