Accidentally Wolf (5 page)

Zayn fell a little more in love
with his mate for including him on her impromptu trip and for not stumbling in
her lie. Shifters could smell a lie a mile away, and even he believed what she
said.

“You need to take better care of
your woman, or someone else will,” the passenger said.

Zayn knew his name was Tom, but
refused to acknowledge him or his taunt. He’d lived long enough to know the
other man was trying to get a rise out of him. Zayn helped Cora into the back
of the open topped jeep, blocking the other man’s view of his mate’s incredibly
fine behind in the process. The growl from the front was music to his ears.

Hatred burned in the eyes staring
at him through the rearview mirror. He met the flinty look with one of his own.
The other man was the first to turn away, showing him his profile. Tom hopped
in and crossed his arms over his chest with utter disdain etched on his
features. Both men could kick rocks for all Zayn cared.

Cora seemed unaware of the
undercurrents running between the three shifters in the vehicle. “Could you
please just drop us at the Circle C station?”

“We can wait and give you a lift
back.”

“My brother should be there within
a few minutes of our arrival. We appreciate your offer, and your generosity.”
It took every ounce of control for Zayn not to the growl words.

Cora turned to him. “How does
Niall know where we’re going to be?”

He held his phone up, careful not
to show her the screen and the no signal. As wolves they were able to
communicate, even at a distance. He knew once she started thinking, she’d
wonder how he came to be near where she’d ran out of gas. He just hoped they’d
be somewhere private he could explain about her new abilities.

That place wasn’t going to be in
the backseat of another pack’s jeep and certainly not on the side of the road.

“Very convenient,” Tom answered
with a smirk.

“Isn’t it though?” Zayn said with
a bite in his voice. The two in the front of the jeep were not high in the
hierarchy of their pack, unlike Zayn who was second in command of the Mystic
River pack.

“Hey, gorgeous, when you want a
real man, all you gotta do is come on up to Whitewood. We always make sure our
women are taken care of.”

She shook her head. “Are you
hitting on me?”

“Why yeah, I was,” Tom chuckled.

“Shut up, Tom,” Zayn growled.

“You mad I asked first, Al?”

“I don’t have a death wish, Tom,”
Al muttered.

The other man ignored Zayn’s
warning even knowing Cora was Zayn’s mate. By asking her out, Tom had just
challenged Zayn. Wanting to answer the challenge, Zayn’s claws threatened to
burst from his fingers, and his gums ached with the urge to allow his fangs
freedom to rip Tom’s throat out.

“Sorry, I’m not interested.” Cora
placed her hand on Zayn’s thigh.

She diffused some of his tension,
though not enough to save Tom. The pup in front of him had signed his death
certificate when he asked Cora out. The Mystic River pack had an agreement with
the other packs in the area. They didn’t encroach on each other’s territories
and all was well. If you had to pass through lands that were not your own, you
let the alpha know and didn’t disturb what wasn’t yours. He’d been doing a lot
more than passing through their territories.

Heads up, Niall.
Tom from the Whitewood Pack just challenged
me for Cora.

What the fuck. Are you sure? Maybe it’s just the newly mated hormones,
Zayn. Let me handle this.
Niall’s tone was completely calm.

Niall, there is no mistake. My scent is all over her, and she wears my
mark any shifter with eyes can see. Nor did I mishear. He asked her out in
front of me.

Don’t do anything rash. Let me talk with his alpha. He’s a pup.
Nothing.

Zayn cut the connection to concentrate
on the road ahead. He could see the town in front of them and didn’t trust Tom
or the other man not to do something stupid.

The sight of Niall, along with
several other pack members standing next to Zayn and Niall’s trucks, made the
driver of the jeep clench the steering wheel.
Zayn wasn’t
sure why the two in front didn’t expect his pack to have his back, or why they
thought he wouldn’t have contacted Niall as soon as he got in their vehicle.
That was the way of his pack. He shook his head. Maybe their pack didn’t speak
with the lower ranked members the way the Mystic River pack did.
Whatever.
What they did or didn’t do as a pack wasn’t his
problem. Only Tom, at the moment, was. However, he’d allow his brother to speak
with the alpha first to set up the challenge.

“Thanks for the ride, Al. Let your
boss know
we’ll be in touch.” Zayn
kept the sneer out of his voice by sheer force of will. When he turned to Tom,
the pup had the audacity to meet his eyes. He had a yellowish cast to the
whites of his eyes which concerned Zayn. He wondered if maybe Tom was on drugs.
Al turned to face him with the same tinge of yellow in his eyes.

He wasted no time hopping out of
the vehicle, lifted Cora out,
keeping
his body between
Tom and Cora’s. Drugs, to humans, were toxic. To a shifter they were deadly to
all involved.

“See you around, Cora.” Tom leaned
one hand out the window. His parting words ringing out the window, their tires
left marks on the pavement as they sped off.

“Oh, goody.
I can hook up with creepy dude up the road.” Cora shuddered.

Zayn all but roared. “The only
dude you’ll be hooking up with is me!”

Cora jumped back. “Are you trying
to scare the crap out of me?”

Zayn raked his hand through his hair,
staring at her where she stood, next to his brother near his truck. What does
that say about him, that he’s scaring his own mate?

It says your emotions are high, and you need to chill.

His composure recovered with a few
deep breaths. Zayn held his hand out to Cora in a placating gesture. “Forgive
me, Cora. When I came home and found you gone, I lost it. I’m sorry.” He hung
his head. Cora may not understand the meaning of the move, but his pack did.

“Well, since you happened by when
I needed someone…which is something I’ve been thinking about. How did you
happen to be in the woods there anyway?”

Cora watched him with eyes too
smart for her own good. Niall saved him from answering with half-truths. “We
were out trail riding, scouting to see if we could find more traps.”

The four-wheeler in the back of
Niall’s truck added an element of truth. They had sent half the pack out
looking for more traps, but when Zayn had found Cora gone, he’d shifted and
sent a call out for help in finding his mate. Had she not run out of gas, he
feared he’d not have found her. His gut twisted, but he pushed it aside.

“Niall, can I get a ride back to
my car? I stupidly let her run out of gas.”

Zayn saw red. Cora was new to
their world. He knew that, but he still couldn’t control his wolf. He grabbed
her arm and set her behind him, showing his fangs. His voice came out a deep
rumbling growl. “She’s mine.”

“I’m conscious of who she is,
Zayn. You need to get control, now.” Niall brooked no argument.

Zayn shook his head, aware he was
being completely unreasonable.

“Are you hell bent on being an
asshat?” Cora tried to step around Zayn.

“Maybe.
Or possibly I’m just hell bent on shooting myself in the foot. I think I may
have foot in mouth disease. Do you think you could cure me?” Zayn turned to
wrap Cora in his arms. He gave into the urge to sample her lips. They’d become
a new obsession, one he had no desire to resist.

He bent his head and brushed his
mouth across hers, sipped at the corner of her lips. She’d applied some type of
lip balm on the drive down, but he preferred Cora’s natural flavor. Zayn traced
the seam of her lips with his tongue, dipped inside, swallowing the shaky sigh
she made.

“I think I could cure you of that
disease with my fist, but only if you two disengage said mouths. You’re drawing
a crowd.” Niall indicated his truck. “Why don’t you both
ride
with me, and Jett can drive your truck back to your house, Zayn?”

Next to Niall, Jett was Zayn’s
best friend. They’d come to Mystic River together years ago. Growing up they’d called
themselves
the three amigos and had stayed as close as
three brothers, even though Jett was no relation. Jett had a way of looking at
a woman that said he knew every dirty way to make a woman come and could do it
in
under
ten minutes, and if you were one of the lucky
ones, he’d be glad to demonstrate it for you. Of course he wasn’t too
discriminating. He said he liked to make the ladies happy, and the piercing on
his tongue helped, or so Jett said.

“I’ll take your girl, and by girl
I mean your truck. Keep your shit level, man.” Jett flashed his pearly whites,
hands raised in a placating gesture.

Cora cocked an eyebrow at him, a
flush covering her cheeks. Zayn didn’t miss the fact her hands still gripped
his arms or that her tongue darted out to lick at her lips.

That’s a win for him.

He held her gaze, her face turned
up to his. “Can we get my car before something happens to her, please?” She
blinked up at him.

He was so screwed.

“Ahh, and…just like that it’s
happened.” Jett snickered.

Zayn lifted his hand and flicked
Jett the middle finger. “Let’s go, luv.” He tapped her on the tip of her nose
with his index finger.

The way her eyes widened at the
endearment made his solar plexus ache. He may not have wanted a mate, but what
he had was a beautiful woman he was proud to call his.

His mate’s smile stretched wider.

With ease he lifted his mate—and
didn’t he love that word more with each passing moment—into his brother’s
truck. He didn’t even mind that she was in the middle of the front bench seat, especially
when she scooted closer to his side.

By the time they’d reached the
place she’d left her car and filled it with the fuel his brother had brought
along, he was harder than he could remember being, ever. The more than hour
drive back to Mystic was going to be the longest of his life.

Cora thanked his brother who waved
her thanks away with ‘you’re family,’ which made heat fill her cheeks.
Admittedly, Zayn didn’t know much about Cora’s family, something he planned to
rectify soon.

They watched Niall pull away,
executing a U-turn with a salute as he drove off at a sedate pace.

“Can we go back to my place? There
are things I need to talk to you about, things you need to understand. I’m
sorry for the way I treated you, for making you run.” Zayn backed Cora against
the driver’s door of her car. He knew he could be risking bodily injury with
his arms braced on either side of her head, his legs outside hers, but he
wanted to inhale her scent, wanted to be as close to her as possible.

She dropped her gaze to his waist,
her eyes jumping back to his face.

He shook his head, knowing she
couldn’t miss the evidence of his arousal. Hell, all he had to do was be within
sniffing distance and he was hard. “Ignore him.”

She snorted. “Kinda hard, pun
intended.”

Zayn planned to at least get them
to his place before he mauled her again, but his body had other plans. His head
descended, crushing her lips with his. She whimpered, digging her hands into
his back pockets as she opened up to him without hesitation.

The unmistakable sound of a V-twin
engine broke through the lust filled fog, bringing him back to their
surroundings. He pushed away breathing heavily.

“Woman, you need to get in the car
before I lose all sense of where we are and fuck you where we stand.”

Her tongue swept out to lick at
her mouth, almost making him lose his last bit of control. She fumbled with the
door handle and stumbled into the driver’s seat. Her eyes never left his, like
she was afraid of the big bad wolf, which gave him the extra push to gather more
control before he did something he’d regret, like screw his mate for any and
all to see on the side of the road.

The deft way she handled her car
impressed Zayn. He loved muscle cars, especially the older models and hadn’t
been in the newer versions until now. Although he still preferred the
originals, he was glad Cora had chosen one with speed. It made the drive back
to his house a lot quicker than if she’d driven something more compact,
something that would’ve made the drive take a lot longer than he wanted.

They spent the drive talking about
their likes and dislikes. He found she had an eclectic choice of music, just
like him, although they both despised the twangy country songs and couldn’t
stand the popular pop music. Neither could choose which version of
Turn
The
Page
,
either by Bob Seger or Metallica they liked best, because they felt they both
were awesome. They both loved pasta in all its forms and agreed it was better
the next day, and she hated slasher movies just like him, but loved action movies.
Of course when she said, depending on what movie she was watching, her “hubby”
changed. He asked for clarification.

That was when he decided he was
firmly a romantic comedy type of guy. No way in hell was his mate going to sit
next to him and pretend she was married to Riddick or The Rock. Then the other
shoe dropped. They were never watching anything except animated films. He could
compete with animation he’d declared, which caused his mate to laugh like a
hyena and almost caused them to wreck.

By the time Foxie rumbled into his
drive he was completely in love with his accidental mate. He just had to figure
out how to explain to her what he was. What she now was.
Easy,
right?