Stray Alpha

STRAY ALPHA COLD-BLOODED ALPHA #8 EVE BALE Stray Alpha Copyright © 2023 by Eve Bale www.evebale.com All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. For permissions, contact: [email protected] v2.1 CONTENTS Want a Free Book? About Stray Alpha Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Epilogue Excerpt from The Weakest Wolf Excerpt from The Alpha’s Silent Mate Also by Eve Thank you! WANT A FREE BOOK? Join my mailing list to snag your FREE copy of Moon-Blessing, a short story set in my Cold-Blooded Alpha series. Click HERE to claim your free story! ABOUT STRAY ALPHA BLAIR... I’m the girl who nearly killed her alpha. Fresh starts are for the deserving. After what I did, that is not me, so when an opportunity to start over comes my way, I decide to go lone wolf instead. Gavin Blackshaw, the shifter sent to take me to my fresh start, thinks I’m joining his pack in Colorado. I’m not. Gavin proves strangely resistant to the idea of me becoming a lone wolf. By resistant, he swears to chase me down if I even think of running. When we wind up sharing a bed in a motel room not once, but twice, it’s impossible to deny the simmering attraction between us. Staying with him isn’t an option. Until a ghost from my past doesn’t just try to haunt me, it tries to kill me. Suddenly, leaving isn’t as clear-cut as I’d envisioned. With Gavin determined to fight this threat by my side, I’m tempted to let him. Can a stray alpha who doesn’t believe in fresh starts find one in Colorado with a shifter hell-bent on keeping her? Due to adult language, violence, and steamy scenes this book is recommended for 18+. 1 "So. Torture, huh?" I dart a glance at the shaved-headed shifter in the driver’s seat. Gavin Blackshaw. A man who has come to take me from my pack and back to his. "Was there a question in there somewhere?" His lips quirk in amusement before he changes lanes, drawing my attention to his tanned, muscled forearms. His arms aren’t the only thing I’m finding it hard not to notice. This isn’t the first, second, or even the third time I tell myself to crack open my window so I don’t have his rich amber and cocoa scent snaking around me. But do I? I do not because my wolf doesn’t have a problem with it. And neither does the woman. When I realize I’m paying far too much attention to a man I’m about to run out on, I point my eyes in the opposite direction before he notices. Somewhere that isn’t likely to get me into trouble. Like outside the window. "You know, you could’ve just said you didn't want to tell me,” he says in a sexy drawl that does something curious to my insides. Outside my car window, Wylder, New York, flashes past almost too fast to see. It’s a town I’ve known for nearly six years, and it’s a place I thought I would live forever. I hadn’t believed such a tiny town would wind up feeling like more of a home than Indiana, the state I was born and lived in for eighteen years. Now the idea of leaving it is like someone clenching a tight fist around my heart. It hurts. It fucking hurts a lot. "And would you have stopped asking?" I ask, trying not to think about never seeing Wylder again. It’s not just the town I’m quietly saying goodbye to. It’s my packmates and Galen Hunt, the alpha who formed the remains of a bruised and battered pack into his own: the Hunts. A man I nearly killed. His mate, Sierra, might’ve been on her way to forgiving me. Galen might’ve gotten there before she did, but how do you forgive yourself for nearly killing the man who gave you a home and a fresh start? The answer is you don’t. You get the hell away before you do permanent damage next time, which is where Gavin Blackshaw comes in. I’m leaving Blair Hunt back in Wylder, and I’m just going to be Blair from this point forward. Lone wolf. Well, I will be as soon as I get away from this guy. “Probably not,” Gavin concedes. “It must be because of this curious nature I have.” Curiosity. A trait I most definitely do not want him to have. “You have a cell phone. Ask Sierra or Galen. They’ll tell you.” A flash of awareness makes me think he’s trained his pretty sea-green eyes my way. I do the smart thing and keep my blue gaze locked on the trees and mountains in the distance. We pass a sign pointing toward New York. It’s not where we’re heading, but soon we’ll stop for lunch since we left Wylder late this morning. And then, I can make my escape. "I could, but I think I'd like to hear the story from you." No. You wouldn’t. A memory drags me into the past. Galen’s battered, bruised, and bloody body is stretched out on a dust-covered factory floor. Sierra is on her knees beside him, her hand on his brow and a sheen of tears on her cheeks. And I know—just as she must—that if he’d been human, she’d have been kneeling beside his dead body with all the damage done to him. Because of me. “You’ll be staying in Savannah’s old cabin,” Gavin says in the same tone as before. As if I’m not being curt or outright rude. “It’s quiet