The Mating

by Nicky Charles

  Elise kicked off her shoes and padded towards the stairs, thinking longingly of putting on some comfortable sweats and having a cup of tea. She’d just started her ascent when Marla popped out of Kane’s office.

  “Hey Elise! You’re late getting back. How was your day?” Marla was grinning as if she knew something Elise didn’t.

  “Fine—sort of long and tiring, though.” She paused at the bottom of the stairs.

  Marla’s face fell. “Nothing ‘exciting’ happened?”

  “No, not really. I met my friend for lunch.”

  “That’s right. I remember now. His name was Bryan, wasn’t it? And it went well?”

  Elise nodded and began to climb the stairs, thinking that Marla almost seemed disappointed.

  “But, you didn’t see anyone else? Just this fellow?”

  “Uh-huh, just Bryan.” Elise replied wondering why she cared.

  The other woman followed her up the stairs. “I thought you might have bumped into Kane. He was supposed to pick up a package at the Gallery for me.”

  “No, I haven’t seen him since early this morning …Oh, wait!” She snapped her fingers as the memory popped into her head. “Kane told me about that this morning, but he was still in a financial meeting when I left for work. Maybe he forgot, or he had someone else do it. I’m sorry; I was right there. I should have offered to get it for you. Was it important?”

  “No, no—it wasn’t that crucial, I guess.” Marla frowned. “So … Are you going to see this Bryan guy again?”

  “Well, maybe. He might be coming back this way in a few days, but I don’t know for sure.”

  “Hmm…” Marla was silent for a moment, her brow furrowed, as if deep in thought.

  When they reached the top of the stairs, she leaned close and gave a sniff. “Don’t take offense girl, but you smell funny. Sort of like oil and gas.”

  Groaning, Elise explained how she’d spent the later part of her afternoon. “I think it’s mostly on my coat.”

  “Here, give me the coat.” Marla took the garment from her and first sniffed it, then Elise. “Well, the coat smells like a garage but you…” She paused as if trying to decide whether or not to say something, then a smile appeared on her face. “You, my dear Elise, smell like a male werewolf.” Marla smirked and winked. “So tell me again, just how friendly was this meeting?”

  Elise felt herself flushing. “It was nothing like that Marla. Bryan’s just an old friend. We grew up together.”

  “Uh-huh … That’s your story, but will Kane believe it? He has some jealousy issues, you know. It’s because of his parents.” Marla leaned closer and whispered conspiratorially. “His father ran around all the time and now Kane really has this thing about honesty and fidelity.” Marla straightened and looked Elise square in the eye. “Did you tell him who you were meeting?”

  “Well, no.” Elise bit her lip. Why hadn’t she told Kane about seeing Bryan? Probably because the only time the two men had met, it hadn’t gone well. “I’ll just explain to him—”

  “Elise, let me give you some advice. I know this is sort of personal but hey, it can’t totally be hidden. I can tell that you’re almost in heat, and the smell of your pheromones will be upping Kane’s sense of possessiveness. You know how territorial male-weres get about their mates at a time like this. He’s not going to be overly receptive to hearing about you meeting this Bryan guy.”

  “Oh, I don’t think—“

  “Listen. I’ve known Kane longer than you have. We were even an item for a while, so you have to trust me on this one. I know how he’ll react and it won’t be pretty. When I realised that I loved Ryne rather than him, Kane almost went berserk—it was totally out of character for him, but he did it.”

  Elsie blanched at the idea of Kane getting really angry at her. For the most part, he was so calm and level-headed, but she’d seen flashes of his temper. Helen had commented on how Kane had been confused and lost when Marla broke up with him, but there’d been no mention of violence. Then again, maybe Helen didn’t know everything. What would he do? Probably he’d growl and yell, which was pretty frightening, and then he’d do that cold staring thing that made the recipient just want to sink into the ground. If he truly thought she’d been with another male, she wasn’t sure what he might be capable of doing. As Marla said, male werewolves were very territorial, but she hadn’t been thinking of that when she’d agreed to meet Bryan.

  “So, how are we going to keep Kane from finding out about this guy?” Marla’s question jolted her back from her imagined encounter with an enraged Kane.

  “Umm… I’ll just grab a quick shower.”

  “No time for that. Kane will be home any minute, and besides, what about your clothes? Even stuffed in the laundry basket he might notice. I suppose you might have time to get them down to the laundry before he gets here but what if you meet him on the stairs?”

  “But, I’ll just…”

  “Elise, you are so lucky that I’m here to help you out. Here’s what we’ll do. Do you remember how I gave you some perfume about a week ago? Have you used it yet?” Elise shook her head. “Okay, well put some on—quite a bit actually. It will help mask that scent. If you use it, Kane will have no idea that you’ve been near anyone else. And if you see Bryan again, use it then too. What Kane doesn’t know won’t hurt him and it will save you from his temper.’

  “I’m not sure this is such a good idea, Marla. If I just explain—“

  “Elise, do you remember how angry Kane was over that picture of him I had in the Gallery? Well, that will seem like nothing compared to how this will set him off. You’ve only been around attached males so far, so you really don’t know how possessive he can be.”

  Elise thought back to how Kane had reacted to Bryan talking to her that very first morning and wondered if possibly Marla was right. Perhaps she should just avoid mentioning the whole incident. “Well…”

  “Good! I don’t want Kane to be upset with you, not when he seems so happy right now.” Marla grabbed her arm and pulled her into the bedroom. “Now, where’s that perfume?” Before Elise could even speak, Marla spotted it on the dresser and began to douse her with the stuff. When she was done, she stepped back, looking exceedingly pleased. “There! All taken care of and not a moment too soon.” She checked her watch. “Kane should be here any minute so I’ll just scoot on my way.” With a friendly wave, Marla hurried out of the room, leaving Elise feeling as if she’d just been caught up in a windstorm.

  She lifted her arm and sniffed her sleeve. She couldn’t scent Bryan at all and the perfume itself didn’t actually smell that bad. In fact, it was vaguely familiar but she couldn’t quite place it. Frowning thoughtfully, she searched her memory. It was just on the fringes of her mind, if she could only remember… From past experience she knew that the harder she tried to recall something, the more elusive the memory became so she put the matter from her mind and returned to the matter of Bryan.

  Not telling Kane about the meeting just didn’t sit right with her, even if the perfume did work. Marla might be wrong. Kane might not be that upset and even if he was, at least it would be all over and done with, rather than hanging over her head while she waited for him to find out through some other obscure source.

  Giving a decisive nod, she grabbed a brush and began to quickly fix her hair, only to knock an earring loose. It tumbled to the ground and gave the faintest of tinkles as it rolled across the floor. With an exasperated sigh, Elise set the brush down and got onto her hands and knees, and began crawling along searching for the small bit of jewellery. It wasn’t immediately visible, so she lay flat, stretching her arm underneath the dresser and feeling around, but having no luck.

  Darn! Where had the silly thing gone? Still on all fours, she surveyed the floor in frustration. She was sure it had rolled towards the dresser but possibly she’d been wrong. Bending her head closer to the floor, she surveyed the surface in front of her…

  Suddenly something nudged her butt
and she shrieked. Turning quickly, she lost her balance and fell onto her side landing in an undignified heap. Brushing her hair from her face she looked up, to see Kane standing over her, in his wolf form. His tongue was hanging from his mouth and she knew without a doubt he was laughing.

  “That was not funny!” She spoke slowly and distinctly, letting her irritation show. “You scared me half to death.”

  He cocked his head to the side showing no remorse, then shoved a cold wet nose against her face.

  “Hey! Stop that. What’s with you?” Despite herself, she giggled, his whiskers tickling, and reached up to run her hands through his fur and scratch his ears. With her arms still around him, Kane suddenly shimmered and became human again. His head dropped down and he kissed her thoroughly until they were both gasping for breath.

  “Hmm… You smell…different tonight.” Kane looked at her in puzzlement.

  Elise froze, a little knot of fear forming in her stomach. Trying to sound casual, she responded. “Really? How so?”

  Kane sniffed her again. “I don’t know. Your own scent is muted and there’s this floral smell. It’s sort of familiar but I can’t place it.”

  Okay. This was her chance. Gathering her courage, she began her explanation. “It’s that new perfume Marla gave me. You see, she had this silly idea that—”

  A hot mouth suddenly cut her off. Kane’s tongue invaded her mouth, gently stroking then retreating, teasing her lips and driving all thought from her mind. He slowly pulled away and moved to nibbling at her ear. “Oh yeah. I remember that now. It was nice of her, but I like your own scent better. Don’t wear this stuff too often, okay?”

  Elise nodded and tried to refocus on the topic of Bryan but Kane was now biting and sucking on the cords of her neck causing shivers of delight to course through her. Involuntarily her hips moved against him. All right. Maybe this wasn’t the time. But later on tonight, she’d definitely let him know…

  She ran her hands across his shoulders and down his back, luxuriating in the feel of his smooth skin and solid muscle. A thought suddenly occurred to her. “Hey! I think you forgot something when you shifted.”

  “Hmm? What?” Kane was now biting at her breast through the material of her shirt and Elise had difficulty concentrating.

  “Your clothes, silly. You forgot to think ‘clothes’ when you phased back.” Elise giggled. Only an inexperienced young werewolf would forget to magick back their clothes when changing forms.

  “No I didn’t. I purposely left them off. The sight of you on all fours with your rear end pointed up to the ceiling was what had me changing into my wolf in the first place. I have great plans for us.” His hands began to work their way under her top and she grabbed his wrists to stop him.

  “Appealing as that might sound, it’s almost dinner time.”

  A rumble worked its way up from deep in Kane’s throat. “They can eat without us. I’m in no condition to leave this room without mating you first.”

  His words had her dropping her gaze to his lower anatomy where a certain part of him was validating his statement. A rush of excitement flowed through her and she felt her body readying itself faster than she’d ever thought possible. Yep, her heat was definitely coming on. As she frantically began helping Kane peel off her clothes, she decided that this next week might prove to be the most exciting one of her life.

  Chapter 22

  When they finally made it downstairs, dinner was over and everyone had gathered in the games room. Elise apologised to Helen for their absence at the table, but the older woman just smiled knowingly. “Don’t worry about it, Elise. There’s some left over pasta in the fridge, despite the best efforts of those two,” she nodded towards the group who were circling the pool table. “Thankfully Daniel and Franz didn’t eat us out of house and home this time.”

  The two young men in question grinned and Franz called out, “We’re growing boys. We need our food.”

  Giselle, who was also there, simply rolled her eyes, and resignedly shook her head.

  “Are you sure you want to be bonded to this one, Giselle?” Kane asked from his position leaning against the doorframe.

  “I ask myself that question every day.” She responded dryly. Franz affected a wounded pose before turning back to his game.

  Rose was standing in the corner observing the others and being her characteristically quiet self. When the girl glanced her way, Elise gave her a friendly, encouraging smile. Just because Rose was near the bottom of the hierarchy, there was no reason not to acknowledge her. In fact, Elise was sometimes uncomfortable with the whole ranking system. It went against the Western culture they lived in, yet it was an instinctive wolf habit to develop a pecking order.

  With some surprise, Elise realised that rather than smiling back, Rose was looking at her rather oddly. As their eyes met, Rose looked her up and down and then, seeming to find her worthy of contempt, the usually shy girl pointedly turned her back. Elise felt a brief flare of anger combined with shocked disbelief at the girl’s actions, and it took her a moment to push down the desire to march over there and demand an explanation—so much for her ideals of equality! Glancing around, she saw that no one else had witnessed the exchange. Had it actually happened? Frowning, she quickly replayed the event. Yes, she hadn’t imagined it.

  Elise’s mind raced trying to find an explanation. Was Rose attempting to assert herself and move up in the pack? If she was, picking on the Alpha’s mate was certainly not the place to start! Maybe it was her own fault, Elise speculated for a moment. She wasn’t the most aggressive individual and her rank had usually been guaranteed by association— first , due to her father and now because of Kane— rather than her own strong personality. Possibly, she should be asserting herself more and letting others know where she stood, though with the exception of Marla that first morning, no one had really challenged her; they just instinctively accepted her position.

  Briefly, Elise thought of dealing with the incident immediately then quickly dismissed the idea. There was no need to create a scene by putting Rose in her place in front of everyone. No, she’d wait and speak to her privately.

  Kane pushed off from the doorframe. “Well, I’m going in search of food. How about you, Elise?” With another thoughtful look at Rose, Elise nodded and followed Kane upstairs into the kitchen.

  *****

  “It will only take a few minutes to heat up the pasta.” She peered into the fridge and pulled out the food while Kane took plates from the cupboard and set them on the table.

  “All right. Do you want me to make up a salad?” Kane inquired while getting out the cutlery.

  “No, I can do it.”

  “Okay, then while dinner’s heating, I’m just going to check on something in the office.” Kane headed down the hallway and Elise nodded absentmindedly as she pressed the appropriate buttons on the microwave. Once it was on, she pulled out a head of lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes in order to make a quick salad.

  Marla wandered through while she was working and snatched a cucumber slice out of the bowl. Casually leaning a hip against the counter, she munched on the veggie, then grabbed a piece of tomato. “So, how did it go? Did the perfume work?”

  Elise nervously glanced down the hall to ensure that Kane wasn’t within earshot. “It was fine, but I still don’t feel right about this. I’m going to tell him the truth as soon as I get a chance.”

  Marla frowned. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea…”

  “If what’s a good idea?” Kane walked into the kitchen frowning.

  “Er… Elise and I going shopping tomorrow. I think next week would be better.” Marla made a quick recovery.

  “Oh, that’s nice.” Kane seemed distracted and Elise asked him what was wrong. “Nothing, really. I’ve just misplaced a report that was on my desk. It was the one from Chloe and her university friends, about the negative environmental impact of drilling for oil on our land. I was sending it to our lawyers tomorrow.”