by Lacey Thorn
Table of Contents
Title Page
Simon’s Runaway Mate
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Epilogue
Simon’s Runaway Mate
James Pack
By Lacey Thorn
Simon’s Runaway Mate
by
Lacey Thorn
Cici…
I’ve been fascinated with shifters since my father married one and I inherited a big brother named Hannibal. Following him on the hunt for rogue wolves was fun and exciting. Right up to the minute it wasn’t. Waking up in a hospital bed with a large golden god looming over me wasn’t on my radar either. Falling for him? Out of the question. Now, I’m running because no matter how much I yearn for his touch, I’m not who he wants. But Simon? I’m learning he’s the wolf those tall tales warn you about.
Simon…
I’ve always had a fascination with humans. So fragile as they go about their day to day lives never knowing what lurks around them. Then there was her. I spilled blood for her. I’d do it again. I claimed her when I carried her to safety. My mate. I’ll forgive her for not understanding. She is human. But running from me should have never crossed her mind. Now, I’ll have to chase her down and show her exactly who she belongs to.
Copyright
© 2021, Lacey Thorn
Simon’s Runaway Mate
Cover Art by Supernova Indie Publishing Services, LLC
Edited by MICHELE PAULIN
Electronic Format ISBN: 978-1-949795-66-0
Published by: Lacey Thorn Publishing
Warning: All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and occurrences are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places or occurrences, is purely coincidental.
Dedication
To every alpha who exists in my head. Your story is coming, and so are you. I promise.
Chapter One
~ Simon ~
She was mine. I’d known it the moment I heard her voice over the phone, demanding I get my ass in gear and drag my alpha to help her brother collect some bad guys and save the girl. Those husky words had stroked right down my spine and given my balls a jolt that had my cock going full mast. I’d been willing to drop everything and go grab her even before I realized the girl she described was Belinda James, the alpha’s sister. Even then, I couldn’t shake the grip of that voice.
It took me a bit to get to Bastion, discover no one could locate Bee, and gather the rest of Bastion’s inner circle, selecting who’d go with and who’d stay behind in case this was a ploy to gain access to the rest of the pack. Then we were off.
A few of the others noticed my preoccupation, and I knew they thought I was worried about Bee. They all thought I was in love with her. Though I’d hinted more than once that I’d be willing to get physical with her while we waited on our mates to show up, I hadn’t been serious. It was an easy offer to make when I knew she’d never accept.
No, I’d wanted to tease and befriend her, to make her feel wanted and accepted by someone other than her brother. For all the people in the pack around her, Belinda always came across as being sad. And alone. So I teased and complimented and invited her to go anywhere and everywhere. To show both her and the rest of the pack that for all her quirks, Belinda was a woman who belonged.
Either way, I wasn’t prepared for what we walked into. The first thing I saw as we entered the abandoned factory was that bastard Mullins tossing away a woman as if she were garbage.
I didn’t think. I reacted. Stepping in, I took out Mullins’ throat and let him fall where he landed as I made my way to the woman. If her voice hadn’t given me a hint, her scent slammed into me, saturating my senses in nothing but her. A growl rumbled up from my chest as I lifted her into my arms. Tiny. Fragile. Human. And irrevocably mine. My woman. My mate. My entire fucking world.
With a brief word to Bastion, I was out the door, following my mate’s scent to a battered Jeep with obvious wear to it. I’d make sure she had a brand new one. Something with all the newest safety features and any bells and whistles she preferred. I eased her into the back seat, shoving her clutter to the floorboards to make space for her. God, she was beautiful. She had thick waves of hair that fell in shades of brown and red to her shoulders. I wanted to sink my hands into it, but I’d already noted the bruising forming on the side of her head. It made me want to go inside and kill Mullins all over again. Any bastard who’d lay hands on a woman didn’t deserve to breathe. One as tiny and helpless as my human mate? He deserved a special kind of hell for touching her.
I dialed my phone as I slid behind the wheel, adjusting the seat and mirrors for my larger frame. The clinic picked up on the third ring. I cut across the greeting with little care.
“This is Simon. I’m bringing in a human. She’s currently unconscious. Cut on her stomach. Doesn’t appear deep. Bruise on the side of her head concerns me. Have a room ready and make damn sure the doctor is there when I get there. I’m less than ten minutes out.”
Silence for several long seconds then, “You’re bringing a human here?”
“Are you questioning me?”
I didn’t have to force the displeasure that filled my tone. Nor did I embellish the alpha growl that resonated from me. My pack was jokingly referred to as the alpha pack just as often as it was the James Pack. I didn’t know if anyone really understood the truth of that. It was a pack of alphas. Most of us were bastards and misfits that had somehow found each other and formed our own pack.
I was often thought of as the easy going one, lesser than the others. There was a reason for that. Only the inner circle realized I was Bastion’s personal guard. To get to him, you’d have to first go through me. My easy smile hid the beast who lives inside me. I’m a brutal bastard, who has no fucking qualms about ripping another wolf to shreds if the situation called for it. Protecting the alpha I chose to follow was my job, and I took it seriously. But it was better if others don’t know what to expect. It gave me the element of surprise. Came in pretty fucking handy at times. Even when there were whispers about me, they were easily brushed aside.
“No.” The voice on the phone trembled, and I easily pictured the young wolf it belonged to. She’d recently finished nursing school and returned to finish her training with our pack now that the Rigton Pack was no more. She was also one we were watching. She’d been known to cause some trouble and had even been stupid enough to bad mouth several of the inner circle. The alpha’s mate among them. There was something off about her. Something I didn’t trust, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it now. “I’ll make sure everything’s ready for you.”
“Thank you, Madison. Seven minutes out.”
I hung up, glancing in the rearview mirror at my still unconscious mate. My cock was thick and hard behind my zipper even though she was in no condition for what I envisioned and probably wouldn’t be for a while. How hard had she been hit in the head? Why wasn’t she waking? What if she didn’t wake up? I shook my head, denying that train of thought as quickly as it started. I reached one hand back, needing to touch her. Her skin was soft, warm, remin
ding me she was alive, though her eyes remained closed.
I focused on the drive. Then on carrying her inside. On watching the doctor as he checked her out.
I almost took out his throat when my mate groaned and jerked at his touch along her side.
“Whoa!” Dr. Hagerty practically jumped away from the bed when I moved. “It appears she hit her side at some point. There’s a bruise forming, but I don’t think anything’s broken. We’ll take some x-rays to be sure. She might have a slight concussion. I’ll need to do a few tests there also. Which will require me touching her. Even if I may make her uncomfortable, I promise you I’ll do my utmost not to inflict further pain.”
The most beautiful pair of blue eyes blinked open, searching the room before stopping on me, deep pools that invited me to dive in. I could drown in those eyes. Willingly. Eagerly. She blinked several times as if trying to bring me into focus.
“Where’s…” She paused, clearing her throat. “Where’s Hannibal?”
My guess was in a world of trouble. He was probably bleeding out, if not already dead. No one fucked with the James Pack and walked away. Then again, my mate had called and asked for help. Putting two and two together, my second guess was that Hannibal was the brother she’d spoken of. He was probably alive. Beaten, definitely. Maybe broken in a few places. But odds were, the others wouldn’t have killed him before finding out who he was, why he was in our territory without gaining permission first, and why the hell he’d brought a human with him. I was okay with the last part. Otherwise, who knew when I’d have met the gorgeous woman who belonged to me. Of course, I would have preferred the bastard had kept her safe.
“Here.” Madison moved beside the bed before I could find my voice. She held out a cup of ice. “Try these. There’s no bruising on your neck, so I don’t think there’s any damage there. You’ve got a nice bruise on your temple, as well as along your side, and a laceration on your belly. Did you bump into something?”
The insult didn’t go unnoted, and I’d speak with Madison about it later. No one insinuated my mate was weak, and the derision the nurse showed the human was crystal clear. If that attitude remained, she’d be packing up and heading out sooner rather than later. Mates were sacred and treated as such.
Blue eyes blinked again. Though she tried to give her attention to Madison, I was happy to note my mate’s gaze kept tugging back to me. My wolf wanted to howl in delight. The beast wanting to strip and flex muscles to make her ooh and ahh. To impress and entice. I was hard-pressed not to join her on the tiny bed, to lift and pull her onto my lap, surrounding her with me and daring anyone to fuck with her ever again.
“I… Where am I? Who are you?” She managed to include us all in that last question, and I growled again, angered that my mate wouldn’t know who I was as instinctively as I did. Another reminder that she was human.
Madison shot a questioning glance toward me before answering. “You’re at the Rigton County Clinic. I’m Madison, the nurse on duty tonight. This is Dr. Hagerty. And this is Simon Hollister. He’s—”
“Simon,” my mate interrupted, giving a sigh of relief. “You came.”
I almost said “not yet” but managed to bite back those words and give a nod instead. Human. I had to remember that. I didn’t want to scare her off by turning into the big, bad wolf she’d probably been warned of in bedtime stories.
“Everyone out,” she ordered at my nod, but I wasn’t going anywhere. “I need to speak with Simon alone.”
“You’ve been injured,” Dr. Hagerty stated firmly as if his patient wasn’t aware of that fact. “I need to fully assess you to know the full extent of your injuries, Ms…?”
“Lawson,” she answered. “Cici Lawson. I’m fine, doctor. And yes, I’d know if I wasn’t. I appreciate your concern, and I’ll let you know if I decide I need anything further from you. Now, both of you out, so I can speak with Simon.”
Dr. Hagerty turned his stunned gaze on me. I almost snickered at his expression. He’d been ordered out of the room by a human woman, who probably came up to his pecs in her bare feet. If she weighed more than a hundred pounds, it wasn’t by much. Fuck! Those thoughts led me to others, of taking her, making her mine, and wondering if she’d be capable of mating me. The fates wouldn’t be so cruel as to bring me my mate then make it impossible for me to have her. I refused to believe that.
“Now.” The order was softly uttered, but there was no doubt Cici expected to be obeyed. God, she had my dick pulsing along my zipper, begging to give a few commands if its own.
I nodded, and with a clenched jaw, Hagerty turned to leave, the judgmental Madison on his heels.
“I’ll be outside if you need me,” Hagerty muttered, and I wasn’t sure if he was speaking to me or Cici.
“We won’t,” Cici stated, showing she had no trouble hearing us. “Simon will be safe with me.”
Hagerty snorted, and I barely managed to hold in the bark of laughter that threatened to escape. Me? Safe from her? Good lord! Maybe, she’d taken a harder hit to the head than any of us had realized. Why else would she seek to assure me I was safe when I clearly outweighed her by over a hundred pounds and easily towered over her diminutive frame. I felt practically gargantuan next to her petite body.
As soon as the door shut, Cici sat up with a groan, one hand cradling her side while the other gently probed her temple.
“Stop that,” I ordered, moving to sit beside her on the mattress. Her hip rolled toward me, and I moved in to loom over her, forcing her to lie back.
She smiled, and I felt my lungs momentarily seize, forgetting how to breathe as she lifted her hand to stroke her fingers along my whisker-covered cheek. I felt that touch everywhere. Over every fucking inch of my body.
“Thank you for coming to help us, Simon. Where’s my brother? Is he here, too?”
“He’s back at the house with Bas and the others.” At least, I assumed that was where they’d taken Hannibal.
She nodded, accepting that easily. Thankfully, she didn’t ask me if he was okay. I couldn’t have answered anyway. Though I had my suspicions, I’d walked away with her as soon as I’d hit the door. I wasn’t sure what had gone down after I’d left. I’d call and check in once I spoke to her. Prepared her for what was to come. Namely me. Preferable buried deep between her thighs, though I was open to suggestions.
“You brought me here? That’s sweet, Simon, but I’m okay. Seriously. I wasn’t lying when I said I’d know.”
“How would you know?” I demanded. If she told me she’d been beaten or abused in some way, I’d hunt down the offender and tear them limb from limb.
“I’m not sure what you’re thinking, but I pity anyone who gets on your bad side.” She grinned, laying me low again. “I’ve trained in several martial arts disciplines, as well as other fighting techniques. Injuries happen. I teach self-defense courses, so it’s important to stay in top shape. I heal quickly.” She glanced down at herself, skimming her soft fingers over her belly first. “He threatened to kill me. Gotta admit that claw hurt, but not as much as the hit to the head. Thankfully, I was out before I hit the floor, which is where I must have damaged my side.” She probed there, teeth clenching. “Bruised but nothing’s broken. I’ll be fine in a day or two.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” I growled.
She lifted a brow and somehow managed to give the appearance of looking down her nose at me. It almost made me grin.
“I’ll be the judge of that,” she corrected me.
I leaned in and felt pride when she didn’t back away. I stopped when our breaths mingled, our lips mere inches apart.
“Do you know what I am?” I thought we’d start with that first. Obviously, she did, but I needed the admission from her own lips.
She cocked her head and let her gaze run over me. I caught the hitch in her breath as well as the way her nipples pebbled, though she tried to give the impression she was unimpressed.
“A man with a god complex who believes he
has some proprietary claim over me simply because I’m a frail woman? A dick with an ego the size of Texas?”
I growled at her, letting her get a glimpse of the sharp canines that would sink into her when I claimed her as mine.
“Too much? Not enough? Want me to share what else I think you may be?” she asked with a bland expression, but her pulse fluttered at her neck, drawing my gaze and making me want to lean closer and taste her.
“Is Cici your given name?” The question was out before I’d fully thought it.
She gave me a strange look then shook her head. “It’s Cecilia, but no one has called me that since I was little.”
“Cecilia.” Her name rolled over my lips with a purr that had a shiver skating over her. I drank it in, noting the further tightening of her nipples. I wanted to taste those, too. Instead, I ask her again. “Do you know what I am?”
“If you’re like Hannibal, then yes, I do.”
“Say it,” I ordered.
“A wolf. You’re a wolf shifter, Simon, and I’m not afraid of you.”
I grinned then, letting her get a good look at my sharp teeth. She was a breath of fresh air. I didn’t want her afraid of me. We’d never work if she was. I’d worried after discovering my mate was human, but Cecilia was made of sterner stuff than most.
“That’s good, Cecilia,” I crooned. “Now, do you know who I am?”
“Cici,” she corrected. “Of course, I know who you are. If I hadn’t, Madison made the introduction before she left. Simon Hollister. Part of the James Pack. Did you hit your head? Are you injured?” Her hands reached out, skimming up my sides before edging in toward my chest, running up over my pecs to my shoulders then on to my neck before cupping my face. “Simon, are you okay?”
“I’m perfect, mate. Never been better.”
“Then why are you being so weird?” she asked, not even picking up on the fact I’d told her she was my mate.
I grinned then almost laughed as my smile had her tilting back in an attempt to put distance between us. Instead, I followed her until her head was against the pillow. Only I didn’t stop. I kept going until her lips were under mine, until my tongue was skimming along her plump bottom curve then darting inside on her gasp of surprise. The hands at my face slid back to grip my hair, holding me close as I devoured her.
