The Wolf's Mate Book 2: Linus & The Angel (4 page)

What do you say to that declaration? He
clearly had spent a lot of time beating himself up over his
choices. Everyone had laundry lists of regrets. Since they were
both done eating, she skipped saying anything to what he’d said
because nothing she could say would change how he felt about
himself at the moment. She knew all about feeling dirty and used
because of a former lover, but he didn’t need her empathy right now
and he wouldn’t necessarily understand her willingness to ignore
his past. All she cared about was their present right now and the
future.

She stood and picked up her plate. “Thanks
for breakfast. Let me do the dishes for you.”

He stood up and made a grab for her plate.
“You don’t need to do the dishes; it was my pleasure to cook for
you.”

He seemed insistent that she sit back down
and relax, but she followed him anyway. He flipped on the faucet
and she stood next to him, leaning against the counter with her hip
against the cabinet. He was concentrating very hard on the water
from the faucet, as if it were pure gold flowing from the silver
hardware.

She turned off the water. He turned and she
looked up into his pretty eyes. She undid the button of his jeans
and said, “Dishes can wait, Linus.”

His eyes went wide and he paused long enough
that she had a mini panic attack. “Oh crap, was it, was it not
good? You don’t want to?” Her mouth went completely dry and she
thought she might curl into a ball. She’d never had complaints
before, but then she hadn’t ever really asked.

He jerked like she had hit him and growled,
putting both hands on her shoulders. “It was incredible, Karly, I’m
just, I feel like I can’t get enough of you and I don’t want to
scare you.”

“Not scared. Want you.” She breathed in
deeply and the very male scent of him washed over her and her body
warmed. She hadn’t realized she closed her eyes until she heard him
take a deep breath and growl very softly in the back of his throat.
She opened them slowly and his eyes were hooded, his mouth parted
slightly, and the expression on his face was pure bliss.

His hands slid slowly across her shoulders to
her neck, his fingers playing on either side. His mouth lowered in
slow motion to hers until their lips met and their tongues slid
together, deep and searching. One of his hands slid around to her
waist and he lifted her off the ground as if she weighed nothing
and she wrapped her legs around his waist. She tried to climb
inside him through his mouth while he moved them through the house
and rolled her underneath him on the bed.

He spread her legs with his knees and
straightened his arms so that his fists were buried in the mattress
on either side of her head. She didn’t expect the frown. “What’s
wrong?”

“I don’t have any condoms. I’m not exactly
that guy, but I damn sure wish I was right now.”

“I’m on the shot.”

His frown disappeared in a heartbeat with a
sweet smile that morphed into a look so full of lust that she
thought her insides were going to melt. “You look damn sexy in my
clothes, Karly. Better out of them, though.”

“Must be something you can do about that, my
sweet wolf.”

Their clothes disappeared in a flurry and she
got an excellent look at his magnificent body before he slipped
down hers and spread her thighs apart with two very large, warm
hands. He swirled his tongue around her clit and she grabbed onto
the wooden slats of the headboard while he feasted on her as if she
were the most exquisite thing he’d ever tasted in his life.

Linus played her like an instrument,
searching for all her spots and finding them, driving her to climax
again and again.

She writhed under his hands while he tongued
her core, lapping at her juices with throaty growls, “Linus,
please!” She cried out when the shiver of the last fingers of the
climax had worked through her, fairly sure she couldn’t have
another orgasm if her life depended on it.

He licked his lips, swiping his finger across
his mouth and sucking her wetness from it. With liquid grace, he
slid up her body and she grabbed his waist with her legs. He may
have planned to enter her slowly, but she dropped her hands from
the headboard and dug her nails into his butt and pulled him inside
at the same time as she thrust her hips up to meet his.

“Holy fuck,” he ground out, a shudder weaving
through him. She breathed out a laugh, only because she was pretty
sure that his cock was big enough he was poking her lungs and she
couldn’t form any words. He kissed her for a long time while he
moved slowly in and out of her, cradling her against him and
caressing every inch of skin he could get his hands on. And then by
slow degrees, he lost hold of his control and pounded into her more
than willing body until he drove her to another plateau of pleasure
that she had never reached before. Stars winked behind her eyes and
her body tried to rip in two, and her cry of pleasure was so loud
it hurt her ears. She felt him spasm inside her, and he said her
name when he came, and it was the sweetest sound she had ever
heard.

They made love several more times over the
course of the night, on the bed, on the couch, in the shower. And
every time they were together, it strengthened the connection
between them until it was like they’d known each other forever. And
somehow, she thought that was really how it was between angels and
their wolves. Because it was ancient, and powerful, and sweet. To
realize that someone was made for you, waiting for you. It was a
wonderful thing.

She passed out across him like a blanket well
after first light, numb from her eyebrows down to her toes and
deliciously aching. She’d never been happier in her life.

Chapter 3

He held his little sweetheart on his chest
while she dozed off after their sex marathon that started Friday
night. Now, it was late Sunday morning, and he’d never been so
incredibly worn out or felt so amazingly connected to a woman in
his life. She was his mate. He’d never been so sure of anything
else in his life. Already he could see how different it felt when
it was a true match, and not forced the way he’d done things in the
past. Because he was lonely and didn’t want to wait, so he’d rushed
forward and ended up hurting everyone.

Karly. Karolyn Angel Nylock. Gorgeous. Sweet.
Funny. Perfect. His. Oh yeah. His wolf was not about to let him let
her get away. His fangs had elongated so many times while they’d
fucked around the house that his gums ached. No, that’s not right.
Not fucked. It hadn’t been fucking with her, it was love. He’d
actually made love with her. It might be new love, but he knew
himself well enough to know that in no time he was going to be head
over heels for her and he’d give his eye teeth to park his mouth
between her thighs for the rest of his life.

Everything was different. She didn’t lie
there passively while he did all the work; she gave as good as she
got, passion in every action. She’d spent a great deal of time
after the second time they were together, tracing every muscle in
his body with her fingers and then her tongue and he’d had no
choice but to do it back to her. Because it had felt amazing to
have someone pay such careful attention to him. He knew he wasn’t
bad looking, he’d turned heads over the years and his chest and abs
were hard won from the gym. The girls in the bar would swoon over
his muscular upper body but it wasn’t like this. It was like she
was trying to memorize each line, to touch every part of him.

And he’d damned well enjoyed doing it back to
her. Ex-fucking-squisite. She had great tits and the most sensitive
nipples he’d ever encountered. She had ticklish spots on her hip
bones and the back of her knees, and her feet were sensitive enough
that when he bit gently on her instep she just about came. And he
loved her red painted toenails. So sexy.

As he drifted off to sleep with her curled
into his chest the way he wanted to go to sleep the rest of his
life, he couldn’t have been happier. He’d finally found the woman
of his dreams and he wasn’t going to let anyone get between them.
His wolf in agreement, he hugged her slightly tighter, closer, and
fell asleep, a humming growl of contentment the last thing he
heard.

“Yo, dude! Where are you?”

Shit! Linus lurched from the bed as his brain
tried to register the voice coming down the hallway. It wasn’t
Michael, no it couldn’t be. No, no, no! He slammed the bedroom door
shut and met Michael and Bo, second and third in the pack, coming
down the hallway. Michael put his hand up to cover his eyes.

“Fuck, man, put some clothes on.”

He growled and put his hands over his cock.
“What the hell are you guys doing here?”

Bo quirked his brow at him. “Better question
is why you didn’t answer your cell. Jason’s been trying to get hold
of you for a few hours.”

“I’ve been busy.”

“Oh?” Michael peered over his shoulder like
he could see through the door. Linus bristled and his wolf stood at
attention. No. No fucking way was Karly going to be around them.
She. Belonged. To. Him.

“Guys,” he ground out, “is there something
that Jason needs or did you just come here to bust my chops?”

Michael seemed to sense something was going
on and he wasn’t exactly the kind of guy that walked away from
causing trouble. Bo was, though, and he stepped in. “It’s nothing
we can’t handle. Plows are due to come out today, and Jason wanted
you to drive for a shift, but we can handle it. Since you’re
busy.”

“Yeah, I am. But thanks for taking my
turn.”

“You can owe us.” Michael quipped. He knew he
would. He corralled them back to the front room and away from his
sweetheart and watched them shift on the back porch and take off
with pants between their jaws. He locked the sliding door. If he’d
left it locked they wouldn’t have gotten in, wouldn’t have been on
their way back to the bedroom where his mate was laying naked. He
wasn’t sure what he would have done if they’d come into the room,
but he was feeling out of sorts and possessive suddenly. Angry.

And then just as quickly as it came over him,
it seeped away and he felt more in control and calm. Karly had put
her arm around his waist, coming to stand next to him at the back
door. And she was wearing his shirt again, which he loved. “You
need to go?”

“Nah. You hungry sweetheart?”

“Sure. But let me give it a try this
time.”

He followed her into the kitchen. “I like
cooking for you, Karly.” Truth. He liked it a great deal. Maybe
because she appreciated it. Maybe because she didn’t expect it or
act like it was his job.

“Well, I’m not helpless in the kitchen. I do
have some skills.”

He gave her a teasing smile. “So you’re not
just another pretty face?”

“Gosh, I hope not.”

“Alright.” He put his hands up in a jest of
defeat. “If you want to cook so badly, have at it. But I’m very
picky,” he teased and her brown eyes danced. Turning her sweet face
up for a kiss, he gave her one and then another, and would have
kept going except she gave him a gentle shove and reminded him he
was naked.

It was just after lunchtime, so they hadn’t
gotten more than a few hours of sleep. Not that he cared. He liked
being exhausted like this. He hated the knowledge that with the
plows starting the roads would most likely be cleared by morning,
which meant he’d have to take her home and then go to work and the
bliss that he’d known since 1:30 a.m. Friday morning was going to
stop.

Donning a pair of track pants and nothing
else, he wandered back into the kitchen and watched her drop a
sandwich carefully into a bowl, turn it and then put it on the
stove on a hot pan. She peered up at him. “Monte Cristo.”

“Never had one before.” He joined her at the
stove where four sandwiches were now frying. It was amazing that
she knew how much he could eat. Wolves put food away like there was
no tomorrow and a chance of a food shortage. He’d dated women over
the years that complained about it, or thought it was funny, but
she took it all in stride.

“So your dad’s pack?” He brushed a lock of
hair from her shoulder. “Are they like old-school with traditions
and stuff or more modern?”

“Definitely old-school. The pack alpha has
been in power for, well, longer than I’ve been alive, and he runs
things pretty strictly. Pack’s on the small side, all family
groups, and they don’t let newcomers in unless it’s through a
mating.”

Her father was second of the pack. Her mother
was something called a caretaker, which was an older term for
someone that handled the cooking for the pack. It was a position of
honor in some packs, and Karly’s pack had four of them.

They didn’t have a caretaker in their pack;
it wasn’t something that they’d ever had. Granted, he never really
paid much attention to the traditions when he was a kid, because he
didn’t think it would matter. When Jason’s father Peter was alpha,
he was powerful but kind, and let the wolves have more freedom than
a lot of packs that ran them like monarchies, and some of them even
sequestered themselves in towns with no humans at all. As long as
the pack members didn’t cause trouble for each other or the humans,
showed up on the full moon and for meetings, then Peter never
really cared what else they did. Work where you wanted. Live where
you wanted. Jason was much the same way. Maybe even more lenient
because of his youth. But from past experience, he was also very
serious about the job and would not shy away from leading and
delivering pack justice or punishment if the situation warranted
it.

“So in your pack, then, everyone eats
together?” He found the whole thing very cool.

“Something like that. On the weekends,
definitely. The alpha’s house is like a big gathering place, and
there’s always food to eat in the kitchen, and a meal on the table
at 6 like clockwork every night, but it’s not mandatory. The
weekend meals, he uses them for his top ranked and their families.
It doesn’t sound like your pack at all.”