The Reluctant Mate: (Book 13, Grey Wolf Pack Romance Novellas)

by E A Price

  Raised voices in the mayor’s office pulled her out of her bubble of thought.

  Shit, that was her boss and Adam, her Alpha. Her wolf paced uneasily. It wasn’t good when they fought – they both looked at her like she was the enemy when they were angry at one another.

  Adam stormed out of the office, growling – he caught sight of Jolene, and she instinctively bared her neck in submission. He huffed and carried on walking.

  Her boss yelled for her. Just great.

  *

  Marley twirled a lock of hair around her finger. Reid glared at her to get out of his way.

  “It’s Melinda’s birthday on Friday; we’re having a party at our house.”

  Reid grunted and carried another crate of beers into the bar.

  His mom, the pack gossip machine, had heard that Bar Luna the pack-owned bar was a little short staffed due to Kim being on maternity leave. Norma had readily offered his services. He didn’t exactly mind per se, he'd prefer to be in his workshop – well, his parents’ garage – working, but it wasn’t like he really had anything to make yet. He was hoping for a few custom orders – once his reliably boastful mom had managed to tell the whole pack about how wonderful his work was. There was a benefit to having a motor mouth mother. But a few extra dollars from the bar work couldn’t hurt, and it didn’t hurt that Kim was a close friend of Jolene. Doing Kim a favour might help him.

  Unfortunately, Marley would also be working at the bar as a waitress. Not that it mattered much to him. But in the last hour, she’d batted her eyelashes at him so hard it was a wonder she hadn’t flown away. She was starting to get hard to ignore.

  The bar wasn’t open yet, they were getting ready for opening hour, and Andy, the head bartender, and a black bear shifter was doing a stock take. He had no idea what Marley was doing, other than badgering him.

  “I said it’s…”

  “I heard,” Reid muttered.

  “You can come if you want,” said Marley in a shy, little girl voice that was more obviously fake than her aquamarine blue eyes – she’d had dull brown eyes the last time he saw her.

  Not that he had any problem with brown eyes. No siree. Jolene had brown eyes. Warm, honeyed brown eyes that looked at you like you were the most important person in the entire world. Eyes that haunted his dreams and made his horny wolf howl to the moon.

  “What’s changed?” he asked blandly.

  She frowned exaggeratedly. “I don’t know…”

  “Six years ago you wouldn’t have invited me. What’s changed?” He didn’t ask out of anger more out of curiosity. He’d never been in any doubt as to why he’d never been popular in school. Or why his classmates didn’t hammer his door down to invite him to parties. Quiet loners who went out of their way to avoid talking to people didn’t garner attention. But what had changed? He certainly wasn’t trying to get Marley’s attention now, any more than he had been when he was a teenager.

  Andy, who had been trying to ignore their rather one-sided conversation actually perked up to hear her answer.

  Marley still looked like she didn’t understand. He was starting to lose his patience. “Well, things are different now,” she said slowly.

  “I’m still the same person.” He hated to admit it, but it was true. Still the awkward idiot mooning after a woman who could do so much better.

  “You have changed,” she said in exasperation – as if it were obvious. “I can be seen talking to you now.”

  That actually made Reid laugh. Marley scowled at him.

  “Marley, can you help out in the kitchen please,” said Andy, gently, but in a way that suggested arguing would be more futile than resisting the Borg.

  Marley, completely confused by Reid’s reaction huffed and stomped away.

  Andy shook his head. “My mate says she was a handful when she was a teenager. You can take the popular girl out of the school, but not the school out of the popular girl.”

  Reid rolled his shoulders in agreement. Andy’s mate, Delilah, had been in their class at School. She wasn’t exactly popular either, but she had been the Alpha’s daughter, and future Alpha’s sister, plus she had a popular boyfriend at the time. She had been saved from torment from girls like Marley by association to a bunch of scary males.

  “Will you be going to the totally epic party Melinda’s throwing?” Andy asked with a smirk.

  Reid gave him a look like he’d just escaped from a lunatic asylum. “No.”

  Andy nodded. “Nah, me neither.” He sniffed. “But then, I wasn’t invited.” A gleam of humor shot through his eyes.

  “Yeah, you seem real cut up about it,” murmured Reid.

  Andy beamed. “Yeah, I was just thinking that rather than going home to my mate and cub, I’d much rather go to a party thrown by wolves who still act like teenagers and want to spend the evening dry humping, actually humping and throwing up. They’d probably kick me out as soon as I told them the music was too loud.” He chuckled before following Marley into the kitchen.

  Reid got back to work. He hoped that Marley’s sudden interest in him wasn’t going to last long. He wasn’t sure how long he could hold onto his temper while she simpered over him. He didn’t particularly have any ill will toward her over the way she used to treat him, but he certainly didn’t want to improve their relations either.

  As far as he could see, the only things that had changed about him were his size, age and how much hair he had. Being in the army hadn’t improved him or made him any worse for that matter. But that wasn’t why he’d joined anyway. It had been a quick, easy escape from the pack to try and clear his head, to try and get over a female who his naturally pessimistic nature told him would never want him.

  But after years in the army and another apprenticing as a carpenter, he felt comfortable in returning.

  He wasn’t sure what he had thought when he came back; he’d wondered if he really would have been able to resist Jolene, but either way, he couldn’t stay away any longer. He was glad he hadn’t, but after six years of patient waiting, he wasn’t sure how much more waiting he could stand.

  Chapter Five

  “Really, Kim,” groaned Jolene. “I’m fine, shouldn’t you be worrying more about the baby?”

  “I’m a multi-tasker,” Kim told her smugly down the phone.

  Jolene struggled to multi-task while holding her phone, opening the door and not dropping her shopping. She failed miserably and dropped to her front step to focus on the phone call.

  “How is the baby?” asked Jolene, thinking of the chubby little mite with wisps of strawberry blonde hair and rosy pink cheeks. The thought of baby Billie made Jolene’s wolf stir in a way that she was trying to ignore for the moment.

  “Billie’s fine. She’s the perfect weight and size,” said Kim, proudly.

  “And Jamie?” Kim’s precocious six-year-old.

  “Also fine, although I can’t pry her away from her iPad. She sleeps with the damn thing.”

  “And Ed?”

  “Stop changing the subject!”

  There was the sharp cry of a baby, followed by yelling and what ultimately sounded like chaos to Jolene, who was accustomed to a completely quiet house. Hell, when Jolene had arrived in Rose her grandma didn’t even own a TV.

  Kim didn’t seem to notice the noise in her house. “Come over for dinner,” she enticed. “We’re having banana pudding.”

  “You tease.”

  “And Jamie always loves seeing her Aunt Joey.”

  “Using the kid – that’s low.”

  Kim snickered. “Are you coming or what? Banana pudding and my kids are my only means of persuasion.”

  “I’d love to, but... I’m really tired.”

  Her pack mates were always trying to include her. Inviting her to meals, coffee mornings, book clubs, knitting circles! But Jolene just didn’t feel like it. Particularly the knitting circle – definitely not her thing. Her wolf had been growing quieter and lonelier ever since her split with Mark, and she just di
dn’t want to see all the happy families and couples up close while she was the piteously single friend. She felt like an urchin pressing her nose against the window of a candy store.

  “Kim, please, maybe another night.”

  Kim breathed out. “I’ll hold you to that.”

  They said their goodbyes and Jolene made it inside her house. Only swearing a few times when she realized she’d managed to break her eggs when she dropped them, and that the eggs in turn had made her packet of cookies soggy. As she threw them out, she listened to her messages.

  “Jo-Jo, it’s Mark, I…” She immediately hit delete.

  Great, not content with hounding her on her cell, he was now leaving messages on her house phone. No wonder she hadn’t heard anything from him all day. There were another two messages from him, both of which she erased the moment she heard his voice.

  Her phone rang a surge of anger coursed through her, not just for Mark but because she’d felt frustrated all day long and she didn’t know why. She snatched up the receiver and shouted, “Leave me alone!”

  “Jolene?”

  Crap. “Reid, I’m sorry. I didn’t…”

  “Are you okay?” he asked immediately, tension in his voice.

  “I’m fine,” she sighed, instant relief flooding her body. Her wolf yipped. At last, someone she didn’t have to appease or worry about hurting. Actually, she did worry about hurting Reid, but it never felt like hard work. She sank back into her couch.

  “Are you sure?” he demanded.

  “Just… phone calls from my ex.”

  Reid growled down the phone, which for some reason made her own wolf flutter all over.

  “It’s nothing to worry about. I just got in from work and found a load of messages on my answer machine. I’m just tired, and it pissed me off.”

  “I don’t like it.”

  “Eh, me neither, what’s up?”

  “Well,” he hesitated.

  “Spit it out, soldier,” she said, teasingly.

  She could almost sense his smile down the phone. “You said you’d be interested in seeing some of my work, I thought you might like to come over… but if you’re tired…”

  “I’d love to – but you better feed me,” she added saucily.

  “Yes, ma’am. You sure you’re not too tired? You don’t want to get some rest?”

  Her cheeks heated, and her wolf virtually panted as she thought of her erotic dream. “Nope, I’m fine, I’ll be over in half an hour.”

  “I could come and collect you.”

  “Bah – no need.” She really could use a bit more exercise. Her wolf heartily concurred.

  “Are you sure, I could…”

  “I’ll be over in thirty minutes.”

  She shook her head and smiled as she put the phone down. He was always so chivalrous back when he was a teen, too.

  She wondered where that had come from about feeding her. It wasn’t the most licentious thing to ever come out of her mouth, but it had certainly sounded flirty. She wasn’t exactly the most flirtatious wolf in existence, not like that bitch, Marley – grrr – but sassing Reid just came naturally. It was the easiest thing in the world to relax around Reid.

  In spite of a few random thoughts and dreams – probably all down to the fact that he was now grown up, sexy as hell and she had been without sex for a heck of a long time – she was pleased with how happy she was to have him around again. She could spend time with a pack mate who didn’t pity her, or try to set her up on – shudder – blind dates, or who didn’t want to talk about why she wasn’t putting herself out there and dating. She could just be happy and be herself around Reid – just like in the good old days. She’d always wanted to spend time with Reid. How many times had she eschewed going to watch Beau practice football or play football or watch football so she could hang out with Reid?

  Course, Beau complained that all the other girlfriends did those things, but she told him firmly that she wasn’t like the other girlfriends.

  She wondered what Reid would say if he knew she was dreaming about him. Probably best not to scare him. The last thing he needed was to worry about offending her old, spinster ass. He’d probably be nervous and think of her as a cougar if he knew about the other dream she’d had over the years. That was something she wasn’t planning on telling anyone.

  *

  Reid stood rigid outside the garage. His shoulders hunched, and his jaw locked as he counted down the seconds, waiting for Jolene to arrive.

  She said thirty minutes, whined his impatient wolf. Thirty minutes passed like fifteen seconds ago! That was no reason to send out a search party soothed Reid, although without much conviction. He had to wait at least a minute or maybe even two minutes until he could comfortably say that something had happened to her.

  He tried to flex his claws in and out while letting in deep breaths through his mouth and exhaling through his nose.

  Controlling claws was more difficult than it sounded. Sure shifters could push their claws out when they were angry or maybe lusty, but being in complete control of a partial shift was another matter.

  It was one thing his old sergeant had tried to instil in him – having complete control over his animal. Easier said than down, especially where a certain blonde was concerned. Logic told him that her ex was out of her life and that the phone calls were an annoyance – nothing else, but he still wanted to hunt the asshole down and warn him to stay away.

  His mom had happily told him all the details of her marriage to that total fucking dickhead, who also went by the name, Mark. It was another benefit of having a gossip-mongering parent - being able to stalk the woman you were obsessed with from a distance.

  But that still didn’t change the fact that Reid wanted to rip him to shreds for even daring to touch Jolene.

  His wolf stilled, and Reid looked up to see Jolene, tramping through the woods to get to him. She lived a ten-minute walk away from them. She never bothered to drive; she had always preferred either walking or running to the house as her wolf, with a bag of clothes slung around her wolfy neck.

  His lips twitched and he fought back a chuckle as he remembered the numerous times he’d seen her wolf running around with a purse. He’d always found it funny when she came to see him like that.

  No, not when she came to see him – when she came to see Beau.

  That certainly quelled his amusement. He couldn’t forget that. Jolene was Beau’s before anything else. She’d been heartbroken when he left her, and she turned around and threw herself at an even bigger asshole to try and get over him.

  Reid had a few – or rather a lot – of lingering worries that Jolene still had feelings for Beau, even after all this time. Worries that infuriated his wolf. But as she approached him, her cheeks slightly pink, and a huge smile plastered over her face, he forgot all about them.

  Chapter Six

  “Reid you made all this?” Jolene smiled at him, wondrously.

  Reid shrugged and looked away.

  “Wow,” she breathed.

  He was talented. The pieces were so intricate, and beautiful, she had no idea he was capable of such beauty. Not that she didn’t think he was a talented and capable young wolf but this…

  “Reid you’re… the freaking horse whisperer of wood – wait, does that mean you’re the wood whisperer?”

  Reid rolled his shoulders and pretended like he wasn’t pleased. “These are just some of the things I’ve been working on. Trying to improve.”

  “Improve? Jeez, Reid, they’re beautiful.” She ran her hand along a mirror frame.

  He closed his eyes and shook his head. “You should have seen Gary’s work; now that was amazing…” He stopped and looked at her sheepishly.

  “Who’s Gary?”

  “Just a friend of mine.”

  She raised an eyebrow and waited patiently.

  Reid rolled his eyes. “Guy I met in the army. He kind of taught me a few things after we got out.”

  “Is that where you
’ve been all this time?” She didn’t mean for it to sound like an accusation but it did. What her wolf wanted to say was, ‘is that who’ve you’ve been with when you could have been here with me’. At least, she managed to tone that down.

  “He offered to teach me, so I said yes.”

  “You must be good friends,” she muttered, trying not to let her irrational jealousy show. It was stupid, and she felt guilty for even the suggestion that she resented him for it, but once upon a time, she’d been his only friend. Once upon a time, he needed her.

  “Saved my life.”

  Jolene looked up sharply. “He did?”

  In halting words, because the subject was not something he was familiar with talking about, he told her about the time he was hit and almost died out in the field. Gary saved him and was injured in the process. Gary being human meant he wouldn’t recover as quickly as Reid, so Reid went back to Gary’s house to help him out for a while, repay him and Gary helped teach him about woodworking.

  “That’s how we both got out early – we were injured.” He said it matter-of-fact like, as though he hadn’t just admitted to almost dying and ripping Jolene’s world apart. Her wolf growled at him for being so offhand about something so important.

  “Reid,” she murmured, walking to towards him. His hard face softened slightly, until she punched him on the arm and he growled at her.

  “Jolene!” he yelped.

  “You should have told me! You should have told your mom at least!” she snapped as her wolf snarled in agreement. How could he be so blasé?!

  “I didn’t want to worry anyone,” he muttered, rubbing his arm.

  That earned him a punch on the other arm. She was sure she wasn’t hurting him, but he had the grace to pretend that she was.

  He took a step back from her murderous look and held up his hands. “I didn’t think it was a big deal; I really didn’t want to worry anyone.”

  “Don’t keep saying that! Don’t we deserve to know? Don’t you know what it would have done to… to… your mother if something really bad had happened and she didn’t know until… until… Damnit, Reid!”