Forbidden Mate (5 page)

“I remember that scent. It’s even stronger today. When
did you arrive here?” He clutched the side of his head as if suffering from a
massive headache. She didn’t doubt it, if he’d been fall-down drunk last night.

“I came yesterday…around dinner. And I showered this
morning, by the way.”

He looked puzzled as he raked his eyes up and down
her body. She felt naked, like he was undressing her slow layer by slow layer.
Those eyes were capable of preforming foreplay without a touch.
 
“You’re human.”

“I hope so.”

He looked like he wanted to reach out to her, but
stopped himself. “You’ve just complicated my life,” he said it with an air of
regret.

The guy growled
,
his eyes
narrowed before he turned and stormed away in the direction of the tree line. What
had she done wrong? She’d just played Good Samaritan, and now
he
was pissed?

“Wait!” she called out. But he didn’t stop or even
turn to acknowledge her. That was the second brooding hunk to walk out of her
life in the past twenty-four hours. The rejections weren’t helping to build her
self-esteem. It was bad enough she was thirty-five, unemployed, and single.
Never mind the fact her body decided to reach its sexual peak a few months
back.
 
But finding a good man was like finding
a winning lotto ticket—most
were
losers.

Helen collected herself, refocusing on the job at
hand. She boarded the empty bus up the street and waited for the driver and
passengers to join her. It would only be a few more minutes until they showed
up. As she sat alone in the quiet interior, she looked off into the distance
through the windows—no buildings or towers to impede her view. She swore she
saw a wolf pass between two trees, but by the time she could focus closely on
the movement, it was gone. Hopefully mystery man number two didn’t run into it
alone.

Chapter
Three

The queen was scheduled back in less than a week—too
soon. There was another potential threat that needed to be dealt with. During
their nightly patrols they caught two young shifters near the palace’s
perimeter fence. After a lengthy interrogation, the teens admitted they’d been
hired by a wolf to watch the patterns of the Royal Elite. They knew no names or
contact information. What could this mystery wolf want from the royal palace?
Last time they’d caught a fox shifter sneaking on the property, he’d been hired
to kidnap one of the princesses.

Now things were different. The princesses were all
mated to three or more males each. There was no longer a chance to mate with
any of them, narrowing down the obvious motive. But this wolf was up to no
good, some rebel out for chaos and bloodshed.

Wesley examined all the secret doorways in the
underground tunnels for weaknesses before Alexander joined him.

“I hear you’re looking for a wolf this time. Any
luck?”

He shook his head. “He wouldn’t happen to be a
relative of yours, would he?”

“If one of my family members was trying to harm my
mate, I’d kill them myself.” Alexander walked toward the small Roman column next
to Wesley and began to pile his clothes neatly atop it. “What you have is
a loose
cannon. He’s likely out of joint because he has no
chance to bed a princess now that they’re marked.”

“We’ll find him one way or the other. I’m heading to
town to question the regulars. Those kids were supposed to meet the wolf at the
bar last night.”

“Well, you have fun with it. Right now, I need to
run.” Alexander nodded once before shifting into his wolf form. The man
exercised his beast like clockwork. He’d kept the same routine for the past
five years he’d lived at the castle. Now that Delia had returned to take her
place as his mate, he continued to run at the same hours. Wesley felt unnerved watching
Alexander’s strong, muscular haunches as he tore off through the open fields.
Pure strength.
Wolves were not shifters to be toyed with.
The man they were looking for had to be dangerous.

And the routines at the palace were too predictable.

He checked the last doorway and then headed into
town to look for clues. One lead was all he needed to get started.

Wesley scanned the area as he walked along the dirt
paths. Normally he’d have one or two other Elites hunting with him, but they
were short staffed with the queen and most Elites off the property. She was
their priority, her bloodline capable of maintaining all shifter races.

He shook out his arm, his knuckles still swollen
from slamming his fist into the side of an oak last night. Although he’d
welcomed the distraction of the melee with the intruders, he still couldn’t
wipe Helen’s image from his mind. Now that he was alone in the forest, he had
too much time to think.

He wasn’t a fool. As much as he hated that she was a
human female, he couldn’t deny Helen was his mate. Just thinking of her name
made his cock hard. Now what? He was an Elite and she was forbidden. All he
could do was use his training to ignore his natural desires, stifle them until
he was colder than ice.

As he entered the small town, he noticed a male he
didn’t recognize weaving in and out of the perimeter trees. Besides looking
suspicious, he was too muscular to be a local beta shifter or human. And he was
looking for an alpha wolf.

At this point, everyone was a suspect. He’d forget
Helen by focusing all his energy on finding his mark. Wesley slipped into the
forest and used this stealth to sneak up on the man. His panther moved with
deadly grace, barely shifting a leaf out of place. Not even a wild hare would
hear him coming. When he was only a few feet from his target, the man shot
around and stood his ground, arms crossed over his chest.

“A Royal Elite.
I
should have known.”

“Who are you?” Wesley demanded.

“
Now
you want
to know? None of you gave a shit when I lost my mate.”

Wesley narrowed his eyes, giving the male the once
over. It had been years ago, but he still remembered the wolf shifter. It was
an emotional case, one he couldn’t easily forget. The wolf had come to the
palace demanding the queen take revenge on the human hunters who’d trespassed
and killed his mate. He’d been a complete mess. But it wasn’t their place to
interfere in affairs of the human world. Maybe he wanted revenge on the royal
family for not taking action on his behalf. Maybe he was the wolf they were
looking for.

 
“Marco, right?
It’s been a while.”

“Years don’t take away the pain, if that’s what
you’re thinking. No matter how many people try to tell you so, time doesn’t
heal all.”

“Look, what happened wasn’t the fault of the Elite
or the queen. And it was a long time ago. What did you expect us to do? ”

“
Nothing.”
Marco whirled away before quickly facing
him again. “It wasn’t your place to protect her. It was mine. I’m the one who
failed.”

Wesley wasn’t sure what to make of the wolf. He
sounded like a male in mourning, not the mastermind behind a plot to destroy
the queen. In fact, he reeked of alcohol and his suffering was palpable. Wesley
felt uncomfortable around Marco. He was unable to deal with the heightened
emotions the wolf was displaying when he could barely hold onto his own.

“We’re looking for a wolf that’s targeting the
princesses and the queen. Do you know anything about it?”

“You think it’s me.”

“I didn’t accuse you. But you’re a wolf, and I’ve
never seen you around town before. I’ll bet you know a lot of other wolves,
too.”

Marco narrowed his eyes, his shoulders squared and muscles
tense. Wesley hoped he wouldn’t have to take on the wolf in a fight, because he
didn’t look like he’d go down easily.

“I could say the same thing. Don’t you have wolves
under the palace roof? From what I’ve heard, you’ve had at least one on board
for the past five years. He wasn’t too happy about waiting for his princess.”

“Well, he’s happy now, and he’s not a suspect.”

Marco exhaled in irritation. “It’s been great
catching up, really, but I’d rather get away from the town if it’s all good
with you. It looks like humans are taking over one of our last shifter safe
havens. But I’m sure the queen wouldn’t be able to do anything about that,
either.”

Talk of humans reminded Wesley of the girl from last
night.
The
human
girl.

His sudden desire for the brunette made him feel
tainted in some odd way. He’d come to expect shifters in town, only the rare
human passing through. He was trained not to take a mate as part of his Royal
Elite training. Claiming a human would be completely out of bounds.

By the time he pushed away his sidetracked
thoughts,
the wolf had shifted and darted into the heavy
underbrush.
Fuck!

Marco wasn’t off his list, but Wesley wasted no more
time and headed straight for the bar. It was the last known location of the
wolf he was looking for. He pushed open the heavy door, expecting to find the
same raucous laughter and music as the night before. Instead, he only met
silence. A woman was mopping the floors at the far end of the room, the chairs
all stacked up on the tables. The bar lights were off, as was the music that
usually pulsed through the sound system.

He never considered the place would be so dead in
the light of day. He’d have to return tonight before his perimeter shift at the
castle. There was a long list of people he wanted to question, including the
bartenders and waitresses. Cade and the other Elites wouldn’t understand his
new obsession. They liked to handle each threat as it came. Wesley was
searching for a needle in a haystack, some nameless wolf in territory ruled by
shifters. It was better than obsessing over a woman he had to forget.

****

The tour bus rumbled along the barren roadway,
jostling every time they hit a pothole in the road. There were many. The driver
was in his own little world, not offering to entertain the passengers or assist
her in announcing the sites.

“To your left, you’ll see Lake Demori. Some say it
was named after an ancient queen or perhaps a ruler from a Native legend.” She
scanned through the pages of notes she’d jotted down last night. At least the
passengers hadn’t ousted her for her inexperience yet. They all gawked out the
left side windows, oohing and awing after she spoke.

It was hard not to get as caught up as the tourists.
In only two days she was already falling in love with the country. A light mist
lingered over the mix of ground cover and small blooms. The trees were massive
and moss
covered,
things she’d envision in a fairy
tale, not real life.

She continued, “This is one of numerous
Chupacabra
sighting locations. They’ve been reported in the
woods surrounding the town and have been caught drinking in this very lake.”

The bus driver slowed his speed, giving everyone
ample time to peer out the windows. If she remembered correctly, they were
supposed to stop around the bend in the road to let the passengers out to look
around. Many were hardcore monster-hunters, living off the thrill of finding
Big Foot, the Loch Ness Monster, and other mysterious creatures of lore. It was
her job to put a little fear into them, to make things more entertaining when
they did their personal investigation on foot. Of course, they wouldn’t find
anything besides the native wildlife.

She noticed a small cabin along the far edge of the
lake, mostly obscured by the dense forest climbing up the mountainside behind
it. She grabbed a set of binoculars from her seat and looked off into the
distance. For some reason she knew, and she’d just confirmed it with her own
two eyes. It was mystery man number two.

He was leaning over the rails of a wrap-around
porch, watching the lake as if it held some great secret. She couldn’t look away,
narrowing her binoculars in on his face, his eyes. The man mesmerized her.

At least he wasn’t the town drunk as she’d first
assumed, and he hadn’t taken off into the forest for no reason. The man
actually lived out here. But it should have taken hours on foot. She only
assumed he had an ATV or something hidden just inside the tree line near town.
It would explain how he managed to navigate the forest unscathed, despite her potential
wolf sighting.

 
“How long do
we have?”

Helen was pulled from her thoughts and the face she
couldn’t easily look away from. It was one of the passengers. She realized the
bus had stopped, parked, and most of the passengers were already off and walking.
She really was starting to lose it.

“Sorry. We’ll all meet back at the bus in an hour.”

Helen set her binoculars down, determined to put her
little obsession to sleep. She had not one, but two men on her mind. The first
one brought her to heights she’d never known. But just when she swore there was
a soul-deep connection between them, he’d disappeared.
 
So what if she grew old alone? And so what if
the most satisfaction she’d ever get involved a battery-operated toy? Life had
to go on.