A True Alpha Christmas by Alisa Woods

Mia’s little black dress seemed to barely exist—the hem stopped mid-thigh, the silk was so light-weight it left absolutely nothing to the imagination, and the straps on her shoulders were invisible threads of satin. The heaviest parts of her outfit were the accessories—the dangling faux-diamond earrings, the miniscule black-satin purse, and the teetering six-inch heels. They added enough glamour for a red-carpet debut, but she still felt naked and overdressed all at the same time.
    She wondered if it would feel any different with a wedding ring.
    She shoved that thought aside—she could deal with that later, after the party. Mia stepped out of the elevator onto the 100 th floor of a downtown Seattle high-rise with her ex-roommate and current best-friend, Jupiter. While Jupiter fluffed her mass of wild red curls in the reflection of the polished steel door, Mia eyed the festively decorated glass-door entrance to the White Elephant, the trendy bar that SparkTech had chosen for their holiday party. She was mated to Lucas Sparks—hot tech entrepreneur and secret shifter—but as far as the outside world was concerned, Mia was just a lowly intern, working part-time during school. Normally, she spent her time in the office running analyses and reading reports, not rubbing elbows at an exclusive invite-only party for clients, current and future. Of course, everyone at SparkTech knew she and Lucas were mated for life, but tonight, she would be no more than arm candy for him.
    If he even acknowledged they were together.
    Her barely-there dress seemed like an increasingly bad idea. For the tenth time in the last half hour, she considered running home and changing. Or at least putting her trench coat back on.
    “Are you sure this isn’t too much?” she asked her ex-roomie.
    “Lucas is going to love that dress, trust me.” Jupiter scowled at Mia in the mirror of the door. It was a ridiculous question to ask, given that Jeeter was wearing a Marilyn-Monroe-worthy dress even more revealing than Mia’s silk number. Jupiter had picked them both out, of course. And she was right—Lucas certainly wouldn’t object. It just made her look like his hot date and not his… wife. She blushed for even thinking the word. When she was mated for life with an unbreakable magic bond, what did it matter if she had a ring on her finger?
    “What if one of Lucas’s clients thinks it’s, you know, inappropriate?” Mia asked. “This is a business party after all.”
    Jupiter threw up her hands and turned to Mia. “The invite said black-tie, which means women can wear anything as long as it’s amazing. And girl, you’re going to have all the shifters hot for you with that.”
    Mia frowned. “There’s only one alpha for me.”
    Jupiter smirked. “More for the rest of us.” She twirled in her Marilyn dress and peered through the glass doors, scouting for the gorgeous shifter men of SparkTech in between the pine boughs and twinkling lights. Jupiter wasn’t a shifter, but that didn’t slow her down in lusting after all of Mia’s unattached co-workers. And there certainly weren’t enough female shifters to go around, so male shifters definitely hooked up with female non-shifters. Some more often than others. Mia was a product of just such a union, although she had never met her deadbeat shifter dad. He just knocked up her mom and left.
    Jupiter dug through her blue peacock-feather purse for lipstick. She never went anywhere without that thing, and it reminded Mia of all they had been through together—good shifters and bad, but most of all, Jeeter was still her friend, even after she discovered Mia’s secret identity. Mia’s own mother didn’t know her daughter was one of those people . Given that shifters were enforcers in the crack gangs in downtown Seattle, especially around the dump on Jackson street where her mom still lived, it wasn’t hard to understand the bias. For years, Mia had kept her secret locked tightly away. Truth