The Mating Rules

Jamie-Lee’s POV

My heat finally broke twelve hours after it started and I was left a sweaty, exhausted mess wrapped up in Caden’s arms. Skarla was passed out in my mind, snoring contentedly and I silently thanked the Goddess for my skin not feeling like flames were burning me alive anymore.

Lifting my head from the Alpha’s chest, I start to squirm slowly, trying to get out from under his heavy arm without waking him. The guy had been exhausted when Skarla and I had finally come out of heat, he got barely more than 30 minutes sleep each time before the pain was back and I was on him again.

‘Where are you going?’ comes Caden’s gravelly morning voice as I sit up, reaching over to grab his t-shirt to throw over my naked body.

‘the bathroom’ I reply softly, leaning over him to press a k**s to his lips, ‘go back to sleep.’

A growl of protest leaves his lips as he grabs my wrist, tugging until I fall across his chest and two strong arms circle me, holding me tightly.

‘Caden’ I whine, trying to wriggle free, ‘I really need to go!’

‘Shh’ my annoying mate replies, eyes still closed, ‘sleep time.’

‘I swear I’ll pee on the bed and then we both will be getting up if you don’t let go’ I warn, getting my hands between my body and his and pushing against his rock hard abs.

Groaning sulkily, the Alpha finally releases me and I jump up from the bed, hissing as my nether regions remind me about just how active I’ve been this last twelve hours, and stumble toward the bathroom, shutting the door behind me.

Sinking down onto the toilet, I sigh with relief as I . . well . . relieve myself.

Caden must have come in here during one of my power naps as the floor has been mopped of all the water from earlier and a couple of wet towels lay on the floor by the wall.

Going to the sink, I wash my hands and glance up at myself in the mirror. My hair is sticking out in every direction and there are large love bites visible above the neck line of Caden’s shirt. I lift my arm above my head and gingerly sniff, pulling a face of disgust, OK, I need a shower, how the hell can that man in there want to be anywhere near me right now? I don’t even want to smell me!

I wander over to the bathtub and turn on the tap, flicking the switch to change it to the shower setting and pull the curtain across as I strip out of Caden’s t-shirt and drop it to the floor. Now naked I can see the aftermath of the last twelve hours on my skin and I cringe to think what my mate must look like because I know I wasn’t gentle as my heat got going properly.

I touch the bites on my neck gingerly, they are already beginning to fade thanks to my wolf healing. I trail my fingers down my body, discovering more and more marks from my Alpha and a shiver runs through me as I smile, touching each one.

‘Baby’ comes a g***n from the next room, ‘seriously? I think you already broke my d**k, stop thinking whatever you are thinking!’

‘I’m not thinking anything!’ I reply, my face heating up in embarrassment.

A chuckle reaches my ears, ‘I can smell you mate, and whatever you are thinking in there is far from innocent. If you keep it up, I’m going to have to come in there and deal with you.’

I yelp, stamping down on my wayward thoughts as I scramble toward the bath and step over the roll top into the hot stream. A m**n rumbles out of my throat as the hot water hits my skin, soothing the aches in my muscles. I turn and tilt my head back, dragging my fingers through my knotted mess, trying to comb out the bird’s nest before grabbing the bottle perched beside the taps, and rubbing shampoo in, massaging my scalp.

After my hair, I worked over my body with body wash, giving extra attention to underneath my arms, it should be illegal to smell like that if I’m honest.

Turning off the water, I reach around the curtain and grab one of the few remaining clean towels, wrapping one around my body and stepping out to the sink. Grabbing a brush, I drag it through my wet hair with one hand whilst using the other to wipe the steam from the mirror.

Satisfied that I actually look half human now, I open the door to the bedroom and step outside to find the room empty. My stomach clenches automatically as I grip the hem of my towel, looking around for Caden.

‘He’s OK’ I murmur to myself, ‘he’s just stepped out of the room, he hasn’t been taken.’

As if on cue, a key sounds in the lock and the door inches open, my mate peering around the small gap before a smile stretches across his face and he slides inside, shutting the door firmly behind him.

‘I could get used to coming home to you looking like this’ he growls as he prowls toward me, my heartrate calming now that he’s back where I can see him.

Swatting playfully at his free hand that reaches out to tug at my towel, I move over to the bed, ‘where did you run off too?’ I ask casually. ‘I thought for a minute you’d done a one night stand run and done on me.’

I peek over my shoulder at him as I open the drawer that holds my underwear and pull out some clean garments.

A possessive rumble leaves his chest as he stalks toward me, wrapping his arm around my waist and hauling me backwards until my back is pressed to his chest. ‘I’ll never be done with you baby’ he murmurs as he licks my shoulder and I try to suppress my shudder. Why the heck did I not want a mate again? Why would I not want these feelings? I was an i***t.

‘So where did you go?’ I ask, turning in his arms so I can press my lips to his quickly.

Meeting me halfway, Caden k****s me forcefully, my knees weakening slightly before he reluctantly pulls away and holds up a bag.

‘thought you might be hungry’ he replies with a wink, ‘we burnt a lot of fuel today.’

I want to retort to his smug expression but my stomach takes that moment to growl loudly and I blush, covering my belly with my hands in embarrassment.

‘Seems I was right’ he chuckles, releasing me to head to the small table set up by the tv and starting to remove boxes as I hurriedly dry and dress before joining him.

I look over the Thai takeout in surprise, ‘where did you find this?’ I ask in awe. I don’t want to complain but a girl soon gets tired of burgers and breakfast burritos for every meal.

Caden shrugs, ‘Once your heat was over, I knew you would sleep and then need food so I linked to Mark to send the guys in the car out to find us all something a bit more sustaining than the gas station offerings. They found a small town ten miles down the road that had a family run Thai take out, they bought the guy out of every he had.’ Caden grinned as he shook his head, ‘from what I heard, the poor guy almost had a heart attack when our boys were shoving the money in his hands.’

I open one of the containers, groaning with longing as I dig in the bag for some plastic forks and shovel a mouthful of food between my lips quickly.

‘Oh Goddess, this is divine’ I m**n, my eyes closing as I savour the flavours.

‘Baby, you should never make those types of noises unless you are talking about me or Hadley’ Caden growls, and I open my eyes slowly to find him watching me in amusement.

‘What?’ I shrug, ‘this is good food, if I had my way, I’d take this container to a private room alone and show it a good time.’

My mate’s face flickers with emotions and I’m not sure if even he knows whether he wants to laugh or be annoyed.

Moving my chair closer to him, I lean over and press my lips to his, ‘but it will never give me the kind of fulfilment that my mates do’ I add as he smiles.

‘Better’ he mutters, grabbing the back of my head and pressing his lips to mine punishingly before letting me go and starting on his own container of food.

We eat in silence until the raw hunger pains subside and I clear my throat, Caden turning toward me expectantly.

‘Caden’ I start slowly as my mate places his hand on top of mine comfortingly.

‘We’re still looking baby’ he replies to my unanswered question. ‘The Council are still being tight lipped, but Isaac has been talking to a receptionist there over the phone.’ He smirks widely as he raises and eyebrow at me, ‘it seems she likes his accent’ he adds, ‘gets a bit giggly whenever he rings her. He’s been ringing for various ridiculous reasons just to build a connection with her and is hoping she might have knowledge to where Hadley might be being kept.

Dad is also talking directly to the Council trying to broker a deal to get Hadley released or at least obtain a visitation to him so we can get a location.’

I nod, my food sitting heavy in my stomach as Hadley’s face fills my mind. Here I am sitting around getting laid and complaining about gas station burritos and my mate is in an unknown place in an unknown condition being treated Goddess knows how appallingly. I still can’t feel our bond or connect with him and the longer it goes on the more scared I become. I haven’t felt the severing of our connection, which I definitely would even if he’s dosed with wolfsbane, so I at least know he’s still alive. It’s a small comfort but it is still not enough to c***k the aching fear in my heart that my mate could be suffering a fate worse than death right at this minute while I sit around twiddling my thumbs.

‘Stop it’ Caden’s voice rings out, snapping me back to my surroundings.

‘Stop what?’ I mumble, playing with my remaining food with my fork, no longer hungry.

‘Stop thinking that you are somehow betraying Hadley by eating food and holing up in this Motel’ my mate replies firmly.

‘But . .’ I start, a crease forming in my brow that Caden reaches out and strokes until I relax.

‘No Leeway’ he cuts me off gently, ‘Hadley is a tough bastard and he’ll be fine, he needs to know that you are safe and well so he can do what he needs to do. When your bond connects, and I firmly believe it will at some point, you do not want his head to be filled with your guilt or the fact you’ve made yourself ill by not taking care of yourself. You want him to feel that you are OK so he can give you information and concentrate on keeping safe. This is how you help him right now baby, every time you keep yourself healthy you are helping him survive.’

I swallow thickly as I nod, ‘I just miss him so much’ I whisper, feeling even worse for voicing my inner pain.

Caden strokes my cheek, holding my gaze, ‘I know Leeway’ he murmurs, ‘and I know that he’s missing you like crazy too, but we are going to get him back OK? I’m not leaving without him.’

I give my Alpha a watery smile and nod again, stronger this time. I need to pull myself together, Hadley needs me to be ready for when he figures out a way to connect to me. I’m not going to let him down by being in a state when that day comes.

Shovelling another mouthful of my now cold meal into my mouth, I see Caden nod approvingly before returning to his own food, silence stretching between us once more.