Rick's Reluctant Mate (2 page)

"Of course she can," Ricky said as
if the world was a very simple place. "Protecting me from inside the
lecture halls is surely easier than protecting me from outside."

Cali looked both excited and dismayed. She
eventually shook her head. "I don't have my high school results. There's
no way I can get into college anyway."

"There's a way around that," Ricky
said confidently. "I'll only transfer your actual results to your new
identity. It won't be cheating at all. It'll just be giving you back some of
what you lost."

Again Cali wore that look of excitement and
dismay. She swallowed hard, her emotions easily read on her face.
"Thanks, Rick, but even if you did all of that, I don't have
the money.
My original plan was to apply for scholarships." She
gave him a tight smile that did nothing to hide her disappointment. "Maybe
in a few years I'll have a chance to try for the whole 'higher education thing'
again, but right now it's not good timing."

She said the words flippantly but Jordan had
observed enough of the young woman to know that college truly appealed to her.

"I can pay."

The words were out of his mouth before he
really considered the implications. Cali gave him a look that said she was as
surprised as he was by the offer he'd just made. It wasn't the money. He had
plenty of it, and paying for the education of a young pup
who
truly deserved it was probably a decent way to try to atone for how he'd earned
it, but he probably should have run the idea by the alpha first.

"Excellent," Ricky said with a
wide grin. "Go home, grab your
stuff,
and I'll
order pizza to celebrate."

"I can't let you pay for my
education," Cali said in a tiny voice. It was pretty clear that she was
tempted, but it was also nice to realize the kid wasn't looking for a hand out.

"Then consider it a loan," he
said, even though he had no intention of letting her pay him back.

"Are you sure? I mean, I'll only take a
few classes while we're protecting Rick, but it would be really nice to get
back to studying." She gave him a worried smile. "And I'll pay you
back as soon as I can."

Jordan was nodding even before Cali had
finished speaking. He'd talk to the alpha and make this work. Even if he needed
to take some of the workload off Cali, it really wasn't that big a deal. It's
not like he had any place he'd rather be.

A sharp pang of longing swept through him
when Ricky pulled Cali into his embrace and hugged her to him, but it was when
she moved from his arms and into Jordan's that he was in true agony.

To be this close to his mate and be hugging
a young woman covered in his scent was akin to torture, but it was probably a
torment he deserved.

"Thank you," Cali said as she
finally stepped away. "I'll go pack my things, and when I get back you can
go and pack yours."

Goddess, it seemed like both heaven and hell
to think about moving in with his mate, but it would only be as a bodyguard and
maybe a friend. The effort it would take to force
himself
to keep his distance might very well break him.

He shook his head. "I'll stay in the
apartment." He quickly searched his brain for a reasonable explanation
that didn't involve confessing that Ricky was his mate. "It'll…um…give us
a fall back if we ever need to move to a safe house."

Cali quirked an eyebrow but didn't call him
on his bullshit. Simple fact was that if someone came looking for Ricky, a bolt
hole less than a block away was a very poor choice.

"Oh, okay, I'll…um…" She shrugged
as if she wanted to try to convince him to change his mind but had no idea how
to go about it. "I'll just go get my stuff. Are you right to stay here
with Ricky? Technically it is my shift."

She said that without malice, but it was
obvious that she'd been less than happy to realize he'd been on hand to back
her up when Adrian Alateeka had arrived.

"Yeah, I'll stay close."

"Okay," Cali said as she headed
toward the front door. "I didn't bring much, so this shouldn't take
long."

He was about to follow her out the door,
prepared to go back into his wolf form and protect Ricky from his usual post,
but Cali very firmly closed the door in his face.

"Would you like a drink?" Ricky
asked quietly.

Jordan was about to explain that werewolves
couldn't tolerate alcohol on a genetic level when he realized Ricky probably
already knew that. His dad had been a werewolf for a couple years now.

"I should…get back to…work."

Ricky frowned. "Isn't it easier to
protect me from right here?"

"It is," Jordan conceded even as
his mind raced to find an excuse for leaving, "but…ah…clothes make it
slower to change into my wolf form."

He was already inching toward the door when
Ricky said, oh so casually, "I don't mind if you take them off."

Holy heaven that was tempting.
"That's…um…not a good idea." As a werewolf Jordan was perfectly
comfortable with nudity, but it seemed highly inappropriate to be naked and
aroused—there was no way he'd be able to control his cock—in front of this
young human.

"I can get naked too if that will make
you more comfortable."

And fucking hell, his half-chubby went rock
hard in an instant just at the thought.

He opened his mouth to talk, but no words
came out. Ricky grinned as if he was very pleased to have left Jordan
speechless and simply started to undress. Jordan used his werewolf speed to
cross the room in an effort to stop Ricky when he started to unbutton his
shirt.

Yet when he was mere inches away from his
mate, Jordan could barely remember why he shouldn't pull the man into his arms
and inhale his sweet scent for the rest of their lives.

He closed his eyes, tried not to breath, and
moved a step away.

"It'll be…okay…like this. I…um…could
maybe have that drink now."

"Sure," Ricky said, turning to the
refrigerator without buttoning his shirt.

Despite his best intentions, Jordan was
mesmerized by the flash of pale, smooth skin. Ricky was thin but in a healthy,
still-growing way that human males of his age often had. Jordan had never been
this close in his human form so he was a little surprised to realize the young
man was nearly as tall as him with probably a few more inches to grow.

Jordan quickly averted his gaze when Ricky
turned back around, but the delicious image was already burned into his brain.

"I've got water, apple juice, or
soda."

"Water, thanks," Jordan said,
striving to be polite, despite the rock hard erection currently trying to bust
out of his borrowed shorts. He tried to drag his borrowed T-shirt a little
lower but it didn't really work all that well.

Ricky grabbed two bottles of water and held
out one for Jordan to take. If he hadn't been so freaked out he might have
laughed at his own timid reaction as he reached for the bottle but tried not to
get too close to the man.

"Jordan?" Ricky asked, frowning at
whatever he could read on Jordan's face. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine.
Good,
actually."
He could tell his knee-jerk responses weren't convincing
Ricky at all. If anything he seemed more disturbed rather than reassured.
"I've…um…maybe still got a bit of an adrenaline rush going on." It
was
kind of
the truth. "When
Adrian Alateeka appeared out of nowhere… Well, he's the exact type of threat
we're here to protect you from."

"So it's the reaction to danger that
left you with a boner?"

For a moment Jordan was pretty sure he'd
imagined those words, but then the young man
blushed
bright red, muttered an apology, and then mumbled, "God, I suck at
this."

"Suck at what?" Jordan asked, even
as he tried to dispel the incredible idea of Ricky sucking on anything that
belonged to Jordan. Oh, yeah, that was
so
not helping his hard-on go away.

"Never mind," Ricky mumbled as he
turned around.

Concern for his mate swelled through him and
Jordan couldn't ignore the scent of anguish that filled the room. Hell, he'd
watched his mate get sadder and sadder over the past few months. If he could
help, he really wanted to try.

"Suck at what, Ricky?"

He shouldn't have done it. He shouldn't have
followed his instincts. He should have forced himself to go back outside and
guard his mate from a distance just like he'd been doing. But, no, selfish
asshole that he was, he stepped closer.

"Ricky?"

The arms that wrapped around him were
slender and shaking, but it was the lips that pressed to his that had him
shivering in response.

He'd never kissed another man before, but it
didn't seem to matter to Ricky. After a few awkward moments, Jordan tightened
his grip and pressed his tongue against Ricky's lips, coaxing him to open his
mouth. He couldn't hide the shiver when Ricky welcomed him, sucking on his
tongue as he moaned in delight. Jordan groaned, unable to resist, pulling his
mate closer, pressing their cocks together as he explored Ricky's mouth.

Hell, it felt incredible to finally be
touching his mate. It had been so long since he'd even let himself imagine what
it might be like with his mate that Jordan was on the verge of orgasm when he
finally sensed
Cali's
approach.

He practically threw himself out of Ricky's
embrace, dragged his borrowed clothes off, and then changed into his wolf shape
as Cali opened the door.

He almost knocked the young woman over on
his way out.

"Rick?" Cali asked as she stepped
into the house and closed the door behind her.

Jordan didn't hang around to hear their
conversation.

Chapter Two

Present
day…

"Rick, I'm home," Cali sang as she
came in the front door of the brownstone home they'd been sharing for more than
a year now.

Rick smiled as he closed the oven on the
casserole he'd been checking and moved to greet his best friend.

"How did the exam go?"

As usual Cali gave him a big grin and a
thumbs-up. She never said aloud that she'd thought she'd done well, but her
confidence in her abilities was always pretty clear. Fortunately for Cali she
really did have the brains to back it up. Too many of Rick's classmates had the
same self-assurance. The only problem was that they didn't know enough to know
they didn't know enough. He'd lost count of the confused and angry rants he'd
overheard from students who'd failed yet had believed they should have aced an
exam even though they'd barely understood the basics of the course. It was
staggering how many claimed they flunked simply because the professors didn't
like them.

"Dinner smells delicious."

Rick shrugged. Casseroles were pretty easy,
but since Cali had proven time and time again that her cooking skills were not
one of her strong points, Ricky made them several times a week. They may have
been college students, but pizza and beer simply wasn't a decent diet,
especially since
Cali's
werewolf physiology meant she
couldn't drink any sort of alcohol without some pretty serious side effects.
Ricky still shuddered at the memory of the one and only time Cali had shared a
single bottle of beer with him. It was also one of the rare times since
"the kiss" that Jordan had shown himself in human form.

Hell, Rick was almost selfish enough to ask
her to do it again just so he could see the man. Of course, the memory of that
gruff, all-business Jordan who'd turned up that day was more than enough to put
him off trying it.

But worse than that was learning that Jordan
was a homophobe—at least according to the rumor mill at Lupinville. It had been
like a dagger to the heart.

Rick was trying to move on, emotionally
speaking, but there was simply something unforgettable about the man who always
seemed to be around when he needed him the most. Knowing that Jordan was always
watching him made it doubly hard to connect with anyone else.

Cali gave Rick a sad look. Apparently she
knew his scent well enough to identify when he was thinking about Jordan—and
yeah, that scenting emotions thing was still a little creepy—but since she was
his closest friend and only confidante, she also knew how hard it was for him
to get over the man.

"He's out front if you want to call him
in," she whispered in a voice so low it seemed clear she didn't want
Jordan to know she was telling Rick that.

Rick shook his head. The last thing he
needed right now was to be rejected again. Most of the relationship he had with
Jordan was the product of his own imagination anyway. They talked occasionally,
they'd kissed once, and the man only really came close when he felt Rick was in
need of protection. That wasn't what anyone would call a
"relationship" no matter how much Rick might crave it.

"I was thinking about Adrian
Alateeka," Rick said, trying to change the subject
and
kick around an idea he'd been toying with for a while now.

Cali grinned. "He is a handsome one,
and definitely your type," she said happily. "The time he was here, I
could smell a human male all over him."

Rick rolled his eyes even as a slight swell
of attraction washed through him. Adrian Alateeka was a good looking guy and
him being gay, or at least bi, was nice to know, but that wasn't why Rick had
been thinking about the man.

"I was considering taking him up on his
job offer."

"What about your doctorate?" Cali
asked. She didn't seem particularly surprised. She already knew that a lot of
what Rick was studying was far below what he was capable of. Occasionally
something came up in his courses that he hadn't known or given much thought
about, but the sense of excitement didn't last very long thanks to his
obsessive need to learn. More often than not, within a day or two, he
understood the subject matter better than the people teaching it, so college
was becoming more and more stifling.

He wasn't arrogant enough to think he knew
everything, but in the subjects that mattered to him, it was becoming
increasingly difficult to sit through lectures that were reminiscent of the
stuff he'd taught himself in middle school.

"I already have a job," he said
flippantly, trying to make a joke and lighten the mood. "I don't need a doctorate
to get something I already have."

It took a few moments to realize that Cali
had gone quiet and very, very pale.

"Hell, no, you're staying here. If I'm
working for APS, I won't need bodyguards. I'll be surrounded by paranormals
just as powerful as you."

"But the alpha—"

"Fuck the alpha," Rick said
angrily.
"Cali, stay here.
Finish college."

"I'll check with the alpha," she
said with a not-quite-casual shrug, "but if he says jump, I'm going to ask
how high."

"Why?" Rick asked. He understood
loyalty, and family, and hell, even duty, but what he didn't get was the
seemingly blind faith of the people in Lupinville for a man they called their
alpha. Noah Kendrick was a really nice guy and a natural leader, but he wasn't
Cali's
father, and he wasn't paying for her education.
"Why should the alpha have any say in what you want to do with your
life?"

Cali actually seemed surprised that he asked
that question. She shrugged. "We're werewolves."

"That is
so
not an answer," Rick said under his breath. "You're
also people living in a modern world."

"True," she conceded. "Call
it a genetic quirk if you must, but werewolves need a pack to live happily. We
need the moonlight runs in wolf form and the feeling of belonging, of having an
extended family. Life expectancy for werewolves without a pack is about half
that of other werewolves."

"I had no idea," Rick said, for
the first time realizing that werewolves truly were a different species. He'd
seen human forms, decided that made them human, and had even superimposed his
own beliefs on them. "What about you and Jordan? You're a long way from
Lupinville." His heart started to beat a little faster when he realized
how dangerous guarding him could be for them.

"Relax," Cali ordered in a tone
that he knew not to argue against. "I'm talking decades away from the
pack, not a couple of years. I'm fine."

Rick narrowed his eyes when he realized
she'd deliberately left Jordan out of that statement.

"And Jordan?"
Rick asked in a tight voice.

"Is listening to this conversation and
can answer your question himself." Cali even walked over to the front door
and opened it. There was no wolf in sight. After a moment of discreet sniffing
Cali sighed, closed the door gently, and then rested her forehead on the wood.

"He left?" Rick guessed.

She nodded without lifting her head away
from the wood. "Twelve months ago I was concerned that he wasn't changing
into his human form often enough, but I'm even more worried now. It's getting more
and more frustrating that he won't talk to me, and I haven't seen him in human
form since the night he lectured me on the dangers of alcohol."

Rick nodded, and then stepped over to hug
Cali. Jordan had been avoiding Rick for the same amount of time, so he knew
some of what Cali was feeling.

"Have you spoken to the alpha?"
Rick asked.

"Not yet," Cali said, rubbing the
side of her face on Rick's collarbone. He'd seen these types of hugs a lot in
Lupinville, but it was only now that he was beginning to wonder if it was
something more important to the pack members. He'd just assumed werewolves were
affectionate people—a habit he was quite happy to participate in—but now he was
beginning to realize it was probably much more. "Werewolves" certainly
was a subject he should know way more about than he did. Shit, maybe he
should
stay in college. It was rather
humbling to realize he was as guilty of overconfidence as some of his class
mates. "I'm sorry, Cali. I should have made a point of learning this all a
lot earlier."

Cali gave him a confused look. "Our job
was to protect you without interfering in your life. If Adrian Alateeka hadn't
popped out of nowhere that night, we'd probably still be protecting you from
the shadows."

"Well then I'm doubly glad he dropped
by." He hugged Cali just a little harder and then released her from his
grip and took a step back. "How can I help with Jordan?"

"I'm not sure you can," Cali said,
moving into the kitchen to check the oven. Rick made sure to redirect her to
the other side of the counter. It was unlikely she could mess up his casserole
at this late stage, but with her track record, he wasn't taking any chances.
"Noah didn't even tell your dad until after someone tried to kidnap him
thinking he was the computer genius."

Rick knew his dad had been kidnapped—just
the idea was enough to give him nightmares—but he hadn't really understood it
had been because Cody had been mistaken as the creator of Rick's SAK algorithm
until the day Adrian Alateeka had visited and Jordan and Cali had revealed
themselves. That didn't explain why the alpha wouldn't have told his dad he had
Rick under his protection right from the start though.

"Why would Noah keep it from Dad?"

Cali shrugged as she reached into the drawer
and grabbed a couple of spoons. "Cody wasn't exactly thrilled when he
realized Jordan was your mate. I mean, it was pretty obvious that day when he
broke through the window to protect you from m—"

Cali abruptly cut off her words and bit her
lips.

"Mate?"
Rick asked as the meaning of the word in werewolf terms slowly sank
into his brain.

"Can we pretend I didn't say
that?"

Rick shook his head as a tumult of emotions
tumbled through him. "How can I ignore that?" Rick asked. "You
just told me the man I've wanted for nearly a year is supposed to be
mine."

"Not if you never become a
werewolf," Cali said quickly. Rick quirked an eyebrow at her and she shook
her head and laughed softly. "Okay, so that's not exactly a compelling
argument. Noah would welcome you into the pack without a second thought."
She tilted her head and gave Rick a sad smile. "But I'm pretty sure that's
the day Jordan would leave and never come back."

Rick actually had to lean against the
counter to keep his balance. "My mate doesn't want me?" And hell, why
did that hurt so much. Rick wasn't a werewolf. He shouldn't feel the attraction
caused by a mate link.

Cali shook her head. "That's just it. I
think he loves you enough to leave you alone."

"What the fuck does that mean?"
Alone was something he'd had more than his fair share of. It was probably why
he enjoyed visiting Lupinville every chance he got. There he always felt like
he was a part of something bigger, but even then he felt like he didn't quite
belong. He knew he'd need to become a werewolf himself to truly be a part of
the Lupinville pack.

Cali looked upset, but Rick couldn't rein in
his hurt. When he'd thought Jordan simply wasn't interested, he'd felt
embarrassed and a lot like a stupid kid who'd misread kindness as something
more, but to learn that Jordan was destined to be his mate but had already
rejected him was beyond agony.

"You don't understand," Cali said
as she moved back into Rick's personal space. "Under the previous
alphas…" She let her words fade away, took in a deep breath, and then
tried again. "Jordan carries a lot of guilt. He hated the idea of a gay
alpha—enough to actually do something about it."

"So the rumors about him being
homophobic are true." Rick didn't even make it a question. The words came
out of his mouth in a monotone, inflectionless voice almost as if he was trying
to convince himself of the futility of wanting the guy. Considering how much
his heart hurt right now, it sure as fuck wasn't working.

"No," Cali said quietly, "I
don't think he's homophobic, at least, not anymore. I've seen firsthand how
much he cares for you."

Rick wanted to ask more questions, but he
was still struggling with the idea that the man fate had decreed belonged with
him would care for him but still want to keep his distance.

"I don't know the whole story,"
Cali said with a soft sigh, "but even if only half the rumors are true,
Noah survived solely because he can shift and heal faster than anyone else
we've ever known."

"Jordan tried to kill Noah?"

Cali swallowed, nodded, and then stepped
away.