by R. E. Butler
Brenda’s eyes narrowed. “Fiancé? My you move fast, Linus. You didn’t mention anything about being serious with someone when we talked last.”
He practically growled, “I don’t see how it’s any of your business.”
He took a step back, pulling Karly with him, and Brenda made a face that was halfway between annoyed and pissed off, and then something flickered in the depths of her eyes and Karly was pretty sure that neither of them would like what she said next. “But Linus, it wasn’t too long ago that you were calling me and begging me for sex. I’m just wondering how satisfied you actually are with your little woman there if she’s not satisfying you in bed like I can.”
Karly had just a heartbeat to step between Linus and Brenda as he took a step forward, his body poised to throttle her. He bumped into Karly's back and froze and she took over for him, because she wasn’t emotionally invested and drowning in the situation.
“Whatever you think you’re going to accomplish by baiting my fiancé, it won’t work. You fucked up with him, which makes you not only a total loser but an idiot to boot. He’s mine now, so you can suck on it.”
Karly pulled him away from the hallway where Brenda stood boiling in anger. “Do we have to stay?” Karly asked when they were closer to the booth.
“No.” He said simply as they got to the booth and put on their coats and said goodbye. When they were on the way home, he said, “I’m really sorry about her. I haven’t seen her in a long time; she stopped coming to the bar months ago.”
“You don’t have to apologize for her behavior; you’re not responsible for it.”
“This is what I worried about. That I’d have to tell the woman I really love that my past is a fucked up thing.”
When the garage door shut behind the truck and the engine was off, he put his head on the steering wheel. “Nothing about tonight went right.”
“What did you think would happen? Your pack thinks I’m human. Your ex is jealous and tried to cause a problem for us. I don’t really care about any of that. You’re fourth in rank to your pack and you grew up with them. They care about you enough to worry about your choices. When they know what I am and that I’m not going anywhere, then they’ll open up with me. The only person whose opinion matters to me is you. If you’re happy with me, then everyone else can just go to hell.”
He turned his head slowly and looked at her. She couldn’t get a read on his emotions. “I am happy with you. I have so many regrets. You don’t seem to have any at all.”
“No, that’s not true. I have plenty of regrets. And my biggest regret is not finding you sooner.” She pulled him away from the steering wheel and hugged him tightly, kissing his temple and down his cheek to his mouth where she swallowed the whimper of need he made and kissed him.
They barely made it out of the truck with their clothes on, and it was only because the air inside the cab started to chill and she shivered, that he opened the door and pulled her out with him, carrying her inside and to the bedroom. Linus had demons. His childhood, the pack, his first marriage. She had her own demons, too, but she’d had a happy childhood and a strong family foundation and often that went very far in making you the person you were. Plus, she had a supernatural destiny to fulfill in finding her mate and starting the next generation of angel mates. However long it took Linus to share everything with her about his childhood, all his past pain and regrets, she would be there for all of it. Because if she’d learned one thing over the years of watching her parents and the mates within the pack, it was that you didn’t get to pick the baggage your mate came with, but once you choose them, then it became your burden as well.
Chapter 9
Brenda stared at Linus and that little bitch as they left the bar. She had some nerve! And Linus, acting like she’d done something horribly wrong. A few weeks ago, she could have met him in the bar and guaranteed a good fuck and maybe a nice dinner, some cash to pad her wallet. He wasn’t the best lover, but he was eager and he never asked her to reciprocate things like blow jobs which she absolutely hated.
Being stuck at that loser’s house during the blizzard had made her reevaluate her choice in pushing Linus aside, but now…he was engaged? She was new in town, that was for sure, but maybe she was a wolf and that’s why he’d jumped onto the marriage wagon so fast again. After all, they’d been apart for three years now but he always had time for her when she needed something.
And she did need something. A few things. There was something wrong with her car. She was having trouble making rent. Oh yeah, and her biological clock was ticking so loudly it was keeping her up at night. By the time her mother was 27, she’d had four kids and three husbands and a string of lovers a mile long. When they were married, Linus wanted a baby with her, but she’d stayed on birth control. She wasn't planning to have a child for a long time and was saving it for a bargaining chip when she needed him to do something big for her, like send her on a vacation. But now, that time was here. She wanted to have a baby with a man that would do all the work for her, and that man was Linus.
She returned to the table where her two friends sat discussing the available men in the newly reopened bar. There was a new DJ who came with his own groupies and buddies and several of the guys were good looking. Felicity said, “What’s up with the girl with your ex?”
Brenda snorted and twirled the straw in the Seven & Seven. “She’s just a fling, don’t worry.”
Greta laughed, “I don’t know what you see in that guy. There are so many other good looking dogs around. Like that Michael. He’s so yummy!”
Brenda did think that Michael was good looking, but he also hated her with a passion ever since she and Linus had split. She wasn’t about to go down without a fight, though. Linus belonged to her and she was going to figure out some way to get him back.
An opportunity presented itself later that week when she was in the checkout line at the grocery during her lunch hour and the bitch came in. Brenda waited in her car until she left the store and followed her to her parking spot and wrote down her license plate. She could dig up some dirt on her maybe, give Linus a reason to walk away from her.
“Come on, Greta, I’ll do anything if you just look up this license plate for me, tell me about her.” Brenda whined, leaning over the desk of the police station where Greta answered the phones.
Greta lowered her voice, “I could get fired for unauthorized access, Bren, no way!”
“I’ll do anything, come on!”
Greta’s eyes narrowed and she said, “Give me your black halter dress.”
“That’s my favorite dress!”
“It’s mine or you get nothing,” Greta leaned back in her chair, a triumphant smile on her face.
“Fine, fine. It’s yours. Now do your thing.”
Greta typed in the license plate from West Virginia into the police nationwide database. Taking a glance towards the Chief’s office and making sure the door was still shut, she began to write as she spoke.
“Okay, the car is in a man’s name, Kamren Nylock, in West Virginia. Let me see if I can run the last name for that county.” A few more clicks and some fast typing and she sighed, “There are only two women with the last name of Nylock. One is Sophia and she’s 47, and the other is probably who you saw: Karolyn A. Nylock. She’s 23. Her home address is West Virginia. Um, oh, this is interesting. She’s got a restraining order on some guy named Phoenix Thompson, from her hometown.”
Brenda perked up at that tidbit. “A restraining order? Does it say anything about it?”
Greta’s finger clicked on the mouse several times and she said, “There are a handful of police reports, stalking, trespassing, damage to private property, and even, oh, he broke her arm. That’s what got the restraining order. He’s not allowed within 500 yards of her. It happened this past fall. Wow, he’s not a nice guy at all.”
Nope. Not a nice guy at all. But maybe he was the answer to her problems. With a little more coaxing, she got his last known address, t
hanked Greta for her help, and went home to write a letter.
Chapter 10
“I think she’s great, man. If I didn’t say that on Sunday after that incredible dinner, then I definitely feel that way after lunch today,” Bo grinned at Linus across the break room table on Friday afternoon. She’d called his cell and told him she needed gas and would he mind if she came to the station, and he met her out at the pumps. And then she’d asked him to get the boxes out of the trunk and she’d brought lunch for everyone.
The homestyle meal was made up of fried chicken, bbq pulled pork, potato salad, pasta salad, corn bread, and two pans of fudge topped brownies. She only stayed long enough to set all the food up and then kissed him goodbye and left. Damn but he loved her!
Leaning back on two chair legs, Linus wadded up the napkin and rested his hand on his more than stuffed stomach. “I’m glad you like her, Bo. She’s special.”
Michael threw his napkin at him, “She’s a fucking gourmet and you’ve got her chained up at your place like it’s Little House on the Prairie. She should be cooking at Lonestar’s. That place would be in the black in a month with her skills manning the stove.”
“I do not have her chained up at the house,” he bristled, “and I did tell her that she’s really talented in the kitchen but she just doesn’t think it’s anything special. She grew up cooking and that’s what she knows.”
“When are you going to meet her family?” Bo asked, scraping his plate to catch a last bite of pulled pork.
“End of March, when the weather is better. Her dad wants me to go hunting with his pack on the full moon. Her brothers are even planning to come in for our visit.”
“Her brothers the alphas?” Bo asked with wide eyes.
He nodded. Sunday, everything about Karly had come out to the pack. At first, they had just stared blankly at him and then Jason’s father Peter had just shaken his head in awe after looking through Karly’s angel book and said he thought the angel line had all but disappeared in the states. With his acceptance and Karly’s re-telling of the legend of the first angel and the first werewolf, the dynamic of the group shifted and suddenly she was everyone’s favorite girl.
Jason and Cadence were the last to leave that night, and while Cadence was talking to Karly about going out to dinner for a double date, Jason looked thoughtful and said, “I’m happy for you, man. She’s good for you. I’m sorry I gave you a hard time, when I thought she was human. I just – it was hard for me to see you so torn up about your past and possibly making the same mistakes.”
“Well, it’s also equally hard to get over your past when everyone keeps throwing it up in your face,” he smirked and Jason at least had the decency to look guilty.
“Cades needs a strong female friend that’s not a wolf. Someone she can be herself with and not have to be the alpha female. I think your Karly can be that for her, with time.” Jason scrubbed fingers across his jaw and looked at the two girls as they leaned against the kitchen counter and talked about restaurants.
“I think I finally understand what made you so crazy all those years. If I had known when I was younger that Karly was meant to be mine but something stood in the way, I think I would have gone insane.” Linus said ruefully.
Snorting, Jason rolled his eyes and laughed, “Yeah, well, you were there for me when I needed you, because we’re friends not just because we’re pack, and some day I’m going to repay that favor for you.”
Linus knew he would, even as he hoped he would never have to call in that favor.
And now, watching his friends enjoy the lunch that Karly had prepared for them, knowing she did it not because she was trying to win points with them, but because it was just in her nature, he couldn’t help but smile and wonder at his good fortune. Fate was a strange and twisted thing.
That weekend, they went out to dinner with Cadence and Jason and had a good time. Cadence seemed eager to have a friend who was as human appearing as her and not pack, and Karly was – at the core of herself – a very sweet and loving person, and willing to accept anyone as a friend that treated her well.
Sunday night, while Karly traced invisible patterns on his back as she cuddled him against her chest after they made love, she surprised him. “I need to make an appointment to see a doctor.”
His head popped up in alarm. “Are you sick?”
Breathing out a laugh, she smoothed her fingers across his cheek, “No, baby, of course not. My birth control shot is due, and I need to get it done in the next two weeks. Do you…want me to get it?”
He blinked. Was she asking if he was ready for her to have his baby? “Do you want to get it?” He countered.
She hummed in her throat and her eyes lost focus for a moment, as if she was picturing something in her mind's eye. “It’s a quarterly shot, so if I get it in February, then it will be good until the beginning of May. Depending on when we get married, I’m not against having a child soon if you’re ready. I could get it this quarter and then not get it again.”
As his emotions fought for dominance, he looked down into her eyes and saw nothing there but love and hope. “I think that sounds like a good plan. I’d at least like to meet your father without you being knocked up.”
“So we’ll just practice, then.”
He growled softly. “Lots of practice.”
The full moon approached in that way that sometimes caught him off guard. While his wolf was very in tune with all things lunar, his human self was often scattered enough to not really know which day it was. Just days after Karly and he had talked about having a child together, the full moon took over everything in his world. As fourth, he had a big part in the monthly gathering that included all 38 members of the pack. They met in the lunar clearing that lay a far ways back on the property that was jointly owned by Cadence and Jason’s parents. The house that Jason and Cadence lived in had been owned by her father, who had passed away several years earlier and the world was a better place without his wolf-hating ass.
The pack would meet at Jason and Cadence's home for a big dinner and then they would meet at the sacred circle and go hunting. Because Cadence was not a true wolf and didn’t shift, the wolves would take turns guarding her while Jason went hunting. One full moon, their first together as a real couple, Jason had nearly hurt her very badly because he had not gone hunting and soothed his beast’s needs. Linus wasn’t going to make that mistake, but he was going to take advantage of the guarded house and have Karly wait there with Cadence for him.
It was bitterly cold when the pack left the house and headed back to the circle before the moon rose for the night. This short time period, she was alone in the house, until pack business was handled and Jason called for everyone to shift and the guards would walk back to the house with Cadence. He’d kissed Karly a dozen times before he left, because he couldn’t shake the nerves he was feeling. He just had a feeling that as he got his house of cards stacked up just right that someone would come and blow it all to hell.
When they shifted and howled at the moon, their voices joined in a chorus that was as old as time. Cadence looked him in the eyes and said, “She’ll be just fine, Linus. Go hunt.”
With those words, he watched the half dozen wolves follow Cadence to the house where his sweetheart was washing dishes after gracing the pack with her amazing cooking skills. If anyone had misgivings about Linus’ non-wolf mate, they were bowled over by her food and her smile. Linus was one proud wolf.
He, Jason, Michael, and Bo had spent most of their younger wolf-years hunting together. They were comfortable together and worked as a good team. The woods were dead in the winter in more than one way, which meant that they had to go further to find things, digging rabbits out of holes and finding the occasional deer. In the middle of stalking a small herd of deer, a chorus of wolf howls cut the air and the four men raised their heads abruptly to listen. It was a call to come back. Something was wrong.
He glanced at Jason and there was fear in his eyes, too, and th
ey raced off a second later, Bo and Michael on their heels. Fuck, he hadn’t trusted his gut. He’d known something felt off about the whole night, like there was a bad scent on the air.
The closer they got to the house, the more he cursed the winter hunts and lack of game that made them have to travel so far to curb their needs. But now, his wolf was clamoring in his head to get back to Karly and make sure she was safe. The fear overrode his other needs. Paws pounded on the frozen, snow covered ground. Trees blurred past his peripheral vision. Faster. Faster. She was afraid. He could feel her fear like a bitter taste in the back of his throat and he surged forward.
Not even bothering to stop, he shifted mid-run and darted into the house and found Karly sitting in the far corner of the couch, clutching his jacket and crying. She fell into his arms as he landed hard on his knees in front of her, burying her face in his neck and weeping. He looked over her head at Cadence who looked very worried.
Jason put his arms around Cadence and she breathed out a sigh of relief. Linus said, “What’s wrong? What happened?”
“There was a wolf, not our pack, in the tree line just after we got back home. I thought it might be one of the teenagers, I haven’t really gotten a good look at their hides yet to recognize them,” Cadence looked up at Jason, “but Karly recognized him. It’s her ex.”
Linus felt as confused as Jason looked. He pushed Karly away to arm’s length and saw genuine fear in her pretty eyes. It made his wolf bristle. She was not supposed to be afraid ever.
“Sweetheart, who did you see?”
She drew in a gasping, shaky breath and said, “It was Phoenix. From my father’s pack.”
“Are you certain it was him? It’s pretty dark out there.” Jason asked, accepting his clothes that another wolf brought for him. Linus’ clothes landed near him, but he couldn’t think enough to put them on.
Karly nodded, “He’s rust brown. It’s a color unique to his family line.”