The Wolf's Mate Book 5: Bo & Reika (11 page)

Bo had never been more grateful for Logan’s friendship and the young wolves, as well, who had held their own even though they’d been scared.  Jason was planning to honor the young wolves at the February full moon celebration for their bravery.

As soon as Trick had interviewed Reika and said she could leave, Linus gave Bo his keys, and Bo drove Linus’ truck back to the garage.  Bo left the keys at the front desk with Cades and took Reika home.  Reika sat tense in the seat next to him, chewing her bottom lip and gripping the door handle tight enough to make her knuckles white.

He opened the front door and let Reika into the house and then hung up both of their coats.  Just as he turned to ask her to sit down so they could talk, there was a knock at the door.

A glance through the peep-hole showed Teller standing on the porch with a dark duffel bag.  When he opened the door, Teller stepped inside.

Reika gasped, “Oh, my bag!”

Teller handed it to her, and she hugged the bag to her chest and smiled at both of them, tears glistening in her eyes.  “Thank you so much!”

“It was my pleasure.  Your car was about two hours northwest of Allen, in a community park in a small town called Belvin.  The lynxes were obviously here in town when I went to pick it up because although I could smell them all over it, I never saw them.  They did rifle through the bag and dump the contents on the floor, but I checked everything carefully for GPS trackers and found none on the contents or on the bag itself.”

Reika made a face.  “I don’t like to think of them touching my stuff.”

Bo smiled at her and reached out, stroking his fingers down her arm.  “You can wash your clothes and the bag.”

She nodded, smiled once more at Teller, and then took the bag into the bedroom.

Teller watched her walk away and then turned to Bo.  “Jason contacted the Were-Animal Alliance and told them that Reika was here with us and under our protection.  The two wolves who were attacked survived and are recovering with their home pack that is part of the WAA.  They were planning to bring her back to their home pack and give her a new identity and everything.”

Bo nodded.  “She’ll be glad to know they’re alive.”

“I’m sure.  That had to weigh heavily on her mind.  But from what the guy who runs the WAA said, the packs that go in to retrieve wolves in trouble know that they could get hurt or even killed doing it, and they do it because they choose to.”

Bo reached for his wallet.  “How much do I owe you for returning her car?”

Teller shook his head.  “Don’t worry about it.  I took care of it for you.”

“Thanks.  I’ll let Reika know, too.”

Teller put his hand on the door knob and said, “Logan and I are going to be taking patrol shifts, and we’ve got Trick and his deputies watching the streets for any signs of the lynxes.  A few of the retired wolves are also driving around for a few hours at a time.  We’ll do our best to keep an eye out for the lynxes.”

“I’m keeping her home from now on, at least until I can get things squared away.  A handful of wolves are going to stand guard here tomorrow so I can finish the one project, and then I’ll be here to keep an eye on her.”

“Let me know if you need anything.”

Bo clapped him on the back.  “Thanks, T.”

Locking the door behind his friend, Bo walked back into the bedroom and found Reika sitting on the bed with a worn book in her hand.

She looked up at him and said, “I’m glad the two wolves are okay.”

“Me, too.  What book is that?”  He joined her on the bed.

“My favorite. 
The Princess Bride
.  Ever read it?”

He took it from her hands and turned it over, noticing the dog-eared pages and the cracked spine.  “Only if it came in comic book form.  I wasn’t much for reading growing up.  I was all about the pack and learning how to fight.  How about you?”  He gave her back the book, and she hugged it to her chest.  “What were you like in high school?”

She settled the full weight of her beautiful blue eyes on him, and for a moment he didn’t think his heart was beating at all.  “I was pretty lonely.  No one really wanted to get close to me because of the lynxes.  The pack was there for me, of course, but I always felt like a shadow was dogging me my whole life.  My family were the only ones who never looked at me like I was damaged goods.”

He snorted inwardly.  She wasn’t damaged. 
He
was the very definition of the word.  “You’re strong and compassionate, Reika, not damaged.  You got dealt a shit hand, and I’m going to find a way out of the mess you’re in so you can have your life back.”

She opened her mouth to protest, and he silenced her with a swift kiss.  Standing up before she could tell him not to fight for her, he told her he was going to make something for lunch, and he’d call her when it was ready.

They spent the day together, talking some but mostly just watching TV.  Later, when they sat next to each other on the couch, she asked him about his leg, and he told her the story.  She listened in silence, tearing up over his old wounds and making his heart squeeze painfully in his chest.  When he was finished, she hugged him tightly but said nothing else.

When night fell, she came right out of the bedroom in her pajamas and curled up against him.  He was growing accustomed to the sweet scent of her and the slight weight as she lay against him.  It was going to be hell to watch her leave.

Friday morning, he left Reika in the house after securing a promise from her that she would not try to leave and headed to work.  Five wolves were standing guard at the house, including Peter Gerrick and his wife, Tina, who stayed inside the house with Reika to keep her company.  Bo got straight to work so he could leave as soon as possible, but his stomach growled loudly around eleven, and Michael suggested they go for a walk to the deli and get something to eat.  Then Michael offered to help Bo finish up so he could head home.

At Pete’s Garage, Bo worked on restorations.  His father had been a classic car buff, and Bo had spent his summers helping him fix up cars, restoring them to their former glory.  At the moment, he was restoring the air conditioner on a ‘77 Corvette.  The owner was anxious to have it ready to go for summer, and it was one of the last things that needed to be done before it was finished.

When he walked down the street with Michael to grab a sandwich from the deli, he saw Jazlyn, a she-wolf who worked at Jake’s and sang for the house band. She was mated to Fritz, who had been part of the Tressel Pack before he left to go rogue with Jazlyn and her brothers.

Jazlyn walked down the street quickly, a paper grocery sack in one arm.  Three tall, lanky males stepped from an alley, and Bo’s wolf howled in dismay.  The lynxes!  One of them snagged Jazlyn by the neck, and the other two stalked towards Michael and Bo.

Bo and Michael let their beasts rise.  Jazlyn shrieked and tried to wiggle free of the male holding her, but he held her slight form as easily as a doll.

“Let her go, asshole.  Your beef is with me,” Bo growled.

“Bring us our woman, and we’ll be happy to leave,” one of the two closer ones said.

The third one licked his lips as he looked over his shoulder at Jazlyn, who was struggling valiantly.  “We’ll just take her with us.  An insurance policy to make sure you bring our property to us.”

“The hell you will.”  Bo snarled at the way they called Reika their property and settled into his wolf, feeling Michael do the same.  They both launched themselves towards the males at the same time, tackling the two swiftly and rolling them to the ground.  They were fast, though, and darted up to their feet, dancing on the balls of their feet as if they hadn’t been knocked hard to the pavement.

There was a strange grunting sound, and Bo’s head snapped to the side as Jazlyn’s brother Shayne squeezed the neck of the male holding Jazlyn until he released her.  Shayne was nearly seven feet tall, incredibly muscular, and broad.  Jazlyn fell to the ground, and Michael raced forward, helping her to her feet.  Shayne raised the male off the ground by a foot and slammed him against the wall of a building.  The male’s eyes rolled back in his head as his face turned from bright red to purple from lack of oxygen.  Shayne growled, slammed him to the wall once more, and then dropped him like a heap of dirty laundry.

He turned towards the two males who stood staring in shock.  Raising a hand, Shayne growled, “Leave.”

The males snapped to attention, grabbed their brother, and carried him to a waiting vehicle in the park across the street from the garage.  To Bo’s dismay, he saw that it was a dark blue sedan and not the rundown pickup they’d been driving.  No wonder they’d been able to get into town unnoticed; they’d switched vehicles.  The car was also missing plates, which made Bo wonder if it was stolen.

“Are you okay, Jazlyn?”  Bo asked, helping to collect the items from her bag.

She rubbed at her neck.  “Yeah.  Thank you for sticking up for me.  Who are those guys?  They smell weird.”

Shayne took the bag from Bo and put his large hand on her shoulder.  “Lynxes,” he said darkly.

Bo nodded and gave them a quick run-down of the situation.  “I’m sorry that you got caught in the middle,” Bo said to Jazlyn.

“It’s not your fault.  They’re bastards for what they’re trying to do to your mate.  If you need our pack’s help, you just call.”

Shayne nodded solemnly and turned his sister away from them and resumed their walk.

Bo called his house immediately and talked to Peter, making sure he was on alert.  Then he called Teller and told him about the new vehicle, which made his friend shout obscenities loud enough that he had to pull the phone from his ear.

Shaking out the worry that settled in his gut, Bo and Michael walked to the deli.  “She’s your truemate,” Michael said, as they leaned against the counter and waited for their sandwiches.

“It doesn’t matter,” Bo said, cracking the lid on a soda.

“The fuck it doesn’t.  You know you’re the only one who can break the promise.”

“Of course I’m going to do that,” Bo said irritably.  “I mean, it doesn’t matter after she’s free.  She needs a male of worth.”

Michael put a hand on Bo’s shoulder.  “You
are
a male of worth.”

“I’m going to lose my ability to shift in a few years.  What kind of mate would I be?  I wouldn’t even be able to help her if she was in trouble on a hunt.  I’d be sitting home with the non-shifters, cut down before my prime.  What kind of life would that be for her?”

“I think you should let
her
make that decision.”

Bo shrugged, grabbing for his wrapped sandwich.  He was afraid to think about offering her the chance to be his truemate.  Because if he never told her the truth about his feelings for her, then he never had to face her rejection.  And that rejection would be more than he could bear.

He finished his sandwich, and with Michael’s help, he completed the restoration within two hours and headed home.  He had some vacation time saved up, and he’d already cleared it with Jason to take time off.  He wasn’t sure what he needed to do to break the blood-debt, and Reika wasn’t inclined to tell him what it was.  He knew that she was trying to protect him.

Reika was twitchy enough about innocents being harmed in abstract, so he chose not to tell her about running into the lynxes on the street.  He didn’t want to tell her that her fears were coming true.

He brought home groceries and helped Reika make dinner.  He asked her about her life, but she had grown quieter as dinner progressed and began answering his questions with no more than one or two words.  He could practically feel her pulling away from him, and it made him ache.

That night she slept with him on the couch again, which confused him.  And aroused the hell out of him.  Why she insisted on cuddling up to him, even though he coveted it, didn’t make sense to him.  He was certain she was looking for a way get away from him and strike out on her own, but he couldn’t let that happen.

The next few days passed much the same. The lynxes didn’t show up again, but Bo knew they were most likely just licking their wounds for a re-group.  It grew more and more difficult to keep his wolf at bay around her.  Every morning he woke to her in his arms, her sweet scent surrounding him.  And then darkness came, and she would stretch out with him, her smaller form against him, her lush body pressed close.  He’d slept well since she’d been there, but he wasn’t sure exactly what it was about her that calmed his aches.

Monday night, his phone roused him from sleep.  He dug it out of his pocket and answered with a grumble.