Loyal to His Mate (Shadow World Shifters Book 1)

by Haley Weir

  But I didn’t even make it to the door, before I felt his strong arms wrap around me again and pull me against him.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  His voice actually sounded worried and even a bit nervous.

  “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  He held the back of my head with his hand and I could feel his fingers rubbing against my hair as he held my face to his chest.

  “I just can’t believe that you didn’t know,” he whispered.

  My entire body shook in his arms as I tried to wrap my head around what I had just seen, and around the fact that my father had been taken, and also around the fact that I had just realized he was completely naked after having shifted back into a human being. I tried to look downward with my eyes without moving my head to see what laid below his waist and between his legs, but his arm was blocking my view as it wrapped around me.

  After a few minutes of just being still and trying to catch my breath, I listened to his heartbeat and tried to calm myself down. If this guy had wanted to hurt me, he would have done so by now. When his arms slowly loosened, I looked up at him without taking a step apart.

  “I’m ready to listen,” I said. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  He sat on the couch next to me and handed me a cup of hot tea that he had tossed a dash of bourbon in to calm my nerves. It wasn’t a bad idea, and I was appreciative of the warming alcohol that soothed my throat which had been scraped raw from my screaming. He had clothes on now, regrettably.

  I suppose in such a dire and unbelievable situation as this, I shouldn’t have been at all distracted by his nakedness. But his body looked like a chiseled sculpture and I had wanted to see if other parts of him looked as impressive as that too. After we exchanged our names to make things a little less uncomfortable, Jasper began to tell me all of the things that had been kept from me without my knowledge for my entire life.

  “Your father,” he began. “Ryland is an alpha. He is the leader of a pack of wolf shifters that live here in Rye.”

  “Impossible,” I whispered in disbelief. “I’ve known my father my entire life. I would have known if he was part beast.”

  Jasper gave me a pained frown.

  “We aren’t beasts. We’re wolf shifters.”

  “Sorry,” I apologized, still not sure that there was much of a distinction there.

  “And so are you,” he said.

  Jasper’s eyes bore into me as if he was trying to see right through my skull and pick apart my thoughts.

  “No way,” I laughed nervously. “Even if I was somehow blind to my dad being what you are, I think I would know if my own body was part wolf.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed as he nodded his head. “That’s what I thought too, but apparently not.”

  I set my cup of tea down and leaned back against the couch. This was all just too much to take in.

  “I don’t know why you haven’t been told about your lineage, Peyton,” he continued. “And I don’t know why you haven’t been able to access it yourself. It’s almost as if you’ve been blocked from tapping into it somehow.”

  “Are you sure I’m a wolf shifter?” I asked. “How can you even tell? Maybe the gene skipped a generation and I’m just a normal human like my mom was.”

  He shook his head.

  “Nah, it didn’t skip a generation. That’s not how any of this works. And I doubt that your mom was human. Besides, I can smell it on you.”

  I was immediately embarrassed and pressed my armpits against my sides.

  “Do I smell bad?” I asked.

  “No, not at all,” he chuckled. “It’s a wolf pheromone. I can just pick up on it. You should be able to pick up on it too. You should have known at the pub that I was a shifter like you. Except—you didn’t even know that you were one.”

  He looked at me with a sort of softness that he quickly corrected and replaced with a more stern look.

  “It doesn’t smell bad; it’s nice.”

  I could feel my cheeks flush with a warm heat, and I had to quickly reign my thoughts back to the bigger matters at hand.

  “Why did those guys take my father?”

  Jasper drew in a long, slow breath, and I could tell by the way his face contorted that I wasn’t going to like what he was about to say.

  “I am from a wolf pack in London, and my pack came here with our alpha to overthrow the alpha of Rye.”

  “You mean my father?”

  “Yes,” he said somberly. “We need to expand our territory in order to be able to recruit more shifters into our pack and make a formidable adversary when the shadow world wages a war.”

  My head was literally spinning. Shadow world? A war? My brain was going to implode. I put my hand on my temple to rub the growing pain that was emerging there. Jasper saw the stress manifesting in my eyes, but he kept explaining the situation because I needed him to.

  “Your father had to be removed in order for his pack members to join with my alpha. Those men that you saw kidnapping your dad—well, those are my pack members.”

  “Wait, are you trying to kidnap me too?” I asked as I suddenly felt really worried about being here.

  “No,” he said adamantly. “I was trying to save your life.”

  I didn’t know much about wolf pack hierarchy, but it seemed like saving me might have been something Jasper would get in trouble for doing.

  “Won’t your alpha be mad at you for saving me?”

  “Probably.”

  “Then why did you do it?” I asked.

  “Like I tried to tell you at the pub,” he said as we sat in close proximity to each other on the couch. “You belong with me now.”

  I knew that I didn’t have the luxury of time to get into a discussion about what his whole posture on claiming me was about. Right now, I just needed to find my dad.

  “Please,” I pleaded with him. “You have to help me get my dad back.”

  I didn’t even think about it, I just reached my hand out and set it on his leg as I begged him for help. I felt his thigh muscles tense beneath my touch.

  “You rescued me, so I know that for whatever reason, you care enough about me to have saved me. Please help me save my father.”

  “Peyton,” Jasper said slowly as if he was trying to wrestle against himself. “Saving you was different. Your father is the alpha here. He’s the target that we came for. If I were to go against my alpha and help you to get your father out—”

  “Jasper please,” my voice cracked as I felt my grip on his leg become more desperate. “I know I don’t understand everything that is happening yet, and I don’t understand why you think you want a woman that you’ve literally just set eyes on. But if what you’re saying is true, and if you really think that we’re supposed to be together, then you have to help me. I’m begging you.”

  Chapter Six

  Jasper

  Damn it.

  How in the world did I get myself into this mess? Not only had I grabbed Peyton, but now I was sitting here next to her seriously considering helping her save her father—the alpha that I was here to overthrow and assassinate. I felt her hand on my leg as my reluctance to help her was vying for control over the urge to do anything she asked me to. Her touch felt as if it was sinking into my jeans and right through to my skin.

  If I made any attempt to try and remove Ryland from his captivity, I would be kicked out of my pack and considered a traitor by my alpha. They would hunt me down just like they had hunted down Peyton’s father. And then they would come for her.

  But the more I felt her fingers tighten against my leg, and the look in her eyes become more frantic; the more I knew that if I didn’t help her, Peyton intended to throw herself right into the path of danger to save her father herself. She wouldn’t be able to do it, and she would most likely die in the attempt of it.

  Reluctance wasn’t the only feeling vying for control over me. Sitting closely to her on the couch, with emotions running high, and the sweet smell of h
er hair filling the room, was more than I could take.

  “I can’t help you,” I said flatly. “And I’m sorry but there’s nothing that you can do either.”

  The look she gave me made me want to crawl inside my own skin.

  “Fine,” she grumbled as the corners of her mouth pinched downward into a disappointed frown. “Don’t help me then. But you can’t stop me from going on my own.”

  “Actually,” I said getting both frustrated and turned-on by her constant obstinate demeanor. “I can.”

  “What are you going to do?” she asked sarcastically as she stood up from the couch and held her palms out as if she was challenging me to make a move. “Are you going to turn into the big bad wolf again and try to eat me?”

  God damn it, I couldn’t concentrate. All I could think of was wanting to take her here on this couch.

  “No, I’m not going to shift. I don’t need to shift in order to keep you here and keep you out of harm’s way.”

  She rolled her eyes at me dramatically.

  “Right. Because you are so big and brawny that you think that gives you the right to try and keep me under your control. Well it doesn’t. If you want to knock me out and drag me up into a bedroom and tie me up as a prisoner, then do it. But until that happens, I’m going to go find my father.”

  “Well, if that’s what I have to do in order to get you to not run headfirst into danger, then yes maybe that is what I’ll do,” I said as I became increasingly annoyed.

  I stood up and walked toward her, not really sure what I was going to do when I got in front of her before she could reach the door. But instead of arguing with me more, she looked up at me with her big, brown eyes and opened her mouth slowly to speak. Her plump lips were so tempting that I was instantly disarmed thinking about how much I wanted to kiss her.

  “Jasper, if you are really going to try and claim me, then you have to help me too,” she said as she took a step closer so that our bodies were nearly touching.

  “What are you doing?” I asked as she traced her finger along the edge of my jaw.

  “I don’t know.”

  Her eyes were filled with internal conflict, and I could feel her nervous energy wrestling with itself. There was a more impulsive and sultry side to Peyton, one that I wasn’t sure even she was aware of fully. It was in that one moment that I realized I was screwed. I couldn’t resist her. In one, reckless moment, I decided to go against my alpha and my pack, in order to protect and help her.

  “Okay,” I said. The word pushed out of my mouth like an exhale. “I’ll help you get your father back.”

  Peyton squealed and jumped up to wrap her arms around my neck as she hugged me.

  “Thank you,” she said in relief.

  I wrapped my arms slowly around her back and held her against me as she rested her head against my neck.

  “We’ll go in the morning,” I said as I held her. “It’s too dark to find them tonight and they won’t do anything to your father until the alpha joins them. Ryland is safe for the night.”

  She thanked me again in a little whisper that was so quiet that I almost didn’t hear it, as she lifted her head up and looked at me. Her arms were still around my neck, and our bodies were still pressed together. I had been trying to keep control over the mounting angst that I felt being near her, but it was proving to be impossible.

  “I won’t let you go,” I blurted out. “I can’t.”

  I readied myself for her to try and push me away. And, if she had, I would have let her. I didn’t want to control her and claiming her as my mate wouldn’t work for either of us if she resented me. But much to my surprise, she didn’t pull away.

  She stared into my eyes and parted her lips as if she was going to say something. But I couldn’t resist her any longer. I put my mouth on hers and slid my tongue between her luscious lips. And once again, Peyton utterly surprised me by kissing me back. Her tongue encircled mine and I felt as if every nerve in my body was suddenly infused with desire.

  This girl that I had surmised to be timid, and reserved, and very much against having feelings for me, was now running her hands down my chest and grasping the top of my pants between her fingers. She wanted me too.

  Without hesitation, I lifted her up onto my hips and carried her toward the humble floor cushions that I had in this temporary makeshift lodging. It didn’t matter where we were, it only mattered that I was going to have her. Our kissing became deeper and more urgent as we tugged and pulled the clothes off each other’s bodies. Peyton was so much more than I had expected.

  There was a wildness to her, the kind of wildness that led her to nakedly wrapping her legs around the waist of a man who she had just met. A man that had followed her in the shadows and pulled her away from a kidnapping. A man who was half wolf, and was crawling over her now, ready to push his swollen, heavy cock inside her body.

  As I slowly and steadily pushed into her, she made the smallest audible wince accompanied by a gasp that seemed more than just a sound of pleasure but also a sound of surprise. When I looked at her face—I knew.

  “You’re a virgin,” I whispered in awe.

  She didn’t need to answer me; I could see the answer on her face. Not only had she never experienced what it was like to be in her shifted form, but she had also never experienced what it was like to make love to a man. I leaned down to kiss her, slowly tracing my tongue inside her open mouth as I moved gently inside of her. Her small gasps of pleasure mounted as I moved in a way that I knew would please her the most.

  By the time I had brought her to the point that she could no longer control, I was bursting with pent-up stimulation that exploded within her. And at that very moment, as I looked into her open eyes—her pupils glowed a golden yellow with their first sign that she was finally able to unlock her wolf side.

  “There you are,” I smiled as I collapsed onto her and felt her fingers press against my back.

  Chapter Seven

  Peyton

  Never in my life had I felt anything like this. I wondered if this was what all love-making felt like with a man, or if it was this satiating and overwhelming because he was part beast. The thought dawned on me that I was part beast too.

  When the climactic moment came, and I couldn’t hold onto it any longer as much as I wanted to, not only did my entire body fall into a fit of tremors, but my eyes felt as if they were burning. It didn’t hurt. It felt like someone had thrown a handful of embers into my eyes but instead of hurting, it felt more like cool pops of electrical charge. I wondered if that was what all orgasms felt like for everyone, or if that was a shifter thing. Whatever the reason, it was all the most wonderful and intense thing that I had ever felt before.

  When it was over, Jasper rolled gently off of me and pulled me to lay down with him against his chest. I laid there in the comfort of his strong arms and listened to the pounding of his heart. I surprised myself by what I just did, but there was something powerful that drew me toward Jasper. Maybe he was right, maybe we were meant to be together. I reached my hand up to lay my palm against his chest and when I did, he wrapped his hand around mine.

  How could a man so brutish, so unapologetically powerful, and so seemingly arrogant, be so gentle at the same time?

  That was the thought that drifted in my head as my eyelids got heavy and I fell asleep.

  When I woke up in the morning, Jasper was still holding my hand in his against his chest. He was breathing slowly as I batted my eyelashes awake, and I figured that he was still asleep.

  “We don’t need to go searching all over for your father,” he said quietly as soon as he felt that I was awake.

  I guess he had been awake already too.

  “I already know exactly where they took him, because I was the one who had scoped out and chosen the location to hold your father captive.”

  For a moment, I wasn’t sure how to react to that. Part of me wanted to hate him for having anything to do with the plot to overthrow my father. But anoth
er part of me realized that I hadn’t even known this whole world of wolf shifters existed until yesterday. I had a feeling that there was a lot more that I didn’t know also. But the one thing I did know, was how I felt with Jasper.

  “You didn’t know then,” I said.

  “Know what?” He tipped his chin down to look at my face.

  “You didn’t know that you would end up falling in love with Ryland’s daughter, when you were plotting how to have him abducted.”

  I hesitated only slightly when I used the word “love” and I could feel the momentary pause in his breath. It seemed ludicrous to think that was what this was. How could it be? And how could it happen so fast? I felt like a fool for having said it, but a part of me knew it was true whether either of us admitted to it or not.

  “Come on,” he said as he carefully slid out from my arms and stood up to get dressed without saying anything in response to my comment. “We need to go if we’re going to save your father in time.”

  As we walked into town to attempt a rescue, Jasper showed me some of the aspects that beings from the shadow world had been infiltrating my small town with. All of those strange occurrences that I had told my dad about, the ones that he laughed at and brushed off as my overactive imagination—those were all real, and they were from the shadow beings. I felt amusingly validated that I hadn’t actually been imagining it this entire time. I also felt upset every time I thought about how my father had kept all of this a secret from me my whole life. I wanted to think that he had a good reason, but it was hard to come up with any reason good enough to lie to the people that you love. My eyes were opened now, and as Jasper pointed things out and showed me pieces of the shadow world creeping through, I was shocked that I was never able to see or realize what this stuff was before. All of the strange occurrences suddenly seemed to make sense now.