The Wolf's Mate Book 1: Jason & Cadence (2 page)

"Don't threaten me, old man." She groused,
and turned away from him and came face to face with Jason's younger
and also gorgeous brother, Michael.

"Hey baby girl!" He grinned, leaning his
elbows on the bar. A girl named Lindy, clearly trying to look like
a hooker, leaned on his shoulder, draping herself around him like a
coat and giving Cadence a nasty look. Bitch. Werewolf bitch.
Cadence ignored her. There weren't many she-wolves that wanted to
tangle with her. Besides having their strength and speed and
violent streak, she also had a chip on her shoulder the size of
Rhode Island. Plus, she had spent her four years in college
training in martial arts and defensive tactics, so she could kick
just about any she-wolf's ass, and a number of males, too, if
pressed. Most of the time, their threats were baseless, just
testing the waters like children. Seeing how much they could push
your buttons before you snapped.

Her philosophy had always been to snap right
away, go completely nuts so they'd leave her alone and back down.
Most of the time it worked. She had gotten her ass kicked enough in
school by both male and female wolves though, and until Jason
turned 16, he had always defended her. Of course no one would
really hurt her or they'd face Jake's wrath, and even Jason's
father, who had been alpha before him, had her back as a courtesy
to Jake. She was off-limits unless she pressed a fight. Wolves said
that if you couldn't back up your mouth then you had to keep it
shut. Good advice, but most of the time she couldn't stop
herself.

"Hey Michael, how're tricks?"

He asked for two pitchers of draft. "Good,
good. You look fantastic, baby. Are you sticking around?"

"Maybe. If can find a job."

He made a face like he was thinking about
something, screwing up his adorably cute dimpled cheeks, and she
almost kissed him just because he was so damn cute. Michael was
only two years older than her, and he had never gone through that
horrible attitude change that Jason had. Although his personality
had changed for a while, and like all wolves he had a temper, but
he was just a very even tempered guy, unless he needed to not be.
She would rely on Michael in a fight, to back her up, for anything
and everything. But it hadn't been him that she'd wanted, it was
Jason, and that burned her in a special way. Michael, sweetheart
that he was, never looked at her like anything but a friend, and
she was glad for it, but also hated it. No wolf in either pack had
ever asked her out. When she was younger, she thought it was
because of Jason, but then she just figured that they weren't
interested in what a lot of the bitch wolves called her – “the
mutt".

He dropped a fifty on the counter and walked
away and she smiled. They were always very generous. Although a lot
of times they ended up destroying things because they would forget
about their own strength after a few hours of drinking and dancing
and hot girls. The bar attracted wolves and humans of both sexes.
Some wolves and humans were mates to wolves, the equivalent of
being married, and some were girlfriend or boyfriend, or fuck
buddies. Some wolf females just didn't attract men, human or
otherwise, and some human females wanted to be with the big bad
wolf so badly that they just hung around and made themselves
available to any that would have them. The males called those human
females chew toys. Cadence always felt a little bad for them,
because no wolf would take a chew toy for a mate.

Like the males, the females had their own
hierarchy, with the alpha female mated with the alpha male. There
was no alpha female of Jason's pack, and as far as she knew, Jason
had not been with a female wolf ever; not even on the full moon
when their cravings for sex were the highest.

She would gladly take on any of the wolves in
the pack for the chance to be in Jason's arms. She wouldn't admit
it out loud, though. In fact, out loud she was a bitch to him. She
taunted and teased him until he was red in the face and ready to
throttle her. She knew how to push all his buttons and loved doing
it. If she was miserable, she wanted him to be miserable, too. She
turned her attention away from the past and lost herself in the
flurry of drink orders.

She knew exactly where Jason was the whole
time, but took great care to ignore him. Eventually, though, she
couldn't because Jake dropped a tray in her hands and put four beer
bottles on it and told her to take it to Jason's table. "You do
it." She shoved the tray back at him like a child.

"No." He ground out. "You do it."

"Fuck off, I don't want to." She shoved it
back at him and the bottles tipped but righted themselves.

His voice went low in a very serious way and
it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. "You will do
what I tell you."

She pressed her tongue into the back of her
incisor to stop herself from saying something nasty, and just
nodded curtly and turned, setting the tray down and sliding under
the counter and picking it up again. Gathering all her attitude and
courage, she prepared to go face Jason and act like she could care
less if he lived or breathed, even though she cared very much about
both of those things.

Chapter 2

Jason had known the second she walked into
the bar. Hell, he'd known the second she drove that souped up
Charger into town, Hendrix blaring from her stereo. She'd stopped
for gas at the station after driving in from where she'd been
hiding out since she graduated in June, stupid NKU and all that
bullshit. She looked fantastic. More than fantastic, she looked
delicious and gorgeous, and cock-hardeningly breath-taking. He'd
loved her as long as he could remember and he'd finally decided
that it was the right time to reveal his feelings for her, or
rather he was being forced to reveal his feelings for her, or watch
someone else take her from him. And that, he couldn't allow. He'd
waited for her to come home after she graduated, but she didn't for
months and he'd nearly gone insane waiting. Why hadn't he just
driven the fuck up there and dragged her home by her hair like some
caveman? Oh right, he was a colossal idiot, plus it might have
pissed her off.

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.