Authors: Shelly Laurenston
“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. It was 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 that Sara had sent her five months ago. It was a shot of the Pack with Sara and Zach in the front. She knew Sara sent it to her, just so that she 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 stared at the photo in awe. “Jesus, Miki, is this guy standing on a ladder or something?”
“And you’re here why?” Amy asked, 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 just 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 she was 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 was again not looking 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 that 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 20-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 was bugging 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 she’d 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. “Just watch your ass,
Mik
. I want you back here with
Conall
as soon as your 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 quietly 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 that 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 was still coming toward her and she was still backing 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 just 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 was calm, which was making her much more nervous than if he were yelling at her. Miki felt the back of her legs hit the bed.
Conall
was blocking 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 that they just weren’t glinting from the light. His eyes had shifted. He was so pissed that 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 against the wall. 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. Then she felt his hands under her shirt and on her breasts, her bra torn apart in one pull.