by P. Jameson
Cael is an alpha who has no mate, and he isn’t looking for one. His heart forever belongs to his long lost childhood sweetheart. Years ago, her intended mate laid claim, ripping the two of them apart. Cael has never forgiven him for the injustice. Or her, for betraying him. But even with his bitterness riding him like a bad omen, he can’t look away while she is brutally mistreated. There’s only one thing to do: exact revenge on his enemy, and deal with the woman who betrayed him later.
Isabesh is in trouble. She’s played her last hand in her alpha mate’s game of control and now her brother might pay the cost. Vesh has been exiled for treason he didn’t commit, but he’ll be left alive as long as she cooperates. The problem is, cooperating means helping her mate wage a war on the man she gave her heart to as a wolfling and his Ravendale pack. When word gets back to Ozarka that one of their own is the intended mate of the Ravendale alpha, Besh knows she’s running out of time to tell Cael the truth: that sometimes protection can look a lot like betrayal.
A Mate’s Revenge
By P. Jameson
A Mate’s Revenge
Copyright © 2014 by P. Jameson
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, redistributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in any database, without prior permission from the author.
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead,is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Other Books by P. Jameson
Ozark Mountain Shifters
A Mate’s Denial (Book 1)
A Mate’s Sacrifice (Book 2)
A Mate’s Revenge (Book 3)
Stand-Alone Holiday Novella
A Mate’s Wish (Amazon)
Prologue
“Tell me the story again! Please, mommy, it’s my very, very favorite.” Dark curls bobbed around the little girl’s shoulders as she used her knees to bounce on the mattress. “I promise I’ll go to sleep this time.”
Her mother stood in the doorway, one hand on hip, contemplating her excited request. There was no way her girl was going to sleep anytime soon, promises or not. The wolf in her was amped up on anticipation for tomorrow. It was going to be a big day.
“Alright, Stella. One more story, but then it’s lights out or I’m calling your dad.”
The girl’s grin belonged in Texas for how huge it was. “Daddy loves the story too. He wouldn’t mind.”
She sat on the bed next to her squirming eight-year-old. “Your daddy does like this story. Do you know why?”
Stella sighed dreamily. “Because it’s a story of true love, and how no matter what, love always wins. No matter what bad guys try to destroy it.”
Her mother nodded. “That’s all true, but Daddy loves this story for another reason.”
A tiny line formed between the little girl’s eyebrows. Her mother brushed random curls from in front of her face so she could see the big blue eyes that reminded her so much of another wolf.
“This is a story about family. It’s the story of how daddy’s sister, and others, were saved from a big bad wolf.”
“Like the one in Little Red Riding Hood?”
“Sort of. But this wolf was real.”
The little girl nodded somberly.
“Climb under the covers, Stella, and I’ll tell you this tale once again. At this rate, you’ll know it so well, you will be able to tell your own young.”
She anxiously pulled the blanket up to her chin and settled back against the fluffy pillow. “I’m ready.”
“There once was a boy who fell in love with a girl, but no love story is ever that simple…”
***
Vesh stared skeptically across the table at his new alpha. He’d recently sworn allegiance to Ravendale, and instead of feeling trapped by his oath, he felt oddly liberated. This was the right decision for him and his mate. After marking Braeh, she’d insisted they return to the Ozarks and find their place here. With their family.
Family. It wasn’t a term Vesh could put a good thought to, but when he considered his sweet mate and what the future held for them, the idea that they’d one day have young, that they would have their very own family… the word started to really mean something to him deep in the recesses of his darkened heart.
He’d have to thank Lexar for letting him flee the Ravendale camp so he could get to Alaska. He would’ve made it there anyway, but if Lexar hadn’t let him go, he would’ve arrived bloody and beaten, and with Lexar’s blood on his hands.
But there was still one thing Vesh needed to do before he could finally settle into feeling safe. He had Braeh and he had a home. Now he needed his sister. He needed to save her and the other innocents of the Ozarka pack. He needed to kill the sick alpha who held them all captive.
But Cael’s plan?
“It’ll never work,” Vesh argued over the blaring music of Bullseye. “You won’t get past the guards. I trained them myself.”
Cael’s returning grin was wicked. “We already have.”
“When?”
“Last fall. A few weeks before Trager’s cabin blew.”
“No way. I was in charge of securing Ozarka land. There’s not a chance you or any of your wolves snuck in there.”
His alpha raised a sharp eyebrow. “Someone left a basket of fruit on the doorstep of the school.”
Vesh remembered Farrow mentioning the mysterious gesture during one of their guard meetings, but he’d brushed it off as an act from a well-meaning pack member.
“That was you?”
Cael jerked his chin upward.
“You snuck into our camp and left a fruit basket? Not a knife stuck in the door with a note or something, but a basket of fucking fruit?”
“Pretty clever, really. It’s not threatening, so it didn’t put you on guard, yet it’s enough to acknowledge we breached your boundaries.”
Sneaky brilliant bastard. “Just… how?” Vesh bit out.
Cael took a swig of his beer. “We made friends with the cats. The panthers from Ouachita? They’re very sly. Taught us a thing or two.”
“You’re kidding me, right?”
“I don’t kid.”
Magic and his little faction hadn’t left their commune for years. Or… that’s what he’d thought.
“The mountain cats are Ravendale allies?”
Cael smoothed the long part of his hair back so it wasn’t hanging in his face. “Of a sort. Yeah.”
Well, damn. Infiltrating the Ozarka camp in the middle of the night was risky, but if the cats could teach an old dog new tricks maybe Cael’s plan could actually work.
Vesh’s gaze traveled to the dance floor where his mate was moving in a way that should be for his eyes only, and behind closed doors. He clenched his jaw tight. But he could hardly get mad since she was trying—and failing—to teach Kerrigan how to dance.
“Would we do it before or after the mating ceremony?”
“Before. I’ve already talked to Trager. He agrees, we can’t wait any longer.”
Vesh nodded. Good. His sister had suffered long enough.
“Yeah, okay. I’m in. If you say it’ll work, I believe you.”
Alpha nodded as Vesh rose from his seat, eyes lasered on the swaying hips of his mate. In unison everyone on the dance floor stopped moving and let out a loud owwoooooo before the music cut back in.
Braeh caught sight of him looming and passed Kerrigan off to Trager. “Isn’t this song perfect? Like, I dunno, your theme song?” She spun around, locking her arms around Vesh’s neck and sliding up and down his body.
He palmed her ass. “I’m not sure Maroon 5 is who I’d choose to sing my theme song.”
She turned, popping her butt against his front
. “Why not?” she called over her shoulder. “Adam Levine is hot. And he sounds very wolfy in this song. As you know, I like wolfy.”
He yanked her backward so she was flush against him, wrapping one arm around her chest, palming her shoulder to hold her in place, while the other hand wandered over her hip and across the taut skin of her belly. “Oh, he sings a good game but the follow through is what really counts. Could he really hunt you down and eat you… like I can?” Vesh inhaled deeply as his mate’s scent strengthened at his blunt words. He nibbled at the shell of her ear, his finger gently tracing her belly button. “Could he really smell your scent for miles? Like an animal… animal… animal-al?”
Braeh shivered in his arms. “He’s a total poser, isn’t he?”
“Yes.” Vesh pulled the strap of her shirt aside to see the mark he’d left when they’d mated. He loved looking at it. It grounded him. Soothed him. Worried him. But mostly comforted him. He licked it, thrilled when her skin broke out in goosebumps.
“Maybe,” he said, running his nose along the curve of her neck, “I’ll prey on you tonight, Brae.”
Her quickening breath made her chest heave, pushing her perfect breasts up and down in a way that had him mesmerized.
“Maybe. Or maybe I’ll prey on you.” She turned her head, snapping her teeth at him, and his erection went from hi, how are ya to let’s get it onnnnnn.
His mind was already thinking of the fastest way out of the bar and the most secluded place to have his way with his mate, when Trager’s voice cut through. “Vesh.”
He pulled his gaze away from Braeh’s body to clash with Trager’s in a warning. But the look on the wolf’s face gave him pause. Trager jerked his head to the side and Vesh followed the action to the problem.
Cael paced a frantic path from the corner pool table to the crowded bar and back again while Lexar seemed to be trying to calm him down.
Vesh frowned at Trager. “What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
Vesh took Braeh’s hand, pulling her along with him to the corner of the bar. “What’s the problem?” he asked Lexar, but the man just shook his head. “Alpha,” Vesh barked. It was enough to get Cael to pause his pacing. “What is it?”
“I don’t need this shit right now,” Cael muttered. “Motherfucking fuck.” And then he resumed his carpet-stomping routine. He was angry, but also, for the first time ever, he seemed… flustered. As if the likes of Thumbelina had kicked him upside the head and knocked him on his ass. His control was shattered. He needed to get it back, and fast.
Vesh let go of Braeh and stepped in the path of his raging alpha. Cael came up short, and glaring. “Out of my way.”
“Talk. What has you all tied up like this?”
Cael’s nose twitched and his face scrunched up like he’d eaten a lemon. “I can smell her. She’s all I can smell and she’s not even in the fucking building.”
“Shit,” Lexar breathed.
“Who? Who can you smell? What are you talking about?” It was all Vesh could do not to take Cael by the shoulders and shake the answers out of him.
He ran a hand through his hair, making the long strands on top fall over his face. Two deep breaths later, he finally answered. “My mate.”
Vesh jerked his head back. Mate? Alpha had a mate, and no one thought to mention this to him before?
“What the hell, Cael?”
Alpha stiffened, his face turning deadly. “Don’t talk to me like that,” he growled.
Well, at least he wasn’t floundering anymore.
“Who is she?”
Cael’s face was stormy, as he stared down at Vesh. But before he could answer, his troubled gaze was drawn to something past Vesh’s shoulder.
“You should have mentioned this before. It could throw a huge wrench in our plans. How are we supposed to get—”
“Vesh.” Trager could fuck off. This was a potentially devastating development.
“—my sister free if you’re out of your mind trying to—”
“Vesh.”
“What?” He turned a fuming stare on Trager.
Trager nodded his head toward the door. “We have a problem.”
“She’s not your problem,” Alpha snarled. “She’s mine.”
Vesh’s hair stood on end at the tone of Cael’s words. She’s mine. His mate.
Turning to see who’d just walked into Bullseye, Vesh had a moment of foreboding before his eyes landed on the last person he expected to see near Ravendale land.
Avan.
A traitor. Or maybe just another victim of Jax’s control. Whatever the case, Vesh didn’t want her anywhere near him or his family.
Her eyes scanned the room and when they landed on Vesh, a slinky, cat-like grin spread across her face.
Vesh glanced at his alpha. He looked furious enough to turn at any moment.
Shit. This was going to be fun.
Chapter One
If there was one thing Besh did well, it was make her mate mad enough to lose his carefully cultivated temper. Over the years she’d become almost proud of the ability. She liked watching him lose his cool because it meant for that split second, and for however long he raged, he wasn’t in control. And control was something he demanded. Causing him to lose it, the one thing he valued above all else, was all that really brought her joy anymore.
She didn’t even blink as Jax threw a dining chair into the wall, shattering and splintering the wood.
“Last I knew, Avan was allowed to come and go as she pleased.” Besh kept her voice a dull monotone. Not because she worried about riling him further, but because she didn’t care enough to put any inflection in it.
Her mate faced the wall with hands on hips, breathing like a bull.
“That,” his voice snapped like a whip, “was until your brother disappeared.”
“He didn’t disappear. And nobody believes he did just because you say so.”
Slowly, he turned around. “What did you say to me?”
Damn it. This was turning into something worse than just a blown temper. They’d been here many times. So many in fact, that she’d learned how to tune it out. How to fall into her far-away place and forget who she was and how she’d gotten here.
At least until the pain came.
She repeated her words because if she didn’t he’d say she disobeyed him. Which would only make things worse.
He already towered over her where she sat at the table but it wasn’t enough. “Bow,” he commanded.
Besh went to her knees without hesitation. It wasn’t the bowing she minded. Bowing meant nothing to her anymore. It didn’t mean she respected him, or that she was submitting. In order to submit, she’d have to first have a choice. But the part that was so hard to bear was what came after the bowing.
And this time… she was close to her heat. Very close. Too close.
She and Jax had a deal. If she testified against the man she’d loved, if she claimed he’d betrayed their pack, that she’d had no part in their plan to run away. If she chose the alpha, her intended mate, over him, the mate she wanted… then Jax would vow to never take her during her heat. But more importantly, and the reason she’d made the deal in the first place, he’d let Cael live. Banished. Alone. But alive.
Up until now, he’d never broken that vow.
“Lower.” Alpha’s voice boomed like an unexpected clap of thunder.
Besh bent forward until her forehead touched the floor. Wearing the robe he’d requested afforded her very little modesty. Like this, her hind quarters were on display in a way that made her feel like a damn piece of meat.
“Good, mate.” Rage seeped from his compliment as he ran a deceptively gentle hand from the cheeks of her butt, up her back, until he reached the nape of her neck.
She couldn’t beg him to stop. She’d tried that a million times in the beginning and it changed nothing. He was her mate. She belonged to him. He owned her, like a possession, whether she wanted to be owned or not.
The sound of his belt unbuckling made her stomach roll and words tumble from her mouth. “I’m close to my heat.”
He paused, his nose grazing the skin behind her ear. He inhaled deeply, taking in her scent, and even that small action made her feel sick. The thought that he might not stop, that he might make her pregnant with his young… it was the closest she’d ever felt to being desperate.
“Close,” he ground out, rubbing his erection into her thigh. “But not that close.”
Cheek pressed to the floor, she grappled with her instinct to submit. Her intended wanted to meet her heat, and as much as she hated him, her wolf wanted a young. Had in fact, waited beyond what any wolf would for offspring.
But Besh would rather die than bear the child of such a cruel man. And not because she couldn’t love the cub, but because the man would destroy any young he sired. From the inside out. Just like he destroyed the pack, his family, her.
“You’ve never broken your vow to me.” She hated how her voice quivered. And hated knowing he’d love it.
“The pack is starting to question why you haven’t contributed young. You can’t put this off forever. Now is a good time, Besh. You are ripe.”
He lifted the bottom of her robe, piling it at her shoulders.
“You said you’d wait until my last cycle. I’m far from that.”
“And you said you’d never resist me.” He spread her legs wider.
“I never have,” Besh argued. It had killed a piece of her soul, or maybe all of it, but she’d kept her end of their deal and submitted to the alpha when he’d required it.
“Your body, true, but what about the rest of you?” His whisper felt like barbed wire across her skin. “Do you think I deserve only half a mate? Your body, but not your heart?”
He deserved so much less than that.
Besh tensed as he poised his erection at her entrance. “Please!” she let her voice ring out, let her desperation show through. “Please don’t do this.”
A thunderous bang at the door of their lodge had Besh pulling in a long breath of sheer relief.