Taming Her Mate

by Kathy Lyon

  “I love you, too,” he said, and he reached for her hand.

  Click. Bonding magic locked in place. He felt it like a shift in the order of the world. There wasn’t even a sound, just an internal shift as the two of them became a bonded pair. Bear and wolf, alpha mates, while in front of the entire pack.

  Her eyes widened, but she didn’t speak. Neither did he. He was feeling too much for words, and he felt the echo of her surprise and her love as their palms connected. She gripped his hand and smiled. And a moment later, she stretched her other hand out to him, so he could clasp that, too. They stood face to face, hands held and hearts open.

  She loved him, and he loved her. They were home together, each other’s safe harbor. Bonded mates, and the beauty of that pulsed back and forth between them. It grew stronger in his heart, swelling with each beat. Strong. Solid. Safe.

  When he thought he would burst from the power of it, she let her gaze move outward. She looked first at Hazel’s back and Noelle’s side. She did a slow circle, looking at each member of the pack in turn. He followed with her, knowing that where she loved, he would as well.

  And as he did, his heart expanded. He offered himself as a safe home to her pack. He would protect and serve them. And—to his surprise—he saw them accept his offering. He knew it was carried on the force of her love, but he didn’t care. They welcomed him with varying degrees of surprise and suspicion. But even so, they accepted him as her mate, as her shelter, and as her love.

  At least most of them did.

  It took a while for her to turn full circle, and he had to release one of her hands to let her do it. But when she completed her turn, her gaze landed solidly on her brother. Ryan thought this would be the hardest for her, but the depth of her love for her brother stunned them all. He felt it well up in the room. A pure, sweet love that accepted him and cherished him as part of her pack. Even with everything Raoul had done to betray everyone, she still loved him.

  He watched Raoul’s eyes widen in shock, but he held himself back. His hands were clenched, and his jaw worked though no sound came out.

  “I’m not blind to our problems, Raoul,” Frankie said. “But we have to start from love first.” She held out her hand to him, just as she’d done to Ryan. But here was the problem with this pack openness. It required a measure of vulnerability on both sides.

  In order to receive it, Raoul would have to become open to it, expose his inner heart to everyone in the pack. Ryan could see that the man wasn’t going there. Raoul couldn’t. And while Frankie opened her hand and her heart to her brother, Raoul teetered and fell on the opposite side.

  He landed in hate and fear. Maybe the two emotions were the same thing.

  Noelle was closest to Raoul, but her eyes were on a pair of bristling wolves near the wall. When Raoul roared his defiance, she was caught off guard, jolting sideways in surprise. That gave Ryan the space to save her life.

  He leapt forward to protect her and was met with Raoul’s open jaws. The prick had gone wolf and was of a damned impressive size and strength. Ryan’s only hope was to go grizzly or lose an arm. But when he reached for the power, it wasn’t there. He might be a healthy human, but his magical tank was empty from all the shifting he’d done. Which meant—

  Frankie shoved him aside. She was in full hybrid mode, both wolf and woman as she saved Ryan and protected Noelle. She rolled with her brother’s attack, dropping him into the center of her circle without suffering any damage. But Raoul wasn’t staying down. He scrambled on the wood floor but was able to gain purchase as he spun back and attacked.

  Ryan tensed to intervene, but a cry to his right showed him that Raoul wasn’t the only werewolf too afraid to open up to what Frankie was offering. Some of Raoul’s men were attacking as well, and Noelle was not trained in hand-to-wolf combat.

  He wanted with every part of him to protect Frankie, but he knew she had to face her brother alone. It was the only way for her to establish dominance over the pack. Plus, he had complete faith that she could hold her own. She might not defeat Raoul, but it wasn’t going to be a quick fight and Noelle needed the protection now. So Ryan engaged the wolves coming at them. Two medium-sized ones with speed behind their assault.

  He pulled Noelle out of their path and timed his own attack for the exact moment they sprang past. To the other side, he heard Hazel chuckle, apparently pleased with whatever attack she was handling. And then there was no more time for thought. Just duck and punch, kick and haul ass. Most of the bystanders scrambled away while a few closed in to help.

  It was just like before. In the sewers and the loading dock. The sweat, the adrenaline, the blood. Only this time something else stood with him. A shimmering pool of strength inside his soul.

  Frankie was with him, and suddenly, everything was different. He was still tired, but his heart and his head were at peace. Whatever came from outside, inside he was at home with Frankie. And since he was no longer fighting himself, he had more power to use in the fight. He countered claws, bites, and a couple very human fists. But this time the good guys had the advantage of numbers. It would be over soon.

  He knocked the nearest wolf out while Noelle fouled the footing of the other one. He heard a yelp behind him, but didn’t know if it was Raoul or the one fighting Hazel. He spun, intending to deliver a knockout blow to the remaining wolf’s temple, his fist raised—

  Freeze!

  The message was blasted psychically throughout the room, but if there was any doubt, a loud voice followed next.

  “Stop!”

  He recognized the voice immediately. Hard to forget Emory Wolf’s command tone. It was enough to pause Ryan’s fist, but it had a dramatic effect on the wolves. They all dropped to the ground and gave some sign of submission, human and canine alike. Even Ryan tilted his head to the side, exposing his throat in an instinctive act, though it was only a slight tilt. Emory wasn’t his alpha, and so the impact was significantly lessened.

  That gave him the strength to straighten up to his full height and study the situation. First and most important, Frankie had Raoul on the ground, her hand on his neck and her knee in his back. Her arms were bloody, but Ryan didn’t see any wounds on her body, meaning the blood was likely Raoul’s. Behind Frankie, Hazel straightened up as well. She wasn’t a shifter, so her head wasn’t canted to the side like everyone else’s, but she wasn’t fighting either. No need since everyone who’d come at her was stretched out on the floor, most of them as unconscious as Delphine.

  He quickly scanned the rest of the room. Nobody moved. Everyone who could was looking at Emory, who was leaning heavily on Simon’s arm. And behind Simon was Alyssa, Vic, and…now there was a surprise. It was Brady, the wolf he thought had skipped the city but had apparently been around enough to bring help when the shit had hit the fan. And then stepping around the lot of them was—hell—Captain Abraham.

  Ryan’s gaze shot straight to Frankie, but she was ahead of him. She’d already reverted to her human form. Everyone else was either fully human or fully canine. That meant no shifter exposure to his very vanilla boss.

  Meanwhile, Frankie looked at her father. “Dad? You’re looking better.”

  Was he? To Ryan’s eyes he looked frail. The man had been a force within the shifter community, but now he leaned heavily on Simon as he gazed around the community center. At least his physical wounds were healed. He’d probably woken enough to shift. But some vital aspect of him had weakened considerably. Still, his words carried loud enough into the silence.

  “Is this what we’ve come to?” he asked. “Brother against sister, men against women, wolves attacking our own?” His gaze went to his two children. “How did this happen?”

  Simon answered, his voice carrying throughout the room. “It’s the shit in the water. It makes us all angry.”

  Emory looked to his son. “I thought it made us all strong.”

  Ryan winced. That was as much of a confession as his captain would need for a temporary arrest.
/>   Meanwhile, Frankie stepped back from her brother. “Does this look like strength, Dad? We’re destroying ourselves and hurting everyone else in the process.” She looked down at her brother who was slowly gaining his feet. Or rather pushing to his four paws. He was still in his wolf form and was not about to get arrested for his crimes.

  Emory shook his head. “What was I thinking?” he murmured.

  Which is when Ryan understood what had happened. Frankie, too, because she spoke it out loud. “They gave you the antidote. You’re thinking clearly now.”

  Her father nodded as he looked around the room. “I renounce leadership of the pack. I failed you all.”

  Frankie took a sharp step forward. “No!” she cried. “It was Raoul and the serum.”

  Emory spoke slowly, his words having a double meaning. “I’m not above the law,” he said, meaning both human and shifter law. He or Raoul had broken both, and as alpha, Emory was ultimately responsible.

  “You didn’t know what you were doing,” Frankie said, her voice breaking. She knew, as did everyone else here, that her father was going to take the blame for poisoning the city of Detroit. And the humans were not going to be kind.

  “I didn’t know that my son would attack me, either. That he sent his men—”

  Whatever else Emory was going to say was never uttered. Instead his eyes went wide with horror as Raoul sprang forward, teeth and claws bared. Emory was too weak to react fast enough, and though Simon tried to step in between, he didn’t have the angle. Everyone else was either too far away or was caught flat-footed.

  Emory went down beneath his son’s assault.

  Gunshots rang out, rapid and strong. Frankie screamed, “No!” and Ryan leapt forward to try and hold back his captain, but it was too late. Captain Abraham had pulled his weapon and gotten off three shots.

  Raoul was dead, his wolf body bleeding from multiple wounds. Simon dropped down beside Emory, shoving the wolf aside to look beneath. But it was too late there, as well. Emory’s throat was gone, and his eyes stared blankly ahead.

  Raoul had just killed his own father. Ryan didn’t know if it was an act of rage or mercy. Emory surely would have spent the rest of his life in prison. Either way, they were both dead now. Meanwhile, his captain was staring around in shock.

  “What the hell is wrong with you people?” Captain Abraham bellowed. “Why would you bring wolves to a community center? God, they’re even dressed up like people.”

  No one answered. No one except Frankie who cried out, the pain of her loss reverberating through the room. Ryan grabbed her before she collapsed in grief. Simon grabbed the captain’s gun, yanking it free with a shifter’s strength. And then the others started to react. Children cried, parents murmured, and everyone did whatever they could to keep the situation contained. But Ryan’s focus narrowed to his mate’s.

  “I’ve got you,” he murmured as he held her tight. “I’m here. I’ve got you.”

  Frankie gripped him, and her whole body shuddered from the force of her sobs.

  He stayed with her then. He held her tight through the endless cleanup of the bodies, the interviews from the police, and the inevitable dispersal of her pack back to their own lives. Nicole helped, as did Hazel, but so many questions were directed at her. Why did Raoul do this? How could you mate with a bear? What’s going to happen to the pack? How can we survive this?

  She answered those she could; dismissed those she couldn’t. He ran interference with the police all while refusing to leave her side. Eventually it was done. The police interrogations were over, the pack had gone to their homes, and he was left with her.

  They went to her apartment next to the community center. They dropped onto the bed and settled into the safe harbor of each other’s arms. And just before sleep claimed them, he whispered the truth into her ear.

  “I love you.”

  “‘Love’ feels like too small a word for what I feel for you,” she answered.

  He knew exactly what she meant.

  Chapter 25

  Eight Months Later

  Cleanup always took longer than expected. Frankie thought Raoul’s serum and the Detroit Flu were the roughest part of the past year, but actually, it was the aftermath. The city had not been kind once the news went public that Raoul and Emory Wolf were responsible. Frankie had turned over everything she could find to the police and the entire pack had tried to disappear into anonymity under the onslaught. And no one spoke again of trying to reveal werewolves to the general public.

  Shifters were back in the shadows, and that was a good thing.

  The public part of the nightmare had ended within a few months, but the investigation from other shifter alphas had taken much longer. In this, the werewolves had come together, supporting Frankie in taking over the pack and declaring in one voice that she had fought her brother and father from the very beginning. Even better, no one had fought her when she declared Ryan her beta. In truth, she and Ryan were co-leading because they had complementary strengths. But since she was the wolf, he let her claim the alpha title while he took beta. He didn’t care about titles anyway.

  And now it was spring. The time when the newest shifters burst into their animal forms and went looking for the wildest spot along the River Rouge. Frankie walked along the edge of it, breathing the spring air and appreciating the shoots of green that waved in the early morning sunshine.

  “I did good here,” she said to no one in particular. Her first act as alpha of the Detroit Wolves had been to establish a regular patrol of this stretch of the park. She wanted it safe for all the shifter young to come here and get their animal on. It was something every shifter could get behind, and even the humans liked it when the park was safe. Thanks to Ryan’s help, the Griz and two new shifter cops were part of the rotation.

  To her right, she saw the grass near the water move. She smiled, knowing what was coming, and she held out the cup of coffee she carried. Ryan crept out from behind a tall patch of wildflowers and volunteer trees. Technically, they were all weeds, but they looked pretty nonetheless, and he looked ruggedly handsome as he shook leaves out of his hair. Good sleep, good sex, and a good life did that to a guy. He looked as healthy as a…a grizzly bear.

  “Everything okay?” he asked.

  “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” she teased as she helped him brush some dirt off his jeans.

  “All good. A new cougar-shifter came through around three a.m. A girl and she was all, I love the water, I hate the water, no, I love the water!”

  She smiled. “You like seeing the new shifters in spring.”

  Ryan took a grateful pull on his coffee. “Yeah, although cats are weird. Bears just shuffle around and roar.”

  “Wolves love the water. We can hardly get our teens out of it.” That had been last week’s problem when two new teen wolves had started playing in the river and refused to leave despite the presence of family, cops, and one city official. She’d managed to smooth things over even though the wolves were hated by most of the population. They were still called a “disreputable gang” by most journalists, but at least she could walk the streets without someone spitting at her.

  And now she was settled as alpha of the werewolves. Ryan was her beta even though he was a bear, and every one of the wolves in her care had broken their addiction to the serum. Better yet, Frankie had given the secret wolf research facility over to Dr. Cecilia Lu to use for shifter research. The woman wanted to dig deep into a few shifter-only illnesses. There would even be a small clinic on site and shifter doctors were relocating offices to the space. Detroit would finally get a medical facility for shifters, and that was a boon to all of their kind throughout the Midwest.

  “What’s going on in that head of yours?” Ryan asked, his tone teasing. He’d been stunned by the depth and variety of programs she’d planned for the moment she became alpha. “I am not taking another shift in the day care,” he said. “Not without a lot more coffee.”

  She smiled at
him, her heart so full. It was time to tell him the real reason she’d met him at dawn by the River Rouge.

  “What about caring for your own kids? You up for that?”

  He’d been about to take another sip, but at her words, he slowly pulled the cup away. “Don’t know of any kids,” he said. “But I’ll always be happy to take care of my own spawn.” He was teasing when he called his kids spawn. She could tell by the intensity in his eyes that he wanted children with a fierce, quiet need. It was all part of making his own home with each other and their offspring.

  Fortunately, she wanted it just as badly.

  “I’m going to hold you to that,” she said with a smile. “Because in about eight and a half months—”

  Her words were cut off by his whoop of joy. Then she was laughing as he picked her up and spun her around. She wrapped her arms tight around him, dropping her forehead to his as he slowed their spin.

  “So I take it you’re happy?” she asked.

  “Thrilled. You?”

  “Ecstatic.”

  He grinned as he gently set her down. “So we’re both happy, but…um…how did this happen?”

  She shrugged. “Magic? Broken condom? Hell, if I know.”

  His eyes widened. They both knew that strong shifter kids were usually surprise pregnancies. What made this crazier was that she and Ryan were different species. Their children ought to be normal humans without enough DNA to manifest either bear or wolf. But stranger things had happened when magic got involved, and she’d be happy no matter what.

  Meanwhile he was touching her face, stroking along her jaw line and looking at her like she held the sun and the moon in her hands. She leaned in to kiss him, only to be startled as he sank away from her. She pulled back in surprise then realized he was going down on one knee. And while her mouth dropped open in shock, he pulled a ring box from his pocket.

  “I meant to take you out to dinner tonight and do something special afterward. But I can’t think of a better moment—or place—to do this.”