The Wolf's Mate Book 2: Linus & The Angel Read online

  “No, I’m not entirely human, but other than being made for you and what our children will become, there isn’t anything different about me.”

  He shook his head with an awed smile. “I can’t imagine having a son that would be more powerful than me. It’s amazing to think about.”

  “Or you could be like my dad and have three alpha-powerful sons. And my mother has six brothers that are all alphas.”

  “Are they in the states?”

  “Two of them are, out west. My parents wanted me to go out there right away, because they would trust my uncles to keep an eye on me, but I wanted a more methodical search. At least until I was going buggy looking for you. Then it was just me wandering aimlessly and feeling kinda hopeless.” She shrugged. “My other uncles are in Europe.”

  “Do you think your parents will like me?” He fidgeted uncomfortably.

  “Of course. You’re my mate. You’re perfect for me. The only reason they wouldn’t like you is if I’d tried to force a mating before I found my mate.”

  He frowned and she groaned inwardly. She hadn’t meant to insult him. “Linus, I’m sorry.”

  He cut her off. “No, don’t be sorry.” He stood slowly and moved around the bed to her. Taking her hands in his, he looked down at her for a few moments and then said, “I’d always worried about telling my future wife about my past, but you just forgive all of that, don’t you?”

  “Your past makes you who you are right now, and I wouldn’t change anything about you.”

  “I can’t believe that you’re in my life, Karly. I don’t ever want to let you go.”

  He hugged her close, pulling her against him tightly. “You don’t ever have to worry about that,” She said into his chest and hugged him back.

  He carried her box and both of the suitcases down to his truck, and then he came back for her, carrying her across the hall so she could tell Mrs. Beckinson that she was moving out. It was completely unnecessary for him to carry her, but he insisted and she indulged him. Mrs. B. smiled at Linus as he held Karly in his arms and said, “So you’re the young man who saved the best neighbor I ever had?”

  “Yes’m.” He grinned and it made his eyes light up.

  “You’ll visit, dear?”

  “Of course, Mrs. B.” She promised, squeezing her hand.

  “I’ll make sure of it,” Linus added and they said goodbye and he carried her all the way out to his truck and set her in the passenger seat. When he sat down in the driver's seat and shut his own door, he said, “Say goodbye to your wandering days, woman; you’re all mine now.” He gave her a wicked grin and put the truck into gear. What a sweet threat!

  Although completely unnecessary, he carried her into the house and seemed to really enjoy it. While he brought in her things, she perused the pantry, thinking about breakfast. He came up behind her, sliding his hands around her waist and growling softly in her ear. "I think I said you weren’t going to get any sleep tonight. Did you think I meant you should wait in the kitchen?”

  She laughed and ran her hands on his upper arms, “I was planning breakfast.”

  “Ah. Well, you’ll still be up at dawn, so I wouldn’t worry about it at the moment.”

  She spun in his arms and ran her fingers across his jaw. “Won’t you be exhausted tomorrow?”

  He shrugged, “Karly, there isn’t any place else I’d rather be than here with you. If I have to be a little tired for work, then I’m willing to risk it to spend as much time with you as possible.” He pursed his lips with a frown. “Are you, do you need space or something? Am I being too clingy?”

  She gave him her own version of a growl and his eyes went wide. She made sure he was looking into her eyes when she said, “I don’t want space, you’re not too clingy, and I will throttle whoever put those thoughts in your head. You can’t compare me to anyone you’ve ever known, Linus, because I’m unique. Not because I’m awesome or arrogant, but because I’m made just for you. You feel it, don’t you? That I belong to you?”

  “Yes.” His eyes were still wary, but it was fading fast.

  “It’s because I do. Now, are you going to do something with this, or should we just go to bed?” She slid her hand down to cup his erection through his pants and dug her fingertips into the fabric.

  “Oh yeah, we’re definitely going to bed.”

  He scooped her up in his arms and carried her quickly to the bed, following her down to the mattress and pressing his length against her. Grinding his hips into hers he said, “Are you wearing panties?”

  Giving him something of an indignant look she said, “As if I’m the sort of girl who wouldn’t wear panties to dinner.”

  One hand slid down her side very slowly, edging towards the hem of the short dress. She wondered if he was just guessing. “Somehow I don’t believe that innocent look, my sweet angel.”

  “What?” Geez, she sounded breathy.

  His fingers moved slowly upwards and between her legs which were trapped between his. “I’m thinking I’ll just have to check for myself.”

  She let out a breathless laugh as his fingers edged further up her thighs and he shifted enough to make it easier to reach the apex of her thighs. His fingers brushed against her bare body and he grinned. “I love how you think, sweetheart. And can I just say that anytime you don’t want to wear panties, I’m totally okay with it.”

  He kissed her and moved his fingers against her, sliding off the lower part of her body as he sat up. He peeled the dress down slowly, as if they had eternity to make love and not just a handful of hours that night, and kissed and caressed each inch of her flesh that was bared.

  She had never been touched quite as thoroughly or intimately as Linus did, and maybe it was supposed to be that way. Maybe the one man that you spend the rest of your life with was the one that was meant to unlock all your secrets. Not just your heart, but your body, too.

  Seemingly intent on making her melt from the inside, he held her down by her thighs and went to town on the center of her body, until she couldn’t do anything but make small mewling noises while she waited for the next plateau of pleasure to sweep over her. Drawing her through a third orgasm, her back bowed off the bed and it was only his hands on her that kept her in place as she thrashed and writhed under him, begging, “Linus, please, please!”

  The heat and pressure of his mouth stopped suddenly, lifted so that air cooled her overheated flesh and then she felt his lips, slick with her heat, kissing up the center of her body. His cock nudged her and he dropped his face to the crux of her neck as he drove himself inside. His groan morphed into a low, long growl, the sound sliding down her spine like an intimate caress. The image in her mind flashed to fangs and claws, and the scent of him deepened, like fall and earth and furred bodies tangled together for warmth and affection. Linus smelled like home. She was finally home.

  Chapter 7

  The next few days passed both very fast and very slow. Linus marveled at how time was like that. When he was with Karly, the minute hand on the clock seemed possessed, whirling past twelve with lightning speed. It would be five o’clock in the evening and he’d pull her into his arms in the house, and then the alarm was ringing and it was 6:30 a.m. and he’d have to get ready to leave. But during work, time nearly stopped dead. All an illusion, of course, he knew that time was moving the same no matter what; it was just the feeling of it. As soon as he sat in his truck in the morning, he wanted to go back to her. One more kiss. One more touch. One more of her killer smiles.

  When he came home from work Tuesday, she’d unpacked her things and completely reorganized the closet in the master bedroom. He’d told her to make herself at home, because it was her home now, and she did. He remembered with a shudder that one woman he’d dated after Brenda had tried to leave a toothbrush in his bathroom after their second date, and he’d gotten a little nuts about that. Probably because he didn’t want Brenda to think he’d moved on when he was still so hung up on her. But now, he wanted Karly’s imprint on
everything in the house.

  Wednesday, he’d been surprised that she wasn’t in the kitchen when he got home from work and then his sensitive ears picked up what sounded like sex coming from the bedroom. He raced back, throwing the door open with a growl lodged in his throat. Yes, there were sex sounds in the bedroom, but it was from his porn stash, and Karly was splayed out in all her nude glory in the center of the bed, a wicked grin on her face and her fingers between her legs. He recognized the DVD, “Dancing with Pussy” and he would have blushed and tried to explain his large collection, except he was frozen to the sight of her touching herself.

  “I decided to get started on my own,” she purred, her fingers soaked with her sweet juices. He was completely absorbed by the sight in front of him. Except for porn, he’d never seen a woman pleasure herself before, and Karly was incredible. Her body was flushed, her mouth was parted as her teeth grazed the lower swell of her lip, and one hand held her pussy spread wide for his viewing pleasure while the other drove fingers into her depths and swirled the wet heat around her clit.

  He smelled the change in her body as she got closer and closer to climax and he watched her body grow more tense until she cried out his name when she came. He couldn’t have been more turned on by the sight and sound of her. His name. She fucking said his name when she touched herself. He slammed his hand against the off button on the side of the television mounted on the wall above the dresser and stalked to her.

  He stripped and looked down at her as she lay sprawled on the bed, breathing hard and shivering. “You’re amazing, angel,” he said, staring at her pussy that dripped with heat and beckoned him. But it wasn’t just her body, it was her eyes, the searing dark brown that seemed bottomless, and the truth he could see in the depths. She might have put on porn but she’d been thinking about him the whole time. He could see that.

  After they made love and he curled her against his side, he said, “Tell me how I got so lucky, Karly.”

  She kissed his shoulder and sat up, leaning over him. “What do you mean?”

  He shrugged. “I’m not anything special. I don’t know why you’d pick me as a mate. I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”

  Once more he could see that she didn’t like his insinuation that he wasn’t worth anything. It was hard to get over a couple dozen years or so of feeling like shit after a few days. His unhappy childhood, the brutal treatment from his father...it was difficult for him to think of himself as a man deserving of such a wonderful woman like her.

  And then she suddenly looked hurt. She looked like he’d just punched her in the gut or ran over her puppy with his truck. He sat up and hugged her. “I’m sorry, Karly. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I know you didn’t pick me out of a lineup, and I know that your powers aren’t wrong, I just, I can’t help feeling like you’re a dream and I’m going to wake up and be even more miserable than I was. Or that you’ll wake up some day and regret being tied to a small-town mechanic with a high school education.”

  Just as quickly as the hurt had appeared it dissolved, and she smiled gently and kissed the inside of his palm and used it to cup her cheek. “One of these days you’re not going to doubt my affection for you. My power brought me to you. It didn’t make me fall in love with you. That’s all me.”

  She drew him into the circle of her arms and they held each other until they were both comforted and content, and after another of her wonderful meals, they made love in front of the fire on a mound of pillows, and fell asleep tangled together as the fire died down.

  “Grandma, I wanted to get your ring from you.” He shut himself up in the back empty office at the garage and used his cell at lunch on Thursday.

  “No.”

  His heart stopped for a second. “What?”

  “I want to meet her first, so you can bring her over for dinner on Friday.”

  He got a little angry. “I’m going to marry her regardless, Grandma.”

  She laughed. “Of course you are. It’s not about us approving of her; we just want to meet her. And it’s exciting for me anyway, Linus, I’ve never met an angel. I’ve always wanted to.”

  His heart started up again and his anger vanished. “You won’t show her any of my baby pictures will you?”

  She laughed and said, “Maybe not me, but your mom might.”

  “Okay. What time?”

  “Let’s say 7, so you can have time to get cleaned up after work. And I’ll keep mum about the ring. I’m so glad you’re asking for it. My mother would be thrilled.”

  As Linus hung up and went to eat his lunch in the break room, he thought about the ring. It wasn’t fancy, but it was special. It had been in his family for generations, carefully passed from one to the next. He’d never been inclined to give it to Brenda. He was pretty sure that if he’d asked his grandmother for it then that she would have meant it when she said no. No one had understood why he married her and he’d given up trying to explain himself. This was something he could do that was just for Karly. He could honestly say he’d never given anyone else the family ring. He could give her this one thing that was untainted by his past.

  “Who the hell is making you all these amazing lunches?” Bo asked, leaning over from his own seat and making eyes at the spread in front of him. Compared to Bo’s fast food, Linus was dining on five-star quality food. Today she’d packed from-scratch mac and cheese, two barbecue chicken sandwiches with a sauce she made herself, a plastic container of steamed veggies with cheese sauce, and a dozen peanut butter cookies. He swore she was getting up in the middle of the night to cook for him. He had no idea how she did it all.

  He smiled at Bo and picked up a sandwich. He savored the bite of perfectly tender chicken and tangy, sweet sauce and swallowed. “The girl that was in my bedroom on Sunday morning,” he lowered his voice even though they were currently the only ones in the break room, “she’s my true mate. She’s the one that has been cooking for me.”

  Bo gave him a critical look. “Is this the human that Jason was giving you a hard time about?”

  He nodded.

  Bo was very quiet, so he went back to eating. With every bite it was like he could feel his connection to Karly growing, as if he could taste her love for him in the food she prepared. He couldn’t wait to mark her. His plan was to get the ring on Friday and then take her out to dinner somewhere very nice on Saturday and propose and then mark her at home later. The thought of her teeth sinking into his flesh, too, as she returned the marks to him, made his heart thud in his chest.

  “What’s that like?” Bo asked quietly and startled him from his musings and erotic thoughts of the sweetheart back home.

  “What’s what like?”

  “Finding your true mate?”

  He finished the last bite of the second sandwich and took a long drink of iced tea from a thermos. It was peach this time. She’d added the juice from a can of sliced peaches after she made a crumble the night before. Clever little angel.

  He couldn’t stop his smile. “It’s amazing. I don’t even know if that’s a strong enough word.” He told him about finding her near death in the snow by the creek, and how he’d felt instantly connected to her but didn’t realize what it was until they were together the first time. He skipped the part about her being his supernaturally perfect mate, because he wasn’t sure that Bo would understand and he didn’t want rumors flying around about her.

  “So I asked her to move in with me and she packed up Monday night.” Ah, could the mac and cheese be any better? Damn she was a great cook.

  “Just like that?”

  He shrugged. “I couldn’t stand to know she wasn’t with me. If I’d had to leave her there Monday night, too, I think I would have camped out on her doorstep all night just to make sure she was safe.”

  Bo went quiet again and turned back to his greasy burger and fries. Linus dove into the veggies and finished off the pasta before turning his attention to the cookies. How she knew exactly the amount of food he could eat,
he wasn’t sure, but it was clearly from practice. He always had plenty to eat with no leftovers. While he chewed on the cookies, he looked at Bo who didn’t look happy. Bo had problems, but he wasn’t the chatty sort and although they had grown up together, Bo was a year older than he and Jason. He had been struck by a car when he was 14 and the damage to one leg was very severe. If he’d been hit after he was 16 and had the ability to shift, he would have healed most of the damage, but even the change hadn’t helped him. He walked with a limp and he always wore jeans, even in the hottest part of the summer. He’d never had a serious relationship. Bo was one of those silent types that you could trust at your back but you were never be quite sure what he was thinking.

  He gave him his last cookie. He could be generous, since he’d eaten two dozen last night, licked the bowl, and then just ate eleven. “There’s someone for everyone, Bo. Human, wolf, or other. We’re made to have mates.” He put his things back into the cooler and stood up.

  Bo looked up at him with eyes a shade of pain that made Linus suck in a quick breath. “Do you really believe that?”

  He swallowed the desire to ask him what was wrong and instead gave him a sincere smile drawn from his own truth, “I really do.”

  Karly was bent over the counter and writing something furiously when he came into the house after work. His hands slid over the soft curves of her ass through the fabric of her jeans and squeezed. “I love your ass, Karly. Did I mention that?”

  She wriggled her hips and tossed her hair over her shoulder as she looked at him, “You might have mentioned it when you were spanking me for watching one of your naughty movies without you.”

  He growled a laugh and pulled her into his already throbbing erection with his hands on her hips. “I don’t mind you watching, I just don’t want to miss the whole show next time.”

  He leaned over her back and hugged her, kissing her neck and cheek. “I missed you, angel.”