Kodiak Dating Agency

by Haley Weir

  “Michael had his hands full with something else. I’m sure Lori hasn’t told him anything, but you’ll have to contact her to reschedule the orientation or he’ll find out. Come on. Let me give you a ride home.” Brock waited patiently by the door while she wrestled with her bag. Her mother’s old car wasn’t the only thing Tilly had trouble letting go of. Electrical tape and safety pins held her bag together. It was once a backpack with two straps, but had morphed into a messenger bag of sorts.

  “Tilly, how long have you had that thing?”

  “Since I was fourteen.”

  “It looks like something a serial killer would carry,” Brock commented.

  Tilly smacked him on the arm and glared at the big bear. “It’s my lucky bag. It saved my life twice! Once during a fall on a camping trip in the mountains with my family and the second time was when I nearly drowned in a flood caused by a hurricane.”

  “I don’t know which part of that I find more disturbing. But I’m a glass half empty kind of guy and it seems like something bad always happens to you when you carry it.”

  She stuck her tongue out at Brock and followed him to his truck. Though Sapphire was the shortest of their friend circle, Tilly still had to jump up in order to climb inside of the vehicle. “So, did the wife tell you that she’s thinking of sending her father a bomb in the mail? I told her it wouldn’t make it that far with all the ticking.”

  “I take it your only knowledge of bombs comes from cartoons with wacky wabbits,” Brock chuckled. “But yes. She’s also thinking about turning herself over to him. All of us think it’s a bad idea, but Corey was actually listening to her crazy plans, which actually terrifies me. Those two are bound to send me to an early grave.”

  “You love it. Come on, you’ve never been the type to take the easy way out.”

  Brock’s expression fell slightly. “No, I’m the type to make things worse just by being there. It’s a fact. One Michael never hesitates to drill into my head whenever he sees me. I know I put him through crap when we were younger, but I’ve changed a lot.”

  “Everyone needs time to process,” she said. “There’s been a lot of bad over the past few years, so people are having a hard time finding the good.”

  “I’m the reason the hunters came here in the first place.”

  “But they would have come here anyway.”

  Brock frowned in confusion, so she explained it a little better. “Hydra...or Alexander Collier isn’t a young hatchling anymore. He only has two family members left and one of them is a freaking jaguar shifter. It’s time you all realize that he would have come looking for his children eventually.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He’s an extremely rich and powerful man with an army at his disposal, but you all forgot that he’s a grieving husband. That means he cares about family even if he has a bad way of showing it,” Tilly stated as she closed the truck door and set her bag at her feet. “All of that money and power won’t mean anything when he’s dying and there’s no one to leave it to. They are his legacy. Powerful men care about that sort of thing.”

  “He tortured his own son.”

  “And I’m sure he would have done far worse to someone he didn’t love.” They rode in silence for the rest of the journey to her house. Tilly invited him inside, but Brock declined due to having to work a double shift at the fire station. So, like always, she ate dinner alone. Only this time, a text from Michael Adair interrupted her lovely meal of tuna salad and crackers. Tilly accidentally hit the call button when she tried to reply to the text message. It had been a simple reminder to contact him as soon as she confirmed a date with his agency, nothing warranting a phone call.

  Even so, his deep voice broke through the panic in her mind. “Miss Riker?”

  “I told you to call me Tilly.”

  “I’m still thinking of alternatives,” he said dismissively. “So, why did you call, Matilda? My text wasn’t anything too provocative, but I could get creative if that sort of thing gets you going this late at night.”

  “Ugh. You’re ridiculous. What if I had a boyfriend?”

  The line went quiet. “Do you?” His voice sounded even more sinister than usual. If Tilly hadn’t known any better, she would have suspected that Michael Adair was jealous. “Matilda, I asked you a question.”

  “Look, your brother might be into that whole dominance thing, but I’m not.” She winced as soon as those words left her mouth. Tilly didn’t know how close the brothers were, but once again...she found herself saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. “How did you know my name was Matilda?”

  “It’s one of the only names that can be shortened to Tilly. Wasn’t too difficult to deduce,” he said as though he were bored of the conversation. “And for the record, I wasn’t being dominant with you. I was merely prodding you for politeness. You seem to forget your manners whenever we talk.”

  “We’ve spoke twice.”

  “And you’re two strikes out in your first time up to the plate.”

  “If you want to talk about sports, I’ll give you the little league coach’s number.” Tilly put her dishes in the sink and then brushed her teeth with the phone on speaker.

  “Why do you always do that?” he asked.

  “Do what?”

  “Dance around a conversation. You called me and still haven’t said why.”

  “It was an accident,” she admitted as she dried her hands and headed into the bedroom to get situated under the covers, taking the phone with her as she went. “I went to reply to your text and hit the wrong button. What made me dance around the conversation was your ego in thinking that I wanted to talk dirty or something.”

  “Do you?”

  “Do what?”

  “Now you’re starting to repeat yourself. I’ll ask you my questions again,” he sighed. “Do you have a boyfriend and do you want to talk dirty if the answer is no?”

  “No.”

  “Be more specific,” Michael growled.

  “No to both. You can’t just ask me something like that. You don’t know me and your reputation is reason enough for me to turn down such a tempting offer.” Tilly meant to hold back, but once she started it was hard for her to stop the sarcasm from rolling off of her tongue. “Not to mention you aren’t even my type.”

  “And who is?”

  “Anyone who isn’t you.” Tilly hung up the phone and tapped it against her forehead. Everything had begun to fall apart so quickly, but refused to be like her friends and settle for a man she had no connection with just because they claimed to be “mated” to them. Tilly believed in the supernatural, but fate was a little harder to swallow.

  She knew the others thought they had fallen in love and gotten married because that was how the universe designed it to happen. However, upon closer inspection to the situation, Tilly struggled to see how their lives had changed for the better. Sure, they didn’t go to bed each night alone like she did, but at what cost? Perhaps Jenny had the right idea all along in the beginning, back before she didn’t believe in love.

  In truth, Michael Adair was her type in every way and that was the problem. Tilly didn’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past by falling into bed with another powerful man because they knew how to quicken her pulse. She needed to start dating again if only just to prove to herself that Michael didn’t have some sort of hold on her.

  Tilly thought of Gareth and cringed.

  When she met him, Gareth seemed like an unapproachable jerk with no interest in anyone who couldn’t propel his political career. Tilly had just graduated from high school with a full scholarship to college and went out to a bar to celebrate with her friends. He was handsome and radiated a sense of regal pride that intrigued her, but Gareth didn’t notice her until she was walking out the door.

  She felt a hand on her arm and turned to stare into the most beautiful hazel eyes she had ever seen. They chatted for hours about their dreams and Tilly all but forgot about her friends. They had long since
abandoned her to his care. After that night, Gareth and Tilly kept in touch through various forms of communication. It hadn’t developed into anything serious until the second year of her university studies.

  When they met in person again for the first time since that night at the bar, the tension between them exploded into a night full of the sort of sex people only wrote stories about. But Tilly woke up in the morning to hear the news of his engagement and the start of his campaign as governor. She half convinced herself that she had fallen in love with him, only to end up as his last fling before tying the knot.

  “Never again,” she whispered as she rolled over to turn out the light.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Michael threw his phone at the wall, causing Corey to jump to his defense. The jaguar shifter's shadow crept across the frosted glass and a light knock sounded a moment later. "Everything alright in there? I heard a loud noise. Michael, what the hell is wrong? You don’t lash out unless something bad is happening and you don’t know how to deal with it. Don’t treat me like a stranger.”

  "Everything is alright, Corey. Go back to bed. We have a long day tomorrow." Michael waited for the shadow to retreat, but the frustrating feline stretched his body across the foot of his bed. "If you knew what I've done in this bed…"

  "Shut up. I know you wash your sheets twice a day and your housekeeper would shoot you if you didn't. And I know for a fact that you haven't gotten laid in months."

  "You need to get a better hobby."

  “Why?” Corey asked. “I love spending my days saving your asses. Watching all of you has been my job since I came to Haden Springs. That wasn’t going to stop just because we’re allies now. I might not be watching you to figure out your weaknesses and exploit them, but I still need to be aware of those I keep close.”

  “It’s creepy.”

  “It’s necessary.”

  Michael sighed and attempted to kick Corey off of his bed. When his efforts failed, he flopped back onto the pillows and groaned. “It’s Tilly. She’s all I can think of lately. Her call came just when I was falling asleep…”

  “What’s so special about her?”

  “Nothing,” he replied. “And I think that’s the point.”

  “Stop talking in riddles.”

  Michael rolled his eyes and propped himself up on the headboard. “Tilly is...average. Painfully so. She’s a schoolteacher, for Christ’s sake. I’m used to dating models and women so stunning that men salivate at the mention of their name. But she’s different. Everything about her is a contradiction of what I thought I wanted.”

  “But you want her?”

  “Yeah, I think I do. And I think I might have put her in a position where she’ll never want me back.” Michael crossed his arms over his chest. “She’s got so much fire. Not in the way Sapphire is an absolute head-case, but Tilly’s a fighter. She stood toe to toe with me in my office and didn’t let me just push her around.”

  “You’re pining,” Corey snorted.

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Yes you are and we’re suddenly in a chick flick.” The jaguar shifter propped his head up on his hand and stared at Michael. “We’re practically having a slumber party and talking about our feelings. Next thing you know, we’ll be braiding each other’s hair.”

  Michael used all of his force and kicked Corey onto the floor. The other man landed with a dull thud and dissolved into a fit of laughter that echoed through the cavernous loft. “Can we get BFF bracelets and matching butterfly tattoos on our ankles?”

  His comment only managed to make Corey laugh until tears streamed from his eyes. When he finally pulled himself back on the bed, Michael had covered his face with a pillow. Corey punched him in the thigh as hard as he could before running into the kitchen space. Michael jumped from the bed and chased him down. “I’ll skin you alive and make a fur coat if you don’t stop behaving like a child.”

  “Hey! That’s not how you’re supposed to talk to your best friend!”

  Michael launched a whiskey tumbler toward the jaguar and it shattered against the wall. Corey extended the sprayer from the sink and soaked Michael’s entire body with water until he was tackled to the floor. They roughhoused like a couple of children hurling insults on the playground. The fight got so out of control that neither of them had heard the door open. Michael looked up to find Dorian and Anders standing near the sectional with perplexed facial expressions.

  “Should we come back later?” Dorian asked.

  Michael let Corey up from the floor when he tapped out. Anders scowled at the uncharacteristic display of playfulness, causing Michael to lift his chin. His eyes crackled with a silent dare for the other bear to say anything about what he saw. “What are you two doing here? The next meeting isn’t until Friday.”

  “We’re here because our wives—”

  “Here we go,” Corey snapped. Michael shot him a dark look.

  Dorian ignored the exchange. “Sapphire and Jenny have been talking to Tilly.”

  “And?”

  “And everyone thinks it would be best if the two of your stayed away from each other. Jenny’s afraid her heart is going to get caught up in this and so is Sapphire. No one wants either of you to get hurt when it can be avoided,” Anders finished.

  Michael stared at the floor with his shoulders set in a tense line. “What I do in my personal time does not concern you or your wives. Stop meddling in everyone’s business or you won’t like the results,” he shot back. “Tilly has no intentions of getting involved with me. She said so herself on the phone less than an hour ago.”

  “Michael—”

  He raised his hand to silence them. “Don’t worry about her getting hurt. I’m sure my insatiable playboy tendencies won’t do anything to upset Sapphire and Jenny. Even if you guys don’t trust me, you should give Tilly some credit.” Though Michael knew they had every reason to doubt him, it still hurt to know that they all saw him as some sort of manwhore.

  Corey called after him, but Michael changed his clothes and went for a run. It wasn't right to have left Corey alone with the two people on earth that wanted to kill him more than the creatures he captured for experimentation. But Michael needed to get away to clear his head and stop his thoughts from wandering back to Tilly. He worked so hard at trying to prove to himself that he wasn’t like his brother and his friends. A woman couldn’t bring down Michael Adair.

  He bedded tall and slender but curvaceous bombshells. And for a while that had quelled his desires...until he felt the luscious thighs and breasts Matilda Riker pressed up against his body. Suddenly those females that once warmed his bed felt cold and gangly. He didn’t like feeling the ridges of their spines or sharp jut of their hipbones anymore. What he wanted was softness surrounding him as he delved into the molten depths where he found his pleasure. His beast wouldn’t be satisfied by anything less.

  Michael hadn’t intended for Corey to notice. His feet pounded against the cobblestone path that he always took toward the forest. Unlike the others, Michael didn’t need adrenaline or a shock to his system to trigger his shift. He stood in the center of a clearing, surrounded by swaying amber grass, and summoned the shift. Michael was one with the part of himself that transformed into a bear. He didn’t fight it or think of it as something separate from his human form.

  No matter what, Corey seemed to notice everything about Michael and his friends. If watching them was his job, then it was one he excelled at on a new level of eeriness. The former hunter had broken him down piece by piece the first time they spoke candidly in person. “...You don’t seem as ignorant about these things as the others are. Perhaps I underestimated you.”

  “My friends like to think of themselves as men who can turn into beasts. I guess I agree with you in the sense that I, for one, consider myself a beast that wears the face of a man. We are freaks, abominations, and hiccups in the natural order. There’s no doubt about that,” he said. “I made peace with it long ago. And if you think that this suit
or this building would keep me contained if you laid one finger on my brother, then you are sorely mistaken. Brock is off limits—”

  “You’re too controlled to rampage. I’ve never met a shifter like you, one that can blur the lines so delicately. I saw you in the forest. You had all of the strength of your bear -the claws, the fury, and the instinct. But you were present—Michael Adair was still in control of the animal,” Corey uttered.

  Rampage. The term used for when his kind lost the battle between man and beast. It was a term that Corey had assumed meant nothing to Michael or his abilities, but that wasn’t entirely true. As the first of his friends to come into his strength, Michael had nearly killed his father after a particularly nasty bout in the kitchen the night he ran away. Brock always thought that Michael abandoned him out of selfishness, but Michael would never have left his brother for anything that hadn’t been detrimental to their safety.

  He struggled alone and in the mountains for three years learning to control it. The cold seeped into his bones and numbed everything inside of him including his emotions. When he returned to the world of man, things had changed. Brock was a rebellious teen with a penchant for making messes he couldn’t clean up. Michael had done so in his stead only to keep his brother out of trouble, but it became a pattern.

  When Brock’s turn hit him as well, it was clear to Michael that he needed to take on the roll of being a leader. Bears were known for being solitary creatures, but they had formed some sort of clan or pack to protect the world from finding out about their unique abilities. They were freaks. And the second someone had learned of them, Anders had been captured and taken to Sector A and tortured until he was forced into a rampage. He decimated the first facility and returned to Michael and the others.

  That was when Michael searched for a place they could call their own. Haden Springs had been that place for them. Here in these vast clusters of trees nestled between the mountains and the rest of Wyoming, bear shifters had found peace for many years. Michael tore off his clothes and rolled his shoulders back, feeling each hair cover his body with a thrilling little jolt. Like static all over his arms and legs. He tilted his head back and yelled until the sound morphed into a fierce roar.