Dire Wolf Mates - Chapter 47: Chapter 47

“Are you nervous?” Leo looked concerned, and Sheila couldn’t help but shrug guiltily.
“I never met a King,” she said.
Like duh.
What was wrong with having some issues about it? The man was royalty, even if he was sick.
“Actually, the King of a Lion Pride is no different from a Wolf Alpha,” he tried to assure her, but Sheila had her reservations.
No Dire Wolf Pack had ever lived in a Palace with servants. They certainly didn’t stand on ceremony. Wolves ruled by might and loyalty. Anyone could challenge for the position, though Dire Wolves argued against that. As a mostly nomadic species, they could simply leave if they did not favor a ruling Alpha.
A challenge was a profoundly serious thing. Not at all the same as in a Pride, after Leo had told her of the elder’s threats, she’d been outraged. Her own Dire Wolf was fiercely loyal to her cousin and would not tolerate anyone who dared make such flippant remarks about him. Now that Leo was her mate, he topped her list of males she was devoted to. As a result, her canine had a few choice words for the nasty bitches who dared threaten him with a challenger!
He’d assured her it was simply politics, but she was not impressed with that excuse. The haughty Lionesses needed to be taken down a notch in her opinion, but that was up to the King. The King she was about to meet. Leo’s father. Her mate’s dad.
Holy shit.
Her mate was a Prince, and he’d said he’d loved her last night. Fated mates were one thing, love was something else. She’d heard of couples who were mates but felt no such affection for one another. Of course, perhaps they weren’t fated exactly, but she had no way of knowing that.
Did she love him? She felt strongly for Leo. Maybe she cared deeply already, but the words were hard for Sheila. Perhaps she would grow to feel love someday?
We already love him, her Wolf insisted.
One step at a time, Sheila growled back.
She’d taken the leap and mated with the Lion Prince, but she still felt that same fear deep inside of her. What if she felt trapped? It terrified her to think she could hurt him. That she would be the one to let him down. Like her mother and the man who fathered her. What if Sheila had no staying power?
“Hey, it’s alright. If you’d rather not meet my father today,” Leo said and rubbed her shoulders, and Sheila leaned into him.
Her sweet mate was a good and kind man, a powerful Lion Shifter, and fiercely loyal. She was truly blessed to have him, she realized.
“We’re gonna be okay,” she said, verging on tears.
“Of course we are,” he stated, with no doubts at all evident in his words.
Knowing that, she vowed she would never hurt him. How could she? It would be like hurting herself or worse.
“Good, I’m ready,” she smiled, and she meant it.
Thunder sounded and lightning flashed just outside the terrace doors. New Jersey Spring was a psychotic bitch if you asked her. Glorious one minute, and downright mean the next.
“We beat the rain back,” he laughed, and she nodded.
That they had. He’d carried her back to the Palace sometime around five o’clock in the morning. Of course, she could have walked, but he’d insisted. Like a proper wedding night, he’d said, and secretly, Sheila loved it. They’d showered together and made love some more. Hunted down some food somewhere in between. It was wonderful.
She loved the play of muscles across his wide shoulders and chest as he buttoned his shirt and Sheila reached up to smooth it over his back. She had never felt so cherished, loved, and content.
I’ve never felt so happy.
It was like a switch had gone off inside of her and suddenly all the pieces clicked into place. Last night was simply amazing. Their claiming was beyond anything she could have ever imagined. Right then, all her doubts washed away like the rain washed away the grit they’d tracked onto the terrace. She sighed.
Shelia really loved him. It welled up in her slowly, a new feeling, bright and fresh. Just like his scent, that clean grass after a storm scent that drove her Wolf crazy with need. Her emotions grew and grew, a fountain, a pool, until they turned into a flood.
“I love you,” she blurted, and turned her startled blue eyes to him.
Leo’s gaze glittered with the gold of his beast. He reached for her, one hand on her waist, the other on her cheek as he lowered his mouth to hers and pressed a soft kiss there.
“I love you too, mate,” he said, and tugged on her lip with his teeth.
She moaned and stepped back, looking up at him with all her feelings in her gaze.
“Let’s go meet your father,” she smiled and took his hand.
She’d donned the one dress she thought to pack with her. It was long and flowy, feminine, and soft in a way she never got to wear while roaming the Americas with her Pack. The sage green looked good against her pale skin and red hair, or so Lucy had told her.
Her cousin-in-law had been extremely helpful in picking out new clothes when they’d gone shopping for some maternity things for the Bobcat Shifter. Lucy was pregnant and getting bigger by the minute. Sheila snorted and stopped in her tracks.
Holy shit.
She could be pregnant, too.
Not yet, her she-Wolf spoke inside of her, and she wasn’t sure if she felt relief or sadness. That alone was a wonder.
“Sheila?” Leo inquired with a raised eyebrow.
“Nothing,” she said and just looked at him as his cousin George rushed to meet them.
Aunt Patricia had shown her a picture of the man on her phone, and she recognized him immediately. Like most Lions, he had tawny-colored hair, and he was big and tall, though not as massive as her mate. He had a pleasant face and green eyes she found unique. So far, all the Lions she’d met had some combination of brownish-gold eyes.
“Leo,” he greeted her mate, and nodded at her respectfully.
“George.”
“Sorry, I have not had the pleasure,” George replied and smiled.
He might have looked at her a second too long because Leo smacked him in the back of the head.
“Ouch! She’s hot. No disrespect,” he said quickly, and averted his gaze to the floor.
“The name is Sheila, and you will have to forgive him, George. We are newly mated, after all,” she explained with a smile in her voice.
Sheila felt that smile down to her toes. Happiness was new, but it was good, and she was really looking forward to getting used to feeling this way.
Pleasure rang through her at being able to say those words aloud with no trepidation. This might have started as a ruse to help Leo work out what was happening within his Pride, but it was real now. She’d been so caught up in her personal emotional conflicts that she’d almost forgotten about why they were there to begin with.
“Shit, you claimed the Wolf? The elders are gonna be more pissed now than ever,” George whispered.
Leo smacked his cousin on the head again, this time it was followed by a similar slap from Sheila.
“Ow! I’m sorry,” George mumbled his apology.
“Good job, Sheila,” Leo said, and damn, but he sure looked proud of her.
“Crap, cousin, you know I think she’s perfect for you,” he said, rubbing his head as he walked with them and explained the day’s agenda.
“Did you find the healer?” Leo asked.
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. The schedule says the healer is supposed to check with your father once a week, but when he called me back yesterday, he was surprised.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, he said his last six appointments had been canceled. Leo, he hasn’t been here in over a month and neither has the other staff. Just Montgomery.”
“What? Why?” Leo asked.
“He didn’t know. Just said your father canceled the appointments.”
“My father has not been himself for months now. The last few weeks he’s been practically incoherent. How could he cancel his appointments?”
“I don’t know, Leo,” George replied.
Sheila took a step closer, breathing in his scent to determine if he was telling the truth. Oddly enough, he was. Leo’s amber eyes flashed with his Lion.
“Is he coming here now?” her mate asked.
“Yes. I told him to meet us at ten, it’s 9:45 now.”
Sheila listened to the byplay curiously. Leo was right, there was something rotten within the Pride. It was her Pride now too, and the fact that someone was fucking with it really pissed her off.
“Did you tell anyone else we were going to see the King?” he asked.
“No,” replied George. “I didn’t have time. It was all I could do to get dressed in time to meet you.”
“Leo, I think we should hurry,” she said and the hairs on the back of Sheila’s neck were standing up.
She raced beside her mate, the younger Lion trailing them, and together they entered the King’s rooms. Lying on the large bed was an older version of Leo and the sight brought Sheila to a hard stop. Donovan Crowley looked pained and confused, but not as much as the man hovering over him trying to force feed him from what looked like a child’s medicine dropper.
“Car, Car,” the King moaned, and pushed at the man’s hand, but he was too weak to do much.
“Montgomery?” Leo’s shocked voice seemed to spur the man into action.
“You aren’t supposed to be here!” he snarled.
“Montgomery, these are my father’s quarters. I have every right to be here. What are you doing to him?”
“You were supposed to choose a Lioness,” he said between clenched teeth.
The man looked crazed, and he stank of fear and madness. The smell was so thick, Sheila almost choked on it.
“For what, Montgomery?” Leo asked.
“As a mate, you were supposed to choose from your own kind,” he sneered.
“I see,” Leo said and moved in front of Sheila, placing himself in harm’s way. “But Sheila here is my fated mate,” he continued, naming her so as to make her more real in the madman’s eyes.
Fat chance, Sheila thought, but applauded his effort. She knew Leo was trying to get the man to put down whatever that was in his hand. She admired his tactics. Came with being a cop, she guessed.