Go Fetch

Chapter Twenty-one

Conall woke up when the sun hit his eyes through the window. He felt great. Better than great. That was the cool thing about the fever. If you survived it, you usually felt better than you did before you got hurt.

Miki was in his arms and he relished it. Especially since the last thing he remembered from the night before was having a huge screaming argument with her. But he didn’t want to think about that now. He pulled her closer and she sighed softly in her sleep.

As right as this all felt, he knew something was wrong. He just couldn’t quite figure out what. He looked down at her. Asleep and as beautiful as always, she was also naked and had her limbs around him. It took him a second, but he realized he was inside her. Inside her without a condom.

Uh-oh.

The pillow behind her head had blood on it. He winced as he gently reached around and touched the back of her neck. Then it was her turn to wince from him touching the wound.

He remembered that the day before she’d been going into heat. He leaned in and sniffed her. Her scent had changed. Which meant only one thing.

He closed his eyes. She is going to kick my ass.

She stirred underneath him and he immediately got hard again. Boy, was this bad timing.

Miki stretched, her arms going wide, pushing him off and out of her. She yawned and rubbed her hands over her face. She looked around and then seemed to remember why she was…well, wherever the hell they were.

“Conall?” She turned and looked at him. “Conall? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, Mik. I’m fine.” She leaned over him and felt his forehead. Her bare breasts rubbed against his arm and he had the sudden urge to have her again.

“Your fever broke. That’s good.” She gave him the oddest expression. Then she suddenly launched herself into his arms. He was so startled, he fell back on the bed. He pulled her close and she hugged him tight. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” she whispered fiercely.

He closed his eyes. Nothing ever felt so right as when this woman was in his arms. And knowing she actually cared about him enough to worry…nothing before had ever made him feel so good.

Miki, clearly not comfortable with showing her emotions, pulled herself out of his arms. She sat on the edge of the bed. “I’m really sorry about yesterday, ya know.” She glanced at him, then turned away again. “You took me by surprise. And I never thought you’d want…I just never had…” She shook her head and he saw her smile. “Forget it. We’ll talk about this later. Really talk. You and me. Okay?”

But before he could answer her. Before he could tell her the decision had already been made for them, she slid out of bed and headed to the bathroom. “When I’m done, I’ll let Van Holtz and the Pack know you’re okay.”

Christ, they were on another Pack’s territory. Well that explained the strange wolf scent he smelled everywhere.

Conall lay back on the bed and waited. Waited for her to realize what had happened. She probably thought like he first did. That it had been a dream. But he had marked her. She was his. Would be for life. And there would never be another woman for him. Never.

But he knew Miki almost better than he knew himself now. She wasn’t going to take this well. She’d feel trapped. And she hated feeling trapped. He was having trouble remembering last night but he knew they’d been caught up in something primal and older than most of the gods. In fact, he was almost positive she’d told him to mark her. Knew what he intended without him actually saying it. The wolf in him wanted her. Knew she was the mate for him. And she was.

Miki could have run yesterday. Taken off with Conridge and never looked back. But she’d faced down a vicious Clan of hyenas to protect him and his Pack mates. She hadn’t even been worried about herself. Only him. Those were the actions of a mate. His mate.

He heard the toilet flush and Conall counted. “Five. Four. Three. Two—”

“Conall!”

“One.” He sighed and waited.

Miki stormed out of the bathroom, wearing only white sweat socks and a really pissed-off look.

“What the fuck is this?” She pointed at the back of her neck. He didn’t bother to look. Not when she was standing in front of him naked.

“My mark.”

She stared at him. He waited for it. The explosion of anger. The rants. All of it. He knew it was coming.

But it didn’t come. Miki just stared at him. Then she silently grabbed her clothes off the floor and returned to the bathroom, quietly closing the door behind her.

Okay. That was definitely not the reaction he expected. He expected rage. Rage he knew how to deal with. Whatever she was going through at the moment, they didn’t even have a name for.

He got off the bed and pushed the bathroom door open. She had gotten on her shirt and panties but that was it. Now she sat on the edge of the bathtub holding her sweatpants in her hand and staring down at the floor.

“Miki?”

She looked up at him. Her dark eyes glittered in the well-lit bathroom. “You couldn’t let me decide for myself, could you?”

This was controlled rage, and this worried him. When she was ranting and raving, he knew she was simply being wacky Miki. But this…this was Miki who blew the head off a lion.

“It wasn’t like that, Mik, and you know it.”

She sighed. Calmly. He was getting more and more freaked out by the second. “I’m going back to Texas, Conall.”

He crouched down next to her, gently laying his hand on her leg. “No.” He spoke softly. He wanted her to know she was safe. Safe with him. “Not until we talk about—ow!”

She’d punched him. Right in the nose.

“What the hell was that for?”

“Because you’re a lying sack of shit! That’s what that’s for!” Yeah. There was the Miki he knew and loved. “I’m going back to Texas and you can’t fucking stop me!”

Conall stood, crossed his arms in front of his chest, and blocked the doorway. “No. You’re not.”

She stared at him. Those big, giant arms, crossed in front of that big, giant chest. His big legs braced apart. He was completely blocking the doorway. Hell, he was completely blocking her. And she didn’t like it one damn bit.

“I wasn’t asking you, Conall.”

“You’re not running away from this. From us.”

Us? At what point did the booty call turn into an “us”.

She dropped her head in her hands in pure frustration. He was making her nuts. “There is no us. There will never be an us.”

“Why?”

Okay. Why did that question throw her? “Because.”

“Because why?”

Christ, it was like talking to a ten-year-old. “Because I said so.”

He smiled. “That the best you can do, Miki-baby?”

“Don’t call me that.”

“It never bothered you before.”

She stood and pulled on the sweatpants. “Well, it bothers me now.”

He stepped toward her and she stepped back. “And why is that?” She backed up against the stainless steel sink as he moved in front of her. “Because I usually say that when I’m inside you? When you’re coming and screaming my name?”

Okay. Why couldn’t she breathe? He was so close and smelled so good. No. This wouldn’t do. She needed to go. Somewhere. Anywhere. Away from him. She needed time to think. To analyze. To plan.

“Last night you told me you loved me.” Oh, that he remembered.

“I was asleep.”

“Not too asleep to fuck me.”

“Christ, Conall.” She wanted to push him away, but she knew she couldn’t touch his skin. If she touched him, she’d be lost.

“Tell me you don’t care about me, Miki.” He leaned in, his mouth so close. “Tell me and maybe I’ll believe you.”

“I don’t care about you.” That would have been much more convincing if she hadn’t whispered it while staring at his mouth.

His lips were inches from hers. “Liar.” Then he was kissing her. His lips on hers, his tongue sliding into her mouth. His hands tangling in her hair. Immediately, her body responded. Her arms went around his neck. Her body pressed into his. And her desire to drop to her knees and take him into her mouth almost overwhelmed her.

He pulled back slightly, but his hands were still in her hair and his upper body still had her trapped against the sink. “Stay with me, Miki.”

“I can’t think about this right now.” Panting. She really had to stop panting.

“Then don’t think at all.” His mouth captured hers again and she became wet for him. Nipples became hard. All the usual. She had no control around him. None.

When he dropped to his knees, she almost exploded. Why was he doing this to her? She was trying to make it easy on him. Giving him a way out. Why was he torturing her?

Because, idiot, maybe he doesn’t want a way out. Okay. Exactly when did that new voice make an entrance in her head?

Conall pulled off her sweatpants and panties and tossed them aside. Then he pushed her legs apart and began to lap at her clit.

“Goddamn it, Conall!” He ignored her. What was it Conridge had said? If they don’t like what they hear, they just ignore it. And, clearly, that’s what her Viking was doing. But his tongue felt so good. And then he growled. A deep one from low in his chest. It reverberated up and through his tongue, hitting right across her clit and sending Miki spiraling out of control. Nothing, absolutely nothing, had ever felt that good before. She gripped his head in both her hands and held him in place. She loved the feel of his hair against the inside of her thighs. She loved the warmth of his body. She loved the way his hands gripped her ass as he ate her out. She loved all of it. All of him.

The growling, the licking, they all conspired to shove her over the edge. And shove they did. The guttural moan she let out as she climaxed sounded like it was coming from somewhere else. From someone else all together.

While her body still shook from her climax, Conall picked her up and placed her on the sink. Then he was inside her. It seemed she wasn’t the only one out of control. She wrapped her legs around his waist and held on as he gripped her hips with his hands and claimed her body. Every time he took her it felt better than the time before.

Her head fell back and Conall’s mouth sucked on her throat. She loved this man. She knew she did. But she was scared to death. She’d always assumed that she’d be alone forever. She’d simply hoped that no matter where Angie and Sara ended up, they’d always have a place for her at Thanksgiving dinner.

But the Viking…

He’d marked and mated her without a backward glance. And she’d told him to. She thought that had just been an astounding dream. An astounding wet dream. Now she knew it had really happened. Half asleep or not, they’d connected on a level she never thought existed between people. Now, according to Sara, she was “his”. And her fast-moving brain simply wasn’t ready to handle that.

Of course, that didn’t stop her body from completely exploding as Conall slammed into her. She bit into his unwounded shoulder as his hot seed shot into her. That’s when she realized he wasn’t wearing a condom and that he hadn’t been the night before. Apparently, they were so much a couple now condoms were optional.

And as soon as her body stopped shaking from her climax, she was going to say something about this.

“Hey, Conall. You here?” A male voice. Probably Dunwich. He seemed the only one brave enough to deal with Conall when he was with her. “Van Holtz got your stuff back from the SUV and the school hallway. A few of the cops handling the case are Pack. So we should be cool.”

Miki tensed and tried to pull away, but Conall wouldn’t let her go. He held her to him as he got his voice back. “Good. Thanks. We’ll be out in a few.”

“Uh…yeah. Sure. Okay.”

Miki rolled her eyes as she heard that amused sound in Dunwich’s voice. Schmuck.

Conall kissed Miki’s forehead. No way was he letting her go. Now he understood why Zach couldn’t leave Sara alone. Because when you find that right one, you don’t want to let her go. Even when she was a pain in the ass. Of course, Conall was willing to overlook Miki’s ability to be a pain in the ass as long as she kept having those orgasms that almost snapped his cock in two.

“We’ll talk about this later, okay? Just don’t make any decisions now.”

“Conall—”

“Let’s just get back to the den, okay?”

She wanted to argue. She wanted to tell him this wasn’t right. He could see it on her face. But he wasn’t going to let her. Instead, he’d get her back to the house and then he’d fuck her into submission again and again until she finally got the message she was his and he was hers. Forever.

Yeah. That worked as a plan.

He pulled out of her and was surprised she didn’t say anything about his lack of condom. He knew it was no longer necessary, but she still didn’t. And he wasn’t going to say anything about the pregnancy until he convinced her they should be together. He didn’t need anything else freaking her out. He was coaxing a high-strung mare. Scare her off now and she’d hightail that fine ass right back to Texas. If she were going to accept the fact that she was his, he’d have to play this cool. Well, as cool as he could when just her touch on his shoulder made his whole body throb.