Mated (13 page)

Chapter Twelve

Jane was doubled over, gripping the counter in the den. She felt like she had food poisoning. Mara stood beside her, holding her hand for comfort.

“You’ll be fine. He’ll be back.”

What? This was Cole? Because Cole had left her? She looked up to see shock in Blake’s eyes.

“My God. She really is his mate.”

Mara’s voice went up a register in a sing-song mocking tone. “I thought you said you didn’t believe in that
true mate nonsense
.”

Blake stared at Jane. “I didn’t. Before.”

The two wolves guided her to the couch.

“Just breathe,” Mara said. “If you don’t panic it won’t hurt.”

Jane concentrated on breathing slowly in through her nose and out through her mouth, counting the breaths. “Why is this happening to me?”

“Your body wants to complete the mating. It’s like a kind of limbo. You slept with him didn’t you?”

She blushed and nodded. Not that they couldn’t smell it on her most likely. She probably smelled more like Cole than herself right now. “If he knew this would happen, why would he leave me like this?”

“Because you’re human,” Blake said. “No one would think something like that would happen with a human. And Cole isn’t exactly as well-versed on the intricacies of mating rituals as Mara is. She’s our resident expert.”

Mara punched him playfully in the arm.

Jane didn’t say anything about the vampire blood. It was a good thing this didn’t happen if a human slept with a werewolf. They wouldn’t survive it.

Mara was talking to her again in that quiet, soothing voice. “It’ll go away if you can stop panicking.”

“Really?” If ever there was a time to learn to calm down, it was now.

“Yes. You’re anxious, and you want your mate. But he’s not quite your mate yet. It’s throwing your body out of whack. If you relax, this will fade.”

But Jane couldn’t relax. She got up and paced the length of the den, a million thoughts swirling through her head. The primary one being:
Why did I have sex with him?
She’d wanted Cole. She felt safe with him, but now she was essentially married to him because clearly she couldn’t go through life like this.

She turned sharply back to the wolves on the couch. “Will it be like this until he marks me?”

Mara shrugged. “I don’t know. This almost never happens. When a wolf finds his true mate, he doesn’t wait; he doesn’t ask; he just marks and that’s that.”

Jane laughed. She had to be losing her mind to be laughing at a time like this. But Cole had, in fact, marked her. Had he not, she wouldn’t feel like a whole piece of her had been cut out and was moving farther and farther away.

“Why didn’t he mark you?” Mara asked.

“I wanted to wait.”

It had seemed like a good idea at the time, sensible. She’d only met Cole a few weeks ago. Being a wolf’s mate was a big commitment, and it seemed kind of permanent. Her entire life had been about running. Running from her fears, hiding, blending in, hoping for a protector. It had suddenly become important to her to, for once in her life, make a decision that was about what she wanted and not about side benefits like shelter and food and protection.

She hadn’t wanted it to be a transaction.

But things were different with Cole, and she’d known she would let him mark her. And if she didn’t, what was she going to do? Hang around the den and be a nun? Take up with another wolf in the pack? Cole would love that. And anyway, she didn’t want another wolf in the pack. She wanted Cole.

“Jane, it’s getting late. We have to go hunt. We’ll be back as soon as we’ve fed enough to control the change.”

Panic swept through her again, and she gripped the counter. “No! Don’t lock me in here alone like this. Please.”

Mara turned to Blake. “Give her the code. We’ll be gone for an hour, just long enough to hunt and find Cole. Everyone else is out hunting too. She’ll be fine.”

Blake appeared to be debating it, weighing the pros and cons.

“Please,” Jane begged.

He sighed and pulled the paper from his pocket. “Cole will kill me if you get hurt, so please don’t leave the den.”

Jane’s hand closed over the slip of paper, and she nodded. Mara hugged her, even as the fur cropped out over her hands and legs. Then they were gone in a blur.

She waited until she knew they were out of the hive before moving to the door. Her hands shook as she punched in the first code of two written on the paper.

When the door slid open, she walked under the bright fluorescent track lighting for what seemed like forever to the main den. Then she punched in the second code.

The hive felt weird being empty and so quiet. She was used to noise and laughter and game playing in here.

She doubted she could get all the way outside. There would be a different code, but maybe not if she went back through the tunnel to Cole’s den. He had a separate exit.

Jane knew she shouldn’t leave. It was dangerous out there, and she didn’t know how close the wolves were. She wasn’t sure if some of them might have stayed in the city to hunt, despite Cole’s orders. She also didn’t know if she’d run into a vampire.

She’d be fine here. Cole would be back soon. The thought made her heart leap. It had been ridiculous not to let him mark her. Why did she have to be so cynical, and take such a good thing and turn it into something bad? All the suffering she’d gone through for the vampire blood in her veins, and now because of it, she was Cole’s mate. She’d finally found a place where she fit, and she wouldn’t have to become a vampire to be safe from them.

She wondered briefly what would have happened if she’d succeeded in getting a vamp to turn her. Would she have still been destined for Cole, or would he have seen her as the enemy?

Jane had calmed enough for the pain to subside. She laughed in the hollow room. She’d never been in physical pain from a man’s absence before.
Must be love
, she thought sardonically.

She tensed and jerked her head around. She couldn’t be sure, but she had the intense feeling she wasn’t alone. A cramp clenched her gut. Okay, now was not the time for the incomplete mating to yell at her some more. She got it. She’d let Cole mark her at the first available opportunity.

She inched closer to the steel door that led into the tunnels, her eyes on the entrance at the other side of the room. Then the door slid open, and Rhonda appeared, standing with a big grin on her face, looking as if a canary feather might fall out of her mouth.

“Jane!” she beamed. “All alone are we?” She looked around dramatically.

“Not for long,” Jane said, biting her lip against the pain that was trying to well up again. She willed herself to calm down.

“Are you all right, dear?”

Jane spun on her heel and raced for the door. She punched in the code and the door slid open. The steel panel started to shut behind her, and she let out a sigh of relief. She heard a whoosh and looked down to find Rhonda’s shoe wedged in the door to stop it from closing.

Her lungs screamed at her as she ran for Cole’s den, her stomach cramping from the panic overtaking her. She reached the second key pad.

As the door to the den slid open, she felt herself pulled back by her hair. “Wait for me,” Rhonda said.

The blonde stood in her stockings, her shoes abandoned at the other doorway. She shoved Jane into the smaller den.

The wolf crossed her arms over her chest. “Do you know that even as the weakest wolf, I’m still about five times stronger than the average human? And faster? If my heel hadn’t been wedged in the door, I would have caught you already. But it takes a lot of strength to push that steel door open with such a tiny thing stopping it from closing all the way. I thought that was pretty inventive. It comes from all those hours watching
Buffy
where she was using things in her surroundings to fight.”

Jane rolled her eyes. Rhonda was a disagreeable bitch, and she wasn’t about to show her fear. “I’ve been imprisoned with things far bigger and badder than you’ll ever be,” she retorted.

The comment hit its mark. Rhonda recovered quickly and laughed. “My, don’t we have a death wish? But if I do the killing, I can’t be with Cole.”

Jane gawked at her. Rhonda was completely out of her mind if she thought she still had a chance with him.

“Cole is my mate,” Jane said, feeling a bit like a possessive caveman. She
did
have the distinct urge to club the wolf over the head right then. There was nothing like a verbal cat fight to let a girl know who she wanted to be with.

Rhonda burst out laughing, bending over so her hands rested on her knees. “Oh, that’s rich. Baby, you think him screwing you makes you his mate? That’s so cute. Nice try, but he hasn’t marked you.”

She strode closer to Jane, inspecting her neck better. She ran a finger over the bite mark Paul had left the night Jane met Cole.

“But I see someone else has. Little vampire whore, thinks a wolf would want her after that? He’s just playing with you. And tonight, he’ll be playing with your entrails. That’ll be fun. For me.”

Jane’s hand slipped into her pocket, fingering the silver knife Cole had given her. She’d kept it with her, always remembering that although they didn’t look like monsters, they could shift into one. And if that happened, her life could be over in an instant.

In one swift movement, she pulled the knife out and slashed at the wolf. Rhonda howled and clutched her arm, smoke rising off it as if she were melting. Jane had never seen what silver did to a wolf before. She raced for the door, her fingers trembling as she punched in the numbers.

As she neared the end of the code, her leg was yanked out from under her. Rhonda’s arm was still sizzling as she tugged Jane sharply toward her and punched her in the face.

The room went black.

When she came to, the wolf was crouched over her, smirking. Jane’s eyes drifted to the bandage on her arm. She’d hoped the silver would kill the psycho.

Rhonda unfolded her limbs from her crouched position and stared down at Jane. “Good thing Cole keeps lots of rubbing alcohol. It hurts like a son of a bitch, but if you pour it into a cut made with a silver weapon, it stops the damage. It’ll scar though, so don’t think you’re off the hook.”

Jane slowly sat up, feeling around on the floor for the knife. Rhonda withdrew a hypodermic needle from her pocket, and Jane’s eyes widened.

She took the protective cap off the needle and laughed. “Don’t worry, sweetie. This isn’t for you. But believe me, if it was something painful, I’d shoot you full of it.” She tapped the needle to release the air and pulled an elastic band out of her other pocket to use as a tourniquet.

“I know what you’re trying to do,” she said conversationally, as she poked around trying to find the best spot in her vein to inject.

“What’s that?” Jane asked, eyeing the crazy werewolf. The last thing she needed was for Rhonda to inject something that would make her even more unstable. Now wasn’t the time for recreational drug use.

“You’re trying to get me to kill you. But it won’t work. Cole’s going to do that. And this ensures it.” Rhonda sighed as she slid the needle into her arm and pumped the drug in.

She tossed the used needle in the trashcan by the sofa and hauled Jane to her feet. She went to the bathroom, then reappeared with the silver knife. It had been cleaned of Rhonda’s blood, and now it gleamed in the light.

“Turnabout is fair play.”

The pain burnt down Jane’s arm as the blade sliced across it, and for one crazy moment she was afraid smoke would rise off her as it had Rhonda. After all, she had enough vampire blood in her veins to see vampires, and enough to be Cole’s mate. But the silver had no effect.

Rhonda smiled, satisfied with her work, “Not too deep, but we’ve got a nice drip going. We’re going to leave a trail of bread crumbs for our hero to find.”

Chapter Thirteen

Cole caught the scent of Jonathan, the last black wolf in the pack. The others had turned up clean.
It has to be Jonathan.
He couldn’t accept what it would mean if it wasn’t. The rich tang of blood entered his nostrils, and for the first time in his life he prayed it was a human.

The wolf looked up at him, his golden eyes confused, his muzzle wet from feasting on a bear. Cole slammed his fist into a nearby tree.

“Fuck!”

Why didn’t I mark her when I had the chance, instead of acting like a human with her?
Jane was his and giving her time to get used to it wouldn’t change that.

He raced back to the portal entry point just inside a small natural cave. His head darted back and forth, his nostrils flaring to catch evidence of any witnesses. Before he could retrieve the talisman from his pocket, Mara and Blake came barreling through the portal. They seemed startled to see him standing there.

“That was fast. We thought we’d have to hunt for you,” Blake said.