Whisper Pride Pack

by T. Cobbin

  Conan stood at the door listening to the argument, shaking his head. He had halted his evening of nonstop fucking with his gorgeous mate for this? When he let out a roar, all conversation ceased and the small group turned their heads toward their Alpha. All of them offering their necks in subservience.

  “Would someone like to explain—calmly—what’s going on?” Conan asked.

  He looked toward the elder of the group. Mike was the father of two twin girls who had just reached mating age. Conan knew the man was pretty protective of them, and in the last few weeks he had become more aggressive to the male suitors. Daisy was his elder daughter by a few minutes, and she was currently missing from the room. Conan inhaled deeply, taking in all the scents, and discovered she was in fact not even in the house. But Mike’s other daughter Paige was sitting in a chair in the corner with a book in her lap.

  “This...pup...” Mike paused and sneered at Raff, a young male who had reached his mating age last year. He was a strapping lad with a good head on his shoulders, although at times he was a little hot-headed. Conan had been leaning toward getting him under Randale and training him as an enforcer. “He said Daisy was his mate! He has no decent job, no cabin of his own, he has barely anything, and he wants to mate her now? Can’t he wait a year or two?”

  “You know what he will go through if he doesn’t mate her. You can’t ask that of him. And what does Daisy say about all this?” Conan asked.

  “Daisy is at my aunt’s cabin waiting for me to return,” Raff said. “She knew her father would get annoyed or angry at me. She knows we’re mates and is willing to stay at my aunt and uncle’s with me until I can find another good paying job. I’ve waited a year, Alpha.”

  Turning toward Paige, Conan asked her to go get Daisy.

  “Mike, you knew this would happen one day. Daisy is a good girl and knows her way. You have brought her and Paige up well. If Raff is her true mate, then you can’t stop their mating. The next full moon is in two weeks, you have this time if she says it’s true to start letting her go, to help them both as a pair.” Conan turned to face Raff. “As for you, I’ve been watching you for a while, go see the beta in the morning and start your training as one of our enforcers. A small cabin comes with the job.”

  A huge grin appeared on the young man’s face. He nodded and stood back.

  “No fucking way!” Mike shouted.

  “Are you questioning your Alpha?” Conan boomed, taking a couple of steps toward the old man.

  “No...no, Alpha, no.” He looked down and again offered his neck.

  Conan put a hand on the man’s shoulder. “I don’t know what it’s like to have pups, but I hope I’m as good a father as you are. You have to let them go someday, and it looks like you have a few weeks to make it happen.”

  The man before him looked like his world had come to a standstill and exploded. Conan felt bad for him, but when mates found each other... Well, it was hell on earth to be kept apart.

  Daisy came running into the house, tying a white robe that the pack also kept in the clothes box outside. She ran straight into Raff’s arms.

  “I’m sorry, Daddy. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble. I knew how you would take it.” She looked at her father with green eyes that sparkled with tears.

  Mike stared at her, shaking his head. “It’s not your fault, honey.” He opened his arms and Daisy ran into them, hugging her father tightly. “I just wanted what’s best for you, and letting you go hurts an old man’s heart.” Looking at Raff, he nodded. “I know you’re not a bad lad, but when you have pups of your own you will see just how protective a man can be.”

  “I’m sorry too, sir, for being a bit of a hot-head. I shouldn’t have said the things I did,” the young man apologized.

  “Well then, looks like there is going to be a mating to sort out in a couple of weeks,” Conan announced. He smiled and thought of his own mate—maybe there would be two matings.

  Chapter 5

  “Well, this morning is going better so far,” Josie murmured to herself as she stood by her window overlooking the small town. It had in fact gone much better. Her alarm clock had gone off, thanks to it having power all night. She hadn’t fallen over the sofa, and she hadn’t spilled her coffee. However, she was dreading going to work. Would they continue like nothing happened last night? Nothing had happened but a few heated kisses and coming pretty damn close to having sex. But all in all it was still embarrassing for her; she had never been in a situation like this.

  She had one sexual partner in college for a month or so, but it had never rocked her boots, let alone given her wet panties just looking at him like when she saw Conan. Even now her body heated when she thought of his deep, penetrating kisses last night.

  “I can’t put it off any longer,” she muttered. Putting her empty coffee cup down and grabbing her bag, she walked out the door and to the office, swallowing down the little fear, excitement, and dread.

  “Morning, Cassie.” Josie smiled at the blonde receptionist, refusing to let the woman’s downright distasteful attitude yesterday get her down.

  Cassie ignored her, not even looking up from what she was doing. Shrugging her shoulders, Josie carried on through to the back. Her heart was thumping in her chest so hard she was sure if she looked down it would be a visible thing.

  Not seeing Conan on the way to his office, she hung her jacket and bag up in her locker, ready to check on the overnight stays. Two hands grabbed her waist, pulling her back against a very hot, hard body, causing her to let out a small squeak. Conan’s scent swept around her like a comfort blanket.

  “What did you get off with last night? Fingers...a tiny vibrator?” he asked in a deep, husky voice, his breath flowing over her ear.

  “You know I could sue you for sexual harassment in the workplace, right? And, umm, what makes you think my vibrator is small?” She turned in his arms, looking up at his sparkling blue eyes.

  “It won’t be as big as my dick, so it’s small, and as for sexual harassment, prove it.” And with that his lips pressed against hers. “Good morning,” he said with a smirk on his face.

  “Here I was so worried that today would be filled with some kind of tension.”

  “Baby, the only kind of tension in this place today will be sexual.” He raised an eyebrow, kissed her again, and moved—well, more like swaggered—toward the kennels. “Let’s get the day started.”

  She could hear the grin as he spoke. “Bighead,” she muttered.

  “Only on the top of my cock!”

  It was at that precise moment Cassie walked in. “Conan,” she called with a blush on her face, probably from hearing his last comment.

  Josie carried on, walking past Conan to the kennels, trying to stifle the full belly laugh that wanted to let loose. Oh, that was going to be a conversation for later. She was also sure that it would add to Cassie’s dislike of her.

  A few minutes later Conan strolled into the kennels as she was seeing to Billy, a small Yorkshire terrier that had come in for dental treatment.

  “Well, that was awkward.” He chuckled. “Maybe it won’t just be you that sues me for sexual innuendos.”

  “I think that woman has a crush on you. She wouldn’t sue unless she couldn’t get you into bed.” Josie put Billy back in the cage and locked the door; he was ready to go home today. As she turned to stand she was yanked up and yet again found herself leaning against Conan’s hard body.

  He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tightly against him, and he began kissing up from her neck, along her jawline, until finally he reached her lips. She felt her pussy clench at the feeling he was drawing from her. She joined him in the kiss, their tongues moving together, entwining in an age-old dance until he drew back, leaving her weak-kneed and panting.

  “Good morning again,” he said with a smug look.

  “We’re supposed to be working, sir,” she mocked. “Our clients do not need to see this kind of nonprofessional behavior.”

  “
We could take it to my office then.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

  “Is it going to be like this all day?” she asked with an over-exaggerated sigh, trying desperately to hide a smile at the same time.

  “You don’t want it to be?” He suddenly looked all serious, and then she watched him take a deep breath and smile. He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by Cassie calling out that their first patient had arrived. He kissed the end of her nose. “Later, Miss White. Definitely later!”

  The day progressed very much the same as it had the day before. She watched his skilled hands stitch and sew lacerations to several of their patients’ skin, and watched as he cared lovingly for an old dog losing its fight for life. She saw the sorrow in his face through her own tear-filled eyes. Some days working as a veterinary nurse hurt the heart. These animals were loved and cared for, had become old friends or family to the people they lived with. Some you could say were treated better than the humans looking after them.

  The lunchtime meal was a little subdued. They had just put old Jeb down, his owner walking out of the office with a broken heart. The strong emotion the old woman left behind almost seemed to leave a bitter taste in the air. Conan sat picking at his meal while Cassie jabbered on about her hair and nails as if she didn’t see the mood he was in. Josie couldn’t take any more, but instead of rudely telling the annoying woman to shut up, she got up, leaving her meal, and went to the kennels. Finding a wee animal to cuddle and letting out a tear here and there would be some kind of comfort. That was exactly what she was doing when Conan walked in on her a few minutes later.

  “It doesn’t get easier.” He sighed.

  Looking up into his grief stricken face, she asked, “How long had you known him?”

  “I was there when he was born. He was the runt of the pack and his mother had a little trouble with him at the end so I was called in.”

  It took a few minutes before Josie realized Conan couldn’t have been there when Jeb was born. Mary, his owner, said she’d had him for almost seventeen years.

  “How long have you been a vet?” Josie asked, puzzled.

  “Umm, long enough.” He smiled.

  She didn’t like the answer and smelled something fishy. Deciding the only way to get an honest, truthful answer would be subterfuge, she stood and walked over to him, winding her arms around his waist, and laid her head on his chest.

  “It’s hard to lose a friend or family member. I bet losing your father was harsh.”

  “Yes. It was harder on my mother—they had been a team for a long time.”

  “How long ago did he die?” She lifted her head off his chest and looked up into his blue eyes.

  “Coming up on three years now.” He sighed.

  “How old were you?” She waited with bated breath. Just as he was about to answer Cassie again interrupted them.

  “Conan, you left your meal. Should I put it in the fridge for you?”

  If Josie could stomp her feet or throw something at the damn woman, she would have, but instead she let go of Conan and headed out of the room. Brushing past the bitch standing there with a fake grin on her face, Josie went back to work.

  All afternoon she was pissed, her anger rising each time the blonde bimbo poked her head in to talk to Conan. It was like the frigging woman had some kind of sensor on her. If Josie got within a foot of Conan, she was there like a shot. But not only was Josie getting more pissed, as the day went on Conan seemed to as well. She was in the tiny locker room getting her bag when she heard Conan growl and snap at Cassie.

  “For fuck’s sake, Cassie, will you leave it! You have been on my tail all fucking day, and it’s not only winding me up but my mate too. I will tell you this once and once only—back it down and now! I have found my mate. I’m not interested in you. I never have been and I certainly won’t be. If you continue, I’ll fire you and hire someone else. Understand?”

  Josie didn’t hear any reply but a small whimper. A few minutes later Cassie ran past the locker room and out the back door. Josie could plainly see tears streaming down her face. She actually felt bad for the woman...for a brief moment.

  “Shit!” she heard Conan curse a few seconds later, then his head poked around the locker room door. “You heard?”

  “Yep. I know I’ve only been here a few days, but I know something isn’t quite right. Like the fact you have said ‘mate’ twice, and Henry called you ‘alpha’, which is odd. You also said that you were present at Jeb’s birth, not as in a boy or man, but as a vet. Now, if I have my numbers right...you would have started college at eighteen, then university is about seven years, and if you were there as a vet at Jeb’s birth around seventeen years ago, that would make you just over forty. But no way on this earth are you forty, unless, of course, you have bloody good genes. You look no older than twenty-five or thirty.”

  He sighed, looking down at the floor. He had an almost defeated look, her heart felt it too. Dammit, why had she opened her mouth? He looked like he had lost something.

  * * * *

  Fucking hell, were they really going to have this conversation this soon? Would this be where he lost her forever, never having a true mate or pups? How could he explain to her that he was a shifter—a human and animal? His parents had both been pure shifters, so they knew they were destined to be mates, which made things so much easier than the predicament he was in now. Sighing again and mentally pulling up his big boy pants, he looked into the confused eyes of his mate.

  “I was waiting to tell you at the right time.” Preferably when I’d mated you and it would have been harder for you to leave me. He walked toward the back door, opened it, then turned back to Josie. “Come with me,” he said, holding out his hand.

  She stepped forward and placed her small, pale hand in his.

  The drive to his place this time was filled again with tension, but it wasn’t sexual. Parking the car, he hurried around to the passenger side and opened the door. He held his hand out to Josie, and when she took it, he helped her out of the vehicle. Leading her to the cabin door, he stopped while still holding her hand, afraid she would run or disappear. He breathed in deeply, taking in the scents around him, particularly hers.

  “You noticed the door to the cabin the last time we were here.” He couldn’t help a small grin at her blush. After a tiny cough, she nodded. “Well, it kinda tells a story.” He crouched down and ran his hand over the pack of wolves under the moon. “A few hundred years ago my great-grandparents came from America and settled here in Britain. They bought this huge plot of land and made it their new home. They brought a few friends and family with them. There are about a dozen cabins dotted in and around the area, as we all like to stay close. There is also a huge pack house in the center of the land, with a barn behind it that’s been converted into several apartments.”

  “Pack, mate, alpha, wolves!” She pointed at the door. “What are you trying to say?” she asked, her eyes growing huge.

  “I’m a wolf shifter, babe, and you’re my mate.”

  Josie paled and her knees buckled. He swiftly caught her before she hit the deck. Curling her into his arms, he carried her to the swing and sat down, holding her on his lap. He breathed in her lavender, Josie scent along with...not what he expected...it wasn’t fear but disappointment. But still he sat there and held on to her for dear life as he explained a few things about the pack.

  He was Alpha to twenty-six members, four of them pups. And although their land was protected by their enforcers, an odd human here and there would take a wrong turn. Since wolves hadn’t been seen in Britain since the late 1800s, the strongest pack law was not to be seen. Once or twice there had been whispers in the village that a wolf had been spotted, but being the local vet made it easy for him to explain it away as a large dog. He spent the next half-hour revealing a bit more, waiting patiently for her to respond.

  Chapter 6

  So much for a good day. For fuck’s sake!

  Mate? She couldn’t be. She couldn’t
stick around. What if Harry came looking and found her? Listening to Conan, Josie knew his wolf and pack would protect her, but what if Harry brought a gun or a knife? She had only been there a few days and already she admitted she felt something toward Conan.

  He was Alpha to twenty-six wolves? Shit, now that he had revealed his secret, if you wanted to leave would he let her go?

  A shifter? They were all make believe, weren’t they?

  “Will you answer my questions?” she asked, not moving her head from his chest where it was currently resting,

  “Anything you want to know, my mate, I will give you your answer if I can.” He nuzzled his chin on the top of her head, and she took comfort in it. For some strange and bizarre reason she wasn’t scared. Was that normal? She wanted to laugh, but withheld it.

  “Can I see your wolf? I mean if you are a shifter and I am your mate, then I get to see, right? If you bite me, will I turn into a wolf? Can you—”

  “Hey, hey.” He shifted and lifted her chin from his body. “Chill.” He chuckled. “One at a time. Yes, you can see my wolf.” He smiled. “I will only bite you to mate with you, but in the throes of passion it won’t hurt at all. And no, you won’t become a wolf. We are born, not made.”

  “You will bite me?” she almost shrieked, her eyes growing wide.

  “It’s okay, little one. Yes, I will bite you, right here...” He ran a finger above her collarbone near the madly beating pulse in her neck. “But I’ll be so deep inside of you while you come that the pain will be gone within seconds,” he said with a smirk.

  She tucked her head back into his chest. Her pussy clenched. She wondered how he would feel deep inside of her.

  * * * *

  Conan could feel the slight heat Josie’s cute little blush generated.

  “Would you like to see my wolf, and then maybe we can go inside and talk more over food? I can hear your stomach, and it’s sounding pretty hungry!” He was pleased she seemed to be taking it well. Alas, he was also rather wary she might think he was a bit cuckoo, but if she did would she still be sitting in his lap?