by Maddy Barone
Olivia’s Mate
Daughters of the Wolf Clan 1
Maddy Barone
Copyright © 2016 by Maddy Barone.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.
Maddy Barone
PO Box 9995
Fargo, ND 58106-9995
www.MaddyBarone.com
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Book Layout ©2013 BookDesignTemplates.com
Edited by Wandering Minstrel Press
Olivia’s Mate/Maddy Barone
Olivia’s Mate
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Other books by Maddy Barone
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dedicated to Merry, Masuka and Dixie
Chapter One
Olivia rubbed her sore rear end while she watched her spooked horse flee, taking her rifle and canteen with him. What had scared him? Olivia looked around the mountain trail and saw nothing. It was silent, though, no sound but the wind in the pines and the burbling water in the stream half a mile away in the meadow below. Where were the normal sounds of birds and insects? She looked around more carefully. Nothing. Her unease lessened as she checked her knife in its sheath on her belt. Not much protection, but better than nothing. She started picking her way over the rocky ground to the trail.
“Crap,” she muttered. Her brothers would never let her hear the end of this. They loved nothing more than teasing their baby sister, except, possibly, scaring off any man brave enough to smile at her. They were still teasing her about being sweet on Rob Russell, down in Kearney. If they knew just how far she and Rob had gone in the stall in his father’s smithy, her brothers wouldn’t have teased her about it; they would have beaten Rob to a pulp.
But that was months ago and what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. Right? Olivia shrugged her shoulders to loosen tight muscles and looked down the trail, hoping her horse would stop so she could catch him. She whistled for him, but he didn’t come. He was probably a mile away by now, heading for his stall back at the ranch. She was going to have to hoof it all the way home. Maybe her brothers would see her riderless horse. They’d tease her to death about it, but they would come find her. Overprotective idiots. If she were very lucky, they wouldn’t mention it to their dad. She knew the rules about riding too far from the house alone. Her father was a reasonable man, but he was also a wolf warrior from the Lakota Wolf Clan, and wolves tended to go overboard in protecting their women.
Olivia brushed herself off one more time, touched a hand to the hilt of the knife in her belt for reassurance, and headed after her horse. It was a pretty day for a walk, a perfect Indian summer day, and the scenery was beautiful. The path was rocky, so she walked carefully in her cowboy boots. There was a sheer rock wall soaring toward the sky a yard to her left, and a grassy slope started about ten yards away on her right, spreading out into a green mountain meadow cut neatly in half by a stream. In the meadow, brush was scoured bare by the early autumn winds, and majestic pines punctuated by tumbled rock lined the edges of the stream. This was one of her favorite places to come to be alone and think.
As she had been taught, Olivia kept her eyes moving to and fro to find any trouble before it found her. She hadn’t forgotten that something had scared her horse. Her vigilance didn’t keep her from being surprised by the thing that dropped from the top of the rock wall twenty feet above her. Instead of thudding to the ground in front of her, it landed lightly, perfectly balanced. Olivia was so startled that she stepped down incautiously on a rock and nearly lost her balance. She paused, hand on her knife hilt. At first she didn’t know what it was. A large sack? A man? A mountain lion? She had just found what had spooked her horse into flight.
The thing was a man. Sort of. He wore brown pants, but no shirt or boots, and his feet were … paws. He crouched on his haunches in front of her, leaning his weight on one hand — no, one paw — snarling, head low. Spilling in a wild tangle of tawny gold over his bare shoulders, his hair hung almost to the ground.
Olivia remembered to breathe, but she couldn’t tear her eyes from the creature in front of her. His face was strangely feline, with a flat nose, and a pointed chin, and eyes of icy green. They almost glowed. If he was a lion in the same way her brothers were wolves, he looked as if he had gotten stuck in mid-shift. This ... person lifted his lip in a snarl that showed frighteningly sharp teeth in a deadly threat. Unlike her wolf cousins, he didn’t seem to hold women in high regard.
Olivia couldn’t decide if she were terrified or fascinated. The lion-man shifted a few inches closer to her, still snarling, and she decided on terrified. Her fingers shook as she gripped the hilt of the knife beneath her hand. The lion-man roared with bone disintegrating rage. Olivia froze for a sickening moment before forcing herself to back up. He roared again, and snarled until she stopped moving. Then he stared intently at her, sniffing the air and making almost sub-vocal noises in his throat. Olivia reached behind her to feel how close the rock wall was to her back. The lion man slowly straightened out of his crouch and took a step toward her. One step was all it took for him to be only a few inches from her. He was tall. Taller than she was. Taller, maybe, than her brother Taylor, who was an inch taller than their father. One of his hands lifted toward her face. Olivia didn’t want to take her eyes off his, but she flicked a lightning fast glance at the hand. It was hairy, with long, deadly claws instead of fingernails. She flinched away and he snarled some more, gripping her jaw in his big, claw-tipped hand. A soft voice spoke from above her head.
“Lergokit,” the voice said quietly, but it held a hint of the same sort of command she’d heard Uncle Muddy Wolf use. “Na owrs. Lehergo.”
The cat man roared, “Mahmayd.”
Who were these men? What language were they speaking? Olivia resisted the urge to tear his hand away. Those claws could lay her face open to the bone with no effort.
The man on the top of the rock wall spoke again, sounding almost shocked. “Sheezahyoomahn. Lehergo.”
The hand clenched painfully on her jaw, squeezing a whimper out of her. She felt tears well and spill, but wasn’t sure if it was because of pain, or horror, or simple shock. No one had ever caused her pain. Her father and brothers protected her. Her uncles and cousins would kill anyone who bothered her. Everyone knew that she was one of the precious daughters of the Wolf Clan, which could call up almost two hundred warriors to defend her if needed. No one dared trouble her. Except this creature.
The hand loosened and the rough thumb rubbed gently over the edge of her jaw. “Sahrie. Naherchu
.”
Olivia saw that the eyes, looking almost tenderly at her, were unexpectedly beautiful, gold and green like the eyes of a mountain lion. The lion man inched closer to her until she could feel his warm breath on her throat at the opening of her wool flannel shirt. His tongue, rough like a cat’s, touched her throat, lapped up a delicate taste of her skin there. A tiny heat flared between her legs, embarrassingly like what she’d felt with Rob in the stall. Fainting would be bad, she was sure. She braced her hands against his chest, trying to hold him off. He snarled at her, tightening his grip on her jaw until a thin sound of pain came from her throat.
The voice above said something forceful in their language, and then a slight thud marked the arrival of another body. Olivia couldn’t see anything past the bulk of the lion man, but she guessed it was the man who had spoken from up above. Was he another lion man like the one who had trapped her? The lion man holding her screamed in rage as he whirled to face the newcomer. Olivia felt one of his claws slice her neck and a thin trickle of blood roll hot over her throat. The same voice she’d heard from the top of the rock wall spoke quietly, this time from a couple feet away.
“Lehergo. Muzlergo,” he said quietly. “Kit nahyorz. Cumear kit.”
Her lion man backed up until his back was an inch from her front. “Mine!” he roared.
That word was oddly clear. Slowly, the words they had been speaking began to make sense. Lehergo. Let her go. Muzlergo. Must let her go. Nahyorz. Not yours. Olivia exhaled with relief even as she dabbed at the blood on her neck. Somehow, knowing they spoke English helped ease some of her fear. Not all of it, but some. If the lion man would just move and let her breathe, then she would be even less afraid. She wedged her hands between them and gave his back a shove. He roared and crushed her between his back and the hard rock wall. Her shoulder blade was ground into a sharp jag in the rock hard enough to drag a shriek from between her clenched teeth.
“Get off me,” she yelled, trying to shove him away. “You’re hurting me!”
The pressure eased slightly, but she could feel growls and snarls vibrating in the body pressed against her. The other man said, “See? Yuherher. Lehergo.”
You hurt her, Olivia translated. Let her go. “Yes, please let me go. My brothers—”
“No!” screamed the lion man, slamming her into the wall again. “Mine!”
The other man spoke, once again using his Alpha tone, but her lion man half crouched, all his muscles bunching in preparation for a spring. Olivia could just see over his shoulder and the other man looked perfectly human. His hair was black, either very short or pulled back tightly from a suntanned face with regular features. With his long, lean body, he looked like he would be fast on his feet, but could he defeat the lion man? Olivia didn’t want him hurt; she was counting on him getting her out of this mess.
She tapped the lion man’s shoulder. “Excuse me. Let me introduce myself. I’m Olivia Stensrud. And you are?”
The dark-haired man’s eyebrows climbed up his forehead in disbelief. Her lion man loosened his crouch a little bit, head tilted slightly as if to hear her voice better, but he never looked away from the other man and his snarls didn’t stop either. Maybe she’d spoken too quickly?
“I am O liv ee ah Stens rud,” she enunciated carefully. “Who are you?”
The lion man looked over his shoulder at her, almost calm now that she was talking to him. “Yermade.”
“Yermade? That’s a nice name.” She looked past him to the dark haired man. “And you?”
The dark-haired man flinched when the lion man crushed her between his hard back and the harder rock wall, snarling at the other man. Olivia screamed in pain and anger when her already bruised back flamed with new pain.
“Would you stop that? It hurts!”
Yermade half-turned to her, still keeping part of his attention on the other man. He made a strange noise deep in his throat. A purr? “Sorry, Yermade noherdchu.” He dipped his head briefly for one quick swipe of his rough tongue over her throat. “Yukay?”
The look of concern on that alien face was wiped away by fury as he wheeled on the other man, who had taken several silent steps toward them. The dark-haired man froze, speaking in a quiet voice too rapidly for Olivia to decipher what he was saying. But Yermade seemed to understand, and consider the man a threat. He spat something back, but the words were so distorted by snarls and growls that Olivia had no idea what he said. Since he had moved a foot or so away from her, she took the opportunity to sidle to the left, away from his punishing back. He must have eyes in the back of his head, because he didn’t have to look at her to pin her against the rock wall. She frantically tore at the elbow digging into her windpipe.
“Yuherder, Kit,” the dark haired man said urgently. “Moofyarm.”
The elbow eased a centimeter away. Able to breathe again, Olivia tried to translate what they had been saying. Yuherder? You heard her? You hurt her? Moofyarm. Move your arm. “Look, Yermade, I just want to go home.”
“Mahmade no go!” Yermade growled, still facing the other man as if he were a threat.
“Mahmade?” Olivia said doubtfully.
“You mahmade.” Yermade looked over his shoulder at her, and his eyes glowed fiercely at her. “You. Mahmade.”
“No, I’m Olivia.”
Yermade turned on her, ignoring the other man long enough to stab a wickedly sharp claw at her face. “You. Mah. Madte,” he yowled.
Mah ma … Olivia felt the blood run out of her face. “My mate?” she gasped. “You think I’m your mate?” She looked past Yermade to the other man. “He thinks I’m his mate?”
Yermade roared and fastened a hand around her throat, and by either luck or care on his part, his claws didn’t touch her skin. “No dokdim! You mine! Mah madte.”
“Okay.” Olivia hated the tremble in her voice. “Just don’t hurt me. Okay? Don’t hurt me.”
The hand on her throat became caressing and he made that purring noise again. “Naherchu, Yermadte naherchu.”
Your mate no hurt you. Yermade wasn’t his name. Olivia forced herself to look into his eyes. “What’s your name?”
“Kih.” It seemed he struggled to make the right sound. “Kihdt.”
“Kit?” she guessed. Wasn’t that what the other man had called him? Those monstrous fangs must make it hard for him to pronounce Ts. “Kit, my family will be looking for me. I need to go home.”
The lion man roared and this time his claws pricked her neck when his hand tightened. The other man spoke soothingly, and Olivia was able to follow most of what he said.
“Kit, you’re scaring her. You don’t want to hurt your mate. Let me talk to her so she’ll understand. I won’t try to take her away from you. Kit, I smell blood. You’re hurting her.”
Kit growled something completely unintelligible to Olivia, but the other man seemed to get it right away. Kit was tense as he moved a few inches, enough for her to see the other man, but although he retracted his claws, his hand remained circling her throat. “Dok nahluk,” he growled.
“Lady, we can talk, but don’t look at me,” the other man said quietly, in perfectly enunciated English, his eyes focused on a point past her left shoulder. “And don’t stare at him either. Don’t do anything to make him think you’re challenging him. He’s pretty emotional now. He doesn’t mean to hurt you, but he doesn’t have good control when he’s upset.”
Kit turned to cover her with his body. He pressed closer to her and Olivia found her nose buried against his chest. He had an earthy scent, but not unpleasant, and she could feel the vibrations of his quiet snarls against her cheek.
“His name is Kit?”
“Yeah, Christopher. I’m Devlin.”
“What is he?”
Kit’s growls rose in volume and his hand tightened.
“Sorry,” she whispered hastily. “I’ve just never seen anyone like you.”
Devlin’s voice was cold. “He’s a person, same as you are, and he can hear and unde
rstand everything you say. After he calms down he’ll go back to his human form.”
Olivia wondered what he looked like in his human form. “Sorry,” she said again.
“Kit’s chosen you to be his mate. It might be a little rough at first, but you’ll adjust.”
Were Devlin and Kit lions like her brothers and cousins were wolves? The men in the Wolf Clan who had wolves didn’t marry just any woman who caught their eye. They waited for the wolves within them to choose a mate. The wolf would reject any other woman, so a wolf warrior who wanted a wife and family had to woo the woman his wolf chose into accepting him. If that was how Kit’s lion worked, then he should be courting her in an effort to get her to accept their mating. If this was courting, she’d hate to see how he treated someone he didn’t like. Her back ached, her throat hurt from being crushed, and the multiple small claw marks stung. Those injuries, plus his feral roaring and snarling, didn’t make her see him in a lover-like light. But if his lion had chosen her for a mate, she should be polite. She had seen her cousins’ pain when their mates rejected them. Olivia aimed a smile up at Kit’s lion face.
“If Kit and I are mates, then Kit needs to come and meet my parents,” she said brightly. Once home, her father and brothers would protect her while Kit courted her.
Kit roared.
“Stop that,” she told him, annoyed. On the other hand, the roars were loud enough that if her brothers were anywhere near they’d hear them and come investigate. “It’s only polite for you to meet my family. If I accept you, they’ll be your family, too.”
“You come wih me,” Kit returned, speaking very carefully, with more than a hint of a growl.
“I can’t. My brothers would worry, and if I’m not home soon, they and my dad will start looking for me.”
“Nah find you.”
“Yes they will! My father’s the greatest tracker alive. And if he doesn’t find me, he’ll send for the Clan to come help. That would be more than two hundred men! You can’t hide me from that many people who love me.”
