The Wolf's Mate Book 2: Linus & The Angel (5 page)

She helped her mother cook for the pack for
years. She went to public school until 8
^th
grade and
then home schooled online for high school, graduating early and
starting right away with college courses.

He set the table for her and by the time she
joined him, he had a feast on his table that he couldn’t believe
actually came from his own kitchen. Besides the sandwiches, she had
made a pot of potato chowder, a loaf of bread with melted cheese on
it, and a pitcher of iced tea. He was in complete awe.

“I would have done something for dessert, but
I wasn’t sure what kind of stuff you like. I’ll make something
later. Is this okay?” She looked at him with those big brown eyes.
He could see that she really wanted him to be happy with what she
had done.

“Holy hell, Karly, this is amazing. You
didn’t have to do so much for me.”

She raised her brow. “Why wouldn’t I?”

Indeed. He tucked into the food and was
unprepared for how amazing everything was. The girl could cook,
that’s for damn sure. Immediately he thought about the empty
restaurant in town. Lonestar. At one time it had belonged to the
father of their alpha female, Cadence, a horrible human that hated
wolves because his wife had been killed while pregnant with
Cadence, by a rival pack female. Somehow, the attack made Cadence
into the odd hybrid that she was but had put a permanent chip on
his shoulder about their kind. When all the shit went down in
October over Cadence and the pack that had shared their town for
many decades, the Garra Pack, they’d pulled up stakes and hit the
road, leaving the bar and restaurant in town without anyone to run
them. Just recently, they had tentatively taken on a DJ to play
weekends at the bar known as Jake’s. Jake had been the alpha of the
other pack. They were all hopeful that the DJ might want to run the
bar for them, too, but he seemed reluctant at the moment to do
anything except play music.

“Have you ever thought about going into the
restaurant business?” He asked, after polishing off the second
sandwich.

She gave him an incredulous look. “My stuff’s
not that good.”

“Are you kidding? You are a fantastic cook,
Karly. No kidding. If you do your art stuff better than this, well,
then I don’t know why you’re not in a museum somewhere.”

She blushed and it was adorable. “You know
you don’t have to sweet talk me to get me into bed.”

He laughed. “I would anyway.”

They spent the rest of the afternoon talking,
sitting on the couch and getting to know each other. By the time
dinner rolled around, Karly had made herself at home in his small
kitchen and he loved watching her. He could actually see in his
mind’s eye what their life might be like together. He could picture
her waiting for him after work, eating dinner together. He could
even see her sweet little flat belly rounded out with his child.
Now that was something he craved on a cellular level.

Unfortunately, the call came about 10 that
Jason expected them at the shop in the morning because the pack had
gotten the roads cleared to town. He didn’t want his little bubble
to burst.

While they made love before bed that night,
he kept stopping himself from saying a dozen things that ran
through his mind like an errant freight train.

I love you.

Move in with me.

Marry me.

Park on my face for about a week.

But he stopped himself, mostly by biting his
tongue, which eventually started bleeding. Damn sharp fangs. He was
afraid to rush her, but afraid to let her go. He wanted to mark her
and drive down to one of those cheesy quick stop marriage places in
Tennessee tomorrow. Confusion reigned in his mind, a least for
those moments when he could actually think straight. He was running
on pure awe and instinct with his little sweetheart. Willing,
feisty, as insatiable as he’d ever hoped for a woman to be in his
bed.

And now, blissed out, drenched in sweat and
other sweeter things, he loved the sigh from her mouth as she
cuddled into him. “You’re wonderful, Linus,” she yawned, “and very
good at wearing me out.”

He chuckled. “I would prefer that they hadn’t
gotten the snowplows so soon.”

“Real world beckons.”

He bit the inside of his cheek to stop
himself from asking her to move in for the hundredth time. Instead
he smoothed his hand over her shoulder. “This is a damn sexy
tattoo, you rebel. What’s it mean?”

“Soul mate.” She yawned again, rubbing her
cheek across the small patch of dark hair on his chest, unable to
keep her eyes open.

His wolf sat up. She was someone’s soul mate?
He’d slaughter him. Whoever the hell he was. “Is it from someone in
your past?”

“No,” her voice started to slur, “I’m your
angel, Linus. Yours.” And then she was gone, a deep sigh and then
the rhythmic sound of her breathing in sleep. Angel? Something
pricked at the back of his mind. It sounded – familiar. But at
least she said she was his. That was enough to pet the hackles on
his wolf down so he didn’t go stalking off into the snow to find
someone who had her heart. He wanted it for himself. Maybe that
made him a selfish bastard, but he didn’t care at this point. He’d
wandered across her in the snow, and maybe it was fate, but he damn
sure wasn’t going to let her go. The last thought he had as he
drifted off to sleep was that he’d seen that symbol somewhere else,
when he was young.

Chapter 4

Karly really didn’t want to get up. She
wasn’t feeling lazy; she just liked sleeping next to Linus. He was
so warm, like a personal space heater, and with his arms around
her, she felt perfect and safe and complete. It was a nice feeling.
And all the sex was a good bonus, too. But they couldn’t stay
snow-bound forever.

While he slept soundly underneath her and the
sky outside the bedroom window was still dark, and the clock read a
too-early 4:47, she debated staying right there and waiting for him
to wake up, or getting up and making him breakfast. Her better
nature of wanting to take care of her mate had her sliding slowly
off him and out of bed, and pulling on the shirt and shorts that
had mostly been off of her for the last two days. She shut the
bedroom door so he could rest. He mentioned the night before that
he was supposed to report to the garage at 8, so she figured he
should be up around 6 maybe, which gave her an hour to feed him
right.

Fortunately, his pantry and fridge were well
stocked, along with a large chest freezer in the garage that he
kept stockpiled with meat. He was used to having some of the pack
over in the summer for cook-outs. She whipped up a sausage and egg
casserole and popped it in the oven and made a quick loaf of banana
bread. She heard the door open just before 6 followed by his yawn
that had become very familiar. He came out of the bedroom already
showered, in jeans, a short sleeved shirt with Pete’s Garage in
faded blue script across the front, his hair still damp.

“Good morning, beautiful,” He kissed the top
of her head and put his arm around her.

“Morning.”

“Have you been up long?”

“Not too long.”

“You know, a guy could get used to all this
special treatment. It’s not really fair.” He groused, and when she
looked up at him she could see the unhappiness in his eyes even
though he was trying to joke about it.

“You deserve to be treated special. I made
coffee, have a seat.”

“Yes dear,” he laughed with another kiss and
squeeze before going to the table. She pulled the casserole out of
the oven where she had been keeping it warm and put it on the
table, along with a plate of the sliced bread.

“I don’t know how you keep putting this stuff
together. I didn’t think I had the ingredients to make half the
stuff you’ve made for us.”

She served him a big wedge of the casserole
and took a square for herself. “Just experience, I guess.” She
blushed slightly. She wasn’t used to all the compliments. In her
father’s pack, the caretakers were supposed to be good cooks or
they weren’t going to be doing the job much longer. You didn’t get
praised for doing your job.

“So what will you do today?” He asked,
tucking into the food.

“I don’t know, actually. My car is probably
buried behind a snow plow drift in the parking lot, so going
somewhere is out of the question, not that I had anywhere to go,
anyway.” She felt like she was babbling and going to say something
stupid, like begging him to let her stay at his house for the day.
To wait for him to come home from work, to make him dinner and take
care of him.

“Can I see you, uh, after work?”

He looked like he thought she would say no.
Silly wolf. “I’d like that.”

He finished everything, declaring it
incredible and delicious. She finished eating before him and pulled
on his socks and sweats. They left as soon as he was finished
eating, and he carried her out to his pick-up truck in the garage
even though she had shoes. She saw his motorcycle in the garage,
and he said that the whole pack rode, and he was looking forward to
riding with her once the weather got nice. She wasn't certain that
he even realized that he was talking about them in a future way,
and she didn’t point it out, even though she found it sweet and
wonderful.

As expected, her parking lot had been plowed
in a way that blocked all the vehicles behind a tall wall of snow
with only sidewalk sized holes leading to the units. He pulled up
in front of her unit and frowned. “You live here?”

“Yeah. I wasn’t looking for a long-term place
and there aren’t really that many places to rent in this area.”

He gave her a long look. “This place isn’t
exactly safe, Karly.”

Shrugging, she reached for the door handle.
His hand tightened on her arm. “Wait, you act like it’s not a big
deal, if the place is safe or not.”

“It’s okay. I’ve lived in better places, but
I’ve lived in worse places, too. I told you, I don’t usually stick
around more than a few weeks in any one place and sometimes the
short term places are iffy.”

“Why is that, again?” His baby blues
narrowed.

She sighed. “Because I was looking for a
reason to stay, and I didn’t find one before.”

He was full on frowning by this point, so she
pointed to the clock on the dash. “You’re going to be very late if
I don’t get going, Linus. And then the lunch I made you will have
gone to waste.” He’d been thrilled that she packed him a lunch.
She’d been looking for black pepper and saw a small cooler and
packed him a few sandwiches and some other things.

“I’m not done being unhappy about this
place.” He said finally and got out of the truck. He came around to
her side, opened the door, and pulled her into his arms.

She didn’t know what to say to that, so she
said nothing. She liked that he was concerned about her, but it
wasn’t as if she had a choice. Allen did not have any available
short-term rentals. She unlocked the door and he carried her
inside, kicking it shut with his foot and putting her down. He was
practically glaring at her.

“Linus?” She ran her hands around his waist,
hooked them at the small of his back, and leaned into him. He
sighed and put his arms around her. “I’m sorry, Karly. My wolf is
like snapping in my brain about leaving you here.”

“That’s sweet. I’ll be fine. I’ve been fine.
You should get going. I don’t want your boss to hate me before he
ever meets me.”

He looked down at her and she could see the
war in his eyes. “Yeah. I’ll see you about 6, okay, angel?”

Her heart stopped. “Angel?”

He smiled, the action splitting his lush
lips. “Last night you said you were my angel just before you passed
out. It was sweet.”

Holy hells bells! He kissed her once on the
lips and she was almost too stunned to react to it. Gathering her
wits, she said goodbye and shut the door behind him. What were they
talking about that she said she was his angel? She scanned her mind
for last night’s events and couldn’t remember anything after
collapsing on his chest. She must have been half asleep.

Well, clearly he hadn’t heard the old legends
or he would have put the two together. His wolf’s concern for her
and her being an angel. So tonight she would tell him. She had her
bound history books with her. Along with her two bags, the box of
books was the only thing she carted from place to place. She would
show him her history, her place in the Angel line, and explain the
significance of their connection together. What she’d learned over
the weekend was that he had been hurt so badly by his ex that he
was gun-shy about relationships. Worried to rush, worried not to
rush, constantly doubting himself. And he clearly didn’t think he
was worth very much, thought there were other men, wolves, who were
better than him.

The problem was that packs like his were
getting further and further away from traditions. It wasn’t about
taking away a pack’s freedom to make their own choices, it was
about holding onto what made them special and great. It sounded
like their full moon gatherings were more about partying and
hanging out than communing. When she took him back to her father’s
pack to get married, he would get to see what he called an
old-school pack work. She'd seen a lot of packs. Some very
traditional, stiflingly so, and some so loosely grouped together
that except for the fact they all shifted on the full moon, there
wasn’t anything tying them to each other. Was there a way that was
better over the others? In her mind, yes. And truly any children
that she had with her mate, she would want them brought up learning
the traditions and culture of their heritage. If Linus had been
taught properly, he would have known what she was right away.
Because his wolf would have recognized her. And he wouldn’t be
second-guessing himself, which was clearly what he was doing.