The Wolf's Mate Book 5: Bo & Reika

by Butler, R. E.

  They spent the day together, talking some but mostly just watching TV. Later, when they sat next to each other on the couch, she asked him about his leg, and he told her the story. She listened in silence, tearing up over his old wounds and making his heart squeeze painfully in his chest. When he was finished, she hugged him tightly but said nothing else.

  When night fell, she came right out of the bedroom in her pajamas and curled up against him. He was growing accustomed to the sweet scent of her and the slight weight as she lay against him. It was going to be hell to watch her leave.

  Friday morning, he left Reika in the house after securing a promise from her that she would not try to leave and headed to work. Five wolves were standing guard at the house, including Peter Gerrick and his wife, Tina, who stayed inside the house with Reika to keep her company. Bo got straight to work so he could leave as soon as possible, but his stomach growled loudly around eleven, and Michael suggested they go for a walk to the deli and get something to eat. Then Michael offered to help Bo finish up so he could head home.

  At Pete’s Garage, Bo worked on restorations. His father had been a classic car buff, and Bo had spent his summers helping him fix up cars, restoring them to their former glory. At the moment, he was restoring the air conditioner on a ‘77 Corvette. The owner was anxious to have it ready to go for summer, and it was one of the last things that needed to be done before it was finished.

  When he walked down the street with Michael to grab a sandwich from the deli, he saw Jazlyn, a she-wolf who worked at Jake’s and sang for the house band. She was mated to Fritz, who had been part of the Tressel Pack before he left to go rogue with Jazlyn and her brothers.

  Jazlyn walked down the street quickly, a paper grocery sack in one arm. Three tall, lanky males stepped from an alley, and Bo’s wolf howled in dismay. The lynxes! One of them snagged Jazlyn by the neck, and the other two stalked towards Michael and Bo.

  Bo and Michael let their beasts rise. Jazlyn shrieked and tried to wiggle free of the male holding her, but he held her slight form as easily as a doll.

  “Let her go, asshole. Your beef is with me,” Bo growled.

  “Bring us our woman, and we’ll be happy to leave,” one of the two closer ones said.

  The third one licked his lips as he looked over his shoulder at Jazlyn, who was struggling valiantly. “We’ll just take her with us. An insurance policy to make sure you bring our property to us.”

  “The hell you will.” Bo snarled at the way they called Reika their property and settled into his wolf, feeling Michael do the same. They both launched themselves towards the males at the same time, tackling the two swiftly and rolling them to the ground. They were fast, though, and darted up to their feet, dancing on the balls of their feet as if they hadn’t been knocked hard to the pavement.

  There was a strange grunting sound, and Bo’s head snapped to the side as Jazlyn’s brother Shayne squeezed the neck of the male holding Jazlyn until he released her. Shayne was nearly seven feet tall, incredibly muscular, and broad. Jazlyn fell to the ground, and Michael raced forward, helping her to her feet. Shayne raised the male off the ground by a foot and slammed him against the wall of a building. The male’s eyes rolled back in his head as his face turned from bright red to purple from lack of oxygen. Shayne growled, slammed him to the wall once more, and then dropped him like a heap of dirty laundry.

  He turned towards the two males who stood staring in shock. Raising a hand, Shayne growled, “Leave.”

  The males snapped to attention, grabbed their brother, and carried him to a waiting vehicle in the park across the street from the garage. To Bo’s dismay, he saw that it was a dark blue sedan and not the rundown pickup they’d been driving. No wonder they’d been able to get into town unnoticed; they’d switched vehicles. The car was also missing plates, which made Bo wonder if it was stolen.

  “Are you okay, Jazlyn?” Bo asked, helping to collect the items from her bag.

  She rubbed at her neck. “Yeah. Thank you for sticking up for me. Who are those guys? They smell weird.”

  Shayne took the bag from Bo and put his large hand on her shoulder. “Lynxes,” he said darkly.

  Bo nodded and gave them a quick run-down of the situation. “I’m sorry that you got caught in the middle,” Bo said to Jazlyn.

  “It’s not your fault. They’re bastards for what they’re trying to do to your mate. If you need our pack’s help, you just call.”

  Shayne nodded solemnly and turned his sister away from them and resumed their walk.

  Bo called his house immediately and talked to Peter, making sure he was on alert. Then he called Teller and told him about the new vehicle, which made his friend shout obscenities loud enough that he had to pull the phone from his ear.

  Shaking out the worry that settled in his gut, Bo and Michael walked to the deli. “She’s your truemate,” Michael said, as they leaned against the counter and waited for their sandwiches.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Bo said, cracking the lid on a soda.

  “The fuck it doesn’t. You know you’re the only one who can break the promise.”

  “Of course I’m going to do that,” Bo said irritably. “I mean, it doesn’t matter after she’s free. She needs a male of worth.”

  Michael put a hand on Bo’s shoulder. “You are a male of worth.”

  “I’m going to lose my ability to shift in a few years. What kind of mate would I be? I wouldn’t even be able to help her if she was in trouble on a hunt. I’d be sitting home with the non-shifters, cut down before my prime. What kind of life would that be for her?”

  “I think you should let her make that decision.”

  Bo shrugged, grabbing for his wrapped sandwich. He was afraid to think about offering her the chance to be his truemate. Because if he never told her the truth about his feelings for her, then he never had to face her rejection. And that rejection would be more than he could bear.

  He finished his sandwich, and with Michael’s help, he completed the restoration within two hours and headed home. He had some vacation time saved up, and he’d already cleared it with Jason to take time off. He wasn’t sure what he needed to do to break the blood-debt, and Reika wasn’t inclined to tell him what it was. He knew that she was trying to protect him.

  Reika was twitchy enough about innocents being harmed in abstract, so he chose not to tell her about running into the lynxes on the street. He didn’t want to tell her that her fears were coming true.

  He brought home groceries and helped Reika make dinner. He asked her about her life, but she had grown quieter as dinner progressed and began answering his questions with no more than one or two words. He could practically feel her pulling away from him, and it made him ache.

  That night she slept with him on the couch again, which confused him. And aroused the hell out of him. Why she insisted on cuddling up to him, even though he coveted it, didn’t make sense to him. He was certain she was looking for a way get away from him and strike out on her own, but he couldn’t let that happen.

  The next few days passed much the same. The lynxes didn’t show up again, but Bo knew they were most likely just licking their wounds for a re-group. It grew more and more difficult to keep his wolf at bay around her. Every morning he woke to her in his arms, her sweet scent surrounding him. And then darkness came, and she would stretch out with him, her smaller form against him, her lush body pressed close. He’d slept well since she’d been there, but he wasn’t sure exactly what it was about her that calmed his aches.

  Monday night, his phone roused him from sleep. He dug it out of his pocket and answered with a grumble.

  “Are you and Reika safe?” Jason asked.

  He sat up, his wolf on sudden alert. “Yes. What happened?”

  “Teller was patrolling through town, and he saw the three males slinking around the garage.”

  Bo’s stomach filled with lead. That garage had been in Jason’s family for generations. “Did they do anything?”

>   “Teller alerted Trick and me before he found out what they were doing. They had set a small fire in the back, jimmying the back door open and tossing accelerant inside. Trick and Teller put the fire out before too much damage was done, but I thought you should know something else.”

  “Tell me no one was hurt.”

  “No, the garage was completely empty. But they tacked a note to the door that says, ‘Give us back our woman or the whole town burns.’”

  The silence was deafening. Bo and Jason had spoken many times in the last few days about what the next steps should be, if the lynxes retaliated again.

  “I’m ready, Jason,” Bo said with conviction.

  “I’ll make the calls. How much time do you need?”

  He glanced down at Reika, whose beautiful features were carved with worry. “Five days.”

  “See you then.”

  Bo hung up and leaned on his elbow, looking down at her. He knew with her superior hearing that she had heard every word. “Was anyone hurt?”

  “No, sweetheart. Teller called the police chief who is mated to one of our female wolves, and the two of them put the fire out before there was too much damage. No one was there, and the damage was minimal.”

  She took in a shaky breath. “I need to leave.”

  He bristled, man and wolf. “Hell no. It’s even more dangerous now.”

  “Bo, please,” she started, and he silenced her with his mouth. He and his pack would see to it that she was safe for the next five days. Plans had been made and set in place. All he had to do was keep her from trying to run on her own, and everything would be fine.

  He hoped.

  Chapter 8

  Bo’s warm mouth was insistent against hers as he leaned into her, sweeping his tongue along the seam. Her mouth parted, and their tongues met in a sensual slide that made her skin tingle. She’d been fighting her attraction to Bo, and not very successfully. She knew he wanted to try to break the promise between her and the lynx males, but she couldn’t risk that happening. Not now. Not when he’d come to mean so much to her.

  He moved off the couch, not breaking their embrace, and lifted her up in his arms. He carried her through the house to the bedroom, and she felt the strain of his injured leg as he walked. An idea formed in her mind as he laid her down on the bed. She could heal him. She would heal him, and then she would leave. He would be better off healed and able to move on with his life, even though her wolf howled in anguish in her mind at the thought of leaving him.

  Gorgeous.

  Kind.

  Sweet.

  Hers.

  His lips trailed down her cheek as he covered her with his body. She ran her blunt nails up his broad back, feeling the muscles as they bunched and moved under her fingers. His teeth pressed down on her ear lobe and then found the sensitive patch of skin behind her ear. He licked a path from that spot down her neck, and she arched under him, her hands grasping at him.

  The thin shirt she wore to bed was pushed up and her bare breasts chilled in the cooler air. He licked across one nipple while his hands explored the lush mounds. He grabbed the nipple between his teeth and tugged gently, the teasing pressure making her body ache.

  She ran her fingers through his hair, testing the soft strands. Her body grew tight and heat bloomed in her core, as he turned his attention to her neglected nipple and tugged and licked it until it was as hot and hard as the other one.

  He kissed down her belly, circling his tongue around her navel, and kissing along the edge of her pajama pants. The ribbon drawstring came undone slowly, and he tugged them and her panties down her hips. She watched him toss them away, never taking his eyes off her body.

  He pushed her legs apart and stretched out between them, trailing his fingers along her heated skin as he propped himself above her on one arm. Her skin prickled under his touch.

  His fingers grazed the neatly trimmed hair of her pussy, and she bit her lip. “Fuck you smell good, Reika,” he groaned, and it came out vibrating with a growl.

  One finger parted her sex ever so slightly, circling her clit slowly. With thumb and finger, he parted her, exposing her completely. Laid bare before him, she watched his hazel eyes darken with pure lust. He lowered his head and stroked the flat of his tongue up her slit. She groaned as he lifted her leg over his shoulder, spreading her further open. He licked at her, lapped at her, wiggled his tongue inside her as she moaned and gripped the blanket. His tongue moved to her clit, the tip flicking over her sensitive bud as two fingers pushed inside her. Her hips rocked, wanting him deeper, as he began to rub and press his fingers against her heated, honeyed walls. Her stomach began to flutter. He sucked on her clit, pulling the bud deep into his mouth and then releasing it to flick and tease with his tongue.

  His searching fingers struck heaven, and she gasped, “Oh there, there!” His fingers rubbed her fast, and she felt her body flood as pleasure spiraled through her. With a cry of pure bliss, she came, tension coiling in her limbs as his fingers worked her harder, faster, and his lips closed over her sensitive bud. The pleasure never ended, it just built and built, as he drove her forward into another place, where time stopped and everything in her body went liquid.

  “Bo!” she shrieked when the second orgasm slammed down on her, her vision edged with sparks.

  He moved off the bed, and she heard the pop of his button and the grating of his zipper being lowered, and then he jerked her towards him by her legs, positioning himself between her thighs as he stood on the floor. His hands landed on her hips as she curled her legs around his waist and he slammed into her. Her eyes rolled back in her head. Nothing had ever felt so right, so perfect.

  Pounding into her, he groaned, squeezing her hips as his cock thrust home again and again. Their eyes met and held. His were flickering from hazel to amber, his lips parted as he panted for breath. Sweat glistened on their bodies, and the scent of them together lingered on the air.

  She lifted her legs higher on his hips, gripping his arms and meeting his thrusts. She panted his name, pleading for more, wanting more, needing everything he could give her.

  Pleasure wove through her as he increased his pace, slamming his body against hers. She cried out when her body tightened around him, and he shouted her name, pumping into her as he arched his back, tossing his head back with a howl of pure bliss.

  Eyes half lidded, he moved her up the bed and collapsed next to her, rolling her body on top of his with a sultry groan.

  She’d never experienced anything like that before. She’d had orgasms during sex before, but never so powerful. She felt like her insides had been turned to liquid, and she was tingly warm, from her head down to her toes. She settled her head on his shoulder, laying one arm across his heaving chest and stretching one leg between his. His cock lay glistening and still semi-hard, visible through the open zipper of his jeans.

  Reika frowned as she once more felt the scratch of Bo’s jeans against her legs. She’d never been with a guy who kept his pants on during sex. Even though it had been amazing, she could feel his injury holding him back, causing him pain while he tried to bring her pleasure.

  There’s only one thing to do. It’s the least I can do, since I’m leaving.

  She rolled to her knees and hooked her fingers into the waistband of his jeans and tugged. His hands shot out, and the sleepy, sexy look disappeared from his face. “Don’t.”

  She tugged again, but his grip on her wrists tightened. “Bo, I can help you. Let me see your leg.”

  “I haven’t let anyone except a doctor see my leg in the last five years. I’m not going to start now, Reika.” His voice lowered, and his face shadowed darkly. She had the power to heal him, and she was going to do it whether he liked it or not.

  She called her beast, and her claws sprang from her fingertips. The sudden surge in power from her beast made her stronger than him in his human form, and she pulled from his grasp and dragged her claws down the fabric of his jeans, shredding them without touching his sk
in.

  “Fuck, Reika!” Bo shouted, scrambling from the bed. He held the scraps of his jeans up around his legs, desperately trying to keep the material covering his right leg.

  She let out an unhappy growl and retracted her claws. “I can feel how much pain you’re in. I’m an apex. Let me heal you.”

  His hands tightened on the material, and he dropped his head. “I don’t want you to see me, Reika.”

  She climbed off the bed, determined to help him. He’d done so much for her this past week, and she could do this one thing for him. He stepped away from her, still holding onto the jeans. They moved around the bedroom, him taking a step backwards as she tried to move closer to him, until she wanted to scream.

  She’d had enough. Drawing on her wolf once more, she growled to Bo, “Whatever you do, fight your shift until I tell you otherwise.”

  “What?” He stopped moving and stared at her in confusion, as she slipped down to the floor and shifted. Her lightly tanned skin split as silky black fur grew thickly. Her bones snapped and reformed, faster than the human eye could process, and she snapped her jaws twice and shook her whole body out. She sat on her haunches for only long enough to secrete the healing venom on her tongue. She licked each claw on both front paws, the venom glistening on her thick claws, the very essence of what made her a healer.

  Bo stood still like a statue, his head cocked to the side as he stared at her. She hoped he remembered her command not to shift. If he shifted before her venom had a chance to work, the healing would be incomplete. It would be painful either way, but going through the pain of healing and not being whole on the other side of it was inconceivable.

  With a short growl, she sprang at him, her front claws slashing down the length of his right leg. He roared in alarm and pain, tumbling backwards as her body landed on him and knocked the breath out of his lungs. Digging her front claws into the meat of his legs, where she could feel the worst of his injury, he howled under her, shoving at her as she flexed her venom-soaked claws deeper into the old wounds.