Reluctant Mate Page 5

  “Thank you both.”

  Sid reached over and handed her the robe, which she put on, and Shane chuckled. “Layla, it wasn’t a chore by any stretch of the imagination.”

  Sid stood and shook his cousin’s hand. “Thank you, Shane.”

  Shane nodded at his cousin. “I’m going to take a shower and then why don’t we get all your stuff moved to Layla’s. Unless you want me to go right away?”

  Layla shook her head. “No. I’d like to get to know you better. Plus, I’d like for you both to meet my family. They’re going to be mad enough that I did all of this without telling them, you two can protect me.”

  “Oh great. That’s the way to start off as a son-in-law!”

  “No, they’ll be mad at me. But we should take Tia over there too. I need to thank her for helping you to find me and for telling me off when I needed it.”

  After they’d given up the hotel room to Shane and moved Sid’s stuff to her condo, they picked up Tia and headed out to Cade and Lex’s house for a family dinner Layla had hastily arranged.

  As predicted, her family was angry she’d waited so long for the tri-bond but they all seemed to really like Sid, especially fourteen-year-old Tracy, who wouldn’t stop talking about tattoos and piercings.

  Epilogue

  Ten Years Later

  Layla watched as her children played in a now-mated, twenty-four-year-old Tracy’s yard. Sid and her brothers and brothers-in-law ran around with the kids and a wildly barking three-legged dog.

  “Isn’t it funny how this fate thing works?” Layla murmured.

  “Yeah. We all lucked out in a big way, dontcha think?” Lex’s mate, Nina, watched him hungrily. Layla was sure she wore the same look whenever she watched Sid. The desire for him hadn’t waned one bit in ten years.

  “And to think you didn’t want him at first!” Tracy laughed as Sid allowed the kids and dog to tackle him.

  “I wanted him from the first time I laid eyes on him. My body knew exactly what needed to happen. My wolf knew. It was my brain that was reluctant.”

  “Well, two kids, ten years and a minivan later, you’re the happiest werewolf soccer mom I know.”

  Layla threw her head back and laughed. Sid heard it and turned. Heat flared between them as their gazes locked. Thank goodness all parts of her were now on the same page. She’d want Sid Rosario until the day she ceased to draw breath.

  * * * * *

  Can’t get enough Cascadia Wolves? Read on for a sneak preview of PACK ENFORCER, the next book in the series by New York Times bestselling author Lauren Dane.

  Pack Enforcer

  by Lauren Dane

  Prologue

  “What the heck, Tommie? I got places to go, man,” Rey said, fingers agitatedly drumming on the steering wheel.

  Tommie Perkins flipped his friend the bird. “Dude, hold your horses. It’s not like you got a woman or anything.” He snorted in amusement at himself. “I have to check something out for Cade. Something big is going on, Reyes. It’s got the hierarchy all shaken up and Lex is more nervous and paranoid than usual.”

  Rey snorted but kept driving. If his Alpha had business that needed tending to, he couldn’t just blow it off. Even he had a sense of duty.

  Tommie looked down at the scribbled address on the paper in his hand and back at the street signs. “Make a right into that parking lot. I’m going to be across the street. It shouldn’t take me more than ten or fifteen minutes.”

  Gabriel Reyes pulled the dark sedan into the lot and parked it. He sat in the car, smoking a cigarette, and waited while Tommie ran inside to do his business. After a while he got bored listening to the radio and he made a few calls, but no one was around.

  Checking his watch, he narrowed his eyes when he saw that twenty minutes had passed and still Tommie hadn’t returned. It would serve the jerk-off right if he just left him. Rey got out of the car, sucked in a deep breath of the night air and heaved an annoyed sigh when he saw Tommie talking with some men he couldn’t quite see in the doorway of one of the buildings.

  He resolved to make the other man buy him a beer as he watched Tommie running toward him. As he got a few feet from the car, a shot rang out and Tommie looked up at him as he clutched his side with surprised agony.

  Rey saw his lips form “run” just before another shot rang out and hit his friend in the head. “Jesus!” he cried out, jumping back into the car. He made quick work of turning the car on, and then squealed out of the parking lot, heading to Bellevue, where his sister lived. She’d know what to do.

  Chapter One

  Annoyed, Lex Warden snapped his cell phone shut and let out a long breath as he took in the small cottage-style house. Once he pulled his bike onto the stand and got off, he dropped the helmet on the seat and ran his fingers through his hair to get rid of the helmet head he was sure he had after all that time riding over.

  The house was light blue and someone obviously took great care of it. The lawn was neat and window boxes overflowed in a burst of red and white, standing out in colorful relief against the blue. There were raised beds along the front walk and a climbing rose snaked up a lattice off the front porch.

  On the porch, a glider swing and a small table with a citronella candle. More pots of flowers and hanging baskets of greenery decorated the space. It was like a nice bit of the wild right there in the city. It gave the place a sense of calm, of refuge.

  Shrugging off his amazement that anyone related to Gabriel Reyes could have such a neat and organized house, he stalked to the front door. Bypassing the doorbell, he pounded.

  Moments later a tall, dark-haired woman answered and her eyes widened as she took him in.

  Nina felt her mouth water as she got a load of the man standing on her porch. He was quite a specimen—well over six feet tall, blond-brown hair, deep green eyes. She swept her eyes down. His T-shirt and jeans were deceiving, they looked worn and faded but she could tell they were both designer, and the boots looked handmade. A gold Piaget watch decorated his wrist. Jeez, his hands were huge. She had to gather herself mentally as her normally ruthlessly tied down libido roared to life. She could feel her pulse flutter and she gave herself a hard mental smack. If there was one thing in the world Nina could recognize, it was trouble. And this guy was trouble. She’d placed herself on a trouble-free diet years before and she reminded herself that he was way off the menu.

  Lex raked his glance over her from head to toe. The woman, most likely the sister, had on a white blouse buttoned up to the chin and slacks with low-heeled shoes. Her hair was tightly bound up into a bun on the top of her head and she was wearing glasses. He dismissed her as a sexual being immediately. “I’m looking for Rey.” His voice was blunt, manner straightforward and slightly threatening.

  She gathered herself up and stood tall, back straight. “Why?”

  “Why?”

  “Did I mumble? You do seem to speak English. Are you having a problem with the word? Do I need to explain it to you?”

  Lex barely held back a growl of annoyance. “Listen, I’m looking for Rey. It doesn’t have anything to do with you. Is he here or not?”

  She raised a brow but remained silent, her arms crossed over her chest.

  He tried to stare her down but she just snorted and started to step back and close her door in his face. “I need to talk to him,” he added quickly. He shifted his weight from foot to foot, feeling like he’d been called to the principal’s office.

  “Is that so? He’s not here. If you want to leave him a note, I’ll give it to him when I see him next.” Again, she started to close the door, but he put a hand out to stop her.

  “When’s that gonna be?”

  “Just who are you?” Suspicious irritation was clear on her face as she examined him again, this time with a more critical
eye.

  “I’m Lex Warden. A friend of his.”

  Understanding lit her eyes, which she narrowed at him. Lex knew for sure this wasn’t a good thing.

  “No you’re not. I know who you are, Mr. Warden, and you are not Gabriel’s friend. He’s had enough people in his life leading him astray. I should know, I’ve cleaned up after him long enough. Get the hell off my porch and don’t bother coming back.” She moved her arm behind the door.

  He leaned in, growling, “Listen, lady, you don’t know what you’re getting in the middle of.”

  She poked him hard in the middle of his chest. Her face was hard, gaze furious. “You did not just growl at me! You listen here, I don’t care what the fuck you want. Don’t you dare try to intimidate me with your size! Growl at me! How dare you! Get the heck out of here and do it now before I shoot you.”

  He’d been fascinated with her face—at the light of ferocity in her eyes, the scent of a woman in full battle mode. He stepped forward only to feel something hard poke him in the balls. He looked down and saw the shotgun she pointed at him with her free hand. With horrified fascination, he watched as she used the hand she’d poked him with to pump the gun. He heard the unmistakable click of the ammo loading. All the while, the muzzle of the gun never left the region of his balls.

  She didn’t stand like a woman unused to a gun. He slid his glance back up into her face, where he met her determined and bloodthirsty gaze and felt a burst of heat bloom in his gut at the sight.

  Despite his annoyance and yes, a bit of fear, he had to admit that she turned him on too. He put his hands up in surrender and took a step back. “Whoa! Let’s not be hasty here. I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt Rey either but I need to talk to him.”

  “I’m not hasty.” She moved the shotgun tighter against his balls. “Test me why don’t you? This is ready to roll and I’ve had a shitty day.” She narrowed her left eye at him and her lips—very nice lips, he noticed—curled up at one side in a grin.

  “Look, wolf boy, he’s gone. He came by, borrowed money—” she snorted “—took money—it’s not like I’ll ever see it again—and headed out. Told me the Pack was looking for him, wanting to kill him. Even if I knew where he ran to, which I don’t, I certainly wouldn’t tell someone out to hurt him.”

  “I told you, I’m not gonna hurt him. I need to talk to him.” Wolf boy? He tried his sexy smile, a smile that this frigid-looking spinster should appreciate.

  “Yeah, I’m sure that works on all the puppies down at the shelter. But I don’t know you from Adam and the fact that you say you don’t want to hurt him means nothing to me.”

  “Come on, Ms. Reyes. Give me a break. We can help each other out here, don’t you think? We can talk about it more over dinner.” He cocked his head in that adorable little-boy way that his mother always melted over despite the “puppies at the shelter” comment.

  She actually rolled her eyes at him and slammed the door in his face.

  “Shit!” he hissed and walked back down the sidewalk to where his bike was parked. Casting a glance back at the house, he saw that the spinster was looking at him from the front windows. He tipped an imaginary hat at her as he put the key in and turned the ignition, firing the bike to life. He grunted a surprised laugh when she flipped him off in return.

  * * *

  Nina Reyes watched the man roar away on the Harley and closed the curtains with a sigh. Men were all the same, even if they were freaking werewolves. Okay, delicious hunks of hot, gorgeous, hard werewolf flesh that she’d love to take a ride on. Oh, did she think that out loud? She winced and reminded herself that she had a battery-operated boyfriend and that was the best kind. No fuss, no muss and it never asked to borrow money.

  With a snort, she put the shotgun back on the rack and removed the pins holding her hair in place. She took off the clear-lens glasses and placed them on the table near the door and rubbed her eyes.

  She knew she had the kind of looks people remembered—long curly hair, big hazel eyes, legs for miles and big boobs. So she put her hair up in a severe bun. She’d cut it once but it just accentuated her eyes so she’d given herself the pleasure of letting it stay long, even if she was the only one who ever saw it down. She wore fake glasses and buttoned her shirts to the neck and wore slacks and flat shoes. It was necessary not to call attention to herself.

  She wished her brother had the same caution. Damn that Gabriel! She couldn’t believe he’d gotten her into yet another mess, and this time with werewolves. It was bad enough when he’d gotten attacked in a bar fight and had contracted the lycanthropy virus. She’d stood by him, hoping that surviving the adversity would make him stronger. He’d gotten involved with the local wolf Pack and had pretty much faded from her life. She’d gotten a card here and there, he’d borrowed money a few times, but she really didn’t know much about his life. And with Gabriel, no news was good news. When she didn’t get calls for bail at two in the morning she took it as a sign that he was alive and well, or at least not getting caught at whatever he was doing.

  But really the change had only made a morally weak man physically stronger. It wasn’t altogether surprising when, out of the blue, he’d showed up on her doorstep the night before, looking like the devil himself was chasing him. He said he’d seen something he wasn’t supposed to and that the Pack was going to be looking for him to kill him for it. He’d certainly seemed scared for his life. She’d begged him to call the cops but he’d only looked at her like she was crazy. In the end, she’d given him all of the cash she had on her and in her emergency kitty and he’d gone, begging her to cover for him.

  Cover for him! She snorted. Cover for him with frick-fracken werewolves. She rolled her eyes. But he was her brother, all the family she had, and she couldn’t very well just let him get killed, even if he was a turd.

  No, she was all he had and that meant something to her still. He was hers, for better or for worse, and she’d haul his ass out of trouble again, if only so she could give it a swift kick.

  Double checking to be sure she’d locked the doors—as if that could stop a werewolf—she shrugged and reached back to grab the shotgun and headed for bed.

  * * *

  Lex pulled his Harley into the garage and walked up the back stairs into the main house. For the first time since he’d left earlier that day, he felt relaxed. Their home was one he’d designed to serve as a refuge from Pack business. The Pack did not come to their big wooden home in the woods. There was a Pack house in town where Lex and Cade spent several nights a week but this house was theirs and theirs alone. They’d watched Pack business take over every part of their father’s life and eat at their parents’ marriage. Neither Cade nor Lex wanted to make that same mistake.

  Lex walked down the grand hallway and heard his brother, the Alpha of the Pack, clicking on the keyboard, working as usual. He walked into the home office that looked out over the lake and flopped onto the couch. “Hey.”

  “Hey, yourself. Did you find him?” Cade spun in his chair to look at his brother.

  Lex sighed. “No. But I met his sister.”

  Cade raised a brow. “Oh yeah? And? I’m guessing you charmed her into bed and she told you where he was?”

  Lex barked a laugh. “Try again. She fucking pointed a shotgun at my balls and told me to get lost.”

  Cade looked at him wide-eyed and then burst out laughing. “No shit?”

  “She looks like a librarian. Comes to the door in some prim and proper outfit, hair so tightly bound up she probably got a headache, and gives me the evil eye. Mouth puckered up like she’d been sucking lemons. The chick has Sunday school teacher written all over her.

  “First she poked me in the chest! Then she told me that Rey showed up at her place—said he was being threatened by the Pack who wanted to kill him, grabbed some cash and took off. Then she told me to
get out of there or she’d shoot me. I look down and she’s got a shotgun planted in my crotch and the meanest look I’ve ever seen on a human on her face. She called me wolf boy, slammed the door in my face. Oh! And flipped me off when I was driving away,” Lex said, unable to keep the admiration out of his voice.

  Cade wiped a tear of mirth from his eye. “The most feared wolf in North America and a Sunday school teacher got the jump on you? Damn, I wish I could have seen it with my own eyes. You must be slipping, Lex. Clearly getting shot at and running after Rogue wolves isn’t enough to keep your edge.” He put his hand to his chin and pretended to think carefully. “Perhaps this woman should be our new Enforcer. Should we ask her, Lex? You can teach her kids and she can handle the firearms and take down the bad guys.”

  Lex shot his brother a dirty look. “Make fun while you can, dickweed. I’m telling you, despite her general level of homeliness and uptightness, she was fierce. It’s kinda admirable.”

  “Admirable? And she’s related to Rey? How come he’s such a weasel then?”

  “There’s a messed up weasel in every family. Look at you.” Lex smirked at his brother as he heaved himself off the couch and then headed down the hall to the kitchen. He bent to grab a beer from the fridge and then tossed one to Cade, who’d wandered in behind him.

  “Ha ha, very funny. Call me Alpha when you say that,” Cade growled. “What’s your plan, then, oh scary Enforcer?” Cade asked, tossing the beer cap into the recycling and leaning back against the wall.

  Shoving past Cade, Lex moved to sit down at the table. “We watch the sister. You know Rey will need help. He’s going to screw up sooner or later. Hell, she admitted that she’d cleaned up after him his whole life. When he comes to her, we’ll grab him.” Lex took a sip of the beer and shrugged his shoulders. “We have to find out what he saw.”