Abusing the Alpha (Seraphine Thomas Book 4) Read online

  Table of Contents

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  The End

  Find A New Series To Love…

  Or A Different Genre…

  About the Author

  Other Titles by Erin R Flynn

  If you did, thank you. Thank you for respecting me and other authors for their hard work, understanding this is our job, and while we love it, we do deserve to be compensated for all the hours, and hours, and hours we put into it.

  If you did not… Go buy one! You are a thief and your parents and grandparents and cute animals all around the world are ashamed of you. There is no justification for committing this crime because it is a crime, no different than walking into a physical bookstore, taking a print copy off the shelf, and walking out of the store without paying for it.

  There is no such thing as a victimless crime. If you truly believe that, you’ve never been a victim. And the victims aren’t only the authors, but the fans who lose authors that quit over our constantly being stolen from and mistreatment. Mistreating the authors that write the books you like or read—not liking them isn’t an excuse for theft, it’s just extra weird then—that’s not a fan. Fans leave reviews to support. Fans send messages of love. Fans… Well fans are nice. Be nice.

  There are lots of ways to fight eBook piracy, reporting the site even if you’re not the copyright holder is always a good option. If you want to help in the fight, Google it and you can see there are many ways.

  Struggling to get over what the vampire councilman did to her, FBI Division Chief and Chicago wolf Alpha Seraphine Thomas dives into her job to cope. She’s making more headway on getting her office trained—and other offices—helping Simone with corruption in their community she was blind to, and solving a stack of cases that aren’t hers.

  And calling it a “stack” is seriously downplaying it.

  The plan to get all the area’s shifters at the same gathering and become allies, instead of smaller groups always handling things alone, comes together but not without issues. Overall, it was worth fighting for the idea and what’s best for the community, even if she’s terrified to finally stand before her pack after killing Engle and sending bad wolves off to the council.

  In other words, there’s too much going on with adopting little brothers and a new house, getting an instant family with the Dorcuses… Who wouldn’t need a short vacation? But do the problems seem to follow her from home, or are paranormals everywhere so messed up?

  Note to Readers:

  I want to thank everyone who has been so supportive of this series. It’s very close to my heart, and I love this world so, so much. I promise there will be a long list of Seraphine Thomas books and I will never abandon her… Unless I die. I’m not in charge of that, but yeah, if I’m alive, Sera’s got more story.

  I understand why a lot of people make comparisons to Anita Blake, as we all put things in our own reference. However, some people take it too far, and it’s insulting that I’m accused of copying. And certainly the death threat I received about it was way over the line. The books aren’t even in the same categories. I could make parallels between so many series, or I read books after the ones I’ve written and wince that I was sort of close to a particular plot point.

  I wanted to address this because as an author I found this affecting me and the way I write, and I never want that to happen. I refuse to be that author. Allure of the Wolf looked into Mike Harris’s past a bit. Siren’s Battle gave us more into Terry Davis and Grant Cooper, and that was the plan to keep swinging around to her main team to peel back another layer of their onions. But I froze when it came to Miles Remington because that would touch zombies. I found myself not liking Sera and Tristan because her main lover was a vampire.

  So, for my own sanity—and maybe a bit of pouting over people being mean to me and Sera—I’m listing and addressing some stuff. And first, I’ll start with how Sera became a siren strain of werewolf. I originally submitted Accidentally Wolf years and years ago to agents—when they were the only way to do much of anything—and got several responses of interest. (Unlike the poor Kelly Murphy books, but we won’t tell her.)

  However, that interest was contingent on Sera not being a werewolf. Monsters couldn’t be sexy. A female werewolf was not attractive or marketable at all. That was what I was told in several replies. And as I’m five most days, I threw a fit. I was pissed on behalf of all women, as one of the other things said was she was unbelievable as such an unbreaking character. Which really cracks me up, as I get complained at that she breaks too often, so yeah, proves my point that women can be believable and not sobbing messes.

  As I said, I’m five most days, and it ruffled my fur that werewolves couldn’t be sexy. In my massive piles of research into all the different werewolf lore, I saw one vague reference to werewolves being “sirens of the shifter world” or something like that, as they seem to be written about so much more than other animal-type shifters. And it must have sparked something because that night all I kept dreaming about was Sera singing a siren’s song and being super, ultra-sexy even over other werewolves as flicking off those responses. I buried myself for days into every siren lore and story, loving there were so many variations from birds to mermaid-type creatures to… Yeah, there’s a lot. But no wolves. So that was how she became the super-rare, super-secret and coveted, super-powerful siren strain of werewolf that also makes her immortal.

  And on that note, as I outline what she is and how she came to be, I’m going to point out that’s about as opposite of Anita Blake as can be. Now, I’m going to be five again and list some more:

  Sera is a monster. She’s Alpha of the damn monsters and doesn’t see the difference between monsters and humans.

  Sera had a completely different childhood.

  Chicago is absolutely a different beast than St. Louis. I mean, vastly different.

  Physically, Sera and Anita are nothing alike.

  Sera’s a genius. Tested and actual genius. It’s what makes her so awkward in social situations. She graduated high school early. And college. Former Naval officer. Graduated Quantico at the top of her class.

  FBI and local law enforcement consult are so different we’re talking a “lap pool vs. pond but both water” sort of thing.

  Now, naming the squad was a bit close. I admit that. But I didn’t realize it until someone pointed it out. I don’t remember Anita’s, but MNSTR was a reference to the 80s cult classic Monster Squad, which I adored as a kid. I mean, adored it. My goofball family still make “Frankie don’t go” references. And it was a political comment on how thrown together some federal things are and how stupid some plans end up working out… About as well as a bunch of children saving the world. It was also one of the first times the monsters weren’t always the enemy, and it hooked me on my love for the monsters, anything paranormal, and my addiction for anything not real life. There was always going to be a change. Sera is a crusader, and one of the first things she started shit over was the FBI calling their own people monsters. That’s bullshit, and if any of this was real, wouldn’t be allowed. She wouldn’t allow her people to be treated that way.

  She’s the boss in the FBI. Division Chief is a huge job. She’s the big, big boss, not Lone Ranger or Texas Ranger or any other sor
t of solo thing. She runs the machine and keeps them all in line, on task, and honest. She’s a big rule follower and likes them… Maybe just not the overly bureaucratic pole up asses the FBI can have.

  Sera isn’t private. She’s a public servant, and she’s never even been to a graveyard. That might change, but not for her.

  And yes, this book takes place in Vegas and honestly, I completely forgot Anita goes there, but if someone seriously picks on me for that, I’m going to stop reading emails and messages altogether because it’s a vastly different trip. Her whole job is different, and billions of people visit Vegas.

  There is more to list, a lot more, but I hate nitpickers and nags, and I don’t want to be one. I believe my point has been made.

  I will say this. This book has been edited. ALL of my books are edited and edited well. If you are having formatting problems, I suggest redownloading it, as Amazon has specific guidelines I follow. You have to if you want your book to go through. Sometimes things get funky. Sometimes I read it fine when I preview it, and then when it delivers to my Kindle, I have a WTF moment because it’s completely different.

  Indie authors edit their books. It’s a ridiculous myth that they’re not edited. It’s like that stupid rumor going around that big name actors do Netflix projects for free because there’s no budget. It takes you about two seconds to realize who started that rumor. The same is true here. I know dozens of indie authors, and we all have editors. We might use different editors, but we have them. My editor is awesome, and we use the latest CMOS rules, including any updates not found in the last print volume. Now, that is not to say that sometimes I don’t overrule the style guidelines because I do. I’m the author, I get to make that call. When you write a damn novel or a dozen, you can too.

  This is getting way too long, even if five book pages aren’t really that big, but while I have a captive audience, I want to say one more thing. I’m not even picking on anyone when I do, but I’ve had criticisms and questions, so I’m saying this in one go.

  My books aren’t rushed. I don’t have deadlines or anything like that. I like to have a release every two weeks. I know my readers prefer constancy, and I try to deliver that. I refuse to ever put out shit, though, so nothing is rushed. I like fast paced books as a reader. My mom picks on me that I write like I drive, and I like to read books like that. I like it when I’m typing and my fingers fly and my heart is racing because getting it down is a rush, as it’s crazy what the characters are going through. I don’t have a lot of downtime in my plots. But books 3, 4, and 5 were written months and months ago. I’ve pre-edited them maybe a dozen times. I wrote them while looking for a new editor and too much mess in my personal life. I jumped over 4’s ending because I wanted to get some of 5 down and then hopped around so they were consistent. I like writing like that. I like a bit of crazy in the process because what Sera goes through is fucking nuts. How she isn’t astounds me because I’d be running around the block with my underwear on my head. Just kidding, I don’t wear underwear.

  And lastly, yes, there isn’t a full profile for Sera yet. That’s intentional. I’m not a perfect author; any author can improve. I’m not exempt in that. It is intentional for Sera, though. I adore series that peel another layer or two of the onion each time. I loathe series that lay it all out like a damn resume. The last book showed how far she was willing to go for people she cared for, while new to having people like that in her life. That’s amazing to me. I don’t know if I’d have the strength to go through what she did, and she barely knew those people. And some were for the FBI case, as finding the rabbit shifters was an FBI case. But we got a lot of personal layer in that last book. This book is a lot more of her FBI experience and interworkings there. Next book… Well, it’s a different layer or two, I won’t give that away. But there will always be three main parts to any of these books: personal, FBI, and wolf/Alpha. What percentages each of those get will differ in each book because if they didn’t, that would be too boring for me and I would wither and die.

  For those of you who ask more for insight, there you go, that was a lot of it. For those of you who didn’t, well, sorry. I figure too many will skip this anyways, but I said what was on my mind and about the path Sera’s on. Lots of love to all of you, and I promise many more books to come, as I’m over half done with 6, and 7 is outlined.

  1

  “I think that went well for a first class,” I complimented my friend Simone after she dismissed the wolves that had shown up. She had agreed to teach a self-defense class twice a week for the women of the pack, and I was requiring them to go to one of the two options at a minimum. They were victims before because of the previous pack leader, but things were different now since I was Alpha. There wasn’t any reason anymore for them to be oppressed or abused, not with the way I was running things.

  They simply needed the drive to want to change their own lives as well. I gave them a slight kick in the ass to help with that.

  “Yeah, it went well,” she agreed, not meeting my eyes. She’d been acting squirrelly all morning with me, and I didn’t know if had anything to do with the cook-off we’d all been at yesterday or something else I’d done wrong.

  “Hey, if you see my confident and somewhat annoyingly perfect friend Simone, can you tell her I’d like to talk to her?” I teased, unsure of how to handle whatever was going on.

  “I’m sorry. You’re still recovering. I don’t want to unload my burdens on you. I am supposed to be the annoyingly perfect friend, after all, and I just promised Alena that I would help you, not add more to your plate.”

  “Buy me coffee, and I’ll relax and recover as I lend an ear. It’s like I can multitask.” She gave me a disbelieving look. “Hand to god, I have the whole day for me. Alena is handling everything left from the cook-off and lots with the house and packing. I swear she must be a bit bored in Greece if she’s jumping all over my crap like a mom who loves being needed. Hell, she, Zeno, and the boys—and I include Hagan and Reagan in that—are stockpiling the new house with food since we’re leaving as much as possible in the old one.”

  “Don’t want to move and change the arrangement while wiping them clean out, I get it.” She sighed and nodded as we reached her car. “Okay, coffee sounds great. Somewhere private maybe. This is not a conversation for listening ears.”

  We ended up grabbing coffee and getting it to go. It was so rare I got a chance to work out anymore, and I really missed something as simple as going for a walk, so I was a pretty happy camper. Probably good for me too given I had been unconscious in the hospital most of last week.

  “So, I know you just helped Nina with her store, and I’ve been feeling a bit guilty that I didn’t tell you someone was strong-arming me out of opening a new club. It’s been going on for a while; every time I come up with an idea for a club or bar, I’m always beat out or reminded of the balance in the city. But this time was going to be different. I had a partner, the old balance has shifted, and I thought it could happen.”

  I let that sink in for a few steps before responding. “I feel like you’re talking vaguely because there’s something I won’t like or you don’t know whose side I’d be on.”

  “Ask me who has been strong-arming me?”

  “Who? If they’re law enforcement, I won’t just side with them. I know there are crooked cops and law enforcement.”

  “It’s Vlad.” She gave me a moment to let that one sink in. Yeah, I needed it. “The balance used to be the vampires were on top of the paranormal food chain in Chicago. Then us shifters because the wolves were corrupt and we all stayed away from them but—”

  “But without their numbers or support, there was no way to show the vampires the shifters in town were formidable.”

  “Exactly. So we took what he allowed us. Granted, I have money—not like you’ve got now—but I make a good living. I also work my ass off and have a head for business. Please don’t get me wrong and think I’m bitching about my lot in life.”

  �
��I wouldn’t ever think that of you, Simone. Even if you had everything, no one has the right to stop you from growing, not without a valid reason.”

  “Thank you,” she sighed, looking ten pounds lighter to hear that from me. Wow, this really had been bugging her. “Vlad is established resolved that nightclubs and hotels are his. I, and a few other shifters, can have restaurants, cafes, and shifter business like The Kitty Club. Or even the shifter club you and I saw each other at, though really it’s still Vlad’s as he’s half owner and the actual business behind it. But he uses the other owner to say ‘see, shifter in charge and I’m sticking to my own rules.’”

  “Okay, I’m hearing you and we’ll figure this out after some thought on how to handle it, but why now? This must have bugged you the whole time we’ve known each other, so why bring it up now?”

  “Noe backed out. He was the partner I had. Vlad said something to him yesterday to finally push Noe too far. Vlad says he’s opening the club we want and to back off. He stole my idea for having a den here like they have in Vegas. He told Noe that Tristan was in Vegas recruiting wolves and shifters who have experience in those kinds of places for Vlad’s new club. And Vlad’s going to bring them here.”

  “He can’t do that without my fucking permission. I allow any wolf to come here when traveling for work without a fuss, and that’s kinder than any other Alpha’s rules because Chicago’s a big hub. However, bringing wolves to live here and work, he needs my permission.”

  “Unless he’s planning on having some side wolves like you have vampires, which is what Noe thinks he wants to do, and Noe doesn’t want to fight that or Vlad anymore.”

  “Oh fuck no,” I snarled, trying to keep it together. I’d been upset too many times with not enough recovery between issues, so my control wasn’t the best anymore. “Okay, let’s start at the top of that whole info dump. You said a den. You mean like dens of iniquity like they have in Vegas?”