The Wolf's Mate Book 7: Lindy & The Wulfen

by Butler, R. E.

  They walked down the hallway and through the door into the bar, and Lindy’s breath gushed from her lungs as she felt herself shoved bodily back through the door and against the wall. For a heartbeat, she couldn’t form any words as Bruce pressed her hard against the wood paneling.

  “Missed you, bitch,” he sneered at her, kicking her legs apart with an aggravated growl.

  A claw-tipped hand grabbed Bruce’s throat and squeezed tightly as Crimson loomed next to them, his eyes glowing bright red and his fangs elongating in his mouth. With a howl of anger, Crimson tossed Bruce down the hallway, where he landed hard and rolled into the wall.

  Crimson swung his gaze to her for only a moment, stroked her cheek gently, and then raced down the hallway with a battle cry that shook the light fixtures. In a blur, Crimson’s clothes shredded as he shifted into his wolf form, leaping onto Bruce with a growl. His shifted form was the size of a small horse, and his fur was snow white. He tossed Bruce down the hallway, the male crying out in alarm as he slammed into the wall and fell into a heap on the floor.

  “What the hell?” Jason and Michael surrounded Lindy, Jason’s mouth agape as he witnessed Crimson pick Bruce up again and throw him against the door leading to the parking lot.

  “Bruce attacked me, and Crimson attacked him,” Lindy said.

  “That’s your mate?” Michael asked as Jason slipped in front of Lindy and began to walk down the hallway.

  Crimson hit the door with his massive shoulder to open it, and he snapped his jaws around one of Bruce’s legs, pulling the shrieking male out into the parking lot.

  “Oh shit,” Michael hissed.

  Lindy was both terrified and elated. Crimson had saved her from whatever Bruce had been planning, but she was worried how far he would take things. Faith and McKenna came through the broken door, their expressions anxious.

  Drake, his arms around Mac protectively, said, “What the hell just happened?”

  “Bruce, he…attacked me. I don’t know what he was going to do, but Crimson is out in the parking lot now.” Lindy took off down the hallway, following Jason and Michael as more people began to stream from the door Crimson had broken in his efforts to get to her.

  Faith stayed by her side as they raced into the parking lot. A small circle of males stood around Crimson, who was snarling at them, Bruce’s bloodied leg between his big jaws.

  “Crimson.” Jason said his name forcefully. “Don’t kill him.” Crimson laid his ears back, and a snarl rippled from his throat again.

  Just as Lindy pushed through the throng, Crimson crunched down on Bruce’s leg, and the bones snapped loudly. Lindy cringed at the sound. Bruce was already unconscious, or he would have been howling. Crimson dropped the broken leg and lifted his head, howling so loudly she had to cover her ears. It was an angry, defiant howl. A challenge.

  Jason looked at her. “You need to get your mate and head home, Lindy, let him cool down.”

  She swallowed hard, and tears stung her eyes. Jason’s face softened. “He was protecting you. He didn’t do anything wrong. I just didn’t want him to kill the bastard, and he didn’t. He showed great restraint.”

  She sniffled and moved to Crimson’s side, laying her arm across his furry neck. “How the hell am I going to get you home? You’re too big to fit in my car!”

  She choked out a laugh and buried her face in his neck, trying not to break down. Bruce had put his hands on her. He certainly hadn’t had good intentions.

  The fur receded so fast she almost fell to the ground, but then Crimson’s strong arms were around her, picking her up and cuddling her close. “I think I fit just fine, chelle.”

  “You shifted so fast!”

  “Of course. The threat,” he looked in disdain at the unconscious male Jason and Michael were kneeling next to, “is gone and you needed comfort. Why wouldn’t I shift?”

  “I can’t shift back right away without tremendous effort, it takes a few hours normally.”

  Jason looked up at them. “I think my dad has some spare clothes in the office if you want to grab something before you head out. I know you were protecting your mate, but thank you for not killing him.”

  Crimson growled. “I cannot promise I won’t kill him the next time I see him.”

  Michael said, “I think it’s time for Bruce to get out of Allen anyway. He’s been a pain in the ass for far too long.”

  Faith said, “Hear, hear.”

  “I’ve called Trick, Lindy,” Jason said as he stood. “He’ll want to get a statement from you both. This is pack business, but he needs to go to the hospital so there will be an inquiry. We’ll see you both tomorrow for the hunt.”

  Jason turned away from them, and Lindy sighed in relief. Trick was the town police officer and mated to one of the she-wolves. He was human, but very protective of the wolf pack, and he had helped them in many ways over the years. Lindy knew Crimson was in no danger of being arrested; Trick would see to that.

  “Let’s get you some clothes before my mate’s head snaps from her trying to look,” Drake groused.

  “I am not trying to look, Drake,” Mac said, smacking his shoulder.

  “That’s because you already did look.” Faith snickered.

  “Love you,” Lindy whispered.

  “Love you,” Crimson answered, kissing her forehead as he followed her friends back into the bar. The crowd was thick, but they parted for the small group, and Lindy didn’t bother looking around. The only person in the world she cared about had protected her once more and now, not even concerned with his nudity, was carrying her into the bar. He always thought of her first. She was humbled.

  Tina stood next to the open office door and said, “There are some pants and bar T-shirts on the desk, help yourself.”

  “Thank you,” Crimson said, easing inside the office. The door shut, and Crimson put her down slowly. “Are you hurt, chelle?”

  “No. He just surprised me. I was too shocked to even scream for help because it happened so quickly.”

  “He is lucky that I only broke his leg. He is a coward for attacking you and a fool for putting his hands on you. In my realm, it would have been within my rights to kill him.”

  “You could have killed him here, too.” Lindy unfolded a T-shirt while he tugged on a pair of jeans. “But there are a lot of humans here tonight who witnessed what happened. When it’s just our people, that sort of thing is acceptable, but when humans get involved, they tend to think our ways are animalistic or cruel.”

  He made a snorting sound. “What he tried to do was cruel and animalistic. What I did was right.”

  “I’m not arguing with you,” she said as he pulled the shirt over his head. “Let’s go home.”

  After giving their statements to Trick, they said goodbye to her friends, and she and Crimson drove home. She was glad to be back within the walls of her house away from the bar.

  “Crimson—” she started, but he silenced her with his mouth moving possessively over hers.

  His eyes were bright red, and she felt the prick of his fangs against her lips as they descended in his mouth. She could tell he was feeling possessive and needed to get his scent on her and erase the image of Bruce touching her from his mind.

  Gripping his hair in her hands, she pulled him away, and he snarled softly, panting. “Make me yours again. I need you so much.”

  With a body-vibrating growl, he tossed her over his shoulder and stomped down the hallway to the bedroom. He eased her down the front of his body and laid her on the bed, and it was the last thing that he did slowly, as he shredded the clothes from his body and hers, and they made love until dawn.

  Chapter 22

  Crimson watched Lindy dress to go hunting the following evening. He noticed she hadn’t put on undergarments before she slipped into shorts and a T-shirt. Earlier that day, she had taken him shopping and bought him a supply of non-fae-realm clothing, buying him a little bit of everything. He didn’t like that she had used her own money to buy things for
him; it made him feel like a bad mate. The Fae Realm didn’t work in the same way as the Mortal Realm where they exchanged paper money for goods and services. In the Fae Realm, they bartered. He had a satchel of gold and gemstones in the drawer in the bedroom; he just needed to find a way to exchange them.

  “Why do you not wear undergarments?” He had never worn what she called boxer briefs before, but she had insisted that most people didn’t go without undergarments in her realm.

  She smiled as she slipped her feet into sandals. “Because when I shift, it’s just easier to have fewer clothes to take off and put back on.”

  He made a face. “I don’t know if I like the idea of you being naked in front of other males.”

  She chuckled. “They’re all mated, and I’m all yours.”

  He decided that he’d make sure her body was shielded with his while she shifted. He held the door of her car open for her and shut it soundly before he got in on the other side. “Do you like it here?” she asked as the engine turned over and she backed the car out of the driveway.

  “I like to be anywhere with you.”

  She winked at him. “I mean do you like the house? It’s only a rental; if you don’t like it, we can find another house somewhere in town. There are a lot of empty houses available for rent.”

  He had scouted around the house earlier, and he liked what he saw. It had a nice-sized yard with a wooded area at the back of the property, and it had two empty bedrooms, which he envisioned their children sleeping in.

  He put his hand on her thigh, and she pressed her own hand over the top of his. “Why did you pick the house?”

  “Well, it’s cute. It’s got a great kitchen, and I love the brick fireplace in the family room. Plus I like the yard. I enjoy sitting outside on the back patio at night and just looking up at the stars. It’s quiet, too. Some of the developments are noisier, lots of wolves hanging out and partying.”

  He smiled. She’d chosen the house because it appealed to her in several ways. He liked all of those same reasons, but more than that, he liked the house even more now because he knew she had chosen it for a reason.

  “What does rental mean?”

  “I don’t own the house; it’s not mine. I pay a certain amount every month to a company that manages the rental properties in town so I can live in the house. There are other homes that are bigger. We could go house hunting.”

  He shook his head and gave her thigh a little squeeze. “I like the house. Not only because it is nice but because you chose it. I wouldn’t want to change anything about where we live.”

  What he did want to do, though, was find a way to buy the house for her so there was no chance that someone might take it from her. And he needed a job. She worked, and although he would rather she did nothing but stay in bed with him all day, he recognized that things were different in the Mortal Realm and often both males and females in this realm worked.

  They arrived at the alphas’ home, and there were several other vehicles parked in front of the big house. She took his hand as they walked up the front porch and entered the home, Lindy calling out for her alpha female, who answered they were in the kitchen.

  A group of women stood in the kitchen while two young children played on a blanket nearby with a pile of toys. The males were outside on the deck.

  “Come and meet everyone,” the alpha female, Cades, said. And then she began to introduce the mates of the males. Karly, Shyne, Reika, and Jenna all smiled and greeted him warmly and hugged Lindy. Faith and McKenna were also in the kitchen and joined them. “The guys are outside, Crimson, if you want to join them for a few minutes before the meal.”

  He kissed Lindy on the cheek and walked out to the deck and greeted Jason, who introduced him officially to the other males. Michael, who he had met previously, was mated to the human female, Shyne, and was pack second. Linus was fourth in rank and was mated to Karly, who was not human or wolf, but something called an Angel Mate. Reika was the pack healer and mated to Bo, who was pack third. Logan was the fifth ranked, a huge male with tribal tattoos covering his arms, and Crimson could smell the fae on him and knew that his mate was the she-fae, Jenna.

  Drake, who looked thrilled to be included in the hunt with the older males, said, “We were just talking about the male you roughed up last night.”

  Crimson growled.

  Jason chuckled. “He’s still in the hospital. Michael contacted his family, who are not from around here, and they’re coming to take him home. When he’s conscious, I’ll exclude him officially from the pack, and he can be some other alpha’s problem.”

  Linus said, “The single females in the pack will want to throw a parade for you for helping to get rid of the bastard.”

  “He was unpleasant to females other than my Lindy?”

  Bo nodded. “He’s always been very aggressive. He settled down some once Cades took over as alpha female, but the females in the pack will definitely breathe easier with him gone.”

  Crimson was glad the male was going to be leaving. He had not been joking when he said he would kill him if he saw him again. As it was, he was currently tempted to find the hospital and break his other leg.

  He looked at the alpha and said, “May I speak with you privately?”

  “Sure,” Jason said and led him to the other side of the deck.

  “I want to buy the house that Lindy is renting so that no one will take it from her.”

  Jason looked confused. “No one is going to take it from her.”

  “She told me about renting it; that it doesn’t belong to her. I want to change that.”

  He grinned. “I get that. Sure, you just need money. I have no idea if you guys have the same money system as we do.”

  “I have gold and gems to exchange, but I don’t know where to do it, and I want to surprise her so I haven’t asked.”

  “There’s a place about a half hour from here that does exchanges like that, and the owner is a friend of my dad’s and will give you a fair deal. We can go tomorrow if you’d like. I’ll just tell your mate that I’m talking to you about a job.”

  Crimson frowned. “I don’t want to lie to her.”

  “Oh, it won’t be a lie. I was asked by the retirement community director to find out if you’d like to be in charge of the security guards. Lindy told Cades you were a soldier in the military in the Fae Realm, and Jenna said that you’re even more powerful than a normal fae because you’re a wulfen. The male who was in charge of the guards moved away about a year ago, and the position was never filled, so the director’s husband is handling things, but he’s bitching because he’s retired and doesn’t want to work anymore. After we go to the exchange place, we can stop by the retirement community. It’s important to me that the security is managed well. My parents and grandfather live there. Our kid stays over sometimes.” Jason sighed and glanced out over the yard and into the woods. “It’s safe in Allen, but times are changing. Someone is laying traps inside our territory. It’s not a far leap to know that our retirement community, although gated, is vulnerable because the security force is not well trained or led properly.”

  “I’d be honored. I was captain in the military and have been training since I was a child.”

  “Maybe you can teach some self-defense classes and that kind of thing at the community center after you guys get settled.” He cleared his throat, and Michael appeared next to him. “On the full moon, we’ll join you and Lindy as official mates. You’ll be inducted into the pack. Normally, when a male joins the pack, there are ranking fights held on the following full moon so you can find your place in the pack. But I’d like to ask you if you’d be willing to take a special place within the pack.”

  “What did you have in mind?”

  Jason looked at Michael, who said, “In the old days — by which I mean old old days — the mates who weren’t able to participate in the hunt for whatever reason — age, pregnancy, injury — were guarded by a Fylax. He was a personal guard to the mates, the fie
rcest and deadliest male.”

  Jason said, “We’d like to ask you to become our Fylax. It’s a position of honor, unranked within the pack, so you wouldn’t have to fight for position. The Tressel Pack hasn’t had a Fylax in several generations. It used to be that a male was chosen each generation to be trained especially for the position, but like many of our traditions, it fell to the wayside. We’d be honored if you would accept the position.”

  Currently, Jason said, the mates and children were guarded by a small group of females who waited for a few hours until the males came home, and then they went out and hunted for the remainder of the night. Lindy had mentioned she had been guarding the alpha female the night he had spelled for her.

  “Instead of having rotating guards, we want to implement permanent guards. Lindy can become one, as can Drake and his mate, McKenna, and Faith. Until Faith finds a mate, my mom has offered to become the sixth guard.”

  The other males joined them, and Logan said, “It makes my wolf crazy to be away from Jenna on the full moon, but if I don’t hunt, then I get agitated, and that’s not good for anyone. I’ll feel safer knowing that a well-trained male like you is watching over her and the other non-shifting mates.”

  An overwhelming sense of belonging filtered through him. Emotion welled up inside him. His whole life he’d wanted to be with people like himself, but he hadn’t thought that would ever be possible.

  “I’d like to talk to Lindy about it, but I’d be honored.”

  The males whooped a cheer, and Crimson laughed. Jason clapped him on the back. “Fucking awesome.”

  Logan said, “Resh, Jason. Faes say ‘resh’.”

  “Right, right,” Jason said. “Resh.”

  He went into the house to find Lindy and shared the news with her. “Really?” she asked in surprise. “That’s wonderful! Do you want to do it?”

  Snaking his arms around her, he looked down into her pretty blue eyes and said, “If you’re okay with it, then I am. We’ll get to guard the mates and pups together, and when you’re carrying my pups, I’ll get to watch over you. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.”