Page 4 of Animal Instincts

Her heart thundered behind her ribs, and although she wouldn’t consider herself a shrinking violet, she felt very small compared to him. “You’re my father’s friend,” she said on a soft voice.

He made that weird purring sound again, a mixture of softness, but also having a hard edge to it.

She felt like it was a dangerous sound, like something he might make right before he slit someone’s throat, but despite feeling that she couldn’t find any fear inside of her. He had yet to respond, and this weird intensity slammed into her from him, like a hot poker moving through her belly.

It was a strange sensation, not unpleasant, but not exactly comforting either.

“You’re Danika,” Damien said with this growl in his voice. His pupils kept contracting and dilating, and when he looked down, closed his eyes, and shook his head, it was like he was trying to control himself. “You’re Tyler’s daughter.” Again he didn’t say it like a question, but almost like he was speaking to himself. He took a step back, breathed in and out heavily, and she saw the way he clenched his hands at his sides. “You’re Tyler’s daughter,” he said again, this time with a little more determination in his voice.

Danika had no clue what in the hell was going on. She was high, confused, and felt like she was standing on a tightrope, and beneath was a black abyss. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s going on.” Her lips were dry, her mouth feeling like it had a wad of cotton in it, and her pulse felt off the charts fast.

When her door opened and she looked over to see Hayden standing there, his expression kind of goofy and his eyesbloodshot, she wished she could be oblivious to the situation right now, too.

“Who are you talking to?” Hayden asked, and then glanced at Damien. His eyes widened as he took in the sight of the other man. “Um, Danika?”

Damien made this low growly noise again, but this time it was deeper, more threatening, and directed right at Hayden. Damien took a step toward Hayden, and it was like everything stalled. “She’s mine,” he said to Hayden in a deep voice that had Danika’s heart stopping.

“What?” Hayden said, knitted his brows, and looked at Danika. “Your what?” maybe it was because Hayden was so high, but

he wasn’t acting as though this beast of a man was staring him down. Before anyone else could say anything Damien looked at her once more, held her gaze with his own, and then turned to leave.

But his movements were tense, and it was like he was trying to force himself to walk away.

After he left she stood there, still pressed to the wall, and Hayden standing in her doorway.

Her father came in only a few minutes later, stopped at the end of the hallway when he saw the two of them, and pointed his spatula to the front of the house. “You know what happened to Damien?”

She shook her head and swallowed. “No, why?” It wasn’t a lie because she had no freaking clue what in the hell had gotten into him.

“He just said he wasn’t feeling right and had to leave.” Tyler shook his head when she shrugged, then turned and headed back outside.

For several minutes the silence stretched between her and Hayden.

“What in the hell was that?” he asked.

She stared at the hallway where Damien had just left, shook her head, and tried to get her thoughts in order. “I have no clue, Hayden. But that was the most intense situation I think I’ve ever been in.”

2

Damien had gone back to his cabin, slammed the door shut behind him, and roared out. He was pissed, anxious, and his lion wanted out. He had just found his mate, imprinted on her, and she was the daughter of his best friend.

When he had seen Danika for that first time the scent of her had ingrained itself in his cells. She was young, but he didn’t imprint on her in a sexual way, but a way that wanted to protect her, make sure she was safe and happy.

He paced his living room, ran his hands over his short hair, and cursed out. “Fuck.” When a shifter male found their mate they imprinted on her, but it didn’t happen until both of them were physically mature.

Even when a male imprinted on a female, and the female was young, as in this case, the urge to keep his mate safe overruled everything.

He didn’t see Danika as a sexual object, not yet anyway, but more of a younger sister.

But either way this was a hard, complicated situation. His body wanted to be next to her, make sure no one hurt her, but his

mind told him that she was Tyler’s daughter, and having anything to do with her was wrong.

He knew she was too young for him, that even when he would want her sexually, when his animal would see her as a sexual object and one that needed to be claimed, she would only be eighteen and still too young.

He walked over to the window in the living room, stared out at the trees that surrounded him, secluded him, and felt his animal pace beneath his skin, He’d run out this angry, anxious energy.

Lowering his head and closing his eyes, he could have torn his cabin to hell, destroyed everything because he was so angry over how the situation had played out.

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