Finding His Wolf

by Skye R. Richmond

  He must have been standing there deep in thought, because Micah appeared by his side with his suitcase.

  “Come on, let’s go in so you can meet everyone,” Micah said.

  Three

  Caden

  Caden finally felt refreshed, he’d needed that run. For some reason, he’d been having the most erotic dreams, and no matter how much he came, he still felt aroused. He couldn’t figure out why.

  At least the new cook would be here by now, which meant he wouldn’t have to suffer through one of the guys trying to cook. Caden was making his way towards their house when he scented the most intoxicating thing he had ever smelled in his life. It was on the breeze as he approached Micah’s truck, and he couldn’t help but take a deep breath, taking it into his lungs.

  What on earth was that? He had never smelled anything like it in his almost seventy years on this earth. In comparison to most shifters in the pack, Caden was pretty young, but he would remember if he’d ever smelled what was, in the simplest terms, his version of ambrosia. Caden followed the smell inside the house the pack shared, his wolf clawing to get out. He kept going until he was outside the kitchen where the scent seemed to be concentrated. Which meant only one thing – the new cook. Could it be? What were the odds?

  Since he’d been old enough to know what a mate was, Caden had wanted one. His parents had been fated mates, and to hear them tell it, it was a feeling you couldn’t explain unless you experienced it. It was joy and peace. It was happiness and safety and pure perfection when you found the person the gods had made just for you.

  But it also meant that if anything happened to your mate, it could be the end for you. Like it had been for his parents. Caden’s mother had lost the will to live after his father was shot and killed by hunters. Even though he’d been just barely out of his teens and still needed her, losing her fated mate had killed his mom.

  Caden took a deep breath and prepared himself for the moment he knew could completely change his life. He could hear his brother talking to someone in the kitchen, but couldn’t hear a reply. He wanted so badly to hear the sound of his mate’s voice.

  His wolf was being an impatient bastard, pushing him to go inside the kitchen and meet the man the gods had sent to him, because that was the only explanation. What were the odds that the cook they hired, because their last one had left to find his mate, happened to be the mate Caden had been praying for?

  Caden was nervous. It was like walking into that kitchen would be the beginning of the rest of his life. He tried to recall what he knew about their new chef but couldn’t really remember what his brother had told him. No matter. He would learn everything about his mate himself.

  He finally took one more cleansing breath before stepping into the kitchen. His eyes didn’t even acknowledge his brother. Once he entered the kitchen, his gaze landed on the most perfect man he had ever seen.

  He was short, maybe 5’5 or so. At 6’4 Caden towered over him. His face had an ethereal look to it. His hair was the deepest brown Caden had ever seen, so dark it was almost black, and his eyes were a smoky gray. He couldn’t help taking all that in at first glance. And fuck, this close he could pick up what the scent was. It was like caramel and cinnamon, and he just wanted to lick the small man and see if he tasted as sweet.

  His thoughts were interrupted by his brother. “Well, well, this is an unexpected development,” Hunter, his older brother and alpha of the Hidden Valley pack said.

  Even with his brother speaking to him, Caden’s gaze never left his mate’s. All he could do was stare like some dumbstruck idiot.

  “Caden,” Hunter said to get his brother’s attention.

  “What?” Caden snapped at Hunter for not making himself scarce since he clearly knew what was happening.

  His brother snorted. “I was trying to introduce you to our new cook, Sparrow.”

  “Sparrow,” he repeated, tasting his mate's name on his tongue. “Little bird.”

  The smaller man, his mate, raised his eyebrow. Caden realized he’d said that out loud and his cheeks colored. “What I meant was the sparrow is a little bird.”

  Hunter snorted again. “Nice save, little brother.”

  Caden couldn’t even bring himself to care that he was making a fool of himself. His mate would probably think he was some kind of nincompoop.

  “Sparrow, this is my younger brother, Caden. I have a feeling you’ll be getting to know him very well,” Hunter said, his voice filled with mirth.

  “Nice to meet you, Caden,” Sparrow replied.

  Ahhh, Caden thought as his mate’s voice washed over him. He knew he would never forget hearing it for the first time. This moment was forever going to be etched in his mind as one of the highlights of his life. Caden couldn’t help it. Like a moth to a flame, he made his way from where he was standing to where his mate stood. If his brother hadn’t taken a step back, he had a feeling he would have shoved him out of the way.

  It wasn’t until he was standing in front of his mate that he noticed he was pregnant. His wolf howled at the thought of another alpha touching his mate, but the human in him was excited at the thought of becoming a father.

  It wasn’t like Caden was some sort of blushing virgin himself. He’d had his fun with humans, alphas, betas, but never omegas. He’d always known he wanted to wait until he was with his fated mate to experience that.

  His older brother, who was an alpha too, and had known him half his life, must have sensed something, because he put his hand on Caden’s shoulder and squeezed for a moment.

  “I’m fine,” Caden said, low enough that human ears wouldn’t pick it up even standing right in front of him, but he knew his brother would.

  “Why don’t we let Sparrow here find his way around the kitchen while we have a chat, brother,” Hunter said, with his hand still on Caden’s shoulder.

  Caden was about to decline, wanting to spend more time in his mate’s presence and his brother, knowing him the way he did, let his alpha out. Caden had no choice, but to submit and follow.

  He didn’t miss the fact that even with his brother in the room with him, the omega, his omega’s, eyes were on him. Caden didn’t want to turn around and leave, he wanted to keep Sparrow in his line of sight, but he knew that his brother wouldn’t leave him alone until he had said his piece.

  They made it out of the kitchen and Hunter pulled him into his office. Once they were inside, Caden let loose. “Hey, what was that about? You know he’s my mate, right?”

  Hunter raised his eyebrows. “Of course I do. You’re throwing off so many territorial pheromones, I’m sure everyone who gets within a foot of him knows he’s your mate now.”

  “So, why did you pull me away?” Caden grunted.

  “Because, brother, if you were thinking with your brain and not your cock…” Hunter started. Caden growled at his mate being reduced to just some guy he wanted to fuck. “Calm down, Caden. I just meant your mating instincts are kicking in and you’re not thinking straight,” Hunter added in a soothing tone.

  Caden took a deep breath, trying to dispel the lust fog in his brain. “Okay maybe you have a point,” he admitted.

  “Of course I do,” Hunter said, in that annoying know-it-all big brother voice.

  “Out with it already. Tell me why I’m here with your ugly mug when I could be with my mate?” Caden growled, with no real heat.

  “Well, I wanted to talk to you about your mate, actually,” Hunter said.

  “Okay… What about my mate?” Caden asked.

  “Can you remember anything I told you about him after Bradley called telling us he’d found us a chef?”

  Caden tried to think back, but he was drawing a blank. He just remembered thinking Mason wouldn’t have to cook anymore. The man was a menace in the kitchen, but out of all of them, he was the best cook, which wasn’t saying much.

  “Not really,” He admitted.

  His brother walked over to his side of the table and took a seat, and Caden followed su
it. “Bradley called and said he had a friend who needed a safe place to heal and have his baby. Apparently, Sparrow was with an alpha who thought being an alpha meant throwing his weight around, and sometimes that meant using his fists.”

  Caden growled at the thought of some alpha laying his hands on his mate in violence. “I’ll kill him. Wherever he is, I’ll kill him.”

  “Calm down, Kujo. No killing necessary,” Hunter said.

  “Tell me you wouldn’t kill someone who made your mate suffer,” Caden growled, his wolf still close to the surface.

  Hunter saw a flash of anger, then sadness and wistfulness flash over his brother's features. “I definitely would and if you were listening, you’d have heard I said ‘no killing necessary,’ not, ‘no killing allowed.’”

  Caden raised his eyebrows in question at his brother's words. “Spit it out already,” he said impatiently.

  “My, my. Someone’s in a hurry… got somewhere to be, little brother?” Hunter teased.

  “You’re an asshole,” Caden replied, smiling.

  “Yeah, well! It’s my job to bust your balls. But back to your mate. What I meant was, the alpha in question went and got himself killed. So chill, brother, you won’t have to go hunting for the asshole who hurt your mate.”

  “Well, good riddance,” Caden sniffed in derision.

  “Right. My point is, you can’t start humping his leg like a dog with no control. You need to figure out if he’s even ready for another alpha before you mention mating. And might I add, I’m not sure if he even knows about us.”

  Caden’s eyebrows shot up so high, they probably got lost in his hair. “Hold on, are you telling me we have a human here who doesn’t know about shifters?”

  Hunter nodded. “I’m pretty sure I smell wolf on him, but it’s dormant, like someone locked it away. But yeah, he has no idea.”

  “Okay, forget that he’s my mate for a second. How on Earth is that supposed to work? We don’t exactly hide when we shift. And let’s not forget the fact that our family acquired all this land over the years, so we didn’t have to hide when we shifted.”

  “I know, I know, Caden. But Bradley called, and you know I can’t say no to our little cousin. Plus, he was pretty sure that Sparrow was a wolf, but every time he hinted at it, he said the poor guy had no idea what he was talking about.”

  “How’s Bradley doing? I should send him something for getting my mate to come down here,” Caden said, a stupid grin on his face.

  “Dumbass, focus,” Hunter said, grinning at him like he was enjoying the thought of Caden having said conversation with his mate. “How are you going to tell your mate that you can turn into a four-legged creature with teeth and claws? Are you just going to blurt out, ‘oh, by the way, I can change into a wolf, and it’s not like in the movies that it’s only during the full moon, I can become a wolf whenever I want’?”

  Caden was about to reply, when he heard a sound that was close to a cat drowning coming from the doorway. Caden turned around and spotted his mate in the doorway with his mouth wide open.

  “I was… I mean… wolf?” Sparrow squeaked.

  Oh shit. Well, this wasn’t how they wanted him to find out, Caden thought, before jumping out of his seat and making his way towards his mate.

  Four

  Sparrow

  Oh, my days! The kitchen was like something out of his wildest dreams, Sparrow thought to himself looking around in awe. It was huge and beautiful, possibly the nicest place he’d ever stood in.

  The floors were medium-colored wood planks, and the grayish granite countertops and white oak cabinets were stunning. The sink was double-sided and deep, with silver fixtures. He took in the industrial-size fridge and stove, and already he was imagining the amazing meals he could cook up.

  He hoped they wouldn’t mind if he added some little personal touches to make the kitchen more his space, because right now, it felt more like a restaurant kitchen than his soon-to-be domain. He could imagine fresh potted herbs along the window sill and maybe a little vegetable patch in the space he could see outside the kitchen window. Sparrow had always imagined himself with a vegetable patch.

  All in all, it was like the kitchen out of his wet dreams. Some people dreamed about sex, he dreamed about this. Although the alpha who had walked in earlier – Caden, he’d said his name was – had him thinking about sex. In vivid detail. But he wasn’t going to go down that road. Because he hadn’t missed how the other man's features tightened briefly when he’d realized Sparrow was pregnant.

  He wasn’t going to think about how his heart constricted at that look. Nope. There was no place in his life for such thoughts. He refused to look closely at how his heart jumped the moment he set eyes on the blond Adonis. The man was a sculptor’s wet dream. Caden had broad shoulders and chiseled abs Sparrow could make out through his tight-fitting white t-shirt. He had a trim waist Sparrow could picture his legs wrapped around while the alpha pounded into his slick and dripping hole, but that was probably just his hormones running wild.

  Sparrow looked around the kitchen trying to decide what to make for dinner this first night. He decided to take stock of what was available. He opened the cupboards, fridge, and freezer, and found them fully stocked. Sparrow wasn’t sure he’d ever seen this much food outside of a grocery store.

  Checking the clock, he removed some meat for dinner this evening, since he figured he was expected to prepare it, but he had no idea how many people he was cooking for. So, he made his way towards the voices he could hear coming from a room at the other end of the hallway.

  The door wasn’t completely shut and just when he was about to knock and make his presence known, he heard Hunter say, “How are you going to tell your mate that you can turn into a four-legged creature with teeth and claws? Are you just going to blurt out, ‘oh, by the way, I can change into a wolf, and it’s not like in the movies that it’s only during the full moon, I can become a wolf whenever I want’?”

  His first thought was, maybe he was dreaming, but he knew that wasn’t the case. He shook his head hoping to clear the hallucination, but that didn’t seem to help. He could still see Caden and Hunter sitting in front of him, which meant the conversation he’d overheard had really happened.

  Sparrow thought maybe they had some sort of mental issues and it made him worry for his safety, but then he knew Bradley wouldn’t do that to him. He hadn’t had anyone truly care about him in his life, so when someone did, he could tell, especially after bouncing from foster home to foster home and never being treated as more than a paycheck.

  He was about to pretend he hadn’t heard, but his squeak gave him away, and when he opened his mouth, the word “wolf” came out.

  He was frozen to the spot, his brain trying to process the information he’d just been given. Before Sparrow knew it, he had Hottie McHottiekins standing in front of him, placing his hand on Sparrow’s shoulder like he was trying to center him.

  “I can explain,” Caden said, but for some reason, it felt like his voice was coming from far away, the blood rushing through Sparrow’s ears made it hard for him to hear properly. Could blood even rush to his ears? he thought frantically. Or was it the pounding in his heart he was really hearing?

  The next thing he knew he was sitting on what could only be another person and he was being held like he was a baby. Sparrow heard a soothing voice telling him “Deep breaths. Deep breaths” and he followed the instructions.

  A few minutes later he was back to normal and found himself taking a deep breath, breathing in the most intoxicating scent of his life. He had never smelled anything like it. It was like vanilla and pine mixed together. Who knew the two scents combined would make his cock get hard and his ass start to get slick?

  The person holding him –he knew now it was Caden – growled and Sparrow pulled away from his chest to get a look at his face. What he saw should have scared him. Caden’s eyes looked like they were gold, but that wasn’t possible. His eyes were a stunning green
color, like the purest emerald you could imagine. But they had changed.

  “Your eyes,” Sparrow said, raising his hand almost to touch Caden’s face, but he pulled back before he could.

  Right before him, Caden’s eyes changed back to their natural color. If Sparrow had blinked, even for a second, he would have missed it.

  “How is that possible?” Sparrow whispered to himself, but Caden answered the question.

  “Do you really want to know?” Caden asked. “And can you promise to hear me out before…” Caden shrugged. “Running away, or whatever it is you’re thinking of doing.”

  “I won’t run,” Sparrow said, without thinking. He paused for a second, trying to decide why on Earth he’d made that promise. The truth was, from the moment he’d found himself in Caden’s arms, he had felt…safe.

  Which sounded crazy, Sparrow had just heard the man say he could change into a wild animal. He should be running as fast as his legs could carry him, not feeling like he wanted to burrow further into the man’s broad chest.

  “I promise, I’ll listen, and I’m not going anywhere,” Sparrow heard himself say, even though all he’d meant to say was he would listen.

  He felt Caden’s body unclench as the tension drained out of him like water through a sieve. It was almost as if Sparrow saying he would stay had done that to him. Which was crazy, wasn’t it?

  “My family, and others like us, are descended from the god, Fenrir. You see, Fenrir fell in love with a mortal, and when they had their children, the god blessed them with the power to shift between man and wolf. Some families, like ours, are closer descendants, which makes us more powerful than other wolf shifters. My brother, Hunter, is the alpha of our pack. Oh, and we don’t change on the full moon, we can change at any time. So, yeah, that’s the shortest version,” Caden said, while looking at Sparrow as though he was waiting for the freak-out to come.