Claiming His Virgin Mate: The Island Stripe Pride Tales, #2

Claiming His Virgin Mate

AN ISLAND STRIPE PRIDE TALE

C.D. GORRI

Claiming His Virgin Mate

An Island Stripe Pride Tale

by C.D. Gorri

If it walks like a tiger and talks like a tiger…

Copyright 2020, 2023 C.D. Gorri, N.J.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, places, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either part of the author’s imagination and/or used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to person, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental. This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights are reserved. No part of this book is to be reproduced, scanned, downloaded, printed, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of any materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Contents

Claiming His Virgin Mate

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Epilogue

P.S

Beware… Here Be Dragons!

Have you met the Barvale Clan Bears?

Other Titles by C.D. Gorri

Excerpt from Purrfectly Mated

About the Author

Claiming His Virgin Mate

BLURB

Alex Kensington is a Tiger Shifter from the Island Stripe Pride. In Maccon City on business for his Neta, he runs into the one person he never expected to meet. His fated mate.

Margaret Flint is just trying to live her best life running her late father’s seaside motel down in the Jersey Shore town of Maccon City. At twenty-nine years old, she never expected to wind up back at The Sunset Inn, raising her much younger sister, Joelle.

When unforeseen events cause her to be late with her mortgage payment, she learns someone else has bought the loan. Some New York City business tycoon who is trying to force her out! But Maggie will not give up without a fight.

Will Alex follow his instructions and toss the female out on her ear, or will he claim her as his own?

Prologue

M aggie?

Yes? Maggie turned her head away from the pile of books she was using while researching her thesis.

You have a phone call, Bobby, the young librarian whispered and motioned for her to come to his desk.

Scranton Public Library was usually busy and full of college kids. She was so close to finishing grad school in software development. All her life, she’d spent more time on computers than with real people.

It started out innocently enough with gaming and chat rooms. Later, she’d been full on obsessed with the roleplaying world of WolfMoon and the fact the inventor lived in her hometown.

Maggie had been promised a job by Randall Graves himself whenever she wanted, but she opted to finish school first. It took her longer than usual, since there was no money waiting for her to go.

Oh no. Unlike most of her friends whose parents had saved and collected little nest eggs for their teens when they’d graduated high school, Maggie had to work her way through college.

Fast food restaurants were her go to, but she also had jobs delivering newspapers, walking dogs, tutoring, and babysitting. She wasn’t afraid of hard work.

It always occurred to her, the harder she worked now, the less she would have to as she got older, right? Anyway, she was so close now. And maybe, after she saw the world a bit, she’d find the one job she really wanted.

No children? The sad little voice inside her that sometimes spoke up when she was feeling a certain way distracted her for a moment. But she pushed it away.

Some people were not meant to have families. Maybe she was one of them. After all, how many almost thirty-year-old virgins were walking around Pennsylvania? Never mind Maccon City. Not that she was going there anytime soon. She snorted and cleared her throat quickly to cover it up.

No. This was her life as it was supposed to be. Away from her mother, who’d always seemed to resent Maggie for having had her so young. Like it was her fault her mom got pregnant in high school.

As for her absentee father, well, she’d tried once to be in his life. It didn’t exactly work out. Maggie shook her head, wondering why her thoughts had turned melancholy while following Bobby to his desk.

She hardly noticed the crowds that filled the library this time of year anymore. Still, this was odd. She’d never known anyone to call looking for her. What was wrong with her cell phone?

Hello, she spoke into the receiver.

Miss Margaret Flint? a somber voice asked.

Yes, I’m Margaret Flint, she said, her stomach clenching in dread.

Miss Flint, my name is Kurt Lowell, with Macconwood Law Associates, he continued, I was your father’s lawyer.

Was? she asked, her tension becoming unbearable.

Yes, Miss Flint, he paused a moment, I am very sorry to have to inform you that there was a car accident, and your father did not survive.

He’s dead?

Yes, miss, I am very, very sorry.

Was he alone? What about Joelle?

He was out with his wife, Debra. They are both deceased. Your sister—

Half-sister, she murmured.

Apologies, he said, "Your half-sister is fine. She was home at the time."

I see.

Miss Flint, you are named in the will as Joelle’s legal guardian and there is a substantial amount of information to go over, including your father’s business. The hotel property and the remaining mortgage. When can you be back in town?

What? I’m sorry, I just, Can you say that again?

Joelle needs you here, Maggie, Kurt said.

Come home, Miss Flint. Joelle needs you.

Okay, she swallowed hard and hung up the phone.

Maggie? Are you okay? Bobby asked, but she was already walking away to gather her things.

Maggie may have had a shitty time with both her parents, but Joelle was sweet and young. She deserved better. Shame filled her at the half-sister remark she’d callously quipped. That was her mother’s word, not hers.

Shit. Her father was dead. Joelle needed her. That was all Maggie needed to hear.

Looked like she was going home after all.

Chapter One

It was dark out, but Alex could see perfectly fine in the silvery light coming from the three-quarter filled moon directly overhead.

"The Sunset Inn. The perfect beach getaway where you’ll leave with only the fondest memories and a killer tan. My ass. Probably leave with bedbugs and the need for a week’s worth of antibiotics," he growled his displeasure, tossing the cheesy brochure aside.

What the actual fuck was his Neta thinking sending him to some flea ridden roach motel in the Jersey shore? Alex had stayed in actual palaces. He’d dined with kings and queens. Had homes in London, Paris, Rome, the Isle of Sky, and his own personal island in the Caribbean. Not to mention his usual residence, a condo with an unparalleled view of Central Park West.

He wasn’t a snob exactly. But his life was nothing to scoff at. The neon pink stucco nightmare of a hotel with the hideous blue roof seemed to be mocking him from its place on the corner of Ocean Boulevard.

He looked down at the crumbled bit of propaganda on the cracked sidewalk and snarled. Still, he wasn’t a litterbug. Leaning over, he grabbed the bit of paper once more and looked for a trash can.

There was a proper bite in the air that night, and he shivered unconsciously although Shifters rarely felt the cold. The fuck? He shook his head. Must be something else giving his tiger the willies. And no wonder. He stopped and looked at the atrocious sign.

Huge and neon. Of course it was, he snarled again. The Sunset Inn logo had an orange circle surrounding the hotel’s name. He could only imagine some marketing genius drew the thing up to represent the sun. The three wavy lines on either side were its rays, no doubt. It was supposed to be in various shades of orange, red, and yellow, but half of them were out, leaving what appeared to be a pointless arrow sticking out of the circle.

The Sunset Inn of Maccon City, New Jersey, was a serious downgrade from the villa on the Italian Riviera where he’d planned on spending the spring. Maybe he shouldn’t have remarked on the Nari’s recent weight gain, after all, he wondered with a shake of his head.

Alex wasn’t an asshole or anything. The comment that she looked healthy was meant to be a compliment to the young, expectant mother. He couldn’t help it if his eyes wandered to her suddenly increased breast size for half a second. Besides, Dean had already punched him for that one.

And he’d apologized profusely. Violet was a lovely, understanding woman. Not at all like the Alpha, or as Tiger’s called their leader, the Neta of the Island Stripe Pride. Dean had not been impressed.

Fuck, he muttered and shook his leg after stepping into some dubious sludge on the pavement.

He should’ve changed his shoes, he thought while carefully avoiding the pile of refuse that, upon further investigation, had spilled over the mouth of the trash bin just outside the pool gate.

At least that was properly locked. But alas, he’d have to pocket the brochure for now. It was ten o’clock at night, and the pool sign stated it closed at nine.

Alex wasn’t usually such a candy-ass about his clothing or where he hung his hat, but this felt like a demotion to him. Not that he’d ever heard of a Beta being demoted. Then again, there was that one unfortunate Tiger in the Maverick Pride who’d gone after his Neta’s mate.

That asshole deserved what he got. Alex was nothing like him. He believed in loyalty, and the Island Stripe Pride. He also believed in Dean and Violet Romero, and everything they stood for.

Fine. He was Tiger enough to admit he was being a big fucking baby about this whole thing. What could he say?

He did not like the beach, the water, or the sand in New