Rane's Mate

by Hazel Gower

  Faith came up behind their chairs. “Yes, you are. We all are. We’ll all play a part whether we want to or not.” Faith pulled up a chair so she was facing the three of them. “Could you at least give my brother a chance? He’s only twelve, believe it or not.”

  “Shit,” Remy said.

  Faith nodded. “He’s innocent in all of this. I can only tell you what I know, and what I’m allowed to tell you, although you always have a choice.”

  “Why are you not allowed to tell us certain things?” Kirby asked.

  “I don’t know why myself. Life is never easy, even when you’re a regular human, but for those werewolves that are all around us, it’s all they have ever known. They are told and taught from a young age that they are protectors of the earth.”

  Kirby butted in. “Why are you having a child and bringing it into all this? I love children, I work with them, but after seeing all this and helping you today I don’t understand how you can bring a child into a world like that.”

  Faith smiled at her. “What does everyone need? Hope, everyone needs something to look forward to, something to fight for. I know good will always triumph over evil. We need a future. If all of us thought like you, we wouldn’t have a future, and we all need to have hope and things to look forward to.”

  Kirby stared at Faith. “Are you sure you’re only twenty-one? Sometimes the things you say...” She shook her head.

  Faith laughed. “Yes. Unfortunately, when you see what I’ve seen you grow up fast.” She seemed to go into a daze for a minute, shake herself, and continue on. “I will say this, all those werewolves here and around the world do what they do to make sure that everyone is safe. Just remember that they do deserve love, fun, friendship, and life. Give them a chance.” She touched each of their hands, squeezing them gently. “Let’s go to bed now. I know they have something huge planned for my birthday. Think about what I’ve said. You’ll know by morning what you want to do. I know you will.” Faith got up and walked back into the house.

  Kirby turned to see Sara and Remy smiling. “Is she always like that? ’Cause it’s nice to know that I’m not the only weird person out there.” They hugged each other, laughing, which felt good and right. Then they walked back inside, following Faith into the now empty house.

  * * * *

  Kirby awoke in the afternoon to the sound of squealing. Climbing out of bed, she chucked a dress on, then went to the bathroom and did everything as quickly as possible. Then she followed the squealing only to crash into Sara and Remy.

  “What the hell is going on?” Kirby asked.

  “I don’t know, I’m too scared to find out,” said Remy.

  They all laughed and walked into the lounge room together to see Faith making out with her husband.

  “My God, are all werewolves’ bodies the envy of the gods?” Sara mumbled.

  Remy groaned. “I didn’t want to wake up to a nightmare.”

  Kane groaned as he pulled his lips from Faith. “Why, princess? Why is she your best friend? She is evil.”

  Faith laughed and turned to them. “Guess what Kane got me?”

  Kirby smiled, she couldn’t help it as Faith’s mood was infectious, or so she thought until Remy said, “Ah, I don’t know, did he knock you up so you can’t drink today? No, can’t be that ’cause he’s already done that. Ah, I know…he mated you, after you only speaking to him a couple of times in four years? Nah, it couldn’t be that either, because he’s done that already too. How about he tries to push you away and you come to live with me again? That sounds good.”

  Kane groaned.

  Faith chuckled. “Remy, you promised that this weekend you would be nice to Kane. Just because you know all the bad things doesn’t mean that’s all that he is.”

  Remy rolled her eyes. “Okay, okay, what did your mate—I’m sorry, but I’m not saying husband until he gives you a proper wedding—get you for your birthday?”

  Faith’s smile was huge. “Here’s a hint, girls. Who is the one person in the whole universe that I would leave Kane for?”

  “What!” Kane said.

  Faith patted Kane on the chest. “Honey, shush.”

  Kirby noticed that Remy’s eyes had glazed over. “No, no way. How? No, that’s impossible. I’ll be nice to him forever. No, not forever, but he may get a month out of me.”

  Sara interrupted her, screaming, “Oh my God, Jeremy Sento.”

  Faith nodded, and Sara and Remy screamed.

  “Who is Jeremy Sento?” Kirby asked.

  All three girls screamed out, “Sixty Seconds to Venus.”

  Kirby knew that name—it was one of the hottest bands around—and she joined into the screaming and jumping.

  * * * *

  Rane came into the house to find Kane seated on the lounge and all four women squealing, screaming, and jumping up and down.

  “What happened?” Rane asked.

  “I told Faith about her present.”

  Tray came in with twelve peach-colored roses. “What part of the present?”

  “I didn’t even get past the Jeremy Sento.”

  The girls squealed again at the mention of this name.

  “So she doesn’t know the rest?” Rane asked.

  “No.” Kane frowned. “I’m not so sure it’s a good idea now.”

  “What, why?” Tray said.

  “Because apparently this Jeremy Sento is the man that she would leave me for.”

  Rane burst out laughing along with Tray. “No way,” they both said.

  “Ask,” said Kane.

  Tray smiled and turned to the women as he shouted over the squealing, “So this Jeremy whatever guy...” Tray glanced at Sara. “If by some miracle, he asked you to dump whomever you are with and be with him, would you do it?”

  There was no hesitation at all as all four women laughed and as one said, “In a heartbeat.”

  Rane, Kane, and Tray growled, which just seemed to make the girls laugh and squeal harder.

  Sara spoke up, “Come on, there has to be a woman you would forsake all others for, an ideal woman?”

  “Yes,” all three men said. “Our true mate.”

  The women groaned. “Are these guys for real?” Remy asked.

  “Yes.” Faith smiled. “Yes, they are. Don’t you just love them?”

  Remy made a fake vomiting sound as Faith made goo-goo eyes at Kane. Then her smile turned wicked. “But if Jeremy Sento wants me, I will say bye-bye.” All the women laughed again.

  Rane frowned, looking at Kirby. She had the same dreamy-eyed look as the other women. Turning back to Kane, he said, “I’m thinking we should cancel this before this Jeremy Sento leaves here in a body bag.”

  “Nooos” drowned out his last words.

  Faith pouted at Kane. He sighed and shook his head. “Fine, this Jeremy Sento and his band will be coming tonight just for you and—”

  Squeals drowned out the rest, and Faith threw herself at Kane. “I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.”

  Kane and Rane chuckled. Kane hugged her tighter. “You need to thank my family for this one. Rane, Tray, who wants to tell her the rest?”

  Rane smiled. “Just hold it for a minute, Mum and Dad are just about to come in the door.”

  Their parents came in, along with Griffen, Devlin, Jamie, Ava, Eve, Bengie, and his little sisters. Faith ran to her brother and hugged him. “Hey, buddy. I missed you.” She pulled him the rest of the way into the group.

  “Happy birthday, sis.”

  “I love you, Bengie.”

  He smiled, showing his sharp, shining teeth, and hugged her again.

  Remy hesitantly came forward. “Hey, buddy, where is my hug? I’m so sorry for the way I acted.”

  Red tears ran down Bengie’s face as he hugged Remy.

  “Come on, big guy, I didn’t mean to act the way I did.”

  He nodded and hugged her tighter.

  Faith’s smile was huge and she said, “Let’s go sit down, they’re going to tell
me what the rest of my birthday present is.”

  Eve and Ava couldn’t seem to hold it in much longer. “It’s a concert. We know from the squealing we heard that you know about Sixty Seconds to Venus. We also got some of your favorite local Australian bands.”

  The screaming and jumping continued again, with his sisters joining in. Jamie came over and patted Tray, Rane, and Kane’s back.

  “I thought you were smart, brother. Posters of him covered her wa—”

  Whacking Jamie upside the head, Kane groaned out, “My God, shut up, Jamie.”

  Griffen stepped forward. “We’d just like to add how much we love and appreciate you,” he told Faith. “This concert that we organized is to show all of that.”

  Crying, Faith hugged everyone in his family. “I love you all.”

  All the women surrounded her, hugging her again. The werewolves shook their heads, and Jamie spoke up. “Aren’t you supposed to be happy?”

  “I am, these are happy tears.”

  Rane looked at Kirby to find she was finally standing alone. Walking over to her, he gently grasped her arm and walked to the back door. “Can I have a word with you?”

  Kirby glanced at him and looked back at Kane and Faith.

  “I’m sure they want a moment or two. Please, little red.”

  She seemed shocked by his niceness and nodded her head as they continued out the door.

  Once the door was shut he turned to her. “I’m sorry.”

  She looked at him like he had sprouted an extra head. “For what?”

  He took a deep breath and looked into her big, brown eyes. “I’m sorry I don’t know how to act around you. I didn’t mean to offend you yesterday. I just didn’t want you in danger.”

  She looked at him, studying his face. “Why? Why would you care how you act around me?”

  Grounding his teeth, he took another deep breath. This was harder than he thought it would be. “You’re more than what I expected. You’re beautiful, perfect even.”

  She stared at him open-mouthed. Snapping it shut, she said sarcastically, “Is this some type of joke?”

  His brows furrowed. “No. Why would you think that?”

  “Have you looked in the mirror lately?”

  “What has that got to do with you being the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen?”

  She laughed at him so hard she held her stomach. “Now you’re a joker—right?”

  “No, I never joke.”

  “Okay.” Kirby took several steps away from him. He pursued her until her back hit the wall of the house.

  “Can I kiss you?”

  Her eyes widened and she nodded slightly. He smiled, taking the last steps, and picked her up. She squealed as he dived in, taking her lush lips to his. He moved his hands to hold her up by her arse, and when she moaned into his mouth, he deepened the kiss and nipped her bottom lip. She gasped as his tongue snuck in. He then trailed kisses down her face and neck.

  Kirby moaned and ran her fingers through his hair. “Oh God, you’re good. Oh yes.”

  Nipping at her shoulder, he groaned, knowing he had to pull away before he did something he shouldn’t. He glanced up at her. She was so sexy right now. Her hair had fallen out of the messy bun she had it in, and it was now everywhere. Her eyes flashed with desire, and her lips were puffy and pink. God, he could stare at her all day long. The way she looked right now was about to make him come in his pants like a teenage boy.

  “What’s wrong?” she moaned.

  He chuckled. “Not a thing. I just don’t want to claim my mate against the back wall of Faith’s house.”

  She instantly froze. “Your what?”

  “My mate, you’re my mate. I knew the moment I saw and smelled you.”

  “You’re saying I smell!”

  He chuckled again as, with a frown, she lifted her arms to check to see if she smelled. Then her frown turned into a glare. “Yeah—”

  She whacked him on the chest.

  “Ow! What did you hit me for?”

  “I do not smell.”

  He released her and held his hands up in surrender as he rushed on. “Just let me finish. Yeah, you sure do. You smell like apple and cinnamon. It’s my favorite.”

  She shook her head. “Are you sure? Maybe you got hit on the head last night by one of the demons. You’re saying me, Kirby, me, I’m your mate?”

  He chuckled. “Yep, I’m one hundred percent sure.” He moved back, caging her against the wall again.

  She pushed against his chest. “Do you not have a choice?”

  Rane frowned. “I don’t want a choice. I want you.”

  “But you’re…” She moved her hand up and down and then pointed to herself and then pointed to him again.

  “I don’t get it.”

  She sighed. “You’re gorgeous. What’s wrong with you? Have all the other women had enough of you? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to be mean, but I just think you’re a bit too good looking for me.”

  “What are you going on about, woman?”

  “I’m just saying that you’re way too hot for me. I mean, look at that body. I could maybe stretch myself to a five, but you’re well over a ten, and fives and tens don’t go together.”

  Rane stared at his mate. What was this woman going on about? “What do fives and tens have to do with anything? Let’s forget numbers.”

  Kirby raised her eyebrow at him.

  “I know I’m rough around the edges, but give me a chance. Get to know me.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t call it rough, more like hard…very, very hard.”

  He shook his head, ignoring her last comment. “I took the military route in the family. I know I can be a bit controlling, like yesterday.”

  “Ha, controlling.”

  Grinding his teeth, he continued. “I would never hurt you. Come on, give me a chance to get to know you, and for you to get to know me. Be my date for the concert tonight. Please?”

  “Err, I don’t know. I’m here for Faith. I was here for Faith.”

  “I’ll check with Faith, but I know she’ll understand. If she’s okay with it, then will you go with me?”

  She nodded her head as they walked hand in hand back inside.

  * * * *

  A few hours later, Rane left Kane’s house and headed to the human military base to meet the new recruits. He had also called a small meeting with Tray, Blake, Sebastian, and his brother Devlin. They needed to hear the news he had, and see the new recruits. He was hoping they would agree to help out.

  He found them all waiting in his office. He told them what the military was going to do. “We need to brainstorm and talk about training strategies. I’m not looking forward to training fifty humans. I’ve already had huge problems convincing the six that are here that shooting the demons won’t work. I was nasty enough to show them how wrong they were. We all know that demons absorb the lead, metal, it makes them stronger. I’m telling you, it took Arden and I a good twenty to twenty-five minutes to bring down the demon after having his powers boosted. I kid you not, they then suggested wooden bullets. Yeah, like that would work. It would just make them more pissed. I swear I’ve only just healed from that demonstration.

  “We need to work out some things, since you lot are my best enforcers, and Arden and Tristan are in away teams for the next couple of months. I asked you to come today as I’ll need help to put the new recruits down a peg or two. Show them the supernatural strength they’re going to be working with. I’ve also been given the go ahead to expand outward. I’ve spoken to several of the world’s alphas and they’ve spoken to their head human military. They’ve all decided that they need to take part and will be sending representatives from a couple of packs to see how we’re working out.”

  He ran his fingers through his hair as he looked at all the wolves before him.

  “America and England have only agreed to have one human military base, so we’ll be getting extra recruits from England and America’s packs, so we need
to get ourselves ready. A lot have been given the choice to move and join our pack permanently. I’m in total agreement with this as it should make us stronger, although it will also make things harder as we’ll have more work and many more recruits.”

  Rane looked around at his fellow werewolf friends. He knew what they were all thinking about. It was the same thing that clouded his mind at present. The enormity of what he had just told them and what it would mean for them.

  Chapter 6

  Getting ready for the dinner party and the big concert, Kirby smiled, because as usual all the women were running late. They had lost track of time this afternoon as they enjoyed the sun and sea at the beach, and they were now all nicely tanned, or burnt in her case. They were all in Faith’s huge bathroom getting ready when she asked Faith for the second time, “Are you sure you don’t mind Rane coming to take me? I feel so bad. I came to spend the weekend with you.”

  Faith laughed. “I’m fine. I’ll have Remy, my brother, and Kane. After what I said this morning, my husband…” She glanced at Remy who raised her eyebrow. “…mate, is going to watch me like a hawk. You and Sara are meeting us there, and we’ll all be sitting at the same table together. At the concert we’ll definitely be together. Sorry, Remy, but I’m going to sneak back early and have some hot se—”

  Sara’s hands raised in surrender. “Okay, okay, we get it. We’re to go out with these men and not feel guilty.”

  Faith laughed again and seemed to go into a trance for a minute or two, then looked at Sara. “Please, don’t choose the red, because it’s not my color, and think of poor Kirby, redheads and red do not go together. Oh, and say no to your dad, you are not waiting that long. I’m not going to be your bridesmaid six months pregnant. With a werewolf baby, that would mean I would be almost ready to pop.”

  All three women stared at Faith.

  She stared back at them, raising her eyebrow. “What? I really don’t like that red you have picked out.”

  Kirby giggled. “I hope I don’t sound weird saying this, but Faith, I love you. You make me feel normal. It’s so nice to have friends that are just as crazy as me.” Kirby hugged Faith, Sara, and Remy.