Mate for a King

Chapter One

Feeling more than a little jet lagged, Lexi pushed open the door to the flat she had rented for a month in Norwich, England and wearily dragged her luggage out of the small hallway. After a ten-hour flight from Tampa International Airport in Florida, which included a stopover before landing in Manchester International Airport then another hour flight from Manchester to Norwich International Airport, Lexi was pretty much done in. All she wanted to do was fall into bed and not wake up for a week. The five hour time difference sucked. But she couldn't sleep just yet. She still had to pick up a few necessary items from a grocery store before she crashed. Lexi headed out of the flat that sat above a small bookstore and down the single flight of stairs leading to the building's front entrance then she made her way to the parking lot at the rear of the building where she'd parked her rental car.

As she pulled away, Lexi reminded herself to drive on the left hand side of the road. She headed for the street where she'd seen a grocery store on the drive in. It wouldn't take her long to pick up the small amount of groceries she needed. Feeling more jet-lagged as time went on, once she got to the store, Lexi decided it best to get a few essentials then come back later for the rest of the food she would need for the week.

She was almost back at her flat when she just narrowly missed hitting a car in the oncoming lane. Tires screeched as she and the other driver slammed on their brakes.

Lexi's heart jumped into her throat as she realized how close she had come to being in an accident. She had gone around a corner and stupidly turned into the wrong lane.

Knowing the almost-accident had been entirely her fault didn't help her nerves any. Her first day in England and she almost killed herself. Way to go, dumbass.

Lexi pried her hands off the steering wheel and got out of the car. She felt pretty sure she had stopped in time, but decided she'd better check to make certain there hadn't been any damage. She glanced at the expensive-looking Mercedes, sitting with its front bumper almost touching her rental's. The driver's door opened.

With an apology already formed on her lips, Lexi instead felt her mouth fall open as she watched a very large, very muscular, drop-dead gorgeous man step out and make his way over to where she stood. Unable to look away, she let her gaze run over him. The man was her own personal walking wet dream. Everything about him was a turn-on. He had longish dark blond hair, blue eyes and a body so muscular she bet she wouldn't find an ounce of fat anywhere underneath his tight-fitting blue jeans and black long sleeved t-shirt. She ran her gaze over his square jaw, straight nose and firm lips.

Lexi licked her own lips as her gaze became riveted to his.

When he came to stand in front of her, Lexi had to crane her neck to look up at him. He had to be at least six foot five. He towered over her five foot seven. His brows had been drawn together in displeasure as he had made his way over to her, but now that he stood in front of her, they evened out. Lexi hoped his current expression meant he wasn't too pissed off.

She cleared her throat. "Ah, sorry about that. This is my first time in England, and I still haven't gotten the hang of driving on the left hand side of the road." Lexi swallowed as he looked her up and down. She shifted from foot to foot, not knowing what else to say.

"You're an American?"

Lexi had to bite back a moan at the sound of his deep voice. She even found his British accent attractive. "Yes. Like I said, I apologize. I'm a bit jet-lagged as well."

His nostrils flared slightly as he took a deep breath. "I think we should continue this discussion in the parking lot across the street. We're blocking traffic."

She looked where he indicated and nodded. As she got in her rental car and drove the short distance to the parking lot next to a quaint looking tea house, Lexi took a deep breath to settle her nerves. Her heart raced. She knew her accelerated pulse had more to do with the man who parked his car beside hers than the close call she'd had.

After cutting the engine, she got out and met the man whose mere presence set her body on fire.

Lexi gave him a small smile. "Did I damage your Merc? If I did, I'll pay for any repairs you need to have done."

He shook his head. "There was no damage. I was just concerned because you look a bit unsettled. Are you all right?"

A wave of relief washed through her. "I'm okay. I guess I should have caught up on some sleep before I decided to do some grocery shopping."

"You aren't staying at a hotel?"

"No. I rented a flat not too far from here. I'm here for a month so I figured it would be cheaper in the long run."

"What's your name?"

"Lexi. Lexi Weller." She licked her suddenly dry lips as his gaze settled on her mouth.

He stuck out his hand. "Nice to meet you, Lexi. I'm Raedwald. Raed for short."

Lexi took his outstretched hand. His much larger one closed over hers as he rubbed his thumb back and forth across the top. A shiver of awareness shot through her as she swallowed audibly. "Nice to meet you as well, Raed." She tried to pull her hand away, but Raed kept hold of her.

"Are you free this evening, Lexi?"

"Wh-what?" She couldn't have heard him right. Men who looked like Raed did not usually give her the time of day much less ask her out on a date. If that was what Raed was doing.

Raed gave her a half smile. "I asked if you would be available this evening. Since this is your first time here in Norwich, I would like to take you out for supper and show you around a bit."

Lexi nodded. "Ah, sure." The longer she stayed in Raed's presence the lower her IQ seemed to become. He must think she was an idiot, but she had a hard enough time keeping her mind out of the gutter as it was. Thoughts of stripping Raed naked so she could lick and kiss every inch of his hard body were turning her brain to mush. She blamed it on jet lag and not her overactive imagination. Yeah, right, Lexi. Keep lying to yourself and you might start to believe it.

"Great. I'll pick you up at six this evening. Where's your flat?"

"Six will be fine." She quickly rattled off the flat's address.

Raed lifted their joined hands and pressed his lips to the inside of her wrist. His tongue flicked across her skin before he released her. "Then I'll see you at six."

Lexi had to lean against the trunk as she silently watched Raed get in his Mercedes and drive away. Her legs shook as she slowly got back into her car. That one small kiss had been enough to send her body into overdrive. Her nipples were still pebbled beneath her blouse. She squeezed her legs together hoping to alleviate the throbbing ache of arousal pounding in her pussy, but it only seemed to increase the intensity, causing wetness to pool.

Pulling herself together, Lexi left the parking lot and headed back to the flat. She really needed to get some sleep, especially if she didn't want to make an ass of herself this evening. She would show Raed she wasn't this ditzy all the time. Who was she kidding? She would be lucky if she didn't do something completely asinine like ask him to slowly strip naked so she could lick every hard inch of him.

Raed drove to the large manor house where he and his men lived. He shook his head as he thought about Lexi. He had been prepared to blast the driver of the car that had suddenly veered into his lane. His anger soon died away when he realized the other driver was a woman, and it wasn't just because she was a woman. As soon as he clapped eyes on her, his body had come to swift attention. He found her more than pretty with light brown hair hanging loose around her shoulders and her dark blue eyes; add a figure that appeared to be slim and fit under the black dress pants and pale pink blouse she wore, and he found he'd had a hard time tearing his gaze off her.

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.