IceHuntersMate

by Marisa Chenery

  It then hit Eryn how close she’d come to losing control herself. If Wachei had wanted to strip her naked and take her on the grass, she wouldn’t have stopped him. A small part of her actually wished he still would. Her pussy was wet, and she was so turned-on she’d probably need a cold shower once she got home to cool her overheated body and libido.

  After a few seconds, Wachei opened his eyes and his gaze met hers. “I think you’d better leave before I do something neither one of us is ready for,” he said in a voice that sounded strained.

  Eryn nodded. “Yeah, I think that would be best. I sort of lost it there for a bit.”

  “As did I, though it wasn’t a bad thing.”

  She couldn’t agree more, but this wasn’t the time or place to pursue the arousal that flared between them. She’d only just met Wachei. Rushing into sex wasn’t her normal mode of operation when it came to dating. If she slept with a guy, it was because she wanted a relationship. She’d never had a one-night stand in her life.

  Eryn took a deep breath and licked her lips, still able to taste Wachei on her tongue. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then. Give me a call before you get here so I can meet you.”

  “I will.” Wachei gave her another heated look before he said, “See you later, Eryn.”

  She walked to the driver’s door of the pickup and unlocked it. Once she was behind the steering wheel, she started the engine, put the truck in drive and slowly drove away. She had a feeling she’d be dreaming about Wachei when she slept tonight. Nice erotic ones that would leave her aching and wanting in the morning.

  Wachei watched Eryn’s pickup truck drive across the grass that separated it from the back road. Once she was completely out of sight, he had a quick look to make sure no one else was around. He shifted to his dire wolf form and took off at a run. He needed to burn off some of the excess desire that still coursed through him.

  He’d found his mate and she was everything he’d hoped she’d be. Wachei even liked the fact she could stand up for herself. He chuckled inside as he remembered how she’d gotten the jump on him and knocked him onto his ass when he hadn’t listened to her. He would be able to always count on Eryn setting him in his place if he needed it. His mother had been a lot like Eryn, had kept his father in line. She’d been a strong woman and had fiercely loved her husband. Wachei had always wanted what his parents had with the woman he chose to eventually share his life with. Now, thanks to the shaman, he’d found her in this new world he’d awakened to ten months earlier.

  The unfamiliar sensation of the mating urge riding him was more than welcome. Wachei had it under control, except for that brief moment when he’d had Eryn in his arms and kissed her for the first time. The scent of her arousal and the taste of her on his tongue had been a bit overwhelming in a good way. He would just have to watch himself when he held her again. He could give her pleasure, but making love to her fully was out of the question until she learned what he truly was and accepted him as her mate.

  Pushing himself to greater speed, Wachei raced to the trees he’d have to work his way through to the other side. Once he did he’d shift again and call Cassidy to come and pick him up. His hunting trip had ended without him making a kill, but he’d found something even better so it hadn’t been a complete waste of time.

  Tomorrow he’d work on becoming closer to Eryn, learning all there was to know about her. Then as the days went by, and he saw more of her, he’d wait until she was ready for him to claim her as his mate.

  Chapter Two

  Wachei watched Cassidy pull her older-model crossover to the side of the road as he stepped onto the graveled shoulder. Edensaw sat in the front passenger seat. Once Wachei climbed into the backseat and shut the door, his alpha turned to look at him.

  “Didn’t you make a kill?” Edensaw asked.

  He shook his head. “No. I ended up being the one taken by a hunter, though it wasn’t on purpose.” Wachei opened his jacket and lifted his t-shirt to show the wound Eryn’s bullet had left behind.

  Cassidy sucked in a breath. “What happened?”

  “I had singled out a caribou to take down, but before I could, another hunter had the same one in her sights. She fired and I happened to be in the way. I was in my wolf form, but I don’t think she saw me.”

  “A ‘she’, huh?”

  Wachei smiled. “Yes, and her name is Eryn. I’m going to see her again tomorrow.”

  “You asked her out on a date?”

  “I guess you could call it that. I’m going to meet her where I hunted and teach her how to shoot a bow and arrow.”

  Cassidy looked at her mate, then back at Wachei. “Is it just a date with a woman you found attractive, or is she something more than that?”

  “Oh, she’s something more, all right. Besides shooting me, Eryn set off my mating urge. I found my mate.”

  Edensaw smiled. “This could be a good sign that the others will soon find theirs as well. The shaman said we’d find the women meant for us after our long sleep. I found Cassidy, and now you’ve met your Eryn.”

  “I take it she’s mortal,” Cassidy said.

  “Yes.”

  “Did you tell her about you being a werewolf?”

  “No. I didn’t want to frighten her away. She’d already had been leery of me when she found me standing over her kill, waiting for her to approach. Plus, I was afraid she’d shoot me again since she was carrying a rifle.”

  Cassidy laughed. “Yeah, you probably did the right thing. I know when Edensaw and the rest of you all shifted for the first time in front of me to prove you were telling the truth about being werewolves, it scared me. Used to shooting things, Eryn might have tried to put some lead into you.”

  “One bullet wound was enough for me.”

  “Let’s go back and tell the others,” Edensaw said. Both he and Cassidy turned around in their seats, and Cassidy pulled onto the road.

  Wachei watched the scenery go by through the side window. Eryn wasn’t going to be very far from his mind for the rest of the day. He yearned to be with her again, but he had to take it slow. Considering her personality, if he pushed things too fast, she was liable to balk and have nothing to do with him again. And that was the last thing he wanted to happen.

  Once they arrived at their house, Wachei got out of the car. He looked at their five-bedroom home. When Cassidy had first found them in the ice cave, she’d been living in a one-bedroom apartment here in Juneau. After finding out the stones the shaman had given to him and each of his wolf brothers were actually pieces of gold, diamond, jade, amethyst, garnet and rhodonite, and worth a lot in this modern world, they had sold them. Now they had a place that fit them all with enough treed land for them to go wolf and take a run whenever they wanted.

  They’d just stepped into the house when a feminine shout of outrage sounded from the living room. It was followed by a “Ketah, knock it the hell off” in an irritated tone.

  Wachei looked at Cassidy and Edensaw. “Lindsey must be here.” Lindsey was the daughter of the local pack leader, and descended from Ketah. Their wolf brother considered the younger woman his granddaughter and treated her as such, much to Lindsey’s dismay.

  Cassidy chuckled. “How can you tell? Today’s her birthday, remember? We’re going to have a little celebration here for her with Brice and Marta. Lindsey drove herself here. Her parents will arrive later. She doesn’t know it, but they went to pick up the present they want to give her today. Her big party will be on the weekend with the rest of their pack.”

  Wachei followed his alpha and his mate to the living room where everyone else was. First thing he noticed was Ketah trying to corner Lindsey. The others were laughing as they watched.

  “Ketah, quit being a pain in my ass,” Lindsey said as she held up her hands to hold him off.

  “Come on, Lindsey. You won’t let me give you birthday spanks so you can at least allow me to give you birthday kisses. Twenty of them, one for every year you’ve been alive.”


  “It’s bad enough I have to put up with you squeezing the crap out of me every time you say goodbye, but you are not giving me twenty kisses. I don’t want old-man slobber on me.”

  “I may be over ten thousand years old but I’m far from an old man, and you know it. Your grandfather is just as virile as any werewolf your age.”

  Lindsey pretended to stick her finger down her throat and made sick-to-her-stomach noises. “God, I did not need to know that. And I’m not calling you grandfather so knock it off referring to yourself as such.”

  Taking pity on Lindsey, Wachei interrupted. “If you’re done harassing Lindsey, I have some news.”

  Ketah turned and left Lindsey where she stood and came over to him. Wachei noticed he also had everyone else’s attention. “And what is this news?” Ketah asked.

  “I met my mate today.”

  The others stood and walked over to congratulate him. “Did you tell her the truth about you?” Durlach asked.

  “No.” Wachei went on to give the same explanation as he had to Cassidy and Edensaw.

  As he spoke with the others, Wachei noticed Lindsey had shifted to her wolf form and was in the middle of sneaking up behind Ketah. So far his wolf brother acted as if he didn’t know Lindsey was there. Wachei decided not to let on that he watched her, wanting to see what she was up to.

  He didn’t have too long a wait. Lindsey continued to inch forward, then once she was close enough, she lunged at Ketah and bit him right on the ass. The look on his wolf brother’s face was comical. Ketah let out a yelp midsentence and spun around to face Lindsey.

  “You did not just bite me in the butt,” Ketah said as he rubbed the offended area.

  Since Lindsey couldn’t communicate telepathically while she was a wolf as he and his brothers could, she quickly shifted to her human form. “I think it would be obvious that I did.”

  “So it’s going to be like that, little girl? Maybe I should give you those twenty birthday spanks after all.”

  Ketah took a step toward Lindsey. She let out a little shriek then raced out of the room with Ketah on her tail. Wachei chuckled along with the others. Nowadays, it was a close call as to who would end up catching whom. Lindsey had gotten faster over the months since they’d met her, and she also had come up with inventive ways to elude Ketah.

  The doorbell rang and Cassidy went to answer it. A little later, she walked back into the room with Brice and Marta behind her.

  “I hear they’re at it again,” Marta said with a shake of her head.

  “Of course,” Cassidy replied, smiling. “I don’t think Ketah will ever get tired of trying to drive Lindsey nuts. It seems to be his favorite pastime.”

  “So did you catch anything?” Brice asked Wachei.

  Before Wachei could answer, Capac said, “He ended up being the prey and not the hunter. He found his mate after she shot him.”

  That led to some good-natured male ribbing from Brice, and of course Capac, Durlach, Kajakti and Edensaw had to join in on. Wachei didn’t think his wolf brothers would ever let him live this one down.

  Once Lindsey and Ketah returned to the living room, and everyone else was finished giving Wachei advice on how he should tell Eryn what he truly was, they all sat and gave Lindsey her birthday gifts.

  She liked the MP3 player they gave her, which of course Cassidy had picked out since Wachei and his wolf brothers were still learning about modern-day technology. Last was the present from Lindsey’s parents.

  She unwrapped the large slim box to reveal a laptop computer. Lindsey smiled at Brice and Marta. “Thanks, Mom and Dad. It’s perfect. Now I no longer have to fight with the old, slow one.”

  “You’re welcome, sweetie,” Marta said. “It should be a lot faster. Cassidy gave us her expert advice on which one would be best.”

  Ketah got up and sat on the empty spot on the couch next to Lindsey. “Let’s turn it on and see what it does,” he said.

  Wachei watched Ketah as he and Lindsey started up the laptop. Out of all of them, Ketah had embraced this new world better. He’d had Cassidy show him how to use her computer and the internet. He was even having her teach him how to drive in the hopes of being able to take his driver’s test soon. Thanks to Brice’s ability to get them all fake identification, it would be possible.

  As they ate pizza and then birthday cake for dessert, Eryn was never far from Wachei’s thoughts. He kept thinking how once she became his mate she’d be joining in on get-togethers just like this one. And she would be living here with him, sharing his room, along with his bed. He could picture her lying in it with her long, dark-brown hair spread across one of the pillows as he made love to her.

  He quickly pulled his mind away from mental images like that. Already he sported a hard-on from his rampant thoughts. His mating urge had him raring to go, full of desire for his mate at any given time. Edensaw had been lucky. He hadn’t had to be away from Cassidy while he went through the urge. Not being with Eryn seemed to make Wachei’s need for her increase.

  At least he’d been able to hold her and kiss her before she’d left him. The remembered taste of her lips heated his blood even more, but Wachei held that memory close. Hopefully, he’d be able to make more just like that tomorrow when he saw Eryn again.

  * * * * *

  Eryn pulled her pickup truck into the drive of her older brother’s place. Noah usually helped her dress her kills. And since he’d known she’d gone hunting that day, he had expected her to show up once she was done.

  She parked in front of the detached garage and turned off the truck’s engine. Eryn inwardly groaned at the sight of her other brother’s SUV in the spot next to her. Carson was the worst of her brothers to drive her up the wall. He thought it was his personal mission to do everything in his power to bug the hell out of her. He sometimes treated her as if she were still a teenager instead of a grown woman of thirty. She thought he acted more like a teen, even though he was two years her senior. Noah was four years older than her and could be just as infantile when Carson egged him on.

  Even though her brothers could drive her mad, Eryn loved them to pieces. And she knew they loved her just the same. They might pick on her, but if anyone else besides them tried to do it they were quick to defend her. A school bully had found that out the hard way when they’d been growing up.

  Psyching herself up to be bugged, Eryn got out of the truck, walked to the front door of house and rang the doorbell. Noah’s wife, Heidi, answered.

  “Hey, Eryn,” Heidi said as she pulled the door open wider and backed up for Eryn to come inside. “Noah figured you’d be around soon. He’s in the basement with Carson.”

  “Thanks. I guess I’ll go brave the man cave down there.”

  Heidi chuckled. “It’s not totally all men. Crystal is with them.”

  Crystal was Noah and Heidi’s four-year-old daughter. Even at that young age, she was already a girly girl, unlike Eryn. And Crystal had her father and uncle firmly wrapped around her little finger. Noah and Carson were hopeless when it came to resisting her.

  Eryn left Heidi and walked over to the stairs that led to the basement. Going down them, she heard Crystal’s high voice. “No, Daddy. Not like that. You’re making her look ugly.”

  Eryn put her hand over her mouth to stifle the laugh that bubbled out of her. So much for Noah’s man cave. Crystal’s new thing was playing Barbies, which included changing the dolls’ outfits and even styling their hair. Since her niece had more than one, Eryn figured her brothers had been suckered into playing.

  She reached the last step and couldn’t hold back her laughter any longer. Her big, muscular six-foot brothers sat on the floor cross-legged as Crystal directed them on the proper way to dress a Barbie. They also each had a sparkly plastic tiara on their heads, which matched the one her niece wore.

  Eryn couldn’t resist. It was time to get a little payback. “Don’t all three of you look like pretty princesses? Maybe I should take a picture of you with my phone. I’m sur
e some of your buddies would love to see you like this, Noah and Carson.”

  Carson tore the tiara off his head and scowled. “Don’t you dare, Eryn.”

  She pretended to ignore him and reached into her jacket pocket where she’d put her cell after adding Wachei’s number to her contact list. Once she pulled it out, she said, “Hold still and give me a big smile.”

  “Take a picture of me, Auntie Eryn,” Crystal said enthusiastically.

  Eryn held up her phone, and Noah and Carson jumped out of the way a few seconds before she took the picture. She ended up with a great shot of her niece, smiling with a bunch of Barbies on the floor next to her. Her father and uncle were nowhere in sight.

  “Jesus, Eryn,” Noah said. “I don’t need you posting pictures of me looking like this on the internet for my friends to see.”

  Her brother might have sounded tough but he failed miserably while wearing a tiara. Eryn chuckled. “Don’t worry, princess. You and Carson aren’t in the picture.”

  As if he’d just remembered what he wore, Noah pulled off the tiara and threw it on the floor next to the Barbies. Crystal glared up at him. “Daddy, if you break that you have to buy me another one.”

  “You know I will.” Noah turned back to Eryn and changed the subject. “Did you bring a kill?”

  “Yeah. I took down a caribou. It’s outside in the back of my pickup.”

  “Then we’d better get to dressing it.”

  Eryn gave Crystal a kiss and hug with the promise she’d play Barbies with her another day, then followed her brothers up the stairs. They didn’t stop until they were outside and standing at the back of her truck.

  “That’s a good-size one,” Carson said. “Didn’t you have a hard time getting it into the bed?”

  Eryn nibbled on her bottom lip as she shook her head. “No, not really. I dragged it to the truck on a tarp, then managed the rest.”