~
“Why the hell would you want your house to look like fairyland?” James Travis stood on her doorstep with a face like thunder and an attitude to match.
His brown eyes were locked and loaded on hers like a challenge, and his age scored face was twisted up with disdain.
Donna felt the jolt of realization that her father was actually there in front of her. Then she felt the rush of annoyance at the fact that he was actually there on her doorstep in front of her.
“Donna?” Malachi’s deep voice jolted her again. This time there was a mix of emotion between kind of soothing, and kind of not.
“Who the hell is that?” Her father demanded as he looked over her shoulder into the cabin and offered that challenging look to Malachi.
“Why are you here?” Donna couldn’t believe that she’d actually managed to get the words out.
Her mind racing, spinning, with just how badly this whole thing might go.
“I told you in the text — get your stuff, you’re coming back with me,” James demanded.
That was one of her father’s biggest problems — he demanded – he expected everyone to follow his rules, his ways, and to hell with freedom of choice. But the biggest problem that her father had now was that she was no longer under his control.
Donna wasn’t a child anymore. Hell, she had a child of her own, and a business to run. She could make her own damn decisions in life, and he had better get used to it.
Her father was a control freak. He liked to control everyone and everything around him.
Unfortunately, for him, she was done with that.
“Goodbye, Dad.” Donna wasn’t about to stand there and listen to any more of her father’s demands.
She heard Malachi repeat her father’s moniker from close behind her, but she was already tossing the door closed in the man’s face.
Wood hit the toe of his boot, and the door abruptly halted in its travels. Donna sighed inwardly, even as she heard Malachi’s low growl rumble through the room toward her.
“I don’t think you understand your situation,” James warned her. He was used to dealing with his daughter’s wayward ways, but this time it was getting to the point of ridiculous.
He hated to leave the city as it was. He hated that he’d had to drive to the middle of nowhere even more.
“I don’t think you understand the situation,” Malachi said as he closed the distance toward his mate, and reached out to put one large hand on her shoulder.
He felt her tense for a long moment, and he considered removing his hand. Then the tension eased within her.
“Who the hell are you…?” James demanded.
“He’s my friend,” Donna put in before Malachi could say a word.
He felt her words like a kick in the stomach.
Mine…
Malachi agreed with his beast. The problem was that their mate didn’t seem to want to claim them as much as they wanted to claim her.
“Well, it’s none of your business,” James sneered at Malachi and challenged him with a glare that made the shifter’s beast rise up within him and demand to burst free.
“I think I changed my mind about the chewing and spitting out bit,” Malachi but whispered against her ear. He felt her body jolt a little as she bit down on a nervous chuckle.
“Tempting,” Donna tossed back over her shoulder.
“I’m not playing here, young lady — get your things, and Stacey, and get in the car,” James demanded.
“Oh, you remembered your granddaughter at last.” Donna folded her arms across her chest and eyed her father with disgust.
“My granddaughter is the reason that I’m here. You’ve already tried to throw your life away once; I’m not having you do the same thing to Stacey’s life chances. ”
“Excuse me?” Donna almost choked on a portion of her tongue.
Malachi could feel the anger rising within his mate. That didn’t help his beast settle any within him.
He knew that the man was her father, and yet, he still felt the need to put his fist right in the man’s smug face. He just didn’t think that his mate would appreciate the gesture.
“I see you’ve already taken up with the local wildlife…”
“Get off my damn porch,” Donna spat out in disgust, at the same time as she stomped down on the toe of his boot, making him pull his foot away, and then she slammed the door in her father’s face.
Damn, that felt good.
The rumble of Malachi’s low, deep, angry growl rumbled through the air behind her, and she turned toward him. His eyes were black, his hands were fisted at his sides, and he looked fit to kill.
“This isn’t the end of it,” James called through the door.
The sound of his angry words did nothing to alleviate the fact that she was seething inside.
“I’m so sorry…” Donna started to apologize, but Malachi didn’t want to hear it.
“You have nothing to be sorry for. We can’t choose our kin, and if we could, then I wouldn’t be a part of my clan either.” Malachi assured her.
“You look fit to kill,” Donna said, and then she grimaced. It hadn’t come out the way that she’d meant it. “Not in an angry bear shifter kind of a way, but in a — my father really miffed you off — kind of a way.” She grimaced again.
“I’m not angry for me. I’m used to dealing with people like that. I’m angry for you, and for Stacey,” Malachi’s words only seemed to reach into her heart and touch her even more than he already had with his kindness and generosity.
“So, you’re big butt bear isn’t about to burst free and wreck my cabin?”
She teased him and got a slow to boil smile back in the process. She waited for it to bloom into a full-blown sexy-as-hell grin that lightened his eyes, and made her stomach flip over in the process.
“My bear takes exception to the fact that you say he has a big backside,” Malachi lied. But he liked the teasing between them it seemed to lighten the tension within him.
“Well, I apologize to your bear. But given the information that I have to hand — namely the size of your backside — I could only assume that the bear’s is…”
“Does my backside look big in these jeans?” He teased her once more and watched as the sun came out with her smile.
Malachi knew one thing — after meeting her father — the man was going to be a bigger problem than he’d given him credit for.
One way or the other, he just might need to take care of that problem if he was to keep his mate.