Surrounded by Woods (11 page)

“Engaged or at least involved with someone.”

She immediately looked contrite. “I’m sorry. I meant to clear this up earlier. I
was
engaged to Joel until I found him… Well, until about a month or so ago. I wasn’t ready to tell Bill, so he assumed I still was engaged.”

Mikaela smiled at Josh, and he understood what she was trying to convey. She was trying to tell him she was free to be with him. But she didn’t understand. Before he had a chance to even voice anything, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye.

Toby had leaned closer to her. He growled right next to Mikaela, and she gasped, scooting her chair back to get away from him.

“Don’t!” Thomas yelled. But Josh didn’t think Mikaela knew who his father was speaking to. Hell,
he
wasn’t sure if his dad was talking to Toby or to Mikaela. He just watched her freeze while he prepared to act, shifting his eyes to Toby. He just didn’t know what would happen. None of them had ever been in a situation like this before. Not and lived through it.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” she barked at Toby.

The next three seconds went by faster than expected. She was sitting at a table with five angry-looking men one moment, and then the next, only his dad remained looking distraught.

Josh’s brothers had shifted, so he shifted on instinct to protect Mikaela. Now she was staring at four huge mountain lions. This was so not how he wanted her to find out!

She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. She was frozen. The cats didn’t move, but Toby was right next to her, growling and sniffing her leg. She started to scoot her chair again.

“Mikaela! Don’t move,” Thomas ordered.

“What the hell is going on here?”

“Long story. Basically, we are all mountain lion shifters. Our feral side spends its life searching for a mate. Once we find her and take her as our mate, she also becomes a shifter. Our humanity respects mating bonds already in place, hence why I only allow taken women on the property. However, our feral side does not wait for a mating approval with an untaken woman. Out in the wild, males dominate the females and take what they want. My sons are all in their feral forms now.”

“And they all want me?” she whispered.

“They all want a mate.”

She glanced at the lion where Josh was sitting. But he couldn’t look at her; he had to stay focused on protecting her from his brothers. His eyes shifted to each of the cats, but none of them looked at him. They all watched her.

“Josh?” she whispered.

At the sound of her beautiful voice, his eyes shot to her, but he looked away quickly. He couldn’t risk it. He didn’t want his brothers to hurt her, but if
he
were the one to hurt her, he’d never be able to forgive himself.
Dad, explain things to her
.

“Josh wants me to explain that he’s the only one who has any control right now, but it’s very slim. He’s more worried about protecting you than claiming you. He doesn’t want any of the others to hurt you.”

“What do you mean he wanted you to tell me that? How do you know?”

“We can speak telepathically. The other night when you caught Rob laughing? It was because they were discussing things privately.”

Toby growled louder, and Mikaela made as if to move.

“Please, Mikaela, don’t run. You’ll just excite them. They like the chase. I’ll try to reason with them. Just give me time.”

She nodded. “Josh, I—”

“Don’t, Mikaela. He’s trying to resist you. If you force him to focus on you, he’ll be the one you’ll need to worry about the most.”

“W-why is that?”

“Because he’s the
closest
one to you.”
Because he’s fucked you already
, he added silently for Josh’s benefit.

At least he didn’t voice it out loud, though Josh didn’t give a shit what his dad really thought about his relationship with her.

Toby’s fur stood up, and he hissed at her. Josh jumped on the table and growled at him. Toby growled back at Josh and flinched at Mikaela, trying to make her move so he could chase her.

She grabbed her stomach, and Josh could see that reality was sinking in for her. If he could just get her out of here and explain everything himself…

“Oh, God, I’m going to be raped by a big scary kitty cat,” she muttered, looking around the room, “or by a bunch of them.”

Like hell! Hearing her frightened voice ignited Josh’s anger. He’d kill anybody who hurt her!

Get her out of here, Dad! Toby, I swear I’ll rip your fucking throat out if you touch her!

I’m closer to her, Josh. If you interfere with my mating, I’ll kill you,
Toby growled.

I’m right behind you, Toby. I can get to her before you can,
Rob taunted, inching closer.

Hell, I’m faster than all of you. If she runs, she’s mine!
Jack declared.

Josh jumped across the table and stared down at Toby. He flinched but didn’t move.
This is your last warning, Toby. I can kill you from here. Now back off!

As soon as you attack him, the others will use the opportunity to jump in,
Thomas warned. He didn’t want to say it out loud, lest he’d scare Mikaela more than she already was. Josh was pleased his dad was at least trying to help her as much as he could, but Josh knew he’d have to fix this himself.

And he wasn’t waiting another second.

He jumped off the table, plowing into Toby’s side, making him stumble back. Now Josh shielded her from all his brothers. He growled loudly at them.
Mine!
He wasn’t going to allow anyone to claim his mate. She belonged to him, damn it!

His side brushed against her leg as he staked his claim, and he instinctively purred from the contact, distracting himself. He turned toward her and purred louder, rubbing against her. Her hands were dangling down, so he licked her fingers, nudging them to pet him. Her touch was the most exquisite thing in his regular form, but in his feline form it was pure bliss.

“Don’t, Mikaela. He could turn on you.”

Josh’s head whipped to his father, and his purring turned to growls.
I’m
not
going to hurt her!

Then let me get her to the safety of her room, and each of you to the cabins.

Josh didn’t want to leave her, but he knew he had to prove his strength to his father. He nodded.

“Mikaela, Josh is going to help me get you to your room. You can stay there until I get them outside. Normally, I’d have you leave right away, but we’re all stranded here until the storm passes.”

“Okay.”

Thomas walked around the table, and he and Josh escorted her out of the dining room amidst growls and hisses of protest. Once they were out, Thomas locked the door and instructed Jeffery to guard it until he returned. Thomas practically dragged Mikaela to her room while Josh followed, staying a few steps behind to block her from an attack if his brothers got loose. Once Mikaela arrived at her room, she turned to look at Josh.

“Go inside, Mikaela,” Thomas warned.

Josh was unable to stifle the low growl that bubbled up at his father’s interference. He knew she wanted to talk to him, but now his dad wouldn’t even allow that. Thomas shot him a look for his defiance, so Josh just dropped his head and turned. Knowing that Mikaela was now safely in her room, his dad would put them all in the cabins outside.

And he’d do everything in his power to keep Josh from seeing her again.

Chapter Ten

Day after day, Mikaela stayed quarantined in her room like some diseased patient. Like
she
was the one with a problem. Right. She was stuck with a bunch of men who turned into big ol’ cats. She’d think that they were the ones who needed quarantining. Men who turned into animals? How was that even possible? This wasn’t some sci-fi crap. People did not turn into animals! So why did all these guys do that?

If she really thought about it, some things made sense, though. She’d heard Josh make noises that sounded animalistic on more than one occasion. They all went out at night and didn’t come back until long after she was asleep. They were probably out hunting or running or using their tress as giant scratching posts. They lived out in the middle of nowhere and apparently never left the premises since Josh hadn’t gone after her when she went to the bar the other night. She wondered why he didn’t, but now it made sense.

She hated being stuck here, but as she looked out her window at the snow-covered ground, she realized she wasn’t the only one stuck. The guys must be quarantined just like she was. Over the last few days, she hadn’t seen any of them, nor had she heard anybody but Jeffery in the hall outside her door, which was only when he’d come to bring her meals. That meant they were not staying in their rooms. She just didn’t understand everything.

But she wanted to.

Against her better judgment, she wanted to talk to Josh. She longed to be in his arms and hear what he had to say about all this. She knew he had to be worried how she was taking the news that he turned into a cat, and honestly, it freaked her the hell out! But after the first day or two, she started to think more about the man and less about the animal. She knew they were one in the same, but she couldn’t let herself focus solely on his animal side. He was a man, too.

A man she loved.

And now Thomas was keeping Josh from her. She knew how she felt about him, but she didn’t know how he felt about her. When they were alone, everything seemed wonderful. But Thomas said their feral sides wanted a mate. Did Josh only see her as a potential mate for his kitty cat side? If so, would any available—or “untaken,” as Thomas had so eloquently put it—woman do? The thought that Josh didn’t feel about her the way she felt about him made her stomach churn. Unrequited love sucked; there was no other feeling about it. If Josh just wanted her for his mountain lion within and didn’t care about feelings at all, she didn’t know how to accept that. If Josh mated with her just because she was an available woman, she’d be stuck with him forever. Stuck with a man she loved who didn’t love her back. That would be unbearable.

If she could just talk to Josh and get some answers, she’d feel better. And the more she thought about that, the more she wanted to do something about it. She was a grown-ass woman for crying out loud! And a lawyer who understood her rights about unlawful imprisonment. Okay, so she was stretching it, but she really didn’t care. If she didn’t get out of here, she’d go crazy.

After devising an escape plan, she picked up the phone on the nightstand and called Jeffery to initiate it, telling him some story about needing a snack. Then she went into the bathroom and twisted the faucet so that water trickled out, and she put the vanity chair right outside the bathroom door. When Jeffery knocked, she let him, and he put her food on the table by the door.

“Hey, Jeffery, can you look at the sink? I can’t get the water to turn off. It’s bad enough being stuck in here, but a dripping faucet is maddening.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

He walked into the bathroom, and Mikaela pulled the door closed, wedging the vanity chair underneath the doorknob to keep it shut.

Jeffery pounded on the door, but she didn’t stick around to hear his pleas. She quickly ran out of the room, locking the door and taking the key that Jeffery left in the knob. She covertly traipsed down the hall, keeping her eyes on her immediate surroundings, looking for any sign of Thomas.

Or the others.

As far as she knew, Thomas put them outside, but that could’ve meant anything. They were part animal. They could be out running around and living in the woods for all she knew, but she had to find Josh. As she ran down the stairs, she stumbled and caught herself on the railing, cursing below her breath. She rubbed her ankle, examined her foot, and looked up—right into the eyes of Thomas.