The Wolf's Mate Book 1: Jason & Cadence Page 2
Her best friend Callie, one of his wolves, told him that Cadence didn't think there was any reason for her to come home anymore, and that had thrown him into a rage. He'd destroyed half his office at the garage before he got hold of his beast, which was snapping and snarling in his brain like the caged animal it was. The thought of her staying away forever was more than either of them could bear. He'd ordered Callie to do something that he had never ordered one of his people to do before - meddle.
"Get her to see the light, Callie. Make her want to come home. You know she belongs here." He'd used his alpha tone of voice and Callie had been down on her knees in a heartbeat and had no choice but to obey, even though she clearly wanted to tell him to go to hell. Callie was a sweet girl and a distant cousin. He had been prying information from Callie about Cadence for years, and Cadence never knew. As a matter of fact, Cadence hated him and it was his own damn fault.
He first sent Michael up to the bar to see how she was. Of course that trashy female had tagged along. He wasn't sure why Michael wanted anything to do with her, she was a wolf female but she was a bitch and a half and not in a good way. She was underhanded, backstabbing, and not even remotely good looking, not to mention that Michael was second in command of the pack and should have better standards. Not that he could talk. His self-imposed celibacy from the she-wolves meant he ended up taking out his aggressive libido before the full moon in the shower. By himself.
He watched how Cadence pointedly ignored Lindy and gave his brother a smile that clearly was too sweet for him and his beast started growling. He had to be careful, because if he pushed himself too much with her, then he'd do something temperamental like take out half the bar in a tantrum and he'd already been more than helpful cash-wise in Jake's recent redecorating. Michael sat down with the two pitchers and Lindy deposited herself next to him. Jason gave her a hard stare and she squeaked and moved out of the booth in a rush and almost fell over trying to get away. "Hey." Michael groused. "I was using that."
"You can do better. You're second, for crying out loud. Have some self-respect." Jason growled, not taking his eyes off his sweet woman. And that's what she was. His. Sweet. The most perfect example of a woman if ever there was one. Gorgeous dark brown hair, green eyes like emeralds that heralded her bastard father's Irish blood, full lips made for kissing and other wicked games, tits that were so full and perfectly shaped that he could imagine burying himself between them and dying happily, not to mention her taut belly, and short, but shapely legs. And she'd walked in wearing black leather and suede fuck me boots, and a trace of perfume he could pick up all the way across the bar from where he stalked her with his eyes and nose. Tuscany, her signature fragrance, that made her own natural scent so much more magnified to him. She smelled like a storm, the way that the sky goes all crisp and clean after lightning clears it away, and she gave him electric shocks every time she looked at him.
And he wasn't the only one that thought so. Every damn wolf in the bar was very aware of her; attraction and desire hung in the air like a cloud and it pissed him off. But fuck if she wanted him, and he had no idea how to get anywhere near her without being subjected to her witty barbs and sarcastic comments and occasional thrown fists. She infuriated him, and she knew it; she taunted him mercilessly and was mostly just plain mean to him, but he'd done it to her himself. He'd driven his sweet Cadence crazy with neglect and now he was licking his wounds because he'd done a great job at keeping her away from himself. Idiot.
Michael snapped his fingers in front of his face. "You know, she'll never figure anything out without some help."
Jason nearly growled. As if he hadn't thought about just coming right out and telling her everything, baring his soul to her. "Because it won't work that way. She has to come into it herself. You know that."
Michael rolled his eyes. Jason loved his brother but right now he wanted to throttle him. He watched his woman, his mate, tend bar for Jake, alpha of the Garra Pack, a man that had taken her under his wing, or paw perhaps, and taught her everything he knew about being pack, and Jake was one hell of an alpha. How their two packs had ever managed to be in the same town for so many decades, he didn't know, but the treaty between the Tressel and Garra Packs was over a century old, and the bar was neutral ground. Except for the occasional wolf-to-wolf fight, usually over a female since there were so few between the two packs, the groups tolerated each other. And Jake was a good man.
Unfortunately he had two sons, both high ranking, that wanted to bury themselves in Cadence's body, maybe even as badly as he did. Jake had given him a deadline and it had nearly made his head split open. "When she comes back to town, claim her as your own in thirty days, or I'm going to give my people a chance to get to her." Jason would have ripped his head off, started a war between the packs, but Jake looked sad suddenly, and gripped his shoulder. "Listen, man, I get it. You were following orders, but you're alpha now. You want to claim what is rightfully yours, then you do it, and soon. My people want her claimed, or they want to claim her. You've kept her for yourself for fourteen years and I more than trust you with the girl that is like a daughter to me. So get your head out of your fucking ass and be with her or let her go. It's not fair to deny her happiness if you won't be the one to give it to her."
So just like that, Cadence came back to town on September 29th, and he got a note the next day from Jake. "I'll give you until the bonfire on the 31st to make your move or she's fair game. Don't blow it. Jake."
So here he sat, in the same stupid bar with the same stupid music and there she was, working hard, making drinks that he had no idea how to even start, flirting for tips, and dressed as sexy as he had ever seen her, possibly on purpose to goad him. Just glancing at her made his whole body uncomfortably tight. There weren't enough cold showers in the world to get over the way she affected him. He gave a look across the bar to Jake, and Jake sent one of his lackeys over to the table. "I want Cadence to bring us four beers."
"She won't, dude." The lackey said. Corey something. Small wolf, big mouth.
Jason ground his teeth together. "She will if Jake makes her. Run along."
The lackey scampered off, as much as you can scamper on two legs anyhow, and Jake had clearly been annoyed but had complied. He watched her shove the tray back at him, tell him to fuck off. Having super hearing was so handy sometimes. He could hear her words, but also zero in on everything about her - how she had suddenly sucked in a breath at the request, how her heart had raced, and how she seemed to be itching to smash Jake's face in with the tray. She had a wicked temper, and he loved it about her. So smart, so funny, so dangerous. He loved the total package, and she was one smoking hot package.
Practically stomping through the middle of the bar, she carried the tray like a pro, even though she had a bachelor's in business. Michael said she needed a job, didn't know if she was staying, and he knew he had to help that situation without making it look like he was up to something, although he certainly was. He heard one of his she-wolves call Cadence a mutt, something that they'd called her since she was a kid because she was a half breed. For just a heartbeat, her whole body went tense and Jason very nearly threw himself out of the booth and beat the wolf to death, but he knew he couldn't. At least not in public. Cadence had to fight her own battles, especially if she was going to be his mate. She would have to take on the nastiest bitches of the groups, and he had no doubt she could. He'd seen her fight, seen her tumble with the best of them, and come out victorious or waiting for a rematch. It was Lindy who had called her a mutt and he knew why. Lindy thought of herself as Alpha material and had been trying to get Jason into bed for years. She’d taken Michael as a second-best, but she would have spread her legs for him in a flash if he wasn’t thoroughly disgusted with her.
Every one of his people knew that Cadence was the only one for him, and some of the females had accepted that, but a lot of them had not. Because he'd chosen her and she was weak in their eyes because she couldn't shift. It didn't make
her any less of a wolf in his eyes; in fact it made him jealous. She wasn't a slave to the full moon, although she had always loved their celebrations.
Stupid Lindy. No one would have known that Cadence was affected by the crude nickname unless they were really paying attention. Her eyes had narrowed just slightly, her breath had caught in her throat, and her whole body tensed up. He was pretty sure she had wanted to smash the tray into her skull and he would have loved for her to do it. Teach that bitch some manners. Lindy was trouble and would be until Cadence put her in her place. But she couldn't do that without claiming Jason as her mate, and he wasn't sure she would do that, not at this point.
The sweet look she gave to Michael as she came up to the table made him want to pound Michael's head through the table. She'd smiled at Michael twice now, and Michael was practically glowing with glee at how pissed Jason was. Fortunately, one of the things Cadence hadn't acquired in her supernatural skill set was the ability to detect the emotions off others, otherwise she'd be very clearly aware of how jealous he was, how much he desired her, and how badly he wanted to mount her on the table. As it was, all he could manage was to give her blank-face and act like he didn't care. Her gaze slid around the booth and her smile disappeared as she set the bottles down.
She was holding the bottle for him and he couldn't stop himself from being a jerk when he said, "Nice of you to stop in and say hello, when you came into town." Her grip tightened on the bottle and the wolves around him held their collective breaths.
He saw her press her tongue into her incisor, something she'd done since she was a kid to keep from drawing blood when she bit her tongue, and then she did something that completely surprised him. She took his bottle of beer and licked the mouth of it, darting that wicked tongue across the glass. With a smirk, she set it down in front of him, snatching the money off the table and huffing away in a storm cloud of conflicting emotions: anger, mostly, but also some fear mixed with desire. He didn't know what she was afraid of, but he figured it was himself. He looked at the bottle, all of them did, because she'd pretty much just licked him, had teased him openly, but clearly she had not meant to do it for his arousal.
He'd bet any amount of money that she thought he would be pissed off about the move like it would disgust him or he would trade bottles with someone. When they were kids, she used to stick her finger in his cereal bowl before school and he'd always loved that about her, her ability to find something that bothered him and devil him with it. It drove him crazy, of course, but he had loved that she watched him so closely, even as a kid, and knew exactly how to get to him. She still did, actually, except now she did it out of spite. She'd done that cereal bowl thing for months until he finally grabbed her hand and licked the milk off. She'd squealed and tried to get away, but he wouldn't let her until the milk was all gone and he'd had a very good taste of her skin. Of course he was 15 and she was 10, so it was kind of obscene, but he'd already claimed her, and it was normal for wolves to taste each other. And she tasted good underneath the milk. Like sweet cream or vanilla, something comforting. How many years ago was that? 14, Jake had said. 14 years and she'd never figured out what he'd done, had never seemed to remember the day that changed his life forever but also sent him practically into exile.
He needed her to remember what happened between them when she was 9 and he was 14, but he was beginning to think she'd never remember. They'd been playing at his father's house which was down the street from her house. His father, Peter, was alpha of the pack and Jason was being groomed to take over when he reached 21. Peter and her father, James, were only barely acquaintances even though they'd lived next door to each other and her mother Dixie was a wolf so he knew all about them, but had always acted superior. As if being pure human were better than anything. He'd tried to keep Cadence away from pack things, but Jake had been insistent that James couldn't help her come to terms with her powers. If she went untrained then she'd be even more dangerous, so James had stepped back, angrily, and spent his free time bashing the wolves to Cadence.
She was always beautiful, but she grew more beautiful to him every day as they grew up together. He knew that his time to come into his powers was drawing close and that he would only have about two years to be with her and then he'd have to keep away from her because he'd be too volatile. He never wanted to hurt her, but he'd seen enough wolves come into their powers at 16 and hurt their families and friends. He was going to work so hard to tame his beast, to cage it and chain it, until it was as tame as a puppy dog so he could be around her, and he'd do it faster than anyone ever so he could be there for her, be her friend and confidant again.
That day, he'd felt the urge to mark her. He'd felt it before, the knowledge that she would be his when they were both adults and the desire to make sure no one else ever touched her. He could only do that by marking her. Maybe he'd known somehow that he wouldn't be able to control his beast, maybe he'd somehow known that she would grow to hate him because she wouldn't understand that he was trying to protect her, so he'd done it. She had been chasing him around the yard. It was springtime, everything was fresh and new. He spun on her suddenly, twice as tall as her already and had crouched down on his points and growled at her. She thought he was playing, but he wasn't. He so wasn't playing.
She froze, her green eyes wide, her ponytail making her neck sweetly visible, and then she spun and darted away from him with a delightful laugh and he chased her. He was stronger than her because he was older and male, but she was fast and he had to really surge forward to get her. He waited until she rounded the house so that no one would see, and he tackled her, safely taking her to the ground in his gangly arms and subduing her. "Gotcha, Cadence." He said as she laughed and struggled in his arms, and then he'd bitten her neck. She'd gone very still, hadn't cried out or anything, even when his canines dug into her flesh and punctured through. Her skin had tasted so incredibly sweet. He growled into her, sending his growl down her spine and he felt her relax and submit, which was exactly what was supposed to happen between a mated pair. She was so small, so sweet, and so his. He released his hold on her and licked the wound and opened his mouth to tell her that she was his mate, and then his father's voice came from the window above them. "Jason, you fucking let her up this instant and get in this damn house!"
Jason let her roll away from him and she had looked at him so strangely, touching her neck and looking at the blood on her fingers. His father stormed out of the house and had practically thrown him around the back and he heard him pick her up off the ground and speak very quietly to her. When she went running home, he saw that her hair was out of the ponytail now; his father had clearly warned her that if her dad saw the marks that they'd all be in trouble.
His father had been in such a rage, had thrown him into the house by his neck. "What were you fucking thinking?"
"She's mine!" He tried to stand up, to defend himself, but his father backhanded him, knocked him back to his knees.
"She is not our pack and she is a child, Jason." His father hit him again, his fist flying so fast he only saw the blur and then felt the pain.
"She's mine, Dad, I made her mine!"
"You have ruined everything, Jason. If her father finds out, he will have you arrested for assault. How could you be so stupid?"
Jason, for the first time since he was a small child, had cried, his mouth going salty and his eyes filling. "I had to, Dad. I'll have to stay away from her once I turn until I can control myself and I don't want anyone else to claim her. Too many, Dad, there are too many that want her. We were made for each other, she belongs to me, she’s my female alpha."
His father had stood there, fury rolling off him, and then he'd suddenly squatted down and put his hand on his shoulder. "I understand, son. You have found your mate and she's special. But she's not our pack, she's not anyone's pack and she's not quite like us. As your alpha, I forbid you to talk about what happened with her, to explain the significance. If she is really yours, she will remembe
r what you did and know the meaning behind it and come to you. Until that happens, I forbid you and any of our wolves from talking to her about the marking."
His father stood up, stretching to his full height, and Jason felt the weight of his father's words. He couldn't ignore a direct order from his alpha, no matter how badly he wanted to. Now he'd marked her, branded her as his wife, and any wolf that saw the puncture wounds on her neck would know that she belonged to someone, and his pack would know it was him and so would Jake's pack. But no one was allowed to talk to her about it, and that would be a problem. He couldn’t finish claiming her.
He’d been forced to stay on his knees in the front room while his father waited for Jake to come. Because Cadence was so close to Jake, his father had to explain what had happened.
Jake hadn’t been upset, but he was worried. “The order by itself won’t stand, Peter.”
“How so?” His father asked.
“Because if Jason’s wolf recognizes her as his alpha mate, then the packs will treat her that way. They will expect her to know that she’s alpha and that she belongs to him when she comes of age. Even if she doesn’t remember the marks because of your order to her, she’ll know that something is going on because of how they’ll react to her. You can’t keep her on the outside of things unless you really keep her outside.”
“So, a total black out of pack dealings, then?” His father rubbed his stubbled jaw with two fingers.
Jake shrugged. “You only have two choices here, Peter, really. You either find her and rescind your own order and make sure that she understands the grave consequences that would happen if her father finds out that Jason bit her, or you keep her away completely. I teach her some things, her father is so hateful towards anything pack that I try not to influence her too much, but I’m not sure either way is necessarily better.”