Dire Wolf Mates - Chapter 43: Chapter 43

“You are so right, Mom. Leo picked good.”
Ariella giggled and fluffed her hair as they stumbled through the front doors of the Palace. They were all a little windblown, but no worse for wear. Besides, that ride had given Sheila exactly what she needed. Time to clear her head.
“Ladies! What are you doing here?” Montgomery sputtered at them.
His eyes raced wildly as he looked back and forth from one female to the other as if their presence were somehow blackening the polished floors. Sheila did not know what the fuck was wrong with this guy, but she wiped her feet on the rug, for fuck’s sake.
“Look, it’s cool, Monty. I wiped my feet,” Sheila told him straight out.
She winked and opened the door wider, lifting each of her leather-booted feet into the air and holding her black and hot pink helmet under one arm.
“Montgomery, why do you always look like that?” Aunt Patricia asked and narrowed her eyes at the man. “You know, I’ve been trying to get in to see Donovan for weeks now! What is going on, anyway?’
“You should not be here, madam. Your presence is unwanted,” he growled the words between clenched teeth.
“Whoa, tone it down there skippy. I don’t think Leo will like you talking to her that way,” Sheila growled. “I sure as fuck don’t.”
“How does he look, Mom?” Ariella asked.
“Oh, like someone farted right in his face,” Aunt Patricia barked out a laugh that even a Dire Wolf could be proud of.
The two drunken kitties giggled, and Aunt Patricia leaned heavily on the wall. Okay, so, maybe Sheila shouldn’t have stopped at Serious Moonlight with Leo’s aunt and cousin for a couple of pitchers of mimosas. Of course, those had turned into margueritas, and from there it was shots all around. And it wasn’t even dinner time!
Sheila bit her lip guiltily. But what a time they’d had. Sigh. She recalled Aunt Patricia’s bar-top dancing while guzzling a bottle of eighty proof tequila like a motherfucking champ. It took Thor and Brock both to get her down. Shifter metabolism was such that alcohol burned off within minutes and by the time she left, she was not even buzzed. Ariella and Patricia were, but that’s because they were still drinking.
Her stomach fluttered. The butterflies inside waking up now that she was closer to him. She’d expected to feel better, less anxious, once she’d hopped on her Harley with her Pack mates and her two new friends, but truthfully, that familiar calm she’d sought had proven elusive. Her she-Wolf had been seriously pissed at her for leaving Leo. She’d done her best to shake it off. Had some drinks, checked in with her Pack mates, and talked to some friendly customers. Including a certain Ass and his mate.
“Hey! It’s you? Where is that amazing man of yours?” asked the Chipmunk Shifter Leo had rescued a few days ago.
“He’s working, how are you?” Sheila had replied to the one and looked from her to where her mate was standing with one hand on her waist in a protective and possessive gesture. Sheila approved.
“We’re good, never better,” she’d returned with a twinkle in her eyes.
“Ma’am,” the Donkey Shifter, Al, nodded at her and whispered something in his mate’s ear that had her blushing like a schoolgirl.
“Um, we better go. Tell him, thanks again for me,” the woman winked and left with her mate wrapped around her.
Sheila had felt a pang of jealousy as she watched the pair hurry on through the crowd. Probably on their way home, together. There was something about mates and being Shifters that meant when things were good, sexy fun times often ensued. Sheila could get used to an arrangement like that. But it was more than sex that appealed to her. Leo was simply perfect.
He was outrageously handsome, had an impeccable moral compass, was good to talk to, and possessed an air of power and strength that her Wolf wholeheartedly approved of. He was her ideal everything. How could she ever measure up? And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, her new buddies had spilled the beans in a very bad way.
“You know, you’re gonna make one helluva queen,” Aunt Patricia slurred her words after she’d tipped off the bar when she’d finished the first bottle of tequila. The woman had taken a header into the unwilling arms of one particularly unhappy Pack Enforcer.
“For fuck’s sake,” Thor had muttered and glared at Sheila. Still, he was gentleman enough to drive them home after.
“My bad,” she’d apologized to her Pack mate, but she was more concerned with what the Lioness had just said.
“The old Palace could use a little livening up. We haven’t had any fun since Caroline passed. Leo’s mother was one helluva queen, I tell you, and Donovan was so in love with that woman. She was my best friend. You’re a lucky Dog, Sheila! The Crowleys are good Cats. Ha! A lucky Dog! That works even better cause you’re a canine! Ha ha ha!” The matronly feline had snorted and laughed at her own jokes.
A few more shots, a couple of dances, and some indirect questions were all it took for Sheila to get the truth about Leo Crowley from the mouth of that swaggeriffic feline, Aunt Patricia. And when she finally pieced it all together, Sheila was fucking furious.
That lying’, no good butt-sniffin’ mother-humper!
Grrr, even her she-Wolf was pissed.
Sheila had not been prepared for that little tidbit of information he’d been holding back. Talk about a shock. He lied. After her initial fury had settled, Sheila was pissed to discover the real reason she’d stayed away much longer than she’d intended when she’d taken off earlier. Hurt flared up inside of her and fear.
Yes.
That’s right. Sheila was afraid. What did a foul-mouthed ex-biker Wolf know about being a queen? Fated mates or not, she didn’t see this working out for either of them. No wonder the strait-laced, law-abiding pussy was so uptight.
Apparently, every one of her Pack mates, even Derrick, her Alpha and so-called cousin, had known or suspected the entire time. They’d all been privy to that tiny factoid, and no one, not even her dear mate, had bothered to tell her.
Fuckers. Each and every one of them.
And what had her cousin’s reply been when she’d confronted him with the news? The dumb Alpha had gotten all snarly with her.
“So, Leo’s a Prince. Big fucking deal, woman.”
“But Derrick, why the fuck didn’t you tell me? How am I supposed to face him now?”
“What the fuck are you on about, girl? You’re no damn slouch. We Dire Wolves have our own hierarchy as you well know, cousin, and the Rands are top fucking shelf. He’s a Prince and you’re already a Princess around here, so go make it official already. Claim your mate and stop your snarling.”
She’d been spitting mad, but in the end, she knew Derrick was right. Her Alpha cousin was usually right. The jerk.
So, Leo was a Prince among Shifters. And not because he was charming and handsome, or because he wore a badge, or because he was a hero to Chipmunk Shifters and women everywhere. No, he was an actual, honest to goodness heir-to-the-throne Prince like in a fairytale. Sole successor to the King, and the current ruler of the Blue Valley Pride, while his father was incapacitated by illness. Her Leo. Her fated mate.
And that made her what, exactly?
A fucking idiot.
At least that was how she’d felt. Leo was a Prince, and he hadn’t trusted her with that information. Hurt by his betrayal, she’d stayed out longer than she’d planned. Why hadn’t he trusted her? That was the question.
Anger and pain warred with each other for dominance throughout most of the night, but Sheila still walked away, confused and a tad annoyed.
“Sheila, I wanted to ask you at the bar but did not have the chance. Um, are all your Pack mates, uh, single?” Ariella hedged as she took off her high-heeled shoes and rubbed her feet.
“Do not do that here! Have you no decency?”
Montgomery was trying to sweep some imaginary dust and was definitely close to losing his shit for no reason that Sheila could see.
Talk about an uptight pussy.
Sheila narrowed her eyes at the man before turning to the striking, yet shy Lioness. Unlike her extroverted mother, Ariella had behaved in a more staid fashion at Serious Moonlight. One might have observed her actions as a sort of recon mission, instead of just hanging out. She’d chosen to nurse her margarita from her barstool with her eyes trained on a certain Pack Beta.
The finicky feline had dismissed the attention she’d garnered from other men at the roadhouse, and that had been quite a few, in Sheila’s humble opinion. Brock, the object of her interest, had also behaved strangely. In fact, he’d disappeared entirely when it was time to leave, and Ariella had to ride in the sidecar they’d hooked up to Thor’s bike.
Strange indeed.
“Far as I know, only Derrick has a mate,” she answered the pretty Lioness.
“And you. You have a mate, don’t you, Sheila?” Aunt Patricia snickered.
Sheila swallowed. She nodded and tried to stave off the feeling of dizziness that statement brought on. Holy shit. She did have a mate. A big, strong, seriously hot one, if she recalled correctly. Maybe it was time she started acting like it?
She sucked in a deep breath, suddenly needing a quick infusion of oxygen to clear her foggy brain. Crap. If she didn’t know better, she’d think she was drunk. Alcohol left her system fairly quickly, as it did with most Shifters, but still. She would have passed for drunk right then. She felt unsteady on her feet, a little nauseous, and was she sweating?
Of course, she never would have ridden her bike home if she was actually intoxicated. There was just no way. Besides, Sheila was not impaired by the shots she’d thrown down with these two felines. And yet, suddenly, she found it difficult to form a coherent thought other than one, single word that kept popping in and out of her brain.
Mate. Mate. MATE.
Goosebumps broke out over her skin and her throat felt dry. Sheila licked her lips and tried to count to ten inside her head. Anything to still the churning in her stomach and the heavy pounding of her heart. She was wobbly and tense, uncertain and clear, she felt everything and nothing all at the same time.
It had absolutely nothing at all to do with alcohol, and completely everything to do with the scowling mountain of a man who was right then stalking down the hallway towards her. Leo wore a pair of navy blue suit pants with a lighter colored silk shirt. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing powerful forearms that ended in large, long-fingered hands.
Her skin itched with need, she could almost feel those hands on her body. His tailored shirt was unbuttoned down to his navel, exposing hard muscles and scandalous inches of golden, tanned skin that she longed to touch. Sheila’s body responded to the sight, heating, and readying for her fated mate. The she-Wolf inside of her growled and panted.
Her inner beast wanted her to claim and be claimed. Suddenly, she couldn’t remember why she’d said no in the first place. Everything about him called to her, beckoned her to him in every single way. Desire swelled, as if the need to have him was a living thing. It grew and grew until she felt like her skin was on fire.
It itched and burned, and Sheila wanted to strip. To tear off her clothing, hell his too, but their audience prevented that. Her Wolf was a tad bit possessive when it came to sharing her man, and relatives or not, Leo’s sexy body was for her eyes only.
She shivered as another powerful wave of desire swept through her. Her nipples hardened, clit throbbed, and she damn near salivated down the front of her shirt. So this was what it felt like to be in heat, she thought as her pussy dripped moisture, drenching her panties.
Her stomach clenched as he drew nearer. Leo’s long legs ate up the distance between them quickly. She couldn’t help but admire her leonine lover, this Lion Prince, whom the universe had decided was for her.
Mine.
Fuck.
Really, though? Was he? Could the Fates be wrong? She couldn’t possibly mate a Prince.
Yes. We can, her she-Wolf insisted.
She swallowed hard and raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t exactly playing the besotted lover at the moment. No, he was not happy at all. His stride was angry, less calculated than normal, and his breathing was heavy. Sheila’s eyes widened as she realized something was different about him.
Oh shit.
Leo was pissed. And the giant, sexy as fuck pussycat never looked hotter.
“Where?” he growled the word at her, not even bothering to finish his sentence.
“What?” she asked, arching one eyebrow, and cocking her head to the side, fascinated by the change in him.
“It’s late.”
“I can tell time,” she responded.
The two feline females nearby looked back and forth between Leo and Sheila with mischief glittering in their golden eyes. They reminded her of observers at a tennis tournament.
Well, fuck her sideways. Like hell was she going to be fodder for their entertainment.
“Not here,” she growled, and stepped forward, hoping to get him to move this out of the hallway. But the big dumb cat thought he made a better wall than a man. “For fuck’s sake, Leo, move.”
“Where?” he asked again and refused to back up an inch.
“Hello, nephew,” interrupted Aunt Patricia in her current drunken sing-song-y voice. “Sheila here was kind of enough to take Ariella and me out for a ride and then we had lunch, and then some drinks, and some more drinks. Then a band came, and there was dancing, and drinking —”
“Yes, she brought us to Serious Moonlight,” Ariella supplied. “We were only gone for a few, er, hours. And she introduced us around.”
“What are you doing?” Sheila gasped as he leaned forward, lightning quick.
Pressing his nose to her neck, Leo sucked in a deep breath. His lips were so close to her skin, she could practically feel them, but he did not touch her. Leo retreated as quickly as he’d closed in, and she was left reeling. Why hadn’t he kissed her? Didn’t he want to? But no, apparently not. He just breathed her in. Sheila swayed involuntarily.
Her heart was pounding in her chest, so hard he had to have heard it. Her Dire Wolf whined. The animal inside her wanted him closer. She wanted Sheila to leap into his arms, to press her lips to his, wrap her legs around his waist, and get on with the claiming already. Despite the lies and omissions, she’d missed him. Even more stunning, she wanted him. Like really wanted him.
Sheila wasn’t known for her public displays of affection. She was tough as nails usually. Hell, even her Pack mates knew better than to fuck with her, but for him her Wolf went belly up. She bit her lip to keep from grinning. Hell, it was all she could do not to jump him right there in the hallway for all to see.