Patient Mates: (Book 7 Grey Wolf Pack Romance Novellas)
Read Patient Mates: (Book 7 Grey Wolf Pack Romance Novellas) Online
Authors: E A Price
Patient Mates
(Book 7
, Grey Wolf Pack Romance Novellas)
By E A Price
Copyright ©2014 by Elizabeth Ann Price
All rights reserved. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.
Disclaimer
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Table of Contents
9
th
November
Gabe North tapped his foot. He cradled the phone between his head and his shoulder and started writing a shopping list. Looking out the kitchen window he noticed his lawn was covered in leaves. He really ought to rake those.
“Don’t you agree?”
Gabe snapped back to attention. “Huh?”
“That it’s a wonderful opportunity for me.” Said Milly placidly, apparently not a bit put out that he wasn’t listening.
“Yes definitely.” He answered quickly whilst half-heartedly wondering what he was agreeing to.
Milly was his sort of girlfriend. They met a year ago whilst Gabe was running an errand to Alexandria. It wasn’t often he visited the city, preferring to stay at home in the small town of Rose.
Gabe was a wolf shifter and a member of the Grey wo
lf pack that resided in Rose, Virginia. Being a wolf he favored the quietness of the small town as well as the dense, wooded area surrounding the town where the majority of his pack chose to build homes. Cities were smoky, claustrophobic and unkind to wildlife. Gabe couldn’t fathom how any shifter could choose to live in a city, but visiting once in a while did spice things up.
Milly
’s voice rose in excitement. “They offered me a twenty percent raise, plus a company car and also shares in the business.”
“Sounds wonderful.” Murmured Gabe.
Gabe was also a Sheriff’s Deputy. A year ago the Sheriff, and pack beta, Alec Hart asked Gabe to escort a prisoner to the cops in Alexandria. Well not really a prisoner, he was a teenage boy who had been spray painting penises on cars.
He was also a deputy police commissioner’s son
.
The
trip to Alexandria had been mind numbing. When the kid wasn’t complaining he was kicking the seat and making lewd gestures at other drivers. Gabe thankfully handed the kid over to his father and said good riddance.
The kid was a walking advertisement for sterilization
.
“They offered me a Toyota but I held out and got a BMW.” Milly giggled triumphantly.
“Mmm hmmm sounds good.”
Needing to relax Gabe had gone for a drink at a bar.
He had balked at the ridiculous prices. A beer cost double it did back in Rose! What was he paying for? The lack of clean air? To listen to the prattle of the obnoxious, loudmouth yuppies?
He said as much to the bartender
. Who in turn invited Gabe to kiss a less than inviting part of his anatomy.
The exchange was heard by a pretty coyote shifter who thought that Gabe
was hilarious.
Milly
. They talked and exchanged phone numbers. She was fun and nice to be around. Before long they were travelling to see each other on alternate weekends.
“And I managed to beat them up to a thirty percent raise!” Milly yelped in delight.
“Yep that’s my girl.”
Milly worked for a PR company. She put in a lot of extra hours and was very career driven, and wasn’t particularly in tune with her animal. They’d never had much time together, but for a year they’
d persevered with a relationship.
In August Milly had temporarily moved to Florida to help
set up a new branch of the company. Tentatively she had suggested he come with her but he was adamant he couldn’t leave the pack. They’d tried phone sex a couple of times after she arrived but Milly just giggled so much they gave up. So instead they had settled into a weekly phone call to talk about their lives.
Gabe liked Milly, he really did. But of late
he had come to dread her phone calls. Any feelings he may have had for her were now obsolete. His wolf in particular became increasingly distressed when it came to Milly. He just didn’t really want to break up with her over the phone. What would he say?
Stop calling me I’m bored of listening to you?
Milly was due back in Alexandria in a couple of weeks. He would steel himself and wait until then to tell her things weren’t working out.
He had been restless about Milly for some time and he knew it was better to end things sooner rather than later.
“So my sister’s going to put my
house on the market.”
He’
d missed something. “What? Why?”
Gabe could almost hear Milly rolling her eyes.
“Haven’t you been listening? I’m staying in Florida, my boss asked me to run the Florida office permanently. God Gabe we’ve been talking about this for the last ten minutes!” She huffed in frustration.
“So you’re not coming home?” Asked Gabe quietly.
“No.” She answered softly. “I’m sorry Gabe.”
Gabe inward
ly sighed in relief. “It’s okay, I’m just glad you’re happy.”
He meant it too
.
Milly snorted. “You don’t sound too cut up about it.”
Gabe blew out of breath. “Would you rather I screamed and shouted at you?”
“Well you don’t have to sound so
pleased about it!” She snapped.
“I’m sorry, but I think it’s for the best. If you hadn’t ended things I would have.”
Milly tutted. “So all this time you were planning on how to dump me? To think I was actually feeling guilty about sleeping with my boss!”
With that the furious coyote shifter slammed the phone down.
Gabe chuckled as he stared at the receiver before hanging up.
Well at least he didn’t have to feel guilty about dumping her.
Relief poured through him and his wolf howled, pleased at the turn of events.
Fickle beast, he’d been happy enough with Milly a year ago.
Alt
hough momentarily relieved that Milly had broken things off the wolf was still slightly restive. The beast was uneasy but Gabe had no idea why, or how to appease him. He had been for a couple of months now. Maybe he should try going for a run.
He was supposed to be on duty tonight. Since Alec the Sheriff had met and bonded with his true mate he had been reluctant to work late or night shifts.
Alec naturally wanted to spend as much time with Liv as possible, especially since she was pregnant. The
man was terrified of leaving her on her own, but then Alec was a tad obsessive.
He’d once rushed home in the middle of the day to open a jar of pickles for Liv because she said she had a craving for them and couldn’t get the jar open.
The same obsessive
behavior was evident in a number of his pack mates recently.
It was like a damn mating frenzy!
First his Beta, then the Alpha Adam found his female Alpha Rosalee, a young Enforcer called Mal Tanner bonded with the librarian Terri, another Enforcer Felicity had mated with a female bear, and his friend and fellow Deputy Mac found her mate in a black bear shifter called Andy. God even the most cantankerous member of the pack Hans found his true mate in a sassy witch called Melanie!
Gabe felt
a sharp pinch in his chest as his beast whined. Maybe that was it.
Loneliness
. His relationship with Milly had never been very satisfying. Wolves craved companionship and the urge to mate and breed was strong. His wolf felt restless for a real connection with a woman. He yearned for his mate. The beast was yapping like a puppy now.
Finally they were on the same page
.
Gabe groaned. That was all very well but his true mate could be anywhere, it’s not like fate drew you a map
. As far as he was concerned his pack mates had been blessed to find their true mates. Not everyone was so lucky...
His eyes flicked to the
letter on the kitchen table and let out another lengthy groan. It was from his aunt, begging him to visit.
Again
. It was almost identical to the six other letters she had already sent him.
She told him how his father had changed, how they were moving forward with their lives
, and they wanted Gabe to be a part of that.
Yada yada yada
.
Grunting Gabe strode to the table and snatching the letter threw it in the trash.
He paced the kitchen. Then retrieved the letter, carefully wiping off the coffee grounds.
Gabe reread the letter. Just thinking of his father, and his dead mother, made Gabe shake with rage. The thought of seeing the old man again... no he couldn’t do it. If he did he might just kill him.
Letting out a moan of disgust he threw the letter in the trash again before storming out the room, only to return a few seconds later and pull it out again. He smoothed the wrinkled paper in his hands.
His wolf was always quiet when it came to his family
. Maybe because he didn’t have the emotional fortitude to deal with the family drama.
He left that entirely up to the man
. On one hand the wolf wanted to be around his kin, but on the other he had left his family behind for a reason and now had a new family here in Rose.
He was
angry at his family and frustrated at being alone. Although part of him worried that if he did meet a woman he wanted to settle down with it would turn out as badly as his parents.
Gabe left the letter on the kitchen table and tearing out the door started pulling at his clothes. He needed to calm down and work out his frustrations and what better way
than a nice, freeing run.
10
th
November
Kira
Norton’s phone was ringing.
Shrilly
.
She
groaned fumbling for the light switch. Knocking over a book, a glass of water and anything else that happened to be resting on her bedside cabinet. She half flopped out of bed and shuffled over to the living room.
Why didn’t she just have a phone by the bed?
Picking it up she let out a half yawn half hello and was met with the sound of the dial
tone.
Terrific
. She slammed the handset down, spouting curses that would make a sailor blush.
When her eyes finally managed to open she noticed it was 2.15am.
Ugh, it was too early, although her wolf suddenly seemed very alert and was whining pitifully
. She checked her answer phone and her cell, no messages. Surely it can’t have been that important or they’d have left a message, and if it was important they’d ring back.
Kira
was too tired to think straight,
the idea of an emergency just didn’t spring to mind
. Things just didn’t seem to happen in Charming, Virginia.
The town used to be called Devil’s Knot, but after
the Alpha visited his sister in her pack in Charming, Texas he was inspired to rename the town. His thinking was that Devil’s Knot was kind of off-putting to human tourists. Kira would argue that the fact that the town was made up of 90% supernatural creatures did that alone,
but still...
The town council fought him at first, but not for long when he went all dominant Alpha on them. Rather than think up something new and unique the Alpha had just renamed the
town Charming.
Kira had
come to Charming (formerly Devil’s Knot) about two and a half years ago. She’d grown up in a large wolf pack in New Mexico. Kira like her father and twin sister Lilah was a grey wolf shifter. Her mother and her two younger sisters were all witches.
Just over
two and a half years ago Lilah had met and fell in love with Joseph the vacationing son of the Charming pack’s Alpha, Joseph Sr. Lilah had been besotted to say the least. Within the space of two weeks they were engaged and Lilah was moving to Charming.
Their parents hadn’t been thrilled but
Lilah was 21 years old, they couldn’t stop her and so had chosen to accept it. Lilah had begged Kira to come with her. Kira was between jobs, didn’t have a boyfriend, still lived at home and ultimately didn’t want to be apart from her twin sister.
They’d been inseparable since birth
. Kira figured she could always come back home if it didn’t work out. Although sad at losing two daughters her parents were pleased that the twins would have each other.
On arriving in Charming Kira herself had fallen in love too, with a shy young
man called Airis. He ran an occult bookstore. She went in to find a gift for her mother, an avid reader on anything occult. He’d been instantly smitten with her, and something about the pale skinny witch had appealed to her. He’d been too shy to ask her out so she had asked him.
They took things slow however. Airis was a virgin, something Kira found infinitely
endearing having grown up around horny wolves who would try to hump your leg if you weren’t looking. Kira herself had only been with one man. When she turned 19 she had been overwhelmed by the sudden urge to mate and breed, impulses that lay dormant in wolf shifters until that age.
Although that wasn’t to say that wolf shifters didn’t enjoy sex before that age
. On the full moon she had allowed herself to be seduced by one of the pack hound dogs, every pack had one or two males who were determined to work their way round every available female.
So in a moment of weakness she had given in to five minutes of unsatisfying lust.
She’d been less than thrilled with his performance; he didn’t seem bothered in the least that she hadn’t reached her pleasure.
After that she’d vowed to only be with a man she cared about, and slowly Airis had become that man.
But it was not to be
.
After they had been dating a while Airis disappeared
without a trace. A few days later his body was discovered.
Murdered
. Kira had been beside herself. The local Sheriff was next to useless; he seemed to think that as a witch Airis had it coming. Furious, Kira had taken it upon herself to find out what happened to him.
Her sister Lilah had begged her not to but Kira left town trying to track down Airis’ killer. After just over two years
had passed Kira finally came face to face with the witch who murdered Airis. She lived in a town in northern Virginia called Rose. She had already killed another in Rose and was threatening the life of the mate of the resident wolf pack’s Beta. Together with the pack they had put the witch down.
After two years of mourning
Kira had finally laid Airis to rest. As thanks for her help in saving the Beta’s mate the Alpha told her she was welcome to join his pack. She had been tempted; there was something about his pack that comforted her. When she thought of returning to Charming she became anxious, but Rose already felt like home for some reason. But she knew she had to return, for Lilah’s sake at least.
Kira raked her fingers through her tight corkscrew curls.
Like her three siblings she had inherited her father’s mocha toned skin, but out of the four of them only she had their mother’s dark blonde hair. She loved it really, although it kind of got annoying when people stopped her in the street to tell her how wonderful her dye job looked.
All natural baby.
She had her qualms about the rest of her body, her thighs were
a tad too large for her liking, her waist a bit too thick, her breasts could have been bigger, and her lips could have been fuller
... The list could go on. But damn she did love her hair.
Not to make too much out of it or anything
but she has been mistaken for Beyoncé. Okay it was by Japanese tourists, who’d only ever seen her on the TV, and they did also mistake her mother for Jane Seymour but still... she happily gave them autographs.
Although they were somewhat surprised that Beyoncé and Jane Seymour were out shopping together in New Mexico
.
Kira sighed and flopped on her dilapidated couch. When she returned to Charming the welcome she received had been less than friendly.
The Alpha of the pack was a little old fashioned and was furious at her for leaving without permission. He said if she ever wanted to rejoin the pack she needed to prove her loyalty and show that she had left any rogue tendencies behind.
A wolf
is considered a rogue when they have no pack. But in truth a real rogue is a wolf who spends too much time as their animal, and loses their humanity. Admittedly over the past two years in order to survive Kira had spent more time in fur than in skin. Towards the end of her vengeance fuelled journey she was finding it a little difficult to act normal around humans. She shuddered thinking that she might have turned fully rogue and been trapped in her wolf form forever. As much as she loved her inner animal she could never entertain the thought of fully giving herself over to her primal instincts. They were neither human nor beast, they were both. Her she-wolf barked in agreement.
Before leaving Kira had been living with her sister and brother in law Joseph. It hadn’t exactly been ideal, for one thing they were a new couple who wanted their privacy and for another she and Joseph did not get on.
When she came back the Alpha was adamant that Kira not be permitted to live on pack land.
She had to earn that right
. This meant she was not allowed to live with her sister. Kira was a little miffed that Lilah didn’t protest this. But to be honest Lilah had barely even spoken to her since she came back.
The looks Lilah had thrown her whenever they saw each other had been positively arctic.
So instead Kira was renting a pokey apartment above the town grocery store. She woke up every morning at 4am when the deliveries came.
It sucked
.
Lilah must have been pretty damn angry at her. Since they were
kids and realized they were both Omegas they had always shared their feelings with one another, but now Lilah was closed off. Not that it would have mattered if she wasn’t, since going a little rogue Kira had struggled to maintain her abilities, her powers had all but dried up.
Another side effect of spending too much time as a beast.
Kira had tried apologi
zing but she could never get Lilah alone, Joseph was always there pouring scorn on her words. The sisters just couldn’t connect anymore.
Maybe they’d grown apart too far.
She soon realized that t
he Alpha was never going to let her rejoin the pack. He was a strict son of a bitch and didn’t like the idea of any other wolf under his power getting it into their head that they could just leave whenever they wanted.
Control freak
.
The only reason she was hanging around was for Lilah, but
her sister didn’t even want to see her. She couldn’t even pry Lilah away from Joseph for more than a second.
Angry jealousy shot through Kira. She hated the idea that Lilah preferred Joseph to her, that she chose Joseph over her.
Her wolf snarled.
She’d always hated the male wolf
. Yes she knew it was silly to feel this way but she didn’t care.
Kira stomped into the bathroom and splashed cold water on her heated cheeks, washing away the tears that had escaped.
She should leave. There was nothing for her here. She could just go home to her family. After two years of being alone she needed to be around people who cared for her, people who would welcome her with open arms.
She wasn’t going to find that here
.
Then again she could go back to Rose...
The wolf yipped excitedly at that thought.
Crazy beast
. Although, Rose was in the same state as Charming, she would still be fairly close to Charming. Not too close that she’d have to worry about running into any of the Charming pack but closer than if she went back to New Mexico. It might ease her guilt about leaving Lilah again.
The more she thought about returning to Rose the happier she became. She was a little surprised at herself. What happened in Rose was hardly a high point of her life but there was something about the place that warmed her.
Her apartment was already paid up until the end of the month; she hadn’t been able to find a job yet.
Not easy when the subject of what she’d been doing the last two years came up during interviews.
Yes, she should go to Rose. The
Rose pack had been kind to her. Despite a rocky start she had soon warmed to them. She’d enjoyed meeting Mac and Carly the Omega, not to mention the Alpha Adam and also Gabe...
Her wolf pranced around.
Silly puppy
.
Kira felt a twinge of guilt about Lilah but her mind was made up. Tomorrow she would tell her twin she was leaving and then she would reach
out to Adam about joining his pack in Rose.
Glancing at the clock it was now 3am. One hour before the delivery trucks arrived. She slunk into bed and pulled the covers around her tightly, grateful that this was the last night she would spend in Charming.
*
Later that day
Kira in her wolf form stood motionless in the shadows. She didn’t like sneaking onto pack land but there was no other way she was going to get Lilah on her own. She was hiding in the trees waiting for Joseph to leave for work.
Ha! That was a joke, he just took a percentage of the pack business profits and did nothing all day. Lazy asshole.
A few minutes later her ears pricked up as the front door opened and out tramped the asshole.
Lilah didn’t work. When they first got married there were numerous arguments about Lilah working which eventually the asshole had won. Kira felt a pang of regret; Lilah had been making a name for herself as a wildlife photographer. Kira didn’t even know if Lilah took pictures at all now.
Joseph stopped at the porch steps and lit a cigarette.
He took a few drags and had a good look round the surrounding area. His eyes lingered on where Kira was hiding. She held her breath until his gaze moved on.
Quickly he hopped in his sports car and sped away, music blaring in his wake.
Kira breathed out in relief. She waited a few minutes and then trotted to the house, swiftly changing to her human form she steeled herself and knocked on the door.
Kira looked around furtively. The last thing she needed was to be spied by one of Joseph’s pack mates turning up at his house naked.
She fidgeted impatiently for what felt like an age before finally Lilah’s small voice asked who was there.
“Li it’s me open up.” Kira hugged her
arms;
it wasn’t exactly a warm day
.
