“Holy fuck. What else can you do?”
“I think we’re going to have a long time to explore the differences between our races. I would like to focus on Kaitlyn at the moment.”
“Sorry, it was just a bit of a shock. Wait. Did you call her Kaitlyn?”
“Yes, I broke into her car and looked through her wallet. Her name is Kaitlyn Winter. She is twenty-three years old and stands five foot three inches tall. She has olive skin and long, long black hair.”
“She sounds beautiful. Her cat is just fucking bewitching. Have you ever seen anything so perfect?”
“No, Sean. I don’t believe I have.” Aiden curled his chest around Kaitlyn’s other side and felt a shudder run across her fur as he settled his hand on her head.
“Stroke her.”
Aiden followed Sean’s instruction. The feel of her thick, silky coat was luxurious against his palm. As he stroked down her head to her shoulders he felt his entire body tingle at the contact.
“I don’t mind you touching her. It’s how I know you’re also her true mate.”
“Yes. We are equally possessive of our mates. It’s the reason you’re still alive after stripping naked in the presence of my mate, young Sean.”
“It’s been a while since I was called young. It makes me wonder how old you are, Aiden.” Sean nestled his head into Kaitlyn’s neck and he felt her mind stir with feelings of pleasure.
“She felt that, Sean. I can also detect a change in her scent. Is that normal?”
“I can’t smell any change in her scent. She smells like berries. Berries and sex.” Sean growled, and it was not out of anger, it sounded to Aiden like pain and need. “When we meet our mates, we excrete a musk that draws our mate’s attention and makes it hard for us to walk away from them.”
“She is impossible to walk away from. I would lay down my life for hers. She is all that matters to me now.” Aiden stroked her fur and wished those had been the first words he’d spoken to her.
“You’re in pain. I can scent you now and it smells like pain. Did something happen that I haven’t been told?”
Aiden looked at the large cougar that was now a third of his family. His coat was the not the same color as his cousin’s. It was a pale grey, the black markings on his face, ears, and tail starkly contrasting with the gray. His eyes were soft yellow now and they shined with intelligence.
“You’re correct. But the pain is our mate’s. I hurt her badly.”
“I wouldn’t make such unqualified statements to a new mate if I were you, Aiden.” Sean’s snarl was a warning. His ears were flat to his head, his scruff raised and bristling.
“I didn’t hurt her psychically, or intentionally. When I followed her into the forest she was a woman. Her scent called to me as my mate. She didn’t, however, carry any scent of shifter.”
Sean kept his eyes on Aiden as he lowered his head and pressed his nose to her coat. “You’re right. I can’t scent shifter either, she scents as human. Continue.”
“When I came upon her as a panther I verbalized my surprise at her being a shifter. She took my words as a rejection.” Sean snarled again and licked Kaitlyn’s ear. “I both heard and felt her pain as she slipped into her current state.”
They remained quiet for a long time. Sean’s thoughts were open to Aiden and he listened as he ran through the gamut of ways he intended to kill him. Aiden could have closed himself off to the thoughts, but he felt he more than deserved the cat’s rage. Once Sean’s thoughts returned to concern for Kaitlyn, Aiden continued.
“I was born over a thousand years ago. I actively searched for my mate from the time I was two hundred. Despondency made me abandon my search some three hundred years later.” Aiden heard that Sean believed he was sorry for hurting Kaitlyn. Aiden’s emotions were now flavoring the air and Sean was again detecting a scent from him.
“Yes, if my emotions are strong, they carry a scent. I believe it is why my race appears cold and distant to shifters. Burying our emotions serves to keep us hidden from all other paranormal races.”
“Other races? I think we will be having a discussion at another time about that revelation. But not now.”
Aiden nodded and took up where he’d left off. “Over the next five hundred years there were sporadic periods where I devoted myself to scouring the globe to find her. In all the years I searched, never once did I imagine my mate would not be a vampire. My assumption was not based on preference. I’ve simply never encountered a mating that was any different.”
“So you don’t mind that she’s a shifter?”
“I wouldn’t care if she were a demon. I may not know her yet, but my feelings for her are such that I would scorch the earth if she were taken from me. Nothing will ever be as vital to me as the well-being of this woman.”
“Those should have been your first words to her.”
* * * *
Sean wanted to hate Aiden for hurting Kaitlyn, but after their discussion two hours ago, he found he couldn’t. At ninety-five, he felt he’d waited a long time for his mate. If he’d been waiting more than ten times as long, he didn’t know if he’d have remained sane.
He hadn’t yet reached a point where he’d actively gone looking for his mate, but he could admit to having feelings of jealousy at his cousin’s happiness when he’d attended their wedding to Melanie. No unattached person present could have denied feeling the same. The depth of love and devotion the five people shared was a joy to witness.
So finding his mate was a wonderful and welcome surprise. Aiden informing him that vampires had attacked her was not. He heard Jason arrive, but stayed where he was. Jason was a shifter. He’d find them. Aiden, however, rose and pulled his T-shirt back on.
When Jason walked into the room, his eyebrows rose and his lips twitched as they threatened to curl in a smile. “Well, I imagine that was a surprise to you both?”
Sean was shocked to discover Doc still had a sense of humor. His mate Bethany and his impending fatherhood seemed to have removed the stick from his ass.
“Your cousin seems equally surprised that you no longer seem burdened by the stick in your rectum. That must have been painful,” Aiden said sincerely.
So the vampire had a dry wit? Maybe he wouldn’t kill him. Aiden turned his sincere look on him, and Sean chuffed. “Maybe I’ll still kill you.”
Sean slowly unwrapped himself from around Kaitlyn and moved to the floor before shifting. “Thanks for coming, Doc,” he said, pulling his jeans back on. “She hasn’t woken yet.”
“Aiden, tell me what you learned of her attack. Finn only told me she was fed on by vampires,” Jason said.
Sean grew steadily more enraged as Aiden told them what he’d learned from Kaitlyn’s thoughts. If he’d found her sooner, even yesterday, she wouldn’t have been victim to those monsters. He felt furious and useless.
“I share in those feelings, Sean, but we didn’t find her in time. We must reconcile that fact or we’ll be incapable of helping her to recover from this.” Aiden stepped aside to let Doc examine Kaitlyn.
When Doc reached for Kaitlyn with his stethoscope, Sean lunged. His claws raked down Aiden’s arm as the vampire held him restrained against the wall. He’d turned his head to bite down on Aiden’s neck when he finally came to his senses. He took a deep breath and willed his claws back into his body.
Looking back at the bed, he saw Doc was now sitting beside Kaitlyn as he ignored Sean’s outburst and continued his examination. Sean’s growl was loud and feral. “Sorry, Aiden. Don’t let me go.” He managed to say between growls. Aiden didn’t reply, but he tightened his grip.
“Newly mated shifters,” Jason muttered under his breath, “always so fucking possessive. I should get danger money.”
When Doc had finished his examination he drew some blood. “I’ll need access to a lab so I can look at this sample before I make any sort of guess at what’s wrong with your mate.”
“Kaitlyn,” Sean and Aiden both said.
; Doc merely looked at them both then continued to pack up his medical bag. “She appears to be simply hypovolemic, but if that were the case then her shifter genetics should have healed her by now.”
“I needed to call my Alpha, Caleb Mabry, about Kaitlyn and Aiden, he can also get you access to the town’s clinic.”
Sean left to make the call in private. He didn’t know how Caleb was going to react to this new information. He would be thrilled that Sean had found Kaitlyn, but the fact he shared her with a vampire may not fill him with joy.
Chapter 5
Aiden sat back on the bed and lifted Kaitlyn gently onto his lap. Since Jason had arrived, his body had begun to ache from the loss of the contact with her. His skin had missed the warmth and softness of her. He already craved her.
“Are vampires venomous?” Jason asked. Aiden was surprised to have missed the question as it formed in Jason’s mind. The panther in his arms had immersed him in sensual pleasure as he held and stroked her.
“No, we hold no poisons or diseases in our bodies.”
“So she shouldn’t have had her inherent shifter healing abilities compromised by the way she was fed upon?”
“They shouldn’t have fed on her at all,” Aiden said. The gentle way he was stroking his hand over her coat belied the turbulent waves of anger that crashed against his mind as he recalled her assault. “Shifters are known by my race to be resistant to the suggestibility we induce in humans.”
“Were they aware she was a shifter?”
“Sean and I are unable to detect any scent from her other than human.”
Jason moved closer to Aiden and took a few deep breaths. “My skills at scent trails are not as acute as Axel and Calder Wilder’s, or my mate’s, but I wouldn’t have known she was a shifter either.”
“How much blood can a shifter lose before their bodies can no longer heal?” Aiden wasn’t asking the question out of idle curiosity. Jason looked at him shrewdly. Aiden was beginning to get a sick feeling in his stomach that he knew exactly why Kaitlyn wasn’t healing. It all fit.
“We can be on the brink of exsanguination and our bodies will still make more blood and heal our wounds. We require only a heartbeat and oxygen to continue healing.”
“It’s not like that with my race,” Aiden said. He looked down at Kaitlyn and knew exactly what she needed to heal.
“If this is a secret that means death by a thousand cuts, I still wouldn’t give a fuck. If you know something that will help your mate, I wouldn’t think you’d care, either.”
Aiden smiled at how close to the truth Jason had inadvertently come. “It’s a close kept secret only for the sake of our continued survival. But I will not survive without her now, young cat.”
“Do you know something or not, Aiden?” Sean asked, striding back into the room with his canines showing.
“Our race requires blood to sustain life. We can eat and drink as humans do, but it is not what nourishes our cells. We can survive and heal from grievous wounds until we’ve lost approximately three quarters of our circulating blood volume.” Aiden stood with Kaitlyn in his arms and handed her to Sean.
“What happens then?” Jason asked softly. Aiden could hear from Jason’s thoughts that the young doctor had nearly reached the same conclusion he just had.
“Then we are at a sort of tipping point. Without ingesting more blood our bodies are no longer able to sustain us, but we become so weak that we’re unable to hunt for the nourishment we require to survive.”
“So you die,” Sean said. “How does that have any bearing on Kaitlyn?”
“It should be an easy theory to test,” Jason said. He walked to his medical bag and pushed Sean down until he was sitting on the bed with Kaitlyn held stiffly in his arms.
“What should?” Sean asked.
“Does it need to be ingested?” Jason asked. His eyes were bright as he withdrew an intravenous line from his kit.
“No. That is simply the most convenient form of delivery.” Aiden sat next to Sean and offered Jason his arm.
“How much is safe to take?”
“I think we’ll have our answer with as little as a liter. After that, if she requires more, I will feed and give her more.”
“What the fuck are you two talking about?” Aiden had known how frustrated Sean was becoming, and knew he was being very patient.
“If you will wait for a few more minutes, we’ll be able to tell you definitively, instead of wasting time sharing speculations,” Jason said, glowering at Sean. Sean snapped his mouth closed and held Kaitlyn close to his chest.
Aiden listened to the slow thud of her heart. It hadn’t gotten a lot slower in the last few hours, but it hadn’t improved either. If she was simply a shifter, it would have.
Jason emptied a liter bag of saline into the bathroom sink, and then filled the bag from a cannula in Aiden’s arm. Once it was full, he inserted the cannula into Kaitlyn’s jugular. Aiden knew his suspicion was correct before even half the bag had infused.
Her heart rate sped up, her respirations increased, and her cat awoke.
* * * *
Kaitlyn struggled to wake up. She usually felt invigorated after a shift, but she felt sluggish and weak. She had to get back on the road. She shook her head to try and clear it and took a deep, cleansing breath. Her lungs filled with the most delicious scent. She held her breath, refusing to let the precious air go until she’d enjoyed it fully
Her body thrilled as the captured air hijacked her senses. Her body lit up with joy, from her lungs out to the tip of every hair. Her mouth watered as the delicious aroma washed over her tongue. It was more than just the scent of the vampire. He was here, but he was no longer alone. The smell was now enriched and complete, somehow. Now she was home.
She released the air from her body reluctantly, hating that she needed to breathe. She took an even deeper breath in and was rewarded with fresh, mate-infused air. Then the pain returned. The distraction of the combined scents had temporarily impeded her ability for rational thought. Why was that bastard still here? He’d been disgusted that I was a shifter.
“Surprised, not disgusted, my heart,” the vampire said into her mind.
Her eyes snapped open to see the bronze-skinned Adonis sitting on a bed beside her.
Thickly muscled arms held her firmly on jeans covered thighs. Turning her head she saw a sculpted six pack. Her cat immediately ceased control and tasted her other mate. Her tongue tingled at the feel and taste of him. He was a cat, his taste wild and beautiful.
“Jesus,” said a deep voice that rumbled across her heightened senses and teased her with its sensuality. His mating musk rained down on her. Not the gentle rain of a summer shower, this was a soaking deluge.
She chuffed in delight as she watched goose bumps rise on the naked abdomen she was gazing at. His muscles clenched as he continued to hiss. At least the cat is pleased to have me as a mate. She glanced at the vampire’s face as the scent of his pain irritated her nose, ruining the erotic bouquet she’d been enjoying. He looked stricken. She didn’t even try to care.
She wanted to know what was going on and she needed to speak for that. Reaching for her human form, she released her cat and shifted. Nothing happened. She tried harder. Nothing. Had they done something to her to stop her shifting? She looked straight into the eyes of the creature she knew understood her.
“Have we done anything that would prevent her from shifting, Doctor?” She looked in the same direction as he had, and snarled. She’d been so wrapped up in enjoying the combined scents of her mates that she’d failed to notice someone else was in the room.
“No, we haven’t. Kaitlyn, I’m Doctor Jason Reed. Aiden, your mate”—he gestured toward the vampire—“called for my assistance when you failed to heal after your shift.”
She took a sniff of the tall, blond doctor. He was holding a bag of blood above her. He was a mountain lion. So was her mate with the washboard abs. She needed to know where she was. She couldn’t be anywher
e near Lauderville. She tried again to shift. She had to get away. When she failed again, she felt panic bubble up inside her.
“You are now a long way from danger. Try to remain calm.” Aiden raised his hand and she watched as he slowly brought it toward her. She wanted to flinch away, but her cat ached to feel his touch.
“As I ache to touch you, Kaitlyn Winter.” His hand stoked slowly down the length of her body, from the crown of her head to the top of her tail. He may as well have been licking her to orgasm, his touch was so deeply intimate. And just as arousing. No. She refused to be attracted to him.
“I would like nothing more than to have you in my arms while I did just that.” Aiden spoke into her mind again, and she was glad she was shifted, had she been human she’d have been blushing scarlet.
“You would have looked beautiful.” She expected to see a smug or conceited smile on his face, but it seemed she didn’t know Aiden well enough to judge him correctly. Instead, he looked haunted. “While she is unable to shift back, I will interpret for her, as she has a lot of questions.” He inclined his head at her. She nodded.
“Can I please introduce myself?” Kaitlyn looked up at her new mate. She had scented and tasted him, but had not yet looked at him. Unless you counted ogling his muscles. “My name is Sean Marland. It’s my home that Aiden has brought you to.”
She would have questions soon, but for now she enjoyed looking at the man that fate had chosen just for her. His voice again stimulated her overexcited nerve endings. She shuddered, her fur rippling in the shudder’s wake.
She was an unusually small panther and this man was huge by comparison. His cougar would be massive. He had a square face framed by straight blond hair that fell messily to his collar and was shot through with strands of gold. His fair eyebrows framed piercing blue eyes. His nose was aquiline and drew her gaze down to full, kissable lips.
A Thousand Years Dead [Pine Falls 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 3