The Wolf's Mate Book 1: Jason & Cadence (27 page)

Cadence put down her fork, stuffed to the
gills with a breakfast casserole overflowing with several pounds of
meat, cheese and eggs. “What if we do the Pigeon Forge thing, but
have a party when we get back? I don’t really want to have a big
wedding.” All she really wanted was Callie as her maid of honor,
Michael as best man, and to be married to Jason at the end of the
ceremony. Nothing else was even on the radar of mattering.

She may be the only bride-to-be to ever have
uttered those words, but it was true. She had everything she wanted
now. They could get married on the icy courthouse steps in January
and she wouldn’t care, because the only thing that mattered was
that Jason was hers and she would get to keep him. Forever.

It sounded like everyone thought that was a
good idea, and later, when Jason was apologizing with his cock for
being bossy earlier, she asked him if they really liked the party
idea or if they just said they did because she was alpha.

He lifted up from her neck where he’d been
trying to suck her spine out through her skin, “Does it
matter?”

“Kind of.”

He rolled his eyes at her and it made her
smile. He picked up her bad habit. “Sweet, you may never know for
sure if the pack goes along with you because of your position or
because they really like your ideas. Some of them, like Callie,
will tell you the truth because they trust you not to go berserk if
you’re disagreed with. But for the majority of the pack, they would
walk off a cliff if you suggested it, because they’d know that
either way they were going to end up splattered on the rocks
below.”

That was like the least sexy thing she’d ever
heard anyone say and she stared gape-mouthed at him and then just
laughed. It was an absurd mental picture. Wolves like lemmings and
her cracking a whip at the cliff’s edge.

They spent their after-engagement day in bed,
which was one of her very favorite places to be, and then their
weekend was split between planning to leave town on December 10 and
making arrangements for the reception once they were back home on
the 18th. This first Christmas was important, because the pack
hadn’t celebrated Christmas together since Jason took over, and
Christmas Eve happened to be the night of the full moon, too.

Her silly mind wondered what would happen if
Santa was a werewolf. She could picture it, how he’d be fine until
the moon rose, and then he’d be driving the sleigh with his paws.
The reindeer would probably spook, at least those he hadn’t eaten,
and the little kids that waited up for him would be very, very
shocked.

Chapter 16

“Jas, do you think that Renee hates me?”
Cadence asked him the next week, swiveling in the chair behind the
desk and tapping a pencil against the blotter.

Jason straightened in surprise. They had been
discussing the schedule for the shop while they were on their
honeymoon and she’d just switched gears suddenly.

“Why would you think that?”

She shifted and her eyes were glossy with
pain. “They lost their son because of me. The pack lost its next
alpha.”

He stood up and went to her, gathering her in
his arms and settling back down in the chair with her tucked
against his chest. He had been waiting for her to let him know the
reason for her guilty feelings. He could tell she was burdened in
some ways by what had happened to her tormentor and his cronies. He
would have rather she was able to forget about the nightmare
entirely, but that wasn’t reality.

“You didn’t do anything wrong, baby, I swear.
He was unstable. He didn’t just flip a switch and go crazy because
you picked me; he was clearly like that all along and just very
good at keeping the depths of his depravity under wraps.”

“I feel like a fool for trusting him.”

“He had us all fooled. But you don’t hold any
fault. You responded to him because he was showing you a tender
part of himself. If you’d given in, Cades, if you’d chosen him
instead of me, you may still have endured the same scenario. Jake
wasn’t planning to step down for him anytime soon and he may have
simply taken off with you and done the same thing anyway.”

“I couldn’t pick him anyway, Jas, my heart
was already yours.” She sighed deeply and snuggled into him and he
tightened his hold on hers. There were a lot of regrets he had at
the situation, but as long as his sweetheart was in his arms, then
from his point of view all the pain and misery were worth it.

“You can talk to them, sweet, I’ll take you
over if you’d like. They don’t hold you responsible. You were a
victim, plain and simple.”

“I’d like to see them, before they’re
gone.”

He promised, kissing her forehead and letting
her have as much quiet as she needed. That night, he took her over
to Jake and Renee’s. Renee had locked herself in the bedroom when
they arrived and Jake looked sadly up the stairs. “I’m sorry,
Cadence. She’s a wreck right now, packing up the things from his
childhood. She’s afraid to see you. She’ll be okay eventually, but
it’s still really fresh for her.”

Her head dropped and he saw the tear that
fell to the floor. He tucked her closer against him while Jake
said, “No, Cadence, no, it’s not your fault. Renee and I don’t hold
you responsible in any form!” Jake knelt down so that she was
looking down at him. The truth was on his face, if Cades only
trusted it.

Her voice cracked, “I’m just so sorry,
Jake.”

“I’m sorry, too. You give Renee some time,
sweet girl; let her grieve for our son. She doesn’t want to see
anyone right now. You have always been like a daughter to her, to
both of us, and she’s laden with guilt right now for all the things
she missed. I’m sorry, Cadence, for all you suffered.”

Jason took her home shortly afterwards and
she curled up against him on the couch lost in her own thoughts.
Several days later, Renee showed up at the garage and hugged Cades
and told her that she was sorry and would miss her dearly. Cades
told him later that she felt like Jake had pushed her to come to
the garage knowing how upset she was, and it was probably true.
Jake wouldn’t want Cades to suffer and she would if she thought for
even a second longer that Renee held her responsible in any form.
She was satisfied, though, relieved in some small way that Renee
wanted to let it go. If Cades thought that Renee would hate her for
the rest of her life, it would eat away at her. At least this way,
she had the bit of relief she needed so she could begin to heal
herself.

The following week, he sat in the living room
from a vantage point where he could watch Gray and Cadence
discussing the restaurant. He liked Gray. He trusted him. Except
with Cadence. He must have growled a dozen times in the first half
hour, because Gray leaned too close to her, or touched a paper at
the same time, or looked at her too long. His wolf was in knots
because Gray was a single, unmated male. Sure he was old enough to
be her father, but his wolf didn’t care. You just couldn’t reason
with a beast.

The Garra Pack was taking off in four days.
Moving vans were parked in front of homes on the side of town where
Jake’s pack lived, and the two businesses were slowly shutting
down. For the restaurant, stable food that could be stored safely
for several months was kept in a locked storage room in the kitchen
of the restaurant and everything else had been distributed to the
pack members and anything remaining was given to an orphanage in
Falls Creek, an hour south.

This was their last meeting together. Before,
they met in the restaurant and Jason sat through the powerfully
boring meetings in the booth, right next to her so that he felt
like he was keeping her safe. The November full moon had really
screwed with his head and it was spilling out into his day-to-day
life. He shifted and then walked Cadence back to the house, but
didn’t go out to hunt. She had argued with him, which was kind of
funny because he couldn’t actually talk to her so she appeared to
be mostly just arguing with herself.

He tried to explain that after what happened
in October, he couldn’t bring himself to leave her yet. And it
wasn’t just his human side that was reliving that night then, it
was his wolf, too. He and his beast were of one accord that night –
their woman had to be kept safe, and the only way to ensure that
was to stay right there with her. He reasoned he would feel better
once the Garra Pack was gone, but the truth was that since he’d
almost lost her twice, he wasn’t sure he’d ever get over that
feeling that he was the only one that could keep her safe.

He heard them finishing up and he went into
the kitchen. Cadence gave him a smirk combined with a raised brow
but said nothing as she closed the portfolio with all the paperwork
and notes so that the restaurant could be reopened whenever someone
with enough skill to run it could do so. In the meanwhile, she
would handle the books and make sure any residual bills were kept
up to date.

He shook Gray’s hand and wished him well on
their journey south to find a new home and when the front door was
shut, he turned on a growl and stalked to Cadence. He jerked her
over his shoulder, the fastest way to carry her upstairs he’d
found, and she didn’t fight this time, not even in jest. She knew
he was having a hard time right now and she was going to let him do
whatever he needed to, to claim her again for his wolf, to prove
that she was okay and right there with him.

He dumped her on the bed and she bounced
once. He stripped, need making his fingers tremble, and then he was
on top of her, biting and licking her neck. She had tensed at the
impact but then relaxed immediately, dropping her hands to the side
and turning her head so he could have full access to her flesh.

He let his fangs come out and he sank the
tips into her neck and she moaned, writhing under him because she
was just that turned on by his primal, alpha behavior. He was glad
she wasn’t asking questions, because right now he couldn’t think
far enough in advance to speak anyway.

He extracted his fangs and licked the tiny
blood droplets that seeped from the wounds and then he sat up,
straddling her waist. His claws pushed from his hands and he turned
the curved ends and sliced through the front of her shirt, catching
the lace bra at the same time and baring her from neck to waist.
With another careful stroke of each hand, the shirt was in shreds
and on the floor.

The jeans and panties fell next with the
thick ripping sound of claws on fabric and his own growls that
bubbled possessively in his chest. His overwhelming need to mark
her again and again and fuck her so hard she wouldn’t be able to
walk right for days roared to the surface and he gave himself over
to the urges. She would tell him if he hurt her; he trusted her to
do that much.

He took one moment to gaze down at her
luscious body laid out for him; the swell of her breasts, the flare
of her hips, the delicate arch of her neck. And deeper than that,
the excited thrum of her heart, the rush of blood in her veins, and
the soft pants of anticipation from her parted mouth. He picked up
her wrist and licked across the flesh slowly and then bit down, and
she sucked in a fast breath and wriggled under him. He drew blood
on both wrists, just enough to put small, permanent marks on her,
and then he slid down her body and shoved her legs apart.

Her pussy glistened with her arousal; the
deep pink of her sweet center was like peering into the gates of
heaven. Licking up the inside of one thigh, he caught a taste of
her honey and his body was ready to take her, but first, his wolf
needed to mark this place as his, too.

He grazed the inside of her thigh with his
fangs and she moaned her approval, either at his teeth or the
fingers he began pounding into her. Licking and teasing with his
fangs, he listened intently for her breath to catch just before she
leapt over the edge of orgasm, and a heartbeat before she did and
her body creamed for him, he sank his fangs into her thigh and she
screamed, “SHIT! Jason!” He growled into the meat of her thigh
before moving to her other thigh and biting hard. Still fingering
her through her powerful climax, she whipped her head back and
forth frantically and twisted the sheet in her hands and he eased
up on his assault on her drenched pussy, carrying her down from
orbit to earth.

He rolled her to her belly and hefted her up
onto all fours before shoving her head down and kneeing her legs
apart. His control of his beast slipped further and he slammed into
her body and she cried out and it slid into a low moan and growl as
his claws dug into her hips and he thrust into her molten core as
fast and hard as he could.

Completely at his mercy, she took everything
he had as his thrusts forced only panting breaths and quiet cries
of submission from her lips. Her sweet honey dripped down her
thighs and the scent of her at her purest, most feminine self
branded his senses. Gone to his beast completely, he felt his claws
break through her skin and tear and she reached a plateau of climax
that made her pussy clamp down on his cock like a vise. He barely
heard the sound of tearing fabric as he came, and he shoved her
away from him just a split second before he lost control entirely
and shifted.

He shook himself out and sat down on his
haunches and looked at her as she rolled to her back with a sob,
the sheet she’d been gripping lay in tattered pieces. Even as he
was aware he’d never lost such complete control before, this was an
extremely close call.

Her hips were bleeding, four slashes on one
side and three on the other and the marks on the inside of her
thighs had been rubbed raw and were already bruising. He was too
weak to shift back to his human form, but her soft crying broke his
heart and he nuzzled her chin and licked her jaw. Her eyes were
vivid with tears and pain and he considered trying to force himself
to shift right now, but chances were he’d simply tire himself out
in the process and then it would be even longer before he was
strong enough to shift. He made a whimpering noise and lay down on
his belly, hoping she knew he was sorry that he’d hurt her.