Page 7 of The Bookish Girl’s Guide to Mating with a Werewolf (Mate Hunted #1)

six

ABBY

My wolf snarled and tried to snap her teeth clumsily at my phone’s alarm when it started blaring. I was pretty sure it was in the bathroom, on the countertop. Or in my purse. Or maybe I’d tossed it on the couch next to my pants when I came inside.

I couldn’t remember what I’d done with it.

Nico’s head lifted from the pillow, his eyes hooded with sleep as he looked groggily in the direction of the blaring sound.

I always turned it up as loud as it could go.

Otherwise, I could sleep through it easily.

My wolf apparently didn’t have that problem. And didn’t like alarms.

On that last bit, we definitely agreed.

“Your human probably has to go to work,” Nico mumbled, stroking my wolf’s fur lightly. It calmed her down a little. “If you shift back, I’ll find the noise and shut it off.”

My wolf snapped her teeth at him.

Guess she didn’t want to shift back.

Couldn’t say I blamed her. I wasn’t sure she’d even existed before Wolf Nico bit me in the shower.

His lips curved slightly, like she amused him.

He was a werewolf too, so she probably did.

“We can shift and run together in the forest this afternoon if you let her take over while we figure out what to do about her work,” he added.

The wolf whined.

Then huffed.

She nuzzled his neck and throat for a minute before reluctantly pulling back.

Then, the pain hit.

The shift back was almost as excruciating as the one into wolf form.

Cucumber kept telling me to breathe through it and stop fighting her, but I had no idea how to do that or what it meant.

Eventually, the misery ended.

I was soaked in sweat and panting like a fiend, my naked body plastered over Nico’s delicious bare chest and towel as I recovered. My alarm hadn’t stopped, so the world’s most hellish sound was still blaring in the other room.

Someone’s fist pounded my front door, and a man’s voice yelled, “Turn off your fucking phone! It’s six AM!”

“Shit,” I whisper-groaned against Cucumber’s chest.

He smelled even better in human form.

Felt even better, too.

His erection throbbed against my inner thigh, through the towel. My body flushed.

Good thing I was already red and sweaty.

“I’ve got it.” His voice was low and gravelly.

Goosebumps broke out on my arms.

He eased me off his chest— slid might be the more accurate word, all sweat considered—and strode out of the bedroom.

I buried my face in my pillow and squeezed my eyes shut.

Holy fuck.

I’d just woken up in bed with the sexiest man in the world. If I hadn’t just been through what had to be one of the most painful experiences a person could have, I would’ve pinched myself.

Considering my pain, there was no doubt that the moment was real.

And I had no idea what was coming next.

My alarm shut off, and I let out a long breath into my pillow.

For ten minutes, I needed to stop freaking out about the wolf thing, the Nico thing, the shifting thing, and the, well, cucumber thing, and focus on my job.

Human Nico came back with my phone. He set it down next to me, but I didn’t feel the bed dip, so I didn’t think he sat back down.

“Sorry about hijacking your bed.” His voice was still low and gravelly. My goosebumps didn’t budge. I didn’t let myself look up from the pillow. “I can wash the sheets.”

“It’s fine.” I reached for the phone without picking up my head. My palm slid awkwardly over the mattress, coming up empty.

Warm fingers brushed the sides of mine, and the device was in my hand a moment later.

“Thanks.” I hesitated. “You can sit. No need to be uncomfortable.”

Nico didn’t say anything, but I finally felt the dip.

He definitely left more space than either of our wolves had.

Pulling the phone toward me, I lifted my head off the pillow. My hair was glued to my face, neck, and shoulders with sweat, so I peeled it off my forehead, cheeks, and chin.

My shoulders went still when a large, careful hand gathered the strands off my shoulders and the back of my neck.

Then paused.

Cucumber cleared his throat and released all of my hair slowly over one of my shoulders. “Sorry. I shouldn’t touch you without asking.”

I shouldn’t have liked that he had, but I did anyway.

It was kind of sweet.

Kind of sexy, too.

“Mates don’t do that?” I asked.

“They do. But you technically aren’t my mate yet.”

My forehead creased. “Your friends said I was.”

“It’s complicated. We’re fated mates. My wolf hunted you and bit you. You transformed. That makes you my mate. Because your wolf hasn’t bitten me, she hasn’t accepted me as yours yet. She could still reject me.”

My eyes widened, staring down at the pillow. “Oh.”

Cucumber—Nico—was quiet.

“I know we need to talk, but can you just give me a few minutes to figure out work stuff before we do?” I finally asked.

“Of course.”

I slipped out of bed and padded across the room.

I was still naked.

And sweaty.

Clothes and a shower weren’t too far out of my reach, luckily.

Stepping into the bathroom, I sent a quick text to my department’s head. She was technically my boss.

Lying to her about an illness would be an easy way to get fired, and I was on good enough terms with her not to bother with that.

She was usually on campus before I got there, so I was sure she was up already.

Me

Any chance I can take a week off? I have the hours and just adopted a dog.

It wasn’t that far from the truth.

If Nico was already my mate, that seemed close enough to a pet adoption.

And I hadn’t taken a single sick day last year, so one week off shouldn’t have been the end of the world.

Department Head

Dogs are not children, Abigail.

Me

I know. Maternity leave would be longer than a week.

I turned the shower on.

Department Head

Do not call it maternity leave. Be back next Monday.

Me

I will. Thank you!

Department Head

Enjoy your bonding time

I sent a quick email to my classes that our lectures were cancelled for the day and set my phone on the countertop.

The wolf in me reared her head. Pain blossomed on my back, and I grabbed the countertop for support as I swore. Loudly.

Cucumber appeared in the doorway, and my wolf stopped trying to take over my body immediately.

“Easy.” He reached toward me, then pulled his hand back after a moment of hesitation. “Most female wolves don’t let their mates out of their sight during the chase.”

“The chase?”

He dipped his head. “It’s the label we use for the portion of the mating process where the female wolf decides if she’s going to accept the male who claimed her or not.”

“That’s so dramatic.” I closed my eyes. “She’s obviously going to accept you. She can’t get enough of you. She even slept on top of you all night.”

“It’s not quite that simple.”

I opened my eyes and met his gaze in the mirror. “What do you mean?”

“Your feelings and preferences will play a role in whether or not she chooses me. One of the men in my pack was rejected because his fated mate was only attracted to women. Another was rejected because his mate was in love with and engaged to another man.”

“So rejection is pretty common?”

Cucumber—Nico—shook his head. “Only one in every several thousand mate bonds ends in rejection. Fate is usually right.”

“Then how big is your pack?”

“Eight of us live on the pack’s land. Two of those are a mated pair. The other three are paired off with women and living in the main part of Moon Ridge. Only one of those three come around very often, but he brings his mate a lot when he does.”

“So it’s complicated, but basically eight or ten?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Six is the typical pack number, so we’re a little different. There are six different roles among werewolves. Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma, Omega, and Sigma.”

“I’ve only read about three of those.”

“The roles aren’t like your books claim. And my pack doesn’t use them anyway.”

“You’re mostly men?”

“Yeah. Everyone in town calls us the Feral Pack. It started as an insult, but at this point, we’re just the odd men out.”

“Odd how?” I checked.

“We live outside the city, and are more in-tune with our inner animals than most. A lot of them pay us to train them to find peace with their wolves so their shifts are less painful.”

“And two of you are rejected.”

“Four.”

My eyebrows shot upwards. “But not you?”

“No. I’ve never had a mate.”

“Until now.”

His eyes darkened.

I didn’t let my gaze wander down to the obvious tent in his towel. “Should I apologize for potentially ending your bachelorhood?”

“No.” His answer was quick, his voice gritty.

“You said that way too fast for me to believe it.”

“I thought fate had decided I didn’t need a mate. I was content with it. Most of us end up paired off before we reach our mid-twenties.”

“And you are…”

“Thirty.”

Relief swept through me. I had nothing against women who were with men a lot younger than them, but considering my career, I would feel pretty weird for being mated to a college-aged guy. “I’m twenty-eight,” I said.

“Young for a college professor.”

“That’s the point of the program.”

He nodded once. “Do you need to go to work? I can stay through your classes so your wolf doesn’t panic.”

I shook my head. “I told them I’ll be out all week so I have time to bond with the dog I adopted.”

“According to your friends, he doesn’t make a very convincing dog.”

“Probably because he’s a wolf.”

Cucumber’s lips curved upward, just slightly.

I got the vibes that he didn’t smile much. Or laugh much. Though some stupid part of me itched to be the one who changed that, I’d dated enough men to be confident that guys didn’t change unless they wanted to.

“So how does this usually work?” I gestured between us, using the mirror so I didn’t have to face him. “Or I guess I should ask, do you want it to work? If you never expected a mate and still don’t want one, I’d get it.”

I was slightly self-conscious about the fact that I was still naked. Though I was proud of my body, we were obviously built very differently. He was athletic in every way, and I was… not.