The Mate's Rescue: Nicholas

By Wendy Lanore

Hired to find a missing woman, Nicholas rescues Jessica from a pack of shifters whose plans for her can only end badly. Rescuing Jessica will be easy, but winning her trust won't be. And how is he supposed to tell her that she is his mate?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wendy Collett
• Release date: May 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088130100

Wendy Lanore

Born and raised in a small town in Kentucky. Daughter to a homemaker and a Coalminer. Wendy started her career a little later in life in order to stay home with her two children. An avid crafter, artist and reader. Wendy spent many hours volunteering in her community for the children in the area.

Book preview

Table of Contents

Description

Acknowledgements

Dedication

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

Epilogue

About the Author

The Mate’s Rescue: Nicholas

Book 2 of The Mate’s Ring Series

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Hired to find a missing woman, Nicholas rescues Jessica from a pack of shifters whose plans for her can only end badly. Rescuing Jessica will be easy, but winning her trust won’t be. And how is he supposed to tell her that she is his mate?

Jessica has spent months held captive by a pack of shifters who spent countless hours experimenting on her and her unborn baby. Now she has to learn to trust the man that rescued her, even if he is a shifter too. And will she be able to give him her heart?

Acknowledgements

Copyright © 2019 by Wendy Lanore

Editor: Out of Your Write Mind, Ed. Rebekah Dodson, M.A.

Cover Design: Sunset Rose Books

All rights reserved. Wendy Lanore owns exclusive rights to all content herein. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form. This includes paper book, electronic or other digital means.

This book is a fictional book. All characters are products of the author’s imagination. Any names, locations and events have no relevance to real people.

Dedication

To Zach and Ty for being my biggest supporters and always encouraging me. 

I love you!

Chapter 1

Nicholas motioned to the three men on his flank and they slowly made their way toward the little run-down shack on the Carter Territory. He held his hand up to stop them when he saw the door open. He had been watching the shack for weeks, waiting for the perfect time to make his move.

He wasn’t sure what was going on inside that shack, but he knew there were at least a dozen men coming and going daily. He had assumed there was only one female being held captive inside, but after a few weeks he had heard the cries of several more. It had taken all his restraint to hold back and wait for the men his brother, Thomas, had sent to help him. Thomas was the Alpha of the Carter Territory that neighbored the land he was currently investigating. His brother’s men Ryan, Andrew, and Trevor had arrived the night before, now he was ready to take the men inside.

A few years ago, after he had grown bored with the security business his brother owned, Nicholas had spent the last few years working as an enforcer in the shifter community. The traveling and constant moving had been a great distraction, but he was tiring of it. The need to go home had been weighing heavily on his mind the last few months, especially, since he was yet to meet his new nieces.

When the door fully opened, a male stepped out. Nicholas had seen the same wolf shifter, Harold, giving orders to the others. They had called each other by name several times, giving Nicholas a chance to log each wolf. He wasn’t sure what his rank in the pack was, but he was definitely the one in charge of this operation. He lit a cigarette and took a long drag, his narrow eyes staring at the phone in his hand. His hair was shoulder length and matted and he looked as though he hadn’t bathed in weeks, which Nicholas was sure to be true.

Suddenly, one of the women inside screamed, and it took all of his control not to charge the building. When Harold sat down, continuing to look at his phone, Nicholas waved his hand, signalling his men to continue. The men coming and going were armed, but that didn’t worry Nicholas. He and his men were always armed.

They spread out, the dark forest giving them the extra camouflage they needed. When Trevor and Ryan reached opposite ends of the building they crouched and made their way forward. He motioned Andrew forward, mimicking his movements. He circled around the tree line, coming out at Harold’s back as he still sat on the porch. Nicholas wasted no more time. Slowly and quietly, he crept up behind Harold.

The stench rolling off of him was enough to turn Nicholas’s stomach, but he didn’t take the time to think about it. He snaked his arm around, taking the man’s head in his grip, and before Harold had the chance to react, Nicolas snapped the man’s neck. With no noise or blood to alert the others inside, they had gained the advantage.

He signalled the other three men. Trevor and Ryan took the back of the building and Andrew heading in the front with Nicolas. With the door still open, he could see four men in the front room. The room was filled with dark panelling. The furniture looked as though it had been picked up off the street. The floors looked ready to fall through with the slightest bit of weight. Two were passed out on the couch, and the two remaining men looked close to joining them. 

Nicholas gave Andrew the signal and they both stormed in the shack. The two men who were presently awake startled, but before they could react, Nicholas had his daggers out and launched them into the throats of both men. He left Andrew to take care of the two that were unconscious and headed for the kitchen. Just as he entered the room, there was a thump, as Trevor effectively took out another wolf standing next to the refrigerator. Ryan burst in the back door, holding his dagger, dripping red with blood, and nodded. They had quickly contained the men in the front of the shack, leaving only those in the back of the building to deal with.

Another scream tore through the shack, bringing Nicholas’s focus in that direction. As they made their way down the narrow hallway, the sound of two men laughing came from the back room. Another scream filled the air, just as they reached the door. Inside the dark and dank room, Nicholas could see three women cornered by two men. The floors were dingy, as were the tattered blankets spread out before him, and the walls were riddled with holes. He motioned for Andrew and Ryan to check the other rooms, knowing the possibility of others being there was probable.

This bitch is feisty, one of the men from the room announced, followed by another laugh.

Nicholas looked around the door to see one of the women standing protectively in front of the other two. It was the missing female he had been looking for: average height, with a curvy body, and long, blonde hair. She looked as though she had been days without a bath, but she was beautiful.

She was also very pregnant.

Knowing this woman could have a boyfriend out there somewhere waiting for her, brought out an anger inside him that he couldn’t explain. Shaking the thought away, he signalled Trevor as one of the men grabbed the blonde, pulling her against his body. The other man reaching for a tiny redhead crouched in the floor.

They rushed into the room and the men were completely unaware of their presence. Nicholas reached for the man holding the blonde, and wrapped his fingers around the man’s neck. The man had been so focused on what he was about to do to the woman he hadn’t noticed Nicolas or Trevor until it was too late. His eyes widened as he lost oxygen, releasing the woman and clawing at Nicholas’s hand. Nicholas was vaguely aware of a gargled scream coming from the other man just as he snapped the neck of the man in his hands.

The sight of him touching the blonde had filled him with an unexplainable emotion. One he was afraid to dwell on at the moment. When he turned back to the female, she wavered on her feet. He caught her just as her body went limp and her eyes rolled back.

***

Jessica groaned as she started to wake. For the first time in several months, her body felt light, almost as if she were floating. She was surrounded by darkness and warmth. Panic seized her as she realized the warmth surrounding her was a body and she was moving. She began to fight to get free, unsure of who and where they were taking her.

She had been held prisoner for months, tormented by monsters. She continued to struggle until a voice stopped her.

You’re safe. I won’t let anything happen to you.

She wasn’t sure why she believed this stranger, but she did. Or maybe it was the exhaustion. She hadn’t felt safe in months and had given up hope of ever being free. But this voice, deep and smooth, felt safe. She had no idea where he was taking her, but the beat of his heart against her body relaxed her. The months she had been captive had left her sleep deprived, and now as she felt her body melt into his. She only hoped that when she woke up this wasn’t a dream.

***

Nicholas looked down at the woman in his arms.

The woman he had spent more than half a year searching for.

Jessica.

Her name was imprinted in his mind. She had consumed his thoughts every minute of every day. Even now, when he could have laid her down in the seat of the car, he couldn’t let her go. So instead, he held her in his arms as Ryan drove toward his brother’s home.

Traveling had been his life for the last ten years, only coming home periodically to visit his brother. When an investigation of a missing Alpha had brought him to the Carter Territory, a territory neighboring his brother’s, he took the opportunity to get closer to home. After months of investigating the murder of the pack alpha and his mate with too many questions and not enough answers, he had come to a dead end.

Jessica’s file had been brought to him after she had disappeared and her friend, Katie, had reported her missing. When the police had no more leads, her friend contacted Nicholas. A shifter at the police department in the town where she had gone missing had given Katie his information. When Katie came to him, he was in the midst of packing up and heading back home to his pack. She had been so upset he had listened to her. Seeing the picture of Jessica, he couldn’t deny her friend. Even though Katie didn’t have the money to pay him, he took the job. There was something about Jessica that called to him.

He had taken out her picture so many times that it was well worn. Pushing a lock of hair away from her face, he took in her features. Her blonde hair, though dirty, shone under the moonlight creeping into the window of the car. Her smile was beautiful with full, pink lips. He had imagined that smile so many times. What would it have been like to have her smile for him that way? Her eyes were closed, but the crystal blue eyes that he knew were hidden there would rival the depths of the ocean. Her flawless, tanned skin was smudged with dirt and she was now pale. She had lost weight considering her current situation.

The picture he carried in his wallet was of a young, vibrant woman; a woman that now was almost unrecognizable. A woman that had consumed him and he was afraid that feeling would never go away. He had no idea why he felt this way, but the need to protect her was almost overbearing.

Movement under his hand brought his attention to her swollen abdomen. The baby. He had been more than surprised by her pregnancy. Given the time it had taken him to track her down and rescue her, she couldn’t have been more than a month or so into her pregnancy when she had been kidnapped.

He knew she had no family. Thinking back to the records, he knew she and Katie were both orphans, which was why they had been so close. He also knew she