Mated & Blooded, A Blood Ties Novel, Book 1

by Kalalea George

  “Uncle, you make sure you have some fun too! Don’t just stay in the background watching. Try to live a little.“

  The her face changes and her voice got really soft as she leaned in closer to Nikoli.

  “Well, do some of that watching stuff because we need you to please bring my mom and dad home safe. I know you have always been the one who has made sure they both are okay and I am counting on you”

  Tears started to flow down her cheeks and I watched Nik reach out and wipe it away. I was ready to say something and opened my mouth with just that intention when I realized that Kalli and Nikoli had the same idea. Hearing Kalli’s voice, both Nikoli shut up and let her say her peace.

  “For gods sakes kids, quit being so dramatic. We are going on the trip of a lifetime not our graves. We are all going to be just fine. Now, let us get out of here and get some sleep. I’ve never been on a plane before and I want to be well rested so that I can take in the entire experience”

  Chapter 44

  (Kalli’s POV)

  I have had an amazingly wonderful life. It has been more than any women could wish for. I am the mother of seven fantastic children and the true wolf mate to a fantastic and wonderful Alpha and I am also the beloved of the most understanding, gentle vampire to ever walk the earth.

  I couldn’t and shouldn’t ask for more, but then I will and always did. I am two hundred and thirty three years old today. My husband and mate Lucas looks every bit his age, I don’t look a day over eighteen. Nikoli and I have been in this bedroom sitting next to Lucas for the past three days. We could here his heart slowing down bit by bit.

  We knew it was only a matter of time before he moved from this plain into the next. Fresh tears fell from my eyes as I thought of him dying. Chances are, since we are a mated wolf pair that I too will die shortly after he does.

  Part of me is okay with that. I have lived a life well beyond my expectations. I have even outlived three of my own children. It is time that I too moved on, but I didn’t want to and I wasn’t ready. I heard Lucas take in a deep shaky breath and Nikoli and I both moved closer to him.

  I watched as Nikoli reached out and took Lucas’s hand into his. It was strange but they had become very close friends over the years. In fact, Nikoli was the reason Lucas had lived as long as he did. Nikoli has been secretly feeding Lucas his blood for years in an attempt to keep him alive longer.

  Initially, I had been angry and thought he’d done it for selfish reasons. Specifically to keep me alive, when I had confronted Nikoli I felt the truth in soul. Nikoli had come to love Lucas as a friend and brother. He feared losing him as much as I did.

  So here we sat, side by side holding hands and crying waiting for Lucas to leave us behind. I watched as his chest rose one last time and he silently slipped away. I felt my heart constrict and my wolf wailed within me for her lost mate.

  I was distraught and was unable to tear myself away from his side. My daughter Laura came into the bedroom and knew her father had moved on. She too started to cry hysterically.

  “No mom! No! I can’t stand by and watch you and dad die too. I barely made it though losing Nathan, Natalie and Noah. How are we supposed to keep living without you and dad?”

  She must have mind linked with her other sisters and brother because Liam, Leona and Linda suddenly appeared in the room. Liam decided he would take command he looked over at Nikoli and said

  “She’s your beloved too, isn’t there something you can do to make sure she doesn’t die with dad? I know she loved him but we all need her. Admit it, you have waited a lifetime to have her to yourself”

  I know that Nikoli wanted to say something and I could feel the hurt and sadness pour off of him in waves. I reached over and put my hands across his lips, then turned toward my children

  “Kids, I know this is hard on all of you, but this is what is natural and normal. I am a wolf of sorts and I mated and bonded with you father. I am meant to die with him. Now stop pushing Nikoli there is nothing he can do and believe me this is hurting him far more than this is hurting any of you”

  Now give Nikoli and me some time alone I can feel my wolf slipping away and I don’t think I have much time left.

  (Nikoli’s POV)

  I wished that my heart would stop the same way Kalli and Lucas’s did. I didn’t want to walk the earth without my beloved and my best friend. I knew that the kids would need me and in some way I still had a purpose but I just didn’t care.

  I sat holding onto my beloveds hand and allowed myself to grieve. I loved her and Lucas more than humanly possible. My soul had danced not only with hers but also with his at times during our youth. The more my blood had mixed with him the deeper my love for him grew. We were true brothers and it had been hard to say goodbye to him

  Saying goodbye to Kalli however was impossible. She was my beloved I wanted to have an eternity not a couple hundred years. It didn’t matter that we’d never been sexual, we been intimate in all ways that counted. I knew her soul and she knew mine.

  I looked down again at her and scrunched my face up in emotional pain. She still looked so young it was hard for me to accept that she was going to die simply because Lucas did. If not for her bond with him, she would have lived forever.

  We learned that all the hybrid children of Kalli and Lucas were immortal from an incident years ago when Linda had been attacked at college. The humans had attempted to drug and rape her. Thank god she managed to call out to Laura before she overdosed her on the date rape drug. Laura had attacked the boys when she realized what they were doing to her sister and one of the guys managed to blast her in the chest with a sawed off shotgun.

  To our amazement Laura still managed to snap the boys neck, pick up her sister in her arms and run her back to BlueRidge before passing out. Then, just like a normal vampire she drank and healed. After that day Liam couldn’t help but test the boundaries of his healing abilities. He pushed at every edge and managed to pull through. The only thing he hasn’t tried is removing his own heart and cutting off his own head. I felt Kalli take a deep rattling breath and her eyes briefly opened

  “Nikoli, its time. I just felt my wolf leave me. I am so sorry. I love you.”

  I was quick to tell her

  “I love you too Kalli, you are my beloved and I will always love you”

  I watched her eyes close again and her chest stopped moving. I screamed out my pain as Liam, Laura, Leona and Linda barged into the room.

  Epilogue

  (Liam POV)

  I watched my mom and Uncle Nik dive into the pool again. It was so strange seeing them romantic but somehow it also felt so right. It didn’t happen right away; in fact I think dad was gone for almost fifty years before they even kissed.

  I can remember that day like it was yesterday. Dad passed and within a few hours mom too died. She’d been dead for almost an hour before she suddenly started to breathe again. Best we can figure is her wolf died, but her soul held on because she was Nikoli’s blooded beloved.

  Whatever the reason my sisters and I couldn’t have been happier. We were tired of burying our family. We buried three of our siblings and our father. The relief at knowing that mom and Nikoli would be with us for the rest of eternity was a heady feeling. I looked over at Kenyan again before I called for them

  “Mom, Uncle.”

  They stopped splashing each other long enough to look over at me. That’s when they spotted Uncle Kenyan. Uncle Nik hopped out of the pool first followed quickly by mom.

  “Good lord Kenyan, it’s been a dogs age. What the heck brings you way out here? I thought you were in Europe with a British wolf pack?”

  Mom moved towards him and wrapped his arms tightly around his middle and squeezed with all she had. Uncle Kenyon grunted but continued to smile.

  “I need you" He coughed then continued

  "I need you and Kalli to take a trip upstate with me. I spoke to my daughter Ena and my grandson’s beloved is a wolf.”

  I decided to
leave them to discuss the details. Hearing about beloveds was hard for me. I had always thought I could have had a wolf mate or a beloved just like my mom. What I never thought was that I might not have either.

  THE END

  Did you enjoy this book? If so try one of my others.

  Blood Ties Series in Chronological order

  Mated & Blooded

  Beyond Bonded

  Forever Mine

  Shredded Bonds

  Mine Eternally

  Beloved Mine

  Preview from Beyond Bonded

  Rena and Jeremy are not true mates, but for some reason they were both fertile. As the only male and female Bastet Cat People that have been born fertile in the last century their elders have forced them to blood bond in the hopes of producing more viable offspring.

  So what happens when a powerful and demanding vampire invades their camp and claims Rena as his beloved? Can Rena break the blood bond or will she have to reject her beloved Micah for the sake of our race

  CHAPTER 1

  Jeremy's POV

  They drug her in kicking and screaming and threw her into the center of the camp. Her heady smell wafted up to me. It was clear she was in heat and that made every male in the pride tremble in response. Most males in the pride hadn’t ever smelled a Bastet female in heat.

  The elders of the pride knew what it smelled like, but had long since thought they would never smell it again. Bastet were a dying breed. Their females no longer went into heat and their males no longer carried viable sperm.

  Finding a female Bastet in heat was like finding the fountain of youth. She could be the savior of our race, yet she fought like a heathen to keep the Bastet people away from her. In fact, if not for her crystal blue eyes one might have mistaken her for a true leopard.

  An elder had stumbled upon her a few weeks ago and knew the moment he laid eyes on her that she wasn’t a leopard she was a Bastet in leopard form. He watched her for days and waited for her to return to her human shape but she never did.

  When he finally approached her and forced the change on her he realized that she was no longer in touch with her human side. She was barbaric and driven by her animalistic nature. They Bastet members that found her were working under the assumption that she was a member of a pride that had lived in that area fifteen years ago but had since moved out of the area. A mated Bastet couple had stepped up and claimed her as their missing child.

  They claim she’d been lost in the forest during an attack against her pride. She was only a baby at the time and they assume that a female leopard had come upon her and taken her in as her own pup and raised her in the wild.

  Aside from her smell, nothing about the animal in the center of the square was appealing to me. I am the dominant male in this Bastet pride. I felt as though I could have the pick of the litter and yet the elders wanted me to blood bond with her.

  I am the only known male Bastet to have viable sperm. Until today it was thought there were no females that were still capable of producing offspring. However, the female rolling in the dirt in the center of camp was in heat, her being in heat is a good indication she is capable of becoming pregnant.

  If a blood bond is established between the two of us, then technically we should be able to produce viable offspring together. If we had been true mates, no blood bond would have been required however like our ability to breed, Bastet had also lost the ability to find their true mate.

  Truth be told I wouldn’t have minded having sex with her in an attempt to make offspring, but the elders were insistent on a blood bond. Once I blood bonded with I would be unable to bed other Bastet. I would no longer be able to choose when and with whom I had sex instead I would be driven by the mating ceremony and her heat. I clicked my tongue in agitation and prepared to walk back to my cave when I was stopped by an elder.

  “Jeremy, I know that you don’t want to do this but you will blood bond her tonight in an official ceremony. If you can produce at least a dozen viable offspring, we promise to release you from that bond. I personally give you my word that we won’t force you to stay with her longer than necessary. You of all people, the Leo of your pride must understand the importance of new viable children to the Bastet race.” He paused for a moment and beseeched me with his eyes before continuing

  “We can force you if we need to, just as we are forcing her but” he paused for a moment took a loud swallow and a deep breath before continuing

  “but if we need to force you, we will never release you from the blood bond. You will be forced to mate with her for the rest of your life”

  I looked deeply into the elders eyes and could read the truth in them. He meant it! They would strip me of my title and turn me into nothing more than a breeder. I searched my mind for a way out and came up with a blank. I knew he had no alternative but to agree to blood bond with her. However, perhaps I could set some of the terms and conditions.

  “Fine” I said

  “You want viable offspring, I want to remain Leo while I breed on her. I will willingly go through the ceremony tonight and blood bond with her.” I watched as the elders face softened and his eyes crinkled slightly in delight before he said

  “I will have sex with her by force if necessary every time she goes into heat”

  The elder cringed slightly but nodded his head in approval before I continued

  “but you and three other elders must take an oath that you will release me if I produce six not twelve viable offspring. Do we have a deal?”

  The elder nodded his head to indicate his agreement with me then quickly went in search of two additional elders that would take the oath with him. I turned towards the center of the camp and realized they were going to force the change on the female Bastet. I watched intently as she started to sparkle briefly before she rematerialized as a human woman.

  I had expected to see a homely dirty undesirable woman. I was not prepared for the exquisite characteristics in front of me. She was tall for a woman of the Bastet species with a slender waist, long neck and raven black hair. I found myself almost mesmerized by her soft gentle face that had firm supple lips and the larges doe shaped bright blue eyes.

  I realized that I was becoming aroused and decided I would go shower and shave for the ceremony. Perhaps bedding her wouldn’t be as bad as I’d initially thought. Perhaps something good could come of this after all. I would request that some of the females of the pride train her to be a bit more human. With time, she could end up being the perfect mate.

  Micah's POV

  I bolted awake with the sense that my beloved was trying to reach out to me. I took deep breath in an attempt to calm myself. My body trembled with joy and excitement. Then the anticipation and joy left my system and was replaced by anxiety and sorrow.

  As a vampire, I was raised with the knowledge that someday my beloveds’ soul would call out to me and I would find and blood with her. She would be my one and only chance at true love. I also knew like all vampires that it generally happened around a humans seventieth or eighteenth birthday.

  The tricky part was it could happen at any time for the vampire and the vampire must be vigilant and ready for the call. For me it happened shortly after my twenty second birthday. I was considered young to find my beloved and truthfully I hadn’t been ready. My own stupidity and hesitation had cost me my chance at happiness. Instead of rushing as any other vampire would have done, I had taken my sweet time making my way to my beloved’s side.

  Her soul had called to me from the jungles of South America. When I first felt her call I'd had been visiting friends in Canada. I been having a good time and was in no rush to go to South America so I decided to take my time making my way there. I arrived in Brazil and made his way into the Amazon nearly four days after her initial contact. Each night at approximately the same time she would reach out to me and touch my soul. Each time I realized it was a little more desperate then the last, then on the fifth night there was no call.

  I'd roamed
the Amazon for months but was unable to find my beloved. I smelled ever human I met looking for a trace of her. I came up with nothing. My beloved was nowhere to be found. Part of me knew, but wasn’t ready to accept the fact that if her soul no longer called for me, it meant that she had died while I dallied in coming to her side.

  After about a year, it finally sunk in and I lost my will to live. I’d started to take major risks and had begun living on the edge. As a way to keep me sane and give my mind time to heal and grieve for my beloved’s loss, my vampire parents forced me into a very deep sleep and buried me in the dirt deep below the jungle’s floor.

  I mused to myself that it must have been a very strong dream to have pulled me from the slumber. I moved my toes around and allowed the warm wet soil to crunch between them . Then I realized that my parents wouldn’t know that I’d been awakened and thought this might be his opportunity to escape this world.

  I prepared to force myself out of the earth when I again felt the presence of my beloved. This time, I knew that it wasn’t a dream. I saw her soul clear as day and it was terrified, she was calling and begging me to come to her and save her from a fate worse than death. This time I didn’t hesitate for a single moment. I pushed myself from the earth and ran with all the speed I could muster towards my beloved.