by Lucy Farago
“No, the whole point was to have a purebred lynx.”
“No.” He stood and gave her a tight hug. “The whole point is to give us a child.” He took a step back, cupping her shoulders. “David and I aren’t exactly seen as the perfect couple,” he said, rolling his eyes. “But we’re perfect for each other. We’re not doing this to save our species. We’re doing it to share our love. Look, I love our father as much as you, but this mission he’s on is a tad consuming. I don’t want to live like that. And neither should you. It’s time you started living.”
“I am living,” she said, hopping up onto the hospital bed. “You just don’t know I can’t be with Loki.”
“Loki? Now there’s a name that conjures up all kinds of delicious images.”
“Ew, gross. Go have your Avenger fantasy somewhere else.” She pulled her feet up and sat cross-legged.
He playfully slapped her knee. “Who needs the god of mischief when you have that hunk pining for you?” He nodded over his shoulder. “Tell me why you can’t be with him. And stop with the mixed-species bullshit. Out with it. Why can’t you be with Mister Wet-my-pants.”
“Again, ew.” She never realized what a sick sense of humor her brother had. She loved him even more. “He…he bonded to me. He heard the mating call, or felt it, whatever one does when you get the call, and started to bond with me.”
“Really?” Josh said, clearly excited by the idea. “That’s amazing. What’s the problem?”
It never ceased to amaze her how dense men could be some times. “He heard it. I didn’t. Josh, how could I stay with him? It’s like”—she started flailing her arms to demonstrate— “trying to catch that fly ball and missing. Over and over again.” She stopped and took in a deep breath. “I can’t do that to him. He needs someone who can finish the braid. He deserves someone who can bond with him.”
“And you don’t think that’s you?”
Was he not listening? “I didn’t hear it,” she repeated, enunciating each word.
“Maybe you should listen.”
She’d been about to lose it on him. Leaving Loki was the hardest thing she’d ever done. Being told she hadn’t tried hard enough was insulting. But a sympathetic expression on her brother’s face stopped her. Why did he feel sorry for her? “Josh?”
He came and jumped up next to her on the bed. Shoulder to shoulder, thigh to thigh, Josh was barely an inch shorter than her. “Do you remember Dr. Singh?”
“No, should I?”
“Given how you managed to block everything out, no, I guessed you wouldn’t.”
“What are you talking about?”
“After the fire… You had nightmares. Terrible, terrible nightmares. You said you kept hearing her scream. Our mother. You heard her scream. But the firemen stopped you from going back inside. Shit, Mia. You were a baby, and yet, you blamed yourself.”
“Because I couldn’t get to her? That could be normal for any kid hearing her mother cry out for help.”
Josh wrapped an arm around her waist. “You weren’t a normal kid. You were telepathic.”
“You mean, when I was a kid? Before college?” How did she not remember that?
“You were born telepathic. It used to drive everyone crazy. But not Mother. She loved it, said she knew exactly what you needed because you told her, and what mother wouldn’t want that? It was creepy to watch you talk to her.”
“I don’t understand. What are you telling me?”
“Dr. Singh told us it was a defence mechanism, you losing your abilities. You were shutting out mom’s voice. Then that thing happened in college, where you got part of it back. You could do your icky transmit thing but only as a lynx. It wasn’t your fault, Mia. The fire.”
Of course, it wasn’t her fault. She was just a kid. But then…the sweet aroma of chocolate touched the back of her throat. Mia flexed her fingers, remembering the sticky dough on her hands. “Cookies. We’d been baking cookies for my preschool. It was my turn to bring the snack, and I’d insisted on homemade.”
Josh nodded. “The fireman told us the stove shorted out the electric panel. The house was so old… Do you remember it?”
She did. “A Victorian, passed down by mom’s grandmother.” How had she forgotten her childhood home?
“That’s right. Anything else?”
Smoke. “The floor register started billowing smoke. It happened so fast. By the time we hit the hallway, the stairs were engulfed in flames.” So hot, the air was stifling. “Mother wrapped me in the throw she kept on the couch. I couldn’t see.” But she’d heard the sound of breaking glass. “The next thing I knew, I was on the front lawn. I tried to get inside, but someone stopped me.” She shivered as each awful, terrifying memory assaulted her senses.
Josh squeezed her tighter to him, let her know she wasn’t four years old, she wasn’t on that lawn hearing, feeling her mother’s screams.
“You were never the same after that.”
Who would be? She’d shut down her telepathy. And buried the memories with her mother.
“So maybe, just maybe, Mia, you didn’t hear the mating call because you weren’t listening.”
She stared at Josh, at his crooked smile as he stared back at her, and wondered how the hell a nerdy accountant could be so much wiser than her.
“Listen, kitten. Listen.”
Loki wasn’t sure he’d made the right decision. In the three weeks she’d been away, he was certain the bond would start to sever. Instead, it grew stronger. So much so he’d known today was the day. He took the chance. If this was why she’d fled, he needed to tell her he was okay with it. She did this out of love. Her choice, her decision. And he realized no one made Mia do anything she didn’t want to. If she felt the need to have a baby for her brother, he’d respect that…as long as he could have her.
Loki.
He stood from his chair in the waiting room, expecting to see Mia. But she wasn’t anywhere to be seen. He shook his head. His mind was playing tricks on him.
Loki.
Mia. He smiled. At least she was talking to him. Don’t think the hospital would approve of cats running around their hallways.
Probably not.
So, you can hear me now? He refused to get his hopes up. For all he knew, her lynx had evolved.
Clearly, you dumb dog.
What does this mean?
My brother suggested I wasn’t hearing you because I wasn’t listening, she said, sparking just a flicker of hope.
Are you listening now? Did he dare…or would she be that cruel?
Are all Siberians this dense? Or just you?
He wanted to laugh. Would have, too, if the little gray-haired woman sitting in the waiting room wasn’t giving him the stink eye. Where are you?
Where are you? she cooed.
Waiting room, first floor. He’d go looking for her, but all the heart monitors strapped to the many patients in the hospital was fucking with his senses.
I know, she said. Just fucking with you.
His heart rate picked up, and he knew it before the elevator doors sprang open.
Mia burst out, and he met her halfway, just as she flung herself into his arms.
He kissed her, knowing with every fiber of his being it was what she wanted. She clung to him, opening her mouth and deepening the kiss.
“I love you,” she said before kissing him again. You know one good about being mated? she asked.
Only one? Mated. She’d said mated. With each second, their spirits intertwined, braided together in an unbreakable bond. It grew stronger and stronger and would continue to do so until only death could sever it.
You can talk dirty to me, and no one will be the wiser.
He guessed the old woman in the waiting room knew, but hey, given how she was smiling at them, he figured she approved. You know what else? he asked, enjoying the taste of his mate—his mate.
No, what?
I can talk dirty to you and still use my mouth.
Loki to
ok Mia home, where they tested their new bond. They professed their love with words, with thoughts, with action. She was his, and he was hers. And although the war between cats and dogs waged on, the Lynx and the Siberian found their mates.
They weren’t perfect. But they were positively imperfect for each other.
The End
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About the Author
Lucy Farago knows there is nothing like a happy sigh at the end of a good book. With the encouragement of her loving husband, she wrote her first manuscript. An unpublished historical, it sits in a file on her computer, there to remind her how much fun she had learning the craft and becoming part of an industry whose books make you believe anything is possible.
Lucy also teaches yoga, enjoys cooking, and says what other people are thinking. In her fantasy world, her beautiful Siberian husky, Loki, doesn't shed and her three kids clean up after themselves . Alas, that fantasy will never see fruition.
I didn’t set out to be a writer, and yet… Check out my website: www.lucyfarago.com