Page 16 of His Human Mate

“Oh, can it, Ash,” Shelby retorted, reminding him of his relationship with the twins growing up. He took a deep breath, assessing Ashton’s demeanor, the looks he was shooting at them and forced himself to give the kid a break.

“Look, I get it,” Landon said moving them over to a love seat next to the kid. “She’s your sister. You love her, don’t want her to be hurt or played with, but you also know what being a shifter’s mate means. Doesn’t mean you have to like what we get up to, but you do have to respect that she’s mine.”

“Not yet obviously,” Ashton grumbled with another glance at Shelby’s neck.

“You’d rather he have just put his mark on me in that shack?” Shelby asked, reading the situation similarly it seemed.

“Better than this shit, you reek of his stench,” Ashton fumed and Landon had to press a kiss to Shelby’s temple to hide his smile.

“When you meet your mate, you’ll understand why I couldn’t have that place be where I claimed her, kid,” he said, before lifting Shelby onto his lap needing her closer than simply next to him. “Don’t worry though, I gave my sister’s mate worse hell than you have and he wasn’t stuck in a cage for two weeks. I mean, he lived two years of hell not knowing where she was, so I understand him wanting to be in bed with her once he had her back, now. Granted, they weren’t a hundred percent mates at that point, so I think I was still somewhat justified in helping Heath almost kill him.”

“I’m pretty sure your sister would slug you in the gut again—harder even, if she heard you say that, mister,” Shelby warned, her eyes dancing as she looked up at him. Fuck, every time she called him mister it simply made his cock harder, and he couldn’t wait to get her home, alone.

“She would,” his father stated making him chuckle.

“What’s the rest of your beef?” Shelby asked Ashton as her parents smiled at them, content unlike their son. “I mean, you skipped out on the rest of the guard taking the Windon pack home. Getting your butt stuck in that cage because of it. So, what’s up with that?”

“Your sister brings up a good point. You know you’re not supposed to go off on your own. You’re damn lucky that Dan refused to let you go alone and followed. If he hadn’t you may not have faired so well in that cage,” Morgan stated giving his son a dark stare.

“Fine,” Ashton mumbled more to himself than the rest of the group before looking to face them again. “I caught the scent of something that made it impossible not to follow.”

“Oh my god!” Shelby gasped, her eyes widening, jaw dropping confusing Landon with her sudden excitement. “You found your mate!”

“What?” their parents gaped turning to stare at him.

“Alright, yes, I caught her scent but it was vague and I lost it long before we stumbled into that damn mess,” Ashton said.

“You weren’t mad because we were getting to know one another, you were mad because we were getting to do it and you weren’t. You were jealous I’d found my mate when you didn’t have yours,” Shelby said, laughing as she leaned further back into his hold, making him thank the stars he had her, but also made him a bit more sympathetic to the kid’s mood.

“Yeah, all I could fucking think about while in that cage was finding her, to then get out of it thanks to my sister, only to have to watch you fall for his dick,” Ashton muttered their way.

“Hey, no talking about my mate’s di…my mate’s anything, dumbass,” Shelby caught herself before she uttered the word dick as his hands tightened on her hips. He pushed his up against her ass, letting her see what the thought of the dirty words coming from her mouth did to him.

“There is a very small pack that lives about half a day north from where you were last seen,” his father said, drawing Landon’s attention over to his parents. “They keep mostly to themselves. Their alpha is an asshole that I’ve wanted to take down more than once for his treatment of the women and omegas in his pack. Unfortunately, his cousin is the territory alpha, which gives him more leeway to do as he pleases. The right wind could have carried her scent down to you.”

“You’re talking about Albertson, aren’t you?” Landon asked his father.

“Yes, I am,” he said with a nod pulling a chuckle from him.

“Start being nicer to my mate and I could convince my father to take you there. It’s one of the few packs that we don’t have to request entry to before it being granted because of past behaviors. You’d never get in there on your own, not unless you want to attack them but that could…”

“I am not attacking my potential mate’s pack,” Ashton said instantly. “If she’s there, she could get hurt.”

“Not thinking so much like a kid now, are you?” Landon said, thankful when his father, Morgan, Ashton, Theo, and Jerimiah left the room letting him press kisses all over Shelby’s face, until their mothers exited the room to get her bags packed.

“Masterful,” Shelby said, laughing up at him. The soft, happy expression stayed on her face even as she said goodbye to her family, letting him move onto the plane with his mate and his mother, his father remaining with the Davidson pack until the rest of it’s guard group returned for them to go see if the Albertson pack had Ashton’s mate.

Chapter 8

Shelby couldn’t contain the soft gasp that slipped out seeing the packhouse as Landon called it from the air. “That’s not a house. That’s a freaking castle!”

“It’s our home,” he said, pulling her back into his chest until they landed. Her stomach was a bundle of nerves as they exited the plane, following Serena to a car to head the remaining distance to the house. None of the eyes on them seemed to be sneering at her thankfully and she relaxed into Landon’s hold once more when they were in the car.

It stopped outside the huge house, castle, she affirmed to herself as the huge double doors opened into a grand entryway. The ceilings were enormous. Higher than any packhouse she’d ever seen, and everything sparkled and glittered in the lights.

“Home,” Landon whispered into her ear pulling her gaze up to him.

“Castle,” she countered with a smirk that earned her a kiss.

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