Mate Magic Read online

  Mate Magic

  Fated Mate: Book 4

  Shannon Duane

  Copyright © 2013 by: Shannon Duane

  Cover Design by: Laura Shinn

  ISBN: 9781301958238

  Other books by Shannon Duane

  Fated Mate Series:

  An Alpha’s Trust

  A Second Chance

  A Pack Family

  Mate Magic

  Mate Switch

  Irish Boys Series:

  Carrick’s Caress

  Liam’s Danger

  License Notes:

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be copied or reproduced in any manner without express written permission of the author. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy or copies. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Mate Magic is a work of fiction. Though some of the cities and towns actually exist they are used in a fictitious manner for purposes of this work. All characters are works of fiction and any names or characteristics similar to any person past, present or future are coincidental.

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to my wonderful family who allow me to be obsessive, most of the time. To my three beautiful children, Jay, Mae and Jonas, who tolerate the clicking of my laptop keys at all hours of the day and night. Thank you to my awesome husband, who bought me above mentioned laptop; you could only be better if you did laundry. Yes, I’m coming to bed soon! Growl.

  And thank you to my doggie, Indiana, who couch cuddles and keeps me company in the middle of the night; until my husband realizes I’m not, in fact, coming to bed and climbs on the couch with me.

  Love you all.

  To view more of Shannon’s writing, please visit:

  http://shannonduane.yolasite.com.

  http://www.facebook.com/shannon.duane.98?ref=tn_tnmn

  Prologue

  “Allen, people are coming, I can hear them. Please let us go. No good can come of this situation.” Bailey O’Shea was holding her four month old twin niece and nephew attempting to keep them safe from her Pack Alpha, Allen. He had a crazed look in his eye and she’d never seen him look so desperate. He was a major control freak and wanted to breed all wolf shifters and raise them according to the old ways. She pleaded, “I’m sure Dante will keep the kids half time. Just give it a chance.”

  Bailey heard a gunshot and jumped a mile causing the twins to cry.

  “Shut them up.” Allen was pacing the confines of the small room where he had secluded them. He had a knife loosely held in his right hand. Bailey itched to put the twins down and fight him for the knife but her sole responsibility was seeing to the protection of Abby and Brady. When Dante, her twin brother arrived he would have to take care of Allen.

  Bailey was bouncing both the twins in her arms when she heard the second gunshot. She was beginning to think that she may not be on the winning side of this battle. Regardless, Bailey decided she would fight to the death before letting Allen steal these children from a wonderful pack and their mother. Bailey started to put the kids down in a safe place so she could fight Allen if necessary.

  Bailey had leaned over to settle the kids when she felt a tug on her hair. She was still holding the twins when she heard Allen sneer, “You will hold them. I’m not stupid. I’ll not fight you and the twins pack mates. If you put them down I will hurt them.” Allen placed the knife over little Brady, Bailey attempted to pull away but he had a hold of her hair.

  “Don’t do this. I promise not to run or leave if you’ll just leave the twins alone.” She could hear the desperation in her voice and was mildly ashamed.

  “What will you give me, Bailey, if I leave them alone? I want more children, are you willing to sacrifice their safety to ensure that we have pups of our own?”

  Bailey pulled away from him and a clump of her long black hair was pulled out. Allen tossed it to the ground and merely grabbed another section of her hair to tug. She kept pulling away from him and soon her hair was littering the floor. She couldn’t defend herself holding the babies so she simply stood there with his hand gripping her hair so hard her scalp ached.

  “Well, my dear, will you breed with me?”

  Bailey was saved from answering his question by several people rounding the corner and entering the room. The first person to come in the room was unfamiliar to her but she did notice Tara, the twin’s mother entering next along with another unknown man. How many people had to witness her shame? Dante was nowhere to be found.

  Allen had her straight long black hair held firmly in one hand pulling it back to expose her throat, where he held the cold blade to her skin.

  She whimpered as the knife bit into her skin as Allen started speaking. “Ah, Tara it’s so lovely to see you again. Your children will be a wonderful addition to this pack. Thank you for doing your duty.”

  “As you remember I didn’t have a choice. Please release Bailey and the pups. They are innocent and we’ll do whatever you ask.” Tara regretted the words as soon as they were out.

  “Good, leave and I will release them.” His smile was mocking.

  The last man who entered was barely restraining his fury, spoke. “Let the woman go or I will shoot you without thinking twice.” He pulled his gun and took aim at Allen. He knew what he was doing, his strong legs braced apart and his eyes never straying from Allen. He had dark brown hair and a scowl that didn’t match his beautiful face. He should be somewhere warm and sunny, running wild with his pack.

  “Ah ah ah, I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You could hit this lovely young woman or the children. It would be a shame to lose more of our breeding stock.”

  Paul wanted to kill this man more than he wanted to do anything else in his life. “Release the woman.”

  Decker looked over at Paul. “Hold it together man. Put the gun away.”

  Paul closed his eyes only a moment and took a deep breath of the cotton candy scent he had come to love. He lowered his weapon then asked Decker, “Alright, how would you suggest we proceed?”

  Allen scoffed at them, “Move into the room and away from the door. I’ll release them as soon as I am free.”

  Decker countered, “You’ll release them at the door and we will not follow.”

  Allen began to move towards the door as the others moved further into the room. “Agreed.”

  When Allen was in front of the door and Tara, Decker and Paul were on the opposite side of the room Allen snickered. He pulled Bailey’s hair back even further to expose her neck before saying, “You are a disappointment to your Alpha, so you will be punished.” He took the blade and attempted to slide it along her neck, however, Bailey knew it was coming so she ducked and turned as the blade connected.

  Bailey felt white hot agony along her neck and collar bone. She could feel the blood dripping down her chest but she crouched down to protect the babies and felt another stabbing pain to her side. Suddenly, she couldn’t breathe but she had to keep the babies safe so she remained crouched over them.

  Feeling a hand on her shoulder Bailey looked up to see Tara crying. Bailey didn’t have much strength so she lifted slightly as Tara took her pups from under her. The two men who had come with Tara were standing back. One smelled like gun powder and blood; he had a bullet hole in his shirt and another in his leg. The beautiful man with the gun was on his cell phone calling someone. She lifted her head to smile at him and let him know she was okay. She attempted to take in his scent, but her breathing was ragged and her head felt heavy; she promptly passed out.

  *****

  Paul had stayed by Bailey’s side. Apparently, she was Dante’s twin sister and she was hot stuff, smelling like sweet cotton candy and she was brave. She’d protected Dante�
��s pups like a mother bitch and he was proud of her. If he could just get a little closer to her so he could take her scent deep into his lungs and get rid of the cloying scent of hospital disinfectant.

  When they arrived at the hospital the staff tried to kick him out but he growled his displeasure, explaining the circumstances of her assault. He stood in the corner and silently observed. They cut Bailey’s clothes away and put a gown over her. They took blood, x-rays, put her on oxygen and placed an IV. She was also connected to a monitor that continued to beep annoyingly.

  About twenty minutes later the doctor came back in and told him that her labs were okay, except a mild drop in her blood count, but her x-ray showed a collapsed lung which was what the paramedics suspected. The doctor said he would send in the nurse to prep the room and the procedure would take place in about fifteen minutes. “Why is she still knocked out? Shouldn’t she wake up?”

  “She’ll open her eyes to painful stimulus; we’ve medicated her pretty heavily for the pain. After we have placed the chest tube, which is a painful procedure, we’ll come back and suture her neck. It’s a pretty bad laceration and will need to be cleaned thoroughly before the stitches.”

  The doctor left the room and it was only Paul and Bailey. That was a nice name, Bailey, and she smelled so good. Maybe he could take a look at her wounds and…help. Yeah, he could help. He found himself, unknowingly, approaching her bedside. He placed his hand on her soft black hair and stroked it to soothe her. She opened her eyes. “Perteey.”

  Paul looked down at her, “Are you feeling okay Bailey? I’m Paul, a friend of Dante’s.” Well, he had met Dante, but he wouldn’t necessarily put him in the category of friend.

  She blinked slowly and slurred, “Paul, iz a perteey. Gooooody.”

  Okay, she was high. “I’ll stay with you. I’ll protect you.” He continued to stroke her hair, and soon her breathing evened out to a steady pace and she was lightly snoring. Cute, he thought.

  He bent down to get a lungful of sweet heaven. She smelled so dang good and he wondered how she would taste. Without thinking his tongue darted out of his mouth and he lightly licked her neck. Yep, he had tasted perfection.

  The room exploded in chaos the next second, he heard someone yelling and he was hit from behind and knocked off his feet. He elbowed the intruder in the ribs and threw his head back into the face of the threat to Bailey; he needed to protect her. He turned and what he saw confused him. A large uniformed officer was helping a bleeding Dante to his feet. When the officer moved Dante to the side, he came toward Paul, “Whoa buddy, I’m not a threat. I’m American Canyon Pack and a police officer. I didn’t know it was Dante, I was just trying to protect Bailey.”

  Dante yelled while holding his bleeding nose. “By licking her? How noble, your parents must be so proud that you take such good care of defenseless women. Get out and never come back. I don’t ever want to see you sniffing around my sister again.”

  Paul tried to defend himself “But Dante I think…”

  “I don’t give a flying fuck about what you think. I am Alpha here and you will listen or suffer the consequences.”

  Paul, grudgingly, bowed his head and walked to the door. He took one last look at the sweet smelling goddess who had twisted him into knots, and walked out.

  Chapter 1

  2 months later

  What the hell was she thinking? Bailey was walking down a wedding aisle. Oh, she wasn’t the one getting married; it was her friend, Tara. Well, she wasn’t sure Tara would be put into the friend category, their relationship was…strained. About two months ago Dante challenged the leader of their pack in Sacramento. They were wolf shifters and their old Alpha, Allen, may he rot in hell, had stolen Dante’s newborn twins from Tara’s pack in American Canyon. Let’s just say the shit had hit the fan and Allen was defeated by Dante, Bailey’s twin, who took over control of the pack, as pack Alpha.

  This was the first time Bailey had been out since the hostile takeover. She was responsible for taking care of Dante’s twins, Abby and Brady, while they were stolen until Dante got there to save the day. It turns out Bailey’s mother was a bitch, responsible for the kidnapping, and Allen ended up almost killing Bailey. Bailey was protecting Abby and Brady when Allen slit her throat and stabbed her in the back puncturing her lung. She was in the hospital for a month, after that she really had no desire to leave her house.

  So, why then, was she currently walking down the aisle as Tara’s maid of honor wearing a floor length Silver gown with a blue sash at the waist and a wrap to cover her horrible scar. She didn’t want to be here, around people, let alone standing in front of them all, showing her vulnerability. She frequently had panic attacks, feeling like she couldn’t get in enough air. It happened at least once a day and she couldn’t control it, no one knew of course because she didn’t want to be a burden.

  Bailey got all the way down the aisle before even noticing anyone. She looked over at her brother and he was scowling at another grooms man, who was cute, handsome even. As she was checking him out he looked in her direction and sniffed the air, he had a dreamy expression on his face. She quickly averted her eyes to see a smiling Tara walking down the aisle.

  Good, Bailey thought. The sooner this thing gets started, the sooner it’s over. She didn’t plan on going to the reception; pictures then leave for home was her plan. Tara met Decker, her mate and soon to be husband, winked and handed her bouquet over to Bailey. She turned to Decker and it went silent.

  Decker turned so he and Tara were facing the crowd of friends and family. Bailey heard Decker’s deep baritone voice booming over the crowd. “Tara and I would like to give special thanks to a very special woman here tonight. A woman who is loyal, supportive and all around amazing. A lot of you might not know, Bailey, because she is from the Sacramento Pack; she put herself in harm’s way, several times to keep little Abby and Brady safe. There are no words to describe our love and deep appreciation of Bailey.” He’d started to openly cry in front of the crowd. Decker turned and pulled Bailey into a soft and gentle hug.

  Oh God, please, no more she thought. She wanted to shift and run. Bailey closed her eyes and hoped no one noticed her discomfort. She silently prayed that she would stay standing and not freak out in front of these people. Dante was here and he would protect her.

  Suddenly, Bailey heard Tara’s nervous voice begin to address the crowd. Oh God, no more. “I am the first to admit that the old Sacramento pack was broken but under Dante’s leadership they are now thriving.” Tara turned to give Dante a slight bow which he returned. “Even with the threat of death, Bailey stood in the way of danger to protect cubs that were not of her womb or pack. I consider her a sister and will forever be in debt to her. She gave us a truly wonderful gift, our family’s health and safety. When we could not protect and care for them, she was there. We love you, Bailey.” Bailey couldn’t prevent her shock and hoped no one saw the tortured look on her face. The crowd all got to their feet and went down on one knee in front of Bailey who’d been pushed to the front of the crowd.

  Bailey’s breathing began to quicken and her scent of anxiety was obvious to Paul, who wished he could go comfort her. He took a step toward her before even realizing what he was doing. It was enough for her brother Dante to notice and he shot Paul a don’t-even-think-it look and growled low in his throat.

  The entire wedding party looked over at Dante who was staring Paul down. Paul smiled and shot a shy look to Bailey who flushed and turned her gaze to her feet. After a pregnant pause the wedding continued.

  Decker and Tara’s first kiss after becoming man and wife was a scorcher. Decker picked up a surprised Tara and ran her back down the aisle and into the house. Finally, picture time and then I can leave. She was so proud of herself for making it through the entire ceremony that she was planning on treating herself to a big brownie with vanilla ice cream tonight for dinner.

  Bailey walked into the reception room because the bride and groom were conveniently m
issing. Dammit, now she would have to wait longer. Oh well, might as well have a cocktail to settle her nerves.

  Bailey was sipping her Sangria when Decker and Tara were announced together, faces flushed after what everyone assumed was a very vigorous round of wedding sex. Picture time, Bailey estimated another thirty minutes before she could leave.

  The pictures were almost over when Bailey tried to sneak out. “Hi, I’m Paul. Do you remember me?”

  Bailey turned and saw the sexy wolf in the tux that her brother was glaring at. She was embarrassed that she stood staring. “I’m Bailey…but you probably knew that. I remember you were there when Tara and Decker came to get the pups.” It happened faster than it normally did. She began to panic and her breathing increased as well as her heart rate. “I’m sorry but I have to be going.”

  Bailey turned to run out on the wedding reception, and everyone there, when she felt a hand clamp down on her upper arm at the same time her brother growled. She ripped her arm from Paul and ran, and ran, and ran.

  Bailey was running into the woods with her glass of sangria when she turned her head to make sure no one was following her. She suddenly slammed into something hard and tall, must have been a tree. Boy was she glad no one was here to see that. She was still breathless but managed to laugh while sitting on her butt in the dirt.

  Bailey felt a hand on her head and was startled when she realized she wasn’t alone. “You okay ma’am? You hit pretty hard, is someone chasing you?”

  Bailey looked up at a familiar face. “How did you get here so fast? And you changed your clothes?” She began to back up in a crab walk so she could distance herself from this man. He could be dangerous and she was in unfamiliar pack territory. She could smell he was a wolf shifter, but his scent was not familiar.