They’d attracted a bit of attention, and Brooke looked so hopeful it tugged on Mikayla’s heartstrings. She was more determined than ever to go, seeing how much the girl wanted her on the trip. “Well you’d better get the rope ready, because I’m leaving this place when you do.”
She stepped closer to him and despite his obvious annoyance, he didn’t hesitate to wrap her in his arms again. Mikayla tipped her face up to look him in the eye. Those sexy eyes made her want to kneel at his feet and do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted it, but he had to learn from the beginning that she made her own decisions. “I like that you’re big, strong, and sexy as hell. I love that you want to take care of me. But you have to understand that whenever I do submit, it will be because I want to, Jack. Not because you’re a man or my mate. Because I choose to.”
He frowned at her. “You’ll obey me, and you’ll obey Hunter. Always. Our end is keeping you protected and providing for you. Your end is submitting. Period.” He bent down to take her lips in a hard, demanding kiss.
She refused, at first, to part her lips for him, but she was putting up a fight her heart wasn’t really involved in. Though she didn’t much care for the caveman routine, she did love the way his lips felt against hers, even when he kissed her roughly like that. She loved the way he pressed his body tightly to hers and the way he manhandled her with those huge hands of his. Before she could stop herself, her lips had parted for his tongue, and he took possession, making his dominance clear and unquestionable. When he kissed her like that, tasting her, claiming her, she could almost forget they weren’t alone. She could almost forget that he’d ordered her to stay in the shelter without him. Almost. But almost wasn’t good enough.
When he finally pulled back, they were both breathing heavily. A smile slowly crept across her lips as she looked up at her man. Males often needed a little training. “I’m going to go gather what little I brought with me and say my good-byes.”
“Mikayla, I’ve made my decision.”
She nodded. “So you have.” She started to walk away but thought it only fair to warn him. “You said I was being dramatic, Jack, but you were mistaken on that point. If you want to see real drama. Go ahead and try to leave without me.”
* * * *
Mikayla spent her last half hour saying her good-byes to those who would stay behind, especially Liz. She’d miss her friend but would at least have a few more days with her before it was time to leave for River’s Bend for good. She wouldn’t miss the shelter, not even a little bit.
Brooke came bouncing into the room, looking rather radiant. “Lucas is coming, too. He said he wanted to make sure I got home safely.”
Mikayla braced herself for the girl’s loud squeal, but she somehow managed to make it more of a mild squeak.
“I can’t believe you’re coming, too,” Brooke said. “I was so worried about what might happen on the trip and what…well…what might happen when I got home, but I feel better knowing you’ll both be there with me.”
“If her men let her go,” Liz cut in.
Mikayla raised an eyebrow at her, resisting the urge to say she still had her own mind and that made one of them. “Oh, don’t worry. I’m going.”
Brooke bounced her way back toward the bedroom door. “Better come on then. I heard Noah say we’re leaving!”
Mikayla gave Liz a good, long hug after Brooke left. “See you in a few days. Stay safe.”
“You, too,” Liz said. “I miss you already. No idea how I’ve done without you and the other girls for so long. And no idea how I’m going to live without you when you go back to River’s Bend.”
“Well, you can always come home. Maybe we can convince the alphas that Gavin isn’t so bad…for a panther.”
Liz didn’t respond. Her eyes grew huge and her mouth dropped open. Mikayla scented her mates and turned around to see what had Liz suddenly speechless.
There stood Jack with a length of heavy rope in his hand and his gazed focused intently on her.
Mikayla wouldn’t have been more shocked and appalled if he’d suddenly shifted into a three-headed dog. “Oh, no. Hell no.”
He advanced on her, determined and threatening. “You said this was the only way you’d stay, so…”
Liz suddenly seemed to find her voice. “Jack?” she said, her voice straddling the line between concern and laughter. “You can’t be serious. Tell me you’re not serious.”
Jack glanced quickly at her friend, then back at her. “Oh, I know how you women are. You’ll untie her. I know that. But by the time you do and she manages to convince the others to let her pass, we’ll be long gone.”
“Wow. Just…wow. If you think I’m going to stand here and let you tie me u—”
The crazed brute didn’t let her finish. He lunged forward, grabbing for her. Mikayla didn’t even hesitate. The moment he was close enough, she kneed him in the balls and ran for the door, where she collided into Hunter.
Hunter took one look at the scene and picked her up off the ground, tossing her over his shoulder, laughing as if tying your mate up like a dog was actually funny. “Guess that didn’t work out the way he thought it would.”
She struggled against his hold. “I can’t believe you were in on this.” For the short time that she’d known both men, Hunter had seemed the less aggressive of the two. “Put me down.”
“Nope. Not interested in getting the same treatment you gave Jack. He got the rope as a practical joke, but you obviously didn’t find it funny, and I like my balls just the way they are.”
Mikayla stilled as Hunter carried her into the main room. “A practical joke?”
“Yup. You’re coming with us, love.”
“Oh.” Maybe it was all the blood that rushed to her head as he held her upside down over his shoulder, but she just couldn’t think of anything much better to say. She felt instantly guilty for attacking Jack’s balls. “Oh…shit.”
* * * *
Jack had already bounced back from Mikayla’s attack on his manhood. It had hurt like hell, but the pain only lasted a couple of minutes before his body healed the minor injury and the pain faded. Mikayla had been solicitous once he’d emerged from the safe house, and he’d let her kiss him and apologize over and over, just for good measure, before finally laughing it off.
He and the rest of the safe house crew played practical jokes on each other on almost a daily basis. It was a way to pass the time when shelter life grew boring. The look on her face when he’d approached with the rope had been priceless, and it had been all he could do to keep from losing it during his little prank. But when he’d lunged at her, intending to kiss her instead of leash her, she’d kneed him in the goddamn balls. That hadn’t been so funny. He’d guard them next time.
Mikayla reached over and rubbed his thigh. “How far will we have to travel on foot?”
He shrugged. “A little over 40 miles.”
She groaned at that and the sexy sound combined with her soft touch made his balls ache in an altogether different way. Down boy, he thought, reminding his dick that it could be a while before he had his mate again. Lucas, Brooke, and some other female whose name he couldn’t even remember rode in the backseat of his car. If they weren’t around, he’d pull the car over and fuck her right there. He wanted her constantly and wished he could simply take her home and get lost inside her. It was unnatural for the newly mated to be forced to deny themselves. He should be having her every night and at least three times during the day.
He heard her voice in his head. Soon.
Jack had forgotten that she could pick up on his thoughts. Well, some of them. The link wasn’t perfect, and it might take years before it was. Maybe it was wrong, but he was glad for that. It thrilled him to hear his mate’s voice in his head. Thrilled him beyond belief really, but he didn’t need her reading every one of his thoughts just yet. Not when he was so conflicted about leaving her with her clan.
She knew he and Hunter were committed to the underground and find
ing the vampires who’d killed their families. They would have to leave her in safety and then come back to finish what they’d started. And who knew how long that could take? She’d already proven far less than enthused about the idea of being separated from her mates for any length of time, though. If she knew how conflicted he was, it would be like a shark smelling blood in the water. A beautiful, sexy shark.
He caught another thought from her. Stay together.
“Stop that,” he said.
She shrugged. “I can’t. But yeah, that’s not happening. You can’t just claim me and then run off to get yourself killed and break my heart. I’ve seen what losing a fated mate can do to a wolf. It’s rough.”
Jack grunted at her, concentrating on finding a good place to stash the car. “We’ve been over this. I have commitments.”
She removed her hand from his thigh, which was both a good and a bad thing. “Oh, I know you do. A commitment to me. You had to know you’d have to settle down when you claimed me.”
He smelled an argument coming on and he wanted no parts of it. “This isn’t really the time or the place to talk about this—again.” He couldn’t resist adding “again” to his response. He’d hoped he’d gotten through to her the last time they’d discussed it. Clearly, he hadn’t. Hunter hadn’t been much help. Already Jack could sense his friend’s resolve weakening.
“Just as long as you understand that the conversation isn’t over. Far, far from it.”
Jack glanced in the rearview mirror, very aware that the others had stopped talking entirely. Lucas met his eyes and smirked at him. Sighing, Jack drove the car off the road and behind some dense brush. It would have to do as a hiding place. He’d spray the car with some of the panther musk Gavin and Gabe had given him to hide the scent of wolf.
That, he realized, made an excellent change of subject. “Okay, we’ll leave the car here and cover up our scents, just in case. I doubt Ulric or any of his band of assholes will come back to this area, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful anyway.”
“And humans?” Mikayla asked.
Jack nodded. “Anyone on foot can easily find it, but this area doesn’t get too many humans on foot, especially in the middle of winter. And all of this brush will make it hard to see from the road. The biggest threat is a tow truck driving by and thinking the car is abandoned, but I think it’s pretty well hidden here.”
He jumped out of the car and rushed around to the other side to help Mikayla out. Then he popped the trunk and hauled out the big bottle of panther musk and his harness bag, eager to get going. Once they’d shifted, they’d be in the wind and there wouldn’t be time to talk about things he was committed to finishing, had to finish, but couldn’t accomplish without leaving behind the mate he’d just met but could already feel in every cell of his body. He would honor his commitments and leave her once she was safely back at home in River’s Bend. But being away from her, for who knew how long? It was going to be hell.
Not leaving.
He heard her thought crystal clear in his head and then looked up to find her staring at him with a challenging expression. Shit.
* * * *
It was cold as an evil witch’s saggy-ass tit, but Mikayla couldn’t bring herself to even think a complaint. In wolf form and racing through the woods with her companions, she barely felt it anyway. The cold air she took into her lungs wasn’t the most pleasant thing in the world, but after being penned up in the shelter for so much of the time, she couldn’t really bring herself to give an actual fuck. She was free, and it felt beyond good.
If she judged the distance they’d covered correctly, they should approach Brooke’s home any minute now. Jack led the way, followed by Brooke and another girl, Jayda. Then she was next, followed by Lucas and then the group Hunter and Noah led.
It had been necessary for Hunter to drive a different vehicle and find a separate hiding spot for it. They’d wanted to have two men in each car. She got that, but she’d been so glad to see him again when he’d caught up to them in the woods. Mikayla had no doubt that he could take care of himself and would fight any enemy fiercely, but even the fiercest fighters didn’t win every battle.
Mikayla knew her men hoped she’d accept their decree that she would return home to River’s Bend and stay there under the protection of the clan while they returned to business as usual. But she wouldn’t. She just wouldn’t. For a lot of reasons. She’d seen firsthand what it could mean to live a long life with one’s mate by your side. Her parents had been mated since they had just reached adulthood and they were still disgustingly in love. So disgustingly in love that she’d accidently come upon them expressing their love in the woods just this past summer. She’d howled and raced away, needing to do something, anything to erase that image from her mind, but she’d been happy to know they still loved each other so much. Later, she’d reminded them to love each other indoors, with the doors locked, the curtains drawn, and maybe even the lights out.
Mikayla wanted what her parents had, and it seemed fate had brought her the best kind of men, so it was within her reach. She also knew how quickly those you cared for could be taken from you. Her older brother, Maki, whom she’d absolutely idolized growing up had left the clan when he found his mate. He’d joined his fated’s pack and lived happily there for almost four years.
Mikayla and her parents had gotten word of Maki’s death only days before the anniversary of his joining. He’d gone out with a group of warriors to battle with a neighboring pack and never returned. She still wasn’t fully over that. Of course, no territory was 100 percent safe for shifters. At any time, a challenging pack or clan could cause trouble. And rogue wolves were a problem, too. But she firmly believed River’s Bend to be one of the safest, most protected wolf territories on the continent. And that was exactly where her mates belonged.
Lost in her thoughts, Mikayla ran on until Jack, Brooke, and Jayda eventually slowed up ahead. At a distance stood a small ring of cabins, which must have been Brooke’s home since the young she-wolf went from a trot to a full-on sprint in about half a second. Jack barked at her to wait, but Brooke ignored him, yipping in her excitement. Jack tore after her, as did the rest of their group. Certainly, it was her home, but they couldn’t be sure what awaited them there, and Brooke really needed to let the men check it out first. Problem was, Brooke had received that memo and shredded it.
* * * *
The three wolves that raced toward them were large but lean, and Mikayla didn’t think their group had anything to fear from them. They growled out warnings at their approach, but they honestly didn’t look capable of much of a fight. She was more afraid for them if they did something stupid, like attack, than she was of them. They ignored Brooke as she raced headlong toward the cabins, apparently oblivious to the danger that could await her and the mistrust of the wolves who’d allowed her to pass but threatened her friends.
There was no hope for it. They couldn’t chase after her. This was another pack’s territory and venturing further into it without permission would be an act of the utmost disrespect. Their party came to a halt and Mikayla silently prayed that Brooke was finding her family inside the cabins and not some lurking danger. Whether these wolves appeared to be easy targets or not, it was clear that Jack and the rest of the men would observe tradition.
Jack was the first to shift back to his human form, a risk since he’d be more vulnerable to an attack that way. If these wolves decided he was an enemy, one of them could easily rip his throat out before he had the chance to shift back. Mikayla inched forward. She wouldn’t let that happen.
“We’ve come to return Brooke and other females to your pack and extend our friendship.” Jack spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear, but seemed to direct his words toward the largest of the three. “We mean you no harm and simply want to see them safe before we continue on our journey.”
Jayda and two other she-wolves trotted forward and crouched low before the three. The largest of them barked at them to s
tand, which the females did before moving forward to affectionately butt heads with the other two wolves. The largest wolf didn’t join in the greeting, merely continuing to growl deeply in his throat. He obviously didn’t feel ready to attack and probably recognized the advantage the four well-fed males would have against him and the other two skinny males, but like most men, he stubbornly stood his ground.
Jayda backed off from the group, dropped the small bundle of clothes she’d carried in her jaws and shifted, crossing her arms over her breasts immediately. Mikayla thought it was probably the cold rather than modesty that made her do that. “The alpha?” Jayda asked.
One of the wolves barked back at her. Dead. Apparently their former alpha was dead.
Jayda turned to the large wolf. “These men and others like them rescued us from the Crimson Moon Pack. They have sheltered us for weeks and brought us back home, wanting nothing but to see to our safety. I ask you to make them welcome.”
Only once she’d said her piece did Jayda stoop to pick up her bundle of wrinkled clothing, jeans, and a T-shirt. She dressed quickly, then fold her arms, still shivering in the cold. Carry large bundles, such as coats, was just out of the question when running long distances. Only Hunter and Jack seemed to have any real affinity for backpacking it.
Mikayla inched closer to Jack again and watched as Hunter made his way slowly forward until he stood beside her. The other men looked ready for whatever happened next, though she thought they were putting some effort into not looking overly aggressive.
“Tell them,” Jayda said, and the other women shifted, too, immediately beginning to pull on their clothing.
“No disrespect, new alpha,” Kara said, nodding to the largest beast. “But it’s damned cold out here. I, for one, would sooner finish this inside. What Jayda says is true. I would trust these men with all of our lives, including yours.”
Fated for Mikayla [Wolves of River's Bend 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 12
