Obsessed Mate: Enemies to Lovers Shifter Romance, page 1
Obsessed Mate
Enemies to Lovers Shifter Romance
Silverdawn Wolves Book 8
Layla Silver
Copyright © 2023 by Layla Silver.
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of the book only. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form, including recording, without prior written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Chapter 1 - Andres
Chapter 2 - Sadie
Chapter 3 - Sadie
Chapter 4 - Andres
Chapter 5 - Andres
Chapter 6 - Sadie
Chapter 7 - Sadie
Chapter 8 - Andres
Chapter 9 - Sadie
Chapter 10 - Andres
Chapter 11 - Sadie
Chapter 12 - Andres
Chapter 13 - Sadie
Chapter 14 - Andres
Chapter 15 - Sadie
Chapter 16 - Andres
Chapter 17 - Sadie
Chapter 18 - Andres
Chapter 19 - Sadie
Chapter 20 - Andres
Chapter 21 - Sadie
Chapter 22 - Sadie
Chapter 23 - Andres
Chapter 24 - Andres
Chapter 25 - Sadie
About the Author
Books by Layla Silver
Chapter 1 - Andres
I had to have her.
Women rarely caught my attention the way Sadie Turner did. It wasn’t just the way she swung her hips a little or the fact that she smelled of vanilla and honey as she walked past my office door. Those might have been influencing factors, but it was so much more than that.
There was something about her liveliness that gripped me. The way the sun dashed strands of gold into her creamy blonde hair and sparked her hazel-yellow eyes like twin bonfires caught my attention in ways that defied my control.
Nothing defied my control. Worst case, it was a fleeting crush based on the fact that she barely spared me a glance. I was no stranger to desire, and I didn’t see much wrong with tapping a fine ass every now and then. Sadie had something I wanted—so I was going to get it.
“Sadie, did you get the email list?”
“Coming!”
Cue the loveliest of shoulders passing by in three, two—
“Hi, Andres,” Sadie called as she briskly walked past my door. “Nice morning, right?”
“Hi, Sadie. You’re right.”
Come on, man. You can’t be serious, I chided myself while clutching my pen. Hi, you’re right. What a way to catch her attention.
Well, it wasn’t like I had the power of enlargement and wings. That seemed to be the rage these days inside Silverdawn. Girls were falling head first over Izdor, the last remaining eligible Elderling bachelor in our pack. Raven didn’t often play favorites, but when it came to her kind, she seemed skewed.
But I’d probably do the same in her position. It wasn’t like Elderlings were commonplace. Wolves populated this area more than most other shifters, so it was a surprise to start meeting shifters outside our realm. When I traveled with my half-brothers, I met all kinds of creatures except for Elderlings. It wasn’t until I returned that I got a good up-close view of them.
Not that there was anything bad about Elderlings. Or too intimidating. I was just being rotten about readjusting to Silverdawn. Years ago when I’d left, I’d set out with Xavier to find our father. It was important to him and his mother. I could have left it either way, but when it came to my closest friend, I wanted his wishes to come true.
We failed. Not a trace of the man was left on this earth. If he existed at all, he didn’t’ want to be found. Xavier became a father instead of finding one, but he was a good father, and he did his best with my nephew. Effort aside, it had been nice to spend time with my half-brothers. They were the closest friends I had growing up, the kind of family that stuck together when life got to be uncertain.
That wasn’t something I experienced often. But it had been poking through lately as I adjusted to being the gym building’s shiny new addition. One of the volunteers had caught wind of my skills as an architect, reported it to Raven, and then Raven gathered me up like I was buried treasure.
Engineering had been my strong suit in the past. It worked well as a traveling gig, and it felt good that it could be useful here in the pack. Some job postings in town had caught my eye. But one thing led to another to produce this fine office that sat inside the gym building itself.
Lucky me—this was where Sadie currently worked.
And I wanted to keep it that way.
“Sheesh, all I needed was an email list,” came from a couple of rooms over. “You didn’t have to make a spreadsheet on when everyone was available.”
Sadie giggled. And I knew it was Sadie because I knew how it sounded when she was too tickled for words. Until she did speak, and then it felt like a grayscale exploding with color. “I thought it would be good to figure out when the best time for aerobics would be.”
“And crafts. And woodshop. And…synchronized swimming. Do we have a pool?”
“Izdor is building a pool on the other side of the building. We’re running classes here, Bella. We might as well run them effectively.”
Yes, I couldn’t have agreed more. Sadie was a top-notch worker wherever she went. I witnessed it in her when she went looking for my nephew. She didn’t stop and wander off. I heard from Xavier that she had committed to the entire process without one complaint.
What a dashing woman. I had to have her. I had to figure out a way she and I could get together.
Papers fluttered to the ground. I peeked around the side of my desk to see them nestling just beneath the coffee-stained wood, drawing from me an exasperated sigh. Highly sought skills like mine meant a lot of messages both in physical and digital form. My laptop was running low on battery, the pens in the cup were about done for, and the room smelled a bit musty from what I knew was the coffee on the side of my desk.
If I had an assistant, then this wouldn’t be a problem.
My head shot up, dragging my body out of my chair and to the door in a seamless motion.
An assistant, I thought. That’s perfect.
Sadie was well-organized, intuitive, and often went above and beyond with her tasks. As I’d just heard, she thought three steps ahead of everyone else. That wasn’t just useful—that was literally gold waiting to be mined.
Now the question was how to get her on board?
It wasn’t like I could just waltz over there and offer her a job. No, that wouldn’t reel her in properly. It had to be something that was appealing enough to pull her interest. She already had a job as an aerobics instructor. What more could she want when she was doing what she loved?
I knew it was something she loved because the students in the class she just recently finished had nothing but amazing things to say about their instructor. She was passionate and sweet, accommodating, and charming. Someone like that would boost my business while handling the small tasks that would free up my personal time.
Which could include Sadie too.
That sweet laughter from Sadie cut right through my brain, sending sharp, vibrant signals through my body. Yeah, I had to have her. No matter what it cost, I would have her.
Behind me, the phone rang. Sadie would have to wait until later. She wouldn’t leave until half past four, and that was usually because Bella insisted that she go home and get some rest. Then she’d walk right by my office again, wave cheerfully, and disappear down the lane where she would pick flowers for the evening.
Sadie loved fresh flowers. As I answered my phone, I checked the window facing the front of the building. Clematis and wisteria took over the trellis of the park just across the way. Leo had insisted on the garden. I overheard him speaking to his father excitedly about the plants they could grow, and how the flowers would be nice to see when leaving the gym.
I couldn’t agree more with my nephew. The plants were lovely. Though they were wild, Sadie adored them, and I couldn’t help admiring how much that sweet woman adored those flowers. We had to get more if she was going to enjoy her evening walks home.
Vanilla and honey caught my attention. Sadie hovered in the doorway like she was a miracle sent from a saint. I could have offered her the job right then and there, but she appeared brilliantly patient in her silence as she waited for me to stop talking. I wrapped up the call, set my phone aside, and unbuttoned my blazer, tucking my hand smoothly into a pocket.
Just looking at her made her shoulders wiggle as she glanced around the office. “Got a pen?”
“I might.” I gestured to the cup near my laptop. “Help yourself.”
She stepped toward my desk, and I watched as she seemed to anticipate me moving aside to give her space. No, I wasn’t about to do that, dear girl. Why would I when being near you would give me more of your delicious scent to inhale?
Faint whispers echoed from up the hallway. Bella was talking to someone, maybe on the phone or something like that. Maybe she had been rehearsing something to herself. Sadie barely noticed it while she reached for the pens nearby. She trembled as she plucked one from the bunch, and her trembling did unfortunate things to both my body and the cup.
Pens spilled to the ground. For a second, we just stared at each other, inches away, eyes loc
She hopped back and then dropped to her knees. “Sorry about that. Clumsy me.” She giggled—and hearing that adorable laugh weakened my resolve.
“You should work for me,” I blurted.
Well, there wasn’t any going back now, was there?
Sadie stiffened while clutching a few pens. She sat back on her haunches and gazed up at me, looking so much like a doll with glossy eyes caught in a withering stare. She opened her mouth to speak, shut it, and looked toward the door. “Doing what?”
“I’m an engineer and architect. I spend a lot of time drawing.” I motioned to the other desk near the bookshelf, angled behind a privacy screen. “I lose track of time. I need an assistant to help book my meetings and keep me in line with my goals.”
“You seem pretty successful with that on your own.”
I wasn’t about to agree with her, but she was right. Success wasn’t difficult for me by any means. But this wasn’t about business. This was about ensuring her presence in my life.
“I offer competitive wages and a gorgeous benefits package,” I continued. “You’ll never want for anything. You’ll never have to worry about getting healthcare or having your skills go unnoticed, or without praise.”
Her eyes widened.
Yep, that was the ticket. A little bit of praise would go a long way with her. “Bella stated you did a fantastic job with the email list.”
“Oh, she didn’t say that. She actually said—” She paused abruptly. “How did you know what Bella did or didn’t say?”
“These aren’t particularly thick walls. Not yet, anyways.”
She gathered the pens with a small smile. “I suppose you’re the one who’s going to change that, right?”
Good gods, yes. I will. “If we have enough resources to spare once the gym is finished, yes. And you can be a part of that, Sadie. You can bring this place to life with me.”
“But I would just be a secretary.”
“You make the position sound so bleak.”
She waved the pens vaguely toward the door. “I should get back.”
“Think about it, Sadie. I’ll make sure you’re never worrying about a paycheck, a place to stay, or whether you run out of things that you like.”
“You make it sound like I’m a tortured princess in a tower or something.”
I chortled. “I’ve never met anyone who could possibly handle the weight of this position more than you, Sadie. I have confidence in you.”
Scarlet bloomed in her cheekbones, causing her to shrink back slightly as she glanced at the door. So much of her reaction to me was irritatingly arousing. The way she tried to hold her space while avoiding physical contact with my body unnerved and impressed me all the same.
Tension cracked the air like a whip. She felt it. I felt it. Why were we holding back from each other when we could just give in right now? My brows went up as her shoulders relaxed. The closer I stepped, the more she seemed receptive to my proximity. I wanted to close the gap between us in time to intercept her move to the door, but I didn’t want it to be so obvious that she had time to correct her course.
This was such a delicate matter. She was delicate, much like the flowers beyond this room. She wasn’t by any means breakable—but I had ideas about breaking her. I had positions in mind for the tasks I wanted her to perform, and I had things that I wanted to see her do, if just for a brief moment.
Fleeting or not, I was going to have her. I was going to make her mine whether it was in this moment or the next.
She breathed shakily and handed me the pens. “Sorry about that. I should get back to Bella before she had a heart attack about the, uh—about the—well—”
She darted off, leaving behind a delightful blend of pheromones and vanilla dashed with honey. Just breathing her in made me ravenous. I reached out for her, grasping a strand of hair that broke away from her as she sprinted out the door. It tangled around my fingers, shimmering like a silky strand of gold fabric.
She didn’t exactly decline my offer. But she didn’t accept it.
My fingers curled around the strand. Women like Sadie were hard to come by. Anyone else would have taken up my offer and taken advantage of the position. They probably would have just performed whatever I asked until they saved enough to ditch. Most people were like that outside of Silverdawn.
In here, though, things were different. People weren’t as desperate with a leader like Raven at the helm. But they still struggled with their personal debts or addictions or whatever came along to tear through the fabric of their fantasies. For me, betrayal snapped me out of it early on, so I considered myself lucky.
But Sadie? She wanted something different. I could smell it on her. I could sense the desire for adventure, for rebirth. And I was more than happy to give that to her. I was glad to be the candle in the night leading her to a new dawn.
Yes, I would have her. One way or another, I would have her—for as long as I could possibly manage.
Chapter 2 - Sadie
Bella rushed me out the door before I had time to argue with her. “Shoo! Get out of here! Go rest!”
I laughed while digging my heels in the ground. “You can’t make me do anything.”
“Yeah, well, I can call your mother, and she can make you do it.”
I stumbled forward, prompting Bella to collide with my back. I caught her before she could fall to the ground, and then propped my shoulder against the wall. Thoughts about my mother made me a little bit sick right now. But not because she was a bad mother or anything. I was just in the process of kind of avoiding the hell out of her until the luncheon was over with.
Once Bella was stable and my shoulder was out of the wall—thankfully, it hadn’t put a hole there—I rubbed my elbow and ignored the itch in my palm that made me want to grab my phone. “Don’t call my mother, please.”
“I’m just kidding, Sadie. Don’t have a cow.”
I glowered at her as she brushed her fingers through her long, wavy silver hair. She had eyes like emerald stones and sepia brown skin with a mermaid tattoo on her forearm and gold beaded bracelets on the other.
She chuckled while reaching out to fix my hair. “I mean, don’t have a pup.”
“She’d love that, you know.”
“Your mother?”
I nodded.
“Yeah, she’s…” Bella tightened her lips into a smile while crinkling her nose. “She’s weird about the whole biological clock thing.”
“She’s something.”
A real smile came through her scrunched features. “I mean, she’s your mom. She loves you. I’m sure she just wants you to be happy.”
“You’d think we were part of the monarchy with how much she encourages me to…” I cringed. “Reproduce.”
“The act of reproducing ain’t so bad.”
I shook my head. “Nope. That’s worse. The fact that you just implied my mother wants me to bang a guy is just—” I shuddered. “Alright, I’m off.”
She cackled. “I knew I could make you leave.”
“You’re the worst.” I gave her a warm hug and rubbed her back. “And by that, I mean, you’re the best. Love you.”
“Love you too. Get some rest. Seriously, girl. Don’t make me call your mother.”
Goodness, if I had a dime for every time she said that, I wouldn’t have any of the problems that I’d been having lately. Mom was one of them. I mean, money usually helped get rid of most problems, enough money, anyways, but Mom wasn’t entirely swayed with cash.
She wanted things to be perfect. And by that, she meant that she wanted me to be paired with a guy at her annual luncheon she hosted at the house with the rest of the family. We just had to look good long enough for people to quit asking questions about when my parents were going to get a divorce.
Either way, the situation wasn’t ideal. Mom looked worse every time I saw her. The wrinkles under her eyes were enough to make me feel nauseous. Goddess, if I had a dime for every time that came up in conversation, I could just outright buy my apartment from Raven and have a solid place to stay.
