Bella's Tease: Blue Collar Wolves #4 (Mating Season Collection)
Page 1
Bella’s Tease
Blue Collar Wolves #4
Mating Season Collection
Ronin Winters
Romantic Geek Publishing
BELLA’S TEASE (BLUE COLLAR WOLVES #4) (MATING SEASON COLLECTION)
Romantic Geek Publishing
Copyright © 2015 Ronin Winters
E-book ISBN 978-1-938593-29-1
Kindle Edition
Publication Date: September 2015
Editor: Sara Lunsford
Copy Editor: Eilis Flynn
Cover Design: Croco Designs
To know when the next Ronin Winters book is released, please sign up for her MAILING LIST.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons – living or dead – is purely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Books by Ronin Winters
What is the Mating Season Collection?
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
About the Author
Mating Season – Books Released so Far
New Releases List Sign-Up
Find Ronin (as Danielle Monsch) on Social Media
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Tumblr
• Pinterest
Books by Ronin Winters
The Mating Season
The mating moon is rising…
Blue Collar Wolves
Iron
Brick House
Steel
Bella’s Tease
The Pleasure Chronicles
Sexy Sci-Fi about Warrior women and the Alpha Males who love them
Pleasure Satellite – To the Strongest goes Everything…
Want to know the moment a New Book is Released? Sign up!
RONIN WINTERS NEWSLETTER LIST!
Want to join fellow Shifter Romance Fans?
FACEBOOK FAN GROUP FOR THE MATING SEASON!
What is the Mating Season Collection?
The Mating Season began when six friends (who also happen to be Paranormal Romance Writers) got together and started talking about how it was funny authors could start with the same premise but make such different stories.
After a little more talk (and perhaps a little more wine – no telling) they began to brainstorm about a shifter world revolving around The Mating Season, which would be the only time a shifter could take a mate. One author suggested she would take the story this way while another laughed and cut her off and said, nope, she’d tell the story like this.
And then they all stopped and thought, Hey, why don’t we write these different stories and release them all together under one collection? So they did.
Six Authors. Six Different Packs. All of it revolving around One Premise – The Mating Season.
We are proud and excited to have worked on this project together. I hope you enjoy my take and my pack as they navigate The Mating Season, and please check out my friend’s packs and their takes on it as well.
–Ronin
Chapter One
‡
DECORATIONS HAD NEVER been a thing at Iron’s bar before, but today it looked like a party store had decided to throw up over it. Iron had stopped counting at color number 35 and just shook his head every time a new one came into view.
“Stop grumping.” From behind him, warm, slender fingers ran up his arm and landed on his shoulder, right beside where lips pressed a quick kiss at the place where his neck and shoulder met. His mate’s mouth-watering scent filled the air around him, and as he always did, he took a reflexive breath, wanting to absorb everything about her.
Iron grabbed Bella’s hand and brought it to his mouth, placing gentle kisses on the pads of her fingers, then biting down on her thumb. That earned him a smack and a giggle, and he turned, bringing his gorgeous spitfire of a mate into his arms and leaning down to nuzzle into her neck.
More smacks, and Bella pulled back, the half-giggles and glow of happiness demanding he keep trying to snatch her up and kiss her senseless. “Don’t you dare start. I am not getting dragged away from Doc’s retirement party because my husband is a horny wolf who can’t keep it in his pants for more than half an hour at a time.”
“It’s been ninety minutes,” Iron said, finally able to grab a handful of her ass and squeeze, and fuck if her ass wasn’t the most luscious miracle ever put in his grasp. “I should be getting a fucking medal for staying away this long with you in that dress.”
Never had truer words been spoken. Red. The dress was red, and clung just right, and the bitch almost had him on his knees when she came out of the front door of their house, and he loved every minute of it.
She refused to let him see the dress before then, and his woman was damn smart, because if he had they wouldn’t have left the house. As it was, if he wasn’t waiting around with Brick and House, he would have dragged her back inside.
More like it was Danny that kept him in check, the little boy with his dads to help do the last minute pick-ups all parties somehow needed. Mel was already at the bar, finishing the decorations and making sure Doc Stevens’s retirement party went off without a hitch.
Bella smirked at him as she walked past, all swinging hips and pure seduction, and the only thing stopping him from pulling her down and mounting her right there was Danny’s sweet, “You look pretty, Bella.”
Fuck, even he couldn’t drag her away after that, though it was still a damn close thing, and the woman tortured him the entire car ride, crossing those legs back-and-forth and constantly playing with her skirt hem, straightening it, then pulling it up so it almost showed the holy land, only to pull it down again.
House snickered when he told everyone to go in the bar without them, while Bella gave him a smoldering look and made sure when her back arched and her dress pulled up when she got out of the car.
Ten minutes later he was in the bar, and House had the good sense to hide behind Mel and keep the shit-stirring to a minimum.
Because Bella in that dress was breaking him down, and every minute stretched him thinner, made the wolf stronger, and the wolf wanted skin-to-skin with its mate, wanted buried inside her, wanted come and scent and sweat over every square inch of her, to mark her and proclaim her mine.
That wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, and Iron pushed against the wolf hard. Thank fuck most here were mated themselves, or he might have gone over the edge, and Bella would have killed him if he messed up tonight.
There was no worry of that. Doc’s retirement party was a success, and Mel and Bella had outdone themselves. It wasn’t fancy, but the food was fantastic and there was a ton of it, family and friends were laughing, and Doc was in his element, free to tell embarrassing stories to the kids about their dads, which had the younger generation wide-eyed and listening hard, while the adults were blushing for perhaps the first time since puberty ended.
Bella pushed hard and freed herself, wagging her finger at him. “Behave yourself.” And then she turned, presenting that ass, and looking over her shoulder, winked at him. “I promise it will be worth the wait.”
She was out from behind the bar before he could grab her up and run out the back with her.
“How is it you became more
of a horndog since you mated?” Razor sat at the barstool in front of Iron, his words taking a few moments to penetrate the haze of lust fogging Iron’s head. “Shouldn’t sex be boring now?”
Iron picked up a shot glass and debated if Bella would yell at him if he chucked it at Razor’s head. Probably would since there were kids around, so he tabled the impulse and put the glass away. “Don’t make me sound all old man on you and say wait until you mate, or some shit like that. Steel’s the one to get all deep and meaningful in these discussions.”
“Yeah, my mate.” Razor’s voice went that half-step between nostalgic and bittersweet, and Iron went on alert. That tone, that was the tone his voice took on when he spoke about Bella, back when she was in college, those days when if someone told him one day he’d mate Bella, he’d have rammed the fucker through the wall and beat the shit out of them for torturing him in the cruelest way possible, because there was no way he’d ever get Bella in his life.
Iron’s eyes met and held Razor’s, and the pain in them was fucking intimately familiar from many a moment when Iron stared into the mirror and saw only the bleakness of his own life without his mate.
Razor never talked about mates or mating seasons, and Iron assumed it was because he was young and wanted to get some unattached fun in before worrying about true bonds and forever after and all the shit that comes with being with one woman for the rest of life.
But what if, maybe, Razor already knew…?
The door opened, and Steel and Regan walked in, and with them a smaller blonde woman, wearing glasses and an oversized sweater, and with a shy, inquisitive air as she both shrank into herself, but was open with her avid studying of her surroundings. Razor seemed to snatch at their entrance to turn away and call out, usual jovial tone in place, “Fashionably late Alpha? Or busy in other ways?”
Everyone laughed, the flowing liquor helping the overall happy mood, and Steel flipped off the younger but bigger wolf before he looked around, and spotting Mel and Bella chatting in the corner, leaned down and whispered in Regan’s ear. She nodded, and, after entwining her fingers with his and giving them a squeeze before letting go, took the other woman’s hand and went to talk with Bella and Mel, leaving Steel to approach the bar.
Iron put a beer down in preparation, and Steel grabbed it up and drank half in one gulp. “Nice entrance,” Iron said, giving a lift of his eyebrows. “That Annabeth?”
“Yeah, Regan wasn’t sure if her coming was a good idea, but Beth insisted. Said she wanted to meet the family.” Steel shrugged and tried to appear calm, but, at least to Iron, it was apparent that tonight his chill was missing, and this display was pure show.
Regan’s acceptance into the pack wasn’t going smooth. The fact that she hadn’t taken Steel’s bite had a lot of the wolves uneasy, and her past as a hunter hadn’t won her any points either. Mel and Bella accepting her helped keep the talk to a minimum, but Iron knew his oldest friend, and between the problems the pack was having with Regan and the ongoing threat of Jacobson, the alpha was getting worn down, game face be damned.
Iron did his part to help, keeping the chatter light and away from heavy matters. Tonight wasn’t about that anyway. Tonight was about the pack celebrating the good in their life, and so much good had happened recently. Sometimes, that reminder was needed. “Smart girl. Coming in when everyone’s happy and drunk is about the best time to get intros done. Pretty too. There’s probably going to be some interest.”
Razor snorted. “Yeah, but you’d have to date her under Regan’s watch. My balls shrink with the thought.”
Instead of taking offense, Steel radiated smug satisfaction. “Damn straight. I pity the poor fucker that has to go head-to-head with my bitch.”
Razor threw his hands into the air in an exaggerated display of disgust. “Could you assholes be less obvious about slavering over your women? I’m fucking getting diabetes listening to all of you, and with Brick and House, I get a double dose of both mate and kid talk. I mean, someone needs to tell those two Danny didn’t fucking hang the moon.”
“Course he didn’t hang it, jackass, but he’s going to probably figure out how to get us to Mars and colonize it or something. You know his math teacher called us and said that he gets concepts that don’t start teaching until high school, even college?” House and Brick sidled up to the group, Tank following close, and the wolves had taken over a good stretch of the bar top. Iron set out fresh beers for everyone while House continued, now on a roll talking about his second favorite subject. “Gave us some names for these programs for gifted kids. Gifted. Even his teachers realize how fucking smart our kid is.”
House might have been the one speaking, but pride radiated from both him and Brick in equal measures, and Iron thanked God for how they loved Danny. Danny was theirs, in the same way Mel was theirs, and Iron wanted to see the bloodbath that would follow if any wolf was ever dumbass enough to question why they would raise a kid not their own.
“You bought him a tablet computer?” Both House and Brick froze as Mel popped up behind them, years of working the bar making her quick and quiet, and no one noticed her arrival until she spoke, staring daggers at the two wolves.
House turned on his Hollywood charm, smiling at her a smile that deserved to be on a movie poster. “Sweetheart, he needs it for his studying.”
Unfortunately for him, Mel had never been swayed by the charm, and it wasn’t starting now. She poked him in the chest. “I have to overhear my son telling my father about his newest gift from his dads to know what’s going on in my own home? We have a computer! He doesn’t need his own.”
“But he can’t travel with that one.” With a gentle grasp, House took her hand in his to stop the poking and rose to stand in front of her, Brick rising as well and coming behind her, the two wolves leaning over her and creating an intimate barrier from the world, and from the subtle scent change and slight clouding of her eyes, it was apparent Mel both noticed and was affected by their actions. “This will be good for school, and we already checked that it was allowed. We have all the safeguards in place so he can’t get anywhere on the web he shouldn’t, and he’s such a good kid, you know he wouldn’t anyway. We just want our son to have everything he needs to succeed in school.”
Then Brick leaned down and said in his low, rusty voice, “Don’t deny us taking care of our son.”
There was the KO, and Mel was gone, looking up at her mates like she was a hairsbreadth from pushing them both on their backs and having her way with them right there. Razor muttered, “I’m getting the hose,” but it was only the arrival of Mr. Harris that had Brick and House stepping back and straightening up like kids who were almost caught necking on the porch. Mr. Harris gave them an amused, knowing look before turning to Mel and asking, “Mel, sweetheart, your mother and I are going to head out now.”
“Already?” Mel frowned, stepping closer to her father. “Are you both feeling okay?”
Mr. Harris waved the words away. “Fine, fine, we can’t party with you young people all night, and we don’t want to miss our shows.”
The frown lifted but didn’t disappear, but Mel didn’t argue the point, only saying, “Let me get some food to go. I’ll be right back.” Without waiting for her father’s agreement, she went to pack up what was starting to look like enough for a small camp full of people.
The smile and headshake Mr. Harris gave was one of well-worn indulgence. “Just like her mother and grandmother, because God forbid anyone be sent away without enough food to last through a blizzard. Speaking of food, you boys are coming over for Sunday dinner, right?”
“Yes sir, wouldn’t miss it.” It was Brick who spoke, his rough tones weighing the words with maybe more than they were meant to have. Or maybe not, considering Mr. Harris’s corresponding approving head nod, which had both Brick and House acting like football players that had been praised by their coach.
Mel came back and gave her father both a kiss and the food, and together they collected Mrs. Ha
rris and Danny, the four of them walking out the door, and Brick and House’s eyes stayed on the departing group until they disappeared outside.
Razor motioned to Brick and House with the bottom of the beer bottle clutched in his hand. “See what I mean? Disgusting. They’re acting like Mel and Danny are leaving to tour the country instead of walking her parents to the car.”
Now, Iron hadn’t heard more than a buzz because Bella was walking toward them, Regan and Annabeth beside her, but even that barely more than registered. To Iron, everything in existence narrowed down to red clingy fabric wound around silky tanned skin and luscious curves, and a skirt short enough that the calves we wanted wrapped around his neck and the thighs he wanted to bury his head between were both on spot lit display, taunting him with the fact he couldn’t do anything yet.
But Bella heard them, because she smacked Razor on the arm, which had Razor rubbing it in exaggerated display. “What was that for?”
“Being a brat.”
Before anything else could be said the door opened, and it wasn’t Mel and Danny coming back in like Iron expected. This woman was black, her long hair done in a cascade of tiny braids and her high cheekbones and lush mouth reminded him of Egyptian paintings.
Bella smiled as she caught sight of the stranger. “I can’t believe she made it, awesome!”
Iron grabbed her arm before Bella could move away. “Who is she?” This was the first time he’d heard about anyone not family supposed to be coming, and though he wouldn’t say he was worried, he didn’t like unknowns in any circumstances, and the trouble with Jacobson had any unknown taking on importance.
As usual, Bella could read him, because she ran her hand down his arm in a soothing motion, designed to calm. “A new nurse at the hospital. She started a couple months ago. She’s been gone from the area for awhile, but she originally lived here. She said she used to work for Doc when I mentioned his retirement, so I told her to stop by if she could.”