The Wolf's Mate Book 1: Jason & Cadence Page 23

  But three months ago he’d watched Jason finally claim his rightful mate in the hybrid wolf Cadence. They’d grown up together and it had been a hot mess for years, but finally she realized what he meant to her, what it meant to all of them, and they’d become true mates, her taking her rightful place as his alpha mate. That didn’t technically have anything to do with him, since he was only fourth ranked in the pack, but because of some other shit with Cadence, their pack, the Tressel Pack, had to handle the next in line alpha of the other pack that shared their small town of Allen, Kentucky, who had wanted to claim Cadence as his own.

  When it came right down to it, Linus had let Brenda walk all over him because he wanted her back. She was completely human and he was completely wolf, but he’d loved her enough to marry her, or at least he thought he loved her. Is it really love if it’s not reciprocated? They hadn’t even made it a year She refused to be around the wolves, accused his friends of trying to sleep with her, and then in the end she’d threatened to leave him if he didn’t turn his back on the pack. She was what the others called a Chew Toy, and he’d broken the cardinal rule of wolves which is you don’t marry the girls that just want to fuck the big bad. He’d helped her pack, given her money for her own place, and hell, he’d sat by the phone waiting for her to call and want to come home. And she did, sometimes. When she needed something or when she had an itch that needed scratching.

  But this was it. He was done with Brenda, done with that part of his life, and now, he was tired as hell but restless and couldn’t even think about going back to sleep. Oblivious to it while he’d slept, a storm had blanketed their town with a few feet of snow. He was infinitely glad he’d gone to the grocery yesterday and stacked firewood in the garage.

  Most of the wolves his age, which is 27, live in a trailer park on the north side of Allen, Kentucky. The next generation up, their parents, lives in regular homes scattered around town. Allen was a low income, blue collar sort of southern town. One garage where he worked as a mechanic for Jason who owned the place, one nice restaurant, one bar, and one grocery. There was a post office, too, but it had been shut down and blended with the next town up which meant their mail was always late.

  The Shrew had been too high class for the trailer park, so he’d sold his trailer to one of the younger wolves and bought a three bedroom modular home that took six weeks for the pack to build. And then she left. He’d wanted to sell it, but Jason had convinced him to keep it and just get rid of everything that made him think of her, so he’d done a thorough housecleaning six months ago, and this was the first time he’d heard from her since then. It was easier to talk to her, think of her now, since he’d watched Jason fight for his woman.

  In the beginning, he’d thought he was in love with her, but he could see now that he’d been foolish. She was attractive but not pretty, too thin for his normal tastes, but she’d wedged herself into his life and he’d let her. And then he didn’t want to live without her. No one liked her, everyone thought he was a complete idiot for being with her, but he’d mistaken her desire to be with him because he was a wolf for real affection. Now, he vowed not to rush into the physical side of things again, because that’s how he’d gotten trapped with Brenda in the first place.

  Granted he didn’t want to take 14 years to finally get another girl, the way that Jason and Cadence had danced around each other since they were children, each too chicken to admit that they craved the other. They were hard to be around, even now, because they couldn’t keep their hands off each other and they didn’t care if it was public or not. He’d walked in on them a dozen times in one of the spare bedrooms in his own home. He tried not to be jealous but he couldn’t help it sometimes. Seriously, if he wasn’t having sex in his own house, than no one else should have sex in it either. It just wasn’t fair. He wanted a woman that he could lose himself in like Jason did with Cades. A woman that only wanted him, only loved him, not because he was a wolf, not because of anything else he had to offer, but just because she loved him.

  He snorted at his own pipe dream and decided to go for a run. If there was a woman like that out there for him, she certainly wasn’t anywhere he’d looked. He stripped at the sliding back door and tried not to let too much snow in when he opened it, crossed onto the deck, and shut it, shifting as fast as possible.

  He shook the snow off his dark gray coat and was glad he wasn’t prone to getting chilled in his wolf form. It was easy enough to let his mind go to his beast, like turning the faucet from cold to hot. He took in the scent of the fresh snow, the cold air and the smell of the woods outside his back door, and leapt over the snow draped stairs from the deck and landed with a fluff of snow before darting off into the woods.

  He just ran. Darting between trees, leaping easily over fallen logs and low brush. The woods at night in the snow. Was there anything better to a wolf?

  He lazily chased a small herd of deer, just for fun. He had no intention of taking one down, although he could easily, but in the leanest winter month they were on the thin side and their meat would not be as succulently tender as it would be in another two or three months, as they fattened themselves up in the spring. He’d rather wait, thanks.

  On and on he ran, changing directions for no reason, not really running anywhere in particular, and then two distinct scents caught his nose and he skidded to a stop to scent them better. One was canine, not wolf, and one was human. It was far too cold for a human to be out in this weather. Worry and curiosity hit him at the same time and he took off for the scents, running at top speed.

  He crested a small clearing and found what looked like a snow covered body laying near the bank of a frozen creek. He was a few miles from his home. He nuzzled the form and found it to be a woman, alive, and a dog, dead.

  She didn’t rouse when he nudged her harder, so he shifted to his human form, prayed she didn’t wake up freaked out that he was nude, and jerked her stiff body into his arms and took off for home. He’d never run so fast in his human form in his life, and his heart pounded in his ears as he closed the distance to his home as quickly as possible. There was something about her that he couldn’t put his finger on, but he desperately wanted her to live.

  * * * * *

  …..Coming Soon.