Authors: Stacey Espino
Forbidden Mate
Evernight
Publishing
Copyright© 2013 Stacey Espino
ISBN: 978-1-77130-625-6
Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs
Editor:
JS
Cook
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized
reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.
No part of this book may be used or
reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All
names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events,
locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to all my
readers asking for more of the Pack Seduction series.
FORBIDDEN MATE
Pack
Seduction, 4
Stacey Espino
Copyright © 2013
Chapter
One
Wesley leaned against an oak tree and took a heavy
drag from his cigarillo. He was on perimeter duty tonight, but even the
furthest reaches of the royal property couldn’t muffle the sound of lovemaking
from the second floor balcony. The queen was away for the week, leaving her three
daughters and their mates to their own vices. Fucking was apparently at the top
of their list.
An entourage of Royal Elite had joined the queen on
her trip to reconnect with shifterkind. Delia insisted her mother was too disconnected
from her people, so the queen was making an effort to bring the monarchy into
the twenty-first century. Life at the palace had tilted off axis once the three
wolven princesses returned home after years on the run. They wanted change, wanted
equality, and wanted the small town surrounding the palace to stop following
old-school
traditions.
Old, new—it made no difference to Wesley. He was
still bound to his duty, and even though the queen was off the property, the
Royal Elite always had to be vigilant in protecting the palace. There had been
word of a threat months earlier, a male fox claiming a wolf hired him to kidnap
a princess. They could never be too overprotective.
“Sitting down on the job?”
Wesley already knew his friend approached from
behind. In fact, he knew the minute Ulric opened one of the doors in the
network of stone corridors beneath the palace.
“You know I never sit.”
Wesley stomped out the remainder of his
smoke. “What are you doing out here at this hour?”
“Checking up on things,” said Ulric. “If you forgot,
I’m
still an
Elite.”
Wesley narrowed his eyes. “You’re not exactly one of
us anymore, Ulric. You go home to a fancy bed and ready pussy each night. Me? I
look forward to my shitty apartment and blue balls.”
His bear-shifting friend was no longer required to
keep his vow to the Elite. He was mated to the last princess, his days of
loneliness long forgotten. But Wesley and the remaining guards continued to
protect the royal family, their personal lives forever second place.
Ulric gave him
a firm shove
in the shoulder.
“Stop being so dramatic.
You’re worse
than a damn female. You have the same rights as me now. If you want to claim a
mate, no one will stop you.”
“I didn’t take my vows lightly. My parents raised me
with the Elite calling in mind. As soon as I came of age, I pledged allegiance
to the queen alone. It’s all I know.”
“Then do both. Who says you can’t have a woman and
juggle shifts?”
Wesley shook his head, not looking his friend in the
eye. It wasn’t long ago that he was giving Ulric the pep talks. Now it was
Wesley growing bitter and lonely.
“Being
an Elite
is more
than shifts. It’s my life,” he said. “I just need a quick fuck. It’s been too
long. My mood should improve once my head clears of this fog.”
It was hard to think straight when his panther was
pacing inside him, eager to indulge in a female. On top of it all, he had to
endure the satisfied moans and cries from the balcony. His mood grew more
venomous by the second.
“Go to town after work and get it out of your
system. There’re always women ready to bed an Elite.”
He knew all about it. The guards usually hit the
town at least once a week. The local pub was crawling with easy women. They
willingly offered one night, no questions asked.
Being
a Royal
Elite
required they keep their distance from the world beyond the grounds they were
born to guard. Personal attachments were a weakness to be avoided.
Another playful squeal broke the silence.
“It wasn’t Delia.” Ulric said it like an apology. Wesley
didn’t know how his friend could stand sharing his mate with two other men. It
was the curse of mating a princess. They were born to mate multiple males, so
Ulric had no choice if he wanted Delia as his woman.
That would never be him.
Wesley now realized that he hadn’t felt the same
about Ulric since he was approved as a royal mate. It seemed one day they were
on the same page, both wanting more but knowing there were no options. They
both rented rooms over the rundown stores in town, trying to pass the time
between shifts with as little reflection as possible. Now Ulric knew what love
was. He was accepted at the queen’s table, quickly learning a life of luxury.
Wesley had been left behind.
He tried to remember that the bear shifter wasn’t
his enemy or any different than him. Surely he was the same man on the inside
even though his status in life had drastically changed. “So, what’s it like…”
“What?” asked
Ulric.
Wesley leaned against one of the large decorative
columns surrounding the palace.
The
stars decorated the blackened sky, giving him something to focus on during the
long nights. “Having one woman, and knowing she’ll be the last.”
“You know I’ve always loved Delia. She’s the reason
I became an Elite, so I have no regrets.”
“And the sharing?”
Ulric shrugged. “Alexander and Caleb aren’t so bad. They
come with the territory.
I’m just
thankful the queen allowed Delia to choose me when there’s already another bear
in the palace.”
“Yeah, that’s something else,” he scoffed. “A Royal
Elite breaking their vow.
Never thought I’d see the day.”
“Don’t start busting my balls again, Wes. It was
always about her, and you know it. Do you think I wanted the same sleep, eat,
and guard cycle for the rest of my life? I wanted more. I wanted the love of my
mate.”
“What about me? There aren’t exactly any princesses
left unmated, and you’re comparing my life to a steaming pile of shit. My every
breath has been for the monarchy. Without it, who the hell am I?”
The princesses were breaking down the old ways piece
by piece, a great wall crumbling into rubble. What happened when there came a
time the queen no longer required the services of her guards? She’d already
granted them the new freedom to take a mate, something they were strictly taught
never to pursue. Wesley was born to be a warrior, trained as a killing machine
with only one goal. Now he felt lost, like this entire existence would soon be
irrelevant.
“You’re no different from the good friend I’ve known
for years. You should be thankful for your new freedom. It’s the beginning of
better things to come.”
“The rules were bent so you could be with Delia. If
you weren’t
an Elite
to start with, nothing would have
changed for us. I doubt our newfound ‘freedom’ will last long.”
Fuck,
he was just feeling sorry for
himself again. Wesley looked up to the moon. It was nearly full. Soon his
sexual urges and desire to mark a female would make every waking hour
intolerable. He’d been trained to deny himself, to meditate and focus on
anything but the mating call. It was harder now that his panther knew it had a
choice. “The queen will realize it was a mistake to loosen her grip on the
Royal Elite once danger shows up on her doorstep.”
Ulric looked at him with narrowed eyes. “Things are
different now, Wes. All the princesses have capable mates to watch out for them.”
Ulric didn’t have to say Wesley wasn’t needed
anymore when it was obvious what he thought. Wesley could go on for hours about
his hatred for the new regime, but he didn’t want to argue with his friend. The
royal sisters’ plan to bring peace and unity to shifterkind left him powerless.
Once a man felt inconsequential, what did he have left?
He nodded to the treeline. Ronan had just finished
his perimeter check and was coming to take Wesley’s place at one of the watch
posts. There were only a few guards left behind to protect the palace during
the queen’s absence. It meant less free time and long, tedious shifts.
“Looks like my replacement just showed up.”
He didn’t think twice before shifting into his black
panther. He’d already said too much to Ulric, opening up something that needed
to remain tightly sealed. Wesley had to remember his training—no emotion, no
fear, no weakness. It was better that way.