Manipulating Mikey (First Wave Book 8) (15 page)

Mikey and Lauren’s attention turned
back to the table when Alaina stood.

“Sorry, guys, I’m going to get some
sleep while I can. I’m sure when Grai releases the area back to me, I’m going
to be really busy,” she said as she leaned down and kissed her brother on the
head before giving Crator a hug.

Mikey stood when she came to stand
in front of him.

“Come here, big guy. Hugs are
required in this family,” she said with a grin as she held her arms open wide.

Mikey pulled the slight woman into
his arms and smiled at the whisper in his mind.

“You need anything, ever, or just
want to talk, you call me. You’re family now, so expect my drunk dialing on the
Shengari’ once in a while too,” Alaina said with grin.

Mikey laughed out loud. He hadn’t
considered how embarrassing drunk dialing could be when you had access to a
universal phone line like the Shengari’.

“You do the same. I’m pretty handy
in bad situations,” he told her and gave her one final squeeze before she
pulled away and headed out of the room.

Thjodhild stood next and took her
plate to the sink.

“I need to meet Fiorn and Ivint to
discuss what we’re going to do to help reinforce our teams in Europe. Call me
if I’m needed,” she said with a backhand wave as she left the room.

Everyone said their goodbyes to
her, then Mikey stood.

“I’m going to for a walk before I
head back to the vid. Would you like to join me?” Mikey said, surprising Lauren
when he held his hand out to her.  

Lauren blushed a little and looked
at Crator, Amun, and Disc, who were suddenly in conversation with one another
and pretending to ignore her and Mikey.

“I would love to,” she said as she
let Mikey pull her to her feet.

Mikey turned to Discorian.

“Disc, are you stationed here as
well? I’d like to get to know you when you have some time,” Mikey said,
surprised at how much he meant it.

“I’m also assigned here for a few
weeks. Maybe we can get together tomorrow?” Disc asked, knowing he was suddenly
assigned here so the men could get to know one another. Although initially
surprised to learn he had more family, he was happy to welcome Mikey.

“I’d like that. Crator, I’ll see
you later. Amun, thanks,” Mikey said.

He led Lauren from the kitchen and
around the path that led to the main street. He almost cringed when they turned
the corner, hoping Emily wouldn’t be there. He let out a sigh of relief when
the coast was clear, and he led Lauren past the spot beneath his window where
Emily usually stood.

“I’m sorry you walked in on that,”
Lauren said.

Wrapped in his thoughts of Emily,
it took Mikey a moment to realize what she meant.

Mikey squeezed her hand and grinned
at her.

“Don’t be, I was going to find out
anyway. Granted, it was a little weird at first, but that would have happened
under the best of circumstances,” Mikey admitted, not the least bit upset with
how any of that went. He’d already liked Crator from the jungle, and Disc and
Alaina had really nice energy.

“That’s true. I think you handled
it wonderfully though,” Lauren said, proud of him.

Mikey chuckled as he led them down
the stone laid street.

“You mean after the whole ‘deer in
headlights’ look? They seem to be good people and made it easy for me,” he
admitted.

It was Lauren who laughed now.

“Alaina was a little abrasive.”

“Only at first,” Mikey said with a
grin. “But I really can’t blame her. It must have been a little creepy when I
walked in as you were discussing me.”

“Maybe just a little,” Lauren
teased.

Mikey enjoyed the feel of her hand
in his. The energy humming between them was pleasant and comforting. It felt
like home—a home he didn’t know he could have until he met her. Now it seemed
like most of his thoughts centered on her or led to her.

In what he began referring to as “his
previous life,” he would have freaked out over someone becoming as close to him
as Lauren was. Part of him would always rebel at the thought of deepening a
relationship. Granted, a lot of his previous girlfriends were a little crazy
and seemed to repel most people, but he began to wonder if that had been his
beast making sure he held out for the right one—for Lauren.

“Do you have siblings?” Mikey
asked, wanting to know her better.

“No. My parents were considering it
when World War II broke out. They left me with Fiorn and Thjodhild while they
went back inside Germany to try and get her sister out. None of them returned,”
Lauren said sadly.

“Oh Lauren, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t
have pried,” Mikey said, his heart breaking for the loss he knew she still felt
deeply. He could feel it in her energy.

He hugged her close to his side and
she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him back.

“It’s OK. It was a long time ago,
and my aunt and uncle were really great to me,” Lauren admitted.

Even now, more than 70 years later,
she still felt the emptiness inside when she thought of her beautiful mother
and her handsome father. But sharing it with Mikey didn’t bring the sharp pain
that it usually did when she told anyone about it.

Mikey guided her off the street
into one of the gazebos and pulled her into his arms.

“Did you always know you’d be a
doctor?” Mikey asked, wanting to change the subject away from something
hurtful. The last thing he ever wanted to do was cause her pain.

As much as Lauren loved being in
his arms, she knew that they didn’t need to rush anything. The last thing she
wanted was to frighten him off when they were starting to make progress in
getting to know one another.

Lauren gently pulled away from him
and sat down, tugging on his hand until he sat beside her.

“Yes. My parents knew early on what
my gift was and encouraged me to learn it and use it. I was lucky to be able to
study with my aunt—who was also a doctor—as I grew up,” she said as she
shivered slightly from a cool breeze that blew through the street.

Mikey felt her shiver and put his
arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to his side in order to block any
more breezes and share his body heat.

“Where are your aunt and uncle
now?”

Lauren shamelessly cuddled close to
him, enjoying the warmth he radiated like a space heater.

“They were killed in New York when
they tried to help someone who was shot and robbed in front of them,” Lauren’s
voice caught as she spoke, her eyes misting with tears at their senseless
deaths.

“I’m so sorry, Lauren,” Mikey
whispered, feeling like an ass for bringing up obviously painful memories.

Lauren mustered a chuckle.

“It’s not like you knew. Don’t feel
bad, I had a wonderful life with them and my parents. I live with the people I
grew up with, and they’re all like family to me. Certain parts of my life are
sad, as with anyone, but overall, I am luckier than most.”

She truly believed that—more so now
that she’d opened her eyes to the rest of the world and what was going on in
it.

“Did you spend a lot of time in
this place?” Mikey asked.

Lauren nodded her head against his
shoulder. The combination of his warmth and her exhaustion was making her
sleepy.

“Hey, have you slept since we came
back from the jungle?” Lauren asked.

Mikey chuckled and shook his head.

“No, I was still too wound up from
the adrenaline. You haven’t either, have you?”

Lauren sighed and shook her head,
her hand covering her yawn.

Mikey stood, secretly enjoying the
small sound of protest Lauren made. He held his hand out to her with a smile.

“Come on, we both need some sleep,”
he said, hoping she’d protest so he’d have an excuse to carry her.

Lauren put her hand in his and let
him pull her to her feet. He kept her hand as they made their way back to the
castle and up the stairs to her room, which was to the right of his.

Mikey stood in front of her, not
sure if he should try to kiss her or push her into her room so he wouldn’t. Her
subtle, floral scent was beginning to really get to him, and he was having a
hard time trying to keep his hands off of her.

Lauren could feel the uncertainty
in his energy and didn’t want to ruin the progress they had made, so she leaned
up and kissed his cheek.

“We should get some sleep,” she
said softly, looking up at him through her lashes.

“Yes, we should.”

Mikey looked into her eyes and his
hand rose and gently cupped her cheek. He leaned forward slowly enough for her
to pull away if she didn’t want him to kiss her.

His heart pounded in his chest as
his energy roared through his veins. Although he knew it had only taken seconds
to reach her face, it had felt like hours before he touched her soft, supple
lips. When she didn’t protest—or slap the hell out of him—he pulled her closer
and wrapped his arms around her.

Lauren could feel their energy drawing
them together, and she couldn’t fight it as his full, warm lips pressed
tentatively against hers. When he pulled her closer, she wrapped her arms
around his neck and gave herself up to the heat building between them.

She barely noticed when he pressed
her against the door as his tongue gently pushed through her unresisting lips. Her
hands wound through his short hair, gently pulling him closer as she pressed
her body against him.

The heat surged between them, the
energy bond intertwining more quickly the closer they became. Lauren felt like
she was on fire as his tongue danced with her own, and his hands moved up and
down her back.

Her mind warred with her body, one
sure they should wait while the other thought they’d waited long enough for
this moment. When his hand gently brushed against her stomach, she made up her
mind.

Reaching one hand behind her, she
turned the doorknob and braced herself against him as it swung open.

Chapter
Fifteen

Mikey felt the slight brush of air
as the door swung open behind Lauren. Reluctantly, he pulled back from her and
looked deep into her beautiful blue eyes to make sure he wasn’t mistaking her
meaning.

Lauren knew that he was giving her
time to change her mind and didn’t want any misunderstandings about what she
wanted. Sliding her hand gently down his neck and across his chest, she smiled when
he shivered at her touch and his gaze grew hotter. Without breaking eye contact,
she took his hand and pulled him inside of her room.

Mikey’s breath caught in his throat,
and his mind scrambled to process that he was in her room and she was looking at
him with a seductive smile that set his blood on fire. With one last look to
make sure she hadn’t changed her mind, he used his foot to kick the door shut,
then picked her up and carried her to the large bed in the center of the room.

Lauren kept her hands around his
neck as he laid her gently on the bed, pulling him down onto it with her. They
laid there for a moment, just staring into one another’s eyes before Mikey
cleared his throat.

“I know this is going to sound
stupid, but before we go any farther, I need to know you’re doing this because
you want to see if we can make this work between us. I’m not a one-night stand
kind of guy, and I feel more for you than anyone I’ve ever met, and I don’t
want this to be the beginning of the end. I want this to be the end of the
beginning, so we can more forward to the next stage,” he said, hoping she
wouldn’t think he was being an idiot.

He was never the kind of guy to
want anything to do with casual sex, and he wouldn’t treat Lauren like she was
anything less than the most important thing in his world.

Tears misted Lauren’s eyes at his sweet
words, and she nodded her head.

“I think we’re more than ready to
move forward,” she whispered before she leaned into him and took his lips in a
passionate kiss.

Mikey ran his hands up her back,
pulling her top up until he could slip his hands inside. His groan at the feel
of her soft, warm skin broke their kiss, and Lauren smiled up at him as she
pulled her shirt over her head, threw it over the side of her bed, and kicked
her shoes off.

Mikey saw her full breasts encased
in a sexy, red lace demi
bra, and he had to close his eyes to
stop himself from grabbing her to him. The smoldering fire rushing through his
veins felt like it had ignited into a molten lava, and his hand ached to touch
her.

When she slid off her pants to
reveal matching panties, he felt his mouth go dry as dust, and his fists
clenched and unclenched as he tried to stay in control of the desire burning
through him. He’d never wanted anything more than he wanted Lauren right then.

Lauren could feel Mikey’s control
slipping as the energy flowing between them intertwined rapidly. Sitting up on
her knees, he sat up with her, and she pulled his shirt out of his pants and
started pulling it over his head.

She grinned and sat back when he
realized what she was trying to do and yanked his shirt over his head. Lauren
almost giggled when she heard it rip.

She watched as he pulled off his
boots before sliding his pants off and was stunned to see that he didn’t wear
undergarments. She didn’t have much time to think about it before Mikey leaned
forward and gently pressed her back into the mattress, taking her lips again as
he did.

The feel of their heated skin
touching set their pulses pounding as the energy swirled around them. Mikey
felt like he was being consumed by heat and desire, and he couldn’t seem to
control any of it as his hand reached behind her to release the catch of her
bra.

Lauren pulled the straps from each
of her shoulders without breaking their kiss and moaned into his mouth as her
taut nipples scraped against his bare, chiseled chest.

Mikey pulled back and looked at
Lauren.

“God, you’re beautiful,” he
whispered.

Lauren smiled and slid her panties
off as she watched his eyes widen before they darkened. She reached up and slid
her arms around his neck and pulled him back down to the bed with her. She
moaned as his hands roamed her heated flesh while his tongue danced with her
own.

She was lost in a world of
sensation and pleasure as he pulled away to trail kisses down her neck to her
breasts. She sucked in a sharp breath as his warm, wet mouth drove her mindless
with pleasure until she was begging him for more.

When he finally pulled away, Lauren
felt like she’d melt into the bed until she felt his hard shaft probing at her
entrance before he slipped inside. She gasped from the sensation as Mikey
braced himself on his elbows above her.

“Are you sure?” Mikey asked
hoarsely, barely able to control to the urge to drive himself inside of her.

“Yes,” Lauren managed to say before
she cried out as he impaled himself fully inside of her. Her fingers shook as
she clutched at his shoulders, and her legs locked around him to keep him from
moving until she could adjust to his girth.

“Oh my God! Why didn’t you tell
me?” Mikey choked out, realizing he’d just taken her virginity without a care
for her feelings.

When he tried to pull away from
her, Lauren wrapped herself more tightly around him so he couldn’t move.

“It doesn’t matter, and it doesn’t
hurt at all now. Please, Mikey . . . don’t stop now,” she whispered in his ear.

Mikey pulled away to look in her
eyes, trying to see if she really wanted to or was lying to him, and he was
struck by how incredibly sexy she looked beneath him. He pulled out a little
bit and watched her close her eyes as she moaned and tried to pull him close
again, and he felt like roaring that she was his.

“Mine,” he whispered as he leaned
down to kiss her before driving back inside of her wet heat, setting a mild
pace so he wouldn’t hurt her.

“Yours,” Lauren said as she wrapped
her legs and arms around him, matching his downward thrusts with her own upward
ones.

The heat and the energy swirled
around them as Lauren urged Mikey to go faster and to thrust deeper until she
finally cried out and grabbed him closer. Mikey waited until he felt her first
contractions around him before he let out a cry of his own and collapsed on top
of her, trying his best to keep his weight from crushing her.

When their breathing finally
slowed, Mikey slid to her side and pulled her close to him. When she rested her
head on his chest, he gently brushed her soft locks as she threw one of her
legs over his own.

Mikey closed his eyes and had just
begun to let the exhausted contentment take him to sleep when he felt a slap on
his arm. He bolted upright and looked at Lauren who had reached over to touch
her own shoulder. Mikey moved his hand away and stared in open mouthed surprise
at the intricate tattoo-like design that had appeared on his upper arm.

At Lauren’s gasp, he looked up to
see an almost identical design on her upper arm and shoulder. He was just
thinking how damn sexy she looked with it when she said something.

“The ator-ma,” Lauren whispered as
she ran her fingers over the beautiful and detailed design.

Mikey was getting ready to ask what
it was when he went completely rigid, his arms and legs trembling as if under
great strain before he felt a pop in his head and he collapsed into the bed.

“Are you OK? Mikey? Talk to me,
baby,” Lauren said as she leaned over him in concern.

Mikey panted slightly as he looked
up into her concerned eyes. He immediately took stock of himself, realized he felt
fine, and turned inward.

“Beast? Are you OK, buddy? Talk to
me,”
he pleaded, wanting to make sure the beast wasn’t hurt by the seizure or
whatever had overcome him.

“You must name me to complete the
bonding,”
the voice said and Mikey felt like dancing with happiness at
the sound.

Mikey turned to Lauren in
excitement.

“My beast wants me to name him to
complete the bond!” he said, his excitement pouring through his energy to her.

“Then name him,” Lauren said with a
brilliant smile, happy that Mikey was truly accepting who he was.

Mikey looked like she’d slapped
him.

“I can’t just pick something! It
has to be worthy of him. I can’t just call him Bob or anything ordinary. He’s
cool as hell and deserves a kick ass name,” Mikey argued, shocked she’d even
consider that he’d just pick anything.

Lauren giggled at Mikey’s offended
attitude on behalf of his beast.

“I’m sorry, honey. Have you asked
him what he would like to be called? I asked mine and we shortened the name he
wanted to Lola,” she said.

Mikey looked at her in horror.

“You named your
male
beast,
Lola? Seriously? That’s just cruel,” he accused.

Lauren giggled and tried to
explain.

“Yes, but like I said, it’s a
shortened version of a really long name, and he likes it.”

“I’m not naming him after a girl,”
Mikey said, adamant that his beast would be proud of his name.

“What would you like to be called?”
he asked
his beast.

There was silence for a moment and
he was starting to worry they were back on non-speaking terms when he heard the
voice.

“I like Harry.”

Mikey thought for sure he hadn’t
heard the beast correctly.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?”
he asked.

“I would like to be called Harry.”

“Really?”
Mikey
asked with a grimace. He wasn’t particularly fond of the name, although he
didn’t hate it either.

“Yes.”

“OK, then. I’ll name you Harry.
” He’d no
sooner said the words than he felt like he’d been electrocuted.

It lasted only seconds, but when he
opened his eyes again he felt fine. Different, but fine.

“Was that it? We’re bonded?”
he
couldn’t help but ask.

“You bonded,” Lauren whispered as
she stared into his eyes.

“You can tell?” he asked her as he
looked down at himself to see if he had another tattoo or something.

“Your eyes. The beast bonding
creates swirls like storm clouds. Like mine,” Lauren answered.

Mikey grinned as he looked into her
eyes.

“Wow, for a guy not good with
commitment, I just tackled two life-long ones. And you know what? I’ve never
felt better,” Mikey admitted before he tackled her back to the mattress.

Lauren giggled, feeling pretty damn
good herself. This was what she’d always thought being bonded would be like,
and she had to agree that she’d never felt better either.

They lay in comfortable silence for
long moments with one of Mikey’s legs and an arm sprawled across Lauren and his
head on her chest.

It’s like we’ve known each other
forever,
Lauren thought.

She just wondered if he was
thinking the same thing when she heard a soft, rumbling snore and looked over
to see his face. Sure enough, he was sound asleep and looked like an adorable
little boy with his mouth slightly open and his face relaxed in slumber.

Instead of being angry, she felt
wonderful that he felt comfortable enough to sleep with her, and she shifted a
little so she’d be more comfortable and fell asleep.

*****

Grai stood on the roof of what used
to be his children’s compound in Paris and watched the chaos in the city, his
fists clenched with rage at what had happened to the beautiful city of innocent
souls.

“Grai, I think the dark prime may
have somehow tracked them here after Angel was revealed in Washington, D.C. It
looks like the damage was timed to occur while those animals did that,” David
said angrily as he gestured towards the emergency lights that blanketed the
city.

“But is the dark prime or the
Relians responsible for that?” Grai demanded through gritted teeth as his heart
bled for the people of Paris.

“No,” Traze said as he stepped up
beside his brother. “They knew about it and did nothing to stop it so they
could do this, but they didn’t plan any of what happened out there.”

“Should we go out there and help?”
Blade asked, itching to do something.

Grai thought about it and shook his
head.

“If they didn’t have the subjects
down and the situation contained, I’d say yes, but right now we’ll just get in
their way. However, if we uncover anything about this or anyone responsible, I
will issue a kill on confirmation. If everything has been documented, we need
to get out of here,” he said.

A kill on confirmation was the
harshest sentence that could be given among the beast worlds, and everyone
agreed that it was more than justified in this case even though it encroached
on human affairs. There were some injustices that shouldn’t be ignored by
anyone with a conscience.