The Wolf's Mate Book 1: Jason & Cadence (14 page)

When their food arrived, his four plates to
her one, they ate in a comfortable silence for a several
minutes.

“I got a catalog in for stereos. After lunch,
I’ll bring it to your office and you can pick out what you want.”
His fingers were glistening with French fry grease and all sorts of
wicked little thoughts traipsed through her head.

She took her time chewing the bite of
fettuccine alfredo so that she didn’t ask him to let her lick his
fingers, and when she was confident that she wasn’t going to
embarrass herself, she said, “I don’t need you to do that now. It
can wait.”

“It was part of our deal. Why would it
wait?”

“Because it’s not necessary. You finished
that bike yesterday, and when his check clears then we’ll be okay,
but, don’t do that to the business for my sake.”

“I wasn’t planning to pay for it from the
garage.”

Oh. Oops.
“Okay. I’m sorry if I
offended you.”

“I’m not that easily wounded, Cades. Give me
a little credit.” He rolled his luscious blue eyes and smirked and
she fell in love with him a little bit more, if that were
possible.

The rest of the meal was nice. More than
nice, it was everything she’d ever wanted from him. The Jason that
she remembered when she was young, before he shifted into his wolf
form, was sitting right in front of her and it was like being
transported back in time. Back at the office, they talked about
stereos and he gave her his suggestions, along with making fun of
her taste in music, and she picked one that had a GPS screen and
would sync with her iPod.

When she checked out for the night, he looked
up over the seat of the bike he had just started taking apart. “Can
I take you to dinner tomorrow night?”

She must have frowned while she thought of
what to say, because he stood up. “What’s wrong?”

“I made plans with Chris for tomorrow.”

His features shifted from smiling to pissed
off in seconds, and the cords of his neck tensed as he twisted the
wrench in his hand. And then just as quickly as he’d gotten pissed,
his face went suddenly blank, calm as if he were trying too hard to
be calm because he wasn’t. “Goodnight, Cadence.” She could have
shivered from the ice in his tone.

“Night, Jas.” Confused at the abrupt change
from him, she went home. Alone. Again. What did she expect?
Something. Anything. Anything was better than no response and a
cold front.

She couldn’t sleep. The sheets were rough,
the bed lumpy, and her hand kept reaching for her cell to call
Jason and apologize for having a date, and to call Chris and
cancel, and to open the window and scream at the sky for no good
reason. Did Jason want to date her? Like
date
her? Was this
about the marks on her neck? What was everyone hiding from her?

Her eyes were ringed with purple and red from
lack of sleep when she got to work on Thursday, and clearly as a
result of her pending date with Chris, Jason had retreated back to
himself again, barking angrily at everyone. Michael gave her sad
eyes when he made the lunch run, and she fought an internal battle
over what to do. Time won, whether fortunate or not, and suddenly
it was too late to cancel.

Chris appeared at her doorstep at 6, dressed
casually in khakis and a soft white sweater. He looked like he’d
stepped fresh from a photo shoot and her first thought was that he
really just didn’t do it for her. Handsome? Check. Funny? Check.
Sexy? You bet. More than just a friend? Not hardly.

He drove them to a small, intimate Italian
restaurant a few towns over and they talked over one of those red
glass candle holders that you see in all the Italian restaurants in
movies. As if any other sort of holder just wasn’t authentic. She'd
never been to Italy, so maybe it was very authentic, or maybe they
think Americans are idiots. The chicken parmesan was passable, made
more so by the half decent bottle of wine he ordered. She was not
much for drinking. But she liked a good Melon Ball or a Seabreeze
and she didn't pretend to know anything about wine. If it tasted
good, then she didn't much care what name was on the label. Give
her a bottle of Two Buck Chuck any day.

“So I thought we could make an appearance at
the bonfire on Sunday and then catch a movie. Brett and his current
chew toy are doing the dating thing for now.” He laughed but she
didn’t find it funny at all. Brett had a reputation for being a
screw ‘em and leave ‘em sort with the human females that hung
around the packs.

“He must think something of her if he’s
planning to take her on a date,” She pointed out. The whole dinner
sat hard in her stomach, souring.

“Nah.” He leaned back in the booth and slung
his arm up. “Don’t feel sorry for her, Cadence, she knows what
she’s getting into. If she really wanted to have a relationship
with a wolf, she wouldn’t act the way she did in the first place.
And she definitely shouldn’t try for something with my
brother.”

Probably. She rubbed the space between her
eyes with her thumb for a minute. “It’s not my business, anyway.
Brett always was a player.”

“Can’t play forever,” he said.
That
sounded ominous
.

She hummed in her throat and turned down
dessert, ready to put a fork in the evening. The conversation had
gotten heavy and she wanted to go home. The kiss at the door was
nice. Chris could kiss, that was for sure. The thought that he had
probably kissed and screwed his way through the bar chew toys, not
to mention the females in Jake’s pack, made her uneasy and it also
made her think about Jason. How many girls had he kissed? Had he
ever taken a female on the full moon? If she’d been unhappy before
those thoughts, she was riotously miserable after they crashed
around in her brain like errant trains.

She had plans to talk to Jason, just to hear
his voice, but he was mysteriously absent on Friday. Running
errands, according to Michael, who looked like he was unhappy with
her. She wasn’t sure what she was doing wrong, but she seemed to be
pissing everyone off.

Saturday afternoon, the wolves got together
for a game of football at Jake’s house. She was not planning to
play, although she was wearing her NKU jersey, but Callie grabbed
her hand and claimed her for Jason's pack. Cadence caught the
pleased look that Jason shot to Callie, and the annoyed look on
Chris’ face. Before she could think on it, Callie pulled her into
the thick of the game.

Callie stayed with her, out of the way of the
more serious boys as they tackled each other in an effort to get
the ball. It seemed that it was a lot less about the game than
about letting loose some testosterone and aggression. The rest of
both packs watched, Jake and Renee barbecuing for everyone, which
was no small feat. Callie suggested that they get involved and she
shoved Cadence with one hand towards the goal line and ran to snag
the ball. Cadence took off, splitting away from her, and she heard
Callie yell her name and turned as she ran and caught the ball that
Callie threw. She barely cleared one of Jake's pack as he tried to
get the ball back. She saw Chris race towards her and laughed and
threw the ball to Michael, but Chris tackled her anyhow, bracing
her carefully so the tumble to the ground didn't hurt. Flat on her
back and laughing while she tried to catch her breath, he kept
himself above her with straightened arms and a huge grin on his
face. A second later, Jason slammed into him, taking both of them a
few yards away where they hit the ground and began swinging.

She was surprised at first, because she
hadn't been paying attention to Jason, but then she wasn't
surprised at all. It was just one more strange thing that she
couldn’t explain. Callie and Michael appeared next to her, and
Michael held out his hand, helping her to her feet. "It was bound
to happen eventually." Michael shrugged, pulling her further back
away from where they were trying to tear each apart.

It looked like neither was getting the upper
hand, but they were both really pissed. She frowned. "This is about
me, right?"

Michael looked at her like she'd just
sprouted horns. "Are you fucking kidding me? How can you be so
dense?"

"Hey!" She growled.

He gestured to Chris and Jason. "Do you think
they're fighting over this game? Chris put his hands on you in
public. He's not allowed to do that."

"Excuse me? I'm in charge of who is and is
not allowed to put their hands on me."

She took a step towards them and Michael
grabbed her arm. "Are you out of your mind? If you try to break
them up, you could get hurt. This is a mate fight, Cadence. Chris
is trying to take what rightfully belongs to Jason. They're
probably two seconds away from shifting and tearing into each other
that way. You can't stop two alpha males from fighting over the
only partially marked alpha female within 200 miles of here."

Her mouth dropped open and her brain spun.
“What did you say?”

All the blood drained from his face. He
stammered and swallowed audibly. "How much did you hear?" He half
laughed, nervous.

"Michael?" She asked plaintively, begging
with her voice for him to tell her the truth.

Michael looked positively green, and Callie
did, too. "I wasn’t supposed to say anything. I fucked up. I'm
sorry."

"Why not? I don't understand." She felt even
more clueless than before.

"I - I," Michael stuttered and she put her
hand up.

"Forget it." She turned and pushed between
Michael and Callie, hugging her arms around herself and skirting
around the house to the front porch that was quiet and deserted. As
she rounded the corner of the house she heard the sounds of the
shifting and growling of two werewolves about to tear each other
apart with fangs and claws. Over her.

Her brain argued with itself. Part of her
believed every single word out of Michael’s mouth, that she had
been Jason’s all along and he was just as unsure of himself when it
came to matters of the heart as she was. The pessimistic part of
her believed it was more along the lines of Jason not wanting Chris
to have her, even if he didn’t want her himself.

Unfortunately, Chris had driven her, and she
didn't feel like walking, so she sat down on the porch. She knew
without seeing, that the two wolves were probably locked at each
other's throats, the snarls echoed around the house and surrounding
woods and both packs were just watching.

"Are you alright, honey?" Jake eased down
next to her on the top step.

"No. I don't understand what's going on. The
last couple of weeks, everything's gone completely berserk in my
life. I always thought that Jason didn’t care for me, but his
actions lately make that seem like a lie and Chris has always been
a friend but now it appears that he wants more. I’m just not sure
what to do."

"You have to figure this one out yourself,
I'm afraid. I'd like to help you, but I can't."

"Why the hell not?" She demanded.

"Because it's your life, and your future, and
you have to figure out your past, first, before you can figure out
your future. I could tell you what I think, but it's not important.
The only thing that matters is what you want and need." He leaned
over and kissed the top of her head and gave her a one-armed hug.
"You'll figure it out. I have every confidence."

After Jake left her alone, she groused for
long enough that her butt started to go numb on the cool concrete
step. Callie peeked around the corner and Cadence said, "Take me
home, will ya?"

Callie nodded and pulled her keys out of her
pocket and locked arms with Cadence. The drive to her house was
very quiet. Cadence knew she wouldn't tell her what she wanted to
know because Callie was part of whatever was being kept from her.
She'd never felt so conspired against in her life. "Do you want
company?" Callie asked when she pulled in front of the house.

"Thanks, but no. I just need some time
alone."

"I know it may not seem like it, but you're
very lucky, really. You have two men, two alphas, fighting over
you. I can't even remember hearing about something like that. I
guess there haven’t ever been two single alphas from rival packs in
the same town at the same time, even though Chris isn’t technically
alpha yet."

"I don't like people trying to make decisions
for me." Cadence opened the passenger door.

"Of course not, but this is about more than
just you at this moment in time, it's about your past and your
future, and the future of both packs. You do get to decide, of
course you do, but you have to be careful. There's more at stake
than just two guys wanting to bone you brainless."

Cadence gave her a long look. "Jason does
not
want to bone me brainless."

"Are you insane? How could you not know that
Jason loves you?"

"Maybe he did, once, but not now. Not
anymore. And we were just kids."

"Yeah, just kids. But a lot happened back
then, serious, future altering things."

"I don't know what the hell you're talking
about! I feel like everyone is speaking gibberish to me or I've
been deposited in some alternate universe."

Her surprised features slid to furious. "You
look me in the eye and you fucking tell me that you don't love
Jason with every fiber of your being. You were so jealous with the
thought of me and him together that you were going to walk away
from my friendship over it. Chris is, Chris is nice honey, but he's
not right for you and you know it. They're ripping each other apart
because they both want you, but Jason has loved you since you were
kids." She leaned over and got in Cadence's face. "You think back
over your relationship with Jason. You seriously think about
everything that went on between the two of you when you were young
and then you tell me that you don't know exactly what to do with
your life."