Page 15 of Ruthlessly Mated (Shared Mates #2)

They’re all knee deep in meat of course. Sausages, steaks, pepperoni, bacon. They’re proper men. Proper wolves. They’re everything a good little wolf girl should want, and I am pretty sure I am going to ruin them if they stay with me.

I sit in the booth behind them, wondering if they’ll recognize me or not. I kind of assume they will, just by scent. But I have to check. If I can fool them, I can fool the vamp and his minions.

A hand reaches over and snatches a piece of bacon covered in syrup and powder. Damon pats my head with his other hand, and flickers me a wink as he slips down into the booth.

“Why aren’t you sitting with us?” Conroy growls the question. He growls most things.

I have fooled nobody.

“Cute… everything,” Conroy says as I pick my food up and go around to sit with them.

“That outfit is… heinous,” Tailor says.

“Heinous,” I grin. “I know. It’s perfect. Isn’t it?”

“And the hair,” Conroy says.

“The hair,” Tailor says, in a different tone. “You’ve made yourself look…”

“Generic,” I say. “I look generic. That’s the point. In this part of the country, girls dye their hair blonde and generally have blue eyes and they dress like this. So this is how I’m dressed.”

“We need to talk,” Conroy says.

“About what?”

“About your bratty little attitude. We’ve been driving all day, and I know that there’s been so much going on, and there’s been a lot of attitudes all around, but you need to understand that we are your mates. You have to understand that. You have to acknowledge that.”

“I’m sorry, is me trying to survive bratty now?”

“I’ve whipped your ass in public once before. Don’t think I won’t do it again,” he warns me. I think he just likes threatening me.

“Is this like, foreplay for you?” I squirt a great deal of the contents of the whipped cream can the waitress left with me onto my pancakes. I like a two-to-one cream to pancake ratio. “My attitude is the least of our problems.”

“I am your alpha,” he reminds me.

“Your port just burned down. You want to be the alpha of the truck? Well, you can’t be the alpha of that either, on account of it’s mine. But maybe you can be alpha of something else. What about this?” I slide the can of cream over to him. “You can be alpha of the whipped cream.”

Conroy’s eyes darken.

“I am being patient,” he says. “But my patience has limits. You are our mate, and you are going to have to obey me. Us.”

“I’m going to deliver my cargo,” I tell him. “And I took you with me because last I saw you, you were about two seconds away from…”

Next thing I know, his hand is on the back of my neck, his lips close to my ear.

“You’re being hunted by an ancient vampire,” he says. “And you are going to need us.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. I’ve never needed anyone, and I don’t intend to start needing you now. I can look after myself.”

“You’re our mate. We all look after each other.”

“I wasn’t looking for a mate. I don’t want a mate. I’m not ready for a mate. I don’t have anything to offer a mate, let alone three of them, and I don’t need anything. You can come with me. But stop talking about being my mate.”

He lets me go and sits back with something like a smirk. He looks less worried now than he did before.

“What? What are you smiling about?”

“You’re scared,” he says.

“I am not scared. I have never been scared. What am I supposed to be scared of?”

“Love,” he says, looking satisfied. “You’re afraid of being our mate because you’re afraid of being loved.”

“You grabbed me, beat my ass, fucked me until I was so sore I didn’t know if I could walk, and then almost got yourselves killed, and you think I’m afraid of love?”

“Yes. I tried to be nice to you. Every time I try to be nice, you make it impossible.”

“Would you know how to be nice if you tried?”

Tailor

They’re bickering. They don’t know it, but those two are perfectly suited for one another. Damon smirks at me and steals the last rasher of bacon from Conroy’s abandoned plate.

Our mate is rough around the edges, that much is true, but she has also only been our mate for just over a day. She needs time to settle down and Conroy is going to have to find that patience he claims to have.

As horrified as I am by the outfit she’s wearing, mostly because it is made from plastic synthetics, and because it clings in ways that makes her look devastatingly curvy to people who should not be looking at her the way they are, I have to admit she looks cute blonde. She looked cute with dark hair too.

I have many questions for her. Questions like, why did you leave me asleep in bed while the greatest monster the world has ever known sailed directly for me.

But I already know the answer to that. She is on a mission.

A terribly dangerous, absolutely awful mission that might tear us all apart if we are not careful, and maybe even if we are.

“Listen,” Kita says. “I really should leave you three here. It’s not safe to come with me. I know you’re all big and hairy and you think you’re scary and terrible, but I am small and terrible, and that’s worse. A lot worse.”

“We’re not afraid of you.”

“I’m not telling you to be afraid of me. I’m telling you to be afraid. Generally. Mostly because of Alexander. Hitting him with a truck is going to slow him down a little, but he’ll be back, and angrier than ever. You guys have already suffered enough.”

She looks over at me. “You especially.”

“I met someone I never imagined I would meet. I now know what it is to be tortured by the world’s greatest evil. I look forward to discovering what other experiences might be had by knowing you, Kita.”

She smirks at me. “You’re angry. And you should be. Seriously. You should stay here. I’d pay you to do so if I could, but I won’t be liquid for a while. I need to move my cargo and then there will be a lot of money. I can give you sorry-you-almost-got-killed money.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Kita. None of us are. You are stuck with us.”

She squirts more cream on the pancakes that are now almost entirely cream, then somehow manages to unhinge her jaw wide enough to swallow one. It is a feat of quite an impressive nature.

“Alright,” she says. “Then we’d best be getting back to the truck. We have a city of bigoted, er, bigots to visit. Alexander will be gaining on us even as we speak. If he catches us before we get there, none of this will matter anyway.”

Kita

I can’t get rid of them by abandoning them, and I can’t get rid of them by telling them enough of the truth that any sane guys would run away. So we all pile back in the truck and I send it on to Rock City, which happens to be the next off-ramp from the gas station.

Rock City is a desert outpost that grew over time until people mistook it for somewhere to be.

It has a wall around it. Usually that would indicate an ancient city, but this time it’s because there was a recent period where people got very interested in walls and keeping undesirables out.

Sort of coincided with vampires and werewolves turning out to be real.

It is made primarily from red sandstone cut from the region, so it almost blends into the landscape. Anything that isn’t red is soon covered in a sandy haze of it, including the road, and now my truck.

It’s beautiful, actually. It’s a pity everyone who lives here has decided to be a giant piece of shit.

As we roll up to the checkpoint at the south of the city, two large signs are prominent, freshly washed that day so they gleam as we approach.

No Vampires.

Trespassers Will Be Staked on Sight.

No Werewolves.

Trespassers Will Be Shot with Silver.

There are dozens of signs warning us to stay well clear of the place, but that only gives me more reason to want in.

Alexander would never have the necessary strength of ego to go undercover.

He likes to storm around making a big show of his ancient vampiric power.

Places like this are a horror to him. He’d be shocked to realize that there’s somewhere he really can’t go.

That man conquered the world once. Twice.

Three times. I’m sure he’s gearing up for a fourth go, but that’s going to be complicated now that it’s not exactly a secret what or who he is.

“Hey, beautiful,” the guard says as I lower the window. “Present your hands, please.”

This part, I did not expect.

“What’s this?”

“Have to test. UV and Silver,” the guard says. “We’ve had a few unnaturals try to sneak in.”

“How disgusting,” I say. “So what do you do with the silver and the UV?”

“Silver goes in the hand for a good minute, UV’s already on. We’re pretty sure you’re not vampires, but it’s the wolves that try to sneak in. Mangy things.”

I’m glad the other two guys are in the back bed hiding out. Looks like Conroy and I are going to be suffering through this nonsense trial.

“Alright, give us the trinkets,” I say.

I hold my hand out and the guard drops a silver coin in it. “Should I hold onto this, or do you want me to pass it on?”

I try to hide the strain in my voice. It does not feel good to have a silver coin in hand, but it won’t leave a mark. It hurts, but what’s a little pain.

“Pass it on,” he says, handing me another coin. “Everybody has to be tested.”

“Wait,” I say. “Are supernaturals trying to sneak into the city?”

“Not often, but we can’t be too careful. This is the only city in the island that can boast being free of any kind of freak, and that’s because nobody gets in here except normal people.”

“People who don’t have anything special going on? Just totally normal, average people?” I confirm.

“Exactly.”

“Run of the mill people. People who can be trusted.”

“Give the man the coin,” he says.

I tried stalling, but I’m not going to be able to hold off any longer without seeming suspicious.

I hand the other coin over to Conroy, trying not to wince as my palm burns. He takes it without a word. He’s the wolfiest looking guy I’ve ever seen. I hope he has the ability to be stoic.