Lyric & The Cats (The Wolf's Mate Generations Book One)

By R.E. Butler

She-wolf Lyric Gerrick knows her alpha wolf parents want her to settle down with a pack member and build a life in Kentucky, but her restless wolf isn’t interested in anyone in Allen. After exhausting job options in Allen and the surrounding towns, she answers an ad for a teaching job at Ashland Elementary, a town in Indiana full of mountain lion shifters. Her parents happen to know someone in Ashland willing to let Lyric stay with them during the interview process. What she wants is to get the job. What she doesn’t expect? To find not one mate, but two.

Mountain lion shifters Elliott and Evan Fallon have been working for the Ashland police department from the moment they graduated from the police academy. They both love keeping the humans and shifters in the sleepy town of Ashland safe. When the daughter of their mother’s old friend arrives in Ashland for a job interview, they know the moment they lay eyes on her that the delectable Lyric is the one female for them both.

Lyric’s parents are not okay with her having two mates who are mountain lion shifters who’d like her to move to Ashland with them. Old wounds are exposed, and painful memories dredged up, but it’s not Lyric, Elliott, and Evan’s fight—it’s their parents’. Can the blooming love between the wolf and mountain lion trio bring their two groups together, or will things be over before they start?

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.E. Butler
• Release date: Feb 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005170097

R.E. Butler

A Midwesterner by birth, R.E. spent much of her childhood rewriting her favorite books to include herself as the main character. Later, she graduated on to writing her own books after "retiring" from her day job as a secretary to become a stay-at-home mom.When not playing with her kids, wrestling her dogs out the door, or cooking dinner for her family, you'll find her typing furiously and growling obscenities to the characters on the screen.Her best-selling series Wiccan-Were-Bear, The Necklace Chronicles, Hyena Heat, Wilde Creek, Were-Zoo, Arctic Shifters, Norlanian Brides, Saber Chronicles, and Ashland Pride are available now.

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Lyric & The Cats (The Wolf’s Mate Generations Book One)

R. E. Butler

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Excerpt from Micah & Zoey

Books by R. E. Butler

About the Author

Copyright

Chapter One

Lyric Gerrick parked near the front door of Lonestar Restaurant in Allen, Kentucky. She glanced at her smart watch and calculated how long she had until her lunch break was over and she needed to be back to corral the kids at the daycare. Forty-seven minutes. Plenty of time to eat a sandwich and look for a job. She picked up her laptop bag, phone, and keys, then climbed from her car. With a bump of her hip, she shut the car door, then walked toward the restaurant.

Someone walked out as she approached, and she smiled at the big male who held the door for her.

Hey, Remy, she said.

Hey. You here for lunch?

Yep. Your mom in the back?

Of course, she’s working on the Dessert of the Day for tonight. You want some company?

She tilted her head. Don’t you have to get back to the garage?

Lyric’s father, Jason, owned the town’s garage, and Remy was one of the mechanics, as was his father, Linus, Jason’s brother Michael, and Bo, a pack member. Lyric had spent one summer in high school working the gas pumps, but her father hadn’t liked all the unmated males coming by for gas and trying to stick around to spend time with her. She hadn’t minded the attention; it had just sucked that none of the males in the wolf pack were her truemate.

Including the cutie holding the door for her.

His mom, Karly, was a special supernatural creature known as an Angel Mate. All her kids were powerful—the males, like Remy, were destined to be alphas of their own packs, and the females were Angel Mates, born to be truemates and birth children who would be Alphas and Angels.

And here was Lyric, three-quarters wolf shifter with no other fun qualities.

I could spare some time to visit, Remy said.

I’m good. I’m going to be searching job postings online anyway. I probably wouldn’t be much company.

His blue eyes twinkled. I think you’d be plenty good company.

He was the flirtiest male on the planet. Thanks anyway. See ya.

You bet, we’re on full moon duty on Friday.

Ugh. Full moon duty.

Males and females were assigned each month to clean up the full moon gathering place behind her parents’ home in the woods. There was a big bonfire pit that had to be cleaned out and stacked with wood, as well as the area cleared of debris and ready for the hunt. The full moon was on Saturday, and while her wolf was always happy to shift and hunt with the pack, she was feeling twisted up because of the lack of job prospects, and her lonely bed.

I’ll see ya, she said. She hurried into the restaurant after Remy said goodbye. She stopped at the hostess station and then caught the eye of a human female waitress named Beth.

Sit wherever, doll, Beth said as she finished bussing a table. Need a menu?

No, just a Coke and a BLT.

Extra b?

You know it.

I’ll be right back with your drink.

Beth disappeared into the back of the restaurant. Lyric looked around and saw a few tables occupied, but most were empty. She chose a table at the back, away from the other diners, and set her bag on the chair next to her.

Hey hon.

Lyric looked up and saw Remy’s mom, Karly, walking toward her. She carried a glass of soda and a straw. Lyric stood and hugged the female who was like a second mom to her.

Karly set the drink on the table. Are you going to want some dessert? I’ve got cheesecake and carrot cake so far; the chocolate cake will be another hour at least.

I don’t think so, thanks.

How’s the job search going?

She raised her brow as she sat. How did you know?

Your mom of course. She told me you’re frustrated.

I am. I knew there wouldn’t be any openings in Allen, I’d just hoped there would be some nearby.

She looked thoughtful. How about Virginia?

What about it?

My dad’s pack has their own school, but there’s also plenty of nearby towns with schools, too. It’s not too far a drive from here, so you could come home for the full moon or hang out with my dad’s pack.

Lyric hummed. I hadn’t thought about Virginia, but I’ll add it to my search criteria. I’m still hoping to find something in Kentucky, but if I can’t, then who knows where I’ll end up.

Her parents would not be happy about her leaving Allen, let alone the state, but her dream was to be a teacher and she was going to be one, come hell or high water.

You’ll find something, I’m sure. I’ll talk to you later, hon.

Bye.

Lyric pulled her laptop from her bag and set it on the table. She opened it, and while she waited for it to turn on, she accessed her phone’s map program and moved the image until she was looking at Virginia. She’d never been to the state. Hell, she’d hardly been anywhere. Her parents weren’t much for family vacations because of being pack alphas, but they’d gone to some theme parks when she was little and the odd long weekend trip to someplace historical with her grandparents, Peter and Tina.

Would her parents flip out if she wanted to go to Virginia for a job interview? Probably. Her dad was dead set on her staying in Allen. Too bad there were no teaching jobs to be had.

Beth appeared with her sandwich and fries and disappeared just as quickly.

With her laptop fully booted, Lyric opened the job post website and looked in her inbox, deleting the scam work-from-home emails that always filled the space. Then she opened the tab for job listings and set her search parameters. Not just Kentucky, but the states that surrounded it, from Missouri to Virginia.

She mentally crossed her fingers and clicked the button to search for full-time elementary school teaching positions.

Picking up her sandwich with one hand, she took a bite and scrolled through the Kentucky job openings. There were teaching positions in Kentucky, but they weren’t for her: music specialty, PE, part-time, virtual only...and a few private schools that she’d sent resumes to but hadn’t heard anything back.

Sighing, she flipped through the other states and ate her sandwich and fries, marking a few of the job postings to save for a closer look.

By the time she finished her lunch, she’d responded to three job openings: one in West Virginia at a small private school, one in Tennessee at a public school, and one in Northern Kentucky at a public school.

Of the three, the Tennessee one was the best option, with a higher starting salary and better location. But she knew her parents would love for her to take the Northern Kentucky one, or just stay in Allen and keep working at the daycare, even though it wasn’t what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

All set? Beth asked as she picked up the plate.

Yeah, it was great thanks. As the daughter of the alphas, she didn’t have to pay for her meal, but she always left a generous tip to Beth who’d been sneaking extra bacon into her BLTs for years.

Sure thing, see ya next time.

Lyric put her things away and shouldered her bag, then headed outside.

She squinted at the bright August sunshine and made her way to her car, finding her sunglasses in the cup holder and slipping them on. Her phone buzzed and she saw a message from her mom.

How’s the job hunt going?

I applied to three. We’ll see what happens.

Good, I hope they’re all in Kentucky.

One is, the others aren’t.

Well, fingers crossed you get the Kentucky one. We’d love you to stay in Allen.

She didn’t have the heart to tell her that even if she did get the Kentucky one, she’d still have to move. She wasn’t about to travel an hour one way to work just because it was better for her parents.

Heading back to work. Love you.

Have a good day, Honey. Love you too.

Lyric put the windows down and cranked the stereo, then backed away from the restaurant and drove toward the daycare. One way or another, she’d find a job. It was just rotten luck that she couldn’t find anything close.

Part of her thought that her future lay somewhere else anyway, and that’s why fate kept closing the door to jobs that were close.

She was twenty-four. Ready to have a career, find her truemate, and start a family. Once she got a job, she felt everything else would fall into place.

Chapter Two

Monday night, Elliott Fallon sat at a table at Kickers in Ashland, Indiana, with his four best friends and pride-mates. They were all part of the Ashland mountain lion pride, even though they all weren’t full mountain lions. His fathers—Ethan and Eryx—were the pride leaders, but their group wasn’t run like most groups with hierarchy and ranks. His parents were in charge of major decisions and that was about it. The pride had settled in Ashland after his fathers came with his mother, Callie, from King, Pennsylvania and brought along several family members. Others had defected from King over the years, and the Ashland Pride was now robust and growing.

Elliott and his twin Evan were the first of the new generation born in Ashland, and everyone assumed they’d take over for their parents, but the truth was it wasn’t even on his radar. His lion was being particularly grumpy lately because they were twenty-five and unmated. He and Evan were planning to share their truemate…if they could find her. Mountain lions mostly shared—two males to one female—although there were a few mated quartets with three males to one female, too. The lions were very accepting of whatever romantic notions a male or female had. Want to mate with a human? No problem. Some other kind of shifter? Not an issue. Want more than one mate? The more the merrier.

Ashland wasn’t entirely lion, with humans making up half of the population, but they were accepting of the pride and the nuances of the romantic relationships that had begun with his parents finding each other under the most unlikely of circumstances—a car accident. When his mother had flown off an icy road and been knocked unconscious, his fathers—identical twin brothers Eryx, a police officer, and Ethan a police officer and EMT—had responded and discovered they were truemates. Callie was a wolf shifter from a pack in Kentucky that had antiquated ideas about hierarchy and rankings, and she’d left to find a new place to settle. King hadn’t been a good fit for them; back then the females were under a curse from a goddess to hate the notion of family and love, and they actively chased potential mates away. Ashland was a haven in more than one way.

What are you thinking about so seriously? Lennox asked.

Elliott blinked a few times and put his beer down. Truemates.

Why? Feeling the bug to settle down? Eddie asked as he signaled Chase, the bartender and a pride member, for another beer.

I guess? My cat’s feeling unsettled. Just seems like it’s been long enough, you know?

We all feel that way at one point or another, Reilly said. He shrugged. It’s part and par of being a mountain lion. Even for those of us who aren’t entirely mountain lion.

There weren’t a ton of pure mountain lions in the pride. Mixed matings had made for some interesting hybrids, like Lennox, who was a mountain lion with the dark fur of his grizzly bear side, or Eddie who was a panther with mountain-lion colored fur, or Reilly who was a wolf with mountain lion tendencies.

I suppose. I think maybe hitting twenty-five has made me feel even more antsy.

That makes sense, Trent said.

Here you go, Chase said, sliding a beer across the counter to Eddie. What makes sense?

Feeling the mating pull, Reilly said. It’s getting to Elliott.

It’s not getting to me, he said irritably, it’s just on my mind.

You know, Chase said, looking thoughtful, it always seems like males start to get agitated about being unmated just around the time when their truemate shows up. Dylan, Hunter, and I were all getting anxious about settling down and finding a female to share, and then we met Cristabel.

Maybe that’s a good sign, Myles said as he leaned