I'll Be Mated for Christmas by Rebecca Royce
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I’ll Be Mated For Christmas
Copyright © 2011 by Rebecca Royce
ISBN: 978-1-61333-129-3
Cover art by Dara England
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
Published by Decadent Publishing Company, LLC
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I’ll Be Mated For Christmas
Rebecca Royce
A 1 Night Stand Holiday Story
~DEDICATION~
To Jessica Subject for her friendship.
Chapter One
Bethany Johnson rubbed her nose. The movement constituted a nervous habit left over from childhood. When she wasn’t standing in her stepfather’s living room staring at a past she wished to forget, she didn’t do it anymore. Her psychiatrist would have a field day with all the small, troubling behaviors that showed up in the ten minutes she’d been home. Truthfully, she knew in about thirty seconds, if given the chance, she’d desperately seek out an eating binge.
It must have been the Christmas tree. Every year, her stepfather got the same size Christmas tree and the whole family decorated it with ornaments people in his family had collected for hundreds of years. Well, maybe not hundreds of years—maybe it only seemed that way.
The fire in the fireplace crackled and sputtered, desperate for someone to throw another log on it before it died completely. She rubbed her nose again. Should she bother to let the flames grow?
“You look so fantastic.” Bethany whirled around at the sound of her brother Jack’s voice. He leaned against the doorframe of the front door. “I know you said one hundred pounds, but I had no idea how you would look. You don’t even resemble the same person, Bethy.”
She knew that. Weight-loss surgery and hard work had finally, for the first time since her fifth birthday, let her live in a non-morbidly obese body.
“Well, one hundred pounds off will do that.” She shrugged, hoping to make it seem like less of a big deal. “Where’s Cara?”
Her sister had promised to be there, too. Bethany made very specific plans before coming into town. Her psychiatrist helped her map out the whole scenario and she didn’t want to screw it up. Even if her therapist didn’t know all the details of the complications that defined her family….
“She’s on her way. Maybe two minutes behind me. And Dad says to give you his regards.”
She nodded and smiled. Devron Davis had tried to raise her the best he could. To Cara and Jack, he’d been an ideal father. But he hadn’t had the first clue how to raise a purely human child. Things between them were rough before her mother died. Werewolves had a hard time accepting that their mates could have a child not their own—even if it had happened two years before they’d ever met. But he hadn’t dropped her off at an orphanage when his mate died, and for that she supposed she should feel grateful.
Maybe she’d understand it better if she were a wolf. She shook her head. She needed to concentrate on the purpose of this visit: to say goodbye. She’d lost one hundred pounds, dealt with the death of her mother—finally—and taken a new job she’d start at the first of the year. The time had come to let the things that didn’t work for her go. Unfortunately, that included her half-brother and half-sister. Trying to fit into their world—even for quick holiday visits—forced her to live in a toxic environment that didn’t make anybody happy.
“Tell your father I said hello back.”
She’d let Devron know weeks ago she never intended to return. He’d done her the favor of allowing her to come and tell Jack and Cara herself. She did love them, even if she could never see them again. They didn’t understand her and never would.
“Wow, Bethy, look at you.”
Cara entered in a whirlwind of energy. Jack laughed and crossed to throw another log on the fire. The blaze burned brighter, grateful someone had paid attention to it. She reached out to embrace Cara.
“Oh, stop.” She gave her a sister a pat on the back before she let go. “It’s not that big of a deal.”
Except that it mattered more than anything else ever had before and the fact that she couldn’t talk to them about it, that they would never understand what it meant to be overweight because werewolves physically were unable to be, illustrated her reasons for saying goodbye better than anything else.
Jack sat down on the couch. “And you were able to lose all that weight from some band they stuck around your stomach?”
“Uh-huh.” And diet. And exercise. And tears. And psychotherapy.
“Weird.” Jack picked up a candy cane from a bowl on the table. “You know us wolves—we have to eat like thousands of calories a day or we don’t make it.”
She knew. Because once upon a time she’d eaten just like them. “So the reason for my visit….”
Jack cut her off. “Did Dad tell you any of the craziness going on here? We finished a war this year, Bethy. You should have been here to see it. Three different families, everyone having an Alpha competing to take over after Paul faced defeat. The whole thing defined insanity.” His eyes glowed to show how exciting he found the whole thing.
Her stepfather’s family didn’t want to be Alphas. No, they’d always been the right hand of the Alpha. It looked like they’d once again backed the right horse, or in this case, wolf.
“He mentioned something about it.” Right after he’d stopped listening to her talk about surgery. Bethany steeled herself. She’d lived thirty years, not thirteen. She didn’t need the attention of any of them. She had friends and a career.
Cara sat down next to Jack. “Luke won. He’s dreamy, Bethy. In fact, he should be here soon. He said something about picking up some of the financial paperwork Dad keeps in the study. He wants to go over it this weekend.”
She straightened up at the news. That meant she needed to get out a lot faster. The last thing she wanted was to be sneered at by another Alpha while her brother and sister made excuses for the fact that their mother had been married before she’d mated with their father. And went on about how weird it was that humans did that.
“Okay, so the reason I’m here is to say goodbye.”
Cara moved in her seat and Jack scratched his head. Finally, he spoke. “You arrived minutes ago.”
He seemed generally forlorn by her announcement, which made her feel badly, but it didn’t alter her path. “Yes, and I’m not coming back.” She cleared her throat as she rubbed her nose. “Maybe ever.”
Cara jumped to her feet. “What?”
“I’m leaving Alaska altogether. I’ve given up my apartment in Anchorage. I’ve quit my teaching job. As of the first of the year, I am going to be teaching English in Italy. Doesn’t that sound amazing?” It probably didn’t to them. Wolves liked territory. They never left it, if they could avoid it.
“When will you be back?”
&n
“You’re leaving?” Jack got up and paced to the window. “You’re our sister. It’s bad enough you live an hour away. How are we supposed to protect you in Italy?”
Jack had always been the sweetest boy. She wiped away a tear that spilled down her cheek. She need not have bothered; they could smell her emotions even if most of the time they ignored human feelings that seemed too out of control. Her brother and sister might be half-human, but they were all wolf when it came to sensing emotions.
“You’re not. I’m going to protect myself. It’s what humans do. We don’t have packs.”
“You’re going to leave?” Cara hadn’t moved. She stared at her like she had two heads.
“Pretty much. First, I’m giving myself a bit of a Christmas gift. But then I’m leaving, yes.”
“What gift?” Cara took her hand and squeezed it. “I can’t believe you won’t be here for the holidays anymore.”
“Let’s face it, holidays don’t go so well when I’m here.” Bethany let go of her hand and walked a few paces away. “I’ve signed up for a dating service called 1Night Stand. It’s promised me a night I’ll never forget.”
Jack growled. “You’re going to have sex with a stranger and you’re doing that on purpose? Why? What could you possibly be thinking?”
“It’s run by a woman named Madame Eve. I think it’ll be good for me. You can read all about it on the Internet if you want. I filled out a form. Anyway, it’s a long story. But, I need this. Humans don’t mate like you guys. You know this.”
Cara shook her head. “Mom did.”
“I’m not the mate to anyone in this pack. I refuse to go wandering around the world searching for wolf packs to see if I happen to have a mate. I’m a human. I’m going to live like one. And humans are lucky if they marry for life. All of this is beside the point. I need to feel better about myself. I need to look in someone’s eyes and know that they don’t see the weight loss or the plastic surgery that made my skin look less stretched out.”
Jack stepped forward. “That happened?”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes. Now come and give me hugs. I’m leaving.”
Her brother and sister moved slowly to her side. They usually bubbled with energy, but this constituted the most subdued she’d ever seen them. She squeezed them both tightly. Cara finally spoke. “Maybe in a few years we can see each other again.”
“Maybe.”
***
Luke ran toward the Davis house. He needed those papers and he didn’t feel like listening to Devron prattle on. If luck took his side today, he still had a couple of hours before the man returned home from the errand he’d sent him on. Devron could do accounting better than anyone, but he drove Luke crazy with his total lack of social graces.
His ears perked up. He was still blocks from the house, but he could hear Cara, one of his newly acquired pack members, sobbing. She made wild, keening noises. Luke knew grief when he heard it. Sniffing the air as he moved, he didn’t sense any danger.
He pushed open the door without knocking. This house sat on pack land. My pack’s land. And he didn’t have to knock. Ever.
“What’s going on?” Cara and Jack jumped apart and hit the ground into their required kneel. “Get up.”
They both stood, their eyes diverted. Cara sniffed, wiping away her tears and Jack looked like he was struggling with strong emotions.
“What’s going on?” He hated repeating himself, but it didn’t seem either would answer unless he did. A scent drifted in the air, catching his attention. He’d never smelled anything akin to it before. What made that scent? Floral and clean….
“Our sister left moments ago. She’s not coming back. Ever.” Cara choked on the last word.
“You have a sister?” She hadn’t appeared on any pack reports. He’d not met her. She didn’t come to his ceremonies. He didn’t appreciate surprises that left him unprepared.
“She’s human.” Jack sighed. “Our mother was human, as you know. She had a husband who died. Bethy came from that marriage. Humans do that, they can mate more than once.”
Luke waved his hand in the air to shut Jack up. “I grew up with humans, hidden amongst them to keep Paul from killing me at birth. I don’t need to have human behaviors explained to me. I get them perfectly, and in some ways I prefer them. We could use some of their compassion in this pack.”
He walked around the room quickly, taking in the furniture and decorations. He’d not spent a lot of time there due to his personal dislike of Devron. But Jack and Cara seemed like good pack mates. They were strong wolves and loyal to a fault. He would have to amend his decision to avoid their father.
“Why did she leave?”
“It’s complicated. Sometimes it’s hard to understand Bethy.” Jack took a step toward him. “We love her so much, but sometimes it seems that everything we do only makes her hate herself.”
“She’s going to Italy.” Cara sobbed on the last word as she dissolved into a mess of hysterical tears. Jack took her over to the couch. This, Luke could understand. Nothing mattered more than family. Where had Devron gone? Why had he not convinced his stepdaughter that she needed to remain with her siblings? If she was family, she was pack.
End of story.
He moved over to the bookshelf and his senses went on high alert. His claws descended from his fingertips and a growl formed in his throat. He didn’t feel angry, no. But the scent where he stood wafted so much stronger. She must have stood there and not too long ago. And yet, too much time had passed.
Luke had never met the person whose scent he memorized, but he knew it. The aroma belonged to her. His destiny. His one and only. His mate.
Realization dawned on him as Jack and Cara jumped to their feet. Jack fell to his knees on the floor.
“What is it, my Alpha?”
“Your sister. She just left?”
Cara followed suit and dove to her knees. “Yes, my Alpha.”
“And where is she now?” Cara’s words suddenly rang in his ears. Italy. “Did she leave for the airport?”
If would be faster if he ran as a wolf, he could cut her off at the pass….
“No, she’s going on the first of January.” Cara looked up. “Why?”
“She’s my mate.” Saying it aloud brought pleasure to his soul. He’d not seen her, but it didn’t matter if she had three arms. She was his. Forever. To love and cherish. Emotions he’d long suppressed threatened to spill over. He needed this woman. Now.
“Are you sure?” Jack sounded concerned, but obviously not afraid any longer as he staggered to his feet.
“Are you questioning my nose, wolf?”
“No, my Alpha.” Jack’s face broke out in a grin. “But this is great news. Because now she can’t leave.”
Luke took a look at the bookshelves. No, she wouldn’t be leaving. Not ever. He stared at the picture frames that decorated the room. Where did her picture sit? “Where is she? What is her name? Bethy?”
“Bethany. We don’t have too many pictures of her. Dad and Bethy have issues and she never liked seeing herself in pictures. But I think we have one from Christmas two years ago. She didn’t come last year.”
Cara scampered around him and pulled out an album. She handed the photo to Luke. It showed the whole family. Cara and Jack sat on each side of their father and to Cara’s right sat his beautiful mate. She had brown hair and blue eyes—the saddest blue eyes he’d ever seen. His heart lurched. This would not be allowed to continue. One way or another she would find happiness. There would be no other way.
“That was when she was fat.”
“You don’t ever talk about my mate like that. Am I clear?” His voice sounded half-human, half-animal. It had been twenty years since Luke lost that much control. At forty years old, he should be better at handling his temper. Usually, he did.
“I love her. I don’t care if she’s fat,” Jack said.
Luke hadn’t seen “fat” when he looked at Bethy. By contrast, all he noticed was how gloriously beautiful she looked, how she belonged to him.
Cara spoke in a squeaky voice. “She’s lost one hundred pounds. The human doctors put something in her—a band around her stomach—and it made her not so hungry all the time. Then she had some kind of plastic surgery.”
Luke heart clenched. She put herself in danger by going under the knife more than once? “That must have been horribly painful.”
“I guess.” Cara averted her eyes.
“Did you not take care of her afterward?”
Jack rose from his knees. “She didn’t even tell us she did it until after. Maybe Dad knew but he didn’t tell us.”
Things for Bethy were going to change. A horrid thought struck him. “Is she married?” The rational side of him tried to stay calm while his wolf called for the death of any potential competition.
“No.” Cara smiled. “No boyfriend either. But she just signed up for some kind of dating service. She’s going to have a one-night stand before she leaves for Italy.”
“Like hell she is.” Luke growled. “Where is her apartment? I will go and get her now.”
“Luke.” Cara touched his arm gently. “I don’t know if that’s how you should approach Bethy.”
“What do you mean?” He wanted out of the man’s house where his mate had not been happy. His whole focus turned from looking over financial papers to finding and holding his mate until he never saw that sad gaze again. Ever.