Slade's Feisty Mate (Saber Chronicles Book Two)
Slade’s Feisty Mate
Saber Chronicles Book Two
By R. E. Butler
Copyright 2015 R. E. Butler
Slade’s Feisty Mate (Saber Chronicles Book Two)
By R. E. Butler
License Notes
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.
Cover by S. Frost Designs
This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is coincidental.
Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content and is intended for those older than the age of 18 only.
* * * * *
I’d like to thank Jennifer Moorman for editing the story.
Many heartfelt thanks to Joyce and Shelley for beta-reading.
To the Wild Shifter Babes Street Team – I adore you all!
To BB & BL - I love you both.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Contact the Author
Other Works by R. E. Butler
Coming Soon
Slade’s Feisty Mate
Saber Chronicles Book Two
By R. E. Butler
Slade Carmichael, second oldest were-saber toothed tiger, is happy his brother Alaric found his mate. He can’t wait to begin mate-dreaming about his own mate and get started on the next chapter of his life.
She-wolf Gretchen Havers is thrilled her best friend, Aubrey, found her mate at the were-fights and is happy to help Aubrey’s new family get settled in the supernatural hotel where she works. It is just a typical night, until a sexy guy walks in the front door, locks eyes with her, and promptly passes out.
She never expected her mate to purr, but she’s thrilled she’s found her truemate. She’s always thought of wolves as being the most awesome shifters because of their hunting skills and pretty fur coats, but she’s beginning to think that tigers are pretty awesome too. Especially her truemate, who thinks she smells like butterscotch and likes how feisty she is.
Contains m/f interaction, a lot of pleasure, and several creamy puns.
Chapter 1
Gretchen Havers stared at the newly mated wolf couple as they snuggled in front of the hotel desk. Gretchen had been the assistant to the manager, her best friend Aubrey Night, since the hotel opened three years earlier. As a wolf shifter, Gretchen had seen her fair share of public displays of affection during the years, but there was something about the scene tonight that made her ache in a special way.
She had a fantastic life. Aubrey was a great boss and also happened to be the only sister of the master vampire of the city of Belle Terra. Caleb was a good male who ruled the city fairly, and Gretchen had known him almost her entire life. When Caleb had the supernatural hotel built and made Aubrey the manager, Gretchen had been excited to get out of her parents’ house and away from the pack. It wasn’t that she didn’t love being a wolf, because she did. There really was nothing better in her mind than shifting and going for a long run through the pack-owned woods in town.
But, she could admit, that watching the couple wiggle obscenely together in front of her made something very deep in the center of her body ache. The full moon was in a week. She would just chalk up the feelings to early-full-moonitis, something her grandmother said was akin to what humans called ants in the pants.
Smiling at the thought of her favorite grandmother, she decided to give her a call after her shift at work was over.
“Okay, everything is in order, Mr. Jackson. I just need your signature on the screen.”
He stopped trying to suck his mate’s spine through her neck and lifted his head, his eyes the amber of his beast. The amber color faded as he straightened and picked up the stylus. “Room service? We don’t want to leave.”
She pressed a red button on the tablet’s screen to bring up the room service menu. “You can order right now, and it will be up in approximately thirty minutes.”
“You order, babe,” he said gruffly. “I can’t see straight because all I can think about is getting you naked.”
The she-wolf blushed, and Gretchen smiled, inwardly shouting, TMI!
Several minutes later, Gretchen watched as a bellhop pushed the couple’s luggage on a trolley onto the elevator. The couple was having a difficult time doing anything but keeping their hands off each other. Someday Gretchen would have a mate who couldn’t keep his hands off her, and she’d be the one making everyone else uncomfortable with their gratuitous displays of public affection.
The phone rang, and she lifted the receiver, “Front desk, Gretchen speaking.”
“Have you heard from my sister?”
She relaxed and sat back on the plush desk chair as Caleb’s voice came over the phone. “No. I’m not sure how long the fights go, but she hasn’t texted or called.”
Aubrey had been invited by the owner of a were-fighting group to watch the inaugural fights. The National Were-Fighting Association, known as the NWFA, was like MMA for humans. Were-fighting had been illegal for many years and still was in some states, but the NWFA was a government sanctioned group that traveled around the country hosting fights. Her own alpha enjoyed watching the were-fights, but none of her pack was taking part. She’d heard that the fights themselves were brutal, and some of the underground fighting groups held to-the-death fights. She was thankful the NWFA had strict rules regarding the fights, and although the fighters could be injured, no one would die tonight.
“When is your shift over?” Caleb asked, drawing her from her thoughts of the fights.
She glanced at the clock on the wall. “An hour. Do you need anything?”
“Leave a note with whoever has the next shift to alert me when Aubrey returns. I want to ensure she gets home safely.”
“She’s with Gabe and Lance. You know they’ll take good care of her.”
“I know, but she’s my sister, and I want to know she’s okay.”
She smiled. He might be the guy who used to hide in the trees and try to scare her when she went hunting as a young wolf, but he was, at heart, a male who cared about his family and the people who had taken an oath to him. “I’ll make sure she checks in.”
“Thanks, Gretchen. She’s being a good boss to you, right?”
“Of course.”
He ended the call, and she looked up as Farley, a security guard and member of her pack, came up to the front desk. “Hey. Boss called and wants you to check in when your shift is over.”
“I just talked to him.”
Farley’s eyes narrowed and he said, “Your real boss.”
“Oh, yeah sure. Is something going on?” By boss, Farley meant her alpha, Terrance Johner.
“Full moon is in a week.”
“And?”
He made a face. “Just call him.”
Farley was a male of few words. And an asshole. Worry slithered over her as she wondered why her alpha wanted her to contact him. She hadn’t lived on pack lands since she took the job at the hotel. She lived on the twelfth floor with several other staff membe
rs, including a she-fairy who had pink and gold wings and a warlock covered in tattoos.
For the remainder of her shift, she thought of nothing but calling her alpha. She was pretty sure she hadn’t done anything wrong, but the request to call him was like getting called to the principal’s office in school – even if you hadn’t done anything wrong, you still felt as though you had.
Chewing her thumbnail as she waited for Craig, her replacement, she paced behind the counter. The lobby of the hotel was beautiful – all gold and white marble with sturdy but elegant furniture. She knew she was lucky to live in a city run by a master vampire who cared about the shifter population. Caleb was unique in the vampire world, she suspected. She’d met other master vampires when they came to visit Caleb and see his city, and most of them had looked down on her as if she weren’t fit to clean their shoes. Just because they were immortal didn’t mean they were better than any other supernatural creatures, in her opinion.
Craig walked through the front door of the hotel. He was human with a flair for telling funny stories. “Hi, Craig.”
“Hey, yourself. Anything exciting happen during your shift?”
“Nope, it’s been quiet.”
“All right, I’ll see you tomorrow night. Have a good one.”
He took his place behind the tall, cherry and marble desk, and she took her phone from the small drawer next to her chair. “Master Caleb would like Aubrey to call him when she gets back from the NWFA fights tonight. I sent her a text, but her phone isn’t turned on.”
“Will do.”
She walked swiftly to the elevator bay and pressed the up button. Her phone felt like lead in her hand. She knew she was being ridiculous and overly panicky, but she couldn’t help it. Her alpha was a fierce male.
When the door opened on her floor, she found herself looking at a frowning, pacing fairy. “Hi, Serena, are you okay?” Gretchen asked as she stepped out of the elevator.
“Yes. No.” Serena shook her head, causing her translucent pink and gold wings to flutter as she moved. “I fell asleep watching TV and had a bad dream.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Do you want to talk?”
“No, I need to fly and sort out my thoughts. Master Caleb asked me to stop flying off my balcony because it freaks out the humans when they think someone is falling from the twelfth floor.”
“Humans are so silly,” Gretchen said. “You can knock on my door if you want to talk after your flight.”
“Thanks,” Serena said and smiled, her brilliant blue eyes shining brightly. “You’re a sweetheart.”
The door slid shut, and Gretchen turned and walked down the hall. Stopping in front of her door, she used the thumb pad to unlock her room and walked inside. Unlike her best friend’s opulent suite on the fourteenth floor, her own was a modest two-room suite, with a bedroom, full bath, and sitting room. She had a kitchenette with a mini fridge and microwave, but she didn’t really need a full kitchen. She ate most of her meals in the staff dining room on the first floor or brought something up to her room to eat.
Glancing at the clock and seeing it was just after eight, she dialed her alpha’s cell and debated what to eat for dinner.
“Johner,” his gruff voice said as he answered.
“Hello, Alpha, its Gretchen Havers. Farley said you wanted me to call.”
“Yes. I’ve invited a pack to visit on the full moon. I need an entire floor of the hotel blocked for their visit.”
Relief filled her at his request. “I’ll get to work right away, Alpha.”
There was a brief pause before he said, “The alpha is unmated.”
She blinked in surprise. “Oh?”
“They’re from St. Louis. It’s a beautiful city.”
“I’ve never been.”
“The alpha isn’t the only one in the pack who is unmated. You might find a mate for yourself among their ranks.”
She wanted to tell him that she wasn’t looking for a mate right now, but that wouldn’t be true. She did want to find a mate, but she didn’t want to just pick someone she was attracted to, she wanted to find her truemate – the one male on the planet who was perfect for her and her wolf. Sure she could pick a wolf and mate him and pop out some pups, but she wanted more than that. She wanted a connection to her mate that went soul-deep. Maybe her alpha was psychic, and her truemate would be among the unmated males of the visiting pack.
“I’ll make sure everything is taken care of, Alpha.”
He grunted and ended the call, and she tossed her phone onto the coffee table and walked to the mini fridge. Inside she found the uneaten portion of her lunch in a Styrofoam container, and she removed it and a bottle of water and set them on the counter. Dumping the pasta dish on a plate, she put it in the microwave and opened her water, taking a long drink. Once her meal was reheated, she settled on the comfy white-and-green-striped couch and opened her laptop to look at the available rooms in the hotel.
While she worked, changing reservations to different floors and making a list of requirements for the visiting pack, she wondered what her best friend was up to at the fights, and whether or not Aubrey would get to meet any of the fighters. She’d been told that all of the fighters lived in RVs near the arena where the fighting took place, so she didn’t expect any of them to come to the hotel to stay. But maybe she’d see some of them around Belle Terra. She bet that the fighters were all big muscly guys who were good with their hands. In the morning, she’d grill Aubrey about her night, and maybe she’d be able to go to the fights the following weekend.
As excitement bloomed within her, she picked up her cell and dialed her grandma. Like herself, Gretchen’s grandma liked to stay up late reading romance novels. The first romance novel she’d ever read had been given to her by her grandma. Gretchen’s mom didn’t approve of romance novels, so her grandma had snuck the book to her one afternoon. Gretchen had been hooked from the first page. She loved the idea of a handsome guy sweeping a beautiful woman off her feet. She knew it was far from real-life, but she thought there were probably guys out there who liked to be romantic.
“I just shipped you a box of books,” her grandma said when she answered the phone.
Unlike Gretchen who read on her digital reader, her grandma still read paperbacks and scoured used bookstores and estate sales to find them. When she read them, she would send a boxful to Gretchen. She had two bookshelves in her bedroom, overflowing with books. As she read them, she gave them to Serena, who enjoyed them, too, but not as much as Gretchen and her grandma.
“Thanks. I’ll keep an eye out for the box. How’s your hip?”
Her grandma had been caught in a trap when she was in her forties, and her hip hadn’t set right, causing her pain as she aged when arthritis set in.
“It’s going to rain, so it’s aching.”
“I’m sorry. Are you out of the numbing balm that Serena made for you?”
“Almost. I’m glad you called. I was going to ask you to have her make me some.”
“I’ll email her as soon as we’re off the phone. She went for a fly, and sometimes she can be gone for a day or two.”
“What’s up, my darling?”
Gretchen leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes. She told her grandma about her conversation with Alpha Johner. As her grandma shared the wisdom that came from living for seventy-five years, Gretchen relaxed and wrapped up in a quilt. Her grandma always made her feel better about whatever she was dealing with. After they’d spoken for an hour, Gretchen said, “Thanks for everything, Grandma. I need to get back to work or it will be dawn before I know it.”
“Call me and let me know what happens with the visiting pack.”
“You know I will.”
“I love you very much, little wolf.”
“I love you, too.”
Turning to the laptop, Gretchen got back to work. Talking to her grandma had eased some of her worries about what the full moon would bring. If she happened to meet her truemate in the visiting pack, th
en she’d consider herself amazingly lucky. If not, perhaps one of the wolves would catch her eye, and she could have some fun.
Her wolf growled in agreement.
Chapter 2
Slade watched his brother, Alaric, as he and his mate headed toward a private elevator at the supernatural hotel. He’d been in supernatural hotels before, but this one looked really classy on the outside, with marble columns and fountains.
His younger brother, Galen, said, “I’m fucking starving. Let’s get in and get settled.”
Alaric’s mate, Aubrey, was the human sister of the vampire master of the city, who also happened to own the hotel. He wondered why Aubrey hadn’t been changed by her brother into a vampire, but he decided it was a really personal question and he wasn’t going to ask his new sister-in-law anything personal until he’d known her at least a week.
His baby sister, Lia, sighed wistfully. “What?” he asked, shouldering his bag as they walked toward the glass front doors.
“I’m happy for Alaric, but now I’m anxious for you two to get your mating dreams so I can find my truemate.”
Slade and his family were saber-tooth tiger shifters and the last of their kind. They had mating dreams that would grow in strength when they drew closer to their truemates. Alaric had been having mating dreams for a year. They’d joined the NWFA because it was difficult for shifters to move from state to state without a lot of governmental red tape. Shifters had a lot of rights, but moving across the country made humans twitchy for some reason. The NWFA could easily move wherever they wanted, and Slade and his brothers enjoyed the fights and the money that they earned with their wins. That night, Alaric had been the big winner. Not only had he been the last fighter standing, but he’d also found his truemate.