Wolves for the Bears: Book 5, Grey Wolf Pack Romance Novellas (4 page)

Now being so close to her
, his body was already warming, blood was rapidly shooting to his groin.  She looked damned sexy in her uniform. 
He could just imagine what they could do with those handcuffs...

“Anyway, hopefully we’ll see each around town,” continued Esther.  “You should come into Charlie’s shop sometime, I can get you a discount.”  Esther winked.

Mac squirmed uncomfortably.  “Thanks that’s really nice.” 
Damnit it was nice!

Esther shrugged.  “Andy’s been going on about how great you are
, and I’d like for us to be friends.”

Andy turned bright red and Esther giggled slipping her arm through his.  “He’s such a sweetie isn’t he?”

Mac forced a smile on her face.  “He sure is.”  She said through gritted teeth. 
It was a toss up as to which one of the bears she wanted to kill more at that moment.

“We uhh, better get going” muttered Andy.

They said their goodbyes.  Andy looked at Mac with longing but said nothing as he followed Esther back into their house.

Mac stomped back to patrol car, slamming the door.

Gabe frowned.  “Everything okay?”

“Just
peachy
.”

*

Mac let herself into her house.  Kicking the door shut she shuffled into the living room and collapsed onto the couch.

She rubbed her hands over her face. 
Ugh, today had been... awful.

If she thought that tackling a nude septuagenarian was bad it was nothing compared to meeting her mate’s wife. 
No scratch that, his beautiful, goddess-like wife.

No wonder Andy married her, men must have been clamouring to marry her
. 
Why on earth would Andy chose a puny little wolf like her when he had a statuesque she-bear at home?

She felt like a three legged donkey competing with a thoroughbred race horse.  Mac giggled a little agitatedly at the thought.
 

Her beast whined
in disapproval at her thoughts.  She was his mate, she was made for him, of course he wanted her.
Yes definitely...

She
fidgeted and sighed unhappily. 
No point dwelling on it.

She decided to take a shower.  The
remembered feel of naked old guy made her a little uncomfortable. 
She wanted to wash that away ASAP...

She moved through her house, discarding her clothes and securing her weapon.  Gabe had asked her to go for a drink at Bar Luna, but no way was she going to risk running into Andy again.  Knowing her
, she’d probably fall off a bar stool or have a bird poop on her head, she wasn’t feeling especially lucky and he didn’t need to see her make more of an ass of herself today.

Stepping into the shower the water rolled over her body.
  She washed her hair and lathered soap over her body.  Her hands lingered over her breasts as her thoughts turned to Andy.

Fuck he had looked handsome
.  He’d been wearing a tight polo neck shirt and jeans, they were practically molded to his body accentuating every thick rope like muscle, not to mention the impressive bulge he was packing... 

She wanted to run her hands all over his body.  She felt herself
heat up with need as her right hand travelled south, the left kneading her breasts with more vigour.

She imagined Andy
’s thick lips kissing her neck moving down to her breasts, pulling the small mounds into his mouth, biting and licking the nipples.  She began rubbing her clit in slow circles.

It had been too long and her body had been in heightened sense of arousal ever since she met Andy.  If she could just allow herself this release everything would be better.

She pictured Andy kissing his way down her stomach, tonguing her navel before finally making it to her pussy.  She quickened her motions as her imaginary lover moved to lick her slit, his tongue would...

Bang bang bang bang bang! 

She halted abruptly, throwing her rhythm out.  Her body protested at the sudden interruption, just as she was almost there. 
Rats!
  Someone was at the door.

She considered ignoring them and waiting for them to go away so she could resume her ministrations but...

Bang bang bang bang bang! 

They weren’t going away. 
Damnit it was probably her brother, no way was she masturbating with him outside!

Grumbling she shut off the shower and threw on her robe.  Tumbling downstairs, dripping along the way she threw the door open to find
Luke smiling at her.

Luke Renfield, fellow pack mate, childhood best friend and teenage sweetheart. 
Not to mention the first man she ever had sex with...

His eyes twinkled.  “Hey there, sorry to interrupt.”

She looked at him guiltily pulling the robe around herself tightly.  “No, no you didn’t interrupt anything.”  She felt heart rise to her cheeks
.  He couldn’t possible know what she was doing could he?

He raised an eyebrow.  “You weren’t in the shower?”

Oh!
  “Ummm, actually I was just getting out of the shower, I was drying off and was just about to get dressed... so it’s not really not that much of an interruption.”

His cheek dimpled
, like it always used to when she started to ramble. 
She’d found that maddeningly sexy back when they were dating.
  “You sure?  I can come back later.”

She smiled at him genuinely.  “No it’s fine, come in and get yourself a drink – everything’s pretty much in the same place that grams used to keep things.  I’ll go get dressed.”

“Sure thing.”

She ran upstairs and speedily dried herself, throwing on fresh clothes and braiding her wet hair so it would dry in waves.  It always looked pretty like that even if she did say so herself.  Not that anyone would see
her hair, her night involved wearing sweats and eating cereal on her couch. 
Sigh
.

She was however pleased at how well things were with Luke since her return.  They had not been particularly cordi
al to one another when she left for college.

At the time they had been dating,
and were pretty hot and heavy
.  They didn’t know whether they were each other’s mates, wolves weren’t able to scent their mates until they were 19.   But at age 18 they hadn’t cared either way, they thought they were in love and nothing would ever part them. 
They were a bit naive
.

Looking back now though, her wolf was never remarkably enamoured with Luke.
  After she and Luke started dating it had began a long period of near silence from her beast that only ended the moment she met Andy. 
Her mate
.

After
Mac got her letter of acceptance for college she was ecstatic, she rushed to tell Luke.  He was the first person she told, at the time he was the most important person in her life.

He hadn’t reacted how she’d expected.  Instead of
being happy for her, he was angry that she was leaving.  He wanted her to stay in Rose with him.  He had chosen to remain in Rose and take a job with the construction company.  He had naturally expected her to do the same.

His vision for the future had them bonding
, having kids and her staying at home while he went out to work. 
Her vision was nothing like that.

She’d wanted their relationship to continue long distance.  He wouldn’t even entertain the thought. 
He’d asked her not to go away.  She’d said no.  He wouldn’t back down.  So when she left they were no longer speaking to each other. 

She had cried over the break up, and missed him terribly.  Often she considered leaving college and coming back home to be with him.  The mixture of feeling homesick, missing the
socialization of the pack and longing for Luke had been almost too much to bear when she was a freshman.  Slowly however, things had gotten easier and she had moved on.

She
’d felt a little trepidation about seeing him again when she came home.  There was a time when she couldn’t imagine ever not loving him but that was a long time ago. 
Not to mention that was before she met her mate...  Ugh, what a mess that was
.

She was glad to find that Luke had actually
been happy to see her, and they had a pleasant time catching up at her welcome home party.

However, they hadn’t spent any time together one on one...

She breathed in and out a couple of times steeling herself before making her way down to him.  Luke was inspecting the photos she had placed over her fireplace.

He brightened when he saw her.
  He was quite a handsome wolf, with light blonde hair and piercing blue eyes.  He stood six foot one and was in great shape.  Just the sight of him used to make her knees weaken. 
But that was before a certain six foot nine bear walked into her life...

She plopped down on the couch folding her legs underneath her. 
“What can I do for you?”

Luke walked over and sat next to her a little stiffly. 
If she didn’t know better she’d say he was nervous.

He clasped his hands together in front of him.  He looked at her directly.  “I was wondering if you
wanted to go out with me?”

She stared at him.  “Like on a date?” 

He gave her a searching look.  “I’d like for us to try and be together again.  I know I behaved like an asshole last time but we were just kids, I think things will be different this time.  I still care about you... I never stopped caring.”

Her wolf yowled at her.
 
This man was not their mate, he had to leave.
  “Luke the thing is...”  She hesitated watching him doubtfully,
how much should she tell him? 
“I kind of met my mate.”

His face fell, she could see the mixtur
e of pain and anger in his eyes, but the look was soon replaced with curiosity.  “What do you mean ‘kind of’?”

She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, unsure of what she should say.  She fiddled with the hem of her t-shirt, not looking at Luke.  “I met him, but we can’t be together.  He’s married.”

She lifted her eyes to hazard a glance at him.  He was watching her blankly, giving nothing away.

“What does that mean for you?”  He asked slowly.
 

“It means my mate’s off limits.”  She answered sadly.

He laid a hand over hers and waited to see if she would pull away. 
She didn’t
.

“But it doesn’t mean you can’t be happy.”  He stroked his thumb over her hand.  “Not everyone does find their true mate, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not happy with the mate they
choose
to settle down with.”  If memory served, Luke never did like being told what to do,
even by fate
.

She bit her lip.
  He was right, was she really planning on spending the rest of her life alone? 
Carrying a torch for a man who didn’t want her whilst giving herself hollow shower orgasms... 

It was just a little soon to jump into bed with another man.  If her wolf would let her that is, the creature was currently snarling more loudly and furiously than ever before.

Mac chewed on her cheek.  “Luke... I don’t want to lead you on.  I can’t promise you anything right now.  I’m... I’m all over the place right now... I don’t really want to rush to make any decisions while I’m kind of on the rebound.”

He nodded at her, the pain in his eyes had been replaced by hope.
  “I’m not going anywhere.  For now, why don’t we be
friends
and see where it goes.”

That sounded reasonable enough.
.. although her stomach was still in knots over it. 
“Okay... just please don’t expect too much from me... I don’t want either of us to get hurt”

He moved his hand to caress her cheek.  “
I’ve been waiting for you for five years, I got no problems waiting a little longer.”

She gasped a little.  Unsure what to say but also slightly enjoying the intimate touch of his hand.
  Her whole body cried out in alarm that this man was not her mate... yet maybe a little comforting was all she needed.

Swiftly he stood over her, leaning down he placed a soft kiss on the top of her head.  “I’ll call you.”

Without waiting for an answer he strode out of the house, carefully shutting the door behind him.  She stared after him, her mind racing.

Could she really force herself to be with someone else?  Would she be truly happy?  What would she do if they did get married then a few years later he found his own true mate?  Would she be left alone and heartbroken again?

She rolled onto her side pulling a cushion against her face, muffling an annoyed yell.