by M. L. Briers
Malachi’s beast was already reacting to the vampire’s presence around his mate.
“If only that were true,” Donna muttered as she looked anywhere but directly at Malachi.
“With that little revelation from the vampire; I think we need to talk,” Malachi said.
He hadn’t quite envisioned his mate finding out that way. He hadn’t really thought about the best way to break it to her, being human and all, and what with everything else going on between them. But he doubted that he would have just spat it out like that — blindsided her in the way that the idiot vampire had done.
“And you’re still not coming in,” Donna said.
“Are you going to swing that baseball bat at me?” Malachi asked.
Donna looked at him then. The man looked strained, nervous, and yet his eyes were smiling at her, and the corners of his lips had a certain upturn to them.
“Are you going to get out of hand?” Donna offered back in the same manner that he’d asked the question.
“I think I’ve got a handle on my bat-shit crazy mode, for now. If anything changes, I’ll let you know.”
Those damn eyebrows of his were dancing again, trying to meet in the middle, and drawing her gaze towards them. He certainly had a little something-something about him that she found more than attractive.
Maybe they were mates…maybe not. She kind of wished she knew more about shifters.
“That would be great. It’s always better to be pre-warned rather than blindsided,” she said with a dry tone, and they both knew exactly what she was talking about.
“I wouldn’t have told you like that.” He didn’t know how he would have blurted it out, but he was sure he would have screwed it up. That’s what he did – messed things up.
“But you would have told me?”
“Yes.
“Because you have a feeling that I’m more to you than just an everyday person?” Donna asked.
“Yes.
“Explain,” Donna said, frustrated with how the one-sided conversation was going. She needed explanations, and she needed them now.
“I guess you don’t know anything about shifters?” He asked.
“Not really. I’ve heard things — hearsay. But, you know?” Donna offered back.
Malachi knew alright. Talk, lies, innuendo, and just plain stupidity governed how shifters were perceived by the humans that they lived among for centuries.
Most people had known a shifter as just another person, the people living next door, before what they were had been announced to the whole damn planet. They’d spent their whole lives covering up their very existence and fitting in.
While there were a great many voices on the side of the — grab a pitchfork — brigade, on the whole, once the initial shock had worn off that myth, legend, and fairy tales were in fact somewhat true, then the general consensus was to live and let live.
At least, while the shifters weren’t perceived to be some kind of superior race that was going to take over and enslave the world, they were generally allowed to go about their business.
That didn’t mean that rumors and lies didn’t circulate. Some people that he’d known for years had looked at him differently, some with fear, after finding out that he was different. He hated that.
That changed his whole perspective on life. Things had gone from bad to worse, and he’d been exiled — banished from his home, or as good as.
Malachi had accepted his fate. Now, he had a new fate, a mate, and he didn’t hold out much hope that he’d be wanted by her either.
He could see it in her eyes; a way to say get lost without actually saying the words. She was thinking about it, mulling it over in her mind, and waiting for the time when she could deliver those words.
No, he wasn’t wanted by her either. But that was okay; he had to figure that the shock of finding out that she was his mate, coupled with the fact that she had a child, and the added prejudice of some people against his kind had probably set her mind racing.
Wooing her would be hard, but maybe not impossible. Only time would tell.
He just hoped that she’d give him that time.
“I know better than most what’s said about me,” he gave a small thoughtful nod of his head, and she felt somewhat guilty by association.
“How do you know that I’m your mate — is it smell or something?”
“That’s a big part of it. But you remember when we touched hands earlier?” He asked and watched her recall that moment. She nodded. “That touch — that tingle — it only happens between mates.”
“So that’s…” She frowned. “But, it’s not foolproof, right? I mean — it could be wrong, right?”
“You mean like some kind of electric shock?” His eyes were smiling again, the corners of his lips had turned upwards, and those damn eyebrows were practically doing the tango.
Donna opened her mouth to speak and took a moment to roll her eyes upwards and consider his words. She huffed out a breath and twisted her face at the thought of just how stupid she must have sounded.
“Okay, let me try…” She returned her gaze to his and waved an absent hand between them as if brushing away her previous thoughts and trying to collect new ones.
“And find another way around the problem at hand?” There was a low, deep chuckle that resided in his chest, and made her ears prick up at the sound of it.
“Well, that sounds – I wouldn’t say problem…”
“Nice to know I’m not considered a problem,” he chuckled.
“Okay, look, I don’t have anything against you as a person. I don’t even know you, as a person…”
“But it’s the shifter part that you have a problem with?” His eyebrows were dancing again, and she found it very distracting. The fact that he looked kind of sad didn’t make her feel any better about things.
“Yes — no.” Donna bit down on her frustration and huffed again. “I have a problem with you being certain that I’m your mate when I’m not certain of anything.”
“I can see how that’s a problem.”
“Thank you,” she tossed her hands up in the air and almost hit him with the baseball bat. “That’s all I was saying. How can you be absolutely certain that I’m your mate?”
“Because you’re thinking about your daughter?” Malachi offered back.
“Yes.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Shouldn’t I be like a virgin or something?” Her cheeks went the deepest red that he’d ever seen on a person before.
Malachi couldn’t help himself. He tossed his head back on his neck and roared with laughter.
CHAPTER NINE
~
“I’m so glad you find this funny,” Donna offered with a sarcastic snort of contempt for him. “Yea, look at me — stupid human here.” She shrugged.
“Sorry,” he grinned from ear to ear. “A virgin?” His eyebrows danced upwards, and she took a deep breath, as she rolled her eyes, and sighed the breath back out.
“Fine. Mock me.” She smiled.
“Is that like the virgin sacrifice in horror movies?” He chuckled.
“When I said mock me…” She left it there to the sound of his hearty chuckles.
“Sorry,” he cleared his throat and tried not to chuckle, but it was hard. “No, no virgins necessary.” He grinned again.
“Human or shifter — men are still men,” she sighed.
“Yes we are,” he chuckled.
“So, I can either close the door and rush over to the Internet to find out what a mate means — or you can put up with my stupid questions and start answering them with the truth.” She challenged him.
“So, do I get to come in, it’s kind of cold out here?” Malachi’s chin went down toward his chest, and he looked at her from beneath his dark eyebrows. He took sexier than hell, and she had to wonder if letting that man inside her front door was anything like a good idea.
“You feel the cold?”
“I’m not dead…”
“I am, and y
et, still chilly…brrr,” Brook offered from somewhere slightly further away, but still too close for Malachi’s liking.
“Is it really going to take that long?” She tossed back, trying not to laugh at the double act on her doorstep.
“Judging by your previous question — yep. And I smell snow in the air…”
“You can smell snow?”
Malachi grinned from ear to ear and Donna’s heart hit her ribs as it tried leaping towards him.
Sexy as sin and with soulful laughing eyes to boot. Boy, could she be in trouble?
~
~
~
“So, we’re clear?” Malachi had never met such a curious person in his life before.
He could understand why it was that he was fielding so many questions from her, but he didn’t think that there was much else to cover.
“As mud,” she nodded.
“Good…” It took him a moment to realize what she’d said. “Huh?”
“I’m just messing with you,” she chuckled. “But if I have any more questions…”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Malachi said.
Donna opened her mouth to speak as his answer pinged around her brain. It sounded strange — although, strangely comforting in an odd kind of way. Truth be told, she wasn’t sure exactly how she felt about it.
She’d gone from being wanted by the wrong people — to not being wanted by her own family — to being wanted by him. They said life turned in circles — that felt like a strange damn circle to her, more of a merry-go-round and she didn’t know how to stop it.
“When I say; not going anywhere, I don’t mean that in a threatening…”
“Weird, creepy, strange, and possessively over the top kind of way?” She offered.
“Weird, creepy, strange — no, possessive — we might have a problem there,” he said with a slow grin that kept her mesmerized even when it was done.
“Right – right, that whole protectively possessive bear thing,” she couldn’t help but smile back. She thought that was his fault; his smile was catching.
“Exactly,” he grinned. “So, now that I’ve answered your questions — can you answer mine?”
“I can try,” she looked a little apprehensive at the thought.
“Who’s the asshole from the text?” Malachi couldn’t help it when the low, deep growl rumbled through his chest. He couldn’t even manage to bite it off before it escaped him.
He wanted to get hold of that guy and teach him a lesson that he’d never forget.
“That would be my father,” she said with a slow nod of her head.
“Excuse me?” Malachi thought that he must have asked the wrong question, or heard the wrong answer.
“My father believes that he knows what’s right for me, and apparently, what’s right for me would be a match made in hell with one of his business partner’s son’s.” Donna shrugged her shoulders and expanded her hands.
She was used to her father’s ways, but to an outsider; she guessed that he saw what she’d finally come to see. The only thing that her father cared about was business.
Now that she was old enough, she guessed that she had just become another commodity in his arsenal. The fact that it made her feel sick to her stomach to think that she was being traded in some way, bartered, chattel for his business affairs didn’t seem to matter to dear old dad.
He knew what was best — and the man could provide a good life for her and her daughter. At least, that’s what he kept telling her.
Not that she couldn’t provide that life for herself, she could.
Maybe she couldn’t do it on such a grand scale, at least, not yet. But her father was still old school, and a woman’s place was in the kitchen — and other rooms — just not in business.
“I…” Malachi didn’t know quite what to say.
He didn’t want to upset her, not with it being her father and all, but he did still want to kill the man.
He had to wonder if that was a good start to their relationship. Perhaps mentioning it wasn’t such a good idea.
“Shocking, isn’t it?”
Donna had pretty much the same reaction when her father had originally broached the subject. Speechless. But she soon found some choice words for her father that he didn’t appreciate.
“I don’t think you know me well enough for me to say what I’m thinking,” Malachi said.
“I think that growl that’s rumbling through your chest gives me a pretty good idea,” Donna offered back.
Malachi watched her intently for a long moment. She didn’t look worried by the sound of his growl, and that was a good thing.
She wasn’t judging him, and that was even better. But he still couldn’t bring himself to say what he actually felt about her father.
“Does he know where you are?” Malachi asked.
“You mean, right this minute, sitting in my living room with you?” She gave a small chuckle that seemed to settle his bear a little. He was convinced that wouldn’t last.
“You think he knows that?” Malachi pushed up to his feet and moved to the window.
She had opened the door with a baseball bat in her hand; maybe her old man would send someone to spy on her.
“I was joking,” she offered back with another small chuckle that caused him to turn back towards her.
“What about the baseball bat?” Malachi demanded.
“I like night sports,” Donna shrugged.
“Can you be serious for a moment?” Malachi scowled back at her.
“I can try — but only if you stop being so serious for a moment,” she teased him.
Donna much preferred it when his eyes were smiling. When he had that crooked, funny smile on his lips, and his eyebrows were dancing around his forehead, rather than the scowl that he was wearing at that moment.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen, not right now,” Malachi couldn’t lie, and he couldn’t’ force a smile on his face.
“Okay, I’ll give it a moment,” she shrugged.
Malachi wasn’t sure that he’d imparted on her during the question-and-answer session just how protective his bear was of her. Anything that posed a danger to her was going to have his full and undivided attention.
CHAPTER TEN
~
“Has he threatened you?”
“He’s threatened to disown me if I don’t come back,” she shrugged. “I’m not going back.”
“That’s it?” Malachi demanded.
Donna didn’t answer him right away. She wasn’t sure that she needed to stoke the flames that were obviously burning brightly within the man for what was going on. She shrugged again.
“Then why the baseball bat?” Malachi started to move back towards her.
He could sense the deceit in the air that was coming from her and that he definitely didn’t like.
“It’s better to be safe than sorry. I’m alone in the house, apart from Stacey. I’ll defend what’s mine if necessary.”
Malachi had a distinct impression that she would too. She’d definitely swing, maybe hit — maybe miss, but she’d give it a damn good go. He liked that.
“You know when I said I wasn’t going anywhere?” He left that question floating in the air between them. He watched as her eyes narrowed at him, as she thought about it, and then she started to slowly shake her head.
“That’s not necessary,” Donna said.
She wasn’t sure she liked that idea. Out of the frying pan and into the fire — and she didn’t even know him.
“It is to me.”
That was the truth of it. Malachi would defend his mate no matter what. Even against her own kin.
“Mummy, is Santa here?” Stacy’s sleep filled tones snapped Donna back into mummy mode, and she shot a warning look toward Malachi before she pushed up from her chair and started for her daughter’s bedroom.
Malachi felt his bear’s interest pique just as much as his own. His kin. His daughter, no matter what anyone sa
id. A child to protect with his life.
“You’ve got a few sleeps until Christmas, Stacy. Santa’s not ready for Christmas yet, and neither are we.”
Malachi noted the way that her voice had changed when she was speaking to her daughter. Her tone was softer, gentler, and he could hear the love that she had her child in her voice. He liked that hell of a lot.
“But I heard a man,” Stacey said.
Malachi was unsure what to do. Did he head for the front door and leave so the child wouldn’t be fearful and upset?
Did he stay and introduce himself? After all, even if his mate rejected him, he still wasn’t going anywhere when he had females to protect.
Perhaps he needed to protect them from outside the cabin?
Malachi headed towards the front door. He could still hear them talking as he pulled it open and walked outside.
He was as good as his word. He’d protect them from the outside tonight.
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~
Donna knew there were only a view more days of school left before the Christmas break and she was going to make the most of them. When she’d driven Stacey to school, she’d noticed Malachi’s truck following her there.
When she’d driven to the grocery store to pick up a few things, she noticed Malachi’s truck there to. The man was taking this whole protecting her thing to a different level that she wasn’t sure she was comfortable with.
She was planning to go back home, get on the Internet, and find out everything that she could about shifters and mates. He may have thought he’d answered all of the questions last night, but there were always more questions to be asked.
When she came out of the grocery store, there he was, and he looked exactly the same as he had when she’d seen in there the day before. He was leaning with his backside against his truck, his arms were folded over his broad chest, and his legs were crossed at the ankles.
The man was as sexy as hell.
Malachi pushed away from the truck and started toward her. She had much the same expression on her face as she had when he’d first seen her come out the store the day before.