The Wolf's Mate Book 1: Jason & Cadence (29 page)

“Aye, Captain,” Michael saluted in an idiotic
way and jogged out of the house with Linus.

The house was small but perfect, and he was
glad she’d gotten him to agree to paint it ahead of time. He
switched out her old television for his flat screen and stereo
system. How she could stand to have no HD and no stereo was beyond
him, but she was going to get a fast lesson in how much better
movies were if they were loud with a crystal clear picture. Bo was
their resident electronics guru and he spent several hours hooking
up the surround sound while Jason unpacked his clothes. Upstairs,
she’d moved everything except what she referred to as her “winter
things” from the master closet into another bedroom, so he had room
to hang up his own things.

He was looking down at the shoes in the
master closet. Delicate, small dress shoes, tennis shoes, and those
suede fuck-me boots that he loved, and his own work boots and
motorcycle boots placed next to them. He thought it was a good
picture for the two of them. Not one to wax poetic, he saw a strong
and beautiful woman who had opened her life to an overpowering
brute of a man and given him access to every part of herself
without reservation. They were opposite as much as they were
similar, but they were made perfect for each other. And soon, she
would be his forever in every single way. If there really was a
wolf heaven, he’s in it right now.

Chapter
17

Jason wanted to celebrate their first night
officially living together, and as they tumbled into bed he
produced the mating strap.

Handing it to her, he scooted down the bed
and reached up, grasping two of the bars on the headboard with his
hands. She looked at the long length of leather and at him and as
she looped one end around one wrist she thought that he was doing
this to let her make him as helpless as he believed he’d made her
that one night when he felt like he’d gone overboard. She loved the
hell out of her marks, though, even though it had hurt at the time
and for a while afterwards. They were sensitive now, especially the
ones on her hips. When he played his fingers or tongue across them
it was like an electric tickle that shivered up and down her
body.

When he was secure, she sat back on her heels
to inspect her work and smiled when he instinctively tugged on the
bindings. They were very secure, and the headboard was wrought
iron. He could bend it, maybe, but he couldn’t break it.

“Just one thing, sweet,” he said with a dark,
husky voice.

She hummed in her throat and rubbed a finger
around his dusky nipple.

“Would you park on my face for about an
hour?”

Oh hell yes!

* * * * * * *

She had a case of nerves as she walked down
the aisle of the Love Chapel in Pigeon Forge. The wedding had come
upon her so fast that it was like she went to bed the night of the
full moon in November and woke up this morning sharing a hotel room
with Callie.

Jason’s father had offered to walk her down
the aisle and as she held onto his arm and walked the short aisle
in the quaint chapel, she wondered if her father were alive, if he
would have even attended, let alone given her away. If things had
been different, she would have asked Jake to stand with her on such
a special day. And Renee, too. She’d had a big void in her heart
that Jason and the pack had more than filled.

She was nervous because she was always afraid
at these sorts of incredible times that she was dreaming. That she
would wake up suddenly and be alone in her bed in the house and
none of the things that had passed had actually happened. But it
was
real. She had pinched herself a half dozen times
earlier, just to be sure, and Callie had even offered her pinching
services. As her maid of honor, she walked down with Michael, and
the only other people in the chapel were Jason’s mom and his
grandfather Abraham.

She had picked a simple short sleeved white
satin dress with some beading on the bodice that counted for her
“new” item. Instead of a veil, she used Tina’s pearl hair combs
which also doubled as her “borrowed”. Her mother's sapphire
bracelet doubled as both her “old” and “blue”, and it helped her
feel connected to the woman she'd never known. Wolves didn’t have
any special traditions related to the human marriage, but she did
pack their mating strap so that Jason could take his turn tying her
up. That had been one damn hot night and he had marks on his wrists
for days afterwards.

Her nerves ratcheted up another notch as
Peter announced that he was giving her to Jason, and Jason’s blue
eyes simmered as he took her hand and drew her close.

Not a dream. Not a dream.

The vows left her brain as soon as she said
them. The people with them were just blurs in the periphery of her
vision. The only thing that mattered in the universe was the man
next to her, and when he drew her into his arms for their first
kiss, she swore the world stopped turning for a heartbeat.

Everything clicked into place for her at that
moment. She and Jason were married. She was now Mrs. Cadence
Gerrick and he was her husband. She wouldn’t be alone again, and
hadn’t ever really been in the first place.

Their reception was just dinner in the hotel
restaurant where their guests were staying, and since it was their
off-season and they were deserted, the staff pushed the tables from
the center of the room and turned the stereo system up so they
could all dance.

Michael and Callie covered Jason’s truck in
what she thought were balloons, but upon closer inspection were
blown up condoms. Callie had clearly tried to soften the glaring
display with flowers but Michael’s personality was all over the
decorating.

It started to snow that night, and by the
time they checked in and drove up the hillside to their secluded
cabin, the ground was well on its way to being covered. When they
woke up the next day, the world looked fresh and new, just like the
start of their life together.

Jason got his request of plenty of nudity
over their weeklong honeymoon, and by the time they checked out,
there wasn’t a surface in the cabin that they hadn’t made love on
in one way or another. And in between all of their lovemaking, they
talked and became best friends again. Two parts of a whole. Two
sides of the same coin. Husband and wife.

The official Tressel pack reception was held
in the bar with the whole deal – cake, dancing, throwing of garter
and a fresh bouquet and plenty of liquor and good food.

Seated in the usual booth, Jason kissed
behind her ear. “Are you happy, Mrs. Gerrick?”

“I am. You?”

“I just married my best girl. I couldn’t be
happier.”

And she couldn’t have been happier,
either.

* * * * * * *

Christmas Eve began with a large tree
lighting ceremony in the center of town and the pack gathered for a
large family style dinner before the full moon hunt. She and Jason
stood together in front of the large bonfire with their pack, the
first time that it was only their pack and not the two packs
together. The mood was solemn, marking the start of a new time in
Allen and with their people.

She had been feeling out of sorts all day.
The month had passed by so quickly that it seemed like the full
moon had a mind of its own and snuck up on her. She and Jason had
spent the day in bed but she’d still been wired for sound. Looking
up at the sky, she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath as the
sound of clothes hit the ground and the wolves all raised their
muzzles to howl and she was drowning in the familiar and sweet fall
scent of wolves.

Jason nudged her leg with his muzzle and she
looked down at him and felt twin pains in her upper gums. “Ouch,”
she grumbled, touching the place in her mouth where her gums ached
and gasped in surprise at the taste of blood. Tender to the touch,
she followed her swollen gums down to where her canines had
elongated into sharp points.

“Jas?” Her voice came out trembling and she
opened her mouth and pointed to what felt like thicker, longer
teeth.

He made a questioning sound in his throat and
he and the wolves nearby looked for all the world like they were
confused. Hell, she was confused! She wanted to see a mirror so she
could be sure she hadn’t imagined they were longer than normal.

Her voice was less trembling and more in
control when she gave a gentle shove to Jason’s head and said, “Go
hunt and then come home. I’ll be fine.”

She turned to walk away and a tug stopped
her. Jason had snagged the back of her jeans leg behind one knee in
his teeth and pulled her to a stop. Anger rode over the tickling
fear as she growled and flashed what she hoped were at least mildly
intimidating fangs at him, “If you rip my jeans I’m going to be so
pissed off that you won’t be able to hear right for a week when I’m
done yelling at you. Go hunt. I don’t want you to freak out on me
again. My body can’t take it.” She knew he would be upset at the
jab, but she was starting to freak out a little at this new
development and she wanted to be in the relative privacy of the
house.

Immediately he released the fabric and after
growling a command at the females around her who had already agreed
to stay with her at the house, he darted off with three wolves:
Michael, Linus, and Bo.

She watched Jason until his form was lost to
the darkness and turned towards the house, Callie on her right,
Tina on her left, two females ahead of them, and another bringing
up the rear. She turned on the light in the small downstairs half
bath and lifted up her top lip with her fingertips that were
shaking now. There in brilliant white were tiny white fangs,
delicately pointed like little shiny daggers. As she thought, they
were thicker and longer than her normal teeth, very
clearly…fangs.

Callie made a sad sort of whimpering sound in
her throat from where she sat on her haunches in the doorway. She
glanced at her best friend. “I don’t know, Cal. I felt weird all
day and then they just popped down. Hurt like a bitch, too.”

Her gums twinged a little still, but not so
bad she couldn’t ignore it and she walked out into the front room
and sat down on the couch, waiting for Jason to finish hunting and
come back. Callie and Tina sat in the room with her but since they
couldn’t talk it was rather like having two large dogs staring at
her with humanly intelligent looking eyes, and she felt even more
on display than she had in front of the bonfire.

The hours trickled past but finally she heard
a warning bark that alerted the females around the house that the
alpha was on his way home, and she stood up and walked to the back
door. Jason leapt onto the back porch and shifted as she held open
the door for him. In the laundry room, he tugged his jeans on and
hugged her, pulling her into the extra warmth of his just shifted
body.

The females that had stayed with her left to
go hunt. In the kitchen, Jason looked down at her and held her lip
up to expose her little fangs so he could see them, along with
Peter, Michael and Lon. She couldn’t help but flush with
embarrassment at being exposed, even though it was only her teeth
they were looking at. It just felt very intimate.

Peter scrubbed his hands through his dark
blonde hair and sighed, sitting down at the kitchen table. “Do you
have any other odd feelings, Cadence?”

“Like what?”

“Like needing to hunt, wanting to taste fresh
blood, or feeling like going for a long run?”

She shook her head. Jason dropped her lip and
pulled her hands up so he could inspect them. He squeezed each
finger between his finger and thumb, exerting enough pressure that
after four fingers she jerked her hand away and said, “What are you
doing?”

“If your fingers are sore it may be claws.
I’m just checking, let me finish.”

She let him pinch her fingers and thumbs and
then massage his grip down the palms of both hands, twisting her
wrists around so her palms were up as he caressed just shy of
painfully hard down the length of her arms and up to her shoulders.
It felt incredibly good and she sighed and closed her eyes.

With a laugh, he said softly, “That’s fucking
hot as hell, baby.”

Her eyes popped open and he grinned. “None of
your joints hurt?”

“Nope.”

He dropped his hands to his hips and looked
at his dad and the elder who had come back after their hunt. “I
don’t know, Jason. As far as I know, your mate is the only hybrid
werewolf in existence. She is wholly unique,” Lon said.

“But why fangs? Why now?” Jason asked.

“I don’t know. I wish I could tell you
something to alleviate your concerns but I have nothing over pure
speculation.”

“Such as?” Michael asked.

“Such as, it would be highly unlikely for a
human to turn into a werewolf so late in life. Fangs are one thing
because the canine teeth already exist in the human mouth so it’s
not necessarily an exaggeration for them to elongate as ours do.
But the ability to shift is something that is born into our DNA. If
she were ever able to shift into a full wolf, she would have done
so at 16 like the others.

“She is faster than a human, stronger, too,
but other than that, she doesn’t have our hearing or scenting
abilities. This may be a fluke occurrence or she may sprout fangs
every full moon because her beast is more in tune with the pack
than it has ever been before. Perhaps this is just one more way for
her beast, even as partial as it is, to connect with the pack that
she’s accepted as her own.” Lon leaned back in the chair and looked
at Jason and her with his silvery gray eyes.

“What if they don’t go away?” She asked.

“We have no reason to believe they won’t.”
Lon answered.