Bridenapped The Alpha's Choice Read Online Free

needed. All his plans were falling into place. His nephew would marry that spoiled, whiny little bitch of an heiress and the pack would be raking in the money that their business partnership would bring. He needed it. His suppliers in Eastern Europe were getting greedy, talking about raising their prices, and it was getting harder and harder for him to divert pack money to where it needed to go. The Van Hoffington department store partnership would give him the fresh infusion of cash that he needed.
    And once he had the Alpha Congress where he needed them, he’d get rid of Jarrod. God knew what he’d do with Regina. Maybe marry the stupid bitch; all she cared about was being married to an Alpha, so she shouldn’t object too much. He’d make sure she didn’t.
    “Sir, we’ll find out who did this. And the athletes aren’t cheating; we’d stand up to any investigation.” Ignatius didn’t look as confident as Earvin would have hoped.
    “Deal with it, or it’ll be your head on the chopping block,” Earvin growled at him. “You know what’s at stake.”
    “Yes, sir.” He bobbed his head frantically and backed out of the room, keeping his gaze respectfully lowered as he did.
    * * * * *
    Mary stopped pacing and tried to refrain from looking at the sunburst-shaped clock up on the wall as Angela walked in with a sour expression on her face, slammed the door, and threw her purse onto the table.
    “Oh, go ahead and look,” Angela said wearily. “It’s 2 a.m. Sorry, I didn’t mean to keep you up.”
    “It’s not like I was sleeping anyway,” Mary said, stifling a yawn. “My mind can’t stop racing. I have thirty-two things I need to do tomorrow.”
    “Literally? Wow, you are stressed out. The more stressed you are, the longer your lists get. What’s wrong?”
    Was that true? Mary should look into that tomorrow. No, that would just add another item to her list. She sank down on the couch and scrubbed wearily at her eyes with the palms of her hands.
    “The last couple of days have not been going well. Jarrod stood Regina up again – well, technically he never agreed to meet her, but his uncle promised he’d send Jarrod to this coffee shop where Regina was hanging out and he never showed. Her family is threatening to fire Hilda, and Hilda, needless to say, is not taking it well.”
    “What you mean is she’s taking it out on you.” Angela shook her head sympathetically. “Why don’t you get another job?”
    “There aren’t many jobs out there for an English lit major. Trust me, I’ve looked. There’s a hiring freeze on teachers, and I fail at waitressing because of the whole butterfingers thing.” Mary sighed. “And also, I’m trying to help her out. She can’t really afford a good executive secretary, because this is a new business for her, and I kind of owe her for all she did for me after Mom died.”
    Angela shook her head. “Yeah, she’s going to beat you to death with that one forever.”
    Angela got up and walked over to the mantel, where Mary had neatly lined up pictures. She only had one picture with her mother and Hilda and her all together. Her mother was hungover, Hilda looked like she’d just sucked a lemon, and Mary was forcing a smile and trying to hold everything together, as usual. Good times.
    Mary looked just like her mother in that picture. Hilda never failed to hold that resemblance over her head, which made Mary queasy. She did everything she could to be the opposite of their mother; she was compulsively neat, tidy and punctual. But for Hilda, it was still never good enough.
    “What was she like?” Angela asked, peering at the picture.
    “She was…a free spirit.” She was an alcoholic who would rather party and run off with strange men for weeks on end than take care of her own daughters. Hilda and Mary had both grown up overcompensating for their upbringing, or lack thereof.
    “How did your evening go?” Mary asked, desperate to change the subject.
    Angela made a