Kerry grabbed hold of her father. “Daddy, stop that!”
Her father wrapped his arms around her, stroking her hair.
“Nobody touches you, pumpkin. We’re taking you home, right now.”
Her mother flanked her on the other side so she had no choice but to let them lead her to the car. Everyone around her, when she dared to dart looks up at them from under her lashes, looked shocked, a few looked angry, and one or two looked disgusted. Kerry kept her eyes down until her mother ushered her into the back seat and the door shut behind her. Two more clangs let her know her parents had gotten in the front. . Kerry swallowed hard and taking a deep breath, looked back through the car window to see Caleb slowly getting back to his feet.
“Kerry Ann Bradley,” her mother called from the front seat, “what were you doing at a mating dance? You were not invited; even your father and I don’t get invited to those anymore.”
Kerry crossed her arms over her chest defensively like a petulant child rather than the twenty-three-year-old woman she was.
“I was curious Momma. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Paulie’s got his next month and Susan the month after that.”
Her mother’s face softened.
“Baby, what have I told you about prying into other people’s business? They don’t like it. You’ve gone and upset a lot of people tonight. When Daddy and I got word of what had happened, we thought they might kill you.”
“Is that why you took me away so fast?”
“They’re going to have to get through me if they want to touch a hair on your hide,” mumbled her father from behind the wheel.
“You were supposed to come straight home from Dick’s. Why can’t you ever just do what you’re supposed to?”
Kerry mashed her butt into the seat, settling into a bad mood and glaring at her mother from the back seat. “If anyone in this family did what they were supposed to, I wouldn’t have been born.”
Her parents exchanged a look. They had defied pack law, ignored what their families wanted and gone with their hearts. Both brown wolves, it hadn’t mattered all that much in the scheme of things till this night when their white wolf daughter became mated.
“That brute thought he could just have my baby,” her father growled angrily, warping the steering wheel a little as he gripped it too tight. Her momma rolled her eyes.
“Daddy is stuck in protective father mode right now, honey. When he calms down he’ll remember how overpowering the mating dance can be for a young wolf and that you and Dick,” she said, her lips quirking, “were well acquainted before this.”
Kerry blushed. Her daddy caught her with Dick only the summer before, after that “that goddamn norm boy” had all his visits supervised. So, when they wanted to have sex, Kerry went to Dick’s apartment across town. That far away her daddy could neither hear it, smell it, or walk in on it—which by far made him a much calmer person.
Kerry turned to look out the back window with an emptiness in the pit of her belly. She placed her hand against it.
“Oh, sugar pie, you miss him already?”
“No,” she said drawing her hand back sharply. “I hardly know the guy.”
“Don’t make a difference, honey. He’s your mate so you’re going to crave him with a bone deep ache for the rest of your lives.”
“Unless I go back and kill the son of a bitch right now!”
“Daddy!” Kerry scolded him.
He looked at her in the rear view mirror. She gave him her serious face.
“Can I just wail on him till he cries ‘uncle’?”
“No. Stop blaming him, Daddy,” she said, burying her face in her hands. “This is my fault. I shouldn’t have been there. Momma was right, I should have come straight home and not been there where he could smell me and pick me instead.”
“Pick you instead? You mean they’d already trotted out some girl for him and he chased you down instead?”
“Yeah—some tall, gorgeous, blonde who called me fat. He said I smelled better. Is that because I’m white?”
Her mother looked at her and then looked at her father. Kerry could tell that they didn’t know.
“Don’t think about it anymore. We’re almost home. We’ll get you in the shower and then off to bed. Sort it all out in the morning.”
Chapter Three
Despite her mother’s reassurances Kerry didn’t sleep well. She slept but she had a half-dream, half-nightmare. She was back there at the fence with Caleb, his body a blur of speed as he thrust in and out of her, making her moan. On the other side, through the fence she saw Dick, shocked and appalled at her wanton behavior. He kept asking her why she had done this to him? She woke in a cold sweat only to go back to sleep and have the same dream over and over again.
So, Kerry yawned her way through the first hour of her shift, standing behind the cashier’s counter of the small bookshop, Bart’s Books, where she worked. It was a Sunday so foot traffic was minimal. Her boss, Bart of Bart’s Books, was out back boxing up online orders to ship at the post office on Monday.
Kerry was all alone in the front of the shop after an hour and half of being open and feeling more awake. She pulled out a small book her mother gave her that morning over breakfast entitled, What to Expect When You’re Mated. Her grandmother gave it to her mother and now her mother was giving it to Kerry, assuring her that it was very informative.
Resting her arms on the counter, she opened to the first page past the index. Chapter One–The Mating Dance.
The mating dance was first established in early Christian times as a way to be certain of breeding lineages. A space is chosen and warded off so that no human interlopers wander into it accidentally. A huge bonfire is lit in the center of the space as most of the procedure is conducted naked to keep the participants warm. The unmated male is seated next to the fire while mated couples dance and then copulate around him; this changes the atmosphere which the male absorbs. An unmated female merely watching the dancing can send her into heat so that her body is prepared to accept a mate. When the man is ready, he will rise and his chosen mate will be displayed before him so he may take her as his. This will be witnessed by the mated couples, mated members of their families, and community. Unmated siblings or friends are not invited to attend in case the ceremony affects them.*
There was an asterisk so Kerry dropped her eyes to the relevant footnote.
*A case in Kentucky states than an unmated sibling attended her brothers mating and went into heat at the same time. The ceremony ended with the sibling mated instead of with the intended. However this being Kentucky, no one seemed to mind.
Poor Kentuckians. Riston, Georgia wasn’t exactly the capital of sophistication either but still Kerry smirked. At least her people had a sense of humor about things. It was followed by a list of unsuitable attendees, this included those who were clan shamed, unmated friends and siblings, humans and white wolves—unmated or mated. Then there were several diagrams showing how best to lay out the space, a list of appropriate musical choices, and polite topics of conversation for before, during, and after the ceremony. For instance it was perfectly all right to comment on another wolf’s mate’s breasts during the ceremony when he couldn’t hear you but remarking on them after was considered tactless and perverted. Kerry skipped forward to the next chapter. Chapter Two–Understanding Your Physical Feeling Against Your Emotional.
For both the male and female, going into the mating dance can be a scary experience. It is always recommended that once mates are chosen by the families that the two spend as much time together as possible to make the process easier. This isn’t always possible. Understanding your body’s reaction to the mating dance can take some time. For the male, the process is a lot easier, he will feel an overwhelming passion manifested by an erection and the desire to copulate with the nearest unmated female. For the female, going into heat can be an unnerving experience classified by a physical feeling of heat in the belly, a feeling of being empty, and u
ncontrollable arousal. The mental aspects can include a willingness to go against her morale character, a yearning to fill herself with something, and a fascination with the male form.
So, that’s what happened to her. Her body had gone into heat—uncontrollable arousal which led her to an act against her moral judgment by mating with Caleb when she already had a boyfriend. A boyfriend she would now have to break up with because, by pack law, she and Caleb were newlyweds.
Her body ached when she thought of Caleb and her cheeks flushed with the desire to have him inside her again. There had to be something in the book about why she craved him so veraciously. She skipped the next two chapters about position and technique-including color pictures. Gross, thought Kerry. Chapter Five was entitled—Before Your First Full Moon. Here Kerry began reading again.
Before your first full moon as a mated pair your craving for your mate will be much more powerful than at any other time in the rest of your lives together. A bond is being formed which will last your entire lives. It is advised that the newly mated couple copulate as often as they can before their full moon together. Copulation with another must never occur!
However it is worth noting that this is also when the bond is its weakest. If one of the mated were to die accidentally before the full moon, the survivor would not be afflicted by the loss as a true mate and could, in fact, mate again with someone else.
Kerry closed the book. No wonder her father thought she might be killed. A white wolf was not a desired daughter-in-law and until the full moon they were not true mates. Once they were, Caleb would feel her loss so deeply if something happened to her, then he might die. Copulation with another must never occur! She wondered what would happen if either of them had sex with someone else—another wolf—would the bond be annulled? Would it kill them? Would the god of wolves lean down from the sky a smite them? She never thought she would ever be mated but that didn’t mean she hadn’t heard all the rumors about what could happen if you betrayed your mate with another. The worst one was that her insides would shrivel up and she wouldn’t be able to have cubs.
Kerry tried to imagine Caleb with someone else. She felt an irrational spark of jealousy along with a simultaneous burst of desire at the thought. This told her neither of them would be able to be with another wolf, even if she could find one–outside of the mating frenzy–who would touch a white wolf. Could she have sex with a human? With Dick?
It was hard to reconcile her feelings where Dick was concerned. On one hand, she really cared for Dick and expected they might someday make it official. There was always something missing with Dick. She kept part of herself back because she had to. She would never be able to tell Dick what she is. With Caleb she wouldn’t have to hide anything. Since the mating, she had a bone deep ache for Caleb and only Caleb to be inside her.
On the other hand, she barely knew Caleb and was expected to spend the rest of her life with the handsome stranger. She felt none of the comfort with him that she’d built with Dick. Kerry felt like crying. She would have never gotten so deep into a relationship with a human if she thought there was a chance in hell that she could have ended up mated.
* * * *
Bart came out the back to find her buried in the chapter on the moon run. She quickly hid the book away in her bag under the counter.
“What’s that you’re reading?”
“A pocket guide to relationships. Men are from Uranus—that sort of thing,” she said with a smile, making sure she zipped her bag shut.
Bart looked at her curiously. “Everything okay between you and Richard?”
Kerry had to smile. Bart was the only person she knew who would refer to Dick by his full Christian name. Bart considered saying Dick as a swear word.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Things between her and Dick had been great. They’d been super even but now she had to break up with him and the poor guy would never understand why. It would break her heart to do it but her newfound mate would not appreciate her still trying to see her human lover. She sighed and must have looked mopey, because Bart patted her fondly on the shoulder.
“I’ll take the desk for a little while till Susan gets here. There’s some stock on the second floor that need shelving.”
Kerry gave him a weak smile, then took the stairs up and disappeared behind a bookcase.
* * * *
Kerry knew the minute Susan arrived at work. There was a hurried sound of footsteps on the stairs, giving Kerry just enough time to brace herself as she was football tackled by her co-worker and best friend. Kerry hit the floor with an indignant huff.
Susan Verde was a bubbly, energetic girl with electric green eyes and a mass of brown hair that circled her head like a chestnut nimbus. They’d been best friends their whole lives. Susan’s parents were one of the few who still talked to her parents after they became clan shame by mating out-of-ceremony. Susan was a brown wolf.
“Is it true?” she wailed giddily before looking around to make sure there were no customers who could over hear. “Did you really walk into a mating dance and steal the groom?”
Kerry groaned; the rumor mill ground fast.
“I didn’t walk in, he kind of walked out.”
Susan’s eyes sparkled ridiculously brightly. “You got mated!” she squealed and hugged her tight. Susan kicked her legs up and down. She was so excited; if she’d been in wolf form her tail would have been wagging.
“I’m not sure I’m all that happy about it. I didn’t mean for it to happen.”
“Why not happy? I heard he’s a very handsome guy and he’s a black wolf so he’s got to come from money. I don’t get it.”
“Because of Dick.”
Susan’s mouth made a little ‘O’ as she remembered Kerry’s human boyfriend.
Kerry sighed.
“Susan, you get down here and do your job,” yelled Bart like an irate father rather than a boss. “Don’t make me come up there.”
Susan leapt to her feet, fixing her outfit. She wore cut off jeans, suede boots, and a tan top with a lot of fringe to it and little else.
“Coming, Boss,” she yelled and mouthed to Kerry that they would talk later. Susan left her alone to pick herself up off the floor.
* * * *
Caleb set about learning everything about his new mate such as her address, about her family, her education and her choice of employment. He stood outside the little boutique book shop in a light weight, charcoal grey suit and smiled as he entered.
Her scent hit him the minute the little cow bell above the door tinkled; she smelled sweet and warm like habanero peppers. He pushed his sunglasses up to the top of his head and looked around the store.
There was a brunette behind the cash register, flicking through a magazine and blowing bubbles with her gum. He noticed she was a wolf too—brown by her scent which was citric in nature. She looked up when he came in, her gum popping over her nose as she stared at him. He decided she smelled like lime to match the green of her eyes. Caleb tilted his head up and sniffed delicately. There was a human somewhere in a back room but Kerry’s scent led upstairs. He could simply follow his nose to find her.
“Can I help you find something?”
Caleb turned to look at the brunette who froze when she saw the amber of his eyes. Caleb lifted his nose, deliberately remaking a wolf-like gesture of stiffing the air before sharing with her a predatory smile.
“No, thank you. I think I’ll be able to locate what I want by myself,” he said, giving her a polite smile. He took the stairs up without hesitating and there Kerry was. She was in profile to him, shelving books in her arms.
Kerry was better than he remembered. Her hair was short, falling just below her ears. He could tell she normally wore it shorter from the way she kept tucking the same strand behind her ear, only to have it fall back again. Her white T-shirt clung around her shapely breasts and the denim skirt she wore was short enough that it made her legs look longer. She wore beaded sandals o
n her feet, showing off a pretty, pink pedicure. Caleb thought she’d look better with longer hair like her mother. It would play more to her doll-like stature.
She must have been distracted because he was practically on top of her before she smelled him. Caleb pressed his crotch to her denim covered rear and gripped her sturdy hips. Kerry squealed. sending books flying as she fought to turn to face him.
“Caleb?”
“Kerry? You okay up there?” A man’s voice came from downstairs—probably the human Caleb had smelled.
Kerry turned her head towards the stairs. “I’m fine, Bart; just a really big, black spider.” Kerry turned back to look at Caleb. He caught a flicker of annoyance in her eyes that only made him smile. He stroked her hips, enjoying the feel of them under his hands.
“What are you doing here? How do you know where I work?”
Caleb smiled answering her questions in reverse order.
“I asked about you and someone said you worked at the little book store. I thought it would be safer to approach you someplace your father wouldn’t be.” Caleb noticed her eyes softened as she took in the side of his face that came into contact with her father’s fist.
“Daddy shouldn’t have done that,” she said, wringing her hands. “I’m glad you’re okay. Please don’t do anything to him. He just gets protective.”
Caleb backed her up against the shelves.
“The only one I’m thinking about doing things to right now is you.” His hands slid to her delicate wrists. Raising them up slowly, he secured them above her head with one of his large hands. Kerry wriggled, which he found delightful. Caleb traced the line of her collar bone and then along the line of her bra.
“You’re wearing a bra?” he asked skeptically.
She nodded. “I’m working not planning on shifting. Damn it, Caleb. Let me go.”
He shook his head playfully, sliding his free hand down over her belly and under her skirt. Kerry gasped and he smiled.
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