The Wolf's Mate Book 5: Bo & Reika

by Butler, R. E.

  She suddenly knew where they were going.

  “This won’t work,” she said as she tried to fold her arms and then groused at the cuff once more.

  “What won’t work?”

  “Hiding out. They’ve been waiting for me since I was seven. They won’t give up just because you took me somewhere, and we disappeared for a while. And besides, you have a job, don’t you? Just take me back, and we’ll work something out.”

  She tried her best to sound reassuring, but she had a feeling he knew the moment he looked away she was going to hit the road. She had to keep him safe. He was too important to her now to let him fight for her. He could die. She couldn’t risk it.

  “Right.” He cast a side-glance at her. “So you can fuck me into a coma and slip out the back door? I don’t think so, sweetheart. I know your plan, and I’m not going to let you do it.”

  He pulled behind a large farmhouse and drove down a barely visible dirt lane to a large, red barn. The doors were open, and the interior was filled with tractors covered in a layer of dirt and dust. “Excuse me, you’re the one who fucked me into a coma. I can’t believe I slept through you putting me in the truck and handcuffing me to the door!”

  He winked and put the truck into park, turning off the engine. “Stay put, baby, and I’ll be right back.”

  He got out, and she turned and watched him close the big doors. Then he moved to the back of the barn and lifted a hatch that appeared to have been hidden under a rug. After a few moments, as the air in the truck chilled and she started shivering, he returned to the truck and opened her door carefully, unlocking her cuff. Pulling her into his arms, he carried her quickly to the back of the barn and walked down a flight of wooden steps into a concrete room that was about twenty by twenty feet. One door led to what she assumed was a bathroom — or rather, what she hoped was a bathroom — and the rest of the room was furnished as a combo bedroom/kitchen/living area. It reminded her of an efficiency apartment.

  He plopped her down on a large bed, and without a word, he swiftly handcuffed her to the iron headboard. “Oh really, Bo, that’s hardly necessary,” she huffed in indignation. “And you said you’d let me go!”

  “I will, eventually. I just meant I’d let you go from the truck, not let you go forever. I’ll be right back. Stay put.”

  “Oh, ha ha,” she fumed.

  He disappeared up the stairs and left her to grumble at her situation. How the hell had he known her plans?

  He returned with a box and a duffel over his shoulder, and he deposited them on the small table in the kitchen area and walked back up the stairs. Pride flickered through her as she saw how easily he moved now. Her healing had worked.

  After another box was set on the table, he pulled a handle on the door and shut it, clicking a combination lock closed, and twirling the dial. Oh for hell’s sake.

  “Fine, I get it. I’m locked in down here. So let me go.” She rattled the cuff at him as he began unpacking the boxes.

  Glancing over his shoulder at her, he said quietly, “Are you ready to admit that I’m your truemate? Will you swear that we’re in this together and promise you’re not going to try to take off on your own?”

  Her mouth opened, closed, and opened again. Dropping her eyes, because she couldn’t stand to look at him, she said, “No.”

  It was a lie, but only a partial one. She knew they were truemates, but she couldn’t stay — not when she knew that the lynxes would never let her go and that the three males would most likely kill Bo right in front of her. It would destroy her. Even though it burned, she’d rather him live happily ever after with someone else than be killed fighting for her.

  He said nothing and resumed his unpacking. She stewed in silence, cursing the well-crafted bed she was shackled to and the thick handcuff. But she didn’t curse Bo. She knew he was going to do this exact thing — well, maybe not kidnap her — but she knew if he found out she was going to run away and hide to keep him and his pack safe, that he’d stop her. He was noble and loyal. He deserved a mate who came free of nasty attachments like three lynxes who wanted to breed her like a mare.

  He brewed a pot of coffee and then joined her on the bed, sitting next to her hip. He set a steaming cup of coffee on the small side table and held a small bowl of cut fruit in his other hand. He lifted a section of peeled apple and held it to her lips. “Come on, sweetheart. Be mad all you like, but don’t starve yourself.”

  She reached for the apple and he moved away slightly, “I’ll feed you, Reika.”

  “I’m not entirely helpless.” She snorted.

  One brow rose slightly. “I never said you were. But we’re mates, and mates take care of each other in all ways.”

  He waited patiently, moving the apple close to her mouth again. The smell of the apple made her stomach growl. She opened her mouth, feeling like a petulant child, and he slipped half of it inside. The fruit crunched between her teeth, firm and sweet, and she chewed slowly and swallowed. He fed her in silence for several minutes — red seedless grapes, sliced apples, and sliced bananas — and gave her sips of coffee.

  When the fruit was gone and the mug empty, he put the dishes on the table and cleared his throat. “Here’s the deal, sweetheart. I know what’s going on in that pretty little head of yours. You think by taking off that you’re going to spare me or my pack from whatever those assholes will do to get you back. Well, I can promise you several things. First, there’s no way in hell that would have ever worked.” He leaned forward, bracing his hands on the headboard and dropping his head to the crux of her neck. With a slow, deep inhale that made her nerve endings go haywire, he growled, “I would find you wherever you went. There isn’t a place on this earth where you can hide from me, so toss that thought out of your mind for good.

  “Second, I will fight for you and break whatever promise your alpha made to those assholes. You were a child. It was cruel and unfair, not to mention sick. As your truemate, I demand the right to fight to break your promise. And lastly, baby, listen very carefully. You’re mine and that makes you part of my pack. My alpha, his mate, and my brothers and sisters in the pack are all supporting us. Jason won’t sell you down the river to make peace, and I will do anything — any-fucking-thing — to keep you safe. I would go to the grave for you in a heartbeat. But don’t worry. I don’t plan to lose because I’ve got a lifetime of making sweet love to you to look forward to.”

  “I don’t want you to die,” she croaked, her voice cracking as tears clouded her vision.

  “I won’t. I might get beat all to hell, but I’m not going to leave you. Not now, not ever.”

  He nipped at her neck, licked the light mark he made, and then sat back. “We’re only an hour and a half from your home pack. This place belongs to a rogue wolf, a friend of my mother’s. They used to use it back in the day when wolves owned cattle farms and didn’t want to risk killing their stock on the full moons. They would shift down here and take out their aggression on a side of beef instead. So the walls are soundproof, and no one can find us here.”

  She stared at him in disbelief. “But they’ll tear your town apart looking for me, especially if they think I’ve left.”

  “I’ve got that all handled, baby. Jason called your alpha, and he contacted the lynx king who agreed to pull his grandsons back home. We’re going to show up in neutral territory on Saturday. Your pack, my pack, and the lynx clan. I’ll fight for you, win, and then you can thank me with your body, later.” He grinned. It all seemed so casual for him. As if he weren’t going to face off with three psycho males who had spent the better part of sixteen years waiting for her.

  “You’ve just got it all figured out, don’t you?” She was really feeling petulant now.

  “Yes, I do, baby. Now, are you ready to admit what you’re feeling for me or do I need to convince you of how perfect we are together?”

  “Let me go.”

  He hummed in his throat and reached for the blanket wrapped around her. “Wrong answ
er.”

  She pushed at his hands with her free hand, but he simply pinned her wrist to the bed and used his other hand to open the blanket and bare her body to him. He leaned forward to kiss her and before she could protest or turn away, his mouth had claimed hers and all rational thought flew out of her mind. She loved his mouth. The way his stubble grazed her skin, the slick heat of his mouth, and his talented tongue that danced against hers. She knew he was trying to seduce her into promising to stay, and she knew that she should protest what he was doing, but her betraying body wanted her to do nothing of the sort.

  Heat flashed through her, and she relaxed under him, making a small noise in her throat as he sat back on his heels next to her. He didn’t ask her if she was ready to give in yet, and she didn’t say she was. She didn’t say anything at all as he pulled his shirt off and tossed it away before moving to stand on the floor and remove his jeans. He held her gaze without fear this time, as he kicked off his boots and shoved his jeans down his legs. He touched the healing marks on his leg almost reverently and said with a rough voice, “Before you healed me, I had already decided I wasn’t going to ever let you go. Bum leg and all, I would have fought to break your vow. But you gave me back my life and my wolf, Reika. I want to give you back your life, too. We’re truemates, and if it takes every second of these five days we have together to prove to you that you can trust me to keep you safe and set you free, then I’m going to do it.”

  He stepped free of his clothes and knelt on the bed between her legs. Warm fingers tickled their way up the insides of her legs, from the arch of her feet to the apex of her thighs, upwards to circle around her hipbones where sensitive skin was stretched taut, and then up the curve of her waist. Her skin tingled as he touched her, the look on his face telling her that he thought she was the most precious thing he’d ever seen.

  His fingers slipped up the center of her body between her breasts and traced the contour of her collarbone before sliding through her hair and holding her still as his mouth descended on hers once more. Her stomach fluttered as he kissed her, and her free hand gripped him, digging into his flesh with her nails with each pleasurable stroke of his tongue against hers. She wound her legs around his waist, and he settled lower on her, his cock resting just above her pussy, where a few slight thrusts of his hips ground his rigid length against her swollen clit.

  She moaned into his mouth, and he swallowed the sound, tilting his head further to deepen the kiss. Her body throbbed and her mind spun uselessly. He kissed across her cheek to her ear, where he traced the curve with his tongue, his hot breath washing over her skin.

  “So fucking gorgeous,” he whispered before kissing down her neck to her shoulder. His hands cupped her breasts, his rough thumbs teased her already hard nipples, alternating between circling them and pressing them between his thumb and forefinger. Each mild pinch made her breath catch, the ache blooming into pleasurable tingling. Lifting one breast, he lowered his head and darted his tongue across the pointed tip. He swiped his tongue across the other nipple before sucking it deep into his mouth with torturously slow pressure. Arching her back, she fisted her hand in his hair and said his name on a shaky breath.

  Moving between her breasts, he licked and sucked the nipples until they were hot, tingling tips, dark and aching from his mouth and hands. His large hands moved down the curve of her waist as he pressed chaste kisses to each nipple and slipped down the bed. She mourned the loss of his weight and heat. He shoved her thighs roughly apart and slid his hands underneath to lift her lower body off the bed. For a brief moment, their eyes held, and she watched his hazel eyes darken as he probed her clit with his tongue.

  Holding her body off the bed, he tilted his head and licked around the entrance to her body, delving his tongue into her hot core with fast strokes. Her legs fell wider, and she closed her eyes, surrendering to the sensations that coursed through her. Bo’s fingers dug into her ass as he speared his tongue into her pussy, stroking the sensitive inner walls and scraping his stubble against her tender flesh. Her body wept, liquefying. One hand slipped forward, and his thumb replaced his tongue, pressing into her while his lips captured her swollen, sensitive clit.

  He sucked her hard nub in a rhythm, gently then hard, slow then fast, fingers splayed on her ass and holding her up so he could feast on her. Her belly tightened and she took in a deep breath. His thumb moved out of her pussy and circled her arousal around her tightest place.

  She felt his teeth graze her clit as his thumb breeched her, pushing inside while his tongue lashed her clit. Pressure built in her. His thumb pushed in all the way and he sucked her clit hard, fast, and deeply into his mouth and pulled his thumb out. As he plunged his thumb back into her, she came, her body exploding as she arched up with a cry of pleasure, her hips thrusting between his mouth and his thumb. Riding her pleasure, he thrust his thumb in and out of her body and licked her clit with hard, fast strokes. Her climax never ebbed, but rose higher and higher until she wailed his name and came a second time.

  Writhing under him as he pulled his thumb from her completely, he moved over top of her, and caught her chin in his fingers.

  “Are you mine yet, sweetheart?” he asked.

  “Please, Bo, please,” she moaned, wrapping her legs around his waist and pulling on him.

  He groaned, seeming to struggle against his own control, and with a low, heavy sound, he thrust into her. Her hips met his again and again, as their bodies pressed together. She lifted one leg higher on his back and curled the other down lower on one leg, spreading her body slightly, digging her fingers into his shoulder. He swiveled his hips as he pounded into her, reaching a hand between them to finger her clit.

  His rough finger flicked her tender clit in time to his cock thrusting into her hot, wet pussy. Her body clenched his again and again as he deviled her clit and dropped his head down to her shoulder, breathing hard. Her panting cries of pleasure drifted into one long moan as her body locked up in a spiral of pleasure and shuddered under him.

  “Fuck, yes, fuck,” Bo chanted, pounding into her with wild abandon, following her climax with his own as he rode out her pleasure and came with one final, hard thrust, burying himself inside her.

  Settling his weight on his elbows, he kissed her, nuzzling her cheek and neck. “I love you so much, baby,” Bo said with a rough voice. He moved off her, knelt in front of his jeans and searched the front pockets. He stood with a small key and unlocked her wrist from the cuff.

  He put the key on the small side table and went to a cooler and brought back two bottles of water. As he sat next to her and handed her a bottle of water, he said, “I know you didn’t promise yet.”

  She took a long drink, leaning her head back against the pillow and closing her eyes. “You’re asking me to be okay with you putting your life on the line for me, Bo. I never will be.”

  “You want to be with another wolf?”

  Her eyes popped open. “What? Of course not.”

  His eyes narrowed. “You want me fucking another she-wolf?” He stroked his hand across her belly. “You want another she-wolf to carry my children?”

  She took in a slow breath as a riot of emotions coursed over her at the thought of his hands touching anyone but her. Of his mouth kissing another woman.

  She steeled herself. Reminded her jealous wolf that staying with him could very well mean his death.

  Placing the water bottle on the side table, she rolled to her side away from him and covered herself with a blanket. She felt his eyes on her, but she refused to give in. Admitting that she was his and he was hers … it just wasn’t something she was willing to do, even if knowing that he would find another female eventually was like a fiery blade in her heart.

  That’s how the next few days went. They talked. He made her meals, and they ate together. And in between the mundane stuff, he blew her mind with screaming, hot sex. Against the wall. On the stairs. In the tiny bathroom. Every time he asked her to promise to stay, she refused, biting
her tongue to keep from swearing a vow in her passion. But he was steadily wearing away at her defenses while their time together wound down.

  Bo was stretched out next to her on the bed, eyes closed in sleep and a peaceful expression on his face. A glance at the clock on the wall told her it was nearly eleven on Thursday, their third night in the cellar of the barn. In one of their many talks, he had told her that they were supposed to meet her pack and the lynxes at three p.m. on Saturday. Earlier that evening, as they’d made love, she’d stared into his passion-filled gaze and knew that whether she promised to stick with him or not, he was going to fight for her. He would handcuff her again, haul her around like a ragdoll, and go to battle for her blood-debt. She’d come to understand that her refusal to accept his willingness to fight for her was hurting him. Not physically, of course, but emotionally. Here was a man who was walking right into hell for her without a second thought, and continuing to refuse his decision made a mockery of their bond.

  Her fingertips ghosted over the marks on his shoulder where her jaws had snapped down hard and deep to force the healing venom into his body. They lingered, a reminder that even if the human part of her had refused to acknowledge that they were truemates, her wolf-self had known all along.

  Fear lodged in her throat like a tight fist as she snuggled into him, curving her leg around his hip and sliding her hand up his smooth back. She couldn’t hold back her feelings any longer, and if he wanted her support, if he wanted her vow that she would stand beside him, trust him, to fight for her, then she would give it. Willingly.

  “Bo?” She nuzzled his chin and scratched her fingernails lightly across his back. “Bo, wake up. I need you.”

  His arms tightened around her, and his eyes opened slowly. “Are you alright, sweetheart?”

  She ignored her worry for his safety, shoved the dark thoughts away, and opened her heart. “I love you.”

  His eyes widened, and his brows lifted for a brief moment before he rolled over top of her and grinned. “I love you, too.”