The Wolf's Mate Book 1: Jason & Cadence (4 page)

And now here he was, holding a beer bottle
that she had licked in defiance and it had turned him on like
nothing else. He took a long drink, watching her watch him from
behind the bar, tasting her on the bottle and he nearly came right
there. Now that would have been embarrassing. He heard her curse
under her breath and turn back to the customers. Linus, one of his
wolves, barked out a laugh. "You are so fucking screwed right
now."

He quickly held up his hands in defense, and
it saved him from getting flattened. It was true, though. He had a
month to make her remember the mark, admit she was his, and love
him again. Sounded simple enough, in theory, but she was
complicated on a good day, which meant he was royally screwed.

Chapter
3

Several things went through Cadence’s mind as
she slammed the tray down on the counter, the loudest thought
being: Why the hell had she licked his beer bottle? It had made her
look like a fool. Groaning, she started filling orders, and pressed
her tongue in her tooth so hard and often that she thought she'd
get a blister by the end of the night.

"Hey gorgeous." Without looking up, she knew
the voice belonged to Christian, Jake's oldest son, poised to take
over the pack in another few years when Jake stepped down. He was
27, gorgeous, and arrogant.

"Hey Chris. What'll you have?"

"You, on the counter." She looked up at him
in surprise; he'd never been so blatantly flirty.

"Oh sure, let me stow my panties under the
bar and I'll be right up." She turned her back on him to grab some
glasses and he laughed, and then Jake was suddenly there,
whispering angrily in his ear.

Chris hissed. "I said I'd wait, I didn't say
I'd make it easy for him." To her he said with a velvet voice,
"Beautiful, bring up a couple beers for the guys and sing a few
with us."

She gave him a smirk and he turned away and
wove his way through the crowd that was gathering on the dance
floor in anticipation of the house band, lead by Chris, called
Shivering Fur. They were great; a little rock, country and blues
mixed together and she'd sung with them before. She could hold her
own with a mic, and the group was fun, but she couldn't help but
think that something had changed since she'd been home last. Chris
had always been friendly, because of his parents’ friendship with
her mother and she had spent a lot of time with Chris growing up,
but there had never been anything there other than, well,
nothing.

"Go on and sing a few. For me." Jake said,
giving her four beers. She fingered two in each hand, and looked at
him.

"Is something going on that I should know
about?"

He gave her blank face, which meant he was
hiding something. "Nope, darling. I can't help it if you're too
cute for your own damn good." He smiled but it was forced.
Something was definitely up. She shrugged and ducked under the
counter. She could not miss the unhappy looks from Jason's pack as
she walked up to the stage and climbed up the handful of steps,
kissing the cheeks of the other band members, including Brett,
Jake's other son. She handed off the beers and Chris was suddenly
behind her, his hand sliding across the expanse of flesh between
the waist of her skirt and the bottom of her top as he took the
remaining beer from her hand. She heard the unhappy rumbling growl
of wolves and knew one of them was Jason.

Chris tensed for a second and then relaxed
and said, "I'm glad you're back, kitten. You coming to the bonfire
Sunday?"

"Don't I always?" He was so close, almost too
close, but if it annoyed Jason then that was okay.

"Save me a dance?"

She turned her head to look up at him.
Between Jake's two boys, Chris was the best looking, with light
brown hair that fell straight to his shoulders and a constant chin
full of stubble. "Shave and I'll think about it." She smiled,
patting his cheek and ducking away from him. He laughed and pulled
his guitar over his shoulder. She sang three songs, one blues and
two rock, and then laughed all the way back to the bar as they
launched into a few Hendrix songs. Watching him from the bar while
they performed, she thought he wasn't too bad, all things
considered. But her heart betrayed her more often than not and only
wanted Jason.
Damn it
.

Cadence heard Callie before she saw her, and
she was in distress. She cast her gaze for her best wolf girlfriend
and saw that one of Jason's wolves had her wrist in a tight grip
and was trying to pull her with him out the back door. She looked
afraid. Without hesitation, Cadence grabbed the ball bat under the
counter and leapt over the bar with one hand and landed on the
balls of her feet while Jake sighed about redecorating. Closing the
distance quickly, she saw that Bruce was not taking no for an
answer.

She leveled the bat into Bruce's chest and he
flew back into a column. "You want to grope my friend in my bar,"
she dug the end of the bat into his throat and put her foot on his
crotch, pressing down until he made a strangled sort of groaning
noise. "It's a two drink minimum, you fuck."

Callie came to stand next to her. "Glad you
could make it." Cadence said to her, not taking her eyes off the
writhing guy on the ground.

"Me, too." Callie kissed her cheek. "I missed
the hell out of you."

"Say you're sorry, Brucie and I'll let your
balls survive." She pushed down and he groaned, and then she heard
Jason's voice and realized they had a crowd.

"Do it." He growled standing next to Bruce
and looking down.

"Sorry." He spat out, rubbing his chest.

She put a little more pressure on him and
Jason said her name very sternly. She looked up at him like she was
seeing him for the first time and he looked pleased but angry, and
maybe a little turned on. Of course she was probably just seeing
that last part. She pulled back, and Bruce edged himself up the
column and cracked his neck, clearly embarrassed to be put down by
a crazy half wolf, but Jason's warning growl shivered through the
group and Bruce backed down and slunk away.

The crowd cleared, even Callie backed away,
and Jason held his hand out. Cadence looked down at it like it was
made of snakes, and he sighed. "Give me the bat, Cadence."

"Afraid I'll go postal?" Her knuckles
protested the tight grip.

"No. I don't worry about you losing control.
But it's over, so give it to me."

"You're not my alpha, Jason." She spun on her
heels and stalked back to the bar, ducking under the counter and
giving the bat to Jake. "Thanks for not destroying the place." He
huffed, and she caught that little bit of reluctant pride that he
tried to keep hidden when she did dangerous things, like attacking
a full grown male werewolf with a baseball bat in the middle of a
bar full of wolves. Stupid, yes, but necessary. And she’d do it
again in a heartbeat too.

Callie sidled up to the bar and held her
hands out and Cadence leaned over and hugged her. She made her
favorite drink, Sex with an Alligator, and pushed it across the
bar, ignoring the money she held out. "What was that all about?"
Cadence dropped shot glasses on the counter and filled them with
Jack.

Callie took a sip and sighed. "Several
things, but mainly, they think I've been single long enough."

"Who exactly are they?" Cadence darted a
glance to the booth and could tell by the way that Jason was
sitting that he was listening to them. Werewolves had fantastic
hearing, even in human form. It was not a trait that she had
inherited, and she’d always thought it must be nice to hear so
easily like that.

To see if he really was listening, she
whispered to Callie in a conspiratorial way, “I think Chris looks
fucking hot tonight, don’t you?” Out of the corner of her eye, she
watched as Jason’s face contorted with rage and then there was a
loud crack as the bottle in his hand shattered.

He grunted, “Fuck,” and all his wolves were
grabbing napkins to sop up the beer. She giggled, she couldn’t help
it, and Jake leaned over her and put his big paw on the worn
counter. “You think it’s funny, but you have to clean it up.”

Peeking up at him, she saw that he was trying
to be stern but he clearly also thought it was funny. Teasing the
big bad. What a bitch. “I’ll get to it, old man. Obviously I should
wait, though, since he’s all red faced and covered in beer.”

Jake snorted, tugged on a lock of her hair
fondly, and went back to work.

Callie sighed and picked up the conversation
where it had dropped off. Talking while Cadence was working meant
stopping and starting conversations a lot. They had been friends
for a long time, almost as long as she had known Jason. Callie and
Cadence always had each other's backs, and Callie was just about
the only female wolf in their age group that didn't hate her. Since
Jason had turned his back on her, Callie and Michael had been her
only true friends. "The single males." She said finally, answering
her question.

"Fuck 'em." Cadence said. "You can screw who
you want without a commitment or you can pick a mate. You shouldn't
allow yourself to be forced into anything. Especially not by some
disgusting prick like Bruce. Ick." Cadence made a face and Callie
grinned.

"If you hadn't left me high and dry to go
better yourself in college, I might not have gotten stuck in this
mess."

"What does me going to college have anything
to do with anything?"

"Because if you were with someone, then you
could lead by example. I'm always so much better at being a bitch
when you're nearby. I don't stand up for myself when I'm
alone."

Cadence gave her a hard look. "I'm not your
pussy monitor, Cal. And I can hardly lead by example; there isn't a
guy in this damn town that wants anything to do with me."

"Not true, you fucking liar." She took a long
drink of her brown and green drink and licked her lips. "You could
have your pick, if you realized what your choices were."

Before Cadence could ask her what she meant
by choices, Michael was suddenly next to her, whispering angrily in
her ear, something that made fear wash over her features. She
nodded and Michael looked at Cadence and gave her a strange look,
smiling stiffly. Callie grabbed her drink and gave Cadence a soft
smile and let Michael lead her back to the booth where it looked
like Jason was fit to be tied. She sighed inwardly and thought,
"Come over and talk to me, Jas. Tell me that when you turned
your back on me, that you didn’t mean it. That you’re sorry and you
love me as much as I love you."

The rest of the night passed quickly, and
Callie stopped to kiss her goodbye and promised to stop by to take
her out to lunch, after Cadence made sure she was okay. Cadence
kissed Jake goodbye and headed out, Chris and Brett waiting to walk
her out to her car. Jake always insisted she had people walk her
out, in case there were drunk wolves loitering outside. Even the
most timid of them sober could be a real animal when they were
drunk and she'd already had her fight for the night.

"Wanna get something to eat?" Chris asked,
snagging the keys from her hand and unlocking the door for her.

"I promised Cal lunch, and I'm kinda beat,
but thanks for the offer." He dropped the keys in her hand and
leaned his arm on top of the door. "Chris, is there something going
on?"

He gave a clearly fake confused look. "What
are you talking about?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. Seems like
everyone's acting strange towards me. Stranger than usual."

He looked like he was thinking, and just for
a minute she felt like the real Chris, the one that she had known
as a kid who had once helped her when she was hurt, was surfacing.
"What are you thinking about?" He asked suddenly, brow raised.

"I was thinking about that time we were
playing together behind the bar and I was maybe 5, and I fell and
you carried me inside and put a bandage on my knee. And you gave me
a popsicle so I'd stop crying. You used to be sweet."

He laughed. "I'm not sweet anymore? Ow, that
hurts." He clutched his chest in an exaggerated way.

"Oh come off it, Chris. You're arrogant and
you know it."

He sighed, giving her the full weight of his
light brown eyes. "Maybe I've decided that it's no fun when
everyone thinks you're a prick, especially the people who know you
best, or maybe I've decided to reevaluate my priorities. I don't
know. You know, Cadence, you can do what you want, you could choose
to be with humans or you could choose a pack. You'd be readily
accepted, all you'd have to do is pick a mate."

"A mate? Where is this coming from?"

Brett cleared his throat loudly and Chris
sighed. "Goodnight, sweetheart. See you tonight. And don't forget
about the dance you promised me at the bonfire." He shot back over
his shoulder as he and Brett made their way towards their own
pickup trucks, Brett giving her a chaste kiss on the cheek.

"I said you had to shave."

He waved over his shoulder and she laughed,
sliding into the cool leather seats and starting the V8, Hendrix's
Crosstown Traffic blaring.

She passed out after changing into a long
t-shirt and climbing into bed. Her whole body ached, from her feet
to the top of her head and all parts between, and she fell asleep
fast, her last thoughts swirling around Jason and now Chris. Stupid
Jason. Strange Chris. Weird, weird life.

The bed tilted and Callie smacked her on the
butt. Well, it had better be Callie. "You've slept enough." She
declared.

"It better be after twelve." Cadence
growled.

"Close. It's 10:30."

"Ah, fuck you, Cal. I didn't get to bed until
5." She jerked the pillow to cover her face.

"So, take a nap later. Come on, come on, I
wanna get breakfast while Lonestar's is still serving it." Cadence
flipped her off, but got up, showering and pulling on a pair of
fashionably ripped jeans, Harley boots, and a dark blue v-neck
jersey cotton long sleeved shirt.