Wolf's Den - A BBW Shifter Romance Novel (19 page)

“Yeah, thanks,” he replied.  Sophia was coming on hard.  She was beautiful, sexy and who didn’t like a woman with natural red hair.  But Yeager wasn’t interested, not in the slightest.

“That Cassie girl, why are you with her?” Sophia asked.

“She’s my mate,” Yeager said as if the answer should have been obvious.

“How quaint.  You don’t really believe in all that, do you?” Sophia asked.  Yeager was taken aback by the question.  He thought the idea of shifters having mates was pretty much set in stone.  Some of the shifters he knew weren’t sure there was only one true mate out there, that there might be more than one woman a shifter could mate with among the billions on the planet, but they all believed in the idea that there was at least one woman waiting for him somewhere and that they mated for life.  Yeager knew it in his gut, he’d felt the draw, smelled her scent.

“What else should I believe in?  I knew Cassie was the one the moment I saw her.  She knew it too,” Yeager told the redhead.

“We’ll I’m not stupid.  I know we can scent those with which we’re compatible.  For instance, I scented you the moment you arrived.  But one and only one and for life?  I don’t believe in all that mating bullshit,” Sophia said and her insinuation was obvious.  She wanted Yeager and she wasn’t hiding the fact from him.

“Well, that’s your problem.  I do believe in it,” Yeager said flatly.  Sophia didn’t back down, however.

“You really think that girl is the one?  She’s not your type.  You need a woman that...well, a woman more your style.  I promise, I can be as wild as you need,” Sophia told him.  Yeager rolled his eyes.  This was getting old fast.

“I’m sure you can but not interested,” he told Sophia.  She barely heard him.

“She’s using you.  You might believe in all that mating stuff but I doubt she does.  Especially since she’s out with Gerard right now.  I saw the way she looked at him.  She’s found a better match, a shifter more her style.  Cassie realizes her importance,” Sophia said taking an obvious delight in delivering the news.  Her insinuation was obvious, however.  Yeager wasn’t good enough for a woman like Cassie.

“What do you know about her importance?” Yeager demanded.

“She hasn’t told you?  That’s revealing, isn’t it?” Sophia replied.  Yeager moved closer, looming over the much smaller woman, glaring threateningly at her.

“Don’t be coy, Sophia.  If you know something, tell me,” Yeager said sternly.

“Oh, I like it when you get like this,” Sophia said biting her lip and running her hands over her hips seductively.  “I like it rough.  Why don’t you take your frustration out on me,” she added.  Yeager seized her by the shoulders.

“Tell me, you bitch, or I’ll rip your fucking throat out,” he said quietly but forcefully.  Sophia’s attitude changed when she saw Yeager’s fangs bared.  She cowered before his dominance as a woman and as a wolf.

“All right.  Fine.  She’s the Mother of our legends.  She can bear female shifters to a human mate.  So will her offspring.  Now let go of me,” Sophia said trying to sound strong but failing miserably.

Yeager let go of the woman, wheeled and headed for the front door.  On the way, Lady Violet caught his attention.  She was smiling with satisfaction for some reason.  Yeager ignored her as he walked out the front door and onto the covered porch of the rustic mansion.  He headed for the steps but stopped short.  Off in the distance he saw his mate and she was in the arms of Gerard, her lips pressed to his.  Yeager growled menacingly at the sight.

~~O~~

I was swept up in the moment.  Gerard kissed me, our tongues entwined and our hands roaming.  I was lost to the sudden passion that a woman, even a woman who could become a wolf herself, felt with a shifter.  The world around melted away as the pleasure seeped into my bones.  Yeager, Edie and all the rest faded.  Gerard, however, broke the kiss and that broke the spell, if only for a moment.

“Run with me, Cassie,” Gerard implored me.  I had a moment of clarity and I couldn’t believe what I was doing.  I backed away, pulling from Gerard’s arms.

“No, stop it.  I’m with Yeager,” I told him.  Gerard laughed.

“Cassie, you’re not serious, are you?  He’s been lying to you from the beginning.  You’re not his mate and you never were.  You’re a shifter and you’re not bound to one man.  You’re free to choose as is he.  How do you know he’s not with Sophia right now?” Gerard asked me.

“He would never do that.  He’s not like that.  I’ve failed him though,” I said as what I had done hit me.  I let this man, this shifter, kiss me and for a moment I enjoyed it.  I betrayed Yeager’s trust and I’d done it so easily.  But Lady Violet’s words still swirled in my head.  I didn’t want to believe what she had said but part of me was all too willing to accept what the woman told me.

“I’d be willing to bet you’re not the first woman he’s used that line on, Cassie,” Gerard said and I remembered what Yeager had told me.  He had been with other women but he told me they were just flings.   A man has needs, he said.  But I wondered now.  Whispers of doubt chipped away at the edges of my resolve.  I wanted to believe Yeager, I wanted to trust him, but what Violet and now Gerard said seeped in like a poison and clouded my judgment.

“You don’t know him,” I replied defiantly.

“And neither do you, Cassie,” Gerard told me.  He was right.  I’d known Yeager just over three months.  He told me things that I believed without question.  I relied on my instincts and intuition and they told me he was being truthful.  I was so sure that I felt it too.  But what if I was being manipulated by Yeager.  What if I believed him simply because I wanted what he told me to be true?  That I was special to him, that we were fated lovers and that he would always be there.  What if I bought that because of my own past and my need to feel wanted?

I knew Violet and Gerard were playing me for their own ends but what if Yeager was as well?  I shook my head, trying to find some path through the doubt and confusion.  Finally, I gave up.  My dress fell loose about me as I turned into the black wolf with the white patch of fur on my back and I ran off into the night.  I ran away from my feelings and fears, away from what I had done and away from what might be.

I welcomed the quiet of my wolf’s mind, the lack of emotion and the cold, calculating instincts.  Gerard did not pursue as I bound through the meadow and there I found peace.  I remembered the feelings, the swirling confusion, the aching doubt but they no longer ruled me.  If only I could find this kind of peace in my human form.  I ran hard, running to forget, running to cleanse myself and running from my fears.  It worked, as I knew it would and soon I was just a wolf with some odd memories that faded quickly.

A scent caught my attention.  It was familiar but different at the same time.  It was a rabbit I was sure but not the jackrabbits of the California desert.  Then I saw it, frozen as it sensed me as well.  A snowshoe hare, its soft brown fur already beginning to change to white for the winter.  I needed to taste blood and death.  I needed to indulge my animal instincts.  I charged and as I approached, the hare dashed away.  I would not be denied, however.  I gave chase, letting my instincts take over.  The hare changed direction with ease, trying to shake me, but I was unusually nimble this night.

The hare, its eyes wild and full of fear, finally broke into a flat out run.  I lowered my head and gained ground, my heart pumping hard, my hot breath turning to steam.  I was almost within reach and bared my gleaming teeth.  Saliva dripped from my fangs.  There was nothing but the hare and the grass and soft earth beneath my paws.  Then the hare gambled and lost.  It turned, dashing to the side but I was ready.  I snatched it out of midair and shook the poor rodent violently, its life draining away between my powerful jaws.

I dropped the dead hare and tasted the intoxicating blood, scented the smell of death. I relished it for a moment before I placed a paw on its carcass, then tore a strip of fresh meat free and swallowed it.  I ate my fill of the hare and when I was finished, I trotted off tired and sleepy.  I stumbled upon a stand of trees, soft grass and pine needles that would make a perfect bed for a tired wolf.  I lay down, curled up and tucked my nose under my front leg.  Sleep overwhelmed me and I welcomed it.

~~O~~

I woke to find black leather boots walking my way in the pale light of dawn.  My ears perked up and my body tensed but I was not afraid.  Violet stopped ten paces from me, set a pair of shoes on the ground and held out a long wool coat.  It was cold but I was warm and comfortable in wolf’s form.  Violet waited a moment but I did not move.  I was not afraid but I was wary.

“Child, come with me.  I’ve things to show you,” she said.  I still didn’t move, simply watching the severe blonde woman.  The clarity I’d gained as I ran had showed me that Violet was a manipulative bitch but her intentions, at least as she’d expressed them to me, were noble.  She wanted to save our kind and she saw me as a means to that end.  In the cold, calculating way of a wolf, I saw the logic in that.  I sat up and then stood on all four paws before I shifted into my human form.

I stood up straight and walked to Violet, unashamed of my nakedness, took the coat she offered, slipped it on and then donned the slip-on shoes she had brought.  “I don’t appreciate being manipulated, Violet.  It is unnecessary.  I’m a big girl.  Tell me what you want and we can talk,” I said plainly.  Violet nodded.

“Very well, child,” she replied and I already knew she was still plotting and planning in her head but I hoped I might find some shred of insight into all of this.  Violet began walking and I followed her.  We walked for a while, climbing a low rise and then peering over.  There, below was a village of sorts hidden behind a small hill from the main house.  Smoke rose from the chimneys of the rustic cabins.

“This is the heart of Wolfsbane.  This is where those that I find come to live.  Five hundred or so of our kind, their mates and children, some like you and I and some human, dwell there.  We are relegated to this place save for a few like you and Yeager.  We live, like you, in the shadows, hiding from humanity and hoping they do not discover what we are.  Make no mistake, Cassie.  If humans discovered us, that would be the end,” Violet said.

“I don’t believe that, Violet,” I replied.  She was wrong about humans, about us.  Why did we have to be separate?  Why did she talk as if humans were the enemy?

“Don’t you?  Well let me tell you about humans.  Humans don’t tolerate those that are different from themselves.  Even amongst their own kind, they seek to divide and cleanse.  I’ve seen the brutality of humans.  I’ve seen them kill our kind, men, women and children all.  I’ve seen them slaughter entire packs simply because they didn’t understand, out of nothing but fear of the unknown,” Violet asserted.  I didn’t question her as she continued.

“Even you and Yeager choose to live apart, to hide in plain sight.  Why?  Because you know deep inside that revealing what you are to them would bring nothing but sorrow.  I do not profess to be better than them but I do say that we are at least honest about our true selves.  While they deny they are animals, we embrace the animals within.  I saw that hare you caught last evening, or what was left of it.  You kill because it is in your nature and you do not shrink from that, do you, Cassie?” Violet asked.

“No, I do not,” I said.  I was new to this life, to becoming a wolf, but I was fiercely proud of what I was.

“No, you embrace it, relish it, you look forward to being the wolf, to killing and the taste of death.  We are like humans in that we are all animals but we are better because we do not seek to pretend otherwise.  I believe our kind was created for a purpose.  There is a destiny we are meant to fulfill, child,” the severe woman explained, her voice taking on a more dramatic tone.

“And what is that, Violet?” I asked, my curiosity piqued as well as my apprehension.

“We are stronger than them.  Not in numbers, obviously.  However, our kind is stronger.  I and those that live here at Wolfsbane hold a common belief.  We believe that we are the dominant species and that we will one day take our place as such.  We believe that one, the Wolf Mother, will come to us and give us that chance.  You are that chance for us, Cassie.  You hold the key to our destiny within you.  You are precious to us and I will not allow you to leave us,” Lady Violet told me.  I’d heard it before but not like this.  Not in this context.  I suppose I suspected it all along, that Violet wouldn’t take no for an answer.  Still, I had questions.