The Alpha's Arrangement, page 1
The Alpha's Arrangement
Tea Ravine
Copyright © 2023 by Tea Ravine
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permission requests, contact Tea Ravine.
The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.
Book Cover by Blue Shadow Designs
Contents
Warnings
A note
Dedication
1. Scarlet
2. Scarlet
3. Jet
4. Scarlet
5. Scarlet
6. Taylor
7. Scarlet
8. Scarlet
9. Barren
10. Scarlet
11. Scarlet
12. Acton
13. Scarlet
14. Scarlet
15. Gold
16. Scarlet
17. Scarlet
18. Jet
19. Scarlet
20. Scarlet
21. Acton
22. Scarlet
23. Scarlet
24. Scarlet
25. Taylor
26. Barren
27. Scarlet
28. Gold
29. Scarlet
30. Jet
31. Scarlet
32. Scarlet
33. Acton
34. Scarlet
35. Taylor
36. Scarlet
37. Gold
38. Scarlet
39. Jet
40. Scarlet
41. Barren
42. Scarlet
43. Scarlet
44. Epilogue- Scarlet
Acknowledgements
Also By Tea Ravine
About Tea Ravine
Warnings
Why Choose
This novel is a why choose or reverse harem novel, meaning that our Female Main Character will fall in love and end up in relationships with three or more people.
If this isn’t for you, don’t read ahead.
M/M warning
This novel contains scenes of M/M/M where relationships and activities of the late night variety will be described in delicious detail on page.
If that's not to your taste, close this book promptly and find the nearest exit.
If you’re still on for this ride…buckle up.
TRIGGER WARNINGS
This is a why choose novel, meaning our heroine will end up with a relationship with three or more people.
Omegaverse- packs/ knots/ locks etc
M/M
Group activities ;)
Stalking
Violence on page
Swearing
Sexual Assault off page
PTSD
Coercion
Shitty people doing shitty things and
Happily ever afters
A note
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons dead or alive is pure coincidence. It is also a work of art and does not accurately portray real life or real world places.
In other words, this book came out of my head.
I dreamed it up.
It's all pure fantasy.
Have fun. xxx
Dedication
This book is a big fuck you to those people who found joy in making people afraid, in taking away safe homes, and with a simple glance, creating a warzone.
I did it.
Despite you.
Oh, and to my family. Y'all are as crazy as I am, but I love every one of you.
one
Scarlet
My isolated cabin idea looked better on paper than it does in real life. My real-life version is plain, downright scary and a hell of a lot of manual labour. There’s no paint left on the outside walls, the roof has more shingles on the ground, and I swear, nature has all but won the battle of reclaiming the cottage.
But I have nowhere else to go.
The door collapses on me, splinters bite into my fingers. The pain is tolerable but pushes my flailing temper, skittering it to a new high. When I saw the cottage again, I’d thought maybe the whole thing might fall on my head, so I guess a single door is a win.
I wrestle with the old wood until it sits back on the rusty hinges and warily step back, sweeping my long, tangled hair out of my face. I get a look at the interior of the cottage in the rapidly disappearing daylight and wonder if this is life telling me just to quit. It’s a wreck, and it looks nothing like it does in my memories. The curtains are moth eaten; the floor is dusty; and the smell reminds me of wild animals. It’s not fit for living in, but beggars, I remind myself firmly, can’t be choosers.
At least it’s mine alone. Peace. Solitude. Time to gather my thoughts and work out what the fuck I’ve been doing for the last decade. Time to be alone and take off the mask I’ve been wearing so long I’ve forgotten who I even am anymore.
The radio station playing in my earpod stops playing music.
“This is your favourite station, 99.9, and we’re here with all your Alphas, Betas, and Omegas, the ABO’s, oh, yeah. Today we’re talking about packs.”
“I’d love me a pack.” The female croons through my ear.
I snort at her desire. Maybe one day they’ll stop selling the romance out of packs and start peddling realities. Bitterly frosty nights that turn into months or years. The group ganging up on others to get what they want. There isn’t communication or love, it’s what you can get from each other.
I’m tired of being drained. Scarlet, handle the business. Scarlet, sort out our parties, handle the cleaning, cook, play mediator.
I turn around, eyeing the cobwebs hanging from the corners. Please, lord let the owners of those webs be deceased! The cute, stained glass in the window edges is dirty and doesn’t turn the floor coloured like it used to. My heels click across the wood as I walk, but somehow they lose the power they normally ring with, like the sheer volume of dirt and other nasties is some absorbent mat. I rip the white sheet off the couch and find a floral disaster zone.
“You are going in the bin,” I tell the couch with a warning glare.
“Alphas need packs to keep them sane, situated, and calm. Male alphas need to protect. They need mellow betas and needy omega girls.”
“Oh, no, they don't. What alphas need is peace and quiet and an existence sans morons!” I shout back, incensed.
The idiot on the station chuckles. I’m not surprised he has so much information wrong. Alphas don’t just need to protect, we need to serve; we need to provide safety, both emotional and physical. We are the sharp edge of the sword ready to defend and the warm embraces bringing food and love. Pack life is a give and take. It has to be.
I’m an alpha, but I’m not male, so I can’t be sure, but I figure we must be similar, and I need more than just to walk around protecting people or fucking them.
I think of my friend Missy and how happy she is with her alphas, the tiny flickers of seeing something I’ve never seen before out of a pack that works as a unit, a team. Each person making room for the next.
Missy’s a unicorn. I’ll never find someone like her. And that hurts.
“Right, because heats. Oh, man, I have heard the stories, getting that fabulous bite mark on your body, being owned by an alpha who can rock your world.” The woman makes a suggestive noise.
I stop where I am and glare. It’s not like that. It’s not like that at all. It shouldn’t be, anyway. I reach up to touch my neck where there’s not a single blemish. No bonds, no bites, no pack. Alone.
I press my lips together, focusing on the cabin, remembering the last time I was here. Gran with her arm around me, smiling as she told me yet another one of those stories my father had forbidden. It was Red Riding Hood, and when I looked up at Gran and asked her in a hushed whisper, “How come Red was so dumb that she didn’t realise the wolf was pretending to be her Grandma?” Gran had smiled and leaned down and whispered into my ear, “That Red wasn’t dumb, it’s just because wolves wear the best disguises.”
I’d been confused. Until I remembered her words when I was sixteen. The day I presented as alpha. A female alpha. It made no sense. But from then on, they, my family, anyone who met me, looked at me with fear, and Gran’s words, well, I took them to heart. I made myself the best disguise. I turned into a wolf.
Scarlet Waring, CEO of multiple multi-million dollar companies, who is calm and feared, not for what she could be but for what she is when she walks into your business room.
And it still hadn’t worked. I’m still just as alone as I was at sixteen. Unwanted. An aberration. Feared.
With a grunt, I flop down on the lone kitchen chair that’s not broken, unbuttoning my suit jacket and kicking my heels off. I put my hand over my eyes and smile. I just want to sleep for a month. I can do that now. I answer to no one.
“Everyone wants a hot little omega to wiggle into their life. Get yourself an alpha or omega, join a pack. Bonds are for life.” The two idiots on the station giggle. “We have Sarah on the line. Hi, Sarah.”
“Hi, I just think you’re wrong. It's got to be more than just sex, just designations. What about loyalty? What about sacrifice? What about family a
“Well, I guess, Sarah, if you’re after those things, you should really consider a fairy tale.”
I growl and pull the earpod out of my ear and throw it across the room, where it breaks apart into a couple of pieces. I should feel regret, but I can’t muster it.
My phone rings, and I pull it out of my purse and glare at the name. My lip lifts, and a vicious snarl fills the room. I slide my finger across the screen, cutting the call, and turn my phone off.
“Fuck your designation crap, and fuck your fairy tales.” I stomp out to the car and grab the supplies I brought with me, carrying the bags back into the cottage and dumping them on the dusty table.
“What about homes? What about dignity? What about self respect?” I mutter as I fill up a tub with water and disinfectant. “What about not being a doormat?”
As I work, the pain eases up again, and with that, my mind goes over every fine detail I've already obsessed over. I wasn’t in love with them. Not by a long shot, but I thought we’d be a pack. When they walked into our home wearing silver bites on their necks and showing off mate bonds, it sent a sick feeling skittering through me. An icy feeling. The same one I’m used to right before my life blows up in my face. The little omega watched me with huge, nervous chocolate eyes while she clung to my pack with trepidation. I couldn’t fault her. I wasn’t hers; she was clearly terrified of me.
Tabby Lancaster, the most sought after omega of the season. Broke as fuck, spoiled to within an inch of her life, but the most beautiful, delicate woman I’ve ever seen. Everything I’m not.
And I felt nothing but disdain for her.
She was effectively stealing my home. My work. My family. My pack out from under me. Biology demanded it of her, of them. All my work and sacrifice flushed down the drain. Money and business don't count when hormones come to play. Ten years of friendship doesn’t mean shit when your omega needs a knot.
But I can’t begrudge them their desire for family or pack. It all made a painful, resigned sense. If I'd felt anything for her, I would have desired that, too. But I didn’t. Her scent of burnt toffee was irritating. So I did what any self-respecting alpha would do. I smiled, wished them well, watched their relief on their faces, packed my stuff, and moved the fuck out.
What does sting, what is keeping me furious and hurt, is the fact that no one had the balls to speak to me about it. A decade shared with those men, and it amounts to sheepish toe-shuffling while they wait for me to rescue them from their own choices. I’d been rescuing them in one way or another for years. It just took that moment to see it. Phil should have told me. That would have been the right thing to do.
Assholes. It’s been four months. Why is he contacting me now?
I find a cupboard stashed with chips and chocolate and frown because it doesn’t look old. I shrug and toss it in the garbage and get down on my knees to scrub the cupboard out.
I’m the one who handled everything. Made the money, cleaned the house, cooked. I wonder who’s going to do it now. The smile stays on my face through the entire cleaning of the other five cupboards.
I rub my temple and sit back down. When was the last time I ate? I can’t remember. My eyes feel dry, and all the years just seem too much suddenly. But my cottage is clean now. Tomorrow, I’ll make a list and go into town and get what I need.
I glance in the bedroom and walk in, pushing the window open to let air flow. I check the time and find five hours have passed, and it’s now nearing midnight.
“It’s almost tomorrow, Scarlet. You behaved with grace, with poise. No one saw anything you didn’t allow them to see. You are the wolf.”
I exhale and unzip my skirt, pulling my overly large jumper on and curling up on the lumpy sofa I discovered under another sheet.
Still, sleep doesn’t come. The scene plays over and over in my head. Their relief. Cowards. The anger rises again until I feel smothered by it. I stand up and reach for my bag, pulling out my trainers and leggings. I need to get out of this space.
I throw myself into the night, jogging the path I used to walk all those years ago.
The night sound’s calm my nerves, the cool breeze is cleansing, my feet find a rhythm that steadies my soul. I get to a rise and look to my left, pausing with my lips parted when I find glowing yellow.
The manor has people living in it again. It’s been so long. I wonder who they are? All the time I spent up here as a child, I never once saw anyone on that property. In fact, everyone used to say it was haunted, cursed.
Ridiculous nonsense. But it made my childish heart leap with glee.
I smile wryly. It took me four months to sort out my life so I could leave, and I wasn’t sure where I was going until I found myself on the road home. The best memories of my life were made here.
A flash of golden hair and dimples surfaces in my memory, but it floats away before I can grab hold of it.
I turn away from the lights and continue my circuit. At the top of the track, I pause at the lookout. I can’t see the town, but I know it’s off to the left. My cottage is nestled deep in the woods, and the manor is beyond even that. All around us are mountains. One giant bowl, it’s like the gods themselves scooped out the middle. It’s incredible.
It’s good to be home.
I turn and pause, catching a scent of orange. It’s sweet, and my mouth waters. I inhale deeper, catching just the faint notes in the air. The scent teases me as I wander from tree to tree, searching, but the scent fades like it was never there. I shake my head and start jogging away.
The next morning, I roll my trolley up to the cashier and grit my teeth at the way she ignores me until she catches my scent. Her eyes flick back to me, widen, and then she looks down, almost trembling. Her hair is white where it used to be blonde, her cheeks are soft and sagging, but age has not touched her vibrancy. If only she would look at me, see me, so she can smile, brown eyes crinkling, and say my name the way she has a million times before.
How many times did she pat my shoulder and slip me a lollipop? How many times did she sit on Gran's porch sipping a beer while I chased the fireflies?
Our fingers brush, and she hits her elbow on the cabinet behind her, almost sending several bottles tumbling to the floor.
Sigh. This has got to stop.
“Annie.”
The woman looks up, meets my eyes, immediately drops them, fumbles the block of cheese, and winces.
“Annie.” I say again with a little extra bite.
She looks up and really looks. “Oh, my gawd!”
Finally, I’ve been to five different stores today, and everyone has responded in a similar way. I’m not going to spend my life here living with wincing betas.
“You’re Scarlet!”
My smile’s wide as flashes of my youth tear through my mind. She even says my name with the same accent Gran used. “I am. I came home to stay for a while.”
“Oh, Alba is going to shit a brick when I tell her. I can’t believe it, and look at you, so grown up and an alpha.” Her eyes widen as she realises what she’s said.
I just laugh. “You’re taking it better than my father did.”
Her eyes widen again, a chuckle exploding out of her. “He never did approve of Kay.”
I think of my grandmother with her wicked twinkle in her eyes. “He doesn’t approve of me, either.”
“Well, who cares? Welcome back to June Haven, Scarlet Waring. I cannot believe my eyes. Hell surely did freeze over.”
I smile politely back. “Thanks. It’s good to be home.”
“You must be staying up in the cottage. I’m sure it needs work. I can get you the numbers of some of the boys. We have electricians, plumbers, carpenters. The town has grown since you’ve been gone.”
“I noticed that today. Three extra streets?”
“Twelve now.” She puffs her chest up proudly.
“I saw there’s someone living in the manor, too?” I ask while I unload my trolley.
“Oh, yes. My, you haven’t heard, have you? Well, why would you, of course? There’s a pack now. They don't socialise much and are so reclusive and mysterious, but all five of them are so handsome.”
