A Wolf's Mate (12 page)

It
sure was beautiful up there. Lots of snow still clinging to the mountain caps,
pine trees, a still frozen lake. Definitely a place she could spend lots of
time. She reached over and put her hand on Nick’s arm. He turned to look at
her.

“About
another five minutes and we’ll be there,” he said pulling onto a dirt road
still covered in a few inches of snow.

Five
minutes later he turned the car into a driveway. She’d expected to be some old
wood shack. That’s usually what the word cabin brought to her mind. However,
this one was the most beautiful
house
she’d ever seen. One that she’d dreamed about living in since she was a little
girl. The princess in the castle high in the hills with her Prince Charming.
Nick.

Maybe
theirs would be a story similar to beauty and the beast.

“I’ll
get a fire started and that should really warm things up,” he said.

She
followed behind him. He opened the door and quickly turned on the lights. Her
jaw dropped. The place was even more spectacular inside. Big open windows
looking out of the valley below. Custom stonework around a huge fireplace.
Chairs that looked comfortable enough to sleep in. Snuggly looking sheepskin rugs
on the floor causing her to want to be ten all over again and jump on them and
make snow angels.

“I’ll
just get this started. You want to open a bottle of wine? The kitchen’s through
there. Wine cooler’s on the left, bottle openers in the drawer by the sink.”

She
headed in the direction he pointed and finally found the light to switch on.
She stopped in her tracks. The kitchen was to die for. The island was bigger
than her whole kitchen back home. She found the cooler and pulled out a bottle
from the top rack. She could visualize herself standing here cooking them a
meal. Them standing shoulder to shoulder at the sink. Her washing the dishes
and him drying them. And then they’d head to bed where they’d make love until
the early hours of the morning. She suddenly wanted it all and his babies too.

“How’s
the wine coming along?” Nick called to her.

His
voice jarred her out of her dream scenario.

“You
okay, you look miles away?” He was in the kitchen with her now.

“Just
dreaming.”

“Everyone
needs to do that,” he said.

“And
what do you dream about?” she asked him.

He
took the bottle of wine from her and opened up a drawer and pulled out the
opener.

“Seeing
my parents again. I still miss them. I dream of showing them everything I’ve
achieved since they’ve been gone.”

What
a wonderful thing. Not dreaming of more money, a bigger house, but seeing his
parents again.

“Sometimes
I think if I could just have another hour with them that would be all
I’d
need, but then I guess then I’d what more,”
he continued.

She
smiled as he handed her a glass of wine.

“I
have to admit while I loved my father, sometimes I think I’m an awful person
because his death sort of freed me. He was a controlling man and now I’m an
adult I realize it was why my mother had to leave him.
Unfortunately
I never escaped and I still to this day live in his
shadow.”

“Ava,
he’s gone, so now you can be whatever you want. And what would that be?” asked
Nick

She
suddenly didn’t know. She was once again caught between making her dead father
proud of her, rising through the ranks, versus her dream scenario of finding
the perfect man and having more children.

“I
don’t know,” she said. “I honestly don’t know.”

He
walked over to her, took the
wineglass
from her hand, and set it on the countertop before kissing her.

For
a
werewolf,
he sure had one hell of a
kiss.

He
pulled away, looked her in the eye, and she was all his. The cliché of putty in
his hands. That was her. Maybe he was compelling her. No, that was stupid only
vampires did that, right?

Nick
swooped her up in his arms, carrying her out of the kitchen to a place she
didn’t know where. She didn’t care because he could do whatever he wanted to
her.

She
soon discovered they were in his bedroom. It was
manly
with a navy quilt and drapes, huge wooden logs acted as a headboard
and posts. He sat her down upon it and she hardly remembered or felt him
undressing her until the cool air kissed her breasts and folds as he pulled her
legs apart.

His
head went between her legs, his tongue soon finding her pussy opening.

She’d
read about men doing this to women. Envied the woman as she’d read about them
in the magazines and books that kept her entertained before she turned off the
night at light. The same ones she’d read when she’d sat with Jake when he’d
been a little boy and been throwing up or running a fever. The magazines that
took her to a far-off place where she was the center of her man’s
world
. Being loved, being lavished; being
pleasured just like Nick was doing right now.

She
bucked up toward him as her first climax build within her pussy. Yes, she’d
read about this but never dreamed it could be so wonderful and that she’d ever be
the recipient of such indulgence.

“More,
more and lots more,” she whispered as his tongue flicked against her clit.

Her
fingers dug into his quilt. Her nails weren’t
long,
but she was scared she’d make holes in the material and ruin its beauty.

She
came again and then again as he speared his tongue deep inside her.

He
pulled out and looked up at her.

“Will
you marry me?”

Now
she knew she really was dreaming.

****

Nick
stood. He’d asked her to be his wife and not because of any ulterior motive.
He’d seen her in the kitchen and dreamed about the two of them having a life
together. Standing side by side as a couple,
woman
and wolf. He bit his lip. She hadn’t accepted his proposal yet and maybe she
wouldn’t. He guessed he’d rushed things. He should have come clean before he
proposed.

Nick
sat down on the bed beside her and took her hand. “I know you’re not a
journalist. I’m sorry to say I sneaked a peek at your laptop when you were in
the shower that night.”

She
bit her lip.

“I
also know you know something about me and the rest of my friends.”

“We
haven’t been very honest with one another have we?”

He
wrapped his arm around her and she set her head on his shoulder.

“But
we have a chance to be right now,” said Nick.

“Okay,
I’m not a journalist but an agent for the Investigate Bureau who’s been sent to
investigate Dane Reynolds and do some other security checks that didn’t seem
right about some of your group.”

Nick
took a deep breath. “What do you think of us?”

“I
think you’re the nicest bunch of people I’ve met in forever.”

“And
we are but you know we’re not like you don’t you?”

She
stroked his thigh, giving him a hard-on, something he didn’t need right now.

“You’re
a werewolf aren’t you?”

 
He suddenly found the whole thing funny. “I
can assure you I’m not a werewolf and I don’t go around preying on people
during a full moon.” Nick took her hand. “I can change into a wolf when I want,
the others can too.”

“But
you’re not all wolves?”

“Nope,
some
are bears
, cougars, etc.”

“Are
you some sort of experiment that went wrong or what?”

“I
bet you read comics when you were young.”

“Actually
that was my son.”

She
stroked his thigh again.

“We
crashed here from another planet.”

“But
that’s impossible,” said Ava.

“Is
it? Before you came here did you think people like me really existed?”

She
shook her head.

“It
happened about twenty-six years ago. One night everything was fine and then the
next thing we knew something like a ball of fire hit us, which I assume was an
asteroid or even another planet. Many of us were killed, including my parents
but some of us survived. Some landed here, the rest we assume went to other
spots around the world.”

“The
fake IDs and birth certificates?”

“We
had to find a way to survive and we discovered a way to copy them, forge them.
We knew if people found out about us they’d round us up, hunt us down…”

It
was Ava’s turn to squeeze his hand.

He
looked at her. “We just want to get on with our lives, we don’t want to hurt
humans, but we want to co-exist with you.”

“Some
of you are humans, am I right?”

He
nodded. “Charlotte, Emily, Lilly and her daughter, and Melanie. Please, I beg
of you don’t turn us in, don’t take away the men they love, the daddy that
little girl has come to love. Did you know Kaitlin’s biological father beat
Lilly? Christopher loves her like his own flesh and blood. And Maisey, she’s
part wolf but she’s a sweetheart right?”

Ava
nodded.

“And
the two babies who are going to be born soon, if there’s ever a reason for us
to co-exist it’s them.”

He
meant all that he’d said and he didn’t have
any
more
to offer in a way of an argument for them. He’d fallen for this
lady, he’d argued his case, and now she could either accept his marriage
proposal or turn them in.

He
stood.

“I’m
going for a run and yes, I’ll be running as a wolf. I’ll let you think about
what I’ve said and let you decide what you want to do, even if you want to
marry me now that you know the truth. When I come back you can either arrest me
or kiss me.”

Chapter Fifteen

Ava
still hadn’t absorbed everything they’d said, everything that Nick had revealed
about himself until she’d looked out of the window and seen Nick morph into the
most beautiful- creature with a thick grayish brown
pelt
,
long,
lean legs and a
regal-looking head. She guessed he was an alpha wolf and she was tempted to run
outside and hug him. Would he ever allow her to touch him while he was in his
wolf form? Was that forbidden? She still had so much to learn about him and the
people he called his friends. She took another swig of wine, knowing she needed
alcohol to help her brain process everything.

Nick
had now disappeared from the area. Wolves howled in the background and she guessed
that was him and possibly some of his buddies.

She’d
fallen for a guy who turned into a wolf. He’d asked her to marry him.

He
was a not only a handsome man, but a loyal one, a gentleman with integrity.
Even her father would find that a great asset for a husband.

She
took a deep breath. Not only was her heart on the line but her career was too.
If she looked the other way, gave a false report, who was to say the group
would be home safe? Others might do some digging and her career would be over.
The one she’d fought so hard to get.

Will you marry
me?

How
long had she waited for a man to ask her that?

She
took another swig and pulled out the stool by the island and parked her butt
there. They were wonderful people. She loved being with them. She loved this
part of the country. Her fingers followed the pattern of the granite on the
countertop. The wolves’ howls seemed to be getting closer. Did that mean
something?

Ava
walked to the window seeing two come into view. One was Nick. She recognized
the beautiful pelt. The same color she’d seen on the patch of fur she’d found
that night.

He
took her breath away in both his beautiful forms. She stood spellbound as he
tumbled with the other wolf, thinking that’s what he and his buddies did to let
off steam, but then she screamed when she saw the other wolf began to attack
Nick. This clearly wasn’t play as they rolled on the ground, around and around
on the snow, it becoming redder as they tumbled fell through piles of it. Nick
was hurt. The other wolf had his teeth locked onto Nick’s neck. She had to do
something.

Gun,
she had her gun
in her purse.

Ava
walked over to her bag, pulled out the gun and headed outside. She had a clear
shot of the wolf so she aimed and pulled the trigger.

 
The sound of the shot echoed around the valley.
The wolf went down and it wasn’t until the other one ran away at lightning fast
speed that she realized, she’d made the biggest mistake of her life.

Nick
had been the wolf she’d shot.

She
ran over to him. He was covered in
blood
but he was breathing, barely.