Mikal (Second Wave Book 3) (21 page)

Mikal leaned his forehead against hers and nodded his head gently.

“How about we evaluate each mission on a case by case basis and if it’s too dangerous or I have more experience, then I go. Wait!” he said when she began to argue. “No mission is ever foolproof and they are all dangerous, so you’ll have your fun. I’m talking about the bad ones. You know the ones I mean. I want you to be with Charlie then,” Mikal said.

Chance nodded her head. As much as she’d go in his place in a second, she knew that he needed to know she’d be waiting for him. And for Charlie.

“I’ll give you those missions. There’s one other thing I need you to do for me. Promise me,” Chance said, hoping he’d agree.

“Anything, baby,” Mikal said, then added, “Within reason.”

“Talk to your father, Indrid. You need closure of some kind. Your whole family does,” Chance said and rushed on when Mikal looked to argue.

“You know your family is waiting to accept him as one of their own or reject him based on your decision. The problem is, you don’t know what you want because you haven’t really had a chance to get to know him. Without everyone else around like it’s story time,” Chance said, knowing she was right by the skipping of his energy.

Mikal squeezed her tightly and nodded his head. He’d already decided he had to talk to Indrid again anyway.

“That I will do for you. Just not right now,” Mikal said, then nuzzled her neck.

Chance giggled and leaned back to look at him.

“Maybe we should have a little more alone time?” she suggested hopefully.

Mikal chuckled then remembered that damn cat and his “exceptional hearing”. Fearing the feline might still be around he shook his head and set Chance on her feet.

“No way. The next time we’re together it will be somewhere private,” he said as he gently pulled her back towards the castle.

It was almost dinner time anyway and he wanted to go back and check on Charlie. And maybe ask Indrid to speak with him again later.

Chance shrugged her shoulders and followed behind him, playfully dragging her feet at times.

When they could see the door to the kitchen, Chance yanked on his hand and pulled him towards her.

“So we’re clear, we’re staying together as a family, we’ll share responsibility for Charlie and I get to do missions, right?” she asked as she leaned up and put her arms around his neck.

Mikal looked down at her suspiciously for a second before nodding his head.

“Yes, that’s the deal. Why?” he asked warily.

“You’re good. Damn good,” Angel said as she held out a hundred dollar bill to Chance as she passed them on the path.

“You could have held out a little longer you know,” Dree said with a pout as she handed another hundred dollar bill to Chance.

“What the hell is going on?” Mikal demanded as he put his hands on his hips, even though he could guess.

Chance turned towards him with a huge grin on her face as she folded the bills and shoved them in her front pocket.

“What? They bet that you wouldn’t be fair, I bet that you would. I’ll bet on you every time, baby,” Chance said as she hugged him then gave him a peck on the cheek.

“How am I supposed to be mad at that?” Mikal asked with a chuckle before he took her hand and led them back to the kitchen area.

They’d just walked through the kitchen and easily followed the happy voices and laughter into the large dining room. His siblings and the Tezarians were laughing and joking among one another while spread out between two large tables. The hybrids were scattered around them and laughing at their antics.

“Mikal! Chance! We saved you a few spots with Charlie,” Lara said as she held Charlie while the small girl stood on her chair and giggled.

Chance smiled and rushed ahead of Mikal, pulling him along until she picked up Charlie and kissed her cheek. Mikal caught the child as she swung sideways and held her arms up to him.

“Come here, sweetheart,” Mikal said and he sat her on his lap at the table.

The jovial chatter and laughter around the room slowly died down and Mikal looked up at the doorway to see Indrid standing there a little uncomfortably. He felt terrible since in reality, this was Indrid’s true home, not theirs, yet Indrid felt like an outsider among the Dranovians, hybrids, and Tezarians.

Mikal stood with Charlie in his arms as everyone began talking and joking again. Chance had been right, he could feel his siblings and the Tezarians waiting on his cue on how to treat his real father. As friend or family.

He could feel Chance’s disapproving stare at his back as Indrid began to turn to leave the room.

“Indrid!” Mikal called out, surprising himself.

He watched Indrid turn around and look sadly at him as he shook his head slightly. Mikal knew that he was getting ready to leave and he didn’t want him to.

“Come sit with your family and have dinner. We have a lot to talk about later, but we can start with the little stuff now,” Mikal said, speaking to his father through the connection Indrid had reestablished between them for the first time.

Mikal saw the surprised look cross Indrid’s face and he stood there for a moment as if in indecision.

Chris had noticed the tense exchange between Mikal and his father and he decided to help the two men out.

“Sit down, man. We got a ton of food here and lots of space. Maybe you could tell us about this place and why it’s so big,” Chris said as he nodded at his siblings and everyone shifted along the benches at the table until there was a large space next to Mikal.

Indrid looked around as if still considering it when Liam chuckled, his deep voice echoing as he grabbed a loaf of bread and stood.

“Father of my brother, let’s break bread together,” he said jokingly as he tore the loaf in half and playfully tossed one of the halves to Indrid.

Indrid easily caught the bread and began slowly walking to where Mikal still stood by the table.

“Man, you better hurry before they chuck a pineapple to you. We’ve been known to have a few food fights,” Declan said with a chuckle as Indrid passed him.

“If you start a food fight in here, I’m disowning you all,” Angel threatened playfully.

“Where is Ranger? How’s the cats eating if there’s no meat allowed here?” Elias asked, looking around at his siblings to see if anyone knew the answer.

Indrid cleared his throat, in the large room, it seemed to echo loudly and everyone turned to him.

“I . . . showed him the path to the surface. We are close enough to the sea for them to find many kinds of prey. It is how the tigers eat as well,” Indrid said as he sat down next to his son.

“Isn’t it too cold for them up there?” Angel asked, worried for the odd cat and his team.

“No, Ranger assured me that they are used to such conditions on parts of Valendra and would enjoy the unique hunt here,” Indrid said as he accepted a bowl of fried rice from Luca, who sat to his left.

“There is an area on Valendra just like this. I think they’ll be fine,” Dread added.

“Hell, after what I’ve seen those cats do, I’m more afraid for the other creatures out there than I am for the cats,” Alex said as many of the others agreed.

Mikal handed a bowl of cut fruit to his father and their eyes met.

“Can we finish our talk later? In private,” Mikal asked Indrid through their mental connection.

Indrid smiled and nodded his head.

“I would like that, son,” Indrid replied, not even trying to hide the happiness he felt at Mikal’s request.

“So Indrid, why is this place so big inside?” Shane asked curiously.

Indrid was getting ready to explain when little Charlie looked up at him and asked curiously.

“Are you my daddy’s daddy?” she asked.

The room went silent and Mikal cleared his throat.

“Yes, he’s my daddy. I have two daddies,” Mikal said, looking at Indrid the whole time.

Charlie’s eyes got really big, and her mouth formed an “O”.

“I have two grandpas now?” she asked innocently, looking up at Mikal.

Indrid stared at his son hopefully, but willing to accept whatever decision Mikal made regarding the relationship they could have.

Mikal could feel the love and acceptance of Chance and his siblings and he knew the decision he had to make.

“You’re lucky too, because you do have two grandpas,” Mikal said with a gentle smile for his daughter.

Charlie squealed in delight and hugged Mikal quickly before hugging a startled Indrid. Mikal watched the tears well in Indrid’s eyes as he held Charlie close and he knew he’d made the right decision. His incredible siblings accepted his decision in their normal fashion.

“Hey, the aunts and uncles aren’t chopped meat either, you know,” Shane said with a pout until Dree threw a roll at him.

“Oh hush, we’ve got more than enough love to go around. Besides, we’re going to have more children to spoil soon,” Dree said with a saucy smirk.

“You bitch! How did you know? We just found out this morning!” Angel yelled playfully from across the table.

The entire room went silent as the Dranovians stared at Drago.

“Oh hell! I wasn’t talking about you!” Dree said with a giggle.

Trick and Mir stared daggers at Liam as they began to stand, the Dranovians with them. Chris remained seated and ran his hands over his face.

“For the love of the Gods, why me?” he asked as the room erupted in shouting around him.

He looked up at the still seated Chance, Mikal and Indrid.

“You guys might want to sneak off with some plates. This is going to take a while,” he said as he stood and headed toward the circle of people arguing and shouting accusations at one another.

“Back off! We’re mated! Of course children were possible,” Drago argued, drawing attention to the unmated couple who no one suspected were that intimate. Until now.

“You dishonored our sister!” Trick yelled, as Dread and Viper tried to keep them away from Liam.

Chris didn’t bother getting in the middle of it all, instead he headed right for Lara, hoping she could help him calm the situation down before it became more than a food fight. There were now two unborn children to think about and a melee between the siblings and Tezarians could get downright ugly.

Chapter Twenty One

Chance awoke to Mikal’s hard body cuddling up to her own and she snuggled deep into his warmth and sighed contentedly. It’d been hours since they’d taken Chris’s advice and snuck off to eat alone with Mikal’s father.

The meal had been a lot more pleasant than Chance had hoped for with all of them laughing at Indrid and Mikal’s stories of things that they’d done in their lives. It had been eye opening for her to see how alike the two men were, even though Mikal had not been raised by Indrid.

After their meal, when Charlie had fallen asleep in Mikal’s arms, Chance had taken the child to bed so the two men could spend some more time together. By the contented feel of Mikal’s energy, Chance assumed the encounter had gone well.

“Are you OK?” she whispered.

Mikal sighed and gently squeezed Chance to him. He couldn’t think of a time when he’d ever felt more OK than he did now. He felt complete. He nodded his head and gently kissed the curve of her shoulder.

“I am definitely all right,” Mikal said.

“Your energy feels so much calmer,” Chance said as she snuggled closer to him.

Mikal smiled as he thought of the conversation he’d had with Indrid.

“Yes, I feel calmer. Turns out that there isn’t much difference between what our people do and what I do as a Dranovian. Each hunts the evil among the humans and beast species, and eradicates it. It could be why the energy between my siblings and us is so similar. Indrid said that he believed my mother was a Dranovian as well, even though she didn’t understand what she was,” Mikal said, thinking he was in good company either way. Being Hyperborean and Dranovian.

Chance rolled over and looked in his eyes as she smiled at him.

“Is he going to stay around here?” she asked, wondering if Indrid would go with them when they left Base Beta.

Mikal sighed into Chance’s neck.

“He has work to do. The sentinels live out among the humans just as we do. They pretend to be exorcists, shamans, ghost hunters, demon hunters . . . anything to get the humans to let them help them,” Mikal said, still surprised that their people traveled all over the world, helping in their own way.

“When is he leaving?” Chance asked.

“Tomorrow. He wants to say goodbye to you and Charlie. He’ll be back to visit though,” Mikal said with a smile.

“I am glad that you and he are together again,” she said, giving him a kiss. “What happened with the whole Dree and Angel thing? It sounds like all sides finally stopped fighting.”

Mikal winced at the image that flashed through his mind of the last time he’d seen Drago and Liam.

“Lara and Chris finally got everyone separated, but not before Angel let loose with her unstable prime powers and flared the fire in the hearth of the dining room. A couple of my brothers got a little charred, and Alex had to shave off what was left of his hair, but they survived,” he said.

“What about Liam and Drago?” Chance asked.

“They’re sporting a few bruises, but so is everyone else. I think Liam is currently the only target though. Everyone is a little more accepting of our sister and Drago because they are mated. Liam and Dree . . . that kind of blindsided all of us,” Mikal admitted.

“Why? Couldn’t you see how they felt about one another? They are always holding hands, always together and whispering to one another. It’s obvious they’re in love. They act no differently than Lara and Viper or Angel and Drago,” Chance said, surprised that they didn’t notice.

Mikal shook his head while his mind ran through his memories, finally noticing the things that Chance mentioned.

Hell
, he thought,
how did we miss it?

“You’re right. I guess we just kind of put it in the back of our minds and didn’t think about it. It’s still a shock that she’s already mated and pregnant, and Trick and Mir didn’t notice,” Mikal said.

“She was avoiding them. I wondered why she was always throwing things at them, but was never close enough to touch them. She was keeping them from sensing her energy. And with so many of you, it was easy for her to put a few of you in between her and them,” Chance said, admiring Dree’s thinking.

“Damn,” Mikal said, seeing it the way Chance did. “She was smart. Her brothers are the only ones who know her well enough to have sensed the change in her.”

“I think it’s wonderful. Charlie will have family to play with,” Chance said with a smile as she tucked her head into Mikal’s shoulder.

Mikal chuckled at the thought of how much things were going to change with 23 Dranovian and 5 Tezarian men chasing after 3 small children in their down time.

“I think they are going to be the most spoiled kids around,” Mikal said, with a grin.

“We won’t let it get too bad,” Chance said with a smile.

Mikal laughed heartily, knowing that none of them were going to be the problem.

“I bet you that when we end up at our new base tomorrow, my father will have already installed a nursery for Charlie, Dree, and Angel. It will be stocked with everything you can imagine, and more will be coming for weeks until he’s bought everything available on this planet, Valendra and Tezaria,” Mikal said.

“You’re kidding. Right?” Chance asked, unsure if he was or not.

Mikal shook his head.

“Nope, not kidding. Charlie is his first grandchild, and his oldest baby girl is having her first child. Then there’s Liam and his first child with Dree. That’s three of dad’s kids giving him grandchildren at the same time. He’s going to go way overboard, and if he doesn’t, my mom will,” Mikal said with a smile.

“What about us? Do you think we’ll be able to have children?” Chance asked. It was something she’d been wondering for days.

“Sergei, Amun, and Lauren said there’s nothing wrong with you. You were never crossed with human DNA, only Hyperborean and Dranovian - the same as me, so we should be perfectly compatible. Do you want children?” Mikal asked.

Chance sighed and leaned up to kiss him gently on the lips.

“Not now, but at some point, yes. There’s too much I need to learn right now, and with Charlie we’ll be busy enough. But when I’m more comfortable in the world and with working with your family, then yes. I would love to have a little you growing inside of me,” Chance said with a shy smile.

Mikal rolled Chance beneath him and stretched himself above her before kissing her. She pulled away and grinned up at him.

“What?” she asked with a sparkle in her white eyes.

Mikal slid his body up, then back down hers and he moaned at the contact before he looked down at her lovingly.

“I was just thinking that while you’re learning everything else that maybe we should practice conceiving a child now, so that we’ll be experts at when we’re ready,” he said with a grin, knowing how corny it sounded.

Chance giggled, her body flushing at the thought. She reached up and put her arms around his neck, pulling him down to her.

“That’s the worst excuse ever,” she said before she kissed him passionately.

Mikal became lost in the kiss until a thought suddenly popped into his head, and he jumped up from the bed, causing Chance to sit up and look around for what startled him.

“What is it?” she asked, reaching over to the bedside table and her trusted haladie.

Mikal stalked the room, looking in the closet and behind the heavy curtains that blocked out the perpetual light of the second sun.

“I’m making sure that damn cat isn’t lurking around,” Mikal said, looking under the bed and other furniture for the crazy feline.

“Why would he be in here?” Chance asked with a laugh as she watched Mikal look for Ranger.

“The crazy cat is . . . he’s nuts and could be lurking anywhere. He heard us the last time,” Mikal said as he finished looking around the room and peeked out the window, scouring the shadows outside.

“Oops,” Chance said as she giggled and dissolved into air and reformed behind Mikal.

She put her arms around him and kissed his naked back.

“Why does he bother you so much?” she asked.

Mikal sighed and shut the curtains, turning to take Chance into his arms.

“It’s just kind of creepy. He’s a lot scarier than Gibly. I know he said he was doing what Dad asked him to do, but there’s an underlying fierceness in him that the other cats don’t have,” Mikal admitted.

“You think he’s dangerous to us? To Charlie?” Chance asked, suddenly worried.

Mikal chuckled and gave her a swift kiss before he pulled her back towards the bed.

“Of course not! The Sibiox are amazing with all children. They don’t believe in harming innocent people creatures that can’t defend themselves. Children of any kind-even prey-are safe from the Sibiox. He’s just so sneaky and . . . smart,” Mikal said, trying to describe the odd cat.

He sat down on the side of the bed and pulled Chance towards him until he could reach up and slide the robe from her shoulders as the energy began to pulse between them. He leaned forward and kissed her stomach as Chance wrapped her arms around his head and kissed the top of it.

“I think you’re just not used to him and his personality because he’s so different from the other cat,” Chance said with a sigh as Mikal continued to kiss her stomach, his hands running up her back.

“No more talk about the cat,” Mikal whispered, his breath skittering across her stomach and creating goosebumps.

Chance shivered and allowed Mikal to pull her onto the bed beneath him as the energy beat around them like a drum. She looked up into his beautiful face and smiled as his skin shimmered as she ran her hand down his cheek.

“You’re a beautiful man,” she whispered and smiled when he grunted.

“You’re the beauty in this family,” he whispered back before he took her lips in a kiss that sent their body heat soaring.

“I love you, Mikal,” Chance whispered as she pulled away from his lips.

“I love you too, baby,” Mikal answered before he sent her body humming with pleasure.

“Please,” Chance whispered, trying to pull him up her body.

Mikal chuckled as he stalked up her body and drove inside of her wet heat. Her moan of pleasure and whispered words of encouragement drove him on until their world lit and shattered into glittering shards of energy around them.

Mikal collapsed to the bed and pulled Chance into his arms, unwilling to let her leave his side.

“Is it normal for us to make fairy dust like that?” Chance asked with a satisfied smile.

Mikal huffed out a breath, trying to calm his breathing.

“I don’t know, but I like it,” he said with a grin.

“Me too,” Chance whispered back.