The Omega's Mate:

by E A Price

  21st January

  Cain awoke to find his mate sleeping peacefully on his chest. She was curled up like a kitten, and emitting the sweetest little moans. It was a heavenly way to wake up. His bear groaned ecstatically.

  Cain stroked a hand down her back and tried to shift his position without waking her. The bed really was terrible. For one thing, it was lumpier than badly cooked oatmeal. For another, it was too small. His feet hung off the end, and it wasn’t wide enough for Cain and another person to sleep side by side. Not that he was really complaining about that. He was more than pleased at having his mate sleeping on top of him.

  He jerked slightly as a spring dug into his shoulder. Carly stirred, and rubbed her cheek against his chest.

  “Morning,” she murmured.

  Cain stroked his fingers through her hair. “Morning beautiful.”

  Carly snorted. She seriously doubted she looked very beautiful at that moment. She was not a morning person. She pushed against his chest until she sat up, straddling him, ignoring her aching muscles.

  There was no way she was going to admit it to her mate, but last night had been just an iddy bit exhausting for her. Not that she was complaining. No siree! Her wolf was deliriously happy at the outcome, and honestly, so was she. She’d just never been with someone with quite so much stamina, or someone quite so large…

  She stretched her arms over her head, and Cain placed his hands on her waist, rubbing his thumbs over her ribs. Damn he was so big, he made her look petite.

  She ran her hands over his thick arms and smiled. “I had a wonderful time last night…”

  “You’re not going to thank me again, are you beautiful?”

  Carly’s cheeks turned pink. Cain abruptly sat up and nuzzled her neck. “You don’t have to thank me for loving you.”

  “Duly noted.”

  Carly folded her arms round him, and they sat entwined for a little while. Eventually, she sighed. “I should really get going.”

  He wrapped his arms around her tightly. “No, you should really stay here.”

  She kissed his ear. “I’d love to, but I have responsibilities.”

  Cain licked her neck. “Blow them off.”

  “I wish I could, but I can’t.”

  Carly started to wriggle away from him. With a protracted huff, he stood up, taking her with him. “Fine, but I’m at least gonna watch you shower before you go.”

  *

  Two hours later, Carly finally managed to make it out of Cain’s room, both showered and dressed. It had been hard work.

  Cain deposited her in the small shower and watched lustfully as she soaped her rounded curves. Unable to help himself he reached out to caress her. She slapped him away and told him to behave, but that only made him worse. Eventually, she had been so aroused she leapt into his arms, and they had sex against the bathroom wall.

  When she finally did manage to finish showering, Cain went wild again at seeing her in the yellow underwear. This time they tried out the sturdiness of the table.

  Finally, Carly cried ‘uncle’, and insisted she really should get going. This time she took the precaution of locking him outside of the bathroom, while she once again showered and dressed. She came out to find a very grumpy bear.

  She sent him soothing tendrils, and reassured him there was no rush. They had the rest of their lives to be together.

  Cain grinned like a kid on Christmas morning. He liked the sound of that. He took her hand and started leading her out the room.

  Carly tugged his hand. “I should go out the back way.”

  “What? Why?” His bear grumbled loudly.

  “I just think we should be a little… careful. I mean, no one else needs to know we spent the night together.”

  Cain didn’t like the sound of that at all. He was fully prepared to shout it out from the rooftops that Carly was his.

  Carly tried to reassure her scowling mate. “It’s just that it’s nobody else’s business. I don’t want people gossiping about us.” She trailed her fingers up his stomach. “What we have is special, and I want it to stay between just the two of us for a while.”

  Cain could give a crap whether anyone else gossiped about them. But when she looked at him with those pretty, beseeching eyes, there was no way he could hold out. She could have a kidney if she wanted it, both in fact.

  “Fine, but you meet me at the Diner in five minutes. If you’re late, I’m coming to find you.”

  “Deal.”

  Carly moved past him to the door, rubbing her curves against him as she went. “Tease,” he growled.

  The she-wolf pouted over her shoulder and opened the door to find her pack mate, Jimmy, standing there.

  “Oh hey Carly… wait Carly?!”

  Carly’s face suffused red as Cain walked up behind her, and placed his hands on her shoulders. Jimmy looked between the two of them a few times, trying to work out what was going on. Not the brightest bulb… When it finally dawned on him, he smirked and winked at the Omega, eliciting a furious growl from the bear.

  Jimmy cleared his throat. “There’s a guy going nuts downstairs, says he wants to talk to you.”

  Cain narrowed his eyes. “I’m surprised you didn’t just let him into my room. Or didn’t he give you twenty bucks?”

  Jimmy turned beet red. “Yeah, umm sorry about that, so anyway this guy…”

  “Who is it?”

  “Didn’t give a name, but he’s a jackal if that helps.” Jimmy shrugged and started walking away.

  Carly twisted to look at him. “Someone you know?”

  “My manager,” said Cain tightly. “Oh well, no point you going out the back now is there?”

  Before Carly could protest, she was dragged downstairs to find a very irate jackal shifter, pacing in front of the Bed and Breakfast. Carly almost jumped when he started shouting at Cain.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing? I’ve been calling, and calling you. What the fuck?!”

  Cain looked at Carly wryly. “Carly, my manager Bailey. Bailey, my mate Carly.”

  Bailey looked at the little she-wolf with loathing. She was the reason he was losing his meal ticket. “You made a promise Cain. You said you’d fight the polar bear. You can’t back out of it now; I’ll sue you for breach of contract!”

  Cain bellowed with laughter. “Go ahead, I don’t have anything.” He rubbed his mate’s arm. “That doesn’t bother you, does it beautiful?”

  She looked at him with adoring eyes. “Of course not.”

  Ugh, Bailey wanted to vomit. This awful little she-wolf was ruining everything!

  Carly bit her lip. “But I think maybe you should fight.”

  Bailey’s eyes lit up. Yes, let the she-wolf speak!

  Cain furrowed his brow. “You do? I kind of thought you didn’t approve of me fighting.”

  “Well, I’m not thrilled about it, but if it’s what you want, then of course I don’t mind. Besides, if you gave him your word, you should honor it.”

  Cain beamed at his mate. God she was perfect, had he mentioned that before? He looked between Bailey’s smarmy grin and Carly’s tender smile, and came to a decision.

  “I’ll fight the bear, but after that I’m done.”

  “But… but…” spluttered the jackal.

  “Not buts. One last fight and that’s it. After that, I’m retired.”

  Cain hunched slightly and brought his mate’s hand to his mouth, placing a kiss on the back. Her stomach did flips; how could she have ever thought he wouldn’t be gentle?”

  Bailey’s nostril’s flared. He wanted to scream and shout at Cain, but what was the point? The little wolf had him in the palm of her hand. He’d seen the bear go a bit ga ga for women before, but nothing like this… Maybe it was just an infatuation. Maybe in a week or two the bear would be over her and would come crawling back to Bailey. Yeah, he liked the sound of that…

  The jackal plastered an insincere smile on his face. “Alright, fair enough; will you be training
with…”

  “I’ll sort out my own training,” interrupted Cain, his bear was growling furiously at the jackal. He could scent the jackal’s animosity towards his mate and wanted him gone before he had to do something drastic, like rip his head off.

  Bailey held up his hands. “Fair enough, so I guess I’ll see you at the fight.”

  Cain nodded before furrowing his brow. “Just one thing, how did you know I was here?”

  The jackal’s eyes darted around. “I tracked your phone. Which I had to start doing after you decided to run off to Chicago, with those hot, twin, fox shifters a couple of months ago.”

  Bailey gave the couple a nasty smile, before strutting to his car. He hopped in his car, and speed dialed Ethan. The young, brown bear was currently distributing flyers throughout Darlington, promoting the upcoming fight. Bailey told him it was what Cain wanted, so the brown bear hadn’t argued. Bailey was going to miss having Ethan as a lackey; all he had to do was tell the young bear that Cain wanted him to do something, and hey presto he did it.

  He imagined Ethan wouldn’t be too happy with Cain’s decision. Although Bailey still lived in hope that he’d change his mind. A week of full-on Cain and the she-wolf would be sick of the sight of him. A seven foot, obsessive, Kodiak bear was hard to take.

  Chapter Ten

  “Seriously Cain, it’s fine.”

  Carly led her mate into the Honeypot Diner, trying to allay his worries. Cain had been about to explain what Bailey meant about the foxes, but Carly shushed him. She really didn’t want to know. She could come to terms with his wilder sexual adventures before he met her, just as long as she didn’t have to hear about them.

  Cain started to protest, but Carly squeezed his hand. “Really, it doesn’t matter. You go sit down; I just need to say hello to a friend.”

  He gave her a lopsided smile and leaning down kissed the tip of her nose. He ambled off to a quiet booth at the back of the Diner.

  Trying not to look too pleased, Carly bid hello to Kira and her mate Gabe, who were canoodling at the counter.

  Kira gave her a half hug. “Hey Carly, did you have a nice evening last night?”

  Umm… “Yes, just a quiet one at home.” People would find out eventually; they just didn’t need to know just yet.

  Gabe pretended to look thoughtful. “Huh. Well, apparently your car had more fun. It spent the entire night outside the Bed and Breakfast.”

  Carly blushed. “How do you…”

  Gabe grinned. “It’s all over town. I don’t want to point fingers, but I’d blame Mrs Martin. She’s got better intel than the CIA, FBI and Interpol put together.”

  Kira bit her lip, and Carly sensed her worry. “What is it?”

  “It’s probably nothing… but your guy came in here the other day, and he was flirting with Carrie…”

  Carly’s face fell as her wolf whined. What is it with her men and that damn human?

  Kira immediately flooded with guilt. “I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s none of my business, I…”

  Carly shook her head. “No, it’s fine. I’m sure there’s a perfectly innocent explanation.”

  She was ninety-nine percent sure of that, and she was damned if she was going to run off half-cocked again before finding out the truth. She bid goodbye to her pack mates and sat by her mate.

  “Why were you flirting with Carrie when you came to the Diner the other day?” Carly asked abruptly.

  Cain blinked at her, but after a few beats tangled his fingers in her hair. “To find you, I was looking for anyone who could give me information. My so-called friends wouldn’t tell me where you were, so I had to try a different tack. She seemed the easiest candidate.”

  She certainly is easy, thought Carly, unkindly. She shook her head, trying to chase the mean thoughts away.

  “Okay,” said Carly, mollified. “It’s just that she’s… she’s the woman my last boyfriend left me for.”

  Cain’s eyes widened in surprise, before darkening in fury. “What asshole would leave you for her? Guy’s a fucking moron and doesn’t deserve to even look at you!” His bear wanted to hunt the fucker down, and rip him to pieces.

  Carly flushed in happiness at his response. She leaned against him. “Thank you for saying that.”

  Cain wrapped an arm round her. “Yeah well, it’s the truth.”

  “Are you sure you want to stop fighting?”

  Cain lifted her chin to look at him. “Definitely. Fighting used to be the most-important thing in my life, but now that’s you. I don’t want to spend hours training and fighting, when I could spend them with you. Besides I don’t want always to be running off when we have cubs…”

  She felt a fluttering in her sex, as her wolf yapped excitedly. “You want kids?”

  “Yeah, I want to have them with you.”

  “They might not be cubs…”

  “Doesn’t matter, do you want kids?”

  Carly nodded shyly, and his bear howled into the sky.

  Cain stroked her cheek. “One more fight beautiful, and I’m done.”

  “Thank you.” She didn’t really like to admit it, but she was relieved. The thought of her mate fighting made her anxious, anxious that he might get hurt….

  “Seriously beautiful, you have to stop thanking me.”

  “I can’t help it, I know it’s only been a few days, but I’m just so glad I met you,”

  “Well, that makes two of us.”

  *

  Carly hummed as her wolf yipped impatiently. After a long-drawn-out breakfast, because Cain didn’t want to let her go, they had reluctantly gone their separate ways. Carly had things to sort out at her shop, and Cain went to do some training. After Carly had begged him, Adam permitted Cain to use the pack recreation center to train. It had been conveniently built with a small gym for pack members. Adam was still smarting a little at Cain’s behavior, but given the fact that Cain was Carly’s mate, he didn’t feel he could say no.

  They had agreed to meet at the pack owned Bar Luna in town that evening. Carly raced home, took a long bath, and then spent more than an hour agonizing over what to wear. She’d dug out her one miniskirt and tried teaming it with a tight sweater. Ugh it showed every lump and bump. She then tried a pair of jeans, with a plaid shirt. She looked like she was going to saddle a horse. After that, there was a hippyish long dress, a plain black dress she reserved for funerals, before finally a pair of slacks and a cardigan that made her look like she was going to teach Sunday school. She decided she didn’t have any good clothes!

  In the end, she settled on a pair of black jeans, a red sweater and resolved to wear a pair of heeled boots that only made her wobble a little. The heels gave her three more inches, which meant that she was only a foot and a half shorter than her honey. Heavens he was big. She did a few laps of her house for practice.

  She looked around, wondering how soon Cain would move in. She assumed he would eventually. Would he like her décor? Would he want to change anything? She’d lived in the house since she was 18, and had changed it over and over throughout the years. More as something to do, than anything else. She wasn’t averse to changing anything to make her mate feel welcome.

  Her parents left the pack when she was a teenager. Her father was forced to leave. Her father had always been aggressive towards her mother, but no one dared do anything about it. Her father had been the Beta of the pack. He loved her mother, in his own twisted way, but hated sharing her as an Omega. He took his frustrations out on her mother with his fists.

  The old Alpha didn’t care at first; as far as he was concerned, wolves could treat she-wolves how they pleased. They were their property. However, things got so bad that her mother started to lose her Omega abilities, which meant the rest of the pack were suffering. Under pressure, the Alpha kicked her father out of the pack. Her mother, however, chose to go with him. Carly was not invited.

  Carly could remember them leaving. Her mother hugged her, kissed her and cried. She said
she was sorry, over and over, before she left Carly forever. Her father didn’t say a word; there wasn’t enough love in his heart for anyone but his mate.

  After that, Carly became the pack Omega. She lived with Acksel and Hans’ family until she turned 18, and then she was given her own home.

  It was a comfortable little house; she couldn’t deny that. But it was quiet. She was more than ready to fill it up with her own family. Her wolf prowled her mind. The sooner, the better.

  Damn, look at the time! She was going to be late.

  She grabbed her coat and purse, tottering to the door as fast as her unfamiliar heels would allow. She threw the door open, and was faced with a very surprised looking Isaiah.

  Isaiah was an older member of the pack whose true mate had died about five months ago. He had taken it hard. Carly had spent a lot of time trying to comfort the older wolf. Not an easy thing to do, Carly understood that losing your true mate was excruciating.

  Isaiah’s face crumpled even more when he saw her. “I’m sorry. You’re on your way out.”

  Carly almost hesitated. She almost told her pack mate that yes, she was going out, and she would see him some other time. But she didn’t. Her Omega nature shone through, and she immediately reached out to soothe her troubled pack mate.

  “No Isaiah, please come in. I’ll make us some tea, and we can talk.”

  Isaiah nodded and sniffled, allowing the small she-wolf to maneuver him into her house. Carly considered trying to call Cain, but she didn’t actually have his number. And she didn’t really want to make Isaiah feel even worse than he did, by admitting he was cutting into her plans.

  Cain would understand if she were a bit late wouldn’t he?

  *

  Cain looked up at the door every time it opened. Carly was two hours late, and his bear was howling in fury.

  Damnit! Why the fuck hadn’t he taken her phone number? He could have called and found out where the hell she was.

  He noticed the pack Alpha at the bar, fawning over his mate, he was surrounded by a few other wolves. None that would pose any real threat to Cain. He’d considered storming over to the Alpha, and demanding he help Cain find Carly, but he controlled himself. For now.