Mating the Alpha by Ivy Sinclair

CHAPTER ONE - Lukas
    I had Markus to thank for having the confidence to be able to deliver the speech that solidified my leadership with all the shifters. After all, he wrote most of it. But as I saw the nodding heads and heard the approving murmurs of the crowd, I thought I had done my best to make his words my own. Speaking in front of a crowd never bothered me. I liked it when people listened to me. It made me feel special in some stupid way. Maren would have said that I was always a showboat and wanted to be the center of attention. There was some truth in that, I guess. Maren knew me better than anyone else in the world.
    Watching the expression on her face when Doc Walden declared Vivian Reddon as my mate almost killed me. I was going to have a word or several with the good doctor as soon as this was all over. But with almost five hundred guests in attendance on the cusp of what would likely be the most critical shifter Summit since the original announcement that we existed at all, I couldn’t let myself get distracted from the mission. Not even for her. I’d find her afterward, and we’d talk, and we’d work it out.
    I could feel the bear inside of me growling, and my vision threatened to turn completely red on several occasions, which told me I wasn’t nearly as calm as I needed to be. To phase into my bear form out of anger was one of the things that got beaten out of you as soon as it was determined that you were a shifter. It wasn’t safe for you or anyone around you if you couldn’t keep your animal instincts under control when you got emotional. It was one of the reasons the mortality rate among shifters was higher than it should be. That was another topic for the Summit. There needed to be more structure around a shifter’s education before and after their first phase. It was a tumultuous time even under the best of circumstances considering it happened right at the same time as a normal human’s time of maturity into adulthood.
    Teenage hormones combined with claws and teeth weren’t a pretty combination. And I had been one of the worst when it came to learning the required techniques of control and patience. It meant that Markus wouldn’t let me leave the walls of White Oaks for more than a month after my first phase. That hadn’t been a great time in our relationship. But what had affected me most was not being able to hang out with Maren. It was during that month that I first started to figure out that I had more than friendly feelings for the girl who had been my best friend since I moved to Greyelf.
    I was a fucking idiot. Like most things that I did in my earlier life, I seemed to pick the incorrect path at every step to try to accomplish what I wanted. I knew now that I spent a great deal of time keeping Maren’s attention glued firmly on me while doing everything I could to push her away at the same time. I never felt that I was good enough for her. That logic somehow translated into me dating every girl who even gave me a promising glance and usually sleeping with her too. Once I made the rounds of Greyelf High School and could drive, I started in on the girls in the neighboring towns. I have no idea why Maren put up with me. But she was always there whenever I called or came by, and I liked that. So in addition to being an idiot, I had been a selfish asshole.
    I thought I was different now. Ten years and a bit of life experience can change a man. Being alone in Markus’s imposed isolation was one of the most difficult things that I could have imagined. But it made me appreciate the community and support that existed at White Oaks. I felt closer to the bear shifters here than ever, even if they didn’t feel that way about me yet. My big brother was smart as hell. He knew by keeping me away, he’d evoke the old ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ feeling. I wonder if he knew that same logic would end up applying to my feelings for Maren too. He probably did.
    That was the baffling