Kye's Heart

Chapter Ten

After they’d eaten, Kye had driven them back to her apartment. Surprisingly, it didn’t take too long for Michaela to pack the two large suitcases she owned with her clothes. What didn’t fit, she’d put in black garbage bags. The things hanging in her closet, Kye just took out in bundles and placed them on the backseat of his car. She’d also packed a few other necessities. The rest of her things could stay in her apartment for now until she figured out what she wanted to do with them. She’d have to give the landlord her one month’s notice as well.

With her suitcases loaded into his trunk, they made the drive back to Marin County and the mansion. Kye parked closer to the front door and Michaela got out. She gathered some of her clothes from the backseat while he went around to the trunk and took out one of her suitcases.

They’d just made it through the door when a woman with blonde hair so light it was almost white, stepped into the foyer. She smiled as she came closer. “You must be Michaela.” Her gaze skipped over the things Michaela and Kye held. “And it looks as if you’re making a good start of moving in. I’m Saskia.”

“Nice to finally meet you,” Michaela said. “And yes, but it’s just my clothes for now.”

“It’s something.” Saskia’s gaze skipped over to Kye. “Just to give you the heads up, Miles is here, so behave yourself.”

Kye groaned. “Saskia, are you sure this is really wise?”

“Yes, I do. He’s my brother, Kye. If being with Jaden like this will help keep him on our side, I’m not going to deny him.”

Michaela looked from Saskia to Kye. She had no idea what this “on our side” meant, but from the expressions on their faces, it had to be something pretty serious.

“I know,” Kye said. “But we can’t let our guard down. For me, the bastard has to prove himself—that he’s no longer what he used to be—before I even think of welcoming him back.”

“I never said we shouldn’t stay vigilant. I know exactly what Miles is capable of as much as the rest of you. I just want this to work, so in other words, no going out of your way to fuck things up. Got it?”

“Yes, boss. I guess when Michaela and I finish unloading my car, then we’ll come down and join everyone else.”

Saskia nodded. “When you’re ready, were sitting outside on the patio.” She then turned and walked toward the back of the house.

“Are you going to tell me what that was all about?” Michaela asked as she and Kye walked up the stairs to his bedroom.

“Ha…not right now.”

Hearing the hesitancy in Kye’s voice, Michaela put the clothes she held on the bed and turned to face him. “Does it have something to do with your protecting Roxie and her family?”

Kye closed the distance between them and put a hand over her mouth. “Shh. We don’t need Miles to overhear you talking about Roxie, all right?”

She nodded, even though the chance of anyone hearing what she’d said was impossible. Kye and she were alone in his room and the others were outside. And even if someone were downstairs, they still wouldn’t have been able to hear her.

He took his hand away. “There are some things I have to explain to you, but not while Miles is here.” Kye took a deep breath and let it out on a long sigh. “Once he’s gone, we’re going to have a little chat, you and I.”

“Okay. And I promise I won’t say anything about…you know who.”

Kye smiled. “Good. You’ll understand more once I tell you everything.”

They finished taking the rest of her clothes up to Kye’s room. Until she picked out a new dresser—Kye insisted she get one—she’d be living out of her suitcases. The things that could be hung up were now in his walk-in closet along with his stuff. It was a start to making Michaela feel as if it were her room too.

After Kye moved his car to the garage, they headed for the backyard patio. It was later in the day, but darkness hadn’t yet descended. There were five people sitting around the wrought-iron table, talking. Saskia was there, but the others, Michaela hadn’t met yet. Her gaze landed on the man who she recognized from the restaurant the night before. He had the same light blond hair and similar features as Saskia. Michaela assumed the man had to be Miles, Saskia’s brother.

Once they reached the table, Kye introduced her to Eli, Saskia’s husband, then to Leif and Jaden, leaving Miles for last. Kye and she took the two remaining empty chairs, which had Michaela sitting next to Eli.

After the introductions were over, Leif turned to Kye, and said, “I guess I should thank you for telling Miles about Jaden being pregnant.”

She saw Kye cringe. “I wasn’t thinking, all right. I was a bit…distracted trying to handle something else at the time. I didn’t mean to ruin the surprise.”

“From the looks of you and Michaela, I’d say you two worked through your distraction,” Miles said with a laugh. “I assume congr—” He stopped talking and reached down to rub his leg under the table and looked over at Jaden. “What did you kick me for?”

Jaden glared at him, giving an almost infinitesimal nod in Michaela’s direction. “Dad, you don’t want to say something that will embarrass Kye’s girlfriend, do you?”

Michaela’s gaze shot over to Miles. There was no way he could be Jaden’s father. He didn’t look much older than her. And the way Jaden had stressed the word “girlfriend,” Michaela thought it a bit strange.

“Oh, sorry,” Miles quickly said in return. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

Jaden nodded, then looked at Kye. “It’s okay about you telling my dad about me being pregnant. I wasn’t upset by it.” She glared at her husband. “Not like someone else.”

Leif held up his hands in surrender. “Hey, don’t look at me like that. I only thought you might want to wait until you were a little bit further along. You’re only four weeks pregnant.”

“So? I might not go around telling the whole world, but I had planned to tell my dad.”

Leif ran a hand over his face. “I think I’m just going to shut my mouth now, since every time I open it, I seem to bury myself in deeper shit.”

One minute they were all chuckling over what Leif had said, and the next, everyone, except for Michaela, instantly quieted. They appeared to sniff the air, and a low animalistic growl rumbled out of them, except for Jaden and her. Michaela couldn’t overlook the sound this time, as she’d managed to do every time Kye had done it.

She stiffened when a group of men suddenly arrived on the lawn a short distance away. They moved so fast Michaela had a hard time tracking them. It definitely wasn’t normal.

All the men and Saskia shot to their feet as one man from the other group stepped forward and spoke. “Did you think you could just drop us like we were crap on your shoe, Miles, and think we would just walk away?”

“Leave, Curtis, or this is not going to end well for you and the others,” Miles snapped back.

Curtis laughed. “You think we’re afraid of you and a few Protectors? You promised us that once you had the foretold one in your possession things would be different in the packs. That we, the lone wolves, would have all the control. Just because it’s your daughter doesn’t mean we don’t want what you’d said we’d get if we joined you.”

Miles snarled his lip and snapped his teeth. “The foretold one being my daughter does change everything. She has also opened my eyes to the path my life had taken—one that would’ve ended in my destruction.”

Curtis slowly clapped his hands. “Ah, isn’t that sweet. But that doesn’t get me the status or money you promised us.”

Michaela felt a scream lock in her throat as Curtis and the men behind him turned into wolves. At the scrape of chairs being violently pushed away, she looked at the others around her as they too, one by one, became wolves. She couldn’t pull her gaze away as Kye’s eyes glowed mutedly just before his body shimmered and blurred, taking on the form of a wolf with very light brown fur.

The two groups of wolves launched themselves at each other. Michaela found herself unable to move, her mind having a hard time processing what she actually saw. A large hand wrapped around her arm and pulled her away from the table.

“Get back,” Leif shouted. She turned to find him and Jaden close by. He let go of her and cupped his wife’s face in his hands. “Promise me you won’t shift.”

Jaden shook her head. “It’s still early enough in the pregnancy that I can without hurting the baby.”

“I don’t care, Jaden. I don’t want you in the fight. You’ve never had to face anything like this before. Just do as I ask. Please.”

Jaden closed her eyes for a few seconds and nodded. “All right. Just be careful.”

Michaela couldn’t hold back a startled yelp as Leif too became a wolf in a matter of seconds, then ran off to join the fray. “What…what are you people?”

“I’m sure this isn’t how Kye wanted you to find out, Michaela, but we’re all werewolves,” Jaden said.

“You’re one too?”

“Yes.” Jaden looked toward the battle that took place on the lawn. “God, they’re outnumbered. If anything happens to Leif or my dad, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

Seeing how upset Jaden was, it helped to bring Michaela out of some of the numbness that had descended over her. They were two women with no way to protect themselves as a group of wolves tore into each other with teeth and claws.

She looked around for something that could be used as a weapon, or at least as a deterrent. They might be werewolves, but they were still just wolves with the same weakness as the wild variety from the looks of it, though they were slightly bigger. Relying on her training from the zoo, she knew she should never confront an aggressive animal empty-handed. It was too bad there wasn’t a tranquilizer gun nearby.

Michaela spotted the metal straight-edged rake that leaned against the brick wall of the house. She ran over to it and snatched it up. It wasn’t much, but its points would hurt. She’d just turned around to go back to Jaden when the other woman screamed.

“Dad! No!”

Looking in the direction Jaden stared, Michaela saw a white wolf being pinned by a darker one who had his jaws around the back of his neck. Now that she’d convinced herself to think of them as just normal wolves, her fear evaporated. Having dealt with larger and potentially more dangerous animals at the zoo, she had no qualms about going in to help the white wolf she’d seen Miles shift into.

Running up to the pair, she swung the rake at the darker wolf’s head, knocking him away from the white one. He turned and snapped at her, but she shoved her makeshift weapon in his face. “Don’t even try it. I’ve faced down a pissed off tiger before, and you’re nothing compared to that.”

Michaela hovered over the white wolf as he slowly got up on his feet. His assailant looked as if he wanted to try and come at her again, but a loud howl preceded a form covered in light brown fur launching itself at him. The fight between them was vicious and over quickly with the second wolf being the victor. After that the battle wound down.

“Thanks.”

Michaela turned her head to see Miles once again human and standing where the white wolf had been. He bled from a number of places. “You’re welcome.”

“Weren’t you afraid? Most mortals would think twice before wading into the middle of a werewolf fight.”

She shrugged. “I’m an animal keeper at the zoo. I deal with wild animals every day.”

Miles threw back his head and laughed. “I have to say you’re the perfect mate for a werewolf.”

At the sound of her name being called, Michaela looked over to see Kye standing over the defeated wolf in human form. He had a few bite and claw marks on him, but he looked relatively unharmed. Dropping the rake, she ran into his open arms.

“It’s okay,” he said as he held her close. “It’s over.”

“I should be losing my mind right now, but during the fight, all I could think about was what I would do if something like this ever happened at the zoo. And that I needed a tranquilizer gun.”

Kye laughed. “I hope you didn’t want to tranq my ass.”

She leaned back in his arms and looked at him. “Werewolf, huh?”

“I had planned to tell you later tonight.”

“Too late for that.”

“Come on, let’s go talk.” He looked around them. “The others seem to have everything under control here.”

Seeing what was left of Curtis’ men and him being tied up, she nodded and let Kye lead her away. She didn’t say anything as he brought her into the house and up to his room. Nor did she speak as he continued on into the bathroom and shut them in.

“I’m going to make this short, since Miles is still here and I don’t want him to learn some of what I’m about to tell you. Besides being a werewolf, I’m over a thousand years old. I’ve waited a long time for you, my mate.”

He then proceeded to tell her what it meant to be his, how the mating bond formed between them the first time they’d made love, and how with it in place, they wouldn’t be able to bear being apart.

“Now this is the part Miles can’t ever know,” Kye said. “As far as he knows, Jaden is the foretold one. She isn’t. Roxie is. That’s why we’re her Protectors. Miles at one time wanted to control the foretold one to rule over all the werewolf packs himself, using her as a figurehead. The way it has worked out with Jaden taking on the role for his benefit, he no longer wants that. But it doesn’t mean we can’t be any less vigilant when it comes to Roxie.” He paused. “Being what she is, she can do things others of our kind can’t. One of them being, she can use a spell to turn a mortal into a werewolf.” His gaze locked on Michaela’s. “Do you know what I’m saying?”

She blinked a few times as understanding settled over her. “You want Roxie to use the spell on me, so we can be mates in every sense of the word.”

“Yes, but I won’t push you. But just let me tell you that Eli, Ansley, Jaden and Braelyn already made the choice to be like their mates.”

Michaela searched Kye’s eyes, seeing the hope there that she would agree to the spell. Did she want to become a werewolf? Looking at the man who had come to mean so much to her, the thought of having a couple of thousand years with him instead of what she’d have as a mortal, was more than she could’ve ever imagined.

Somehow, all she’d learned wasn’t freaking her out. She wanted to accept it. Slowly, she nodded. “I’ll do it. As long as I have you at my side, I can accept this new way of life.”

He dragged her into his arms and crushed her against him. Kye kissed the top of her head. “You are my heart, Michaela. I’ll make sure you never regret this for the rest of our days.”

With all her heart and soul, she believed him. “And you’re mine, Kye.”