Shadow wolves: Virgin mate (Book 3) - Complete

Chapter 1 - MATES! - Crossover chapter

Star

It was an awful battle. The injured were all over the lawn. I was helping where I could, but I couldn’t really do more than clean wounds and bandage them. I walked up to a young man lying on a soft piece of grass grunting. He had a broken collarbone and cuts all over his body. He looked like most of the men here. Strong muscles, blond straight floppy hair, and when he turned around and looked at me with his green eyes, he mouthed the word “Mate”! I felt frozen in time and place.

Luc

I had never seen such a beautiful creature in my entire life. She smelled like cupcakes and bubble gum, and she looked like a unicorn. Ocean blue eyes captivating me. Her hair tied into two shoulder-length braids. If it wasn’t for the blood-stained clothes, I would put her in a box and just stare at her all day. I tried to stand up to grab hold of her, before anyone else could, but winched when I tried pushing down on my arm.

Star

I ran to him when he tried to get up.

“No don’t. You have a broken collarbone, and it needs to be reset and bandaged for it to grow back properly. It will take time, but you will eventually feel like your old self.” I smiled and blushed fire truck red. He sat, looking at me.

“Mate.” His voice was smooth and from what I had learned in the time I had been with the pack, was that it meant he had seen his mate. His other half or something. He was looking at me, but maybe he meant someone else. I convinced myself that he must have been looking at someone else, shaking my head. I pulled his bone back into place and there was not a peep out of him. I looked at him, shocked because that should have had him screaming like a pig. He was just sitting there smiling at me.

“Okay, the bone is back where it should be. Let me bandage it quickly, and then we can take a look at your other wounds, okay?” Still not a word … I tried to bandage his arm, but moving around him while he was sitting down was impossible. He just sat there smiling at me. I finally gave up and sat across his lap, straddling him between my legs.

“Mate,” he whispered, looking at me, circling his good arm around my waist. He pulled me closer and kissed me. It felt like the most natural thing in the world. I put my arms around his neck and forgot about his injured collarbone and kissed him back. When we finally broke the kiss, applause erupted around us, and I blushed terribly, again remembering where we were and that I didn’t even know his name.

“There, your arm is all fixed.” I tried very hard not to look into his green eyes that were searching mine for an answer. I gave him some cotton-wool and antiseptic to clean his cuts with and quickly walked back to the house. I was out of breath by the time I reached the kitchen where Lorelei was making tea.

“Sweetheart, what is wrong? You look flushed? I told them not to let you help out there. It is not the place for a young girl like you.” She scolded.

“No. That is not it.” I felt as if I was about to hyperventilate.

“Tea, you need tea. I have just made a fresh pot. Come sit down here and I will pour you some.” Lorelei brought us some teacups, sugar lumps and lemon. She poured the tea and when I didn’t respond, she put one lump of sugar in my tea. “So out with it girlie, why all the sweating and why are you so out of breath?” She asked as I took a sip of the sweet tea.

“I think I have a mate out there.” I pointed to the outside of the house where all the injured were gathered.

“You have a mate? Oh, that is the best news!” Lorelei jumped up from her chair and hugged me. I was still looking as if I had seen a ghost or something when we heard footsteps coming down the passage, and he looked around the corner.

“Hi Lorelei.” He smiled.

“Hi Luc, how is your arm doing?” They know each other?! His name was Luc.

“It’s all healed up thanks to this beautiful young lady.” He walked up to me and gave me a kiss. I nearly melted into a blob of human nothingness. “Mind if I borrow my mate for a while?” He asked.

“No, not at all. Have fun.” She winked. He picked me up bridal style and walked out the house with me in his arms as if I was a doll and had no say in the matter. Okay well, I didn’t actually protest. He carried me to his room where he put me down next to the bed. I stood there wide-eyed.

“What … What?” I couldn’t get the words out. My throat was just too dry. He brought me some water from the bathroom, and he was completely bare chested. Oh, Brother!!

“What do you want to ask, Star of mine?” He smiled.

“What are you going to do to me?” I asked, stammering.

“You are my mate only should you wish to be so. You have a choice. I will be heartbroken if you reject me, but I will never force myself on you Star.” He lifted my chin with his index finger, making me look into those forest green eyes of his. I was still scared to death. No man has ever taken me to his room like this and put me next to his bed.

“Why are we in your room next to your bed then?” I asked, a bit snooty.

“I was hoping you would say yes to being my mate.” He gave me an enormous grin.

“Okay, back up,” I felt a little breathless. “I need to process all of this first.” I held out my hand to his chest and manoeuvred myself out from between him and the bed.

“Please don’t leave me yet.” He looked sad.

“I’m not leaving Luc. It is Luc, isn’t it? I mean, I heard Lorelei call you Luc. And how do you know my name? I’ve never met you before, have I?” I had so many questions

“Thank you, I was worried you would leave and never come back.” He sounded relieved.

“Yes, it is Luc, and it’s not short for anything else, and I know your name because you are the only human girl left in the pack. Everyone knows that the human girls were Giselle and Star.” He explained. I thought about it for a moment, and it made sense. So, he wasn’t a stalker guy.

“How come you know we are mates?” I looked suspiciously at him.

“You smell like cupcakes and bubble gum. That smell I can tell from anywhere. It intoxicates me, mesmerizes me. All I want to do when I smell it and see you is … Well, you know.” He shrugged. This time it was him who was looking down as he blushed.

“I am guessing that you are a wolf then.” I said, not really asking, just saying it out loud. “Would I have to stay with you now, like Giselle did? Immediately move in with you?” I felt completely frightened.

“I would prefer you to do that. You are my mate after all, and I don’t want any others near you.” He growled. “But should you wish not to … I will sleep outside your bedroom door.” He nodded.

“What? Why?” I felt completely confused.

“Because you are my mate, and I don’t share.” He was very confident.

“I don’t belong to you, you know!” I was more confident.

“I know, us wolves are just a bit possessive.” He grinned again. “I won’t do anything, I promise. I will just hold you. If you stay here, with me.” He looked so cute that I couldn’t resist. What the hell was I getting myself into? We were in the middle of a damn war, and I was “mating”! He followed me to my room and held my hand tightly as we walked. Standing by the door as I packed all my things and then held my hand again when we walked back to his room. Or what was going to be our room now?

“What do we do now?” I asked after I had unpacked.

“Well … Usually, under normal circumstances, there would be a lot of … You know … Going on right now.” He had a hard time saying it.

“I know, but now that we are not doing it yet, what else is there?” There had to be something other than … Just that. “Tell me where you are from?” I asked him.

“An orphanage, I escaped after I was nearly beaten to death and Anthony and Matt found me in an alley half dead. Wolf orphanages are worse than human jails. I don’t want to spoil your beautiful mind with the details. I joined the Shadows where I was trained, and the rest is history. How about you?” He asked.

That was okay. Getting to know each other first. I plunked down on the bed, folded my legs, and he sat down on the edge, trying not to sit too close to me.

“My parents died when I was eight. I was sent to live with my hippy aunt. I found a job when I turned seventeen. I worked for the guy until he passed away about two months before I started working for Alpha.” I knew to just skim over some subjects when it came to wolves. I slowly started feeling at ease. I didn’t even notice when he was lying down on the bed, one arm supporting his head and his other hand holding my leg. I was scared every time my stupid head got involved, but when my heart took over, it felt as if it had always been that way. We talked for hours about our lives and what we had seen and been through. Laughing about our mistakes and the things we tried and wouldn’t do again. He was actually very funny. I told him that I had my room decorated to look like an old diner in Alpha’s old house in the city. Then I looked at my watch.

“Luc, it’s one in the morning!” I said with big eyes.

“Yes, and?” He replied.

“I need ice-cream if we are going to keep on talking,” I demanded. I mean, where was he going to find ice-cream at that time of the morning?

“We will have to traipse down to Lorelei’s house for that. The seekers won’t have anything like that around.” His words were hardly cold when a seeker appeared with two bowls of ice-cream, one strawberry and one chocolate. She disappeared just as fast. We both burst out laughing!

“Do they listen to everything?” I whispered.

“I hope not.” He whispered back and grabbed the bowls, bringing them back to bed.

“I need a shower and comfy clothes. Do you mind?” I asked him.

“You don’t need to ask, Star of mine. This is your room as well. Go for it. I will wait here for you.” I grabbed what I needed for a shower and when I returned to the bedroom, he was ready to take over the bathroom. Not once has he done anything to make me feel uncomfortable, I thought to myself. Yes, he wanted to jump my bones the first time he saw me, but since then he has been amazing. Those green eyes, that six-pack, golden tanned like a Greek god … I now understood what Megan always drooled about. I was still daydreaming, smiling to myself when he walked back into the bedroom, wearing a pair of satin boxer shorts. I felt an ache forming in my lady parts that I had never felt before. I didn’t know about these things. I was very young when my mother died and my aunt’s idea of “the talk” was making love, not war and that was about where it ended.

The lady at the pharmacy was nice enough to explain the different products and how they worked. Brandon’s doctor explained about the pill, which I just decided I didn’t need, because I was never going to allow that thing anywhere near me. And here was this man, standing in front of me, giving me aches in places I never thought would ache!