Carol's Mate

Chapter Six

Carol startled when her arm was jostled. Sometime during the last few minutes, her chair had been joined by others, and now she sat in the middle of a rather rowdy cheering section. She looked to the right to see Lulu, one of the pack‟s elders, settling into a seat.

“Lulu, glad you could make it.”

“And miss a chance to say howdy to the alphas? Now you know better than that.”

Carol allowed a rueful smile to cross her face. Indeed she did know better.

Lulu, Tom, and Mona were great friends. Of course she wouldn‟t let this opportunity to see them pass when they‟d been gone for almost two years now.

“How you feeling?” Lulu asked. “It‟s not like you to sit.”

“Wonderful, but my mate doesn‟t want me overdoing,” she stated with a roll of the eyes.

“I hear you, child,” Lulu said on a chuckle. “A little setting never hurt anyone.

You listen to that man of yours. He has your best interest at heart.”

“I know. That‟s why I‟m here and not out there.” She indicated the game in progress; then she glanced around. “Ms. Emma didn‟t come?” Lulu and Ms. Emma were thick as thieves, and since being widowed, you rarely saw one without the other.

Lulu frowned and shook her head sorrowfully. “I tried, but since Ned died…

I‟m scared for her,” she admitted.

Ms. Emma‟s arrival had proved that Carol and Mark‟s mating wasn‟t a fluke.

She and Mr. Ned had met on an Alaskan cruise, and he‟d known instantly that she was his true mate, despite her being human. By the end of the fourteen-day trip, the two were married. Like she‟d told Carol, at her advanced age she‟d known a good thing when she saw it and was too old to play games. Ms. Emma went home to pack up her house and, with her mate by her side, moved to Refuge. They‟d been together ever since, right up until the moment Ned was killed by some hunters that had mistaken him for a wolf.

“It still burns me that we never caught his killer,” Carol stated. “I wish he‟d come to us when he noticed signs of someone being on his land instead of trying to handle it himself.”

“Dang fool poachers. Must have come up from Colby way. Everyone knows these here are protected lands. No hunting allowed, with signs posted everywhere.

There was no way Ned could have known things would turn violent.” Carol let out a low, sorrowful moan. “And now Ms. Emma‟s grieving herself to death. Is there anything we can do?”

Lulu shook her head. “Maybe if her girls came to visit, she might perk up, but that would only be a temporary fix. Without her mate, she‟s lost the will to live.”

“You know, that‟s the only downside to this true mate business,” Carol griped, unable to imagine her life without Mark in it.

“It doesn‟t have to be. A body can survive the loss of a mate, if the will is strong enough. It helps when there are young to see to,” Lulu stated, and Carol knew she was speaking from experience. Lulu had lost her mate while her pups were still fairly young. With the support of the pack and the knowledge that her children were depending on her, she‟d managed to survive. “It‟s not easy, and you never forget, but it can be done,” she added.

Action on the street caught Carol‟s attention. Trey, Ms. Lulu‟s grandson, made a play that had Carol up on her feet, clapping and cheering and chanting his name, much to her mate‟s disgust.

“Where‟s the love?” Mark shouted. “What happened to standing by your man?” She laughed and called back, “You know I love you, baby, and I‟ll still love you after my team finishes stomping yours into the ground.” Everyone burst into laughter. She turned to Lulu and said, “I‟d better make sure we have enough food and drinks set out. The guys are working up quite an appetite.”

Lulu waved her off. As Carol headed into the house, she remembered how Trey had been the catalyst in her revealing all to Mark…

Once again she was walking across the crowded campus green. A homecoming pregame pep rally had just ended, and everyone was dispersing. Carol was lost in her own little world, worrying about the problem of what to do about Mark. Last night she‟d wasted yet another opportunity to tell him what she was and how her DNA was changing him.

Almost three weeks had passed since she‟d found out about true mates. Mona called daily now to see if she‟d done the deed, and the alpha was threatening to come and tell Mark himself. She knew they were right. If only she could break free of the paralyzing fear that seized her tongue whenever she tried to force herself to speak of it.

The scent of pack and home hit her senses seconds before a pair of wiry arms hugged her from behind. “Carol,” a welcoming voice exclaimed.

“Trey!” She turned and gave him a big hug, nuzzling his cheek affectionately.

“What are you doing here?”

Trey was five years her junior and one of the younger members of the pack she‟d babysat on various occasions. Whenever the pack met, the older youths were put in charge of watching the younger ones. With his grandmother being an elder and his parents strong betas, she and Trey had spent a lot of time together over the years. Additionally, Trey was so fun loving and good-natured, he was one of her favorites.

“Me and some of the guys came for the game,” he told her.

He‟d changed since she‟d seen him last. Still tall and gangly, his chest had broadened, giving hint to the strong male shifter he‟d mature to be. Even his face was losing its boyishness. He appeared older than the eighteen he actually was.

“It‟s so good to see you,” she said on a happy sigh. “Tell me about home.” They were standing close, deeply engrossed in conversation as Trey caught her up on all the pack news, when a deep, angry voice snarled, “Who the hell is this, and why is he touching you?”

Sheer startlement had them springing apart. Their reactions must have made them look guilty as hell. It‟s hard to sneak up on a wolf. Yet somehow, Mark had managed to catch both of them unawares.

Trey took another step back, lowered his gaze, and bared his neck. “Sorry, sir.

I was so happy to see her I didn‟t realize she was mated. May I extend my congratulations to the two of you?” To Carol, he said, “What pack is he from? Will he be joining the Ravens, or are you going back to his territory?” A deep sense of foreboding filled Carol as she processed Trey‟s rapid-fire speech. He thought Mark was a shifter.

“What the hell is he babbling about? Pack, Ravens, territory? Carol?” It was a demand for information.

Trey‟s scent changed from embarrassment of overstepping his bounds to confusion.

“Trey, it was good seeing you again. Tell everyone at home I said hi and hopefully I‟ll see them soon.”

Recognizing a dismissal when he heard it, Trey left after one last puzzled glance at the two of them.

“Carol…” The scent of Mark‟s anger agitated her beast.

She sighed deeply, knowing she couldn‟t put it off any longer. “Come to the house. I‟ll explain everything.”

“I thought you had to study tonight.”

“I do, but this is more important.” She turned on her heel and hurried off before he could ask more questions.

She was pacing the living room floor when she heard the purr of a motorcycle engine throttling down. “That can‟t be…”

It was. Mark coasted into the driveway and parked the bike next to her car.

She went to the door and opened it. “You brought the bike? I thought it was too cold, that you‟d garaged it until spring?”

He placed his helmet on the seat and strode determinedly toward her while unzipping his leather jacket and tugging off gloves, both black, of course. Mark brushed her question off with a brief, “Feels good to me.” He pushed past her into the town house. “Now what was that all about? Who the hell was that guy, and why was he touching you? Why did you allow it?”

Carol closed the door and turned to watch him, still trying to come up with the necessary words to explain what she was and what he was fast becoming.

Tossing his jacket on the couch, he faced her with hands on his hips, one leg thrust aggressively forward, and pinned her with a stare. “Let‟s get something straight. You‟re my woman, and I don‟t share. This is an exclusive arrangement.

Got it?”

The arrogance in his tone alternately thrilled and dismayed her. Thrilled because he was as possessive about her as she was about him, but dismayed because he sounded like a typical male shifter. Apparently she took too long to answer, because he stalked over and stood directly in front of her, crowding her against the solid door. “Understood?”

“We need to talk,” she quietly stated, nibbling her lower lip as her gaze darted away from him.

“About what?” His voice was dangerously low, and the hairs on the nape of her neck lifted in primal response to the hint of danger inherent in his tone.

“There‟s something I need to tell you about myself. Something that affects you.”

His fists hit the door beside her head, and she instinctively flinched. Mark didn‟t even notice. He‟d already walked off, hands on his head. “Damn it, I knew it!

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.”

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 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 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 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.”

“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.