Micah's Mate

by Abigail Raines

  “I don’t want to be impolite though!” I say, wrapping my arms around his neck. “Your parents have been so sweet to me, you know. I thought your mother was going to cry the first time I really talked to her at the hospital. She asked me what it was like growing up in Hardwidge. Things got intense.”

  “Oh yes,” Micah says, nodding. “I’m well aware of how much my mother loves you. That seems to be a running theme. Pretty soon we’ll all have mates and my brothers and I will be the least favored children.”

  “That’s not true, silly,” I mumble, and then I get distracted by the pout of his lips and I need to bite them.

  “What are we doing tomorrow?” Micah whispers in my ear.

  That makes me smile even more.

  We have a new kind of game we’ve been playing in the last week. It’s called What Are We Doing Tomorrow? It doesn’t matter what the answer is or even if the answer means we’ll both be busy. The point is that we’ll eventually see each other or at least talk to each other...more likely see each other. We haven’t spent a night apart since we were freed from Dax.

  “Tomorrow, I’m going to work,” I say, kissing him on the nose. I punctuate every activity with another kiss; each check, each eye, his forehead, his chin. “And then you’re going to come by and meet me for lunch. And after work, you’ll buy me old man ice cream. And then I’ll come over and we’ll watch Beverly Hills Cop and eat Chinese food.”

  “That sounds wonderful,” Micah says, kissing me again. “I’ll have to shop for a throw blanket and some pillows tomorrow while we’re out. What about after that?”

  “After that,” I say, smiling just as slyly as he always does, “I’m going to throw you in bed and put your tongue to better use than making your little jokes.”

  “Mmm. I won’t complain.”

  We lose track of time making out again. That just keeps happening.

  It takes texts from his brothers to bring us back to earth, Micah’s phone buzzing away in his pocket. He sighs and blushes a little, his nose scrunching up because his brothers are waiting for us at the estate.

  “Oh, I get it now,” I mumble, bopping his nose. “Your nose scrunches up too. That’s so cute.”

  He laughs at me and tugs on my hand. “Come on, moon girl. Time for dinner.”

  I’m definitely not used to the Tremblay estate yet. I don’t know that I ever will be. The place is just the polar opposite of everything I grew up with. I’ve been to a few mansions and penthouses to design high end kitchens, but I was always just focussed on the work. I think of kitchen designing like solving little puzzles and then...decorating them, I guess. But somehow I never stood back and realized that people actually live like that. It never seemed real to a person like me.

  Now, my mate is holding my hand in his as he drives me to his parents’ house in his shiny BMW. We’re already seriously discussing me moving into his place. It might seem fast for humans, but for shifters it’s not unusual. Once you know, you know. There’s no point in taking it slow just for convention’s sake and, more importantly, living apart at this point is irritating at best and sometimes a little stressful. I’ve slept over at Micah’s place every night this week anyway. There was just no way I was going to sleep alone after everything with Dax and the bond I’d formed with Micah. I need his arms around me and he needs to feel me pressed up against him. And in the morning, we wake up in each other’s arms and I feel safer and happier than I ever have.

  “Do you know what we’re having for dinner tonight?” I ask Micah.

  “Beef bourguignon,” Micah says. “Which is my favorite. Cheesecake for dessert.”

  “Oh my God, that sounds so good,” I say, my mouth already watering. “And I love cheesecake. Even more than I love old man ice cream.”

  “I know, you told me,” Micah says, laughing. “That’s why we’re having it.”

  “I knew there was a reason I love you,” I say, squeezing his hand.

  All of Micah’s brothers have arrived, of course, by the time we get there. They all razz him and tease him about being late. I make a beeline for Michelle and give her a hug and she lets me hold Trevor. Since I babysat him, I feel like we’ve bonded a bit. Now I make faces and he laughs and we dote over him as Micah’s mom joins us.

  “Oh, what a lovely dress!” Mrs. Tremblay gushes. “You are just the cutest firecracker, Luna.”

  I can’t help but preen a little under the compliments but I’m also a little flustered as I thank her. If there’s anyone in Micah’s family I want to please, it’s his mother; more even than Xander or his dad. She might not be an alpha, but I feel like it’s her approval I would be sorry not to have. But Micah was right. She does seem to like me. I think she may have given both her husband and Xander a little talking to about their attitudes toward the idea of lone wolves too from what Micah’s told me.

  “Micah bought me the dress,” I say, blushing a little. “He has good taste.”

  “He gets that from me,” his mother says. “I never let him forget it.” She looks at Michelle and I, beaming at her as we play with Trevor. “Two of my boys with mates now. I am so tickled. Now we just have to work on the other ones, hmm?” She nods at Xander and Mason who are talking in a corner. “Xander’s going to be a trial. That one’s never not working. I don’t remember the last time he went on a date. Not that I know of anyhow. And Mason, the boy’s so quiet and reserved. He never dates, full stop. And he works from home.”

  “Hmm.” Michelle nods. “That’s hard. I mean, I met Aaron at work. It can get sticky, but it’s commonly where people meet their significant others.”

  “Right, and then I met Micah through you,” I say, shrugging.

  “Do you girls have any other single friends?” Mrs. Tremblay says. She looks like she’s only half kidding. “Know any nice shifter girls?”

  “I don’t know if Mason will even be interested right now,” Michelle says. “He’s pretty obsessed with finding that missing girl from Hardwidge.”

  “Ah, well, that makes sense for him,” Mrs. Tremblay says. “He’s quiet, but once Mason has a cause, he’s not going to let it go for love or money.”

  “I wonder…” I shake my head and laugh to myself. I just had a funny little feeling about Mason and that girl. Perhaps being with Micah has made me an overwrought romantic.

  “Can we eat now!” Xander says, from his corner where he’s hiding with Mason.

  “Yes, yes,” Mrs. Tremblay says, just a little huffily. “I swear, my boys don’t need to shift to act like wolves when they’re hungry.”

  Dinner is delicious, just as I expected. I still feel nervous even after everyone has been so inviting and kind. It’s just the grandeur of the place. I mean, they have a butler. But everyone also seems to pick up on my anxieties and makes an effort to be as welcoming as possible. The place, as big and luxurious as it is, is actually starting to feel homier to me. I can imagine Micah growing up here as a boy. I’ve talked to Michelle about it too. She told me about Aaron’s photo album. I haven’t bothered Micah about it yet, but I fully plan to get a look at childhood pictures of Micah. I can’t wait. I know he’s going to give me sad eyes because my childhood was so messed up, but I feel like with the way his family is adopting me, that I can sort of live vicariously through his happy childhood.

  It all makes me excited for when we have pups of our own. I haven’t actually talked to him about that stuff, but it’s on the tip of my tongue. I’ve never given a whole lot of thought to having kids, but that was mostly because I didn’t think I’d find someone I’d want to have any with. A human would be impossible and I tended to feel like they wouldn’t quite understand my life, and I never thought a kind, respectable shifter like Micah would make me as his mate. But now the thought of kids really excites me. The more I see Michelle and Aaron with Trevor, the more a bit of baby fever is starting to catch up with me. I’d also love it if we could have a pup not too much younger than Trevor. I can’t help but fantasize about raising our kids together an
d them being good friends.

  “Penny for your thoughts?” Micah nudges me. I’ve been staring into space while eating my cheesecake and drinking my coffee.

  “I’m thinking about us having a pup,” I say, curious to gage his reaction.

  Micah’s eyes get huge and says, “Oh my God, are you-”

  “No!” I throw back my head and laugh. “No. But way to jump the gun. I’m just thinking about it.”

  “Well…” Micah chews his bottom lip and for a minute I wonder if the thinks it is too fast and scary but he says, “No pressure but… that would make me very happy. We could put those little glowing stars you like in her nursery.”

  My heart about melts. “Her? You picture us having a girl?”

  “Oh… Yeah.” He chuckles. “I guess I do. I don’t know why.”

  “You are my favorite,” I blurt out. It sounds like something a teenager would say but it’s absolutely true. “You are my favorite person.”

  Micah beams at me and says, “You’re my favorite person too.”

  “Alright, alright,” Xander says from the across the table. “Break it up, you two. I’m seconds away from siccing the firehose on the both of you.”

  Everybody laughs and teases us but it makes me feel like I’m even more at home somehow.

  Xander nods at me, his eyebrows raised. “Hey, Luna. I was thinking we could take a run after this, if you’d like to go with? Also, you probably know that we always run on full moon nights. I’m hoping you’ll be joining us from now on?”

  Of anything anybody in his family has said to me so far, this one gets to me. I choke up and tears are shining in my eyes. Which is just horribly embarrassing. Xander’s eyes widen and he looks a little mortified, like he’s done something wrong.

  “Sweetheart?” Micah says, resting his hand on mine.

  “Oh ah, I’m sorry?” Xander says, as if he’s accidentally set off a bomb. “I didn’t mean to-”

  “No, no,” I say, waving a hand. “I’m fine. It’s nothing bad. It’s just…” I swallow and clear my throat, composing myself. “I know that’s your tradition. You go on your runs together as brothers. I’m just really… It means a lot that you’d want me along.”

  “Means a lot to me too,” Micah says, smiling pointedly at Xander.

  “Well, it’s you know…” Xander looks vaguely uncomfortable with the outpouring of emotion. “We just want you to feel welcome.”

  “I do,” I say, grinning from ear to ear. “I really do.”

  Running with the Tremblays is just like I’ve always imagined it. There’s a lot of wrestling and playing and competition. But they’re so sweet to me out in the woods, including me in their group. I think Xander’s a little surprised at how well I’m keeping up with them, but Micah is not and I can see the flash of pride in his eyes as I pound the dirt alongside him, running through the forest behind the estate.

  At one point, Micah seems like he’s daring me to follow his run through a deep, rocky creek. I think I surprise him when I outpace him and go running through the muddy water, the shock of the cold making me yip and bark. He follows and tackles me and we wrestle around in the mud, wagging our tongues. We split off from the group then and give chase to each other. He nuzzles me with his nose and licks at me before play bowing and then running off. It’s a rough chase through the woods then and it’s the most fun I’ve ever had as a wolf. There wasn’t much opportunity to have “fun” as a pup at Hardwidge. It was too much work just trying to survive. But now I’m playing with my mate and it’s so sweet as he glances back at me up ahead as I pant, working to catch up to him, jumping logs and blowing through hedges until I finally catch up and tackle him again.

  It also feels a whole lot like foreplay.

  It occurs to me, we’ll have to go on some runs of our own in the woods, because if his brothers weren’t here, I feel like we’d be doing more than playing. My blood is heating up. I feel turned on and both desirous and desired of and by my mate as we run around, maybe especially when he’s chasing me. There’s a giddy kind of anticipation that makes me light on my feet. I also feel merged more closely with my wolf than I usually do when I shift. It’s sort of like what happened with Micah when he attacked Dax, except there is no violence to this, though it is primal. It’s something beyond being human and beyond being wolf.

  I bound around a big boulder and I see that Micah’s lost track of me. I run to hide behind a huge tree and wait for him to sniff me out, my tongue and tail wagging as I wait for him to find me.

  I hear him coming and my heart races. It’s such a simple little thing, but it makes me so happy.

  “What are we doing tomorrow?” He asked me that the day after he got out of the hospital. I was helping him sit on the couch because he was still sore, though he ended up healing so quickly.

  It occurred to me then that we could do whatever we wanted. He would be taking the day off, for sure. And he talked me into doing the same. I kept standing there in his living room, staring at him, realizing that the next day...we could just be with each other. I didn’t have to be afraid of anyone finding out about me, besides humans, and I’d never worried too much about that. I didn’t have to worry about Dax or whether Micah’s family would be upset when they found out about us.

  “We’re um…” I’d smiled at him and he smiled back. “I guess we’re spending the day together.”

  Micah appears around the tree except he’s human now. I shift back and get to my feet, blinking at him and catching my breath. It seems like that should be against the rules or something for a run with the Tremblay brothers.

  “Hey,” I say softly, taking his hand. “You okay? Why’d you shift back?”

  Micah has a soft look on his face and he steps in close and cups my cheek in his hand. “I don’t know. I was just so happy and...you looked so happy. I just wanted to kiss you.”

  I lean my forehead against his, basking in the light of the bond between us. “I’m not going to argue with that.”

  He kisses me and then I’m leaning against the tree behind me, my arms around his neck again.

  We keep doing that.

  I swear, I’m never going to be able to keep my hands off this wolf.

  Then he’s muttering sweet, sexy things into my ear and kissing my neck and nibbling on my ear lobe as I tweak the tiny bit of tummy I can get between my fingers under his shirt. His stomach’s pretty tight so it’s a chore but he’s pretty ticklish it turns out, and he chuckles, squeezing me.

  I see his brothers come running together from around a bend and I blush, a little sheepish, as I hide my face in his neck.

  They’re all still wolves, but I swear I can tell they are laughing at us.

  “Hey, can you blame me?” Micah calls after them. I turn Micah’s head back to face me and kiss him deeply. He tastes a little like the wine he had at dinner and he also tastes like the woods but it’s the taste of his mouth that makes me close my eyes and wrap my arms around him, inhaling his scent deeply into my lungs.

  “I’m gonna do naughty, naughty things to you tonight,” he whispers in my ear.

  “Do you promise?”

  “Of course, I promise, Luna,” he says, smiling against my neck. “I’m going to give you the moon.

  Hope you truly enjoyed the book! If you didn’t like the book, please let me know why and what I can do to make it a better experience for you.

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  Check out Werewolves of St. Neuri, my other Werewolf Shifter series.

  Secrets, lies, mystery, and passion...

  In St. Neuri, nothing is as it seems.  What appears to be a small, quiet, and forgotten town is so much more.  With the fog settling in every night and bodies turning up everywhere, St. Neuri proves to be more dangerous than anyone imagined.

  And the rumors abo
ut wolves are escalating...

  While grieving her father's death, Millie falls for the dashing bad boy with a smile who melts her heart.  And Sarah wants so much more--and it starts with the man who puts her in a world of danger and desire.  But even Janelle's secret is more than she can handle--especially from the billionaire with his own hidden agenda.  And when Lily finds herself entangled in a love triangle, passion may be her only reprieve.

  Werewolves of St. Neuri is a steamy four-book boxed set, guaranteed to set the pages on fire.  One book isn't nearly enough; you'll be howling for more.

  Will the secrets of St. Neuri bring them together or tear them apart?

  About the Author

  Abigail is a very romantic and open-minded lady. She writes mainly Paranormal Shifter Romance and Contemporary Romance. She loves spending time with her 2 finicky cats, her 2 shy dogs (they are twin sisters) and her husband. She lives in Lewisville, Texas and LOVES it there!

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