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  Awakened Alpha

  Guardian of Mates Agency

  Chloe Vincent

  Table Of Contents

  Prologue

  1. Gwen

  2. Sam

  3. Delilah

  4. Gwen

  5. Sam

  6. Delilah

  7. Sam

  8. Gwen

  9. Sam

  10. Delilah

  11. Gwen

  12. Sam

  13. Delilah

  14. Gwen

  15. Sam

  16. Gwen

  17. Sam

  18. Delilah

  19. Gwen

  20. Sam

  21. Gwen

  Epilogue

  More Paranormal Book Action!

  About the Author

  Awakened Alpha

  Copyright © 2019

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. For permission requests, email [email protected]

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events, businesses, companies, institutions, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  It is not legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental.

  Prologue

  Angelic Dimension

  A Delilah took another sip of her margarita, her eyebrows rose at the second lobster being placed on a silver platter in front of her. Katz leaned over to take a look at the giant crustacean and the similarly giant tub of melted butter next to it and grinned at Delilah, his friend. They sat on a long wooden bench at a long wooden table crowded with other patrons of the most popular seafood restaurant in the Angelic Dimension.

  “That is a lot of lobster,” Delilah said. But she was not put off by the large amount of food, even as her stomach slightly protested. If there was going to be unending free lobster in the afterlife, she supposed she would take advantage.

  “You’re not eating a second lobster,” Katz said, laughing as he shook his head. “It’s not happening.”

  “Oh, friend,” Delilah said, grabbing the lobster cracker and going about breaking open the shell. “You don’t know my appetite very well.”

  Katz had long-since finished eating. The two of them had made a habit of eating together when Katz could get away from his duties with the Department of Redemption and when Delilah was not on a mission. Their plan was to visit every restaurant, bar and eatery of any kind in the whole of the Angelic Dimension. Doing so would potentially take up a good chunk of eternity, but the idea was a pleasant one. Their latest trial was Evelyn’s Fish Co., it was a giant seafood restaurant set inside a tenth-century castle on a rolling green hill abruptly plopped down in the middle of the metropolis. The place even had a moat all the way around it and a drawbridge that raised and lowered for each customer, so that just getting into the place could take a while. But it added to the fun.

  It felt odd to be eating what felt like “modern” food and wearing her trademark black leather jacket, black skinny jeans and boots while feasting in a historically accurate tenth-century castle. And maybe odder because two wolf shifters, in wolf form, were eating trout across the table from her. But such scenarios were not uncommon in the afterlife, Delilah had discovered, and she was beginning to get used to it.

  “So, why is this place in a castle?” Delilah asked, picking away some lobster meat with a fork and dipping it in the butter. “I mean it’s not like medieval food; it’s like a twentieth-century seafood restaurant. They have a salad bar. What’s with the castle? Why do the waiters wear suits of armor?”

  “That’s how Evelyn wanted it,” Katz said, shrugging. “She got to choose how to spend eternity because of her good life on Earth, and she chose to run a seafood restaurant. She got to pick the setting and decor too. She wanted a castle. I think it’s modeled after a real castle in Ireland but I’m not sure. She can also change her mind whenever she wants and kick back on a beach instead-”

  “That’s what I would do,” Delilah said wryly. “Wouldn’t catch me running a restaurant. Bikini, Mai Tai, deck chair. That is my heaven.”

  “Bikini?” Katz asked faintly. He opened and closed his mouth and then shook his head. One of his little dreadlocks fell over his eyes as he turned his head and because he wasn’t looking, Delilah secretly smiled at his reaction. Katz cleared his throat and said, “Anyway, are you excited about your next mission?”

  “Oh, sure,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Yeah, I reported in to the Department of Soul Matery yesterday and they gave me the dossier. It’s just like you said. Mountain lion shifters in Los Angeles. And one of them is in a coma. A coma, Katz.” She stuffed some lobster in her mouth and grimaced, ignoring the way Katz laughed at her chagrin. She chewed and swallowed and stabbed a piece of asparagus, waving it around for emphasis. “And there’s a dark wizard, of course! Gotta have a dark wizard who must be defeated in there in case just matchmaking wasn’t enough!”

  “Be careful about intruding too much,” Katz said, darkly. “Don’t interfere too directly with the targets. You’re going to get in trouble one of these days.”

  “If your tech worked,” Delilah said, taking her Oracle device out of her pocket, “I wouldn’t need to.”

  When Delilah had first been transferred to the Department of Soul Matery as an angelic agent charged with matchmaking souls on Earth in order to earn her own redemption after a life of a few too many various evil doings, she had thought it would be easy enough.

  It never quite turned out that way.

  Sometimes the Oracle device, which was supposed to dispense much-needed intel on each mission just...didn’t work sometimes. It always seemed to be on the fritz. At such times, Delilah took it upon herself to improvise - with varied results.

  Now, one of the two souls she was supposed to match up was stuck in a coma. There was no mention in her dossier of when the guy was going to wake up, either. What if she was stuck down there for years just waiting for some lion shifter to literally wake up and smell the true love? She’d asked this of the Council of Three, the Angelic Dimension’s overseers of life on Earth who also charged her with her missions. They had only glanced at each other and shrugged slightly.

  “It’s hard to do IT on a device that’s supposed to be omniscient,” Katz said plaintively. “It gets glitchy.”

  Delilah pointed her asparagus at him and said, “Well, it’s a pain in the ass.” She pushed back a lock of her long, wavy jet black hair and took a breath. She was suddenly horribly full. She’d loaded up on too much bread at Evelyn’s. But it had been such good bread. Katz smirked, seeing her overwhelmed expression, and started picking at the lobster.

  “You got a plan?”He asked. “For how you make somebody in a coma fall in love with somebody awake when you don’t know when they’re waking up?”

  “I have some ideas,” Delilah said, deliberately trying to look mysterious. She tipped her chin and smiled. “I’m not counting on waiting for him to wake up either. This is the magic world after all. There are ways.” />
  “Be careful,” Katz said, furrowing his brow.

  “I’m always careful!” She widened her eyes, all innocence, and Katz shook his head.

  “I’m always careful,” Katz said, mimicking her. “I think that’s what Eve said before she ate the apple.”

  1

  Gwen

  Gwen Felici took one last sip of coffee from her thermos before leaving it on her desk and fixed her hospital badge to the front pocket of her scrubs. The rest of her day was full of appointments and that left only the next twenty minutes to run down to the ICU and catch her best friend, Annie, on break. After the third in a series of not-disastrous-but-utterly-lackluster dates over the last week, there was a lot to catch Annie up on. Plus Annie kept sending vague texts about her girlfriend being annoying and Gwen wanted details. They had not been together long but Gwen had been rooting for that couple thus far.

  Gwen wiggled her toes inside the new pair of sneakers she’d just bought and was still breaking in and pinned up her hair before making her way out.

  The door bounced on its jamb behind her. The plaque on it read: Gwen Felici Physical Therapist.

  Gwen turned to speedwalk down the hall and stopped short, her new sneakers squeaking on the linoleum. A mild sense of exhaustion crept up behind her eyes. She had been overbooked with patients lately and always had a hard time turning anyone down when new patients applied. It had kept her late at the hospital lately; just her and the patient alone in the gym in the evening because that was the only time slot available. And that was after a twelve hour day.

  Gwen sighed heavily, turned around and went back into her office for her thermos. She’d refill at the coffee cart nearest the ICU. Today felt like a latte day. Now she hurried, double-timing it down the long corridor, taking several turns through the labyrinthine maze of Griffith Park Memorial Hospital (which was technically a couple of miles from Griffith Park). She waved hello at several staff members and a couple of patients who she recognized along the way and ended up promising to have lunch with a few doctors sometime in the next week. It was a typical morning for Gwen, who often had trouble saying no and always over-extended herself.

  She reached the ICU soon enough, a ward that was typically a more quiet and grave place than her own section of the hospital. The desk clerk, Robin, spotted Gwen coming from down the hall and without missing a beat, pointed over her head at the pharmacy. Gwen followed the direction and jogged over to the ward’s pharmacy where she found Annie at the counter, preparing meds.

  “Hey!” Annie said without looking up as she jotted down notes on a clipboard. “Is it break time already?” She glanced at her phone and said, “Oh good. I need a mocha yesterday.”

  “Good, good!” Gwen bounced on her toes and a lock of her own thick and frizzy dark hair escaped from her bun. She pushed it back absently, clutching her all-too-empty thermos, and the two women sped down the corridor to the patio by the ICU where visitors congregated in a courtyard.

  They spoke in more hushed voices than either of them usually opted to use, as the mood in the courtyard was usually pretty quiet, but they quickly bought their employee-discounted coffees and found a good corner to huddle in, sitting on a wooden bench near a Japanese Maple.

  Gwen sipped her latte, took a deep breath, and said, “What is going on with you and Emily?”

  Annie made a face and said, “It’s nothing. You’ll think it’s stupid. We haven’t been together long, it’s just one of those things you have to learn about a person before you’re settled into the relationship, you know? It was just kind of a shock.”

  “Oh my God,” Gwen said, gripping her thermos with white-knuckled anticipation. “Annie, tell me what happened right now.”

  “You’re going to think it’s stupid,” Annie said. “You just don’t understand about...you know…”

  “Being a lesbian?” Gwen said, raising an eyebrow.

  “No no,” Annie said. “About being a Trekkie. Emily likes Deep Space Nine more than the original series-”

  “Annie!” Gwen said, louder than she’d intended. A couple of people frowned at her from across the courtyard and she cleared her throat, blushing a little. “Are you serious? You are not serious.”

  “I knew you’d think it was stupid,” Annie said, sighing. “If it was just that, it would be one thing, but she actually thinks it’s bad. And she likes the reboots! I mean…” Annie waved her arms around as if that was self-explanatory. “I can’t believe I fell in love with somebody who thinks that!”

  “Annie,” Gwen said, trying to keep calm. “I have been on three dates in the past week and during one of them, I literally fell asleep during dinner because the guy was so boring. Now you’ve fallen in love with somebody, moved in with her and bought a puppy together and your biggest problem is Star Trek?”

  “When you say it that way-”

  “How is Mulder the puppy anyway?”

  “He’s chewing on my shoes,” Annie reported.

  “Oh no.”

  “It’s okay. He seems to know which ones are just for doing yard work.” Annie smiled happily and took another sip of her mocha. “Three bad dates in a week? That’s rough.”

  “They weren’t even bad,” Gwen said, sighing. “They were just bleh. That’s it though, dude. I’m off dating for a while. Six months at least. I mean what’s the rush? I’m twenty-six, I’ve got plenty of time to find my, ya’ know…”

  “Mate?” Annie said quietly.

  “Yes,” Gwen said. “That’s what we call them. All the dates were shifters. It’s just easier that way. I found this dating site for them. Bunch of chumps.”

  Annie nodded in sympathy. Gwen had told her she was a shifter almost accidentally one day when they were both starting out at the hospital and had quickly become close friends. They’d been happy-houring together when Annie had come out to Gwen; and Annie, just a little bit drunk at the time on two-dollar saki, had told her best friend that she was a mountain lion shifter. It had mostly led to confusion until Gwen later proved it. As far as she knew, Annie had never told a soul. But Gwen was glad she knew now.

  Annie glanced at her watch and grimaced. “Shoot. I almost forgot. I need to go check on a coma. Come with me?”

  “Sure thing,” Gwen said. “I love a good coma.”

  They filed back inside and Gwen followed Annie into the depths of the Intensive Care Unit past dimly-lit and quiet rooms. At a large, private room, Annie walked in and grabbed the chart from its holder at the foot of the bed. Gwen sipped her latte, sauntering in with Annie, and stopped short upon seeing the patient. The man in the bed seemed to fill up the bed in a way most patients didn’t. He wasn’t enormous, but he was very tall and very muscular, though you could tell there had been some wasting of his muscle during his comatose state. He had wavy brown hair that looked like it had been a little haphazardly clipped recently by a nurse, and a bit of beard growth. A tube ran through his nose and a finger was attached to an EKG that periodically beeped, several machines standing by, always monitoring. But none of that stuff could hide that he was absolutely gorgeous.

  “Holy shit,” Gwen whispered. “He has the sharpest jawline I have ever seen.”

  “Yeah, he’s good looking, I guess?” Annie said, squinting at him.

  “You guess?” Gwen snorted and shook her head. “You’re so gay.”

  “Well, yeah,” Annie said, chuckling. “He must have been huge if he’s still this big after a year in a coma though. Like, damn.”

  “Whoa, he’s been like this for a year?” Gwen said, her brow furrowing in sympathy. “Geez. Well, how have I not seen him yet? I thought you would have mentioned a giant man in a coma.”

  “He only just got here,” Annie said, checking the EKG and making notes on her chart. “He was at Cedar’s before and his caretaker had him removed and brought here. I don’t know why. Guess he doesn’t like Cedar’s.”

  “Caretaker?” Gwen asked.

  “Yeah, only one person ever visits him and it’s t
his caretaker guy,” Annie said. “This older guy? Thought it was his father at first but I think it’s his butler.”

  “His butler,” Gwen repeated, disbelieving. “And that’s the only guy who visits?”

  “Yep. It was even written on his chart. No family, no friends. Just a butler.”

  “That’s so sad.”

  Gwen walked up to the patient and bit her lip, looking more closely at him. He had very pretty, long and thick eyelashes and high cheekbones. The delicate features seemed pleasantly incongruous on such a masculine body. She wondered what color his eyes were. A scent suddenly struck Gwen; it had been there on the air. It was a scent she used to smelling from time to time, with her enhanced shifter senses. Out in public, she hardly noticed it at all and with patients it led to a kind of understanding that wouldn’t be there if the smell wasn’t there.

  The comatose patient was a mountain lion shifter.

  “Annie,” Gwen said, smiling slowly. “He’s one of mine.”

  “Hmm?” Annie frowned at her. “What do you mean?”

  “He’s a mountain lion,” Gwen whispered. “Just like me. I smell it on him.”

  “Oh!” Annie blinked at her. “Wow! Interesting.”

  “Yeah…” She stared down at the patient, feeling now a bit of kinship with him, and wondering what his whole story was.

  “Anyway, if he ever does wake up,” Annie said, “I’m sure you’ll be getting to know him. He had multiple surgeries on his leg on top of the regular PT he’d need after a coma.”