Becoming the Alpha by Ivy Sinclair

and just keep them talking. I always found the best parts of the story popped out unprompted.
    “Who would ever be ready to lose their brother?” Lukas said harshly. He looked away from me then. “I lost my parents when I was so young that I barely remember them. Markus was my parent. Aunt Bea tried her best, but I wasn’t particularly receptive to her either. When I first moved here, I just wanted things to be the way they were before. It was a difficult adjustment. Markus was barely more than a kid himself. Then he became this symbol for an entire species, and he focused all of his time and energy on that part of his life. I’m proud of him and what he accomplished, but I was a real shit to him when I was a kid because I didn’t understand it then.”
    That was all information I already knew, although I had never heard Lukas articulate it quite that way. He had rebelled because he wanted attention. It didn’t matter if it was positive or negative attention. In the end, he had been far more successful at getting negative attention, and that seemed to be what he chose to stick with for the duration of his teenage years.
    “It must have been a wonderful thing for you then you reconciled with him.”
    “I wouldn’t call it a reconciliation. It was simply a relationship that finally matured to one of mutual respect. It took us awhile to get there, but it was solid. It’s hard to believe he’s gone.” Lukas’s eyes unfocused over my shoulder as if he felt the pull of his brother’s memory. I heard the sadness in his voice.
    “So now you’re the alpha,” I said, turning the tide of the conversation. “It wasn’t a position that you were able to take on without some conflict.”
    Lukas snorted. “Conflict is the shifter’s way it seems. After spending ten years getting to a place where I was okay with myself, I had to come back here and face all of that judgment and negativity all over again.”
    “So why come back at all? Why not rescind the claim and go back to your old life?”
    “That wasn’t even an option,” Lukas said. I heard what sounded like a growl in the back of his throat. “Markus wanted me to be the alpha. If he had told me that he wanted the sheriff or anyone else to be the alpha at any point in our conversations, I would have stood aside. I wouldn’t have fought it. But that wasn’t the case.”
    “It seems like you have a hard road ahead of you, especially with the Summit starting tonight.”
    “I can handle it,” Lukas said. “I’m ready, and the clan is my number one priority right now. If anyone thinks otherwise, they can go fuck themselves.”
    I had to smile. Every once and awhile, the Lukas that I had once known showed through his carefully polished exterior.
    “What’s next for you then?”
    “I will declare my mate,” Lukas said. His voice dropped lower. “Markus freely admitted that he thought it would have been easier for him many times through the years if he had a mate. He just never found the right one.”
    I felt a flush rise on my cheeks. My fingers slid up to the spot on my neck where under my sweater his bite marked my flesh. I saw his eyes follow the movement of my fingers, and I quickly moved my hand back into my lap. His lips curled into a smug smile. He had gotten under my skin, and he knew it.
    “Tell me more about that,” I said lamely.
    “About my mate? Or about the mating process?”
    I squirmed in my seat and tried to think about how to change the subject without making it so obvious. I couldn’t come up with a segue that would make sense. I also had to admit that I was more than a little curious about what I had signed up for in agreeing to be his mate.
    “Both.”
    “It has to be a thoughtful decision,” Lukas said. “A mate that is weak won’t support you in the important decisions of the clan. She needs to be strong and well-respected because she is an extension of my authority. In the event that I am called away or unable to advise on a