by M. L. Briers
MISPLACING HIS MATE
By
M L BRIERS
Copyright © 2014 by M.L Briers
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Table of Contents
MISPLACING HIS MATE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER ONE
“Which one is it?” Dee strained her neck over the crowd of revellers to get a look at Mr Tall, Dark and Handsome that her friend was gushing about. But then Tanya was drunk, and the woman had a habit of looking through drink coloured glasses when she was in that state. So in truth he could have looked like a Yeti and she would still swear he was a God among men.
The man was knocking back shots like the booze was about to run out and prohibition was being introduced this very night… how very becoming, Dee thought. Catching sight of his shoulder length, messy brown hair that rested on broad shoulders, and the three days worth of stubble that crept over his face like an invading army, not to mention the piercing blue eyes as they met hers, and she felt that familiar buzz of knowing creeping up her spine.
“You do know that Mr Tall, Dark and Handsome, is actually Mr Tall Dark and Furry, right?”Dee let her backside drop back down onto the barstool and her eyes fall back onto Tanya’s. The woman was incorrigible, especially when drunk.
“Yeah, but it’s been a while since I came out to play, Dee. And he looks like a whole heap of fun…” Tanya grinned from ear to ear and her eyes lit up with the look that said she wanted to have fun. A lot of fun.
Dee knew that look well, it hadn’t been there a whole lot lately in her friend’s eyes, not since she’d lost her brother in an accident, and she didn’t have the heart to pour caution onto the flames that burned inside her friend this night.
“You know what you’re doing, right? Still in control of the smart part of your brain?”Dee just wanted to know that it wasn’t the drink talking in its entirety, that Tanya wasn’t about to go full steam ahead with something she had no control over.
“I have an itch that needs scratching, and that guy looks like he’s got a pretty good set of claws to scratch it with…”Tanya chuckled, before she sunk one more shot, and then slipped down from her barstool.
That was the final test for Dee. If Tanya ended up in a heap on the floor, she’d drag her off to the hotel. But the woman walked with just a little sideways crab motion through the throng of shifters, Fae, and humans, towards her intended itch easer. Dee raised herself up on the stool as she followed her friend’s progression through the crowd.
Just as Tanya slid up beside the Lycan at the bar, the man scented the air and turned to see the new arrival… Dee felt the elbow hit her in the ribs and dropped back down to the stool. Her breath left her body, as she turned her head to see Lacy grinning at her.
“Where’s Tanya?”Lacy called over the noise of the crowd, and Dee glared at her with a vengeance.
“Scratching an itch with a hairy guy…”raising herself back up on the stool Dee’s eyes scanned the bar. Nothing. No Lycan and no Tanya. “Bloody hell that was quick…”Dee mumbled to herself, still scanning the crowd for any signs of her friend, but she came up empty.
“Lucky her, but I guess it’s been a while, so Kudos.”Lacy reached for the shot glass in front of Dee and sunk the drink.
Dee’s eyes caught sight of a pair of deep brown eyes that seemed intent on her and locked with them. The shiver that ran down her spine told her he was not what she was looking for. Although she was sure that he could scratch more than a damn itch, and a night with him would leave her with a certain satisfied glow… She needed to be able to drive tomorrow, and she was sure that after spending the night with him she wouldn’t be fit to do much of anything.
She allowed her backside to drop back to the stool, automatically reaching for her glass and coming up empty.
“Nice. Lace, thanks…”
Lacy shot her an unapologetic look. “You snooze, you lose. I’ll set them back up…”Lacy offered, but Dee shook her head. She was still tired from all the driving she had done that day, and she knew she needed to stop drinking if she was going to be in a fit state to drive tomorrow.
“Nope. I’m done, and knackered. I’m off to the hotel to get some sleep, and you’re…?”She let the words trail off.
“I’m gonna stay for a bit. See if I can’t find me some interesting company…”Lacy had already eyed the room three times and had come up empty. She was all but done with the shifter scene. She wouldn’t mind moving onto pastures new.
“Ok. See you in the morning…”It was the curse of the Fae to be drawn to the supernatural, at least that was the way Dee saw it. She didn’t have anything against Lycans. She’d just been there and done that. And while they were great lovers, she was looking for something a little more solid in her life, slightly more predictable.
Aidan moved through the crowd with a purpose, and they parted the way for him. Who in their right mind was going to stand in the way of a Lycan Alpha when he wanted to get somewhere? And his interest had been taken by the jade green of the woman’s eyes that had locked with his.
He didn’t think her to be human. Not the way she took him in and the look of knowing that seemed to register on her face of what he was. That always made life easier, a female knowing what she was getting herself into. If she was receptive to his advances he could lose himself within her body for the rest of the night, bring her pleasure and take his own…
Aidan credited himself with a good sense of direction. But when he got to where he expected her to be, the space was taken by an Omega from his pack. Standing in the small opening that the crowd had made for him, he turned and scanned the room, catching sight of the back of her, just as she slipped out the door. Aidan debated following her outside, and then decided against it.
The moment he had spent locked with her eyes had given him more than happy thoughts, but he shifted his erection within his jeans and told himself that chasing after the Fae, when she obviously wasn’t interested enough in him to stick around for introductions, was a waste of his time. She obviously wasn’t looking to hook up with anyone, and he had no intention of wooing her for the evening.
Tanya woke up with a headache that pounded through her body and down to her very toes. She hadn’t been that drunk when she’d hooked up with the big Lycan, and when she thought big, she’d meant it.
For a long moment she could still feel the pulsing of her inner walls around the girth of the man, even though she’d ducked out on him a few hours before. But they’d carried on drinking as they enjoyed each other’s company until the wee small hours and that was probably her only regret.
Tanya flopped over in the bed and groaned. A shaft of sunlight targeted her with a snipers precision from between the, almost, drawn curtains and hit her square in the eyes.
Her body tingled from head to toe, and her mind flashed back to her Lycan conquest the night before, and the feeling warmed her. He certainly was a good lover. She’d never felt quite that good and been that bad before.
The pounding started up again, but this time it wasn’t inside her head, at least not initially. This particular brand of thumping was on the door to her room, and some inconsiderate idiot
was trying to emulate Thumper the bloody rabbit to the detriment of her poor, defenceless head that throbbed along with it.
“Go away…”She whined, reaching for a pillow and attempting to bury her head when she head Dee’s voice.
“Get up, get dressed, and be at the car in twenty minutes…”
“Nooooo….”There was an underlying need to stay right where she was for the next day or so. Or at the very least, until her head wasn’t pounding and she could actually walk again after her night with the Lycan, whose name she couldn’t quite remember. Damn.
“Serves you right, you harlot…But time waits for no man, or woman who couldn’t keep her legs closed. So get up, and hurry up, I want to make good time.”
“I want to make the room stop spinning, we can’t always get what we want.”Tanya groaned, trying to push herself up onto her arms, but she couldn’t quite make her elbows lock and she face planted the mattress with a long groan.
“You can always take the train back…”Dee’s voice held an amusement that riled Tanya’s nerves, and she cursed out into the covers as she rolled onto her back and pried her eyes open. There wasn’t an inch of her that didn’t ache.
“You are a cruel and evil woman, and I hate you…”
“I know, and I revel in it…now move your butt…”The sound of Dee’s footsteps moving on down the hallway made Tanya want to turn over, curl up, and stay there for the next few hours at least. But she knew that Dee would be back with a vengeance if she wasn’t down at the car by the allotted time.
Evan tried to roll over in the bed and slammed his face into something hard and unyielding. His head ached and he groaned with the feeling of being so damn cramped up.
Prying just one eye open, he recognised the interior of his pickup truck, and pushed his back further into the back seat. How the hell had he ended up here? He asked himself, as he automatically took in the scent of the car.
His eyes slammed open as the scent of the female reached deep inside his brain and his libido. He’d certainly had sex, but that didn’t stop his erection straining in his jeans at the scent of the woman he’d spent the night with. Damn, but his body wanted her again and why wouldn’t it? She was his mate.
‘Mine.’
Evan’s upper body snapped upright in his seat causing his head to slam into the roof, and boy did he feel that like an echo of pain tearing through him. The deep growl that rumbled through his chest and out of his mouth filled his ears and made his head hurt even more.
Where the hell was she? Evan’s eyes scanned the outside world. He was still parked at the far end of the parking lot at Joe’s bar and grill, and the place was deserted, except for a few cars dotted about from where the owners had left without them.
“Damn it to hell.”He growled out into the silence of the cab, as he tried to unfold his body from where it had been wedged into for the last few hours.
Curse after curse tore from his lips, as he fought with his own bulk and the confines of the small space to disentangle his body from the back seat. He could still taste her blood on his tongue, just a remnant of an after taste, but it left him in no doubt of who she was. Now all he needed to do was find her.
Out of sheer stupidity, or maybe just desperation, he twisted around in his seat and stared out of the little window into the back of the cab at the flatbed behind him. Empty, thank god, otherwise his mate probably would have frozen to death.
She wasn’t a local, of that he was certain. So the best place to start would be the guest houses and hotels around town. Tourist traffic this time of year could be a steady flow, and she had to be staying somewhere.
“Say goodbye to the last stop on route to home, girls…”Dee had mixed feelings as she left the little town in the rear view mirror. She’d kind of liked the place, although the city was more her thing, where she could blend in unnoticed among the crowd.
“Home sounds good, it would sound better if you said it a little more quietly.”Lacy informed her from the passenger seat. She was nursing a slight hangover from the night before. But still she didn’t look as bad as Tanya, who was fast asleep in the backseat, having crashed the moment her backside hit the leather.
“Is it my fault you and the drooling beauty in the back didn’t take into account the early start of the drive home, and drank to excess?”Dee offered, feeling slightly superior to the pair of them. She wasn’t backwards in tying one on and getting good and drunk when the occasion called for it, but she knew she wouldn’t make it home today if she’d gotten blotto last night, and that just wouldn’t do.
She missed home. She could just imagine herself curled up in front of the fire with a good book and a warm body around her…
Dee blinked at the thought, what damn warm body? She wasn’t seeing anyone, and the closest she’d managed to get to personal contact with a man was with that Lycan last night. And the intimate eye locking that had occurred before she high tailed it out of the bar wasn’t exactly a date.
Damn, but he had nice eyes. Deep brown like a really rich hot chocolate and sexy, and with all of that black stubble and shoulder length black hair that she could lose her fingers in as they… Whoa, where did that come from?
Dee reached out and hit the radio on for a distraction. The last thing she wanted to do was get involved with a Lycan. She’d end up a drooling mess like Tanya. But wasn’t the ride to getting to that state fun? Dee grinned at the thought and then chastised herself for it.
She must have an itch that needed scratching in much the same way her friend had last night. But she’d sworn off close encounters of the supernatural kind in favour of something more meaningful… Whatever that actually looked like she couldn’t be sure, but she was sure it was out there for her somewhere.
“So who was he?”Lacy was looking over her shoulder at Tanya, who had taken to snoring behind them.
“Looked like a Beta to me, didn’t catch his name…”
“Wonder if she did?”Lacy chuckled, turning back to the open road in front of them and grinning to herself.
“If she did, I doubt she’d remember…”
“Or want to…”
“Or need to…”
Evan checked every guest house and hotel in town until he finally came up with the one that held his mates scent. Tracing what was fast becoming a faint essence back to the floor he believed her room was on, he was suddenly hit by the mixture of three different Fae scents in the air.
Three Fae-that would make it easier to find her surely? He hoped, at least. But where the hell was he going to start? She wasn’t here anymore and he had no idea what direction they went.
He was still more than a little worse for wear from trying to drink the bar dry last night before he even met his mate, let alone the booze they had consumed as they mated.
He had the taste of her blood in his mouth. That was a blessing and a curse. If he didn’t find her he would be climbing the walls in no time, but if she recognised the symptoms of her own mating pull it might bring her back to him.
Aidan walked out onto the porch and surveyed the land in front of him. Mug of coffee in hand, this kind of start to the morning usually brought him the inner peace he needed to start the rigours of the day, but right now the only thing it did for him was give him the urge to shift into his wolf and run like the damn wind.
He’d been off since last night in the bar and he wasn’t sure why. After his near encounter with those jade green eyes, he found he couldn’t seem to settle to anything. He’d decided to find a woman to ease the tension within him, but he couldn’t find anyone that he wanted to be with.
He’d decided to blot out his growing need to be with a woman with booze, but he couldn’t seem to give it his full attention, and he gave up trying to still himself from his restless inner path and came home.
He’d spent nearly an hour in the shower getting rid of the pressing needs within his body with his own hand. But although it calmed his needs, it did nothing to alleviate the growing dissatisfaction ins
ide him.
And then he’d tried to sleep, but that was like trying to climb an ice wall without claws, and he found that he tossed and turned more than he actually slept for the rest of the night.
Now he needed the coffee to kick start his body into a new day, and to clear his head from dwelling on the events that were out of his control.
Aidan’s eyes fixed on Evan as he stomped towards the house. The Beta looked more than a little worse for wear after tying one on last night and disappearing with the little Fae that had caught his attention. He guessed he had an eventful evening.
“Paying for it this morning, brother?”Aidan called over the distance between them that was being eaten up by the fast stride of Evan’s long legs over the hard ground.
“You could say that.”Evan growled out and the tone of his voice let his Alpha know that something was wrong.
“What happened?”Aidan’s own problems paled into insignificance the closer that his Beta got to him. The man’s eyes were almost black. His brow was draw down like a sun visor over the tops of his eyes, and he looked like a man with the worries of the world on his broad shoulders.
While Aidan knew that Evan could brood about the most mundane things, he looked like he’d lost his mate…
“I had a chance encounter with a Fae last night at the bar…”Evan stopped at the bottom of the steps and looked up at his friend. He could see the cogs already turning in his Alpha’s mind, see the recognition of his words, and Aidan nodded slowly.
There wasn’t much that escaped his Alpha’s attention, especially when it related to the pack, so Evan wasn’t surprised to learn that Aidan had taken it all in.
“What did she do?”Aidan was trying to think three steps ahead again, but his brain was a little too addled to get that far. But if the little Fae was up to something he wanted to know about it.
“She didn’t do anything…”He snapped out defensively and Aidan shrugged.