Dire Wolf Mates - Chapter 119: Chapter 119

“Well, all right then. As long as you need me, I’ll stay.”
Thor released the breath he was holding, and his entire body seemed to relax after hearing Nica’s reply to Derrick’s statement about needing her. Recently, he’d started to suspect she was growing restless. He had tracked her with hungry eyes. Saw the way she started watching the trees and the skies when she thought no one was looking.
Oh yeah, Thor had been clocking the curvy little Raven as she went about her business, picking up slack at the roadhouse and even taking on extra chores at the Pack House. How many times had the tiny female done laundry that wasn’t hers? Or washed up after dinner when it wasn’t her turn?
The other females made damn sure the men in the house knew they were not there to wait on them, but Nica seemed cut from a different cloth. She took on chores without complaint, so much so, he intervened when he thought others were taking advantage. Like when he caught her cleaning Cole’s bedroom. He’d put a stop to that shit real fast, reminding her the single male was perfectly capable of washing his own bedding.
He'd also had a one-on-one conversation with Cole, which ended with the man wholeheartedly agreeing to never take advantage of Nica’s kindness again. Thor didn’t even have to say anything. He’d just tossed the pile of wet sheets he’d taken from Nica, she was about to hang them to dry on the outdoor line, right onto Cole’s lap, followed by a single punch to the male’s jaw.
But aside from throwing herself into her chores, Thor noticed something else strange about Nica. Not once in the three weeks that had passed had she shifted into her animal. But maybe it was odd to him because his own Demon Wolf had been acting like a total fucking lunatic.
Thor was so amped up with her around, he was shifting into his beast nightly. It was the only way to contain the animal’s anger, lest he hunt down and decimate the first Murder he came across. Thank fuck she was a Shifter, and those bruises she’d arrived with were long gone by now. That was enough to placate his beast. Mostly.
Not a day went by that Thor didn’t have a flashback of her broken wing, cuts oozing blood, and the black eye that had swollen so much by the time she woke up, she could hardly open it. Those first few days had been hell on him, and yeah, he realized he was whining like a cub, but fuck. He couldn’t really explain it save to say it hurt him to see her hurt.
Thor’s blood boiled with the thirst for revenge. He hungered for it. But revenge was not his to take. Finding her at last, Thor had given everything he could to help fix her battered body. He couldn’t bring himself to leave her side, at least not till she told him the only thing that could have moved him.
Nica had a mate.
A right bastard for sure, but still her mate. The beautiful Raven was not free for Thor to claim. She just wasn’t. Knowing it made his heart feel like someone had tried to rip it right out of his chest.
So, he’d done what any besotted fool, who had no chance in hell of claiming the woman the Fates told him was his, would do. He’d stayed away. Hid in the background. Watched from afar. And he cursed those same Fates for showing him something he couldn’t have.
Why did she have to be so perfect? With her dark curls and bright blue eyes, and her fresh baked bread and sweet summer jam scent.
“You should talk to her, man,” Weylin said, suddenly beside him.
The younger Wolf had been walking by, carrying a couple of cases of beer up from storage, but Thor hadn’t been paying attention. He hadn’t realized Weylin stopped beside him until the man opened his fat mouth with his Captain Obvious observations.
Gods dammit.
Could he really blame him, though? Weylin was still in that honeymoon phase with Gwendolyn, his somehow newly turned Dire Wolf mate. Newly matched up and just about as annoying as every other mated pair in the Pack, Thor could give two shits what Weylin thought.
“Don’t go getting all growly and shit, all I’m saying is instead of stalking her like some giant psycho, you might try talking to the woman—hey!”
Thor tried to make it a point to hate as few things as possible in his life, but there were a few he just could not help but loathe. One of them was unsolicited advice. However, staring down at the mess he’d made of Weylin’s perfectly coiffed red hair after dumping the glass of water he’d been holding was extremely satisfying.
In fact, Thor felt better than he had in days. Of course, that was probably because of his eavesdropping ways and overhearing Nica tell Derrick she was planning on staying for a while.
Good. Mine. Mate.
No. She belongs to another.
Grrrrrr.
Fine. Maybe Weylin had a point. Gifted, or cursed, with the sight as he was, Thor knew better than to just toss away something the Fates had so purposely thrown at him. He didn’t pretend to understand the motives of supernatural deities and power players, but he knew enough that the shit they did was for a reason.
If Nica had fallen into his lap, so to speak, it was likely because he had a hand in her future. Thor wasn’t the type of man to mess around with another male’s mate, but perhaps that was the part he had wrong. Fact was, he needed answers, and he could only get them from her. So, yeah, maybe he should try talking to her. He grunted and nodded at the still sputtering Weylin. His advice was unsolicited, but useful.
Hmm. Imagine that.
Thor placed the empty water glass on top of the cases of beer his drenched Pack mate was still holding and walked away to mull things over. Perhaps he’d commune with the spirits tonight, see if they had any advice for him. It wasn’t his favorite pastime, and it took fuck all out of him, but he needed to proceed with caution.
Could be he was mistaken, and Nica wasn’t his fated mate, after all. But judging from the way his cock turned to steel behind the tight denim jeans he often wore every time he saw her, he doubted he erred in his assessment. As if to emphasize the fact his cock also disagreed, the damn thing thumped inside his jeans, filling with lust at the mere mention of her.
Yep. He really fucking doubted he was wrong. He needed to bide his time until she had a spare moment. So, Thor kept busy most of the night, working the front door, just business as usual. He didn’t mind checking IDs and making sure the supernatural members of the mixed crowd Serious Moonlight attracted knew he was there to keep the peace. As the Pack Enforcer, it came with the territory.
Dire Wolves had a reputation for being tough, and sometimes folks liked to challenge them just on the off chance they might win a fight. Not that it happened very often. Still, his senses were on high alert, the Demon Wolf inside him riled for whatever reason.
More than likely it had to do with the fact that Sheila, his redheaded Pack mate, and his Alpha’s cousin, was teaching Nica how to tend bar. Sheila was mated and devoted to her man, but she could flirt with the best of them. Still, she was a spitfire and could hold her own where Nica was shy around most men.
He was concerned Sheila was going to push her outside her comfort zone, so he waited, poised to intervene. But he shouldn’t have worried. Nica was holding her own. Pride, the likes of which he never felt for anyone, sprung inside him like a well.
Go on, girl. Show ‘em how it’s done, his Demon Wolf growled.
The curvy little goddess was grinning and pulling beers on tap with almost zero foam to the praise of their patrons. She was wearing a pair of skintight jeans strategically cut to show tantalizing swatches of smooth, unmarred skin. On top, Nica wore one of Serious Moonlight’s famous logo tees, the deep V revealing her fantastic cleavage, making Thor’s mouth water, and drawing the eyes of the male customers at the bar.
Grrrr.
It was part of the deal with bartending, but those guys could fuck right off if they wanted to keep their eyes inside their heads. They served mostly Shifters, so when one male leaned over, checking out her ass as he bent over to grab something from the cooler behind the bar, Thor sent a snarl his way. The young male blanched, sat his ass back down and treated Nica like she was his Sunday school teacher after that.