Dire Wolf Mates - Chapter 35: Chapter 35

Leo was smiling like the Cat who got the canary, and he didn’t care who knew it. His tousled hair was blowing in the warm breeze, and he was tapping his thumbs in time to the classic rock blaring from his high quality sound system. He didn’t have a care in the world.
Bastard.
Sheila huffed silently in the passenger seat, wondering if she had really gotten the better end of this deal. She watched him maneuver his slick car expertly and cursed herself for admiring the sleek classic sports car. But she couldn’t help it. The Corvette was gorgeous, much like the man driving it.
Golden boy opened his lips and sang a few bars of a familiar and pleasant rock ballad. Covertly, Sheila sighed, relishing the deep timbre of his voice. He sounded good. Singing was something she couldn’t do on a motorcycle. Nope. That kind of thing resulted in a mouthful of flies. Nothing Sheila wanted to experience, for sure. She pictured Leo on the back of her bike and bit her bottom lip. Seeing him in jeans for the first time had put him in an entirely different perspective.
Racing down the highway in his Corvette, windows open, rock music blaring—Leo was hot as fuck. His Alpha attitude would probably keep him from letting her drive his sexy ass car, but damn, if he was up for it, she would take him for a ride. He’d look good sitting on her bike, those big arms of his snug around her middle and his muscular thighs wrapped around hers.
Oooh la la.
Sheila was getting all hot and bothered just thinking about it. She was getting to see a side of him she hadn’t known existed and all in a short space of time. It was unnerving.
Exciting.
Frightening.
All of the above.
Shivers raced up and down her spine as the Corvette zipped down the lane. Leo drove past other cars like a big Cat cutting through the jungle, taking turns like a motherfucking pro. She admired the car and his handling of it. Never pictured him in the low slung, sexy as hell sports car. He usually drove a staid sedan. But that was his work vehicle. Detective Crowley was a rule-following kind of guy. The kind she’d typically avoid. But here he was, chipping away at walls and breaking down barriers.
Chip. Chip. CHIP.
This wilder side of him was making it more difficult for her to keep her resolve. He turned his head and winked at her, using his signal to exit off the highway. Her hands were itching to get hold of his vintage teak steering wheel—and no that was not a euphemism. She wanted to feel the powerful vroom of the rebuilt and boosted horsepower engine Leo had installed. Right then, that machine was positively singing beneath the hood. Sheila appreciated the sound.
It was a good, strong rumble that did not interfere with the stereo. In fact, it enhanced it. The leather bucket seats hugged her curvy frame, and she had plenty of room to stretch her long legs. Good car. Good man. Sexy, too.
Sheila bit her lip, hoping to hide her grin of excitement each time he expertly shifted gears. His maneuvers were smooth, while remaining sharp, on point, and fast. Only a maniac or a Shifter would drive like that. She bit her lip as her pulse raced.
Excited as she might be about his choice of automobile, it didn’t change the facts. Sheila needed to keep a level head, else she might lose herself to this man. Hell, she was still trying to figure out how she wound up in his admittedly awesome Corvette Stingray with her saddle bags packed and snug behind her.
What was she thinking agreeing to play his mate? And for his Pride no less. Shifters would sniff out a lie, but he already knew that. There were ways to get around lying, of course, but she didn’t expect the detective to employ such means. Surely, he wouldn’t use these circumstances to press his suit. Hell, if he even thought about it, she’d just have to show him that Wolves had claws too.
What did he think of her giant beastie? She refused to give in to the unease that threatened to creep up. She was used to intimidating others with her animal. It was hell on relationships, but she was not ashamed of her animal. Her she-Wolf was a thing of motherfucking beauty. With thick red fur and the same electric blue eyes she had in her human form, her prehistoric animal was roughly the size of a small horse and ten times as strong.
Over eight-hundred pounds of pure muscle lived inside of her and her animal radiated energy, loyalty, and the primal instinct to protect what was hers. Those things and more drove Sheila’s actions. The strongest at the moment was the need to claim her mate. The Wolf wanted it. Desperately.
It was her human side who was not as sure. Sex was easy. She’d have no problem getting down and dirty with the golden-eyed cop. It was the rest of it that was complicated.
She exhaled slowly and concentrated on the yellow stripe running down the black pavement as it zipped past her window. Only fifteen minutes from the roadhouse to the Blue Valley Pride, but it felt longer. She was surprised to learn the woods behind Serious Moonlight eventually led to the woods owned and protected by Leo’s Pride.
The trees opened up to a low, grass covered valley that was visible just behind the Eat Well Live Proud headquarters, which was, of course, also owned and operated by the Blue Valley Pride. She looked at their large stately sign and snorted. She much preferred pink neon to the gold block letters, but she supposed it wouldn’t have made sense there. Leo drove past it, eventually turning into a beautiful large gate.
Blue Valley Homes was scrawled across the wrought iron in big gold letters. It was an entire community just for the Pride, she realized. After he punched a few numbers into a keypad and swiped a card, the gate opened. Leo pressed the gas pedal and drove straight to the largest home in the entire complex. It was an enormous sprawling ranch with columns and statues outside.
Sheila had never seen anything quite like it. It was huge, not to mention fancy. Like one of those ridiculously expensive homes, television dramas of the 1980s and 90s loved to flaunt. Might as well hang a sign up that read millionaire inside, she thought, and snorted at the imagery. She balked, realizing Leo was parking right outside the opulent mansion. This couldn’t be Leo’s childhood home, could it?
Sheila swallowed hard and tried to calm her nerves. Noise from a large koi pond out front caught her attention. He had a fountain. His own fountain. And, of course, the shrubs and lawn were all trimmed to immaculate perfection. Though, in her opinion, Sheila always thought those tallish bushes seemed trimmed to look like dildos, for whatever odd reason. Maybe a secret landscaper joke, or something.
“Are you okay?” Leo asked, eyes intent as he waited for her to answer.
The driveway was laid with expensive pavers. Each one had a symbol in the middle, but she couldn’t make it out from inside the car. The smell of fresh cut grass filtered in through the open windows and it helped settle her anxiety. What the fuck were they doing there? She turned to him.
“I thought we were going to your childhood home?”
“We are. This is it,” he answered, hopping out of the car, and opening the door for her.
His face was grim as he walked around to her door. Once opened, he didn’t bother to hide the fact he was eyeing Sheila up and down with a certain familiar glitter in his amber gaze. She had to admit she loved the way he looked at her. Had hated those minutes in the bar when he’d steadily ignored her. She’d never had a man pay so much attention to her before. Usually it was her saucy mouth that earned shocked stares, not so much the rest of her.
She’d changed into a pair of fairly new, un-ripped, black jeans in an effort to look presentable. She paired the tight-fitting bottoms with a cream-colored peasant blouse. The thin, gauzy material was fun and flirty, and it felt soft against her skin. She’d always been hypersensitive to clothing. Even her leather cut was lined with a special breathable cotton blend that her skin didn’t object to. She’d applied some mascara and lip gloss, but that was as far as she took the makeup thing. She didn’t like the way it felt.
Leo’s golden stare reached her eyes, and suddenly she wished he’d look away. Goosebumps broke out on her arms and a tiny, almost unnoticeable shudder sped through her. She felt exposed and vulnerable. Maybe it was the clothes. Hell, she’d never felt so soft and feminine. She’d thought she maintained her edge with her carefully broken in leather boots and her hair hanging in loose waves down her back, but she’d been wrong.
She was completely undone, and it made her want to lash out, to hit something, to grab the man and kiss him for all she was worth. Fuck. She was in a tornado of emotions. She wasn’t finished with one before another threatened to sweep her away. Her hair blew around her face with the breeze and she was grateful for the respite. It allowed her to break eye contact without losing face.
She usually wore her thick red tresses in a ponytail or braid. Harleys were made for that sort of thing. Tied up hair, little makeup, tough denim, and leather on her body. She didn’t mind it, either. The badass she-Wolf in her might not like to admit it, but she was almost scared of how exposed she felt in front of him just then. Leo was looking at her with heat and approval in his stare, and she was shocked at how much she liked it. She wondered what his eyes would express if he saw her nude—when he saw her nude. Her mouth went dry, and she licked her lips. Leo followed the small movement of her tongue with rapt desire clear in his honeyed gaze. Her heart squeezed inside her chest.
“If I didn’t tell you earlier, you look beautiful,” he murmured, and she heard the truth in his words.
Sexy, sexy male. Mine.
Uncertainty made her tremble. She knew what fated mates were. Was aware what they meant to other Shifters. But her kind was different. Her parents had proved that. A quick affair that led to her birth. Absentee parents. No idea who or what her father and his real family were or if they cared. Sheila had long ago made peace with the fact she wasn’t cut out for family life. It just wasn’t in her genetic makeup, no matter that her body wanted more from Leo. More of those sultry looks and dynamite kisses, like the one they’d shared earlier that afternoon.
It wouldn’t be fair to either of them. Her mind understood that, but her heart didn’t care. That reckless muscle wanted her to throw caution to the wind. Heat and desire vibrated from his powerful body in steady, constant waves as he leaned closer to where she leaned against the car, stroking, and teasing her with promises of better things to come. Hopefully her. His emotions seemed to wrap around her. Lust, desire, absolute certainty that she belonged to him, and more, so much more. She wished she had a tenth of his resolve.
Her Dire Wolf whined, the animal wanting to get closer to him. To mark herself with his scent, his energy, until every one of her senses was filled with only Leo. Both sides of her, Wolf, and human, were completely focused on the man. Awareness buzzed around her like bumble bees swarming their hive.
“Sheila,” he whispered her name, his body hovering so close, but still not touching.
She could feel the tentative pulse of their barely there matebond. That tie that urged and called her to claim him as her own, to solidify what the Fates had decreed eons ago. Want became demand, and need became essential. It rose more and more with each passing moment.
No.
Sheila fought against it. She knew better. Knew from her own mother that she wasn’t made for permanent things. Her dame rode with Derrick’s mother, the older Alpha fem, and her band of twelve Dire Wolf widows. They’d claimed their own Pack and had formed an MC decades ago. Though Sheila’s mother had never married, she still rode with them.
Her so-called mate had been married to another when Denise Rand had met him. She’d never lied to her daughter, told her all about the one night of passion she’d shared with him. That was, of course, when Sheila had been conceived. The she-Wolf had left the next day. The call of the road was too strong for her to stick around and watch while he stayed with his family.
At least, that was the way she’d described it. Aunt Mabel, Derrick’s mother, had welcomed her sister into her Pack no questions asked. Together, they’d traveled the North and South American continents from Alaska to Cape Horn, and back again, over the past forty years. Dire Wolves aged slower than normal Shifters. Their lifetimes lasted a bit longer.
Sheila was only thirty-two years old. She had plenty of time left. Plenty of time to disappoint Leo. To prove she was not good enough for the golden boy. It was that thought that scared the shit out of her.
“Did I mention you look good enough to eat?” Leo remarked, shaking her from her unpleasant daydreams.
“After all that salmon, I can’t believe you’d have any room,” she joked.
“Aww, little Wolf, I always have room for you,” he promised, eyes flashing heat.
Leo stepped closer. He was crowding her with his big body. She gasped, not quite liking the fact that he was above her since he was so damn tall. His gorgeous face broke out in a smile as he continued to reach and reach behind her, until she realized he was trying to move around her to get to her bags.
“Nice trick,” she said.
“Thanks. I always liked that I could reach the trunk through the back seat. Handy if anyone ever tried to stuff me in there.”
“You? In the trunk of this thing? You barely fit behind the wheel.”
Leo frowned, pretending to be affronted, and Sheila responded with an unladylike snort. Next, he grinned, and her heart went crazy.
Bum-bum bum-bum.
“You know,” he said and straightened to his full, glorious height. “I had them customize the car to accommodate my greater size.”