Lost & Found (A Lost Ones Novel Book 1)

by Khristine Stain

  Dae did panic like De Niro and Pacino did mobsters. She just hid it well.

  Dae looked into those bright blue eyes and thought, wow, this is the perfect moment. As he let her hands free, she ran them up against his chest feeling the tightly defined muscles underneath the fabric barrier until she got to his shirt collar.

  With all the cojones Dae prided herself on having, she wondered why she was still hesitant. She quickly dismissed that thought. It was new and the new freaked her out. Koda wasn’t going to hurt her. Dae believed that he would be true to his word.

  Dae grabbed his collar and pulled him down to her so that he was right above her almost laying on her, his arms holding his torso up so he didn’t crush her smaller form.

  Her hands ran up his neck to his face as Koda closed his eyes. Dae was touching him. Dae was touching him. Dae was touching him. Gods, he felt like a hormonal teenager again.

  Koda looked so damned sexy. Dae explored the contours of his face with her hands. His stubble intrigued her; she wondered how it would feel against the other areas of her skin. Dae stretched her neck closer, so that his cheek was touching hers. Dae inhaled as she glided her face against his and he let her. He didn’t push her, or ravage her like a barbarian in cable TV movies.

  Dae wanted to laugh at how stupid she sounded to herself.

  Dae began to glide her face lower to his chin and was surprised find out his scent was stronger underneath his jaw line by his ear. That potent scent filled her head making her thoughts scramble as she concentrated on how good it felt, how intimate it was. Her hands tangled in his silky hair as she gently let her nails scrape his scalp. Dae glided back to view his face and found him staring at her with dilated pupils. Dae read the restraint in his face and could have sworn she felt it as well. Dae stretch closer –as did he– so his luscious lips were so close they were almost touching.

  Their breath mingled together between them as Dae looked into his eyes. Dae prepared herself to close the distance because he was giving her that choice. She looked into his hypnotic eyes as she wondered how he knew she needed this, the choice to–

  The door slammed open nearly breaking the wall it hit and rebounded back. Koda jumped off of Dae to crouch in front of her, growling like the beast she teased him to be, as he completely blocked her with his body.

  Oh he was in for it! She tried to untangle herself from the damn sheets he had efficiently cocooned her in but couldn’t.

  “You get your furry ass off her!” Iya screeched in a way that made Dae want to cover her ears. Dae stopped her struggle with the sheets to peek over Koda’s arm with wide eyes. Dae saw Iya standing in a fighting stance almost glowing.

  “Oh my Gods, Iya did you just say ass?!?!?” Dae started laughing and fell back on the bed.

  Koda didn’t know what to do. He was frozen in confusion. Why did Iya barge into his space? This was his space. He was with his mate and Iya came into HIS space. He didn’t even realize the growls that escaped his throat when he prepared himself to fight off his enemy.

  Iya looked sheepish. “So, guess I wasn’t saving Dae from you mauling her within an inch of her life, huh.”

  Dae finally got a hold of herself and looked at Iya who was clearly embarrassed. Dae felt how angry Koda was. At the interruption, oh yeah, but it was more than that. Iya stormed into his territory. That would have freaked Dae out had it been anyone else other than Iya. Koda didn’t understand that Iya was ok.

  Dae slipped her arms around Koda’s waist and his body relaxed marginally. She popped her head against his chest as his arm surrounded her. It felt so natural, so right that Dae almost forgot Iya was standing there as she smiled at him.

  “Nope, no one getting mauling in here. Why would you think that?” Dae asked a little curious. Sure, they were laughing it up until a few minutes ago but Dae didn’t think it was that loud. Dae noticed Iya’s body tense.

  “I heard… something.” Iya replied with a skeptical expression. Iya heard growling like there were angry animals in the room.

  Well, duh, look at who she was talking to.

  “Tickle fight.” Dae responded as she grinned up at Koda. He finally looked at Dae as he grinned back. He was much less tense now and Dae knew he would relax completely as soon as Iya left the room.

  “Tickle fight?” Iya questioned. That topped the list of things Dae would never do along with trusting other people and river dancing. Dae thought the Lord of the Dance was an evil superhuman or at least that’s what she said when Iya wanted to watch it.

  Now Iya had to wonder if Dae wasn’t right all along…

  “I’ll fill you in on all his spots later.” Dae replied like she had tickle fights all day, every day.

  Koda’s brow furrowed. “You would tell Iya all my spots?”

  Dae’s eyes lit up as she slid away from him slowly, biting her lip. Dae shrugged in challenge as Koda began stalking her on the bed.

  “O-k. See ya’ll.” Iya said as she just about ran from the bedroom making sure to close the door behind her. That brought Iya face to face with a laughing Raj.

  “I told you he wasn’t killing her.”

  “You also told me that you wolf people scented when other people were coming. I just blew that theory out of the water.” Iya grumbled.

  “Well, I’m sure they were both, er, preoccupied.” Raj said with a grin.

  Iya shook her head. Raj needed to get other things on his mind besides being ‘preoccupied’. There was something that was bothering Iya…Iya was happy that Dae wasn’t miserable, happy that Dae wasn’t making anybody else miserable, but there was something wrong with this picture.

  The Dae Iya knew wouldn’t let Koda near her without freaking out. The Dae Iya knew sat sleeping against the door for over a week to feel ‘safe’ from Koda, not even her crazed stalkers warranted that kind of behavior. The Dae Iya knew would never accept someone telling her that she was some kind of wolf human hybrid nor would she be happy about wanting to pee on everything and getting a nasty case of body hair. Well the later was true but Iya had no idea if wolves wanted to pee on everything. Just another question to grill Raj with.

  “Hey, I have some more questions.”

  “Why am I not surprised?”

  Iya raised her eyebrow and Raj put his hands up in surrender. “Can we at least get something to eat?” Raj almost whined. Iya made him miss out on all that Italian food Koda bought. He had to eat it reheated when they came back from Iya’s apartment. Everybody knew reheated food never tastes as good as freshly made food.

  Iya grabbed her purse on her way out. “Didn’t you just eat?”

  “That was the just the entrée.” Raj replied as Iya cringed. Raj laughed the whole way down the stairs.

  “Stop! Stop! I can’t breathe!” Dae yelled as Koda rolled on top of her for the fourth time. “Say the magic words!” Koda growled into her neck as she tried to squirm away.

  Koda didn’t stop tickling Dae and she knew he wouldn’t until she said it. Dae hated herself for this but she couldn’t take it anymore! He tickled her like a merciless mad-man!

  “Ok, ok! You are the king of the forest!”

  Koda didn’t stop tickling her, if anything he anteed up his onslaught. “And?”

  “And you have the sexiest ass I’ve ever seen!” Dae yelled though her laughter.

  “And don’t you forget it!” Koda spoke into Dae’s throat. Dae really liked how that felt. He inhaled deeply before he tried to get up. Dae locked her arms around his neck so that she hung off him as he stood.

  Apparently, he could toss her, carry her, and chase her around.

  “Comfortable?” Koda asked. He was. He wouldn’t have cared if she jumped on his back and told him to ‘gitty up horsey’. Koda grabbed her waist and lifted her so she was face to face with him. Dae was grinning.

  “Very.” Dae couldn’t help but feel happy. But his was a different kind of happy; this happy came from deep down where Dae hadn’t ever paid attention to before. For the first time s
ince she could remember, there in his arms, Dae felt safe. Things were finally looking up.

  There was a knock at the door to which Koda audibly growled. Dae smiled trying to hide her amusement. They were going to have to venture into the outside world eventually.

  “Come on.” Dae said rubbing her nose against his. Dae tried to let go of his neck to slide down to the floor but he still held her up by her waist.

  “Go away.” Koda growled to the door refusing to let Dae go. He just got her and he didn’t even have her yet.

  “There’s a whole world outside of this room.” Dae said with a smirk.

  “Who told you that lie?”

  Raj knocked again and Koda swore he was going to chew Raj’s hands off if he didn’t quit it.

  Dae laughed. “Come on, I’m hungry and I know you’re hungry.”

  Koda ran that through his head. “You think they would notice if I carried you everywhere?”

  Dae smirked, “Yeah, it might just be noticeable for you, the giant of this relationship, to carry me, normal sized human being around on your neck everywhere we go.”

  Knock, knock, bang, bang. Raj was going to die a slow death, Koda thought.

  “So this is a relationship.” He stated with a shit eating grin.

  Dae furrowed her brow. “You know, I have no idea. I haven’t had one before.”

  Koda couldn’t believe she was serious. It smelled like the truth but how could that be? “You haven’t had a relationship before?”

  “Nope.” Dae shrugged. “So what’s a relationship?”

  “It’s whatever we want it to be I guess.”

  “That sounds nice. No rules or regulations–”

  “Oh no, there’s tons of rules and regulations.” Koda said without an ounce of humor.

  Dae had to blink. He was serious. Koda continued, “First one, the most important one, is that you can’t ever ever never ever never never leave. That rule is unbreakable. Once you’re in, you’re in for life.”

  Dae laughed. “I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of that unbreakable rule.”

  “That’s because you haven’t been in a relationship before.”

  “Have you had a relationship before?” Dae couldn’t believe she asked that question. She knew she didn’t want an answer because she would know if he was lying, but it still snuck out of her lips anyway.

  “Nope, and since I’m the king, I make the first unbreakable rule of our relationship.”

  Bang, thump, bang, thump, bang, bang. Damn Raj to hell!

  Dae fought back her urge to laugh at Koda’s serious expression. Somehow what he said was the truth. “And what if I don’t agree?”

  “Then you will suffer the kings wrath trapped at his side for the rest of time.” Koda growled while glaring at her.

  Dae laughed as the door shook with Raj’s banging. Sometimes Koda said the craziest crap. And Iya thought she was bad.

  “So either way I’m stuck with the king?” Dae teased as his growls sounded offended. Dae couldn’t help herself.

  “I’m coming in!” Iya announced slowly inching the door open with her eyes covered by her hand. Raj didn’t follow her and Iya didn’t understand why. He followed her everywhere else. “Please tell me you guys are clothed?”

  Dae sighed as Koda growled. He even let Dae down to face Iya but didn’t let go of her waist. As long as he held her, as long as he touched her Dae felt right. She would be a fool to complain.

  Dae laughed as she said, “Yes, we are ‘clothed’.”

  Iya removed her hand. “Good. The bottomless pit out there suggested that you two would be hungry. Lord knows how any of y’all can eat again. We had to take a cab back to bring all the food. We might have even shut down the restaurant.” Iya rolled her eyes as Dae fought not to smile.

  Hmm. Dae had been fighting her smiles more and more.

  “Fo-o-od.” Koda growled and Dae couldn’t hold back the smile any longer.

  Wow, Dae looked really happy, Iya thought as Koda flipped a laughing Dae over his shoulder like some prehistoric caveman. Iya backed away so she wasn’t run over by the wolves as the duo made their way to the food filled table. Raj had already been stuffing himself for the past 20 minutes. It wasn’t a pretty picture.

  Koda plopped Dae down on a chair and then moved her chair so that she was right next to his.

  Dae looked at Koda in amusement. “We good now?”

  Koda growled, “Good” as he started pushing the various tins and boxes of Chinese food in front of Dae. Raj had already devoured a large portion of the hoard of food they bought from Chow’s Chinese before Iya got sickened by watching him inhale everything in sight.

  In less than a minute, more than half the food containers’ were placed before Dae and Koda. Dae looked at Koda wide eyed as he growled “Eat.” Dae felt a pang of uneasiness as she thought of how she would soon have to explain to Koda how insane she was. Then Koda abruptly licked and bit her neck, inciting Dae to laugh the nagging thought away.

  “Not hungry?” Dae asked Iya around a mouthful of dumplings. Iya sat with a horrified look on her face as Dae and Koda ate.

  “I’m not feeling too good.”

  All the wolves at the table stopped eating and looked at Iya. Oh, scent lie detectors. Iya barely lied, barring the small ones. She completely forgot that everyone at the table would recognize her statement for being a lie.

  Iya sighed. “Y’all scare me. I’m not used to this. I don’t know how all of ya’ll can just sit around stuffing yourselves blind like nothing’s changed after all that’s happened. Especially you, Dae. How can you just act like this is normal?” Iya didn’t mean for all of that to just explode out of her. Iya froze as she realized she couldn’t take any of it back.

  Truth. Dae looked down and put her hands on the table, feeling dread at having this entire conversation.

  “Iya–” Raj started but was quickly cut off by Dae.

  “No. Before you say anything, I should explain.” Dae took a breath as Koda’s hand gripped the table. Dae felt and heard the wood protesting, so she laid her hand over his to calm him. She didn’t know how she knew that would ease him, just that it would. Dae felt like Koda was angry and panicked although she had no idea why. Maybe it was her own panic and fear that was making her think illogically.

  Dae sighed again. Of course it came to this. How did Dae expect anything else? Dae smiled weakly at Koda, hoping he wouldn’t think of worse of her. What was she thinking? Who would be ok with what she was? Dae tried to remove her hand from atop Koda’s but he grabbed it in his larger warmer hand and squeezed.

  “No.” It was a statement. Koda felt her pulling away, retreating from him and he didn’t care why.

  “Let me go Koda. We have to have this conversation. I get it.”

  Why did Iya have to bring this up and that way? He hadn’t told Dae anything. Iya didn’t have to agree with him on things when it came to Dae but Iya needed to butt out. Koda was going to tell Dae when it was time to tell her, not hours after she cried herself to sleep in his arms. Not hours after she finally let him in.

  Iya felt guilty; Koda looked like he wanted to eat her liver with a nice Chianti, and Dae looked so sad. Iya couldn’t figure out why –OH CRAP! Koda hadn’t told Dae anything. Iya didn’t understand why the heck not, she had given him a lot of time alone while she questioned Raj in her apartment.

  Well, to say that Iya had her foot in her mouth was an understatement. They had agreed before when Dae was in her healing sleep that he would be the one to tell Dae about herself. In the end, Raj had argued that it wasn’t Iya’s job; that Iya had no answers to the questions Dae would have about herself like Koda would have. So Iya had started prying every single piece of wolf information she could from Raj in the meantime.

  “I know what you must think of me.” Dae said as she leaned against the chair, her eyes fixated on the chicken lo mein in front of her. If only this conversation would be as simple as chicken lo mein.

  “What do yo
u mean?” Iya asked. Had Koda told Dae? Iya was seriously confused.

  “I’m… different.” Dae said, not even sure what she was saying. How could she explain this properly?

  “Different doesn’t mean bad.” Koda growled in wolf. He was panicking; Dae couldn’t be pulling away from him. Not now. He could barely feel her fear but he scented it. Dae wore a sad smile and Koda struggled to remain seated next to her. He scented Dae’s sadness and he didn’t understand why. Koda’s wolf was enraged; he wanted to kill something. Anything. His mate was missing.

  “It doesn’t always mean good either.” Dae muttered.

  “Listen, you were always different. So what?” Iya asked, feeling a more than a little guilty. Iya wondered if Koda explained everything to Dae or if Dae knew what she was all along… Somehow Iya began to feel hurt that Dae hadn’t confided in her. Maybe that was why Dae wasn’t a basket case, freaking out or running away.

  Koda knew he was missing something. He didn’t know what but he knew he didn’t like it.

  Dae straightened up and looked Iya in the eye. “So what? I killed that guy. He’s dead. He fucking deserved it, but I stabbed him in the heart. My screwdriver sliced up the muscle and tore his through his aorta. I left that night intent on cutting those guys up to get information I needed and ended up killing somebody.”

  Was that what she was worried about? Koda said, “Dae, it was them or you. You shouldn’t feel bad about that.” Koda placed his arm around Dae’s shoulder and began rubbing Dae’s arm.

  Dae felt so much better with Koda’s blanket acceptance. Koda wasn’t backing away from the murdering crazy woman slowly as not to incite her wrath, but Dae knew that wasn’t the whole truth. There were times when the whole truth was necessary. There were people who needed the whole truth. Dae couldn’t keep hiding from these people. Koda and Iya had to know everything. Dae didn’t much care what Raj thought of her but he should hear this as well since he was making his place as their fourth slowly but surely.