by Lacey Thorn
“Yes,” Amia said with a nod.
“Getting plenty of rest and not overdoing it?”
“She isn’t allowed to do much anymore. But she’s not resting. She’s exhausted. Her body aches all the time.”
“I don’t understand. Each transfusion should reinvigorate her and help her body adapt to the changes the baby is making.”
“Transfusion?”
“Oh, God! I didn’t think. He’s…” She cut herself off. “I just expected you guys to know. God, this is all so complicated.”
“What transfusions?” Amia demanded again.
“Abby needs a transfusion of Tah’s blood. His child. His blood. All it takes is a pint every few weeks, and her body will be fine. My God! She hasn’t had any transfusions? How far along is she?”
“Almost twelve weeks.”
“Jesus. She’s a hell of woman to survive what her body is going through with no shifter blood given to her. Twelve weeks. Holy shit! The baby will be here in just a few more weeks.”
“You know about pregnancy?” Amia asked.
“Yes,” Clara answered. “My mother died giving birth to me. We didn’t know anything then. When I was just a baby, a shifter came through. He taught my uncle and his best friend a lot of things we didn’t know, especially when it came to medicine and pregnancy. As soon as she gets the blood, she’ll feel a difference within an hour or so.”
“Thank you, Clara. Thank you so much. You’ve just given us the greatest information of all. Tah will give you anything for this. If this helps Abby…”
“It will. I promise. Now go! The sooner they give it, the sooner she’ll feel better.”
Amia turned to head out of the room then surprised Clara by turning back to her and hugging her. There was a look in her eyes, one of such confliction that Clara was jolted by it.
“You may have just saved Abby’s life. There are no words to tell you how much this means.”
“Go,” Clara urged as emotions tumbled through her, emotions she didn’t want to face. She turned her head to the side and glanced around the room, anywhere but at the woman hugging her.
With that one word Amia turned and hurried out of the room.
“Wait!” Clara called, but the door had clicked shut, the lock reengaging and preventing Clara from going after Amia. She reached on the bed and picked up what Amia had left behind. “You forgot your phone.”
Clara looked at the phone. Did she dare? It would probably be a while before Amia noticed and came back for it. If Clara erased the number as soon as the call ended, it would be okay. She really wanted to hear her uncle’s voice. The question was whether using the phone was a risk she was willing to take.
* * * *
Logan was talking to Tah and Reno when Amia rushed down the hall past them heading toward the stairs to the lab.
“Tah!” she cried out. “Follow me. Now.”
“What is it?” Tah roared. “Abby!”
He tore past her, screaming his mate’s name as he went.
“What happened?” Reno asked as he and Logan came up behind Amia.
“It’s good news, I swear,” she panted.
“What’s going on?” Abby demanded as they hit the bottom of the stairs.
Logan noticed again how pale and frail she looked. The vibrant Abby was fading fast.
“Amia, you scared Tah to death. And he scared Diane and me with all his shouting. My God, I thought more hunters were here.”
Logan saw it then, the shadow of what Clara had told her in Abby’s eyes. Now he understood Tah’s anger. It still didn’t sit well with Logan. It beat against his need to protect Clara.
“Sorry,” Amia said, catching her breath. “I was with Clara.”
“Is she all right? Did you hurt her?” Logan demanded.
“Calm down, Logan,” Reno said, moving to block Logan’s access to Amia.
Fuck. Logan was so focused on Clara he hadn’t even realized he’d moved threateningly toward Amia.
“She’s fine. She told me why Abby is getting weak. I know what we need to do.”
“What?” Diane demanded. “Tell me.”
“Clara said Abby needs a transfusion of Tah’s blood. She should have been getting them every few weeks. His child. His blood. It will strengthen her and allow her body to adapt to all the changes taking place,” Amia told them. “Shifter child. Shifter blood.”
“Into the lab,” Diane ordered Abby and Tah. “I’ll get the equipment set up.”
“Do you think she’s telling us the truth?” Abby asked, holding back when everyone around her was ready to rush.
“She wouldn’t lie to you, Abby,” Logan admonished. “Not even to keep you from hating her.”
Tah growled, but Logan just turned to look at him, not willing to back down even for Abby. Clara was his mate, whether they’d consummated it or not.
“It wasn’t just a story she told you,” Amia said softly, and Logan turned to look at her just as everyone else did. “Clara saw it happen to her aunt. She was five years old and had to witness something that horrific. We all have our demons, Abby. You, me and Clara.”
“Jesus,” Tah said, looking a little sick.
Amia looked at Logan. “She was buried alive as well. It’s where she was when I went to find her the night we escaped. She was chained to the wall. They—”
“Don’t.” Logan stopped her. “Haven’t we put her through enough?”
Amia nodded. Abby’s cheeks were wet with tears. Reno clasped Logan’s arm and gave it a squeeze.
“Go to her,” Tah told him. “Claim your mate.”
“Set her free, Logan,” Amia said. “I think she lets her demons control her as much as I did. Set her free the way Reno did me.”
And they paired off before him. Tah with his arm around Abby, and Reno clasping Amia close to his side. That’s what Logan wanted for him and Clara. He wanted that unwavering bond. He wanted Clara to know that he was hers—that he would watch over and protect her for the rest of their lives. Hell, if she gave him the chance, he was willing to bet he’d fall head over heels in love with her. He was her mate. All she had to do was claim him.
Chapter Four
Clara stared at the phone for a long time before finally giving in. She swiped her finger across the screen to see if it was passcode-protected. It wasn’t. It came alive in her hand and the little phone icon was right there. It felt as if it was jumping up and down, waving at her, and shouting here I am, come and use me. Just a phone call.
She heard the lock and looked around frantically. Was it Amia? Was she coming back for the phone already? She scurried to the bed and stuck it between the mattress and box springs. First place most people would look, but it was the best she could do. Then she felt stupid and guilty, conflicted. She shouldn’t be hiding a damn phone.
Logan pushed the door wide and stood there looking at her for the longest moment, and the phone left her thoughts completely.
“What?” Clara caught her bottom lip between her teeth as she bounced her gaze over him then around the room, looking for any reason as to why he was staring at her with such fixation.
Logan didn’t say a word. He carefully shut the door and turned to face her, grabbing her attention and holding it as he started toward her. She hadn’t realized she was backing away from him until she felt the wall behind her. He stopped inches in front of her and leaned in until there was nothing but their breath between them.
“Logan?”
“You are the most remarkable woman.”
“Okay…” Clara wasn’t sure how to respond to that. What was he talking about? There was only one thing she could figure he was alluding to. “Is this about the information I gave Amia to help Abby?”
“Your help might just eliminate the biggest strain on our pride right now.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think about you not knowing what to do. The transfusions are a must to help during pregnancy.”
“Diane is taking care of it now.”
<
br /> “I’m glad I could help.”
“I watched them down there. Tah and Abby. Reno and Amia. Friends, lovers, mates. I thought to myself, this is what Clara and I could have.”
“Logan.”
His name was a moan as he skimmed his lips along her jaw line up toward her ear.
“I’m tired of being alone. Not when I know I don’t have to be anymore. Not when I know my mate is right here, wanting me just as fiercely. Why are you denying us?” He rocked into her, letting her feel the bulge of his cock. He pressed it right between her thighs and rocked again, lifting her up on her toes. “Why deny this?”
She was asking herself the same question. Her uncle would expect her to be smart, to be safe, but he would never ask her to shut out or walk away from a mate. Mates were what kept them going—the quest to find them, the instinct to keep them safe and happy, and the desire to avenge them. Mates were the lifeblood of a shifter. What was she doing trying to deny herself?
She gripped his shoulders and leapt up until she could wrap her legs around his waist. Her turn to take control and show him what she wanted. She rotated her hips and ground her pussy against the swell of his cock.
“Be warned. If I claim you, you’re mine. I won’t let you go. I won’t be able to. You will become a part of me, always.”
“Same goes, baby. You’ll be mine, all mine, and I don’t share. I’ll be hard-pressed not to kill anyone who tries to come between us.”
She bent low and nipped his bottom lip. “Nothing will come between us. Be sure, Logan. Be very sure.” She knew the agony one mate went through when they lost the other. She’d seen it with her Uncle Thomas. She’d glimpsed it in her father’s eyes.
He turned quickly and took her down on the bed. His hips pressed hers into the mattress, but he used his hands to keep his chest above her. He stared down at her, checks flushed and eyelids at half-mast.
“Does it feel like I’m unsure?”
“Mating is more than sex.”
“I’m counting on it.”
Before she could say anything else, he rubbed his lips over hers. He kissed both corners of her mouth and ran his tongue over the seam until she parted them with a gasp. She wrapped her hands around his head, burying her fingers in the thick strands of his sandy brown hair. He pressed his tongue inside and she met him, rubbing his tongue with hers, leading it farther into her mouth. She sucked at him, loving the deep groan he gave and the way his hips pumped restlessly against her.
“I need to be inside you,” Logan panted out as he broke from the kiss. His lips skimmed over her as if he were unable to stop tasting her skin.
“I want to taste you,” she countered, trying to use her purchase in his hair to urge him back up to her kiss.
“Later,” he promised as he licked and sucked along the column of her neck, heading lower. He glanced up at her. “This is just our first mating, not our only.”
“Yes.” She moaned as he captured the rigid point of her nipple through her shirt and sucked on it. He nipped it with his teeth then pulled away to move to the other one.
“I need you naked.” He grunted. “Now.”
He moved back and gripped the neck of her shirt, ripping it wide and exposing her black cotton bra.
“God, I knew you would be perfection.”
“Wait!” she cried.
He hung his head and breathed roughly through his nose. He rolled off of her and lay beside her on the bed, one arm thrown over his eyes. “You changed your mind.”
“What?” Clara sat up. “No.”
He moved his arm to look at her. “You said wait.”
Clara stood up and moved between his knees where they rested on the edge of the bed. She nudged his feet a little farther apart on the floor and grinned down at him. “I just didn’t want you to rip the rest of my clothes off. I have a limited wardrobe here, and I didn’t see a clothing store hidden in the trees out there.”
Logan lifted up on his elbows as she popped the button on her pants and slid the zipper down. “There’s a town close by. I’ll buy you anything you want.”
She grinned. “You’re supposed to offer gifts before you get the prize.”
“Every time with you will be a prize.”
Her eyes went misty. “I know so little about you. God, practically nothing. But I see the way you care about those around you. I see the way you treat people, and it tells me you’re a good man.”
“I hadn’t thought of that. I’ve been so consumed with this intense need for you that I never stopped to think that we know very little about one another.”
“It’s the biological factor of mating. When a shifter finds their mate, the need to claim them is overwhelming. My Uncle Thomas said most believe it stems from a need to continue our species. But a mate isn’t just some random person. It’s the person genetically equipped to procreate with you.”
“Got that covered.” Logan sat up and pulled a condom out of his pocket. “I wouldn’t forget. I’d never do that to you. The last thing we need is you getting pregnant.”
“You don’t want kids?” Clara asked and felt her heart breaking a bit.
Procreation wasn’t something she could control. Birth control didn’t usually work for them. They could try a condom, but she had to make sure he understood it might not work for them. In males, it had to do with the physical changes that took place with the penis during the time when his mate was most fertile. For females, her body would produce a unique hormone that would create sensitivity to anything between them. It would physically cause pain for him to wear a condom. Plus the need would be so high, they’d be lucky to leave the bedroom.
“I’d love to have kids,” Logan said, interrupting her thoughts. “But you just reminded us we have a lot to learn about one another. Plus, I’ve seen what Abby has been going through. I wouldn’t be able to handle seeing you suffer like that.”
Clara smiled. “It’s not the same for female shifters carrying young. I’m the shifter so I already make the blood required to carry a shifter baby to term. I’ll be fine. Abby’s dilemma lays in the fact she’s human. I know of a lot of shifters who lost mates before we were given the information on transfusions.”
“I’d like to hear about that.” He shook his head. “Not about those who lost loved ones. But about how it was growing up. The things you said in that room. You’ve had a rough life.”
“No rougher than what others have been through,” she answered with a shrug. “I had my uncle, so I had the gift of being around someone who loves me. That’s a lot to be grateful for in the grand scheme of things.”
He nodded. “You’re right.”
“Logan.” She shoved her jeans down, loving the way his breath caught while he watched. “We don’t need a condom. I can’t get pregnant unless I’m in heat, which only happens in my fertile time. Trust me when I tell you, you won’t have to ask when that happens. Your body will know.”
Logan grinned. “I saw the way Tah and Abby were during that time. Can’t say I’m not looking forward to all that sex.”
She stepped out of her pants and kicked them aside. “I also can’t contract any form of STD, which means I can’t carry them, either. So you’re safe with me.”
“I’m clean. The military checks, and I haven’t been with anyone since I got out.”
“A sexy guy like you?”
“Maybe I knew I was waiting for you,” he quipped, but there was sincerity in his eyes.
She reached around and began unhooking her bra while he watched. “I want to know everything there is to know about you. Later.” She shrugged her straps down her arms and tossed the bra aside. She cupped her breasts, running her fingertips over her straining nipples while she glanced at him. “Much later. Right now, I really want to feel you.”
“Sweet Jesus, I want to feel you, too.” His control seemed to snap as he reached for her and tugged her closer between his sprawled legs. His mouth was even with her breast with him sitting on the side of the bed. �
��Let me taste you,” he purred.
She moved her fingers and offered her turgid nipple to him. He latched on and sucked ravenously, pulling it up toward the roof of his mouth where he played with it with his tongue. His hands found her ass, squeezing and fondling her rounded cheeks. He released her nipple and blazed a path of sinful greed to the other one. Clara was on fire. She wanted more than his mouth, more than his hands, and she wanted to do some tasting of her own.
“Take…yours…off…” she panted as he continued to torment her with pleasure.
His hands dropped from her ass, and she heard the rip of material as he spread his shirt wide and shrugged it off his shoulders. He caught her nipple with his teeth and gave it a hard nip before letting her go. He grabbed her waist and swung her around as he stood so that she landed on her knees on the bed.
“My turn to strip,” he said, already reaching for the belt on his jeans. “Maybe you should lose the panties while I do. I’d hate to rip them. They’re sexy.”
“Got a thing for black cotton?” she asked with a laugh. Her panties were functional but not sexy.
“I’ve got a thing for anything when it’s on you.”
His eyes were molten chocolate as he spoke, and she knew he meant it. The rasp of his zipper sliding down had her gaze skimming over his broad shoulders and following the sprinkling of hair across his muscular chest down over his well-defined abs and lower to the band of his underwear that she could just see. Mother of all that was sacred! He was delicious. And hers, all hers.
She dipped her hand inside the front of her panties and slid her fingers between her damp lips to her core. Thrusting two fingers in, she stroked herself while she enjoyed the show of him undressing. She loved the way his nostrils flared and eyelids dipped as he took in what she was doing.
“Jesus, Clara. You’re going to make me come just watching you.”
“Want me to stop?” she asked and teased him by removing her hand. Her fingers were damp from her juices, and she slowly began lifting them toward her mouth.
He intervened, snatching her hand mid-air and carrying it to his lips instead. He sucked both fingers into his mouth and moaned with pure pleasure.