Fated Mates: The Alpha Shifter Boxed Set (12 Book Bundle) (Insatiable Reads)

by Hunter, Adriana

  A sigh escaped her as her brother’s truthful words battled her stubborn nature. Much as she hated giving in to their no driving order—well-intentioned or not—she wouldn’t operate a motor vehicle if she could prove a danger to others. “Fine, so if I can’t drive myself, then who is taking me home?”

  Six pairs of eyes found the ceiling suddenly intensely interesting.

  Irritation made her lips draw tight. “Oh, come on. Surely one of you idiots can handle my car?”

  Kendrick cleared his throat before speaking. “Um, the last time Mitchell drove your car, you almost castrated him because he didn’t shift it to your satisfaction. You told us never to touch your car again, or else.”

  Naomi blew out a breath. Pussies. How could they blame her for taking offence at the brutish manner with which they drove her baby? They’d deserved each, and every, smack. And then, they had the nerve to wonder why she wanted to get away from the shifters and their violence. They bloody well drove her to it.

  “I am not staying here.” Not with her mother due home within the hour from work. Once her mom walked through that door, Naomi would be lucky if she got to leave a bed within the next three days. The men in her family might fear their baby sister even as they coddled her, but everyone obeyed their mother. Nobody owned the balls not to.

  The doorbell rang and as one, her family dove to answer, leaving her alone. Naomi shook her head. Afraid of little old me? Good.

  Not interested in the caller, Naomi walked with ginger steps so as to not jostle her aching head into the kitchen to look for some alcohol. The Tylenol she’d taken, twelve pills so far, had done almost nothing for her pain. Banned from driving and lacking a chauffeur, she might as well get a little drunk, a plan forgotten as the snarls started from the front of the house.

  “Now what?” she grumbled as she stalked toward the fracas, lancing pain rousing her temper.

  A wall of brothers stood between her and the menacing growls of her daddy, which ran counterpoint to some unknown deeper rumble and a more feline yowl—both which sent shivers skating down her spine, and not the unpleasant kind.

  A few well-placed elbows and she’d shoved her way to the front of the crowd to find her father facing off, nose to nose, with non-other than the behemoth from the lacrosse match. She’d have recognized him anywhere seeing as how not too many Kodiak bears chose to live near civilization. And damn, but up close like this he appeared even larger than expected, completely towering over her and wider than logic dictated a male should be.

  Seven foot and a bit of bristling bear stood at her front door, and not just any bear, but one who’d injured her. No wonder her canine family acted so agitated. Actually, so was she for that matter and not just because of the ball she’d almost swallowed, her wolf started spinning in circles inside her head with excitement and Naomi didn’t like it one freakn’ bit. It didn’t help that this close to the behemoth, awareness lit up all the nerves in her body, and an inhalation of his scent sent moist heat to her cleft. Oh, like hell is this hulking bear my bloody mate.

  Squeezing herself between her father and number forty-four, she jabbed her finger into his chest. She might as well have poked a brick wall because the flesh of his chest didn’t give one iota. On the other hand, that brief contact sent a sizzling bolt through her system.

  Failed poke or not, it did, however, catch his attention. Brown eyes broke off their staring match with her father and rotated down to peer at her. He inhaled deep as he stared at her, increasing the tingle that ran through her body like an electric jolt. It fired up more than her cleft—it sparked her ire.

  “What are you doing here?” she demanded rudely, clenching her fists at her side before she gave in to the urge to stroke the firm chest in front of her.

  “I, um, wanted to see if you were okay and say I’m sorry you, um, got hurt.” His halting words rumbled pleasantly over her skin. Naomi, unable to resist, sucked in a breath and found her senses flooded with a titillating whiff of soap, bear and male musk all of which sent her wolf into a tizzy.

  Oh god, I need to get him out of here, pronto. “I’m fine. Bye.” She waited, but as she feared, he didn’t just turn around and leave.

  “Um, that wasn’t the only reason I came.”

  Flowers were suddenly thrust in her face, a wild bouquet of blooms that made her want to sneeze. She batted them to the side. She narrowed her eyes up at him and enjoyed the way it made him swallow. He fears me. Good. “What else do you want? Isn’t it enough I’ve got two black eyes and a headache the size of Quebec?”

  “I’m really sorry about that. I was kind of distracted.” His brown eyes looked so pained that Naomi fought an urge to tell him it was okay—and throw herself in his arms. “Actually that’s part of the other reason I’m here. See, I—uh—well, that is, I think we’re mates.” He stammered the words out and ruddy color flushed his cheeks.

  Her greatest fear spoken aloud, panic gripped her and she lost her mind. “Over my dead fucking body we are. You’ve got a lot nerve coming here,” she yelled, her shrill tone making her headache flare stronger. “As if I’d waste any of my time with a guy who can’t even catch one little rubber ball. Now, go away and just forget about me.”

  “But—”

  Naomi froze him with an icy glare at odds with her melting pussy. She fought to hold onto her anger, a feat harder than expected when confronted with almost seven towering feet of muscled male. His square craggy features should have turned her off with their obvious lack of gentle refinement, but instead she found herself intrigued by his square jaw, his crooked nose and his soft eyes framed by thick dark lashes. He kept his hair short in a military type brush cut that displayed the gold hoop in one of his ears.

  As for his body, he stood too close for her to ogle it, but since the lacrosse game, she could imagine it—from his extremely wide shoulders dropping down to a tapered waist that led into thick muscled thighs and an ass of steel. I wonder if his cock is as big as the rest of him. Naomi bit her lip at the train of her thoughts. I do no care what he looks like. This Neanderthal is not my mate.

  “I’m sorry. Do you have a hard time understanding English? I told you to leave.” Her brusque tone made his eyes turn puppy dog sad and she wanted to smack her forehead on something hard—say like his delicious chest?

  Snickers, which turned into outright laughter, erupted from behind the wall of flesh in front of her. Naomi couldn’t help but crane sideways to see who found the untenable situation so amusing before she resorted to violence. And my family knows how I hate it when that happens. Try to be a lady and no one listens. They’ll start paying attention when my foot starts connecting with some soft spots.

  Her icy gaze caught the attention of yet another lacrosse player, and her wolf just about slobbered in excitement all over mind. Oh, hell no. As her gaze became caught by the eyes of dark haired number sixty-nine from the lacrosse match, she wanted to hurt something really bad because if she wasn’t mistaken, the damned kitty cat in front of her—another testosterone pumped male—was also her mate. Not two. Surely fate wouldn’t be so cruel? While not all that common, she knew mating could occur in pairs or more, she’d just never assumed it would happen to her. No fair. I don’t even want one. Why the hell do I suddenly have two on my doorstep?

  Irritation held over panic—barely. She focused her ire on the jerk who found the situation so hilarious. “I wouldn’t laugh seeing how it was your poor aim that gave me my rainbow face and headache.”

  Actually, number sixty-nine’s humor had dried up the moment their gazes caught, and if she weren’t in such shock herself , she would have enjoyed his dropped jaw and the look of fear—and smoking desire—that crossed his face.

  “Uh. Uh.” Like a slack jawed idiot, the suave looking number sixty-nine couldn’t even mutter a coherent sentence.

  “Apparently you’ve gotten a ball to many in the head, too. Now if you don’t want my foot to get shoved up your butt, because I am just about to lose my temper
, then I’d suggest you get your asses out of here.”

  “But,” the behemoth tried to interrupt.

  “Go away,” she screamed, meaning to follow up her panicky plea with action. Vertigo along with a blinding pain in her head, though, made her unable to do what she wanted—which closely resembled running away and escaping the sure mess these two men would surely try and make of her life. She only managed an “Ah, fuck,” as her family and doctor’s prediction came true. She succumbed—unwillingly—to unconsciousness.

  Chapter Three

  It had proved surprisingly easy to discover the identity of the injured female. Javier simply questioned a few staff members while Ethan glowered. In short order, they were handed the information along with wishes of “Good luck” and “Glad I’m not you.”

  Ethan paid the pitying looks no mind, too caught up in his own inner misery of how to approach the female slated as his mate. Javier, on the other hand, couldn’t stop grinning. He just wished he dared tape the event because seeing his enormous friend reduced to a quivering mass of jelly provided great entertainment.

  His theory that the upcoming meeting would prove interesting held—and made him wish for popcorn—as Ethan knocked on the door of the house where several sources assured them the female, named Naomi, would have been taken.

  A crowd of large men—none as big as Ethan of course—answered. An older, grizzled male, eyed them up and down before barking, “You’re the idiots who got my daughter hurt. You’ve got a lot of nerve showing up here.”

  Things degraded from that point with the younger males—brothers, Javier assumed—growling and jostling for position and challenge. Ethan didn’t back down. While women might tie him in knots, especially the prospect of meeting his mate, violence he understood. Ethan stepped forward actually going toe to toe with the elder wolf.

  Javier wondered if he should speak up. Do I warn my friend against beating up the father of his intended or prepare to come to his aide? Neither proved necessary as the rumbling of testosterone soaked males died down as someone shoved through their ranks. Javier couldn’t see, but he could hear a melodious voice, threaded in steel, order his friend away, mate or not. The situation at that point became too comical and Javier couldn’t hold back the guffaws, a laughter he almost choked on as an oval face garnished in multihued bruises and framed in long, brown hair peered around Ethan’s body to glare at him. With that one extremely icy stare, Javier knew fear for the first time in his life.

  His panther, on the other hand, yowled with excitement in his mind. Oh fuck, no. She’s my mate too.

  Horror engulfed him at the thought even as he couldn’t help but drink in the sight of her from her flashing grey eyes, her rosebud and delectably full lips, to her curvy and heavily breasted frame. A surge of desire rushed through him, making his cock twitch even as his jaw dropped in disbelief. Words were spoken, but Javier, caught in a frozen moment of disbelief, barely registered them.

  He snapped out of it when pandemonium erupted as with an indelicate “Ah, fuck”, the female’s eyes rolled up in her head and she collapsed. Too many pairs of hands reached out to grab her. As the biggest, Ethan won and he held his prize up high, growling a warning at Naomi’s father and brothers as they jostled and shouted for him to give her back. Things promised to devolve quickly if common sense didn’t prevail.

  Javier shoved in front of his friend and faced off with the bristling group of males. He held up his hands, trying to school his features into something that would calm them down rather than set them off further. “Gentlemen, surely all this yelling and posturing isn’t helping the young lady? And it’s probably alarming the neighbors. Could we not adjourn inside?”

  “I think you should all listen to the cat.”

  Where Javier’s words had provoked only heated glares and growls, the delicate feminine voice from behind him sent the males confronting him scurrying. Trepidation sunk its claws into Javier as he wondered what could make such a tough looking bunch scatter. A giantess, thought extinct sphinx, a deadly siren? He turned and held himself ready to run—or defend himself. A pent up breath whooshed out of him as he regarded the petite woman with graying hair who eyed him up and down with interest.

  “And you are?” she demanded in a tone that brooked no nonsense.

  “Javier, ma’am,” he announced thrusting out his hand. “Number sixty-nine for the Loup Garou lacrosse team.”

  Slim fingers gripped his firmly as she shook his hand. “And the big fellow holding my daughter?”

  Ethan rumbled in answer. “Ethan, ma’am, number forty-four”

  “You are responsible for her current injuries I assume?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I’m awfully sorry. I was kind of distracted by your daughter.”

  Finely arched brows lifted. “Distracted? By Naomi?”

  Ethan forged on ahead. “Yes, ma’am. I caught a glimpse of your daughter in the stands, and, well, she’s my mate.”

  “Really?” The petite woman pursed her lips at that answer.

  Javier thought about holding his tongue, but with a sigh he gave in, somehow knowing if he didn’t this little woman would make him regret it later. “Um, sorry to interrupt, but I think I might also be her mate.”

  “What?” Ethan yelled. “You didn’t tell me that when we were on our way over here.”

  Javier shrugged. “I didn’t know until I set eyes on her. Trust me, I am just as unhappy about this as you are. I’m not meant for monogamy.”

  A cleared throat had Javier blushing as piercing gray eyes riveted him with disapproval. “I think we all need to go inside. Now.”

  Javier didn’t stand around arguing, and neither did Ethan who stomped inside holding the still unconscious Naomi in his bear paws. Strangely, Javier wanted a turn cuddling the lush—and feisty—female, a crazy urge that he tamped down. If Ethan wants her, then Ethan can have her. Maybe once his friend marked her, this urge to sniff her and lick her—even worse, mark her as his cat demanded—would cease.

  He almost ran into Ethan’s back when he stopped suddenly. He stepped around him at the prodding of one none too happy mother, and he found the reason in the form of a line of men, all with their arms crossed over their chests.

  The elder one spoke. “What are you doing inviting them into our home after what they did to her face?”

  The petite woman faced off with the grizzled male, her hands planted on her hips. “I’m sorry, Geoffrey, did you suddenly become lord of the manor while I was at work, and me, a simple maid who can’t decide who comes into our home?”

  The man who had to be Naomi’s father almost blanched at the quiet words. One of the big lugs at his side actually cringed. “Now, Meredith, you know that’s not what I meant.”

  Meredith, Naomi’s mother, arched a brow. “Good, then I don’t see the problem with inviting in our two future son-in-laws.”

  And with those glibly thrown words, pandemonium resumed.

  * * *

  Naomi’s head throbbed, and the yelling going on around her didn’t help, rather it added to her general malaise and irritation. What she did find comforting was the lap she found herself cuddled in. Strong arms held her close against a hard chest where a rapidly beating heart lulled her for a moment longer before sanity set in.

  Whose freakn’ lap am I on?

  Somehow, she doubted they were related to her given the evident erection poking at her bottom and the fact her whole body tingled. Oh no, one of them has got me. Panic made her scramble to escape before she opened her eyes. She dove off the warm lap and didn’t peer around with wild eyes until she found herself clear of bodies, nausea and pain weaving a dance in her body that made her want return to her unconscious state for a while longer. Since when do I wish for the cowardly route? She straightened her spine and took in the scene before her.

  Out from the cocoon of the behemoth’s arms, the noise seemed even louder and chaotic. On one side of the living room, her mother stood nose to nose with her father, who, in
this rare instance, wasn’t backing down on whatever they fought about. Three of her brothers stood around number sixty-nine, haranguing him as he held up his hands in a conciliatory manner. As for number forty-four, he sat on the couch and ignored her two other glaring brothers to watch her.

  “Enough.” Silence descended as she planted her hands on her hips and regarded them all. Her head pounded fiercely, and all she wanted was to go home and lie down. Alone. “Why are these guys in our house?”

  “Naomi, is that any way to treat your beaus?” Her mom’s voice cut the silence and Naomi grimaced at her.

  “They are not mine,” she growled. “No matter what they seem to think.” Or her own inner bitch whined.

  “Stubborn chit,” her mother chided. “You can’t fight fate.”

  “Watch me.” Naomi went to stride out of the room, but a wave of dizziness made her sway, not far, though, as a new pair of firm hands grabbed her and tugged her into a solid embrace.

  Heat enveloped her and she held in a sigh as she looked up into the tanned face of the feline. “Let me go.”

  “Of course.” Immediately the male she still only knew as number sixty-nine released her and stepped away, but not far. His dark eyes watched her, a smoldering fire in their depths.

  “Darling, why don’t you sit down?” Her mother’s suggestion held more a tone of command, but Naomi fought it.

  “No. I want to go home.” Naomi cursed the plaintive note in her tone, but she couldn’t help it. Too much was happening and with her head dancing to the tune of an out of key Mariachi band, she just wanted peace and quiet. She also needed time to plan how to evade her sudden and unwanted suitors. A grimace crossed her face as she realized her damned mother, with a stubborn tilt to her chin, already plotted against her, determined to force her—probably kicking and screaming—to her fate.

  “You, the big one,” her matriarch ordered. “Ethan, if I recall correctly. You will drive my daughter home. Javier.” Her mother pointed to number sixty-nine “You will follow so once your big friend drops her off he has a ride home. As for you.” Her mother swiveled to fix her with a glare. “Get some rest. I’ll see you and your beaus tomorrow night for dinner. No argument.” Naomi’s lips tightened into a thin line. Oh, there will be arguing, just not right now while I’m not in tip-top shape. Judging by the stormy expressions on her father’s and brothers faces, they’d also have plenty to say once she left.