Taming Her Mate

by Kathy Lyon

  “I don’t trust anyone.”

  “Which is how you ended up in the sewer alone. Work with me, Kennedy. We’re stronger together.”

  She had a point. And the uncomfortable truth was that he did trust her. He’d known her before as a smart woman who cared for her community and nothing in the last few hours had changed that. She’d saved his life in the sewers and probably again in Hazel’s upstairs bedroom. So, he did trust her. He was just uncomfortable with the feeling.

  “I’ve been betrayed by people who I had more reason to trust than you,” he said. But to soften the words, he settled down at the kitchen table and accepted a bottled water from her.

  “Who? Nanook? Can’t you bears recognize a narcissistic asshole when he bites you? Nanook was always out for himself, so of course he betrayed you. That’s what narcissistic assholes do.”

  Ryan looked away, his guts twisting at the thought. Yes, Nanook had had his faults. He was greedy and had a temper, but he was sworn to protect them and if the clan got richer, then it benefited everyone, right? That’s what they told each other until the day Nanook went too far. Until he used his mind control ability to force people like Hank to obey his will. And then he’d sent four hybrids to attack Ryan because Ryan had found out he’d been selling drugs and guns.

  Betrayal, and it burned that the bears had been naïve enough to think they could counter the worst of Nanook’s faults. It made everyone more wary of Simon, but so far the new alpha had proven himself both capable and loyal. Everything an alpha was supposed to be.

  “What about Raoul?” Ryan countered. “Can’t you wolves smell a psychopath when he poisons you?”

  Frankie dipped her chin at the true hit. “I did see it,” she whispered. “I just didn’t want to believe it. He’s my little brother. I grew up protecting him.”

  “When did you see the truth?”

  She turned aside to dump noodles into a pot of boiling water. He didn’t think she would answer at first, but eventually her words came. “My older brother died two years ago in a car accident. It was awful. Hunter liked racing cars and spent every moment he could at the Pontiac track. He ran a business that let people buy experiences racing his Ferrari or Porsche. Then one day, he took his brand-new Lamborghini around the track. He was going to open it up for guests to ride, but he wanted to be sure of the car before he let people use it. He spun out of control and died on impact.”

  Ryan frowned. “Sometimes that happens with the most experienced drivers.”

  She nodded. “That’s what I told myself. And then I saw Raoul celebrate.” Her fingers were white on the spoon as she stirred the noodles. “It was after the funeral, after a long day of condolences and comforting his widow. I was supposed to go with my father one last time to the gravesite. He couldn’t stop going there. Still visits almost daily.” She took a deep breath. “But I’d forgotten my sweater in my bedroom. It had turned chilly and I wanted it.” She shook her head. “I don’t know if what I saw was true. I don’t want to believe it.”

  “What did you see?”

  “Raoul grinning as he played with his toolbox.” She looked up. “It’s a stupid thing he does, always has. He reorganizes his things obsessively. Empties out a drawer then puts everything back exactly as it was. He’d do it with his toy box as a kid, with his filing cabinet as an adult, and…”

  “With his toolbox?”

  “Yes. But it was his smile, you know? Something about it. About the way he was touching his tools, like he was caressing them as he remembered something.” She shook her head. “I don’t know for sure.”

  “Did you have the accident investigated?”

  “Oh yeah. My father did right away, but no one could prove tampering. Not exactly. Just a few suspicions, that’s all.” She sighed. “But it was enough to goose my father’s paranoia into high gear. He’s obsessed with making the wolves stronger. He wants us feared for our power. I’ve tried to tell him our greatest strength is in our community, but he’s so angry. He wants everyone to know about shifters and about the wolves most of all.”

  “You’re building a good case against your father. You know that, right?”

  She looked up at him. “The thing is, my father doesn’t know an amino acid chain from a bicycle chain. Raoul’s the one who found Dr. Oltheten and got him researching ways to make shifters stronger. He’s the one who shoved that stuff in my veins.”

  “Raoul alone? Or him and your father?”

  She didn’t answer, but he could read her thoughts in her tight shoulders and her compressed lips. She’d already lost her brothers, one to a car accident, the other to his mental illness, whatever it may be. To now throw her father into that mix would destroy the last of her family. And for werewolves, family was everything.

  “You have to see your father clearly,” he pressed. “Emory is not someone to be led around, even by his own son.”

  She looked into his eyes. “You take care of Raoul. I’ll handle my father.”

  No deal, but he didn’t say that aloud. His job was to find the cache of serum and end the citywide poisoning. Whatever evidence he found would go to the DA. Since she was his only lead to the cache, he would stick to her no matter what. And whatever feelings he had for her—trust, attraction, whatever—were secondary to his mission.

  So he kept silent. She wasn’t stupid. She knew he was biding his time and would arrest whomever he could prove was culpable. But since their plans aligned for the moment, neither wanted to push the issue. They worked in companionable silence, her in the kitchen as she finished the meal, and him down on the floor with the boys since Harley had started to get fussy and wanted a playmate. And then a few minutes later, Noelle came out of her bedroom showered, dressed, and definitely refreshed.

  Frankie let out an appreciative whistle. “Look at you, girlfriend. You look ready for a night on the town!”

  Noelle snorted as she looked at her simple leggings and tunic. “You have some boring nights out, then. But you have no idea how wonderful it is to get free even for one evening.”

  Frankie set down the spoon. “Noelle, the longer this takes, the more people get hurt. We need the information—”

  “I’ll get it,” she said as she grabbed a bottle of vodka off the shelf. “Me and my martinis, that is.” Then she sobered as she looked to where Ryan was lying sideways on the floor next to the plastic car garage. “I want your word that you’ll keep my girl out of this. She isn’t responsible for what her brother did. You get Raoul, and let the wolves take care of the rest.”

  More conditions. Didn’t Noelle know that people had to face their crimes? Wolf, bear, even normal humans—everyone was responsible for his or her own actions and no one was above the law. But rather than give the woman a lecture on civil responsibilities, he said what he could with absolute honesty.

  “I don’t see any reason to tie Frankie to the Detroit Flu except as another victim.”

  He held Noelle’s gaze for as long as she cared to search his face for clues. It didn’t take long, mostly because Jaxon pushed to his feet and toddled over to his mother and tugged on her leggings as he rubbed his nose on her thigh.

  “Oh baby, how are you feeling?” she said as she picked him up. Then she looked at Frankie. “Do you want me to stay to help put them to bed?”

  “No,” Frankie and Ryan said at the exact same moment.

  Which is when Noelle took a breath and handed Jaxon to Frankie. “I’ll let you know as soon as I know,” she said. “But it could take a while. And Brady won’t get off work until two a.m.”

  “We’ll be waiting. Call as soon as you know.”

  It took more time to leave than it should have. Noelle had to say good-bye to her kids who didn’t want Mommy to go, but eventually she was out the door. And then it was just him and Frankie, plus the two boys. Fortunately, the kids wouldn’t stay awake forever. Because if he was going to be playing house with her for the next few hours, he was going to take the time to delve deeper into the mys
tery of Francesca Wolf. By the time he was done, he fully expected to know all her secrets.

  Chapter 11

  Thank God for the twins, otherwise Frankie might be tempted to do some very inappropriate things with Detective Kennedy. He was currently melting her heart as he played cars with them. They’d given up parking the toys in the garage and were now using him as a road, rolling the cars over his washboard abs and muscled thighs. And wow, did she want to use his body as a road, too, only with her tongue, her teeth, and some very intimate parts of her body.

  Was this what happened to people who were facing imminent death? Every moment, every emotion, was heightened until she thought she’d explode from the need to experience it all. She ought to be thinking of ways to survive the next few days. Now that she’d started telling people she intended to take over the pack, her brother had no reason to hold back from killing her. She was convinced the only reason he’d left her alone was because she’d been too busy helping people to mess with pack politics. She’d been keeping up the apartment complexes, built the community center, and helped whenever someone was sick or hurt or old.

  But now she’d stepped into the ring and instead of planning ways to take him out first, she was thinking about things she could do with Detective Kennedy.

  He caught her looking at him. His gaze was curious at first, then darkened into smoldering. She doubted the man read minds, but maybe he noticed her flushed face or her tight nipples. God, she needed to turn away. Just suppress all her lust because now was not the time or the place.

  But if not now, then when? After she was dead by her brother’s hand? After her father took them into a war with the bears and she got swiped by someone’s deadly claws because she refused to fight?

  How had the world sunk to this level of madness? How had her choices become a fight to the death for control of the pack or fight in a ridiculous war against bears who were completely innocent of the disaster her brother had created? She was dead either way, so why not embrace life while she could?

  Because the situation was complicated and difficult enough without adding romance to the mix. And with a bear, no less. That’s what she told herself as she started scooping casserole into a dish. She’d barely gotten halfway when one of the boys erupted in a furious scream.

  “Hey, hey,” Kennedy said before she could do more than spin around. “There are plenty of cars, you don’t have to take the red one. That’s your brother’s.”

  Nice try, but she could already see that the boys weren’t going to respond to logic. They were tired, cranky, and not in the least bit interested in sharing. Especially since the two were now grappling with each other and starting to bite.

  “And we’re done with the cars,” he said.

  She was about to intervene when Kennedy spoke, gently disentangled them from each other. Then he stood up with a boy in each arm. It was an impressive display of strength and agility given that the kids were squirming and not at all happy with the situation. And yet, he was completely calm as he jostled them into position and faced her.

  “So what’s the plan? Do they eat? Or maybe a bath first?” He wrinkled his nose as he held them. “They do smell kind of ripe.”

  “Their stomachs can’t take regular food yet.” She waved at the casserole. “This is for us and for Noelle when she gets back. But they can eat some animal crackers.” She held up the box and pulled out a bear. “Hey, Jax. You want to eat a bear?”

  She wasn’t speaking metaphorically or even suggestively, but a graphic image flashed through her thoughts. And her libido answered enthusiastically. Yes, why yes she did indeed want to eat a bear. Or at least suck on one.

  Her face heated at her thoughts even as Jaxon grabbed the cracker and started to gnaw on it.

  “Got any wolves in there?” Kennedy asked, his voice rough and with an undercurrent of awareness.

  Her gaze shot to his and he smiled, a slow, charming smile that had her melting. So yes, he was aware of her sexual thoughts. And yes, he shared them. But again, she reminded herself, this was not the time or place.

  She ducked her head rather than look into his blue, blue eyes. She rooted through the box for a wolf. She found one eventually and handed it over to Harley, who wasted no time in chomping down on it.

  “Darn,” Kennedy said, humor in his voice. “I wanted the wolf.” Then he grinned. “Well, maybe I’ll find a different one.”

  “You cannot be flirting,” she said sternly, though obviously he was. And even worse, she liked it.

  “I can’t?” he asked, his tone completely innocent. “And here I thought I was.”

  She paused and looked him in the eye. She wanted to ask him why. She wanted to know how they’d gone from enemies to playful flirting in the course of a few hours. “This roller coaster is hard to ride, you know. I don’t know which end is up.”

  She expected him to say a cheesy, sexual thing that she could use to stomp down her libido. But instead of dismissing her, his expression sobered, and he answered honestly. “I feel the same way, you know. I don’t know what direction I’m supposed to go. I just know how I feel.”

  “You’re a bear.”

  “You’re a wolf.”

  “We might be at war. There could be a notification on my phone right now telling me to kill or capture you.”

  He arched a brow. “Are you going to look at your phone anytime soon?”

  She shook her head.

  “Then I guess we’re still friends.” He watched as she passed over a giraffe to Jaxon and a squirrel to Harley. “And for the record, I don’t go to war unless it makes sense, and there’s no other way. I haven’t exhausted all the possibilities yet, have you?”

  “Not in the least.”

  “Then I guess we’re agreed.”

  “On what?”

  “That we’re friends.”

  She let that settle into her body. The words “friends” felt good but was so much less than what she really wanted. Still, it was a start and so she nodded in agreement.

  “Friends,” she echoed. Then she looked at the mess on Jaxon’s face from gnawed bits of animal crackers and she let out a laugh. “Friends who have to get a couple other friends into a bath.” She looked at Kennedy. “So, do you mind holding them while I get the bathwater ready?”

  “Not at all. Just leave the crackers. I think I’m going to need them.”

  She smiled and poured a small pile on the counter. And then her libido took control of her body. It was a small thing, but it was definitely something she never would have done before.

  She plucked a bear out of the pile, held it long enough for Kennedy to see what she had, and then she slowly, sensuously nibbled at the cracker.

  She watched his nostrils flare and heat entered his gaze. When he spoke, his voice rumbled straight down her spine into her core. “Are you flirting with me, wolf?”

  She arched a brow. “Am I? I thought we already agreed we couldn’t.”

  “That’s what you said.”

  “Hmm,” she commented as she popped the rest of the cracker into her mouth. “Well, if I said it, it must be true, right?” Then she winked at him and sauntered into the bathroom.

  It took a long while to get both kids cleaned, dressed, and settled for bed. Bath time alone was a frolicking, wet adventure where they laughed a lot and everyone got soaked to the skin. Rather than risk the tap water, they put the boys in the tub and cleaned them with a few gallons of distilled water; microwaving it to heat up the water took forever. Kennedy did the smart thing by pulling off his shirt. She got to watch drops of water cling to his golden skin, slide down narrowed channels formed by his muscles, and glisten on his chest hair. She, on the other hand, kept on her tank but that and her thin bra did nothing to hide her curves and puckered nipples. She ended up changing into one of Noelle’s tees, but she was bustier than her friend and the dry clothes clung almost as much as the wet.

  Once the bath was done, both boys were cranky. She and Kennedy split cuddl
e-and-read time, each taking a child. Her book was shorter, and pretty soon, all of them were listening to the rumble of his deep voice as he read The Berenstain Bear’s Sleepy Time Book. By the end, both boys were yawning. Easy to settle them into bed, kiss them good night, then tiptoe out. Not so easy to look at Ryan’s ripped sexy body in the evening glow and resist doing all the things she was thinking about.

  Not the time or place, she reminded herself. Except she couldn’t remember why not, especially when he dropped down onto the couch with a contented sigh and then gestured for her to join him there.

  She didn’t. She went to reheat the casserole in the microwave. He watched with a hooded expression as she worked. Then he gracefully accepted a bowl when she brought it over to him.

  “Beer?” she offered.

  He shook his head. “Better not. Just in case.”

  She nodded, understanding his meaning. They didn’t know when Noelle would come back or when Raoul would make his move, not to mention any one of dozens of other possibilities. So she grabbed them both lemonade and settled on the couch next to him. Next to him, but not touching. Because she was afraid if she did start touching, she wouldn’t stop with just a little knee-to-knee contact.

  “This is good,” he said as he tucked into the food.

  She smiled. “Ancient recipe found on the tuna noodle casserole box.”

  “No way,” he said as he peered down at it. “I’ve followed that recipe. You added stuff.”

  “Yeah,” she said with a laugh. “I dumped in leftover vegetables. If you want to really know what’s in there, ask Noelle.”

  “Nah,” he said as he continued to eat. “I’ve got more questions for you.”

  Uh-oh.

  “Am I in trouble?” she asked, trying to keep her voice light despite the butterflies in her stomach.

  “Depends on your answers.” He did a mock glower, pointed his fork at her, and said with a really bad accent, “I have ways to make you talk.”

  “Hit me with your best shot, bear,” she said with a wolfish grin.

  “Okay,” he said as he leaned back on the couch. “When we first got here, Noelle said I was the cop nobody liked and that’s why I had to leave Robbery. She made it sound like you knew something about that.” He arched a devastatingly handsome brow at her. “Do you?”