Mate Set (2 page)

women usually didn’t survive or ended up gravely injured. It drew attention to their

kind, which was a crime in shifter society. Most unmated males hunted female

werewolves nightly for sex but Mika was safe from that shit. One whiff and they

avoided her and always had—until now.

Why had she left her house?
Oh yeah.
She was depressed and craving chocolate to

cheer her up. Every year she visited her uncle for a few weeks but usually she came to

spend Christmas with him. She’d arrived in Bartock just six hours before on a hot June

evening so a stroll to the store had obviously been bad planning on her part. Of course

she’d thought she was safe. She’d walked to the store lots of times on those previous

visits without running into trouble.

She knew for a fact, even if they didn’t, that Uncle Omar would track their sorry

asses down. He’d kill them slowly and make them pay for the torture she was about to

endure at their hands or claws, depending on how they controlled themselves. One look

at the sharp teeth and sprouting hair told that they weren’t in control at all. It was little

consolation to her that they’d die when her body was found but it was all she had.

Mika screamed as one of the men lunged at her. He gripped her arms, spun her

around and his body pressed her tightly into the wall until he was breathing on her

neck when he lowered his face into her shoulder. She held still, not fighting, knowing it

would only turn him on more. He pushed her harder against the wall until it was

difficult to breathe. His knee brushed against the back of her leg for a second before he

shoved it between her thighs, forcing her legs apart.

She turned her head slightly, enough to see that the guy had her shirt in his mouth

when it was tugged hard. She took a deep breath, forcing air into her lungs, and

screamed as her shirt was torn open down the back when the man jerked his head. She

fought the panic that gripped her as air hit her skin. Every instinct inside her told her to

fight but everything her uncle had ever taught her reminded her that would only make

the man more aggressive.

Hands were touching her and they didn’t belong to the blond who had her pinned.

His hands were gripping her arms, holding them tightly against the wall next to her

ribs. Rough hands yanked at her snug jeans and attempted to tear them down her hips

but they refused to budge at first. She heard a snarl before the body pressed hers

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Mate Set

against the wall backed up a few inches, allowing the other man working on her jeans

to yank the zipper.

Mika screamed again when she heard the zipper give way and her jeans were

tugged downward. She shut her eyes tightly, fought tears, and realized it was going to

be brutal and she probably wouldn’t survive. She held still but she was panting—

fighting her urge to fight.

She could almost hear Uncle Omar’s voice in her head, telling her if she was ever

grabbed by a werewolf not to struggle. He’d warned her that she’d never win a fight

with one. They were too strong, too fast, and fighting would be a sure-fire way to turn

an attacker into a brutal animal intent on killing its prey.

“What do you have there?” The voice was a new one—deep and male—and it

snarled the words.

The hands on Mika froze and the body behind hers tensed. Mika whimpered.
Great,

another one
, she thought. Now instead of being a sex toy to four males, there were five

involved in her worst nightmare.

“Get lost,” the man gripping Mika snarled back. “She’s ours.”

Long seconds ticked by where Mika only heard heavy breathing. The man pressed

against her back shifted his weight and pushed her hard against the wall again. He

nuzzled her blonde hair, moving it away from her neck. She heard what sounded like a

scuff on the concrete.

“The way I see it,” the new male voice snarled, “is that she’s not yours. She isn’t in

your pack since my nose is telling me she isn’t even our kind and she doesn’t sound

very willing from those screams that drew me this way.”

The blond behind her seemed to be in charge since he was the one doing the

talking. “Mind your own business and get lost. We aren’t sharing so leave or my

brothers and cousin will tear out your damn throat.”

The stranger had a deep-sounding chuckle. “You pups think you can take me?

You’re new in town or you would be pissing yourselves right now if you knew me.”

“Who are you?” It sounded as though the black-haired man spoke.

“I’m the one who’s going to tear your heads off if you don’t let that woman go.”

The blond eased his hold on Mika’s arms as he took a step back, totally releasing

her. Mika’s knees nearly buckled in relief. Her eyes flew open and she reached down,

yanking up her jeans. Her hands shook but she managed to zip her pants and fasten the

snap. She slowly turned around, keeping her body against the wall.

Her four attackers were standing close together a little to her left but they weren’t

touching her anymore. Her terrified gaze moved from them to the new man on scene.

She couldn’t help but stare at the big bastard. He had to be at least six foot four and

probably two hundred forty pounds or so. A tough-looking male wearing jeans and a

gray sweater. He had long black hair that touched his wide shoulders and bulked-up

biceps. His arms hung casually at his sides. A wide chest matched those broad

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shoulders and his slim hips were perfectly displayed in the snug jeans that revealed

long, muscular legs.

Mika’s focus lifted to the man’s features. He was partly in the shadows so she

couldn’t see his eyes but she saw his lower face well enough in the dim light from the

alley. He had a strong chin and a wide nose. His full, generous lips were drawn into a

firm line of disapproval. His long hair hid his eyes, even if the light had been strong

enough to see them. The man slowly lifted his arms.

“Do you want a piece of me, pups?” His fingers wiggled, urging them to come at

him, as his voice dropped from a snarl into a husky growl. “I dare you.”

Even Mika knew that daring a werewolf was a no-no. Werewolves were stubborn,

proud creatures who didn’t back down from a fight or from a challenge. The tone in the

stranger’s voice left no room for misinterpretation that he was issuing both, provoking

them into attacking him.

The new guy snarled and growled so she had no doubt that he was another

werewolf. He’d scented that she was human too because he’d mentioned it. Mika

inched along the wall, trying to ease away from the four would-be rapists. If the

stranger was willing to get his ass kicked to save her from being gang raped, she wasn’t

going to stand around the way a frozen idiot would. She was going to make his sacrifice

worth it by fleeing the first chance she got.

Guilt ate at her a little as the four men started to surround the stranger. He was

bigger than her attackers, but still, four against one weren’t good odds. Mika swallowed

hard.

“Um, guy who’s rescuing me…what’s your name?”

The man didn’t even glance her way. “Grady.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

She’d be sure to tell her uncle about Grady. Maybe Uncle Omar would pay his

hospital bills and give him some type of reward if he survived the fight. She was pretty

certain her uncle would make sure this man was compensated well for helping her.

That’s just the way he was.

The blond leader lunged at Grady but he saw it coming. Mika watched in horror as

the other three men attacked from the sides. She instantly looked for a weapon,

knowing she should help the guy who had come to her rescue. Grady snarled a second

before it became a dog pile as four men leapt on him.

The five men went down in snarls and flying fists. Mika saw a board in the alley

and sprinted to grab it. The wood was rough and dirty as her fingers curled around it,

heavy as she lifted it. She spun to face the fight.
This is insane
, she thought.
I should be

running.

She fought with her conscience and it won so she crept closer to the men on the

ground. The black-haired man who’d attacked her went flying from the pile to land a

few feet from Mika. He shook his head, snarling, his gaze locked on the fight while he

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Mate Set

jerked into a sitting position. Mika struck without pause, nailing the son of a bitch with

everything she had with the board, swinging it as though it were a baseball bat.

The man groaned before he slumped forward to the ground. Mika dropped the

broken board that had snapped in half when it had made hard contact with the back of

his head. Her hands hurt from the impact but it was worth it until he started to move

again, trying to lift off the ground. She turned and spotted a full, metal trashcan. She

grabbed it by the handles and lifted the heavy, smelly thing with a grunt. She tossed it

at the downed man so it hit his back hard, knocking him flat again. Trash spilled out all

over him.

One of the blond men screamed as he flew toward the wall where Mika had been

pinned, hitting it hard enough that Mika actually flinched as he landed motionless on

his back after he bounced from the wall. She saw that his nose and mouth were bloody.

Her attention flew to the remaining three battling werewolves and realized that Grady

was winning. He was punching the shit out of one of the blonds and had the other man

pinned under him with his legs. The pinned man was trying to crawl away but it wasn’t

working for him since he couldn’t escape those strong thighs.

Grady could fight. She could see he had both the attackers well under his control.

Her relief was instant when she knew he’d be fine. She eyed the downed man on the

ground who’d hit the wall to see he still wasn’t moving. The guy under the trashcan

grunted, cursed, while slowly shoving garbage off with one hand while gripping the

back of his bleeding head where Mika had nailed him with the board. He looked done

in.

Mika turned and fled, running for all she was worth toward the main street.

Bartock was pretty dead at ten at night so it wasn’t a surprise that she didn’t see anyone

as she turned the corner and sprinted down the sidewalk. Her little house was three

blocks away. She ran a good block before her burning side made her slow down. She

was never going to go out at night again. No damn way. If she wanted chocolate, she’d

call Uncle Omar to go get it for her or she’d be smart enough to buy it before dark.

She was breathing hard and walking when she heard a sound behind her that made

her spin around. Shock coursed through her when she saw the man who had saved her

coming down the sidewalk. She froze as Grady advanced on her, his long legs quickly

ate up the sidewalk between them. Even though his head was down and his sweater

was gone, she knew it was him. Grady was wearing a black tank top that was torn open

over his stomach. His head lifted as he came within ten feet of her, pausing where he

stood to stare at her.

She’d never seen such dark eyes before. He was attractive but not handsome in the

way she usually liked men to be. He was still damn good-looking in a purely male

sense. Masculine fit him perfectly as a description. His hair was black, shaggy, and wild

looking. He had long black eyelashes and his dark, intense gaze peered out at her from

beneath them. Fear crept up her spine. No one’s eyes should be that black and they

didn’t look human. The fight he’d just been in had probably helped that look along, she

realized.

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Laurann Dohner

Why is he here?
She wasn’t sure she really wanted to know the answer. They stared

at each other.

The man moved first by taking a step toward her and then another. Mika froze

where she stood. If she tried to run away from him then his instincts would demand he

chase her. She was all up on her werewolf facts since Uncle Omar had pounded them

into her head since she was five years old and realized the doggy that played with her

sometimes was really Uncle Omar. She’d accidentally witnessed him changing so he’d

had to tell her the truth. Sometimes a big dog wasn’t what it appeared to be.

She was alarmed by how tall Grady was when he stopped just feet away to stare

down at her. At five foot four Mika had never felt shorter in her life as she looked up a

good foot into the man’s face. She had never considered herself really tiny before but

she felt that way at that moment. The man’s sheer size dwarfed her.

“Thanks for saving me back there,” she said softly.

His eerie black eyes blinked and she couldn’t distinguish the pupil from the iris.

The street lighting on the residential street was a lot better than it had been in that alley

so she was getting a good look at him this time. His full lips parted, his breathing

slowed, but only nominally, as his tongue ran across his lower lip.

“You know what we are. You owe me.”

“Owe you?” She hated the way her voice shook. Uncle Omar hadn’t mentioned that

tidbit to her about what it meant when you owed something to a werewolf. She wasn’t

sure she was going to appreciate finding out the meaning either.