Two Alphas, No Waiting -Colors of the Rainbow

I confess I have a thing for strong-willed romantic characters, be they male or female, gay or straight. Flawed, yes. Vulnerable, absolutely. Smart ass, quite often! But I love characters with a take-charge attitude. And when both partners in a romance have the same stubborn streak, I eagerly watch the inevitable head-butting while wondering who will wind up on top (literally as well as figuratively).

That all said, no one was as surprised as I when that dynamic revealed itself in force while writing Peter and the Wolf. Much like the classic tale that inspired the book, I had envisioned Peter as a clever lad who would wind up capturing (the heart of) a wolf--or in this case, a werewolf. I knew without question that he would be at a marked physical disadvantage, and I was fully prepared to do writerly battle as the powerful, determined alpha wolf ran roughshod over his mild-mannered mate.

Sometimes, characters know better than the authors who imagine them.

Werewolf-slash-business-exec Jarred Wellington proved to be just as self assured and domineering as I knew he would be, and despite his better judgment, just as ravenously drawn to his mate as any werewolf worth his fur. Here's a glimpse at a first handshake:

Jarred grabbed Peter’s hand before it was even offered again, but not merely to shake it. He clamped down on it firmly, deliberately, and the jolt sent Peter’s heart into overdrive. With an almost vindictive smile, the predator version of Jarred re-emerged and held him in a tighter grip. They were moving backward then, with Jarred steering Peter up against a wall.

Yep, Jarred was everything a writer girl like me dreams of when writing erotic werewolf tales. And just as I imagined, his behavior proved most alarming to Peter, who winds up fighting a lot more than a case of nerves when he goes to Jarred's company in search of a job. I planned for him to lie down and take it like a man who wants to be dominated.

He did not.

Here's what I got instead:

Peter tried to give Jarred an innocuous push out of the stall, but what was meant to be a small shove sent Jarred off his feet, flying backward through the air. Peter stalked forward smoothly, stopping right in front of where Jarred sat staring at him from the counter. The man seemed undamaged, at least, if not a little surprised.

“And another thing,” Peter said. “About that so-called handshake yesterday.”

He grabbed Jarred’s chin and pressed their lips together. Something feral snarled deep inside him, and he thrust his tongue deep in the man’s mouth.

While I had liked Peter well enough from my first envisioning of him, this surprise rebellious streak triggered a full-on girl crush. My pulse stayed in overdrive while I wrote the next few scenes, and when Peter showed no sign of backing down and accepting his role as human underling, I was as intrigued and confused as the characters. It wasn't until halfway into the book that I discovered why he was acting as territorial as his werewolf mate, a fact that Jarred's father, werewolf CEO, would have known from the moment he heard of Peter's behavior. I went back and excitedly rewrote a few passages, and lo and behold, I had two alphas on my hands. Hoo, lordy!

It can be fun and challenging to write two distinctly different characters in a romance, but it was even more so to write two men under the same spell who are equally intent on being top dog. Every scene, every change of viewpoint, provided an endless stream of supernaturally-enhanced testosterone that kept my fingers flying over the keyboard. Two alphas, no waiting. And as their animal hungers and human vulnerabilities emerged, my girl crush grew. Oh, it was love, all right, and I can hardly imagine what the tale would have become if I would have tried to force Peter into the mold I had originally cast for him.

So tell me--what do you think of a dual-alpha dynamic in MM romance (paranormal or not)?

Peter and the Wolf
by J. Rose Allister
eBook format
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Peter is eager to win a coveted job at Wellington Enterprises. When he catches the eye of the sexy, yet dangerous heir to the empire, Jarred Wellington, he gets a far different position than he imagined--as mate to a man with a full moon secret. There is a price to pay for the passion between them, however, including secrets Peter must be willing to accept--even about himself.

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I'm J. Rose Allister, wife, working mom, and the author of over twenty-five books. Somewhere in between one and the next, I love hanging out here on my blog and over on Twitter. Give me a comment or follow-I love chatting with people!

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