The Beta's Heart (Wilde Creek Book 8)

by R. E. Butler

  He let the threat hang in the air. The only thing that let him know she’d heard him was when her smug smile dropped to a frown and her eyes narrowed. She was pissed? Good. He wasn’t the sort of male to throw a punch at a female, but he would absolutely put down any threats to his mate, male or female.

  “I’m your destiny, Ren,” Stef said evenly. “I know it. You know it. That bitch in your truck knows it. The longer you keep me waiting, the worse it will be for her.”

  Out of the corner of his eye he saw Kismet move, and he quickly shut the door to keep her inside. He moved around to the driver’s side and jerked the door open.

  “We’re not done,” Stef said.

  “Fuck off,” Ren said, sitting down and slamming the door. He turned the truck on and slammed it into reverse, backing out of the space and heading toward the street. He looked in the rear view before he turned onto the road and saw the group that at eight, had seemed inconsequential, to now sixteen, appeared to be a more formidable force.

  “You should have let me do something,” Kismet said.

  He reached for her hand and linked their fingers, his wolf calming at her touch.

  “What would you have done?”

  “I don’t know. But something. What the hell is her problem, anyway?”

  “She wants me to be her alpha male.”

  “Well that sucks for her, because you’re mine and I’m not letting you go.”

  He snorted. Damn she was feisty.

  “Good. I’m not letting you go either.”

  “Why can’t she just take one of those with her as her alpha?”

  He shook his head. The thought had crossed his mind, too. “She’s looking for something specific I guess. She wants to be the leader, but males don’t take to females leading for too long. If she wants to lead, she’ll want a male she can control. She may feel like she can control me.”

  Kismet squeezed his hand. “How did she know where we were?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m going to take the truck to the shop and put it on the lift to check it out.”

  “A tracker?”

  He shrugged. “It wouldn’t surprise me.”

  “She’s crazy.”

  “And that makes her dangerous,” he said, casting a glance at his mate. “I don’t want you going anywhere alone until we know she’s moved on.”

  “We’re leaving Sunday for my realm.”

  “I know, but we’ll be back next weekend. It’s better to be vigilant than to be caught off guard.”

  “Okay. I can fight, you know. My dad made sure I knew how to defend myself.”

  He pulled into the parking lot of the shop and shifted into park. “I know, sweetheart, and I’m sure you could take her if she was by herself and not in her shift. But I don’t think she’d play fair, so you might find yourself surrounded by wolves, and that’s not anything anyone should ever have to face.”

  “Well, I guess I’m not surprised,” she said.

  “What?”

  “You’re irresistible.”

  He snorted. “I only want to be irresistible to you.” He paused before opening his door. “What she said back there…”

  She put her fingertip on his lips to silence him. “I’m sure she embellished things for my benefit. I don’t trust her as far as I could throw her. Her aura is messed up – muddy browns and yellows, no goodness in her at all. When she was talking about you, her aura turned a sickly green color and that meant she was lying.”

  His brows rose. “You can see auras?”

  “It’s part of my fae powers.”

  “What does mine look like?”

  She gave him an appraising look and then smiled. “Your colors are all that I’d expect of a mated man – pinks, oranges, blues – love, loyalty, honesty.”

  “I wish I’d never met her.”

  “I’m sure she wishes you and I had never met.”

  “Even if I was unmated, I wouldn’t want whatever she’s offering. She means less than nothing to me. Anything that happened before you walked into my life isn’t worth thinking about.”

  She smiled softly. “I feel the same way.”

  He quirked a brow at her. “Are there any crazy exes on your side?”

  “Nope,” she quipped. “You’re the lucky one in that area.”

  “Awesome,” he said.

  He got out of the truck and entered the code at the large garage door to turn off the alarm and raise the door. It lumbered to life with squeaks and squeals, and he got back in the truck and drove forward into the bay, the automatic lights flaring to life. He centered the truck on the rack and said, “There’s an apartment here you can hang out in.”

  “Why do you have an apartment here?”

  “The male who owned the business before me lived in it. I let visitors use it if they need a place to crash.”

  “I’ll stay with you if that’s okay.”

  “I’d love that.”

  They got out of the truck and she sat and watched him as he lifted the truck and inspected it. As he’d suspected, there was a small tracking device underneath.

  He pulled it off and stepped out from under the truck. “You know, I was kind of hoping it was a fluke that she was where we were, but clearly it wasn’t.”

  Kismet frowned. “When did she have a chance to put it on the truck?”

  “I don’t have a clue. I don’t want to think about her coming to the house, but she could have at any point. The protectors can only be in so many places at once.”

  “What are you going to do with it?” she asked, joining him and looking down at the small device.

  He squeezed it between his thumb and finger until it cracked and the red light died. “That.”

  She stared at his fingers for a long moment and then looked at him. “I know you’re irresistible, but seriously…why would she put a tracker on your truck? You’re mated. Wouldn’t any reasonable wolf know you’re not on the market for a mate?”

  He tossed the broken tracker in the trash. He wanted to crack a joke about being irresistible, but he wasn’t much in the mood. The night had been marred and somehow, he felt like it was entirely his fault, even though he’d not set any of the events leading up to the confrontation into motion. He looked at his gorgeous mate and vowed to do whatever necessary to keep her safe.

  “I think that’s the point,” he said. “A reasonable wolf would know that a mated male isn’t available to take another mate. Stef isn’t being reasonable, and she’s got a pack backing her up.”

  “I hope we don’t see her again. It’s creepy as hell that she had a tracker on the truck.” Kismet shivered and rubbed her arms.

  He pulled her close and enveloped her in his arms. His beast was still rankled from the meeting, but he felt better just touching her. “I’ll keep you safe, sweetheart.”

  “I know you will,” she said.

  She relaxed against him with an inaudible sigh and he kissed the top of her head. He wanted to turn back the clock and be more vigilant in the first place so that Stef wouldn’t have gotten to his truck. Clearly, she was trying to intimidate him and Kismet, but all she’d done was make him more determined to protect his mate.

  Hell might have no fury like a scorned woman, but it didn’t have anything on a male whose truemate was threatened. Stef could fantasize all she wanted that he was the perfect male for her, but he was only for Kismet, and nothing on earth would change that.

  Chapter 12

  Kismet hadn’t ever been to a wedding outside of the fae realm, and she was excited to see what the differences were between weddings in her realm and this one. Ren looked amazing in a tailored suit, and he’d even picked up a tie the same shade of blue as her dress so they’d match.

  “Gorgeous.” He said the word so sweetly and softly, with a hint of his wolf. When he looked at her like that, as if he could eat her up and she’d never get enough, she wanted to strip and race him back to the bedroom.

  She stopped in front of him and ran her fi
ngers down the silk tie. “You’re the sexiest man I’ve ever seen, and you’re all mine. I think the stars aligned for us.”

  “I think they did too,” he said, sliding a hand around her waist and drawing her close. “Want to stay in?”

  She laughed. “I just spent an hour on my hair. We have to go to the wedding.”

  “Well, I will enjoy showing you off.”

  The wedding was at the park in town, which had a small pond with a gazebo right at the edge. When they arrived at the park and had quite a ways to walk because of all the vehicles, she wished she hadn’t picked such high heels, even though she loved them. When her ankle wobbled on a stone in the unpaved parking lot, Ren swooped her up into his arms and carried her to the grass where the ceremony would be held.

  “You’re not allowed to out-romance your alpha,” Acksel said as he and Brynn joined them.

  “You pulled up to the edge of the grass so I didn’t have far to walk,” Brynn said. “Pretty romantic.”

  Acksel smiled. “Well, I do pride myself on being romantic.”

  Brynn snorted. “Oh, okay. Pump the brakes. I said you were pretty romantic, nothing to get all macho over.”

  “Can’t help it,” Acksel said, flexing exaggeratedly.

  Brynn giggled and gave Acksel a peck on the cheek, then smiled at Kismet. “You look lovely.”

  “Thanks, so do you.”

  Brynn wore a fitted dress that fell below her knees. She also wore tennis shoes. Brynn smiled. “My feet hurt like all the time. No way am I waddling around in heels.”

  “We’ve got the second row reserved for us,” Acksel said.

  “Lead the way,” Ren said. He offered Kismet his arm and she took it. They fell into step behind the alphas as they walked down the aisle. White folding chairs had been set up in two sections. Each end chair had a bouquet of white roses and pink lilies tied to it with gauzy ribbon. Acksel, Brynn, Kismet, and Ren sat next to each other. A few moments later, Malachi and his mate Nila, and their son Jack joined them.

  “You’re taking off tonight or tomorrow?” Malachi asked Ren.

  “Tomorrow,” Ren answered.

  “We’ll keep an eye on your house.”

  Ren grunted. “Thanks.”

  “I can put up some security cameras around your place,” Malachi offered.

  Ren had told Kismet that Malachi and Lucian were partners in a security company.

  “Thanks, I’ll let you know if we want to go that route.”

  Malachi nodded and settled back in his seat, putting his arm around his mate.

  Kismet knew there were protection spells she could cast around their home. She’d never done one before, but she’d seen others do them over the years. When she was in the fae realm, she’d gather the materials for the spell and do it when they got back. That would ensure that no one got into their home without permission.

  Ren tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and his light touch lingering on her neck made her shiver. “What are you thinking about so seriously?” he murmured.

  “Protection.”

  He gave her a look that was all serious alpha male. “You don’t need to worry about that. I’ll keep you safe.”

  “I know, but I can cast a protection spell around the house. At least I think I can. I’ve never actually done one before.”

  “What does it do?”

  She hummed in thought. “It’s kind of like what witches like my mom do. The spell is like an invisible fence around our home. Anyone with evil intentions toward us would be stopped, or at least slowed down enough to alert us.”

  His brow arched. “Do protection spells work?”

  “Yep. I’ll look into it when we’re in my realm.”

  The music that had been playing softly in the background grew suddenly louder as two males dressed in tuxedos walked down the aisle together, both wearing broad smiles. A woman wearing a pantsuit with a floral scarf around her neck stood in the gazebo and smiled at the males.

  “Jeremiah’s on the left,” Ren said. “Adam’s on the right.”

  She nodded. “Are they related? Or their mates?”

  “No, they’re just good friends.”

  A young male escorted a female down the aisle and she sat in the center of the front row. She waved at the males and Jeremiah waved back.

  “That’s his mom,” Ren whispered in Kismet’s ear.

  Two females were escorted down the aisle by a large male. They sat next to Jeremiah’s mother. Ren explained in a low voice that the older female was Adam’s mate, and Dani’s adopted mother, escorted by her adopted brother Row and his mate, Kammie, who had been part of the Wilde Creek pack until she mated him and moved to his bear den. Kismet’s interest was piqued by the idea of bear shifters. She wondered what other sorts of shifters there were, and why the fae realm didn’t have any.

  A group of three males and one female walked down the aisle and took over the front row across the aisle.

  Ren whispered to Kismet. “Those are the reindeer. They’re nomadic and came in for the wedding, since Dani doesn’t have her biological reindeer family anymore.”

  “That’s sweet,” Kismet said.

  The music changed to the wedding march and everyone stood. The two females escorted each other down the aisle, both crying and smiling as they made their way to their males. Kismet thought it was sad that neither had a father to walk her down the aisle and was thankful she had her father in her life.

  The ceremony was simple and sweet, with the couples pledging to each other love and laughter for years to come. When they were presented as two newly married couples, everyone cheered, and Kismet was touched by how much the pack cared for their members.

  The reception was at Luna’s, which had been transformed with white tablecloths and flowers, draped fabrics and twinkle lights, to look sweetly romantic. Ren pulled out her chair and she sat, smiling as he tucked her in close and sat next to her. “What did you think?” he asked. Around them, pack members and guests found their seats. Acksel, Brynn, Nila, Malachi, and Jack joined them at the table.

  “It was a lovely ceremony,” Kismet said.

  “Both males had a hard time of things,” Acksel said. “It’s nice to see them truly happy.”

  Adam had been horribly scarred by a fire bomb when he was a young man. He hadn’t been old enough to shift and heal, so he bore the scars still, which Ren had explained meant that he was viewed as not good enough to be anything other than an omega in the pack. Jeremiah had never been able to shift until he’d met his mate, Honey, and then he’d transformed into a different sort of wolf shifter, a wolf-man type on two legs who could speak. Kismet was sure she’d freak out if she saw a talking wolf-man in the woods.

  “I think it’s amazing that there really is someone for everyone,” Kismet said. “Why did both females have blue ribbons in their hair?”

  “It’s a tradition,” Nila said. “Humans say it’s good luck to have something old, new, borrowed, and blue with them for the ceremony. They opted for blue ribbons for that item.”

  “That’s neat,” Kismet said. “What other traditions are there?”

  Nila said, “Humans like to throw their bouquet to the unmated females in attendance, and whoever catches it is supposed to be the next to be married.”

  “Is that a law?” Kismet asked in surprise.

  Nila laughed. “No, just a tradition.”

  “The males have a tradition involving the garter, too,” Malachi said.

  “Do fae have those kinds of traditions?” Brynn asked.

  “No, but we have different traditions for our ceremonies.”

  “Like what?” Nila asked.

  “Well, it’s considered good luck for the female to have flowers woven into her hair. They’re supposed to guarantee a long and happy marriage. And there’s supposed to be a dessert with oranges in it, for a sweet life.”

  “I like those traditions,” Nila said.

  The newly married couples came into the restaurant to the che
ers of the guests. They took their seats at the head table and the meal was handed out by young males and females in the pack. Kismet enjoyed the flavorful steak, roasted potatoes, and bacon-wrapped green beans, followed by a piece of chocolate cake she shared with Ren.

  After the meal was over, Kismet and Ren said their goodbyes, stopping at the head table to wish the newly married couples well.

  “I’m so glad you could come,” Honey said, giving Kismet a hug. “I’m looking forward to getting to know you.”

  “Thanks,” Kismet said. Turning to Dani, she hugged her and said, “It was lovely, I’m so happy for you.”

  “Thank you for being part of our special day.”

  They walked out into the night and Kismet stopped to look up at the sky. “It’s a beautiful night.”

  “Not as beautiful as you,” Ren said, drawing her close.

  “My mate says the sweetest things,” she said.

  “Just for you,” he promised with a kiss. “Just. For. You.”

  * * *

  The following morning, Kismet opened a portal and walked into her home with Ren on her heels.

  “Are you glad to be back?” he asked as he followed her into the bedroom and dropped his duffel bag on the bed.

  “Yes and no.”

  “Oh?” he asked, unzipping the bag and removing the contents.

  She walked to the dresser and pulled open the top drawer, pulling out her socks and undergarments and transferring them to the second drawer so he could have a place to put his things.

  “Well, I like being here, of course; it’s the realm where I grew up, but I also really like Wilde Creek. After a week, it feels more like home to me there than it does here.”

  He smiled. “I’m glad. Where you are is home for me.”

  “Me too.”

  After he unpacked, they went for a walk so she could check on her garden. The square of land she’d set aside for her special flower and herb garden had a short, white fence to keep creatures from nibbling on her precious plants. She stepped over the fence and walked down the center path, explaining the names of the plants to Ren and their uses.