Welcome to the world of the Alpha Claimed. Each story features a strong woman and the man or men that love her. Every book is standalone, but once you read one you'll want to read the others. 

Leigh Hale is on the run from a dangerous ex-boyfriend after she turned him into the police for running a Ponzi scheme. Now, she’s back home and looking to start fresh. Of course, she doesn’t expect to find the one man she’s always been weak for at a coffee shop before she has a chance to shower or brush her hair.

Xander Caze has his hands full with his businesses and family. But when Leigh returns to town, he knows he needs to see her. He hadn’t expected for adult Leigh to be so beautiful, sassy and full of life. Not only that, she’s his mate. It boggles his mind to realize he’s known her most of his life and just realized the same woman who proposed to him at five years old was meant to be his future wife.

Leigh’s ex isn’t the only problem in her life. No longer interested in going back to work at a big city, Leigh needs to find a new job. When danger comes calling from all sides, she’ll get help from an unlikely person. Staying alive becomes a priority and Xander is doing his best to protect her. Too bad he might not get to her in time.

Chapter 1

Leigh drove through the night, only stopping for gas and making sure to keep to herself when she did. How had her life come to this? She flipped her coat’s hood over her head and shrunk into the too big sweatshirt. 

She should’ve known better. William was too good to be true. How many times had she said to herself, he was too nice, too perfect. Too damn honest. Honest? She snorted. God. The man was the biggest liar she’d ever met in her life. 

Gripping the steering wheel hard kept her hands from shaking, something she really needed to control while driving. But seriously, she had to admit, she made the worst choices in  men. Every man she’d ever dated had something wrong with him. It was just her luck that this one happened to be a thief involved with some massive Ponzi scheme. 

She sucked in a ragged breath. Hold it together. It was hard. Leigh wasn’t a rule breaker. She worked hard. Saved her money. Lived her life. So when she met William, she thought she’d run into a prize. After all, he told her he loved to be home and wasn’t the partying type. Neither was Leigh. She’d always been the one to sit in the corner and feel awkward and uncomfortable. 

Meeting William had been the worst mistake of her life. She choked on a sob. If only she could go back and change things. Fuck. How was she going to make it all right? How could she? She’d allowed him to destroy not only her life, but that of others.

When she got to her childhood home, it was already past midnight, but she was glad she made it and didn’t deviate. William had no clue where she was. He knew her parents were dead, and her brother was overseas. She shoved her hair away from her face. God. 

Turning onto her parent’s street, she drove up the quiet road and then parked in front of their house. Her parents had built their house on a pretty decent piece of land. When she moved away for her job in New York, she’d been happy to leave the house to Kellan. But with his military job taking him all around the world, he was barely there anyway. 

She sat in the car for a few minutes, watching the rain pelt the windshield. Air caught in her chest. No. She wasn’t going to start crying now. This wasn’t the time for that weak shit. She picked up her phone and opened the home security app and turned the alarms off. Swallowing back the sick sensation in her throat, she jumped out and ran to the trunk, got her suitcase and then dragged it to the front door. 

The porch kept her from getting soaked. Inside the house, everything was quiet. Too quiet. She was used to the hustle and bustle of New York, not the cricket songs of a small town. Granted, Denali Ridge wasn’t that small, but it was not New York. 

Inside now, she locked the door and turned the security system back on. Paranoia had set in. What the hell would she do if William and his men followed her to Denali Ridge? What could she do? After all, she was the one who’d been stupid enough to tell on herself. She’d actually started asking questions. 

Leigh dialed Kellan and nibbled on her lip while she waited for him to pick up.

“Leigh? What’s wrong?” he asked immediately. It wasn’t like her to call him in the middle of the night. It wasn’t like her to call without asking him if he could talk first via messenger. 

“I’m home.” She sucked in a hard breath and tried to hold back the tears, but it was damn hard. “I fucked up, K. I mean so bad,” she started blubbering.

“Shh, Leigh, it’s okay. Whatever happened, we can figure it out,” he said softly.

His tone only made her feel worse. Here he was trying to calm her down, and she knew that she’d gotten pulled into a fucking mess and had no idea how to get out of it. “I’m sorry,” she choked. “I know you’re busy and you have a lot going on, but I needed you to know I’m home.” She gulped. “I’m…I’m scared.”

“Why?” he asked seriously. “What happened? Did that guy do something to hurt you?”

She sniffled and shook her head. But he would. Once he realized she was on the run, he would go looking for her. “No. I… He didn’t hurt me. But it didn’t work out and he was…” she struggled to put the words together. “He’s a thief, K. He’s stealing people’s money, and I feel sick. He took all my savings. Gone.”

“It’s going to be okay, Leigh. I’m so sorry I can’t be there right now, sis,” he said soothingly. “But I’ll have Xander come and check on you.”

Oh lord, not him. Xander Caze? She slapped a wet hand over her face and inhaled. “I don’t need a sitter. I just need you to know I’m here. Okay?”

“I understand. I’m going to be home soon, Leigh. I promise,” he said with determination. “Just lie low and call Xander if you need him.”

“I already called the police back in New York. They should be opening up a case or investigating or whatever it is they do when someone’s stealing people’s money.”

“Did someone actually complain? Like do they know he took their money?”

“He’s an investment banker. He suggests investments to people, and they give their money to him.” She squeezed her eyes shut and then let a choked sob out. “I was one of the people he took for a sucker.”

“Sis, I can’t talk more now, but I’ll call you back tonight.”

“It is tonight,” she mumbled. 

“I know, Leigh. Just hang in there. Trust me. I will help you through this.”

“Okay,” she said, her voice trembling and her body shaking. “I’m going to take a bath.”

“Take a bath and while you’re there order some Tomasino’s Pizza. Eat and rest.”

“Pizza sounds good. I’m going to order one,” she sighed. 

“You do that. I’ll look into your guy.”

She marched to her bedroom and kicked off her wet trainers. “He’s not my guy. I didn’t even know him. What I knew was a mirage. The guy was a fake.”

“I know and I’m sorry, sis. Get some rest. We’ll chat later. I love you, okay? You’re not alone.”

Her eyes filled with tears again and she sniffled. “Okay. I love you, too. Goodnight.”

After the call ended, she slipped out of her wet clothes and tossed them in her laundry basket. She’d been glad she and Kellan had remodeled the house after her parents had passed away and created two master bedrooms so neither would have to fight over who got what room. 

Each bedroom sat on either side of a long hallway. Her room was to the right. She looked up Tomasino’s Pizza website and ordered online for delivery. She knew she was upset when she ordered more food than she was going to eat. 

Steam rose from the rushing water. She watched her clawfoot tub fill with hot water. It was chilly outside, and the rain added to the cold, so the hot bath would help her relax. And think. She had to think of what to do now. 

In a single moment, she’d realized she couldn’t be there with William and act like she knew nothing. She couldn’t continue to watch him steal from people while the police took their time doing an investigation. 

At least she had told him she needed a break. Her excuse had been that she’d been working too hard and things were tough at work. But that was the least of it. Work had been fine. She was a banker. She knew how to handle everything from irate clients, to helping them open any necessary accounts. That’s what she did. That’s how she met William.

They’d been attending a business banking workshop and ended up working together during an exercise. He’d been so nice. So genuine. And she was a fucking sucker.

She wanted to slap herself upside the head. There had been signs. She had chosen not to look at them. William had immediately sucked her into his lies about how well his company was doing. He took her out on expensive dates. Showered her with gifts and attention. But more than anything, he brainwashed her into thinking if she didn’t tell her clients about his company and the amazing return on the investments he was getting, she was doing them a disservice. 

Leigh turned off the water and dumped in a handful of Epsom salt. She hoped the warm bath would help her clear her mind but also help her figure out what to do. Slipping into the hot water, she lowered herself until only her head was left out. Steam curled around her face. The porcelain at the base of her neck was still cold when she laid her head back and stretched her body under water.

Xander Caze. God. She hadn’t seen Xander since she was like twelve years old. For a lot of her life, Xander had been there. Kellan’s best friend since middle school. She had memories of them together since she learned to walk and talk. 

When she was twelve, Xander went off to college and she hadn’t seen him after that. He’d stopped visiting after they graduated. Both of them went into the military, and she never saw Xander again. She frowned. He might have been at her parents’ funeral, but she didn’t think so. He’d been all over the world doing top secret government stuff with Kellan. She’d been alone a lot after that.

Xander was the brother’s hot best friend type. She’d been in love with him most of her life. Mainly with how beautiful he was. And that smile. He had a smile that made her smile. It was contagious. She sighed and sank deeper in the water, wiggling her toes. 

She’d forgotten how gorgeous he was. Every little girl had a first love, and unbeknownst to him, Xander was hers. If only he knew she was “married” to him. 

She grinned and rolled her eyes. He’d even played along when she was five or six. He’d held her hand and told her he took her as his wife and then kissed her hand and tickled her until she was crying from laughter. 

Those were the days. Back then her biggest worry had been what toy she would play with. Once she’d become an adult, life had kicked her in the face a few times. 

She thought back to when she’d gotten her first job offer in New York. Excited wasn’t even the word. Ecstatic. She’d been over the moon happy. Kellan was in Paris, and she’d called him with the news that she was moving. She remembered how sad he’d been that she was leaving. 

“I thought you would stay in town,” he said.

She laughed. “You want me to stay in Denali Ridge, but you won’t? That’s not even fair, K.”

“I guess not. I just always hoped that one day…”

“Listen, I’m still gonna come home and see you. And you’re probably more often in New York than home anyway,” she’d told him.

And he had been. A few times, they’d met up for dinner between his jobs. But she hadn’t gone back to Denali Ridge until now. It was as if she’d been scared to return. To face the fact that this was the place she called home. But why? Why would she be afraid to return when nothing bad had ever happened here?