Mate Set (4 page)

now. Mated! He just grabbed her and bit into her.”

Uncle Omar sighed. “She knew better than to be out at night. Everyone knows it’s

that time of year. If she wasn’t looking for a mate, she shouldn’t have been running

around last night.” He sipped his coffee and frowned at Minnie.

Minnie glared back at him. “She wanted to get laid, not waylaid. He didn’t just fuck

her. He bit her and claimed her.”

Uncle Omar shot Mika a weak smile. “Sorry. You’re lost, aren’t you? You have that

dazed look on your face.”

Mika arched her eyebrow. “A little.”

Minnie slammed down the rolls on the dining room table and sat down in a huff.

“It’s mating season. The moon does this thing…well, never mind that. The point is that

every year for a few weeks the men get hornier than shit and it started three days ago. It

is nature’s way of making sure those horndogs might create a pup or two to keep us in

future generations. Most men have the sense to just get laid as much as possible—

wearing condoms—just for the fun of it all. But last night one of them bit a friend of

mine. He didn’t just fuck her in a way Mother Nature howled at him to do. He bit her

during the sex.” Minnie shot Omar a look. “Did you explain to her what mating is?”

Mika shook her head, answering before her uncle could. “Not really. He mostly

avoids the sex talks unless it’s a warning about how dangerous men can be.”

Minnie sipped her coffee. Mika didn’t think Minnie should drink caffeine but she

wisely didn’t mention that to the hyper woman. Minnie looked ready to explode as she

ran her fingers through her dark hair and shook her head.

“Your uncle and I live together and we’re a couple but we aren’t mated. I don’t

want to be mated. I was mated when I was younger and it sucked.” Minnie’s gaze

locked on Mika. “Being mated pretty much makes you a damn slave that a mated man

thinks he owns lock, stock, and barrel. He orders you around and treats you like

property because you are his. It’s in their damn blood when they mate to take it to the

extreme. We have sex.” Minnie pointed at herself and then Omar. “He can bite me all he

wants but no glove, no love. That’s our motto. We use condoms. It takes more than a

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bite alone to make a mate. You must have a mix of sperm and saliva at the same time to

mate while partially shifted.”

“She doesn’t want to know that.” Omar sighed. He gave Mika a pained look. “Tell

her you don’t want to hear this.”

Mika ignored him. “Tell me more.”

“When you don’t use condoms they mark you inside, and the more you smell of

them, the stronger the urge is for them to bite you. Once you’re mated your body

changes so you smell like their scent, telling all males you belong to someone. Once

mated, all these aggressive and dominating asshole genes that are hidden in their blood

come screaming out,” Minnie raged. “And then whatever poor woman agreed to the

mating finds herself barefoot and pregnant with a dominating jerk issuing orders.”

“Now Minnie, it’s not that bad,” Omar said.

“Are you the woman?” Minnie glared at him. “I was mated, Omar. Don’t you tell

me it’s not that bad.”

“Um…” Mika eyed Minnie. “You aren’t mated anymore?”

Minnie shook her head. “The dumbass got himself killed in a bar fight. It was the

best day of my life.”

“Not a love match, huh?” Mika hid her surprise at Minnie’s outburst.

“No. I was eighteen and he was hot looking. I just wanted to jump his bones but

instead the drunken son of a bitch bit me. He was a lazy jerk who couldn’t keep a job

and he was a lousy lay to boot. His mother was a real bitch in every sense of the word

so it was the worst year of my life.” Minnie huffed. “And don’t bother asking me why I

stayed. You humans have it easy because divorce isn’t allowed with shifters. No man is

going to let his mate just walk away. They own you and they are going to give you up

about as easy as they are going to allow someone to cut off one of their nuts. It ain’t

happening.”

Omar closed his paper as he frowned at Minnie. “Honey, I’m sorry your friend got

bitten during sex. I will never do that to you. Calm down. It’s done. Getting upset over

it won’t do any good. Maybe she’ll be happy with him. She wanted him enough to go to

bed with him so it might work out. You said yourself that she was really lonely.”

“Maybe.” Minnie calmed. “We’ll see. At least he has a job and a house.”

Omar nodded before he looked at Mika. “How is the house? I sent a cleaning

woman in to clear out the dust.”

“Perfect.” She nodded. “Thanks for the food in the fridge too.”

“Make sure you lock all the doors and windows,” Minnie said softly. “You’ve never

been here during mating season. We have a lot of strange men running around Bartock

because it’s the largest shifter city within a few hundred miles so they all come here to

hook up with women. Some of them aren’t picky if she’s Other or human.”

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That drew a frown from Omar. “I didn’t think of that. I’ve been busy trying to keep

the peace and then Mika just showed up so I didn’t register that she might be in

danger.”

“Duh,” Minnie muttered. “She’s good looking. Did you never think one of them

might see her and want to jump our girl?”

Omar stood. “I’ll assign her a guard. Shit. I’m so used to our pack following the

rules about leaving humans alone that I didn’t think about all the visitors we have.”

Mika was half tempted to tell him what had happened last night but she kept her

mouth shut, figuring she and Grady were even. He didn’t need to be rewarded by her

uncle for saving her ass after that marking stunt he’d pulled. Besides, if she told her

uncle what had happened, she’d have to tell him every detail, from the moment she left

her house until she’d arrived home. She wasn’t going to share what had happened

between her and Grady with him.
No way.
Her uncle would blow his top. An angry

Uncle Omar was a scary Uncle Omar.

Minnie sighed and stood. “Who can you trust with her? Really? I can’t think of one

strong male in the pack who wouldn’t let his dick get the best of him. A young, strong,

mated male isn’t going to leave his mate at home when there are randy wolves sniffing

around.”

“She’s human.” Omar frowned. “She’d be safe from our pack.”

Minnie rolled her eyes. “She’s attractive. That’s all a hard-on sees, love.” She

snorted. “A turned-on guy doesn’t care if she’s an alien from space. If she’s good

looking, a man would do her. You can handpick one of the best of our single males and

maybe they’ll hit it off. No vacation should be complete without a little sex.” Minnie

winked at Mika. “It would probably be your best trip here yet. I might hate the idea of a

mate but you were ready to get married to a man. Our males don’t cheat.”

Omar softly cursed. “No. She’s not hooking up with a wolf.”

Minnie frowned. “You raised her to know about us, Omar. When your sister

married a human, you could have kept her oblivious to our kind.”

“I saw you change from a dog into a naked man.” Mika chuckled. “You had to

explain what you were to me at that point.”

“Dog.” Omar rolled his eyes. “I’m a wolf.”

Minnie chuckled. “
Ruff
.”

Omar growled. “Not funny. It was cute when she called me doggy when she was

tiny but it’s not cute anymore.” He puffed up his chest. “I’m a timber wolf. We’re

fierce.”

“You told her for a reason. I thought you wanted her to hook up with one of our

males.”

“I told her so she wouldn’t hook up with one of ours.” Omar sighed and studied

Mika. “You were too young to remember how hard your parents had it, being of mixed

race. Your mother always had to hide what she was from your father’s family and

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friends. Our kind gave them shit because your dad was a mere human. I hate to admit it

but wolves can be assholes about that. We’re stronger and we can be pretty damn

snobbish. I want you to marry a human and avoid wolves. You’ll be happier that way.”

“Okay. So what’s the plan, fierce wolf?” Minnie asked.

Omar’s attention fixed on Mika. “You will stay here at the house this visit. We’ll

change the bedding in the guestroom.”

“Oh no,” Mika shook her head. “I’m scarred from the last time I stayed here.”

Minnie laughed. “We were just having sex.”

Mika’s eyebrows shot up. “It sounded as though
Animal Planet
hit wolf land during

a dog fight. No thanks. No way.” She frowned at her uncle. “I couldn’t sleep between

all the thumping noises and the howling and the growling.”

Minnie laughed again. “And now it’s mating season. We were tame then. We broke

our bed last night.”

Omar flushed a little. “She’s a child, Minnie.”

Mika shook her head. “I’m not a virgin at twenty-eight years old. I haven’t broken a

bed yet but I’ve sure fallen out of a few of them a time or two when we lost track of

where the edge was.”

Omar growled, narrowing his eyes at Mika. “You’re a damn virgin until you get

married. That’s final.”

Chuckling, Minnie walked over and sat on Omar’s lap. She winked at Mika. “It

would probably be impossible for you to hook up with a guy and get laid if you were

staying here. Your uncle would kill any guy who wanted to nail you under his roof.”

“Enough,” Omar growled. He shot Minnie a dirty look but he rubbed her hips with

his hands. “She doesn’t get laid. She’s an innocent virgin. That’s how I want it and

damned if either of you are going to blow my illusions. I’m much happier this way.”

Mika laughed and stood, grabbing breakfast dishes. “Okay, Uncle Omar. I’ll

remove my virgin ears and go do the dishes since Minnie cooked. I’m not staying here

though. I’m fine at my house. I’ll lock up tight at night.”

Mika slowly washed dishes, her mind drifting to the stranger from last night.

Grady. She was tempted to pull Minnie aside and ask her if she knew who he was. It

was doubtful though. She’d met a lot of pack males over the years. She’d never met

Grady. Minnie had said lots of werewolves showed up in town for mating season.

Grady was probably one of those males who traveled far to meet up with his own kind.

She dried the last dish and walked out of the kitchen. She heard voices coming from

the living room. Minnie stormed into the dining room. Mika froze, seeing the pissed-off

look on Minnie’s face. Minnie clenched her teeth.

“Men!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Your uncle called some of the pack males here and he wants you in there.”

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Mate Set

Mika blinked. “Okay,” she said slowly.

“He’s going to parade you around and see who looks at your body. He’s going to

pick a guard for you from the man who looks least interested.”

“No way.”

Minnie jerked her head in a nod. “I tried to tell him, but will he listen to a mere

female? Hell no. It’s insulting. We’re not meat to dangle in front of men. He’s using

your body to see who is interested in fucking you and who isn’t. It’s disgusting.”

A chuckle escaped Mika. “I see.”

“I don’t know what you find amusing.”

Mika looked down at her clothes. She bit her lip and unbuttoned her shirt. She

tugged at it until a hell of a lot of cleavage showed. She gripped her cotton skirt and

tugged the waist up to under her bra, securing it there. It hiked her knee-length skirt up

to her thighs at an almost indecent height. She lifted her head and smiled at Minnie. She

put her hands on her hips while pushing out her breasts. She winked.

“Unless one of them is gay, they’ll all look. I don’t want a guard.”

Minnie suddenly laughed. “If you’re going to teach him a lesson on bad plans going

wrong, go all out. Mess up your hair after taking it out of the ponytail. Our men love

wild, long hair.”

Mika tugged out her ponytail and shook her blonde hair. Minnie moved to her and

put her fingers in Mika’s hair, giving it a good tussle. Minnie was grinning when she

stepped back.

“Suck on your lips and rub your teeth over them. It makes them redder and kind of

pouty.”

Mika did it and smiled at Minnie. “What do you think?”

Minnie grinned. “Don’t move.” She ran in the kitchen and in seconds she came back

holding up a small dark brown bottle. Mika eyed it and arched her eyebrows. Minnie

laughed, uncapping it. She put her finger on it and turned the bottle. She stepped closer

to Mika and then gripped Mika’s shirt. She reached in and wiped her finger on the

bottom of Mika’s bra. When she pulled out her hand she adjusted Mika’s shirt down

low again to expose maximum cleavage.

“Vanilla. All that was missing to turn on a wolf was you smelling like something

edible and sweet.”

“My uncle is going to kill me, isn’t he?” Mika chuckled.

“It will serve him right.” Minnie closed the small bottle and shoved it into her back

pocket. “He’ll bellow for you in a minute. I’m going back in there. I have to see this.”

Grinning, Mika waited. She edged toward the door and listened, keeping out of

sight. She didn’t want to get caught spying but she was really interested in what her

uncle was saying to his men.

“So I want one of you to guard her while she’s visiting. She’s human.”