Winning His Mate Read online

  If she tensed every muscle in her body any tighter she might just shatter. He felt his amusement mix with the potent desire that flowed through him, and from what he could see, hear on her little intake of breaths, and scent from between those thighs that she had on lockdown, she felt the same way.

  He loved the calling of one mate to another. The fact that there wasn’t a part of her body that wasn’t begging to be touched by his right now was a confirmation that she was his, and the way his body was on fire with a need to be buried deep within her, told him that he had definitely found the one.

  Like he needed that confirmation, her scent alone had done things to his body that no other woman ever had, or could ever hope to achieve. Her touch was like a drug that made his body hum with a need and a recognition, and now the taste of her blood left his beast wanting more.

  “Done.” He breathed out the words and she swayed on her heels towards him.

  “Not yet…” Shannon’s brain kicked into gear and she wanted to swallow her tongue whole. The fact that her cheeks were already heated to boiling didn’t stop the flush growing deeper, or the blood pooling less, or even the temperature hitting the supernova stage.

  “I could do that in other place that may need a little attention…” His words had her squeezing her thighs so tightly that she might just walk like a duck for a day or two.

  Snap the hell out of it… or just say yes please…

  “Rain check.” It was the best she could come up with at short notice, without the logical side of her brain being switched on.

  The predatory grin on his lips told her she had messed up big time. With another tug of her wrist she found she was against his chest again. One hand still snagged by him, the other burning up with the heat from his body beneath his top, and the feel of his muscles tensing beneath her fingers. And then there was the other thing that was touching her, if touching her was the right word. He was rock hard with the desire that was so evident in his features, and it was playing knock-knock with her stomach, twitching like a thing possessed.

  I’m going to hell, and from the feel of his erection, I’m going with a smile on my face.

  “Why wait?” He breathed the words right into her very soul, and she desperately wanted to reach up and knock on the wood that had replaced her brain to see if she could wake it up.

  “Why rush?” It was a lame attempt at keeping him at bay, especially when most of her body didn’t want her too.

  “You know you were made for me.” His whole body seemed to envelope her within his presence. She could feel him in most places that counted for anything, and when his lips brushed ever so gently against hers, she thought she might turn into a liquid puddle on the floor.

  “No surprises there then…” She knew the Lycan code of honour with females. As long as she could hold out, he wouldn’t go too far. That’s not to say he wouldn’t try his damndest, and he did. Another brush of those lips had her body pressed against his like she wanted to be welded to him, and in truth, right now she did.

  “One kiss…” He breathed and she was about to answer him when the bell over the door rattled like a cold bucket of water to her senses.

  Thank all and any god that might exist… a reprieve from the inevitable.

  Lucas didn’t let her go immediately. Neither from his body, nor his eyes and she stood there tethered to him as if he was her anchor in a storm.

  When the sound of a woman clearing her throat echoed through the shop, he didn’t release her then either.

  “Perhaps I should serve myself.” The clipped tones really were a cold bucket of water, but not just for her. Lucas seemed to wince slightly from the sound of the voice that she knew only too well.

  “Not necessary, Grace. We were just getting to know each other.” There was a predatory growl to his tone that touched too deeply within Shannon’s body, and when he reluctantly set her slightly back from him, she wobbled on those damn pointy toe heels.

  “Rather well by the looks of things.” Sarcasm met amusement in the other woman’s tone, and finally Shannon was able to draw a full breath and drag her eyes away from his.

  “Lucas came to berate me…” Shannon started her explanation, but she heard the melodic chuckle ripple through the air.

  “I wish someone would berate me like that.”

  Lucas took a step backwards towards the door of the shop. Whether he was hiding his arousal from Grace, or he just didn’t want to turn away from Shannon just yet, remained to be seen. But the look of the victorious predator was spread across his face.

  “We can continue this later.” His words were only for her, and the meaning was as clear as glass, she was in trouble, deep trouble.

  By the time she thought of a snappy come back he was gone, and all that was left was the incessant ringing of that damn little bell above the door, and Grace, standing in front of her, trying to look apathetic. Her hands neatly tucked against each other in front of her.

  “I have to leave…” Shannon spat out. Now that he was gone panic seemed to grip her so tightly that it could still have been those steely arms of his around her body.

  “Too late.” Grace offered. But Shannon wasn’t listening. She was making mental plans of what needed to be done.

  “I’m sorry, Grace, I know I said I would join the community but…” Shannon took a mental stock of all of her products and how quickly she could pack them and head out. Not quickly enough, she decided, she would have to leave everything behind.

  “Too late, Shannon.” Grace tried again. But she didn’t move an inch. She stood there watching Shannon flutter around doing not much of anything at all.

  “I need to pack my clothes…” Shannon was done with mental checklists, now she was talking to herself. She made a move towards the shop door and changed her mind.

  “It’s too late…” Grace knew it would sink in eventually, or at least she hoped it would. She’d hate to have to sit on her and draw her a mental picture.

  “But there are some herbs I should take…” Shannon went to move towards the back and then stopped dead in her tracks, turning her whole body towards Grace she tipped her head to the side and stared at her as if she had never seen her before.

  “It’s too late. Where do you think you can go that he cannot track you down?” Grace offered gently, too gently. It sent the anxiety soaring within her body again. Her skin felt as itchy as sin and she wanted to scratch until she couldn’t scratch anymore.

  “Hell…” Shannon said simply and Grace frowned.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Hell. I’m going to hell, Grace…” Shannon didn’t look for a chair or a stool. She just sunk to the floor and crossed her legs. Planting her elbows in the crook of her knees, she buried her face in her hands and groaned.

  “There are worse mates I could think of…” Grace teased. Walking over to the windowsill, she looked out on the day. Her eyes immediately found Lucas standing across the street propping up a wall. He must have thought Shannon would run. Clever boy.

  “Me too, but here’s the thing… I don’t want to be mated. I don’t even want to be bedded, or well, I didn’t until just bloody now.” Shannon muttered and mumbled into her hands, but Grace heard every word.

  “Think of it as a bonus…” Grace started and Shannon’s head shot up. She looked at the other woman as if she had just grown another head.

  “A bonus?” The disbelief in her voice was so high pitched that she was in danger of shattering glass.

  “Yes, you see. You get to have earth shattering amazing sex with a man who looks like Lucas, and other men won’t come within a mile of you ever again.” Grace reasoned. She knew Shannon’s past, and she knew what had brought her to their little community. To her it was the answer to her problems.

  “Except I get to be mated? Don’t you see the irony in that?” Shannon asked with a tip of her head and a dagger in her gaze.

  “No.” Grace didn’t seem the type to sit on the floor; she was too well polished a
nd bordering on the Fairie Fae side of the spectrum. But to Shannon’s surprise the woman gracefully dropped down onto her backside on the cold floor opposite her. Crossing her legs in front of her, she rearranged her skirt to cover her legs.

  “What part of- I do not want to be mated- don’t you understand?” Shannon asked slowly, a little too slowly for Grace, who caught the meaning.

  “Actually, Shannon, all of it.” Grace offered back, a little too caustically that it brought a wince to Shannon’s face.

  “I’m through with men…”

  “Well you will be once you mate with Lucas…”

  “He’s a man…” Shannon shot back.

  “He’s a Lycan.” Grace corrected and Shannon shrugged her shoulders.

  “Still a man…”

  “Is it the sex that’s worrying you?” Grace’s voice turned to pure concern and Shannon gave her another look of disbelief.

  “What? No.” She spat back. Great sex was after all, the meaning of life. Well that and chocolate, she reasoned with herself. What planet was this witch living on if she didn’t understand that?

  “So what’s the problem?” Grace asked gently, coaxing her response rather than her anxiety from her.

  “I-just-don’t-want-to-be-mated.” Shannon didn’t know how else to explain it without going through her entire past. And why should she? Why would she? It was private and personal and nobody’s business but hers.

  “Is it to do with that whole last pack thing?” Grace was pushing, and she pushed too far. Shannon groaned, rolled her eyes and jumped to her feet.

  This was a hassle that she didn’t need, a complication that she could do without. What did it take to flee a damn wolf anyway?

  The bell over the door snatched her attention away from the back room, as the little Raven haired trouble maker bolted in and sheepishly eyed both Grace, who was still sitting on the floor, and Shannon, who had half turned in the hopes the wolf wasn’t back at her door.

  “Corrine, you little…” Shannon’s mood turned even more sour the moment she laid eyes on the girl, and she watched as Corrine physically shrunk in front of her.

  CHAPTER THREE

  “I came to warn you that the Alpha…” She spat out anyway, even though she could see by the murderous mood that Shannon was in, that the woman already knew exactly what the Alpha was going to do.

  “You…” Shannon turned her whole body towards her, and murdered her in every way possible with her eyes.

  “Do you know the kind of trouble you have brought to my door?” Shannon wasn’t about to be rational here. She couldn’t see that they were kindred spirits, both having the same problems in common where Lycan mates were concerned.

  “I… Yes…” Corrine spat out in a voice smaller than a mouse in a thunder storm.

  Grace went to stand by the little Fae. To either show solidarity with her towards Shannon, or to protect her from the wrath of the more powerful witch, Shannon wasn’t sure. But she pulled her anger back when she saw the remorse in the girl’s eyes.

  “No Corrine, you have no clue.” Shannon said before turning on her heels and disappearing through the back curtain.

  Corrine turned her face up to Grace and waited with baited breath for the fallout. There was sure to be a shit storm, there always seemed to be no matter what she tried to do, and this time maybe she had gone too far.

  She knew the rules. She knew that Wolf’s Bane was banned from the community and she knew why. And yet she had gone to the newcomer and asked for it anyway. She should never have listened to Natalie. There was surely another way to get rid of Zane.

  “It’s not like I was going to poison him Grace. Just repel him a little… A lot…” The whine in Corrine’s voice could have broken glass, it was that high pitched. Instead it just set Grace’s teeth on edge.

  “Here’s what you need to do. Go to the Alpha and beg his forgiveness. He’s not going to hurt you. You’re fated one of his packs mates…” Grace put in quickly when she saw that Corrine was going to balk at the idea of throwing herself on Lucas’s mercy. Thankfully Corrine just bit down on her lip and kept quiet.

  “Then you’re going to go talk with this young Lycan of yours and get this silliness sorted out…” Grace couldn’t have stopped the whining Corrine if she had tried.

  “But Grace, I don’t want to be mated. There’s so much I haven’t done yet…” Corrine’s upturned face pleaded for understanding and Grace gave a sigh.

  “Thirdly, and most importantly, Shannon…” Grace pouted her lips as she was cut off again by Corrine’s whine.

  “I didn’t mean to get her in trouble with the Alpha, Grace. I’ll go to him and tell him that I tricked her…”

  “Ooh honey, it’s worse than that. It would seem your actions have brought the wolf to the door, and Shannon is that wolf’s mate.” Grace watched the news sink in. To say that Corrine turned about fifty different shades of grey would be an understatement. Then she stayed ashen and all the fight went out of her body.

  “Oh my god what have I done. Shannon and Lucas? Poor, poor, Shannon. I didn’t know, Grace. I’m so sorry…” Corrine would have been on her knees begging for forgiveness if she wasn’t backing towards the door already. Looking for a fast escape before Shannon truly did kill her, and she wouldn’t blame her, not one little bit.

  “For goodness sake Corrine, it’s not a curse to be mated. Shannon will be fine, as will you. But I’m telling you this… if you run from him…” Graces tone held the warning that Corrine knew well.

  “I won’t run, Grace. I promise.” Corrine reached behind her and pulled the door open. The side catching her in the back and she jolted forwards, still eager to back the hell out of there.

  “Tell Shannon I’m sorry.” The little wince that went with her words had Grace nodding her head, and with that Corrine high tailed it out of the door.

  Lucas had listened with interest to the whole story. Now he had it from Corrine’s mouth that Shannon wasn’t in on the plan, he was mighty glad that she had passed out when she did, otherwise things might have gotten a little too out of hand between them.

  He supposed he would have to apologise for the accusation that he had lobbied at Shannon at some point, just not yet. There were more important matters to attend to, like Mating first. And as Shannon obviously didn’t know that Wolf’s Bane was banned from the community, well he would just have to make sure that Grace was reminded in no uncertain terms to put the word around.

  He watched Corrine scamper out the door and down the street like the hounds of hell was hot on her trail, and then he noticed why. His eyes noted and dismissed her mate following on behind her, stalking her every move in case she decided to make a run for it.

  Zane was a good kid, he could be a little short on patience sometimes, but then who the hell wasn’t? It wasn’t like when he was faced with his own mate he hadn’t wanted to mate her right then and there in the middle of the shop, in broad daylight, under the windows.

  Lucas was now doing exactly the same thing as his pack brother, watching and waiting to see if his mate would bolt.

  It wasn’t like he hadn’t heard the conversation between Shannon and Grace. She would have run if Grace hadn’t of pointed out that she had nowhere to go that he couldn’t find her. And find her he would. But his wolf wouldn’t be too pleased, and that’s when things could go badly wrong.

  Lucas knew that he would cut off his own manhood rather than take the woman who was his mate. But then, with the wolf in charge on a mate hunt, he wouldn’t get the chance to do that. It would be too late, and that was something he would never allow to happen, even if he did end up sleeping outside her damn house all night, every night, until they mated.

  At least Zane had the sense to do the same thing.

  Corrine was a runner, but Shannon was a fighter. He didn’t understand why she would choose the easy option when faced with her mate.

  Lucas reached into the back pocket of his jeans and snagged his cell phone. He knew
Julius, the Alpha of the old pack that Shannon had tended as a healer. He figured if he wanted answers he might just as well go straight to the horse’s mouth.

  It didn’t take more than a couple of rings for the old man to answer. The deep, dusty tones of the well aged Lycan drifted over the line and caused him to smile, remembering long, interesting conversations he had with the man over the philosophical expectations of the Packs and how modern technology would one day bring about their detection into the public eye.

  “Julius, are times good my friend?” Lucas heard the slight chuckle in the old man’s voice.

  “Be a lot better if you could persuade my little fiery Fae to come back home to us, Lucas…” The old man’s tone was playful and yet Lucas heard a sigh within his voice.

  “No can do… But as you mentioned her…” Lucas thought he arched that rather nicely, but the old man chuckled his knowing back down the line.

  “I knew that was why you called. She’s rather special to me, so don’t get any ideas of upsetting the girl, Lucas. Whatever she’s done, there’s always a good reason behind her actions, my friend.” He heard the deeper growl of a warning within Julius’s tone and knew the respect the elder had for his new mate, and it filled him with pride.

  “I couldn’t harm her even if I wanted to my friend. It appears your loss is my gain. She’s my mate, Julius.” Lucas heard the sudden intake of breath down the line as the other man gasped his shock.

  Julius told himself that he shouldn’t have been surprised, he always knew that the little Fae he treated as if she was his own daughter was destined to one day be mated to an Alpha. Hell, she was built to be a mate, and an Alpha’s mate to boot. He just never expected it to happen so soon.

  “And don’t tell me, she’s none too happy about it?” The elder was indeed wise, but then at his age, he had seen and heard everything, Lucas reasoned. There would also be no need for Lucas to call and do some digging if he had already mated her, he reasoned.