Chapter 4
Hours later the bell jingled on the front door of the animal hospital while Cristie finished making notes in the file she was working in so Sheryl could type in her notations when she came in the next morning.
“Well, if it isn’t the owner of my very first broken heart,” a deep, velvety voice said.
Cristie’s head jerked up and a brilliant smile lit up her face. “Kaiser!”
“The one and only,” he said.
“What are you doing here? I didn’t know you were home yet,” Cristie said.
“Got home this morning, and Buster just isn’t himself so I decided to bring him in.”
Cristie looked at the aging English Bulldog sitting at the end of a leash at Kaiser’s feet. “Hi, Buster Bee! How are you doing, sweetie?” she asked.
Buster, overweight, missing teeth, with his tongue hanging out of the space his missing teeth left, looked up at her and huffed a pitiful sigh before flopping down on the floor.
“Oh, my goodness. He’s pitiful,” she said, walking around the front desk to kneel down beside Buster. “Are you feeling bad, or are you just put out because how dare anybody bring you here?”
Buster looked up at her and opened his many jowled mouth to swipe up the side of her face with an overly slobbery tongue.
“Okay, now, I wasn’t going to complain when you showed him attention first because this is an animal hospital and all, but when he gets to kiss you before I do — that’s just not right, Cristie,” Kaiser said. “Besides, he’s not really sick. I think he’s just fat.”
“Well, fat doggies can sometimes get diabetes and that means they need insulin, so it could be a little fat and a little sick,” she said, as she stood up and hugged her cousin tight. “I missed you, you know?”
“No, I didn’t know, but I was hoping,” Kaiser said, pecking a kiss to her cheek — the one that Buster hadn’t claimed yet.
“Come on, let’s get a blood test from Buster and see what’s going on with him,” she said, taking a treat out of her pocket and showing it to Buster to get him to follow her.
Buster jumped up and trotted along happily behind her.
“See? Just wants more food,” Kaiser said.
“Don’t we all?” Cristie said.
“Really? You hungry?” Kaiser asked, as he followed her into an examination room and picked Buster up to put him on the exam table.
“Starving. I didn’t exactly get breakfast, and then I was too sick to eat lunch, so now that my mini nervous breakdown has tapered off, I’m starving.”
“Want to have dinner with me?”
She eyed him suspiciously.
“I swear, no funny stuff, just dinner and catching up,” Kaiser promised.
“Who’s your flavor of the week? Am I going to end up in some gossip rag described as the other woman who destroyed some poor actress’s heart because I shattered the budding romance she was cultivating with the ever popular and oh so charming MVP Kaiser Lyakhov?”
Kaiser laughed. “No promises you won’t get your picture taken, but there’s no flavor of the week. I’m getting more than a little tired of that. I’m thinking of going celibate.”
“Yeah, it does sound enticing about now.”
“Who’s got you in a tizzy? You do know I’m not above whipping his ass, right?” Kaiser asked.
“Hold Buster still while I get a blood sample,” she said.
“Got him,” Kaiser answered.
After she got the blood she needed, she turned to process the sample, but continued talking to Kaiser. “Remember my mate?”
“The Dragon idiot that didn’t chase you down after it clicked into place that you two are mates?”
“Yep.”
“I can’t believe you’d even allow him to come up here after renouncing you. And I’ll go one step further, why do you care what he says or does enough to let it upset you so much you didn’t eat today, and what did you call it, have a mini nervous breakdown?”
“A lot to unpack in that question, but let’s just suffice it to say that he’s here, it wasn’t my idea, and part of my mental breakdown is resentment toward my father because he’s the one that gave him sanctuary.”
“Oh, shit. Well, that sucks.”
“Doesn’t it, though?” Cristie asked.
“Doesn’t he know the male renounced you?”
Cristie looked back at Kaiser. “To be honest, that is apparently a matter of contention.”
“What does that mean?” Kaiser asked.
“It means that he didn’t actually speak the words. He just didn’t come see me before I left regardless of the fact that I told him I wouldn’t be there forever and when I planned to leave.”
“So you took his silence as renouncement.”
“Wouldn’t you?!” she demanded.
“I don’t know. I took you throwing me off the top of your castle as an invitation to marry me when we were six or seven. What do I know?”
“You were six, I was eight.”
“Okay. Still broke my heart when you refused,” Kaiser said, with a smirk. “You ruined me for other females. It’s why I have flavors of the week.”
“Bullshit,” Cristie said with a chuckle.
Kaiser laughed, the sound of it echoing through the exam room and out into the hallway.
Fortunately it was well after closing time and the patients were all gone, otherwise there would have been a crowd of people at the exam room door waiting for a chance to see Kaiser.
Voted sexiest athlete in the division he and his Major League Baseball team played in, along with being a notorious playboy, women never missed a chance to smile at him and flutter their lashes in an effort to be the one that might happen to change his wandering eye.
“Maybe I’ll take you up on it now and send the Dragon running back home to his own shifter clan.”
“Yeah, go ahead, get me roasted by the Dragon. This one does breathe fire, right?”
“He does. And you might look even better with a slightly seared tone to your skin. You’d definitely probably smell better, like when you arrive at a cook out and they’ve got steaks on the grill. Yummy!” she said dramatically.
Kaiser laughed even harder. “Yeah, you’re definitely hungry if you’re equating my flame roasted body with the scent of a grilled steak.
So, what do you say, want to have dinner with me?
I honestly did miss you. And believe it or not, you’re one of the only people I know that treats me like I’m just your cousin instead of something special. I find I really need that about now.”
Cristie looked him up and down, quickly giving him the once over. “You good?” she asked, when she picked up on a slightly unsettled aura coming off him. He hid it well, though.
“Good enough,” he said, winking at her.
“Pick me up at 6:00?” she asked.
“Cristie, baby, it’s 6:30.”
“Oh, well, let me finish this, and make sure Buster Bee is okay, and then run me home to change real quick and it’s a date.”
“You got it,” Kaiser said.
~~~
Twenty minutes later Kaiser paused at the front gate of Riley’s home and pressed his pass code into the security panel. He looked over at Cristie sitting in the passenger side of his Ferrari Portofino. “You alright? You went quiet on me.”
“Yeah. I’m just wondering if he’s here.”
“If he is, just ignore him and come right back out. Me and Buster will be waiting, right Bee-man?” Kaiser asked, the elderly dog panting in his ear from right behind them.
Cristie ventured a look back at Buster Bee, riding along in the tiny backseat of Kaiser’s car, sitting happily on top of his new diet dog food.
She couldn’t help but grin. She reached back and scratched his head between his ears, resulting in a steady beat being slapped against the large dog food bag from Buster’s foot slapping it uncontrollably as a result of her scratching.
“I hope you like that food as much once you taste it.”
“Is it bad?” Kaiser asked.
“No. I mean, I haven’t tried it personally, but the makers claim it’s preferred over all competitors’ weight loss foods. And it’s got better ingredients. It’s just healthier. Higher protein and veggies, less carbs and grains.”
“He’ll eat it. Doesn’t matter what it is,” Kaiser said as he drove them through the front gate that slowly opened and granted them entry.
Kaiser pulled his car up and parked it between Cristie’s car and Riley’s work truck. “You’re on, my dear. Go in and get changed and I’ll be waiting here. If he’s here, just pretend he’s not and make your escape. We’ll whisk you away.”
Cristie nodded, but she made no move to get out of the car.
“Want me to go in with you?”
Cristie looked over at Kaiser hopefully, but then shook her head. “No. Yes, but no. I gotta do this. I can’t be afraid to go into my own home.”
“You are a pretty bad ass Alpha. Don’t let him shake you.”
“Oh, I am shook. But that doesn’t mean I can’t get un-shook.”
“Prove it, then.”
“I will,” she said, opening the door and stepping out of the car. “I’ll be right back. Maybe a few minutes to change clothes and wash my face…”
“Take your time, we’ll be here.”
~~~
Riley glanced through the window when he heard the sensor ping, letting him know someone had entered a security code to open the gate and presumably drive through.
“Who is it?” Lucas asked.
“Kaiser, or Basilio driving Kaiser’s car.”
“I thought I saw his car over at the animal hospital a little while ago,” Lucas said.
“He’s probably bringing Cristie home, since it’s so late.”
“Is Kaiser here?” a beautiful girl with thick, strawberry blonde waves and big bright blue eyes asked as she skidded to a stop in the doorway of the living room.
Keegan glared at her sister disdainfully as she followed her into the living room.
“Tia, he doesn’t care that you’re worried about him being here,” she said.
It was clear from their physical similarities that the two girls were related, but there were differences as well.
At first glance the older sister, Keegan, was very similar to her sister, with the exception of a darker head of hair and a lot less giggly wistfulness in her personality.
Keegan’s hair was heavier, a little straighter, and just this side of brown.
They both had blue eyes, but there was a small golden splotch at the bottom of Keegan’s right pupil.
And she was more stoic, more serious in her approach to everything.