A lion shifter jostled by – she could tell because of the rounded furry ears and flowing golden mane – and accidentally jostled the vampire, and the vampire swung to face him with a snarl. A long, tense moment stretched out between them before they finally strolled off in opposite directions.
“Of course everything makes me nervous,” Kalinda said irritably. “Anyone who lives in Encantado, and isn’t nervous, has their head up their ass.”
Zoey shrugged. Yes, living in a Portal City was fairly terrifying on a regular basis, given that the portals tended to burp out scary hostile creatures at random, and they never knew if the Mages would be able to hold them off, but she just didn’t see the point in being afraid all the time. She did her best to enjoy life wherever she was and whatever the circumstances.
“I dunno,” she said. “What good does it do to stress all the time? If I’m fated to hexed or dragon-roasted, I might as well enjoy my life up until the last moment. And try to make sure that everyone around me is too. And if I’m not fated for a terrible death, then I’d have spent a lot of time worrying about nothing.”
“Fine, Perky Pollyanna, nothing scares you. That’ll be huge comfort when you end up getting eaten by a troll. Now finish telling me what happened.” Kalinda fixed Zoey with her fierce dark glare.
Zoey nodded, trying to remember. “Well, the rest of the night, he just ignored me. After the moon rose, they all started getting louder and friskier and a couple of older guys pinched my butt, and I ‘accidentally’ spilled a drink on one of them and stepped on the other one’s foot.” Kalinda had told her to do that. Those kinds of macho guys would run right over the girls if they didn’t stand up for themselves. And it worked; the guys yelped, their friends laughed at them, and they didn’t try anything else that night.
“And then?”
She sighed. “And I was standing there with a tray of hors d’oeuvres when I felt a sharp pain in my butt. My right cheek, in case that matters.”
“It doesn’t,” Kalinda assured her, with a look of annoyance.
“I screamed and spun around and there was this huge, beautiful white wolf staring at me intensely. I recognized it as Dominic because he had the same blue-green eyes and…and I don’t know, I could just tell it was him. Everyone turned and stared at me. I was so shocked that I just dropped my tray and ran.” She finished the rest of the coffee and set the cup down on a small side table. “So…that shifting potion…”
“I already told you. I’ve never heard of it failing.”
Well, that wasn’t super reassuring, given that, from what she’d heard, being bitten by a Warrior Class shifter would be just about a guaranteed ticket to the nearest mortuary - if the potion didn’t work. To survive their bite, a person had to have a large physique and the constitution of a world class athlete.
At this point, though, all that she could do was wait for 28 days and hope not to die at the next full moon. Fun!
Kalinda was about to ask her something else when she looked out her window and sucked in her breath.
“Go to the kitchen,” Kalinda said, in a low, urgent tone. “Now.”
Chapter Two
Zoey followed her gaze, and her heart stuttered in her chest. Three members of the Blood Oath pack were climbing out of a van that had just pulled up to the curb in front of their building. Dominic and his lackey Romano, and the pack secretary, Giuliana. She shot out of the office, closing the door behind her.
Kalinda’s legendary kitchen of deliciousness was fortunately close enough to the office that she could eavesdrop. She closed the door but leaned on it so she could hear them speak, her stomach churning with worry. If anything happened, she had no power to defend myself. Like the vast majority of magic-bloods, her magic was just strong enough to be detectible by the authorities - and it was utterly useless. She had earth magic; her houseplants were super healthy, and she could make flowers bloom faster. Give her a handful of buds and if she concentrated hard, she could make them burst into blossom. Woo hoo!
Great party trick – and it had completely upended her life. She’d have given up her powers in a heartbeat. She’d been living in San Francisco when her magic talent was discovered during a random sweep by the Federal Bureau of Magical Containment. Thanks to FBMC, she’d been ripped away from her home and her job at an internet startup, and had been given her choice of portal cities. She’d picked Encantado because Nevada was reasonably near her family who lived in Marin County.
She also had map magic – she could find her way anywhere. It was a form of earth magic, the same as her green thumb. She was like a human GPS. But there was also such a thing as actual electronic GPS available so again…her power was more useless than a screen door on a submarine.
The front door banged open and she heard the thud of footsteps.
Dominic’s voice, loud and booming, carried. “We’re looking for a waitress named Zoey.”
“Ah, yes, I heard something about one of your men biting her,” Kalinda said. “I’m sorry, she isn’t here. It was very distressing to me to hear of her being bitten. Were you displeased with her services?” She kept her voice respectful, but firm.
“I was the one who bit her, and I was not displeased. We call it a moon-bite, or a moon-claim. My wolf selected her as a mate.”
Say what now? Zoey’s knees went wobbly.
“Excuse me?” Kalinda’s voice rose in shock.
“My wolf bit her. When our wolf bites a female on the full moon, it’s because he’s chosen her as a mate.”
“That doesn’t make sense – if she was your mate, why wouldn’t your wolf have bitten her before?”
“Are you heard of hearing?” Dominic’s voice was snappish. “I spoke clearly enough. Full moon. My wolf never encountered her on a full moon before.”
“But – she’s not a shifter!” Kalinda protested.
“It doesn’t matter. As long as she’s a magic-blood, she can bear my cubs. And I smelled the magic in her.”
Ewww. Rude.
She lifted her arm and surreptitiously sniffed. Her lilac deodorant was still working. What exactly did magic smell like? Did it smell bad?
“Why her?” Kalinda protested. “There are plenty of other girls who are more…”
“More what?” Dominic snapped, with a hint of danger in his voice.
Yes, more what? Zoey wanted to know too. More attractive? That seemed to be the only possible answer, and it stung. Yes, she was a little on the full-figured side. Her mother always said that just meant there was more of her to love. As for her freckles, her mother used to call them angel kisses.
“More, ah, willing!” Kalinda said brightly. “She’s the independent type. I happen to know for a fact she’s not looking for a relationship right now.”
“Too bad. That will change.” His voice turned rough and impatient. “My wolf chose Zoey, and Zoey I will have. Now, you know I can scent her. And the scent is fresh. You can bring her out here, or I can tear the place apart.”
That was her cue to leave. In great haste. She bolted out the back door, as she heard Kalinda protesting in a loud voice – one that she meant for Zoey to overhear - “Go ahead and look around! She stopped by here to pick up her pay and left a few minutes ago, that’s why you’re scenting her!”
She ran down the alleyway behind the squat concrete building, mind whirling. What the hell was she going to do? She had to find some way to convince him that he didn’t really want to claim her. Heck, given her past dating history, that shouldn’t be too hard – apparently, one night out with her was enough to do it for most guys.
She dodged down another alleyway, and hesitated, picturing her apartment. Not only could she find her way around anywhere, she could also sense obstacles that stood between her and her destination.
Of course, if she was surrounded, knowing that the obstacles are there didn’t help much.
Her map magic froze up, twisting in indecision, as a man leaped over a six-foot chain-link fence in a single bound, clea
ring it easily and landing with a resounding thud a few feet in front of her.
Dominic. The man who’d chomped her cheek the night before, and now thought he was her husband. Mate. Whatever. He was sexy as hell, yeah, but she barely knew the guy. He was also the Capo of one of the most violent and corrupt mafia shifter packs on the entire west coast. She kind of had issues with how his pack ran things.
But he didn’t seem to care what she thought about the whole claiming thing. He looked down at her and his mouth curled in cruel amusement, his blue eyes glinting. “Hello…mate.”
He smiled at her lazily.
She knew he was an awful person, from a pack of awful people, but she couldn’t stop staring. So much pretty.
She cleared her throat. “Hello, person who bit me in the ass last night. It still hurts, by the way.” She folded her arms across her chest and gave him her best intimidating scowl. That was hard to do when she had to tip her head back because he stood a good foot taller than her.
Romano and Giuliana came trotting down the alley. Giuliana, hair stylishly waved, dressed from head to toe in this season’s Versace, looked her up and down appraisingly, and, Zoey thought, with considerable suspicion.
“Your boss is a liar. How shall I kill her?” Dominic said.
Well, that was a bucket of ice water dumped right on her libido. She spluttered with fury. “Excuse me. That’s your idea of flirting with me?”
He cocked his head to one side. “I don’t have to flirt with you. You’re my mate. Well, you will be at the next full moon.”
“Well, either that or I’ll be dead.” She shrugged, with forced casualness. “Or shifted, but from what I’ve heard, most people don’t survive a bite from the warrior class.”
“You might.” Giuliana’s lip curled slightly. Only physically large humans had the slightest chance of surviving the change.
“Oh, was that a size joke? So very original,” Zoey said, and fake-clapped. “Unfortunately, you’ll have to try harder, that barely ranked a one on the ‘ouch, my poor feelings’ scale.”
Dominic pinned the petite blonde with a furious glare. “Giuliana. Apologize.”
“Sorry.” Giuliana’s tone was conciliatory but her expression was not.
Dominic returned his attention to Zoey. “The potion that Kalinda uses has never failed. You will survive to be my mate.”
She took a step back and he took a step forward. She held up her hands in a “stop” motion. “Whoa there! You’re entering my personal space bubble. Now, let’s start with Kalinda. If you kill her, I will hate you forever and either murder you in your sleep or die trying.” His lips curled in an amused grin. “Ok, let’s be realistic, definitely the latter. But Kalinda was trying to protect me. You protect your pack-mates, don’t you?”
“You’re human, so she’s not your pack.” Then he shrugged. “But point taken. I will grant her an exemption this one time.” He glanced at one of his pack-mates. “Romano. Don’t kill the tasty morsel.”
Romano, a big, brutally handsome wolf with a scarred face, let out a disappointed groan. “But she smelled so good. And I haven’t had lunch.”
“You and your stomach!” Dominic said, sounding exasperated. “Go grab a sandwich. I need to talk to my mate.”
Giuliana scowled. “We’re letting someone get away with lying to us? This sets a bad precedent for the pack.”
“Last I checked, I outranked you,” Dominic said with a hint of a snarl in his voice. “Unless you’re going to try to play the ‘my uncle is the Capo di tutti Capo’s’ card.”
“You can kiss my ass!” Giuliana spit the words out, her face flushing red with anger.
“I could, but now I have a mate. So actually I can’t. Romano’s still single, though, unless something’s changed since last night.”
“Still on the market. And quite a catch.” Romano leered at Giuliana.
Giuliana expressed what she thought about this offer by saluting Dominic and Romano with both middle fingers and then storming off. Romano trotted after her – thankfully, in the opposite direction from Kalinda’s office.
“You were seriously going to kill my boss?” Zoey was appalled. The Blood Oath pack were every bit as awful as their reputation, then. She’d seen a couple of fights to the death at Blood Oath parties that she’d catered, but that was between street soldiers who’d gotten into brawls and hadn’t been able to rein their wolves back in, not the casual murder of an innocent.
“I guess we’ll never know.” He took another step forward, so Zoey took a step back, but his stride was longer than mine, so he was gaining on her.
“You don’t actually want to be mated to me,” she argued.
He cocked his head to the side. “Now, what makes you think that? I came for you, didn’t I?”
“You…well…” she gestured at her soft, curvy body. “You’re handsome as sin and you’re a Blood Oath Capo. You could have anyone.”
“Thank you!” He beamed at her, and gave a deep, theatrical bow. “I’m glad you agree. And since you qualify as ‘anyone’,” that means I can have you, and you can stop inching backwards now. Yes, I noticed.”
She stopped moving. Damned predator vision. “I meant you could have someone more suitable! More…uh…skinnier!”
“More skinnier?” His eyes gleamed with fierce mockery. “Bad grammar? Now that’s just beneath you.”
She tried to murder him with the power of her glare, and failed.
“You know what I meant.”
“Not really. Why would I want less woman, when I could have more?”
That temporarily threw her for a loop. Why, indeed? She actually liked that answer. No, she loved it. She couldn’t find a single thing wrong with it.
But she would not give in just because he was suddenly being charming and funny. And also he was a vicious murdering criminal. A hot, sexy, but vicious, but charismatic…wait, where was she going with this? “We don’t even know each other!”
“My wolf selected you. He has impeccable taste.” His eyes glowed briefly as he mentioned his wolf. That eye glow thing happened a lot with shifters, whenever they got excited. Never failed to freak her the hell out.
“That doesn’t make sense. You have arranged matings, I know that. I catered a wedding for one. Their mating had been arranged since birth, in fact.”
“True,” he acknowledged. “Arturo has been searching for an appropriate mate for me for some time now. Giuliana was a possibility, but then the Bianchi pack approached us about arranging a mating with Fabiana. The dark-haired woman at the party last night.”
For some reason, that statement made her feel prickly all over, as if she’d rolled in a nettle bush.
Dominic shrugged. “My wolf never really took to either one of them, but for the good of the pack I would have paired with whoever Arturo decreed.” He grinned fiercely at her. “But then you came along. And my wolf had other ideas. How lucky for me.”
“No wonder Giuliana doesn’t like me.”
“Oh, she’s not jealous. She didn’t want the mating. She would have obeyed her uncle because nobody says no to Arturo, but when Arturo revealed he was considering Fabiana, she said, and I quote, ‘Thank fuck’.” He smirked, seeming amused.
She frowned. “But…what if you went through the arranged mating, and then you met me on a full moon?”
“You want to know how things work with shifters?” he snorted. “We don’t reveal all of our secrets to outsiders. Come home with me, and I’ll be happy to enlighten you.”
“Home, with you?” She couldn’t believe that he was even bothering to ask, rather than just kidnapping her. “I’d rather French-kiss a bridge troll that hadn’t gargled in a month.”
“Since they gargle with human blood, that’s probably wise.”
He took another step towards her and she tried to jump back, but he lunged forward and grabbed her by the arm. The touch of his hand sent a shock through her body.
“Here’s what’s going to happen. I am g
oing to court you. You are going to give me a really hard time, which is just going to make the chase that much more fun. And then you’re going to give in and we’ll have amazingly hot sex. On the next full moon, you’ll be mine. And some day you’ll be asking yourself why you ever thought it would be a good idea to try to run from a Blood Oath wolf.”
Her heart hammered in her chest, and she swallowed hard. He smelled of musk and some kind of delicious spicy cologne, and his nearness was scrambling her senses.
She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, I don’t speak lunatic, so I zoned out for a few seconds there. Are we quite done? I’ve got things to do. Wolves to hide from.”
He smiled at her kindly, as if talking to someone who was very simple. “Here’s a question for you. Why are you fighting this? You’re very attracted to me. I can scent it on you.”
“Eww! Stop saying you can smell things on me!” She protested, jerking at her arm. He tightened his fingers until she stopped resisting. She kicked him in the shin, which made him laugh. Damned mafia cave-wolf ass-face.
“I’m a wolf, sweetheart, get used to it. It’s not as if it’s unpleasant. Do you hear me complaining? It’s delightful, actually. And it’s getting stronger. You like to wrestle, don’t you?” His grin was the sexiest thing she’d ever seen. It wrapped around her and melted her defenses, stroking secret parts of her deep inside. Why did evil have to be so attractive? “We like that too. Our men are pretty rough with our women – but in a good way. I promise you, you won’t hear any complaints.”
Her cheeks flamed hot with embarrassment and she wished the cracks in the sidewalk would open up to swallow her.
“I’m not your sweetheart.”
He maneuvered her towards the alley wall. She stumbled as he backed her up, and he held her up easily.
“Darling, then? Babe?” His smirk stretched wider.
“You want to know why I’m resisting? Because you’re a member of the Blood Oath pack, and…” His eyes darkened from the color of a summer sky to the color of a stormy sea.
Mated To The Capo (Mafia Shifters Book 1) Page 2