Without Reservations (2 page)

His teeth stung his gums and his canines extended.
What the heck?
The closer he got to the room the more bizarre his body reacted. He got a euphoric feeling, like butterflies in his stomach, but not quite. It wasn’t nerves. His cock filled with blood and his eyes blurred as he reached for the knob. He blinked, seeing in black and white—his wolf vision. He stood there for a few moments, ignoring the anxious, exultant feeling in his gut, and contemplated the strange reactions. He hadn’t lost control of his wolf instincts since he was a very young pup.

Then it hit him.
My mate is on the other side of this door.

How was this possible? He’d never heard of a female werewolf. It was a genetic trait inherent to males. Women could carry and pass on the werewolf gene, but they did not become wolves. Could his mate have been turned as the result of an attack? Was
that
even possible? Werewolf attacks were very rare. He’d never heard of a female being changed
,
but just because he didn’t know about it, didn’t make it impossible.

He closed his eyes, resting his head against the cool wood of the door. His heart pounded in anticipation. At thirty years of age, he was more than ready for this. He’d figure out how it was possible that she was a wolf after he met her. Right now, excitement bubbled up inside him. He’d finally found his mate.

Taking several deep breaths, he willed his body under control. Not that it would bother his mate if she were awake, but if one of his staff came in, he’d terrify the crap out of them. After a few seconds of deep concentration, his teeth receded. When he opened his eyes, they were once again normal. His prick, however, was completely hard. Chay adjusted himself through his scrub bottoms, trying to make his erection less obvious, without much luck. Unwilling to wait any longer, he pushed open the door.

The small white wolf was wrapped in a dark blue blanket, lying on the exam table, with her back toward the door. The clotted blood was obscenely garish on the pale fur. The coat not matted with blood had a golden cast to it and Chay would be willing to bet that pale fur turned into platinum blonde locks in human form.

Somehow, he’d always known his mate would not be Native American, as his mother assured him she would be. He’d always been partial to blonde hair, even though his mom didn’t believe in mixing races. Mom was going to flip her lid when he brought his mate to meet them. Chay grinned.
Oh well.
She had absolutely no say in this. A wolf didn’t pick his mate, he was born to her. It was destiny or Gods will or whatever. It just was. Fortunately, his dad wasn’t a prejudiced man.

The dark straps of a muzzle stood out against the light fur, drawing Chay’s gaze. He groaned at the indignity and stepped up to the exam table. Quickly, he unfastened the contraption and tossed it to the floor. He felt the carotid artery with his fingers, searching for a pulse. It was faster than it would be in human form, slower than an alert, awake wolf, but not slow enough to indicate extreme distress.

He ran his hands through the pale fur, enjoying the softness as he searched out the head wound. Frank was right, it didn’t appear to be too bad, but Chay needed to clean it to make certain. He turned to the cabinet behind him and got out the gauze and antiseptic he needed to tend the wound. After determining that it was only a nick, he bandaged it.

He didn’t need to bother with an antibiotic and a tetanus shot. Werewolves didn’t get infections or viruses. His kind had an extremely efficient immune system. After shifting back to human form, the head wound would heal completely. In normal cases, it would have already healed, but his mate’s blood loss slowed the immune response.

Chay leaned forward and buried his nose in his mate’s neck for a few seconds.

The scent was spicy and…woodsy? It was sort of musky. That was strange, most females had a sweet, floral smell to them. The odd scent was actually very nice. Intoxicating. His cock twitched, making him groan. He stood and told himself to behave. He needed to finish taking care of his mate. There’d be time enough later for other exploration.

He stepped back, smiling like an idiot. “Okay, Little Bit, let’s get rid of this.” Chay grabbed the edge of the blanket and began gently removing it. “Gotta make sure there are no other injuries.” Chay finally got the blanket untangled and tossed it off the still body.

He studied his mate’s form starting at her head. Smiling at all the platinum fur, he gazed further down the slim frame. “I bet your eyes are—” He gasped and stumbled backwards. His hand flew to his mouth. No, that couldn’t be right. He was seeing things…
things
that shouldn’t be there. Chay blinked and looked again. No, it
was
there. It had to be some sort of mistake. His body, his senses, they must be confused. This wasn’t his mate. It couldn’t be…

Chay closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It couldn’t be, but it
was
. He couldn’t deny what he felt. This
was
his mate, but how? It didn’t make sense. Apparently, he’d been right to begin with. Females were not wolves and his mate wasn’t a female.

* * *

His brain hurt.

Chay had gone through every possible scenario he could think of trying to come up with another valid excuse for his body’s reaction to the white wolf. None of them made as much sense as the mate hypothesis. Even more puzzling than his response, was the fact that he wasn’t as disturbed as he should be. There was something really appealing about the little wolf. That more than anything supported his feeling that this was truly his mate. He’d never found men
that
appealing before. He’d looked at other men, sure, but everyone did. Didn’t they? A beautiful person was a beautiful person…right? Sure, he and his college roommate had jerked each other off a couple times, but that was just innocent fun, wasn’t it? The point was no other man had ever had him this hard before. His dick had been hard enough to cut glass since he’d first caught scent of the white wolf.

When everyone else had left for the day, he’d closed up shop, changed out of his scrubs and even gone and warmed his truck up. The day was a little cool for early fall and he did not want the other man to be cold. And after all that, he
still
had a hard-on.
Oh well.
His jeans concealed it good enough and his coat reached mid-thigh.

Chay packed his bag to take out to Bob McIntyre’s place and loaded his mate in the backseat of his quad cab. He tucked the blanket around the small body and pulled the seat belt over him. Giving the pale fur one last gentle caress, he closed the door and climbed behind the wheel. Once he got on the road, he picked up his cell to give his old man a ring.

Joe Winston answered on the second ring. “Hey, Son. Whatcha doing?”

“I really wish you wouldn’t do that. It’s creepy.”

“What?” His father’s voice was laced with amusement.

“You know what.”

Joe laughed. “But that’s what the caller ID is for. So I know who’s calling before I answer it.”

Chay chuckled. They’d had this conversation a dozen times. “Yeah, but it’s still weird. What are you doing?”

“Watching TV. What are you up to?”

“Going out to Bob McIntyre’s place. He thinks his new mare is expecting.”

“Ah. Are you still coming over Wednesday night for dinner?”

“Yeah, probably.” The question was, would it be only him or would he be taking his mate to dinner too? Chay winced at the thought.

“Your mother will be disappointed if you cancel.” His father’s tone made it clear he would be too.

Chay grinned. It was nice to be loved, but sometimes being an only child put a lot of pressure on him. He adjusted the rearview mirror and checked on his…the wolf. “Listen, Dad, I have kind of a serious question for you.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“How do you know when you’ve found your mate?”

“Why?”

“Come on, Dad, just answer the question.”

Joe sighed. “Chay, you’ll find your mate. You aren’t that old. I didn’t meet your mother until I was thirty-two.”

Thank goodness his dad didn’t read more into the question. He wasn’t ready to tell his parents, not yet. Sadly, he suspected the fact his mate was white was going to be the least of his worries when his parents found out.

“When you do find your mate, Son, you will feel it.”

Yeah, he’d already figured that much out. “But how do you feel it?”

“It’s like an intense longing…sort of. Kind of like an adrenaline high at first. Your body will respond before you even realize it’s your mate. I don’t really know how to describe it, Son. You’ll just know.”

Chay sighed. That’s what he thought. And his dad was right, he
did
know. It was just… “Dad, has anyone ever gotten confused? And think they found their mate, but they didn’t?”

“None that I’m familiar with. It’s not something you can mistake or confuse with anything else. It’s an instinctual sort of reaction.”

He gave a quick peek at the mirror, spotting pale fur in the backseat. “I wanted to make sure it’s not something I can miss by accident.”

“You’ll know, Son.”

“All right. Thanks, Dad.” Chay took a deep breath, willing himself to relax. He couldn’t help it if nobody liked the idea. It’s not like
he
chose his mate. This was a good thing, not a bad thing. Why did he feel like it was such a huge obstacle?

“You have got to be the only man alive who has wanted a mate since he was four. Son, you’ll find her, I promise.”

Him,
not her, Chay corrected mentally. He squeezed the phone between his shoulder and ear and pinched the bridge of his nose. Lord, why did this have to be difficult? There were too many variables. What if his mate woke up and wanted nothing to do with him? Or what if he was a teenager, like Frank had thought? Chay didn’t think so, but his mate was awfully small. How would his parents react? “Listen, Dad, I’m almost to the McIntyre place. I’ll talk to you later.”

“All right, Son. Good luck and let us know about Wednesday.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that. Bye, Dad.” Chay hung up as he pulled in to Bob’s drive. He started to turn off the truck, but he didn’t know how long he’d be. Would it get too cold? Chay rolled his eyes at his own idiocy. How cold did
he
get in fur? Not very. He cut the ignition, unfastened his seat belt and turned sideways, resting his arm on the seat back and his chin on his arm. With his other hand, he reached back and stroked the wolf’s shoulder. “What am I going to do with you, Little Bit?”

His mate was still out of it. The wolf hadn’t moved from where Chay had put him. He looked very sweet and peaceful…innocent. He was a handsome wolf. Actually, he was more pretty than handsome. Not that he was feminine exactly, but his size wasn’t at all masculine. In human form, the top of his head would probably only come to Chay’s chin. Chay ran his fingers across the snout and over the closed eyes. He’d be willing to bet those eyes were a pale sky blue.

Chay’s dick hardened even more at the thought. He groaned and pulled his hand away to adjust himself. He should’ve called Frank to come get this little bit as soon as he’d patched him up and he could’ve pretended like nothing was different. Even still, he should send the man on his way when he woke. But Chay knew he wouldn’t. He had no earthly idea what to do with a male mate, but it didn’t stop him from wanting to keep him.

A knock on the window startled Chay out of his thoughts. Chay opened the door and grabbed his bag off the front floorboard. “Hey, Bob.”

“I see you’re taking work home.” Bob tipped his salt-and-peppered head toward the backseat.

Chay glanced back at his mate and smiled. “Yep, he’s headed home with me. Bandaged him up right before I headed out. Hopefully, he’s going to wake up sometime tonight.” He clapped Bob on the shoulder and started walking away from the truck. “Let’s go see this pretty lady and find out if she’s gonna be a mama.”

Chapter Two

His head was going to explode. What the heck had he done? It felt like he was moving, but he knew perfectly well he was lying still. He’d never been a big drinker, so he knew he hadn’t tied one on last night. But his head sure felt like he had. There were butterflies in his stomach and his dick was so hard it hurt. And why was he still in wolf form?
Wait a minute.
He really was moving…in some sort of vehicle.
Uh-oh.

Keaton blinked his eyes open. He lay in the backseat of a car…no, it was bigger than a car. A truck. He tried to push himself up into a sitting position.
Ouch.
His head ached something fierce…
Oh yeah
. He’d been shot.

“You’re awake. Hang on a few more minutes, Little Bit, and I’ll get you inside so you can shift.”

Keaton’s head snapped up—
ouch
—at the deep sexy voice.
Little Bit? Who in the…?
The man had a gorgeous head of black hair, high cheekbones and a tanned complexion. He was obviously Native American and fairly young but that was all Keaton could see from his point of view. He raised his snout and sniffed, trying to see if the man’s scent seemed familiar, and damn if his cock didn’t throb.
Good God Almighty, what a wonderful scent.
The butterflies got worse. Even so, he discerned that the man was a wolf and that he definitely didn’t know him.

He dropped his head back down on the seat and relaxed. Apparently, he wasn’t in any danger. This man must have rescued him.

This was Keaton’s first full moon here in his new home and he hadn’t even met the local pack yet. Maybe he should have made more of an effort so he could’ve hunted in a protected area. He knew the rules. He’d stayed out of the pack’s marked
territory. At least he’d managed to hunt on the unmarked pack land so someone had been able to rescue him.

The truck stopped. The man cut the ignition and turned around to face him. If Keaton had been in human form he’d have gasped, but as a wolf it came out as more of a whine.

The man was gorgeous. Big eyes—probably brown—and full lips, high cheekbones and his smile… Keaton blinked. Good lord, he’d been rescued by a walking wet dream. He’d always had a thing for tall, dark and handsome men.