The Wolf's Mate Book 4: Michael & Shyne (13 page)

He kissed the top of her head.  "You test my control, Shyne, and that's not a bad thing under normal circumstances.  But we're heading out in about an hour, and that's not nearly enough time for us to continue what we were doing."

Peering up at him, she quirked her brow.  "You do plan to make love to me eventually, right?"

"Yes, woman," he growled, but the twinkle in his eyes was pure amusement.

When prompted, he told her that he had a meeting with a few top ranked in the pack to discuss the situation, and he wanted her to come along so he knew where she was, which was okay with her.  She didn't want to just sit around his place and be bored.

They spent the rest of the hour before they had to leave discussing werewolves and packs.  Since she had no experience with them, he started out telling her about the inner workings of the pack and their hierarchy, the differences between the male alpha and the female alpha and their rule, and what happened to bad little wolves that got out of line.

Before his brother had taken over the pack, their father had been the alpha.  He stepped down after getting injured, and so did all of the older wolves who were in positions of power.  "What happened wasn't entirely normal, but for this pack, a Gerrick is always in power, and he chooses those that he trusts to stand by him and lead with him.  When Jason took over, many of the older wolves that were loyal to our father stepped down from their rank.  Some left to find other packs, but most still participate in the full moon hunts and live in town, they just don’t hold ranked positions."

When he told her that a wolf and a human together produced human babies, she frowned and went quiet, not listening as he continued to talk.  Fingers snapped in front of her face, and she startled from her thoughts.

"Where were you?" he asked, looking concerned.  "I didn't say something stupid and hurt your feelings, did I?  I do have a tendency to put my foot in my mouth."

"I hadn't noticed," she laughed, but waved her hand at him.  "No, it's not that, it's just...wouldn't you rather have a she-wolf so you can keep your family line going?  Have someone you can share all that wolfy stuff with?"

A snarl tore from his throat, and her breath seized in her chest.  "I want you, Shyne.  If I wanted a she-wolf, I would have settled years ago, but I wanted to wait and find my truemate, the one woman that is right for me and my wolf.  I found her in you.  Our children will be honorary members of the pack, and it won't matter to me that they never shift or that you don't."  He cupped her face and stared into her eyes with his blue ones.  "There isn't anyone that's ever made me feel the way that you do.  Out of control possessive, head over heels in love, and crazy out of my mind with lust."

Her whole body warmed, and he closed his eyes and inhaled and it ended on a growl.  "Woman," he cautioned, opening his eyes only enough to glare at her through the slits.

She knocked his hands away and pounced on him, sending him backwards to the couch.  Sitting astride his waist, she leaned over and gripped his shoulder with one hand while fisting his hair with the other and stretching his neck until it was bared for her.  With a slow lick, she marked the same spot where he'd bruised her.  She pressed her mouth to the place where his pulse hammered, and he trembled and gripped her arms.

"If you bite me, we're not going to be leaving this house for at least a day, and we really do need to go."

She sat up, releasing him.  "A whole day?"

He nodded and swallowed hard, and she saw his eyes had flashed amber again.  He sat up slowly until they were face-to-face.  "If we didn't have to leave, I wouldn't stop you."

"Just so you know I take the 'whole day' thing very seriously."

He smiled and extracted himself from underneath her.  As he stood up in front of her and offered his hand, he said, "I'll be sure to keep that promise."

Chapter 8

They took his bike to Jason and Cadence's house.  He really, really needed to get a car.  And a house.  He hadn't worried about the trailer until Shyne stepped foot into it.  He'd suddenly felt like a teenager, with all those ridiculous posters on the walls and no damn kitchen table.  He could hardly feed his woman right, and that was entirely unacceptable.

After introducing her to his mom and dad, she went with his mom into the kitchen to help Cadence and Karly get lunch set up.  He sat down on the couch in the front room between Jason and Bo.  Linus, his father, and his grandfather Abraham sat on the other couch.

Jason asked him to explain the situation of the last few weeks again so that they were all up to speed.  He started with the moment he met her and the possessive way the hyenas had acted and finished with the marking at her apartment, her genuine dislike of what they were offering, and her acceptance of him as mate.

The room went quiet.  Although yesterday Jason had teased him a good bit about becoming a zoo experiment, and Linus had made insinuations of his sexual preference after finding out about the jail, the time for teasing was gone.

Jason cleared his throat, "Well, first things first.  They came onto our property and drugged you, kidnapped you, and what's worse in my book is that they used your woman to do it.  You're just not supposed to fuck with a wolf's mate, period."

The others nodded.

His grandfather rubbed his whiskered chin.  "If they want your woman, then you have to challenge one of them to a fight for her, and at the same time you can gain vengeance for what they did to you."

Linus grunted, "You haven't seen those guys, Abe.  They're monsters, even the little one.  And one of them is a professional boxer.  No offense to Michael, but he could take out our whole pack with one hand tied behind his back.  We're not trained to fight in our human forms."

"So don't have the fight in human form,"  Bo said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.  "If you invoke a fight to first-blood in animal form, you'd have a much better chance of beating one of them.  You're a great fighter, man."

Michael smiled at Bo's words.  Everyone knew that Jason was their best fighter, but he couldn't ask his brother to take his place to defend his right to Shyne.  This wasn't just about them dropping him in the zoo, this was about them staying away from her forever.

Jason decided to call for a meeting with them in neutral territory that afternoon.  They would lay out the rules ahead of time and plan for the fight to be as soon as possible.

When lunch was called, Jason stepped out onto the front porch with the phone number for the gym and called to speak to the oldest brother, whichever one he was.  Michael found Shyne talking to his mother and smiled at the scene.  His mom met his eyes and smiled, and Shyne turned to find him smiling  at her and returned it.  Fuck, she was gorgeous.  His wolf whined in his head.  The one bruise on her throat wasn't nearly enough marking in his opinion.  He wanted to see her wearing his real marks, the tell-tale white dots over the spine that made sure everyone knew who she belonged to.

"Everything okay?" Shyne asked, looking up at him with worry in her eyes.

He kissed her forehead and hugged her.  "You bet.  We'll talk back home, okay?"

She nodded, and he led her to the large dining room table that was laden with food.  His stomach growled at the buffet in front of him.  He sat between his dad and Shyne, with his mom on her other side.  As was customary, the men all waited while the women filled up their plates, and then they set on the remainder like locusts.

He heard his mom say, "If you want seconds, you should always take it first.  Male wolves are like bottomless pits."

"Not females?" Shyne asked between bites of fried chicken.

"Only when we're pregnant, and, of course, on the full moon we tend to want to eat more red meat," she winked at her.

Michael was really thrilled with the day so far.  Shyne got to spend time with his family.  He was reminded that she didn't have any family, and he made it a point to ask her about her past once things had settled down.  Conversation flowed easily around the table, and everyone included Shyne, which he loved.  His family and pack were world-class all around.  He was lucky in so many ways, and now he was going to get to share the rest of his life with the most amazing woman he'd ever known.

After the meal was over, Jason informed them that they were going to meet the hyenas in a diner fifteen minutes north of Allen to discuss the situation.  Jason pulled him out onto the porch privately.  "Have you told Shyne you don't want her working there any longer?"

He shook his head.  "I can't just take that away from her, Jas.  She worked so hard to get where she is, and we've only known each other a few weeks.  It would be righteously unfair of me to impose my will on her."

Jason folded his arms.  "Maybe, but you're going to be twisted up in knots every time she's there, and you have other responsibilities.  I can tell you one thing for damn sure:  if it was Cades in that situation, I would argue against it."

Smiling, Michael said, "That would go over real well with her."

Jason shrugged.  "She's your woman.  You need to protect her.  However that happens, you just make sure you get it done.  I sure as hell don't want to have to take the pack up there to kick their asses because they do something stupid like kidnap her.  It's one thing to settle their debt against you with a fight.  It's an entirely different thing for your mate to be in their place daily when you aren't there."

True.

Nodding, he turned back to the house to say goodbye to Shyne.  She was going to stay with Cades, Karly and his mom until they got back.  Because Cades was pregnant, Jason wasn't letting her come to the meeting, and she had already declared she didn't need to see any more male posturing than she did on the full moons.

Pulling Shyne into his arms in a corner away from prying eyes, he kissed her soundly and held her close.  "We'll be back in a few hours, and then I'll take you back to my place so you can change for work."

She nodded, breathless.  "What's going to happen?"

"I'm going to challenge one of them to a fight in our animal shift.  When I win, they'll have paid their debt against me, and they will know that you're mine."

Her fingers gripped his shirt, twisting.  "I don't want you to get hurt because of me.  I should just quit."

He was glad for her to say that, but he could tell that she wasn't happy.  She wasn't going to quit to keep him from confronting them, he wouldn't allow it.  Tipping her chin with his fingers, he stared into her dark brown eyes.  "Baby, I love you.  I know you don't understand this, but it's our way.  They came into our territory, they used you to get to me, and they completely terrorized you.  When this is over, there will be nothing but professional courtesy between you four."

"When will the fight happen?"

"I don't know, possibly as early as tonight."

He kissed her once more and left, joining Jason in his truck.  Linus, Bo and his father followed in Bo's truck.

"Love's hard as hell, right?" Jason laughed, and Michael nodded.

"I had no idea."

"I'd like to tell you it gets better, but once they get your love, they know you're toast."

As they drove to the diner, he told Jason about his desire to get a car and a house for Shyne and to find some way for her to leave her job but still get to do what she loved.

Jason turned off the truck.  "My baby brother is growing up."

Snorting, he opened the truck door, "And all it took was the love of a good woman."

They sighted the three hyenas through the windows of the diner and walked inside.  They were sitting at a long table at the back of the small restaurant, and they stood when they approached.

Jason said, "My name is Jason Gerrick, and I'm alpha of the Tressel Pack."

The one Michael recognized as Dante, with the short, black hair, stood up, and extended his hand.  "I'm Dante Stone, eldest of our clan.  These are my brothers and clanmates, Cairo and Mason."  Cairo was the boxer, and Mason was the youngest.  Michael's wolf tensed at the sight of Mason.  Shyne liked Mason more than the others.  If it weren't for their mating habits, she might be in his arms right now.

Jason sat down, and Michael took one side while Bo took the other, Linus and his father completing their group.  Jason folded his hands on the table in front of him and said, "Let's cut to the chase. You know why you're here.  You lured one of my wolves away from the pack with the scent of his woman, drugged and kidnapped him, and dumped him in a habitat with natural wolves."

Dante's nostrils flared.  "Shyne is no one's woman.  She's single and fair game."

Michael tensed and gripped the underside of his chair to keep himself from smashing Dante's face into the table.  Jason was in charge.  "She wears Michael's mark, she's agreed to be his mate.  That is the very opposite of a woman that is fair game."

Mason frowned, "And just when did that happen?  Last night she had no marks."  Arrogance seeped from him and made Michael wrinkle his nose in disgust.

Jason leaned back in the chair and said, "Last night.  When she reached out to Michael for help because she was terrified over what you'd done.  I don't know how you hyenas do things, but wolves don't go around breaking into women's cars and marking up their homes as if they're property."