The Alpha's Unwanted Mate: (BWWM) Paranormal Romance Standalone Read Online Free Page B

was doing. Couldn’t she see that she was putting young girls in danger, thought Angeline bitterly. They hadn’t heard from anyone that had gone to the wolves’ den and still they continued to siphon women into the location in and endless cycle.
    What gave her mother such absolutely, unshaking loyalty to these beasts anyway?
    Over dinner, Angeline decided that she had to talk to her mother about what was going on. It had been a year since Samantha, and she had to live every day knowing her name was on the list of potential mates. Though she was comforted by the idea that her mother would never give her away so callously, that didn’t help comfort her about the other girls.
    Later that evening, the young woman left her apartment. She knew her mom would still be awake at this hour because she often stayed up into the wee hours of the morning, contemplating matches. Angeline quietly let herself into the house and found her mother sitting at the kitchen table.
    However, instead of poring  over her extensive list of possible young woman, Madeline Hayes was instead staring off into space and, queerest of all, smoking a cigarette. Angeline’s mother had given up smoking years ago, so the sight of a cigarette in her hand now slightly alarmed the young woman.
    “Mom? Are you ok?”
    Madeline seemed startled by the sudden presence of her daughter. She jumped, spilling a bit of ash over herself before smiling absently at the young woman in the entryway. The woman’s eyes seemed somehow thoughtful and far away as she gestured her daughter into the space.
    “Hey baby. Come over here, will you? We need to talk.”
    With a sigh, Angeline walked into the kitchen to sit across from her mother, eyeing the elder woman skeptically. “Mom…I thought you were done smoking.”
    As if she’d just noticed that she had a cigarette in her hand, Madeline glanced at the object between her fingers in mild surprise before stubbing it out in the half full coffee cup before her. Her brown eyes lifted to fix her daughter with her intense gaze before she reached across the table to take her slender hand between both of her own. There was an emotion on her face that Angeline couldn’t quite read, sadness, hesitance, and confusion, something that made the depths of her stare shimmer with uncertainty.
    For a moment, the fire in her dimmed somewhat. She’d come over in order to speak with her mother about something she’d come to feel passionately about. She wanted to understand exactly why the woman who’d raised her felt the need to send tens of young, intelligent women off into the boonies to be broodmares. That wasn’t the way that Madeline Hayes had been raised, and to see her perpetuating the idea now…it was something that Angeline didn’t think she could take for much longer.
    But now, the words she’d wanted to say died on her lips. Her mother looked upset. Like any well-meaning child, she was loath to make her parent feel worse than she already did if there was a prior issue to be tended to. Madeline was normally a sunny, smiling rotund figure of a woman, and it was clear that something had her more pensive than usual.
    “I am done with it, darling. There are just…a few things on my mind and I thought it would be nice to have one.”
    Now Angeline was slightly alarmed: what could possibly be on her mother’s mind that was driving her back into dangerous, old habits? This was a woman who had made her daughter swear that she would never pick up a cigarette for the sake of her own health.
    “Mom…what’s going on?” Angeline kept her tone soft, gazing down at the hand her mother held. The last thing she wanted to do was exacerbate an already existing problem, and so, she let her mother speak first.
    “Sweetheart…I’d like you to consider being mated to Clyde.”
    Angeline felt her heart drop into her stomach as her mouth fell open. For a moment, she could only stare in utter and complete shock at her mother as her mind