Jacks Marcy The Alpha Wolfs Convenient Mate

The Vampire District 10

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Nick DeWitt, the leading alpha of his pack, was caught in a
vampire slaver's trap, but fortunately, he's rescued by a drop dead

gorgeous human who just so happens to be Nick's mate.

Nick wants to take it slow with Oliver Moreau, the handsome man
who came to his rescue. He's aware that humans don't think the

same way as wolves, so he must tread carefully, but at the same
time he needs to return to his territory.

He offers Oliver a the chance to complete their bond within three
days before. Their mating can unite his pack and the human

village in a secure pact that will really give the vampires
something to be scared of.

If Oliver can't get over his human ideas on what it means to fall in
love and mate on first sight, then Nick's wolf will go wild, and he
will become the danger everyone fears even more than vampires.

Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Paranormal,
Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 35,379 words

THE ALPHA WOLF’S

CONVENIENT MATE

The Vampire District 10

Marcy Jacks

EVERLASTING CLASSIC

MANLOVE

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THE ALPHA WOLF’S CONVENIENT MATE
Copyright © 2013 by Marcy Jacks
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62740-071-8

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THE ALPHA WOLF’S

CONVENIENT MATE

The Vampire District 10

MARCY JACKS

Chapter One

Nicholas DeWitt was glad to finally get out of that stuffy vampire

mansion. Things had been too tense in the Fenrir house, considering
Nick had attacked it on the word of a former alpha, now dead, who
had laid some complicated story of betrayal and mass murder at
Nick's feet.

Everyone had gotten all riled up, Nick included. He didn’t like

knowing that the vampires were coming into the werewolf district for
their slaves as much as he didn't like that they were using humans as
well as werewolves to serve.

Tristan Fenrir, however, was not what he’d been expecting. The

noble family was named for the wolves, for God’s sake, and oddly
enough, the vampire was even mated to another werewolf.

Ultimately, Nick was sure that that werewolf had been lying to

him to protect his mate, but Nick was officially finished. He’d come,
and he’d seen all that he needed to see to know that this particular
house of vampires and their servants, next to none of whom were
guards, wasn’t a danger to anyone.

An agreement had been made. Tristan was in communication with

a free human village, which only cemented Nick’s approval of the

8 Marcy

Jacks

man, and now Nick and his pack were on their way to said human
village.

A messenger could hardly be sent in these dangerous times, but

Lord Tristan and his mate, along with Lord Daren and the human he
was also married to—another wonder Nick was having trouble
wrapping his mind around—had all written letters for him to present
to the leaders of the village.

A new age was dawning in the world, and it seemed as if the

vampire district was crumbling around the nobles and they were
helpless to do anything about it.

If there was anything that Nick could do to speed that process

along, he wanted to be a part of it.

It was about damn time the vampires got a dose of reality anyway.

Some of them seemed to be coming along just nicely where that was
concerned, so it was only a matter of time before the rest all did, or
they died defending their backward ways.

He and his wolves were running now. Everyone was in wolf form

and keeping up well enough, with the exception of Acelin, who was
remaining in his man form and, while not lagging too far behind,
couldn’t go as quickly as the others because his own vampire mate
definitely wouldn’t be able to keep up with the pack.

It had slowed down travel a bit, but now that they were within

range of the village, maybe an hour’s run, Nick wanted to speed
things up. He was already starting to smell other people. His pack had
made peace with a noble house of vampires. It seemed unreal at the
best of times. He was eager to see if the same could be done with this
mysterious and accepting village so that finally some walls could
finally be broken—

Nick’s thoughts were cut off, and he yowled as he suddenly found

himself flung upside down and dangling in the air through a heavy net
of thick rope.

A trap!

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

More nets sprung as his pack members fell to the same

carelessness that Nick had. They’d been running too quickly, not
paying any attention to where they were going and what was ahead of
them, and even when their pack alpha was caught first, they hadn’t
been able to skid to a halt in time before half the pack was also
hanging from nets that had been roped to the trees.

Nick immediately shifted. “How in the bloody fucking hell did I

not see these coming?”

He was furious at himself for making such a careless mistake with

his pack. They were all used to running around their territory in the
werewolf district, which, for the most part, could be counted on for
being trap-free. Only once in all the years that Nick had been in
charge had roaming humans ever tried entering his space to set traps,
and that hadn’t gone so well for them.

He should’ve been more careful!
Theo and Daryl were barking uselessly in their wolf forms

beneath him. They were among the few who hadn’t been caught in
traps, and their barking was getting the others all riled up, making
them useless as well. Didn’t it occur to either of them that they might
be helping more if they shifted and cut Nick and the others down?

He was about to yell that down to them when a gunshot sounded

in the air. Another dozen or so nets sprung from some hidden place in
the shrubs, blanketing the entire area and capturing the last of Nick’s
wolves.

They all barked, whined, and howled as they tried to chew their

way through the nets to attack whoever it was that was attacking
them.

“Shut up!” Nick yelled. There was immediate silence.
Nick took in a calming breath. Acelin was still out there with his

mate. Perhaps they could do something about this. Or maybe these
were the people Nick had scented not too long ago and they could be
reasoned with.

He had known he was getting into human territory, after all.

10 Marcy

Jacks

The problem was that vampires and humans could smell

remarkably alike. They only thing that differentiated them from each
other was that vampires had fangs, drank blood, and hardly ever aged.
There wasn’t exactly a specific scent to that, and while some
werewolves could pinpoint the difference, Nick had never had enough
contact with vampires, even over the last couple of days, to be able to
do that himself.

His fears were confirmed when three men, all dressed in the

traditional black, vampire daylight uniforms, stepped out of their
hiding place in the trees.

Dropped down, more like it. They’d been hiding up here the entire

time? Just waiting for prey?

Fucking bastards. Nick growled at him.
One of the men pointed a black gloved finger at him. “That one’s

definitely the alpha. Did you hear the way the rest all went silent
when he commanded them?”

His comrades nodded.
A vampire assassin’s daylight uniform was basically a skintight

black suit. It was entirely black and clung to the body, even the mask,
which had black-tinted goggles so that the bloodsuckers would be
able to see. Alex, Acelin’s mate, was currently wearing something
similar so that he could travel with the pack during the day.

“I am the alpha of this pack,” Nick said, admitting to what the

vampires already knew. “Leave my wolves here, unharmed, and I will
come with you without a fight.”

Everyone knew that vampires tended to want the alphas for their

own personal guard dogs. There were other alphas in the pack, and all
of them were as trapped as Nick was, but a leading alpha was
something different, and Nick hoped he could use that as a bartering
tool. He also hoped that these vampires would be stupid enough to
think that one leading alpha who would not fight would be worth
more than two dozen other alphas.

No, not that stupid at all. Unfortunately.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

“You must think pretty highly of yourself if you think we’re going

to pass up this many werewolves for one alpha leader,” said one of
the vampires.

“I’d wager the lot of them are worth more than him,” said another.
The third took that as his hint to pull a pair of elaborate daggers

from the holsters on his hips. He stalked over to one of Nick’s alphas,
Victor, flicking the blades in his hands.

Victor saw the man coming, and he growled low in his throat, but

he knew well enough that there was nothing he could do if the
bloodsucker really wanted to stab him. Still, he didn’t whine or try to
cower away to save his own life.

He always was something of a hard ass about holding his ground,

even when there was little to no point.

“No, don’t hurt them. I’ll cooperate. I’ll go with you and I’ll make

sure they will, too,” Nick said.

He would do no such thing. The second the nets were off, Nick

was confident that he and his wolves would be able to take out three
vampires, regardless of whether or not Nick and the others were
leashed and collared first.

“I don’t believe you,” said the first vampire, who was still

standing with the other one while—fuck, Nick wished he knew their
names, or at least had something made up he could call them, but they
were all about the same build and wearing the same clothes—the
vampire with the long daggers continued to stand over Victor’s
trapped body, almost right beneath Nick.

“Should I show him what happens to wolves we don’t trust?”

Daggers asked.

“I say kill him right now. The rest of the pack will have no one to

follow if he’s the alpha and we kill him.”

And Nick didn’t have a beta that could take over should he be

killed. Fucking perfect.

Nick’s pack all went apeshit as they barked and struggled to free

themselves from the nets. Even Victor, who was mostly always stoic

12 Marcy

Jacks

and grumpy, was flipping out beneath the thick ropes that kept him
down, but the vampire ignored him and drew one of his hands back
that was holding the dagger, as though he meant to throw the business
end into Nick’s chest.

“Nothing personal,” Daggers said.
Nick didn’t move. He was so sure it wasn’t.
Another gunshot sounded. This one didn’t come from the gun in

either of the other two vampires’ hands. Nick could tell because one
of the vampires in question flew backward as though he’d been
punched in the chest by some invisible force.

It hadn’t been a punch. The spray of blood that flew from the

fresh wound, the scent of it perfuming the air, was all the proof Nick
and his wolves needed that someone else was on the playing field, and
they were shooting at the vampires.

They weren’t assassins for nothing, however. To the credit of the

two vampires, they didn’t turn and gawp at their now-dead friend,
whose corpse was smoking slightly through the hole that had been
made in his daylight uniform.

They immediately rushed into action, vanishing through the trees

as another gunshot sounded after them. One of the vampires yowled,
almost wolflike, through the trees as he was hit with one of the
bullets. Nick couldn’t tell if it was a killing shot or not because he
couldn’t see a damned thing, but he knew enough that one dead
comrade and one injured would at least mean that the third was
definitely not going to circle back and try something cute on them.

They would be coming back eventually, however. Assassins were

notorious for not giving up until they were dead.

“Is everyone all right?” Nick called, very aware of the fact that

whoever it was who’d saved them might not be an ally, and he was
still very naked and completely helpless, as were his wolves until
Acelin and his mate could get here. Providing they didn’t run into the
retreating vampire assassins.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

The regular sound of bones snapping and flesh realigning told him

that many of the wolves were resuming their human forms, probably
hoping that the addition of thumbs and fingers would be able help
with getting the nets off of them, where their sharp canines had failed.

“How is it the entire pack fell for this and got caught?” Victor

rumbled in that deep, usually unimpressed voice of his.

“It’s my fault,” Nick said immediately. Being the pack alpha

made that a reality that he wasn’t about to shirk.

“Let’s just get out of here before whoever it was who chased off

those vampires gets here.”

“Little late for that, guys,” said a completely new voice that Nick

had never heard before, but wanted to hear again as it sent a violent
shiver down every vertebra of his spine. The result was that his cock
hardened as his blood pumped fast and hot through his body.

He immediately turned, but he did it so fast that he got the net he

was hanging in swinging just enough that it made it difficult to see
whoever it was who was beneath him.

Even though the rest of his pack was mostly in their human form,

they all growled, and some even barked distrustfully at the intruder.

The young man, who looked to be no more than twenty-five or so,

maybe even a little younger, stood entirely out of harm’s reach and
didn’t appear the least bit concerned that he was in front of several
angry and netted werewolves.

Had Nick’s feet been on the earth, he was pretty sure he would

have felt it shifting beneath him, because never in his entire life did he
feel the things he was experiencing now.

Well, he had, but never this strong. His dick throbbed and

lengthened to its maximum capacity. It was almost as if the damned
thing was trying to point at the man beneath him. He really hoped the
netting was keeping the other man from seeing it.

It was like he’d crossed the point of no return. The handsome

man’s eyes flickered up. They were a pale green, which fit nicely with
soft brown hair. Light earth colors, Nick’s favorite. The only thing

14 Marcy

Jacks

that was off was some of the premature grays that streaked his hair.
Not a lot, and Nick had to wonder if he would have even noticed it if
he didn’t have such great eyesight.

He also had a little scar that ran through his bottom lip just on the

right side, like someone had swiped an incredibly sharp blade at him
and he’d ducked out of the way just in time to prevent something even
more important from being sliced.

Nick couldn’t help but wonder how it would feel to kiss and

nibble on that lip. Better still, what would those lips feel like wrapped
around his aching prick?

The second that thought passed through his mind, his treacherous

cock gave a happy throb, like it thought that was what was going to
immediately happen. Nick knew he was in trouble.

“Sir?” Victor’s voice pulled him out of his distracted thoughts.
Nick blinked himself awake, just like he was coming out of a

dream, to realize that everyone was looking up at him, including his
mysterious rescuer.

The knowledge that he’d spaced out while staring at the guy just

cemented what Nick already suspected. Mate. The man down there
was his mate, and Nick was already desperate to claim him, to fuck
him in every way possible and put his scent all over the man so that
no one else in his pack could question who he was mated to.

“Fuck.”

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Chapter Two

“You understand why the village is a little wary of having so

many wolves on the property?” Brian, who was apparently the leader
of the small group of huts that made up his village, asked.

Nick nodded. “I do, sir.”
The man might not be a wolf, and he had tendencies that leaned

more toward beta than alpha, but it was through his leadership that
this large group of a hundred or so humans had survived.

Nick’s pack was roughly a third of that size, and it would

probably be less once he went back to the werewolf district, where he
still had to take care of some interlopers who had put his entire pack
in danger through a simple, and utterly stupid, lie.

He had only intended to come to the village and make himself

known for a quick visit, giving the leader and his second-in-command
and son—though Nick didn’t see a resemblance—Hawke, who was
definitely an alpha, the letters from the Fenrir house of vampires
proving that he and his pack could not only be trusted, but also useful
when it came to the rebellion against the vampires.

That visit was going to have to be extended, however. Nick’s eyes

flickered to the man who had essentially prevented him and his
wolves from being taken, possibly skinned for the pelts, or even used
as slaves themselves.

Oliver Moreau. The name rolled off of Nick’s tongue, and the

only thing that kept him from repeating it was that he didn’t want to
look like he was losing his mind in front of his pack.

16 Marcy

Jacks

Any more than he already was. He wondered how many members

of his pack had scented his arousal, and were just keeping tight-lipped
about it out of respect for him.

“I don’t completely think you do,” Brian said, setting aside the

letters. “Anderson is one of the villagers here, and he came from the
werewolf district. You don’t exactly match the stories he told about
werewolves.”

“Is he a werewolf?” Nick asked.
“He is now,” Brian replied.
Nick looked to the side at his second, Victor. He was an alpha all

the way, but the man still acted as Nick’s beta. He enjoyed watching
people too much, trying to figure them out before he rushed into a
conflict, which had been a major factor in Nick’s decision, which he’d
made in a rush after the incident at the Fenrir house when he realized
there was no second-in-command to take over should he be killed.

He’d decided that one was needed, and now that Victor was filling

that spot, Nick didn’t know why he didn’t appoint the man sooner. He
was doing a pretty bang-up job. Nick thought so anyway. He was
studiously watching everything, so that had to account for something.

Nick put his attention back to the humans before him. Oliver was

in the group, and Nick believed the man was aware of the spark
between them, but not aware of what exactly that was. Yet.

He laced his fingers together, going for calm and collected. He

wanted to give his mate the impression that he was a man worthy of
having. So far he hadn’t done that by needing to have both himself
and his entire pack rescued from slave-hunting vampires because of
his own ineptitude.

Oliver would need better than that. Nick wanted to be better.
“I’m sorry about what happened to the man. From what I

understand, he was the one who went with Marrok to the Romonoff
house to save his mate?”

He tried to recall the story that had been told to him through

Marrok and his new family of humans and vampires. Alex Romonoff

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

couldn’t offer that much information since he himself had only been
in Marrok and Anderson’s presence for a few minutes.

Currently, his new vampire addition to the pack was off paying a

visit to his brother, who was residing in the village with his lover.

A strange mixed bowl was what this village was, but Nick liked it.
“He did.” Hawke was the one to speak. “We never even knew he

was a werewolf for the longest time. Not until recently, and he always
spoke about other werewolves as being vicious animals. No offense,
since I can clearly see that’s not the case with you.”

Nick smiled and decided to let the man’s racism against his kind

slide. For now, and only because he genuinely seemed to mean no
offense when he said it. Usually, anyone who said the words no
offense tended to mean the exact opposite.

“It’s actually not the case with a lot of werewolves. If anything, I

would wager that the wolves who attacked and turned him were wild
and roaming without a pack alpha.”

“Alphas keep the rest of the pack from going wild?” Oliver asked,

green eyes going wide with interested at the new information.

Ah, Nick had been hoping he’d hear the man speak again. “Not

necessarily, but it helps. Werewolves have a pack mentality, whether
they go wild or not. We’re drawn to other groups, especially strong
ones. If there’s a wild and rabid werewolf in my district, then it’ll run
rampant until someone either puts it down, or it joins a group of other
wild werewolves, and even that won’t stop it.

“Wild werewolves in packs can also turn on each other incredibly

easily. A lot of the weaker ones will die because they can’t get their
share of the food, or they’ll be left behind if they’re injured. Or even
eaten by the other wolves.”

Oliver shivered, and Nick figured he’d done enough talking about

the more grim aspects of being a werewolf.

“But,” he said quickly. “No one in my pack is wild. In fact, a wild

werewolf can be pulled back into the right state of mind if they have
the support of a pack like mine.”

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Jacks

“One with an alpha and other werewolves who aren’t wild?”

Oliver asked.

“Exactly,” Nick said. He held the man’s gaze now that he had it,

noting the way Oliver wouldn’t look away from him. “My pack, and
other healthy packs, go out hunting the wild ones. Those who can be
saved are saved, preventing deaths from human and wolf populations.
The ones who can’t be saved, we put down.”

“I guess Anderson’s village was just a product of wild

werewolves who weren’t put down in time,” Hawke said.

There was nothing in his voice that condemned Nick or the rest of

his pack, all of whom, aside from Victor, were outside hanging
around, half clothed now that Acelin had caught up with them with
the spare pants that Tristan had sent them off with.

He hoped they weren’t scaring the villagers too much.
“Pretty much,” Nick said.
“You lot were lucky that Oliver came to help you,” Brian said,

taking control of the conversation again, and he looked over at the
man in question. “You weren’t stationed to be out there. No one goes
that far. Not that today it wasn’t worth it, but any other time and it
would’ve been you they caught in those nets.”

Nick’s inner wolf barely let out a grumble when his mate was

being spoken to like that. Probably because Nick agreed with the man,
in an odd sort of way.

Pack mentality stated that the alpha had to be obeyed, and Oliver

hadn’t obeyed his alpha, an act which could have gotten himself
killed had the assassins not been distracted.

Oliver shifted and cleared his throat. “Sorry, sir,” he said.
“What were you doing all the way out there anyway?” Hawke

asked.

The man’s face darkened. Not with anger, but it was clear that he

was embarrassed. “Just thinking.”

“Thinking?” Hawke asked.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

“I don’t know. I just…wanted to go for a walk,” Oliver said. He

looked like he was about to cross his arms, but then thought better of
it. Likely he didn’t want to look like he was getting defensive.

Nick smiled wide. He knew exactly what it was that Oliver had

wanted out there. He’d been drawn to Nick.

He was right. He had to be. Oliver was his mate.
His stupid dick jolted again, but Nick managed to keep enough

control to prevent a full-on erection.

“If I may?” Nick asked, being extra polite about this, mindful that

what he was about to suggest was going to come off as being…well,
strange.

Brian lifted one bushy brow at him. “Yes?”
Nick cleared his throat. “Please don’t punish him. I think I might

have the reason why he was out there, but it would be better if I
explained it to you and your second. Alone.”

“Alone?” Hawke asked.
Oliver was looking both confused and panicky, like he didn’t

know what Nick was planning on saying to Brian and Hawke, but
scared that it would be something that would get him into trouble.

He really had no idea.
“Well, my second will be here, too, but I’m about to suggest

something that will seem a little far out there for you. Being human
and all.”

Brian and Hawke looked at each other, and then they turned to

everyone else who was either sitting at or standing around the small
table that took up space in the equally small kitchen area of the village
leader’s home.

Frederik, brother to Tristan and Derek, put his daylight hood over

his head and went. As did Hank, James, and a couple of other human
males who were standing around, guarding their leader against the
new strangers in the house.

Oliver was the only one who continued to hesitate. He was

looking right at Nick, suspicion and curiosity in his lime green eyes.

20 Marcy

Jacks

Nick smiled at him. Even now he was drawn to the other man,

wanted to be close to him, learn his touch and the taste of his mouth
and tongue.

Maybe that reflected in his eyes, because his face turned a shade

pink before he abruptly turned around and moved for the door, just
like everyone else had.

He stopped outside and turned back to look at Nick through the

doorway. Their staring contest was cut off when the door was shut
after him by Hawke, who sighed loudly as he moved toward one of
the shut windows.

“Not that I don’t like Frederik or anything, but I’m so glad when

he doesn’t spend the day at my place,” he said opening the windows.
“Keeping one vampire away from the daylight is bad enough in my
small house.”

“You are mated to a vampire as well?” Nick asked, shocked at the

news.

“Yeah. Well, we don’t call it mating, but I married him, so it’s

basically the same thing,” Hawke explained.

Excitement continued to bubble within Nick. “This really is

amazing, you know. I never thought I’d see the day when humans and
other paranormals started coming together again.”

“Again?” Brian asked with a chuckle. “You mean they were ever

together?”

“Not out in the open. I mean, it was secretive, but yes,” Nick said.
“Wolves howl of a time when humans ruled the land, and

vampires stayed hidden away in the night while werewolves hunted in
their packs during the day,” Victor said. He wasn’t much for speech,
so Nick was surprised he’d even spoken.

“That doesn’t sound like everyone was together and getting

along,” Hawke said, sitting back down in his chair.

“Well, there were human hunters, I guess. That was pretty bad,

and the only reason why everything was kept secret, up until it wasn’t
a secret anymore.”

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Hawke snorted.
“Anyway, even before the big secret came out that fucked

everything up, it was pretty well known back then that a lot of
humans were in on what was happening. Not just the hunters who
tried to kill the vampires and werewolves, mostly werewolves,” Nick
amended.

“Like who?” Hawke asked. He seemed genuinely interested, and

he was rubbing that trimmed black beard of his thoughtfully.

Nick shrugged. “Werewolves mated with humans all the time

back then, and vampires always needed feeders. That’s always been
the same. The only thing that’s different is the way they get it. They
keep the humans as slaves instead of paid staff.”

“How do you know all of this?” Brian asked. There might have

been some interest in his eyes, hidden behind all of that suspicion.
“How old are you? I’ve heard werewolves can live a long time.”

“Not me,” Nick said. “And we can live long lives, sort of, but that

only depends on what you’re comparing it to. I’ve never heard of any
werewolf living past a hundred and twenty-five. Vampires would
hardly consider that to be a long time.”

“Then how can you say for certain that these things happened?”

Hawke asked. “Do you know who it was who started the war?”

Nick didn’t think they’d like the answer he would give them, and

he was pretty sure they wouldn’t believe him anyway, so he shook his
head to the negative. “No, but to answer your other question,
journals.”

“Journals?” Brian asked.
“My pack has been around for a long time, since way long before

the war started,” Nick said. “Anyone who kept journals, well, those
were kept in the pack and preserved. Kind of as part of our history.
There are a number of entries talking about personal things like who
mated with who, new pack members, births, deaths, that kind of thing.
A lot of people wrote it down and talked to each other when someone

22 Marcy

Jacks

in the pack would mate with a human, or turn a human into a
werewolf even. Once or twice a hunter was brought in.”

“All right, I believe you,” Brian said. “But what does this have to

do with Oliver?”

“Well,” Nick said, and he straightened his back. “Oliver was out

there, I believe, because on some instinctual level, he sensed that I
would be coming.”

Both humans stared at him. Victor remained as still as a stone

gargoyle, but Nick could just imagine the things that were going
through his head. Nick had pretty much just confessed what was
happening, but of course, the humans didn’t get it.

“Why would he be out there for you? He wouldn’t have even

known you were coming,” Hawke said.

“You’re right. He couldn’t have known it, but he sensed it.”
Both Brian and Hawke looked between each other, clearly

unconvinced.

“What if I could offer you both a solid solution, that I think most

of the people in your village would agree, would be the best way to
prove that my pack not only does not mean anyone here, or any
human for that matter, any harm, but it will also give us a genuine
reason to help with the human rebellion against the vampires.”

“You hardly took a breath in all that,” Hawke said, and he folded

his arms. “All right, I’ll bite. What do you want Oliver for?”

There was no uncertainty about this. Even though there was a

mated werewolf in this village, there was a big chance neither of these
men would understand, and would promptly ask him to get the hell
off their property before they pulled out their weapons.

“I mated with Oliver. He’s my mate. I don’t know how humans

react to this, exactly, but if he will agree to making it official with me,
you will have your guarantee that I will do everything in my power to
make sure the West Village remains secure. My pack and I will also
fight with you the next time any vampire assassins come here looking
for slaves to take or people to kill. Last I checked, the Romonoffs

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

knew where this place was, and those assassins who attacked my pack
weren’t all that far away from this place. Not really.”

Brian and Hawke looked between each other again. Victor was as

uselessly silent as always. He really was going to have to ask the man
what he was thinking when they got out of here.

“Basically,” Brian said. “You want me to tell the man to mate

with you, for the sake of uniting your pack and my village?”

“Yes,” Nick said without hesitation.

24 Marcy

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Chapter Three

Oliver was going to be in such shit for this. Even though he’d

been ordered from the house, he found that he couldn’t get too far
away from it.

Just like he’d been drawn to walk farther and farther out into the

woods, despite the danger he knew was there with all the vampire
slavers in the area recently, he went. It was like something had been
calling to him. He’d known something would be waiting for him, but
he hadn’t expected to come across an entire pack of werewolves, all
netted down, and who also looked like they were minutes away from
being gutted by those very same slavers.

Under any other circumstance, Oliver would have hightailed it out

of there. He was one man against three vampire assassins, all of
whom were armed. The rules were pretty loose in the village as of
late, but when it came to survival, they were as firm as ever.

Don’t ever pick a fight with vampires when outnumbered. That

was the number one rule, and even Hawke admittedly didn’t like
breaking it. He’d once said that he only did so under certain
circumstances, and he could only get away with it because of his
speed and strength that could rival any vampire.

Still, even he was just one guy, and most of the missions he went

on required a great deal of stealth to pull off. Oliver didn’t have the
luxury of being as fast or strong as any one vampire. He was just one
person, and he had one rifle and a hunting knife.

But he just couldn’t bring himself to turn around and run back to

the village for help. If he left, he could be coming back to dead

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

bodies, all of which would probably be skinned, and the rest would be
taken away.

He wasn’t the first choice on anyone’s team as far as being a

warrior for the village went, but he couldn’t bring himself to turn
away. Especially not when that one werewolf spoke, and the sound of
his voice compelled Oliver to stay and fight for them.

He shot off his weapon. He was a good shot, and he knew he’d

gotten the vampire in the heart, killing it when it went down.

The other two scattered. It was common for the assassins to act all

ninja-like and try to vanish into the trees so they could turn the tables
and sneak up on Oliver.

That was where his training paid off, and when he fired another

shot, catching the second vampire, the one who’d been holding the
other gun, in the side, he knew he’d done well enough that the only
place they would be scattering off to was back home.

One assassin with an injured partner wouldn’t bother with a man

with a gun. Not when he knew that his assailant was such a good shot.

Oliver had released the wolves, and the look in the deep blue eyes

of the man who’d been hanging in the trees when he came down was
so intense. Oliver could hardly remember asking for his name, and for
a few seconds, he forgot what his own name was when it was asked
for in return.

The way the guy stared down at him, how tense his perfect body

was—and Oliver could see very well all those muscles on him
considering he was naked—almost made Oliver think the guy was
angry with him.

Oliver didn’t step back, though. He kept right on staring up at the

stranger. He was about five inches or so taller than Oliver was, and a
werewolf, so Oliver had every reason to be afraid.

He thought he might be, for a minute, considering the way his

heart was pounding in his chest, he couldn’t seem to catch his breath,
and his palms got all sweaty. His legs even twitched, like he wanted

26 Marcy

Jacks

to run somewhere, but he didn’t think it was far away he wanted to
go.

He finally started to understand the things that were coming out of

Nick’s mouth, instead of just staring at the way his pale pink lips
moved. Nick was the alpha of his pack, and he wanted to see the
people who were in charge of West Village.

The alpha. That explained the intense aura around the man. He

was probably always like that in order to keep the others in line.

Still, Oliver didn’t really trust the guy so much, until another

werewolf arrived, fully dressed with a bag over his shoulder, and a
vampire assassin beside him.

Oliver very nearly shot the guy until Nick stepped in the way of

his rifle and explained that the man who was wearing an assassin’s
daylight uniform was in fact, a friend of his.

Oliver had to quickly get over the fact that he’d nearly shot the

man he’d just rescued, and when he readied the letters that the only
dressed werewolf in the pack handed him, he decided to lead them to
the village.

Just to be criticized for being so far out of the village and asked to

leave the house when things were starting to get interesting.

He’d never had this problem before where he disobeyed orders, or

even just purposely did something he knew Brian wouldn’t approve
of, like heading to the side of the house where Hawke had
conveniently opened a window, and listening in.

It was his strange attraction to the black-haired man inside. Maybe

he was just suspicious of him and that was why he wanted to stay so
close.

He wished he hadn’t bothered when he heard what the man

proposed inside.

“Basically, you want me to tell the man to mate with you, for the

sake of uniting your pack and my village?”

“Yes,” Nick said without hesitation.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Oliver stumbled away from the window. Mate with him. Mate

with him? Were they out of their damn minds?

The worst part was the way the two men, the guys Oliver trusted

more than anyone in the world, actually seemed to consider it.

It wasn’t like he could see their faces or hear them thinking or

something like that, but the fact that they didn’t immediately shoot
down the idea was what made Oliver want to be sick.

“Would that even work?” Hawke asked. “What if he doesn’t want

to?”

“He will. Trust me on that,” Nick said, that absolute, fucking

bastard. Oliver couldn’t believe there was ever a time, even if it was
only for a couple of hours, that he was attracted to the man.

He forced himself to pull away from the window, and then he

promptly knocked over the shovels and rakes that were leaning
against the side of the house, where they fell in a loud metallic and
wooden clatter on the ground.

Fuck. Of all the times in the world to be clumsy.
James had been walking by, carrying lumber, and he and a

number of other men, some of whom were from DeWitt’s pack, all
stopped what they had been doing to turn and stare at him now that
they realized he was there.

Oliver groaned, wishing he was a mage so he could disappear.
The front door to the house opened, and Oliver didn’t do

something so childish as run away, even though he really wanted to.

Brian, Hawke, Nick, and that other werewolf whose name Oliver

already forgot came out of the house and looked at him.

Brian’s arms were crossed, though he didn’t look too angry,

considering he’d just caught someone spying on him.

Nick was actually smiling.
“I take it you heard some of that?” Hawke asked, dark brows

lifted.

Oliver clenched his fists. “I heard enough,” he said.

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Jacks

What the hell? He wasn’t about to let them berate him when they

were actually talking about an arranged union, like Oliver was
property to be sold or something. He lived in a free village to save
himself from that, thank you very much.

“Please, allow me?” Nick asked, walking around his two human

hosts and stepping toward Oliver.

Strange how he was compelled to go toward the other man, even

now that he knew what the guy’s goals were. He stepped back
instead, fighting whatever this pull was that made him want to be
closer to the man.

“Oliver,” Nick said. There was a kind of smile on his face,

something that didn’t give off the impression that he was a man who
was at his most confident, but actually worried that he had something
to lose.

Strange.
“I’m not marrying you,” Oliver said.
“It’s technically not a marriage. Marriage is made up through

paper and legal signatures and all that. You and I live about as outside
the law as it gets, all things considered.”

“You know what I mean,” Oliver snapped. “I’m not doing it. I

don’t even know you.”

“Apparently it’s already done, Ollie,” Hawke said.
Oliver saw red. “You fucking—!” He stopped himself before he

could say anything he could regret. He turned around on the spot and
fisted his hands into his hair. He wanted to scream with the sudden
buildup of rage that was inside of him, but he didn’t.

He turned back to face both men, who appeared about as calm as

could be, considering they had just given Oliver to this man without
even telling him about it.

“Will either of you explain to me why you decided to give me to

some guy you just met on a whim.”

“Oliver, damn it,” Brian said, and he pinched the bridge between

his eyes, something he did when he was feeling frustrated.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

“They didn’t do it, you can’t blame them,” Nick said.
“I overheard you telling them that you would align your pack with

my village if they gave me to you!” Oliver yelled. He was attracting
more and more attention, as some of the villagers, and pretty much
everyone in Nick’s pack, turned their heads to have a look. Some
even approached to stand around and watch.

Weren’t there better things to be done right about now?
“It’s not so simple as that,” Nick said. “I asked your village leader

to tell you to mate with me, yes, but that was a poor choice of words
on my part.”

Oliver snorted. Damned right it was. “I’m beginning to regret

saving your ass,” he said.

At that, every single werewolf who was standing around him

started to growl low in their throats. Oliver had almost forgotten about
them, and he stepped back, worried suddenly that he was about to get
torn apart.

Nick growled in return, but not at him. He growled at the other

werewolves, and even snapped at some of them.

Though each and every one of them was in their human forms,

they all stopped what they were doing and bowed their heads, tilting
them to the side just enough to bare their necks to their alpha.

Strange.
“I know you don’t mean that, Oliver,” Nick said.
It totally made Oliver uncomfortable, the way Nick said his name.

He wasn’t drawing out the syllables, or anything like that, but he had
to be doing something less obvious, because whenever he did speak
Oliver’s name, a pleasant shiver rippled down his spine.

Not that again. It had been happening for a while now.
“I do mean that,” Oliver said, forcing his anger back to the front

of his mind. “I live here and fight to stay out of vampire houses
because I don’t want to be bought and sold like a piece of furniture.”

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“I would be yours as much as you would be mine, but again, that’s

the wrong choice of words, since it’s already happened. I am yours
and you are mine.”

“Goddamn it! I am not yours!” Oliver yelled. “And I don’t own

anyone!” He yelled that last little bit after having a second to think
about it.

When everyone stared silently at him, he actually managed to

calm down and let those words sink in.

“What do you mean, you’re mine?” Oliver asked. “I don’t own

anyone.”

“I know that you find words like that offensive, but it’s true,”

Nick said. He looked like he was pleading now, and he was getting a
little more desperate. Not in the way that made Oliver fear for
himself, but Nick actually managed to make himself look like a
kicked puppy. That was the only reason why he allowed his temper to
cool so he could listen to more.

“All right, explain.”
There was another grumble from out of the werewolves, probably

because he’d just given their alpha a command.

The lot of them could shove it.
Nick smiled and sighed with clear relief, but then he got serious

again. “I mated with you. It’s already done.”

“What?” Oliver’s voice was monotone. He could barely make his

brain comprehend what his ears had just heard.

“I mated with you. I am your mate, and you are mine. There’s no

getting around it, except for the fact that you seem to belong to this
village. When I spoke with your village leader, my only concern was
getting him to convince you to, well, for a lack of a better way to put
it…” He trailed off, still struggling to find that better way of
explaining it, apparently.

“Go with the flow,” said the voice of that other werewolf who was

at Nick’s side while in Brian’s house. What the hell was his name

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

again? Oliver had been a little focused on Nick at the time when they
were being introduced.

Victor. That was the name. Victor was the one who supplied his

alpha with the words, since Nick had been unable to do it himself.

Nick glared at his second. “Yeah, well, I guess that’s one way of

putting it.”

Some of the panic that Oliver had been experiencing earlier

rushed back to him. “I can’t be mated with you. We haven’t…I mean
not that I will, but we never…”

“Had sex,” said Victor again. Not a question, since he clearly

knew what words Oliver had been stumbling over.

God, that was annoying.
“Victor, don’t,” Nick commanded.
The other werewolf grunted something and crossed his arms.
“He looks like he’s about to be sick or something.”
“Shut up, Theo,” Nick said.
“I’m not mated to you,” Oliver insisted, and he looked at Brian.

“And you can’t force me to mate with him either.”

“I would never force you into a partnership like this, son,” Brian

said. For the first time in his life, Oliver hated the way the man
referred to everyone who was more than ten years younger than he
was as son.

“But you want to make me go with the flow for the sake of a union

between his pack and our village?”

“If you’re already mated then there’s nothing we can do about it

anyway,” Hawke said.

“I don’t want them to force you,” Nick said. “What I wanted them

to do was speak with you. You trust their judgment, I assume, since
they have been leading this village fairly well from what everyone
here has been saying. You and I being mated, that’s already done, but
I don’t want you to deny our mating. Not only is that not healthy, but,
well, I would like to be with you.”

“You don’t even know me.”

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“I could get to know you,” Nick said. “And the union could help

the pack and your village. I’m the pack alpha, and if I have a mate
who has a real interest in seeing to the welfare of this village, then
your interests become mine.”

Oliver couldn’t believe he was even allowing this conversation to

go on. “Would I have to go and live with you in the werewolf
district?”

Now more than ever, Nick appeared sorry. “There wouldn’t be

getting around that one. That’s where my pack is. There’s more
people there, too, waiting for me to get back. I can stay away from
them for a time, they’re used to having their alpha away for a few
weeks to go on missions, but now I can’t stay gone for much longer
than I am. There’s something happening at my pack now that needs
my attention. I can spare a few more days to stay here, but that’s
about it.”

A few days. Nick was asking Oliver to leave behind the village

that he’d spent a good majority of his life in, to go off into the
dangerous werewolf district and be with people that he didn’t know.

“You’re asking me an awful lot,” he said.
“I know, and I know that scares you. I can see it in the way your

eyes are dilating, but it would be better if you and I were closer to
each other at all times.”

“Why?” Oliver asked.
“Don’t you feel attracted to me at all?”
There was nothing desperate or whiny in the man’s tone. He was

actually asking that, with black brows raised and everything, like he
already knew the answer to that.

Oliver swallowed. “Attraction fades.”
“This won’t,” Nick said. “For me it’ll be worse. I’m the werewolf

in this equation. Brian tells me there’s another werewolf in this
village, and that’s he’s mated to a vampire. I’d heard of them from
Tristan’s house. Noir and Anderson, right?”

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Oliver nodded. He tried to remember anything he could about how

their mating had taken place. He wasn’t exactly best buddies with
either of them, however, so he could honestly say that he didn’t know
how it had happened, or if Anderson and Noir felt the same urges
pulling through them that Oliver did.

“Well, clearly they didn’t fight against their mating. Even if they

had, I’m not sure that Noir would have been affected at all,
considering he’s a vampire. You might not be affected either, but I
definitely will.”

“And you can’t have that,” Oliver said, looking around at all the

werewolves who were staring at him, waiting for his decision.

They relied on their alpha. Maybe their lives didn’t entirely

depend on him or anything like that. There had to be someone who
would take over if something were to happen to him—Oliver looked
at Victor—but they must still love him.

He was their leader and their friend. Oliver knew he would

definitely hate the guy who had the chance to protect Brian’s sanity,
but refused to do it.

“You’re already attracted to me as a mate,” Nick said. “Basically,

it would be just a matter of making it official, and then keeping it that
way.”

“And we make it official by having sex?” Oliver asked.
“Yes, but before you get any thoughts into your head, one time

wouldn’t be enough. We’d have to stay together.”

Oliver blushed hard.
“What happens if I say no?” He ignored the dissatisfied rumblings

that came from the other werewolves around him. Hawke was doing
enough glaring at the lot of them while Oliver asked his questions
anyway.

“To be honest, I’ve never seen a situation where a mate said no to

another, but I have seen cases where, when one mate died, the other
soon followed.”

Oliver tensed up.

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Victor chose that moment to speak again, in his creepy monotone

voice. “They would either waste away, or kill themselves,” he said the
last part softly. “Very rarely does the surviving mate come out of it
alive, and when they do, they’re half of what they have been.”

“So, if I say no and decide to stay in the village, you’re likely to

waste away?” Oliver asked.

“That is possible,” Nick said. “And again, I’m not sure anything at

all will happen to you, being human and all.”

“And I only have a couple of days to decide before you go back to

the werewolf district,” Oliver said, hardly able to believe this was
happening to him.

What exactly were the odds of this?
“I wasn’t going to force you, Oliver,” Brian said. “But when Nick

explained everything to me, I was definitely going to have a talk with
you. If you couldn’t be convinced, I would have left it alone. This is
entirely your decision.”

Oliver thought he was going to be sick. He needed to be alone.

The mating thing, because that had to be what was causing it, made
him want to actually run to Nick, put his arms around the taller man,
and just…hug him. He wanted comfort from the man now that Oliver
was clearly suffering with this new knowledge, and he wanted to
comfort the man in return. Take the kicked puppy look off of his face.

He turned around instead, forcing himself to put some distance

between them.

“I need to think about this.”
Nick’s face remained impassive, but it was clear from the look in

his eyes—or maybe it was only clear to Oliver because they were
mated—that he was fighting some heavy disappointment.

“Take all the time you need.”
That was the thing that bothered Oliver the most. He didn’t have

all the time he needed.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Chapter Four

“That could’ve gone better,” Nick muttered, and he turned to glare

at his second-in-command. It was hard for him to call Victor his beta,
even in his mind, because the man was too alpha.

“You weren’t exactly helping out with all of that either.”
Victor shrugged. “You were struggling. That’s not the way of an

alpha. It’s my job to assist you when you struggle.”

“In a fight, not with words,” Nick said under his breath, hating the

other man for being right.

Words or fighting, it didn’t matter. Victor still knew he had to

help his alpha, and that was why Nick chose him. He couldn’t go
giving the guy a hard time about it now.

Nick was forced to watch as his mate walked away from him.

Everything inside of him screamed at him to follow, to stake his
claim, but he remained rooted to the spot.

He barely even moved when Brian released a shout to the other

people in the village. “All right, the show’s over! Everyone get back
to what you were doing. Don’t any of you have any God damn
manners?”

Christ, Nick kind of liked the guy.
“You should go and speak to him,” Victor said.
“I’m pretty sure he wanted to be alone. In fact he even said it,”

Nick said.

“He said he needed to think about what was being asked of him,”

Victor said.

“And you think he’d think better of all this if I’m there hounding

him?” Nick asked, hardly convinced.

36 Marcy

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“He is going off to let bad thoughts about you fester in his mind. It

will hurt your chances of properly mating with him even more if you
aren’t there to explain.”

“You think I don’t want to go after him?” Nick asked.
“If you don’t mate with him properly, that will only have a

negative effect on your mental well-being. His as well. I don’t know
why you bothered with giving him that talk about not knowing for
sure just because he’s a human.”

“I think this is the most I’ve ever heard you speak at once,” Nick

said.

Victor stared at him, going back to his silent, annoying self.
“I told him that because it is a possibility. It didn’t have to be a

likely one,” Nick said.

“Please just go and speak with him. It would be better to get this

over with sooner rather than later. We need to get back to the
werewolf district and deal with the outsiders in our pack before we
can even think about helping the humans with their problems.”

“God, I hate you,” Nick said.
“I doubt that. Go, sir,” Victor said. “I will see to the others and

make sure they don’t cause any problems for the humans or
paranormals who live here.”

“You might as well,” Hawke said.
Nick was shocked. “You would encourage this?”
Hawke sighed, and when he did so, he put his entire back into it.

“Yes, and no. If it means the village will have the support you’re
offering, and Oliver won’t lose his mind to some instinctual thing,
then those are two very good reasons to go along with this, but if he
doesn’t want to, if he’s going to fight it, then I’m sorry, but I won’t
knock him out and hand him over to you so you can run into the
werewolf district with him.”

Nick clenched his fists. “I never asked you for that.”
“I know, but you asked for our help. I’ll be watching you, and

your pack. So far you all seem like a bunch of good guys, but that’s

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

only after about a half hour of knowing each other. I’ll try to persuade
Oliver to see reason on this, but if he doesn’t want to…” Hawke
trailed off, having already said enough that Nick knew what he was
getting at without having him repeat it several times.

“I understand.”
“Oliver’s the quiet type, he usually stays in the background and

thinks things through, so he might just do that on his own without me,
or even without you, but I would prefer it if he was happy to go with
you, too. Not miserable because he felt pressured.”

“The last thing I will do is pressure him,” Nick said, not entirely

sure if he was lying to himself or not.

Hawke seemed to believe him, and he nodded, seeming to

approve. “Well, go have a word with him. I guess your beta will make
sure your pack behaves, and I’ll try and keep everyone else busy so
you’re not interrupted.”

“He’s not a beta,” Nick corrected, but he was already moving.
Nick wanted to give Oliver time to himself. He really did, but

time was just a luxury that couldn’t be afforded at the moment,
considering the outsiders in Nick’s pack, and the vampire slavers who
were closing in on this place.

He consoled himself by thinking that, at least if he was speaking

to the other man alone, just the two of them instead of his entire pack
and a whole lot of humans standing around, things between them
would be less tense. They would be able to have an actual
conversation.

Already Nick was itching with the urge to mate. Not just having

Oliver come right out and say he wanted to make it official, but he
wanted to fuck the man. Badly.

He was pretty sure that if he was feeling it, the other man was,

too, but no matter how much he wanted to push him against the wall
and kiss him into submission, something like that would likely only
scare the man away.

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He was a human. Not a werewolf. The same rules didn’t apply

here, no matter how much the rest of his pack might worry about him
and want him to act.

Still, he was going to have to go after the man and speak with

him.

Nick might be holding himself back, but he was still a werewolf,

and his mate had a specific scent that no one else he’d ever met
seemed to have. All Nick had to do was follow his nose.

He found his mate not very far away, speaking with a man who

was only slightly taller than Oliver was. He had blond hair, and was
handsome enough in a scrappy sort of way.

Nick saw them and immediately backpedaled, hiding himself

behind the wall of one of the little shacks as he spied on the pair. Who
was that guy? They both appeared to be having an awkward
conversation, and Oliver and the other man were both blushing
something fierce.

Were they lovers?
Great. He was turning into a jealous teenager now. Nick hoped to

God that he wasn’t about to break up an already established
relationship. He definitely knew he wouldn’t have the strength to hold
himself back if that man turned out to be Oliver’s significant other, no
matter what Nick had told him before about giving him a choice.

Hell, if Nick watched them kiss each other, he would go over

there and throw Oliver over his shoulder, all no touch! Mine!
Caveman style.

Nick managed to pull his head out of his ass in time to listen to

what the two men were talking about before he went over there and
did something as foolish as pissing on the ground in a nice big circle
around Oliver, giving the other man the hint that Nick didn’t want
him around.

“I mated with Noir completely by accident. I mean”—the blond

man’s face turned a shade darker, as if that was possible—“I think I
did. I didn’t even know it had happened until he told me it did.”

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Oh, so that was Anderson, the resident werewolf.
Nick felt a lot better knowing that his mate was not only talking to

an omega werewolf, because even Nick could see that was what the
man was, but also a werewolf who had a mate of his own.

“But did you feel anything for him before that?” Oliver asked.

There was a hint of desperation in his voice that saddened Nick a bit.

Oliver didn’t want this, but of course, he was human. He wouldn’t

want to be told that a paranormal creature had mated with him,
ruining him for anyone else forever after the fact.

“Well, of course I did,” Anderson said. “I’ve asked him about it,

and he told me the same thing. We were both under the impression
that you could choose your mate, though, which was why we thought
it was an accident. Noir was pretty mad at me for a little while after
the fact.”

Nick had to remind himself that this omega wolf was never

around real werewolves, and that was why he knew so little about his
own species. The man was even actively avoiding the pack, even
though Daryl and Acelin had gone to try and speak with the man.

A former human from the werewolf district, he probably thought

they were all monsters waiting to spring. In fact, if anything that Nick
had heard about him was true, especially the way he was infected with
the werewolf curse, that was exactly what the guy thought.

Nick thought he should step out and make himself known before

anything more personal was said between the two. Bad enough he’d
listened in like some kind of adolescent to begin with.

He cleared his throat, getting the attention of both men.
Oliver’s eyes widened briefly at the sight of him, and he shifted

his feet as though he’d just been caught doing something he wasn’t
supposed to be.

He was one of the warriors in this village, but clearly he was not

an alpha.

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“I should go,” Anderson said. Had he been in wolf form, then it

almost looked like his hackles would’ve picked up. A definite distrust
of other werewolves out of that one.

“Will you be okay by yourself?” he asked.
“Fine,” Oliver said, though he didn’t take his eyes away from

Nick.

“Well, I’ll be around if you need anything,” Anderson replied, and

he walked away, casting one more suspicious glance at Nick.

Nick in turn watched the other man go. He was going to have to

speak with him as well. It wasn’t good for some werewolves to be
thinking that others were all wild. As a werewolf, he would need to be
educated about that, whether he lived in Nick’s pack or not.

When he turned back to Oliver, the man crossed his arms, but he

wasn’t looking at Nick.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me. You weren’t doing anything

wrong.”

“If I had been, what would you have done about it?” Oliver asked.
Nick’s eyes widened, and he blew out a shocked breath. “Well,

that came from out of the blue.”

“That’s not an answer. I want to know the kind of laws I’m going

to be living under if I go and live with you.”

The fact that they were having this conversation, that Oliver was

clearly thinking about it, got Nick’s blood pumping hot in his veins.

Okay, rein it in, Oliver wasn’t making any decisions yet. They

were still talking about this. If Nick got an erection now, Christ, it
was as good as over for him.

Nick cleared his throat. “Well, I guess for there to be any kind of

punishment, it would depend on what the crime was. If you stole
anything from another pack member, or started a fight unprovoked, I
would naturally be the one to see to you, being both your mate, and
your alpha.”

“I’m not a werewolf,” Oliver said under his breath.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

“And I have no intention of turning you into one,” Nick assured

him. “I’m not going to lie to you, though. There aren’t any humans in
my pack. We try and stay away from them as much as possible,
considering they hunt us and all.”

“Anderson said the reason why he hid the fact that he’s a

werewolf was because he was afraid we would skin him if we found
out,” Oliver said, and his visibly shivered when the words left his
mouth.

“What else did he say?” Nick asked.
“That all the werewolves in the werewolf district are dangerous.

That they’re wild and they eat human flesh.”

“I’m betting the wild and rabid ones he came across were like

that, but does Anderson give you the impression that he’s
dangerous?”

Oliver’s green eyes widened, as though he really hadn’t thought

about that before, and he shook his head. “No. He said his wolf isn’t
very strong, and he’s always had a good hold on it.”

“That’s because he’s an omega werewolf. He doesn’t feel the urge

to go out hunting and picking fights over any little territorial thing
that an alpha would. Even then, he’s not wild and rabid. He’s got the
full use of his mind, just like I and everyone in my pack do.”

Nick watched as Oliver’s Adam’s apple bobbed when he

swallowed, the pale skin of his neck shifting.

“I never thought of that.”
“My pack, and the other packs in the werewolf district, hunt down

the wild loner wolves. Sometimes they put themselves into a pack,
and that’s dangerous. The ones we can save are brought into my pack
for…rehabilitation, you could say. They’re taught to use the human
sides of their minds again. The ones who can’t be saved, well, they go
in the ground.”

Oliver didn’t say anything, but he did have a look on his face that

suggested he was thinking pretty hard about something. Nick stepped
forward, closing the gap that was between them. “My pack isn’t that

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Jacks

much different than your village, Oliver. I hate that this decision has
to be put on you, and that you have to decide so quickly, but I can’t
stay here for very long.”

“Because of the outsiders in your pack, I know,” Oliver said.

They’d already had that conversation so there was no point in
rehashing it.

Nick sighed. He was close enough to the other man that he could

feel his body heat, and smell the earthy scent of him, as well as see
the way the light of the sun bounced off his soft brown hair,
highlighting different colors that no human eye would be able to pick
up. There were traces of all sorts of blond in there, and even a red hair
or two.

“Maybe,” Nick said. “It would be better if you and I just

pretended that this decision doesn’t have to be made.”

Oliver frowned at him. He didn’t seem uncomfortable with how

close they were, so Nick didn’t step away. He reached for Oliver’s
hand, and he clasped it in both of his.

Oliver’s face went red at the touch, but Nick didn’t let him go.
“No one’s ever held my hand like this,” he said, and the blush

went right to his ears.

“Do you like it?”
Oliver swallowed hard again, and Nick could even hear the way

his throat worked. He nodded. “It’s…not bad,” he said. “What do you
mean pretend it doesn’t have to be made? I don’t think putting it off is
going to help.”

“No, but pressuring you to answer right now isn’t the better way

to go either,” Nick replied, unable to stop from stroking his thumb
over Oliver’s smooth skin. “That’s not what this is about. I don’t want
to use your attraction for me against you, but I would like to be with
you. I want to act on it.”

“You want to have sex with me?”
He wanted to mate with him. “Yes,” Nick said, deciding not to

correct the other man. “And I would like to do that with you without

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

you thinking about all the pressure that’s on you. I don’t want you to
think about how this can benefit your village. I’ll make sure to help
you with your plight even if you say no. I only made the offer like
that so that everyone else in the village who’s scared of my pack will
have the proof they need that we can be trusted.”

“You won’t be able to make your pack help us if you lose your

mind because I denied you,” Oliver said.

“There is that,” Nick said, and he shrugged. “But again, it’s not

fair to ask a human to make a snap decision about something like that
just because it’ll affect me. I can stay for a few days at the most
before I absolutely have to leave. We’ll say three days. I know that’s
not a lot, but during that time, you and I can get to know each other. If
you decide that I’m half decent, then come with me. I’ll always take
you back here to visit. I’ll need to keep in contact with the village if
we’re going to be working together anyway.”

“And, if it doesn’t work out?” Oliver asked.
Nick steeled himself. “Then I’ll walk away. I won’t ever bother

you again, and while I’m in charge of my pack, I’ll make sure they
keep the promise I made to your village leader.”

For as long as he was able before he went wild to the urges that

were running inside of him, that is.

Oliver wet his lips. God damn, did he have to do that? Now they

were all glistening and kissable.

“That sounds like a good deal,” Oliver said. “All right. I’ll agree

to that.”

Nick blew out a heavy sigh. “Thank God,” he said, and he put his

hand behind Oliver’s head, brought his face up and forward, and then
kissed him on the mouth.

44 Marcy

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Chapter Five

O—kay. Oliver hadn’t exactly said he was willing to go this far

yet, but then again, three days wasn’t a whole heck of a lot to be eased
into something like this, and the way Nick’s lips moved over his
mouth, the way his tongue licked the crease between Oliver’s lips,
was enough to make his whole body shiver and his dick hard and
aching with desperate need.

Jesus Christ. This was actually happening. Not only was he mated

to a werewolf, but the guy’s very touches, even the ones that weren’t
all that sexual, were enough to make his skin warm, and his body
ready for action.

Even when Nick had been holding his hand, Oliver’s cock

twitched in excitement, and that made Oliver blush to high Heaven.
He never thought of himself as a blusher before, but now he just
couldn’t seem to stop doing it, and it was all because of this man.

Oliver opened his mouth and pressed himself closer to Nick

DeWitt. The guy was handsome enough to give Oliver pause, so it
was strange that such a man would ever be so interested in him, mate
or not. He was just so damned perfect, but not in the creepy way of
some men Oliver had met, who had been trying to make themselves
look good.

No, Nick was just naturally the way he was, and Oliver was drawn

to it.

He wasn’t much for having sex with someone he barely knew, but

there was something a little freeing about knowing the man he was
kissing, who currently had his tongue in Oliver’s mouth, was his

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

mate. It was almost like being given a free pass to be just a tad bit
more open with himself.

It felt like ages since he’d been with another man. Oliver

definitely wanted it, and if the firm length he felt pressed against his
leg was anything to go by, Nick was definitely ready and able to give
it to him.

Fuck it.
Oliver broke off their kiss. He put his hands around Nick’s neck

sometime during their entanglement, which he’d thought was a real
no-no for a werewolf, but Nick didn’t seem to mind it at all. Maybe
because he could tell that it wasn’t being done in a threatening
manner.

He’d been telling the truth. He was no wild monster. He just had

to live by the rules of some basic instincts, but he was clearly capable
of keeping himself under control.

Oliver looked around, making sure that no one else was in the

immediate vicinity. He shared his small home with another family,
and he didn’t have a bedroom. The mattress he slept on was out in the
open in the tiny sitting area of the hut, and there were kids who lived
in that house as well, so he was so not taking Nick there so they could
have each other.

Where he was now seemed perfectly fine, but he didn’t want

anyone to walk in on them.

“What are you looking for?” Nick asked, his voice sounding

incredibly breathless.

“For a place where we can be alone,” Oliver said.
Nick’s eyes darkened at that. He grabbed Oliver by the shoulders

and pushed him up against the wall of the small cottage they were
currently hiding behind. He was pretty sure this was Hank’s house,
but all the thoughts flew out of his head when Nick pressed their
bodies together, squishing Oliver against the wall, and he kissed him
again.

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Oliver clung tightly to the other man. He was going to enjoy this

so much. It was an instinct thing, and it would not only help the both
of them to keep their heads, but Oliver definitely needed the release.

There was no pressure to make a decision now, so why not enjoy

the company of a gorgeous man who was as desperate to have him as
Oliver was? With his plain face and body, he didn’t exactly have a
stream of lovers knocking down his door to have him. Hell,
sometimes he was sure there were people in the village who would
forget he was there if he didn’t go off on the odd mission time and
again.

Nick humped against him, hard but slow, and he groaned into

Oliver’s mouth as he did so. Oliver moaned louder. He was never one
who could easily hide his pleasure. It made getting himself off a
problem, considering he shared a living space with so many other
people, and he clutched Nick tighter.

The very sounds that were coming out of his mouth were also a

reminder that, even though he was pretty sure no one was at home, he
had to get away from the house before someone else walked by.

He had to forcefully push Nick’s mouth away. The man was

strong and he seemed so lost to what he was doing that he didn’t
register Oliver’s protests for a few seconds.

He stopped immediately when he understood, and he looked more

than a little worried.

Oliver cut him off before he could say anything. “Not here,” was

all he said. He gently pushed the both of them away from the side of
the little house, and he held Nick’s hand firmly into his own as he
took them into the trees.

There was a spot he wanted to take them to. It was clean and well

hidden with a lot of thick shrubbery. Still out in the open, but it was
well within the borders of the village, so it would be safe to go there.
The only way someone would walk in on them would be if they knew
where that spot was.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Those in the village who lived with little to no privacy always had

to find small spots like that so they could be alone with a lover, or
themselves, for long enough to take care of certain issues.

It was only about a five-minute run to get there, and he and Nick

were definitely running.

Oliver thought he must look like a real fool. Holding the hand of

the man he’d been protesting against mating with barely more than an
hour ago, and both of them running eagerly through the woods with
hard dicks poking against their pants.

He was so glad no one could see them.
“What is this place?” Nick asked, looking around and smiling.

The grass was soft in the small patch, and one heavy oak tree
stretched long branches over of them, giving the illusion of a roof.
The fact that it was an oak tree, and not something like a pine, which
had sharp, prickly needles, also meant that the ground remained soft
to lie on in most seasons. It hadn’t rained in a good while either, so it
was dry.

“So we can be alone,” Oliver said, and he kicked off his boots,

releasing Nick’s hand to work on his belt and jeans.

Nick quickly did the same. He did it with such eagerness and

gusto, that Oliver would have thought he was about to rock the guy’s
world or something.

Well, they were mates, apparently. Maybe he was.
“Oh, fuck,” Oliver moaned in dismay, clenching his fists once he

finally managed to get his pants off.

“What? What is it?” Nick asked.
Oliver was embarrassed to even say it, but it had to be done. “We

don’t have any lube.”

Nick hissed as well, looking just as disappointed as Oliver felt.

Oddly enough, he perked up.

“We can still do this. I mean, without the actual penetration or

anything. We can still enjoy ourselves without going all the way.”

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Oliver hadn’t been expecting to hear that, and he stood stock-still

as Nick approached him, lust and eagerness back in his eyes. He
rubbed his hand over Oliver’s tanned chest, brushing his palm over
Oliver’s nipples, making them pebble.

“Would’ve thought you’d want to go and get it, or just do it

without or something.”

Nick lifted a brow at him. “Not that I don’t want to run off and

ask the nearest stranger if they might have any extra lube or
anything,” he said, and Oliver had to laugh a little at that ridiculous
thought. “But I’m not much for embarrassing myself in front of
strangers like that, and while I could go without if I really wanted to, I
think you and I could agree that we’d rather spend our first time
enjoying each other than, well, getting around that.”

Oliver barely heard a word the man said after he admitted that

werewolves could go without using any lube. “I was just kidding
when I said I thought you’d want to do without it. Are you serious?”

Nick grinned. “I’m a werewolf. I’m strong enough that it wouldn’t

hurt overly much without it, but as far as my preferences go, I’d rather
have something to ease the way.”

“You would let me, uh, top?” Something else he hadn’t expected.

Granted, he hadn’t really thought too much about that, but now that it
was in his head, he would have thought for sure Nick would be all
dominant alpha, even in bed.

“If you would feel more comfortable in that position, then yes. I’d

have no problem with it. Though my alpha side would demand that I
take control once in a while,” he said. Then he brought up his hand to
brush his knuckles over Oliver’s cheek. “Now, uh, I think we were in
the middle of something before we got all distracted.”

Oliver blushed hard—dammit, not again!—when Nick said those

words. They were both standing there, entirely naked with their pricks
pointing at each other like the needle of a compass. The reminder
made him shiver again, and his balls ached all the more.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

“Okay, so what would you like to do now that we’re going to be

without any lube for this?” Oliver asked.

Nick lifted one black brow as he observed him, then he grinned

before sinking down to his knees. His hands never left Oliver’s skin,
and as he moved down, trailing his fingertips all the way with him,
the tickling sensation made Oliver shiver with pleasure.

“Lie down on your back and spread your legs for me. I promise

that before I’m done, you’ll be the one howling for me.”

* * * *

Nick could hardly believe that he had his mate here with him, and

that despite the man’s worries, and his human nature and lack of
knowledge about the instincts that were pulling at him, he was still
giving Nick his permission to touch him, to put his mouth on his cock
and suck him until he moaned and thrashed beneath him.

Nick really wished they had a bottle of lube, or even a jar of that

health salve the mages liked to sell, but they didn’t. But that didn’t
matter because at least he was able to do this.

Penetration would have been better, but it wasn’t like the act of

sex would be enough to solidify their mating anyway. It was a
common misconception, even among some werewolves, that sex was
all that was needed to make a mating official, but that wasn’t the case.

The two parties had to, whether they knew it or not, accept each

other. Because that tended to happen during sex, well, that was the
reason for the confusion. The sex helped, to be sure. There was
nothing like uniting two bodies to ease the inner ache of a mate who
felt like he was being denied, but it was only a Band-Aid. Even if
Nick had something to properly fuck Oliver with, Oliver had to accept
Nick wholeheartedly for their mating to be set in stone.

Until then, they were just two halves of a whole who were

remaining separated when they didn’t have to be.

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Well, putting Oliver’s cock into his mouth definitely helped. He

had no lube of any kind, but he didn’t think the man would object to
having one finger inside of him, so Nick brought his hand up and
played around Oliver’s pucker.

Oliver gasped thrashed his head from side to side against the soft

grass. Man, this place really was great. Not only could Nick not scent
anyone else around, but now that the smell of his and Oliver’s sex
was in the air, it would do well to keep away his own wolves. He had
all the time in the world to tease and torture the man, to show him just
what he would be getting if he accepted Nick as his.

“Oh God, what are you doing?” Oliver asked, briefly managing to

lift himself up onto his elbows to try and see exactly what Nick was
up to.

Nick looked up and winked at him, and then he proceeded to suck

harder on his uncut dick.

They were almost the same size where that part of the body was

concerned, but Nick’s alpha pride preened with the realization that,
while lengthwise they were the same, he was thicker.

Just a little, but it was enough. Still, it would be nice to feel Oliver

inside of him, and Nick couldn’t wait for it. He doubted he would be
able to give the man much time to himself now that they had each
other like this.

If Nick couldn’t convince the man with words to come with him,

then he would have to convince him with his body.

Nick had to pull his mouth away from Oliver’s cock just to

answer him. “I’m just going to tease you a bit,” he said, and then
licked his tongue from the base of Oliver’s dick, all the way to the tip.
He paid special attention to the underside of the head, and then
hardened his tongue before pressing it into the slit.

He pushed his finger inside of Oliver’s tight pucker at about the

same time.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Oliver’s hands fisted into the grass, probably ripping up a bunch

of the little blades, but it was the way he arched his back and moaned
out loud that really spoke to Nick.

He only used a single finger. Even though it was only the one, the

fact that it was dry would be the thing that made it hard for a human
to handle, and he was so damn tight. Nick didn’t think he was a
virgin, not at his age, and definitely not with the way he was so eager
to bring Nick out here. That spoke of at least some experience, but it
was a thrill to know that Nick would be the first for him in a good
long while.

He shoved his finger into the other man as deep as he could put it,

continually licking down the slit of Oliver’s cock to disguise any
discomfort he might otherwise feel. Then Nick found his prostate, and
his pushed against it mercilessly.

Oliver’s hips thrust against that finger and Nick’s tongue, and he

covered his face with both hands as he arched his back and moaned
out complete nonsense.

“Holy fuck! Holy God, I’m gonna—I’m gonna—”
He was clearly trying to warn Nick, but Nick wanted it. He

opened his mouth and sank down onto Oliver’s dick, enjoying the
way his mate thrust deep inside of him. It was definitely penetration
of a sort, not what Nick and Oliver needed, but it made him groan as
he felt their bond become stronger.

I’m yours. Make me yours.
Oliver came with a muffled shout into Nick’s mouth, and he

swallowed all of it. Apparently Oliver had put his hand over his
mouth to keep from making too much noise. Nick didn’t mind that as
he licked up the cum that had escaped his lips and trickled down
Oliver’s cock, taking the other man’s seed into his body, letting that
connect them.

“Oh my God,” Oliver said, breathing hard. “I can’t believe

you…oh, wow!” he said with a laugh. There was a wide smile on his
lips that made Nick’s inner wolf pleased to see.

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Jacks

Pleased because he was the one to put that satisfaction there.
“I take it you liked that?” he asked.
“I’d have to be crazy not to have liked it,” Oliver said.
“Mmm,” Nick replied, and he went back to kissing and nuzzling

Oliver’s dick and thighs.

The man’s cock twitched and was half hard for Nick again

already. Oliver inhaled a shaky breath, as if he couldn’t believe that
his body was responding like this so quickly.

“What—?”
“You’re my mate, Oliver. It’s going to be a while before you get

tired of me.”

“Jesus,” Oliver said, and then he sighed and shivered as Nick deep

throated him again. He came back up quickly before the man could
really go anywhere with it.

Oliver looked down at him, just a touch of horror on his face,

clearly worried that Nick wouldn’t finish what he started.

“I’ll take care of you in ten different ways, baby,” Nick said,

crawling up Oliver’s lean body until they were flush together. He
pressed a kiss to Oliver’s plump lips, grinding their cocks together
and swallowing the other man’s groan. “But I want to get something
out of this, too.”

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Chapter Six

Oliver was out there for a good two hours before he and Nick ran

out of stamina and had to come back. The sun was actually starting to
set.

Oliver was practically begging for mercy by the time it was over,

though whether it was because he needed more, needed Nick to put
his heavy cock inside of him and for Oliver to fuck the alpha into
submission, or because he just didn’t have any more strength to go on,
he couldn’t say.

Never in his life had he confused the two. Needing to stop with

needing to go on. They were two completely conflicting urges within
him, but he couldn’t tell which was more dominant.

Oliver also hadn’t known he could have that much fun with

another man without actually performing the act of sex. Oliver didn’t
know he had it in him to go for that long before his body gave out on
him.

Nick was grinning like a complete fool as they dressed, so of

course, Oliver had to ruin the moment by saying something mean.

“You know this doesn’t mean I’m saying yes to you,” he said, and

then instantly regretted the words, wishing he could take them back.

Of course, the smile was completely wiped clean from Nick’s

mouth. The only hope that Oliver had was that Nick’s eyes were still
bright. “I know, but you can’t tell me you don’t feel a little more
connected right now.”

That was true, but it still made Oliver uncomfortable.
“Hey, no pressure, right?” Nick asked.

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Jacks

Christ, if anything all Oliver felt now was the pressure. Nick was

right. He did feel closer and much more connected to the man, and all
they’d done was have lots and lots of sex. Not even performing the
real act, but they’d still been incredibly intimate. Oliver never had a
man put his tongue on that part of his body before. It had made his
face raging hot, knowing that Nick was kissing and licking at his
asshole, but God, he wanted to be closer to the man and do it again.

His stupid dick didn’t know when to quit.
“Oliver?” Nick asked when he said nothing.
Oliver looked up at the sky. The sun was turning that nice shade

of orange, and the shadows were all around now thanks to all the tall
trees and hanging branches that were everywhere. “You said three
days, right?”

“Yeah?” Nick asked.
Oliver sighed, sticking his thumbs into the pockets of his now-

dirty jeans. “Can we maybe, get to know each other a little better? I
mean, not that what happened wasn’t great or anything,” he said, and
the wide, proud grin was back on Nick’s face. “But I’d like to get to
know you as a person before deciding I’m going to go and share my
life with you.”

‘That’s fair. We can start now if you like. Brian invited me and

the rest of the pack to eat with you all tonight. I’m pretty sure Victor
took the others out to hunt with the rest of your human villagers so we
wouldn’t impose too much on the stock you all have.”

At the reminder of the hunt, the hunt it was now way too late for

Oliver to get in on and help with, he groaned. “Fuck. I was supposed
to go out and help them today.”

“I’m sure you’ll be forgiven. You were distracted with saving my

ass and every single one of my wolves, and then reporting it back to
your leader.”

That was true, but he still should have been able to go out and

help during the last couple of hours. It occurred to him then that he
wouldn’t even have to make up an excuse as to why he hadn’t gone

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

out hunting with the others. Likely, despite this private spot, everyone
in the village by now knew that he was mated to Nick, so there was
only one logical thing they could be doing if they were rushing off to
be alone together.

He was proven right when they got back to the village a few

minutes later. The reaction mostly came from the werewolves, who
all grinned at Nick in that proud way that said they were happy for
their friend for getting laid. Some even slapped him good-naturedly
on the back.

The wolf named Victor, if Oliver was remembering his name

right, actually pulled Nick aside and started whispering to him.

He was probably curious about whether or not Nick had been able

to convince Oliver to accept Nick as his mate. Oliver didn’t want to
be around for that.

The humans of the village were a little more discreet. Some might

genuinely not know where he’d been, but for the others who’d figured
it out, Will, Frederik, Hawke, Brian, and Felicia, along with several
others, they all couldn’t hide their tiny smiles.

Oliver thought he might actually die from embarrassment, and he

could barely eat at all.

Several of the wooden picnic tables had been brought out and

placed so that they were making a straight line. Food was all over
each table being passed around by the villagers and the werewolf
guests. One of the pigs and several of the chickens had been killed to
put some meat on the table, and the rest was made up of the squirrels,
pheasants, and even the meat from a buck that had been hunted and
killed.

On the hunt that Oliver had missed. Thankfully the guys all

seemed to be taking that pretty well. The rest of the food made up
whatever vegetables were ready to be harvested and eaten. Mostly
potatoes, since they were easy to grow, and it was hard for a crop to
die, but there were also some other greens that had been brought in
from the smaller gardens each villager tried to grow on their own.

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It made for a huge table of food, and everyone was eating

something different. There was no bread, but that was common, and
the wolves of DeWitt’s pack didn’t seem to mind it.

Oliver hadn’t been shocked at all when Felicia pulled Nick over

and seated him with a cheery smile, right next to Oliver. Her wink to
Oliver was really the thing that made him want to hide his face behind
the drumstick he was trying to eat.

Feasts like this rarely occurred. Usually only on some special

occasion, like a wedding, or the end of a season that had a fine
harvest. There wasn’t always food like this to go around, and a feast
like this meant there was a risk of less food for the next few weeks
after the fact.

Oliver had assumed Brian had set this up so quickly to try and

honor Nick and his pack of werewolves who wanted to ally
themselves with the village. Christ, even Anderson was starting to
open up a bit more and converse with the wolves around him, asking
questions and whatnot.

Now he knew better. This feast was for him and Nick. He hadn’t

announced it yet, but it was clear the village was taking his little
disappearance with the man into the woods as the sign they needed to
celebrate their union.

Nick’s smile as he sat beside him, their legs brushing against each

other and sending shivery jolts of pleasure to Oliver’s greedy dick,
was all Oliver needed to see that Nick knew this as well.

Oliver smiled and went along with it.
He wasn’t going to pout, or make a scene, or even politely correct

the village on the matter. He was raised better than that. The village
seemed genuinely happy for him and they went through all of this
effort. He wouldn’t throw it back in their faces just because some
signs had been read wrong.

At least Nick was on the same page Oliver was. He also wasn’t

correcting Brian or his family, or anyone else in the village when they
came up to them offering congratulations on his marriage, but he sent

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

enough cautious glances Oliver’s way for Oliver to be satisfied that he
wasn’t trying to use the situation to his advantage.

Then the dancing started. The Village had been having a string of

good luck lately, and it was nice for the people to have something to
celebrate, so when Oliver was pulled up and thrust into Nick’s arms,
well, he didn’t fight it.

The closeness of their bodies, and the shared heat, made Oliver’s

dick as hard as it could be. Nick was pretty much in the same state,
even as they danced around the fires with the other couples who were
laughing and smiling and twirling.

Oliver didn’t want to let the man go and step away from him for

two reasons. The first was that he didn’t want anyone in the village to
notice that he was hard. That would just be the cherry on top of
everything. The second reason was that it felt so damn good holding
onto him.

“I know you haven’t made your decision yet,” Nick said. Even

with all the noise and celebration around them, Oliver was able to
clearly hear the other man as he whispered into Oliver’s ear. “I’m not
getting any ideas.”

“I think it’s too late for that,” Oliver said. “Looks like I’m going

with you when you decide to head back to the werewolf district.”

“I will still wait the three days. We can make something up to tell

everyone at the end if you feel you can’t do it.”

“Why even wait the three days? Why not just go tomorrow? I told

you I’d follow you,” Oliver said.

“And I told you there would be no pressure. I meant that, also, it’s

not just about getting back to the rest of my pack. I’m pretty sure they
can handle themselves for a little while longer without me.”

That got Oliver pretty curious. “Then what is it about?”
Nick’s dark eyes flashed. It was that same look he gave Oliver

whenever he desperately wanted sex. Neither of them was going to be
satisfied until they just came out and did the deed, it seemed.

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“Being so close to you, and now having the connection complete,

it’ll only cause more damage in the end. You can decide to come with
me all you want, but unless you decide to accept me as your mate, it’ll
do no good. Even the sex won’t be enough.”

“You’re saying you’ll go wild?”
“Yes,” Nick said. “I’m not sure, but the distance might help

prevent that.”

Oliver caught onto the use of the word might.
He stared up into Nick’s eyes, unable to picture the man as being

some kind of raging monster. Anderson had described the wild
werewolves who’d attacked him and his family. Nick and his pack
were not a thing like that. If Oliver was going to be the cause for
that…

He didn’t get the chance to think much further on it as loud

cheering, whistling, and clapping started.

Oliver looked up to see what was happening, just to be aware that

everyone in the village was staring at him and Nick, who’d both
stopped dancing to stare meaningfully at each other some time ago.

The men of DeWitt’s pack howled and cheered as much as anyone

else in the village.

Oliver groaned and hid his face into Nick’s chest. He was never

going to live this down.

“Is your village always this cheerful? I didn’t expect that from a

large group of free humans in the vampire district.”

“They were like this when Hawke married Will,” Oliver said into

Nick’s chest. There were also celebrations when Anderson married
Noir, and pretty much every other marriage that had taken place in the
history of the village. A lot of celebrating had been done this year.
Oliver was surprised that the village could still afford to do it.

Hawke was actually one of the guys to approach them. He had

something of a bashful look on his face. Oliver looked behind him to
see that Will was grinning at his husband, as though the man had just
lost a bet and was about to do something humiliating.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

“Uh, hey, Oliver. Nick,” Hawke said, nodding to each of them.
Oliver couldn’t remember the last time he saw any red on the

man’s cheeks beneath that dark beard of his.

“What is it, Hawke?” Oliver asked.
Hawke cleared his throat. “So, Will and I were talking, and we

have it all set up, so you both don’t even have to do anything either,”
he said, having severe trouble with his words from then on.

“Is there a problem?” Nick asked, worry and confusion in his

voice. Even with that, he still managed to sound strong and in control.

The man turned Oliver on way too much.
“No, nothing at all,” Hawke said quickly. “But, like I said, Will

and I were talking, we actually got the idea from my mother.”

This couldn’t be good.
“And the three of us sort of realized that the sleeping

arrangements in the village weren’t that great. For you or the rest of
the pack.”

“I’ve told you, they are perfectly fine in your barns. I’ve seen

them and they seem clean enough,” Nick said.

“Well, there is that, but with you two recently, well, mated, I

guess. You don’t call it marriage, right?”

“A union is a union,” Nick answered noncommittally.
“I’ve never seen you like this before, Hawke. What’s going on?”

Oliver asked, having enough of the man’s strange nervousness.

Again, Hawke cleared his throat. “You share your house with,

what? A family of five? That’s not exactly the best place to have
your, uh, honeymoon.”

Oliver suddenly had an idea of where this was going, and he

thought he was going to die on the spot.

His strong and capable leader was having trouble speaking to him

because he was attempting to offer him a decent place where he and
Nick could fuck each other.

Behind him, Oliver saw the way Will was laughing into his hands.
Good God.

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Nick seemed absolutely enthralled by the idea. He put his arm

over Oliver’s shoulder and grinned back at the man. “Are you
offering something?”

Not that Oliver didn’t want to be with Nick and naked as soon as

possible, even after the afternoon they’d shared together, but did he
have to seem so pleased about it?

“Will and I figured we’d bunk at my parents’ place. They were

using my old, tiny-ass bedroom as a place to bring the injured and
sick, but since no one is currently injured or sick, the space is open.”

“Two men could hardly fit comfortably on that bed,” Oliver said,

having seen it a time or two after he sustained his own injuries on
missions.

“We don’t mind keeping close for the night,” Hawke said, his

voice strong and confident for the first time since the conversation
started.

He then reached into his back pocket and pulled out a ring of

keys. Hawke and Brian kept spare keys to everything. The houses, the
cabinets where all the weapons and ammunition for the guns were
locked. All of it. He pulled off a single key and handed it to Nick.

“Our place is the one with the blue door closest to the well. My

mother put in a clean set of sheets, and she and Will were pretty much
the ones to clean the place up for you both. I’m not really good at
creating a mood.”

He didn’t need to create a mood. Oliver had felt Nick’s tongue on

his asshole and rolled around with the man in the forest. It would take
quite a bit before Oliver was feeling anything less than eager.

He had a hard time expressing that through his embarrassment.

Nick seemed entirely pleased as he took the key and thanked Hawke
for the offer.

“Give your mother and your mate my thanks as well. This was a

very generous offer,” Nick said. Hawke nodded, already walking
backward to get away from the awkwardness of the conversation. “I’ll
do that. You both, uh have a good night.”

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Nick’s hand tightened eagerly on Oliver’s shoulder. “We will.”

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Chapter Seven

Oliver couldn’t blame Nick for being as eager as he was, because

Oliver was in exactly the same boat.

“I thought I wouldn’t want sex for a week after what happened in

the woods,” he admitted as they exited the party and walked toward
Hawke and Will’s small home.

“I told you, we’re going to need each other desperately until the

mating is complete,” Nick said, and he was biting gently on Oliver’s
ear as he spoke, his warm breath ghosting across Oliver’s cheek and
down his throat.

Fuck. Just walking was giving his dick enough friction to cause

jolts of pleasure. It was actually a good thing that they were bidding
everyone a good night, because the last thing Oliver wanted was to be
sitting at the table, snacking on leftover bits of food, just to feel
Nick’s leg brushing against his one more time, because that would
definitely give him an orgasm in public.

As it was, he was fighting not to have an orgasm now as they

entered the house.

The only thing that prevented it was the fact that Nick released

him to shut and lock the door behind him, giving Oliver the chance to
survey the single room, square interior.

Hawke had built the home himself after he married Will, but

neither were much for luxury things. There was a small bathroom
with a toilet closed off in the corner, but that was only because Will
could not go outside during the day to take care of certain bodily
functions.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

There was a love seat that had been taken from the vampire home

that had been raided not too long ago and shoved against the left wall.
To the right was a countertop with all kinds of shelving for food
storage, water, dishes, and other household items, some of which
were probably the things Will needed for his healing.

It appeared as though most of Will and Hawke’s personal

possessions had been hidden away. Clothing, books, and the like. It
really could have been a guest house of some kind that was given
especially to them.

There was also a single round wooden table in the very middle of

the little house. On top of it had been placed a vase with a fresh
bouquet of flowers, along with two already lit candles and a flat box.

Oliver stared at those, rather than the bed in the far corner. Still,

he saw it.

It was not a grand thing, not really, but compared to what Oliver

slept on, it was fit for royalty. Because Hawke built most of the things
he owned, he was able to turn it into a fine canopy bed, complete with
curtains that could be pulled back to enclose the space at a moment’s
notice.

That, too, was likely because of his husband needing to stay out of

the sunlight, and even though there were heavy curtains on the few
windows in the place, whenever Hawke came and went, opening the
door to the light, would be reason enough to create a bed that would
protect his lover while he slept during the day.

Hawke had been right. Fresh sheets and pillows and such had

been placed on top, but there was also a box of something sitting in
the middle of the bed.

A box on the table, and a box on the bed. Gifts from the rest of the

village?

“Chocolate!”
Oliver turned to see the wide smile on Nick’s face as he opened

the first box. “Did you say chocolate?” Oliver asked.

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Chocolate was a rare thing for the village to come by, and he just

had to see it.

“Take a look,” Nick said, tilting the box for him. There was a card

as well, and Oliver took it and read it out loud.

“Stole this on a vampire raid not so long ago. Been saving this for

a rainy day. Congratulations and enjoy,” Oliver said. “It’s signed from
Felicia and Brian.”

“I can’t even remember the last time I ate chocolate,” Nick said,

grabbing for one of the treats and popping it into his mouth.

The way he moaned, and how his eyes slid shut as he tilted his

head back and chewed, was probably the most erotic thing Oliver had
seen in his life.

He couldn’t help but tease the other man as he took one of the

chocolates for himself. “I see now what the real weakness is of
werewolves in lust. Throw chocolate at them and they forget all about
their mating urges.”

Nick smiled devilishly through his chewing. “I haven’t forgotten.

Chocolate’s supposed to be an aphrodisiac.”

Oliver nearly choked on his chocolate, but swallowed his piece

whole instead before it barely had enough time to melt in his mouth.
“Is that true?”

“I have no idea, but I’m feeling more and more eager for you.”
Oliver looked down, and he noted the tent that was rising between

the man’s legs as his dick hardened. Oliver didn’t want to point out
that he was likely only feeling more and more horny because he was
teasing himself by putting off the inevitable act. Maybe chocolate
really was an aphrodisiac.

He took another one of the treats from the box and popped it into

his mouth. That one had caramel and nuts.

Oh God, he really was going to come.
“Let’s save these for later,” Oliver suggested, and he took hold of

Nick’s hand and let him toward the bed. Nick didn’t let go of the

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

chocolate box until they were right beside the queen size, and only
then did he put it on the nightstand.

“What’s that box?” Nick asked.
Oliver opened it. It was just another plain box with a removable

top. He looked inside and groaned.

Nick reached in and lifted out a fresh jar of health salve, useful for

cuts, burns, and pretty much what everyone anywhere used for lube if
they could afford to spare it. There was also what appeared to be a
black silk tie at the bottom. Nick lifted that out as well, grinning at the
sight of it.

No. Not a tie, but just a strip of material.
“I get why they would give us the salve,” Oliver said, “but not

what that’s for.”

“Well, I could always blindfold you with it,” Nick said, and he put

the silk over Oliver’s eyes. It really did block out all the light and
everything else in the room pretty efficiently. “Or I could tie you to
the bed with it,” he said, then removing it from Oliver’s eyes and
wrapping the silk around his hands instead, but not tightly. “Or maybe
you could do those things to me.”

Nick was grinning to high heaven, and his body heat radiated off

of him. He was excited and eager, and it was hard for Oliver to not
feel exactly the same. All he had to do was step just a little closer to
Nick and their bodies would be flush against each other. He didn’t
doubt that the man’s cock would be as hard as Oliver’s was right at
that moment.

Momentarily losing his eyesight like that, and then feeling his

hands bound together was enough to make every nerve in his body
stand on end and start singing. His dick throbbed almost painfully in
his pants with the anticipation of what he was about to do, and he
wasn’t at all interested in fighting against the instincts that were
running through him anymore.

Even if he was still unsure about the whole mating thing.

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Well, this was his wedding night, so to speak. He might as well

enjoy it, and Nick genuinely seemed like the kind of guy whose
company Oliver enjoyed.

Oliver swallowed hard, and he decided to be the one to make the

first move. He reached for Nick. The man’s eyes widened when
Oliver’s fingers trailed over the back of his neck. The soft hairs there
felt good, and it was even better when Oliver pulled his face down
and planted a kiss on his mouth.

Nick moaned, like he was being offered cool water after spending

the day crisping in the hot sun in the desert.

Then Nick’s strong arms wound around him, clutching him

tightly. Oliver had been right. His cock was hard, and it was rubbing
against Oliver’s through his clothes.

It felt good, kissing and touching like this. Nick’s hand went to

the hem of Oliver’s shirt and lifted up enough to slide his palm under,
touching Oliver’s warm stomach and making him shiver.

“Is…is this only because we’re mated?” Oliver asked. His voice

came out in a soft huff. He was out of breath and his heart was
pounding like crazy already. It was all so intense.

“What?” Nick’s voice didn’t sound any stronger, and he latched

his lips onto the side of Oliver’s neck, scraping roughly with his teeth
and then licking the sensitive spot with his tongue.

“This reaction,” Oliver said, and he moaned and bucked against

his…lover. Yes. That was a good word to use. Mate still seemed like
a weird word for him to even think about, but they were definitely
lovers at this point.

Nick had grabbed him by the cock with his free hand, and was

currently rolling his palm and rubbing Oliver’s swollen dick through
his pants.

“Do I—nnghh!—only want you so much because of the mating?”
There, he’d managed to ask it even though the haze of building

pleasure.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

“Hmm,” Nick mumbled unhelpfully. He was now working on the

belt and button of Oliver’s jeans, pushing them down Oliver’s legs so
that he could wrap his fist around Oliver’s pulsing dick.

His hand was warm and calloused, and it felt so fucking good.
“I don’t know,” Nick said, and he sank to his knees. Oliver had to

hold onto his shoulder just to keep his balance. “But I do know that,
even after, if, you decide to accept me as yours, we’ll both calm down
a bit, but we’ll still need each other. I’ll never get tired of you, and
you won’t get tired of me.”

Oliver was prone to believe the man, especially when he opened

his mouth and stuck his tongue out, just a little, to lick at the slit of
Oliver’s dick.

“Oh fuck!” Oliver said, his body jerking and instinctively moving

in the direction of that tongue. “I fucking love it when you do that.”

Oliver looked down at the other man. There was something even

more erotic about watching the way Nick held onto the base of
Oliver’s cock in his fist while pointing the head at his mouth, lapping
up the little drops of cum that were building there, and then pressing
his tongue into the slit for added pressure.

God. Oliver never knew he could do stuff like this with the few

lovers he’d had. He mentally took notes so that he could try it out on
Nick at a later time.

Nick, the bastard, teased him mercilessly by then wetting his lips,

opening them wide, and then sinking down onto Oliver’s cock,
completely deep throating him.

Oliver moaned uncontrollably and came hard down Nick’s throat.

The man swallowed him down and lapped him up like a pro.

Oliver lost all control of his muscles and was force to sit on the

bed before he collapsed onto his ass.

Nick climbed up his body, that same proud grin on his face as he

cupped Oliver’s cheek and pressed a kiss to his mouth.

His taste was definitely different. Then Oliver realized that he was

tasting himself, his own cum that was still in Nick’s mouth.

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It was different, that was for sure, but Oliver kind of liked it.
Naturally, as the way things went when he was together with

Nick, it seemed that was all it took before he was ready to go again,
his dick twitching and balls aching with impatience.

“Jesus Christ,” he said, not sure whether he should laugh or not.

“You werewolves are worse than rabbits.”

He couldn’t even remember how many times he’d come today

already, and he was pretty sure that by morning he was going to be
getting a lot more shy smiles while Nick received more
congratulations and back slapping.

“You love it,” Nick said, taking Oliver by the knees and lifting

them up. He had to pull Oliver’s pants and shoes off the rest of the
way, but when Oliver realized what he was getting ready to do, he
gladly kicked the offending garments away and turned to lie on his
stomach.

Nick laughed, kneading the swell of Oliver’s ass and hooking his

thumbs between his cheeks. “I guess you really liked it when I did
this the last time,” he said.

Oliver shivered as Nick’s warm breath wafted over his ass, and he

recalled the feeling of that tongue touching him there, pushing inside.

“Oh yeah,” he said.
“Well, let me try it again, then,” Nick said, and he spread Oliver’s

ass and pressed an openmouthed kiss to his pucker.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Chapter Eight

There was nothing Nick enjoyed more than lavishing attention

onto his mate. Every shiver that passed through Oliver’s body, and
every long moan that sounded from his lips, was like a small gift to
his ears.

And the taste of him was absolutely wonderful. Nick was glad

he’d taken the time to put that blindfold over Oliver’s eyes before he
really got to business. There was something incredibly erotic about
knowing his mate was willing to put that sort of power into Nick’s
hands.

Oliver was still wary about completing their union, but the fact

that he would allow himself to be so helpless in Nick’s care gave him
a great deal of hope.

He delved his tongue deeper into Oliver’s asshole, holding the

man’s hips down when he squirmed. Oliver was propped up onto his
elbows, but he couldn’t look down to see anything that Nick was
doing thanks to the blindfold.

That was exactly the way Nick wanted it.
“Lift yourself up a bit more,” Nick said, and his dick jumped in

delight when Oliver wordlessly did as he was told.

He seemed to think that Nick wanted him to stick his ass in the air

while keeping his head down. Not exactly what he was after, but he
wasn’t about to complain about the new position either. Besides,
Oliver looked sexy as all hell like that.

Nick took hold of his hips and kissed and licked his pucker some

more, hardening his tongue to go inside, while he reached around and

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grabbed Oliver’s aching cock. The man was trying hard not to come.
He really was.

He would be able to get hard again quickly enough because their

bodies were so desperate to properly mate, but Nick had a better idea.

Just when Oliver’s moaning picked up in volume, and his jerking

hips really started to move back and forth, Nick pulled himself away.

Oliver’s breathing still came out in heavy puffs, but it seemed to

take him a minute or two to realize that Nick wasn’t going to go back
to rimming him.

“What are you doing?” he asked. He was so damn cute with that

blindfold on him.

Nick thought it was almost a shame to have to take it off. “Do you

want to top, or should I?”

As an alpha, his instincts called for him to take the lead, but he

wanted Oliver to be as comfortable with what was happening as was
possible. If that meant handing over the control when he felt like he
had none, then Nick would gladly do it.

Oliver blinked now as he turned around to lie on his back. Now

that he was able to see again, his pale green eyes were owl wide, and
Nick couldn’t resist kissing him again. Oliver didn’t shy away from it,
despite where Nick’s mouth had just been.

“What?”
Nick reached for the jar of salve and twisted off the wooden cap.

It was completely full and untouched by anyone else. Nick thought he
might have to keep the jar when they finished here tonight.

“Would you like to fuck me?” Regardless of Oliver’s answer, the

strip of black silk was only going one other place, and Nick was
already busy gently tying it around Oliver’s cock and balls.

“I—” Oliver swallowed hard. Nick could actually hear it. He was

staring down at Nick’s handiwork, mostly. Nick knew how to tie
knots like this so that they wouldn’t hurt the man, just keep him from
finding release.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

“Whatever you want, baby,” Nick said, pressing another

openmouthed kiss to the head of Oliver’s dick. He was pleased to feel
the organ jump as Oliver hissed in a pleasured breath, but the man
didn’t come. That meant that Nick hadn’t lost his touch and had tied
the silk properly. He was so taking this with him as well when it came
time to leave here.

“I think—oh fuck—I think you should do it. I don’t know if you’d

like it if I was in charge.”

Odd thing to say. Maybe Oliver hadn’t had a whole lot of lovers

before Nick. Maybe he didn’t often top them.

Nick was just going to do as he was told. He wanted to know as

much about the man as he could, but his cock was doing all the
thinking now, and he just wanted to get inside Oliver now more than
anything.

Nick dipped two fingers into the salve. It made a little squishy

sound when he pulled them out again, and all he could think about
was how much he wanted to be inside of the man.

His dick gave an impatient jump. Fuck. Maybe he should have

tied the strap of silk around his own prick instead of Oliver’s.

“Spread your legs,” he said, and Oliver did as he was told.
“More,” Nick demanded. Oliver’s eyes widened a little, but then

he did, until he was completely exposed to Nick. His cock and balls
and asshole perfectly visible for Nick to see.

It was enough to make Nick sigh in pleasure.
“I’m going to make you feel so damn good,” he said, pressing his

lubed fingers against Oliver’s pucker, pushing them inside.

Oliver inhaled deeply. Nick had the pleasure of watching his toes

curl as his back arched.

He was still a little stretched out from when Nick had put one

finger inside of him earlier. He’d wanted to put in more, to stroke and
tease the man’s prostate until he came, but there had been no salve to
work with.

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Still, Oliver’s body easily accepted two of Nick’s fingers. Then he

found what he was looking for, and he pushed up against it.

Oliver’s prostate. Nick was pretty sure the only reason why the

man didn’t come right there, despite his desperate shout, was because
of the silk cord he’d tied around Oliver’s cock and balls.

“That’s it, baby, make some noise for me,” Nick said, and he

added a third finger into Oliver’s asshole, stretching him out even
further.

Nick’s cock was swollen and leaking drops of pre-cum, and all he

wanted to do was sink into that space. He knew that if he did, the first
thing that his body would do was tense up as he came.

That was all right. He wasn’t interested in his pride right now.

He’d be able to get it back up in enough time to see to Oliver’s
pleasure. His dick might not even soften at all. The musky scent of his
mate, so close, spread open and panting because of what Nick was
doing to him, was setting his blood on fire.

He wouldn’t survive it, if Oliver turned him away. He’d promised

the man that he would leave to try and make their lack of a proper
union hurt less, but there would be no end to the hurt. Nick would go
wild if he couldn’t have this every night.

“I want to come!” Oliver shouted, and he managed to lift his head

enough to look down at Nick. Their eyes met, and Nick’s heart nearly
stopped in his chest.

Was he feeling this, too?
No, he wasn’t.
“Nick, for God’s sake, I want to come. Let me come,” Oliver

begged, and he was reaching down to try and untie the knot that Nick
had made with the black silk.

With his fingers shaking like they were, he couldn’t seem to

figure it out. Nick had tied it so that it was pretty simple to come off,
but only if one knew where to pull and tug.

Nick swatted Oliver’s hands away. “Not yet.”

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Oliver’s eyes hardened. He actually looked like he might attack

Nick if he tried to deny him his orgasm. “Nick,” he said with a clear
warning.

“Fuck, that’s hot,” Nick said, and he climbed up the bed, scooping

some more of the salve into his hand and stroking his heavy, aching
dick with it. He spread some more over Oliver’s exposed asshole, and
then lined up the head of his cock with Oliver’s stretched pucker.

A shiver passed through Oliver’s entire body, and the man

moaned. That was enough that Nick almost came right then and there.

His inner wolf made itself known, and Nick couldn’t stop himself

from making a claim, even knowing that it wouldn’t be returned.

“You’re mine,” he said, and then pushed deep inside of his mate’s

asshole, coming instantly, but his dick remained hard and ready.

Oliver’s eyes widened, his back arched as he yelled out. Nick

stopped himself before he could start thrusting mindlessly away.

He was already very well in tune with the noises of pleasure that

his mate made whenever they were being intimate together. That
didn’t sound like a pleasured noise, and Nick held stock-still, scared
to death that he might’ve hurt his mate without intending to.

Oliver’s body relaxed then, and his thighs tightened around Nick’s

waist as he wrapped his legs around Nick’s body, holding him in
place.

Then he looked up at the other man, confusion clear in his eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

His voice was still breathy and full of lust, and Nick could feel

that the man’s erection hadn’t gone down. His firm cock was still
pressed very noticeably against Nick’s abs.

“Nothing,” he said, and then kissed the other man as he started

shifting his hips back and forth.

Oliver’s ass squeezed Nick’s dick perfectly, and because he’d just

had an orgasm, he was able to go on for longer this time around,
simply enjoying himself like he wanted to.

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Oliver sighed and keened softly, before his moaning and shouting

became louder and more desperate.

“That’s right, beautiful,” Nick whispered hotly into his ear. “Make

noise for me. Let everyone in this village, the humans and my pack,
know that you’re mine. My scent is all over you now.”

“Nick!” Oliver moaned, and he grabbed onto Nick’s shoulders,

letting his nails scrape over the muscles on his back.

Oliver wasn’t much of a talker during sex, it seemed, but the

noises he made were just as good.

No one else. Nick couldn’t let his mate go, and he for damn sure

wouldn’t be able to let him go, knowing that Oliver might look to
someone else for this sort of comfort. Oliver was stuck with him, even
if it meant Nick had to go wild for it to happen.

“Nick! Oh fuck! I wanna come! Let me come! Please!”
Maybe he’d suffered enough.
Nick was already nearing the edge. Though he still felt like he

could go on for the rest of the night, and he would make sure that he
did, he reached down and grabbed at the right loop in the knot he’d
made, pulling softly on it, and the strip of black silk easily fell away.

The noise Oliver made was somewhere between a moan and a

sigh as his warm cum started spurting between them. That didn’t
seem to be enough for the man as he frantically reached his hand
down and stroked his dick, milking himself even more.

It was the sight of Oliver’s face, screwed up tight with pleasure,

and the way his asshole clenched around Nick’s cock, that made him
come for a second time, spurting deeply within the other man.

He was inside of his mate, and he’d put his essence there as well.

Really, it was only a nice way of saying that Nick had shot his cum
inside of his lover, but there was something symbolic about it that
every werewolf recognized.

This didn’t, however, mean that their mating was official. The sex

helped to ease the pain of being denied, but that would only come
about if Oliver accepted their mating.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Nick wondered how long he would be able to hold off before his

wolf took over and started wreaking havoc.

Oliver looked up at him. His green eyes were half lidded, and his

soft brown hair was stuck to his forehead from all the sweating he’d
been doing.

They just looked at each other for a time. Nick couldn’t resist. He

leaned down and kissed him softly.

His mate was still undecided about whether or not he wanted to

well and truly be Nick’s mate, but at least he wasn’t getting angry,
and throwing Nick’s words back in his face.

Nick really loved him for that. He just wished Oliver would love

him in return.

What they were doing was incredibly intimate. Nick hadn’t even

pulled his cock out of Oliver’s ass yet, and they were still holding
each other close, sharing body heat while their lips moved against
each other. Nick could almost convince himself that Oliver really
wanted him.

He sighed when he pulled away from him, finally able to at least

give up on the idea, for now.

“Well,” Oliver said, catching his attention as he shimmied up the

bed. Nick thought it only made sense to lie above the covers with him,
even if they weren’t touching each other.

“Well what?” he asked.
Oliver grinned at him, the first real smile he’d seen on the man’s

shy face since this whole thing started.

“We have all night,” he said.
Nick immediately caught his meaning, and he returned Oliver’s

grin.

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Chapter Nine

Oliver woke up the next morning later than usual, probably

because he was in such a comfortable bed, unlike his mattress, which
was hard in the middle and sinking to the already cold and hard floor.

Also, the curtains of the bed were closed. Add that to the fact that

the heavy curtains in the house that Will and Nick shared had also
been shut from the moment Oliver and Nick walked in, and, well, it
made it easy for him to sleep in since he didn’t have the sun to wake
him.

He stretched his body out leisurely, the dried-up and sticky spots

on him a pleasant reminder of what had happened the night before,
not to mention the soreness he felt, well, all over the place.

The only thing that was shocking was when he realized that Nick

wasn’t in bed with him. Oliver had his eyes shut when he reached
over for the man, hoping to sleep in just a little longer, and then found
nothing there.

It was the angry, animal-sounding growl from barely ten feet

away that had his eyes snapping wide open. He pulled back the
curtains on the bed just enough to see what was happening outside of
his comfortable and warm space.

There was a black wolf in the cabin. Jesus Christ, it was huge.
It also wasn’t looking at him, thank God, but it was facing the

door. Its large head was bent, ears pulled back, hackles raised high
and—

Oliver blew out a sigh when he realized his own stupidity. That

was Nick. Who the hell else would it be?

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Oliver stepped out of the bed, and the floorboards beneath him

moaned under his weight.

Nick spun his head around, a sharp and startled bark leaving his

furry throat.

Though the sight of those golden eyes filled with fury as Nick

glared at him was enough to make Oliver pause, he quickly got over it
and smiled.

“It’s just me, Nick. What’s wrong?”
The wolf, whom Oliver was more and more starting to suspect

might not be Nick after all, kept its head down and pulled back its
lips, revealing sharp teeth.

“Nick?” Oliver asked, suddenly aware of the fact that he was still

very naked, and completely unarmed.

The wolf lunged.
Oliver tried to jump back and get out of the way, but the wolf was

fast, as fast as any vampire, and Oliver’s back struck the bedpost, and
he grunted through the pain as the heavy weight of the large black
wolf pushed him down onto the floor.

Oliver looked up and tried to blink through the swirling in the

room. He’d struck his head, but he was still clearheaded enough to
realize that the wolf was still on top of him.

He tried to grab for the throat, but all that fur prevented him from

so much as getting a good grip on the flesh beneath. He was well and
truly fucked.

“Nick!” Oliver yelled.
The wolf pulled its lips back once more, opened its mouth, and

then lunged forward.

Oliver’s body went stiff as he felt those teeth scrape across his

neck, and it was like the split second before his life ended completely
slowed to a crawl.

Not like it mattered. No poignant thoughts went through his head.

The only thing he was aware of was that Nick had gone wild
sometime during the night, and now Oliver was going to die for it.

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Another second or two passed before Oliver came to the

realization that time had not stopped after all, but instead Nick just
wasn’t moving. His teeth remained around Oliver’s throat, but even
though he could feel their sharp points against his skin, Nick wasn’t
biting down and ripping a new hole into him.

He remained perfectly still, just listening to the sound of the

wolf’s breath, and feeling how hot it was against his neck.

The wolf inhaled deeply through its shiny black snout, then it

whined before releasing Oliver and stepping away.

Oliver stayed on his back. What the hell just happened?
He jumped up when he felt that cold nose sniffing near his dick.

“Hey, stop that!” he yelled, completely forgetting that the wolf might
just try to eat him again.

He was willing to risk it. “I’m not into having sex with animals,”

Oliver said, cupping his hands over his cock and balls, partly to shield
himself, and partly to protect that most important part of his body.

The wolf didn’t seem to understand him. It came forward again,

but this time it sniffed at the dried remnants of his and Nick’s
lovemaking that was still stuck to Oliver’s abs. Nick had left it there
last night and told Oliver not to clean it up right away, and Oliver had
fallen asleep before he could remember to do it.

He didn’t know what the hell he was going to do if the wolf tried

licking it up. That was just too gross.

The wolf didn’t attempt to lick it up. It whined again and stepped

back, then it dropped down, as though it was in pain.

“Nick?” Oliver crawled forward, encouraged by the steady thump

of the dark tail against the floorboards when he put his hands
comfortingly on the wolf’s fur.

Then the worst sound in the world happened. Bones snapping,

following by the sensation of flesh shifting.

Oliver backed away quickly, and watched with a fixed fascination

as the hair on the wolf either shed away entirely, or was absorbed

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

back into the skin, which was quickly turning from a pale grey color
to a healthy human tan.

Nick’s face shrank back to normal, and there was some sweat on

his brow when the transformation was complete. The guy was lying
on his side, holding himself up by his elbow, and he was panting as
though he was the one to just have the scare of his life.

He looked up at Oliver, and then around the cabin, and down at

the dark wolf fur he was lying in.

All the color drained from his face.
“Oliver, Jesus, baby, did I hurt you?” Nick picked himself up off

the ground, but he struggled to do just that.

Oliver stayed right where he was when Nick got back down on his

knees and held Oliver’s face between his palms.

Oliver blinked slowly at him as Nick checked him over, paying

special attention to his neck. There might’ve been some marks there
from the teeth, but Oliver couldn’t be sure, and he didn’t much care
either.

“Are you okay?” he asked, which shocked the hell out of Nick.
“Me? You’re the one I nearly—” Nick cut himself off and looked

toward the area where his wolf fur was. It could almost make a small
rug. “Did I hurt you? Did I scare you?”

“I’m not hurt, but I could’ve done without the wakeup call,”

Oliver said. Nick winced.

“Is it because of me?” Oliver asked. “Because I haven’t…”
“Accepted me as yours?” Nick finished for him when Oliver

could say no more. “Don’t let that influence you. I still scented that
you were my mate, even when wild my wolf wouldn’t intentionally
harm you, so I don’t want you making any decisions just because of
that.”

“But you might hurt someone else,” Oliver said. It wasn’t a

question, it was just a fact. “Would your pack let you stay alpha if you
go wild?”

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Worse still, would they have to put him down? Nick had told him

about what they did to wild werewolves they couldn’t save, but he
wasn’t ready to hear the answer to that just yet.

“My brother Corey and my second Victor will be able to take care

of the pack just fine if I’m put out of commission,” Nick said.

Guess that was Oliver’s answer.
“Are you all right now?” Oliver asked. “Are you in control?”
Nick rolled his shoulders. “I feel in control,” he said. “I don’t

know why I transformed like that. Restless, I guess.”

“I can’t just let you go wild like that,” Oliver said, and without

really meaning to, he took hold of Nick’s shoulders and held him
tightly, as though he could cling to the part of Nick that was human
and rational, and wouldn’t go on a murderous rampage if he wasn’t
accepted as Oliver’s mate. “I’ll accept you as my mate. I accept it. If
it means you won’t have that happen to you again, then I accept it.”

Oliver couldn’t decide if what he saw in Nick’s dark eyes was

disappointment or a sad hope when he reached for Oliver and cupped
his cheek.

“I wish it worked like that. You can’t just say it, you have to

really feel it. Right now you don’t because you’re only offering me
that because you’re a good man who doesn’t want to see anyone
hurt.”

Now Oliver’s hopes were disappointed. “I think this whole mating

thing sounded easier when Anderson came back mated to Noir. They
didn’t have this kind of trouble.”

“Noir and Anderson are not you and I,” Nick said, and he got to

his feet. When Oliver realized his face was right in front of Nick’s
cock he quickly stood, too.

“Thank you anyway, for caring enough to make the offer. That

means a lot.”

“I’m sorry it didn’t work,” Oliver said, really meaning it.
“We still have two days, right?” Nick asked, clearly not expecting

an answer to that. “Why don’t you and I enjoy them?”

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Oliver thought he could do that. After all, the more time he spent

with this man, the easier it would be for him to allow himself to be
mated to him.

“I think before we head out to get some breakfast, we should put

the stuff away we used last night and clean this place up,” Oliver said,
looking around at the floor and the messy sheets. “I think Hawke and
Will’s generosity will only go so far if we leave it a mess in here.”

“Agreed,” Nick said, and just when he moved to roll up the messy

sheets, instead of going to grab the broom and sweep away the wolf
hair, Oliver grabbed Nick by the arm.

The other man looked over his shoulder at him, and damn, that

cute, over-the-shoulder confusion was the sexiest thing Oliver had
ever seen.

“Think we can get one more use out of the place before someone

knocks on the door?”

Hell, they hadn’t knocked when Oliver yelled out earlier.

Everyone in the village probably thought they were still having sex in
here, and Oliver could use the stress relief after coming up close with
the teeth of a werewolf.

Nick’s sudden shyness vanished, and his grin showed off his

perfect white teeth.

* * * *

As it turned out, Hawke and Will really could be that generous

with their home. Because they were under the impression that Oliver
would be leaving with Nick, they said the two of them could continue
to use the small house as they saw fit until the time came for them to
leave.

This was a good thing, because despite all the sex Oliver had the

day before, he still found that he couldn’t get enough of the other
man. He was still drawn to Nick. He had to be near him, if not
physically touching him at most times just to feel normal.

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He considered himself lucky. From his understanding of it, the

werewolf named Acelin, or Lowell, as he preferred to be called, had
recently mated with a vampire, and they had no such privacy to be
intimate in. Oliver didn’t know how they were coping, unless they
were sneaking out into the woods during the night so they could be
together.

The rest of the pack was certainly slapping Oliver’s back with

congratulations enough that Oliver thought he might end up with a
bruise there later, but their happiness could only mean that they
hadn’t realized their pack alpha had a lapse in sanity not too long ago.

That was good. Oliver worried they might be able to sniff that out

or something.

As time passed, Oliver took every opportunity he could to be with

Nick, converse with him about his past, his brother, even his favorite
color and happy childhood memories. In return, Nick did the same,
asking such questions. He seemed genuinely happy to hear of the
things that Oliver liked, and saddened when Oliver spoke about the
deaths of his own family at the hands of the vampire slavers.

Nick didn’t say it, but Oliver could tell that he would also be sad

should Oliver decide to go with him, leaving behind the family he’d
created for himself in the West Village.

Well, whether he knew it or not, Oliver’s mind was made up. He

just wished his damned heart would do the same.

Even as he sat next to Nick, their arms brushing, and pretended to

listen to what Brian was saying about the problems with the
neighboring village, all Oliver could think about was why wasn’t he
mating with this man?

As he sat there, he tried to do it. Mate with him. Mate with him!
What was wrong with him? He wished he could ask if others had

this trouble of completing the mating process, but that would be
giving away that he hadn’t accepted Nick as his mate yet.

Was it him? Was there something actually wrong with him that he

couldn’t do it?

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

No. Nick had assured him that it came easier for some than others.

They were mates no matter what. The fact that Nick didn’t rip out
Oliver’s throat proved that. So the problem was Oliver and his human
way of thinking. He was the one blocking Nick and preventing their
union from being complete.

The sex definitely still seemed to help, even if Oliver still woke up

in the morning to find Nick in his wolf form, sniffing around
curiously, as though wondering where he was.

That wasn’t right. Nick and the wolf should be one. The only

reason why they weren’t was because of Oliver.

Their last morning together in Hawke and Will’s house, Oliver

awoke again, sore from last night’s lovemaking, and somewhat
hesitant of leaving his bed when he heard the familiar growling on the
other side of the closed curtains.

He told himself to suck it up. Nick was always suspicious, but he

never hurt him once he finally got a sniff at him.

The black wolf turned sharply when Oliver set his bare feet down

on the floor. He bent his head and growled some more.

Oliver thought about what Nick had been telling him about

werewolves, and how they responded to authority.

“Stuff it already and get your ass back in human form. I’m hungry

and want breakfast. You probably do, too,” he added, thinking of how
hungry Nick always was in the morning.

Though they were pretty good at spending most of the night

locked together, sometimes not even taking the time to rest before
Nick’s cock was hard for him again, the next morning always left the
both of them starving.

Oliver was pleased by the way Nick’s wolf stopped growling. It

even lifted its head and cocked it to the side, as though wondering
what such a weak-looking creature could be doing trying to boss it
around.

It was enough to get Nick back in control, and he shifted.

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The sound of his shift, and the sight of his skin stretching and

bones realigning, no longer grossed Oliver out. In fact, he sat down on
the bed and started dressing himself, wondering what would be served
at the breakfast table now that he’d woken up on time to get to it.

That had to be a good sign, at least, that his appetite wasn’t

affected by Nick’s shift.

He went to the other man when he finished, helping him to his

feet.

“Did I—?”
“No,” Oliver cut him off, and he planted a deep, soft kiss on

Nick’s mouth before pulling away and licking his lips. “Get dressed,
I’m starving,” he said.

“I’m starving for something else entirely after that kiss.”
Oliver swatted his arm. There was something nice and intimate

about how close he could be with this man, whereas only a few days
ago, they wouldn’t have shared this. It would have been all awkward
small talk and stolen glances.

The stolen glances were still there, but now they held more

meaning that just a barely contained shyness.

“The only thing I wish was that I knew what you were growling at

every morning,” Oliver said as Nick dressed himself.

“If I could remember, you would be the first person I would tell,”

Nick said, pulling a white T-shirt over his head.

Oliver believed him.
“You don’t feel any more in control of your wolf today than you

did when we first met?” Oliver asked hopefully.

“No,” Nick said.
That was a disappointment for both of them, but for the moment,

it didn’t matter. “I’ll still go with you. Maybe I just need some more
time. I’m not trying to block you out anymore, maybe in the
beginning I was…” Oliver trailed off, not sure how else to say what
he was trying to say.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Nick just stared at him, and then he smiled and reached for him.

His kiss had Oliver’s dick stirring, again. It was ridiculous how he
just couldn’t get enough of the man. One would think that Oliver
would be unable to get an erection after being with him for so many
times, but his body continued to amaze him.

When Nick pulled away from the kiss, he still held Oliver’s

cheeks gently in his hands, and their faces were still so close that their
noses were touching. “You make it incredibly hard for me to say no to
you when you talk like that,” Nick said with a sigh. “I won’t argue
with you anymore about it, but if you ever decide that you want to
come back—”

“I won’t,” Oliver said quickly. “I won’t have to come back

because I am going to stop blocking you. We’re so close already, and
I don’t want to be without you. It’s just the fact that we met and
basically got married to each other on sight that’s giving me these
problems, and that’s only making problems for you.”

“I’ll have to tell the pack today that they’ll be taking their orders

from Victor,” Nick said. “I’m not spontaneously transforming and
attacking anyone, yet, but I’m still in no shape to lead them when I
can’t even control myself.”

“I won’t let them kill you,” Oliver promised. It was his biggest

fear, and the main reason why he was so eager to go with Nick, to
keep him safe, even though his presence was likely hurting Nick more
than it was helping. “Your wolf knows who I am and he seems to do
as I say now. I’ll make sure you don’t do anything you would regret,
and that way your pack won’t have any reason to put you down.”

Nick grinned and kissed him again.
Oliver’s dick became heavy, and by now he was acquainted

enough with Nick’s body to know that he was in a similar state. Hell,
he could feel the man’s erection pressing against Oliver’s, and it was
enough to make him shiver and moan.

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He’d grabbed a hold of Nick’s muscular arms and was already

pulling him back to bed, content with the idea of skipping breakfast,
when the door to the house burst open.

Bright, natural sunlight streamed inside, cut off again and again as

three vampire slavers dressed in their protective daylight uniforms
rushed into the house.

The sudden sound of screaming erupted from several of the

children outside, followed by the sound of the war cries of many of
the village warriors, along with the werewolves who were still in the
pack.

Oliver didn’t have a rifle nearby, or a bow with a quiver of

arrows, or even a knife. Nick went entirely alpha on him as he pushed
him backward and charged at the three vampires, his hands already
becoming claws as he shifted from man to wolf for the first time in
front of Oliver.

It was so quick that there was almost no delay at all, and his

clothes ripped apart as he jumped at the first vampire.

That still left two more who rushed to Oliver and grabbed him by

the arms and stuffed a black bag over his head.

He tried to punch at them, but they were too strong for him, and it

was ridiculously easy the way they forced his arms behind his back
and started dragging him away.

“Nick!” he yelled through the bag, his hot breath coming back in

his face, suffocating him.

“Nick!”
He couldn’t hear much outside of the bag, but the two vampires

were hauling ass to get away from the wild werewolf.

He was wild again, Oliver realized. He didn’t have his human

thoughts to guide him, and he could be as much of a hindrance to the
village as he could be help. The other werewolves might have to put
him down on sight just so they could get back to the real problem at
hand.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Oliver flailed around. No! He couldn’t let that happen! He had to

stay with him!

The vampires didn’t stop or even slow down. One of them even

threw Oliver over his shoulder and started running just to pick up the
pace, and Oliver screamed in the bag as he was being carried farther
and farther away from the man he loved.

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Chapter Ten

Nick managed to get the vampire out of the house and into the

sunlight. The stupid bastard probably thought that being out in the
open would help him in this fight.

Not so. Nick had already gotten a sizable bite on his shoulder and

right calf. He’d gone for the throat, but had missed, but now that the
guy was outside, holding one gloved hand over his shoulder, it was all
over for him.

Immediately, smoke started to billow from the holes in the

uniform. It was a tough sort of material. It definitely didn’t look like
it, but it was. But it was still no match for a werewolf’s fangs.

When the vampire realized that he was starting to burn because of

the damage to his uniform, he actually tried to run back into the
house. Nick wasn’t about to let him get away or get to Oliver. He
latched onto the man’s other leg. The uniform he wore only protected
him for a few seconds before Nick’s teeth broke through, and he had a
solid enough grip that he was able to sink his fangs down through the
flesh before he hit bone.

The vampire shrieked and tried to claw his way back to the cabin.

He was panicking, which was a mistake that would cost him his life.

The heat from the sun must have gotten to him, because the man

passed out before Nick had the chance to bite down even harder and
turn his leg bone into splinters.

He did it anyway, even though the guy was already unconscious.

It satisfied Nick’s primal need for revenge, and if the guy somehow
survived, then he at least wouldn’t be getting away.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Nick looked up and surveyed the area. There were more vampires

around. A lot more, but they must have not known there was a pack of
werewolves in the village when they attacked, because they were
getting their asses handed to them on a silver platter. Victor was doing
an amazing job of keeping the wolves organized as they worked with
the humans.

Why the hell did the vampires even choose to attack during

mornings anyway? Was it because they thought they would have the
element of surprise on their side? Were they not aware that they were
putting themselves at a disadvantage? Regardless of those stupid
uniforms they wore?

What in the hell were they—?
Nick stopped that thought, realizing that he was even having

human thoughts.

He was thinking like a man, not like an animal who relied entirely

on its senses. He was aware of the things that were going on around
him, and he was able to use his own rational logic to see that his
wolves and the warriors of the village had everything under control.
He didn’t have to let his blood lust get the better of him.

Nick rushed back into the house, intending to see to Oliver, and to

show him that he was all right, before they both ran off into battle.
That he could reason and think like this could only mean one thing.

Oliver had stopped struggling against their mating.
The house was so small that it only took Nick a split second to

realize that Oliver was not there. Oliver wasn’t the strongest man in
his village, but he was no coward either, and he wouldn’t be hiding in
that small bathroom, or under the bed.

There was no one in the house.
Nick put his nose to the ground and sniffed him out. He couldn’t

remember transforming into the wolf, which suggested to him that he
had lost control for at least a small amount of time, but now that he
was himself again, he could put that to use to find his mate before
anything happened to him.

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How many men had entered the cabin? He couldn’t really

remember. It was like the rage and bloodlust of the wild animal inside
of him had gotten the better of him. Had the vampires been what he
had supposedly been sniffing out all those times when Oliver awoke
to find him in wolf form? Had they been creeping around the village,
scoping it out for possible blood slaves to take?

Regardless of the answer, it didn’t matter. Nick caught the scent

of two more unknown men, along with Oliver, and they had left
together.

Nick growled, nearly losing himself to his animal side once more

as he tore out of the house and followed the scent of his mate.

Kill them. He was going to fucking kill them for thinking they

could take Oliver and turn him into a blood slave.

The vampires were fast, but they couldn’t outrun their own scent,

and every tree branch they brushed up against, and every footprint
they made was all Nick needed to help him along.

He pumped the muscles in his front and hind legs faster than he

ever had before, and he was pretty impressed with the speed in which
he caught up to them.

Only two of them. It took him a few seconds to realize there

weren’t more as the distance between them closed, but there were
definitely only two. Oliver’s hands were bound behind his back with a
plastic strip tie, and there was a black bag over his head as the
vampires ran.

They were getting closer to the streams that fed through the area.

Although Nick had a decent idea of where the vampires were headed,
he couldn’t let them get that far. He could be wrong about which
house they were from. It wasn’t only the super-rich vampires who had
access to slavers and assassins, and if those two got to the streams,
which branched off in a number of different directions, he could lose
Oliver forever.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

As much as Nick hated it, he had to take out the vampire who

wasn’t carrying Oliver first. If he tried attacking the one who was,
then the two would simply gang up on him and it would all be over.

He had to go for the throat, and this time he couldn’t miss.
Using even more speed and strength than Nick was even aware he

had, he launched himself at the other vampire and jumped, letting his
jaws open in midair as he sailed toward his target.

It was a perfect hit. His jaws clamped around the side of the guy’s

neck, and Nick bit down so hard that the protective uniform the man
wore barely gave him reason to pause. Warm blood splashed into his
mouth, and Nick yanked his head back and forth until that entire piece
that he had tore free.

As the vampire fell to the ground, not entirely dead yet, Nick

abandoned him to chase after the one who was still running for his life
with Oliver.

Nick didn’t have much experience with vampire slavers. They did

come into the werewolf district from time to time, but not enough that
he would have a great idea of how they worked.

Even still, he would have thought the guy would just drop Oliver

so Nick would stop chasing him. He did no such thing. Was the man’s
life also dependent on whether or not he brought back some fresh
blood?

Not Nick’s problem what punishment the guy would face if he

didn’t bring something back to his cruel masters. His punishment was
going to be a thousand times worse once Nick got his claws into the
man.

He had to be careful about it this time. Nick could keep running

for another hour straight without losing his breath, that was how
determined he was to keep up with the vampire, but the man still had
Oliver over his shoulder. Nick had to make sure he didn’t accidentally
get him with his claws instead of the vampire he was trying to kill.

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Nick was almost ready to make his jump when the man—because

it had to be a man with the shape of his body—suddenly skidded to a
halt and turned around.

Usually, something like that wouldn’t have been enough of a

reason to make Nick pause, but when the vampire suddenly dropped
Oliver without warning and put a nasty-looking curved blade to his
throat, Nick’s heart stopped.

“Come any closer to me and he dies,” the vampire said.
Nick growled low and mean in his throat. He was forced to take a

step back, however, just to give the vampire some breathing room. He
didn’t want the son of a bitch to try anything cute while Nick was in
this form. He couldn’t even waste the precious seconds he needed to
transform back into a man so he could at least try to negotiate with the
guy.

Not that the negotiations would have gone very far. Nick had

every intention of making sure this man died for what he was trying to
do.

Oliver must have heard his growl even through that damned bag,

because he perked up and squirmed, trying to get away from the
vampire who held onto him. He was only forced to stop after the
vampire grabbed him by the throat.

“Now back away, slowly, and let me walk out of here,” the

vampire said.

Nick couldn’t do that either. He couldn’t let the man get away, but

neither could he stay and allow him to kill Oliver.

Oliver began to struggle some more. He spoke through the bag

over his face, but even Nick with his excellent hearing couldn’t
understand what he was trying to say.

“Are you deaf!” screamed the vampire through his mask. “I said

get out of here or I’ll slit his throat.”

Nick couldn’t even point out the logical conclusion that, if the

vampire slit Oliver’s throat, then he would no longer have his
bargaining chip.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Oh God, he was going to lose Oliver. He had to walk away, at

least until he was out of sight before attempting to follow them again,
but if he lost their scent, if he lost his mate because he wasn’t fast
enough, smart enough, or strong enough to save him, then he really
was done for.

Nick had no choice but to take the risk. He hoped that if Oliver

was aware of what was happening beneath that bag, then he at least
would understand that Nick wasn’t leaving him for good.

He was just about to reluctantly turn around and disappear into the

barely-there shadows of the trees, when the vampire sputtered and
coughed.

The scent of blood was immediately in the air, and Nick’s heart

launched into his throat as the vampire keeled over, the sharp edge of
the knife coming dangerously close to slicing Oliver’s throat.

There was a small red line left behind, which Nick was deathly

fearful would yawn open at any given second as he kneeled there,
shivering for all the things happening around him that he could
neither see nor control.

The cut didn’t open any wider, and not even a drop of blood

dribbled out. It really was just a small scratch.

Nick shifted into his human form and rushed to his mate. When

Oliver felt hands on him, he struggled again, but Nick quickly calmed
him.

“It’s me, baby, it’s me. I have you,” Nick said. It was ridiculously

easy for him to rip apart the plastic tie thing that bound Oliver’s hands
together. It made him fully aware of just how fragile the other man
was, despite his training and bravery. And Nick very nearly lost him
forever.

When his hands were free, Oliver’s finger rushed up and started

scratching at the bag that was still around his head. It was tied tightly
beneath his jaw, and Nick helped him with that, too.

When Oliver pulled it off of his face, he inhaled a deep breath of

relief. There was sweat on his face, and his soft brown hair was

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soaked from his own perspiration. Nick could only imagine how hot it
was inside of that bag. He’d heard of people passing out when they
were used, and that for that reason, the slavers continued to use them
to make it easier to snatch away their victims.

His face was red from the trouble he had breathing, and the heat,

and his hair was mussed up, and he never looked as lovely.

Oliver was still breathing hard when he looked at Nick, his green

eyes scanning him up and down.

“You’re human,” he said.
Nick laughed, carding his fingers through Oliver’s wet hair.

“Yeah.”

“You’re not wild,” he said.
“Not in the least,” Nick replied, and he all but pulled Oliver into

his lap and kissed the hell out of him.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to take it any farther than this,

despite the way his damn cock stiffened now that Oliver was safely in
his arms, but the sound of someone clearing their throat behind him
was a stern reminder that Nick didn’t have time to spare even for a
kiss.

Someone had killed that assassin, and Nick, complete and utter

fool that he was, had left both himself and Oliver open to attack by
being so distracted.

He turned, shocked and angry to see another vampire assassin. He

was ready to shift into his wolf form once more and lunge for the guy
when he put his hands up and backed away a step.

“Whoa! Relax yourself. It’s me,” Noir said.
Nick’s muscles immediately came out of their bunched state, but

he was hardly able to collapse into a boneless pile at his mate’s feet.
There was still so much that needed to be taken care of.

“What’s the situation back at the village?” he asked.
“Is everyone okay?” Oliver asked.
“Everyone’s fine,” Noir said. “There’s some injuries, but they’re

being brought to Will for healing, and even then it wasn’t anything

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

life threatening, but two of the men sent into the village did get away.
Not the two you were chasing after,” he added when Nick opened his
mouth.

Noir must’ve seen the dead body of that other vampire as he

chased after Nick.

“Thanks for coming after us,” Nick said, genuinely grateful.

Weird for him to feel gratitude toward a vampire, but now that he had
a vampire in his pack, he supposed he should be getting used to these
kinds of anomalies.

“I saw you rush off into the woods. I would’ve followed you

sooner, but I was sort of busy at the time.” Nick wondered how many
of his own kind the man had to kill before he was able to track Nick
down. The guy did use to be an assassin after all.

“We should get back,” Oliver said, getting to his feet and then

blinking wide.

“What is it?” Nick asked, instantly worried.
“Fuck, being carried upside down on that guy’s shoulder and then

standing up like that gave me the worst head rush.”

Oliver put his hand over his eyes, as if that would make the

sudden headache leave him.

Nick took his free hand, looking at the scratch that was on his

neck. “Better a headache than your life.”

Oliver pulled his hand away, and he smiled at Nick. “You’re

right.”

“Anyway,” Noir said. “We should get back. Some of the vampires

are alive, and they will be questioned. I want to be there for that.”

Nick looked at the guy and realized he was wearing the same

uniform as the attackers. “How would the other villagers even know
you’re on their side? What’s to stop them from attacking you by
mistake? Or Frederik, or Alex?”

Or any of the other vampires who were living in that village. In

fact, Nick was mostly worried for Alex, since he was the one who was

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now part of the pack, though he doubted the man would be fighting.
He was too omega for that.

“That’s why I want to get back. Some of the injuries did occur for

that very reason. We’re going to have to think of a way to change
these uniforms enough so that it’s obvious to the humans we’re
fighting with that we’re their allies. They won’t always hear our
voices when we’re yelling out at them,” he said.

Nick blushed at that, thinking of the way he’d nearly rushed after

Noir. “Right, let’s get back.”

“We need to be quick, it’s still not safe out here.”
That was something else Nick agreed with him on.
Nick looked at Oliver. “You wouldn’t mind being carried one

more time, would you?”

Oliver was surprisingly good about it. “So long as it’s not fireman

style, I’ll let you carry me anywhere.”

* * * *

Nick was never more relieved in his life to return to a place that

was not his pack. Even though he was still getting to know these
people, Oliver knew and trusted them, and that was good enough for
Nick.

Nick might have put Oliver into the category of an omega who

had been thrust into a warrior position because of how he lived, but he
was incredibly competent when they returned to the village. The
second they were back, Oliver shifted to be put down, and he
immediately rushed over to anyone who looked as though they might
need some help, and since the actual fighting had finished, he also
began fetching things like water and bandages to help clean any
smaller wounds that didn’t require a healer’s attention.

Nick had never been more proud, or aroused, for his mate.
His mate. Whatever it was that had been keeping Oliver from

letting Nick in was now gone, and they were fully and completely

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

mated. Just thinking about that brought a sense of rightness to
everything in Nick’s world, but there was the fact that he’d nearly
gone wild over it. He’d lost control of his wolf enough times to be
problematic, and the final time it had happened, he’d nearly lost
Oliver.

Hiding that fact from his pack was a selfish act, and not something

a leader should be doing.

It shamed him, and he had to confess what happened to Victor and

the others before they left.

Victor could handle the pack well enough. He wasn’t a DeWitt,

but the rest would follow him, and if Victor’s attention to Corey was
anything to go by, he would be close enough to family for everyone
else to be comfortable with soon enough anyway.

Nick set off to see to the care of his wolves. Theo had a long

scratch across his forehead, but he was in good spirits and laughing as
he amused the children of the village, taking away their fear by
making jokes at himself and generally just being an ass. Daryl, Matt,
and Acelin were seeing to the other humans of the village and helping
the other warriors by cleaning up anything that had been destroyed.
So far it looked like two tables had been broken in the fight, and the
door to another house had been broken off.

Nick could only imagine the damage that had been going on

inside of those houses as the vampires attempted to drag the humans
away.

He sucked up his pride and called to Victor.
The man was as loyal as ever as he came to Nick as quickly as he

could. He was naked, as were most of the other men in Nick’s pack,
with the exception of Theo, who’d at least taken the time to put on
some pants before he started entertaining the children.

“What is it, sir?” Victor asked.
“We’ve got a problem,” Nick said. “I need you to gather up the

pack for a quick meeting.”

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Victor wasn’t really one to question the orders he’d been given,

but he did tilt his head a little bit to the side, as though searching for
what could be going through Nick’s mind.

Only an alpha could do that to the rest of his pack, and Nick had

never been more grateful of that fact.

“We’re still leaving today, but not until later,” Nick clarified. “I

wouldn’t leave the humans to fend for themselves after what just
happened, but I still need you to get everyone together. I have
something to say to them.”

“Sir?”
“You’ll be leading alpha when this is all over. Just know that.

Now go.”

Victor’s eyes remained wide, which was a comical look on him,

but he still rushed off to do as he was told.

Nick sighed and rubbed away the ache in the back of his head.

Now he was starting to get a headache.

He told himself again and again that his actions proved he wasn’t

fit to lead. He should have confessed sooner, but Oliver’s insistence
that he stay quiet, along with Nick’s own fear of being put to death or
cast out, had kept him from doing the right thing.

He’d nearly lost Oliver for that mistake. Nick would remind

himself of that again and again until it was ingrained into his skull, if
it wasn’t already.

Nick imagined that he and his pack looked pretty damned silly,

most everyone buck-ass naked, and following Nick a little deeper into
the woods so he could speak with them.

“What’s this about?” Theo asked, always the first to open his

mouth about something. “I need to get back to those kids. No one’s
watching them right now.”

“I want to check on Alex.”
“None of you will be here for very long, and you can check on

your mate immediately after we’re done, Acelin.”

“Lowell,” the man corrected him with a deep grumble.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

Nick couldn’t even take pleasure in teasing the man. He shifted

his feet. “Right, sorry, Lowell.”

That seemed to throw the man off. It was a well-known fact that

Nick enjoyed teasing Acelin because the man despised his name. He
didn’t mean anything by it, and Acelin—Lowell—knew that he
wasn’t actually trying to be a dick. It was just the way they played
around with each other.

The fact that Nick so easily gave up on the game was a real

indicator that something was wrong. Everyone listened intently.

“I’ve been keeping something from all of you,” Nick said. He was

an alpha. He wasn’t the kind of person who stuffed his hands in his
pockets and kicked the dirt on the ground while staring at his feet.

The hands-in-the-pockets thing could be attributed to the fact that

he was still naked, but he was going to look everyone in the eye while
he told them the truth.

“My mate and I have been having some problems connecting, and

my wolf didn’t appreciate any of that. I’ve been hanging on well
enough thanks to him, but you should all know that I was pretty close
to losing control there for a while.”

Everyone looked amongst each other.
“You look fine now. You’ve looked okay from the beginning,”

Theo said, the first to point out what everyone already knew.

Nick wet his lips, hating that he had to say these things, but hating

even more that they had actually happened in the first place.

“My human mind was all right, but sometimes Oliver would wake

up in the morning to find that I’d shifted, and I never had any control
of the wolf. One time I nearly attacked him.”

There was a harsh intake of breath at that admission.
“I might have even been able to tell you all that the vampires were

coming. I was constantly growling at the door. At the time I didn’t
realize what I was doing, and Oliver had to tell me that was
happening, but looking back, I think my wolf was sniffing them out.”

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“Or you just wanted to go outside and run like any other wolf,”

Lowell said, folding his arms. “Your entire pack is here, and we
didn’t know they were coming. We’ve all shifted time and again and
we didn’t sniff them out, you shouldn’t blame yourself.”

“I’m your leader, whether it was my fault or not,” and Nick was

leaning toward the fact that it was his fault. “I should assume the
responsibility.”

“I knew you and your mate were having trouble connecting,”

Victor said, shocking the hell right out of him.

Nick snapped his head to the side and stared at the man. “What?”
“I could pretty much tell that, too,” Daryl said.
“It wasn’t like it was hard to tell, what with how nervous he was

around you in the beginning,” Matt chimed in.

Nick couldn’t believe this. “How many of you were aware that

Oliver was blocking me off?”

Everyone raised their hands.
“Unbelievable,” he said. “Why didn’t you all do something about

it?”

“You’re our leader,” Victor said. “You also gave the whole three

days thing so that Oliver could get used to you before we headed back
to the pack. We didn’t know you were shifting and couldn’t control
your wolf, but we didn’t sense any danger, and you and Oliver
seemed to be getting along better. No one wanted to interfere with
you.”

“If we thought you were dangerous and not fit to lead we

would’ve asked Victor to take over and get us out of here,” Lowell
said.

“Are you in control now?” Victor asked. “You ran off as a wolf

and came back a man.”

“I’m in control now,” Nick said. “Oliver has accepted me as his

mate.”

Something clicked in his head, and he had to address this now

before it turned into a problem later on. “I don’t want to hear of

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101

anyone giving him trouble for that, either,” he said, a clear warning in
his voice.

“We know better than that,” Victor said. “Mating with other

species isn’t always going to be a smooth process, right?”

Everyone nodded their heads, and Nick was sure that they did it

because they really did understand, not just because they didn’t want
to cause anyone any upset.

“What was it like when you mated with the vampire? Alex?” Theo

asked, adding in Alex’s name at the end and blushing over his choice
of words.

Nick had already heard about how Theo and Daryl very nearly

killed the man during their hunt. He couldn’t blame them for it,
however, and neither could Lowell, considering their mission had
been to kill as many vampires as possible.

“It wasn’t as difficult as what Nick went through. I didn’t lose

control of my wolf, but there was a brief time when he was blocking
me. I get it that it’s hard for someone from a different paranormal
group to accept how this works. They weren’t raised to expect it like
we were.”

“As far as we’re concerned, you’re still the alpha,” Victor said.

“You had to go through some things to get your mate to go along with
it, and neither of you were hurt and you didn’t go wild.”

That was the final piece of advice that everyone seemed to need.

Nick was so in tune with his wolves as the alpha that he could really
see how well they understood.

Nick really didn’t know what to say to that. He was so damned

humbled by his men that it was incredible.

Victor was the first to say something, which was good, because

otherwise Nick thought he might do something that would seriously
call into question his ability to be an alpha.

Like cry. And wouldn’t that just be a fucking show.

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“All right, everyone, get back to what you were doing. We’re

going to be helping out around here before we pack up and leave,
apparently.”

“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk before we came

to this village as much as you have now,” Nick said, staring fondly as
his second. He really was glad he picked this man to stand by him in
pack matters.

Now Victor was the one to blush, and he mumbled something

under his breath before turning around and heading back into the
village. Nick laughed behind him as he followed.

He was going to find his mate and see where he could help out.

The faster they got everything fixed, cleaned up, bandaged, and put
away, the faster he could get the man alone.

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103

Chapter Eleven

In the end they decided to stay one more night. The attack on the

village by the vampires left everything rattled. Oliver could hardly
believe he was hearing Brian and the other elders in the village all talk
about just packing up and moving.

It was the decision of the village, and ultimately, everyone was a

little down about having to make that decision.

There were a lot of human villages out there that had so much less

than what the West Village had. Oliver had seen some of them. They
didn’t even having housing, and they slept in tents and other quickly
thrown together shelters year round.

They did so because there weren’t that many people in those

villages, and they felt safer traveling around instead of stopping and
putting down roots anywhere.

The people of the West Village, however, had made this place

their home. Houses and barns had all been built here. Oliver knew
that they were nothing compared to what the rich vampires had, but it
was still something.

Oliver had been making plans to leave, but he always thought the

village would be here. Knowing that it might not was a real blow to
his spirit.

Nick had been amazingly generous by offering anyone from the

village shelter with his pack in the werewolf district, and knowing
that his lover, his mate, had put that offer on the table only made
Oliver love the man more.

“It might still be here, for when you decide to come and visit,”

Nick said, and he brought his knees up onto the bed and slid his palm

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over Oliver’s chest. His T-shirt was in the way, preventing his touch
from being skin on skin, but it still sent shivers down Oliver’s body,
and brought out a very specific reaction in his cock.

He ignored the way his dick hardened between his legs. Will and

Hawke had again gone above and beyond the call for generosity by
offering them the cabin for the last night that Oliver and Nick were
going to be staying, but he imagined that they were now stretching
that generosity to its limits.

This would be Oliver’s last night in the place he’d come to call

home, and it might not even be here should he wish to see it again.

“It’s so stupid of me to be sentimental,” Oliver said. “We always

knew that the village wouldn’t be a permanent fixture. There are so
few of them that are.”

Nick rested his chin on Oliver’s shoulder. “They haven’t made a

decision yet,” he said, clearly trying to lift Oliver’s spirits.

Brian made it very clear to the rest of the village that this latest

attack, even though they won hands down, was proof that the
vampires knew where they were, and were watching this location. It
wouldn’t be the last time they came here either. They would be back.

Brian was leaving it to the village to decide whether or not they

wanted to pack their things up and go.

“Did you mean it when you offered them a place at your pack?”

Oliver asked.

“Absolutely,” Nick said. “So long as they don’t mind dealing with

the occasional wild werewolf and human hunters on the prowl, I think
they’d like it there, out and away from all this vampire nonsense.
Besides, I offered to help them deal with the vampires. It’d be much
easier if we were closer.”

Oliver laughed. “It sounds nice. Anderson won’t be as easy to

convince as all that,” Oliver said, speaking of the village’s resident
werewolf. “Though to be fair, he does seem to be getting along with
your pack better than he was in the beginning.”

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105

“Our pack,” Nick corrected. “You’re my mate. Everything that’s

mine is yours now, too. I can’t wait to introduce you to everyone else
in the pack. Especially my brother. You’re both going to get along so
well.”

Oliver couldn’t help but lean back against his mate’s chest, even

as he stared around himself at the nice little house that Hawke had
built for his husband, and which they might soon both have to leave
behind.

He decided he wouldn’t let himself think on that just now. What

would come would come, whether he worried about it or not, so he
might as well spend his time and attention on his mate, who was
clearly so desperately craving it.

“I feel like I know so much about you already,” Oliver admitted.

“We’ve talked a lot and shared some more, but I don’t know anything
about your family.”

There really was only so much that could be said between them in

the three days they’d been together.

“Corey’s great, but too shy for his own good,” Nick said. “I’d say

he has your kind of shyness, but he’s worse. I’m pretty sure Victor
has a thing for him, but he’s been holding himself back.”

“Why would he do that?” Oliver asked. “Another werewolf

thing?”

“Kind of,” Nick said with a shrug. At least, Oliver was sure he felt

the man shrug. He was still sitting behind Oliver. “Like I said, there is
some choice in this, or there can be. I think Victor’s just as shy. He’s
worried that if he gets too close he’ll mate with Corey and it’ll take
Corey’s choice out of the matter. I don’t think they’d said more than
two words to each other in the last year.”

“That’s pretty sad,” Oliver said.
“I guess so. I don’t think Victor realizes that if he does mate with

Corey, well, Corey’s a werewolf. He won’t have any issues with
denying the mating, and it will mean they’re both compatible.
Honestly, I think he’s being an idiot.”

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“Maybe he’s really worried that he will get too close and the

mating won’t happen.”

He felt the way Nick’s body went still behind him. “I never

thought of it like that.”

“You should try getting them together to see what happens. It

can’t be healthy for him to be staying away from a man he loves,
right?”

Nick chuckled. “Well, if they’re not mated, I doubt there will be

any problems with anyone going wild over it, but that’s not what I
was hoping to talk about,” Nick said, and now his warm hand inched
its way beneath Oliver’s T-shirt.

Oliver couldn’t help but smile, even as his dick throbbed and his

balls became heavy. “You really do have a one-track mind, don’t
you?”

“Is that a complaint?” Nick asked, his breath hot in Oliver’s ear

right before he bit gently down onto the lobe.

“No,” Oliver said, heat rising up his neck and into his face. “I just

figured that after we, after I, finally came around, we wouldn’t be so
desperate for it all the time.”

It was only because of their mating, and because of the way Oliver

leaned farther against Nick’s chest, inviting more of that touch, that
the other knew not to take what Oliver was saying as some kind of
insult.

“We were always mated and we will always want each other,”

Nick said. “Now that you’re more open to it just makes it more
interesting and fun.”

“You’re crazy.” Oliver laughed, and he turned his face, searching

for a kiss that Nick gladly gave him.

He loved kissing Nick. He wasn’t aware of whether or not the

other man knew that he was practically making love to Oliver’s
mouth with that tongue of his, the way he thrust it in and out as he
did. It mimicked the lovemaking that they were about to have so well
that Oliver’s entire body was put on edge by it.

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107

He reached down to touch himself, gripping his dick through his

pants as he and Nick continued to mesh their lips together and Nick
played with Oliver’s nipples.

It was good. This was nice and intimate and everything Oliver had

ever wanted in a lover.

He abruptly stopped when the pleasure began building a little too

fast. He was aware that, now that he was mated to a werewolf, he’d be
able to get an erection again quickly enough regardless of how
premature he came, but there was something in his pride that
demanded he didn’t come so soon.

Also, although Oliver had yet to experience an orgasm from the

man that wasn’t completely fantastic, Nick had warned him again and
again that there was still something to be said for quality over
quantity, and that was why even Nick continued to hold back. From
time to time.

Sex just felt so much better after a good round of teasing.
Oliver pulled his hand away from his dick and spun around in

Nick’s arms. He grabbed the man by the neck, pleased at Nick’s
growl of approval, and pushed him back against the mattress before
climbing onto his lap.

The mound of pillows gave him something substantial to lean

against, but he wasn’t much into watching so much as he liked
participating. Nick helped Oliver pull his T-shirt over his head, and he
began licking and kissing at Oliver’s chest before the T-shirt was
completely off of him.

Oliver threw it away when he was free of it, and he touched the

soft black hairs of Nick’s head, holding him in place and sighing, as
the man used his teeth on Oliver’s sensitive nipples.

Oliver couldn’t help but shift his hips and grind his cock against

Nick’s already erect dick. The man moaned as he kissed Oliver’s
chest, and it was the most wonderful sound in the world.

Then a completely weird thought entered his head that had

nothing to do with sex.

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“Your hair is soft,” he said, his voice coming out in a pant.
“What?” Nick looked up at him, his chin still touching the spot

where Oliver’s small abs began.

Oliver laughed a little. “Your hair is soft. It doesn’t feel like

coarse wolf hair.”

“Odd thing to be thinking about when I’m trying to get into your

pants,” Nick said, but he grinned and gently rubbed his head, soft
hairs and all, against Oliver’s chest.

The he really started to laugh and squirm. “Stop it! That tickles!”
“You are mine to tickle as I please!” Nick said, and he lifted

Oliver completely up and turned the tables on him, pressing him
down onto his back on top of the sheets and kissing him into oblivion.

Oliver wrapped his arms around Nick’s bare shoulders and spread

his legs for the man. He was so glad he’d managed to overcome
whatever barrier had been between them. He didn’t understand why
there could be a part of him that would keep him separated from Nick,
but now that it was finally gone and they were going to be together,
Oliver couldn’t be happier.

Nick thrust against him again and again in slow but hard motions

that added wonderful friction to Oliver’s dick.

He moaned and tried to move closer to his lover, but was

thoroughly squished between Nick and the mattress.

He didn’t mind. He was still comfortable and warm. Nick

promised him those two things would never change, and Oliver was
going to make sure he provided those same things to Nick.

Then the air was suddenly cold as Nick lifted himself off of Oliver

and turned to the wooden nightstand that was next to the bed. He
pulled it open and pulled out the small, wooden jar of salve they’d
been using as lube. They’d already gone through half of it.

“On the way back to the werewolf district, I really hope we run

into a mage who’ll sell us some more of this stuff. You and I seem to
need it.”

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

109

“Do you think we’ll look funny if we buy it in bulk?” Oliver

asked.

“I’m sure every mage knows the real reason why people buy this

stuff,” he said, accenting his words with what sounded like a catlike
growl.

Oliver burst out laughing.
Nick also pulled out the black silk blindfold that they’d also

stashed in the drawer. They’d both already gone through the gift of
chocolates they’d been given, but Oliver especially liked the
blindfold.

“Gonna have to make sure we don’t forget these tomorrow

morning,” Nick said.

As usual, the reminder that they were about to leave, and that his

time in the West Village was pretty much done, brought a pang of
regret into Oliver’s chest, but that was overshadowed by his eagerness
to leave with his mate.

“Any regrets?” Nick asked.
Maybe he’d somehow sensed Oliver’s regret over leaving, but

missed the part where Oliver was glad to be going with him.

“None at all,” Oliver said. Then he flopped himself back on the

bed, doing his absolute best to overact the part of sexy male begging
to be fucked.

“Now kindly get over here and ravish me, I’m starting to think

you’re hesitating for a reason.”

Nick pounced on him.

110 Marcy

Jacks

Chapter Twelve

Nick pulled his mate’s jeans off with his teeth. Naturally, he had

to use his hands and opposable thumbs to get the button and zipper,
but the rest was all wolf lust and teeth, which seemed to drive Oliver
wild with desire.

Just by keeping his hands on his mate’s slender hips, he was able

to feel the way Oliver’s body temperature rose incredibly high. All of
that through touch and kisses alone.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” Nick said, planting a kiss on

Oliver’s belly button. It was the kind that pointed inward, and he
couldn’t resist dipping his tongue inside really quickly just to feel the
way Oliver’s belly moved as he hitched in a breath. “And brave, and
loyal, and kind. How the hell did I get so lucky?”

Oliver must have thought that was a rhetorical question of some

kind, because he didn’t answer with anything other than a gasp or a
groan.

“I’m going to fuck you so hard into this mattress that Hawke and

Will will have to get a new one just to sleep right on it,” Nick said.

Oliver’s pale green eyes widened as he looked down, somewhat

horrified about that. “You can’t do that to their bed!”

“So you are listening,” Nick said, and then he tsked and shook his

head. “I give you a compliment and you ignore me. We’re going to
have to work on that.”

“You can’t ruin their bed, Nick,” Oliver said, though he was

gasping again, his head falling back into the clean sheets.

They’d been washing the sheets and quilts every day since being

given permission to use the cabin. Even Nick had boundaries to how

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

111

often he felt like sleeping in his own body fluids, and he was pretty
sure that Hawke wouldn’t appreciate it if he destroyed the furniture
because he was having hard sex with his mate. He was just teasing the
man.

“They’re going to have to get new blankets and sheets anyway. I

don’t think it matters how often we cleaned these.”

“N–not the point,” Oliver said, and he scrunched his eyes closed

and pressed his hands to his eyes, moaning low, trying to contain
himself as Nick took his dick in hand and stroked him from bottom to
top.

His cock was a deep, dark color, nearly purple, and so were his

balls. Nick leaned in and kissed them, too, suckling them gently
before planting wet kisses all up and down the shaft of Oliver’s dick.

“Do you remember our first time together, out in the woods?”

Nick asked, letting his fingers trail teasingly over Oliver’s tight
asshole.

The man beneath him quivered. “Yes.”
“You were so eager for me. I couldn’t believe you’d even brought

me out there,” he said, and then gently pushed one finger inside. He
made sure to keep the intrusion a shallow one, completely aware that
he hadn’t even put any of the salve onto his fingers yet. “Do you
remember where specifically I was kissing you?” he asked, and then
hooked his finger, watching in delight as Oliver’s chest went up and
down in a violent fit of hard breathing and moaning.

Nick grabbed the base of Oliver’s dick, squeezing just enough to

prevent an orgasm.

“I could come just by looking at you,” he said, and then popped

the head of Oliver’s prick into his mouth to taste the building pre-cum
that was there.

He pulled away almost immediately and went back to trailing

kisses down Oliver’s dick. He made sure those ones were chaste,
barely a touch of the lips while he squeezed the man’s cock. Even as

112 Marcy

Jacks

he prevented Oliver’s orgasm, he still twisted his fist just enough to
make sure that Oliver went wild with what was happening to him.

Nick hadn’t tried this on anyone but himself, and he found that

being stroked was fun and all, and he could even enjoy it, sort of,
when he was by himself, but twisting his fist in a circular motion as
he did it was the real icing on the cake, and Oliver seemed to be in
agreement with him because he put both of his hands over his mouth
to contain his gasps and groans of pleasure.

“No, no,” Nick said. “Make some noise for me. I want to hear

you. I want everyone outside to hear you so they all know you’re
mine.”

Oliver’s hands came down on the mattress hard, almost like he

was punching it, but he gripped the sheets into his fists like he was
just desperate to have something to hang on to. “You’re the worst
fucking tease in the world. Y–you know that?”

“I don’t know, actually,” Nick said. “Maybe I’ll spend the rest of

the night seeing how far I can go with this before you’re begging me
to let you come in my hand.”

“I want you in me first,” Oliver said, regaining some of his voice,

but Nick could only imagine the extreme struggle he had to go
through just to keep his words steady and even while Nick played
with his cock and teased the ever-living hell out of him.

“I’ll get into you soon enough, don’t you worry about that,” Nick

said. The promise alone was enough to remind him that his cock and
balls were still heavy and aching. He was wearing a pair of jeans
himself, and there was a growing wet patch in them as he watched the
show that Oliver put on for him.

Not yet. Not yet.
Nick hardened his tongue to a point and pressed it against the slit

of Oliver’s dick, lapping up more of his pre-cum, taking Oliver’s
essence inside of him.

He loved knowing that Oliver’s cum was in him, marking him as

belonging to the other man. It was one thing for him to mark Oliver as

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

113

his and put his scent all over him in the form of his cum inside of him,
but Nick wanted the same for himself. He didn’t just want Oliver’s
scent on him, he really wanted his pack, and any other wolf he came
across, to know that he also belonged to someone else. Maybe tonight
they could try something different.

“Turn around and lie on your stomach,” Nick said.
Oliver rushed to obey the command, knowing what was coming.
This was Nick’s favorite part as well. He spread the other man’s

ass cheeks and planted a kiss on his pucker.

Oliver shivered with the anticipation of it, but now he was in

serious danger of coming because Nick was no longer holding onto
his cock.

“Don’t you dare come. Not until I tell you,” he said, and then

dove back in to what he’d been doing, pressing his tongue as deeply
as he could inside of his lover. He loved doing this more than he
loved sucking Oliver into his mouth. It probably had more to do with
the fact that Oliver confessed to him that no one had ever done this to
him before in his entire life, and there was nothing that got Nick
aching for the other man more than knowing he was Oliver’s first at
something.

It took him a few seconds to realize that Oliver was trying to say

something to him. “N–not…fuck, it’s not exactly something I–I can
c–control,” he said through his panting gasps.

No, but Nick knew full well that Oliver would still try his

damnedest to do as he was told.

Nick spread him wider, and Oliver stretched his legs even farther

apart in clear invitation, and he started humping against the mattress
just to get some friction to his cock.

Nick didn’t know how much longer he would be able to do this

for. Oliver thought Nick was purposely teasing him, but the reality
was that Nick was teasing himself more than anything. He hadn’t so
much as put his hand to his dick yet, and he was damn near in pain
because of it.

114 Marcy

Jacks

He lapped up at Oliver’s asshole some more, enjoying the taste of

his mate on his tongue, as well as the noise the other man made.
Oliver tried so hard to yell and cry out into the sheets. Nick was pretty
sure he was biting down on them as well, but that was doing little to
nothing to keep the noise level down.

He was going to come. Not Oliver. Nick. He was going to come

just listening to his mate, and feeling the way he rocked against the
mattress. It was so damn hot, nothing had ever been more erotic
and…

Nick groaned against Oliver’s asshole. The vibrations of his moan

must have done something to the other man, because Oliver tensed up
and fisted the comforter tightly as he pushed his hips into the sheets.

The musky scent, so thick and heavy in the air, wasn’t just Nick’s.

Oliver had come.

Nick pulled his mouth away from Oliver’s asshole and turned the

man over. Oliver blinked slowly up at him. His eyes were dilated, and
he looked like he’d just awoken from a coma with how sluggish he
appeared.

They were both going to have to wake up extra early to wash the

stains out of the sheets, though he would be surprised if Hawke and
Will didn’t just give them to Oliver and Nick as a mating present at
this point. They’d practically marked their territory all over them,
multiple times, after all.

Nick shook his head, mock disappointment in his voice. “I told

you not to come yet,” he said, wagging his finger at his lover.

Oliver grinned stupidly at him. “I told you I couldn’t control it.”
There was something else they couldn't control as well. Both of

their cocks were still hard, as if neither of them had come yet at all.

Oliver looked down at himself, and then put his hands over his

face. “Sometimes I don’t know whether to beg for mercy or beg for
more.”

Nick laughed at his lover. “Yes, our gift is our curse,” he said.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

115

Oliver gave him an odd look, apparently trying to decide whether

Nick meant the curse of lycanthrope, or the fact that they were
basically horny as hell for each other almost all the time.

Nick chuckled and swooped in for a kiss before his lover could

ask him. He blindly reached his hand out to the side, searching for the
jar of salve that he knew he’d placed somewhere over there…

There! He found it, and with his mouth still locked to Oliver’s—

his lover seemed dead set on keeping the both of them connected no
matter what—Nick twisted off the cap.

He didn’t dip his fingers inside, however, he just placed it calmly

beside Oliver’s head and continued to kiss the man.

He was an alpha, and he didn’t often let other people purposely

dominate him. He wanted to do this, but he still needed a minute to let
his mind wrap around the idea of what was about to happen.

Oliver spread his legs for Nick, but he must have become

confused when Nick didn’t move in for the kill, so to speak. Nick
continued to lie on top of him and kiss him, suckling on his swollen
lower lip, touching his dark nipples and fine, lean chest, but he didn’t
shuck off his pants or lube his fingers and start preparing Oliver for
the main event.

Oliver eventually pulled away to look him in the eyes. “What’s

the matter?”

Nick blew out a breath. He could do this. He could do this.
“I figured we’d try something different tonight,” he said.
Oliver grinned and turned his head to look at the black silk

blindfold they’d been using to tie each other up with or remove their
eyesight for the past couple of days.

“I don’t know how much different we could go, unless there’s

more about sex you know that I don’t.”

There were a number of positions that Nick hadn’t used on his

lover yet for various reasons. Some were a little hardcore, the type of
thing that Nick had only done with other alphas who would be able to

116 Marcy

Jacks

handle the physical demands of such positions. He wanted to ease
Oliver into those kinds of things.

“Well, it’s not so much different as it’ll just be a reverse of

positions,” Nick said.

The frown on Oliver’s face lasted for a hair of a second before his

eyes popped wide. “You’re serious? Really?”

“Well, yes. I didn’t think I gave off the kind of vibe that would

tell you I would never do this at all.” In fact, he was pretty sure that
he’d told Oliver he would be willing to bottom shortly after they’d
met.

Maybe Oliver hadn’t fully believed him.
“No, you don’t, not really, and I know we talked about this, but I

didn’t think you’d be ready for it so soon,” he admitted.

Nick smiled. “Do you want to?” he asked, and he pushed some of

Oliver’s brown hair out of his eyes so he could better see the way they
lit up.

Did they ever. “Yes, definitely,” he said. “This won’t hurt you,

will it? Have you ever had sex like this before?”

Nick thought of one of those situations he’d had with another

alpha. “Once, and yeah it kind of hurt.”

“Kind of?” Oliver asked.
“I’m not hiding anything from you. I can handle pain better than a

normal human can. Prepare me like I would you, use a lot of lube, and
we’ll both be having fun.”

“I just don’t want to hurt you,” Oliver said. Even though he

reached for the jar, he still sounded a little unsure.

Nick took him by the chin and pressed a gentle kiss to his mouth.

“You won’t. I want you inside of me, claiming me.” Nick leaned back
on the bed, avoiding the wet spot Oliver had made, and he pulled
Oliver between his legs.

“I love you,” Nick said.
Oliver smiled and kissed him. “I love you, too.”

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

117

He dipped his fingers into the jar of salve and brought out a

healthy portion of the stuff. He put his hand between Nick’s legs and
seemed to have the most intense look of concentration on his face.

Nick expected the salve to be cold against his asshole, but it

wasn’t. It was warm, and it tingled, which he suppose he should have
expected, considering the stuff always tingled when he was using it
for what it was actually made for.

He relaxed his body, and soon Oliver had two fingers inside of

him.

“How’re you doing?” Oliver asked.
“Perfect,” Nick said, absolutely meaning it. “Give me one more.”
Oliver did, pushing a third finger inside of him before moving all

three back and forth, back and forth.

“I can’t believe how well you’re doing,” Oliver said, and he

finally found Nick’s prostate and brushed against it.

That was enough of a reason for Nick to be unable to properly

answer him. He’d forgotten how nice this could feel, how absolutely
pleasurable the burn and thrusting sensations were, following by the
mind-numbing sensation of having his prostate touched and teased
like this.

Oliver was no longer thinking like a human, in that he thought

Nick should be hurting or in pain. Nick’s moaning and hips thrusting
back against Oliver’s fingers must have been proof enough for the
man that Nick really was all right and able to take more.

Nick’s feet were suddenly pulled upward, and the backs of his

ankles rested on Oliver’s shoulders as Oliver pressed the head of his
cock against Nick’s stretched asshole.

“Yes,” Nick said right before his mate thrust inside.
Nick arched his back and clutched at the bedsheets, and then he

thought better of it and reached down and grabbed at his dick,
stroking himself as Oliver thrust frantically inside of him.

The man was a machine, and he put all his muscle into the push-

and-pull movements between their bodies as he fucked Nick farther

118 Marcy

Jacks

up the bed, until Nick was forced to reach his hand up to the
headboard to keep his head from banging into it.

Holy fuck! If he’d known Oliver could fuck him like this, he’d’ve

let the man do it long before now.

“You’re so damn tight,” Oliver moaned, and he leaned over Nick

even more until their chests were nearly touching, almost bending
Nick completely in half before he managed to change the position of
his legs, and then Oliver really began punching inside of him.

Nick grabbed him by the back of the head, his fingers fisting in

Oliver’s hair as he just kissed the man, shoving his tongue inside of
Oliver’s mouth and tasting him as he was fucked so deliciously hard.

It was an effort to keep their mouths from slipping too much, but

they managed.

Nick tried to recall the things he knew about what would make his

partner enjoy themselves more when he was in this position, and he
clenched his asshole tightly around Oliver’s dick. When that wrung a
moan from the man, he did it again.

He brought his hands down to Oliver’s back and raked his nails

down his lover’s flesh, hard enough to leave marks later, but gently
enough that he didn’t break the skin. He was still aware that Oliver
was human, even with how foggy his thinking was at the moment.

“Oh God! Oh fuck!” Oliver yelled. “I’m coming!”
“That’s what I want, baby, come inside me. Mark me,” Nick

begged.

Oliver moaned loudly, his body stiffening, but he continued to

punch his hips back and forth even as his warm cum spurted into
Nick’s body.

It was the greatest turn-on of his life, having his mate empty

himself inside of Nick like that, that he reached down and started
stroking his cock as his own orgasm was right around the corner.

He came hard, ropes of cum shooting onto his chest, and it

seemed like forever before his body managed to stop acting like a
tightly strung bowstring and just relax.

The Alpha Wolf’s Convenient Mate

119

Oliver collapsed on top of him, seemingly uncaring that he was

now going to have Nick’s cum on his chest as well, but he didn’t pull
out of Nick. They just lay there, sharing body heat.

“Think the whole pack and village knows you’re mine now?”

Oliver asked. He wasn’t hard anymore, and neither was Nick. Maybe
they would actually get an early night in tonight.

“They think we’re bad now, just wait until you and I are traveling

with them on the road. Lot less privacy until we get back to the pack.”

Oliver’s body went tense on top of him, and Nick laughed as he

teased his mate before kissing his hair. He was going to have so much
fun spending the rest of his life with this man.

THE END

WWW.MARCYJACKS.COM

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marcy Jacks lives and works in Ontario, Canada, where she is

fervently pursuing the writer’s life while writing about lots of
gorgeous guys. She loves hearing from readers and you can reach her
at authormarcyjacks@gmail.com.

For all titles by Marcy Jacks, please visit

www.bookstrand.com/marcy-jacks

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

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