The Wolf's Mate Book 3: Callie & The Cats (8 page)

They made surprised sounds and grinned.
Settling down a little more, she crossed her legs at the ankle and
looked up at the ceiling. There were tons of legends about werewolf
origins, similar in some ways, but often differing in key elements.
The first werewolf was always named Linus, but his first mate was
where the stories often differed. Her mother had told her all of
them, but she chose to retell the story she'd requested the most as
a child and shared a legend and myth with boys that were sad
because their mothers didn’t care about them. She didn’t understand
that at all. Were female mountain lions only capable of anger? What
an odd were-group.

“Thousands of years ago, when the moon
goddess was in her dark time as she prepared to shine for the new
moon, she roamed the earth, sad and lonely. She was very beautiful,
with hair like silver and eyes as dark as the deepest ocean. On one
of her journeys, she met a man named Linus. He was a warrior, head
of the army of his king, and a man that was as fierce and loyal as
any before him. Linus was betrothed to marry a girl named Penelope,
who was beautiful on the outside, but ugly on the inside, with a
heart like a block of ice and a temper that everyone was afraid
of.

“Linus took one look at the moon goddess and
fell deeply in love with her. He promised to marry her and join her
the following dark time when she was allowed to walk on the earth.
As the goddess left him, promising to return at the next dark time
so they could join together, Penelope overheard their plans and
made plans of her own.

“The moon goddess couldn’t wait for the moon
phases to pass so she could go back to earth and marry Linus, and
bring him back with her to the moon. But as she made her way back
to earth, she found Penelope first and she cast a spell on the moon
goddess that sent her back to the moon. The spell stripped her
powers to travel between the earth and the moon, and she was not
able to see Linus and bring him with her.

“Linus was distraught when the goddess didn’t
show up, and he went to the highest mountain in the land and
climbed to the very top and screamed for her. But she could not
answer, even though it killed her. A wolf nearby heard Linus’
screams of agony and told Linus what had happened, that the moon
goddess was trapped on the moon now and would never be with him
again. ‘If you sacrifice yourself, warrior, I will give you a way
to be connected to her.’ Linus was so miserable without his sweet
goddess that he accepted immediately. But the wolf was not really a
wolf at all, but the great wolf spirit, and he cut his wrist and
gave Linus his blood and Linus became a werewolf. Each full moon,
when the goddess was her most visible and beautiful, the werewolf
could commune with her by shifting into his wolf form and singing
for her. The howls of the werewolf are a song as old as time
itself, a pledge each full moon that they will never forget that
Linus gave up part of his humanity for love. For three nights each
month he loved his goddess with song, telling her over and over how
great his love for her was.”

The boys sighed happily when the story was
finished and she felt herself drifting off to sleep amongst them.
In another life, she could picture herself with her own children
gathered around her, listening to the stories of her childhood. In
the picture in her mind tonight, the children had silver-gray and
steel-gray eyes, and thick, dark hair.

Chapter 7

**Ethan**

Where the hell was Callie? She’d been gone
for almost an hour. Ethan fidgeted on the couch which felt cold and
empty without her next to him. Eryx’s dark expression said he was
wondering the same thing. She’d just gotten up after hardly eating
any of the lasagna that he’d taken such pains to make for her.

“Do you think she’s so intent on leaving that
she can’t even stand to be in the same room with us?” He looked at
Eryx.

Grinding his teeth, Eryx returned his look
which was a cross between being supremely pissed off and having
your heart ripped out. “I don’t know what to think.”

Layla and Tanya stood suddenly and walked
towards the front door. A shiver of worry skated through him and he
stood up. “What have you done to her?”

They paused mid-step but then continued their
walk to the door and he and Eryx closed the gap between them and
stopped their attempt to leave. “Where is Callie?” He growled. He
could feel his beast snarling in his mind.

Layla looked at them impassively as if she
didn’t care that he was close to tearing her throat out. It was
John’s daughter Jilly who said, “She’s with the cubs, stupid
dog.”

Their Uncle John jerked from his chair and
grabbed her by the back of the neck and gave her a good shake. “You
will not treat your cousins’ mate so terribly. I did not raise you
to be like them.”

He and Eryx relaxed slightly, but Eryx
threatened them anyway, “If I find out that you hurt our mate, I
will decorate the hill with your insides.”

The females stormed out of the house, looking
both angry and afraid. John shoved Jilly back into the chair and
walked over to them. “She said one of the cubs got hurt and Callie
took them all with her to the bedroom.” He sighed deeply and cast
his eyes back to his daughter. “I’ve tried so hard to raise her to
be compassionate. It's like the moment they come into contact with
other females, they turn to stone on the inside. I wish I had taken
her from here and never let her come into contact with others.”

They walked back to the bedroom. The door was
ajar, and they both stared in shock at the sight before them as the
door swung quietly open. Stretched out on the bed asleep, Callie
had five cubs draped over her, her arms around two of them
protectively, even in sleep.

Only Henry sat on the edge of the bed,
slightly apart, but the look on his face was one of longing and sad
resignation. They motioned for him, and he got up quietly and
followed them deeper into the hallway so they didn’t disturb
them.

He told them how Callie had stood up for
them, how the females had threatened her and how she returned a
threat to them. Henry was confused by her affection for them,
because he’d never known any females outside of humans that cared
for cubs, and humans wouldn’t care for children that weren’t
theirs.

Pride warmed through Ethan at the thought of
their mate protecting the cubs even though either of those females
could have hurt her grievously.

Henry’s voice got tight. “Why, why is it like
this?”

“Like what, Henry?” He asked.

“Why are the females not like her?” His voice
cracked and he coughed to clear it, but there was no mistaking the
tears and the sob caught in his throat. He gave the cub a hug and
Eryx squeezed his shoulder. They both exchanged looks.

He smoothed Henry’s hair back and kissed his
forehead. “She’s special and unique. I don’t know why lion females
don’t care about marriage or family, but that’s why the males were
made to be both mother and father to their cubs. We are lucky
enough to find a mate strong enough to stand up to the females and
compassionate enough to protect cubs that aren’t hers. You can find
your own female some day, Henry. You don’t have to live the
solitary life if you don’t want to.”

His head shook furiously. “I don’t, I
don’t.”

“Go and find your father, cousin.” Eryx said
gently and Henry peeled away from them, gave a wistful glance into
the bedroom, and walked away to join the men. They crept back to
stare into the bedroom where she lay sleeping soundly. Her mouth
was parted slightly, her lashes casting shadows on her cheeks, and
the sound of her deep breathing was hypnotic.

“I’m jealous of the cubs,” Eryx
whispered.

Ethan put his arm around his shoulders and
said quietly, “Me, too, brother. Me, too.”

After the fight was over, and their two human
friends left, the men sat around discussing Callie. Henry had gone
over the scenario in the basement and bedroom for their family and
they were all determined not to let her go anywhere. For all their
sakes.

If the children had softened her towards them
some, then perhaps time was the only factor. Time for her to be
around them, but only around the males, and time to get to know
them all.

“There’s the wedding Saturday evening, you
know.” Their father settled back against the deep couch. Eryx had
picked it out, the only thing in the house that he’d cared about as
far as decorating went, and he picked it not for the color but
because he liked to fall asleep watching TV and it was deep and
comfortable. It was also an unfortunate color their father
affectionately referred to as hooker-red.

“Thad and Jane’s wedding?” Eryx looked
confused. Ethan felt the same way. Thad drove for the town, a tow
truck year-round and a salt truck in the winter. In his mid-30s,
he’d found the love of his life in their overnight desk clerk,
Jane. Both were human, but that didn’t mean they thought any less
of them. It was just another glaring example of how their kind were
different, and a month ago, hell even a week ago, he was damn
jealous of Thad.

Their father said, “Don’t women get all
worked up at weddings? Think about getting married and that sort of
thing? I mean, not our women, but others?”

They all looked blankly at each other. None
of them knew anything about women. The females were cold and
emotionless unless they were angry. If aloofness was an emotion,
they could do it over the top. Even during sex they were robotic
and unfeeling.

“It’s worth a shot.” Uncle John said,
scratching his neck. “If you can keep her here through the weekend,
you could ask her to go with you.”

“Maybe. But you still don’t know why she left
her pack. Didn’t the doc say that they don’t leave for no reason?”
Uncle Grant said.

“And you guys haven’t talked to her. You
haven’t told her that you’re both mates with her. You haven’t told
her anything.” Their father said.

“She locked herself in the room. What would
you have us do, treat her like a wayward cub? Force her to talk to
us?” He snarled, not meaning to sound so harsh but unable to stop
himself.

“Fine, fine.” Grant held up his hands. “You
don’t want to push her, you want to give her space, whatever. But
you might let her have her space all the way out of town, and then
where will you be? The sooner you talk to her, the sooner you can
give her whatever it is that she was missing or needing when she
left her family.”

Damn depressing thoughts. John finally said
it was time to get the kids home and one by one they extracted the
children from their tangled holds on Callie. Three of the older
ones were sprawled across her legs and Nathan and Brian were
cuddled into her shoulders, their little arms across her stomach.
Ethan had to steel himself as he picked up Brian last. The child
was swimming in her scent that was a cross between honeysuckle and
lavender, sweet and sultry.

He closed the front door as his father and
brother left, ignored the kitchen, and walked back to the bedroom
where Eryx stood at the bottom of the bed, staring. He joined him
and they watched her in the near darkness of the room. The bathroom
light was on, so they could get the children out of the room
without turning on a brighter light.

It was almost too much. The sight of her in
his bed, the image of children in her arms, and the scent of her
hanging in the air. His cock scraped his zipper in an attempt to
break free and he let out a small groan of frustration. Eryx
chuckled and then whispered, “We can at least make her
comfortable.”

They each took a tennis shoe in hand and
undid them, putting them on the floor. As tempting as it was to
free her from the confines of her jeans, he was certain it wouldn’t
go over well when she woke up in the morning, and the last thing he
wanted to do was make her think they didn’t respect her. He tucked
a blanket around her gently and couldn’t stop himself from brushing
her cheek with one finger. Her skin was as soft as he imagined it
would be.

With a last look over his shoulder, they left
her alone in the bedroom, and went to bed themselves.

Eryx stood at the sink, rinsing out his
coffee mug as Ethan finished making breakfast for himself and
Callie, whenever she got up. It was only 7. He was taking the day
off to take her to the used car lot, although the thought of her
leaving filled him with despair.

“I didn’t dream that there were five kids in
bed with me last night, did I?” Callie asked, surprising both of
them as she walked into the kitchen, dressed in a short jean skirt,
black tights, knee boots, and a tight navy blue sweater. To say she
looked incredible was only fitting if you couldn’t come up with
another word. For the moment, his mind was in a tailspin and words
escaped him.

Gathering his tongue off the floor, he
gestured to the table. “No, their fathers took them home when the
fight was over. Sit, I made breakfast.” Eryx, who had been on his
way out, filled his empty coffee mug and sat down. Never late, it
was something for him to sit back down.

“Did you sleep well, Callie?” Eryx asked as
Ethan fixed a plate for both of them.

Her hair, held back by a thin headband, was
so pretty that he wanted to run his fingers through it and test
every strand. He put the plate down in front of her and took the
other chair. “Yeah. Thanks, whichever of you took off my shoes.”
She fixed her coffee with two spoons of sugar and milk until it was
very light beige. He knew they would both remember that for
tomorrow.

“The children were very happy to make friends
with you last night. Do you have younger siblings?” Eryx asked.

The pause was significant and Eryx shot him a
questioning look. Ethan had no idea why she’d gone so quiet.
Finally she said, “My father got my mom pregnant and took off
before I was born. The pack rejected her for mating because of
that...a...spurned female isn’t considered of value. So she never
had any other kids. And she died when I was 15.”