Mistakenly Mated (6 page)

She pushed him back to the ground with a huff on his part and drew herself up off him slowly before slamming back down. Caleb moaned her name as she did it again and again. She worked herself into a steady rhythm, driving both of them wild with the sensation. The wind whipped around them, blowing leaves dragging across their skin and making where their bodies were joined like the warmth at the center of a storm.

Kerry’s pleasure escalated as the firm grip of his hands on her waist helped to move him inside her. Caleb leaned up, taking her other breast into his mouth. This time she didn’t push him back. She wrapped one hand around the back of his skull and held him to her. Caleb was her mate. All felt right with the world to have him inside her. Her breathing changed as her climax threatened to overtake her.

Caleb was sitting up now with her in his lap. She dragged her legs against the grass, so she could lock them around his waist. His hands held her at the small of her back, giving her balance as she did so. He gripped at her hips with his fingers digging into the flesh as he brought her down on him harder and faster.

Kerry cried out, locking her arms around his neck. Caleb growled against her throat as his pace increased, forcing her to take everything he had to offer and tighten around him.

“Oh, God,” she cried out. Her head fell back. “Caleb I’m there. I’m—”

Kerry’s orgasm over took her, drawing Caleb into her tight as her muscle contracted around him. Caleb howled, a very different sound from his human throat, arching his hips up into her as she forced him to have his own climax. She shuddered in his arms as he drew his legs up and, using his greater weight, toppled them over. She lay beneath him, her arms and legs wrapped around him as he emptied his soul into her. He held himself up on his arms so that she didn’t suffocate against his chest and re-learned how to breathe.

He rolled onto her side ,holding her against him so that one of her legs flopped over her his. His deflated manhood nestled happily between her thighs. Kerry made lazy circles with her fingers over his chest hairs.

“So, how long do you think it will take you to pack?”

Kerry raised her head from his skin, the afterglow faded just a little at his words. She gave him a skeptical look.

“Excuse me.”

“Your stuff. I mean you still live with your folks so you won’t have that much in the way of furniture, but clothes and personal items. Could we get you moved in this weekend?”

Kerry pulled up to her knees and stared down at him. “Moved in?”

“Yeah, I have a nice place on Pine Ridge Road. You’ll like it.”

“I’m not saying I wouldn’t. Don’t you think that’s rushing things just a little bit? We barely know each other. I don’t even know your last name.”

Caleb shifted his arms behind him, pushing his upper body up so he could look into her face.

“It’s Vander, but what’s with all the looks? We’re mated now. As soon as the month is out, we’ll be married. I’d compromise and we’d combine our households if you had one.” Caleb quirked one of his eyebrows.

“You want to get married just like that. We barely know each other,” she said incredulous.

He just kept staring at her like that was exactly what he imagined. “That’s just the way it’s done.”

Kerry turned, wrapping her arms around her knees.

“That’s not the way I was raised. It can’t be that simple. What about love?”

Caleb ran his fingers up the muscles of her back slowly. It made her shiver but that was all it was—a physical sensation.

“It will come in time.”

“That’s what my momma said,” said Kerry, blowing her hair out of her eyes.

Caleb smiled cockily. “Your momma would know.”

Kerry pulled away from him, getting to her feet. She looked back at Caleb who discreetly covered himself with a bent knee while still looking completely scrumptious.

“That just goes to show you know absolutely nothing. My momma knows nothing about it. She didn’t follow pack law. She didn’t meet the man she was supposed to mate with a night before. That was it; no going back. She grew up next door to my daddy. She fell in love with him over years of being together. They ran away from home, got hitched at a chapel outside of Vegas, and mated in the honeymoon suite of Caesars Palace . They’re clan shame Caleb. They came back and neither of their families wanted to know them. They took what they could and moved a state over, having to start all over without any help or support. Now Momma’s Momma came around when she had me but Daddy’s folks still won’t even pick up the phone if they know he’s calling.”

Caleb thought about what she told him. His family was very different—traditional. His parents—although they cared very deeply for each other—never had a passionate love. It was why a lot of were-families often only had the one child. They did their duty with the one and there was no desire to continue on after that. After the first month of mating frenzy and mating dances, the couple could be satisfied with nearness at the end of the day. His parents were fine not seeing each other all day. Not speaking even when they were in the same room. His mother had been more affectionate towards him as a boy then he ever saw her be with his father.

“I understand.”

“I really don’t think you do,” she continued. She paced back and forth which distracted Caleb slightly from watching the way her body moved. “They hated the thought of being without each other so much that they chose to lose everything rather than be without each other. Now, I don’t know if you can imagine a love like that as you were raised in a traditional household but I can. I thought I might have found that.”

Caleb ground his teeth together. He didn’t like to hear her admitting this love for someone other than him. It irked him to think she was someone’s before his.

“I’ve given it up for you because that’s what the hell I’m supposed to do. Therein lies the problem and makes your job really, really hard.”

“Huh?” Caleb asked, unable to strive for something more elegant.

“Now, you’ve got to prove you were worth it.”

Caleb looked at her stunned. He had to prove himself to her. He growled. “What are you suggesting? Dating? What the hell point is there in that? You’re already mine.”

Kerry returned his growl with interest. He flinched. He could tell she was really mad at not being taken seriously.

“Not doing well so far, are you?”

Kerry wrapped her arms around herself and trudged back up the hill to claim her dress, what was left of her dignity, and hustle on home.

Chapter Six

Kerry lay on her back on the bed, feeling completely miserable. It’d been nearly a week since she saw Caleb and her belly wouldn’t stop quivering at the separation. He could call her. She may not have given him her number but he was a smart, resourceful man. He could easily get her number.

On the other hand, Dick wouldn’t stop calling. The night she was out in the grass with Caleb, he rang three times. Each ring of the phone ground on her father’s nerves. She came home to find a square of the front window taped off and the telephone sitting in the yard—cord and all. He was having a time-out on the stairs when she got in while her mother fumed about glass all over the floor.

Kerry stared at the ceiling, throwing a ball back and forth between the surface above and her hands. The phone rang again. Kerry groaned, watching the extension in her room wobble in its cradle and the light flash indicating her answer machine picked it up.

“Kerry,” screamed her other best friend. Kerry smiled from ear to ear and picked up the receiver.

“Hey, Paulie,” she said, beaming. She could hear the music beating from the stereo in the car he was in. “Tell me you’re not driving and calling.”

“Of course not. Would I do that?” She could hear the grin in his voice telling her he would do exactly that.

“Don’t panic. I’m driving.” Kerry clearly heard Susan’s voice over the music.

“Hey, Susan.” Kerry turned up the volume on the phone to hear them more clearly over the blaring stereo in the car.

“I hear over the grape vine that somebody’s a gloomy Gus,so we’re coming to rescue you. Get your gear on, girl. We are going out and will not take ‘no’ for an answer.”

Kerry sat up on the edge of her bed and looked at the clock. It was eight o’clock.

“We’ll be at yours in fifteen minutes. Chop, chop.” Paulie hung up the phone.

Kerry rushed to her closet, looking for something to wear in a hurry. She pulled on a pair denim cutoffs, a battered old pair of brown cowboy boots, a red halter, and a yellow straw Stetson. She fluffed her hair and did a quick round with some make up at her dresser.

The door bell rang. Kerry shot from her room, grabbing her purse and flew down the stairs.

“It’s for me. I’m going out. Be back late,” she called to whomever was listening.

She threw open the door to get a face full of flowers. Kerry reversed back onto her heels and pushed the bouquet aside.

Caleb stood there, dressed in navy blue shirt that was strategically unbuttoned to show his masculine chest and the tightest pair of black jeans she’d ever seen. She could put a nickel in his pocket and tell if it were heads or tails. Kerry blinked several times.

“Caleb? What are you doing here?” she asked, unhappy with the way the uneasy fluttering in her stomach eased at his presence.

He gave her a rueful smile and then sighed.

“You were right. I did jump full steam ahead with the whole mated for life issue. Following tradition when frankly, there isn’t that much traditional about us. I wanted to start from the beginning and…”

He paused, looking at her outfit. “You’re going out.” He wanted to say, “and you’re wearing that” but curbed himself. That statement would have been a step backwards. He imagined men leering at her wherever she was headed and it made his head spin with jealousy—not just possessiveness but actual jealousy.

“I am.”

A little yellow Mazda pulled up behind them with music blaring from the speakers and the horn honked twice. Caleb looked over his shoulder to see two other men in the car, both wolves too, and the brunette he met at the bookstore.

“That would be my ride.” Kerry stepped out onto the porch, closing the front door behind her.

Caleb looked sadly between her and the flowers. Kerry crumpled; she took the flowers and inhaled their rich scent.

“Thank you. They’re beautiful and you can come along if you want. I’m sure the guys won’t mind.” She raised her voice so her friends could hear and no one objected. “I don’t think there is room in Susan’s car but if you follow in yours.” Kerry scanned the small dirt track in front of her house and spotted a Benz—all German engineering and sleek silver curves.

Paulie climbed out of the front seat. He eyed Caleb with a very territorial look. Kerry smiled at him to reassure him that she was okay and waved to Susan who was leaned back over her seat, talking to Luka. Luka was a silver wolf just like Paulie. He and Susan were promised. He was quiet and shy, which complimented Susan who was brash and loud to a tee. He didn’t speak much to anyone and when he did, he talked a little like Boomhower from
King of the Hill
.

“Are you coming or what?” he called.

Caleb looked at the man who stood waiting with one hand on the door and the other on the seat to pull it forward so Kerry could climb in back. He was roughly the same height as Caleb but he had a whip-thin build, like a runner. He was clad in blue jeans, work boots, and a white T-shirt which made his skin look really red in comparison.

“Yeah, but I’m going to ride with Caleb. Don’t go too fast or we’ll lose you.”

Paulie gave a dazzling white and ferocious smile. “So, this is Caleb?” Paulie did an assessment of him from head to toe and shrugged.

“He gonna be able to keep up with us?” Paulie asked, focusing solely on Kerry.

“Of course. Whatever makes you think he can’t?”

Paulie gave Caleb another look. “I don’t know. He just looks so prim.”

Caleb felt a growl start in the back of his throat. Kerry stepped forward, taking his hand.

“You just wish you could look so good. Get your butt back in the car so we can get moving.”

“Why, yes ma’am!” he said with a cheeky grin. Paulie slotted his wiry frame back into the little car. He slammed the door, leaning out of the open window to smack the roof. “Quit stalling or we’re gonna leave y’all behind.”

Caleb led Kerry to his car, where he opened the door for her. Once she was in, he walked around the hood before climbing in behind the wheel and starting the car. The Mazda sped off down the driveway. Caleb slammed his foot on the gas to catch up.

“These people are your friends?” asked Caleb, watching Paulie as he leaned right out the window his tongue lolling out like a dogs in the wind. “Yeah. Paulie and Susan and I grew up together; we all went to high school together. We’re close. Luka, however, is a new initiate. He’s Susan’s intended. They’ve got their ceremony month after next.”

“And Paulie?” Caleb asked, trying not to grind his teeth as Paulie mooned them without falling out of the open car window. Kerry laughed.

“His is next month. He’s all set to do the dance with Margery Wallis.” Caleb blinked.