by R. E. Butler
The Wolf’s Mate
Book 2: Linus & The Angel
by R.E. Butler
Copyright 2012 R.E. Butler
Smashwords Edition
The Wolf’s Mate Book 2: Linus & The Angel
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: Stuart Paton (image "Bird in flight over trees, Winter) and CP Cheah (image "Full Moon and passing clouds").**
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.
* * * *
To my husband B.B., and to B.L., whose support gives me wings. A special thanks to Kameko Gay, my reader-editor-designer-friend-extraordinaire....you are the best.
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
A Word from the Author and Other Titles
Preview of The Wolf's Mate Book 3: Callie & The Cats
Chapter 1
Linus was woken from sleep by the buzz of his cell as it danced across the nightstand next to his bed and sounded like an out of control woodpecker. He blinked the sleep from his eyes and picked up the phone, his eyes barely registering the alarm clock that read 2:17. Shit, it was early.
He should have checked the display, because he wouldn’t have answered it if he’d known it was her.
“Linus!” Brenda whined, “Linus I need a ride.”
He sighed and sat up, swinging his feet down to the carpet. “It’s fucking late, Brenda.”
“But there was like a blizzard, Linus, and I don’t want to get trapped at this guy’s house for days.”
His sluggish brain picked up on part of that. “Wait, are you on a date and you’re fucking calling me for a ride? You have got to be kidding me, Brenda. That’s low even for you.”
Her voice tipped whinier, “But you’re my husband.”
“Not any more. We’ve been divorced for three years. This has to stop. Just don’t fucking call me anymore.”
He hung up and sat staring at his cell phone while she proceeded to call him four more times and leave both voice mails, emails, and texts. He finally turned it off. In one of the kitchen drawers, he found the paperwork for his cell plan and called the 24 hour customer service number and had his number disconnected and exchanged for a new one. As he sat at the computer to send a message to the pack about his new number, he also decided it was a must to get a new email address, so he did that first and then sent all the new information out to everyone. Except his ex. He was sure to get a ribbing from the pack, especially Jason the alpha, on what a whipped puppy he’d been the last three years for her. Six months ago he would have gone running to rescue her and then begged her for sex.
But three months ago he watched Jason finally claim his rightful mate in the hybrid wolf Cadence. They’d grown up together and it had been a hot mess for years, but finally she realized what he meant to her, what it meant to all of them, and they’d become true mates, taking her rightful place as his alpha mate. That didn’t technically have anything to do with him, since he was only fourth ranked in the Tressel Pack. But because of some other shit with Cadence, their pack had to handle the next in line alpha of the Garra Pack. The Garra Pack had shared their small town of Allen, Kentucky, and it was their next in line alpha who had to be handled, because he wanted to claim Cadence as his own.
When it came right down to it, Linus had let Brenda walk all over him because he wanted her back. She was completely human and he was completely wolf, but he’d loved her enough to marry her, or at least he thought he loved her. Was it really love if it wasn’t reciprocated? They hadn’t even made it a year. She refused to be around the wolves, accused his friends of trying to sleep with her, and then in the end she’d threatened to leave him if he didn’t turn his back on the pack. She was what the others called a Chew Toy, and he’d broken the cardinal rule of wolves which was you didn’t marry the girls that just wanted to fuck the big bad. He’d helped her pack, given her money for her own place, and hell, he’d sat by the phone waiting for her to call and want to come home. And she did, sometimes. When she needed something or when she had an itch that needed scratching.
But this was it. He was done with Brenda, done with that part of his life, and now, he was tired as hell but restless and couldn’t even think about going back to sleep. Oblivious to it while he’d slept, a storm had blanketed their town with a few feet of snow. He was very glad he’d gone to the grocery yesterday and stacked firewood in the garage.
Most of the wolves his age, which was 27, lived in a trailer park on the north side of Allen. The next generation up, their parents, lived in regular homes scattered around town. Allen was a low income, blue collar sort of southern town. There was one garage where he worked as a mechanic for Jason who owned the place, one nice restaurant, one bar, and one grocery. There was a post office, too, but it had been shut down and blended with the next town up which meant their mail was always late.
The Shrew had been too high class for the trailer park, so he’d sold his trailer to one of the younger wolves and bought a three bedroom modular home that took six weeks for the pack to build. And then she left. He’d wanted to sell it, but Jason had convinced him to keep it and just get rid of everything that made him think of her, so he’d done a thorough housecleaning six months ago, and this was the first time he’d heard from her since then. It was easier to talk to her, think of her now, since he’d watched Jason fight for his woman.
In the beginning, he’d thought he was in love with Brenda, but he could see now that he’d been foolish. She was attractive but not pretty, too thin for his normal tastes, but she’d wedged herself into his life and he’d let her. And then he didn’t want to live without her. No one liked her; everyone thought he was a complete idiot for being with her, but he’d mistaken her desire to be with him because he was a wolf for real affection. Now, he vowed not to rush into the physical side of things again, because that’s how he’d gotten trapped with Brenda in the first place.
Granted he didn’t want to take 14 years to finally get another girl, the way that Jason and Cadence had danced around each other since they were children, each too chicken to admit that they craved the other. They were hard to be around, even now, because they couldn’t keep their hands off each other and they didn’t care if it was public or not. During get-togethers at his home, he’d walked in on them a dozen times in one of the spare bedrooms. He tried not to be jealous - wolves were notoriously horny creatures - but he couldn’t help it. Seriously, if he wasn’t having sex in
his own house, than no one else should have sex in it either.
It just wasn’t fair. He wanted a woman that he could lose himself in like Jason did with Cades. A woman that only wanted him, only loved him, not because he was a wolf, not because of anything else he had to offer, but just because she loved him.
He shook his head at his own pipe dream and decided to go for a run. If there was a woman like that out there for him, she certainly wasn’t anywhere he’d looked. He stripped at the sliding back door and tried not to let too much snow in when he opened it, crossed onto the deck, and shut it, shifting as fast as possible.
He shook the snow off his dark gray coat and was glad he wasn’t prone to getting chilled in his wolf form. It was easy enough to let his mind go to his beast, like turning the faucet from cold to hot. He took in the scent of the fresh snow, the cold air and the smell of the woods outside his back door, and leapt over the snow draped stairs from the deck and landed with a fluff of snow before darting off into the woods.
He just ran. Darting between trees, leaping easily over fallen logs and low brush. The woods at night in the snow. Was there anything better to a wolf?
He lazily chased a small herd of deer, just for fun. He had no intention of taking one down, although he could easily. In the leanest winter months they were on the thin side and their meat would not be as succulently tender as it would be in another two or three months, as they fattened themselves up in the spring. He’d rather wait, thanks.
On and on he ran, changing directions for no reason, not really running anywhere in particular, just totally digging letting his wolf free. And then two distinct scents caught his nose and he skidded to a stop to scent them better. One was canine, not wolf, and one was human. It was far too cold for a human to be out. Worry and curiosity hit him at the same time and he took off for the scents, running at top speed.
He crested a small clearing and found what looked like a snow covered body lying near the bank of a frozen creek. At this point, he was a few miles from his home. He nuzzled the forms and found them to be a woman, alive, and a dog, dead.
She didn’t rouse when he nudged her harder, so he shifted to his human form, prayed she didn’t wake up freaked out that he was nude, and jerked her stiff body into his arms and took off for home. He’d never run so fast in his human form in his life, and his heart pounded in his ears as he closed the distance to his home as quickly as possible. There was something about her that he couldn’t put his finger on, but he desperately wanted her to live.
Nearly frozen himself, he dropped her on the couch and began to pull off the clothes that were frozen to her body. Her lips were blue, her face dead white, but she was breathing in a shallow way and that was good. Right?
His own frozen fingers shook and ached as he pried off her thick coat and threw it aside, joining it soon with her ice caked tennis shoes and socks. He couldn’t get her jeans off, so he darted to the kitchen and came back with shears, carefully cutting the material up one leg and then the other, peeling it from her before he made quick work of her sweater. She started to shiver, tremors rocking her petite body, and he pressed the back of his hand to her panties and found them wet and frozen too, so he put aside his thoughts of her modesty and cut them off along with her bra and wrapped her in a blanket from the couch.
With his comforter and two other blankets on top of her, he kicked up the heat, trying not to bite off his own tongue with his chattering teeth and he started the fire that had long died in the fireplace. Within ten minutes, the fire was roaring while he pulled the mattress from his bedroom into the family room and moved her from the couch to the mattress.
“I’m really sorry, sweetheart, but, naked’s best and I’m still a fucking icicle.” Maneuvering under the blankets he curled her into himself, finding her slightly warmer than freezing, and he shuddered against her as the fire slowly warmed them both.
He had a thought that he should call his mother, see if there was anything he should do for her besides just warm her up; but he was suddenly too sleepy to do anything except absorb the warmth of the fire and take in the scent of the woman in his arms that had suddenly come to mean everything to him.
He slept for hours, waking often as she warmed up and started to move, making small whimpering sounds of pain. He checked her fingers and toes, secretly delighted to see they were painted cherry red, and they were miraculously safe from frostbite thanks to her insulated gloves and socks. He wondered how she’d ended up on her side in the snow with that dead dog, but hadn’t found any injuries on her.
He woke up with a soft leg sliding over his and drawing him close. His cock had been hard for hours, ever since it had thawed, but he’d pushed aside his thoughts of the unconscious woman in his arms as much as possible.
But this – was an interesting development.
Her short nails abraded his back and she drew him close to her heat with her foot on his lower back.
He wasn’t sure if he was still dreaming, or if she was dreaming, but he sure liked the scent of her arousal, the way her mouth moved across his shoulder and the soft panting of her breath. She smelled incredible, like vanilla and heat, woman and nature combined. Seeing her in the daylight had revealed an incredible beauty, and his body had not missed the opportunity to respond, even as inappropriate as the circumstances were.
“It’s okay, sweet; let me get you something to drink.” He whispered for no reason other than he didn’t want to freak her out if she was still asleep.
She hummed in her throat and it went straight to his cock. “No, don’t go. You smell so good.” She slid one hand from around his back between them and grasped his cock at the base, spreading her legs further apart and attempting to draw him inside her. Which is exactly where he wanted to be. For like eternity.
“You’re still asleep.” He cautioned, but couldn’t bring himself to extract his cock from her grip and his words sounded almost pleading in their tone.
Her eyes flashed open and he was greeted with the warmest brown eyes he’d ever seen in his life, surrounded by thick lashes like lacey fringe. “Make love to me, please, I want you to.”
Angling herself slightly closer, his cock brushed the wetness of her body and he would have been helpless to stop himself if he’d had a brain cell actively working in his head at that moment. She moved her hand back around to his lower back, pulled him towards her, and tilted her face up for a kiss. He gave it to her, sliding his tongue into her hot mouth as his cock slid into her more than ready body.
Groaning at the tight heat of her flesh as it fought him with delicious pressure, he thrust in completely and stopped, her gasp of pleasure into his mouth a chanting prayer of thanks and pleasure. Cradling her against him, he took her mouth while his body staked a claim to hers in the most primal of ways until her whimpers of pleasure and thrashing head drew his wolf to the front of his brain.
Never a presence like this before, his beast seemed captivated with the beauty in his arms, and the desire to mark her rose so heavily in his mind that he growled and the sound spilled out of his throat while he licked her neck and bit down gently, enough to bruise but not enough to bleed and mark permanently.
“Oh, yes, yes!” She cried, digging her nails into his shoulder and drawing blood, the actions making him thrust into her harder, faster, and she met his frantic movements with her own, her hips in perfect sync with his . All thought was gone, there was only feeling, only heat, only her.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
For the first time, his thoughts were not his own, but his wolf’s as well, feral and needy with the desire to keep her forever. I will kill anyone that touches her, he vowed to himself and his wolf growled in agreement.
Chapter 2
Karly groaned. Everything ached. Like fucking ached bad. She tried to get up, but there was something heavy across her stomach. Lifting her head, she took in a quick breath at the sight in front of her. A very naked man was cuddled just under her breasts with one of his legs thrown over hers.
And she was also naked.
Seemed like this was a situation that should make her freak out, but she was feeling pretty content. So what happened? She chewed on her lip and tried to remember the last thing she could.
Oh hell.
She’d chased her neighbor’s little rat terrier out into the snow because she was worried he’d die. She’d chased him forever. Stupid little dog.
And something happened?
Right. She fell and was overwhelmed by the cold and snow.
Her brain whirled and images crashed around. She had vague notions of being nudged by something furry and then carried and then gradually warm and safe. She knew that feeling. This man, who had obviously saved her life and according to her aching pussy, had allowed her to ravage him in thanks, was a werewolf.
Her breath caught in her chest and she could have cried. She’d found her mate! Her 15 months of searching and apparent near death had brought him to her. What the hell were the odds of that happening? Fate’s a funny thing, for sure.
Incredibly warm under his weight, she let herself go into the sweet heaviness of him and listened to the sound of his breathing. She wished his face was turned up so she could see him, but knew it wouldn’t matter. Her nature had picked him and he would be perfect for her, and she would be perfect for him. An instant connection as old as time, wolves and their mates.
She closed her eyes and her mind drifted back to when she found out what she was, at age 12. Raised in a wolf pack by her human mother and werewolf father, who was second in rank, she was taught everything there was to know about wolf packs even though she wasn’t a wolf. At that time their pack, the Soualit Pack from West Virginia, had 45 wolves who lived and worked mostly in the small town of Brink’s Pond. On her twelfth birthday, her mother told her to sit down at the kitchen table and take off her shirt. There was a woman there she didn’t know who had drawings all over her arms and neck, what Karly came to find out were called tattoos. She had a tray of little jars and instruments and was snapping blue surgical gloves on her hands.