Ava's Mate (2 page)

* * * *

What the hell had just happened? Logan had been coming back to base after having some leave time, and had reported to Major Rane, when on his way back he literally bumped into the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Now that he knew what she was, he used that term lightly as she wasn’t human, she was a werewolf. She was stunning though—supermodel stunning. Tall, with shiny jet black hair all the way down to her bottom. She had the most striking ice blue eyes he had ever seen, with extra-long lashes that matched her hair. Her dark olive skin and dainty little nose sat over thick, full lips which topped off her perfect face. Her body was every man’s dream, breasts that were more than a handful—and he had large hands—and legs that wouldn’t quit.

Logan knew right now he looked like an idiot standing outside her office door. Sitting at her desk, Ava looked like she hadn’t almost made him cum in his pants like some randy teenage boy. His cock was rock hard at the moment and straining in his trousers.

It took him a minute to register the laughter behind him was coming from Faith, Kane’s wife. He slowly turned, placing his hands over his crotch to conceal his dick that wouldn’t stand down, and stared at the strange pregnant woman.

She smiled at him as she eased up off her seat. “That was even better seeing it live than it was weeks ago in my vision. Now I know who you are for one, and two, I have seen two ways for you to proceed. Do you want my advice? Will you take it, or will you be rude and pretend I’m not here?”

Logan debated what to do, he didn’t want to know what this woman thought she saw or not. Logan knew he wasn’t going to be rude, he couldn’t, not only was the crazy woman in front of him the alpha’s wife, she was also one of his sister’s friends, and he would do anything for his sister Kirby, even ask questions he didn’t want to know the answer to. “Please, give me your advice.”

Faith raised her eyebrows at him and then looked over his shoulder at Ava. “Don’t fight. Accept your fate. You, Logan Brown, are very important. This notion you have about being a normal human was exactly like mine. I tried to be normal. I’ll tell you a secret.” She moved closer to him and her voice dropped so low it was barely a whisper. “No one is normal. There is no such thing. Everyone has something special about themselves, some stronger than others. You can pretend like thousands of others or embrace it. Think about it.”

She patted his cheek and walked away. Terrified at what had just come out of her mouth, Logan stared after her until he could no longer see her. With his brain going a million miles a minute, he turned around and headed for the gym, needing to sort his thoughts out and figure out what he should do.

* * * *

Hours later, after he had beat the crap out of a punching bag and almost put two of his buddies out of action for a while, he still couldn’t get all that had happened out of his head. Thoughts of Ava made him rock hard. So hard in fact he could probably hammer nails with his dick.

Fucking werewolves. He was the only member left in his family who hadn’t fallen in lust with one, and he said ‘lust’ instead of ‘love’ because how could you love an animal like that? He cringed as he remembered Rane and the other werewolves shifting into half-human and half-werewolf. The sight of them in that form was scary, and the full change to a wolf was just as weird, but he would admit, even if only to himself, that in wolf form they were beautiful. He couldn’t help wondering what Ava would look like in her wolf form. Logan bet she would be magnificent.

The last couple of months had been a real eye opener. Not only had he learned werewolves, were tigers, were lions, and were panthers existed, but they were there to save the world from demons, minions, and zombies. He shivered as he remembered when he’d found out that the creatures from his worst nightmare existed. Rane had taken them out after he’d shown them what he was and explained what he and other werewolves did. At first Logan wasn’t convinced that eight-to-ten feet tall demons existed. Boy was he wrong.

Shaking his head to get rid of the images of that first encounter, he stomped into his quarters. He knew he should feel grateful to the were creatures for keeping his family and the world safe, but Logan was having a hard time accepting that humans weren’t the only Homo sapiens living on earth.

The biggest problem for him was that the other beings who protected the humans turned into animals, unnatural monsters. He shuddered, remembering Rane, Devlin, Tray, and all the others in half-change. Logan had no idea how his sister and brother found that attractive. He grudgingly admitted to himself that when they were in human form they were a good looking bunch, but when they fully changed into their animal they were magnificent. Logan’s thoughts reluctantly turned back to Ava, and once again he wondered what she would look like in her full wolf mode.

Collapsing on the bed, he buried his face into the pillow, groaning. He needed to stop thinking about her, because she was off limits. Not only was she a werewolf, but she was also his sister’s mate’s sister. Plus, he was going to find a normal, sweet, human woman to get it on with, marry, have some kids and all that. Not that he was even looking for anything like that at the moment, but when he did, she would definitely not be a werewolf.

Logan rolled to the side and set his clock for four hours sleep. He didn’t know why he bothered, he knew he wouldn’t sleep, even though he needed to as he was on patrol duties tonight.

He groaned again as he remembered he was still on rotation with Major Rane, his sister’s mate. Logan hoped Kirby wasn’t coming, and even more he hoped Rane’s brother Kane and his petite wife weren’t joining them. That little woman was weird, and that was something coming from him, whose sister and mother could command animals and communicate with them.

He banged his head against the pillow, not wanting to think any more about powers, because he would then have to admit he wasn’t so normal after all. Logan punched his fist into the wall. His life was out of control. He was just glad that when he had used his power in the battle a couple of weeks ago, everyone was so busy they didn’t even notice it. He banged his head on the pillow again. At this rate he was never going to sleep.

Getting out of bed, he felt compelled to run, the need to breathe and clear his head overwhelming his tired body. He changed into running shorts and chucked his shirt on the bed. Running across the beach, loving the sound of the waves crashing, the saltwater breeze against him, he had to admit it was the best thing about living there. Logan loved the water and the sea breeze, it was so refreshing. Every morning he got up since he’d been there felt like a new and fresh day.

He ran down the beach to the rocks and back again until he calmed down enough to sit on the sand and watch the waves crash to the shore. He had Sunday off, so he was going to go out, maybe find a woman he could get to know better, and get laid.
Ahh
, he thought,
I must be really in need of a good fuck, because I still couldn’t get Ava off my mind
. He looked down at the bulge in his shorts. His raging boner hadn’t gone away since he’d seen her. Logan could still feel her body against his. Shit, he’d almost taken her against the wall in the compound.

Groaning, he jumped up and ran into the cold ocean water, dunking his head and staying under as long as he could, fighting the currents and waves. Okay, so he really needed to have sex with a woman. He wondered what time they would finish hunting tonight. Early he hoped, so he could go out and fix his problem. He tried to remember one of the women he had been visiting the last couple of months, but stuff it if he could think of one, the only woman who came to mind was the werewolf.

Dunking his head again, he berated himself, promising to not even think of going there. He would find someone else. Logan strolled out of the water. God, maybe it would be better if his sister did come on the hunt tonight. If she did, it would end early, and then he could go and relieve all his tension. He didn’t care what his body wanted, it was not getting the werewolf.

* * * *

It was Ava’s turn to go see her brother Arden. She would do it all the time if they let her, but Kane, Rane, and her parents said he needed to learn how to be social with people, and not just fight, kill, and occasionally eat. Her brother never used to be like this. Sure, he fought demons and was a lead enforcer, but until a week and a half ago, he’d socialized, laughed, and left his house to do things other than fight. This was that human Remy’s fault. She’d been sick, and Arden had healed her by mate marking her, which helped Remy get back to one hundred percent. But as soon as Remy was well she’d run, and now Arden was paying the price as his wolf was going feral without its mate.

Not bothering to knock, Ava opened the door to her brother’s house, knowing it would be open as nobody bothered to lock their houses in this town. What thief would get away with stealing from a werewolf?

All the windows were covered and the house was eerily quiet. She shivered, hoping she wouldn’t come upon the same sight she had the other day. Sure enough, she found Arden sitting in his lounge room staring at nothing. He hadn’t shaved or showered since the last time Ava had been there about two days ago. For some reason she seemed to be the only one who could get Arden to shower and eat.

Ava almost jumped out of her skin when Arden came alive growling, “Why the fuck won’t you all leave me alone?” He threw a bottle of beer at the wall.

She glared at him. “That really wasn’t necessary. You have made it perfectly clear you don’t want our hel—”

Arden roared. “When Faith left Kane you all left him alone. Why the hell am I different?”

Sick of the same argument, she waited until she was sure he had finished. “Are you done with your tantrum now? Can I talk without you interrupting me?”

He snarled at her and she took that as a yes.

“For one, Kane didn’t go out every night fighting demons, trying to get killed. Two, when Faith left Kane it was only for a week, and we all knew where she was bar Kane. Thirdly, I like you the best, so get your ass off the lounge and shower and shave, because you stink. Once you get out, I’m going to watch you eat the pasta I’m about to make.”

He glared at her. His brown eyes flashed and she could see him and his wolf battling. He growled, lunging for her.

Sighing, she sidestepped and kicked him hard in his bottom. “I’m not in the mood to kick your arse today in order to get you to do what I want you to do.”

Arden let out a pain filled moan, got up, and walked to the shower. She waited until she heard the shower running before she went off to make dinner.

* * * *

Logan sat in the bar looking around at the women again and tried not to think of his sister’s odd behavior tonight. When they weren’t fighting demons and minions, she kept sneaking funny glances at him, and when they’d called it a night she’d given him a hug telling him, “I knew you would come around.” What the hell did she mean she knew he’d come around? Women, they were so confusing.

A sexy blonde strolled over to him, fawning over him to introduce herself. “Hi, I’m Britney.”

His gaze traveled over the hot woman with long blonde hair, brown eyes, and breasts that looked like they were about to fall out of her dress. He mentally rubbed his hands together as he stared at her pouting lips. She was just his type.

Holding out his hand, he smiled as she took it, shaking it slowly. “I’m Logan. Can I buy you a drink?”

She nodded and her hand left his and trailed up his arm. “What do you do, Logan? You look and feel very muscular.”

He tried not to roll his eyes as what she did and said felt like the same old thing. She plastered herself against him.

Concentrating on the feel of her against him, he groaned when little Logan and the rest of his body stayed flat and unaffected. “You have got to be kidding me. I have been hard all afternoon, even when I was fighting, and now that I have a gorgeous woman against me you go soft?” Realizing he’d said his thoughts out loud, he clenched his fists and bit his tongue.

Britney raised her eyebrows muttering, “Is something wrong? How about we go back to my place and I’ll fix all your problems.”

Groaning when his body didn’t even react to her blatant words, he apologized to the woman and excused himself.

Crap, what the hell was wrong with him? Walking outside to his car, he thought about his day, and as soon as his thoughts came to Ava he became hard as a rock again, his little Logan a big guy once again.

Not willing to give up, he drove to another bar.

* * * *

Logan drove into the barracks as dawn came over the horizon. The werewolf had cursed him. He’d been to three more clubs and each time found a woman, only for his body not to respond. At the last pub he had deliberately chosen a dark-haired, tall woman, and tried to imagine it was Ava, but as soon as the woman touched him his erection went south.

Punching his dashboard, he told himself he was even more determined not to have Ava, as the werewolf must have put some sort of spell or curse on him. Logan wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of letting her win. He was going to find a human woman whom he could have sex with even if it took him forever.

Chapter 2

Lying in the bath, Ava tried to relax after the longest two weeks of her life. Logan avoided her, so much so that if he saw her coming down the hall he would turn and walk in the opposite direction. Although, she’d done the same to him. It was fine for the first few days, but now…tension was high and she had no way to release it.

Kirby’s wedding had been an uncomfortable affair. Rane ended up kicking Logan out after the ceremony finished. Logan’s drunken snide comments were ruining the celebration. Ava felt so sorry for Kirby’s parents who seemed to spend the rest of the event apologizing for Logan’s behavior.

Everything that was happing was making her very reluctant to go anywhere near Logan, true mate or not.

Ava visited her friend Harry, who usually helped her with any physical needs, and had been her fuck buddy when she’d been in heat. The problem now was that she felt no attraction to him. Ava’s wolf hadn’t even let Harry hug her in greeting. Ava tried the werewolf bar, but none of the men turned her on or did anything for her.