The Wolf's Mate Book 4: Michael & Shyne

by Butler, R. E.

  “I’ll think about it, Michael.”

  “And Clay’s jumping ship, you know. You should think about that, too.”

  Fritz’s eyes went wide as Michael walked into the back to work a little on the bike. Clay was fifth in the pack. He’d recently found his mate in a human girl and was planning to get married. Things were fine until she got a job offer in another state. Clay didn’t even blink when he decided to quit the pack and go rogue to follow her. Fritz was strong enough to fight for that rank. Right now, he was pretty low in the pack, but only because he’d never fought it.

  Later that night, the band took the stage, and the bar filled up fast. Michael made sure things ran smoothly, standing near the back of the bar to keep an eye on things. He caught a glimpse of Fritz in the back corner watching the stage. He had planned to talk to him, but he lost sight of him when the band finished their first set and took a break.

  “Michael, I need some more vodka,” Marcus, one of the human bartenders he hired said. “Can you spare a minute?”

  Since Marcus' hands were full with orders, Michael went to get it. Much to his surprise, when he walked through the back into the storage room, he found Fritz and Jazlyn tangled up in a hot kiss. A rumbling growl from Fritz’s chest told Michael that he didn’t really want to be disturbed, and he would cut the kid some slack. Even if he was below him in the pack, wolves didn’t mess around with other wolves and their women. It was just a rule. Grabbing the vodka, he made a mental note to keep an eye on things. If the brothers didn’t like Fritz pawing their sister, he didn’t want the young wolf's picture to wind up on a milk carton.

  In the end, though, it hadn’t mattered. Faces flushed from whatever base they had gotten to in the back room, Jazlyn and Fritz walked straight up on stage, and she appeared to be introducing him to her brothers. They looked shocked at first, and then they laughed and clapped him on the back like old friends. Even the mountain man seemed to crack a smile and nod at Fritz.

  Jason joined him at the bar. Gesturing with his head to the stage where Jazlyn was now singing a bluesy song and Fritz stood just off stage with Shayne, he said, “They’re mates.”

  “What?” Michael’s brain stalled out in shock.

  Jason nodded. “Yeah, you know that instantaneous I’ve-found-my-mate thing that some wolves get? Like really true love at first sight?”

  “I’ve heard of it.”

  Jason said, “Now you’ve seen it in person. From what I could hear of the conversation on stage, they locked eyes across the room, and she jumped him in the storage room. Neat, huh?”

  Michael snorted. “Some guys have all the luck.”

  “Hey, it could be worse. You could have to deal with that big ape as an in-law.”

  Michael spent the night in deep thought. Even after the bar closed and he was home alone in bed, he tossed and turned for a long time thinking about what he’d seen. For most wolves, their mate was someone they knew for a long time. They would just grow into their love and know that the person was meant to be their mate. Like Jason and Cadence. Jason knew when he was eleven and she was nine that they were meant to be together. And his parents – they’d been teenagers and in the same pack, and one day they’d just known. A wolf could choose another wolf or human as a mate, even if they didn't feel that mate-pull, but he'd always thought that was kind of selfish. It was like saying, 'I'm going to settle for less than ideal because I'm tired of looking'. What had happened to Fritz tonight was something of legend. Just looking at someone and knowing they were meant to be with you? He could tell it was true. It was all over Jazlyn and Fritz’s faces. They were in heaven because they’d found their soul mates, their truemates.

  Some wolves really did have all the fucking luck.

  * * * * *

  “Come on,” Cadence smiled at him, rubbing her hand absently over her swollen belly. “It’s the first weekend of the Temple County Fair. I haven’t been in years.”

  “I’m just not really in the mood, Cades.” He yawned and leaned against the counter in his mother’s kitchen while Cadence tried to eat her body weight in French toast. Since spring, it had been his habit to come over for Saturday morning breakfast with his grandfather Abraham, Jason and Cadence.

  “What’s to be in the mood about?” she said between syrupy bites. “We’re going to hang out and eat. There’s even some kind of cool exhibition boxing match at eight, and Jas got us tickets. So, yeah, you’re going.” She made a stabbing gesture at him with her French toast laden fork.

  “Is that an order or a friendly request?” He smirked. Why the hell was he so moody today? Before he could think on it further, a hand clapped down on his shoulder.

  “Consider it a friendly request to start, brother,” Jason said with a low voice.

  “Fine. I give up.” He put his hands up in surrender and waited for Jason to take the vise-like grip off his shoulder. Cadence beamed at Jason, and Jason moved over and kissed her and then sat down next to her.

  “Fritz has asked to leave the pack,” Jason said after taking a drink of coffee.

  “What?” Michael said, stunned.

  “Yeah. Jazlyn and her brothers don’t want to join the pack. Fritz asked to go rogue so he could be with them on the full moon, too. He’s going to keep working for the garage, and they’re going to keep playing at the bar. When those brothers of hers get mated, they’re going to be a pack for all intents and purposes. His house is outside of Allen, so territory isn’t a problem. I guess they’ve all been living together for the last week.”

  “Seems fast,” he mused, even as jealousy streaked through him.

  Jason shrugged. “It doesn’t have to be slow to be right. Look at Linus and Karly. She knew right away that they were mates because it was her destiny. He spent a whole day freaking out about why he wanted her so badly until he realized that she was meant to be his truemate. Fritz said that the first night, his wolf was so loud in his head that he couldn’t even consider that he hadn’t met his mate. It just felt right.”

  “But sometimes wolves don’t find a truemate, right?” Cadence asked.

  “Sure, if they don’t feel connected to a wolf in their home pack and they don’t move on and expand their horizons. There’s nothing wrong with settling down with someone that you love and having a family while knowing that they aren’t really your truemate. Some of the couples in our pack did that, but many of them found their truemate,” Jason answered, playing his finger around the edge of the coffee mug.

  “Wouldn’t your wolf bother you if you settled?” She swiped her finger through the syrup left behind on the plate and popped it into her mouth.

  Their father, Peter, spoke up. “Did Jake and Renee seem happy?”

  She blinked in confusion.

  He smiled endearingly. “Jake’s truemate was a woman from another pack down south. They met in high school during a full moon gathering of several packs. At the time, Jake’s grandfather was alpha of the Garra Pack, and Jake’s father had taken off to start his own pack. The she-wolf had been given away to another pack’s alpha to solidify an alliance. Jake protested to the alpha on her behalf, but he wouldn’t release her from the agreement. Jake offered to fight for her, but she didn’t want to disappoint her family even though she admitted they were meant to be mates. So he knew his truemate was out there, but he and his wolf pretty much resigned themselves to the loss. He fell in love with Renee eventually, and I never doubted that he loved her as much as he could. He told me once that there were times when he ached for that connection, but that he never regretted his life with Renee.”

  “That would suck,” Cadence said finally.

  They all agreed.

  Later that morning, a large group of them drove an hour north to the fairgrounds. His parents, Cadence and Jason, Linus and Karly with their baby boy Remy, Linus’ mom and grandparents, and Bo walked around the large fair. For the better part of the day, they took their time wandering around the big tents filled with booths, and he and Bo were tasked
with running purchases out to the parking lot.

  Linus and Karly left after they ate a greasy dinner of everything fried they could get their hands on. Little Remy, born in April, was a good baby, but he’d had his fill of crowds, apparently, and so had Karly. It was heartwarming for Michael to see his childhood friend in the role of attentive father. Linus was one whipped puppy when it came to Karly. There wasn’t anything that he wouldn’t do for her. Once more, Michael felt like he was destined to be alone forever.

  And then he saw her.

  Heaven in a short skirt.

  Near the tent-covered arena where the boxing matches were going to take place in a couple hours, the sweet, heavenly beauty was chatting up a few men, laughing and casually touching their arms. His beast sat up and whined. Immediately, everything in his body went on alert.

  Without even realizing that his feet were moving, he was suddenly next to her as the other men left with brochures in their hands and smiles on their faces. He looked down into her face as she looked up into his.

  “Hey, sweetie, like to work out?” She smiled sweetly, a lush movement that made him picture that mouth on his cock.

  He looked up at the booth. It read “Stone’s Gym”.

  He remembered to answer her. “Sure.”

  “I’m Shyne. I teach group fitness at the gym, but it’s a lot more than just me bouncing around in tight shorts.”

  Now that he’d like to see.

  “I’m Michael.” He felt like a total idiot. Like he’d never spoken to a woman before. Come on man, get it together!

  She handed him a brochure, and their fingers touched for a moment. She straightened slightly and blinked at him. Beautiful dark brown eyes flecked with gold looked up at him. Their fingers stayed like that for long enough that he was sure of three things. One: she was gorgeous. Two: she was not a wolf but human. Three: she was his mate.

  She pulled her fingers away and blushed. Her skin was a lovely shade of coffee with cream, darkly tanned enough to speak of a parent that wasn’t white. Her jet black hair was long and tied back into a high ponytail. The white golf shirt she wore highlighted the lovely shade of her skin and showed off her fit physique. Short, about five and a half feet of gorgeous, she had curves everywhere and great legs that peeked out from under the black skirt.

  He looked at the brochure. The gym was in Dalton. That was only about a half hour north of Allen. He could totally swing going there and working out. A rumbling growl suddenly alerted him to the three hulking men behind the counter of the booth. Glancing at them, he felt his wolf’s hackles rise, and he scented them discreetly. Hyenas. All three of them.

  Completely oblivious, Shyne said, “These are the owners, Dante, Cairo and Mason. Cairo’s boxing in the match tonight. Are you going?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Great, I’ll see you there, then.” She gave him another smile, and it was more genuine than the first one. Suddenly, the man she’d called Dante was at her side with his arm on her shoulder. He whispered something to her, and she nodded and then seemed to try to extract herself from under his hand. Michael wanted to break his hand off for touching her.

  Dante was taller than Michael by several inches. And wider. He gave Michael a hard look as Shyne turned away from them and went back into the booth and rummaged through a box.

  Michael gave the stare back as good as it was given to him. He didn’t blink until the hyena turned with a snort of derision and went back into the booth. Michael turned and walked away to find his family and friends and read over the brochure. He figured a good way to get to know Shyne was to spend time at the gym. The hyenas seemed possessive of her, but he knew a little something about their kind, and they obviously hadn’t claimed her yet. There was no way that a hyena clan would let their mate touch other men so casually like that. And more than that, she didn’t seem to want Dante to touch her either, which told Michael that she wasn’t in a relationship of any sort with them. That was a very good thing.

  He watched Shyne during the boxing match. She stood off to the side in the corner of the one named Cairo, who was as big as any man he’d ever seen except for Shayne. What was it with huge guys shaving their heads? As Cairo beat his opponent soundly, Shyne cheered for him. He hoped it wasn’t just wishful thinking on his part that there was nothing between her and them except friendship and a working relationship.

  Monday afternoon, in between the end of the day at the garage and the start of his shift at the bar, he, Bo, and a handful of other wolves from the pack drove up to Dalton and signed up for the short-term membership of three months. Michael figured if he couldn’t win Shyne over in three months then he didn’t deserve her. Even if she wasn’t a wolf, she knew there was a connection between them, and that was all he needed to get a foot in the door.

  As the bouncy receptionist gave them a tour, he got a nice eyeful of Shyne teaching a large class. She wore a tight aqua tank with black form-fitting shorts. Even through the glass he could see her body glistening with sweat and the sheer concentration on her face as she called out instructions to the class. Her toned body was every inch as incredible as he’d imagined. Lightly muscular arms, a perfectly flat belly, and shapely legs. Not to mention that incredible ass.

  Oh, yeah. He was definitely going to get his mate.

  Chapter 3

  “Hey, Michael.” Shyne smiled on Tuesday night. “You joined!”

  She had met Michael at the fair on Saturday. He was just amazing. Sandy blond hair cut in a tousled way, bright blue eyes, and the most perfect set of lips. The tight black sports shirt he wore showed off a nice chest and stomach, muscular but not overly so. Personally, she preferred a man with a nice body, not crazy muscular like most of the meat-heads at the gym — not to mention the owners. She liked her man to take care of himself but not be insane about it. She knew a lot of the women in her classes swooned over Dante, Cairo, and Mason, but she wasn’t one of them. If she liked Mason, it was because of his sweet personality, not his muscles on top of muscles.

  Michael slung a bag over his shoulder as he checked in with Kathy. He flashed Shyne a smile that was all perfectly straight white teeth and a dimple for days. “You were very convincing, Shyne.”

  “Aw, thanks. So you want to bounce around with me?” Mortified, she blushed hard and groaned. Fucking great, woman. “I mean, did you want to take my class?”

  “Maybe I’ll sit in sometime.” He grinned further, and the dimple deepened. Oh, to kiss it. That would be heaven.

  “You do that.” She smiled at him.

  He walked away with a wink to stow his bag in the locker room, following a few of what appeared to be his friends. Kathy had flirted with all of them, but Michael had ignored her completely. He got points in her book for that.

  Shyne's schedule had filled up fast. Already she had enough new recruits from the weekend and contacting current gym members to have a class every night during the week. She tried to shake things up with what was offered, including high impact, low impact, step, and fat-burning workouts.

  The boys worked in shifts. Cairo opened the gym. Mason came in around lunchtime. Dante stayed until closing. The strange thing was that since she’d met Michael on Saturday, they had been acting weird. Trying to get closer to her. She had caught a jealous vibe from them the moment she met Michael.

  She couldn’t figure out why, but she liked Michael right away. It felt like they had an instant connection on some deep level. And she really wanted to ask for his number or give him hers at the fair, but Dante had pulled her away and then Michael was gone. She was so happy to see that among the men named Michael who had joined up for the fair special, he was one of them.

  Trav thought she was just horny. Maybe. But it seemed like more than that. Did she believe in love at first sight? Not really. But then again…

  After her class, she stood against the second floor railing and let her eyes run over the first floor. Standing in front of the mirrored back wall, Michael was doing curls with heavy dumbbel
ls, watching his reflection. Her feet were suddenly moving without her really thinking about it.

  “You’re still here,” she said, coming to stand near the weight rack. That sounded a lot more casual in my head.

  He smiled. “Sure. It’s a half hour drive from Allen up here. I wanted to make it worthwhile.”

  “That’s quite a drive.”

  “Yep. You live around here, Shyne?”

  “I have an apartment in Austin, it’s not too far from here.” She watched his bicep tense and relax. It was almost hypnotic.

  They talked casually while he worked out for a few more minutes, but then he began to stretch out his arms, and she had the sinking feeling he was leaving. He explained why he had to leave. “I’m part-time running the bar in Allen. Our pack owns it, and someone has to keep the peace. I got drafted to do that.”

  “Pack?”

  “Werewolf.”

  “Oh. Are you and your friends?” she gestured around.

  “Yeah. Does that bother you?” He stopped stretching his arm long enough to give her a serious look. There was something in those baby blues that just screamed she could trust him. And she did.

  “Nah.”

  He relaxed and went back to stretching, and she fished for some more details about his life. “Tell me about the bar.”

  “It’s not my life’s work, you know? But I don’t mind it. I’m hopeful that one of these days a manager will come in and take over so I can get back to working on bikes and cars. It’s called Jake’s, after the former owner; we never changed the name.”

  A tall, blond, muscular man strode up to them. “Yo, man, we need to hit it.”

  He held out a bag to Michael, and he straightened and took it. “Right.”

  The man who gave him the bag raked his eyes up and down the length of her body, and it made her want to retch. Michael cleared his throat in a way that sounded like he was growling, and the man glanced at him with a nod, turned, and walked out.