Touch of the Alpha by K Matthew

CHAPTER ONE
     
     
    Karen was a disgrace to her pack. Every steadfast
rule that her pack held dear, she insisted on breaking in an
attempt to free herself from the bonds of a lineage that had been
slowly dying out for centuries. Why her pack was trying to preserve
the wolf in their bloodline now was beyond her. They were more
human than wolf. Some of them couldn't even turn anymore. As it
was, Karen's shift was completely involuntary, and it only happened
during the full moon—sometimes. It was really a crap shoot. Half
the time when her pack gathered for the change, she was left
standing there, naked in her human form, while most of her
immediate family went bounding off into the forest without
her.
    For a while, her brother insisted that
the human shifters left behind should try to run with the wolves.
Maybe it would help force the change in them. It was pointless
though.
    Karen had submitted a long time ago to
the fact that by the time she was an old woman, her grandchildren
would probably be fully human. That was, if her brother didn't now
insist that members of their family could only mate with solid
shifters, those who change every full moon. That was the first rule
Karen broke. She'd be damned if she would allow her lug-headed
Alpha brother to decide who she could have sex with and who she
couldn't.
    When Howard came of age and took over
the pack, that's when Karen really began hating her wolf. There
were rules before her brother became alpha, but they were very
loosely enforced. The worst thing that could happen if you broke a
rule was that you'd be shunned by the family for a few days. With
Howard in charge, things took a more serious turn. There were
mediation and interventions, lectures and house arrest, and a whole
lot of other bullshit that Karen wasn't willing to put up
with.
    She might have run away from her pack
if they hadn't decided that her behavior was so bad that she needed
to be sent away. The very thought made her huff. Werewolf
reformation, Howard called it. Sending her to go spend some time
with the regional Alpha, the man who enforces all lycan laws with
the larger packs in the entire state of Michigan. If he gave a shit
about whether Karen was following those laws or not, he would have
come after her already. It was proof that the Needham pack was
insignificant, a fact that her brother refused to see.
    With the support of the family behind
Howard, Karen was whisked away to Sky High Ranch, home of the
regional Alpha and safe haven to all wolves who hadn't yet found
their place in the world. Karen thought it would be a prison, but
the ranch reminded her far more of a college campus. When she
arrived, she was greeted by the omega of the pack and immediately
shown to her room.
    Howard was woefully disappointed that
he wasn't introduced to the regional Alpha. Perhaps he wanted a
chance to prove to him that the Needhams were still a legitimate
pack. Whatever the case, Karen was admittedly pleased that the
regional Alpha didn't find them important enough for even a casual
greeting. Maybe when Howard went home, he would marinate on that
for a while and realize that his attempt at preserving the wolf in
their bloodline was futile. If Karen was lucky, the regional Alpha
would take one look at her and send her packing back to
Lansing.
    Shortly after arriving, it became
quite clear to Karen that she'd never get a personal meeting with
the regional Alpha. Essentially, her family had just dumped her off
for a month-long vacation from their bullshit. For a place that
housed the man who made and enforced all the laws of the Michigan
packs, there didn't appear to be many rules at Sky High Ranch.
Lycans of various bloodlines wandered the premises, socializing as
if they didn't have a care in the world. Despite the cornucopia of
people with different percentages of lycan blood, Karen could still
sense that hers was the weakest. Each lycan carried their own
scent, and through that, it was fairly easy to distinguish