Alpha by Mandy Rosko Page A

she was only wearing a sheet.
    Miranda folded her arms and sat back down on the bed, just to be stubborn. Fuck him and fuck his stupid commands.
    Woman . He called her woman . What the hell was he? A caveman? Just because he was good-looking and apparently rich didn't mean he had permission to call her that.
    It did sort of ease the ache and make it kind of endearing, however. Did that make her a hypocrite? Probably, but she didn't much care in that moment.
    Her stomach growled again, and Miranda let out an angry snarl as she stormed to her feet and followed after Garret.
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    S he was behind him . He knew she would be eventually. He hadn't gone far. His home was a large place, many people lived in it, and she still had no clothing to wear yet because her clothes were still being boiled to remove her human scent from them, so he'd waited at the end of the hall for her. She spotted him immediately, and that adorable, angry blush returned to her cheeks, making her look lovelier than before.
    She approached him, refused to look into his eyes, and cleared her throat. "I decided to go with you after all."
    "Did you?"
    Miranda nodded. "If I'm going to be staying here, I need to learn more about what you all are. What I am. I'm not going to do that by hiding away in your bedroom."
    It was their bedroom, but he didn't correct her. Even Garret knew a prideful woman could only take so much teasing before she was genuinely offended, and he was still trying to impress her.
    So he let her believe he was accepting her excuse as true, and he led her down the stairs, carefully watching the sheet around her feet so she would not trip.
    "Are you sure I can't wear my clothes yet?"
    "They are still wet, and they will remain that way for another day or so."
    Hopefully, when Anna returned with the new clothes, Miranda would be so pleased with them that she wouldn't want to wear her old clothes ever again, and then Garret could bury them.
    The last thing he needed was Dennis tracking her scent here, trying something else against her life.
    Dennis was an idiot, but to attack a human woman who had done nothing to him was low even for him. Garret understood as much as the next shifter the importance of fighting and defense. Had Miranda been a warrior woman who attacked first, then it would have been understandable, but she was not a warrior. She had been helpless, and Dennis would have killed her to satisfy an old wrong.
    So foolish and stupid.
    When they arrived at the dining room, he noted the way his mate turned her head this way and that, glancing up at the crystal chandelier above the long mahogany table. Then her eyes shifted to the wine glasses at each table setting and the fine china.
    "Are you sure you're not royalty or something?" Miranda asked.
    Garret sputtered a laugh. "Royalty? Hardly."
    "Okay, then you're secretly a drug trafficker, is that it?"
    He shook his head again. "No, nothing like that." He gestured to the room around her. "Much of this was inherited from the previous alpha, my father. He lived long enough to acquire a decent amount of wealth. The rest came from his father before him. Honestly, with everything put together, it amounts to a little over a billion dollars."
    He might as well tell her this now, let her know what he planned on sharing with her.
    Miranda's eyes popped wide open. She shook her head. "No, you're not serious."
    Garret smiled. "Very serious. Your name will be going on my account, so you might as well know what you have access to."
    She sputtered. "You can't give me access to a billion dollars!"
    "Why not?"
    Her mouth opened and closed. She seemed flabbergasted, like she didn't know how to answer that. "I don't… I don't know, because it's yours, not mine."
    It was hers now, but he could sense her discomfort. Garret wasn't an idiot. He knew how money could make people uncomfortable. It was why he didn't like wearing expensive suits, aside from the fact they frequently got ruined when he shifted in them.