Gavin (Northern Ohio Shifters #3)

Chapter 7

Chapter

Seven

Fate was funny.

In a bat-shit-crazy kind of way.

Sadie had been running on pure instinct, only marginally aware that she wasn’t sticking to the wolf pack territory and had clearly been traveling for a while. She’d picked up a scent that she hadn’t recognized except that it belonged to shifters of some kind that weren’t wolves, and then she’d stopped running and froze in place.

A huge tiger was heading toward her, the full moon picking up the white underbelly and paws and making the orange fur look gold.

She’d caught the hint of amber in the eyes and realized the tiger was a shifter.

And then something had made her heart clench tightly like someone had reached into her chest and gripped it. She inhaled sharply as the swift pain in her heart eased abruptly and was replaced with soothing warmth.

The tiger approached her with a curious purr. The breeze ruffled the orange fur and brought an incredible scent her way that made her whiskers twitch and her skin prickle.

The tiger smelled like a heady blend of earth and rain. In that moment, as the scent wrapped around her like an intoxicating embrace, she realized she was looking at her truemate.

This huge male, who moved toward her with eager grace, was hers.

Suddenly, running away from Michigan and going to Ohio was the very best thing that she’d ever done.

He stopped just a foot from her, his whiskers twitching as he audibly sniffed the air. She sat on her haunches and wished she could talk in her shift because she wanted to tell him everything right then.

She moved her head forward and he did the same, their noses touching for a brief moment.

He closed the distance between them, towering over her. He chuffed in her ear and rubbed his cheek against hers, and then he moved back and began to shift.

She hadn’t been in her shift very long, but she was ready to return to human too, especially since she wanted to see her truemate.

Something poked at her subconscious as she began to shift and she froze, stopping her shift.

What if he didn’t realize they were truemates?

Or what if he hated the color of her fur and was just as superstitious as her pack had been.

She watched him turn into a gorgeous male.

He was stacked with muscles and had dark hair. The moonlight made it look like he was glowing, like he was some ethereal male sent from heaven just for her.

“Hey, gorgeous,” he said with a voice rich and deep. “I’m Gavin. Can you shift to human? I’d love to see you and talk to you.”

He laid his palm on her cheek and the bad thoughts fled.

He called her gorgeous.

Closing her eyes with a hum, she let go of her shift and returned to human.

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been naked in front of a male, but it had been a while . Nerves cascaded through her as she rose to her feet and the night air hit her skin.

“Damn,” he said with a low chuckle. “I thought your wolf was gorgeous but you’re…the sexiest female I’ve ever seen in my life.”

She let out a nervous giggle when she opened her mouth to say her name, which made her cheeks heat in blush. Clearing her throat, she said, “I’m Sadie.”

“I have…so many questions. But I think the first thing is that I want to make sure you’re okay.”

“Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

“Because you were running. Were you being chased?”

The concern in his voice made her stomach flip. Sexy and protective.

“I was just following my instincts and they led me here.”

“To me.”

Her mouth went dry at his statement. “Yeah.”

“Good, because my tiger has been acting up all day, especially once I was in my shift. He must have had some kind of supernatural clue that you were near.” He paused and then stepped closer until she could feel the heat from his body and they were almost touching. He towered over her by a foot and was so broad-shouldered and stacked with muscles.

“You’re my truemate,” she said. She grimaced as another giggle bubbled up in her chest. Tamping it down, she looked around the woods and said, “I don’t even know where I am.”

“Whisper Creek,” he said. “This is the pride’s territory you just crossed through. If you want to come with me back to my king’s house, I can grab my clothes and I’m sure I can find clothes for you there.”

“That would be great.” She stifled the urge to cover herself because he didn’t seem to mind being naked in front of her. And of course he was sexy as hell, so why wouldn’t he?

He took her hand and said, “Let’s walk, Sadie. It’s not too far to the king’s house.”

She slid her hand into his and all the nerves that had kept pinging inside her settled. She’d found her truemate. What were the freaking odds of that happening?

“So tell me where you came from,” he said.

“I was with the wolf pack,” she said.

“I didn’t know there was an albino wolf in the pack.”

“There’s not.”

He glanced at her with a raised brow which made her laugh.

“I mean, yes, I’m there, but I’m not part of their pack.” She paused before she told her story, worried what he might think of her.

He stopped walking and they faced each other.

“I know we just met. We’re virtual strangers but truemates, which means that I accept you, no matter what. And I hope that you’ll accept me too.”

“Of course I do,” she said. She shook her head. “I feel like I’m being a total weirdo. I just can’t seem to stop worrying about what you’ll think of me.”

“Don’t. I promise I’m just so damn happy to meet you. You’re beautiful, human and wolf, and whatever baggage you’ve got in your past is part of what made you who you are. I can’t wait to get to know you, all of you, and for you to get to know me.”

He was so freaking sweet she wanted to cry.

“I never cared so much about what someone thought of me until I met you,” she confessed.

“Me neither.” He gifted her with an amazing smile, which shook off the rest of her nerves.

She squeezed his hand and then tilted her face to his, silently asking for a kiss.

He lowered his head and kissed her.

The simple brush of his lips against hers was all the encouragement either of them needed to do more than just kiss. He hauled her close with a growl and her body crashed against his, her lush curves to the hard planes of his muscles and his erection trapped against her belly. She let herself go into the kiss as their lips parted and their tongues touched, and a swirl of need hit her right in the center of her body.

She moaned softly and he snarled and sucked on her bottom lip before lifting from the kiss.

“You’re so fucking addictive,” he said with a hoarse tone.

She’d never been called addictive before.

“You are too.”

“Let’s get going. I think you were about to tell me your life story?”

“Then you’ll tell me yours?”

“Absolutely.”

They clasped hands again, and while they walked, she told him about shifting as a teen and being ostracized and how everything had come to a head recently.

“I can’t believe your alpha blamed the color of your fur for everything that went wrong in the pack. It’s ridiculous.”

“Yeah. He’s old-school traditional but also superstitious. No one was willing to go against him or stand up for me except for my mom, but she didn’t have any authority in the pack, so I was just treated like crap for far longer than I should have put up with.”

“Why didn’t you leave before?”

“I didn’t want to leave my mom, and she wouldn’t leave. The pack was all she’d ever known of course, and she didn’t want to start over even if it would have made things better for me.”

“Do you think you would have ever left?”

“I think so, but I don’t know when I would have reached my limit. I kept telling myself that I’d find somewhere else to live, but it was just a dream that I kept pushing off. If I’d known that my mom had a friend here in Northern Ohio that I could have stayed with, I might have felt differently.”

“My sister Aeryn’s talked about Alli, who is friends with a Wiccan who’s mated to one of the vampires.”

“Your sister is a tiger? How does she hang around with fallen angels and vampires?”

“She’s mated to a vampire and lives in an apartment complex downtown. She’s actually here hunting with the pride tonight. I was with her and my parents when I veered off to follow my cat who clearly wanted to get right to you.”

Sadie grinned. “Your cat has pretty good instincts.”

“Your wolf does too.”

They reached a large home and Gavin picked up the clothes he’d set aside. On the porch, there were a few males including one holding a baby.

“Hey, Merrix,” Gavin said. “Are Aeryn and my parents back from the hunt yet?”

“Nope,” he said. “Who’s your friend?”

“This is my truemate, Sadie. This is my sister’s husband and their baby Seraphina.”

“Nice to meet you,” Sadie said.

“Truemate?” one of the other males asked.

“Yep,” Gavin said. “That’s Kevin and Adrian. They’re part of the security team.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Merrix said.

“Can someone grab something for Sadie to wear?”

“Sure,” Adrian said, hustling into the house.

Sadie couldn’t believe she was standing next to her truemate. And even though she kept having to silence the old voices in her head that told her she wasn’t good enough or worthy of a mate, Gavin didn’t seem to mind her fur color one bit.

Adrian came out of the house with a long T-shirt. “Does this work?”

Sadie pulled it over her head and nodded. “Thanks.”

“I’ll leave a message for Midas and Maya,” Gavin said. “And I’ll check in with them in the morning.” He paused and looked at her. “The wolves I have numbers for would be out hunting. You said Alli is waiting at Adam and Cinder’s?”

“Yeah.”

He looked at the males. “Does anyone have Alpha Adam’s number?”

“It should be on the master list of the group leaders,” Kevin said. He lifted his phone and poked around on the screen. “If the pack’s out hunting, why call the house?”

“Because people will be there,” he said.

“Oh, duh, sorry. Here’s the number.”

Gavin’s phone pinged a moment later. He handed it to Sadie and said, “We’re going to head to my house.”

They said goodbye to everyone as Sadie put the call through and waited for someone to pick up.

“Alpha’s house,” a male voice said on the third ring.

“I’m looking for Alli, the fallen angel.”

“Yeah, hold on. Alli!”

It was a long moment before Alli answered, and Sadie explained what had happened.

“If you give me his address, I can run your clothes and phone to you,” Alli said. “Once the pack is back from hunting, since I said I’d stick around.”

“That would be great, thanks.”

“Hey, you found your truemate. I’m happy to help. And I knew that you coming to Ohio was a great idea. I just didn’t know how right I’d be!”

Sadie ended the call and put the phone in the cup holder of Gavin’s pick up as they drove to his house.

“Sounds like she’s a good friend to you,” he said.

“She is. I don’t know where I would have gone if it weren’t for her.”

“You’re not alone anymore,” he said. “You’ve got me and my family. They’ll love you.”

“I can’t wait to meet them.”

“Later,” he said with a soft growl.

Her stomach flipped again and her toes curled.

“I’m so glad I met you, Gavin.”

“Me too, Sadie.”