Page 1 of Tamed Wolf (Rejected Mates of the Shelter #4)

Lark, Before

“Wild wolf prowls,

Wild wolf dances,

She knows who she is down to the finest points of her being.

Wild wolf stands under the light of Mother moon and praises.

All of us admire—

The way she hunts,

The way she moves.

All of us respond to her call.

Wild wolf won’t be tamed, won’t submit.

We rejoice in the sway of her fur,

And the touch of her paws upon the soft dirt.

Even her mate must show their reverence,

For the wild wolf is above all.

Above all of us.”

I hold my breath and stare down the audience, waiting for the finality of my words to sink in.

A few people snap in support, and then the voices begin to murmur, picking up conversations lost when I took the stage and commanded their attention.

I make sure my legs are strong and sure as I stand from my stool, smoothing out my black sweater and bowing my head toward them all, thanking them for their time, almost forgetting to collect my bag before I settle back into my small booth in the corner. I’m eager to watch the next poet take the stage, excited for them to share their art.

I know I don’t really fit in here, I’m way younger than this mostly college-aged crowd, but nobody at my school is into this at all. My parents know where I am and will be picking me up in a little bit, but this coffee shop is one of the few places that feels comfortable to me.

A lot of my friends think that performing at an open mic poetry night is weird, but I don’t let it get to me.

“This seat taken?”

The breath escapes my lungs as I lift my eyes up to find two men, clearly shifters, staring down at me with reverence. Shaking, I set my coffee down before I spill it everywhere.

I don’t know anything about these strangers, but my wolf insists they’re ours.

I shake my head, unable to speak.

They scoot in carefully so as not to spook me, one on either side of me. The small booth suddenly feels about a million times smaller, and the oxygen has been completely removed from it.

“We liked your poem,” the one on my left tells me. His hair looks freshly buzzed, close to his skull, and aside from the shiny piercing in his nose, the thing that is most memorable about him is the sharp line of his brow above eyes about the same color of the now tepid coffee I’m pretending to still be interested in.

“Pretty brave to put yourself up there in front of all these strangers,” the other guy nearly growls as he looks about the room, scooting closer to me.

I fight a smile at his show of possessiveness, because this is the moment I’ve always dreamed of. Human laws and customs don’t always overlap with those of shifters, so my being so much younger than them isn’t too unusual.

When the one with longer hair tied up seems satisfied no one is looking at me, he throws an arm around the back of the booth and smiles down at me, his hazel eyes crinkling at the corner. “I’m Ivan. That’s Trevor. You know who we are, right?”

I nod, still unable to speak.

My hands feel clammy, and my wolf is pacing like mad inside of me, telling me these men were picked by the goddess. I run my hands down my thighs, trying to discreetly dry them off, but of course they notice.

Trevor gently picks up one of my hands, bringing it closer to him so he can hold it up to his mouth and kiss it.

If I wasn’t panicking before, I am now. His mouth just touched me. “We gave you our names, do we get to know yours?”

“I’m Lark. I’ve never seen you guys in here before; why are you here?”

I chastise myself when I realize how rude that sounded, but I’m so outside of myself I can barely function.

Trevor’s eyes narrow a bit and then straighten out and his mouth tilts up in a smirk. “We had some business nearby and wanted to grab a coffee to take with us. Didn’t think we’d be walking in to hear the voice of an angel.”

Great. Now I’m blushing like an idiot. They probably just think I’m a stupid kid. “My voice isn’t that great. It’s lucky that you decided to come here. Otherwise, who knows when we would have run into each other?”

“Indeed,” Ivan drawls, pulling out his phone. “How old are you, Lark?”

“S-sixteen,” I stutter.

“Here’s the deal, sweetheart,” Trevor says as he tilts my chin towards him. “You’ve got some growing to do,” and I can’t help but notice his eyes dip down to my underdeveloped chest as he says this, making me feel self-conscious. “So we’re going to have to take this a little slower than we’d like. Can you handle that, sweetheart?”

“You’re my m-mates. Of course I can wait. I have to finish high school anyway.”

“Good girl,” Ivan says in a deep tone that sends a shiver down my spine. “Do you drive? Can we bring you home or something so we can have a few moments with you and introduce ourselves to your family?”

“Oh, wow. This is happening, isn’t it?”

Trevor’s hand lands on my thigh, making me all tingly. “You’re pretty lucky to have us, Lark. You know that, right? We’re going to be able to look out for you and help you become the woman you were meant to be. Bet none of your friends have anyone batting for them like that.”

“That’s true,” I say with a smile and a drunk sounding giggle. “I only know one other person that has met their mate so far, and she’s always bragging about how hot he is because he’s a senior.”

Ivan scoots out of the booth and offers me a hand while Trevor grabs my bag for me, trashing the coffee I stopped drinking.

“Are you okay, miss? Do you need help?”

I blink at the woman suddenly in front of me and notice her concern for the two men standing really close to me, looking kind of scary. Scary if you aren’t me, anyway. “Oh, no, I’m fine. Thank you, I know these gentlemen. Good friends of the family. Thank you for checking.”

She doesn’t look sure, but Trevor pushes past her with a grunt, grabbing my arm as he does. I send a wave back to her as I’m brought outside, where the air is fresher, and my mind clears a bit.

They walk to the darker side of the building where there are less people and a bunch of cars parked, and a few trees rooted nearby. “Sorry if she made you uncomfortable,” Trevor says as he tucks my hair away from my face. “A lot of people won’t understand us, but as long as you know how we feel for you, that’s all that matters.”

I feel that dopey grin spread on my face again. Oh my gods, is he going to kiss me?

Trevor drops my bag to the ground and lifts me up, tucking my ankles behind his back as he presses my back to the cold and scratchy brick wall. “Is this okay?”

I nod, feeling like a grown up.

“You going to give us a taste of what’s ours?”

I nod once more, relegated to silence from his close proximity.

When his mouth presses to mine, I can taste a faint hint of tobacco and the coffee he must have drunk already, and he presses so forcefully against my mouth that it’s hard to keep up with him. By the time he pulls away, his eyes are dilated and he’s breathing hard, and my lips feel puffy. I press my fingers to them, tracing the new shape as something hard pulses against my bottom.

Oh my gods, is that his penis? They get that hard? “Is that uncomfortable?”

I hang my head in shame as I rest my forehead against him, trying to hide. Me and my stupid mouth.

He laughs, shaking me with him. “You like the way that feels? Someday you’ll let us claim you and you’ll get very acquainted with it.”

I breathe a sigh of relief that he’s not expecting anything right away, because this is already moving really fast. Ivan comes up against my back, completely encasing me as he brushes a kiss on my neck. “My turn,” he whispers before turning my head to him.

His kiss is a little gentler and he tastes of peppermint gum, but it doesn’t last nearly as long. He wipes his mouth when he pulls away, and I’m once again mortified.

“Sorry, I don’t have a lot of practice with the whole kissing thing.”

“That’s okay, sweetheart. It’s kind of cute; I like that you’re all innocent for us.” I smile tentatively back at Ivan, feeling slightly less bad about myself.

“We don’t want your family to hate us, so we’re going to have to put this on pause before it goes any further. I hope you understand that it’s going to be really hard for us to wait for you. It will be you we’re thinking of later when we get home. You’ll have to meet our girlfriend sometime; she’s going to think you’re adorable.” Trevor smiles, like he thinks that was supposed to be a compliment.

Surely that was an actual fist that punched me in the stomach. “G-girlfriend? No. I’m sorry, but that’s really inappropriate.”

“Baby, you can’t expect to wind us up and then not allow us a way to relieve ourselves. It’s you we’ll be thinking of. You’re our mate; the day you’re ready to make this bond real, she’s gone. She’s just a pretty face to pass the time with while we wait for you.”

“I mean…I hate that. You’re right though, I’ve heard it’s really uncomfortable when you…get aroused and don’t take care of it. I don’t want you to be in pain…” I close my eyes and grip on to Trevor a little tighter, wanting to stretch out this moment where it’s just me and them for a little longer. “My dad is going to be here soon; we should probably head to the front of the building.”

“We hurt your feelings, didn’t we? I’m sorry Lark, I knew you weren’t ready to hear that. It’s just, we’re 25. Men have a really high sex drive. And here you are with this tight little body, all pressed against us, and I’m sort of losing my mind. Call your father and tell him you have a ride. We can talk to him, if you want.” Trevor hardly looks chastised, but what am I supposed to say, it’s okay? I feel powerless to stand up for myself.

“Are you sure? He’s used to picking me up here.”

“Lark, we said we would take you. Stop trying to be difficult. Just call your father, already.”

I nod at Ivan and wiggle to get down so I can retrieve my phone out of my bag. Dad answers on the second ring, dependable as always. “Hi daddy, um, so I don’t want you to freak out—”

“What’s going on, Lark? I’m leaving right now.”

“No! Um, I—"

Trevor pulls the phone from my hand gently, bringing it up to his ear. “Hello, Sir. My name is Trevor Gray, and my good buddy Ivan Drake and I just had the marvelous pleasure of meeting your daughter, and we are beyond the moon to tell you she’s our mate.”

I can hear my father’s incredulity as he takes this in and then begins peppering Trevor with questions.

“We’re both 25 Sir, so we know this is a bit delicate, but we have nothing but honorable intentions with her. We are simply asking for the chance to get to know her and her family for now…of course, we understand completely…absolutely. Yes, Sir. We will make sure she gets home to you safely. She’s our treasure now, too. See you soon.”

Trevor looks through my phone, scowling at my background. “Who’s that?”

“Oh, that’s one of my best friends, Cheyenne. She’s going to be so excited when I tell her about you.”

“You two look really close.”

“Almost like sisters,” I say with a smile.

“Well, you’re not going to have a lot of time to hang out now, but I’m sure she’ll understand,” Ivan says as he watches Trevor put their numbers into my phone and send a text to both of them.

“What did Daddy say?”

“He’s waiting for us to bring you home and introduce ourselves, but he seemed happy, I think.”

I take Trevor’s extended hand as they lead me to a shiny lime green car with really dark tinted windows. They have to fold down the front seat to get me in the back, and I try not to be curious about who Ivan is texting while Trevor drives us, punching my address into his navigation system.

There’s a shift happening and I don’t know if I want it to move faster or halt and rewind. Meeting my fated mates is a lot heavier than I ever imagined it would be; but then, I never thought my mates would be so much older than me and find me when I was so young.

“What you thinking about back there? Not having second thoughts about bringing us home, are you?”

I shake my head and meet Trevor’s eyes in the mirror. “It’s just…a lot to process.”

“We’ll look out for you, don’t worry your pretty little head about a thing.”

By the time we pull up to my house, I notice all the lights are on even though everyone is usually locked in their own rooms for the night by now. It’s not so late, but it is a school and work night, and Momma likes to go to bed early.

My brother stands on the porch with my parents, scowling out into the night as Ivan helps me out of their car with the utmost care, brushing a kiss to the top of my hand that has me smiling sweetly up to him.

They’re all charm as they introduce themselves to my parents, keeping themselves a respectful distance away from me as my family lets them inside, offering them tea and cookies.

My mom keeps smiling at me and patting my knee as all the men chat amongst themselves, and I just sip on my peppermint tea for something to keep myself busy. It’s surreal watching these men that I somehow already know interact with my family, in my home.

“The age gap doesn’t bother us,” I perk up to hear just in time from my father. He puts his arm around momma and pulls her to him. “I was in my twenties when I met her, and she had just turned 17. We know it’s near impossible to resist the mate pull, we only ask that you put off anything physical until you all feel ready to make a commitment.”

“Of course, Sir,” Ivan says, nodding earnestly. “We aren’t going to pressure her, we’re just so relieved to have finally met her.” He sends me a smile that surely would have buckled my knees if I were standing.

“This is so exciting!” my momma exclaims. “There’s so much to do. You’ll have to think about when you want to have the mating ceremony; we’ll start shopping for a dress, and you just figure out between the three of you when you’re ready to make it official.”

“Couldn’t come soon enough, ma’am,” Trevor says. They’re so…pleasant, winding my parents around their fingers.

My mom pushes me onto the porch with them to say goodnight when the conversation starts to lull, winking at me as she closes the door behind us.

“I was worried they wouldn’t want us to be together,” Trevor says as he leans his forehead against mine. “We can give you rides whenever you need them, and here,” he says as he pulls his wallet out of his pocket. He removes a small wad of cash and folds it in half, pressing it into my palm. “If you’re ours, we’re going to take care of you. We want you to learn to rely on us for everything. Your parents seem great, and that’s going to make this all so much easier. We’re going to head home, but send us your schedule and call us after school tomorrow, okay?” He kisses me again, wrapping his arms around me and squeezing me so I feel myself relax into it. Some of the stress melts away with the pressure, the unsureness dissipating.

“I will. I don’t need your money though, really.”

“Keep it,” Ivan says as pulls out a credit card from his wallet and adds it to the stack of cash. “We make pretty good money, so use this for whatever. We want you to find a pretty dress for our mating, and we want you to have everything you need.”

Ivan cups my face, looking down into my face and making me feel like an adult as he tucks my hair behind my ears and seems to find joy in just admiring me. “You’re so damn beautiful. Not sure if we told you that or not yet, but you’re absolutely stunning. The goddess has blessed us, indeed.”

This time when he kisses me, it’s a whole lot less awkward. And a whole lot less filled with spit.

His lips press against mine so softly it almost tickles, making me chase after him to keep the pressure between our mouths. Before I know it, he’s picking me up and wrapping his arms around my lower back so we’re closer in height, claiming my mouth with surety.

I’m breathless when he pulls back but he stabilizes me with his hands on my hips. “Sweet dreams, mate. Dream of us.”

He smiles as he walks backward off the porch, Trevor sneaking in one more kiss with a longing I can’t quite describe as they climb into their car and pull out of our gravel driveway, leaving my head spinning.

On lead feet, I haul myself upstairs to get ready for bed, wondering if everything will still be real when I wake up in the morning.