Marisa Chenery: Mate for a King

But what really got to him was her scent. One whiff and her enticing fragrance seemed to swirl inside his head, intoxicating him. His cock went instantly rock hard as the wolf inside him threw back its head and howled with longing. Because Lexi affected him in ways no other woman had in the past, before he knew what he was doing, he'd asked her out for the evening. Had he done the right thing? Usually when he met a woman he found attractive, his wolf stayed out of the picture. Not so with Lexi. He didn't know if this was good or bad. All it would take would be one slip and he'd have her running from him in terror. A werewolf, as well as an immortal were two aspects of himself he never wanted to reveal to mortals.

Raed parked his car in the large detached garage and headed for the manor.

Once inside, he followed the sounds of his men's voices to the kitchen at the back.

Raed walked over to the counter to pour himself a cup of coffee. All his men sat at the kitchen table, good naturedly arguing about the outcome of the football match they had watched the night before. He'd never really been interested in the whole football thing, but his men had taken to the sport.

As he sat at the head of the table, he let his gaze skim over his five large companions. Every single one of them was loyal to him, and had been for centuries.

Even though he could no longer claim to be the King of East Anglia, they all held to the vow of allegiance they had given him so long ago. When the Anglo-Saxon god, Tiw, the Sky Father, had come to Raed with his offer of immortality in exchange for his help in protecting mortals from the werewolves sired by the wolf, Fenris, they had quickly vowed to join him. Each of them had also been granted immortality as well as the ability to shift into werewolves, to give them equal footing when they fought their prey.

Tiw had also marked each man as his when he placed The White Wolf emblem on the cap of their left shoulders. Anglo-Saxon in design, the black mark depicted a figure of a stylized man, Tiw, flanked on either side by two stylized wolves standing on their hind legs.

Now here they were, over thirteen hundred years later, trying to pass themselves off as normal men during the day only to fight werewolves by night. Even though they were werewolves themselves, they were nothing like those spawned by Fenris, who only found pleasure in killing and turning innocent mortals.

Fenris was the eldest child of the god, Loki, and a giantess. Even though he had been born as a wolf, unable to shift to human form, he was no ordinary wolf. He had grown so large, the other gods of Asgard had worried he would turn on them. To protect themselves, they bound Fenris. The one time he managed to free himself, he'd escaped to the mortal realm, to East Anglia, where the very first werewolf was sired.

Tiw had managed to capture Fenris once more, but the damage had already been done.

A single bite from one of Fenris' get was all it took to turn a mortal into a werewolf.

Raed loudly cleared his throat. His men stopped talking as one and looked at him. Algar, his second-in-command, spoke first. "You're back early. I thought you said your errands would take a while."

"I got a little . . . sidetracked."

"That's not like you." Algar's hazel-eyed gaze latched onto to Raed. "What happened?"

"Nothing really."

"Are you sure?" Garrick asked. "You looked distracted. The kind of distracted that takes over a man when he meets a woman and he wants to screw her brains out."

Figured Garrick would be the one to guess what had sidetracked him; the man sometimes knew too much for his own good. And as soon as he realized he was right Garrick would never let him live it down, especially given the fact his favorite pastime was to see how far he could push someone until he totally and absolutely pissed them off.

"Can we change the subject?" Raed said.

"Yup, it's a woman," Brand said from his place at the table.

Raed knew that would be all Brand had to say on the subject. Brand was a man of very few words, and only spoke when he had something to say. Hoping to change the topic of conversation, Raed said, "Are you all prepared for tonight? Since it's a full moon, we should have more prey to hunt than usual."

A turned mortal shifted for the very first time on the first full moon after being bitten by a werewolf. The change would not be something they could control. After their first shift, they could shift to their werewolf forms at will, the same as he and his men. With blood lust riding them, the newly turned would be compelled to seek out victims. Usually an older member of the pack accompanied the new one, watching over them as they made their first kill.

Wulfric rubbed his hands together. "You know this is Dolf's and my favorite time of the month. We'll try to leave some for the rest of you, but we aren't promising."

Where he sat beside Wulfric, Dolf crossed his arms over his large chest and nodded. Though the two of them were close friends, Raed and the others had to break up fights between them many times. There was never any ill will between them afterward. They just enjoyed seeing who could beat the other to a bloody pulp first.

Being natural born warriors, it didn't take much to set them off.

Raed shook his head. "I'm sure there will be more than enough prey to keep us all busy." He turned to find his second-in-command giving him a strange look. "Okay, Algar, what's on your mind?"

"I just think it's a little weird you're already asking us about tonight when it's not even noon. You tend to wait until the evening to give us our pep talk."

Raed shifted in his chair. "I won't be here this evening."

"Why not?"

He could feel his men's eyes boring into him. "I have some place else to be."

Garrick shook his head. "You're not going to get off that easily. You do realize if you don't tell us where you'll be, we'll just follow you. You are our leader, our king, and it's our right to know where you are in case you have need of us."

Raed let out a low growl that rumbled out of his chest. Damn, his men weren't going to make this easy, but if he didn't tell them his plans they would indeed follow him. "I'm going out for dinner with someone, not that what I do with my free time is any of your business."

Garrick slapped his hand down on the table. "I knew it. You have a date."

"It's not exactly a date. She's an American here on holiday. I just offered to show her around Norwich."

"Sure you did. And I'm sure you have no interest in seeing what she looks like naked as well."

Raed had to resist the urge to snap his teeth at Garrick. He knew his friend only wanted to yank his chain, but Raed didn't like Garrick insinuating Lexi would only be a quick tumble in bed. Not that he had decided to sleep with her. "Enough, Garrick. I'm not going to discuss my plans for this evening with you. I'm just taking her out for a meal. Maybe show her around a bit. I'll be back in time for the hunt."

"Whatever you say," Garrick said as he tried to hold back a smile.

Having had enough of being examined under a microscope, Raed picked up his cup of coffee and stood. "I have a few things I have to do. I'll be in my study if you need me."

As he walked out of the kitchen, he heard his men already starting to make bets on how his evening with Lexi would turn out. Of course Garrick bet Raed would have her in bed and under him even before he took her out for supper. With a shake of his head, Raed headed for his study on the second floor.

After she returned to her flat, Lexi only took the time to put the groceries away and strip out of her clothes before she fell into bed. In a matter of seconds she was fast asleep.

Hours later, she stretched as she slowly came awake. She glanced over at her travel alarm clock on the bedside table and groaned. She'd slept the entire afternoon away. She felt better for the long rest, but the hours of sleep wouldn't help her adjust to UK time. With her luck, she would now be up for most of the night.