by M. L. Briers
“You couldn’t win, so you got your revenge,” Donna bit out in disgust.
“Of course — what did you expect?” James sneered back.
“That you might consider your granddaughter and not destroy my business,” Donna hissed the heartfelt words. But she knew better than anybody that her father had no heart.
“Perhaps you should have thought about that when you threw my offer back in my face,” James sneered. “Let’s see if your bear can provide for you, or maybe you’ll have a change of heart…”
“Please hold your breath and wait for it,” Donna hissed back.
“You have twenty-four hours to make your final decision. Then I’m gone, and you’re dead to me,” James didn’t wait for an answer, even though he could hear her curse words behind him as he turned back toward the truck and climbed inside.
Donna watched her father drive away. Her thoughts were dark, and her mind was reeling.
“I’ve got you,” Malachi whispered against her ear. “Let’s go pick Stacey up from school.”
Malachi needed to explain himself to her. Explain what was going on — and hope that she would understand.
But not then. She needed to calm down. She needed to see Stacey. Then when they were together as a family, he could explain everything.
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~
Malachi could feel her emotions on overdrive all the way to pick up Stacey from school. It was lucky that he was driving her car.
It amazed him the way that Donna had snapped out of it and put on a brave face for Stacey when the child made a beeline for them as soon as she saw them. That didn’t stop her emotions from spinning or coming off of her in waves — he could feel it.
Donna was acting on autopilot all the way home. She was answering Stacey’s excited questions and batting off requests as he drove them back to the cabin. If Stacey was picking up on anything wrong with her mother, then she wasn’t showing it.
Malachi pulled the car up in front of Donna’s cabin, and they all climbed out.
“Is Malachi staying for dinner?” Stacey asked her mother with a hopeful look toward him.
“I…?” Donna shot a look at him over her shoulder. Malachi immediately knew that something was wrong.
“I’m coming in for just a moment – and then I need to leave – I have something I need to take care of,” Malachi lied, but the slight look of relief on Donna’s face told him that he had done the right thing.
“It’s just dinner…” Stacey pleaded.
“Maybe tomorrow night…?” Malachi offered back.
Mine…
His beast rose up within him. The bear did not want to deny the child anything, and Malachi felt the same. But he guessed his mate needed some time alone.
Malachi went inside the cabin first, and he listened hard to see if he could hear if anything were off. He already knew the sound of his mate’s heartbeat — it was consigned to his memory — as was her scent. Stacey’s as well. The only other scent in the air was his own.
His job was done. He’d checked to make sure that they were safe inside the cabin.
Malachi turned to leave with a heavy heart. Donna couldn’t meet his gaze, and he had a rock in his stomach, and a heavy feeling of doom settled around his shoulders.
He couldn’t blame her for needing time. Her world had just come crashing down around her ears, and she had her daughter to think about.
Malachi could only hope that he got a chance to explain to her what he needed to say.
She was his mate, and as he left the cabin and his family behind him, Malachi begged fate not to let him down.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
~
Donna would have liked to have thought that her father wouldn’t have done anything so drastic as to attack business and only source of income. But unfortunately, she knew better.
As she sat in front of the fire and stared into the flames in the hope that answers lay inside them, she felt a spark of guilt for Malachi. It wasn’t his fault, and yet, she had left him out in the cold.
She had some thinking to do. She’d need to get a job of some kind until she could establish another source of income for her business. Neither of those things was going to be easy to do.
It was Christmas in a small town – how many jobs could there be?
All of her business contacts had probably shut down before the Christmas holiday, and there wouldn’t be anything that she could do until after the New Year. If she could do anything at all.
Contracts were contracts, and she would still be paid for the work that she had already done. She’d make it through Christmas and New Year, but in January things would be different.
Then there was Malachi — she couldn’t just up and leave in search of work, could she? She’d read about rogue bears and how losing their mates had sent them insane. She didn’t want that for Malachi.
But how could she stay with him in a small town without work?
Her father had put her between a rock and a hard place.
The kicker was that she was developing feelings for Malachi, but she couldn’t expect him to take in a penniless woman and child. She was certain that fate hadn’t seen her father coming.
Donna flicked a look at the Christmas tree. It was beautiful, and yet it made her feel so damn sad that she wanted to cry. Just when she had found something good in her life for her and Stacey, her father had come along and stomped all over it.
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~
Malachi circled the property once more, and he was almost certain that he could hear the sound of his mate’s thoughts ticking over coming from inside the cabin. It was cold and dark outside, and that was fine by him — it reflected his mood.
In so many ways; he was desperate to go to his mate and find out what she was thinking — but there was a part of him that didn’t want to know — considered it better to be in the dark, so to speak.
What if she was planning on leaving him?
What if he couldn’t beg her to stay?
What if he couldn’t woo her in time before she fixed to leave him?
“What if a meteor hit the planet and all of us dinosaurs were extinguished in the blink of an eye?” Brook’s melodic and sarcastic tone reached his ears from somewhere unseen in the darkness, and Malachi groaned inwardly.
“Stop reading my damn mind,” Malachi growled.
The one thing he didn’t need right then was the vampire with his sarcastic ways, reading his mind, and stomping all over his very last shattered nerve.
“You know — it’s easier said than done, there is a huge dense fog in there to get through,” Brook chuckled.
“Why don’t you make yourself seen — I could use a punchbag,” Malachi growled into the darkness, as he scented the air, looking for the vampire’s location.
“You make it sound so tempting — let’s hope you’re not trying to woo your mate with the same light touch,” Brook offered back.
“Get lost.”
“It hasn’t gone unnoticed that you use more than a one word sentence now. I’m guessing your mate has rubbed off on you,” Brook chuckled again.
“I’m warning you, vampire; I’m in no mood for your antics.”
“Merry Christmas! I take it your mood has something to do with your mate’s father and his escapades in town?”
“None of your business.”
“Of course it is. If you can’t woo your mate, then I will be the one that has to put you down for good.”
That was the truth of it. They both knew it, but Malachi didn’t want to think about that now.
If it came to pass then so be it, but he needed to concentrate on wooing his mate.
“Enjoy.”
“And we’re back to one-word answers,” Brook sighed.
“Don’t you have somewhere to be? Bat’s to train — people to drink — and a coffin to sleep in?”
“My coffin is on timeshare — there’s someone else in it at the mom
ent,” Brook shot back.
“Well, don’t take it out on me,” Malachi grunted in annoyance.
He wanted to be left alone. Unfortunately, the vampire didn’t know the meaning of the word.
“You’re very sour tonight, why don’t you share and tell me what happened.”
“You’re very nosy all the time — why don’t you take a long walk off a short cliff?”
“That bad?” Brook chuckled again, and Malachi felt the sound grate over his last nerve.
“What part of go die a horrible death don’t you understand?”
“I know you don’t mean it.”
“I know you’re delusional.”
“Just spit it out — what went wrong?” Brook kept pushing, and Malachi felt the need to head-butt the man, over and over again, until he felt nothing but numb.
“What always goes wrong? Family.”
“I suppose that’s one way to look at finding your mate,” Brook offered back, and Malachi twisted his head on his neck and fisted his hands at his sides. Now he really did want to head-butt the man into submission.
“Go away.”
“I’ve had centuries of dealing with females, and you’ve had all of five minutes with your mate — tell me, who is better placed in this scenario?”
“I will hurt you.”
“I’d say give it your best shot — but let’s be honest — you have better things to do with your time, like wallow in self-pity instead of coming up with a plan.” The vampire berated him.
Malachi hated to admit it, but the vampire was right. Wallowing in self-pity wasn’t going to win him his mate.
He had a plan. He only hoped that everything could fall into place before he lost his chance.
He’d made a deal with the devil — he only hoped that the devil would come through.
“Now you’re thinking like a vampire,” Brook chuckled, and Malachi grunted with annoyance.
“I’m not that despicable,” Malachi growled as he stalked away and hoped that wherever the vampire was in hiding, he’d stay there and not follow him.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
~
“Mummy, where’s Malachi this morning?” Stacey asked from the back seat of the car as they drove through town towards her school.
“He can’t be with us all the time, Stacey. Maybe you’ll see him later,” Donna offered back.
She felt the loss of Malachi’s presence as well. The man hadn’t gone far away. His truck had been parked behind the bushes at the far end of the property, and she’d done her best to make sure Stacey was occupied so that she didn’t spot it as they left the cabin.
Now, every time Donna’s eyes went to the rearview mirror, she could see Malachi’s truck behind them. He wasn’t close, but he wasn’t far either.
“I wish he could. I like Malachi,” Stacey pouted and folded her arms across her chest just to make sure that her mother understood.
“Well, Malachi’s house…”
“That’s where he goes to sleep – maybe, if we made a bed at our house for him to sleep, then he wouldn’t need to leave at all,” Stacey offered back, and Donna’s cheeks grew red at the indecent thoughts that flashed through her mind.
“Maybe we don’t have the room,” Donna offered back. She’d like to get her daughter off the subject of Malachi, but it was proving difficult.
“You have a big bed,” Stacey pouted and added a frown to her repertoire.
Donna didn’t even want to go there.
“Oh look, school,” Donna said. She’d never been so glad to see something in her life before.
“We can talk about it later, young lady,” Stacey informed her.
There were times when having your own words thrown back in your face was just precious. That wasn’t one of those times.
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Malachi dutifully followed Donna all the way home. He’d missed not saying good morning to her, and he’d really missed not saying it to Stacey. So had his bear.
Mine…
Malachi wasn’t sure if the bear completely understood what was going on. The beast was pining for his mate and their daughter, and he couldn’t blame it.
Malachi noted the black truck on Donna’s driveway before they were even halfway down the track road. With a growl and a grunt of annoyance, he pulled his truck around Donna’s car, the wheels of his truck skirting over the grassland as he went, but he was determined to get there before her.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noted that Donna turned her head to look at him as he drove by. He didn’t know if she’d spotted her father’s truck yet, or not, but she had neither sped up nor slowed down and getting around her was easy.
Malachi headed straight for the truck. There was a moment where he wanted to ram the damn thing head on, and if the man hadn’t of been Donna’s father, then he might just have done it.
Malachi noted that Donna’s car hadn’t even reached the back end of his truck by the time that he was parked and out of his vehicle. He headed straight toward her father.
Just the sight of the man as he opened the driver’s door and climbed out was enough to send Malachi’s blood pressure soaring.
His beast roared within him. Both man and beast had the urge to rip the man’s head off and hand it back to him before his body hit the ground.
Malachi concentrated on one thing, and that was keeping his beast in its cage. The animal roared and clawed to be set free, but Malachi knew that could not happen.
“Well, you keep turning up like a bad smell,” James offered as his opening rally.
Malachi had to wonder if the man was trying to make his beast burst from within him. That would give him the upper hand — something to be used against Malachi if needed — well, he wasn’t going to give the man the satisfaction.
“You’re trespassing,” Malachi growled. If the man wanted to know what his beast was like, then he wasn’t about to hold back on letting him hear it.
“This isn’t your land — I checked,” James offered back with a smug look that Malachi would like to smack right off of his face.
“You’re still trespassing,” Donna called as she slammed the door of the car a little too hard and stalked toward the men in her life.
One man, she wanted there — the other she wanted as far away from her as possible.
“Time’s up — make your decision,” James expanded his hands as if he held her fate between them.
“I…” Donna got no further as Malachi shot a look back at her over his shoulder.
She hesitated in her stride, caught off-guard by the sadness within his eyes.
“Donna…” Malachi started, but the mobile in his back pocket snapped his brain into a completely different direction.
Hope surged within him — he just hoped the devil had come through.
Malachi could hardly bear to look at the text message on the screen.
One word; done.
“What real hold do you think you have on your daughter?” Malachi demanded as he tossed the mobile away from him and folded his arms across his chest.
“What business is it of yours?” James demanded. He didn’t like it when people stuck their nose in his business — and his daughter was his business.
“He’s my mate,” Donna announced, completely taking Malachi by surprise. To say the words was one thing — but the tone of her voice was something completely different.
Malachi tossed a look back at her over his shoulder. Her chin was raised up in defiance, and her eyes were blazing with anger at her father.
Donna drew level with Malachi, stopped, placed her hands on her hips, and challenged her father some more.
“Your mate?” The low chuckle of disbelief and that rolled through James annoyed Malachi, but he was able to ignore it as he looked at his brave and beautiful mate standing beside him.
“I know that love doesn’t register on your radar,” Donna offered her father a scathing look. “It’s all about the cold hard c
ash with you. Well, you know what? I choose love over money.”
Malachi didn’t think that his heart could get any bigger. It had already expanded enough to take in his mate and Stacey, but it still felt as if it swelled within his chest.
“Love does not put food on the table, a roof over your head, and an education for Stacey, now does it?” James tossed back.
“Sometimes it does,” Malachi offered back.
“So, this is your future? A dreamer?” James demanded of his daughter.
“Better to be a dreamer than a cold-hearted bastard, don’t you think?” Donna tossed back and enjoyed every second of the look on her father’s face.
“Fine. Don’t come crying to me when all this stupidity turns to ashes around you.” James turned back towards his truck, but Malachi wasn’t done.
“You’ll be getting a call soon,” Malachi growled and caught the man’s attention as he turned back to look at him. “That lumbar that you need to fulfill your company’s contracts seem to have been directed somewhere else — I think to one of your competitors.”
“What are you talking about?” Now he had the man’s attention.
“Contracts have been ripped up. Shipments have been canceled, diverted, and I think you’ll find that nobody else will do business with you or your subsidiaries any time in the near future.” Malachi informed him.
James didn’t understand. His mind raced, and his pulse followed as he tried to figure out what the hell the shifter was talking about.
“You can’t…” James started, but Malachi cut him off.
“My clan owns two-quarters of the companies that you deal with — another quarter of your business agreements are with other clans that we work with. I think you’ll find that we can.”
James top lip twitched with anger. The man’s eyes held nothing but hate.
“You’ll ruin me…”
“Like you tried to ruin Donna’s business? Which, by the way, you’re going to sell that company to me at a reasonable price.”
“I…” James couldn’t seem to think fast enough.