Awakened Animals (A Shifter Novel Book 15) Read online

  “I should have known you can’t be nice to dickheads like him,” Kaley huffed. “Should have kept his stuffed ass at home last night.”

  Mika said nothing, only took a deep breath and let it out loudly, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “How much?” Stray asked Mika.

  “Oh, so now you’re going to be on his side?” Kaley snapped at Stray.

  Stray slowly turned toward him. “I’m not taking anyone’s side here, Kaley. I’m asking a damn question.”

  “Well, it’s none of yours or his fucking business.”

  “You’re still going to get money to spend,” Mika said. “I’m going to put you on an allowance.”

  “Fuck you and fuck your allowance!” Kaley yelled at him. “You’re nothing more than a big fucking prick with a broom handle up his ass. It’s all about control for you.”

  “Oh, will you get off your shit here,” Mika said. He pushed away from the counter and advanced toward her. Kaley took a step back. “Since I’ve come back you’ve had this damn chip on your shoulder about me. I’ve tried and tried to overlook all your bullshit, but this is going too far. There are thousands of dollars in bills in that office. Bills from shopping, fancy-ass dinners, and tons of clubs. Then there’s the fact that your car payment on that little car outside is late. Staff left because of no payment of wages. Do I keep going on or are you getting the point?”

  “Mika, why don’t you calm down?” Stray said.

  “Oh, I’m calm. So fucking calm!” Mika said, raising his voice.

  “This is my house, Mika, not yours. You didn’t mate her, you’re not part of this family!” Kaley also raised her voice at him.

  “This has nothing to do with her.” Now Mika’s voice lowered, deadly sounding with a slight warning.

  “Oh, it always has to do with her.” Kaley’s face got red now. “Lora is the only goddamn reason you would ever come back here. To hell with my father, and hell with you!”

  Mika worked so hard at keeping his own temper in check as Kaley ran from the kitchen, and luckily not out of the house. He heard her feet pounding up the stairs followed by the slamming of a door.

  “You just have to keep pushing, don’t you?” Stray huffed.

  “Don’t start with me.”

  “Don’t start with you? What are you going to do when you push her too far and she does something really stupid?”

  “Think she already is doing a lot of stupid shit.”

  “Are you really that damn blind here?” Stray rubbed his mouth and put a hand on his hip. He looked around as did Mika. “Why can’t you see what is right in front of you?”

  “I don’t want to hear that crap again,” Mika snapped.

  “Lora wasn’t your fucking mate!” Stray yelled at him.

  “I know that!” Mika yelled right back. “Fuck.” Mika rubbed his face with both hands, turned his back on Stray, and leaned on the counter.

  “I’m going to give you two some space,” Vesper said.

  Mika didn’t move or say a thing. When he heard the door close softly, he dropped down more on the counter, feeling defeated. “Why would he do this? Why the hell would Brian bring me back to this place? I can’t do it, Stray. I just can’t do it.”

  “Yes, you can.” Stray slapped his hand on Mika’s shoulder, gave it a squeeze then turned and leaned on the counter close to him. “You just need to stop being so closed-minded and see what is in front of you.”

  “I’m telling you, Stray…” Mika shook his head and turned, leaning back on the counter. “Kaley isn’t it. There is nothing there just like Lora.”

  “I don’t think you can say that for sure when you have yet to test it.” Mika looked at Stray and Stray shrugged his shoulders. “Let it out and see.”

  “Guys, I hate to be a rat here, but Kaley just climbed from her bedroom window and left,” Vesper said breathless.

  “What?” Mika snapped. He was outside in a flash, just in time to see Kaley’s car speed off. “Shit.” Stray came out and Mika looked right at him. “Every damn time things don’t go her way she runs.”

  “I don’t like that look you have, Mika.”

  “Stay here,” Mika said. He turned and went back into the house. He walked through the kitchen to the office for his keys.

  “What’re you gonna do?” Stray asked.

  “Go find her ass, what else.”

  “Mika…”

  “Stop, Stray.” Mika picked up the keys from the desk and raised his hand. “You can’t keep defending her and protecting her. This shit has to stop and it has to stop right now.”

  “I understand that, but you are doing it all wrong.”

  “Sweet words and understanding isn’t working,” said Mika.

  “And neither will strong-arming her. She’s hurting and angry. You would be too if it was you and your father put someone else in charge of your life.”

  “She is a shifter female, Stray!” Mika slammed his hand down on the desk, glaring at Stray. “The rules for her are very different than for a human and you know it.”

  “She is half-shifter and has been pushed aside her whole damn life. You should know that! Fuck, why can’t you see what is right in front of your eyes?” Mika narrowed his eyes and was about to tell Stray to drop it again, but Stray cut him off. “She’s your fucking mate, you dumb son of a bitch!” Stray yelled in Mika’s face. “That is why the two of you are butting heads so much. It’s why you came back, why you felt the pull but won’t admit it. It’s the fucking answer to everything, you’re just too blind to see it.”

  Mika shook his head, his eyes widening. “No. You’re wrong.”

  “God, if we weren’t family I’d knock you on your ass,” Stray huffed. “Oh, what the hell.” The fist came fast and sudden, hitting Mika right in the jaw, knocking him down. “I’ve watched you years ago in this house hanging onto Lora, but always checking out Kaley. Her father knew it. I knew it. Hell, the whole staff knew it. You three were too fucking blind. Grace wanted the perfect damn family, Lora wanted it all, and you wanted this.” He pointed toward the floor as Mika rubbed his jaw and just glared at Stray. “Enough is enough, Mika. Open up your damn eyes and do it fast before you lose it all for good. This is your second chance. Don’t piss it away.”

  Mika didn’t move from the floor for a while. Stray let him stay there, took Vesper, and they left the house also.

  When his butt started to get numb, Mika finally got up. His jaw still hurt but he welcomed that pain. It did help to clear his mind some. Alone, he walked around the house until he found himself at the closed door to Lora’s room. Mika didn’t give it much thought. He turned the knob and walked in.

  Her room was just as he remembered it. Nothing had been changed, nothing taken out. It still held her scent, still had the feeling of her, but it also had the feeling of a tomb.

  “He wouldn’t let us move a thing.” Mika turned quickly and there in the doorway stood Margret. “He spent hours in here just crying in that bed after the funeral. Kaley tried hard to get him to come out, but he just wouldn’t. Not for days.” Margret walked in and had a very small grin on her lips. “Kaley came in here once, after he finally did leave. Wanted to wear this top of Lora’s. When she came down to dinner and he saw it, he went crazy on her. Think that was the start to her changing.”

  “You knew, didn’t you?” Mika asked low. “You knew Lora wasn’t my mate.”

  “Yes.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Wasn’t my place, besides, you wouldn’t have believed me.” Margret’s chin went up. “Grace knew. Think she figured it out before that big blowout.”

  “And Kaley?”

  “She sees more than you know.” Margret went back to the door and looked over her shoulder at him. “You can talk to her, Mika, but you also need to listen as well. Can’t do one without the other.”

  Mika nodded and hung his head as Margret left him in the room. He looked around again, even walked around, picking up picture
s and a few bears of hers. He thought about what Stray said, thought about how he felt when Lora was around and tried like hell to recall if anything stirred when Kaley was away.

  He spent a few hours in that room, looking around, touching her things, and feeling—nothing. Not one thing woke up, stirred, hinted that he still wanted Lora or that she was the one for him.

  “I was wondering how long it would be before you found your way in here.” Kaley strolled into the bedroom. “They all come back to her.”

  “Who’s all?”

  “My father spent days in here. He didn’t eat, didn’t sleep much. Just laid on that damn bed hugging the pillows as if he might be hugging her. At night I think I heard him even crying.”

  “He lost a child, Kaley. Any parent would cry over that.”

  “Yeah well, he lost two, didn’t he?” He frowned, not understanding where she might be going with this. “You. He lost you, the favorite son he never had but always wanted.”

  “I don’t want to fight, Kaley.”

  “I’m not fighting, Mika, I’m stating a big fact.” She went over to the closet and opened the double set of doors. “Man, what a waste. I wasn’t allowed to touch them. Nothing was to be touched. A shrine to the dead and piss on the living.” She swung around fast, anger showing in her eyes. “I never needed you then, and I don’t need you now. I also never hated you, Mika, not until now.”

  “Kaley…”

  “For years I watched you and my sister. For years you acted like I was never there, and then when I needed you the most you ran away.” He looked away from her and she made a snorting sound. “Yeah, look away. They all do when the truth comes to smack them right in the face.”

  “What do you want me to say here? I hurt just as much as you do!” he yelled at her this time. “Your family was my family.” He looked away from her, a hand going through his hair as he looked around the room, working to get his temper in check. “It killed me that night, just as it did your father and you.”

  “And yet you ran away as soon the truth came out. Poor little Mika couldn’t face the fact that little Miss Perfect wasn’t as perfect as everyone thought. That she fucking lied to you and to everyone.” She came at him, shoving his back hard. “The signs were there, Mika. All you had to do was open your eyes.”

  “Damn it, Kaley.” He growled low, forcing his hands to stay down and not grab her. “Don’t.”

  “Don’t want?” she huffed. “Don’t tell you the truth?”

  “She was my intended mate.”

  “And she was my sister,” she stated in a detached-sounding voice. The pain in her voice had him stilling, looking right at her. “You think you are the only one she betrayed and hurt? You think you are the only one that has suffered. You’re not, Mika. She hurt so many, you have no idea.”

  “What do you want me to say here? What do you want from me?”

  “Nothing. There’s nothing anyone can say. What’s done is done.” She moved to one of the nightstands and picked up a globe. She turned it around in her hands, just staring at it.

  “That bitterness is going to eat you up.”

  “Already has.” She turned fast and threw the globe hard toward the wall. It shattered, water going everywhere.

  Mika jumped but didn’t move from his spot. She picked up another one and did the same thing. When she went to get another, he finally moved. He rushed up behind her, wrapping his arms around her arms to stop her.

  “Stop.”

  “Let me go!” Her voice shook and it was in that moment he felt something deep inside him stir.

  “I’m sorry, Kaley,” he said. “God, I’m so fucking sorry.”

  “Too late for sorry.” She took a deep breath and he turned her around in order to see her. Her lower lip quivering, eyes filling up but no tears fell. “You need to go. It’s what you’re good at.”

  The pain in her eyes tore at him. The instinct to protect hit, and he couldn’t walk away from it or her. He knew he would be forever unable to just walk away. Slowly he reached up and touched her face, feeling like a spell of some kind was being woven around him.

  “I’m not leaving, Kaley,” he whispered. “Not this time.”

  The urge to hold her hit. He wanted to wrap his arms around her, pull her to his chest, and just simply hold her. But he didn’t. Instead he found himself fascinated by touching her face. And when the tears did fall, he wiped one away with his thumb.

  More fell as she looked up at him, and Mika did his best to wipe them away. His only real intention was to comfort and talk to her. Nothing more. Yet more started to happen. Not thinking, not reasoning with himself, Mika began to lower his face to hers, and before he even knew what he was doing his lips touched hers. A light brush, but a brush that had him wanting to do another and another before she rose up on her toes and pressed her lips firmer against his.

  Things he hadn’t felt in so long hit at once. Mika lost himself in the sensations, in the feelings that had been buried for so damn long. His hand dropped from her face and he grabbed hold of both arms, pulling her closer and going deep into the kiss.

  She opened for him and he went in. He slanted his head for a better angle and went even deeper into the kiss.

  An inner voice whispered that this might be wrong, that he should stop before things got way out of hand. The animal inside disagreed.

  Mika felt it stir, felt it come to the surface, and he didn’t fight it. He welcomed the animal, knowing that the thing still lived inside him and wasn’t dead.

  “Mika, you up here?” Stray’s voice broke the spell that wrapped around the two of them.

  Kaley jumped back, out of his arms and out of his reach. Her eyes were wide open. Both were breathing heavy, faster, and both were just looking at each other saying nothing.

  “Hey, did I walk in on another fight?” Stray asked.

  Mika couldn’t tear his eyes from her, and for a second it looked like she couldn’t either. When she licked her lips, he almost took a step toward her, but somehow managed to keep himself put.

  “Kaley, you okay?” Stray asked, coming in. “You’re flushed.”

  “I’m fine.” She rushed from the room, brushing past Mika and Stray.

  Mika let her go.

  “What happened now?” Stray asked.

  “Nothing,” Mika said, still not looking at Stray. Instead he looked down at himself and couldn’t believe what he saw and felt. He was hard, and not just a slight hard-on from a kiss. No, what he had now between his legs hurt like fuck and wanted out. “Nothing at all.”

  Mika left the room and went back to his, and didn’t go down for dinner. He couldn’t. Couldn’t face Kaley after what he did. And why the hell did he do it? It was a question he just couldn’t answer, no matter how many times he tried and how many times he went over it.

  He never kissed Lora like that. Never felt the desire rise up fast either when he touched Lora. So why the hell did he get hit with it when he kissed Kaley? Didn’t make any sense. How many times had he been close to Kaley in the past? How many times did he do something simple like feel her skin, hold a hand, anything! And yet never did his lust come up like that.

  “What the fuck is wrong with me?” he asked, falling down on the bed. He covered his face with both hands, trying to get the feelings, the sensations, her smell for Christ’s sake—all of it out of his damn head.

  But the animal inside wouldn’t allow it.

  It wanted out.

  It wanted to claim.

  It wanted Kaley!

  “Argh!” Mika shoved himself off the bed and began to pace the room. Each step he took his damn cock throbbed hard and swelled. “Stop it,” he told himself. “Just fucking stop it.”

  A splashing sound had him stilling in the middle of the room. Mika looked over his shoulder with a frown at the window before turning and going to it. Looking down, his breath left his lungs and his knees threatened to buckle under him.

  In the pool, he saw Kaley. And from the angle o
f the window with the help of a very clear night, he was able to see more than he knew he should be seeing.

  She swam naked.

  Mika became glued to the scene before him. He couldn’t move, couldn’t tear his eyes from the sight. He watched her motions under the water. Almost fell when she jumped up in the shallow part, her arms going up to push back wet hair from her face. Bare breasts thrust upward, nipples hardened into berry peaks. The water came barely to her hips and covered nothing. He saw the whole outline of her body. The curves of her waist, the width of the hips, and a bare mound which had him licking his lips.

  Bare shoulders had teeth aching to bite into, and his hands wanted to close around those breasts. When she turned and dove back into the water, a small whimper left his lips. Mika reached up, pressing both hands on the window as he watched her do the underwater strokes, then come up halfway for air, then right back under. She did another lap back to the shallow end and didn’t come up until she could touch.

  Again, those arms went up, pushing the water from her hair as she started to walk out of the pool. His eyes went to the backside of her and Mika bit his lower lip at the curve of her ass. Lord help him, he wanted her right then. He wanted her wet like that, lying on her stomach so he could taste every sweet inch of her backside. He wanted to sink into her slowly then fuck her hard and fast.

  Kaley walked out of the water, bent for her robe, and Mika just turned and slid down to the floor onto his ass. His cock pounded hard and he shook with the need, with the wanting. It had been so long since he had been with a woman that for a moment he thought that was all it was. He just needed to go out and get laid. Yeah, that’s it.

  You’re so fucking wrong!

  “What the hell is wrong with me?” he asked himself, unable yet to get up. “This is so not right or normal.”

  Never is, when you want something…or someone.

  David Wycough sat behind his desk in the shadows, staring at Hayden Jackson, saying nothing to him as the shit squirmed on his feet. He didn’t like the prick. Granted, he had some usefulness, but he had no spine.