The Wolf's Mate Book 2: Linus & The Angel (7 page)

He realized he’d been daydreaming and staring
at the wall when someone snapped their fingers in front of his face
and it was Bo. “There’s a call for you, man.” He straightened.
“Thanks, man.”

“Yeah, well, thanks for having clothes on.”
Bo grinned at him and Linus sighed. He would never live that down.
At least his cock hadn’t been hard at the time. That was something
to be thankful for. As he walked to the front to get the phone he
had a thought that it might be Karly and he couldn’t stop the joy
that leapt into his heart.

Expertly dashed, his heart deflated instantly
at his mother’s voice, “Linus, I need you to stop at your
grandmother’s tonight. Her kitchen sink is backed up again.”

“I’ve got plans tonight, Mom. Can’t she call
someone?”

“She did call someone. You.”

He groaned inwardly. He would not get out of
this for anything less than a disaster requiring hospitalization,
that much he knew. His mother Joyce, all 5 foot of her, was a force
to be reckoned with. Feisty, fiercely protective of her family, she
was not the sort of woman to take no for an answer. She’d been
highly ranked with the females of her day and held that position
with pride.

He didn’t want to be late for Karly. As it
was, he was going to have to take a short lunch to make up for
coming in late and then book it right at 4:30 so he could grab a
quick shower and change. He didn’t want to go to her place covered
in grease.

“Okay, tell her I’ll come by at lunch
today.”

There was a slight pause. “It’s not that
horrible woman is it, Linus? I swear, I will give you such a
beating if you’re back with her, I’m not joking.”

Hanging his head, he growled internally.
Would no one let him forget anything that he’d done? “Mom, it’s not
her. I’m done with Brenda. I’ll,” the front door swung open and a
customer walked in. “I’ll talk to you later, okay? I need to
go.”

As his mother said goodbye and he hung up,
Cadence walked out from the back office to greet the customer.
Jason had hired her to do the bookkeeping and run the front and she
was a natural. Tough enough to deal with the bikers that came in
for repairs and mods on their bikes and sweet enough to charm even
the crustiest old lady who wanted a discount for being distantly
related to someone that worked there. He gave a nod to her and she
smiled back.

He figured he could go help his grandmother
and then eat. He didn’t dare take more than a half hour break, or
he’d have Jason on his ass. Throwing himself into his work, he
tried not to daydream about Karly but it was damn hard. She’d just
permeated his entire being. He could still smell her on his skin,
could still feel the press of her mouth against his when they’d
said goodbye this morning, and if any of the guys in the shop could
see into his head, they’d get a show that would rival any of the
porn he’d seen over the last few months.

Lunch couldn’t come fast enough. He clocked
out and grabbed the cooler, not wanting to leave it unattended at
the shop. He was thrilled with the prospect of seeing what she’d
done for him; he knew it would be perfect.

His grandparents lived in a small
neighborhood in the center of town. Their tiny two bedroom house
had been a haven for him as a child. He loved his mother a great
deal, but his father had been a genuine asshole and had not treated
him or his mother very well. As an only child, he’d grown up trying
to protect her and gotten knocked around good for it. He hadn’t
been sorry when his father took off with a younger female and left
them high and dry, even though his mother had been devastated.

He was there in two minutes. He gave his
grandmother, Gladys, a hug when she opened the door. She was as
small as his mother but no less dangerous if she was pissed. His
grandfather Eugene had arthritis in his hands. Medicine didn’t
really help wolves and the pain had gotten bad enough that when he
shifted on the full moon he could barely walk. It was unusual for
wolves to get those sorts of illnesses as they aged, they stayed
fairly healthy for the span of their lives, but it did happen
occasionally. In his grandfather’s case, he had gotten caught in a
hunter’s trap when he was a young man and it had snapped over both
his forelegs. As he aged, the damage turned into problems for his
mobility.

“Hey pops.” He called to the front room,
hearing the sound of the television.

He heard the replying grunt and knew that was
as much as he’d get for now. “I can’t stay to chat, grandma, I’ll
fix the sink and head back.”

“I was going to make you lunch.” She put her
hands on her hips as he pulled the toolbox from the counter to the
floor and opened the cabinets under the sink.

He couldn’t stop his smile. “I already have
lunch taken care of.”

“Oh?” She smiled, her gray eyes crinkling
with the motion.

“Yeah, I met this girl over the weekend,” He
pulled the wrench out and put it on the pipe after securing a bowl
to catch the water. “She made me lunch.”

“That’s sweet.”

Sweet wasn’t quite a strong enough word for
it but he didn’t elaborate. He worked quietly and quickly. In the
mess that came out of the pipe as he poked the back end of the
wrench into it, he heard a clinking noise and fished out her
wedding ring. He handed it to her, put the pipes back together and
dumped the black water out onto the snow in the backyard.

“I wondered where that went.” She laughed and
washed it off and he cringed, worried she was going to drop it
again. Already 10 minutes had passed. He needed to get going.

“I need to take off, grandma.”

“Wait, I have something for you.” She hurried
out of the kitchen and he growled to himself but sat down dutifully
at the table. The daily crossword in the paper that she did
faithfully was laid out and he picked up the pen and began to
doodle in the margin, staring out the back window into the woods
that lined the development.

“Here,” she handed him a pair of dress
slacks. He’d completely forgotten about them. Before Christmas he
had been invited to Jason and Cadence’s reception and they were his
only pair. When he went to put them on, there was a gaping hole in
the pocket so he’d dropped them off and worn his nicest pair of
jeans instead and had not bothered to get them.

“Thanks, grandma.” Perfect. He could wear
them tonight. He stood and kissed her cheek.

“Who do you know that’s an Angel?” She asked,
fingering the design he’d absently drawn in the corner of the
newspaper.

“What?” He wasn’t sure he hadn’t heard
wrong.

She pointed to the three symbols he’d
sketched from memory, the tattoo on Karly’s right shoulder. He’d
noticed it when he had made love to her while she was on her hands
and knees. He’d grabbed hold of her hair and pulled her up and
she’d screamed his name in pleasure and he had kissed that mark,
bitten it, licked it, while he’d pounded into her.

“That mark is the symbol of the Angel
Mates.”

He blinked. Angel Mates? Why did that sound
familiar? She slapped the back of his head, “Didn't you ever listen
to the stories I used to tell you about our heritage, our
people?”

“I’m not sure I follow.” He rubbed his head.
Time hadn’t made her strength lapse at all.

“The angel mates are half breeds, but not
like Cadence. They are as supernatural as we are…the product of
their angel mother and their wolf father.” He must have looked as
confused as he felt because she gestured to the chair and he sat
down mutely. She joined him across the small table and folded her
hands together. “The story goes that when the first werewolf was
created that he was more beast than man. So the creator made a
woman for him, his perfect mate. She was made for him alone, could
calm his beast, brought out both his nurturing side and his
protective nature. Their children were both. The females were mates
for wolves and the males were full blooded wolves. Each generation
of angels is the same. They always have the middle name of Angel to
remember their heritage, and this tattoo is marked on their skin
around the age of 12. They grow up in their home pack, learning the
ways of our people, their future mate, and when they come of age
they begin to search for their mate. Sometimes the mate is within
their home pack, but often, their journey is long and they move
from pack to pack, searching. The connection is supposed to be
primal, instant. Like love at first sight but stronger.”

“So the females are angels, like real
angels?” He could feel the color draining from his face as he tried
to reconcile what his grandmother was telling him. Karly’s middle
name was Angel. She had the tattoo. She called herself his angel
when she was nearly asleep. She’d been traveling for over a year,
moving from place to place because she hadn’t found a reason to
settle down.

She clucked her tongue at him. “No, not like
a heavenly angel. It’s supposed to be the term that the first wolf
used. You don’t remember the story?”

“I don’t know.” He frowned.

“He was in pain, miserable from shifting and
unable to control his beast. She appeared to him and calmed him. He
called her his angel, his salvation.”

“I thought that a human-wolf child would
always be human. How could the male children be wolves?”

“Because the angels aren’t human, not anymore
than we are. What makes them what they are makes that possible. So,
tell me, Linus, where did you see this symbol.”

“On the right shoulder of the woman that I’m
sure is my mate.” He swallowed hard. He stood up and the chair
clattered backwards. He righted it, his hands shaking, and said, “I
need to get back.”

She followed him to the front door. “Linus,
if you feel like she’s your mate, then she is. Did she not tell you
what she is?”

He shook his head. His mouth felt like he’d
swallowed sand. She hummed in her throat but said nothing. He
kissed her cheek, called out a goodbye to his grandfather and beat
feet back to his truck. He shot through town as fast as he dared on
the slightly icy streets, and carried the cooler back to his
workbench. He just barely made it back in his thirty minutes. Just
barely.

Resting his hands on the workbench, he stared
at the cooler. Was it possible? He thought the angels were a myth.
The legends about their kind were often exaggerated from generation
to generation, and in their current pack no one talked about the
legends at all. The curse of the modern packs that were streamlined
into human society and not hiding what they were like they used to
have to do meant that a lot of the traditions and history wasn’t
passed down like it should be.

He opened the cooler slowly. A folded piece
of paper was laying on top and he opened it. In delicate script,
she’d written:

“I can promise I miss you already. K.”

A part of him wanted to be angry. He’d been
feeling all weekend that she was his mate and he was afraid to
scare her off with the strength of his feelings. But she clearly
already knew they were mates, so why hadn’t she said something to
him?

Just as quickly as it appeared, his anger
seeped away. He knew why. She didn’t want to scare
him
off.
He’d been more open and honest with her than any other person in
his life to date, and he’d told her everything that had happened
between him and Brenda, his past relationships besides hers, and
she had looked at him with both compassion and pity. He’d hated
that look, the pity. He was certain she thought he was gun shy
about relationships and was probably just waiting for him to
realize what she was to him. He couldn’t be mad at her. He loved
her. He knew that was as true as the fact that the sun would set
tonight and rise tomorrow.

4:30 couldn’t come fast enough. He ate and
worked on the bike, ignoring the chatter around him. He needed the
time to think over how he would tell her he knew the truth. That it
had been in the back of his mind all weekend.

The lunch was incredible. Even more than the
food, was the thought that went into it, and now he understood why
she’d wanted to take care of him. Because mates did that for each
other. Apparently, even angels. The cooler was filled to the brim
with food. Three chicken salad sandwiches, a thermos of sweet tea,
and a plastic container of potato salad she’d made the night
before. She had clearly kept some aside for him because he’d
practically licked the bowl clean it was so good. And tucked inside
a napkin were two squares of walnut brownies that she’d also set
aside because there hadn’t been any left when he was finished.

He wanted to call her, to thank her for
everything, but he realized he didn’t have her phone number, hadn’t
even thought to get it because he had known he would see her after
work. He put his head down and got back to work. It wouldn’t do to
be caught slacking off. Jason hadn’t called for him, given him a
hard time or read him the riot act like he expected, but that
didn’t mean he wanted to call attention to himself. The guys in the
shop with him clearly thought he was not in a good mood because
they didn’t talk to him much outside of work things and that was
okay. He was in a great mood, getting better with each pass of the
minute hand that drew closer to him being able to see Karly. He was
just damned annoyed that it was only Monday and he’d have to go
another four more work days before he could bury himself in her for
two days non-stop.

Karly. Karly. Karly. Mine. Mine. Mine.

“Taking off?” Jason’s voice stopped his hand
on the front door at exactly 4:30. He clenched his jaw and turned,
giving a blank face to Jason. He didn’t want to give him fuel to
make him stay. He had no way to communicate with Karly if he was
detained and he would hate for her to worry or think he wasn’t
going to show up.

“Yeah, I’ve got plans.” He gritted his teeth
against the words he just had to say, “Unless you need me to stick
around.”