Chapter Twenty-Two
He thought the Van Holtz Pack would toss them out as soon as he could walk. Man, had he been wrong. Instead Niles Van Holtz made them all breakfast. The most amazing waffles he’d ever tasted, eggs, bacon, coffee, orange juice, the works. The man was a genius of the kitchen.
He sat next to Miki as she and Conridge talked about how the university management had already begun to successfully cover up the hyena attacks by dismissing them as a pack of wild dogs that found their way onto campus and then proceeded to wreck havoc. The fire Miki started disappeared so fast that it barely got a mention. And no one had any idea what happened to Professor Leucrotta. Conall forced himself not to react when he heard about the man’s knees, although his Pack seemed to be quietly disturbed.
It seemed his mate had done serious damage. To protect him. To protect his Pack. He kept thinking “She didn’t walk away. She didn’t walk away.” And she could have. She so easily could have.
He looked at his Pack. They all feared her. Even the Van Holtz Pack. And now that they knew she was pregnant, now that they could smell it on her, they were waiting to see what she would do if she realized. Even Niles Van Holtz kept looking at him as if to say “Welcome to my world, buddy.”
As if on cue, Conridge’s kids stormed into the room. The boys were typical wolf pups. Loud, boisterous, with sharp teeth. The girl was different. She didn’t seem more than twelve or thirteen, but she moved slowly. Paced herself. She wasn’t doglike at all, but she smelled like wolf. She would be Pack leader one day. And she already knew it.
She walked serenely after her brothers, heading toward the kitchen door leading to the hallway. But suddenly she stopped and looked straight at Miki.
“You weren’t pregnant last night, were you?”
The entire room of people froze. If Conall didn’t know better, he would have sworn that the entire universe had frozen. That, like them, the universe wanted to see what Miki would do.
Miki slowly looked up and turned to the girl. “I’m sorry. What?”
“You. You smell pregnant. Papa taught me what that was when I smelled that same scent on my aunt. You didn’t smell like that last night. But you do now.” The girl shrugged. “I guess you had a busy night.” Then, after destroying his entire world, the little bitch left.
Miki turned around, but kept her head down, her hands flat on the stainless steel kitchen table. She began to tap both her forefingers against the metal and Conall watched all the wolves jump. Dunwich waved at him, trying to catch his attention. Then he mouthed something to him.
“What?” he mouthed back.
Dunwich held up his hand. Forefinger out. Thumb up. The other fingers bent into the palm. His hand looked just like a gun.
Oh, shit.
Conall glanced over at Miki and that’s when he saw the gun in a holster and attached to her waistband. He didn’t even notice her putting it on as they got dressed after their shower. Conridge must have let her keep one for the ride back.
And when Miki suddenly hit the table with her hands, every wolf but him and Van Holtz hit the floor.
Miki pushed her chair back. She looked at Conall. “I’m going to the bathroom. Then we are leaving.”
“Miki, I—”
“No. There’s nothing to say right now. And I mean nothing.” Miki looked at Conridge. “Thank you for everything, Dr. Conridge.”
“Anytime. Of course, when we take on a clan of hyenas together, I’m pretty sure you can start calling me Irene.”
“Thank you, Irene. I’ll call you tomorrow about your job offer.”
“That’s fine.”
She looked at Van Holtz. “Thank you for everything. I truly appreciate your hospitality.”
Simply from the expression on the man’s face, Conall got the feeling Van Holtz would be retelling this story until the end of time. “You are more than welcome.”
Miki looked around the table and realized that all the wolves had disappeared. She leaned down and looked under the table. Twelve wolves laid out on the floor for no apparent reason—that didn’t seem to distract her one bit. “I just wanted to thank all of you for helping us.”
“You’re welcome,” one of the Van Holtz wolves was brave enough to say.
With that, Miki stood and walked out of the room.
Conall closed his eyes. Like his fever from the night before, he was pretty sure this would get worse before it got better.
Conridge leaned across the table and touched Conall’s arm. “I wouldn’t worry.” She motioned toward her husband. “I stabbed him in the leg and set his Mercedes on fire before I agreed to marry him. She just needs time.”
Conall frowned. “Uh…thank you?”
Miki said nothing during the whole thirteen-hour trip that Conall and the Pack turned into a ten-hour trip by doing some seriously illegal speeding and keeping the bathroom and food breaks to a minimum. But really, what the fuck was she supposed to say?
The borrowed SUVs the Van Holtz Pack lent them pulled up in front of Sara and Zach’s place. The Alpha pair already outside, since one of the Pack called ahead.
Miki got out of the vehicle. She was barefoot because she couldn’t bring herself to wear Doc Martens boots with sweatpants. She wasn’t a fashion maven, but that was too tacky for words. She limped slowly toward Sara, her calf tender but already healing. Her friend’s eyes locked with hers and she pulled away from Zach. Sara knew something was wrong. The three friends always knew when something was seriously wrong with one of them without any of them having to say a single word.
As she reached Sara, Conall walked past her. He didn’t speak, simply went into the house. Zach followed after him.
“Your leg?”
“It’ll be fine.”
Sara stared at her. “What the hell’s going on?”
Miki glanced back at the Pack members behind her.
Sara motioned toward the house with her head. “Go.”
And they did. Once they were gone, Sara turned back to her.
“Okay, dude. What’s up?”
Miki looked at her oldest and dearest friend and burst into tears.
Conall had just punched a hole in the wall when Zach walked in. He closed the door and stood behind him.
Leaning his head against the wall, Conall closed his eyes. “She’s pregnant.”
“I know. I could smell it a mile away.”
“She won’t stay here.”
“She has to. Pregnant with a Pack baby? She’ll have every Pride member in North America gunning for her ass. And who the fuck knows what’s going on with that Clan. Besides, you marked her. She’s yours.”
“Not if she doesn’t want to be. You know that as well as I do.”
“Well, you can’t go around hittin’ walls. The house won’t last.”
Miki sat at the kitchen table with her head resting on her arms, a glass of buttermilk sitting in front of her, and Sara’s nose sniffing the back of her neck.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
“You smell different.”
“According to Conridge’s demon child, I’m pregnant. And the little bitch found ‘flaws’ in my thesis.”
Sara pulled away, sitting down opposite from Miki. “I’m sorry. What?”
“You heard me. Flaws! In my thesis! Can you imagine?”
“I don’t mean that, you idiot! I mean the…pregnancy?”
“Oh, yeah. That Cro-Magnon impregnated me.”
“Did we not use the condoms Angie and I provided?”
“Yes, we did. But this happened during his fever.”
“Where were you?”
“Half-asleep.”
Sara smiled. “Was it good?”
“God, yes.” Miki covered her head with her arms. “The man fucks like a god.”
“Not everybody can be loved by Thor.”
Miki lifted her head just enough to glare at her friend. “Shut up.”
“So…am I happy or sad for you?”
�
�Christ, Sara, I don’t know. I wasn’t exactly planning on having a baby, you know, ever.”
Sara suddenly became serious and Miki raised her head to look at her.
“You know, Mik, no matter what you decide, I’ll stand behind you. Always.”
Miki almost burst into tears again, and she never cried. But knowing that Sara would always be there for her meant more than she could ever say.
She wiped her eyes with the palms of her hands. “That means a lot to me. But I think…I think…”
“You want to keep it, don’t you?”
“I’m an idiot, aren’t I?”
“Why would you say that?”
“Because I’m going to end up like my mother. Alone. Struggling with a baby.”
“Okay. First off, never ever worry about that. I’ve always got your back, Mik. And my potential niece or nephew will always be taken care of. Always. So that’s not even an issue. And you know Angie feels the same way.”
Miki wiped her eyes again. She really hoped she was pregnant; otherwise, she was becoming an emotional mess for no reason.
“And second, you’ll never be alone. You’ve always got me. You’ve always got Angie. And you’ll always have the Pack.”
Miki snorted at that. “Are you kidding? They’re only nice to me because of you.”
“That’s a load of shit.” Sara stood up and grabbed a box of chocolate from off the counter behind her. “They like you.”
“Yeah. Right.”
Kelly and Julie pushed the glass doors open and walked in. They were both naked having, Miki assumed, just shifted. If I’m going to stay, I guess I’ll have to get used to this whole naked thing.
Whoa! What the hell am I thinking?
“Hey, Mik. You’re back.”
“Yeah. I’m back.”
“Well, me and Julie are hittin’ an after-hours club tonight. You should come. It’ll be a blast. We’ll celebrate you being all PhD and shit.”
Miki laughed. “Thanks. I’ll let you know.”
“Cool.” Kelly grabbed a handful of cookies from a bag off the counter while Julie grabbed two glasses and a gallon of milk. They disappeared through the kitchen door and then came back two seconds later.
Kelly sniffed the air. “Oh, my God! Who’s pregnant?”
Conall had his head buried under the covers, but Zach just wouldn’t leave.
“I mean, how attached can you be to her?”
“I marked her and she’s carrying my baby!” Conall barked from under his comforter.
“You breeders never fail to make me laugh.”
“Just because you want to be childless—”
“Sara and I prefer childfree.”
“You’re an asshole, Sheridan.”
“Yeah. I know. And she loves me anyway.”
Conall brought his head up from under the covers. “And you love her?”
“More than anything.”
“Why?”
Zach smiled. “Because she puts up with my shit without taking my crap.”
“Miki calls me Viking.”
“Well, she definitely has your number. All those other bitches bought into your sweet act. That always drove me nuts. You always got more pussy than me.”
“That could be ’cause you were always a sarcastic asshole. Next to you, I always seem like the nice one. Besides, I would do anything not to be like my family. Even be nice.”
“You keep forgetting that we are your family. Not those crazed idiots. And we both know, I’d kick the shit out of you if you started acting like them.”
Without knocking, nine of his Pack mates, all male, walked into his bedroom.
Mac Sumner leaned against the dresser. “So. You knocked her up, huh?”
With a growl, Conall pulled the comforter back over his head. Suddenly, he wished he were an orphan.
“Well, you have to think about this logically.”
Miki didn’t know when this became a town meeting of the Pack females, but before she realized it, twelve of them had joined the conversation. Five she’d never even met before. They all had opinions and they were all supportive. It was the wackiest thing she’d ever experienced. They treated her as if she were one of them and as if this problem were theirs to solve as much as it was hers.
“How logically? Either she loves him or she doesn’t. Either she wants to stay with him or she doesn’t.” Kelly, thankfully now dressed, was short like her. But she was as feisty as a mini-Pinscher on six cups of espresso, and had a low voice like rough sandpaper.
“It’s all so black and white for you,” Patty snapped. “Maybe she doesn’t think that way. You always forget that humans think differently.”
“Bullshit. Miki’s more wolf than a lot of us.”
Miki looked over at Sara. She, too, was clearly enjoying the way this conversation was going. The women had already wrestled the box of chocolate from Sara and now all the females were partaking. Miki desperately resisted the urge to remind them that dogs shouldn’t eat chocolate.
“Look,” some chick named Mindy cut in. “This gets us nowhere. We should just ask her if she loves him.”
They all turned to her.
Miki stared at them. She had just admitted this truth to herself. She wasn’t sure she was ready to announce it to a room full of strangers.
Sara reached over and handed Miki a piece of chocolate. “It’s got walnuts.”
Miki took the chocolate and stared at it. “Thanks.”
“You love him, don’t you, Mik?”
With an anguished groan, Miki shoved the chocolate in her mouth and put her head back on the table.
“There’s no shame in loving Thor.” And she could hear the humor in Sara’s voice. “He’s the god of thunder.”
“I think we’re avoiding the most important question here. What matters most. What means the most to men like us.”
Conall growled at Billy Dunwich’s sincere face. “I am not telling you if she swallows.”
Dunwich smiled. “Just tell me if she’s a good girl…or if she’s a very good girl?”
Sara ended the call on her cell. “I left Angie a message. She’ll probably call you later.”
“She’s only going to give me shit.”
“That’s her job. Mine is to be the supportive friend.”
“Well, supportive friend, what the hell should I do?”
“How the hell should I know?”
“I knew it! You send me off into the desert then leave me alone to die. I should have never listened to you and Angelina. As soon as those fangs started coming out, I should have run for the hills.”
Miki glanced up when the room fell silent. “What?”
“What do you mean his fangs came out?”
Damn. She really needed to watch what she said and when. Of course, that only took her twenty-nine years to discover.
She cleared her throat and shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Sometimes his eyes would change and his fangs would come out.”
Sara leaned forward. “During sex or when you pissed him off?”
She again glanced around the room filled with Pack females. They all seemed to be waiting for her answer. “Um…well, both. Sometimes.”
Miki reared back when the chanting began. “Mi-ki! Mi-ki! Mi-ki!”
Now she was completely confused. “What? What?”
Sara jumped out of her chair. “Dude. You got the guy to extend his fangs during sex. That’s amazing!”
Kelly appeared equally impressed. “We’re trained from preteen years to control that since a lot of us have relationships with humans without them ever knowing. We fuck ‘em, but we don’t necessarily mate with ‘em. Anyway, it’s really rare for us to, you know, ‘bust out’ during sex. Even with each other.”
“So, if you actually got him to lose control that much…” Mindy shook her head.
“And this is Conall we’re talking about. He doesn’t lose it. Ever.”
The females actually high-fived each other.
“Wait. Wait.” Sara quieted them all down. “So, Mik. What about you?”
“What about me?”
Sara placed her hands flat against the wood table and raised an eyebrow. Miki had the feeling her friend was getting even with her for the rave comment from four days earlier. Bitch. “Was your reaction equally as enthusiastic as his seemed to be?”
Miki stared at the women, then buried her head back in her arms.
She heard Kelly’s voice announce, “Ladies, I do believe we have a screamer.”
Her cheeks were burning so bad she was sure they were about to burst into flame. “I hate all of you.”
“She’s a prime piece of ass, but once she pumps out a kid, that ass is going to go.”
Conall glared at Jake. He wondered whether it would really be morally wrong to kill the man.
“I don’t care.” Conall moved his glare to Zach. He blamed him for this. “If it was only about her ass, trust me I would have fucked her and walked away by now.”
“How could any wolf walk away?” That from Dunwich. “The woman took on a hyena clan. She set them on fire. Personally, I’d rather have her on our side.”
Zach shrugged. “Then it sounds to me like you love her. And if you love her, then tell her she belongs to you and she needs to get over it. Show her who’s in charge. That’s what I did with Sara.”
Zach seemed less than pleased when they all laughed so hard Conall actually fell off the bed.
Miki glanced up as Patty put a glass of milk in front of her. She stared at it in confusion because she hadn’t asked for milk.
Patty shrugged and answered her unasked question. “Well, if you’re going to keep it, I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to drink milk and stuff.”
“We’ll have to get books. You know. On pregnancy and shit,” Kelly suggested.
Go Fetch! Page 19