The Wolf's Mate Book 2: Linus & The Angel (14 page)

Sunday night, while Karly traced invisible
patterns on his back as she cuddled him against her chest after
they made love, she surprised him. “I need to make an appointment
to see a doctor.”

His head popped up in alarm. “Are you
sick?”

Breathing out a laugh, she smoothed her
fingers across his cheek, “No, baby, of course not. My birth
control shot is due, and I need to get it done in the next two
weeks. Do you…want me to get it?”

He blinked. Was she asking if he was ready
for her to have his baby? “Do you want to get it?” He
countered.

She hummed in her throat and her eyes lost
focus for a moment, as if she was picturing something in her mind's
eye. “It’s a quarterly shot, so if I get it in February, then it
will be good until the beginning of May. Depending on when we get
married, I’m not against having a child soon if you’re ready. I
could get it this quarter and then not get it again.”

As his emotions fought for dominance, he
looked down into her eyes and saw nothing there but love and hope.
“I think that sounds like a good plan. I’d at least like to meet
your father without you being knocked up.”

“So we’ll just practice, then.”

He growled softly. “Lots of practice.”

The full moon approached in that way that
sometimes caught him off guard. While his wolf was very in tune
with all things lunar, his human self was often scattered enough to
not really know which day it was. Just days after Karly and he had
talked about having a child together, the full moon took over
everything in his world. As fourth, he had a big part in the
monthly gathering that included all 38 members of the pack. They
met in the lunar clearing that lay a far ways back on the property
that was jointly owned by Cadence and Jason’s parents. The house
that Jason and Cadence lived in had been owned by her father, who
had passed away several years earlier and the world was a better
place without his wolf-hating ass.

The pack would meet at Jason and Cadence's
home for a big dinner and then they would meet at the sacred circle
and go hunting. Because Cadence was not a true wolf and didn’t
shift, the wolves would take turns guarding her while Jason went
hunting. One full moon, their first together as a real couple,
Jason had nearly hurt her very badly because he had not gone
hunting and soothed his beast’s needs. Linus wasn’t going to make
that mistake, but he was going to take advantage of the guarded
house and have Karly wait there with Cadence for him.

It was bitterly cold when the pack left the
house and headed back to the circle before the moon rose for the
night. This short time period, she was alone in the house, until
pack business was handled and Jason called for everyone to shift
and the guards would walk back to the house with Cadence. He’d
kissed Karly a dozen times before he left, because he couldn’t
shake the nerves he was feeling. He just had a feeling that as he
got his house of cards stacked up just right that someone would
come and blow it all to hell.

When they shifted and howled at the moon,
their voices joined in a chorus that was as old as time. Cadence
looked him in the eyes and said, “She’ll be just fine, Linus. Go
hunt.”

With those words, he watched the half dozen
wolves follow Cadence to the house where his sweetheart was washing
dishes after gracing the pack with her amazing cooking skills. If
anyone had misgivings about Linus’ non-wolf mate, they were bowled
over by her food and her smile. Linus was one proud wolf.

He, Jason, Michael, and Bo had spent most of
their younger wolf-years hunting together. They were comfortable
together and worked as a good team. The woods were dead in the
winter in more than one way, which meant that they had to go
further to find things, digging rabbits out of holes and finding
the occasional deer. In the middle of stalking a small herd of
deer, a chorus of wolf howls cut the air and the four men raised
their heads abruptly to listen. It was a call to come back.
Something was wrong.

He glanced at Jason and there was fear in his
eyes, too, and they raced off a second later, Bo and Michael on
their heels. Fuck, he hadn’t trusted his gut. He’d known something
felt off about the whole night, like there was a bad scent on the
air.

The closer they got to the house, the more he
cursed the winter hunts and lack of game that made them have to
travel so far to curb their needs. But now, his wolf was clamoring
in his head to get back to Karly and make sure she was safe. The
fear overrode his other needs. Paws pounded on the frozen, snow
covered ground. Trees blurred past his peripheral vision. Faster.
Faster. She was afraid. He could feel her fear like a bitter taste
in the back of his throat and he surged forward.

Not even bothering to stop, he shifted
mid-run and darted into the house and found Karly sitting in the
far corner of the couch, clutching his jacket and crying. She fell
into his arms as he landed hard on his knees in front of her,
burying her face in his neck and weeping. He looked over her head
at Cadence who looked very worried.

Jason put his arms around Cadence and she
breathed out a sigh of relief. Linus said, “What’s wrong? What
happened?”

“There was a wolf, not our pack, in the tree
line just after we got back home. I thought it might be one of the
teenagers, I haven’t really gotten a good look at their hides yet
to recognize them,” Cadence looked up at Jason, “but Karly
recognized him. It’s her ex.”

Linus felt as confused as Jason looked. He
pushed Karly away to arm’s length and saw genuine fear in her
pretty eyes. It made his wolf bristle. She was not supposed to be
afraid ever.

“Sweetheart, who did you see?”

She drew in a gasping, shaky breath and said,
“It was Phoenix. From my father’s pack.”

“Are you certain it was him? It’s pretty dark
out there.” Jason asked, accepting his clothes that another wolf
brought for him. Linus’ clothes landed near him, but he couldn’t
think enough to put them on.

Karly nodded, “He’s rust brown. It’s a color
unique to his family line.”

“She’s right, Jas. I’ve never seen a wolf
that color before. It was almost orange and he was big.” Cadence
fidgeted while Jason finished dressing and then leaned back into
him for comfort.

“Why is he here?” Jason asked Karly.

She tore her gaze away from Linus’. “I don’t
know. He’s not supposed to be within 500 yards of me. I have a
restraining order against him.”

Linus was completely shocked. “Karly, you
said he couldn’t take a hint. You didn’t say he’d been bad enough
to require a restraining order.”

Jason cleared his throat, “Hold that thought,
Linus. Michael, you take a handful of our best trackers and see if
you can pick up the trail. Cades will point out where she saw him.”
Michael nodded and called out a few names and in just mere seconds,
the sound of paws hitting the ground were heard.

Now, in the front room of his alphas’ home
with only him, Cadence, Jason, Bo, Peter and Tina, Jason’s mother,
Karly told him her story.

Phoenix Thompson was her playmate and
protector. They grew up in the pack together. Several years older
than her, he always believed that they were going to be mates when
she reached of-age and her angel abilities kicked in. With a hair
trigger temper, Phoenix had a tendency to fly off the handle at the
slightest thing. He was Karly’s first sexual relationship when she
was 15 and he was 19. They were together off and on for a few
years, and the closer she got to 21, the more possessive he grew.
When she turned 21 and spent more time with the pack than she had
before, testing her powers against the unmated males, Phoenix tried
to take out his competition by baiting them into rank fights. He
would take the opportunity to maim his opponent instead of having a
clean fight, and after a few weeks when Karly was ready to strike
out on her own, Phoenix was furious. He promised her that she would
belong to him, one way or the other. Under alpha orders to leave
her alone, she thought she was safe from him and left.

The first few weeks of her travels, she was
fine. She didn’t see him, and had even stopped thinking about him.
And then she went home for the holidays and after that, she had a
sneaking suspicion that she was being followed. When she called
home, no one had seen him and she was encouraged to take care of
herself.

Midway through spring, someone started
leaving a white rose with her car. Sometimes it was on the
windshield, sometimes on the seat. She went back to her home pack
for help. Phoenix played innocent but the alpha ordered him under
house arrest and had him punished. Karly once more thought she was
safe.

Then, things started happening with her car,
which at the time had been a white Camaro. When she went to the
police over a slashed tire, he turned more violent and slashed all
her tires, broke out her windows, and on one occasion, turned her
car upside down in a fit of jealousy when she spent the night at an
unmated male's home.

Her home pack sanctioned him and declared him
under punishment, except that they didn’t know where he was. Her
drive to find her mate made her keep pushing, and her father hired
a bodyguard to keep an eye on her. He was human and although strong
and a good fighter, after a few weeks of feeling safe for the first
time, Phoenix put the man in the hospital, told her she was going
to be his no matter what, and then disappeared again.

“I thought,” she sighed and took a deep
breath, “I thought that the best thing I could do was find my mate,
so I kept pushing forward in my search. My brother Bren sent one of
his wolves to watch over me named Jude. He was older, retired
military, and for a while I felt like Phoenix was gone. No one had
seen or heard from him for weeks. Then Jude got called back home
because his mother had died, and that’s when Phoenix started to get
close again. He set my apartment on fire when I was out with a pack
and if I hadn’t been too lazy to get my stuff from the car, I would
have lost everything. I went home and stayed through the fall,
terrified I was never going to be able to leave again. He showed
up, though, accepted his punishment, apologized to the pack and
promised he was better. I stayed for a week after his punishment
was over. I thought he was getting over me, he even had a female
with him that he said changed his life. But then, the night before
I was ready to leave on my search again, I woke up in my bedroom
and he was on top of me.”

She shuddered and Linus’ wolf growled. They
waited for her to gather herself enough to continue her horrible
story. After a few minutes, she did.

She struggled under him, terrified beyond
words, and managed to kick him in the groin and when he was doubled
over in pain, she screamed for help and got away from him. He
snatched her back by her shirt and threw her into the wall,
breaking her arm.

By the time she got out of the hospital, the
bad news was that he’d managed to survive until dawn and was given
his life. The only good news was that their trackers had trailed
him up into Canada and believed him gone for good. She had nearly
given up searching for her mate, but she was more determined then
ever to find the right male for herself and put her past behind
her. She stayed through Christmas with her family and started off
again. She was weary. Frightened. Determined.

Linus had slipped his jeans on at one point
during her story and he cuddled her against him on the couch. “I
just don’t understand how he could have found me. Only my parents
know where I am. The car is registered to my father. I haven’t ever
changed my home address on my drivers’ license or mail or anything,
and I always pay cash.”

He kissed the top of her head, “I’ll keep you
safe, Karly, I swear.”

She didn’t answer. Whether it was because she
already knew that, or because she was afraid to say she didn’t
think he could, he didn't know. He squeezed her shoulder a little
bit tighter and looked at Jason.

Unfortunately this was hitting Cadence a
little close to home, and she was trying hard not to lose it. After
the other alpha’s son had kidnapped her, his plans to rape her and
pass her around to his new pack mates still haunted both her and
Jason. Jason held her in his arms and met Linus’ eyes.

“First things first, let’s get Trick over
here and make an official report. If he was at the tree line then
he was closer than 500 yards.”

Peter made the call to get Patrick, police
chief and human mate of one of their females, to the house. Even
though it was very late, he came right away.

Karly told him everything she could about
Phoenix. 6 foot even, lean and muscular, brown eyes, white-blonde
hair normally kept short, a scar on the left side of his face down
his jaw. Trick said he would head into the station and run the
report, pull up the restraining order and follow any leads the pack
could come up with. By the time he left, Michael and the trackers
returned.

From the looks on their faces, it wasn't
good. “He’s a damn crazy runner. He was all over the place,
backtracking, climbing trees and leaping far distances. I’ve never
seen anything like it. He clearly had a vehicle, though, because we
lost him just outside town. The trail just stopped abruptly.”

Jason wanted some wolves to patrol the woods
at Linus’ home. It warred with him that he couldn’t protect her.
Jason clapped his hand on his shoulder, “Your home is about as far
removed from the rest of us as possible. There’s no protection out
there for you. If you want to stay with us, you’re welcome to. But
as your alpha, I’m telling you that as long as this Phoenix
character is out there and looking for her, until we figure out
what’s going on, then you need to be smart. Don’t be like me. Don’t
think you can protect her by yourself, don’t take her safety for
granted.”