“She’s taking a shower,” he said as casually as could be.
“She’s naked? And you’re almost naked? What the hell, dude?”
Zach held up a hand and slowly approached, acting as if Mike was about to shift and attack. To be honest, he was thinking of it.
“She started it.”
“You had sex?”he telepathed.
“We made love. There’s a difference.”
“Oh, I see. That makes it better, how? I thought Cassidy had been through too much already, and we were going to wait.” Yes, his voice had escalated, but right now he didn’t care.
That is until Cassidy stepped out of the room with her hair wrapped in a towel and another one of his towels around her slightly damp, naked body. Mike’s eyes surely must be glowing.
“Hi, Mike. Please don’t be mad at Zach. I seduced him.”
“Hold on. What the fuck is going on here? Last I saw you, you were this skittish woman running for her life. And now, you prance out of the bedroom half-naked, acting as if this is an everyday occurrence?”
“I realized that you and Zach are my mates. Since Zach was here last night, I figured why wait? I wanted Zach, and apparently he wanted me.” Cassidy stepped forward.
Mike turned to Zach.“Why didn’t you call me? I’m not saying you needed to ask permission, but shit man, you went off the rails. I thought Cassidy was our mate not just yours.”
“She is. I think she wanted to see if she could handle one of us. She’s not all that experienced,”Zach telepathed back.
“Clearly, you two are a team now. Have fun.”With that he walked out.
Had he overreacted? Probably, but Zach just took over the entire situation without even letting Mike know what had happened.
He rushed down the steps.
“Mike,” Zach shouted.
He wasn’t in the mood to listen. If he stayed, he might say something he regretted later. Cassidy might have asked Zach to keep her company in bed, but at the very least, Zach could have texted him in the morning about what had occurred. And to think Zach had claimed he was the only one capable of controlling himself. What a crock of shit.
Mike clicked open his truck door and slipped in. He grabbed his phone and called Liam, hoping he and Alex could give him a lesson. Zach had never mentioned how much they charged, but Mike didn’t care. Learning to fight was more important now than ever.
“Hello?”
“Liam, it’s Mike Halperin.” He asked if he and Alex might be able to fit him into a training session.
“As a matter of fact, Ethan and Jeffrey Granger are about to come by for their lesson. You’re welcome to join them.”
“Great. Be there soon.” Mike had planned to ask whether they could use any help administratively, but he’d let Zach handle it now.
Would he calm down after a good fight? Probably, but the shock of seeing his best friend with the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with had thrown him off his game. The irony was that he and Zach had shared a couple of women, in part because it was hard to get Zach to go out by himself. Something had changed.
Not wanting to wallow in self-pity any longer than necessary, Mike headed over to Tawny’s mates’ house. Ethan and Jeffrey needed to be prepared to do battle as much as any one of the Grangers. So what if Ethan was a big guy. It would make the challenge of beating him that much more rewarding. Zach’s cousin had been one of the people beside Zach that the vigilante group had tried to kill. Luckily for Ethan, their aim had been off that day.
As for Jeffrey, he owned a security company, one that sold electronic devices for home protection. Too bad Mike hadn’t installed cameras inside his apartment or he could have watched first-hand what had happened between Cassidy and Zach—not that he wanted to actually see the betrayal.
Mike parked. Before he could knock on the door, Alex opened up. “Mike. Good to see you again. Come in.”
“Hey, Alex.”
“Jeffrey and Ethan haven’t arrived, but let’s go downstairs.”
Mike barely looked around as he followed Alex into their newly renovated fighting cave. He was hoping they would be doing battle in their wolf form today. If he ever confronted the Kitchener Clan, mostly likely it would be in their shifted form.