I want you, Sylvan said through their link, tracing his tongue over the delicate blue veins pulsing in her throat. I want to take you to bed and fill you all night. Want to pump you full of my essence and my cum over and over.
I want that too. Sophie thought her mental voice sounded rather breathless but she couldn’t help it—Sylvan made her weak in the knees, literally. She could barely stand, she wanted him so badly.
Obviously sensing her dilemma, Sylvan swung her up into his arms. Sophie gasped and then snuggled closer to his broad chest. She loved how strong he was—and how gentle he could be despite his immense strength.
“You’re strong too, you know,” he whispered, apparently catching her thought. “Stronger than you know. You’re going to make a wonderful mother when the time is right.”
“Maybe it’s right tonight,” Sophie suggested, kissing him eagerly. “We could try.”
“We could,” he agreed. “I’m not adverse to ‘trying’ all night long, if you wish, Talana.”
“Yes,” she murmured, kissing him again as he carried her from his office to the bedroom. “Yes, let’s try.”
The only thing that bothered her as he laid her on the bed and began undressing her was the thought of Kat. I’m not pregnant. I should have gone with her. She’s all alone and it’s my fault.
Then Sylvan’s hot mouth closed over one of her aching nipples and all coherent thought left her as he bonded her to him again…
“So you’re not preggers.” Liv looked down at the small, white flower, looking slightly disappointed.
“Afraid not.” Sophie handed her twin a plate before sitting down beside her on the couch. Today Liv was craving pancakes and nobody made better blueberry buttermilk pancakes than Sophie—or so she had claimed over the Think-me when she begged Sophie to come make her some. “Anyway, I wasn’t when we did the test. After last night, all bets are off again.”
Liv laughed. “You decided to try again?”
“And try…and try…and try…” Sophie laughed and then suddenly sobered. “I feel bad about it, though.”
“Why should you?” Olivia took a bite and closed her eyes to savor the delicious taste. “Mmm, you’ve outdone yourself, Sophie!”
“I’m glad you like them. Wasn’t that what I was making the morning Baird first claimed you? Blueberry pancakes?”
“Could be.” Liv took another bite. “Mmm. But I seem to remember that Kat wanted to make some kind of quiche. Something with way too many ingredients…ugh.”
“Kat is always so crazy in the kitchen.” Sophie sighed. “Poor Kat… That’s what has me feeling so bad. I’m not pregnant, Liv—I should have gone with her.”
“You couldn’t have known,” Liv said reasonably. “It was too early to take a test and we couldn’t wait to make the decision. It was send her to Twin Moons or lose her—personally, I still feel like we did the right thing.”
“I’m worried about her, though. When will we ever get to talk to her?”
“Soon.” Liv took a drink of milk. She had told Sophie she still couldn’t get Baird to try it. He didn’t like the idea of drinking something that came from a bag between a cow’s legs, though he ate cheese like it was going out of style. “Baird said that he had a call from Lock a little while ago,” she continued. “He and Deep are taking her back to see the holistic healer woman—Mother L’rin—again. They’re going to call us on their viewscreen on the way back.” She shrugged. “Who knows—if Kat gets a clean bill of health she could be back aboard the Mother ship with us before you know it.”
“I hope so,” Sophie said earnestly. “And I hope she can forgive us for sending her off with Deep and Lock in the first place.”
“Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee?” Liv grinned and cut another wedge of pancake with a particularly plump blueberry right in the middle. “Don’t worry about them. This is Kat we’re talking about—she can hold her own against anyone. I’m sure she’ll have some interesting stories to tell us when she gets back, though.”
“No doubt,” Sophie said, taking a nibble of her own pancake. “Not to change the subject but have you heard any more about Lauren? When I think about what might be happening to her…” She shivered.
“I know,” Olivia agreed soberly. “Baird’s been working with the High Council but so far they’ve determined that we can’t make any overt moves on the Scourge without having proof of where they’re holding her.” She sighed and put her plate down on the coffee table. Apparently, the thought of their unknown cousin being subjected to the probes of the AllFather took her appetite away.
“Well, have you heard any more from Aunt Abby? I don’t know how much longer we can keep what really happened to Lauren from her,” Sophie said.
“As long as possible,” Liv said grimly. “Think about it. What’s worse—thinking that your only daughter has disappeared into thin air? Or knowing that she was kidnapped by an evil, malevolent…thing for purposes too horrible to think about?”
“I see your point.” Sophie nodded sadly. “But poor Lauren! I was looking her up on-line, you know, wishing we could have gotten to know her. She looks so happy and bright in all her pictures. And did you know she dropped out of business school to start a specialty cupcake shop in Sarasota?”
“Specialty cupcakes? Mmm.” Liv nodded. “Sounds like a woman after my own heart.”
“Or a woman after your pregnant stomach.” Sophie gave her sister a little smile. “I just hope she’s all right somehow. And that someday we get to meet her.”
Olivia nodded. “I hope so too. I feel so bad for Aunt Abby, though. She still thinks Lauren is on Earth and she’s certainly sparing no expense to try and find her.”
“What do you mean?” Sophie took another nibble of her pancake.
“We got another vidcall last night. I meant to tell you earlier but I forgot,” Liv said. “Baird took it. It was a private investigator Aunt Abby hired —a specialist in finding missing persons.”
“Really? What did he want?”
Liv shrugged. “More information and Kindred cooperation. Baird said he was a real hard-ass. But he seemed to think that was a good thing. You know—like he respected him.”
Sophie sighed. “Sounds like an alpha male thing to me.”
“Of course.” Olivia smiled. “And we should both know about that, right womb-mate?”
“Yup.” Sophie allowed herself a small smile. “And to think, I used to believe an alpha male was the last thing I wanted.”
“You just had ‘alpha male’ confused with ‘asshole,’” Liv said comfortably, picking up her pancake plate again. “They don’t always have to be the same thing, you know.”
“I know that now,” Sophie agreed. “But it took Sylvan to show me.”
“And Baird to show me.” Liv sounded thoughtful. “I wonder what Kat is learning from Deep and Lock?”
Fifteen
“You’re telling me we have what kind of a bond?” Kat stared at the two of them in disbelief.
“A soul bond,” Lock said quietly. “It’s only half a bond, really—incomplete without the physical aspect.”
“Which, as you may remember, we have all agreed we’re not going to pursue,” Deep said dryly, his arms crossed over his broad chest. “It’s really not that important.”
“If it’s no big deal then why are you telling me now?” Kat demanded.
“We thought that since you’re going to see Mother L’rin again today—” Lock began.
“We thought you’d rather hear it from us than her.” Deep frowned. “Speaking of which, if we don’t get to the shuttle soon, we’re going to be late. They’re not going to let us land in the middle of the Healing Gardens again, you know. We’re going to be doing some walking to get to her.”
“Oh no, you’re not brushing this off so easily.” Kat put a hand on her hip. “I want to know more about what you two did to me and why you didn’t tell me first.”
“Let’s talk and walk, then,” Deep suggested. He was being infu
riatingly calm about the whole thing—as though he and Lock bonding her to them against her will was of no importance whatsoever. Which of course made Kat suspicious.
“Please understand, my lady—we were saving your life,” Lock pleaded as they all left the house and headed for the waiting shuttle. It had taken the form of a smallish car, as all Kindred shuttles did when not in use for flight. “Mother L’rin told us it was necessary. Your spirit had fractured—forming a bond with you was the only way to mend it.”
“I don’t know if I believe that,” Kat snapped as she climbed into the back of the shuttle.
Deep turned from the driver’s seat, his dark eyes narrowed. “Are you calling us liars?”
“Well, it’s not like you can actually prove what you’re saying,” she pointed out. “I mean, if I’d broken my arm and woke up with a cast on it, I could buy that. But this whole ‘fractured spirit’ thing—”
“Came straight from Mother L’rin herself,” Deep said, frowning. “She can explain all about it when we get to the Healing Gardens. Until then, don’t call us liars until you know what you’re talking about.”
“Deep, please, I’m sure the lady Kat didn’t mean to offend,” Lock said quietly from the passenger seat. “She’s just upset, that’s all.”
“Damn right, I’m upset.” Kat glared at both of them. “After all that high-sounding talk about how you would ‘never bond an unwilling female to you…’”
“We meant a physical bond,” Deep growled. “Which we could have formed last night if we’d wanted to instead of—”
“Don’t start.” Kat lifted her chin. “I told you I didn’t want to talk about…about what we did last night.” In fact, she preferred not to think about it either. Stupid bonding fruit! She’d been completely out of control, letting the two of them fuck her with that huge wooden dildo. It made her cheeks hot with shame just remembering it. Don’t think about it, she told herself. Just put it behind you and never let it happen again.
“Don’t want to talk about it, hmm?” Deep’s eyes were angry in the rearview reflector. “Why not, little Kat? Don’t you want to discuss the way you spread yourself for us? The way you gave it up so sweetly while Lock fucked you—”
“That’s enough!” Lock’s voice was almost a shout. Kat and Deep both stared at him, surprised. “Why,” he continued in a lower tone. “Can’t the two of you just get along for two minutes? Why can’t you stop fighting and admit that you care for each other the way…the way I care for both of you?”
“Because we don’t,” Deep said coldly, before Kat could answer. “I know you have this sweet, pathetic fantasy that the three of us are going to end up together, Brother but it’s not going to happen.”
Lock shook his head. “Don’t,” he said in a low voice. “I thought after last night…”
“You thought wrong.” Deep’s eyes clashed with Kat’s in the rearview again and then he turned his attention back to the curvy, winding road.
“I’m sorry, Lock.” Kat reached up to put a hand on his broad shoulder. “I didn’t think—”
“And you don’t care, either.” Deep’s eyes were still angry and the emotions coming from him were like a black cloud, filling the interior of the car. Filling Kat herself with hurt and anger and misery.
“Deep…” Lock’s voice held a warning note but Deep shook his head.
“She doesn’t, Brother—not the way you want her to. So leave it alone. The sooner we get to Mother L’rin and have her dissolve our partial bond the better.”
Kat couldn’t have agreed more. But she still felt horrible as the little car made its way to the Healing Gardens. I never wanted it to be like this, she thought miserably. Never wanted to care for either one of them. I don’t know how my life got so screwed up. Well, it was about to get straightened out, she comforted herself. According to Deep and Lock, this Mother L’rin person could fix everything.
Kat just hoped they were right because at the moment, a lot more than just her spirit felt broken.
“Looking better today, you are.” The wizened old woman with strange, jewel-like eyes and pink-tinged skin circled Kat slowly, watching her sharply as though looking for some invisible defect. “But deceiving appearances can be.”
“Oh really?” Kat said politely, glad she could understand what was being said. She’d forgotten all about the convo-pillar still stuck in her ear until Mother L’rin had started speaking. Deep, of course, had wanted her to take it out. He’d said he or Lock could translate for her, but Kat had refused and demanded to speak to the healer alone.
She wanted to be able to talk confidentially with the old woman the twins said had saved her life. There were things she wanted to say and questions she wanted to ask that she didn’t feel comfortable having Deep and Lock hear. Besides, she was dying to get away from their suffocating emotions. After the fight she’d had with them, riding in the tiny shuttle car all the way to the Healing Gardens had been like breathing in choking lungfuls of second hand smoke. Putting some distance between herself and the two brothers was a breath of fresh air.
Now she was sitting in a lovely little meadow with flowering bushes all around and a golden stream tinkling musically to one side and she felt much calmer. She didn’t know where Deep and Lock had gone—she just hoped they stayed away for a good long while.
“Very ill, you were. Nearly dead, mm-hmm.” The old woman nodded wisely and Kat nodded back. The convo-pillar seemed to be working much better today, though it did kind of make Mother L’rin sound like Yoda.
“Deep and Lock say you saved my life,” she said. “I wanted to thank you for that.”
“Healing my profession is. Necessary thanks are not.”
“Uh, okay.” Kat nodded uncertainly. “They also say you told them to form a soul bond with me—whatever that is.”
“Half of a true bond, a soul bond is—the joining of three spirits as one.”
“And the other half is the physical bond? When you…?” Kat trailed off, blushing.
“Have sex that is bonding,” Mother L’rin finished for her, eyeing her sharply. “But this you have not done.”
“No, of course not,” Kat blurted. “Look, I never meant to get involved with Lock and Deep in the first place and now everything is all messed up and my whole life feels out of control! I can feel their emotions filling me up until I think I’m drowning. Can you help me block them? Lock said you might be able to.”
Mother L’rin shook her head. “Only with a full bond is mind privacy possible.”
Kat’s heart sank. “So you’re saying in order to have any kind of peace I’d have to tie myself to them for life?”
The wise woman nodded solemnly. “Bonded to them you must be.”
“But I can’t be. I don’t want to be,” Kat protested.
“Until you are, weak you will be.” Mother L’rin poked a finger at her. “The pain…return it will.”
“It will?” Kat felt sick. Come to think of it, she hadn’t felt anything like the symptoms she’d had while she was aboard the Mother ship since she woke up. But just the thought of enduring that splitting headache again was hideous.
“You must touch them—one at least. Both is better.” Mother L’rin nodded sagely. “As greater your weakness grows, the more deeply must you touch.”
“You mean like a…” Kat cleared her throat. “Like a sexual touch?”
“Yes, yes.” Mother L’rin nodded vigorously. “The bond it strengthens. Your pain will ease.”
“But I don’t want to be bonded to them,” Kat said, feeling like a broken record. “I mean, Lock is really sweet and I like him a lot but Deep is so angry all the time—”
“Much loss has Deep suffered,” Mother L’rin interrupted her. “Took your pain he did.”
“What?” Kat stared at her, confused. “You mean the headaches and dizziness I was having?”
“Yes,” Mother L’rin said simply.
Kat was still confused. “How could Deep take my headaches away?�
�� The sharp, stabbing ache behind her eyes had been intensely painful but she couldn’t imagine how it could have been transferred to another person.
“Show you, I will.” Mother L’rin raised her voice. “Doby! The whip.”
There was a rustling in the nearby bushes and a giant with pink mottled skin appeared. He was taller than a professional basketball player and about three times as broad. His loincloth was made of large, flat leaves and he carried a green wooden box carefully in his huge hands. For some reason he looked familiar to Kat. That’s silly. How can a nine foot tall giant in a leaf loincloth look familiar? But she couldn’t shake the feeling and the sight of him made her vaguely uneasy.
“Here I have it, Mother,” he said in a high, almost feminine voice.
“Good. Accompany us to the Stone Throat you will.” Turning, Mother L’rin marched off through the long green and pink grass at a surprisingly fast pace. Kat had to scramble up and almost run to keep up with her.
The lovely wilderness of the Healing Gardens was a blur around her as they walked quickly through the grass and flowering bushes. Kat was feeling more and more uncomfortable though she couldn’t put her finger exactly on why. But when they came to the mouth of a cave made of brownish-pink stone, the feeling grew even stronger.
“Wait a minute,” she said, when Mother L’rin started into the low stone entrance. “Where is this place? I have the strangest feeling of deja-vu but I know I’ve never been here before.”
The old woman only gestured toward the cave. “Inside we must go.” She went in and the pink giant followed her, leaving Kat no choice but to join them.
They walked down an echoing stone hallway with Kat feeling worse all the time. By the time they came to the green wooden door with the tarnished handle in its center she was shivering and it wasn’t from cold. But it wasn’t until Doby swung the door open, revealing a vast, round chamber with a red-streaked white obelisk at its center, that Kat nearly lost it.
Brides of the Kindred Volume One: Books 1-4 Page 101