His Mate - Seniors 4

by M. L. Briers

  “We’re not exactly on the beaten trail,” Angela offered with a level of skepticism that Rick could embrace.

  “I like to go off the beaten trail,” Robert offered back, but he didn’t sound convincing. At least, it didn’t look like anyone in the room believed him.

  “That can lead to trouble,” Dorothy muttered.

  “Sorry? I didn’t catch that,” Robert asked.

  “Me too and double,” Dorothy offered as she smiled like an insane person.

  Angela lifted her index finger to her temple and circled it several times.

  “Just a little senior moment — nothing to worry about,” Angela offered, and Dorothy snapped her head around to glare at her friend. Angela gave a small shrug off her shoulders until her attention was taken by Rick walking into the room.

  Both elders appreciated Rick’s physique. Hank grumbled a small growl before he remembered himself and the fact that Robert was human. When Robert shot him a sideways glance, Angela rushed to the rescue.

  “Sounds like thunder,” Angela said.

  “That’s why it’s probably a good idea for Robert to head out now,” Rick’s gruff tone left them all in no doubt that he didn’t like the man.

  “In a thunderstorm?” Robert said.

  “Not yet, it’s not,” Dorothy offered back. “Should probably get going while the going is still good.”

  She may have been accused of having senior moments every now and again, but she could tell that Rick really didn’t like the man. If Rick didn’t like him, then she didn’t trust him.

  The enforcer tended to be a good judge of character. That was good enough for her.

  “Yes,” Robert bit out, although, he didn’t sound happy to do it. “Well, Elizabeth, I’ll see you back at work.”

  “I — sure,” she said, not sure at all as she turned her attention towards Rick.

  She was a mate. Her mother was a mate. Was she really ever going back to her previous life?

  Robert caught the way that Elizabeth was looking at Rick. A flash of annoyance swept through him.

  She’d never looked at him that way. Not yet. But there was still time to put that right.

  ~

  ~

  ~

  “And where do you think you’re going?” Valerie offered Quinn a curious look.

  “I’m walking you to your room…”

  “I believe it’s where I left it,” she offered back.

  “Well, look who’s back in a bad mood,” Quinn said as his eyebrows came down almost to cover his eyes. “You’re like the plumbing in this place – that can’t make up its mind either.”

  “Cute,” Valerie didn’t look impressed.

  “I’d prefer manly or sexy, but I’ll settle for cute.”

  “How about we settle on me zapping you?”

  “Let’s not and say we did.” Quinn frowned harder.

  “Then let’s call it a night.”

  “Night!” he offered back with a smug grin. “Now what?”

  “I think you’re a handful…”

  “Don’t underestimate me. These pants are cut very generously. I’m at least two handfuls…”

  “Would you stop?” Valerie berated him with a look.

  “I’m only just getting warmed up.”

  “Quinn!” her eyes widened, and her mate sighed.

  “Fine.” He grumbled. “But are you sure you don’t want to get our mating off to a flying start…?”

  “Goodnight,” Valerie cut the man off, and he gave a small grunt of acceptance.

  “Goodnight,” he folded his arms and stood rooted to the spot.

  “Go home,” she berated him again.

  “Not even if it was burning down.” He grumbled.

  “I…” she gave up and tossed up her hands in dismay. “What are you going to do – play guard-wolf outside my door all night?”

  “Could be,” Quinn offered back.

  “You’re old. That won’t be comfortable.”

  “Would you rather I slept at the foot of your bed?”

  “No!”

  “In your bed?” he wiggled his eyebrows at her and was sure that the sound that caught in the back of her throat was a muted growl. His beast lurched towards the surface.

  “Not bloody likely,” she ground out.

  “Don’t say I didn’t offer when you’re lying there in the dark imagining me there…”

  “Not one more word,” she hissed, narrowing her eyes at him.

  “Not even a little one?”

  “No!”

  “Too much temptation for you?” Quinn grinned, and it was catching.

  Valerie turned away from him before he could see the smile break on her lips. The man was a nightmare from which there was no real escape.

  “Here’s how tempting it is. Watch me walk away,” she shot back over her shoulder.

  “Love too…” Quinn growled.

  “You really are an incorrigible old…”

  “Not so old that I can’t still show my woman a good…”

  “Night,” Robert said as he strolled out into the hallway.

  “What he said,” Quinn chuckled. Valerie turned halfway up the stairs.

  “Leaving so soon? Such a shame,” she lied.

  Robert hesitated in his stride. His eyes met Valerie’s, and he held her steely glare.

  “I’m sure I’ll see you soon,” Robert said, and his words sounded more like a threat to her ears.

  Valerie scowled back at the man. Even once his back was turned, and he was walking out of the door she still glared at him.

  “You really don’t like that one, do you?” Quinn asked as he watched him go.

  “No. I really don’t.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  ~

  With a minor pack emergency that had taken Nathan away from the inn, Sarah was at a loose end as to what to do with herself. She reveled in the quiet and stillness of the late hour when all the madness of the day had been put to bed.

  She didn’t regret moving to the inn. She certainly didn’t regret meeting Dorothy and Angela. Without all of that, she would never have met Nathan, and she was more than grateful for him.

  “Look who’s up at the witching hour,” Chloe said from her perch on the outside of the windowsill.

  Her aunt, however, was one of the headaches that she could probably do without.

  “Don’t you need your beauty sleep?” Sarah tossed back as she flicked the kettle on and reached for the hot chocolate.

  “Hardly.”

  “Well from where I stand it looks like you do,” Sarah offered back as a small smile played at the corners of her lips.

  “Come to the dark side and not have to worry about aging.”

  “I don’t worry about aging. And here’s the bonus — I don’t have to worry about controlling my bloodlust.” Sarah shot her a quick look over her shoulder, and she noted that Chloe didn’t look impressed.

  “I don’t have to worry about controlling my bloodlust if I don’t want to.”

  “You do if you want to come in.”

  “I told you — there are ways around that,” Chloe sounded smug.

  “Which would see you in your grave not long after me — and it would be permanent this time,” Sarah warned.

  “From your wolves?” Chloe snorted a chuckle.

  “They’re your pack too, or did you leave everything behind when you changed into a bloodsucking leech?” Sarah asked, but Chloe chose not to answer her.

  “Superior attitudes are meant for superior people — ergo, watch the attitude,” Chloe offered back.

  “Do you want me to dump you on your backside on the ground again?”

  “Do you want me to sample from the menu that would be your guests?” Chloe tossed back.

  “You’ve got to get in first.”

  “They have to come out sometime.”

  “Can we – stop doing this?” Sarah grumbled.

  “You mean for tonight or entirely?”

&
nbsp; “I just want my hot chocolate…”

  “Bad day?” Chloe offered her a smug grin.

  “Just another day…”

  “Oh, paradise not working out the way you’d hoped?” Chloe was intrigued.

  “Bite me,” Sarah grumbled.

  “Be careful what you wish for, little witch…”

  “Don’t — little witch – me. You’d be a crone if you hadn’t of died.” Sarah hissed.

  “There is that,” Chloe admitted. “But now look at me…”

  “Yes, all fangs and an insatiable bloodlust, and no magic. I don’t envy you, and I don’t want to be you, and yes, I’m happy with my life. Nobody’s life can ever be paradise all the time, and just wishing for it makes you unhappy that you can’t have it.”

  “Oh no — someone in the family spat out a philosopher,” Chloe offered back.

  “Yes, you might be pretty and young — but everyone’s life is still a trade-off — even yours.”

  “I just want to get in my house, not be lectured,” Chloe grumbled back. She didn’t want to admit that what Sarah was saying was true.

  “My house.”

  “Our – house.”

  “Nope — it’s definitely my house.” Sarah smiled to herself.

  Maybe having Chloe around was a good thing. It took Sarah’s mind off other problems.

  ~

  ~

  ~

  Elizabeth sat in the sunroom and stared out into the blackness of night. Her eyes were naturally drawn to the twinkling stars in the sky, but she wasn’t really paying attention. She had too much on her mind.

  She knew that everything that had happened was some form of karma. She’d dragged her mother out into the middle of nowhere under false pretenses, and it had come back to bite her in the backside.

  A mate. Not just one for her mother but for herself.

  She loved that life was an unpredictable rollercoaster ride. Normally, she saw it as a challenge. Rick was certainly a challenge.

  She supposed that what was good for the goose was good for the gander. She’d expected her mother to uproot her life and move to the middle of nowhere on a whim — how could she not do the same?

  Elizabeth knew that being a mate came with responsibilities. Rick was sure to feel the full effects of the mating pull that fate had designed so well. But the sting in the tail was that if she walked away, then the enforcer was almost certain to go rogue.

  The man was an enforcer by nature — he was probably closer than most shifters to becoming a rogue. She couldn’t imagine Rick as a mindless beast with no soul, trying to chew through the population of the area.

  The thought of it was enough to wedge a scowl on her forehead as her mate watched curiously from the doorway. He’d wanted to give her a little space, even if it had been clawing inside of him like an elder desperate for gossip, to know what she was thinking.

  “I’d give you a penny for them, but I feel they’re worth more than that,” Rick said and nudged her from her thoughts back to reality.

  “What?” She turned her head, and her eyes took him in. She felt the rush of excitement go through her body at just the sight of him.

  “Your thoughts…”

  “Just like a man to assume a woman is thinking…”

  “So you’re blank?” Rick hadn’t let her finish. She looked far too serious, and he wanted to lighten the moment.

  “Huh?”

  “Guess so.” He grinned.

  Elizabeth was bewitched. She couldn’t stop looking at him.

  If she had to guess, then that smile was designed, either by him or by nature, to lure her in. The man certainly was a woman magnet, and she was that woman. It worked in all the right places.

  “I was going to say; to assume that I was thinking about you.”

  “Were you?”

  “No.” She lied.

  “When you lie you get a little glint of something in your eyes.” He lied right back.

  The fact that he’d lied didn’t stop Elizabeth from instinctively raising her fingertips towards her eye. When his grin widened, she caught herself doing it and snapped her hand back to her lap.

  “Liar.”

  “Maybe — but you’ll never really know, will you?” He teased her once more.

  “Perhaps the truth spell will loosen your tongue.”

  “Now you have designs on my tongue — I can live with that.” Rick knew exactly what he wanted to do with his tongue, and those thoughts made a low, deep, hungry growl roll through his broad chest.

  “I don’t know where that tongues been. I mean, as your wolf…”

  “Let’s not go there.” Rick pushed off from the door frame and started a slow walk towards her.

  He noted the way that she shifted in her seat, just a little, just enough to tell him that a flash of nervousness had gone through her mind and body.

  It didn’t stop his approach. He didn’t want to be on the other side of the room from her. She was his mate, and he wanted to be as close as possible at all times.

  It was definitely one of those times. His beast was eager for the man to woo her. The wolf wanted nothing more than to claim their mate.

  Just being close to her would feel like hope in an uncertain future. He’d yet to win his mate, and that was weighing on his mind.

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  ~

  “Tell me what you’d be giving up to live here with me?” Rick asked.

  “I don’t understand,” Elizabeth said.

  “Sure you do. What ties do you have to go back to your old life? Robert?”

  “Goddess no.”

  “Good to know. Now I don’t have to find somewhere to hide the body,” Rick said, but his eyes were alive with amusement.

  “My mother,” Elizabeth said as she tossed up a small shrug of her shoulder.

  “Not exactly true. I know it’s Quinn — but I think he can woo your mother around to the idea of staying right here.” Rick eased down into the chair beside her.

  “And if he can’t?”

  “I’ll kill Quinn, and your mother won’t have a problem with staying anyway,” Rick grinned.

  “I feel as if you’re hung up on killing people. Is there a serial killer thing going on with you?”

  “Not that I’m aware of. But wouldn’t that make life a little more interesting?” Rick teased again.

  “No — not really,” Elizabeth said before a small chuckle escaped her lips.

  “You laughed. You are thinking evil thoughts.”

  “Well we all have a little hit list that we keep to ourselves and add to regularly, don’t we?”

  Elizabeth offered him a mischievous smile. His dark eyebrows drew down into a frown as he gave her a curious look.

  “Well, that didn’t fill me with a warm fuzzy feeling. I’m going to have to keep a close eye on you.” Rick liked that idea, keeping her close sounded just fine to him.

  “Just an eye?”

  Now it was her turn to tease him, and she’d managed to get another deep, hungry growl from him.

  “That depends.” Rick left it there to see if she would take the bait.

  “On what?”

  “On you.”

  “How so?”

  “I’m all in. It’s entirely up to you how far you are prepared to go.”

  “A leap of faith?”

  “Sounds good,” Rick growled again.

  “Throwing caution to the wind?”

  “I’m a sure bet.” Rick grinned again. Her heart hit her ribs and double tapped to get out.

  “So, you’re easy.”

  “Only for you, sweetheart.”

  “I tend to like to work for the things that I want.” She shrugged.

  “You want me to play hard to get?” Rick chuckled. The sound was deep and gravelly and rolled over her body making the fine hairs stand on end.

  “There’s a thought.” Elizabeth didn’t commit herself either way.

  “But where is my incentive when you’ve
already admitted that you want me?”

  “I did not!” Elizabeth looked aghast.

  She was busy trying to replay the conversation within her mind to figure out if he was just pulling her leg, or if she had actually said the words to that effect.

  “You sure did.”

  “Huh?”

  “You said, and I quote; I tend to like to work for the things that I want — want — do you want me to say it again? Because I can. Want.”

  “A slip of the tongue. A wrong word. You can’t hold that against me,” she chuckled.

  “Sure I can.” His grin was so damn wolfish that she couldn’t help but smile.

  “Well, I’m guessing this is my cue to leave,” she pushed up to her feet, and he was right there with her.

  “I’ll come with you.” He wasn’t about to let his mate out of his sight, not after Robert, and certainly not before they were mated.

  Just the sheer size of him alone was enough to make her heart race. Couple that with the fact that he was as sexy as hell and she had to wonder how much her poor heart could take.

  Elizabeth was curious. Yes, curiosity tended to kill the cat, but she wasn’t a cat, and she thought her heart could hold out for one kiss.

  Just one kiss.

  Just one chance to find out how it would feel to be held within his strong muscled arms, arms that would wrap around her body, and protect her from all of life’s ills.

  I couldn’t.

  I shouldn’t.

  Something like that would give him false hope that I had made up my mind.

  I haven’t – have I?

  I don’t think I have – ok, that’s a damn lie – I’m ninety-nine percent, almost sure, I kind of have-ish.

  But kissing?

  Kissing leads to more kissing, and more kissing leads to touching, and touching leads to stroking, and stroking leads to — am I trying to talk myself into this or out of it?

  I’m in my forties — I have things that are starting to go due South on a slow, progressive landslide.

  I’m not a famous movie star; I don’t have a procession of personal trainers, nutritionists, chefs, plastic surgeons – a little harsh — there’s going to be slippage, but still…