Unrequited Mate

by Tl Reeve

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  Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in, or encourage, the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Unrequited Mate Copyright 2017 by TL Reeve and Michele Ryan

  ISBN: 978-1-68361-136-3

  Cover art by Fiona Jayde

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Decadent Publishing Company, LLC

  Look for us online at:

  www.decadentpublishing.com

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Oracle’s Vision by TL Reeve and Michele Ryan

  ROAR

  Mischief, Mongrels & Mayhem by Heather Long

  Sorority Wolf by Rebecca Royce

  Phoenix Rising by Cara Carnes

  Imperfect Mate by Lia Davis

  Shifted Plans by Brandy Walker

  Tempting Her Tiger by Virginia Cavanaugh

  Craving Cameo by TL Reeve

  Changing Her Tune by Brandy Walker

  Phoenix Crossing by Cara Carnes

  Unrequited Mate by TL Reeve and Michele Ryan

  Also By TL Reeve

  Saving Their Princess

  The Bodyguard and the Dom

  Their Secretary

  Craving Cameo

  All or Nothing

  Omega’s Heart

  Winter Magic

  A Wolf’s Contract

  Private Wolf

  A Wolf’s Deception

  A Wolf’s Bargain

  Bear Essentials

  Oracle’s Vision (with Michele Ryan)

  Crouching Lion, Hidden Human

  Unrequited Mate (With Michele Ryan)

  From Michele Ryan

  Power to Forgive

  Oracle’s Vision (With TL Reeve)

  Unrequited Mate (With TL Reeve)

  Dear Readers,

  When I approached Michele about this project, I’d hope she’d say yes. I knew she always had the incredible talent to write, but needed a bit of encouragement to do so. Unrequited Mate has been fun to write, and we have more planned for Turnskin University. Stay tuned for updates @ http://turnskin-university.blogspot.com/ and if you’d like to drop me a note, I always love hearing from my readers! authortlreeve@hotmail.com or michele.ryan@hotmail.com

  Welcome to Turnskin University...

  Hayden Raferty, left behind her entire family and all her friends to get away from her mate, Nico Lopez. In a single night, he crushed her hopes and dreams of finding true love. Now, years later, Hayden has decided to move on and start over.

  Nico Lopez knows he screwed up, but letting his mate walk away isn’t in his plans. It's time to make his move. With a little help from 555-ROAR, Nico obtains a spot in the Greek Shifter Games and is determined to show his mate there isn’t another male worthy of her. If has to put his body on the line to prove it, so be it.

  TL’s Dedication

  To Michele, thank you for writing this with me. I knew you had the ability to create something great. Now, you know it too. I can’t wait to continue this adventure with you!

  Michele’s Dedication

  To TL, the best partner in crime a girl can ever have. You rock! Thank you for always being there and being who you are! I appreciate it. As I always say, thank you just never seems like enough. I'm glad we're taking this ride together!

  Unrequited Mate

  Turnskin University #1

  555-ROAR Series

  By

  TL Reeve & Michele Ryan

  Glossary of Names

  Hayden Raferty: (Wolf) VP of Sigma Epsilon Xi. Daughter to Jace, Loraine, and Blake. Bodhi’s twin. Mated to Nico Lopez.

  Nico Lopez: (Wolf) Hayden’s Mate who he refers to as little wolf. Bad boy in his youth.

  Bell Dryer: (Lion) President of Sigma Epsilon Xi. Her mates are Christoph and Jackson and she is Hayden’s cousin and Zoe’s sister.

  Zoe Dryer: (Panther) President of Xi Beta Xi. She’s a handful, a lot like her father. Her mate is Rocky, a falcon.

  Christoph St. John: (Lion) Young alpha. Bell is his mate, as is Jackson.

  Alex Marquez: (Wolf) Quarterback and President of Lambda Alpha Pi.

  Jackson Dalco: (Dragon) Bell’s mate and Christoph’s.

  Emma Monte: (Bear) Bodhi’s mate.

  Bodhi Raferty: (Wolf) Hayden’s twin. Mated to Emma.

  Chapter One

  Hayden Raferty sat at her desk and stared at the unopened letter from her father. The forced cheerfulness of his inquiries grew tiresome, the questions always the same. Had she made new friends? Seen any familiar faces? Did she like her professors? Blah, blah, blah. What would happen if she wrote return to sender on the envelope? The irrational need to please her family stopped her from doing so. Besides, she knew who they were asking about, and she wouldn’t give him the time of day.

  Curiosity got the better of her, and she opened it.

  Pictures of her cousins tumbled out of the accompanying note, landing on the desk in front of her. Their happy faces stared back at her with such wide-eyed hope. Excited for the next stage of their lives. And, they should be. This summer, they would join her and Bodhi at Turnskin University, aptly named since most of the students were of the shifter variety.

  Her uncle had made sure they followed in the family footsteps. A legacy is what he called it when Bodhi and she set foot on campus. She couldn’t complain. Being different was the norm. She didn’t have to hide as she did in the human world. Living in Window Rock, Arizona crimped the desire to shift at will and run. Thankfully, her pack flowed seamlessly within the township, and her family owned a large parcel of land on the outskirts.

  Still, she found herself a little shell-shocked by the freedom of being out in the mountains of Colorado. If she decided to shift, throw her backpack over her back, and trot to class, she could. Of course, she didn’t.

  Her roommate last year had been a dragon. Hayden wished her cousins could’ve met Dani before she graduated and went home. They’d have gotten a kick out of her antics. She smiled, remembering one of her friend’s stunts as though it happened yesterday. In an apparent attempt at shock and awe, Dani went winged beast in the quad and got tangled in the ropes tethering the upcoming football game banners, sending her crashing into patio tables situated around the area. Her aerobatics effectively squelched any need Hayden had to go au naturel.

  After placing the photos into the edges of her mirror, she came back to the letter waiting for her. And now you’re putting off the inevitable. No doubt they’d ask about Nico again, and, honestly, she didn’t have an answer for them. Hayden opened the letter, and, instead of her father’s bold script, Blake’s chicken scratch jumped out at her. S
he smiled. When she met her father, he had already mated both Blake and Loraine. Long story short, her aunt Holly had found Hayden. She had been a baby at the time and, as with Bodhi, been taken from her birth mother.

  Turned out they were twins like her uncles, Kalkin and Caden. No one knew about her until the day Holly’s car broke down in Window Rock and she asked the sheriff, her Uncle Kalkin, for help. At first, it shocked her how much she resembled her family then, seeing her twin brother for the first time, she lost it. But, her dad…the man had been inconsolable. He held both of them for hours and didn’t want them out of his sight for nothing. For a while, she expected Holly to leave, but, thankfully, she’d mated her Uncle Mackenzie.

  She traced Blake’s handwriting. She loved her father and his mates desperately—as much as she loved Holly—even if they did enjoy playing matchmaker with her. The letter started out as per normal. Window Rock is growing, blah, blah, blah. We miss you and Bodhi. We hope you’re doing well. Yada, yada, yada. When her gaze lit on the next sentence, she squealed—a noise she hadn’t made since she’d been a kid.

  We have good news to share this time, and that is why I am writing you. Your father is sitting with Loraine at the doctor’s office. We’re having a baby.

  Hayden jumped in a small circle while giggling and shaking the letter. She and Bodhi were going to have a sibling. She settled herself and continued reading.

  The baby will be born in the middle of spring. We hope you can come home for break and meet the new addition to the family. We miss you. We love you. Call home when you get this.

  When she finished reading the letter, she placed it in the notebook marked 2016 and slipped it back in its spot. She kept every letter and birthday card her family sent her. She kept the pictures and newspaper clippings Loraine sent her when her uncles solved high-profile cases. And, whenever she got homesick, she opened up the folders and read everything, including the questions only smothering parents—who were naturally curious about her time away—asked. And maybe they wanted to know if she’d seen him.

  Perhaps she still had a little crush on the guy.

  She first saw him at the sheriff’s department the day she arrived in town, and her tummy had done a funny little flip-flop. He had been behind the counter, sitting in one of the chairs, hands cuffed behind him, a cocky grin on his lips. Bad boy. She knew he’d be trouble, yet his magnetic pull drew her to him. Like moth to flame, the attraction had been quick and consuming.

  At eighteen, even for an adolescent wolf, he’d been all muscles and tall. Hayden’s fourteen-year-old heart had tripped a beat. Nico had been caught as a wolf chasing the chickens from Mrs. Jamison’s henhouse. Not completely out of character for a teenage boy, she’d rationalized later, after she learned what happened. Nonetheless, he spooked some of the hens and the stress from his “fun,” killed a couple of others. She’d pleaded with her uncle, even though she didn’t know him, not to let Nico be unfairly punished for his actions. Instead, she’d asked if he replaced the chickens, would he still be in trouble—irrational thinking for a girl who didn’t know Nico from a hole in the wall. Yet, her uncle must have talked to the judge because, a few days later, Nico came to her home and thanked her.

  After that, they’d become fast friends. He didn’t get into a stitch of trouble, and, slowly, her family accepted him into their brood. Hayden and he would either watch movies or hike the canyons behind where they lived. Nope, don’t go there. Every time you think about the past, you remember all the reasons why you should forgive him and forget the reason you left home so quickly.

  She couldn’t help it. A part of her still loved him. Her father had called it puppy love to begin with, but the day she went to Nico’s apartment, she’d planned on telling him she really did love him and wanted a relationship with him.

  The growing bond between them spiked the year she turned seventeen. Growing up outside of the pack stunted her knowledge of wolf relations; she understood her family had mates, but not why. No one also seemed hard-pressed to explain the inexplicable need she had to rub against him or the anguish of not having him near. The frequency of their visits became shorter due to both of them working or at school. However, when the weather turned warmer, no matter what, they went swimming. Hayden stepped to his door and knocked. When he didn’t answer, she knocked again then called out his name. Nico’s ragtop Jeep sat in the small parking lot so she knew he had to be there, but fear gripped her. She pounded on the door once more, heart in her throat. The door opened a few seconds later, and her best friend in the whole world stood before her, bleary-eyed, with a sheet wrapped around his hips. The thick, putrid smell of alcohol clung to him along with something else. Her wolf bristled at the scent.

  “Are you coming back to bed, Nico?” a woman’s voice called out.

  Realizing what the smell had been, Hayden backed away from the door, horrified. Some visceral emotion sliced through her, shredding her ability to breathe.

  “Hayden,” Nico called after her, but she’d already started running. She shifted mid-stride, uncaring if anyone saw her. The tattered remains of her clothes floated to the ground like the slivers of her soul.

  She finished up the rest of the semester and avoided him at all costs. He showed up at her high school graduation that May, and she ignored him. He brought her flowers and a locket, but she refused both. She couldn’t stand being around him.

  He broke her that day, and it had taken two years to muster up the courage to move on with her life. Now a sophomore in college and at twenty years old, the urge to mate clawed at her. But the guys she sat through class with or in study group did nothing for her. She found herself comparing them to he-who-shall-not-be-named, and didn’t that just suck donkey dick?

  A low growl of irritation passed her lips, and she balled her hands into fists. What’s done is done. He made his choice. She opened her notebook and wrote a quick note to her dad. She needed them to understand she moved on, and she would appreciate if they didn’t ask about him—Nico.

  Blake,

  I got your letter. I am so excited. You have to tell me whether I will have a little brother or sister when you find out. I will make sure Bodhi and I are home in time for the birth, don’t worry. I need you to know something and it’s pretty important. It’s a big step for me, after all, and I hope it will make you happy to hear.

  I am moving on. I need to. I am going out this weekend with Bodhi to check out a local club for shifters. I hope to meet someone or, in your case, perhaps someones.

  Give my love to my dad and Loraine.

  She closed the letter, grabbed an envelope, and stuffed it inside. Before she could chicken out—like she’d done ninety-nine other times—she addressed the envelope and placed a stamp on it. She would drop it in the school mailroom on the way to her last class.

  Hayden nibbled on her lip and stared at the letter on her desk. Already, doubt clouded her decision. “No, I’ve got to do this.” She walked to the hook by her closet where her backpack hung and grabbed it. “I’m doing the right thing. Bodhi would agree with me.”

  Slinging the bag over her shoulder, Hayden picked up the envelope and gripped the door handle. She had one more class before she could come home and decompress. As she stepped out into the hall, her cousins, Bell and Zoe, greeted her. Both girls looked a little too hyper for their own good.

  “What’s going on?” She closed the door behind her.

  “Tell her, Bell,” Zoe prodded her sister. “Or I will.”

  Bell blushed, and her blue eyes went wide. Her hair had been pulled back in a messy braid and some of the strands hung in her face, giving her an innocent quality.

  “Tell me what?”

  “I’ve been asked out,” Bell whispered. “To the mixer.”

  “You have?” They walked down the short hall together, heading out of the dorm. “What’s his name?”

  “You’ll never guess in a million years,” Zoe said with a snort.

 
Where Bell’s complexion reminded her of fine porcelain, Zoe’s midnight hair, mischievous cobalt-blue eyes, and bow-shaped lips resembled her father. Whoever mated her would be in for a roller-coaster ride for sure.

  “I really don’t know guys. Just tell me.” She stopped and turned to them. “You tell me who it is, and I’ll tell you my good news.”

  “You’re getting back together with Nico?” Bell chirped.

  “No.” Hayden started walking again, itching to drop the letter off at the dorm mailroom. “I actually wrote my parents to tell them I’m taking the leap and finding a suitable mate.” She grinned. “Should be interesting to see how that goes over with them. So, about this date,” she said, changing the subject.

  “Right, her date,” Zoe started. “This lucky bitch is going out with the lion alpha, Christoph.”

  “Zoe!” Bell gasped. “What has Mom told you about your mouth?”

  She shrugged. “Hey, take it up with Dad. He taught me everything I know.”

  “So the lion alpha, huh?” Hayden got them back on track. “Congrats. There will be several brokenhearted girls.”

  “Yeah.” Bell pushed her hair behind her ear. “But, I have another problem.”

  “Okay, shoot. What’s got you in knots?” Hayden had never seen her cousin so nervous before.

  “I need your help. See, there’s this thing called the Greek Shifter Games, or GSG, and I need a partner. But—”

  “What?” The fear of rejection in the young feline’s eyes tore at Hayden’s gut.