Go Fetch ! (3 page)

Miki dropped her head into her hands. “I will not discuss Mr. Happy with the likes of you.” Angelina sighed. “I find the fact that you named your vibrator disturbing on so many levels.”

“Best relationship I’ve ever had.”

Angelina sipped her martini and eyed Miki over her glass. Miki picked up her Shirley Temple and stared back.

“I didn’t know insanity ran in your family, Kendrick.”

“We got it from yours, Santiago.”

Angelina crossed her legs and Miki immediately looked around to watch the men watch Angie. It was remarkable. The woman had the ability to distract every man in the room and she never seemed to notice.

“So, did you talk to Sara today?”

Miki was relieved that Angelina decided to back off the
Conall
discussion. She’d hate to hit a beautiful woman in the face with her laptop computer. “Like four times. You’d think I wouldn’t be seeing her in a few hours.”

“I don’t know why you’re going to her house first. Why aren’t you flying straight to Seattle?”

“Sara booked the tickets. She arranged this little stop over. I guess she misses me.”

“Well you’ll like her place. It’s nice. Just needs a porch.”

Angelina had already been to Sara’s new home in Northern California. Miki hadn’t gone, instead opting to stay in Texas and plow through her thesis rewrites. She knew Sara understood, but she also knew Sara had been hurt. She missed her two friends, almost as much as they missed her.

“Whatever. At least I’ll have a place to relax before I head up to Seattle. I’m already so stressed about all this shit. I keep re-reading my notes and analyzing my thesis.”

“And writing lists.” Angelina gave her a warm smile. “Don’t worry,
Mik
. You’re going to be great.”

“And what if I blow it, Angie?”

“What if you do? So? The world won’t end.”

Close enough. She had her whole future riding on this. Angie would never understand. Everything had always come so easy to her. And Sara, being the canine that she was, never really asked for much. But Miki was being left behind and she knew it.

But not anymore. An assistant professor position at the university was hers once her dissertation was completed. She just had to make sure she didn’t blow it. The fact they wanted her at all still amazed her. Her and her Seattle friends were infamous. Not only in the university where she got her undergrad and graduate degrees. But in schools across the country. From the time she dumped her clothes on the dorm room floor her freshman year she’d been up to all sorts of
hijinks
and shenanigans.

Surprising to many, Miki only got busted once. In high school. The judge could have sent her off to juvenile detention or even tried her as an adult, but her mother had just died the year before and the entire town turned out to make a plea on her behalf. Sara had even shown up using crutches. She’d never used crutches before in all the years Miki had known her up to that point. And now she was making a tearful plea for Miki while leaning on her pitiful crutches. It was quite the display. Miki would have laughed her ass off if she hadn’t been scared to death she was going to prison.

In the end she got one year of house arrest and three years of no computer or phone use. You would think that would have been enough to get her to keep the
hijinks
to a minimum once she got to college. But when you’re eighteen, you always think that you’re untouchable. And for some unknown reason, she had been. They just couldn’t find anything to nail her with and they’d tried. Then Miki had disappeared. Well, not really. She just went home. She had just started working on her graduate degree when her grandmother became ill. She was twenty-one and had no idea what the hell she wanted to do with the rest of her life and could easily finish her degree long distance. She thought a year home would help.

But it was eight years and two master’s degrees later and she was still trying to figure out what the hell she was going to do with her life.

“Trust me.” Angelina insisted. “You’ll be fine.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Angelina grinned. “You know a massage would really help you relax.”

Miki liked the sound of that. Maybe she had a few extra bucks in her tragically poor bank account to hit one of those fancy spas up near Sara.

“And dirty, filthy monkey sex with a hot guy like
Conall
is good too.”

Miki slammed her drink down on the table. “All right, let’s analyze this, shall we?”

Angelina’s head fell back. “Oh, god. Not the
analyzin
’.”

“Let’s say I go and have hot monkey sex with the Viking.”

Angelina looked at her. “Who?”

“
Conall
.”

“Okay. You do. You work him out of your system and then it’s over. And then everybody can go about their day and you can learn to
fuckin
’ relax.”

“Problem is that unlike you and Sara, I have a problem with just fucking whatever comes along.”

“Hey! I think I was just insulted. Bitch.”

“No really. I get attached. Emotionally. It’s this flaw I have. So, then I’ll have to see this fucker every holiday I go up there. He and his wolf buddies will nudge each other and give me that ‘I had her’ look. While I’m forced to pretend that I’m okay.”

“You
have
analyzed this.”

“That’s what I do, Angelina.”

“Fine. You
wanna
live life alone and bitter, be my guest.”

“Trust me. Fucking the Viking isn’t going to change the living alone and bitter thing one bit.”

“Whatever.”

Miki heard them announce final boarding for her flight and the relief almost floored her. Hopefully by the time Angelina arrived in Northern California, she’d have found a new topic. She really would hate to have to kill such a close friend.

“Come on, sassy girl. Let’s get your ass on a plane.” Angelina finished off her drink.

Miki slipped her computer into her bag and stood up.

Angelina did the same and slammed into a businessman trying to step around their table.

“Sorry,
darlin
’.” Miki
felt
that voice. She looked up and continued to look up at what her grandmother would have termed “a tall drink of water.” Once her head was firmly all the way back, she finally saw his face. He was breathtakingly handsome. Dark, dark hair with hints of red and a few streaks of white, but he was definitely their age maybe a year or two older. Gold eyes with green flecks, the lids slightly slanted. And a sexy smile. Basically, trouble with a penis. But he was well groomed. Clearly wealthy if his $10,000 titanium watch and alligator-skin briefcase were any indication. And, not surprisingly, he was clearly interested in Angelina. What
was
surprising was the two men with him. They looked just like him. Clearly all brothers. Which meant that somewhere out there was a couple that created these three gorgeous specimens. Amazing.

“You all right, sugar?” Didn’t help that sexy voice was Southern. Miki would place him around the Carolinas or Alabama. Georgia maybe. Wherever he hailed from, guys with Southern accents did things to her and her two friends that any other accent just couldn’t touch.

Angelina stared, “Uh…”

Miki’s eyes widened. Never,
ever
, in the 20 years that she’d known her, had Angelina been at a loss for words over a man. Any man.

Miki slung the bag over her shoulder. “Sorry about that. We need to get to my plane.”

“No problem. Y’all can slam in to me any time.”

He may have said “y’all” but he clearly meant only Angelina. Who still hadn’t quite found her voice yet. They called Miki’s plane again. She had to go or she was going to miss her flight and never hear the end of it from Sara.

But she couldn’t leave Angelina. Not with this one. And definitely not with all three.

“Hey,
Ang
. We need to go.” She grabbed her friend’s arm and tugged her. When that didn’t seem to work, she yanked.

Angelina seemed to snap out of her stupor. “Uh… oh, yeah. Yeah. We better get moving.” She glanced at Southern Charm. “Sorry.”

“Not at all.” Then he and his tailor-made suit walked off. Miki knew it was tailor-made because they simply didn’t make suits in that size for off the rack. His two brothers, with a leer at Miki, followed. “You all right?”

“Yeah.” Angelina shook her head. “Yeah. I’m fine, dude.”

“I couldn’t leave you with him,
ya
know.”

“You think every tall guy is either Pride or Pack.”

“I don’t know what he is. But Sara and her Pack have pissed off some major players.”

“And yet you’re trotting off to Seattle by yourself.”

“First off, I don’t trot. And second, I can take care of myself. Always have. Always will. I don’t need babysitters. Besides I’m not the one in danger of becoming the love slave of some
shapeshifter
.” Angelina was finally snapping back. “You’re kidding, right? With Lassie on your tail?”

“Shut up.”

***

Conall
checked his watch. Again. Soon his personal wet fantasy would be here. He wondered if it would be inappropriate to tackle her in the hallway as soon as she arrived and drag up to his bedroom. Probably.
Damn human etiquette
.

Conall
heard the glass doors leading to the back of the house slide open. And then he heard Zach. “Either you control that mutt or I’ll have him go play fetch on the freeway. You’re choice, woman.” He slammed the door shut.

Zach walked over to
Conall
and, with a heavy sigh, sat down on the bench beside him. But
Conall
wasn’t buying it for a second. “Don’t even try and pretend like she annoys you.”

“She’s making my life a living hell.”

“She’s the best thing to ever happen to this Pack. And god knows, she’s the best thing to ever happen to
you.
”

“Yeah, I know.” Sara
Morrighan
had only been Zach’s mate and the Pack’s Alpha female for six months. But it had been the best six months the Pack had known for years. She wasn’t normal. Even by wolf standards. But her odd view of everything was infectious. The females worshipped her and feared her in equal amounts. And the males knew not to push her patience, but they appreciated the fact that she took the jagged edges off Zach. He was still a ball buster, but a much friendlier one. She’d even gotten the respect of the older wolves that didn’t live in the main house, which was usually damn near impossible.

Conall
checked his watch. Zach chuckled, “How long before she gets here?”

“Two hours. Six minutes. And 34 seconds.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re not all wound up about it.”
Oh, I’m wound all right. Tight
. He never stopped thinking about her. Wanting her. He was dying to know exactly what kinds of things got her off. Sucking her nipples? Licking her clit? Or something more simple? His hands in her hair? His tongue in her ear? Zach had thrown every available female from the club scene at him. He wanted
Conall
to lose interest in what he termed “Sara’s big-mouthed friend,” but none of the women held his interest. He only wanted Miki. And he couldn’t wait until her tight little butt was naked and on his lap.

“She’ll come around.”

“She’s human,
Conall
. You should go for a nice wolf girl.”
Conall
looked over at his best friend and the Alpha Male of the Magnus Pack. Bite marks and bruises riddled the man’s body. And he knew from when they shifted after hunting that claw marks covered the man’s back. It was true, Sara rocked Zach’s world. But she also chewed the shit out of him while doing it.
Conall
would rather have sex that didn’t involve bloodletting. At least not as much. “I’m not looking for marriage here, Zach. I just want to fuck her until one of us dies.”

“Well…that’s a goal. But if you ask me she’s rude. Loud. Short.”

“She’s direct. Confident. Petite.”

“Man, do you have it bad.”
Conall
didn’t bother denying it because they both knew it was true. “By the way,” he decided to change the subject since talking about Miki was only making him hard. “We had some visitors on our property last night.” He could feel Zach tense next to him. His only objective was to protect his mate. He’d destroy anyone who threatened her. “Who?”

“Not sure. But it’s the same scent as the one from the rave.”

“Great. Just what I fucking need.”

“They weren’t here long. Jake’s stupid but he was on them pretty fast.”

“On who pretty fast?”
Conall
and Zach looked up to see Sara standing in front of them, a stack of mail in her hand.

She’d really gotten stealthy lately. And she’d learned how to stay downwind. “Nothing,” Zach grunted.

Sara sighed and squeezed in between the two of them on the bench. “You’re lying to me. I really hate that.” She laid her head on Zach’s shoulder. “You might as well tell me now, mate. I’ll just get it out of you later.”

“I’m never sure if those are threats or promises.” With a low growl, she bit Zach’s shoulder.
Conall
saw Zach wince as she drew blood. “It’s both.” She retracted her canines. He knew if he didn’t say anything he’d have to witness their idea of foreplay. Wrestling. All they were missing were the ring and the announcer. “Something in our territory last night. Just not sure what.”