“You had no right to interfere,” Grady said loudly.
“Don’t I? I used to look up to you, my older brother,” Anton shouted. “But not anymore. I saw what you did to her house.”
Mika jerked the door open, dressed, and stepped out to see Grady and Anton nearly nose to nose, the anger between them obvious, and they looked as though they were about to punch each other.
“I’m ready to leave. Do you know where my purse is?”
Anton stepped back from his brother. “It’s upstairs. Let’s go. We’ll grab it on the way out.”
Grady spun, glaring at Mika. “I’ll take you home. Give me a few minutes to get dressed. We need to talk.”
She refused to look at him. “We’ve said more than enough to each other. Have a good life. It’s been…” Her mouth closed, unsure what to say. A pleasure? The sex had been. Painful? Very, at times. She took a breath. “Goodbye, Grady. I wish you well.” That was true. She moved then, having to walk behind the couch to get to the door to stay away from him. Anton backed out of the apartment, waiting for her, grim.
“Mika? Please? Let me take you home.” Grady’s voice was soft. “We need to talk. I need to tell you…” He went silent. “I’ll drive you to your house.”
She hesitated at the door, could feel his gaze on her back almost as though it were a physical touch. “It’s over now and we’re both free.” She forced her legs to move, walking one foot in front of the other, and knew her heart was breaking with each step.
Anton led her through the basement, past the cage that had been her home for days, and then up the stairs. Her purse was on a table next to the door, as though it waited for her. She gripped it, happy to have something familiar back in her life, and Anton walked to the back door. He glanced at her as she stepped out into the sunshine. She breathed in a deep breath of fresh air.
“You can’t blame him for trying to keep you for a few extra days.” He opened the passenger door to a car, his dark gaze sweeping down her. “If it were me, I’d try to keep you forever.”
Surprised at his words, she looked up into his handsome face that looked similar enough to Grady’s that it hurt.
He shrugged his broad shoulders. “He’s got issues with human women but I don’t. We should hurry before he grows a brain and tries to stop us from leaving.”
“He won’t.” She was sure as she sat.
Anton paused, holding the door. “He’s a fool.” He pushed the door closed.
Mika glanced at the back door she’d just come from, seeing it closed, watching as Anton got in the driver’s seat, started the car, and pulled away. Grady never came out. She forced her attention forward. Grady was the past and the sooner she left she could get on with her future.
———
“I brought a contractor in here yesterday,” Anton shook his head. “Grady is going to pay to fix everything. By the time you return for another visit, it will look as good as new.”
“He really did a number on my room.” She wondered if she’d ever come back and how long it would be before she had an urge to return to Bartock. The house would remind her of Grady and she wasn’t sure when she’d be able to face that. She stepped over a broken drawer, moving toward the bathroom. “Thanks for sticking around while I pack up and for offering to take me to the airport.”
“We took you from it when you tried to leave so one of us should return you.”
“I appreciate it.” She walked into the bathroom, bent, and grabbed out her travel bag. She packed up her personal items quickly and then turned to leave, nearly walking into Anton’s big body that blocked the door. She gasped, staring up at him. “Sorry. I didn’t realize you were right there.”
“Grady should have appreciated you but he can’t.” He paused. “You should get revenge on him for hurting you and I’m more than willing to help you do that. I don’t scent fear on you. You realize you’re alone with me, don’t you?”
“You won’t hurt me.” She didn’t add the “I hope” part that filled her mind. Suspicion was instant as she stared up at the man blocking her way. “Do you and your brothers hate Grady or something? Why are you hinting that I should try to get even with him? You could have let him keep me for a few extra days since I was clueless about when mating ended but you stopped him from doing that by telling me the truth and getting me out of there.”
The man frowned. “No. We love him. I don’t know what you’ve heard but it’s my mother who is blindly jealous over Grady. She thought she was breeding with our father to give him the next-in-line alpha. She was smug with her place in our father’s life. When Grady showed up, she realized she hadn’t birthed the first son. It really pissed her off. She’s…” he sighed. “I love her but she’s messed up.”
Her eyebrows arched and she put her hands on her hips. “I see. No. I don’t see.”
He chuckled and then winked at her. “It’s complicated. We love Grady. To us he’s just our brother but because of our mother putting defined lines down he sees a difference. He told our father he wouldn’t take his rightful place as first-born son because he is part human and he’s a bastard. I think he was afraid I’d hate him if he stepped into the role no matter how much I tell him I was actually relieved. Being active alpha is a pain in the ass. I see my father’s life and shudder at the thought. Grady is fixed on this idea that he doesn’t fit in totally with us but we’re fixed on the idea of showing him otherwise. I believe if he faces his human side and accepts it that he’ll finally come around and the only way to do that is if he accepts a human as his mate. He wasn’t ready to let you go but I pressed the issue when I took you today.”
“What was the logic behind that? If you think he’s going to come after me, think again. He’s probably making a date with Megan as we speak.”
He cocked his head, seeming to listen to something, and then chuckled. “I don’t think so. Go along with this.” He winked. “Trust me,” he said more softly. His voice rose. “So I’ll mate you. You can stay in town, live here, and forget all about that brother of mine. If he wasn’t smart enough to keep you, I sure as hell am.”
Mika’s mouth dropped open and then she tensed as Anton suddenly wrapped his arm around her, yanking her off her feet, pressing her against his body. She stared wide-eyed at him, too shocked to struggle or protest.
“I can make you forget all about Grady, blondie.”
“Let her go,” Grady snarled.
Mika’s head jerked in the direction of her doorway to see Grady storming into her room. He kicked some of the debris out of his way and kept advancing, fury on his features. Anton turned his head, looking bored, and arched a black eyebrow.
“What are you doing here? Did you come to clean up the mess you made? You can start by taking all the shit out to the dumpster that the contractor had delivered this morning.”
“I said, let her go,” Grady snarled, reaching for Anton.
Anton put Mika on her feet as swiftly as he’d grabbed her, spinning to face his brother. “You’re out of heat. She may carry your scent still, but she’s not your mate. She’s human and you’ve done nothing but hurt her. I don’t have your hang-ups.”
Grady growled. Anton snarled back. Mika was in shock, staring at the brothers, wondering what the hell was going on. Why was Anton trying to make Grady think he wanted her and why was Grady even at her house? The one thing she was sure of was they were about to come to blows.
“Enough!” Mika shoved forward, getting between the men, glaring up at Grady as she pressed her hands on each man’s chest to push them apart. “What are you doing here?”
He looked down at her, enraged, his canines extended. “We need to talk.”
“Anything that you had to say to her should have already been said when you were locked up together,” Anton said softly.
“She wouldn’t let me.” Grady was furious, glaring over Mika’s head at his brother. “She threatened to not touch me and since I was chained to the damn cot I didn’t have a choice but to
remain silent.”
“You wouldn’t have needed to be chained down if you hadn’t blown it with her so damn badly she tried to run away from you and then, when she was returned to you, you came at her like a vicious animal. You could have hurt her.”
Grady snarled, a deep rumble that made his chest vibrate. “You want her, don’t you?”
Anton pushed against Mika’s hand, straining closer to his brother. “I am going to mate her. You might not know what you had but I know how special it would be to have a woman who wants a man for who he is instead of what he is. I’m sure she likes you despite your damn alpha bloodlines.”
“Find your own female.”
“I did.” Anton grinned. “She’s right here and I’m not letting her go like you’re about to do.”
Grady grabbed Mika, lifting her out of the way, and placed her on her feet behind him. He spun and tried to lung at his brother. Mika threw her arms around his waist.
“No!”
Grady snarled. “You want my brother?”
Chapter Fifteen
Grady took a deep breath. His body was rock hard, he was that tense, and he turned slowly in her arms. Mika had to ease her grip on his waist to allow it and then tried to release him completely when they faced each other but Grady’s hands gripped her hips, stopping her from putting distance between them.
Grady’s teeth clenched. “You tried to throw me out of your house for suggesting I let Erik touch you so my animal side would smell another man on you and stop clamoring to mate with you. I did that to protect you. I didn’t want anyone else to touch you but, even more, I didn’t want to risk losing control and possibly kill you. Now you’re going to let my brother touch you? You want him as a mate? What happened to you saying you didn’t fuck other men?” He snarled and his eye color blackened.
“Grady,” Anton grabbed his shoulders. “Let her go before you hurt her. Calm down. I didn’t mean it. I was trying to make you jealous and it worked. She had no idea I was going to grab her or say that shit. She doesn’t want me, brother.”
Jerking his head around, Grady growled at his brother. “Get out and leave us alone.” His nose extended and the shape of his eyes changed.
“Not until you calm the hell down.”
“I said get out. I want to talk to Mika and no one is going to stop me this time. Leave. I’d never hurt her. I’ll calm the hell down when we’re alone.”
Anton hesitated, looking uncertain. He finally nodded. “I’m not going far though.” He shot a meaningful look at Mika. “I’ll be in the living room and then I’ll drive you to the airport when your talk is over.” He inched around them and left the bedroom.
Grady closed his eyes and his body trembled. He seemed to be fighting both sides of his nature as he fought to get control of his body. His breathing finally slowed and his features changed back to human. Black eyes snapped open and they were directed right at Mika.
“I got to thinking after I bit you. I’m sorry I freaked out and left you here alone, babe. I’m always hurting you when I don’t mean to, aren’t I? I was sure that the mating took and I had to be realistic with myself for the first time in forever, after I calmed down. It’s not that I don’t want a human mate because I have something against humans or hate that part of me. I don’t. I’m afraid to take a human mate.”
She inched back and he released her. She cleared her throat since it wanted to close up on her with emotion. He was opening up to her and she wasn’t sure where he was going with this but the fact that he’d come to talk to her had to mean something.
“Why are you afraid?”
“My mother was human and she didn’t want me, Mika. When she tracked my father down she couldn’t get rid of me fast enough. Mated werewolves have chemistry going that keeps them dependent on each other but that usually doesn’t happen when we mate with humans. What if you change your mind about wanting to be with me after we have children? What if you leave us the way my mother left me? Your chemistry is different. A werewolf mate would get addicted to my scent and always need me as much as I get addicted to her and need her. You probably won’t do that. Mates are for life but you could leave me at any time.” He paused. “It would destroy me to lose you or to one day see the kind of pain I’ve suffered on the faces of our children if you left them as well.”
Mika stared at him in shock. She didn’t know what to say. Grady didn’t have that problem.
“If you were a werewolf you would have known that I had no intention of touching Megan, you wouldn’t have run off to leave me in heat, and I wouldn’t have had to call my family to help me find you before you were gone. It pissed me off, made me so damn angry that I had been right all along, and I thought you were my mate, abandoning me, which was my worst fear. That’s why I was so out of control when I reached my father’s house. I didn’t mean to scare you but I was going crazy inside. You didn’t give me a chance to explain anything but instead just ran from me.”
“I thought you were going to kill me and that she was the one you wanted, Grady. She’s the woman you had to cancel your plans with. She’s the one you originally planned to go through your heat with.”
He frowned. “I explained that. I was afraid when I told Megan that I took a mate that she’d try to challenge you. You’re human, you’d lose, and I was telling Yon if she tried to do that, I’d kill her to make sure she didn’t try to claim me.”
“It would have solved all your problems if that were the case and the mating had taken, Grady.”
He took a step closer to her, looking scary and angry. “You think I’d let that happen? That I’d allow anyone to hurt you?”
She glanced around her bedroom and then arched an eyebrow at him. “You obviously didn’t want to be mated to me and felt pretty damn strongly about it. Look around you.”
He did and then his gaze locked on her again. “I never wanted to risk making a human woman the center of my world again because the one human that I did left me on a doorstep and never looked back once. I was seeing that in my future when I did this, terrified that one day you’d abandon me and our children, the pain it would cause us, and I know the grief firsthand.”
“I’m not her,” Mika said softly. “I could never do that.”
“You already tried to leave me but I realize it was my fault.” He leaned against an exposed wood stud. “I’m sorry I hurt you and I’m sorry that I was too afraid to show you how much you mean to me. The closer we got and the more I wanted you, the harder I fought it. I know I was somewhat of an ass at times.”
“I understand,” she said softly. “Thanks for explaining it to me.” She shook her head, a small, sad smile playing at her lips. “And you were a first-rate asshole at times. Don’t be modest.”
A quick grin flashed on his handsome features. “Don’t ever leave me, babe.”
The air in her lungs froze and then she pushed it out. She couldn’t look away from him. “What?”
He hesitated. “When I calmed down after biting you I came to terms that you were my mate. I didn’t hate it, babe. I actually was relieved that I didn’t have to fight my feelings anymore. I’m still terrified that I’m going to lose you since we won’t bond the way I need us to but I’d rather take the chance than just let you walk away from me.” He hesitated. “I’m disappointed the mating didn’t take and if my damn brother hadn’t stuck his snout in it today, I was going to spend the next few days convincing you that I can make you happy.” He paused. “I was going to bite you in bed but it wouldn’t have been an accident this time.”
Her mouth dropped open and then she slammed it closed. Grady pushed away from the wall, staring down at her, and his hands reached for her. Mika took a step back, tripped on something that hit the back of her heel, but she never fell. Grady had her in his arms in a heartbeat, sweeping her up, holding her tightly to his chest so their mouths were inches apart.
“I’ll never cheat on you, never shut you out again, and I’ll make it all up to you. Just don’t leave me,
Mika. I don’t want to live without you.” He paused. “You’re in my blood and I want to be in yours.”
She couldn’t look away from his sincere gaze as her hands wound around his neck. “I—”
“Give me a chance, babe. I miss you, I miss us, and I want it the way it was.”
She chewed on her lip, her gaze locked with his. She loved him.
“I’m not letting you go,” he whispered. “I already think of you as my mate.”
“But you want a mate with a tail and fur. One you can—”
His mouth came down on hers, cutting off her words. His tongue invaded, sliding across hers, his passion igniting instantly. They had chemistry, she knew that, and so did he. She moaned into his mouth and he pulled back, breathing hard, his gaze locking with hers again.
“I’d rather risk losing you later than watch you walk away for me forever. I love you, babe. I fought it, I was set to not mate you no matter how much my two sides battled but both of them want you. I want you.”
“Grady…” She paused, studying his eyes. “I love you too but I don’t want to get hurt either.”
He smiled. “I might have to hurt you once but after that, no more.”
He turned his attention to the floor, stepping over broken furniture and bed stuffing as he carried her down the hallway to the spare bedroom. He kicked the door closed behind them and then eased her down on the bed.
“What do you mean you might have to hurt me once?” She frowned as he backed away.
Grady tore his shirt up over his head, tossing it to the floor while he toed off his boots, just kicking them away. “I’m going to bite you. You didn’t feel it last time so I’m confident I can distract you enough this time as well but I’m not going to jerk my teeth away quickly the way I did before. I’m going to make damn sure the mating takes this time. Get undressed.”
He was really going to do it. She was stunned a bit but she reached for her shoes, tearing them off one at a time, watching him strip out of his jeans. Her gaze ran down his body, admiring every damn inch of him. He was so damn sexy, so…hers. That thought had her smiling. Grady arched an eyebrow as he stood naked, watching her, waiting for her to finish undressing.