Janine: His True Alpha: Wolves Of West Texas, #1

By Chencia C. Higgins

Janine was raised to be a passive and obedient wolf shifter and to always put the will of The Elders before her own—a will that she never questioned until the one day she was instructed to become the mate of a man she didn't love and who didn't love her. Fed up with rules and obligations, she left everything she knew behind and headed out west. She arrived in West Texas with the expectation of getting a fresh start as a new woman with no one to answer to but herself. What she didn't expect was to discover secrets big enough to tilt her world, and people she would be willing to kill for because of them.

Langston always knew he would be the next True Alpha of his pack, but when his father died, Langston's premature promotion had him unsure about his path. With the weight of the pack on his shoulders and a thriving urban ranching community in West Texas to oversee, the last thing on Langston's mind is finding a mate. Of course, trouble always finds you when you're not looking for it and in blows a woman who shakes up his pack and knocks him off his feet. Her zeal amazes him and soon the pull between them is undeniable. Will succumbing to the desires of his wolf prove to be the right move or turn out to be fruitless?

• Language: English
• Publisher: EKOL Media
• Release date: Dec 7, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386818564

Book preview

Chapter One

For the entire nine-hour drive, I was terrified. I kept expecting to see a vehicle I recognized from the only home I’d ever known—the home I had chosen to flee in the middle of the night—pop up in my rearview mirror and attempt to run me off the road. The possibility felt palpable and my fingers were curled in a death grip around my steering wheel. When I stopped for a bathroom break and to top off the gas tank after hour five, I had my head on a swivel, sure that at any moment, a nondescript van would pull up beside me and I would be snatched inside, never to see the light of day again. It didn’t happen, but my guard stayed up until I passed the roadside sign welcoming me to Madow, TX. Seeing the dark, silhouetted image of two wolves howling below the name of the town on the broad, aluminum sign helped to settle my nerves, if only marginally.

It was just after eleven in the morning when I pulled my Jeep and attached cargo trailer into the wide, gravel lot of the building labeled the Welcome Center. I parked under an oak tree near the back of the lot, easily taking up two spaces. Shutting off the engine, I took a deep breath and inhaled triumph while exhaling all thoughts of the situation I had left behind. Already, the tension in my shoulders had begun to loosen, and I flexed my fingers to allow the blood to flow through and reheat them.

I’d done it. I’d made it to Madow. This was a big step, one I hoped—no, one I knew I wouldn’t regret.

More than two weeks had passed since I’d first stepped foot into the well-known, albeit small, community for a short visit on one of my rare weekends off from work. For that trip, I had flown into Abilene then made the two-hour drive down to Madow. I rented a room in Abilene, expecting it to be an explorative day trip, but once I arrived, it became clear that wouldn’t be the case. I didn’t want to leave. My secret research of other packs and communities had led me here once, and now, I was back for good.

As I sat parked in front of one of the many business cabins, with everything of value I owned crammed into a rented 4x8 trailer, a sense of rightness wisped over me. Even without all I was leaving behind, this was where I was meant to be, and that feeling had me bubbling with excitement as I stepped out of my Jeep and walked across the lot toward the building.

At this time of the day, the cabin was bustling with activity. People were entering and leaving the two-story, log building that was surrounded by a wide deck spanning the entire front and wrapping around the sides. A group of women stood in one corner of the deck to the right of the door, holding mugs and laughing. There was a thump in my chest at the sight of one of the many reasons I was here. There was the camaraderie I was looking for, the inclusion I desired. The joy I had yet to grasp a hold of. All of it was attainable here.

I gave myself a mental shake and climbed the steps of the deck, inhaling the sweet oak scent of the trees that surrounded the cabin. The group of women waved and called out greetings as I passed them, and I smiled and responded in kind as I pulled open the glass door and entered the building. And just like the first time I had entered this particular building almost a month ago, I instantly felt peace. There was something in the atmosphere, something I couldn’t name and had never experienced before that soothed the perpetually anxious animal inside of me.

The building was comprised of one large, open space covered in dark wood flooring. On my left was a short line of people waiting for their turn at a table filled with trays of assorted cookies, pitchers of different colored beverages, and several stacks of mugs, saucers, and napkins. To my right was an opening that led to a hallway sat smack dab in the middle of the wall. Each side of the doorway was covered with racks of paraphernalia detailing all of Madow’s offerings. Opposite the entrance was a wall of windows that looked out to a beautiful park and lush forest that was bisected by trails and pathways. Plush, high-backed chairs dotted the room in pairs, accompanied by small, round tables that were each adorned with a vase of fresh, colorful wildflowers.

I stepped further into the room so that I was no longer blocking the entrance and closed my eyes. As I inhaled the sounds and aromas around me, I felt a small piece click into place in the puzzle of my scattered heart. Before my eyes could flutter open, I sensed a shift in the energy in the room. Swimming above the hustle and bustle around me, a familiar scent assaulted my oversensitive nostrils, and a feeling of contentment washed over me just as I was enveloped in a tight hug.

"You came back."

Those three words were dripping with relief.

I squeezed my assailant tightly while chuckling. Why, Lenny, I’m a little offended that you doubted me.

Lenora Hurst stepped back, a wide grin on her oval-shaped face. Liar.

Unable and unwilling to suppress my own smile, I shrugged.

Come on back. Lenny motioned for me to follow her, and the two of us traveled through the great room and down the hallway where we passed a handful of occupied offices. We stepped inside of one, and Lenny waited for me to have a seat before she pushed the door closed. Instead of walking around the desk and claiming the seat behind it as I expected, Lenny dropped down into the matching chair next to me and grabbed my hand while questioning me excitedly.

So, is it official?

I nodded. Yep. All of my things are in the parking lot right now.

With a gentle shake of her head, Lenny’s grin widened. I can’t believe how quickly you were able to pack up your life and relocate. This has to be a world record. Was your family fine with you leaving?

The corners of my smile dropped a centimeter as I thought about my family. I never knew my father, and my mother had handed me over to the Elders as soon as I’d turned sixteen. I hadn’t known family in ten years. Still, I nodded and spoke confidently.

My family believes in the greater good.

Lenny would hear nothing but the truth in my words even though they didn’t exactly answer the question that she had asked. My mother had believed in the greater good. Unfortunately, that only referred to the greater good according to the Elders. I don’t think my mother knew of anything other than what the Elders told her. She, along with so many others in our pack, was brainwashed by those five men who refused to give up their power even as they aged beyond the normal generation of rule. I held my breath as a second passed before Lenny launched forward and pulled me into my second hug in less than ten minutes.

That’s fantastic! You are going to love it here.

I have no doubt. What I saw when I was last here was amazing. Not to mention, the website makes it seem like paradise.

Chuckling, Lenny said, I don’t know about paradise, but I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.

It didn’t take any stretch of my imagination for me to believe that. When I had first stumbled upon the information about a secluded werewolf colony in the middle of Nowhere, Texas, I instantly became curious. I had scoured the internet, fascinated by the story of Bani Dowd, an enslaved woman whose master had fallen in love with her. Upon his death and to the dismay of his wife, Bani learned that the man who had owned her in every way had willed her nearly two thousand acres of land in west Texas, along with freedom for her and all eleven of her children, seven of which were sired by him. Bani traveled for weeks from the Louisiana plantation she was born on to the land she had inherited, determined to start a new life for her blended family of humans and something she didn’t quite understand.

Bani had somewhat of a magic touch, and was able to pull life out of the hard, dry earth to grow enough crops to feed her family, while the children forced into her by the man who owned her used their unexplainable ability to transform into a terrifying creature of the night to hunt for meat. After a year, as more formerly enslaved people, and even more werewolves arrived onto Bani’s land, she began to realize that the wolf gene only existed in those who were born of their master. She instructed one of her children to make a record of everyone living on their land and whether they were human or not.

Within five years, more than 300 people had arrived on the land that Bani had decided to call Madow, in honor of an older woman whom she grew to care for on the plantation in Louisiana. Madow would always help care for Bani after her presence was requested by the plantation owner, and was by her side each and every time Bani gave birth to one of his larger than usual children. Madow represented what Bani imagined her mother would have been, and even though she hadn’t been able to bring the woman with her when she was kicked off the plantation after the plantation owner’s death, Bani still held Madow in her heart.

I had been amazed to learn how two of Bani’s fairer-skinned sons had used their pale skin and racial ambiguity to attend college in Austin and brought back their knowledge to help usher Madow into an age of technology and infrastructure. It was during their time in the state capital that the two men were surprised to learn that there was a name for what they were. They were called werewolf shifters, and they were two of many, not including those they knew of back in Madow. Even more shocking was that they were a protected species, regardless of race, because when in wolf form, race was undetectable. Less than two hundred years later, although not as freely discussed as in the late 1800s and early 1900s, werewolves were still a legally and highly protected species, and Madow had grown to a population of over 3,000 people.

With tired, yet curious eyes, I watched as Lenny moved to the plush seat behind the desk and started typing on the computer. The adrenaline of leaving everything I knew behind and starting over somewhere new was starting to wear off, and the exhaustion from being awake for over twenty-four hours had started to set in. As Lenny studied something on the screen in front of her, I felt my eyes begin to droop, but I