Treeland Pack Tales 3: A Trace of Ivy (24 page)

She searched for a note, but there wasn’t one. Clearly Chet
was done communicating with her. Just as well. More tears had pooled, making it
impossible for her to read anyway.

Chet nudged a bench closer and parked his ass. Since he’d
arrived early, it would be a while before his boss showed. Like the worst kind
of pathetic dog, he had come hoping for a glimpse of Ivy. No luck. He’d driven
by pack headquarters a dozen times in the past month without a single whiff of
his mate. A breeze blew through the deserted pavilion, ruffling his hair. He
tucked his hands into his pockets and stretched his legs toward the glowing
fire pit. The attempt to get comfy didn’t touch the cold place in his chest. He
rubbed his sternum. It didn’t help the permanent ache. Nothing did.

“You look like shit.” Daniel dragged over a second bench and
sat on the other side of the fire.

“Thanks for the ego deflation.”

“Stubborn old hound, ” his boss muttered. “Since you’re too
stiff-necked to ask, I’ll tell you Ivy found an apartment for the three of
them. They moved out more than a week ago.”

Chet braced his elbows on his knees and leaned over,
studying his boots. They needed a good shine. He swallowed past the knot of
pure sap in his throat. “Did you call just to bust my balls, or was there pack
business?”

“So you’re not dying to know where she is?”

“Who?”

“Is that really how you want to play it?”

“I feel like someone ripped my heart out of my chest. Happy
now?” Chet’s voice cracked, ruining his manly attempt at sarcasm.

“Yeah, I kinda like real.” Daniel moved around the fire and
settled close enough to Chet so their shoulders touched.

Chet had no intention of admitting it, but the connection
helped ground him. “I miss her like crazy. The only thing worse would be
watching her deliberately risking her life.”

“You sure about that?”

“Hell, yes. Do you think I like being a pathetic loser
without his mate?” The smoky anger rolling off Chet stung his own nose.

“Matter of fact, I figured you got some kinda twisted thrill
outta misery. Why else would you volunteer to give up your female?”

“You know damn well why.” Chet’s hands balled into fists of
frustration.

Daniel shrugged. “You’re an old dog and smart, but you’ve
never been mated. The goddess doesn’t hand out guidebooks with the bonding
phenomenon. So I’m gonna share some hard-won wisdom. Males lock into the female
designed for them.”

“You can skip the basics. I took werewolf biology, boss.”

“Yeah, did you miss the part about females not being mated
to the male the same way?” Daniel kept his tone nice and reasonable.

“That’s damn clear, thanks.”

“Some other, smarter dog’ll come along, putting moves on
your female. Since you’re sitting here with your thumb up your mangy ass
instead of going after her while you still can, she’ll leave with that
sweet-talking hound.”

He wrapped his arms around his middle, trying to ease the
mule kick from Daniel’s matter-of-fact reminder. Worse than the gut ache, his
boss was right.

Daniel stood, and arched his back, stretching out the kinks.
“Getting old. Gonna see you at the gathering tomorrow night?”

Chet shrugged halfheartedly, trying to keep the howl of pain
inside.

“I’ll be welcoming Kat and Tess to the pack officially.”

Daniel didn’t say
Ivy
will be there
, but Chet picked up his unspoken message loud and clear. “We
done?”

“Yeah.”

The full moon pulled on Chet’s wolf. “Mind if I go for a
run?”

“Grounds are always open.” Daniel gestured toward the meadow
and the woods beyond. “Ivy ran every night she was here.”

Chet nodded.

His pack leader dipped his chin and prowled to his house
where his loving mate waited to welcome him home. The only thing waiting for
Chet was an empty apartment that haunted his sensitive snout with Ivy’s sweet
scent.

He shed and folded his clothes, wishing he had run with her.
He’d stayed away from Ivy to avoid losing her, and by doing so he ensured the
very outcome he feared most. Alone and miserable, he wanted to whimper like an
abandoned pup.

He’d railed at Ivy for wanting to help the pack and rescue
abused Betas. But she had failed him too. She was his mate—the only one who
could keep him in line. Without her calm influence, of course he acted exactly
like the Alpha asshole she accused him of being. Since she was new to the
entire world of werewolf culture, she had an excuse. His failure was much
worse. He’d let her down repeatedly, by berating her for wanting to act with
honor, by dismissing her experience with rogues, and worst of all by abandoning
her. He was old enough to know better and then some.

True he had never bonded before. Finding the right balance
between keeping her safe and strangling her gentle spirit with his protective
instincts was terrifying virgin territory for him. As an excuse, the newly
mated Alpha was way too thin to cover his mangy ass.

He let his old wolf loose, shifted to fur, and ran. His paws
connected with mother earth—literally grounding him. His sensitive snout caught
a trace of Ivy, and his heart pinched. Tomorrow night he would gape at the mate
he might have already lost. Regret welled in his gut until the moonlight
dragged his sorrow into a mournful howl.

Chet ran for hours before he shifted back to skin, dressed,
and left. He napped on the living room couch, unable to face the too-empty bed.

The next morning he cleaned the apartment until every
surface gleamed, and then he buffed the Bentley inside and out until the car
shone with a gratifying glow. He shopped, baked a seven-layer mocha torte,
marinated salmon fillets in miso, scrubbed vegetables, and rubbed seasonings on
an eye of rib roast. Satisfied with his selections, he refrigerated the dessert
and set the oven timers for a midnight feast.

He trimmed his nails, goatee, and mustache, then did a bit
of manscaping before showering. An hour before moonrise, he dressed in the
Harris Tweed jacket and pink shirt he’d worn the day he found Ivy, hoping the
clothes would bring him luck. He headed for pack headquarters.

As he entered the pavilion, his senses zoomed in on Ivy.

She had her back to him, laughing at something either Sin,
or a brunette he didn’t recognize, had said.

His missing heart made a sudden reappearance and lodged in
his throat.

She angled her graceful neck in his direction. For a moment
their gazes locked and tangled. Hunger as raw and primal as the need burning in
his gut flashed in her beautiful green eyes.

He swallowed hard and squared his shoulders, ready to battle
for his mate.

With his attention riveted on Ivy, he was oblivious to
everyone else.

Glints of disappointment shone in her gaze for a second
before she gave him her back—putting him back out in the cold.

A soft hand snaked between his arm and his body, and full
curves pressed against him.

Amanda squeezed his biceps. “Need some company, lover?”

Oh. Hell. No
. He
pulled away from her clinging grip.

“Back off, bitch. He’s taken.” Ivy’s claws dug into Amanda’s
sleeve.

“Sorry,” Amanda hissed and fled.

His mate had defended him. Thank the goddess. Relief washed
through him so fast he grew dizzy and had to work to stay upright. Then he bit
his inner cheek to wipe a smirk of optimism off his mug. “Will you give an old
dog another chance?”

She framed his face, tugging him closer until they were nose
to nose. “I love you, Chet. But I’m not going to abandon my friends or refuse
to serve the pack.”

Her intonation said she wasn’t done. His heart stuttered,
waiting for the deal breaker.

“You have to trust me not to be reckless. The same way I
trust you. Is this something you’re willing to do, my dangerous dandy?”

“I’ll try with everything I am, sweet torment.” He captured
her mouth with his, relearning her taste and savoring her intoxicating
combination of apples, cinnamon, and his Beta’s special flavor—sweet-hot
surrender.

He broke the kiss long enough to say, “I ripped up your
check. Please consider the clothes a mating present. I want you to wear my
collar, and I want to wear yours.”

Her beautiful eyes searched his face anxiously. “Is that a
sanctified mating proposal?”

“Absolutely.” He held his breath, praying and waiting for
her answer.

IVY HUGGED HIM tight, burrowed her nose in his wide chest,
and inhaled Chet’s clean fragrance. The complex aroma held familiar and
exciting notes of leather, sandalwood, musk, and wild werewolf Alpha male that
made her heart beat in rhythm with his. “Yes, a thousand times yes. I missed
you so much.”

“Me too, sweet torment. Me too.” He swept her into his arms
and strode out of the pavilion.

Everyone, well everyone except a narrow-eyed Amanda,
cheered.

Ivy nuzzled his neck. “Have I told you I love you?”

“Not nearly enough.” Chet tucked her into his luxurious car.

Wrapped in her pink cloud of happiness, she didn’t protest
when he fastened her seat belt or when they arrived in his garage, or even when
he undid the safety strap and lifted her out of the vehicle.

They passed Bob, who tipped his hat. She blushed, because
every time she met the vampire, Chet was carrying her. No doubt the mysterious
basement tenant thought her incapable of walking.

The elevator doors shut, enclosing them. Chet lowered his
head, feathering his lips back and forth across hers.

Her blood sang sweet and hot for him. She parted her mouth,
swallowed his drugging kiss, and opened wider, coaxing him to take.

By the time the elevator deposited them on the top floor,
she’d wound her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs over his lean hips.

He palmed her butt with one hand and managed to let them
into the apartment with the other. Her back hit the door, slamming it shut.

“Are you all right?”

“No, I burn for you.”

“I cannot do tender and slow,” Chet growled.

Her forehead pressed to his, and her lips curved at his
desperation. “I don’t want slow. I just want you, my own dangerous dandy.”

He freed his erection, tore her drenched panties, and fit
his heavy cock into her slickened entrance. At that first exquisite contact,
they sighed in unison.

She barely drew breath before he devoured her mouth. As
ravenous for him as he was for her, she sucked his marauding tongue, canted her
hips, and dug her heels into the dimples of his butt, urging him to claim her
totally.

He forced her legs to widen as he powered forward,
stretching, penetrating, and possessing her. Keeping her in place with his
weight, he worked his hands between them, circling the point where they
connected, and then using his moistened fingers to trace the borders of her
swollen clit. He anointed his other hand with her cream and parted the cheeks
of her ass.

Never breaking the searing kiss, he continued to tease both
her engorged nub and her rear portal during the single, long, hot thrust into
her aching pussy.

She drank from his lips, opened herself wider for his
penetration, and inhaled his desire. Flames of passion licked her scalding
core. Her inner walls shivered and eased and shivered again, drenching his thick
arousal with warm honey.

His tongue plundered the soft cave of her mouth. The damp,
blunt digit teasing her anus plunged through the ring of muscles guarding her
back passage. His heavy cock made her cunt shudder with ecstasy.

She was totally possessed by Chet. Erotic tension clenched
and released her hold on his erection over and over, faster and faster. She
lost control—lost herself melting and merging into him. Waves of pleasure
shimmered through her as he thrust into her liquid heat in fast, hard pumps
that demanded more.

He growled, deep and low. The first hot splash of his semen
pushed her beyond bliss into a second, soul-fusing release.

The powerful climax shuttered her awareness. Only the scent and
touch of Chet anchored her to this world. When the blurry edges of reality
started to come back into focus, Chet’s thick erection was a still-rigid pole
stretching her sex, and the male was nose to nose with her.

She’d never felt safer or more thoroughly loved.

“You need to know I will go Alpha all over your perfect ass
if you ever deliberately put yourself in danger. Keeping you safe is why I
breathe. So holding my leash when I act unreasonably has to be your number-one
job, exactly the same way protecting, dominating, and cherishing you are mine.”

His gravelly words melted the heart he already owned. Still
she teased her arrogant dandy, “How come you get three jobs and I only have
one?”

“Because yours is so much harder, and you're so small.”

Sexy smart-ass Alphas
have an answer for everything. I’m going to go right ahead and protect and
cherish you all I want.

“Did I mention mates frequently share thoughts?”

Ivy froze for a moment. If he read her mind, then she was in
for some interesting punishments. “This possible mental link thing goes both
ways, right?”

“Absolutely.” He nuzzled her neck, sending X-rated images of
what he wanted.

“Again?” She pretended shock.
I am such a lucky female.

“Again and always.” He flexed his hips, drawing a new
whimper of want from her throat.

Always might be almost
long enough for loving Chet.