Wolf Mate Read online

  WOLF MATE

  MATE series

  By

  Natalie Kristen

  MATE series

  ALPHA MATE

  BEAR MATE

  VAMPIRE MATE

  WOLF MATE

  Copyright © 2014 Natalie Kristen

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are used fictitiously or are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual locales, events, establishments or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  *****

  ONE WOLF...

  Dax Ferro: high profile lawyer, partner at Ferro, Wells and Robertson, alpha Silver Wolf.

  ONE WITCH...

  Melynda Morgan: conscientious secretary, final year student at Spell School, witch from the Morgan coven of Elemental witches

  TOO MANY SECRETS...

  Their past will destroy their future.

  As the secrets they hide from each other threaten to destroy them and those they cherish, will Dax and Melynda finally learn to trust and love? Or will they lose everything, including each other?

  *****

  CHAPTER ONE

  Dax let the client pump his hand up and down after the meeting. “I know my case is in good hands, Mr Ferro. You're a good lawyer, the best!”

  Dax smiled. “I do my best, Mr Seetoh. Have a good evening.”

  Dax waited until the lift door had closed, and the client was safely on his way to the ground floor before sighing and shaking his head. The client hadn't been entirely truthful and had been less than forthcoming with the facts. Yet he expected his lawyer to work a miracle.

  Dax shrugged. He was after all one of the partners of Ferro, Wells and Robertson, the boutique law firm that specialized in miracles.

  Dax glanced at his watch. It was already seven o'clock. The meeting with Mr Kai Seetoh had taken longer than expected. If only clients would just tell their lawyers the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It would save everyone a lot of time. And they would save themselves a whole lot of legal fees as well.

  Dax turned and strode back into the empty office. The secretaries and junior lawyers had left for the day, and it was uncharacteristically silent in the office. During office hours, the law offices of Ferro, Wells and Robertson was a hive of activity and sounds. You could hardly hear yourself think amidst the sounds of buzzing telephones, clicking keyboards, rushing footsteps, whirring coffee machines, and the incessant office chatter and gossip. The office girls never stopped chattering and gossiping. They could gossip while they were typing, filing, photocopying, on the way to the washroom. He had to admit, their multitasking skills were impressive.

  Dax was an alpha werewolf, the only paranormal partner of the firm, but in his opinion, his two human partners, Matthew Wells and Ian Robertson made far better fodder for gossip. Those two lawyers were good-looking, flamboyant and frequently represented high profile clients. Dax was an excellent lawyer, but he preferred not to talk about his cases, his work or himself. He had never granted a single interview to magazines and tabloids, unlike Matthew and Ian, who were always making headlines or gracing the pages of some gossip magazine.

  Dax wound his way through the maze of cubicles. He saw that the lights were on in Ian's spacious corner office, but Ian wasn't in his room. Either he had gone off in a rush, or he had just stepped out to grab a bite.

  Loosening his tie, Dax entered his office and threw the folder onto his desk. He frowned and glanced out the door. Melynda wasn't at her desk, but her computer was still on, and there was a cup of coffee beside her keyboard. Melynda always cleared her desk before she left for the day. She liked her work station clean and uncluttered. She was a bit messy while she worked, with files, documents and half-eaten sandwiches strewn all over her desk, but she always made sure she tidied everything up before knocking off.

  Melynda was a good secretary, hardworking and intelligent, with a quick wit and a smart mouth. That pretty mouth of hers was always ready with a quip or a retort. Never mind that he was her boss. Melynda Morgan was sharp, sassy, sexy as hell.

  Melynda was only twenty-two years old, and he knew she was still in Spell School, the most prestigious school for magick. She was in her final year, and she attended classes during the weekends, and had enrolled in some of their night classes. She was a very busy witch. She had her plate full, and yet she had the time and energy to go on countless dates.

  Melynda dated extensively, but she wasn't the flirty sort.

  Dax had seen some of the secretaries and young female lawyers flirting outrageously with Matthew and Ian. He could hear their coquettish laughter and their not so subtle propositions. But Melynda had always kept her head down and just concentrated on her work. She was friendly and approachable, and she always had time for a joke and a quick cup of coffee with the rest of the girls, but she never flirted with any of the males in the office.

  Never flirted, never gave the come-hither look to anyone, never wore revealing low-cut dresses to the office.

  And she wasn't seeing anyone exclusively. She was always dating a different guy.

  So what's the deal?

  What was she after?

  Adulation? Admiration?

  Anonymous sex?

  Even after nine months, he was no closer to solving the mystery that was Melynda Morgan.

  Well, he could if he got close enough to her.

  But you had to establish a certain level of trust before you could get closer to someone.

  And Dax didn't trust anyone. Least of all, himself.

  Dax wasn't just a wolf shifter. He was a Silver Wolf.

  Silver Wolves were the most powerful species of werewolves. They were bigger, stronger, faster, more ferocious and deadly than the other wolves. Because Silver Wolves drew their immense power from the moon, the moon held sway over their wolves. They would shift involuntarily into their wolf form every full moon, unlike other shifters who could control their shifts. Just as the moon held immense power over these Silver Wolves, calling their beasts to the fore every full moon, these wolves could channel the raw, magickal power of the moon through their minds and bodies.

  Every full moon, Dax would shift into wolf form. His animal instincts and urges became sharper, more urgent, and more unbearable.

  A few hours before the full moon, Dax would drive far out of the city, so that he could release his wolf in the wild. He had to give his wolf space to run, and hunt, and try to work his wolf to exhaustion. His body would be all charged up, infused with the power of the full moon. If he didn't try to exhaust all this power and strength, he would be a danger to everyone.

  A Silver Wolf usually only rose to the fore during the full moon. Dax could call upon the power of his beast and unsheathe his claws and fangs while in human form, but his wolf would remain dormant. Only the full moon could awaken his wolf.

  The full moon and a certain sassy redhead.

  Melynda had awakened his wolf.

  The moment she walked into his office to be interviewed for the secretarial position, Dax had felt his wolf stir.

  His wolf had awakened—to her.

  There was no mistaking what his wolf wanted. The wolf wanted her, hungered for her. Having waited for her for so long, the wolf saw no reason to wait any longer. It wanted her, now!

  Melynda had been working for him for close to ni
ne months now, and his wolf was becoming more insistent and more vocal in expressing its needs. His wolf wanted Melynda. So did his body.

  When she first reported for work, Dax had to endure a raging hard on for the whole week.

  Sporting an agonizing erection during client meetings and courts attendances was a major inconvenience, to say the least. It was distracting and tormenting. His thoughts and speech were less than coherent, and images of his secretary lying naked and panting beneath him kept flashing through his mind at critical junctures when he should be paying closer attention to what the client and the judge were saying.

  The situation hadn't gotten any better.

  In fact, it had gotten a lot worse.

  Staring at the pink lipstick stain on Melynda's coffee cup, Dax let out a low growl.

  Dax pinched the bridge of his nose. His secretary's lips shouldn't be on his mind. He shouldn't be thinking of kissing and tasting those sweet, plump lips, shouldn't be picturing those lips parting and panting his name...

  He had to get himself and his wolf under control. But that was easier said than done. His wolf was no young pup. It was over a century old, and it wasn't a playful, romantic young thing. It was a snarling, angry predator, intent on getting what it wanted. And not caring if anyone got hurt. The wolf would destroy the man to get what it wanted.

  When the full moon triggered his shift, the wolf would take over completely.

  There was no controlling or denying the beast.

  There was no protecting her, from himself.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “Dax?”

  Melynda approached her desk quietly, clutching a tube of lip gloss in her hand. She had just gone to the washroom to freshen up. She had a date later tonight. She wasn't exactly looking forward to it. It was just something she had to do.

  Who was it who said you had to kiss a hundred frogs to find your Prince Charming?

  Melynda wrinkled her nose. She was looking for something, but it sure wasn't Prince Charming.

  She twisted the scrunchie in her hand nervously. Dax was staring at her like...he wanted to eat her. She saw his gray eyes trail down her face to her freshly painted lips.

  “Where are you going?” he growled.

  Her eyes rounded. “Going?”

  Dax glared at her glistening, hot pink lips. “You're going out,” he grated.

  “I...well, yes. I'm going off now. I have a date.”

  “A date.” As he breathed those two words, she glimpsed his claws slicing out.

  Her eyes narrowed and hardened. What a bully he was. Dax Ferro really was a boss from hell.

  “Yeah. Is that against company policy, Dax? To go on a date—after office hours?” she challenged.

  There was a moment of complete silence. Neither of them said a word as they stared at each other. His eyes flashed silver for an instant. And in that instant, she saw something in his eyes.

  A raw, tortured, hidden emotion.

  He blinked and his eyes became flat and gray once more.

  “I want you to finish typing the agreement for the Gomez Group, as well as type up the notes of my meeting with Mr Seetoh tonight.”

  She inhaled sharply. “Tonight?”

  “Tonight.”

  “But...I have a date.”

  “Cancel it.”

  “What?”

  “Cancel. Your. Date.”

  It wasn't a request. It was a command.

  She bit her lip and frowned. Dax took a step towards her.

  Would she say no? Just tell him. To hell with you, I'm going on a date, and that's that!

  She closed her eyes briefly before snapping them up. Tossing her auburn curls back, she answered coldly, “I'll finish the work, Dax. I'll do it because it's my job. Not because you ordered me to.”

  With that, she flounced to her desk and sat down. Opening and closing her drawers a tad too loudly, she mumbled some comments and curses none of which she was sure he hadn't heard before, and proceeded to pound angrily at the keyboard.

  “Slave driver,” she muttered, her fingers flying over the keyboard. “Tyrant!”

  She kept up her tirade, feeling his eyes bore into her back. Roughly, she retied her hair with her scrunchie, letting some loose curls fall across her nape. She gulped when she heard a low growl behind her. Dax had taken a step towards her, and she could almost feel his breath on her neck.

  Determinedly, she stiffened her shoulders and kept her eyes on the computer screen. Her fingers continued hitting the keys with too much force, and she didn't stop even when lines of gibberish began to fill up her screen.

  Don't look back, don't look at him...

  Only when she heard Dax turn and stride back into his office did she let out the breath she had been holding.

  Melynda's hands started trembling and she had to stop typing and just close her eyes, her fingers curling into fists over her keyboard.

  She shouldn't let Dax affect her so.

  Dax Ferro. Her boss from hell, her tormentor.

  She should just have told him no. No, she couldn't and wouldn't stay and work late tonight. She had a date, and she was leaving. Melynda exhaled a painful, shaky breath. Did she really want to go on that date? It would just be more of the same.

  She dated shifters, all kinds of shifters.

  But she never dated the same guy twice.

  It was always just dinner, a kiss, and a quick getaway. She hadn't found what she was searching for.

  Really, how much longer could she keep doing this? But she didn't really have a choice. She needed to do this, even if she didn't want to. And she couldn't tell her family, her coven, the real reason she dated so much.

  Her elder sister, Jasynta, thought that she was just having fun, sowing her wild oats before she got mated, settled down and had a family. Jasynta was happily mated to Blake Madden, the alpha bear shifter and Council member on the PAC. They were expecting their very first cub, and she had never seen her sister more contented and proud. Jasynta retched and threw up a lot during the first two weeks of her pregnancy, but she never complained and still worked tirelessly as a healer in the city hospital and at the PAC Headquarters.

  Her sister loved her work, loved her mate and her life.

  Melynda only wished she could say the same for herself.

  She had no mate and no life. Her life revolved around her work, her classes and her empty, meaningless dates. The workload for her final year at Spell School was heavy, and her dates were an obligation really. It was all work and no play. Melynda didn't hate her work, but working with Dax was challenging and at times, highly frustrating. He was demanding, unpredictable and unreasonable. He was a brilliant lawyer, and he was a formidable negotiator and courtroom opponent. But to her, he could be surly and cold, even if she sometimes caught him staring at her with a look of deep, intense yearning and hunger. Just what did he want from her?

  Melynda huffed and stiffened her spine. Dax didn't want anything from her. All he wanted to do was thwart her plans and make her life miserable. He wanted to exert his control over her, even out of the office.

  He's not the boss of me!

  Well, he was, technically, but...

  She chewed her lip furiously. He was just the boss of Melynda, the secretary, not Melynda, the witch.

  So. She would finish up her work, and she would go on that date. She had time. She had fixed her date for eight thirty, anticipating that her temperamental boss might have some last minute task for her just as she was about to knock off. She smirked as she resumed typing with a vengeance.

  How well she knew him.

  Determined not to let him ruin her plans and her evening, she typed like a witch possessed, not coming up for air until she finished typing up every single document on her to-do list. She had finished everything within an hour. She hit the print key, and leaned back as the printer started spewing out the completed documents.

  Glancing at her watch, she saw that it was almost eight o'clock. She could make it. Just sla
p the documents onto his desk, and make a beeline for the lift. She should be able to get a cab and speed to the rendezvous point within half an hour.

  Snatching the papers from the printer, Melynda knocked smartly on Dax's door and walked into his office.

  “Here,” she said, handing him the stack of neatly stapled documents. “All done. As ordered.”

  Dax looked up from his laptop but he didn't take the papers from her.

  Melynda pursed her lips, then placed the documents at the corner of his desk. “I'll leave them here. If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving now.”

  As she turned to go, Dax suddenly leaned forward and caught her wrist.

  “Melynda.”

  She jerked, but she didn't pull away. She couldn't.

  Dax's hand was gripping her wrist firmly, but he wasn't hurting her. His entire body was completely still for a full minute as he stared into her eyes. She gasped at the want and hunger burning in his eyes, but she also saw the doubt and question in his eyes.

  Dax didn't move his hand nor his gaze. He was waiting. Waiting for her to say no.

  Melynda's fists slowly unclenched as her lips parted. His touch was searing, aching, and she wanted more of it.

  She blinked rapidly, feeling herself sway on her feet. She was falling, hurtling into a storm. All she saw was swirling gray and flashes of silver...

  “Melynda!”

  She gasped at his voice. He was supporting her, holding her in his arms, against his chest.

  She stared into a pair of intense gray eyes, and saw streaks of silver in their depths.

  “Dax,” she managed to whisper at last. “I...I have to...go...”

  Just hold me and never let me go.

  At her last word, she saw lightning flare in his eyes, turning them fully silver.