by E A Price
Carly caught the eye of the middle-aged coyote shifter behind the bar and sent out happy tendrils. “Could I use your phone, please? I’ll pay for the call.”
The coyote gave her curvy little body an appreciative glance. “Course, sweetness, no charge. Use my office, down the corridor last door on the left.”
“Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
Carly scooted down the corridor, as she did she became aware of an intoxicating scent. It was a rich, earthy fragrance, like the smell of early morning rain. Fresh and soothing. Her timid little wolf practically purred and rolled over.
She had butterflies in her stomach, and her sex fluttered as the scent grew stronger. As she reached the door, her body was trembling with needy awareness. Her beast yipped in anticipation. Yes, it was her mate! It had to be. At last, she’d found her mate! The perfect man. The man who was made to be with her, and her alone. Someone to end her loneliness… Mate. Mine. She flung the door open eagerly and… froze, horror-struck.
Two stunning, skinny humans each only wearing a thong were rubbing their hands over a massive bear shifter, as he danced around pulling his shirt off. His jeans were already discarded on the floor, and his manhood was at full mast.
Her wolf whined pitifully. She blinked back tears, but a sob escaped her throat.
The bear stilled and groaned gutturally. He spied her in the doorway, and his eyes dilated to the black of his animal. The beast inside him roared in ecstasy at the sight of the beautiful wolf, knowing instinctively who she was. Mate. Mine.
Cain moved toward her arms outstretched, keen to clasp her tightly to him. And never let her go. The wolf shrieked slamming the door shut and pelted away.
Cain shook his head, clearing his mind of the lust filled haze meeting his mate had brought about. He looked round to see the situation for what it really was. His mate had stumbled across him naked, with two almost completely naked humans about to have a threesome. No wonder she had run. He howled in fury and jerkily pulled his clothes on, desperate to get to her.
Carly flew through the bar, ignoring the disgruntled shouts of people she elbowed until she got to her pack mates. “Acksel, I don’t feel well, please take me home.”
The bear’s howls shook the windows of the bar. “Please, Acksel.” Tears streamed down her face, and Acksel immediately said he would.
Carly hurried him out the bar, saying a quick goodbye to her other confused looking pack mates. As Acksel quickly drove away, the last thing she saw was an angry bear exploding out of the bar. She hunched down in her seat and chewed on her nails, studiously ignoring Acksel’s worried glances. Oh god, why was she so unlucky in love?
*
Cain stood in the car park barefoot. He hadn’t even bothered with shoes; his shirt was inside out, and his jeans were unbuttoned. Fuck!
Cain let out an almighty roar; he shook with the exertion of holding onto his beast. The bear wanted to push forward and chase the little wolf. To the ends of the earth if necessary. He wanted to take her, dominate her and pleasure her until she was too tired ever to run from him again.
People were piling out the bar, watching him with a mixture of nervousness and curiosity. He was stood in the middle of the car park, eyes black; half dressed and wicked looking claws and fangs descending. Apart from the clothes he looked feral.
“What the fuck are you looking at?” he snarled fiercely.
Like startled rabbits, they stumbled back into the bar, trying to climb over each other in their haste. The members of the wolf pack lingered outside. Don and Hans were alert to the fact that something had happened with Carly. Their Omega.
It was true that Omegas were often disregarded and taken for granted by their own pack, due to their physical weakness. Wolf shifters could be aggressive and dominant beasts. But the Omega was a treasured member of the pack, whilst not always treated right by pack mates, they were defended to the death from outsiders.
“What the fuck man?” yelled Hans, subtle as always.
The two wolves maneuvered their witch mates behind them. Although Cain was their friend, he also had a larger and stronger beast. If he did snap and attack, they wanted their mates out of the way.
Cain flexed his jaw. “Who was that she-wolf?”
Don flicked his eyes to Hans and nodded; they were both prepared to shift if necessary. “Why do you wanna know?”
Cain slumped and turned to stare sorrowfully in the direction she had escaped. “She’s my mate.”
Chapter Three
Cain searched his pockets for the door key. He couldn’t find it. Finally, after becoming increasingly irritated, he put his shoulder to the door and forced it open. It splintered noisily and hung limply off the hinges.
Crossly, he stomped into his bedroom and froze at the sight before him. Jules was kneeling in his bed, wearing one of his shirts. She smiled invitingly and licked her lips.
At least he knew where his key had gone.
Cain scowled at her. “I’m not in the mood.”
His bear snarled at the woman. He wanted her gone; she wasn’t his mate. She had to get out. Now.
“What’s wrong, baby?” Jules reached over to touch him, and he recoiled.
She frowned at him; just a few hours ago he had gladly welcomed her. Cain himself was a little surprised at his sudden aversion to other women. Surprised, but not displeased. It was nature telling him he had met his perfect mate, and no other woman would do.
The bear sighed. “Please, just leave.”
Jules frowned before pouting. “Don’t you want your shirt back…” She started pulling it over her head.
Cain was almost positive she was completely naked under there, and he didn’t really want to find out for sure. “No! Keep it… it’s a gift. Just go.”
Jules grunted in disgust; collecting together her discarded clothes, and she marching out the door.
“And don’t forget to leave my key!”
She spun round and threw the key at his head.
“Psycho,” he muttered, when he was certain she was out of earshot.
Cain was in no fucking mood tonight. His bear was constantly howling at him, berating him for letting the wolf get away. At the bar, after he had calmed down a little, he had tried begging the wolves into telling him where he could find his mate. When that didn’t work, he resorted to threats, but the wolves wouldn’t budge.
It wasn’t that they wanted to keep Cain away from his mate; they just didn’t want to upset Carly. Any more than she already was. They had tried to draw him on what exactly had caused her to tear out of the bar, but Cain was reticent to tell them. He wasn’t ashamed… exactly. He wasn’t actually doing anything wrong. He liked sex, and women liked having sex with him. What was wrong with that?
If he had known his mate was going to turn up, he sure as hell wouldn’t have hooked up with those two groupies, and as soon as she did, he put a stop to it. He liked casual sex, but he could be monogamous. With the right woman. With his little wolf mate.
He only got the briefest glance at her, but every detail was burned into his psyche. From her long, light brown hair, to her big, round hazel eyes that shimmered with flecks of brown and green. Cain smiled as he thought of her body. She couldn’t have been more than five foot three, tiny compared to his seven foot frame. His body heated rapidly as he remembered her generous curves.
She was unusual for a she-wolf. They tended to be tall and lithe. He’d been with a few wolves, not that he was complaining, but they were angular and built like surf boards. Not at all like his gorgeous little mate. Blood rushed to his manhood as he thought of taking his mate. The thought of her luscious body splayed out before him, flushed with desire, was exhilarating. He imagined rising over her and plunging inside, conquering her like some invading force. His bear roared in approval.
Cain snarled. He should have just beaten Don and Hans until they gave in and told him where she was. She was definitely a member of their pack. Undoubtedly, Hans’ prett
y-boy brother was driving her home to Rose. Cain’s skin crawled imagining the male wolf near his mate.
Melanie had been sympathetic, but not enough to tell him where his mate was. It didn’t help that he blurted out the fact that he intended to storm right over to her, and demand she accept him as her mate. Apparently that was coming on too strong.
Melanie had agreed to talk to her tomorrow. That wasn’t soon enough.
His fingers itched desperate to hit someone. He felt the prickle of tension he always did before a fight, the tremendous rage that inevitably built up and demanded release. He fought on a regular basis to ensure that anger never boiled over anywhere else but in a cage fight. He once went two months without a fight, and he was almost feral. The fights allowed him to rid himself of his primal urges, and allowed him to be easy going the rest of the time.
The fight that night had been particularly satisfying. Beating a larger, stronger opponent was always a thrill for the bear. But losing his mate within a minute of meeting her had just allowed all those urges to bubble to the surface.
Cain growled, and his beast snapped his jaws as he scented someone coming toward him. Skunk.
“What the fuck did you do to my door?” The skunk shifter’s piercing voice grated on Cain’s already razor-edge patience.
The skunk was his landlord. He was a tubby, balding, middle-aged sleazeball. The guy charged an extortionate rate for a lousy apartment. Cain only put up with it because it was close to the gym; it was close to O’Neill’s, and not many people wanted to rent to a Kodiak bear. Something about property damage…
The skunk bustled in without even waiting for an invite. He jabbed a finger in Cain’s chest. “I don’t know why I fucking put up with you.”
Cain snorted. He knew why. Three reasons. The money, the chance to leer and hit on the women Cain brought home with him, and the paper thin walls. The skunk got his rocks off listening to the noisy sex that went on in Cain’s apartment.
“Why the fucking hell did you break it down?”
“I lost my key,” hissed Cain lowly.
With each word the skunk stuck his finger into Cain’s chest. “Well, that’s not going to be cheap to replace, and you’re going to pay for that, you dumb fuck.”
Cain quick as lightning grabbed the skunk by his throat. “I lost my key. It was an accident.”
The skunk scratched at Cain’s arm to no avail. His eyes started bulging, and his skin turned tomato red. Sneering, the bear dropped him.
The skunk plopped to the floor and coughed, gasping for breath. He slithered out of reach. “You stupid bear. I’ll have you arrested for that. You see if I won’t!”
Snarling Cain picked up a chest of draws and hurled it at the retreating skunk, who yelped and scrambled away. Cain roared, and, relinquishing control, his muscles grew, and he shifted, brown fur sprouted all over his body. Pushing forward, the bear bellowed and started tearing apart the furniture.
Nobody would keep him from his mate!
*
Carly felt a twinge of anger. No, not anger; more like red hot rage. She twisted uncomfortably, wondering at the feeling and rearranging her pillows. She was in bed, but so far sleep eluded her. She wasn’t angry at what happened, more… disappointed. Sad. Embarrassed. Heartbroken.
Childish romantic creature that she was, she had dreamed of meeting her mate for years. He was always prince charming who swept her off her feet. He loved her more than anyone else, in spite of her weaknesses, in spite of her silliness, in spite of the stronger, prettier females, he wanted her. He was masculine, yet sensitive to her needs and her abilities. He was strong yet gentle, tough but kind, and above all, he wasn’t afraid to show his emotions. He was tall; about six feet tall would do it. He had a soft, handsome face that was warm and inviting. He was lean and in shape, but not big enough or physically powerful enough to actually be scary. And above all, he wasn’t the type of man who had sex with floozies in bars!
Yep, she’d been dreaming about her ideal mate for a long time.
After all her imaginings, the reality had been distinctly jarring. To find her mate was a gigantic bear shifter, with colossal muscles was daunting to say the least. The man looked to be at least three times her size. Not to mention the unadulterated lust and power she saw in his eyes, it was quite frankly terrifying! There had been nothing sensitive or kind about the way he looked at her. It was a look of pure need.
Her wolf yipped remembering his body. The silly puppy virtually drooled over his muscles. On a base level, she couldn’t help but admire him. For she-wolf shifters, it was instinctual to search out a strong male to take care of them and protect their young. Carly giggled a little hysterically. In spite of all the posturing of the other she-wolves in her pack, all the women who made her life hell growing up, it amused her that she, the weak little Omega, had actually found the strongest mate of them all.
There was a fair bit of rivalry in the pack regarding mates; before Rosalee came along, there was a lot of competition to become the female Alpha. Carly was thankful this rivalry over mates had dimmed somewhat. Since the inclusion of humans and witches as mates to pack members, things had settled. A little.
The bear couldn’t exactly be called handsome. Not classically so anyway. There was more of an intense, rugged strength about him, which drew you in and made you think he was the greatest man on earth, and made you fall in love…
Ugh! No, stop. Carly kicked the covers off and reached to turn on the ceiling fan. It was just the mating call. Nothing more. It was just her primitive self trying to force her to mate and breed. There was no love there.
Her wolf protested, but Carly stubbornly ignored the beast. He wasn’t right for them. She had seen him and felt the edges of his emotions. There was no tenderness or understanding there. He couldn’t be the mate of an Omega. He wasn’t up to the task.
Alright, maybe in part she was just saying that because of how she met her mate. To burst in when he was about to have sex with two skanks was mortifying. What if they were to get together and have pups, what would she say when her kids asked her how they met? Oh, I just walked in on daddy about to get it on with two random bar bunnies. Yeah right!
Carly thought of the girls, remembering the wanton looks on their flawless faces and the smell of their obvious desire. The little wolf surged with jealousy thinking of the way they had been stroking his muscles, and the way he had quivered under their ministrations. He had enjoyed their touches, reveled in them. And why wouldn’t he? They were stunning, not an ounce of fat on either one. They were graced with big breasts, small asses and flat stomachs. She hated them. Why would the bear want imperfect Carly, when he could snap his fingers and get perfect women like them?
Cain Moran. That was the name of her mate. She hadn’t watched him fight for long, but she knew it was him. The brutality of it had been too much for her. Perhaps if she had stayed for longer, perhaps if she had sucked it up and acted like a grown up, instead of like a freaking little girl, she might have been able to distinguish his scent sooner.
Acksel, thank heavens, hadn’t probed her about what happened. He was one of the better males in the pack. She’d had a massive crush on him growing up, and had been kind of disappointed when she turned 19 and found he wasn’t her mate. Still, being friends was nice too. And the whole true mate thing was a moot point now…
Carly was a little concerned by the fact that Cain was friends with Hans and Don. They could have easily told her mate where she lived. She spent a couple of hours in nervous agitation waiting for the bear to come crashing to her door. He hadn’t though. She figured either the two wolves had shown loyalty to her, and refused to tell him, or he simply hadn’t cared enough to come see her. The latter really bummed her out.
But then, why should she expect him to come chasing after her? She had run off like a coward the moment she met him.
Damn, she was so confused. Part of her wanted him to come storming through her door and make her his mate. Her wolf wagged
her tail at the thought. No surprises there. That part of her was disappointed that he hadn’t already done so. Whilst another was terrified of ever seeing him again, and couldn’t imagine them being mates. A small part still smarted over the whole ‘almost catching him in a threesome’ fiasco.
Her ex-boyfriend, Bryce, was right. She did have a screw loose. Not like his new girlfriend, Carrie. Oh no! It’s perfectly reasonable to try and sleep your way into the pack. Yep, completely normal to seduce Alec, the Beta, and then lie and tell everyone you’re pregnant. She wasn’t crazy at all! It wasn’t something Alec liked to talk about, especially not in the presence of his newly pregnant mate, Liv.
Carly frowned. For the first time since Bryce had unceremoniously dumped her, (via text message, thank you very much), she didn’t actually feel unhappy about it. She didn’t feel anything in fact. A lovely side effect of meeting her real true mate perhaps?
Ugh! And we’re back to Cain!
Carly swung her legs out of bed and wriggled into her slippers. Well, she wasn’t getting any sleep, so she might as well do what she always did when she couldn’t sleep. Bake.
She might as well try out that zebra cake recipe again. If it worked, she could include it in her shop. At least her dream of owning a cake shop was coming true. Although her love life was looking a bit muddled at the moment, things were going well in other areas of her life.
Yep, that was some comfort. Right?
Chapter Four
January 19th
“Rise and shine sleeping beauty. Time to go bear.”
The duty cop banged his nightstick against the bars. Cain grunted, and rubbed his bleary eyes. The narrow bunk creaked and groaned as he slowly stood up and stretched, filling the tiny cell. He nodded to his quaking cell mate and made his way out.
Last night the skunk had been true to his word. He called the cops. Four patrol cars had shown up. After a minor scuffle between him and eight cops, they’d finally forced him to shift back to human, and got him into a pair of pants and handcuffs. He was then invited to join them at the police station. He’d tried to decline the invitation, but they insisted.
