A Wolf's Mate Read online

  “And who can blame her,” said a gray-haired lady. “What’s not to love about us…”

  Maisey coughed close to Ava’s ear. She’d guessed she’d done it to block out the us bit but Ava had heard it.

  “Let’s go grab some food,” said Maisey, pulling her up by the arm.

  It didn’t really matter because she’d heard enough. She knew the truth and she also knew what she was going to do about it.

  ****

  “You have a thing for Ava don’t you?” Lucas asked Nick as they sat drinking coffee after their run.

  “You know I don’t like humans,” said Nick, dragging his spoon through the froth on top of the mug.

  “I’m sure that’s true but Ava’s your exception, right?”

  He didn’t respond. He’d learned in business that you never showed the other person you really wanted something or that you had a keen interest in it because that meant you had more to lose, and the price for acquiring it often went up.

  “I haven’t known you long but I could see the way you looked at her while we ate dinner last night. A wolf knows when another one’s got deep feelings for someone. I could also see the glances she was giving you. I might not be able to read humans as well as I can wolves, but I’m pretty sure she’s smitten with you.”

  Nick raised his hand. “Okay, yes, I do have a thing for her but nothing can ever come of it.”

  “Why?”

  “She’s a human and I’m a guy who’s from somewhere up there,” he said, pointing to the sky. “And I happen to be part wolf. You heard what she said, dangerous beasts.”

  “I’m betting she likes dangerous beasts in her bed.”

  Nick smiled. Maisey had chosen a great mate. Humor was essential in a relationship and Lucas would always make Nick’s favorite business partner happy.

  “And if she’s out to get us, then what?”

  “If she’s one of us I think she can hardly turn us in do you?”

  “One of us?” asked Nick.

  “As in fiancée or wife of one of the dangerous beasts,” said Lucas.

  “You’re saying I should ask her to marry me to keep her quiet.”

  “If you have to, would it be such a sacrifice for the group?”

  Nick had never thought that he’d be forced into matrimony to save the rest of his kind.

  “It’s about time you settled down and had some kids.”

  “She already has a son.”

  “There you go, an already formed family.”

  Nick looked down into his coffee mug. He couldn’t. He’d heard what she’d said about the bastard in high school tricking her. Making her think he liked her and then basically taking advantage of her.

  Nick couldn’t hurt her like that again.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Most likely it was all going to be out in the open tonight. The truth. Well, that was as if he didn’t turn her into a werewolf first. She had her gun in her purse if things really did go wrong. She glanced over at Nick. He’d told her they needed the four-wheel drive to get up into the mountains where his cabin was located.

  It sure was beautiful up there. Lots of snow still clinging to the mountain caps, pine trees, a still frozen lake. Definitely a place she could spend lots of time. She reached over and put her hand on Nick’s arm. He turned to look at her.

  “About another five minutes and we’ll be there,” he said pulling onto a dirt road still covered in a few inches of snow.

  Five minutes later he turned the car into a driveway. She’d expected to be some old wood shack. That’s usually what the word cabin brought to her mind. However, this one was the most beautiful house she’d ever seen. One that she’d dreamed about living in since she was a little girl. The princess in the castle high in the hills with her Prince Charming. Nick.

  Maybe theirs would be a story similar to beauty and the beast.

  “I’ll get a fire started and that should really warm things up,” he said.

  She followed behind him. He opened the door and quickly turned on the lights. Her jaw dropped. The place was even more spectacular inside. Big open windows looking out of the valley below. Custom stonework around a huge fireplace. Chairs that looked comfortable enough to sleep in. Snuggly looking sheepskin rugs on the floor causing her to want to be ten all over again and jump on them and make snow angels.

  “I’ll just get this started. You want to open a bottle of wine? The kitchen’s through there. Wine cooler’s on the left, bottle openers in the drawer by the sink.”

  She headed in the direction he pointed and finally found the light to switch on. She stopped in her tracks. The kitchen was to die for. The island was bigger than her whole kitchen back home. She found the cooler and pulled out a bottle from the top rack. She could visualize herself standing here cooking them a meal. Them standing shoulder to shoulder at the sink. Her washing the dishes and him drying them. And then they’d head to bed where they’d make love until the early hours of the morning. She suddenly wanted it all and his babies too.

  “How’s the wine coming along?” Nick called to her.

  His voice jarred her out of her dream scenario.

  “You okay, you look miles away?” He was in the kitchen with her now.

  “Just dreaming.”

  “Everyone needs to do that,” he said.

  “And what do you dream about?” she asked him.

  He took the bottle of wine from her and opened up a drawer and pulled out the opener.

  “Seeing my parents again. I still miss them. I dream of showing them everything I’ve achieved since they’ve been gone.”

  What a wonderful thing. Not dreaming of more money, a bigger house, but seeing his parents again.

  “Sometimes I think if I could just have another hour with them that would be all I’d need, but then I guess then I’d what more,” he continued.

  She smiled as he handed her a glass of wine.

  “I have to admit while I loved my father, sometimes I think I’m an awful person because his death sort of freed me. He was a controlling man and now I’m an adult I realize it was why my mother had to leave him. Unfortunately I never escaped and I still to this day live in his shadow.”

  “Ava, he’s gone, so now you can be whatever you want. And what would that be?” asked Nick

  She suddenly didn’t know. She was once again caught between making her dead father proud of her, rising through the ranks, versus her dream scenario of finding the perfect man and having more children.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I honestly don’t know.”

  He walked over to her, took the wineglass from her hand, and set it on the countertop before kissing her.

  For a werewolf, he sure had one hell of a kiss.

  He pulled away, looked her in the eye, and she was all his. The cliché of putty in his hands. That was her. Maybe he was compelling her. No, that was stupid only vampires did that, right?

  Nick swooped her up in his arms, carrying her out of the kitchen to a place she didn’t know where. She didn’t care because he could do whatever he wanted to her.

  She soon discovered they were in his bedroom. It was manly with a navy quilt and drapes, huge wooden logs acted as a headboard and posts. He sat her down upon it and she hardly remembered or felt him undressing her until the cool air kissed her breasts and folds as he pulled her legs apart.

  His head went between her legs, his tongue soon finding her pussy opening.

  She’d read about men doing this to women. Envied the woman as she’d read about them in the magazines and books that kept her entertained before she turned off the night at light. The same ones she’d read when she’d sat with Jake when he’d been a little boy and been throwing up or running a fever. The magazines that took her to a far-off place where she was the center of her man’s world. Being loved, being lavished; being pleasured just like Nick was doing right now.

  She bucked up toward him as her first climax build within her pussy. Yes, she’d read about this
but never dreamed it could be so wonderful and that she’d ever be the recipient of such indulgence.

  “More, more and lots more,” she whispered as his tongue flicked against her clit.

  Her fingers dug into his quilt. Her nails weren’t long, but she was scared she’d make holes in the material and ruin its beauty.

  She came again and then again as he speared his tongue deep inside her.

  He pulled out and looked up at her.

  “Will you marry me?”

  Now she knew she really was dreaming.

  ****

  Nick stood. He’d asked her to be his wife and not because of any ulterior motive. He’d seen her in the kitchen and dreamed about the two of them having a life together. Standing side by side as a couple, woman and wolf. He bit his lip. She hadn’t accepted his proposal yet and maybe she wouldn’t. He guessed he’d rushed things. He should have come clean before he proposed.

  Nick sat down on the bed beside her and took her hand. “I know you’re not a journalist. I’m sorry to say I sneaked a peek at your laptop when you were in the shower that night.”

  She bit her lip.

  “I also know you know something about me and the rest of my friends.”

  “We haven’t been very honest with one another have we?”

  He wrapped his arm around her and she set her head on his shoulder.

  “But we have a chance to be right now,” said Nick.

  “Okay, I’m not a journalist but an agent for the Investigate Bureau who’s been sent to investigate Dane Reynolds and do some other security checks that didn’t seem right about some of your group.”

  Nick took a deep breath. “What do you think of us?”

  “I think you’re the nicest bunch of people I’ve met in forever.”

  “And we are but you know we’re not like you don’t you?”

  She stroked his thigh, giving him a hard-on, something he didn’t need right now.

  “You’re a werewolf aren’t you?”

  He suddenly found the whole thing funny. “I can assure you I’m not a werewolf and I don’t go around preying on people during a full moon.” Nick took her hand. “I can change into a wolf when I want, the others can too.”

  “But you’re not all wolves?”

  “Nope, some are bears, cougars, etc.”

  “Are you some sort of experiment that went wrong or what?”

  “I bet you read comics when you were young.”

  “Actually that was my son.”

  She stroked his thigh again.

  “We crashed here from another planet.”

  “But that’s impossible,” said Ava.

  “Is it? Before you came here did you think people like me really existed?”

  She shook her head.

  “It happened about twenty-six years ago. One night everything was fine and then the next thing we knew something like a ball of fire hit us, which I assume was an asteroid or even another planet. Many of us were killed, including my parents but some of us survived. Some landed here, the rest we assume went to other spots around the world.”

  “The fake IDs and birth certificates?”

  “We had to find a way to survive and we discovered a way to copy them, forge them. We knew if people found out about us they’d round us up, hunt us down…”

  It was Ava’s turn to squeeze his hand.

  He looked at her. “We just want to get on with our lives, we don’t want to hurt humans, but we want to co-exist with you.”

  “Some of you are humans, am I right?”

  He nodded. “Charlotte, Emily, Lilly and her daughter, and Melanie. Please, I beg of you don’t turn us in, don’t take away the men they love, the daddy that little girl has come to love. Did you know Kaitlin’s biological father beat Lilly? Christopher loves her like his own flesh and blood. And Maisey, she’s part wolf but she’s a sweetheart right?”

  Ava nodded.

  “And the two babies who are going to be born soon, if there’s ever a reason for us to co-exist it’s them.”

  He meant all that he’d said and he didn’t have any more to offer in a way of an argument for them. He’d fallen for this lady, he’d argued his case, and now she could either accept his marriage proposal or turn them in.

  He stood.

  “I’m going for a run and yes, I’ll be running as a wolf. I’ll let you think about what I’ve said and let you decide what you want to do, even if you want to marry me now that you know the truth. When I come back you can either arrest me or kiss me.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Ava still hadn’t absorbed everything they’d said, everything that Nick had revealed about himself until she’d looked out of the window and seen Nick morph into the most beautiful- creature with a thick grayish brown pelt, long, lean legs and a regal-looking head. She guessed he was an alpha wolf and she was tempted to run outside and hug him. Would he ever allow her to touch him while he was in his wolf form? Was that forbidden? She still had so much to learn about him and the people he called his friends. She took another swig of wine, knowing she needed alcohol to help her brain process everything.

  Nick had now disappeared from the area. Wolves howled in the background and she guessed that was him and possibly some of his buddies.

  She’d fallen for a guy who turned into a wolf. He’d asked her to marry him.

  He was a not only a handsome man, but a loyal one, a gentleman with integrity. Even her father would find that a great asset for a husband.

  She took a deep breath. Not only was her heart on the line but her career was too. If she looked the other way, gave a false report, who was to say the group would be home safe? Others might do some digging and her career would be over. The one she’d fought so hard to get.

  Will you marry me?

  How long had she waited for a man to ask her that?

  She took another swig and pulled out the stool by the island and parked her butt there. They were wonderful people. She loved being with them. She loved this part of the country. Her fingers followed the pattern of the granite on the countertop. The wolves’ howls seemed to be getting closer. Did that mean something?

  Ava walked to the window seeing two come into view. One was Nick. She recognized the beautiful pelt. The same color she’d seen on the patch of fur she’d found that night.

  He took her breath away in both his beautiful forms. She stood spellbound as he tumbled with the other wolf, thinking that’s what he and his buddies did to let off steam, but then she screamed when she saw the other wolf began to attack Nick. This clearly wasn’t play as they rolled on the ground, around and around on the snow, it becoming redder as they tumbled fell through piles of it. Nick was hurt. The other wolf had his teeth locked onto Nick’s neck. She had to do something.

  Gun, she had her gun in her purse.

  Ava walked over to her bag, pulled out the gun and headed outside. She had a clear shot of the wolf so she aimed and pulled the trigger.

  The sound of the shot echoed around the valley. The wolf went down and it wasn’t until the other one ran away at lightning fast speed that she realized, she’d made the biggest mistake of her life.

  Nick had been the wolf she’d shot.

  She ran over to him. He was covered in blood but he was breathing, barely.

  Should she call a vet or an ambulance? A tear ran down her cheek as she cradled him in her arms. They were in the middle of nowhere and if she didn’t think quickly the man she loved was going to die.

  Maisey, Lucas—they’d know what to do. They’d know where to take him so no one would find out what he really was. He’d be safe. She’d always keep him safe.

  ****

  Nick tried to shift back but didn’t have enough energy left to do it. Dane had told him the same thing had happened to his wife Lucinda when she’d been shot by the hunter. The injuries the lone wolf had inflicted upon him had caused enough pain, but the bullet, holy shit, death was preferable to the searing heat ripping through his body ri
ght now.

  Had Ava meant to shoot him, get it over and done with? Had she made her decision and felt people who were different, the nonhuman’s residing on Earth, didn’t deserve to live? Had seeing him in his wolf form forced her to make a decision? Or had she done him the biggest favor of his life and thought he’d be better off dead than being locked up and maybe even experimented on.

  Maisey and Lucas both stroked his head, lights flashed overhead and then he was lifted up onto a table. Ava was standing in the corner of the room sobbing and her shoulders lifting up and down as she cried out. Was she having regrets or had shooting him been a stupid mistake on her part? Hopefully he’d live long enough to find out.

  His eyes tried to refocus. Two people approached him. It was Charlotte Renner and the new Kodiak shifter doctor, called Bear, who’d arrived in Kalispell a few days ago and already had the women swooning.

  “If we can stop the bleeding, get some blood back into him, I think he should be able to shift back and then we can access more of the damage,” he said.

  “Lucas, you think you can donate some blood to him?” asked Charlotte. She turned sideways, her scrubs barely fitting over her huge belly. Aiden was so lucky; he was going to be a father. Now he’d met Ava he realized he wanted children too.

  “Sure can.”

  “Roll up your sleeve and lie on this gurney and I’ll get a line started,” said Charlotte.

  Something sharp pierced Nick’s front leg, but it was nothing compared to the rest of the pain shooting through his body. Warmth traveled through his veins and he suddenly felt pressure on his chest. His energy was returning and soon he’d be able to shift back.

  Nick tried to relax. Soon paws turned into feet and hands, and as he looked down at his now human form he saw cuts and gashes where the other alpha had fought him for the territorial rights. Tonight Nick hadn’t been thinking and had wandered as a lone wolf into the territory of real wolf pack with the alpha on his track before he’d realized it.

  He glanced down again feeling sick when he was the hole in his stomach where Ava had shot him. He moved around hoping that would ease the pain but it only made it worse and he was sure he was about to throw up.