Claiming Her (Keeping Her Series) (19 page)

Although Ian was
unaffected, charging to the open door beside Demon and leaning his head
inside.  “Hel-lo ladies,” he said.  Right before he was pulled back out by the
large hand on the back of his neck and jettisoned across the courtyard. 

Luckily, Lucas who was
walking beside Miley was there to catch his flying son with a grumble and
without blinking. He placed Ian back on his feet, shaking his head.

Miley was still
fighting the adrenaline rush of seeing Ian thrown at them like a Scottish caber
toss, when she heard a feminine laugh that made her want to smile.  Turning,
she saw a very short curvy redhead in jeans and sneakers being assisted quite
forcibly out of the Expedition.  This had to be Clytie.

“Demon,” she said in a
rush as she landed in his burly arms.  “You don’t have to haul me around.  I am
capable of getting out of an SUV without assistance.”

“You’re the one who said
you had to take a leak.”

“I did not say that!” the
short curvy redhead snapped, embarrassment mixing with her irritation.  She was
definitely getting red in the face fast.  She slapped at his arm rather
ineffectually until he placed her on her own feet.  Then she whispered in a
rush, “I said I had to use the
restroom
.”

Demon leaned down, and
he had to lean down
far,
until they were nose to nose.  “Woman,” he
growled, “that’s what I said.”

“No, you were being
crude, and as I am a
woman
,” the word woman she emphasized by dropping
her voice to try to imitate the deep gruff sound of his.  She did not succeed
but it made Miley bite back a laugh at the attempt. Plus she poked him in the
chest with a teeny tiny finger at each word. “I prefer your pack not think I
speak like an inmate at a women’s prison for the illiterate and socially
deranged.”

Demon leaned down even
further so that Clytie was forced to arch back so far she might have fallen over,
but for the large muscled arm that wrapped around her waist and pulled her
tight into the curve of his body.  “Yeah, because arguing about
how
you
said the same damn thing is fuckin’ normal.”  The big wolf-shifter might have
muttered that under his breath but everyone heard it, including his mate, who
got even redder in the face and started to sputter out an answer through her
own growl.  She didn’t get the chance, however, before he was kissing her
soundly on the mouth.

With his arms still
wrapped around her waist he stood straight, continuing to kiss his mate at the
exclusion of everyone else while her feet dangled two feet from the cobbles.

Mac and Ben both exited
the car from the other side while this was happening.  Ben was six foot one
with piercing blue eyes and the natural predatory grace of the jungle cat he
shifted into.  Mac was an inch shorter with the streamlined rock hard body of
an Olympic swimmer.  He seemed less showy amidst this gathering of the pack
with brown hair and hazel eyes that flashed to silver only when his animal was
close, and he was the shortest of the men.  But his animal was a wolverine, and
even as a man, he moved with a lethal grace that promised deadly power.  At the
same time, if he wanted to, he could go completely unnoticed.

Demon was in your face
scary, Ben was straight sexy, but Mac was the one Miley had always been nervous
of.  Some of that was the deadly nature of his animal; the rest was just her
natural reaction to a predator she couldn’t anticipate.  He rarely showed what
he was feeling on his face, and unlike the rest of the pack, she had not spent
enough time with him to negate the threat for her own peace of mind.

Then another woman got
out after them, Mac leaning down to help her out of the SUV with a lot less ‘oomph’
than Demon had used.  This woman, presumably their mate Cassandra, was a little
taller than Clytie, with a lither figure and longer legs.  She wore the same
type of outfit as her cousin, her sun-kissed brown hair up in a messy bun, her
jeans and blue t-shirt showed off a great figure, though with less curvature
than her shorter cousin.  Her feet were encased in leather woven flip-flops,
also unlike her cousins red striped Keds.  She stepped out of the vehicle and
smiled up into Mac’s face.  From where she stood on the other side of the
Expedition, Miley saw the moment when Mac’s eyes melted to silver and he smiled
back.  She blinked at the change from deadly to, well . . . sexy.  Silver eyes
meant his wolverine was close to the surface and should have caused more worry,
not less, but the way he was looking at Cassandra was less about predatory and
more about ‘mine.’

Ben said something that
made her laugh and pulled her out of Mac’s arms for a quick kiss.  Then they
all turned to look over the SUV and saw Demon and Clytie had somehow
transported themselves to a world where only they existed.  Mac shook his head
and leaned back down into the car.  He came back out with a small golden-haired
child in his arms.  Around six or seven with pink jeans and sparkly purple
shoes and a little t-shirt in purple with a pink horse, she was all golden skin
and blue eyes.  In fact, if Miley did not know better, she would say she was Ben’s
child, or heck, Lucas’ the coloring was so similar, but when they skirted the
vehicle and the oblivious kissing couple to approach her and Lucas, she could
smell the little girl was wolf not jaguar or lion.

“Lucas,” Ben nodded his
way with a wicked smile.  “I hear congratulations are finally in order.  I
always wondered when you were going to get your thumb out of your ass and claim
the girl.”  Then he turned to Miley who was in the process of rolling her
eyes.  He blinked and his smile widened.  “You look pretty good for being dead.”

“So I keep hearing. 
Hey, Ben,” she nodded at him and smiled.  “Mac.”   Demon finally joined them
again before they could get further in the introductions pulling a now truly red-faced
Clytie behind him.  She looked exasperated and mortified in equal measures. 
She also looked thoroughly kissed and fairly sparkled with life.  It was a good
look and Miley took a minute to appreciate that the taciturn Demon had that in
his life.  Because of that, Miley smiled at the embarrassed woman and winked,
making Clytie laugh. 

“You have to be Clytie
and Cassandra,” Miley said looking back at the pretty women standing between
Mac and Ben.  “But who is this lovely lady?” she asked looking right at Roxanne
who had yet to say anything.

“That’s Roxanne.  Roxy,”
Clytie said beaming at the little girl.

The little girl ignored
the rest of them and held up her arms to Demon making Miley pause in surprise. 
And again, when he casually reached over and lifted her to his shoulders like
they did this all the time.  They made quite the picture, the little baby angel
on the shoulders of a scarred and tattooed warrior.

Without thinking, she
sighed out the word, “Wow,” her eyes glued to the dichotomy of hot and cute in
front of her.

“I know,” Clytie sighed
in answer, looking up with happy eyes at her mate and adopted child.

Then Lucas snarled low
beside her.  Miley jumped at the sound and looked up into gold eyes glaring
back at her. 
Oops.

Cassandra and Clytie
burst out laughing.  Just from the sound of it, Miley had to smile.

Cassandra was the one
who saved her from Lucas’ ire.  She stepped into the breach and held out her
hand, her slightly mischievous smile welcoming.  “It’s very nice to meet you,
Miley.  I’ve heard all kinds of crazy things about you.”

“I haven’t had the
chance to hear anything about you, or Clytie, other than you’re mated, who you
mated, and that somewhere in there Demon adopted a little girl.”  She smiled
again at Roxanne, then looked back at Cassandra.  Another set of hazel eyes,
these ones nearly green with a wily twinkle.

“Well, then, let’s find
somewhere to sit, and we’ll tell you our stories and you can tell us
all
about
being pursued through a tropical paradise by Lucas Gibbs.”  Cassandra
waggled her eyebrows suggestively while her smile turned wicked.  “Bet that was
terrible.”

Miley laughed outright
at her teasing.  Clytie giggled and there were a few manly sighs before Lucas
took all her attention by pulling her around and into his arms.  “You can take
them to the kitchen.  Bernie will get you set up with refreshments.”

Miley narrowed her
eyes.  “While you and the manly men do what?”

“We will be in the pack
house swapping naughty stories and mooning over our mates, the same as you.” 
He said it with an entirely straight face.  Ian snorted, and since the rest of
the men had joined them, including Eli, Logan, and Shawn, there was a lot of
that.  Though Ben chuckled, and Logan just looked away hiding a smile.

“Fine.  You go have
your battle talk and we will get to know each other.  But Lucas,” she ran her
hand into his hair and tucked it behind his ear, “you might think about the
fact that I have documentation and research on Rickarts that you could probably
use.”

Lucas froze at her
words, his eyes losing the humor and narrowing.  “Documents and research?”

“Of course,” she said
with a short kiss to his lips before she pulled away.  “You don’t think the
extent of my plan was faking my death do you?  Someone once told me you have to
know your enemy.  I have spent the last few years finding out everything there
is to know about Rickarts and everyone associated with him.”  She moved away
from him as he stood watching her, her hand trailing across his chest as she
moved away.  “If there is anything you need to know, you can find me in the
kitchen, swapping naughty stories and mooning over my mate.”

***

“That was nicely done,”
Cassandra said as soon as they were in the house.  “Do you really have
information or did you just say that to yank his chain?”

“Of course I do.  I’m
not some damsel in distress that can’t save herself.  Lucas needs an attitude
adjustment where women are concerned.”

“Speaking of that,”
Clytie said looking around the big house, “where is Cleo?  She disappeared at
the airport and Logan got that angry
super
sexy glare and was on the
phone pronto.”

“She had some business
to take care of that her father did not agree she should be doing in this time
of danger.”

“Ahh.”  Clytie looked
left as they were within sight of the kitchen.  “Nice.  Glad to see at least
Lucas
allows color in his house.”

Cassandra snorted her
agreement but added, “Our uber men don’t mind color; they just lacked your
artistic eye when it was just the three of them living in that big place alone.”

Bernie came out of the
pantry then and looked the women over.  Then she looked at Roxy who Demon had
handed off to Clytie when he kissed her goodbye.  “Hungry?”

“Some coffee would be
lovely,” Clytie said smiling at the woman.

Miley gestured to the
two women and child.  “Bernie, I’m not sure I’m the person to be doing
introductions as we just met ourselves but this is Clytie, Cassandra, and
Roxanne.  They just flew in.  Demon is Clytie’s mate; Cassandra is mated to Mac
and Ben.  And Roxy is Clytie and Demon’s adopted daughter.”

“Know who they are. 
Ian has a big mouth and an eye for pretty girls.  But the introduction was
welcome since none of the men bothered to make it.”

“I believe the men are
in the pack house making plans without worrying the little women,” Miley shared,
and smiled with a lot of teeth.

“Going to put up with
that are you?” Bernie asked, heading for the fridge and pulling out a platter
of what looked like finger sandwiches with the crusts cut off.

“Not really, but I did
want to get our guests settled and fed before pitching my fit.”

“Don’t mind us,” Cassandra
said on a laugh, looking at the platter and then the pitcher of iced tea that
followed. “We are more than covered.  You wait five minutes for us to get Roxy
fed and watered and we will happily join the ball busting.  Wait till you see,
Clytie looks all sweet and delicate, but she has the gift.”

“The gift?”  Miley
looked from one of them to the other.  Clytie did look like the proverbial
kindergarten teacher even in jeans.

“She may not look it, but
she goes toe-to-toe with Demon.”

“And wins?”

Cassandra shrugged,
then put out her hand and waved it side to side, looking at Clytie.  “What do
you think, 60/40?”

Clytie looked deep in
thought and then she too shrugged.  “More like 40/60.”  Then she went on
hurriedly.  “But that’s only because if he thinks he’s losing he does the ‘grab
and kiss’.”

“Yeah, there’s no going
back from that.”  Cassandra shook her head and sighed.  “Still better than my
30/70, but then I have two to take on and they have
means
.”  She looked
at Miley and must have read the question there because she went on to explain. 
“They don’t utilize the ‘grab and kiss’ as much as Demon does but . . .,” she shuddered
and you could tell it was not a bad shudder, more like a sexy
good
shudder, “they definitely have ways.”