Damaged mate, p.1
Damaged Mate, page 1
part #1 of Immortal Wolf Shifters Book 1 Series
Damaged Mate
Immortal Wolf Shifters Book 1
Nikita Slater
Copyright © 2022 Nikita Slater
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Contents
Immortal Wolf Shifters Series Information
Map of World
The Human-Shifter War
1. A Witch’s Curse
2. False Mate
3. Soul Shift
4. Birds don’t kidnap wolves
5. Broken Dog
6. House Training
7. A Wolfy Grudge
8. Stranger Danger
9. Head Doctor
10. A Shift in the Air
11. The Awakening
12. Sarina vs. Spot
13. The Lunatic King
14. Mating Run
15. Sarina was weak
16. The day I died
17. Heat
18. Mind your Q’s
19. Mated and Knotted
20. The General is back
21. Animal Doctor
22. Help Yourself
23. Captured by the King’s Pack
24. Master of Death
25. Eat my tail
26. A Bite of Pleasure
27. Butterfly Kisses
28. Meeting of brothers
29. Feet are fun to chew
30. Depose the King
31. Welcome to the Resistance
32. Underground
33. Take me to the King
34. Arrested
35. Death at Dawn
36. The Short Story of Talia
37. Courting Mischief
38. A King’s Sorrow
39. Sarina’s Favour
40. Forever Fated Mate
41. Mating Bond
42. Does a Wolf Shifter Piss in the Woods?
43. Ebony and Winter
Sneak peek: The Witch and the Wolf
Acknowledgments
Nikita’s Newsletter!
Also by Nikita Slater
About Nikita Slater
Immortal Wolf Shifters Series Information
Book 1: Damaged Mate
Book 2: The Witch and the Wolf
Book 3: Wolf’s Eternal Bride
Book 4: Protected by Her Mate
Book 5: The King’s Mate
* * *
The Witch’s Curse…
“For the crime of trying to force me into an unwanted bond, I doom you to a life without your mate!”
A spell cast by a powerful witch and meant for one brother strikes all five alpha leaders of the Wolf-Haven Sanctuary, dooming them to a life without mates. Only the spell didn’t work quite right. Separating mates is a crime against the natural order, and nature will fight back when provoked.
* * *
Book 1: Damaged Mate
Lock felt the moment his mate died, which is why he’s both shocked and elated when she shows up on his doorstep. Only problem is she’s lived in her wolf form for two hundred years and has forgotten how to be human.
* * *
Book 2: The Witch and the Wolf
Rush has been searching for a way to break the witch’s curse so his brothers can find peace with their mates. Instead, he finds his own witch mate, one who is determined to make him pay for hunting her family for generations.
* * *
Book 3: Wolf’s Eternal Bride
Keenan is doomed to fall in love with his human mate and then watch her die over and over again each time she reincarnates. In order to give his mate the life she deserves, he must find a way around the witch’s curse.
* * *
Book 4: Protected by Her Mate
Lennox lives and works in the modern world of the humans. When he discovers his mate is his new human police partner, he must do everything he can to protect her from a bomber set on restarting the Human-Shifter War.
* * *
Book 5: The King’s Mate
Fallon spends centuries searching for his mate, a witch who is cast into another realm as punishment for her crime against the natural order. When he finds her, he will follow her into the shadows and reclaim his mate. This time, he won’t give her the opportunity to escape him.
The Human-Shifter War
700 Years Ago
Lock
I watch from the ridge above the battlefield as the human army retreats, having conceded victory to the shifters. It was our final battle before a truce was brokered between the humans and shifters, ending the wars.
Thirty-two years of war.
I wasn’t very old when it started; only thirty-four, practically a pup in immortal shifter years.
Through persistence and prowess, I rose through the ranks of my brethren to achieve the posting of General to the wolf-shifter army. We’re only a few hundred strong, minuscule compared to what the humans had thrown at us, but our numbers were more than enough to put up a fierce resistance when the humans decided to purge their world of shifters.
Unfortunately for the humans, we were unwilling to roll over and give up, thus kicking off a three-decade long war. There were losses on both sides, but the human losses were far greater. They outnumbered us fifty to one, but they didn’t have our strength or longevity. For every shifter taken out in battle, the humans lost dozens. As their losses piled up, their determination to win the war waned. Some would argue the war ended years ago, but the humans were unwilling to negotiate, instead throwing live bodies at us shifters as fodder for their twisted beliefs.
Now, the day of reckoning has arrived.
I feel my brother, Fallon, approach long before he arrives. Our familial telepathic bond is strong. I turn to watch the big black wolf loping toward me, shifting to human as he takes the last few steps that brings him to my side.
“General,” Fallon says, halting beside me to watch the retreating army. “I see you’ve received the news of our victory.”
“Hardly a victory,” I reply grimly. “We lost too many lives to this pointless war.”
We remain silent for a moment, our thoughts turning to our greatest losses. Our parents. They were killed at the beginning of the war, when humans overran shifter populations, surprising them and killing them before the shifters could organize themselves. Once we realized what was happening, we retaliated, striking back hard and often.
At the beginning of the war, I’d fought alongside my four brothers, seeking vengeance for the deaths of our parents. I’d achieved the rank of general through my bloody persistence in pushing the enemy back and making sure we paid back every loss on our side through the blood of the mortals. But as the bodies piled up and the war dragged on, I lost sight of my reason for fighting. I became another soldier in a war none of us understand.
This end to the war is a relief. I’m through seeking vengeance. I’m weary and want nothing more than to retreat to the wolf shifter territory of Wolf-Haven for some much needed rest. Wolf-Haven is the one place where only wolf shifters are welcome. It consists of a castle, which is surrounded by the gated city of Wolf-Haven, which, in turn, is surrounded by the countryside and territory of Wolf-Haven, which all rests on the continent of Lupinia.
“We’re being summoned to the capital to celebrate,” Fallon says, giving the reason for his presence on my battlefield. As the child of a well-known and powerful alpha shifter family, he’d taken on the role of diplomat, working to liaise with the humans to negotiate a cease-fire.
“All five of us?” I ask, assuming he means all my brothers.
While I became a military general and Fallon a diplomat, Keenan and Lennox remained behind, shoring up the defences of our capital city. Our fifth brother, Rush, is a lone wolf. He’s never played well with others, though he’s closer to Fallon than the rest of us. In order to do his part in the war, Rush became a runner. He took on the dangerous job of passing messages between the shifter factions, sometimes infiltrating the humans when it was necessary to pass messages onto our spies entrenched in enemy territory.
“Yes, they want all of us. The Wolf-Haven Council of Elders has a proposal for our family,” Fallon confirms. “We’re to go to the Capital immediately. We’ll hear the proposal, then join in the victory celebration.”
I nod. “Give me a half-hour and I’ll join you for the trip home.”
Fallon waits for me as I search out my second-in-command, Jango, and transfer the might of our military into his capable hands. Once this is accomplished, I make my way back to Fallon, who’s speaking with a few of my soldiers and eating a bowl of venison stew.
I strip and together we shift, taking off at a run. In this form, we can cover ground much faster than we could as humans. We race toward Wolf-Haven, which is situated in a mountainous region to the northeast of our continent. The battle front I’d been overseeing is closer to the lowlands, but not so far from Wolf-Haven that a pair of shifters in prime condition can’t run.
We cover the ground in two days, arriving in the city in time for a parade being thrown in our honour. I snigger while still in my wolf form as I catch sight of shifters in their human forms, screaming our names and wearing ma
Eventually we’re recognized and the crowd presses in on us as people attempt to touch our fur and pass on their well wishes and accolades. We shift to human and accept the handshakes and back slaps until the castle guards come to escort us the rest of the way.
I look up at the massive stone structure as we’re taken inside. A fortified seat of power, built on top of a mountain, imposing and difficult to penetrate when attacked. I’d spent my formative years in the city of Wolf-Haven. Though my family hadn’t lived in the castle, they were alphas to our pack and my parents often entered through these massive gates to speak with the council on behalf of the city sprawled out in the valley below.
It feels strange entering a building, especially one as important as the castle. I barely remember the rules of polite society, having spent the better part of three decades in the muck with my shifter army.
“You’ll do fine,” Fallon says, reading my anxiety. He slaps me on the back in encouragement as we enter through the portcullis and into the castle’s courtyard. Shifters in both their wolf and human forms, in states of dress and nakedness, surround us.
“Fallon.” A man in court finery approaches us, his hand out. Fallon shakes it, then the man turns to me. “General.”
I nod and take his proffered hand, shaking it once before dropping it.
“Your brothers are inside.”
The three of us head toward the nearest door.
“Rush?” Fallon asks.
The man shakes his head. “Rush was too far afield to pull in. A messenger was sent, but neither has returned.”
I hope Rush hasn’t killed the messenger. It’s entirely possible. His perpetual bad mood is legendary and, from all accounts, hasn’t improved with the war. Rush was born a loner. Quite literally. Fallon and I are firstborn twins, only minutes apart. Rush was born in the middle. Keenan and Lennox, also twins, were born a few years after him. It’s not unusual for wolf shifter females to have multiples when they birth.
As we walk, we’re greeted by our younger brothers. The four of us stop in the entryway to the great hall, embracing and catching up with each other. Except for Fallon, who occasionally travels to the battlefront, I haven’t seen my brothers in a decade. They look bigger, stronger, more serious. I can read the stress of the war on their faces, but the jubilation of our greeting erases the years.
“Sirs, if you’ll follow me,” the castle steward says, bowing his head. “The Council of Elders will see you now.”
The four of us are led into the great hall and lined up before the Council, a group of elder wolves, all handpicked to represent the different wolf packs living within the territorial borders surrounding Wolf-Haven. There used to be only a trio of council members, but as the war progressed, shifter packs from all over the world poured into the territory. Clashes between different packs became common and the council was expanded to keep the peace between the packs.
As I half expected, we’re congratulated on our success in protecting our kind, the wolf-shifter brethren. We accept their praise, but I sense an underlying reason for our summons. After several long minutes of speech from the elders, we finally get to the reason. An elder steps forward.
“You four, and your brother, are, in large part, the reason this war is coming to its conclusion. You have proved yourselves both fierce.” His gaze meets mine, then shifts to Fallon. “And fair. Fallon, your tireless diplomacy has led to the end of a war that has cost many lives. General Lock, you kept the humans from exterminating our kind and taking what is rightfully ours, sacrificing much in the process.” His gaze shifts to Keenan and Lennox. “You two are responsible for the security of Wolf-Haven. You’ve kept the enemy at bay and reassured our people that the strength of our defences will never again fail them.”
Another elder stands and approaches us, climbing carefully down from his throne, his frail body moving slowly. I recognize him as the representative of the Nomad Pack, a fierce pack with many warriors in my army. I nod respectfully as he stops in front of me. He’s one of the oldest of our kind. Many in the human world believe since we’re immortal, we cannot age, which is close to the truth, but we can age if we so choose. Life can get long, and some shifters choose the path of aging, especially if they’ve never found their fated mate.
“Through the peace brokering, we will be enacting a series of laws that all wolf shifters must abide,” he explains, looking at each of us. I’d figured this would be the case but wonder what it has to do with me and my brothers. “To appease the fear that drove humans to attack us in the first place, we have agreed to several concessions. First, we must never shift in front of humans.” I let out a snort, but quickly swallow it when Fallon gives me a shut-the-fuck-up look. “Second, we cannot mate with humans. Third, we register with the nearest human town council if we choose to live among or near them.”
I’m not surprised by the new laws, but I am disappointed. They show a fundamental lack of understanding of our kind. I feel Keenan beside me, shaking his head in annoyance. A few years ago, he was told by a witch who’d had a vision that his future bride was human. As is usual with our kind, his plan was to wait for her birth, then watch over her until she grew old enough to claim. He didn’t choose a human as his mate, but he’s come to accept that one day she’ll be part of his future.
As always, Fallon the diplomat speaks on Keenan’s behalf. “We can’t choose who our fated mates will be. If a mate is human, then the humans must accept our claim. It’s the natural order.” The highest law for our kind. We’re driven by instinct, which is dictated by the natural order.
“They refuse to accept any shifter claims on their kind,” the elder says, though his gaze is compassionate. “They’ve seen the brutality of a claiming and have seen some of their people disappear to our traditions and they now fear us. This was something they refuse to compromise on. We’re no longer allowed to mate with humans.”
“But…” Keenan shakes his head in disbelief. “We’re supposed to just ignore the mating bond? Many of our brethren, me included, find our fated mates among the humans. It’ll be agony if we’re forced to know they exist and we can’t claim them. It’ll lead to the deaths of many good shifters.”
Lennox places his hand on Keenan’s shoulder and squeezes.
“I understand,” the elder says, stopping in front of Keenan to speak in a low voice. “But these are the concessions we’ve had to make to stop this war and all the carnage that has come with it. Perhaps one day the humans will come around to understanding our way of life and our need for fated mates, no matter where we find them. Unfortunately, today is not that day.” The elder steps back from Keenan and looks at all of us. “As you four and your brother, Rush, have emerged heroes in this war, and you descend from a long line of Alphas, we wish to put forth a proposal. We want you to continue your work as protectors of our kind.” He lifts his arm and waves it around the room. “This castle will be turned over to you, as well as the security of the city and countryside of Wolf-Haven. All that we ask is that you continue to advocate for our kind as you have done for the past thirty-two years.” He looks at Fallon and says, “Fallon, we’re asking you, with your brothers at your back, to lead the Wolf-Haven pack in our post-war time of need. Do you accept?”
