by Crissy Smith
A Total-E-Bound Publication
www.total-e-bound.com
Pack Mates
ISBN # 978-1-78184-301-7
©Copyright Crissy Smith 2013
Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright April 2013
Edited by Stacey Birkel
Total-E-Bound Publishing
This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Total-E-Bound Publishing.
Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Total-E-Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.
The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.
Published in 2013 by Total-E-Bound Publishing, Think Tank, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7FL, United Kingdom.
Warning:
This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has a heat rating of Total-e-burning and a sexometer of 2.
This story contains 77 pages, additionally there is also a free excerpt at the end of the book containing 4 pages.
Were Chronicles
PACK MATES
Crissy Smith
Book Six in the Were Chronicles Series.
A pack divided…brought together by love.
Nikki Stratton returns to her Pack to find it split in half between the new Alpha and the older members of the Pack. Worse, there is talk about her oldest brother challenging for the Alpha position. Taking matters in her own hands, she meets with the Alpha’s brother RJ. She had no idea they would end up on the floor of his shop—hot, naked and sweaty.
RJ Cross supports his brother one hundred per cent, so when Nikki contacts him to find a solution to the Pack’s problems, he is relieved. He might even be able to come up with some decent ideas if he could keep his hands off Nikki.
As final preparations begin for the taking of the shifter world, Nikki and RJ must use everything at their disposal to bring their Pack together…and hopefully get their happily ever after.
Dedication
For the fans, who have waited—and begged—for the Were Chronicles to continue.
Trademarks Acknowledgement
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:
Jeep: Chrysler Group LLC
Harley: Harley-Davidson Inc.
Chevy: General Motors Company
Word: Corel Corporation
Chapter One
Late March and it was already ninety degrees in south-east New Mexico. Nikki Stratton groaned as the air conditioner in her old Jeep barely managed to cool the interior of the vehicle.
Thirty-two years old and she’d been called home like a teenager. She resented the fact that she had let her older brothers demand her appearance and was still disgusted with herself for not putting up a fight.
She continued to speed down the interstate towards her home town. Both dread and anxiety sat in her stomach. A new Alpha had been named for her Pack. Since she still maintained Pack status, she had been beckoned home to welcome him and the new members he had brought to join their family. That was what she supposed, anyway. It wasn’t like Brandon had actually told her why he wanted her home. He’d just stated she needed to leave the next day. Justin hadn’t given any hint either—had just told her the new Alpha would take over this week and she needed to come home.
It wasn’t even that she didn’t want to be there. She had planned to take a vacation and spend some time with her siblings soon, but being ordered home left her feeling like a cub again. She loved her brothers but sometimes it was more about the Pack than their immediate family.
Her oldest brother Brandon was town Sheriff and enforcer of the Pack. Her other brother Justin was a teacher, both in public and in Pack life. Their wants and needs had been built around being able to serve their fellow wolves. Nikki just wasn’t born that way. She liked to be free, to travel and be on her own. Unusual for a wolf, yes, but not unheard of. Away from home, she had not only met other wolves who felt like she did, but other shifters, too—felines, birds, and even a very nice shifter bear family. Nikki felt more at home with them sometimes than with her old Pack.
Her family had never understood her independence but at least they’d always supported her. She really couldn’t bitch too much about it. And she was starting to feel guilty and just a little childish about her feelings. Except…she liked her life. Now she worried that her carefully constructed way of life was about to change. Why else would she have to come home? With no choice in the matter? They’d never asked that before.
The exit sign for their town came up and Nikki had to fight the urge to keep driving. She slowed to make the curved side road that would take her straight into downtown Midessa, a small, private cotton and farming community close to the Texas panhandle.
Little had changed in the year and a half she’d been away. She’d gone to the big city of Houston, Texas, to attend college and had never moved back. Oh sure, she’d made certain that she returned every few years or so, but she wasn’t ready to settle down quite yet. And living in Midessa would ensure that would happen.
The welcome sign on the county line drew a sigh from her. She felt like a different person when she was there. Always having to defend her nomadic ways and trying to explain why she wasn’t ready for a mate or children yet.
Yet, if she was completely honest, it felt good to know she always had a place to come back to. Yes, even if she never said it out loud, sometimes she missed her family.
She let up off the gas pedal even more to drive in at the posted thirty-five miles per hour. She wouldn’t put it past Brandon to pull her over and ticket her if he caught her speeding. She chuckled to herself—it had, in fact, happened before.
The library was closed already, reminding her that at six on a Sunday night she wouldn’t have to worry about running into too many people. The café was open and had a half-full parking lot. But the other buildings—post office, salon, thrift store—were dark and locked up tight. Lights blazed to the right. Of course the Sheriff’s office was open. Like the café, it was an all-day-and-night business. Not that there was a lot of crime, but put a group of secretive wolf shifters in a community and you were bound to have several paranoid people. She happened to be related to one.
As if her thoughts had brought him out, she watched as the front door of the Sheriff’s office opened and Brandon stepped out.
His dark brown hair looked to be several weeks past a trim and reached over his ears. His strong muscular shoulders and arms bulged from his khaki uniform shirt, while his long legs ate up the ground as he made his way to the street. He turned and his green eyes flashed as he spotted her vehicle. The grin he sent her was so much better than the pictures she carried, she couldn’t help but smile back.
He wrenched the door to her Jeep open before she’d even parked. She slammed it into the P and turned the key right before he pulled her out and into his arms.
“Hey, sister,” he greeted her, squeezing tight.
“Bran!” she managed to squeak out.
He chuckled and set her on her feet. “Let me look at you.” He did the customary check she went through e
very time she came home. He ran his hands over her head, down her hair to her face, finally resting on her shoulders.
He nodded. “You need to eat more but you look good.”
She rolled her eyes. She hadn’t expected him to say anything different.
He grinned and threw an arm around her neck, yanking her close once again. “I was just headed to meet Justin for a bite. Now you can join me.”
She groaned. After driving for a day and a half she really wanted to rest.
“Oh, don’t complain. You need to eat. Then Justin can grab a ride home with you instead of waiting on me.”
He slammed her vehicle door closed before he led her away. It didn’t escape her notice that he didn’t lock it up—something she could never do back in Houston.
She let herself be dragged down the street heading back to the café she’d passed on her way into town. She let her eyes roam over the stores as she passed and noticed a new flower shop, tattoo parlour, and dry cleaners.
“New businesses?” There hadn’t been any new shops in the entire time she’d grown up there.
“Cameron started working with the new Alpha to bring his Pack members here before he stepped down. He wanted us to be comfortable and see the plus side of adding to the Pack,” Brandon explained.
“How many did we add?”
“Over fifty.”
She gasped. That was almost how many the Pack had had before. In a matter of a few months, the pack number had doubled.
“It’s a good thing,” Brandon responded to her reaction.
She noticed he’d said that with more feeling than normal. Either he was still trying to convince himself or there were already problems. She’d have to talk to Justin about it later.
Justin didn’t usually try to keep her out of what was happening, thinking he was protecting her like Brandon always did. Not all the time anyway.
She knew her brothers couldn’t help it. Brandon had raised his two younger siblings since he’d been barely an adult. Their father had left them as soon as he felt they were old enough to be on their own. The loss of his mate had been just too much for him to live with.
She wanted to remember good times with her parents but as she got older, she found it harder and harder to bring up those memories.
Just as they reached the door to the café, she was greeted with a shriek and an armful of woman. Chuckling and glad she still remembered the scent of her best childhood friend Sabrina, she grinned.
“Nik!” Sabrina held her close.
“Hey there, honey.” She hugged her friend back.
“I can’t believe you’re back. I was just saying the other day that you haven’t come to visit in forever. You haven’t even meet little Julian yet.”
Since she was still being squashed, she gently tried to extract herself from her friend. Sabrina didn’t seem to want to let go.
“Baby, give her room to breathe or you’re gonna make her pass out,” Sabrina’s mate Max said, coming to her rescue and pulling her friend from her.
Sabrina laughed. “All right.”
Nikki smiled and looked over her friend. Sabrina had grown to be such a lovely woman. Short-cropped blonde hair, styled and sassy, fit her petite frame and her quirky personality.
But it was the glow in Sabrina that warmed her heart. She looked so happy.
“We have to catch up. Oh, we have so much to talk about,” Sabrina said as she grabbed Nikki’s hands.
“Oh yes, and I’ll finally get to meet baby Julian and see Jesse and Jeremy,” she agreed. She still talked to her oldest friend as much as she could, but with two busy lives, work, family and everything else, it had been too long. “Why don’t you bring the kids over for breakfast in the morning?”
“A breakfast cooked by someone else?” Sabrina asked with a smile. “We are so there.”
Nikki nodded and pulled her friend in for another hug. “Eight o’clock—don’t be late.”
Sabrina agreed then let her mate lead her across the parking lot.
“She looks so great,” Nikki told her brother.
“She’s happy,” he answered simply. “But I want to know why you’re not making your favourite brother breakfast?”
She slapped his stomach as she pulled the door open. “Justin can eat if he wants to.”
Brandon growled and reached for her. She laughed and jumped out of the way, bumping into someone.
“Oh sorry,” she murmured as she looked up. She actually had to tilt her head back to see the man in front of her.
“Oh, no problem at all,” he responded with a deep rumble that vibrated the air around her.
Her breath caught as she stared up at the man. Dark, almost black hair hung over his dark eyes. His lips tilted up at the edges in a small smile as he moved to the side.
She didn’t even realise she had moved closer until Brandon touched her lower back, breaking her attention on the stranger.
“RJ.” Brandon greeted the stranger. Nikki didn’t miss the tension in her brother’s body or his tone.
“Good evening, Sheriff.” The man nodded. “Ma’am.”
Nikki snorted. “Ma’am?”
Amusement shone in the stranger’s gaze. “Well, if I knew your name…”
“It’s Nikki Stratton,” she replied, holding out her hand.
He took it and winked. “RJ Cross.”
Electricity sizzled from her fingertips up her arm. She was locked into that dark gaze and her body tingled with need. His dark eyes sparkled back at her.
“Now that everyone’s met, can we go eat?” Brandon snapped from beside her.
She sighed and removed her hand from RJ’s hold. “Well, I guess I’ll be seeing you around town,” she told the handsome stranger. She really, really wanted to see him again.
“Oh, I can almost guarantee it.”
Nikki didn’t want to leave his presence—there was just something about the man that called to her. But with her brother tugging at her arm, she allowed herself to be manhandled into the café.
She could feel RJ’s eyes on her as she was forced away from him.
Chapter Two
RJ Cross watched the young woman until she disappeared to the back of the café. The smile fell from his face once she was out of sight. Without question, she was one of the most intriguing women he’d ever laid eyes on.
Her long dark hair was streaked with blonde, which added an attractive touch. Her green eyes had sparkled and her slender body was just to his liking. But being a Stratton was an added complication.
He and Brandon Stratton hadn’t started on the best of terms. He shook his head and started back down the street to his shop. Instead of going inside, he walked to the back where he had his Harley parked.
He was glad he had decided to stop at the café before going home. Running into Nikki Stratton was a pleasant twist to the already long day.
He climbed on his bike and started it up. The rumble and vibration under him felt good and he took off towards the main street.
The small community he’d moved to with his Pack was a pretty piece of America. The Pack had come from the mountains of Colorado, and he’d worried that his family and Pack members wouldn’t adjust well. The last eight years spent in the military had kept him from having a place. His older brother had asked for him to come home, and RJ had known it had been time. He’d met some great people along the way, but he wanted to settle down. To be a part of something else. So it was great that, so far, most loved the town they had found, including him.
The quick ride to the house he was staying at with his brothers ended, and he thought about riding around for a little longer. He enjoyed driving the long, empty roads throughout the territory but he had business to take care of.
He parked under the carport between the two trucks that had beaten him home. The lights were on in the front windows as he made his way across the wood porch. He let himself in and was greeted by the coolness of the air and the sound of a ball game on the television in the
den.
He followed the noise to the doorway where he found his two brothers. His eldest brother was lounging in one of the leather chairs, legs spread as he slouched, drinking a beer.
RJ’s younger brother had his head buried in a book as he sat on one side of the large couch. He ruffled his ‘little’ brother’s hair as he stepped beside him and dropped down next to him.
“Hey!” Ben grumbled, not looking up from his book.
RJ grinned as he met Dylan’s gaze.
Dylan smiled and shook his head. “How was work?”
RJ just shrugged. Opening a tattoo shop in a small town might not work out but he enjoyed his art and didn’t really need to work anyway. “Had a couple people drop by, but no new customers. I think they wanted to check out the new Alpha’s brother more than any art.”
Dylan nodded. “Give them time. The town will open up to us.”
RJ hoped he was right but that wasn’t his biggest concern. “I stopped by the café tonight.”
Dylan must have caught something in his tone because he switched the game to mute and sat up straighter.
“I overhead two men talking about the ceremony,” RJ told him.
Beside him, Ben put his book down and shifted towards him. Now he had both their attentions.
“They suggested there might be a challenge after the ceremony.”
Dylan sat back, and RJ let the man think. The rumours about a challenge had started to build in the last few weeks. Now just days before the ceremony, they had picked up even more. It had always been a possibility when Cameron King had asked Dylan to take over as Alpha that a challenge would come from someone who wanted the top position.
There were only two ways to become an Alpha of a Pack—to be appointed or to challenge the standing Alpha. Cameron King was an honest, kind, and well-respected Alpha. Dylan was new to the territory. An unknown.
“Any idea who?” Dylan asked quietly.
RJ ran his hands roughly over his face. This was the tricky part. He didn’t want to add to the gossip but he had to protect his brother. “Talk is Brandon Stratton.”
