His Stubborn Mate (The Ward Wolf Pack Novella Series, Book 2)

by Theresa Hissong

  “I really hope you’re Mason, Mr. Wolf,” she began as it took a step toward her. “You’re too pretty to shoot.”

  If she did shoot him, would he heal quick? Like what she’d read on the internet? She didn’t have silver bullets in her gun to kill a werewolf, but the brass would hurt.

  “Woah!” she called out when the wolf came to the edge of the forest, stopping right before it reached the rocky beach. As it was, the wolf was still forty feet from her. “Please be Mason or his brother.”

  If she did shoot it, how the hell was she going to get it back to the terminal so she could get someone to verify if it was natural wolf or one of the pack?

  “Fuck, you need a damn collar,” she grumbled as it sat on its haunches. “I don’t know how to tell you apart, and I don’t know if you are real or half-human.”

  The wolf moved when the sound of a long, wailing howl sounded on the other side of the mountain. Her white wolf growled over its shoulder but continued to move closer. Charlie didn’t move, remembering what Mason had said right before she left the terminal.

  They had to shift on the full moon, and they didn’t have control over their wolves. Whatever happened during that one night a month was wild and untamed. She just prayed it didn’t extend to violence, but she’d been around them for almost a month. There was no way he and his family were like the rogues who’d been terrorizing other towns.

  “Mason,” she began, keeping her rifle close. “Mason, please. If that’s you, I need to know.”

  As if the wolf understood her, it stopped on the jagged rocks and dropped to its belly, lowering his head to rest on tops of its paws. The hazy yellow eyes watched her as she finally relaxed a little.

  It had to be him. She was certain, and with that knowledge, Charlie had to stop herself from going to the animal. There was no guarantee it was Mason unless he shifted to his human form in front of her. There was a slight possibility it was a natural wolf, and she would be its dinner before daybreak, too.

  “Are you here to check on me?” she asked, taking a huge chance by sitting in the sand next to her tiny tent. “If you are, I’m okay and you can go run with your family. You don’t have to stay here.”

  Charlie was most definitely losing her ever-loving mind. Who talked to wolves thinking them human, anyway?

  The wolf never moved while they stared at each other for the better part of half an hour. The more she watched the wolf, the more she solidified the knowledge it was him. Several times, she had to stop herself from going over to stand directly in front of him. If he was going to hurt her, he would’ve done it already.

  “I need sleep, Mason,” she said behind a yawn. “I’ll be back at the terminal after lunch.”

  The wolf didn’t reply, nor did it move when she stood, brushing off the sand from her backside. When she started around the tent, the wolf followed her at a distance, taking to the edge of the trees to lay down and watch the tent door.

  “Goodnight, Mason,” she said, zipping the door closed. There was no need to worry about the wolf. It was going to watch over her. While the action was endearing of the wolf, she was going to mention it to his human side the moment she saw him the next day.

  Mason blinked several times as his human body reformed on the edge of the forest. His first sight was a small, blue tent about thirty feet away on the edge of a lake. He knew the lake well, and it only took a second to realize where he was.

  “Fuck,” he blurted and came to his feet. The wolf had found her during its shift. If he’d scared her or hurt her, he was going to lock his animal up on every full moon for the rest of his existence.

  “Mason?” Charlie called out as the door flap to the tent shot open. “Oh, Mason! I knew it was y…” She froze and a red blush bloomed on her cheeks.

  “We can’t shift our clothes,” he said. “Are you okay? Did you know I was here? Did my wolf hurt you?”

  “Calm down, twinkle toes,” she chuckled and reached inside her tent. When she emerged, Charlie had a pair of sweatpants in her hand. “Put these on. They’re really big on me and should at least cover your dignity.”

  If she only knew…he had no dignity.

  He put on the sweatpants while she gave him her back. Once he was decent, he looked down at the gray sweatpants she’d provided. Well, that’s not going to hide much.

  “Are you okay, Charlie?” he asked once he’d gotten himself under control.

  “I’m fine,” she promised, peeking with a quick glance to make sure he was dressed. “Everything is okay, Mason.”

  “What happened last night?” he blurted, feeling human for a moment. Without the wolf at the forefront, he could look at her as a human man would, and if he was being honest, he liked what he saw in the female.

  “Not much, really,” she replied with a shrug. “I need coffee if we are going to have this conversation. Grab a seat over by the fire and we can talk, because I have questions.”

  “Of course, you do,” he mumbled and headed toward her old campfire. There were still a few embers in there from the night before, and it only took a few minutes for him to get a fire going so she could make her coffee.

  “So, I guess you don’t remember anything, do you?” she pressed. The look on her face worried him, and he had to be honest with her. She knew a lot more than he and his family realized the humans were knowledgeable about when it came to his kind.

  “Not at all,” he vowed.

  “Well, you came to the tent, drug me out by my collar and made me hunt a bear with you last night.”

  “Wait…what?” he barked, fear rushing through his veins. If he’d have touched her, even in his wolf form, he would’ve known she was his mate. Why didn’t he feel different?

  “Calm down, Mason,” she chuckled, rolling her eyes. “No bear hunting.”

  “Did I touch you?” He couldn’t believe she was joking with him.

  “No,” she paused. Mason didn’t miss the look of disappointment in her eyes, either. “You watched over me. All night. It was kind of sweet, really.”

  “On the full moon, I don’t think we are sweet,” he proclaimed, narrowing his eyes.

  “Maybe not sweet, but you were cautious,” she admitted.

  “Cautious?”

  “It could’ve been because I was carrying a gun,” she shrugged, “but who knows?”

  Mason watched as she smirked, and his heart tightened. She was perfect, and even though he knew she was to be his mate, Charlie would’ve been the female he pursued should he ever be human.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked. Her voice turned husky, and he scented her desire in the wind. She wanted him as much as he wanted her.

  “I swear, female,” he cursed. “You’re making me want to touch your skin. I need to know.”

  She didn’t cower in fear, and he should’ve expected her reaction…or lack thereof. Charlie was an alpha female in her world.

  “Why don’t you, Mason?” she asked, stepping closer. He could feel her warmth, and while his beast was always quiet in his mind the day after the full moon shift, it came alive.

  “If I touch you, Charlie. I will fuck you right here…on the ground. I’ll bend you over that rock and bite your neck. Once that happens, there’s no going back.” Did she really know what she was asking of him?

  “You don’t scare me, Mason,” she said the moment before she closed the distance between them.

  Instead of him making the move for initial contact, they came together equally. And when their bare hands cupped each other’s face, and their lips connected, his entire world shifted. The wolf inside him pushed at his skin, coming alive with the magic that swirled around them, connecting them as mates.

  Her hands fumbled with his borrowed sweatpants until they were low enough for her to wrap her hand around his hard cock. With expert strokes, she urged him on, and he loved it.

  They worked together, undressing her until she was finally bare before him. His lips left hers, but only for a moment
to trail them down her neck to her dark nipples. She moaned as he licked and nipped at them until they were hard points.

  “Touch me, Mason,” she begged.

  His fingers coaxed her pleasure, but his wolf was urging him to complete the mating. It was going to be hard to hold off the need to mount her, but Mason wanted to see her pleasure. He wanted to know what she looked like as she fell apart for him.

  “I’m going to make you come, baby,” he groaned. “When I’m done, you will submit for me by getting on your hands and knees. My wolf will take over and my canines will grow. When I bite you, I’ll be marking you for life.”

  She nodded, because her voice was gone as her climax struck. His fingers worked her body, holding the release out until she was trembling.

  He reached inside her tent, snatching the sleeping bag to toss in front of the rock he’d used for a seat earlier. The wolf was in control, again, pushing her down. “Hands and knees.”

  “Yes,” she hummed and moved into position. “Mason, I need you inside me, please.”

  His hand wrapped around the long, blonde strands of her hair, pulling her up once he was fully seated inside her body. The slow glide of his cock built his own release, but he wouldn’t come until the mating was complete. Somehow, his wolf and human mind knew the next few minutes were going to be life changing.

  “I’m going to mark you now,” he snarled, pulling her head to the side. The moment he struck the flesh where her neck and shoulder met, Charlie called out his name, and his entire meaning of life solidified.

  He’d found his one true mate.

  Chapter 7

  Mason moved them into the tent, pulling her naked body on top of him as they shared the small sleeping bag. His cock was buried inside her again, and Charlie was slowly moving her hips, amazed by the magical feeling running through her body.

  “Why does it feel like this?” she whispered. The last thing she wanted to do was break the bond they were sharing. The outside world didn’t matter to her anymore. Her only focus was on Mason.

  “This is what happens when you find the one person sent to you by the gods,” he admitted, reaching up to cup her face. “Come here.”

  Charlie couldn’t get enough of kissing him. The strength she knew he had was nothing compared to the way he held her. With Mason’s hands on her, she felt like she could concur anything.

  “I like this,” she admitted. “I like it a lot more than I thought I would.”

  “That’s because you are a stubborn female,” he laughed.

  “Always have been,” she teased, pinching his side. “You better get used to it, buddy.”

  “I’ll take your stubbornness if you stay with me,” he proclaimed, wrapping an arm around her back. His cock never separated from her body when he flipped them, raising one of her legs over his back so he could drive into her over and over again. “I need your pleasure one more time. Then, we must go. The others will be looking for us.”

  “Oh, Mason,” she cooed as he hit the spot she needed to climax. When his thrusts turned into a frantic need, Charlie dug her nails into his back and called his name.

  “That’s it, give it to me, baby,” he growled.

  She was mesmerized by the hazy yellow to his eyes. It wasn’t detestable. No, it was beautiful. Just like his wolf had been stunning. Even in his human form, the rough man was handsome beneath his sharp features. The dark hair and golden eyes appealed to her on some level she didn’t quite understand yet.

  When they fell to their sides, panting from their marathon of sex, or what he considered a mating ritual, Mason pulled her to his side and kissed the top of her head. “I promise to protect you and cherish you for as long as you’ll have me, Charlie. I know this is odd for a human to understand, but with shifters, we find our mate first. Love will come. Just give it time.”

  “Okay,” she mumbled against his bare chest.

  Would she love him? Maybe she already did in an odd sort of way. She’d been thinking about him almost every waking hour since the first day she started flying for Ward Air & Transportation, and there was no changing that bit of information.

  “As much as I’d love to stay here with you for the next few days, we both need to get home and prepare for our flights tomorrow. And I want to get you home so I can feed you, because you’re going to need your strength.” He was right. They may have just fucked like wild animals in the forest and solidified a relationship, but work wouldn’t wait for them.

  “Come on,” she sighed. “Let’s get out of here. The hike should take about three hours. I have some snacks in my bag. We can eat on our way back.”

  They were both reluctant to leave, but Mason expressed his concern over his family’s whereabouts again, and they hurried along to gather her pack. He refused to let her carry it, making the trek back toward the terminal in his bare feet.

  “Why would your family be worried?” She had been churning the question over in her mind since he’d said it the first time. He’d said the white wolves weren’t bad. So, why was he in a hurry to return home?

  “When we shift the morning after the full moon,” he began, looking toward the sky. “We usually know where we are, but Nash’s mate, Isabell, had strayed well past our range during the last shift, and she was lost. There was no way for her to call out to Nash to tell him where to find her, because the wolf had recessed into her human mind to rest.”

  “Call out?” she asked, crinkling her nose.

  “I thought you’d know all of that from your internet research,” he chuckled.

  “That’s not on the internet,” she chuffed. “Plus, remember? I don’t believe anything they post on those websites.”

  “Good, you shouldn’t,” he advised. The internet was also full of conspiracy theories about shifters and how they stayed hidden for so long.

  “Back to the communication stuff,” she reminded him as they walked.

  “When we are in trouble or if we are in need of our alpha, we can partially shift and call out to him in our mind.”

  “Can you talk to other shifters?” she pressed, ducking away from a low cypress branch.

  “No, just Nash,” he stated. “The morning after the full moon, our wolves won’t come out to allow the shift. Isabell and Harper were together, thankfully. Isabell made shelter and fire, alerting us to their whereabouts.”

  “That’s scary,” she shivered. Getting lost in the Alaskan bush wasn’t something she ever wanted to experience.

  “It was for all of us,” he continued. “Nash is our leader, and when he is in distress, we all feel it, because we are connected to him. It’s strange and hard to explain.”

  “It sounds like something out of a movie,” she admitted, reaching into her pack for the small bag of granola. “Want some?”

  “No, thank you,” he smiled. “We eat mostly meat. Aspen adds in vegetables only because we have humans who stay with us. I’m not a huge fan, but I eat them to appease her.”

  “You and Nash are very protective of your sister,” she said after taking a handful of the snack. “I’ve noticed that.”

  “We have to be,” he stated, his voice growing deeper. “We are hunted...have been hunted. You are the only human other than Isabell who knows our secret.”

  “Isabell is a shifter.”

  “She was once human,” he admitted, stopping to face her.

  “Woah, wait a minute,” Charlie gasped. “Are you telling me you can become a shifter? How?”

  “The humans don’t even know this, and we would like to keep it that way,” he snarled, flashing his canines. His wolf was already back in his mind after touching Charlie. The animal didn’t take its rest, and Mason was a little thrown off by it.

  “I would never,” she balked.

  “I know.” Mason relaxed and wrapped his arms around her. She felt the magical connection again, and wondered if he felt the same.

  “So, how?” she repeated.

  “Isabell was in a bad car accident,” he sighed. Ch
arlie saw the flash of memories in his eyes, and she felt her heart ache. She’d seen that look in so many families’ eyes over her years as a trauma nurse. “Nash brought her back to the compound, and she was at the point of death. We only had memoires of what our family had told us about changing a human to go on. He fed her his blood until she started screaming. It took three days for her to finally shift, but it saved her life.”

  “Holy fuck,” she gasped. “That’s scary and amazing all at the same time.”

  “We have magic in our blood, Charlie,” he told her. “We don’t have a healer here anymore. Fury has some basic first aid knowledge, but that’s about it. Shifters heal really well, but if we have a compound fracture, it would need to be reset before our accelerated healing kicks in. He can’t do that.”

  The Ward family was over a hundred miles from town. If they had a human hiker stranded and hurt, they could fly them to the city, but what about immediate trauma care? They had no one.

  “But I can,” she blurted. “I went to school for it, Mason. I could help you if you ever need it.”

  “Our bodies are different, Charlie,” he reminded her. “We don’t heal like humans.”

  “Your human bodies are like ours, regardless of the shifting thing,” she pointed out. “Also, what do you do if you have a fallen hiker? Does Fury know enough to get them stable for transport to Anchorage?”

  “We have some basic medicines,” he admitted as they continued to walk. Mason, even though he was talking, kept a watch on their surroundings. He was in protective mode, and Charlie didn’t mind. If there was anything coming, he would hear it before she did, anyway.

  “That needs to change,” she ordered. “You are very remote, and you need to have more than just basic medicines and bandages. Let me help you with that, because I don’t plan on leaving my job here, and I have the knowledge should someone need medical attention that Fury cannot provide.”

  “That’s very kind of you,” he said with a smile. “I’m sure if you talked to Nash, he would be grateful for your help.”