The Wolf's Mate Book 1: Jason & Cadence

by R. E. Butler

  The Wolf’s Mate

  Book 1: Jason & Cadence

  By: R. E. Butler

  Copyright 2012 R.E. Butler

  Smashwords Edition

  The Wolf’s Mate Book 1: Jason &Cadence

  by R.E. Butler

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  **Cover Design by Kameko Gay. Photography for cover art provided by R.E. Butler and StockTrek.

  This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is coincidental.

  Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content and is intended for those over the age of 18 only.

  **********

  Dedicated to B., my long suffering husband; Kameko Gay in Chicago who was more encouraging than I deserved; and to anyone who spent their teenage years filling up notebooks with romance stories but never had the courage to put something out there for others until they were well into their adult years. Ahem.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  From the Author and Other Works

  Chapter 1

  Cadence headed to Jake's for her night shift, her heart in her throat and her stomach in her feet. Jake was an old family friend. She had known him and his wife Renee her entire life. Renee and her mother went to school together and were best friends. When she was a child, she called them Uncle Jake and Aunt Renee. Because her mother died while pregnant with her, Renee was the closest thing she had to a mother figure in her life and Jake was more a father to her than her own. They were always what she needed: a shoulder to cry on, emergency money to fix a broken down car, and a job to keep her afloat in between semesters.

  Jake owned a bar that he named after himself, in the center of a podunk town in Kentucky called Allen. At 22, Cadence was done with college and ready for whatever turn her life was going to take. She'd gone to NKU for a business degree to help out her father's restaurant, but he had died at the beginning of her freshman year. She had kept plugging away at it, going back home in the summer and staying at the old farmhouse that belonged to her grandparents on her mother's side. It was nestled in the woods away from the center of town, private and quiet so she could be alone with her thoughts. And pretty much just alone.

  Now she had a bachelor's degree in business management but had no job to do something with it, although she had not really looked. Her father's life insurance had more than paid for college and she bought herself a tricked out Charger when she graduated. Jake offered a bartending job to tide her over, which she took even though she hadn't really needed the money. It gave her something to do, though, and unfortunately it was going to give her a front row seat to the object of her affection, denied as it was: Jason Gerrick. Jason was masculinity personified: gorgeous, year-round tanned skin, light blonde, shoulder length hair that was always tousled like he'd just rolled out of bed, and light blue eyes like a summer sky. He rode a motorcycle with his friends, owned the local garage called Pete's named after his father, and he happened to also be an alpha werewolf. As a matter of fact, over half the people in town were werewolves; it was just one of those things.

  Jake was a wolf, too, alpha of the pack that shared the town with Jason's pack. A number of Jake’s pack also rode bikes, and she thought there was probably something in that but never asked. Maybe all bikers were werewolves.

  Her mother was a wolf, but married her father who was not. She became pregnant with her and in most normal situations, a mix of human and werewolf resulted in a completely human baby. Just days before she was due to come into the world, her mother was attacked by a rival wolf pack female. Minutes after she was born by emergency cesarean, her mother died.

  That violence while she was still in her mother’s womb changed her on a cellular level in a way that was wholly unique. She became a hybrid wolf. Part human, part she-wolf. All attitude, strength, and speed but not fur. Kind of like Blade for dogs. Her mother was part of her uncle's pack, so naturally they tried to include her and raise her in the ways of their pack. Her father – who had not liked wolves that much to start with – hated wolves with a blistering passion because one had killed his wife, so Cadence had to deal with the hatred from him for her own people and a part of herself. He prevented her from learning anything but the barest bit about being a werewolf.

  And then there was Jason. Sweet Jason. She had grown up with him. Even though his pack was separate from Jake's, wolves ran with wolves, and they all looked out for each other unless one crossed another, and then it was a problem. As a hybrid, the only one that anyone had ever known, she was not technically part of Jake’s pack because she had not ever chosen to join. It would have been a simple ceremony on the full moon and then her wolf, at least the part of her brain that felt like a wolf sometimes, would come under Jake’s true rule as alpha. She was sure that often when she did things that pissed him off that he wished she was part of his pack so he could get her to fall in line. That may be why she didn’t. Or, it could be, because of Jason and her ridiculously long lasting unrequited love for the bastard.

  Jake and Renee always treated her as family and the pack looked out for her. But Jason’s parents lived next door to her, in a farmhouse that was about a 10-minute walk from hers. And so Jason, five years older than her, had been a near constant presence in her life until about high school, and then he started changing. The boy that she had loved like a part of herself, more than a brother, more than a friend, but less than anything serious, became withdrawn and angry. He had a temper, volatile and hot, and lashed out at everyone. Jake told her it was because of the wolf. The boys came into their wolves about 16, and it took them a long time to get a handle on their beast, especially around the full moon. She'd been around wolves her whole life so she had an idea of what he was going through. She had tried to comfort him, even though she was only 11, and he'd snapped at her, such rage and hate in his eyes that she didn't know what had happened. And it never got better.

  Her love for him grew and grew, and his anger widened the distance between them until he was all but a stranger to her. Except of course for the knot in her heart where he was firmly rooted. She ignored him as best she could when she was in town, but it was difficult. The wolves all hung out at the bar and the only gas station in town was at his garage, and the damn restaurant that had been her father's was now run by Jake's pack and the wolves from both packs ate there constantly.

  She couldn't escape the wolves, and all of them knew her and her past and knew about her friendship with Jason and how he'd treated her. Wolves couldn't keep their mouths shut about anything juicy, and the poor wolf hybrid girl fawning over the alpha of the Tressel Pack was big news. So she did her best to be a bitch
to him. Her sarcastic sense of humor was her best weapon.

  As she dressed for her first night at Jake’s in three months, she knew that Jason would be there. She chose her outfit carefully. She would make him sorry for being a dick to her all the time. She'd been alone long enough, and if he wanted nothing to do with her, then some other man would. There was that big old bed to toss around in, and she needed a hunk of man to grab onto, and soon.

  She pulled up the sides of her long dark brown hair and clipped them back, put on her dark party make-up, a spiked collar on her neck, two inches of bangles on her wrists and rings on her fingers. She dressed in a black leather mini skirt with slits up the thighs and chains around the waist, thigh high stockings, knee high leather kitten boots, and a black suede lace up bustier. She hoped Jason's head burst at the sight. As she passed by the hall mirror by the front door, she caught her reflection and the two words that slipped through her mind made her smile: Nice. Dangerous.

  She cranked up Jimi Hendrix on her Charger's stereo, drove with the windows down, and sped towards the bar. She loved driving at night, and she loved fall, when the wind was crisp with the scent of leaves and the earth was ready to take a nap for winter. Striding purposely up the front walk where a line of men and women, mostly human, waited to get inside, she pushed her nerves away. Wolves used a private entrance, and she could have gotten in that way, but she wanted to see who was bouncing, and it was Toby, an enormous man and an even bigger wolf. Amid the catcalls and whistles as she made her way down the sidewalk, Toby gave her a huge grin and held his arms out for her. She jumped up into his arms and kept her legs together so she didn't flash the entire neighborhood. "Baby girl you get more gorgeous every time I see you. You’re gonna stick around this time, right?"

  "If I can find a job." She thought he was going to put her down but he grinned and said, "Pay the toll," and she kissed his cheek and he sighed happily and put her down. "Don't tell Jason," he winked at her.

  "Why would I tell Jason anything?" She went on the defense immediately.

  "Oh, we're playing that, huh? Get your fine ass in the bar, girlie, and send out a drink for me when you get a chance." He made motions to swat her butt, but she managed to skirt it. The doors opened for her, and she kissed the cheeks of two more wolves that belonged to Jake's pack.

  The bar was packed, as per usual on Friday nights starting about 10. The line outside said that it was going to be a long night and she was glad she'd managed to snag a nap in the late afternoon. She'd been painting the bedroom all morning and her yawns had gotten annoying so she flopped down on her bed and fell asleep. A smarter woman than her would have hired someone to paint the house and not undertaken it alone in an attempt to find something tactile to do with her hands so she didn’t do something stupid like call the local alpha and beg him for the time of day. And now, she went straight to the bar, avoiding the majority of the crowd but getting pulled into hug after hug from Jake's pack, and tentative smiles from Jason's pack. Finally, she ducked under the counter of the bar and straightened up, brushing her hands down her skirt to stop them from shaking.

  "What the hell are you wearing?"

  She spun at the sound of Jake's voice. "What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" She folded her arms and cocked her hip at him.

  "Are you trying to start a riot?" He moved closer to her, annoyance and concern in his eyes.

  She rolled her eyes and before she could say something snarky he grabbed her wrist and said, "I've got a bar full of wolves and humans just looking for a reason to get into trouble. Are you trying to start something violent? I just redecorated." It sounded like he was joking, but she had a feeling he wasn't.

  She stared at him. Her outfit wasn't any worse than any other girl in there. Maybe he was just being overprotective as usual. Pulling her arm from his grip, she huffed, "Listen, Jake. This is how I dress. If you don't like it, fire me, otherwise, shut the hell up and let me get to tending this dump." She accentuated her words with a tidy growl at the end and he growled right back at her. "If it weren't for your mother’s friendship with Renee, I'd have shipped you off ages ago."

  "Don't threaten me, old man." She groused, and turned away from him and came face to face with Jason's younger and also gorgeous brother, Michael.

  "Hey baby girl!" He grinned, leaning his elbows on the bar. A girl named Lindy, clearly trying to look like a hooker, leaned on his shoulder, draping herself around him like a coat and giving Cadence a nasty look. Bitch. Werewolf bitch. Cadence ignored her. There weren't many she-wolves that wanted to tangle with her. Besides having their strength and speed and violent streak, she also had a chip on her shoulder the size of Rhode Island. Plus, she had spent her four years in college training in martial arts and defensive tactics, so she could kick just about any she-wolf's ass, and a number of males, too, if pressed. Most of the time, their threats were baseless, just testing the waters like children. Seeing how much they could push your buttons before you snapped.

  Her philosophy had always been to snap right away, go completely nuts so they'd leave her alone and back down. Most of the time it worked. She had gotten her ass kicked enough in school by both male and female wolves though, and until Jason turned 16, he had always defended her. Of course no one would really hurt her or they'd face Jake's wrath, and even Jason's father, who had been alpha before him, had her back as a courtesy to Jake. She was off-limits unless she pressed a fight. Wolves said that if you couldn't back up your mouth then you had to keep it shut. Good advice, but most of the time she couldn't stop herself.

  "Hey Michael, how're tricks?"

  He asked for two pitchers of draft. "Good, good. You look fantastic, baby. Are you sticking around?"

  "Maybe. If can find a job."

  He made a face like he was thinking about something, screwing up his adorably cute dimpled cheeks, and she almost kissed him just because he was so damn cute. Michael was only two years older than her, and he had never gone through that horrible attitude change that Jason had. Although his personality had changed for a while, and like all wolves he had a temper, but he was just a very even tempered guy, unless he needed to not be. She would rely on Michael in a fight, to back her up, for anything and everything. But it hadn't been him that she'd wanted, it was Jason, and that burned her in a special way. Michael, sweetheart that he was, never looked at her like anything but a friend, and she was glad for it, but also hated it. No wolf in either pack had ever asked her out. When she was younger, she thought it was because of Jason, but then she just figured that they weren't interested in what a lot of the bitch wolves called her – “the mutt".

  He dropped a fifty on the counter and walked away and she smiled. They were always very generous. Although a lot of times they ended up destroying things because they would forget about their own strength after a few hours of drinking and dancing and hot girls. The bar attracted wolves and humans of both sexes. Some wolves and humans were mates to wolves, the equivalent of being married, and some were girlfriend or boyfriend, or fuck buddies. Some wolf females just didn't attract men, human or otherwise, and some human females wanted to be with the big bad wolf so badly that they just hung around and made themselves available to any that would have them. The males called those human females chew toys. Cadence always felt a little bad for them, because no wolf would take a chew toy for a mate.

  Like the males, the females had their own hierarchy, with the alpha female mated with the alpha male. There was no alpha female of Jason's pack, and as far as she knew, Jason had not been with a female wolf ever; not even on the full moon when their cravings for sex were the highest.

  She would gladly take on any of the wolves in the pack for the chance to be in Jason's arms. She wouldn't admit it out loud, though. In fact, out loud she was a bitch to him. She taunted and teased him until he was red in the face and ready to throttle her. She knew how to push all his buttons and loved doing it. If she was miserable, she wanted him to be miserable, too. She turned her attention away from the pas
t and lost herself in the flurry of drink orders.

  She knew exactly where Jason was the whole time, but took great care to ignore him. Eventually, though, she couldn't because Jake dropped a tray in her hands and put four beer bottles on it and told her to take it to Jason's table. "You do it." She shoved the tray back at him like a child.

  "No." He ground out. "You do it."

  "Fuck off, I don't want to." She shoved it back at him and the bottles tipped but righted themselves.

  His voice went low in a very serious way and it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. "You will do what I tell you."

  She pressed her tongue into the back of her incisor to stop herself from saying something nasty, and just nodded curtly and turned, setting the tray down and sliding under the counter and picking it up again. Gathering all her attitude and courage, she prepared to go face Jason and act like she could care less if he lived or breathed, even though she cared very much about both of those things.

  Chapter 2

  Jason had known the second she walked into the bar. Hell, he'd known the second she drove that souped up Charger into town, Hendrix blaring from her stereo. She'd stopped for gas at the station after driving in from where she'd been hiding out since she graduated in June, stupid NKU and all that bullshit. She looked fantastic. More than fantastic, she looked delicious and gorgeous, and cock-hardeningly breath-taking. He'd loved her as long as he could remember and he'd finally decided that it was the right time to reveal his feelings for her, or rather he was being forced to reveal his feelings for her, or watch someone else take her from him. And that, he couldn't allow. He'd waited for her to come home after she graduated, but she didn't for months and he'd nearly gone insane waiting. Why hadn't he just driven the fuck up there and dragged her home by her hair like some caveman? Oh right, he was a colossal idiot, plus it might have pissed her off.