“I think I could fall in love with a place like this,” she breathed out, heading for what looked like a small rose garden.
“Lora didn’t like it out here.” She looked over her shoulder at him as she kept walking. “Didn’t like to get dirty or bugs. Kaley, on the other hand, if my memory is still sharp, loved it. Always was in the trees or in the woods back there getting so dirty. She so pissed her mom off,” he finished with a short laugh and grin. “Brian and Grace Wisemyer opened their home to me and took me in when I needed a place. Treated me like family, just like they did with Mika. Think they were hoping I would mate with Kaley, like Mika was going to do with Lora.”
“But nothing was there?”
“No.” He looked down, shaking his head. “I like Kaley, but nothing stirred. Besides, I saw in her eyes what the others didn’t.”
“Which is?”
“She wanted another.” He looked up and shrugged his shoulders. “One that was taken by another then.”
Vesper thought about it for a moment, then mouth open she gasped, quickly covering her mouth with both hands. “No!” She looked back at the house in shock. “You mean, she…”
“Yep. But nothing ever happened. “Mika. I saw it, but he never did.”
“Do you think she still wants him? I mean, from what he said and all, doesn’t sound like she’s interested anymore.”
“Don’t know, but anything is possible. Besides, one doesn’t just turn it off, not a shifter anyway.”
“You’re confusing me again.”
“Sorry, I just don’t know how much or how to tell you.”
“How about no bullshit?” She grinned at his shocked expression. Even gave a short laugh and stopped walking to sit down on a stone bench in the middle of the roses. “Look, I’m not this delicate flower that’s going to blow away. I’m processing everything and to do that I need to understand everything. Including what you say you are—that part I just don’t get really.”
He stared at her, and for a moment Vesper thought he might say nothing more. Instead, Stray walked over to one of the trees nearby and leaned back against it, his arms behind him.
“Okay, then I guess I’ll give you a crash course on us. On how males like myself feel and think.” Her mouth went dry. “Mika was attracted to Lora. When we hit our prime, we are very sexual. All males. Attraction is nothing new. It hits, and to be blunt like you said, yes, we chase until we get what we want—what we need. But it never lasts.”
“Why not?” She breathed the answer, her heart thumbing hard.
“Because we are looking for our mates. It’s our goal.”
“But you said you get attracted to others.”
“The animal inside has what some humans would call needs. We get, um, we tend to date, to put it nicely, to ease the edge. The longer we go without our mates, the harder our heat becomes.”
“Did you have a lot of these dates?” She shook as she asked the questions.
“Not many. I got lucky when I found you, but I was taken away.”
“And what is this heat you keep mentioning?”
His cheeks colored some and eyes went down for a moment. “You heard the term bitch in heat for dogs?” Vesper nodded. “Well it can be directed at us males. We want nothing more, and I’m putting it blunt for you. We want nothing more than to fuck anything we can. If we are lucky enough to be mated, then we want our mates and take our mates on the full moon. It’s our time and we do it to ease and still the inner burning.”
“And what happened to you then, right after we first met?”
“Thought we were talking about Mika and you understanding better about a shifter.”
“We were. But now I want to know more about you.” He looked away and she felt as if she might’ve gone too far but couldn’t back down now. “Stray.” He didn’t look at her, so she got up and surprising even herself, she took hold of his face with both hands, making him look at her. “Please, tell me,” she whispered. “It will help you, I promise.”
He didn’t move, just stared into her eyes for what felt like hours. Then he spoke. “I was taken to a dark place,” he whispered, closing his eyes. “Thinking of you was my only light, only salvation.” One tear fell and she wiped it away, saying nothing. “I couldn’t do what she wanted. Not after I found you.” He opened his eyes and she shivered at the darkness she saw in them. “So she made me. And each time it felt like it was killing me from the inside.” His hand came up, touching her face. He turned his head into one of her hands. “So strange how something so little as a touch can ease all the pain around you.”
“There you two are.” Kaley showed up and Stray jumped back like he just got caught sneaking around with Vesper. “Dinner’s ready and Margret has demanded all hands on deck.” She made a salute like one did in the arm and swung around on the heels of her feet, walking away.
“Oh, this should be interesting,” Stray groaned.
5
“Well, isn’t this nice,” Kaley said. She thumped her fingers on the table as the food Margret spread out was passed around. “The whole gang back together again. Well, almost.” She took the plate with sliced ham and put some on her plate before passing it to Stray. “So how you like the dungeon?” she asked Vesper.
“Excuse me?” Vesper asked back.
“Be nice,” Mika warned low.
“The house,” Kaley went on. She cut a piece of her ham and shoved it in her mouth. “It was my mother’s pride and joy,” she said with her mouth full of food. “Loved to have parties and put on the show.”
“Kaley…” Mika warned again.
“Lora loved them too,” Kaley said. “Loved to be the center of it all. Did you know, Stray, that it was in this very room, during one of my mother’s fancy ass dinners that Lora decided to make the announcement that she had chosen another?”
“Don’t,” Stray said low.
“Blew my mother away,” Kaley said and laughed, ignoring them. She picked up her glass of wine and took a big drink. “That sweet fairy tale of theirs crashing down around us all.”
“Enough!” Mika slammed his hand on the table. Everyone jumped. Kaley only smiled.
Kaley pushed away from the table, tossing her napkin on the plate. “If you don’t want to hear the truth, then get the fuck out.” She turned and walked away, not looking back at any of them.
She walked fast out of the house, toward the pool house. With each step she took her anger rose up. It boiled over by the time she reached her space. Slamming the door behind her, Kaley picked up a glass and threw it as hard as she could against the wall.
“Argh!” she yelled.
“That was totally out of line and unfair to Stray and Vesper,” Mika said, coming into the pool house, slamming the door behind him.
Swinging around she glared at the one man she wanted nothing to do with—ever. “I knew the moment I heard your name in the will that you were going to be nothing more than a pain in the ass.”
“Ditto.” Mika crossed his arms over his chest and just stood in the doorway, looking at her.
“You have no right to come here. No right to stand there acting like you belong. You don’t belong here, Mika!”
“Do you really think I wanted to come back like this?”
“That is a load of shit!
“Kaley, your father wanted me to come back and take care of you.”
“You are such a fucking liar.”
His eyes narrowed. “Such a mouth. Where did you pick that crap up? Your friend, Kurt Stockton?”
“None of your damn business. In fact, everything I do is none of your damn business.”
“As your guardian, everything you do now is my business.”
“You can call yourself what you want, but you’ll still be nothing to me.”
Leaning against the door, he said, “Okay, let’s have this shit out once and for all.”
“There is nothing to have out, except for you to walk your ass right back out my door and never come ba
ck.” She raised her chin at him. “It’s what you’re good at.”
They had an intense stare-off, one that it seemed neither was going to back down from. Lucky for her, he did. A loud sigh slipped past his lips, one hand went to his hip, and with the other he rubbed his face and then the back of his neck.
“Kaley, I’m not leaving.”
“Yes, you will. It’s what you do.”
“What I do?” He frowned and huffed. “What was I supposed to do? I lost my intended mate.”
“Still hanging onto that shit, are we? Thought you had wised up to that crap by now.”
“Kaley,” he admonished, and sighed with a slight growl. “I didn’t come back here to fight with you. I came back to help.”
“Well, I don’t need your help. I’m doing just fine on my own.”
“Oh yeah, Kurt Stockton. Nice choice.”
“It’s none of your business.”
That growl got louder, and now both hands were on his hips. Perfect. “Kaley, you are an unmated female, one who is also wealthy, and Stockton is sniffing where he shouldn’t be.”
“How many fucking times or ways do I have to say the same shit to you? My life has nothing to do with you.”
He took a step forward, pointing a finger right at her. “See, you are so wrong there. Everything you do is now my business. I’m your guardian, Kaley, and I know you’re not stupid either. You know exactly what that means in our world. I’m responsible for you. Period! End of story.”
“And the world turned on me, so I have nothing to do with it.”
“You are still part of it whether you like it or not. Any male can come and claim you, however they want, without the right protection.”
“You’re not my protection.”
“I’m all you got, little girl.” The last statement had a slight growl to it, one that Kaley figured should scare her some but didn’t.
“I’d rather have Stray.”
She could tell by the way he was chewing on the inside of his mouth, his eyes narrowing, that he was close to blowing his top now. Good. He didn’t say anything, but looked around, and that change in him started to make her nervous.
“What are you looking at?” she snapped, having had enough of his staring in silence crap.
“How long have you been in here?” he finally asked, now moving around, looking at things closer. “Margret said something about you moving out when your father got sick.
The pool house wasn’t that big, but big enough for her. It had a small bathroom with shower only, no tub. Also, a small kitchen that shared the space with a queen-size bed, and a tiny table for two. At the end of the bed, a love seat faced a television.
“What’s it to you?” she asked.
“I want to know.”
Watching him closely, she saw the calculated look in his eyes as he moved to the kitchen space, opened the small refrigerator, then one of the cabinets. She didn’t keep much food but did have a few drinks in the fridge. Moving to the opened door, he looked inside the bathroom.
“Place is a mess,” he remarked, moving away from the bathroom and going toward the bed. She had clothes strung out all over the place, and a few dishes that she brought from the house were unwashed in the small sink. He stopped at the side of the bed, bent down, and picked up a shirt, which he brought up to his nose and sniffed. “Who’s this belong to? Your Kurt Stockton?”
She had enough. Kaley rushed up and snatched the shirt from his hand. “Leave my shit alone!”
His eyes went around the room once more, then he crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at her. “Okay, enough is enough, and this,”—he motioned with his hand around the room—“is clearly enough. Your ass is moving right back into the house where you belong.”
“The hell it is.” She did the same thing he did—crossed her arms and instead of looking down, looked up. “I’m staying right here.”
“Think you misunderstood. I wasn’t asking. You’re going back to the house and Stray is moving out here.”
“Like. Hell.”
She expected him to blow up, to yell at her, demand, or order her, but Mika did none of those things. Instead, he softened up, but that didn’t mean he was backing down. Instead he just nodded and looked around again.
“Okay, we can do this the hard way. Don’t mean shit to me.”
And that she wasn’t expecting. Mika started for the door, and Kaley just couldn’t let it go. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Means you have tonight,” he said, stopping with his hand on the knob. “Then you can either come willingly, or I’ll carry your ass back.”
“You wouldn’t.”
One eyebrow went up and she swore under her breath. Of all things to say, that wasn’t the smartest or brightest of them all. And what had fear hitting for the first time ever when it came to Mika was how he didn’t say a word. Only stared at her, then opened the door and walked out, closing it behind him.
“Fuck me,” she said low. “This is not going to end well.”
Stray sat at the table, not sure what he should or shouldn’t do. He figured a blowout would happen, just wasn’t expecting it to happen so soon.
“I feel a bit uncomfortable now,” Vesper said.
“You and me both,” Stray said.
“What should we do?
Stray opened his mouth to answer, only to stop when he saw Mika come back in. He picked up his napkin and sat down with a heavy sigh. “That girl is going to be the death of me.”
“You really didn’t expect things to go easy now, did you?” Stray asked.
“Easy, no,” Mika answered. “This is way beyond easy. This is like a damn hemorrhoid that nothing you can buy will take away.”
“That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?” Vesper asked. She had planned to stay out of things, but that one she just couldn’t keep quiet over.
“Vesper, that girl is way out of control,” Mika said, cutting into his food. “Things are going to get way worse around here before they get better with her.”
“Come on, Mika,” Stray said and sighed, slumping in his chair. “Don’t be a big hard-ass with her. It’s only going to backfire on you.”
“And what would you like me to do with her?” Mika shot back at Stray. “Being sweet and soft is going to make the shit around here either stay the same or get even worse than it is.”
“And pushing the way I think you’re going to will end up ten times worse than what you think.” Stray pushed away from the table and stood up. “Or ready for.” He bent and kissed Vesper on top of the head. “I’ll be back in a bit.”
He walked away, heading outside. Stray knew that Mika was going to be a hard-ass with Kaley, and knowing that she was living in the pool house and Mika wanting him out there—not good. He just knew a fight was coming but wasn’t expecting that fight to happen so soon. First night here and shit has to hit the fan. Well, what did he expect?
Walking alone in the woods, he looked around and simply just enjoyed the freedom. Being in that damn cage for so long it still felt unreal that he was free. He found that he loved being outside with the fresh air. Missed it, and didn’t want to be closed in again if he could help it.
Stray stopped and looked around, noticing that he had walked into the woods at the back of the house without realizing it. He took a few more steps, stopped again, and sniffed, then slowly looked up. He was not at all surprised to see Kaley sitting up in a tree, stretched out on a thick branch. What did shock him was the liquid bottle in her hand.
Keeping his mouth shut, Stray began to climb up and settled on another branch next to her, but sat on the opposite side so that he could face her. She gave him a short glance then brought the bottle up to her mouth, taking a drink. He leaned forward, taking the bottle from her and also taking a drink, hissing at the burn.
“Damn, girl…” He coughed a couple of times then looked at what he was drinking. “This shit is going to kill you.”
“Lost your balls?”
She snatched it back and took another drink.
“Don’t point that chip at me now.” He took it back but didn’t drink anymore of it. “You trying to put yourself in a coma or something? This shit is the hard stuff and you’re drinking it like water.”
“Did you come up here to give me the lecture bullshit, because I really don’t want to hear it, if you don’t mind.”
“You can drink yourself numb and pass out, but it always comes back.” Stray tipped the bottle and poured the liquid out. “You should tell him.”
“You’re out of your fucking mind,” she huffed with a short laugh. “Talking to Mika is like trying to talk to my mother. Neither wants to hear what I’ve got to say.” She went quiet for a moment, crossing her arms over her chest before speaking again. “All alone I did nothing but watch him watch her. He acted like she was the only fucking girl he’d ever seen in his whole damn pathetic life. I knew he wouldn’t see shit in front of him. Didn’t give a damn about anything or anyone but her. She was all he ever wanted. Even in death I bet he still wants her. Dreams about what could be bullshit. He never saw it…” she trailed off low.
“Saw what?”
“Nothing.”
“No, tell me.”
“That he was slowly killing me—” Her voice broke and it killed him to hear it. “Vesper seems nice,” she said.
He didn’t say anything about her changing the subject, only nodded. “She’s great.”
“Glad you found someone. You deserve it.”
“It won’t go away, Kaley, no matter how much you try to drink it away, wish it away, or the other bullshit you’ve been doing. And just like that pain you’re still carrying around—until you face it, it’s only going to eat you up. Trust me, I know. My own dark shit is killing me now.”
“I hate him.”
“No, you don’t,” he said and sighed. He squirmed on the tree. “You love him.” Her eyes went wide open at him and he shrugged his shoulders. “I see it in your eyes, even if he doesn’t.”
Awakened Animals (A Shifter Novel Book 15) Page 7
