Marisa Chenery: Jagers Mate

Calling herself the lamest woman to walk the face of the earth, Daylen headed back to her police cruiser. Just as she got back inside the driver’s side, she remembered what he had said before he’d kissed her—they would finish this another time. Whatever the hell he meant by that.

Daylen started the cruiser and pulled away from the curb to continue with her patrol.

She knew one thing. If she ever did see him again, she’d be more prepared. She wouldn’t let his lips anywhere near her. Instead, she’d make him kiss the dirt as she cuffed his ass before hauling him off to jail. There was no way in hell she would let the man make a fool of her twice. No matter how attractive he was, and how he made her want things she shouldn’t. Daylen wouldn’t think twice about arresting him. The man had better hope they didn’t cross paths again, for his sake.

Jager ran down the street to where he had parked his black Chevy Camaro. He’d tried to pick up the trail of the lone wolf after he’d left the woman cop in the alley, but he’d lost it once he’d reached the street. The bastard must have had a vehicle parked there and had made good his escape.

After getting into his Camaro and pulling away to make the drive back to Marin County where he lived with the rest of Roxie’s Protectors, Jager thought about the woman cop, Daylen. She had been totally unexpected, and not because she was a cop that happened to come across him and the lone wolf sword fighting. No, it had been his reaction to her. One whiff of her scent and he’d become cemented in place. All his senses had become riveted onto her, like he’d suddenly developed tunnel vision and only she existed. The wolf inside him had thrown back its head and howled. And, inside his head, the word “mine” had repeated itself over and over again. He’d at last found his mate.

Jager smiled as he remembered how she’d brought him down and then tried to handcuff him. She’d totally taken him by surprise. He hadn’t expected her to use a karate move on him. Obviously, his mate was even tougher than she looked. Just listening to her ordering him to put down his sword in an authoritative voice and seeing her dressed in her cop uniform with her long reddish-brown hair pulled back in a bun had been a turn on. Her brown eyes had been all business, even when she had been checking him out, which was good. He needed his mate to be tough, not some flower that would dissolve in a fit of tears if he looked at her wrong. He was never one for watching what he said. He liked to say whatever was on his mind, no pussyfooting around.

Unlike his brother-in-arms Leif, who never wanted to be tied down, Jager looked forward to claiming the one woman who was meant to be his. Though doing it would be a tad difficult. Other than the fact that she was mortal, and more than likely had no idea werewolves actually existed, there was also the small point that she would try to arrest his ass if she saw him again. He would have to work around that. At least he knew she hadn’t been totally unaffected by him. When he had kissed her, unable to stop from having one small taste of her before he left, and she had kissed him back, it had taken everything in him not to claim her as his mate right there and then on the ground in that dirty alley. The mating urge had started to ride him hard then, and that wouldn’t have done anything to endear him to her.

Having arrived at the mansion where he lived with his sister and brothers, Jager parked his Camaro in the large garage and went inside. After he stepped into the spacious foyer, he heard the sound of voices coming from the kitchen. He made his way to that room and found Skylar, Roan, and Roan’s mate, Ansley, there. Both Skylar and Roan were his true brothers. They all shared similar features, along with having the same light brown hair and light blue eyes. Ansley had Skylar sitting in one of the kitchen chairs with a hairdresser’s cape around him while she trimmed the ends of his long hair. Ansley was a hair stylist and had taken over the job of doing haircuts from their sister, Saskia. Roan sat on the edge of the kitchen table as he watched his mate work.

Jager crossed the room and grabbed a bottle of beer out of the fridge before he went back over to the others. He pulled out one of the empty chairs and sat down before he twisted off the beer cap and took a big sip.

Putting the beer bottle on the table, he said, “Aren’t you looking pretty, Skylar, with your hair all nicely trimmed?” Jager chuckled when his brother flipped him off.

“Be nice, Jager,” Ansley said. “And talking about trims, when are you going to let me cut your hair?”

Jager grabbed his pony tail and pulled it over his shoulder. It was getting long. It hung to the middle of his back when tied back, but he liked it that way. He looked at the ends. “I’m good. I’ll let you know when I want a haircut.” Since Roan had claimed Ansley as his mate three months before, she’d cut everyone’s hair who lived in the mansion, except for his.

Roan snorted. “If your hair gets any longer, people will think you’re a woman from behind.”

“Bite me.”

“No thanks. I’d much rather bite my mate.” Roan moved to stand behind Ansley and nuzzled the side of her neck.

“Hey,” Skylar said. “Enough of that. Please don’t distract her when she’s holding a pair of very sharp scissors near me. I only want a trim. I don’t want my hair all cut off because Ansley chopped a big hunk out of it.” Skylar usually wore his hair the same way Jager liked his, except it wasn’t quite as long.

Ansley shoved Roan away. “Don’t worry, Skylar, I would never do that. Roan will stay out the way. I doubt he would want me to slip and get his hair instead.” She opened and closed the scissors she held in her mate’s direction.

Roan backed away. “I don’t want to be shaved bald either.” He pulled out a chair next to Jager and took a seat. “So how did tonight go? Did Leif’s tip pay off?”

Jager nodded. “Yeah. I found the lone wolf at the nightclub where Leif said he would be. If not for one small interruption, I would have beaten him during our sword fight and forced some answers out of him.

At that moment, Leif walked into the kitchen. “What kind of interruption?” With his werewolf hearing, Leif would have had no problem hearing what Jager had said before he arrived in the kitchen.

A smile spread across Jager’s lips. “A lady cop spotted me and the lone wolf crossing swords in an alley. The lone wolf took off when she showed up.”

“Why didn’t you go after him?” Leif asked.

“I couldn’t. I was a little busy trying to get a grip on the mating urged that slammed into me while my mate was ordering me to put down my sword so she could arrest me.”

Leif cursed as he got up and went to the fridge. He took out a beer and gulped down two big swigs before he returned to the table with it. “Dear God, you’re dropping like flies. First Saskia, then Roan, and now you find your mate. If I’m not careful, I’ll be next.”

Roan wrapped his arm around Ansley now that she had finished with Skylar’s hair.

“I wouldn’t say that too many times out loud, Leif, or it may actually come true.” Roan chuckled when Leif picked up his beer and chugged half of it almost in one gulp. He then turned to Jager. “So when do we get to meet this mate of yours?”

Jager scratched his chin. “Well, there is a bit of a problem, besides her being a mortal.”

Ansley spoke up. “Does her being a mortal bother you?”

Jager knew why Ansley had asked that particular question. Before she’d mated with Roan, she had been a mortal, the same as Eli, Saskia’s mate. They both had become werewolves with the help of Roxie, the foretold one. Not only was Roxie the leader of the werewolf packs because of the mark she had around her left wrist, she also had some extra magic inside her that the average werewolf didn’t have. One of her extra powers was her ability to turn a mortal into a werewolf with a magic spell and some of her blood.