Gifted with Hydrangea Read online

  Heath’s eyes darted around the plate. He was unsure where to start. He picked up his fork, and began to eat. The flavors were rich and comforting. He closed his eyes and hummed in pleasure.

  “I know, right?” Gale said, interrupting his thoughts. “Betty and my mom, Connie, make pretty good grub here. If it weren’t for my increased metabolism, thanks to my mating, I would be five hundred pounds already, and I’ve only been here a month and a half.”

  Heath rolled the food around his mouth, slowly enjoying the flavor. He wasn’t meaning to be rude, but to respond would mean to interrupt the orgasm in his mouth. Gale didn’t seem to mind. She leaned over and directed her conversation to Enzo.

  “So what are you guys going to do today?” she asked.

  “I haven’t talked to him about it yet, but I know for sure that we need to head over to his place and pick up some clothes, and his pet.”

  Gale wiggled happily in her seat. “Yes, we’re all excited about the arrival of Tinkerbell.”

  Havana guffawed. “That cat is going to be a superstar around here. I heard some of the other kids beg their parents to come and see her when she gets here.”

  “I know, totally,” Gale said excitedly. “I told Alphy we should think about other pets.”

  Havana closed the dishwasher and started it up. “And what did he say to that?” Havana asked.

  Gale slouched. “I don’t want to talk about it. It wasn’t nice. He totally doesn’t get us humans and our affections for non-shifting animals. It’s not like I can pull a string around and have Slate chase it, or ask Enzo to play fetch with me.”

  Suddenly beside him, Enzo started choking, and Havana started laughing so hard, she nearly fell to the floor. Heath patted Enzo’s back until the coughing subsided.

  “But hey,” Havana said, in between chuckles, “I bet if you asked Kace to roll over to let you scratch his belly, he would.”

  “Yeah, but then Alphy would gut him. Hey!” Suddenly, Gale jumped up. “I can use that as a prod to get Alphy to change his mind. See ya.”

  The woman who served him his breakfast shook her head. “That girl is going to get Kace killed, without the wolf even knowing why.”

  “Nah, I’m sure Alphy will only maim him a little. Sea can stitch him up, and he’ll be fine in no time,” Havana said, teasing him. Or at least Heath hoped she was teasing.

  As if reading his thoughts, Enzo leaned over and whispered into his ear. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, Alphy won’t really hurt him. Paranormals are super jealous when it comes to their mates, but unless Kace really did do something to Gale, which he wouldn’t, Alphy won’t hurt him.”

  Heath decided to leave that subject alone for now. He nodded silently as he chewed on his breakfast.

  Heath learned that his car was retrieved earlier that morning, so after breakfast, Enzo drove him over to his small apartment. The first thing he did was grab his pet carrier, which was in the closet by the front door.

  “Tinkerbell. Where are ya, Tink? Kitty, kitty, kitty?” He stopped calling for her when he heard her meow. He got down on his hands and knees, and looked under his rundown couch. Golden feline eyes looked back at him, but instead of the look of benevolence, he saw terror.

  “What’s the matter, Tink? I’m home. You’re okay.”

  “It’s because of me, Heath,” Enzo said from behind him.

  Heath leaned up a little, and looked back at Enzo, who was still standing by the door. “What? Why?” he asked.

  “Because she senses my wolf. She knows I’m a predator, but she doesn’t know that I’m not going to hurt her. She’ll get used to me and the others over time once she realizes we won’t hurt her.”

  “Oh.” Heath didn’t know what to say. He had actually never seen Enzo shift, so it was easy to see him only as a man. He bent back down and talked soothingly to his cat.

  “It’s okay, Tink. Come on, we’re going on a little vacation,” he tried to soothe her.

  “I can go start to packing for you. Where’s your suitcase?” Enzo asked.

  “Uh, in the bedroom closet.” He blindly pointed in a direction, which he hoped was towards the bedroom, as he kept his eyes on his frightened kitty.

  Heath struggled for ten minutes with his cat, but he was finally able to snap her into her pet carrier with minimal amount of blood loss on his part. He left her in the carrier beside the couch as he cleaned up his scratches. After they loaded up the car, they stopped by a store for pet supplies.

  “What do you want to do when we get back?” Enzo asked as they were traveling back to pack property.

  “Uh, I don’t know. What is there to do?”

  “Well, we can go for a walk, or we can stay in and watch movies. I got a TV in my room, so we don’t even have to be out in the main living area, if you don’t want.”

  Heat burned through Heath’s cheeks when he thought about lying in bed with Enzo, watching movies. His dick started to twitch and fill. Enzo’s nose flared. His eyes darkened, and his voice lowered.

  Enzo swore and reached down to adjust his dick. “The bedroom idea sounds like we’d get sidetracked. As much as I want to explore your body, sweetheart, I think we better go for a walk. I need to tell you about our culture, and most importantly, what you mean to me.”

  Heath remained silent as they turned onto the gravel road that led to the farm. He took his pet carrier into the house, while Enzo brought in his suitcase. They didn’t make it more than a few feet into the house when several girls and two tots swarmed them, or more precisely, his pet carrier.

  Enzo held up his hands. “Whoa! Hold on!” Everyone froze. “Tinkerbell has had a traumatic morning. You should give her time to settle down and adjust.”

  A little brown haired tot came up to the carrier and placed both her hands on either side, then placed her face against the gate. “Tink ok? I take care of you.”

  Heath’s heart melted. He loved kids, and wanted to have at least one, someday, and this little girl was so angelic. Tink seemed to have liked her, too, because he heard her give a mixed purr and meow, and saw her rub her head against the cage near the girl’s face.

  “Oh, that is so sweet,” Gale said in a cooing tone. “Heath, why don’t you let us set up everything for the cat in Enzo’s room while you two go do something?”

  “Sounds like a fantastic idea, Gale.” Enzo hurriedly answered for him. He put his bags down, took Heath’s hand, and led him out of the house.

  Heath was worried at first, but Enzo assured him everything would be fine. Weird how I always believe him, he thought.

  Enzo walked him over to a building and opened it up. The space was huge, and smelled of wood and metal. It had a tractor and trailer parked in it, and a forge. Another kind of station was off to the right.

  “Wow, this place is huge,” he told Enzo.

  “That’s a woodworking area that Ryker’s mate, Rudo, is going to use. They also used to do blacksmithing here, hence the forge. But it has enough space, if we moved the tractor and trailer, for something else, say, space for a mechanic.”

  Heath whipped around to look at Enzo. “What? N-no. Why would you say that? I thought you were going to let me go after you guys did the background check on me.”

  Enzo wrapped his arms around him, which dampened his rising panic. Damn, he’s got a lot of power over me.

  “Easy, sweetheart. If that’s what you want, we will. I just wanted to show you there were other options. Maybe even something you can do while you’re here, to pass the time.” Enzo held him for another moment before backing away again. They made their way over to the trailer and sat down on the end.

  Heath’s panic dissipated, and he looked around the space again. “So why is there a tractor and trailer in here? I didn’t see any crops, or farm animals, other than the chickens.”

  “It’s for pack runs.”

  Heath listened as Enzo explained about how important pack-members were to each other.

  “Because of the long lives we live, and o
ther challenges we have in keeping our secret, we can’t rely on humans, so our pack is the social stability that we need. Pack runs help to strengthen that bond.”

  “So are you guys, like, your own government?”

  Enzo winced and tilted his head. “Sort of. We abide by human laws as much as we can, but we do have two paranormal councils we also have to abide by. They are the highest ranking in our class. In a pack, the highest rank is alpha.”

  “And that’s Alphy.”

  “Right. Alphy makes decisions and rules for this pack. What he says goes. If we disobey, it could be seen as a challenge to his status, and in our world, that can be deadly.”

  “You mean like last night, when you challenged Alphy?”

  Enzo looked uncomfortable. He squirmed a little bit, and scratched his ear, and cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah. But it isn’t like he would blindly attack just anyone. Alphy and I have been best friends for years. He knew I didn’t mean to challenge him. That’s why he just yelled, to remind me of my rank, and what I was doing.”

  “Your rank? Does everyone have a rank? What is yours?”

  “Whoa, slow down. Before I answer that, let me explain a little more. So in any group, we need leaders. It gives everyone stability knowing where they stand, and who to turn to for whatever occasion. So we have our council, then the alphas who run the packs. There is always a beta, then enforcer, trackers, and the rest you can call the civilian pack. You either have a rank, or you don’t. If you don’t, you are equal to the other members of the pack who don’t, no matter their age or wealth. An alpha can make anyone, any rank that he chooses.”

  “So what’s your rank?”

  “I’m a beta.”

  “Wow, that’s a pretty high rank. So what does a beta do?”

  “I govern the more minor issues that would take up too much of the alpha’s time. I support him in his decisions, and I’m the one in charge when he’s gone, or sick, or whatever.”

  “Who are the others with ranks? I don’t want to accidentally overstep my bounds.”

  “Okay, that brings up another thing about ranks, sweetheart. You remember Gale?”

  “From breakfast, right?”

  “Yes. She’s mated to the alpha, which makes her the alpha mate. When we mate, we become as one with our mates. Therefore, we share the rank of our mates. So even though I’m second in command, she still outranks me. After alpha, is me, the beta. Then there’s the enforcer, who enforces pack laws and protects the pack. Because our pack is so big, we have three enforcers. Our lead enforcer is Slate. He’s mated to Katie, so that makes her a higher rank than the other two enforcers, who are Matteo and Dultyn.”

  “Oh, I get it. Dultyn? Isn’t that Havana’s man?”

  “Yes, they are mates. Which makes her lower rank than Katie, but higher than the ranks below her.”

  Heath decided to wait to ask about mates. There was so much to learn, and he didn’t want to miss this ranking information, as it sounded too important. “Okay, so after the enforcers are?”

  “The trackers. Those are Nix, Kace, and Ryker. Now, remember how I said the alpha can make his own rules?”

  Heath vaguely remembered something like that. It was a lot of information to process. He nodded, so Enzo continued.

  “Well, because our pack is so big, he actually created another rank. The rank of sentry. Not all packs have extra ranks, but an alpha can do just about anything he wants. Sentry is our lowest rank. There are no other officer ranks, so everyone else is equal to one another. I would say the only exception is the pack doctor.” Enzo chuckled. “He’s probably the only one who could defy Alphy, and not get hurt doing so. You can think of him as like a silent partner in the pack. He even attends the officer meetings at times.”

  Heath leaned back on his hands and swung his legs as he thought about the information. There was really one other thing that he didn’t fully understand, and it bothered him.

  Enzo interrupted his thoughts. “Please tell me, Heath, what are you thinking? Let me help you understand whatever it is that is bothering you.”

  Heath raised a brow as he gave a pointed look at Enzo. “I didn’t think I was that transparent.”

  “Not outwardly, but paranormals have a keener sense of smell than humans. And shifters have one of the keenest of all paranormals. I can smell your emotions. That is another thing. You can’t lie to a paranormal because we can scent them.”

  “Wait, so no one lies?”

  Enzo shrugged. “We have our villains, as do humans, so there are those who lie, but it’s incredibly tricky to get away with, so it’s unnatural to us.”

  “Oh, ok, I guess.”

  Enzo gave him a pointed look. “So what was it you were thinking that left you so unhappy?”

  Heath leaned forward again and sighed. What he was about to reveal was embarrassing, but he really liked Enzo, more than logic should dictate, so he needed to clarify things before his heart got further invested. As it was, he was going to be nursing the biggest broken heart he’d ever endured.

  “I really like you, Enzo, even if you aren’t human. It’s obvious you didn’t mind having some fun with the same sex, but if you got mated, well, I don’t think my heart could take it. I’m looking for a lifelong relationship. No one wants to be the ‘good for now’ lover.”

  Enzo twisted himself to face Heath and grabbed both of his hands. Heath looked up into his extremely serious face.

  “Heath, listen very carefully to me. I know I told you this last night, but given the day you had, I understand you probably don’t remember, or didn’t understand what it meant. Shifters mate for life. All paranormals mate for life. We live longer lives than humans, so fate grants us the ability to sense the other half of our soul, our mate. It’s a rare gift to find, because we get only one, but once we find them, we’ll want no one else. After we mate with them, we can’t even get it up for another.”

  Heath’s heart started to ache. Enzo had just confirmed to him that they couldn’t be anything more than friends. But in spite of the freaky shifting part, for some reason he wanted more with Enzo.

  “Don’t you get it?” Enzo sounded urgent. “You are my mate, Heath. We don’t choose our mate, otherwise we’d mess things up, so fate chooses our most perfect mate, and that perfect someone for me, is you. I don’t, and will never again, want another. It’s you or no one.”

  A flicker of hope pulled on Heath’s heart, and a flutter tickled his stomach. “So you’re saying I’m your soul-mate?”

  “Yes. Be prepared, because I’m going to spend the rest of my life begging you to mate with me.”

  Heath tilted his head. “Mate? You keep using that term. Does it mean marry?”

  “Sort of, but it’s more permanent for paranormals. There are no divorces. It’s an actual physical bond that can’t be undone. When we find our mates, we want to claim them, to join with them permanently.”

  “So you want to claim me? Like luggage?”

  Heath saw tension in Enzo’s body as he explained it to him. “No. When we claim our mate, our chemistry syncs so that we would both live the same lifespan. You would live a longer lifespan, you would heal much faster than you do now, and you would become immune to many illnesses. But should one mate die, so will the other.”

  Heath’s brows knitted together. “So you’re saying that if I let you mate with me, and if you die, I will die, too?”

  Worry and frustration tensed Enzo’s facial features, but his voice was patient. “Not instantly, but yes.”

  “Wait, you said that you have to be born a paranormal, that you can’t be changed into one. You’re saying that if you mate with me, I will become one of you?”

  “No, you won’t be turned into a shifter, Heath. The claiming just alters your chemistry to live longer and heal faster.”

  Heath gave him a skeptical look. “How does a paranormal claim a mate?”

  Enzo looked like he relaxed a little bit in relief. “It can vary with different paranormals
. For a shifter, like myself, I would need to come inside you, and also bite you.”

  Heath’s dick was half hard. As soon as he heard what Enzo had to do, he pictured it in his mind, and his dick inflated the rest of the way. He silently cursed the thing, and tried to focus on the question he wanted to ask next.

  “Uh, w-wha—uh…”

  Enzo seemed to understand what he was asking. “My bite releases my saliva into your body, to change it. Together with my cum it will start the chemical reaction. Also, I need to ingest some of your blood, for my body to sync with yours. If I do one, or the other, it temporarily starts the bonding process, but doesn’t complete it unless both are done.”

  Heath wanted to believe him, but he still held doubts. “How do you know I’m the one fate chose for you? What if you mate me, but someone else comes along who you think is better, you would regret mating with me.”

  “There are different ways to know. Our sense of smell is the first and main way to tell. Also, my canines will only descend when I’m attacking, and when I claim my mate. So I wouldn’t be able to mate with you, if you aren’t my mate. Uh...”

  Suddenly Enzo got really red. His eyes darted around, and he scrunched up his nose. “Uh … shit, you’re probably going to freak out about this, but I can’t lie to you, I have to tell you.”

  Heath expected the worst as he sat as patiently as he could, waiting for Enzo to get around to telling him whatever it was.

  “Uh, oh boy, ok, here it goes. We, I mean, uh, wolves, uh, my kind knots, only for our mates.”

  “Knots? What is that?”

  “It’s a gland on my penis that swells, locking us together when I climax.”

  “And you can only do that with your mate?”

  “Yes.”

  “So, you haven’t ever done it before with anyone?”

  “No. I’ve never experienced it before.”

  “But if I’m your mate, you will.”

  “Yes.”

  Heath turned and stared blindly in the space in front of him. He’s right. I’m a bit freaked out about that.