Go Fetch

Chapter Nine

Miki sat with the closest friends she had outside of Sara and Angelina, and realized that after all these years they were still a bad influence.

“You still have Feds coming to your door and yet we sit here hacking into a man’s computer?” she growled.

Craig grinned, but never looked away from the laptop he diligently worked on. “Yeah. They’re like friends now. I make them coffee.”

Miki shook her head. “You’re nuts.”

“Dude, they have nothing on us. They’re just fishing.”

Miki put down her Shirley Temple. “But you guys are hacking into someone’s computer. So you’re giving them ammunition.” Miki ate pretzels out of a bowl then briefly obsessed over how many hands had actually been there before her. “Who are you going after anyway?”

“Mitchell Leucrotta.”

Miki frowned. “Who?”

Her four friends stared at her. All scrunched together in the booth opposite her, they leaned on top of one another trying to see what Craig was doing on the laptop.

Amy glanced at Craig. “Professor Mitchell Leucrotta.”

Miki groaned. “Are you guys nuts? Have you lost what little bit of your minds you have left?” Hacking into another university was dumb. Hacking into your own was damn suicidal career-wise. And the thought of Craig being the butt buddy of someone in prison was simply not a pleasant thought.

“I’m almost positive he’s holding up my grant money.” Craig, like her, still worked on his dissertation. Yet he had his own lab in the biotech school and would probably be a very rich man one day. If he didn’t have a weird fetish about feet, she would have dated Craig herself. But, as it was, they were better off as good but strange friends.

“Whatever you find, you can’t use it against him. Not legally.” Miki shifted around in her seat and Craig stared at her.

“You so want to see what we’re doing, don’t you?”

Miki turned her head away. “No.”

“Liar.” Amy Bitter, who loved her name, accused. Amy could take apart and rebuild absolutely anything no matter how complex.

“You want to touch the keyboard. You lust for the keyboard.” That from Kenny Liu. A software genius who loved creating viruses.

“You’re all idiots.”

Ben Klein, whose hacking skills made hers look like child’s play, raised an eyebrow. “She desires the keyboard as much as she desires to help us with the password.”

“I’m not listening.” Miki put her hands over her ears. “You can’t lead me down this road of evil and prison time.”

“This is part of your ‘I’m a good girl now’ plan, isn’t it?” Amy asked sweetly.

Miki took her hands away from her ears. “Yup. I’m a very good girl.”

Craig grimaced. “Don’t say that.”

“Why?”

“Because to guys it just means you swallow.”

“Grow up,” Miki snapped while trying not to laugh. “How about, I’m going to be a very respectable girl with a life.”

“We have lives.” Kenny grabbed his bottle of ale off the table. “Sad, lonely, bitter lives. But lives just the same.”

“But what about our plan to rule the world, Miki? Or at least Microsoft?” Ben pushed his empty bottle of ale away. “You and me. We had big dreams.”

“You guys are boneheads.” Yet she loved each and every one of them. She connected with all of them in junior high through an online game before online games were hot. Together they’d begun a minor reign of terror against big corporations. But Miki was the only one busted. She never turned them in, even though she could have gotten off scot-free by turning state’s evidence. Because of that they were loyal to her. She knew it was no accident they all ended up attending the same university.

“Okay. Let me make this clear. I’m here for one reason. To get my doctorate and to get a life. Sara and Angelina are passing me by. I don’t want to wake up forty, still living in Texas, alone and bitter. So, until further notice, I will not be doing anything remotely…” she cleared her throat, “…illegal.”

She didn’t know what expression she had on her face, but Amy was all over it.

“Except that you’ve already done something illegal.”

“What? No.”

Amy leaned forward. “Bullshit, Kendrick. Come on. Tell us. You’ll feel better. What was it? Corporate espionage? Credit card theft? Identity theft?”

Miki stared. “The fact that you would think for a second I would ever do that bugs me.” Then she shrugged. “I kind of drugged a man.”

“Did you kill him?”

“No! What is it with you guys?”

“We’re bored,” Kenny Liu answered.

“Clearly.”

“So did you just do this or…?”

She glanced at her watch. “About two and a half hours ago, give or take. Of course, that’s when he reacted to it. The actual ingestion of the drug—”

“Miki,” Amy cut her off. “Who the hell did you drug?”

“Just this guy. He’s an…associate of Sara’s.” She’d filled them in months ago about Sara’s new life, but she gave only the barest of details. To her friends it sounded like Sara had hooked up with this cool biker guy and ran off to live happily ever after in Northern California. Left out was anything about shapeshifters, Packs, Prides, or vicious battles in Sara’s front yard. “He insisted on coming with me so he could be my big male protector.”

“How did you do it?” Craig didn’t even look up from the keyboard. Miki drugging someone didn’t even warrant a glance.

“I combined a few things. All tasteless. Quite effective. He went to get ice and I put it in his pasta. It took about an hour or so to become active in his system. Then he went out like a light.” But not before making me scream like a little whore.

Amy looked at Miki over her bottle of ale. “Is he cute?”

Oh, God, yes. “He’s okay.”

“Got a picture?”

“Maybe.” Miki grabbed her backpack and dug around until she pulled out a battered picture Sara sent her five months ago. It was a shot of the Pack with Sara and Zach in front. She knew Sara sent it to her so Miki would know she was okay.

“Here.” She handed the picture to Amy. “He’s the big blond one in the back.”

Amy looked at the picture while Kenny looked over her shoulder. He frowned and gawked at the photo in awe. “Jesus, Miki, is this guy standing on a ladder or something?”

“And you’re here why?” Amy demanded, incredulous.

“What?”

Her two friends looked up at her, but Amy spoke. “Come on, Mik. This guy is hot.”

Kenny shrugged. “I’m annoyingly straight, and I think this guy is hot. Freakishly large, but hot.”

“He’s a pain in the ass.”

“This guy?” Amy sounded unconvinced. “He looks like a—”

“If you say teddy bear, I’m going to kick the living shit out of you.”

“I was going to say he looks like a sweetie.”

“Well, he’s not. Far from it, in fact.”

“You’re an idiot. I’d be on this guy in two seconds.” And she would, too. Amy was a geek, but she was a horny little minx.

“I need safe and boring. He’s so not that.” Amazing at hand jobs, though.

“Why would you want safe and boring?”

“Because safe and boring gets you tenure.”

“And let me guess who your idea of the perfect safe and boring guy is.”

“You don’t have to guess. It’s Troy. Perfectly suited for me.” Her friends groaned in disgust. “What? What’s wrong with Troy?”

Amy sneered, “Dude, he’s seriously boring. And a bit of an idiot if you ask me.”

“No. No. He’s just brilliant.”

“Miki, he’s plain ol’ smart. You’re brilliant. And he could never deal with that. Ever.”

Ben took his empty beer bottle and spun it. “I’ve talked to the guy. He could never deal with a woman who is smarter than he is. And you are definitely smarter than he is.”

She didn’t want to hear this. She’d already set Troy up in her mind as her “ideal”. She didn’t want to hear that he couldn’t handle her. She was, in fact, hoping to meet up with him again while in Seattle. Another reason she didn’t want Conall’s tight ass with her.

“You guys are just snobs. Someone has to be dangerously unstable for you to find them remotely interesting.”

“You mean, like you?” Miki gave Kenny the finger.

“So, your ‘new life’ as you call it. What does that mean for us?” Craig again did not look at her as he plugged away on his laptop.

Miki frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“Are we still going to be compadres? Or are you going to dump our collective ass so you can hang around Troy’s elitist prick friends?”

Miki was kind of hurt. “I’d never do that to you guys.”

Amy motioned to the waitress for another ale. “Well, all this talk about changing your life—”

“I would never do that to you guys. Period. End of story. Understand?”

Her friends smiled, almost in relief. Miki had no idea they’d been worried.

“So, isn’t this big scary guy gonna be kind of pissed you drugged him?” Ben spun his bottle again. When it pointed at Amy he leered and wiggled his eyebrows. In response she chucked pretzels in his face.

“I have it all calculated out. I have like six more hours before he wakes up. And when he does, I’m already sitting there like he simply fell asleep.”

“Personally, I think he should wake up with you under him.”

Miki rolled her eyes. “God, Amy. You’re a horny dog.”

“And yet I feel no shame.”

Craig frowned at his computer. “Christ, this guy has a twenty-digit password to his freakin’ email.”

Amy raised an eyebrow. “It makes you wonder what he’s hiding.”

Miki glanced at her watch. It would be “last call” soon, but her friends wanted her to go with them to have an early-morning breakfast. Part of her wanted to go. She could use a good omelet. The other part wanted to get back to Conall. And that bugged the shit out of her. “Who is he anyway? Professor Leucrotta.”

“He’s new in the department. Been there about nine months or so. Surprised you never heard of him.”

Miki looked up from her empty glass. “Why?”

“He fought Conridge for you. He wanted to take over your thesis and she pulled rank on him.”

Miki felt fear lace up her spine. “What? Why?”

Kenny shrugged. “No idea. But he’s been asking a lot of questions about you.”

A look of panic crossed Craig’s face. “Maybe he’s a cop.”

Miki could only hope.

Miki rubbed her tired eyes and leaned back into the driver’s seat of the SUV. She hated driving the fucking thing. She’d rather have a cute little sports car. Something that fit her height a hell of a lot better than The Boat, as she now called it. But Conall wasn’t going to fit into anything tiny. He would always need to drive that big body around in trucks or SUVs.

“Sara? Are you still there?”

“Yeah. I just don’t know what to say.”

“Tell me I shouldn’t be freakin’ out.”

“I can’t tell ya that.”

Sara would never lie to her, and finding out some professor Miki had never met before was asking a lot of questions about her wasn’t something that either of them would consider “not a big deal”. Not right now anyway.

“Watch your ass, Mik. I want you back here with Conall as soon as you’re done.”

“Yeah. Not a problem.”

“Well, whatever you do, keep Conall close to you. I’m serious, Mik.”

“Uh…okay.” Her mistake was the pause.

“What? What did you do?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re lying to me, Miki Kendrick.” When her friends used her full name, she knew she was in trouble. When they added in her middle name, she knew she’d gone too far.

“I just went out with Craig and the guys without him, is all.”

“How? He’d never leave you. I know him. So how did you get away from him?”

“Um…”

“Miki Marie Kendrick! You drugged him didn’t you?”

Miki winced. Boy, did Sara and Angelina know her well. “He’ll be fine.”

“You get your ass back to that hotel and you make sure he is! Right this fuckin’ minute!”

“Okay. Okay. Calm yourself. I’m already at the hotel.”

“And make sure he doesn’t say anything to Zach. He barely tolerates you as it is. I don’t want to have to fight my own mate every damn Thanksgiving.”

She used her keycard to get into her room, easing the door open and sliding in. She figured she still had a good hour before Conall snapped out of it, but no use stomping around and waking the man up before then. She quietly dropped her backpack to the floor and looked through the adjoining door. They’d pulled the heavy hotel curtains closed the night before so it was dark in Conall’s room. She crept in, trying to make out the bed. As she got closer and her eyes became accustomed to the gloom…

Oh, shit.

“Looking for me?”

Miki squealed and spun around to see the outline of Conall’s body standing behind her. She could barely see him in the dark, but she could see those glinting eyes reflecting the light from her room.

“Uh…Conall. Um…before we jump to any conclusions…”

He stepped toward her and she backed away. “You mean the conclusion that you drugged me and then ran out?”

“Yeah. That conclusion.” Okay. No reason to panic. Conall wouldn’t hurt her. Would he? No. Not Conall. Of course, he did look seriously pissed.

“Do you realize you could have killed me? You don’t know how our bodies work. You don’t know what you are doing.”

“I knew enough to make a good judgment call.” Of course, Conall had woken up way before he should have. So how good a judgment call could it have been?

He still came toward her and she still backed away. Now that her eyes had become accustomed to the dark, she could see exactly how pissed he was. And he was really pissed. He looked like the marauding Viking she’d been accusing him of being. “You’re making ‘judgment calls’ about my life?”

Okay. That was a good point. She put on her soothing voice. “You know, Conall…”

“Don’t try and placate me, Miki. Just don’t.” His voice remained calm, which made her much more nervous than if he were yelling at her.

Miki felt the back of her legs hit the bed. Conall blocked her way to the door, so she went up on the bed and over it. She stood on one side, he on the other.

Since soothing and placating didn’t seem to be working, she decided to just be herself. “You started this shit. I told you to stay out of my life and you thought you could handle it. Guess you were wrong.”

“You are such a little bitch.”

“Oh, that’s a news flash!”

His eyes narrowed and she realized they weren’t merely glinting from the light. His eyes had shifted. He was so pissed his eyes looked just like a wolf’s. Probably not a good thing.

“You keep moving away from me, Mik. Why is that?”

“’Cause I’m not an idiot.”

“Really?”

She figured he’d come across the bed for her. But instead, he grabbed the headboard with his left hand and with one good yank, tossed the entire bed across the room. The fact that the frame had been bolted to the wall and floor was not lost on her.

Holy shit…

Conall walked toward her, closing the space between them. She backed away until she found herself up against the wall. He moved in front of her, placing his arms on either side of her body, his palms resting flat beside her shoulders. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared up at him.

“What? What!”

“You just took this to a whole new level.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“That the gloves are off.”

“Oh, I’m quaking.”

His wolf eyes swept up and down her body once. But in that one gaze, it was like he’d ripped off all her clothes. To her surprise, it wasn’t really an unpleasant feeling. “You will be.”

“Bring it on, Viking. I do so love a challenge.”

He smiled and it took all her strength not to run for her life. His incisors had extended. He had wolf eyes and fangs. So not a good thing.

“You really think you can handle me, baby?”

No. But she wasn’t about to tell him that. “Already I’m bored.”

With a snarl, he grabbed her by the shoulders and lifted her up against the wall. Then his mouth was on hers. It was a vicious kiss. One that drew blood when his fangs grazed against her lips. But she didn’t care. Not when she was experiencing the most amazing adrenaline rush of her life.

His tongue slid into her mouth and she tasted him and her own blood. At first, she didn’t know what to do. But then it was like her body had a will of its own. Her legs wrapped around his waist and her hands were under Conall’s T-shirt, running over all that smooth, hard skin packed with tight muscles, and settling on those narrow hips. She felt his hands under her shirt and on her breasts, her bra torn apart in one pull.

For that moment, her friends, her dissertation, Troy, her attempts to dispute the Pythagorean Theorem, all forgotten. Instead, she couldn’t think past Conall touching her. He felt so good next to her skin. She wanted to be naked and she wanted this man inside her. And it seemed Conall had the same idea. His hand reached under her short denim skirt and snatched off her panties.

She dug her fingers into his hair and groaned into his mouth as he gripped her ass tight. She was sure she felt his claws just beneath his skin, but he hadn’t let them loose. Yet.

He stopped kissing her so he could attack her neck. She wondered whether he’d mark her or not. Normally, she’d fight that. She knew from Sara what it meant. But at the moment, rational thought didn’t exist for her. Especially once that mouth of his moved down to her breast and she felt his fangs graze across her nipple. Her whole body jerked violently and she gripped him tighter.

Conall undid his jeans and had them and his boxers around his ankles. Miki could feel the heat from his erection as it pressed against her. She knew she should stop him. If for no other reason than to tell him to put a condom on. But she was lost. Hopelessly lost.

Then the knock on the door came. She and Conall froze.

“Hey, Miki?” Craig’s voice. Oh, shit.

Conall growled. A low, scary one as he glared at her with accusing wolf eyes. “Who the hell’s that?”

“My friend.”

There was another bang at the door. This time more insistent.

Miki began to say something, but Conall’s hand suddenly covered her mouth. “Not. A. Word,” he bit out between clenched teeth. “Hold on,” he barked at the door.

He took several deep breaths, then slowly released Miki. She slid down his legs, his erection gliding right across her flesh and she let out a little moan before she could stop herself.

“You’re killing me,” he whispered angrily before he pushed her away, pulled his boxers and jeans up, and went toward the door.

“Conall.” He glared at her over his shoulder. “Fangs,” she whispered.

He blinked, realizing parts of him were still wolf. He closed his eyes and cracked his neck. When he opened them again, his eyes were his normal blue and his fangs had receded back into normal incisors.

Miki pushed down her skirt and kicked her torn panties and bra across the room and under the bed as Conall answered the door.

“Yeah?”

“We’re looking for Miki.”

With a grunt, Conall stepped back, allowing Craig, Ben, and Kenny Liu to walk into the hotel room. They gawked at Conall like the main attraction at a freak show.

“What are you guys doing here?”

Kenny was the first one who could actually tear his eyes away from Conall. “Um…you forgot something.”

No she didn’t. She didn’t forget anything. Her friends were checking up on her. They’d probably dumped off Amy and then started wondering what would happen to Miki when Conall woke up. She thought only Sara and Angie were that protective of her.

“Oh, yeah? What?” She loved her friends, but she wasn’t above giving them a hard time for the hell of it.

“Uh…” Kenny looked at Ben who looked at Craig who finally turned away from Conall to look at Miki.

“Um…” he patted his pants. “The…uh…fifty bucks I owe you.” Craig pulled out his wallet and took out several bills. He walked across the room and handed it to Miki.

“That’s the best you can do?” she asked quietly with a smile.

“We were desperate,” he whispered back. “And should I ask what happened to the bed?”

Miki glanced at the displaced bed and back at Craig. “Earthquake.”

“Miki,” he whispered fiercely through his teeth. “This isn’t funny. Did you know your lip was bleeding?”

Conall desperately fought to get himself under some control. He’d never lost it like that before. Never. This one woman had pushed the beast out of him, but she didn’t run screaming like any normal person would have. Instead she’d almost fucked him.

And he almost took her. Right up against the wall. No condom. No rational thought. No thought for consequences. He knew Miki was healthy as a horse—Sara told him often enough. He was surprised the female didn’t pull out Miki’s blood tests as proof. So that wasn’t even an issue for him. But he also knew from looking at her she was a fertile girl. True, he wanted kids one day but right this minute? And with Miki? The woman who had drugged him and left him to go hang with her friends. Really, wasn’t he just trying to get laid here?

Maybe not. Maybe he wanted more. More from the one woman the wolf in him seemed to respond to.

But Miki Kendrick taunted that wolf like it was a small Jack Russell Terrier behind a neighbor’s fence. Crazy woman.

He watched Miki speak to the nerdy imbecile. If they had been in high school together, he would have kicked that guy’s ass on a daily basis.

Of course, the way he was leaning into Miki at that very moment, Conall might still kick his ass.

Miki ran her tongue along her bottom lip and tasted her blood. Christ, things had spun out of control, hadn’t they? She heard Conall growl from across the room and saw all her friends tense. She had to get them out. Now.

“I just bit my lip, it’s nothin’.” She turned Craig around and pushed him toward the door, both her hands against his back.

“You sure you don’t need anything else?”

A box of condoms? “No. But thanks. And thanks for the fifty.” Which she had every intention of keeping.

She shoved Craig out the door, then grabbed Kenny and Ben by their jackets and forced them out. “Thanks, guys. See ya!”

She closed the door on her friends and turned to face Conall. He didn’t say anything, merely stared at her.

“What?” she finally snapped.

“Who the hell were they?”

She pushed off from the door and moved across the room. “They are none of your business.”

“Fine. Whatever.” He headed to the door, snatching his biker jacket up as he walked toward it. “I’ll be in the diner across the street when you’re ready to go to the campus.”

With a slam, he was gone.