The Wolf's Mate Book 3: Callie & The Cats (4 page)

"Seriously? What a gentleman," she snapped
and stormed out of the building, shrugging into her coat.

As the door shut behind her, she lifted her
eyes and saw Eryx and Ethan standing smugly in front of their cop
car.

“You two!” She snarled and stalked towards
them. “What did you do?”

“We are offering you a no-strings-attached
room for as long as you need it at our home. We have a spare
bedroom; I make a mean grilled steak. Let us help you.” Ethan
offered with a smile that would have melted her shoes from her feet
if she hadn’t been so pissed.

She looked at the two of them and didn’t see
her bags. She was betting they’d put them in the cruiser. Well, she
was not going to be played. The salt on the sidewalk crunched under
her hiking boots as she strode to the car. With a warning growl,
she glared at them, "I just want my bags and then I’m gone.”

“You’re not going anywhere except home with
us.” Eryx said matter-of-factly.

The first thought that crossed her mind was
that they were trying to hurt her. But there was no mistaking the
identical looks in their eyes. She’d seen that look pass between
Cadence and Jason. They were being possessive and unreasonable as
if she was their mate! But that was impossible. It had to be.

She shoved the warmth and hope that skated
through her away and reminded herself that she was not looking for
anything permanent. She hadn’t even let her wings loose let alone
stretched them. And she sure wasn’t going to come between two
brothers while they fought over her. Not just no, but hell no.

She gathered her anger at her situation, and
for the first time in her life, she got in someone’s face. She
stomped over to them. “I’m not some random tourist begging for a
quick bang, okay? I’m stranded and you just took my options from
me. This is my life. You just don’t fuck with someone’s life!”

Eryx jerked her into the length of his body
by the back of her neck and her brain stuttered to a stop. His
voice was dangerously low and her wolf whined in her head. “We said
nothing about a quick bang, Callie. We simply want to ensure you
are safe. Come with us. We mean you no harm, I swear.”

When her brain started firing again, she
shoved away from him. “Don’t touch me, Eryx.”

He put his hands up. “I’m sorry. Please,
don’t make any more of a scene than you already have.”

“I made a scene? You had them deny my credit
card! You took my things. You stranded me on purpose, and after all
that I’ve been through, that’s just, it’s wrong.” She wanted to
make them feel guilty so they would let her walk away, but her
statements had the opposite effect. Or, rather, no effect at
all.

Ethan made a gesture to the car. “Callie,
please.”

They had her by the scruff that was for damn
sure. If she walked, she’d leave without her things and her whole
life was in them.

“Why are you doing this to me?” Her voice
sounded like it had deflated completely. Apparently she could only
be bitchy for short bursts.

“Because we want to make sure that you are
safe while you get your life straightened out.” Ethan said
quietly.

The nuts and bolts of things for her was that
she didn’t want to fight. She walked away from the pack because of
all the in-fighting between the females. Even though she never
tried to rank-fight, she had grown up a punching bag as much as
Cadence. The two of them had commiserated over many black eyes and
bruised bodies. But Cades had a warrior’s spirit and Callie didn’t.
She trained to fight, to better herself and make up for her
inability to shift as a half-breed. A terrific alpha, she was the
model of what Callie wanted to be some day. A protector. But a
protector of her own family. As a lone wolf, she could marry a
human and have half-breed children that would be human, because
human and wolf matings didn’t produce wolves. She would be the one
that would stand beside her husband and keep their children safe.
What she definitely didn’t want was to come into another were-group
as an outsider and fight for position. Even as a wolf in a wolf
pack she didn’t fit in right, she couldn’t imagine how she’d go
about being the only wolf in a cat group. These twins were
dangerous. Not just because she was drawn to them, not just because
they were cats, but because their voices made things low in her
belly clench and their eyes spoke of love and affection so fast it
made her head spin. Determined to leave as soon as possible, she
knew the best defense was to put on a strong front and ignore
everything they did for her. She would walk away before they got
any ideas and she’d be on to her next stop, wherever that was going
to be, immediately.

Eryx opened the door for her, sensing her
resignation. They tried to engage her in conversation, but she sat
stonily in the backseat alone and stared out the window. Their
small three-bedroom home sat nestled in woods that just begged to
be hunted. Eryx took her things into one of the bedrooms and she
followed, sitting angrily on the bed. He left her alone, and she
sat there like a lump trying to figure out what to do. The problem
was that she couldn’t really think past how gorgeous they were and
how much she wanted to be with them. A very large part of her
wanted to go out into the kitchen where she knew they were talking
quietly together, and grab hold of both of them.

But then her sane, logical side popped up and
reminded her that she wasn’t looking for a quickie. And she
definitely wasn't looking for something serious. She was trying to
start fresh. A relationship, not to mention such odd feelings for
two men at the same time, meant that she would have to choose
between the brothers and get stuck here in this small town that was
a lot like Allen. No telling how lion hierarchy worked, but she
didn’t want to be the punching bag for any female lions; she just
didn’t have the strength anymore. It’s why she wanted to go human.
Humans didn’t have hierarchy.

The car accident had thrown a serious wrench
into her plans.

Chapter 5

**Ethan**

He paced outside of the bedroom where Callie
was finally sleeping. It was well past 3 a.m., and after barely
eating anything for dinner, she locked herself in the bedroom for
the rest of the night, seething and unhappy. Several hours later,
she listened to phone messages on her cell and then cried for a
long time. Both he and Eryx had wanted to go in and comfort her,
but everything about her demeanor right now told them to stay away.
His lion and his human nature were both clamoring in his skull to
hold her and brush the tears from her cheeks, but going into her
room would have only served to make her angrier. Since they were
the reason she was there in the first place.

“Are you sure it was wise to not let her stay
at Tom’s?” He whispered to his brother as they leaned against the
wall outside of the bedroom, both too hyped up to sleep with her in
the house. They had kicked Alek out and he had reluctantly gone to
live with their father for an indeterminate amount of time.

Eryx scrubbed his hands through his hair with
a soft growl of frustration. “I’m not sure about anything. There is
war in her eyes, Ethan. She wants us, but she refuses to
acknowledge it.”

“What did the doc say about being rogue when
you called him earlier?”

“Uh, he said that there were a lot of reasons
to go rogue, but usually there was a problem within the pack that
the wolf wanted to escape. He said it was really rare for females
to leave on their own and that it probably had something to do with
an unwanted mating.”

“Sounds like the wolves try to pair their
kind up.” He looked wistfully at the door. She just rolled over. He
could hear the sheets sliding across her clothes and he wondered
what she was wearing.

“Do you think it’s because we’re cats? That
she thinks we don’t go together?” Eryx reached out his fingertips
and touched the door, like he could feel her on the other side of
it.

“I don’t think it matters that we’re two
different kinds of beasts. And she’s rogue anyways, there’s no pack
to tell her what to do. She can do what she wants.” He sighed and
closed his eyes, leaning his head back on the wall. She was so
angry with them. It was like she was a caged beast snarling at her
captors. “One of us should stay home with her today, so she’s not
alone. Maybe when she’s hungry, she’ll come out of the room and a
little of that ice around her heart will thaw.”

“It should be you. I think I scared her at
the hospital, and then later at Tom’s.” Regret was heavy in his
words.

“If you want. I’m going to try to get some
sleep on the couch so I can hear her if she gets up. You should go
to bed.”

“Nah,” he scrubbed his face with both hands,
“I’m going to shower and go in. I’ll be better off patrolling than
sitting around with my thumb up my ass.”

In a few minutes, the shower was going in
Eryx’s bathroom, and Ethan walked to the couch and sat down. It
seemed ironic on some level that he and his brother would connect
with a female from another were-group, and one that seemed very
intent on walking away as soon as possible. He replayed dinner in
his head, his brow knotting with frustration.

“Callie, I made dinner. We’d like you to join
us.” He said, knocking on the door.

“Unless there is a cab idling in the driveway
to take me back to the bed and breakfast, I’m not interested.” She
sounded tired. And so sad. And almost defeated.

“Callie, please, we mean you no harm. You
should eat something; you didn’t eat breakfast or lunch at the
hospital. It’s not good for you to go hungry.”

The door swung open so suddenly he had to
take a step back. Eyes flashing, she sneered, “What do you know
about wolves, cat? Talked to that big mouthed doctor? I’ve got news
for you both. He doesn’t know a damn thing about me.”

He put his hands up, surprised at her anger.
“I wasn’t suggesting anything about your nature. People eat. It’s
normal.”

She snorted and folded her arms. “You’re a
cat, Ethan. What the hell do you know about normal?”

Touché.
“I guess normal is relative.
Look, I’ll be honest. You have no car, and we kind of screwed you
with the bed and breakfast so you can’t go there. If you’d rather,
I could take you to my father’s house, you could stay with him.
He’s chief of police.”

“You could take me to a bus station.” She set
her jaw with a determined, angry frown.

That thought left a bad taste in his mouth,
but he didn’t say no, he hedged. “Where do you need to go?”

She chewed her lower lip for a long time and
then sighed. “I don’t know.”

“Then there’s no rush.” He turned and left
her in the doorway and sat down at the kitchen table where Eryx
waited. Leaning over, he whispered, “She recognizes us already. She
knew my name without me saying it!”

Eryx whispered, “Really? That’s more proof in
my book, brother.” For certain. Even their father had trouble
telling them apart at times. That their mate could after less than
a day knowing them was uncanny. It was one thing to tell them apart
by their personalities, or their habits, but just having a sense
about it was incredible.

After a handful of minutes, she joined them
at the table and then picked at the food on her plate even though
her eyes said she was starving. He’d grilled steaks like he
promised, and Eryx had made several different side dishes, unsure
of what she would like. She said nothing, ate little, and got up
without a word and went back to his bedroom.

He’d tried to go to sleep in Alek’s room, but
aside from the uncomfortable mattress, the knowledge that his mate
was in the house but not in his arms made his body tense and his
lion growl. He’d never been through anything remotely close to
this. It was gut wrenching. A dull ache that overrode everything
else. He heard Eryx pacing in the hallway, and joined him. And
that’s how they spent the night. Wide awake, miserable, and torn up
inside. This was going to be much tougher than he thought.

**Eryx**

Grunting at the curious look of the human
woman behind the desk at the station, Eryx grabbed a walkie and
headed out to foot patrol. What he wanted to do was shift and run,
hunt and take out his frustration on a deer or something small and
fast. Jealousy knotted in his spine, thinking about Ethan at home
with her, waiting, but for now there was little either of them
could do for her except be there and wait out her unhappiness.

The bitter chill of the darkest part of the
night tried to lick his skin off, but thoughts of Callie warmed him
like a heater. Damn it, but she was stunning. All that warm, honey
colored hair, her dark hazel eyes, naturally lightly tanned skin,
curves for days. She was so different from the mountain lion
females. She was passionate, even pissed off, and she had quite a
little temper. She was just simply incredible.

A car pulled up alongside where he was
walking down the main street through town. It was a patrol car and
his father was inside. The window rolled half down and he said,
“I’ve got some hot chocolate, son, get in. You’ll freeze your bits
off.”

He sat down in the warmth of the car and his
father handed him a thermos and cranked up the heat. As they idled
at the roadside, he took a long drink of the piping hot brew and
sighed inwardly. “Why were we made this way, dad? Why are the males
the nurturing ones, and our females want nothing from us?”

“I don’t know. It’s unfair, but it is our
way. Are you worried about Callie?”

“She’s angry. And sad. We want to comfort
her, but she’s so intent on leaving and having nothing to do with
us. What will happen to us if our mate leaves?”

“I only know that with your mother, it’s an
ache that doesn’t disappear. That she has no regard for me as
anything but a member of the pride, a man to scratch an itch if she
has one...it’s hell. I don’t know that it would be easier for her
to be gone than to see her and not have her. But your wolf, she may
just need time.”