Foolish, brave woman. He wanted to be angry at her, to rail at her for taking such ridiculous chances for someone she didn’t know—but he owed Ember his life.
He watched her pretty mouth open and then close abruptly. She was searching for the right words.
“I don’t…I don’t know,” she finally managed. “I just couldn’t drive away, no matter how much I wanted to.”
Her voice was shaking as she spoke and Kai had to fight back the urge to stand up and take her in his arms to comfort her. The more distance Ember kept from him right now, the better. He’d make a new plan, he told himself, and keep her safe. And he’d take care of New Dawn himself.
And then, and only then, if he was still alive, would he return to Devil’s Folly to claim his mate.
Kai pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. Better to get his over with quickly—Ember was obviously no fool and the longer he waited to give her the full truth, the harder it was going to be for her to accept him…and her own birthright.
“I think you should sit down,” he said, motioning for her to join him.
She narrowed her eyes when he said her name, obviously wary of how he knew it.
“Okay,” she said nervously and took the chair opposite him.
“Ember, do you believe in things that go bump in the night?”
Chapter Five
Shit. This guy wasn’t kidding.
She’d chalked up his talk of ancient bloodlines and immortality to the nasty bump on his head. But then this gorgeous stranger had begged her to remain calm no matter what happened next and she tentatively agreed to it, knowing full well that she had no intention of honoring her word.
“Okay,” her voice had warbled.
Kai, he’d insisted she call him Kai and not Malakai, drew his lips back over his teeth and she watched in abject horror (mixed with a tiny dash of fascination and blooming heat) as his two canines slid into sharp points. The expression in his eyes was almost sad—a silent pleading with her not to freak out.
She freaked out anyway.
"HOLY HELL!" She jumped backward without really thinking it through. She toppled feet overhead and broke the chair she'd been sitting in. Kai was at her side in an instant, his large, warm hands behind the back of her skull—which had taken the brunt of her fall.
She blinked up and noticed the fangs were gone.
“I didn’t imagine that, did I?” She whispered weakly.
His eyes narrowed and his shook his head. She couldn’t be sure, but he almost looked disappointed in her reaction.
With a strong, steady motion, Kai pulled her onto unsteady feet and kept a hand on the small of her back.
“Are you okay?” His deep voice broke through her scattered thoughts.
“No,” she replied honestly. “But I’m going to be. Just give me a minute.”
She left him standing in the living room and grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniels from underneath the kitchen sink.
She heard him snicker behind her.
“A little early for that, no?”
She pulled a small juice glass from her cabinet and poured it full of the amber liquid. Tipping her head back, she poured the stinging shot down and banged the glass on the counter when she was finished. She blew out a dramatic breath and repeated the steps one more time.
“You just introduced me to the world of vampires,” she wheezed. “It’s definitely not too early for this. Can I pour you one, Mr. Arkos? My fridge is fresh out of blood, unfortunately.”
“Kai,” he said gently. “It’s just Kai. And I haven’t had blood in almost three decades thanks to the miracles of modern science.”
He quickly explained the tablets his clan took, which they affectionately dubbed “multivitamins,” that took care of the need for organic blood. Not all vampires chose this route, however. Ember let it drop for the moment.
Her eyes watered from the ferocity of the alcohol and she dabbed at them with the bottom of her tank top.
“You stopped at the part where you were going to explain why New Dawn was after you,” she said as she righted the chair and sat back down.
He blinked twice and looked at her without speaking.
“What?”
Kai frowned, his dark eyes searching her for something.
“That’s it? You don’t want to argue a little more about how this can’t be real and how I’m insane?”
He seemed genuinely perplexed at her acceptance.
Ember sighed.
“Listen, this might be the whiskey talking, but honestly, it’s not a huge surprise,” she said quietly. “My dad didn’t age. I mean, sure, he looked different from when my sister and I were little, but he didn’t change all that much while my mother did. My father was incredibly strong and fast his whole life. He could throw a roughneck through the wall at Erebus like it was nothing. Trust me, it doesn’t make perfect sense, but it’s not entirely crazy, either. I even asked him about it once and he said it would all make sense one day.”
Kai was still looking at her like she was crazy.
“I’m not taking this all that well,” she continued. “I’m definitely freaked out, trust me. But my dad—it was obvious things were normal with him and he even tried to tell me when I was out of high school. In his own way, I think, he was trying to warn me that his past was going to catch up with him eventually and that I’d have questions.”
Ember sighed, letting her gaze drift.
“And every couple of years or so, we’d have a strange guest from the old country,” she said. “Dad would clean the house for days—obsessing over making sure everything looked like we were really happy and successful. Then we’d have a visitor—an uncle or distant cousin—he’d say. So formal.”
"Family members, most likely," Kai said. "The Terzis are very close-knit—even if one decides not to turn. Your father, and the rest of your family was very important to them."
"So I'm not freaking out yet," Ember said, her gray eyes back on Kai. "But it doesn't explain what you're doing in town. New Dawn followed you here—but why did you come to Devil's Folly in the first place?"
She waited expectantly, not really sure what sort of answer she hoped for. Had he come on official Arko's business? An attempt to make contact with what was left of the Terzi line—or was it something more?
The muscles in his neck flexed along with his jawline. He was struggling with something.
“Are you still under oath not to freak out?”
Ember didn’t answer, just raised an eyebrow.
Kai started to answer, stopped, then blew out a long breath. He looked to Ember and frowned.
“Are you the sort of woman who prefers the no-bullshit approach to something, or do you need your truth doled out in increments?” He asked, leaning forward on his knees. “Because I can give you every other truth I’m holding right now and let you sort it out, or I can try to help you come to an understanding of the scope of everything piece by piece. It’s your choice, Ember. I’m at a loss for the first time in my life as to how to proceed.”
The small admission at the end almost made Ember smile. Kai, this hulking Adonis of an immortal vampire, was at a loss and it concerned her. She was very nearly flattered.
“I just downed two servings of rot-gut whiskey before 10 a.m.,” she said. “Obviously I prefer truth undiluted and complete. I’ll freak out if I need to freak out, but that’s my choice—not yours.”
Ember managed to sound a lot braver than she felt. At least she hoped she did. The look in Kai’s eyes was unnerving her. His gaze raked over her as his internal struggle raged on and she felt every single second of his assessment like they were actual caresses. Something was going on between them and she was just happy that he wasn’t immune to it.
“Our race…we’re all given soulmates,” he said, his voice low and raspy. He wasn’t bothering to hide the fire in his eyes now, and he wasn’t looking away. Ember’s pulse raced again for what felt like the 90th time that morning. �
�I knew the moment you were born. I felt it in the center of my body, the second you took your first breath half a world away. You were created for me and me alone. And I for you. But your father had his reasons for taking his family out of the madness that had descended on our homeland and I wanted to respect that as long as I could.”
Ember was holding her breath at his words. Her mind screamed that the entire thing was ridiculous, that her initial attraction to him was swaying the facts in her head in his favor—that she was forcing her memories of her father to fit the mold that Kai Arkos was providing.
But she also knew that her heart told a different story. That her initial reaction to him had been about more than just a physical attraction—that she had stopped her truck and saved him because her heart, and her body, had simply reacted to the man and left her no choice.
She wasn’t exactly ready to admit that she was all in for this soulmate deal, but she couldn’t deny the possibility in his words. She’d felt the electric pull herself.
“I didn’t mean to lead them here,” he continued, scrubbing his face with a massive hand. “I wanted to see you, even just once. The pull was strong and driving me mad with worry and fear for your safety all the way across the world by yourself with your sister. I convinced myself that I’d be able to sneak into town, make sure you were safe, and leave. But New Dawn found me before I realized it and now here we are.”
Ember exhaled slowly.
“Here we are,” she repeated softly, her mind going a thousand miles a second.
Her stomach swam as she formed the next question, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted to know everything.
“What happens between mates?”
His heated gaze flicked to hers in an instant and she didn’t miss the slight flare of his nostrils. She’d sparked something inside him with her questions.
Kai chuckled then, a beautiful, deep rumble.
“Do you really need me to answer that?”
Heat flushed her cheeks and she furiously shook her head.
“No, no…not that,” she said hastily. “I mean, is there a ceremony? Some sort of contract?”
Kai rolled his neck from side to side, obviously buying time to answer.
“Blood,” he said quietly. “In your case, you’d be accepting your ancestry and birthright by my bite and the exchange would bond us for eternity.”
Chapter Six
The look in Ember’s eyes when he explained their bonding had nearly undone him. Had she panicked, cried, or freaked out, he could have handled it. He could have backed off and given it some time. But Ember’s heart raced and the pheromones she put off were intoxicating.
The thought of him biting her actually turned her on. He was beside himself. How would she react if he…
The buzz of his phone in his back pocket broke the spell.
“I’m about an hour away, Kai.”
It was Aksel, his second in command. Earlier during their conversation, Kai had sent a text message explaining the entire situation while Ember busied herself with the whiskey. The situation was serious and with whatever drugs New Dawn had stuck him with yesterday, he wasn't in any position to protect himself, let alone his mate until the drugs wore off.
He needed help.
Aksel gave a quick report and hung up. Ember waited for Kai to finish.
“Bad news,” Kai said as he tossed the phone on the table. “Scala’s basically taken over Devil’s Folly since last night. He’s got agents everywhere.”
She worried her beautiful lower lip between pearly teeth.
“Do you think they know about me?”
“Likely,” Kai answered honestly.
Ember folded her arms across her chest.
“Answer me one more thing before the whole world catches on fire, Malakai Arkos,” she said in a near-whisper. The sultry tone of her voice caught his attention immediately. She was frowning.
“What is this sensation between us? I can’t turn it off—this magnetic pull that makes me look at you, smell you, hear you—every second you’re near me? It started when I pulled over to help you on the highway and it hasn’t let up. Is it vampire magic?”
His gut tightened at the thought of Ember feeling the same manic need that he felt.
“It’s the bond,” he replied quietly. “It’s not fully awake, but it’s there. It will get stronger and stronger until it’s made. I’ve heard that it can drive a person mad.”
Ember let out a dramatic sigh.
“Fantastic,” she whispered.
Kai bristled at that. Did she not like the connection between them? Sure, it was a bit distracting, but it lit every single one of his nerves on fire when she was near.
“I’m sorry,” he said simply. “It wasn’t my choice, either. This kind of thing couldn’t have happened at a worse time.”
He tried not to let the frustration on Ember's face bother him. It was a lot to take in. He'd make her understand it all—to accept him—later when she and her sister were safe.
“Where is your sister? She should be here when Aksel arrives,” Kai said, pushing himself to stand. The room swam and he sat back down quickly, hoping Ember hadn’t noticed. She had.
“Okay,” she said slowly. “So, one, she’s probably sleeping off a hangover at one of her friend’s house…and two, you need to settle down. Whatever they slipped you is a strong one.”
She was right. Something was off.
“New Dawn has a pharmaceutical company it funds. There are rumors that they are hunting vampires down to mimic certain genetic features we have and turn them into a perfect fountain of youth—in pill form,” Kai explained. “It wouldn’t surprise me that they’ve figured out a sedative to counteract all of our defense mechanisms.”
Kai picked up his phone and dialed Aksel, explaining the situation to him and giving him the best guess they had as to Melody’s current location, given Ember’s far-fetched guesses. Aksel wasn’t happy about hunting down this younger sister, but if it was important to Ember, it was important to Kai. And Aksel knew better than to question Kai’s leadership.
Almost two hours later, after Ember had fallen asleep on the couch and Kai had showered and checked in with a few e-mails on Ember’s computer, tires squealed and crunched to a stop outside in the driveway. A car door opened, then a second, and then there was the sound of a serious scuffle.
Kai reached for the pistol he’d kept on him and slowly crept toward the front door, ready to attach whatever crossed the threshold.
It didn’t come to that, though.
Seconds later, the door burst open and Aksel charged through with the slim outline of a woman slung over his shoulders. And she was putting up a fight.
"Somebody gets this hell cat off of me," he snarled, dropping the woman to the floor so she landed on her backside. She let out an oomph and then proceeded to kick at his shins with the bottom of her foot.
“You stupid bastard!” She shrieked at him. Aksel stared at her in disbelief and Kai couldn’t help but attempt to hide a smile at his friend’s reaction. Women typically didn’t object to being manhandled by Aksel Halkias, but this one certainly had a problem with his hands on her.
Over on the couch, Ember sat up and rubbed her eyes, groggy from the sleep.
“Em, what the hell?” Melody tossed over her shoulder at her sister. “I know you didn’t like Mikey, but what’s with the goon squad?”
Ember blinked those gorgeous gray eyes at her younger sister a few times, trying to orient herself.
“It’s a long story, Melody,” she croaked. “Grab a drink and I’ll explain everything.”
Chapter Seven
Melody had taken the tidal wave of vampires and mates and New Dawn even worse than Ember had. For the first day and a half at the cabin, she’d simply refused to believe a word of it and went so far as to call Kai and his second Aksel frauds.
“Rat bastards,” she’d seethed. “I don’t know what you did to dupe my sister but I’m not believing your bullshi
t for a minute.”
Still, Melody hadn’t exactly tried to leave, either, so Ember held out hope that at least the threat of danger that New Dawn posed kept her at the cabin just a little longer.
By night four, both women had serious cases of cabin fever and Kai begrudgingly agreed to let Melody accompany Aksel into a nearby town for groceries, only as long as she swore to not do anything stupid.
“I hate to say it, but stupid can be her middle name someday," Ember said to Kai as they loaded into a Land Rover Kai had rented and sent Aksel to retrieve the day before. "And what's with this car? You don't think a luxury SUV isn't going to stand out a little in a place like Devil's Folly?"
Kai raised his eyebrows as he buckled himself in. She’d grown used to his mannerisms after being locked in a small cabin with him for almost a week. To keep her from going insane, he’d played numerous rounds of poker (none strip, unfortunately), WAR, rummy, and even Go Fish when Aksel wouldn’t share the television and put on something other than the soccer world cup. They’d also killed her entire bottle of whiskey during those games and told enough dirty jokes to keep Ember blushing (and fantasizing) for a week straight.
He’d been reluctant to let her leave the house at all today, but he’d had no option. Kai needed to check out the situation in town and meet up with a couple of his men that had arrived overnight. He’d refused to let Ember stay in the cabin alone and he’d refused to let her just tag along with Aksel and Melody, either.
“You come with me.”
It hadn’t been a question and Ember really wasn’t ever one to be bossed around, but hell, she got butterflies in the center of her belly when he made bold declarations like that.
With Aksel and Melody on their food-retrieval mission, Kai pulled the SUV out onto the rough road that led down Ember’s mountain.
Without saying anything, he put his large hand over hers and she startled at the warmth and the familiar electricity that jolted between them. He’d been bolder each day with touching her in seemingly innocuous places like the small of her back or the side of her leg, but each encounter had been electrifying and by the second day, she found herself actually leaning into him when he touched her. Maybe it was the bond, maybe it wasn’t—but the more Ember was around Kai, the more she wanted to be close to him.
Bonded to the Alpha Wolf: Paranormal Bad Boy Werewolf Interracial BBW BWWM Witch Romance Page 14