Knew this thing between us was too good to be true.” He swung around. “What is it?
You‟re married, engaged?”
“What? No!”
Those hands landed back on his hips, and he tilted his head sideways, a scowl on his face. “You have some sort of disease? Herpes, AIDS, HIV? Do I need to go get checked out?”
The ridiculousness of his guesses pushed her past fear into outrage. “None of the above. You think I would have hid something like that from you? What type of woman do you take me for?”
“I thought I knew until I walked up to find you rubbing yourself all over some dude and letting him do the same to you. You‟ve been acting strange ever since your parents were here. What did they do? Threaten to tell homeboy you were making it with someone else while he wasn‟t around? That‟s it, isn‟t it? That‟s why you didn‟t call me when they left. Why you‟ve been giving me one lame excuse after another about why I shouldn‟t come over.”
“You‟ve been here every night,” she protested vehemently.
“That‟s ‟cause I came over anyway. You want to talk? Talk. Give it to me. Let‟s hear what you have to say.”
“Fine.” She‟d give it to him all right. She‟d let him have it with both barrels.
“I‟m not human. I‟m a shape-shifter, a wolf-shifter to be more precise.” 62
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He stared at her for a moment in complete silence. She met his gaze, waiting for his reaction. The tension, already high, built to explosive proportions. Mark took a deep breath and closed his eyes. His fists, hanging by his sides, tightened and relaxed in a steady rhythm as he struggled with powerful emotions. Face to the ceiling, he swallowed hard enough to make his Adam‟s apple bob. She could see, smell—hell, almost taste—his mounting fury.
“This is a bunch of
bullshit
!” He spun on his heel and strode to the couch, snatching up his jacket in one fluid motion. “If you don‟t want to be with me, fine.
But don‟t hand me some asinine shit about not being human. You must think I‟m some sort of…”
Carol, who‟d stripped while his eyes were closed, waited until Mark‟s attention fell on her. Then she shifted to wolf. No warning. No explanation. She knew what he saw. One minute a woman. The next a larger-than-average brown wolf with gold-tipped fur. She stood on all fours, leaning slightly forward with her mouth open so he caught a glimpse of fang.
“Holy shit!”
In the blink of an eye, she shifted back to her human form. Naked, she stood there with her hands on her hips, silently daring him to disbelieve the proof of his own eyes.
Mark stumbled back and collapsed onto the couch cushion, eyes still fixed unblinkingly on her. “You…you‟re…”
“A shape-shifter,” she finished for him, her manner deceptively calm. Inwardly she was a mass of nerves. Could he accept her,
all
of her? And if he somehow miraculously managed to deal with his woman being not quite human, what would his reaction be to the rest of her revelations?
One step at a time, she cautioned herself as she dressed. Don‟t get ahead of yourself.
He shook his head slowly from side to side in stunned disbelief, appearing to be beyond words. Beginning to feel like a sideshow freak at the circus, Carol crossed True Mates: Carol’s Mate
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over to her favorite seat—the extra-large ottoman—and settled into it with her legs drawn up to her chest.
When the continued silence grated on her nerves, she began to speak in a soft, soothing voice. “We are nothing like television and the movies portray us to be. We weren‟t cursed by gypsies. The same God that created you created me. We aren‟t controlled by the full moon, although it does affect us, as it does every living thing on this planet. I don‟t do that half-man/half-wolf, werewolf thing like you see in the movies.” Carol conveniently left out the fact that their strongest males could maintain a partial shift for extended periods of time when in the grip of a strong emotion like rage.
“My mother and father were wolf-shifters, as were their parents, and so forth and so on. We‟re human, but more. There‟s a little something extra in our DNA that allows us to transform into our beast. I‟m not a werewolf, nor am I an animal, not exactly. The wolf‟s a part of me, but not. It has its own mind, its own ability to reason.” She paused. Having never before put into words exactly what being a shifter meant, she floundered. “Wolf-shifters have a lot in common with wolves.
Because of our beasts, our senses are enhanced. Our vision is sharper, sense of smell stronger, and hearing better. Physically we‟re stronger as well.” She fell silent to give Mark the opportunity to speak, ask questions, do something. He sat with his arms resting on his knees, head hanging down, gazing at the floor between his feet.
After a few uncomfortable minutes in which she couldn‟t tell if he was listening to her or not, she continued. “Like wolves, we mate for life. We‟re territorial and live in social groupings called packs. We take care of our young and protect our old.”
Another deep silence. “When I first met you, even though I was fiercely attracted to you, I turned you down because dating outside of my species is forbidden. For obvious reasons, so is revealing what we are to humans. Falling for 64
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you meant I would have to leave my pack and everything familiar to me, hiding who and what I am for the rest of my life if I wanted to be with you.” He stirred at that. His head slowly raised, and his piercing, direct gaze met her wary one. “But you told me. Why?”
Guilt forced her to lower her eyes. “When my guardians came, I was scared they were going to tell me I couldn‟t see you anymore. Surprisingly, Mona was all for me having a little fun as long as I didn‟t let things get too serious. I told her it was already serious. That I love you and want you for my mate. Then I told them how my wolf responded to you.”
She glanced at Mark. He watched her with the intensity of a predator spotting prey. Carol swallowed, then looked away. As a predator herself, she wasn‟t used to feeling like quarry. “Normally, humans and shifters are incompatible.”
“Define incompatible.”
“Can‟t have children together.”
“That explains the lack of birth control,” he murmured. Up until this moment, she hadn‟t realized he knew she wasn‟t taking anything like she‟d originally implied.
“We didn‟t need it. You can‟t impregnate me, and I‟m immune to human diseases,” she explained.
He nodded abruptly. She took that as a signal to continue. “But there are rare cases…sometimes… What I‟m trying to say…”
“Spit it out,” he commanded sharply.
She brought her hands up to her head and held it like they were the only things keeping it from flying apart. “Do you know what a soul mate is?”
“Yes.”
“Well, apparently shifters have an equivalent, only we call them true mates.
It‟s the one person predestined by the Creator to be our mate. Until recently, I believed my true mate, should I be fortunate enough to find him, could only be True Mates: Carol’s Mate
65
another wolf-shifter like me. Mona and Tom told me that in rare instances, true mates have been found amongst humans. From what I‟d told them of how we met and everything that followed, all the signs indicate that you are my mate.”
“So,” he mused, “based on this information, they gave their blessings?” He went back to contemplating the ground and didn‟t appear to be as shocked or angry. Maybe it was true what they said. A soft, soothing response did turn away wrath. At least he was listening. That was a good sign, wasn‟t it?
She brought her hands down from her head and crossed them over her chest.
“Sort of. The normal rules don‟t apply to true mates.”
“Why?”
It was beginning to annoy her the way he kept his gaze focused on his feet.
“For one thing, true mates
are
compatible, so there isn‟t the same concern about not having children. A true mate is considered a gift from God, and highly prized as a result.”
“So what makes me suitable when other human males aren‟t?” He still wasn‟t looking at her, though he was responding, asking questions. He seemed to have recovered from the shock. She tried to sense what he was feeling, but it was like hitting a blank wall, and with his head lowered, she couldn‟t pick up any visual clues to his mood. His hands were loosely linked together, and he appeared to be relaxed, so she continued cautiously. This is where it got tricky. “The alphas said—”
“Alphas?”
“Mona and Tom, my guardians. They‟re also the head of our pack.”
“Hmm.”
“They said the mating fever—the explosive sexual attraction between us that causes us not to be able to keep our hands off each other—serves two purposes. It ensures we stay together long enough for the mating bond to kick in, and we have the ability to procreate.”
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“How?”
The question was asked in such a mild tone of voice, a teeny-tiny spark of hope lit inside of her. He hadn‟t stormed out or turned away from her in disgust. If they could just get past this last part…
Maybe if she started by explaining exactly why being able to have children was so important. “We don‟t have a lot of women, or children for that matter. The ratio of male to female is four-to-one. For that reason, there‟s a lot they don‟t tell the females. They don‟t want us looking for mates elsewhere when so many of our men need one.”
She took a deep breath and continued. “My first time learning about human mates was that night the alphas met you. They said”—she swallowed hard and sent up a brief prayer to the Creator that Mark would understand—“that every time we touched, kissed, or made love, with each exchange of body fluid, you were becoming a shifter like me, and that once complete, the process was irreversible. That‟s why they gave me permission; actually, they ordered me to tell you so you‟d have a choice in the matter before it was too late.”
Carol waited for his response. With each minute that passed, the silence became more oppressive. Her nerves strung tighter and tighter. Her beast stirred, sensing a threat but unable to determine the source.
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Chapter Seven
Slowly, oh so very slow, he raised his head, and what she saw in his eyes caused her to suck in a sharp breath. Fury such as she‟d never seen before—and prayed to God never to see again—was directed at her. It consumed her, setting her ablaze where she sat.
Then he spoke. “You conniving, manipulative bitch.” There was more. Much, much more. Mercifully, over the years, time and loving penance by Mark had dulled the memory of all that he‟d said, but nothing would take away the guilt and the residual pain. Each word was like razor-sharp daggers thrust into her soul until she withdrew so deep inside herself she was deaf, dumb, and blind to all around her.
“…Your pussy was good, but no cunt is worth giving up my humanity to become a monster, an animal like you.” The slamming of the door punctuated his words.
She had no idea how long she sat there in that chair, unable to move or think, barely breathing. Pain was a living, seething entity that consumed her entire being.
“Carol! Carol!” She was shaken roughly. “Snap out of it!”
“He‟s gone,” she said in a dull voice unlike her own.
“Who‟s gone?”
“My mate. He left.” She drifted back off into space. Another rough shake roused her.
“What happened?” A command, one she couldn‟t disobey.
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Carol repeated word for word everything Mark had said. She heard the words, knew it was her speaking, but she‟d disassociated herself to the point where it seemed to be coming from someone else. “He‟s right, you know? Everything he said was true.” That was her sin, her shame.
“No, he‟s not. Look at me. Damn it, I said
look at me
!” The command of an alpha. The voice of power.
Eyes gone wolf, shining pure gold, fangs showing, Alex was furious. She was so tired. She didn‟t have the energy to deal with him, with life. “Let me go, Alex,” she pleaded wearily.
His claws bit into her scalp where he held her head, forcing her to meet his gaze. “You will not grieve yourself to death over him. I won‟t allow it. We won‟t let you. Come back, Carol. We need you. The pack needs you. I need you.” Then he snatched her out of the chair, onto her knees, and into his arms.
Other arms surrounded her, enfolding her. She drowned in the scent of pack, of home, of family, and most of all, of love. Deep male voices murmured. Hands stroked and touched. The feeling of being safe broke through the grief.
She clutched at Alex. “It hurts. God, it hurts so bad.” Then she cried.
An ocean of tears later, Alex lifted her and carried her upstairs to the alphas‟
room. The bed still carried their scent. He laid her in the middle of the bed, and they all crowded in around her. Exhausted, she fell into a deep sleep…
* * *
A strong, masculine hand rifled through her hair, messing up her ‟fro. “Why are you out here in the cold, brooding, instead of inside with the rest of the pack?”
Alex.
“Just thinking,” she replied, shaking off the past.
“Hmm…” He laid his arms on her shoulders and crossed them under her neck, pulling her back into his body in a loose embrace. “Since you‟re calling Mom „Mom‟
now, does that mean you‟re gonna start referring to me as your brother?” True Mates: Carol’s Mate
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She elbowed him in the side and smirked when he grunted. “Hell no. I‟m not claiming you.”
He laughed as his grip tightened, playfully threatening to choke her.
“I might let the baby call you uncle,” she conceded.
“It‟s a start. Someone‟s got to keep the tyke from being the hellion his mother was. I‟ll keep working on the brother part,” he said, and she could hear the humor in his voice.
They stood quietly, watching a fox creep out of the woods before it caught their scent and darted away.
“Are you happy, Carol?”
“Yeah, Alex. I am.”
He sighed deeply, the way he always did when something was troubling him.
She waited. After a while, her patience was rewarded. “Dad‟s been hinting that it‟s time for me to start a family, for the good of the pack. Hell, it‟s not like I‟m against the idea. I want a mate. I‟m tired of being alone…lonely.”