by R. E. Butler
The Wolf’s Mate
Book 3: Callie & The Cats
by R.E. Butler
Copyright 2012 R.E. Butler
Smashwords Edition
The Wolf’s Mate Book 3: Callie & The Cats
Copyright © 2012 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. Photographers: Stocktrek (image “The Moon”) and Photo 24 (image “Snowy Road”)**
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.
* * * * *
Because sometimes starting over turns out to be the best thing you could do for your life...Callie is for those of you that have left and found happiness. For K.G., my incredibly talented and faithful reader, friend, and designer. For B.L., my personal cheerleader and email addiction enabler. For my husband, because I love him dearly. For my new author pals, especially Karen, thanks for the inspiration and advice. And for my fans that have asked about Callie, I hope you like the wolf she became.
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
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
From the Author and Other Works
Sneak Peak of The Wolf's Mate Book 4: Michael & Shyne
Chapter 1
**Ethan**
“I’ll have a cub with you Ethan, but that’s as far as things will go,” Melania sniffed at him. She was lovely, like any other mountain lion female; all sharp angles and thin, willowy frame like a supermodel. But she was also cold and detached like any other mountain lion female. In their culture, it was the males that craved affection, that wanted marriage and children and a home, not the females. The females would bear a cub with a male whether they liked him or not, drop the baby off on the doorstep and not look at it again. It was an oddly upside down world compared to what he knew of human relationships, where the females were often the ones that wanted for love and affection and the males didn’t have the desire for it. But lions couldn’t be with human females, it was too risky. The lion females, while they didn’t want to be in relationships with the males, held their kind in esteem and would drive any human females far away through fear and intimidation, and violence if necessary.
“I don’t just want to have a child with you, Melania.” He sighed, running his hand through his hair. He needed a haircut. It was starting to dust the collar of his shirt and his father frowned on that on the force.
Her golden eyes showed no emotion at all as she looked at him once more, “It is what it is, Ethan. You ask too much. You want to fuck, that’s fine. You want a cub, that’s fine, too. But a relationship, a marriage? It’s impossible. You’re worse than your father. You and that brother of yours.”
With a rustle of the pages, Melania Travers turned back to her magazine at the desk in the police station, where he, his two brothers, two uncles, and his father made up the entire police force of King, Pennsylvania. The tiny town, barely on any map, was nestled in the mountains in the northern part of the state, and currently covered in snow that wouldn’t disappear until April. It was the perfect place in his mind, except for the one glaring missing piece of his life: a wife.
He turned and walked out of the station into the blistering wind of the beginning of January. Today he’d woken up with an itch he couldn’t scratch, an aching in his bones as if he were on the verge of something big. Over breakfast this morning, in the small home he shared with his twin Eryx and their younger brother Alek, Eryx had shared that he too was feeling strange, as if a change were coming.
“Weather,” snorted Alek. Younger than his brothers by only two years, 24 year old Alek wasn’t the romantic that his older brothers were, but he still wanted more than what they’d been relegated to with the mountain lion females. Even if he refused to admit it.
Eryx leaned over the table and stuck his finger in his brother’s bowl of Fruit Loops and Alek growled and jerked his bowl away. “Don’t dismiss our feelings, little brother.”
“Fine, fine. You guys sit around and pant after the females and try to get them to see the light for a relationship. I’m sure it will work as well for you as it did for Dad.”
Before they could make him sorry for bringing up their father’s situation, he scooted out of the kitchen with his bowl of cereal. “He’s not wrong.” Ethan scrubbed his fingers along his unshaven jaw. “Why were our kind made like this? Why do we yearn for relationships and enduring love and our females want nothing of the sort?”
“I ask myself that question at least as much as you do. We are made as we are, brother. I don’t relish leading the life our father does, but we seem to have no choice.”
“There is a choice.” Ethan leaned on the back two legs of the kitchen chair and drummed his fingers on the table.
Eryx stood up and refilled his travel mug. As usual, his twin was ready to go well before their 8 a.m. start time. “Push the thought from your mind, brother. Would you really try to seduce a human woman and watch her be driven away by the females? No human woman can stand up to the females and they know it. Cody had that human for a while and she nearly lost her eye because of it. I wish it could be different.” He walked out of the kitchen and left Ethan to brood, “So do I.”
** Eryx **
Eryx didn’t doubt that Ethan wanted a wife and family as much as he did, but it wouldn’t ever happen. Their own mother didn’t treat them any differently than a stranger on the street. There were times when he would sit in the cruiser in the park during the summer and watch the human mothers with their children, and wish he’d had something like that for a childhood. His father had given them everything he could in the way of nurture and affection, but it was one-sided. A true family, he was certain, had two parents. One picking up the slack for the other, one strong where the other lacked. A partnership. But more than his own wanting for female affection as a child, was that he wished he wasn’t dooming any of his future children to the same motherless fate.
When he walked into the station, his face must have been a picture because his father asked him immediately what was wrong. The strong hand on his shoulder was as reassuring as anything else he’d ever known and it was enough to make his eyes sting. Of the two, Ethan was the most tenderhearted, but Eryx was not without his emotions. He just needed an outlet. He needed a woman that would let him show her love and affection, a woman that would want his attention
and comfort.
“You look for all the world like someone tried to poke your eye out. What’s wrong, son?”
He steeled himself thoroughly before meeting his father’s intense gaze. “I just, I just wish it were different, Dad.”
The soft smile, the gentle crinkle at the corner of his eyes, nearly undid him, but it was the words that cut deeply and, unfortunately, gave him hope. “Maybe it will be different for the two of you. I feel a change coming, deep down in the marrow of my bones.”
Fantastic. Now all three of them were feeling twitchy, but as far as the eye could see, there were only human females that were too fragile and weak to be with them or to stand up to the mountain lion females, and the mountain lion females themselves who were unwilling to be more than incubators and booty calls.
As quickly as he could, he clocked in and went out on foot patrol. He needed the icy wind in his lungs to chase away the sorrow that had lodged there. The dull ache in his chest refused to go away, however, and eventually he made two circuits around their small downtown before heading to the cruiser to make the rounds.
It would be a long, cruel winter.
Chapter 2
**Callie**
“I have to go, Cades, I can’t be the reason things are so strained between you and Jason.” Callie looked over the two large suitcases open on her bed and then went into the closet to make sure she had gotten everything. Her best friend, alpha werewolf of their pack, strike that – her old pack – sat on her bed with tears in her eyes and pouted.
Last week, her husband Jason, alpha male of the Tressel pack, thought that Cadence was being too lax with the females of the pack and demanded that she put them all in their place with some pack discipline. The long and short of it was that she harangued the females within an inch of their lives until they were all but pissing themselves in fear, but kept Callie out of it, and Jason said that made Cadence weak.
He wanted her to include Callie in the discipline, bring her under her thumb of guidance and rule, and she didn’t want to. Cadence was the most fiercely protective friend a gal could hope for. She was a ruthless alpha female even though she was only a half wolf and couldn’t shift. When Jason insisted she bring Callie to heel, she refused. And for the first time, Jason made her submit to him in public and it had broken Callie's heart. And strained Cadence and Jason's relationship severely.
Callie knew he felt bad. She knew that he hated that he’d had to do that, but he couldn’t appear weak to his own people by letting his mate get away with disobeying a direct order. What he didn’t know, but Callie did, was that Cadence was pregnant, very early, just two weeks, but still...it would hurt him to know he’d potentially put her and the baby in harm’s way by putting her down. You didn’t bring a wolf to heel with a gentle nudge, you did it by force and she had growled and fought him the whole time. Callie wouldn’t wish that on her worst enemy, let alone her best friend.
“I’ve already cut ties with the pack. Jason gave me his blessing. It has to be this way, Cades. You can’t defy your husband for my sake and I have to, damn it, I have to stand on my own two feet for a change.” Her whole life she never stood alone. As a child, Cadence was her defender and stood up for Callie at every turn. Even when Callie joined the pack at 16 when she came into her abilities, then she was under the leadership of the alpha, which at the time had been Jason’s father Peter until he was injured in a hunting accident and Jason took over. From that point on, Jason had abused his position of power in the pack to get her to spy on her best friend for him, because he had a wicked case of unrequited love for her. And whenever she tried to go against him, he asserted his power over her and brought her to her knees. Now was as good a time as any to start fresh. Callie left in honor; she was rogue but she could join another pack if she wanted to. At the moment, all she wanted to do was get to know herself all over again and find the bitchy werewolf that she believed was hovering somewhere under the surface. She was secretly terrified to walk away from everything, but this wasn’t home for her anymore.
She put on her brave face as she finished zipping up the two suitcases and rechecked the bathroom to make sure she had everything. Her whole life was in two suitcases and a box in her car. Her apartment was a studio and came furnished. The only things that were hers were her clothes and toiletries and a handful of DVDs, books, and knickknacks. Everything was paid for and turned off. All her mail was stopped. She quit her job as a teller at the credit union. Calliope Marie Hunter, low ranked werewolf of the Tressel Pack, was no more. Callie Hunter, rogue wolf, was ready for anything.
Outside in front of her ancient Ford Taurus, she hugged her best friend, for possibly the last time. “Tell Jason about the baby, Cades, sooner rather than later. Let him feel guilty for being such a dick and then forgive him for everything, for me.”
Sniffling, her best friend turned emerald green eyes to her that were shining with tears. “I don’t want you to go, Callie. Please stay.”
“I can’t. I’m rogue now. And you can’t be yourself with me, because the person you are now isn’t the same as who you were before you became alpha. You’re trying to hold onto that person, but it’s time to let her go and embrace who you are now. And I need to find myself, too. Somewhere out there is a place for me. I’ll be fine. You’ve taught me a lot about courage and love, Cades. I couldn’t ask for a better friend than you. I love you.”
“I love you too, Callie.” She kissed Cadence on the lips once and hugged her tightly, and managed to hold back the gut wrenching heartbreak so she didn’t make her feel worse than she did already. When she was several miles outside of town, she pulled over to the side of the road and cried, saying goodbye to the only life she’d ever known.
So where does a 24-year-old rogue werewolf female with no job and no family to speak of go to start over? No clue. She only knew for sure that she didn’t want to stop in any towns with wolf packs, so she asked Peter to help her by scouting out a map of surrounding states and marking the pack territories. Wolf packs lived more towards the Midwest and south, so she opted to go north east, skirting along the border of Ohio and crossing into West Virginia and then up into Pennsylvania. She had enough money to last her a few months until she found a job, and planned to take her time meandering through West Virginia and southern Pennsylvania, stopping at small hotels and B&Bs along the way, waiting for a town or an area to catch her eye.
A week into her trip, and nothing had. So far, the only thing she’d accomplished in her plan to find herself was to figure out that she really hated driving in January. If she’d been smarter, she might have waited until the weather turned, but the truth was that come the January full moon, Jason was going to want Cades to be alpha for all the females and Callie didn’t want to be the reason they weren’t happy. Of course if Callie had been really smart, she would have bought a plane ticket somewhere warm to start over. Like Hawaii.
She hit the tiny town of King, Pennsylvania with a quaint clapboard sign announcing “Welcome” at the city limits, and followed the signs towards a bed and breakfast. It was dark and sleeting, and she was very thankful she was going to be stopping for the night. Her knuckles were white on the steering wheel as her car crested the top of a hill and started over, spying the stop sign at the bottom of the road that dead-ended into a two lane road. The car eased over the hill slowly enough, but picked up speed and she gingerly pressed her booted foot to the brake and it didn’t slow down.
Panic laced through her and she pressed harder, then pressed her foot into the floor. Nothing happened except that the car picked up speed and raced towards the stop sign. She prayed that there were no cars coming and closed her eyes when her car lurched past the stop sign and blazed across the two lane road. When her eyes opened for a split second as the car crashed past the small barrier hiding whatever lay beyond the road, she saw nothing but trees and darkness. The car tipped nose downward, flipped, and crashed hard, and the last thing she remembered as her forehead cracked against the steering
wheel and the windows shattered around her, was thinking that she should have stopped earlier and waited out the storm.
Chapter 3
**Ethan**
Normally he didn’t patrol with Eryx, but they’d both been feeling so out of sorts and twitchy at the station that night that their father had sent them out together. They usually worked mornings, but once a week they took an evening shift to give their uncles a break. He thought approaching Melania yesterday would have made him feel better but it hadn’t. He had been under the impression that he was just starting to want a cub, and he’d known without a doubt that she was going to say no to anything except straight sex or a no-strings-attached cub, but it hadn’t eased the ache in his heart.
“Maybe we’re coming into a heat of our own?” He glanced at Eryx as he drove. His brother was more serious than him, quiet and brooding, but he took love and relationships as seriously as he did. Not that it mattered in the long run.
“We’d be the first,” he snorted, not taking his eyes off the treacherous roads. It had been cloudy but dry all day, and come nightfall, the sky had decided to pour sleet and with the temperatures dropping fast, the roads turned icy and dangerous in a matter of hours.
Just when he was about to say something snarky to his brother, a car streaked past the stop sign on Perry Avenue, crashed through the small protective barrier, and dropped down the embankment with an enormous crash. Eryx drove up to the scene as Ethan called for the rescue squad. They got out of the patrol car with flashlights and stood on the edge of the road in the middle of the broken barrier and stared down the hillside at the car that had miraculously landed right side up.