Animal Instincts (9 page)

She stared at Damien as he spoke
to her father. It was hard seeing the man she had this unexplainable connection
with fighting with the man that raised her and loved her unconditionally. She
might not know what in the hell this imprinting or mating thing really was
besides what Damien had told her, but she did know she wanted to explore it
more.

Her father didn’t speak for
several seconds. He stared at the floor, as if in deep thought, and having his
own internal war raging inside of him. Damien was on the floor now, too, and
the three of them sat there in silence.

“Dad, I don’t want anyone
fighting because of this, but I also want you to know that I want to see where
this thing with Damien goes.” She looked at the shifter, feeling all kinds of
confused because she knew this man meant it when he said he wouldn’t walk away
from her. She also felt excitement at the possibilities that this was her
future, and also a little bit of fear because of the latter.

“I don’t blame you for being
pissed at me, or deciding that you can no longer be friends with me because I
betrayed you.”

She wanted to tell Damien that
although they did sleep together without telling her father, there wasn’t a
betrayal. He had left four years ago, let her have time to grow up and decide
what she wanted. Even if telling her dad should have been what they did right
away, they were adults, and she didn’t need permission, even if she did want
his acceptance.

“But I want to tell you again,
and will over and over until both of you know what mating is for my kind, and
how unbreakable the imprinting really is.” Damien paused for a moment, stared
at her as if he wanted her to know that she was everything to him without
actually saying those exact words. He ran the back of his arm over his mouth,
looked at the blood that covered his shirt, and exhaled. “I meant it when I said
I’d protect her with my life, Tyler. I would die for her.”

She held her breath as she stared
at her father, waiting to see what his reaction would be now that he seemed a
little calmer. He stared at Damien, this hard, intense look on his face, and
then sighed heavily enough she knew he had relented his anger.

“I know how the imprinting bond
works, Damien,” her father said slowly, softly. “And I know how unbreakable it
is for shifters when they find their mate.” Her dad looked at her then. “She’s
young, though, so young and hasn’t experienced life yet.”

Her throat clogged up at the
words her father said, and the sadness that was reflected back at her.

“I don’t want to smother her, or
stop her from experiencing things, Tyler. I just want to be part of her life,
make sure she is safe, and give her whatever she needs to be happy.”

God, she could have cried at the
emotion that was coming from her as she heard what her father and Damien said.

“Shit,” her dad said under his
breath. “Even though this is pretty fucked-up I do know that if I had to pick
one person to take care of my daughter it would be you, Damien.”

She stared at her dad, saw the
way he looked at the other man, and knew that although her father might not be
okay with this right now, he was going to let her decide how she wanted to live
her life.

“Shit, Damien.” Her dad stood,
looked him over a few times, and then shook his head. “You better treat her
well because she’s all I have in this world.”

Damien stood slowly, and she
followed suit. “She’s my priority, Tyler.”

Her dad nodded and sighed
heavily. “If you hurt her I’ll fuck you up so you won’t come out of it
standing, lifelong friendship or not.” Although Damien was a shifter, and could
tear any human apart with no effort, Damien smiled at her father’s words, and
nodded.

“Understood, but there isn’t
anything to worry about, because I’d rather kill myself than hurt my mate.”

“Come here, sweetheart,” her
father said and pulled her into a hug before she could move toward him. “You
sure you want this?” he asked her in a soft voice by her ear.

“Dad, I don’t know what I want in
my life really, but what I do know is that Damien makes me feel…” She thought
about how she could even describe the things she felt for this shifter, the
connection and complete unity that her body felt when she even just thought
about him. “It just feels right, Dad.”

He pulled back and cupped her
cheeks, scared into her eyes, and she waited to see how he would respond. “I
may not like this for various reasons, but I want you happy. If Damien makes
you happy, then that is the only thing I can hope for.” He pulled her in for
another hug, stroked her head with his hand, and she stared at Damien over the
side of her dad’s arm. He wasn’t moving, not smiling,
just
watching her with this concentration that told her he never missed a thing.
This was her life now, her father supported her, and she knew that as long as
she opened herself up to the possibilities she’d be able to accept anything
that was presented to her, even being mated to a hard-ass, fierce lion shifter.

Chapter
Eight

Damien
stared at the text message he just received. Yesterday he had sent an inquiry
to a man he knew in private investigations. When he told Danika that he’d find
out who had done this to her he had meant it. He had no name to go on, but he
had gotten Danika to tell him a physical description, where the party had been,
and the rest he could have his guy figure out. Boris was a skilled tracker, had
been with the Shifter Operative Trackers for the last twenty years to get the
whereabouts of dangerous men. Compared to the shit Boris had done on the
battlefield for their government and kind, this was child’s play.

It
was dark, and Damien sat in his vehicle in front of the party this motherfucker
was supposed to be. He stared at the guy’s name again: Robert Mitchell.
Damien’s blood boiled at the sound of his name playing out in his head. He was
seconds from shifting, so close to losing control that it was taking all of his
willpower to hold his animal back. Then he saw the fucker he was about to beat
come out of the house. He staggered across the front lawn, his drunken focus on
his car keys. Damien got out of the car and started following the punk as he
made his way away from the party to his car that was parked in a secluded back
alley. When Robert dropped his car keys he cursed, and Damien felt his claws
lengthen further as the images of what had been done to Danika flashed through
his mind.

Once
they were in the alley he curled his nails into his palms and breathed out.
“You fucked with what was mine,” Damien said in a low voice, seething with
anger and ready to shift and kill this asshole. Robert slowly turned around,
blinked a few times,
then
curled his lip. He was
either fucking stupid for not showing any fear in the face of a shifter, or too
drunk to realize what in the hell he was up against.

“I
fucked with what was yours?” Robert slurred out, and turned his head to spit.
“Get the fuck out of here with that shit. I take what I want when I want, no
matter what it is.”

Maybe
Damien should have felt some kind of control over himself because this dick was
drunk, but he didn’t and still planned on kicking his ass to teach him a
lesson. He took a step closer, and Robert shook his head.

“You’re
a ballsy asshole. I was varsity football in high school.”

Damien
could have laughed at that. The kid couldn’t be much older than Danika, but he
was big with an athletic body. It wouldn’t help him now, because he would be
the victim in this scenario. “You tried to take something from my woman at a
party, pressed her up against a bathroom wall, and you got your ass handed to
you even then.”

Robert
looked like he was thinking, and then he started laughing. “Oh yeah, that bitch
was uppity as hell.” Robert charged forward and slammed his body into Damien’s,
or as much as he could given his pathetic human strength. Damien took the force
and moved with it so it was on Robert now. The other male stumbled back, but
came forward again swinging. His actions were slow and sloppy, a result of him
drinking all night and his anger. Damien brought his fist up, clipping Robert
under the chin. He stumbled back again, blood immediately spilling from his
mouth. Damien could have easily taken this fucker out without even blinking,
but this was more fun. Robert turned his head and spit out a mouthful of blood.
Damien was pumped with adrenaline and endorphins, and his lion wanted out. It
snapped and growled, clawing to be released. The fight was half the fun, half
the rush. Damien sensed a few people close by, but he didn’t pay them any
attention. The shadows claimed most of the alleyway, and he wasn’t about to
stop this because there were people watching.

Robert
had a crazed expression on his face, but something inside of Damien snapped,
and his lion pushed forward even more. He wrapped his hand around Robert’s neck
and growled, hoping to have the little asshole piss himself. “You fucked with
my mate, my woman. You dared to lay a hand on her and think you could take
something from her that isn’t yours.” He slammed his fist harder and faster
into Robert’s face.

“You lion shifting fucker.”

He
slammed his knuckles into Robert’s face, heard the bone break, and felt the
blood spray on his neck. “I don’t want to even think about all of the females
you have taken advantage of, but this will be your last time.” Damien tossed
him across the cement. Robert tried to get up, but he was bloody, had broken
bones, and his strength was gone. He felt no sympathy for the man that thought
hurting a woman made him superior. Damien walked over to him, and said in a low
voice only Robert could hear, “If you even think about my woman again, or I
find out you ever did this to any other
female,
I’ll
hunt you down and kill you.”

He
kicked Robert hard enough that his body skidded across the pavement. Damien
turned, kept to the shadows, and saw a man and woman stop to see what was going
on. They couldn’t see him, and he doubted they could see the bastard on the
floor either, not unless they wanted to come deeper into the shadows. He left
and headed back home. He needed to shift and run this extra energy out of his
body, because right now he was so fucking dangerous he even scared himself.

****

“Good,
Hayden,” she said without any interest in the fact the asshole that had
attacked her at the part just seven days ago was now lying in the hospital
because someone had kicked his ass. “He probably deserved what he got.”

“Danika,
the guy is near death lying in a hospital bed,” Hayden said through the
receiver. “And you and I both know you don’t think violence solves anything.”

“I
doubt he is near death.” She braced the phone between her shoulder and ear, and
stuffed a change of clothes into her backpack. She was heading over to Damien’s
after work, and although it had only been a week since he had told her what she
was to him, and even less than that since they had told her father, things were
going as smoothly as if it was always meant to go this way.

She
stopped what she was doing and thought about what Hayden was telling her. “So
someone beat the shit out of the asshole that attacked me at the party,” she
stated without forming it as a question. “And why would I care, Hayden? The guy
probably pissed off someone’s boyfriend.
Serves his ass
right.”

“I
don’t think
you’re understanding
what I’m saying.”

She
knew exactly what Hayden was saying, and she didn’t care one bit that the prick
was lying in a hospital room beat to hell. “I understand. I just don’t care
because the guy was a royal asshole.”

“A
witness said it was a shifter that beat him up.”

That
had everything in Danika stilling.
“A shifter?”

“Yeah,
a lion shifter more accurately, and one that kept talking about never putting a
hand on his mate again or he’d make sure the guy was buried in the ground where
no one would find him.”

She
had spoken to Hayden about Damien, nothing in-depth, but enough that her friend
knew Damien was her mate, pretty hardcore when it came to the mate thing, and
that for the first time in her life she felt like she belonged somewhere with a
man. “You think it was Damien?”

“I
don’t know, because I don’t really know the guy. But I would bet it was given
the fact you’re his mate, he’s a lion shifter, and the guy that just happened
to get beat up was the one that fucked with you last week.”

Yeah,
she knew it was Damien, even if no names had been said. He had already said
he’d hurt anyone that touched her, that he’d find out who had messed with her.
He’d delivered on that promise, but Hayden was right. She didn’t want violence
answering violence. “I’ll talk to you later, Hayden.” She hung up the phone and
stood there for a moment just thinking about what was going on. Did she care
that asshole was in the hospital? No, not at all, but the fact she was the
cause of it didn’t sit well with her. Maybe she contradicted herself because she
had told Hayden she didn’t care that someone had kicked his ass, and now she
wanted to talk to Damien about it. But she wanted him to know she wasn’t about
to have a relationship where he used force to make it known she wasn’t to be
messed with. Unfortunately she would have to wait until after work, and this
was going to be the longest day of her life. She hoped Damien could understand
where she was coming from, because it was early in their relationship, and she
wanted everything out in the open for both of them.