The Wolf's Mate Book 2: Linus & The Angel (13 page)

When she walked out of the bathroom the first
thing she saw was that Linus looked furious. His face was harsh
planes and banked anger, and it was all directed at a tall woman
with dark hair, wearing trampy club clothes. All that anger – she
had to be his ex. Well, wasn’t that just icing on the cake of the
evening?

Karly slid her arm around him and the woman
looked down her long nose at her with surprise that quickly
flickered to hurt and anger when her left hand rested on his
stomach and the ring glinted in the light. Linus put his arms
around Karly protectively and made motions to turn away from her
without a word when the woman sneered, “Aren’t you going to
introduce me, Linus baby?” The sneer slid into a pout that was all
practice. She was clearly used to getting her own way.

A fine tremble went through Linus that Karly
recognized as fury. She wasn’t too thrilled with the woman calling
him Linus baby, either.

Sucking his teeth in annoyance, he said,
“This is my fiancé Karly. Karly, this is Brenda, my ex-wife.”

Karly stared at her and only nodded. She was
kind of pretty in that angular way that some women could be,
prettier from a distance than close up. She couldn’t imagine that
Linus was attracted to her, but then he’d said that he tried to
force things with her, so she may just have been one of the first
to express an interest in marriage.

Brenda’s eyes narrowed. “Fiancé? My you move
fast, Linus. You didn’t mention anything about being serious with
someone when we talked last.”

He practically growled, “I don’t see how it’s
any of your business.”

He took a step back, pulling Karly with him,
and Brenda made a face that was halfway between annoyed and pissed
off, and then something flickered in the depths of her eyes and
Karly was pretty sure that neither of them would like what she said
next. “But Linus, it wasn’t too long ago that you were calling me
and begging me for sex. I’m just wondering how satisfied you
actually are with your little woman there if she’s not satisfying
you in bed like I can.”

Karly had just a heartbeat to step between
Linus and Brenda as he took a step forward, his body poised to
throttle her. He bumped into Karly's back and froze and she took
over for him, because she wasn’t emotionally invested and drowning
in the situation.

“Whatever you think you’re going to
accomplish by baiting my fiancé, it won’t work. You fucked up with
him, which makes you not only a total loser but an idiot to boot.
He’s mine now, so you can suck on it.”

Karly pulled him away from the hallway where
Brenda stood boiling in anger. “Do we have to stay?” Karly asked
when they were closer to the booth.

“No.” He said simply as they got to the booth
and put on their coats and said goodbye. When they were on the way
home, he said, “I’m really sorry about her. I haven’t seen her in a
long time; she stopped coming to the bar months ago.”

“You don’t have to apologize for her
behavior; you’re not responsible for it.”

“This is what I worried about. That I’d have
to tell the woman I really love that my past is a fucked up
thing.”

When the garage door shut behind the truck
and the engine was off, he put his head on the steering wheel.
“Nothing about tonight went right.”

“What did you think would happen? Your pack
thinks I’m human. Your ex is jealous and tried to cause a problem
for us. I don’t really care about any of that. You’re fourth in
rank to your pack and you grew up with them. They care about you
enough to worry about your choices. When they know what I am and
that I’m not going anywhere, then they’ll open up with me. The only
person whose opinion matters to me is you. If you’re happy with me,
then everyone else can just go to hell.”

He turned his head slowly and looked at her.
She couldn’t get a read on his emotions. “I am happy with you. I
have so many regrets. You don’t seem to have any at all.”

“No, that’s not true. I have plenty of
regrets. And my biggest regret is not finding you sooner.” She
pulled him away from the steering wheel and hugged him tightly,
kissing his temple and down his cheek to his mouth where she
swallowed the whimper of need he made and kissed him.

They barely made it out of the truck with
their clothes on, and it was only because the air inside the cab
started to chill and she shivered, that he opened the door and
pulled her out with him, carrying her inside and to the bedroom.
Linus had demons. His childhood, the pack, his first marriage. She
had her own demons, too, but she’d had a happy childhood and a
strong family foundation and often that went very far in making you
the person you were. Plus, she had a supernatural destiny to
fulfill in finding her mate and starting the next generation of
angel mates. However long it took Linus to share everything with
her about his childhood, all his past pain and regrets, she would
be there for all of it. Because if she’d learned one thing over the
years of watching her parents and the mates within the pack, it was
that you didn’t get to pick the baggage your mate came with, but
once you choose them, then it became your burden as well.

Chapter 9

Brenda stared at Linus and that little bitch
as they left the bar. She had some nerve! And Linus, acting like
she’d done something horribly wrong. A few weeks ago, she could
have met him in the bar and guaranteed a good fuck and maybe a nice
dinner, some cash to pad her wallet. He wasn’t the best lover, but
he was eager and he never asked her to reciprocate things like blow
jobs which she absolutely hated.

Being stuck at that loser’s house during the
blizzard had made her reevaluate her choice in pushing Linus aside,
but now…he was engaged? She was new in town, that was for sure, but
maybe she was a wolf and that’s why he’d jumped onto the marriage
wagon so fast again. After all, they’d been apart for three years
now but he always had time for her when she needed something.

And she did need something. A few things.
There was something wrong with her car. She was having trouble
making rent. Oh yeah, and her biological clock was ticking so
loudly it was keeping her up at night. By the time her mother was
27, she’d had four kids and three husbands and a string of lovers a
mile long. When they were married, Linus wanted a baby with her,
but she’d stayed on birth control. She wasn't planning to have a
child for a long time and was saving it for a bargaining chip when
she needed him to do something big for her, like send her on a
vacation. But now, that time was here. She wanted to have a baby
with a man that would do all the work for her, and that man was
Linus.

She returned to the table where her two
friends sat discussing the available men in the newly reopened bar.
There was a new DJ who came with his own groupies and buddies and
several of the guys were good looking. Felicity said, “What’s up
with the girl with your ex?”

Brenda snorted and twirled the straw in the
Seven & Seven. “She’s just a fling, don’t worry.”

Greta laughed, “I don’t know what you see in
that guy. There are so many other good looking dogs around. Like
that Michael. He’s so yummy!”

Brenda did think that Michael was good
looking, but he also hated her with a passion ever since she and
Linus had split. She wasn’t about to go down without a fight,
though. Linus belonged to her and she was going to figure out some
way to get him back.

An opportunity presented itself later that
week when she was in the checkout line at the grocery during her
lunch hour and the bitch came in. Brenda waited in her car until
she left the store and followed her to her parking spot and wrote
down her license plate. She could dig up some dirt on her maybe,
give Linus a reason to walk away from her.

“Come on, Greta, I’ll do anything if you just
look up this license plate for me, tell me about her.” Brenda
whined, leaning over the desk of the police station where Greta
answered the phones.

Greta lowered her voice, “I could get fired
for unauthorized access, Bren, no way!”

“I’ll do anything, come on!”

Greta’s eyes narrowed and she said, “Give me
your black halter dress.”

“That’s my favorite dress!”

“It’s mine or you get nothing,” Greta leaned
back in her chair, a triumphant smile on her face.

“Fine, fine. It’s yours. Now do your
thing.”

Greta typed in the license plate from West
Virginia into the police nationwide database. Taking a glance
towards the Chief’s office and making sure the door was still shut,
she began to write as she spoke.

“Okay, the car is in a man’s name, Kamren
Nylock, in West Virginia. Let me see if I can run the last name for
that county.” A few more clicks and some fast typing and she
sighed, “There are only two women with the last name of Nylock. One
is Sophia and she’s 47, and the other is probably who you saw:
Karolyn A. Nylock. She’s 23. Her home address is West Virginia. Um,
oh, this is interesting. She’s got a restraining order on some guy
named Phoenix Thompson, from her hometown.”

Brenda perked up at that tidbit. “A
restraining order? Does it say anything about it?”

Greta’s finger clicked on the mouse several
times and she said, “There are a handful of police reports,
stalking, trespassing, damage to private property, and even, oh, he
broke her arm. That’s what got the restraining order. He’s not
allowed within 500 yards of her. It happened this past fall. Wow,
he’s not a nice guy at all.”

Nope. Not a nice guy at all. But maybe he was
the answer to her problems. With a little more coaxing, she got his
last known address, thanked Greta for her help, and went home to
write a letter.

Chapter 10

“I think she’s great, man. If I didn’t say
that on Sunday after that incredible dinner, then I definitely feel
that way after lunch today,” Bo grinned at Linus across the break
room table on Friday afternoon. She’d called his cell and told him
she needed gas and would he mind if she came to the station, and he
met her out at the pumps. And then she’d asked him to get the boxes
out of the trunk and she’d brought lunch for everyone.

The homestyle meal was made up of fried
chicken, bbq pulled pork, potato salad, pasta salad, corn bread,
and two pans of fudge topped brownies. She only stayed long enough
to set all the food up and then kissed him goodbye and left. Damn
but he loved her!

Leaning back on two chair legs, Linus wadded
up the napkin and rested his hand on his more than stuffed stomach.
“I’m glad you like her, Bo. She’s special.”

Michael threw his napkin at him, “She’s a
fucking gourmet and you’ve got her chained up at your place like
it’s Little House on the Prairie. She should be cooking at
Lonestar’s. That place would be in the black in a month with her
skills manning the stove.”

“I do not have her chained up at the house,”
he bristled, “and I did tell her that she’s really talented in the
kitchen but she just doesn’t think it’s anything special. She grew
up cooking and that’s what she knows.”

“When are you going to meet her family?” Bo
asked, scraping his plate to catch a last bite of pulled pork.

“End of March, when the weather is better.
Her dad wants me to go hunting with his pack on the full moon. Her
brothers are even planning to come in for our visit.”

“Her brothers the alphas?” Bo asked with wide
eyes.

He nodded. Sunday, everything about Karly had
come out to the pack. At first, they had just stared blankly at him
and then Jason’s father Peter had just shaken his head in awe after
looking through Karly’s angel book and said he thought the angel
line had all but disappeared in the states. With his acceptance and
Karly’s re-telling of the legend of the first angel and the first
werewolf, the dynamic of the group shifted and suddenly she was
everyone’s favorite girl.

Jason and Cadence were the last to leave that
night, and while Cadence was talking to Karly about going out to
dinner for a double date, Jason looked thoughtful and said, “I’m
happy for you, man. She’s good for you. I’m sorry I gave you a hard
time, when I thought she was human. I just – it was hard for me to
see you so torn up about your past and possibly making the same
mistakes.”

“Well, it’s also equally hard to get over
your past when everyone keeps throwing it up in your face,” he
smirked and Jason at least had the decency to look guilty.

“Cades needs a strong female friend that’s
not a wolf. Someone she can be herself with and not have to be the
alpha female. I think your Karly can be that for her, with time.”
Jason scrubbed fingers across his jaw and looked at the two girls
as they leaned against the kitchen counter and talked about
restaurants.

“I think I finally understand what made you
so crazy all those years. If I had known when I was younger that
Karly was meant to be mine but something stood in the way, I think
I would have gone insane.” Linus said ruefully.

Snorting, Jason rolled his eyes and laughed,
“Yeah, well, you were there for me when I needed you, because we’re
friends not just because we’re pack, and some day I’m going to
repay that favor for you.”

Linus knew he would, even as he hoped he
would never have to call in that favor.

And now, watching his friends enjoy the lunch
that Karly had prepared for them, knowing she did it not because
she was trying to win points with them, but because it was just in
her nature, he couldn’t help but smile and wonder at his good
fortune. Fate was a strange and twisted thing.

That weekend, they went out to dinner with
Cadence and Jason and had a good time. Cadence seemed eager to have
a friend who was as human appearing as her and not pack, and Karly
was – at the core of herself – a very sweet and loving person, and
willing to accept anyone as a friend that treated her well.