Her True Wolf Read online

  She left before he could keep her there any longer with another sex god smile that would soak any woman’s underwear within seconds. She scurried down the stairs and jogged for one of the main streets in New Tree Creek to scout out the different job options the place might have to offer. It was time to move up. If she applied to enough places, surely one would give her a chance.

  She was in a damn good mood now even though she shouldn’t have been. If Casey’s lips had that kind of power over her, she was definitely in trouble. She was putting an ounce of trust in him. She did it. Time would tell if that got her hurt or if it somehow changed things for the better.

  Chapter 6

  CASEY WAS ON HIS WAY to Karol’s house that same evening when dusk was settling in. He was sure she had finished up job hunting for the day by the time he was on his way over with the bag of money. Likely, Mary could have taken the money from him at any time of day, but he wanted to give it to Karol personally. It felt important.

  Karol was so angry at first when she came to see him. She thought he was looking down on her. She thought he expected compensation for what he was giving her and her family even though she couldn’t have been more wrong. And then she tried his self-control with that stunt she pulled, taking his hand and pressing it against her boob, her pussy. He shuddered at the thought and the memory of her cherry scented arousal. There was no way he was going to go that far with her anytime soon. Not when she didn’t trust him worth a damn.

  He still might have gone too far. He gave in and kissed her, but he didn’t know how else to reassure her how deeply he cared for her. It was a shallow and sweet kiss. She didn’t seem angry about it, so he hoped she understood. He hoped she experienced that kiss the same way he had.

  He pulled up in front Karol’s house and parked his silver Toyota Camry. He grabbed the bag of money, left the car, and walked up to the front door. He was walking with a bit of a limp, but he was able to ease up on the gauze enough to shove his foot into a sneaker. It worked and didn’t hurt so bad. It was still healing. As long as he babied it and Isabelle was fine with him taking a few more days off, everything would be back to normal soon enough. He just needed to take it easy on himself until his foot wouldn’t rip open again with some strenuous activity. As of now, he could walk on his left foot if he favored it. It was totally worth it to see his Fated Mate again.

  His right earlobe buzzed as he waited outside. That smell like cherries seeped into his nose. The door opened with an even stronger blast of that same cherry, revealing Karol in all her beautiful red glory. Her scent sweetened as she looked at him. The degree of physical attraction they shared was enough to make a guy’s mind go blank and his dick beg to do all the talking.

  He held out the bag to her. “Brought it like I said I would.”

  Her face lit up like she couldn’t believe he actually put in the effort to run the bag over to her place. Or maybe she thought he would change his mind. God, he wished he had the right words to say. Maybe he should apologize for that kiss after all? But he wasn’t sorry. And he couldn’t even muster a greeting. He could barely function around this woman. He never had this problem with the women he met when he snuck out while still living in Moonwatch. He was smooth as fuck. And he got laid every time he put the moves on a woman wanting that same thing.

  It was different with Karol. She was more attracted to him than any woman had ever been, but she was determined to stay distant. Casey wanted to bridge that distance. It was about much more than a night of fun. He wanted to keep her. He wanted to always be there to support her. What they were lacking was an emotional connection, and Casey was determined to fix that. He and his Fated Mate were supposed to have the kind of closeness that transcended all other relationships. It had been too long. He had been too young, too stupid, and too scared. But he was going to fix it. He was going to make that connection.

  “Thanks,” Karol said with a smile that made him smile in return. She was happy. Genuinely happy right now. She even took the bag from him without a fight. “You look like you’re moving around pretty good.”

  “Told you. None of this is as bad as it looks,” he replied. The gash in his arm and cut over his eye hardly bothered him anymore.

  “How did job hunting go?” Casey asked, determined to spend as much time with her as possible.

  He immediately regretted the question when the smile fell off her beautiful face.

  “I mean, who gets a job the first day they are out looking?” she said, apparently trying to lighten the mood.

  “It’s going to work out,” Casey assured.

  Old Mary walked up behind Karol. A couple kids peeked at Casey from farther inside and then scurried away, out of sight from the door.

  “Dale!” Karol called behind her. “Take this bag and put it where Mary tells you, all right?”

  A tall and skinny boy with olive skin and brown hair took the bag from Karol and waited for Mary. Mary gave Casey a winning smile before turning around to tell Dale where to put the bag. Casey knew the kid was Karol’s brother, but they didn’t have a lot in common as far as their looks.

  Karol stepped outside with Casey and closed the door. She wrapped her arms around her as a cold wind blew past. She was wearing a sweater, but Casey supposed it was pretty cold outside for a human. He wanted to wrap her up in his arms. She wouldn’t be cold after that.

  “You don’t have the cast thing anymore?” Karol asked, confused.

  “Well, it wasn’t really a cast,” Casey explained. Then he paused. How did he explain? Wolf shifters healed way faster than humans. If he were a human, he would have had to get stitches. All he had to do was make sure his foot was bound together and it did the rest on its own. “It’s not a big deal,” he finished vaguely.

  Karol raised an eyebrow, and then she shivered again. “And how are you not freezing right now? You’re wearing a fucking t-shirt!”

  He couldn’t resist it now. Casey reached out his hand, grabbed Karol’s arm, and held her gently against his chest. He was bruised, but not bad enough to stop him from doing this. He wrapped both of his arms around her, and she melted into him in response.

  “Jesus, you’re so warm,” she muttered as she buried her face into his chest.

  Yes. This was right. Karol was relaxed in his arms. Her scent sweetened even more. He didn’t sense anger. Though there was still plenty of confusion, she was allowing this.

  “I thought I told you before,” Casey said. “Warm-blooded.”

  “You weren’t joking.”

  When Karol cleared her throat and the nervousness settled in, Casey knew he had overstayed his welcome. He let her go, and she tucked a strand of her curly red hair behind her ear. Her freckled face was heated, shining a soft pink instead of its natural creamy white.

  Casey caught movement from inside the house through the large window at his left. The kids were peering through the glass, their faces basically pressed against it. They scattered when they realized he saw them. He almost laughed, but then the sound of a car stopping in front of the house drew his attention. He looked over his shoulder to see a familiar sleek black Porsche.

  “What’s Isabelle doing here?” Casey asked.

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” Karol replied as she walked out to the Porsche to greet the glamorous crow shifter inside.

  Isabelle got out of the car and stood in the gravel underfoot with skinny black high heels. How she managed to stay graceful was a mystery to Casey. She handed a paper to Karol and tapped it with a long manicured fingernail.

  “What is it?” Karol asked as she tried to read around Isabelle’s incessant tapping.

  “The Gilded Leaf Hotel in New Tree Creek is looking for a receptionist right now. They want to hire as soon as possible. I put in a good word for you. So if you hurry, fill out this paper, and get your butt down to the hotel, you’re basically guaranteed a job.”

  “Does everyone know I got fired?” Karol asked.

  “What are you talking about, girl
?” Isabelle said impatiently. “I’ve been trying to get you out of that shit bar for years now. You just never let me help.”

  Karol smiled sheepishly.

  Isabelle waved her hand like she expected Karol to reject this job opportunity. “Do what you want, but I’ve got important business to deal with right now, so I can’t take you.” She gave Casey a hard look, and he knew exactly what it meant.

  “I can drive you,” he volunteered.

  Isabelle gave a curt nod of her head, and then she was back in her car, driving away.

  “N-no,” Karol said as her eyes followed Isabelle’s Porsche. “I don’t want to bother you. I’ll walk or take the bus.”

  Casey reached out and cradled her face, urging her to look up at him with her mesmerizing light brown eyes. “Please, I want to take you,” he said sweetly.

  Karol swallowed. Then she gave a little nod of her head. “If you really don’t mind. It’d be better if I could hurry and freshen up. First impressions are everything, they say.”

  Casey released his hands back to his sides, even though all he really wanted was to kiss her again, but time was of the essence and he was still walking on thin ice. “Then go get ready,” he urged.

  “D-do you want to come inside?” she asked. Then she grimaced. “But my little brothers and sisters will probably blast you with questions.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” Casey opened the door and ushered her inside. “Just get ready and we’ll leave. You can fill out the paper in my car.”

  Karol nodded and dashed into the bathroom almost directly across the living room from where they stood, closing the door behind her. Casey looked away after the door was closed to see two boys and four girls staring at him with open mouths and wide eyes. Mary was sitting at the kitchen table reading something with a devious smile on her face.

  “What’s your name?” the youngest one, a girl, asked as she came up to him and fearlessly tugged at the bottom of his shirt. She had hair as striking as Karol’s, but it was a bright orange instead of a deep red.

  “Casey,” he replied.

  “Why are you all beat up?”

  “I’m not all beat up. It’s only a few cuts.” He shrugged. “Got in a little fight.”

  “What are you doing here?” the oldest, a boy, the one named Dale, asked with folded arms. He wasn’t a man yet, but he was acting like one with how protective he was being over his family.

  “I’m taking Karol to a job interview.” Casey grinned.

  “That sounds like a lame first date,” a teenage girl with heavy mascara said as she looked at her nails in a disinterested manner. She kept sneaking glances at him though, with eyes wide and teenage hormones that told him she thought he was a pretty fine piece of man meat.

  “It’s not really a date,” he said.

  “Karol doesn’t date,” the little one still holding on to his shirt informed.

  “I kinda noticed that.”

  Casey bent down to look that little girl in her very green eyes. He took her hand away from his shirt and saw she had some slivers.

  “How’d you get those?” he asked.

  “Carving wood,” she said proudly.

  “I like to do that too. What are you making?”

  “A wolf!”

  Oh, he found a kindred spirit in this little girl. “Wolves happen to be my favorite,” Casey said with a grin. “What’s you name?”

  “Cora!”

  The bathroom door swung open and Karol walked out in a skirt that went just above her knees. She had leggings on and a pair of shoes that didn’t look as worn out as the sneakers she was wearing before. She was wearing the same navy blue sweater as before, her only pair of earrings, and a fresh face of makeup that entirely hid her freckles. He wasn’t a fan of her freckles being concealed, but she was as gorgeous as ever and job interview ready. She held a hair tie in her teeth and pulled up her hair as she walked forward, tying it up and out of her face to finish her look.

  With the paper Isabelle gave her in hand, she waved it at the kids. “Casey’s taking me to a job interview. I might be home late for dinner, but I’ll try not to be,” she said.

  She walked past everyone and out the door after grabbing a pen and a book. Casey waved at everyone as a quick goodbye.

  “Come back soon,” Cora said as she clung to his shirt again.

  “I will, and I’ll show you how to carve that wood without getting splinters.”

  The little thing squealed with enthusiasm only someone her age, probably around nine or so, could have.

  Then Casey was out the door. He closed it behind him and saw Karol letting herself inside of his car. He hadn’t locked the doors because he didn’t think he’d be staying long. Now he regretted it. He could have opened the door for her like a gentleman. Whatever. They were in a hurry, so he needed to chill out and not sweat the small stuff.

  He got in, started the car, and drove away while Karol worked furiously at her paper with a pen while using the book she brought as a hard surface.

  Casey focused on driving. Lucky for him and Karol, and for the sake of time, he knew where the hotel was. It was new. He helped build it. He put his brain on autopilot as he enjoyed the smell of the woman next to him. He was addicted to the smell of her, how her scent sweetened when she was near him. He wondered how much more powerful these feelings would be if he and Karol could ever get on the same page.

  When she had finished filling out the paper, Karol rested her elbow at the base of the window and stared outside. “Thanks for the ride,” she said quietly.

  “No problem,” Casey replied.

  “Maybe you brought the money back for nothing. If I get the job, I probably won’t spend a penny of it.”

  “You should hold on to it anyway. In case there’s a rainy day somewhere down the line.”

  “Why don’t you want the money? Why does it seem like you aren’t interested in me paying you back at all? No one in this world gets anything for free.”

  “Sometimes people do.”

  Karol gave a slight shake of her head, but she continued concentrating on the window and the world passing by outside. “Not my experience.” Then she turned her head enough to glance at him. “What was that kiss about yesterday?”

  How was he supposed to explain it? He wondered if he should tell her she was his Fated Mate, but that would sound crazy because she didn’t know about shifters. He couldn’t tell her he was in love with her. He knew she wouldn’t believe him.

  When he didn’t respond fast enough, Karol continued, “I don’t understand you.”

  “Can it be for as simple a reason as I like you?” Casey tried, doing his best to tiptoe around her.

  “How do you like me? As a person? As someone you’d like to bang?”

  Casey decided to risk starting a fire. “I like you as a person, but I also think you’re sexy as hell.”

  She turned her head back to the window quickly, but her scent blossomed in sweet cherry. Casey was being patient, and he was determined to be as patient as he had to be, but he needed to know more about Karol or this wasn’t going to get him anywhere. He would have been lying if he said her coldness toward him didn’t hurt.

  “Why do you hate men so much?” he asked.

  “I don’t know if I hate them,” she replied. “But I’ve never seen a man do any good. You saw my kid siblings in the house. Pretty much all of us are the result of different guys my mom was with. She was with my seed donor the longest. When things got hard, he left. She found worse and worse men after that. Some were downright abusive. By the time she was pregnant with Cora, the youngest, she decided she had it. She knew it’d be hard providing for all of us kids by herself, but she did it. Then she got sick with cancer, and I stepped up. I took her place, and I’m carrying on in her place. I figure I’ve seen enough of what men do while growing up. I don’t see the point in dating or getting involved with a man.”

  Casey frowned. It hurt she said that with such finality like he was inclu
ded in her assessment of men.

  “There are a lot of different kinds of men out there,” he said. He stopped at a red light and turned his head to look at Karol. “But I guess you’ve decided that the risk of hurt is a lot worse than the chance of finding something good. If you don’t open yourself up to the possibility of getting hurt, of being vulnerable, then you’ll never know if you had missed out on something amazing, something true. Something meant for you.”

  “Maybe if I only had myself to worry about, I’d risk getting hurt,” she said quietly, without tearing her eyes away from the window. “But my little brothers and sisters come first. I’m giving them the best life I can. One day, when they move out and are in charge of their own lives, I’ll focus on me again. Maybe.”

  The light turned green, and Casey drove forward on the smooth new asphalt of New Tree Creek. “If you had only yourself to worry about, what would you do?” Casey asked. “What are your dreams?”

  “I don’t know. Before I had to drop out of high school to help support my family, I did really well academically. I was always in honors, and I was taking advanced classes. But I never had a vision of my future. Maybe that’s because things were always so turbulent at home. I was always thinking about my family. My dream is for them to have a better life. I don’t have any aspirations for myself. But maybe someday I will. Maybe someday I can.”

  “Things will get better,” Casey assured. “They’re already looking up.” He caught Karol smiling through her reflection in the window. “You’re amazing,” he continued.

  She replied immediately, “No, I’m not.”

  “You are. You’ve been taking care of your family since you were in high school. Your loyalty is something a lot of people don’t have. That’s why I want to help you, Karol. You got cheated out of your education and a better life because of some shitty guys in your life and because your mother got sick. I make more money than I need for myself, so I’ve been giving some to you and your family. It’s not because I’m looking down on you. It’s not because I want you to owe me something in return. It’s just because I want to help. I want to be your friend.”