Undeniable Craving
Marisa Chenery
Edited by Marisa Chenery
Cover design by April Martinez
Copyright 2014 Marisa Chenery. Published by Forever More Publishing, 31 Wycliffe Place, Kitchener, Ontario, N2M 5J6, Canada. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.
ISBN: 978-1-92785-941-4
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This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.
Gage had gone to Great Falls, Montana, to sell his family’s pelts after a winter of trapping. Mostly to keep his mind off the fact he’d been mate branded and his time had just about run out to find his one and only. Losing his humanity wasn’t something he wanted to face. But the trip turns into something much more when he finds the one woman meant to be his dying of cancer with only days to live.
Jaimie was at death’s door. She vaguely remembers a visit from a strange man at her hospital bed who bites her and then tells her she’s his. She’s then tumbled into a world where wolves can shift to human form, and where one will do anything to save her.
Chapter One
Spring had finally come to Canyon Creek. It’d been a long winter, and Gage was more than happy to see the back of it. As a trapper, the cold months were his busiest. That was when he made his money for the rest of the year. As did the rest of his family.
Now that the snow had melted, Gage was on the road headed to Great Falls, a city in Montana that was about two hours away from his log cabin. This year he’d volunteered to make the long trip with all his family’s pelts to sell them to the fur buyer. They were piled in the back of his SUV.
There was another reason he’d decided he’d make the trip to Great Falls alone. He was a wolf shifter, a wolf who had the ability to take on human form. He was also thirty years old, the age when the males of his kind became mate branded. It was the stage in their lives when they had to become mated or lose their humanity. They had three weeks, and the countdown started as soon as the brand appeared on their skin.
Gage’s two older brothers, Kiel and Cyrus, had already been marked and had found their mates. Since Gage was part of a litter of six of all boys, and the third in birth order, he’d been the next in line to be branded. His had appeared two weeks before. His time was running out, and he was nowhere close to finding the one woman who was meant to be his.
It wasn’t as if he hadn’t tried to find her, because he had. Gage had searched in all the places close to home, and even in Helena, a city thirty minutes away from Canyon Creek. He’d even gone to the two wolf shifter packs in the area, even though he’d wished the one meant for him was human just like his two older brothers’ mates. At the rate he was going, he didn’t care if it was a female of his kind who set off the reaction that would declare her as his.
He glanced down at his crotch and scowled. With the mate brand appearing on his neck where it met his shoulder, it kept him in a state where the need to find his mate and join his body with hers was almost too hard to ignore. His libido was at an all-time high, but there was nothing he could do about it until he met his female. His cock no longer worked, and would remain in that condition until he caught the scent of his mate. Right now his dick was only good for taking a piss.
Gage reached up and touched the mate brand, something he tended to do a lot. It was all in black with intricate Celtic-styled knot work in a circular design that surrounded a pair of wolves that stood and faced each other with their heads thrown back on a howl.
Once he claimed his mate, the black knot work would change color, taking on the jewel tones of reds, blues and greens. The same marking would appear on his woman in the exact same place on her body.
He pushed the thoughts of finding his mate away as he finally entered the outskirts of Great Falls. Gage had a job to do, and he couldn’t let himself get distracted. There were quite a lot of pelts he had to sell. He knew the buyer wouldn’t rip him off, but he liked to make sure nothing was overlooked.
Gage pulled into the parking lot at the fur buyer and parked close to the entrance to the building. After he shut off the engine, he headed inside. He stopped in the doorway and looked across the open space toward the counter at the opposite end. The woman who stood behind it looked in his direction.
“Hey, Lynne. I have a load of pelts in the back of my SUV. Do want me to bring them in now?”
She nodded. “Sure.”
Gage went back out to his vehicle and took out a couple large plastic bags that held some of his family’s pelts. He made a number of trips to bring them all inside. Once he carried in the last one, he headed over to where Lynne had already started the job of inspecting the furs.
“This is it,” he said and placed the bag on the floor next to the others.
“Okay.”
He focused his gaze on Lynne. He and his family had been dealing with this same fur buyer for several years, and he’d gotten to know most of the employees a bit during that time, even though he usually only saw them once a year. Lynne normally was more open and friendly, always striking up a conversation.
Today Lynne appeared closed off and withdrawn. As if she was only going through the motions of her job. Gage looked at her closely and saw her eyes appeared a bit red and puffy as if she’d been crying earlier.
“If everything okay, Lynne?” Gage asked as she went to the counter and grabbed a pad of paper and pencil.
She turned in his direction as tears welled in her eyes. Lynne quickly wiped them away. “Sorry. I told myself I wasn’t going to cry at work, but I haven’t had much luck with that.”
Gage crossed over to her and took her into his arms for a hug, the only thing he could think of to do. He pulled in her scent and every muscle in his body locked as his cock went from a useless bit of flesh to hard as a rock and ready to go in a matter of a couple seconds.
There was no freaking way Lynne was his mate. She was a happily married woman. Fate wouldn’t be as cruel as that. Gage took another sniff and filtered out each scent that clung to the woman in his arms. It was then he realized it wasn’t hers that had set off his cock. It was another she’d been in contact with in some way. The scent of his mate was in Lynne’s clothes, faint but detectible by his sensitive nose.
Lynne stepped out of Gage’s embrace. “Thanks. I needed that.” She gave him a watery smile.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” He racked his brain to come up with a way to ask her who’d she been around without sounding like a weirdo.
“Only if you can perform a miracle,” she replied. “It’s my sister. She’s dying of cancer. She’d been in remission for so long we’d thought she’d had it beat, but it came back with a vengeance. She’s in the hospital. The doctor says she has a couple days left at most.” Lynne shook her head. “It’s so unfair. She’s twenty-five. I was ten when she was born, and have always thought of her more as my baby than a sister. And what’s worse, is she has a son who needs her. His father has never been in the picture. Derrick is already at my place, but it should be his mother raising him, not me.” She wipe
d more tears away. “I went to see her before I came in to work this morning. If I didn’t need the money, I’d still be with her. I already lost my mom to cancer and my dad a few years later to a massive heart attack. I can’t go through losing a sister too.”
Gage felt as if all the blood had drained out of his face, and his stomach had dropped to his toes. Even his erection had deflated as he came to grips with the fact his mate was close to death and he hadn’t even met her. He had to see her. As sense of desperation washed over him, not to be denied.
“What’s your sister’s name?”
Lynne sniffed. “Jaimie. Jaimie Yates.”
“Would you be okay with me sending her flowers?”
“She sleeps a lot, but I’m sure she’d appreciate them. You don’t have to, though.”
“I know. I want to. We’ve known each other for a few years now. I’d like to do something. Give me her room number and I’ll stop by a florist after we’re done here.”
Lynne kissed him on the cheek. “You’re a sweet guy, Gage. Out of you and your brothers, I always thought you’d be perfect for Jaimie. I should have introduced you two a long time ago. Now it’s too late.”
As Lynne turned to the counter and then wrote on her pad of paper, Gage forced himself to act normal. She had no idea how right she’d been about him being perfect for her sister. Even if he’d met Jaimie before the mate brand had marked him, he had a feeling he would have had strong feelings for her. It wasn’t unheard of for a mated couple to have gotten together before the male reached thirty and then found out later they’d been fated for one another.
“Here’s Jaimie’s room number,” Lynne said as she faced him once more and held out a scrap of paper she’d torn from the top sheet of her pad near the bottom.
“Thanks.” Gage put it into his front jeans pocket.
Once they went back to the business of going through the pelts, Gage felt as if that small slip of paper burned a hole inside his pocket. Even though he’d told Lynne he’d have flowers sent to her sister, he had no intention of doing that. He’d go to the florist, pick out some flowers and personally deliver them to Jaimie. He had to see her.
With check in hand for the pelts, which he’d have to cash in Helena, Gage left Lynne and the furs behind. He drove toward Great Fall’s downtown area to look for a florist shop. It didn’t take him long to spot one. Not sure what flowers Jaimie liked, he picked out a mixture of pale pink and red roses.
Then he was off to the hospital. Gage entered the building, carrying the flowers in one hand as he took out the paper with Jaimie’s room number. Since he’d never been to this hospital, or any other one, for that matter, he had to ask at the nurse’s station where the room was after he arrived on the correct floor. The place was like a giant maze with its different wings.
The door stood open. Gage quietly walked inside, his gaze on the lone figure on the only bed. He drew in a deep breath, the need to have Jaimie’s scent in his nose something he couldn’t ignore. At first, the almost overwhelming smell of disinfectants masked it. He separated it from the one that was hers and latched on to it.
His mate’s scent became etched in his mind. It was there, stronger than what had been on Lynn’s clothing. And along with it, he picked up the harsh smell of sickness. Wolf shifters’ keen noses were known to detect an illness like cancer in a human long before a doctor diagnosed it. If he’d met Jaimie earlier there could have been a good chance he would have caught what was now killing her long before it reached this stage.
Gage silently headed over to the table beside the bed and placed the vase with the roses onto it. He set his gaze on Jaimie. She had her eyes closed and appeared to be in a deep sleep. Besides the cancer, he smelled the drugs she’d been given mixed with her scent.
He stepped closer and continued to run his gaze over his mate. The first thing he noticed was her unhealthy color and the thinness of her face. Her dark blonde hair was limp and just barely touched the tops of her shoulders. Despite all that, he couldn’t think of her in any other way than beautiful.
“Jaimie,” he said softly.
She didn’t stir. It had to be the meds they’d given her that kept her oblivious to his presence. Gage figured it was for the best. It would have been hard to see her in pain, even if it meant she’d be awake.
The longer he stared at Jaimie the more his body reacted to her nearness. His cock hardened with a surge of arousal, straining against the front of his jeans. His scent grew stronger. If his mate had been awake and healthy, she would have found it hard to resist. It’d work like an aphrodisiac, nature’s way of ensuring they followed its course and became mated. Even though what he was going through was highly inappropriate given the situation, Gage had no control over it. The surges had set in right after his mate brand had appeared and had evened out the following day. Now that he’d found Jaimie, they’d started again. No matter how hard he tried to control them he couldn’t stop them.
It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t damn fair. Why would fate decide Jaimie was his mate only to take her away? They’d both end up losing. She’d die and he’d lose his humanity. He’d no longer be able to take on human form and have the ability to think or understand speech. He’d be like any other gray wolf that lived out in the forest. He’d be completely wild. He could save himself that fate by claiming Jaimie, by biting her.
Gage stiffened as another thought rose to the surface of his mind. Could he? Could he bite Jaimie and possibly save her as well? There was a chance. After Kiel and Cyrus had claimed their mates, human mates, Neha and Shyla had gained the ability to heal at a rapid rate. Since they were the first humans to be mated to wolf shifters, they didn’t know for sure if the women would now be as long-lived as their mates. His family believed they were, and right now he had to believe that as well.
His gaze shot in the direction of the open door and then back to Jaimie. Gage didn’t want to think about it too hard or he’d try to talk himself out of it. Claiming her was the only way. It should have been done while they made love, but that wasn’t going to happen. He had to hurry and do it before anyone came into the room and saw him biting her. He couldn’t very well explain he’d done it with the hopes of saving her life. They’d have him arrested for assault.
Gage stopped thinking and acted on instinct. He felt his eyeteeth shift, becoming longer and sharper like a wolf’s. He sat on the side of the bed, gently gathered Jaimie into his arms and then lowered his head toward her neck where it met her shoulder.
* * * *
Jaimie was in a state of sleep where she was close to the surface, able to sometimes detect things that happened around her, but didn’t have enough energy to come to full wakefulness. The drugs they’d given her did it, and she was grateful to have most of the pain taken away.
She’d known when Lynne had come to see her before going in to work. And when her sister had cried as she sat in a chair beside her and held her hand. Jaimie had wanted to say something to Lynne, but what could she to make everything all right? Jaimie was dying, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
After her sister had left, Jaimie had truly slept. For how long, she had no idea. Feeling a presence in her room brought her partially to awareness. It wasn’t a nurse come to check in on her. Whoever it was hardly made any noise, as if trying not to disturb her. That wasn’t the case with the nursing staff. They came in, did the checks they needed to do and left in the same efficient manner.
It was a man who softly said her name from somewhere at the side of her bed. Jaimie didn’t recognize his voice. He didn’t say anything more, but she sensed he was still there.
The mattress dipped as he sat beside her. Jaimie couldn’t help noticing he smelled good. Like really, really good. If she hadn’t been at death’s door, she was sure her body would have reacted to his scent. As it was now, she found it pleasurable, and it took away some of the typical hospital smells.
He carefully gathered her into his arms. She wanted to wake up and ask hi
m what he was doing since she didn’t know him, but the drugs kept her sucked below the surface, unable to get past them.
He gently touched where her shoulder and neck met, brushing against her skin. The ends of his hair tickled her face as he brought her closer. Was he going to kiss her? Was he some kind of freak who went around kissing women who were on the verge of dying for some kind of sick fetish?
Jaimie soon got her answer as his mouth came down on her skin where he’d brushed her and bit her—hard. There was an instant of pain before a surge of pleasure took its place. It was more like a warm, comfortable feeling that settled into every inch of her. With that came a wash of emotions. For the man who held her in his arms. It didn’t make any sense, but in a way she felt as if something invisible tied them together. That he was hers, and she, his.
He seemed to reverently kiss her lips before he said quietly, “I’m Gage, and I claimed you, Jaimie. You’re marked by the mate brand. If it worked, you’ll live. I’m going to leave now, but I’ll come back. I’m not going to let you go.”
He settled her back onto the bed, then covered her with the blankets. He kissed her forehead before he stood. Jaimie listened as his footsteps headed out of the room. She tried to wake up enough to call out to him, but it was a battle she wasn’t strong enough to win. His name kept repeating in her mind as she sank deeper into the darkness that rose to meet her.
Chapter Two
Leaving Jaimie, his now claimed mate, behind was the hardest thing Gage had ever done. She was now his, and his instincts screamed at him to go back, to look after her. That was what he was meant to do—to protect, provide and love his female.
He did love her. After he’d bitten her, he’d felt the invisible link that joined them as mates form between them, never to be broken. Once the connection was complete, it solidified Gage’s feelings for Jaimie. He fell instantly in love, which was supposed to happen.
Undeniable Craving Page 1
