Fated Mate: Paranormal Werewolf Romance (Fated Mountain Wolf Pack Book 1)

by Jessica Aspen

  Psychedelic oranges, reds, and purples pulsed behind her eyelids. She screamed, heat and electricity blinding her to everything but the fantastic colors blotting out her vision.

  Aaron’s orgasm inside her brought her over the edge again, and again in shades of pomegranate, writhing and screaming, climaxing hard around his cock, her fingers digging in to his shoulders.

  Gwynn didn’t know how long it took to come down. Slowly, the electric pulses disappeared into tiny tingles and the colors faded. She opened her eyes and the world swam.

  “What’s happening?” She was nestled snug against Aaron, held in his familiar vise-like grip. “My skin, it’s burning up.”

  “Sh, my love. It’s the Fever.” Aaron’s voice was low and calm. Gwynn lifted a hand to her bruised neck and it came away red with blood.

  “Aaron, what did you do?”

  “I claimed you,” he said, his voice filled with smug satisfaction.

  “You bit me? You said I wouldn’t become a wolf.”

  “You shouldn’t.”

  The world slowed its spinning. Gwynn looked at Aaron. His face was calm. “You seem better.”

  “I’m better. How are you?”

  “Weird. My vision is blurry, and I’m hot. Is there any water?”

  He got her a glass, and stroked sweat-sticky hair back from her forehead. “The lore says you’ll be sick, fevered. And then a little off for a day or two if you don’t become a shifter. If you do, then we have a whole other issue.”

  “I should have asked. Are we still mated if I don’t change?”

  Aaron’s face stretched into a smug smile. “You’re mine, all mine, honey. No one will stand between us.” His expression got serious. “I will always be here for you. I love you, Gwynn.”

  Joy swelled inside her. “I love you too.” She snuggled into his arms, warm and secure in his love.

  She’d made the choice to stay with Aaron and be his partner. Be his mate. And best of all, he wasn’t leaving. Ever. The future was an open book for her to write her own story, but for the first time, she wouldn’t be writing it alone. Was he perfect?

  The thought made her smile. Absolutely not. But in Aaron, she’d finally found a man she could trust with her heart.

  Afterward

  Gwynn sat on the front porch, letting the heat of the sun steal away the chill of a late afternoon in the Rockies. From behind, she sensed her mate approaching long before he nuzzled the back of her neck.

  “Hey, are you okay?”

  A rush of love filled her. She reached around and took Aaron’s hand, pulling him around so she could see the crinkle of worry in his forehead. “I’m fine. Stop worrying.”

  “Of course I’m worrying. You’ve only just transitioned. And now you’re pregnant. It’s too soon. You should have had time to get used to running as a wolf before the baby.”

  “It’s fine. I’m fine.” She placed his hand on her still mostly flat belly. “We’re fine.” She smiled, the warmth of the sun radiating like the warmth of her love. And the mating bond. “I have more than enough nursemaids fussing over me without you fussing too. Besides, this one is little more than a nubbin, we have a long way to go. At least seven more months. Plenty of time for worry. And we have years before he or she is given the bite and we have to deal with an adolescent werewolf.”

  “Shifter.” He rolled his eyes at her giggle. “Tease. Seriously, are you feeling okay?”

  “Seriously, I’m fine. Dr. Lana says it’s a normal pregnancy, so stop worrying.”

  There’d been enough worries to take care of. Making Leon’s death look like it had happened at the hands of the mob. Leaving her job in Denver, her apartment, her friends. Luckily, all she’d had to do was show off her engagement ring and her sexy new fiancé and her friends had wished them all the best and sent her off to live in the wilds of the Rockies.

  He knelt down on the wooden deck planks and placed his head on her knee. “I can’t help it.”

  “I know. But I need you to be more than a nursemaid. I need you to be my mate.”

  “Isn’t that what I’m doing?”

  She laughed, and took a deep breath of the fresh mountain air. She wasn’t a city girl any longer. Now she lived on Fated Mountain Ranch in one of the guest cabins and worked in town at the deli owned by the Wulfric brothers. They’d leased out Aaron’s grandfather’s ranch to a fellow shifter since neither one of them wanted to work the land, but somehow she’d still ended up surrounded by sheep, horses, and fences. Not a life she’d ever dreamed of, but it turned out to be the best dream she’d ever had.

  “Of course, but I need you to be more than a future dad.” She took his hand and brought it up to her breast. “I still need you to be my lover.” A tremor went through her mate, a tremor reflected inside her own body. “You know, we have months...and it’s perfectly safe.”

  They were connected in a way she’d never known she could be with a man—body, heart, and soul. And now, they were sharing so much more than even she’d expected. They could run through the woods together, leap side by side into a cold mountain lake. Curl up in the snow, the fur from their wolf bodies keeping them warm.

  And soon they’d be parents.

  She was terrified but with her mate beside her, she could face anything. Even being a shifter and a mother.

  Aaron’s eyes gleamed. “Are you asking for what I think you’re asking for?” He slid his hand inside her shirt, stroking her breast. Her breathing quickened. “Here? Now?”

  “Of course not, silly.” She rose from the chair and gave him a wicked smile as she stripped off her shirt. Her nipples tightened in the breeze. Through their bond she felt his responding rise of desire, and it shuddered through her center, making her wet with desire of her own. She stripped off the rest of her clothes. “Catch me if you can.”

  The shift rolled through her. At first shifting into a wolf had been strange and awkward, but now she welcomed it. Becoming a wolf meant freedom. And power. She was strong now, in ways she’d never known she could be. Now, she could fight tooth and claw to protect her mate, just like he’d always protected her. And they could share the wild landscape of Fated Mountain in a way she’d never thought possible, as two wild wolves running through the trees and grass.

  She raced past him, laughing at his struggle with belt and boots and jeans. By the time he’d shifted, she was far down the ranch house driveway, heading for the path that would take her to the creek, and the spot they’d claimed as their own. She glanced back. He’d made up for his initial slowness and was almost on her. Should she let him catch her?

  Nah. With a joyous yip, she ran faster, glorying in the feel of four paws hitting the dirt. She was a wolf. Soon to be mother. And a mate to the only man she’d ever love. What more could anyone ask for? Two mates, forever. It was fate, and Aaron was her fated mate.

  Sooo good!!!

  Want more hot shifters and Fated Mountain wolves?

  Oh yeah, baby! I know you do!

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  CLAIMED MATE

  I didn’t mean to start the mating fever—especially with twins...

  Thank you for reading FATED MATE.

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  There’s more Fated Mountain waiting for you...

  Mistaken identity... An accidental kiss...And the mating fever begins...

  One-click CLAIMED MATE

  WHEN THE SEXIEST WOMAN alive walks up to Gabe and demands to make love, he knows he's met his fated mate. But will falling head-over-tail for Serena turn out to be the biggest mistake of his life?

  Serena’s move to Colorado isn’t going as planned. Her new boss hates her. She’s falling in love with the wrong twin. And a stalker is sending her roses...

  Now both brothers are suffering from mating fever—but only one man is Serena’s fated mate.

  If Serena can survive the obsessive love of a stalker one brother will
have the mate of his dreams—And the other—a chaotic fall into the wild...

  Sexy Shifter Romance you can’t put down...Buy CLAIMED MATE today

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  Fated Mountain Wolf Pack...Come to Colorado where the rivers run cold and the alphas run hot!

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  Want more sexy shifters, alpha wolves, and paranormal suspense?

  Check out RED

  When Red runs into Evan, the new forest ranger, she thinks it will be just a quick fling.

  But passions ignite. Soon Red is scrambling to hide all her secrets...

  DEAR READER,

  I love this story and I’m so excited to be actually publishing it for the very first time! I used to give a shorter (and less sexy) version of this book out as a newsletter bonus, so you may have read it as Rogue Enforcer. But this one is hotter, longer, and has that bonus scene at the end where you discover what actually happens to Gwynn. ☺

  I can’t wait for you to continue reading the whole series. They’re action packed and full of what you love—sexy alpha shifters finding their true mates!

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  -Jessica

  P.S. If you loved FATED MATE, then I know you’ll really love CLAIMED MATE, STALKED MATE and the rest of the FATED MOUNTAIN WOLF PACK romances. Every book is full of sexy alphas, romantic suspense, and fated mates... and I can’t wait to share them with you. Enjoy!

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  HUNTED

  CURSED

  ENCHANTED

  CAGED

  BESPELLED

  HIDDEN

  WANTED

  HOUNDED

  SEXY SHIFTER FAIRYTALE ROMANCES

  RED

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  And now, what you’ve been waiting for,

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  CLAIMED MATE

  Chapter One

  Vince kept out of sight behind a tall bush and watched her walk across the parking lot, her long, slim legs eating up the pavement. He wasn’t worried about her catching his scent. Like him, she was a dreamwalker, not a full shifter. Like him, she didn’t have a physical wolf. Like him, her wolf only came out to play at night—on the dreamscape.

  But unlike him she was able to use her skills to slip into people’s dreams to help people, while he was stuck pushing papers, his dreamwalking curtailed by the do-gooders in the shamans’ circle. Those jerks who controlled everything dreamwalkers and spelltalkers could do in the pack—just because he’d failed some kind of mandatory test. If he’d had a physical wolf and been a full shifter they couldn’t have used a spell to stop him: they would have had to kill him to stop him.

  If he’d had a physical wolf, he’d have been able to smell her, even from this far away. But instead he had to pull from his memory to remember the sweet, sweet scent of Serena Lowell.

  Just the thought of the way she’d smelled when he’d met her last month had his imagination running wild, all the way to how good she would taste when he had her legs wide open and his mouth diving between them. Like fresh whipped cream on hot cherry pie.

  Come here, sweet cheeks. Daddy’s hungry.

  Chapter Two

  SERENA STOOD UP AND looked at the full complement of thirteen women that made up the official Fated Mountain Pack Council. “Thank you for welcoming me to your pack, and to Fated Mountain Ranch. I’m thrilled to be here in the Colorado Rockies and, once I get my breath back, I know I’m going to love it here.”

  Smiles flashed across the women’s faces. There was a variety of ages present—from early forties up to a few very senior elders. Twelve wolf shifters and one spelltalker in all: the requisite twelve, plus one representative from the shamans’ circle—the thirteenth member. The extra non-shifter was supposed to keep the council in balance. Although, after growing up in the shadow of the Smokey Top Pack Council and not being a physical shifter herself, Serena knew better.

  The shifters ran the council and the shamans’ circle representative was regulated to merely being a small voice for a long-neglected group of their people. Dormants, the ones who carried at least one gene, but didn’t show it, they had it even worse. That’s why it was so important to her to make sure she did a good job for all of their people—those with physical wolves and those without.

  She shook hands a
nd tried to remember names until there were only three people left. Esther, spelltalker and the thirteenth member—took her hand in her chubby one and gave it a firm squeeze.

  “We’re so pleased to have you here, Serena.” Her dimples flashed in her round cheeks as she gave Serena yet another happy smile. Soft gray curls, short round shape, Esther looked like everyone’s dream grandma. Serena bet she baked a mean batch of oatmeal cookies. With raisins, of course. “I’ve heard great things about you from your shamans’ circle back in Maine. We’re so pleased to have a dreamwalker therapist of your caliber on our staff.” The diminutive gray-haired lady pulled Serena into a hug, and after a surprised few seconds, Serena hugged back. “Really glad you took the job.” Esther let Serena go and stepped toward the door. “Now, I’ll leave you with Nancy and Vince to get settled in.” She bustled after the rest of the council members.

  Serena watched her go, a little bemused by the woman’s attention. Yes, the job had been a draw. But she’d had another reason, a very powerful reason, to leave her pack and come clear across the country to Colorado. She’d had only one night to get to know Sam Wulfric and, if she were to consider taking him as a mate, she needed to know for sure that he was the one. Inside, her wolf rose, pushing her to leave these stuffy rooms and find Sam. She might not be sure if Sam was her true mate, but her wolf didn’t care. He was an alpha shifter, and that made him good breeding material.

  She shook off the memories of kissing Sam last month and turned around. Her new boss, Nancy Stalker, stood up from where she’d been sitting at the back of the small council room. Esther’s total opposite, if there ever was one. Where Esther was soft and round, Nancy was lean and mean. If Serena had to put an age to her, she’d guess close she was staring sixty hard in the face. But on second thought, Nancy might be actually a little younger. The dry winds of the Rocky Mountains hadn’t treated her skin well and her scowl seemed permanently etched into her face.