The Reluctant Wolf (Book 1 Cloverleah Pack) (17 page)

“So, I am still not seeing the problem here.”

Kane dropped his head and mumbled something.  Cheryl slapped him on his arm.  “Speak up Kane. Don’t make me twist your ear.”

“I asked Shawn if he would join with me in the Alpha Mating Ritual and he said yes and we are going to do it tomorrow.  Shaman Paulo is going to conduct the ritual and yeah, Shawn and me would really like you to be there.” 

The words came out in such a rush it took Cheryl a moment to decipher what her son had said. She looked up at Kane who had such a little-boy-lost look on his face, his eyes hopeful even as he waited for her to yell at him.  Suddenly she squealed and wrapped his arms around him again.

“Oh my gosh, this is so wonderful.  Have you got your suit?  Does Shawn have one, or can we get him one.  I’ve got to sort out food.  Will it just be the men who are here, or will others be coming.  Oh my gosh there is so much to do.  Do the others know yet?
”

“You don’t mind?”

“Oh Kane, what you and that young man said today did make sense to me, you know.  I might be set in my ways but seeing you happy is the best thing to happen to my heart since you left.  I watched you come down stairs with him this afternoon and you had so much happiness in your face. You glow with it. And the way Shawn looks at you, like you are the moon, the stars and everything combined - how could I not be happy for you, both of you.  I might have seen it earlier if you hadn’t been such a grumpy mess when I arrived this morning.” 

Kane searched his mother’s face for any sign of deception and all he saw was love and acceptance.  “Gods, I have missed you so much,” he said, hugging her again.

“Yes, well I have missed you too, more than even I realized.  Now about this ceremony.  Does anyone else apart from the Shaman know about it yet?”

Shaking his head, Kane said softly, “No, I wanted you to be the first to know after I had sorted the Shaman.  Shawn doesn’t have any parents of his own, his mother died
giving birth to him.  He felt it was important that I tell you first and ask you to be there for me.”

“That poor boy hasn’t got a mother? Oh, saints, well he does now.  Can you get him out here for a minute?” Kane raised his head and thought for a second and then smiled at his mom.  “He is just coming.”
  Moments later his mate’s delicious scent filled his nose and sent a thrill through his body.  He turned to see Shawn standing in the shadows a worried look on his face.

He went to reach an arm out to pull Shawn closer, but his mother got to him first.  Squealing again Cheryl scurried over to him and gave the startled man a huge hug.
  Shawn had to bend down to hug her in return, looking over her to Kane who was grinning like a loon.

So I take it she is all right about this?

Yep, looks like it.

I am so glad for you.

Be glad for both of us - seems she thinks she is your mother now as well.

What?

Pay attention to what she is babbling and you will see.

And sure enough as Shawn listened to the slight woman in his arms he could hear her mention words he had waited
a lifetime to hear.  Words about family, having a mother and being cared about. Reaching his hand out he pulled Kane close until Cheryl had finally had her say.

When she finally straightened, Cheryl went right back to business.  “Okay, now I have to sort clothes and food…oh and drinks.  You could have given me a bit more warning, but then no, I suppose you couldn’t.  Never mind, I have some calls to make.  Do you have some men who can take me town
in the morning to help with deliveries and stuff?”  She looked at Kane, her bossy manner back in force.

“Yes Mom, I can send
Scott and Troy with you first thing.  There is a decent store in Cloverleah and you should be able to get everything you need there.  Just charge it all to my account, Custom Rides.”

“Nonsense, your Dad will be paying for this and I won’t hear another word about it.”

“Er…are you going to tell Dad before we do this?”  Kane felt a bit uncomfortable at the thought of his father paying for a celebration he would not want his son to have - at least not with his chosen mate.

Cheryl seemed to understand and she patted his cheek.  “Your Dad is a lot older now and starting to see that all of the things we were taught in the pack might not have been right.  Not only
about gay mates but other things as well.  I don’t expect him to come to the ceremony himself, but I am his mate.  I will tell him and I will let him know he has an obligation to his son.  So stop worrying about it. Now what about clothes?  Do you boy’s own suits?” 

She looked at Shawn and Kane’s typical outfit of jeans and not much else.
Kane looked Shawn up and down with a hint of lust in his eyes. “I think my mate looks pretty hot like this, myself.”  Catching his mother’s expression, Kane rearranged his face and said, “Yes, I have a suit.  Uh, Shawn lost all of his possessions in a fire a couple of days ago, but he uh…”

“I can get a suit, ma’am, that is not a problem.”  It was the first thing Shawn had said since coming out on the porch and his soft words, laced with power, raced down Kane’s spine straight to his cock.  Kane shifted a bit in his jeans, and Shawn smirked as if he knew the effect he was having.  But when Kane looked at Shawn, Shawn was looking at Cheryl with a look of innocence on his face.

“Okay, well that is good.” Cheryl looked at Shawn as if she didn’t believe him.

“Honest ma’am, I won’t turn up at the ceremony in jeans.
”  His words rippled out and Kane struggled to repress the moan welling in his throat.  Damn his jeans were getting tight. Shawn was smiling at Cheryl and apparently ignoring him, but Kane knew his mate better than that.

Cheryl seemed satisfied though.  “Right,” she said looking at Kane, “I have some calls to make and you two had better get your butts inside and tell the others.”

“We will be there in a minute, Mom.  I just want to talk to Shawn for a moment.”

“Talk, yeah, well don’
t take to long.” With a smirk of her own, Cheryl went back into the house to find the phone.

Kane leaned up against the porch rail and dropped his head back while trying to rearrange the solid erection he had in his jeans. “Damn, your voice, what you do to me.”  He felt Shawn move closer until he was standing chest to chest with him. 

“And what do I do to you?” Shawn’s voice softly rumbled in his ear.

“You…you know what you do.”  Kane’s voice was getting breathless now and he knew he was close to begging, for something, anything to quell his rising need.

Shawn shifted until he was standing along Kane’s side, his arm resting on Kane’s shoulder.  Then Kane felt Shawn speak softly in his ear again, his voice as hypnotic as ever.

“Undo your jeans and pull your cock free.”  Panting, Kane rushed to obey the command in Shawn’s voice.  When he got his cock free from his jeans, he gripped it tightly in one hand,
desperately wanting some kind of release.

“I didn’t say you could touch yourself.”

Shit. Fuck. Damn.  Kane dropped his cock which bobbed wildly looking for some kind of friction.  He fisted his hands by his side so that he would resist the urge to jerk himself off and couldn’t hold back a softly strangled, “please.”

Keeping his tone even and strong, laced with power, Shawn spoke again.  “
What is it you want Kane, my lover, my mate?  Do you want to feel my lips on neck, your chest, your abs or maybe you need something more.  Do you want to feel my mouth encasing your shaft, taking you down in that warm moist hole, my tongue running up and down your tip until I start swallowing the head of your cock so you can feel my muscles convulse around you?  Is that what you want?”

Kane’s body was on fire.  He was panting so hard it was hard to think let alone speak.  Shawn’s voice touched him deeper than any caress and thrilled every cell of his body.

“I…uh…anything, something, please.”

“Or maybe you want to fuck me?  Maybe you want to push me up against the wall and plunge your cock deep into my
ass, feeling every muscle in there grasping your shaft so tightly ever time you flick your hips, grasping and sliding until you have no choice but to shoot your load deep inside of me.  Hmm, is that what you want my lover?” 

Shawn’s voice was even deeper now the power more intense and Kane knew he was close to coming.
He was beyond speech and he just moaned low and long.  He locked his knees so he could stay upright and allowed Shawn’s voice to rock through his body.  He was so damned close he could feel his balls rising and his cock twitched madly, pre-come leaking continuously.

“Or I could fuck you.  Would you like that lover?  Would you love the feel of my tongue on your
ass, wetting you, soaking you so that you have no choice but to open up to me.  Do you want to feel the hard shaft of my cock pushing you open, slowly plunging into you?  Do you want me to plunge into you again and again until you can’t think straight and all you know is the feel of my cock deep inside of you? Can you imagine how you would feel as I came inside of you, my own seed pulsing inside you, coating you, marking you, making you mine?”

So damn close.  Kane’s fists were clenched so tight
, his butt was tight, everything felt tight, just waiting for that moment of release.

“
Look at me.”  Kane looked over and met his mate’s intense gaze.

“
Come for me.” Slow, quiet and deadly. At Shawn’s command, Kane felt his whole body respond to the power in the man’s voice.  Groaning, he came, hard and fast.  His come jetted out into the air, load after load after load, his balls throbbing with each pulse.  When he was finally done Kane slumped forward and would have fallen if Shawn hadn’t caught him.

Shawn held him close, stroking his hair and down his cheek until Kane got his breathing back under control.  Then he reached down and pulled Kane’s jeans back up to cover him, his hand tenderly tucking his cock safely in the denim.  “I love how you can come apart like that.  You look so beautiful when you do.”  Shawn spoke softly against Kane’s hair.

Kane grinned and reached in to kiss him.  “Only for you, my sweet, only for you.” He reached down and palmed Shawn’s erection, straining at his jeans, and looked at his mate in askance.

“No time, someone
’s coming.  Claude I think.”

Kane grumbled, but holding tightly to his mate he turned as he heard footsteps approaching them.  Claude appeared complete with two plates of food.

“Thought you two might be getting hungry out here, seeing as you are both being complete snobs.”

“Yeah, well you know how it is Claude.  New mate, someone due to try and kill him the day after tomorrow.  Things getting pretty intense
around here at the moment.  You have to snatch your private moments when you can.”  Kane was joking as he spoke but Claude would be a fool to miss the strain in Kane’s voice.  And Claude was no fool. 

“So what’s actually happening here?  Why is Shawn in danger?”

Shawn reached over Kane to grab one of the plates and started eating, listening as Kane explained about Shawn’s father, his eviction from the pack for his differences and the threats to Shawn’s life over the past ten years.

“Is that why you left San Antonio?”  Claude was speaking to Shawn now.

“Yeah.  Two hunters attacked me in the alley behind the club as I was on my way home.  When I got home it was trashed so I knew it was time to move on again.”

“Why didn’t you ask Damien for help?  He thinks a lot of you and I doubt that he would have cared about your magic or whatever it is that makes you different.”

Shawn thought about what Claude had said for a moment.  Thinking back Damien probably would have helped, but then that would have put his own pack in danger and Shawn had never wanted to bring harm to people around him.

“I would never have knowingly put any Alpha or pack in danger and even if Damien had seen my powers as something positive rather than a threat to his leadership, his pack would have been in danger.”

“So what about Kane’s pack?”  Claude was being perfectly reasonable with his questions, but Kane was starting to feel a bit antsy.

“I wouldn’t let him leave
, okay.  Even after we mated, he tried to leave and I wouldn’t let him,” He growled. “My pack accepts him totally and Shawn has instigated this challenge with his uncle so that the trouble will stop - because of us.  Believe me, I don’t want him fighting Xavier, but Shawn believes this is the only way to stop the hunters once and for all.  I trust him on that.”

Claude looked between the two men and nodded.

“Glad we could be here then.  Hopefully we can be of some help.”  He looked back into the house as a loud cheer erupted.  “Sounds like your mother has broken the news without you Kane, congratulations on getting this man to agree to bind with you in the Alpha ceremony tomorrow.”  He grinned at Shawn. “Who’d have thought Master Shawn would be getting married. Ha, wait until I tell Damien that. He will be gutted.” 

Laughing, Claude went back inside.
Kane swallowed his last mouthful of food and looked at Shawn to see if he had finished eating.  Seeing his mate nod, he threw his arm around the man’s waist and together they went back inside.