Kalena reached for his hand and linked her fingers with his. “I will never leave you, Thane. I trust you with everything I have.”
CHAPTER TWO
“How cute?” Tracy exclaimed as she wrapped a blood pressure sleeve around Kalena’s right arm. “Katara is beginning to look exactly like a female version of Thane, and Taylor and Toby are the perfect mix of both of you. It looks like Toby has your mouth, though. In fact, I think he’ll be the defiant one. Just like you.”
Kalena chuckled and looked over at her babies rolling around in the playpen together. At five months old, they could barely manage to stand, but they were already crawling and interacting with each other.
“I’m not that defiant,” Kalena replied.
“Yeah, yeah.” Tracy nodded. “Well, your pressure reading is perfect this time around. I’m glad Thane is back home. I think you’re more stressed when he’s away, which is understandable.”
“Yeah. Thane can take care of himself just fine, but something’s been bothering me. I just don’t feel right. Like something is missing. And if he’s gone for even just half a day, my body wants to go into panic mode, even though my brain is telling me to calm down.”
“It’s called separation anxiety. I’ve seen it happen when a person loses their mate. In these cases, the imprints begin to fade and the body reacts…actually overreacts,” Tracy explained.
“So, it’s true then? Imprints from a mating will eventually fade when the couple is no longer together.”
“His imprints are fading. What little still exists, exists in the blood of his children. Your children. The imprints will always be there in their DNA, but not entirely with you as their mother.” Tracy pressed her lips together and her brows furrowed. “It’s the truth, but you’re fortunate. The wolf is gone, but I can tell that you and Thane are still very much in love. Love trumps imprints any day. Look what the two of you went through to be together.”
“I do love Thane, but he seems to think I love him less than I did before.”
“I don’t know what he’s thinking, honestly. He doesn’t tell us, but it’s not very often that a wolf makes the decision to transform to vampire.”
Kalena shook her head. “But he didn’t make that decision, I did.”
“Thane is grateful that you did. We’re all grateful that you did. He would’ve made the same decision himself, I’m sure of it. Even as a wolf, he was well respected in the vampire society. He just needs time to adjust. He was wolf for centuries. He still has to learn self-acceptance.”
“I want to be there for him. I want to be strong for him now. He won’t even take my blood because he’s afraid that he’ll hurt me. He’s even refused to give me anything more than what he produces when we have sex. I get a taste of what it’s like to be vampire in those moments…and sometimes we can go for hours, but he knows it’s not enough to bring me fully into it.” Regret and indifference seeped through Kalena like a drug and she crushed her fingertips against her palm. “And it’s the only way we can truly bond after all the imprints fade.”
“Give him time, Kalena,” Tracy urged. “Thane will protect you and his children by any means necessary. If that means you remain as you are, he will accept that. He’s that kind of man.”
“Yes.” Kalena smiled, reluctantly. “Honorable and all that.”
“You want him to lose control…?”
Kalena hesitated. “I want him to be himself, who he is, even if it’s different. And I want him to bite me.”
Tracy burst out in laughter and playfully nudged her. “You are such a bad influence, and you know it.”
“Hey, don’t judge me until you’ve tried it.” Kalena shot back.
“Sex with a vampire?” Tracy squealed. “My grandfather would kill me.”
“I seriously doubt that…but it is everything…” Kalena sighed dreamily.
“No fair. You’ve had the best of all worlds. Human, wolf…now vampire. I need to get out more.”
“I didn’t say get into any serious trouble, but you should live…I mean really live.”
“If you take my advice and stop worrying about what will happen to you two when the imprints are gone, I’ll take your advice and start dating without running background checks and all that on potential suitors.”
Kalena laughed. “Seriously? You run background checks on your boyfriends?”
Tracy rolled her eyes. “Not really, but when you’re a doctor-to-be like me in a close-knit community, you kind of already have the scoop on everyone. Plus, I’m this close”—she demonstrated a short distance with her fingers—“from being betrothed to a man by my family. I might as well beat them to the punch, huh?”
Kalena smiled reluctantly. “I want you to find true love. You deserve that. Promise?”
Tracy nodded. “You have my word that I will try. Now give me yours.”
“I promise.”
CHAPTER THREE
“What do you want most for Christmas this year?” Thane asked Kalena, rocking baby Katara in his arms.
Kalena looked up from the big leather sofa where she sat comfortably, nursing Taylor and Toby. Last Christmas had gone by in a blur. During the entire month of December, she was confined to bed-rest. “I have everything I want right here. You. The babies. We’re a family. It would be selfish for me to insist on more.”
“You deserve whatever you want. You’re the reason I’m here, and you’re the reason I have children to carry on the Silex legacy. I honestly don’t know what I did to deserve you.”
She smiled. “You saved my life. Or did you forget?”
“I regret the trauma you went through, but I’m thankful you were sent to me that night.”
“What about the others in Area S2 that were wrongfully accused? What happened to them?” she asked.
“All of the prisoners in Area S2 were given a chance to state their case before UCON. Gavril had only recently begun throwing innocents out there, so we didn’t have to investigate that far back. Five individuals were found wrongfully accused and released. The prisoners that were found guilty of their crimes were transferred to another facility to serve the remainder of their sentences. As of just last month, we confirmed that all Area S2 prisoners, whether dead or alive, have been accounted for.”
“Since Area S2 has been shut down, how many facilities are out there now?”
“We still have two on the West Coast. Area S2 will be rebuilt, but only in the hopes of balancing the distribution to prevent overflow—not in anticipation of more prisoners. I’d like to see our crime rates reduced. We’ve been working endlessly on updating the records to account for all Packs and covens. This will make it easier to identify any misfits.”
“Rogues?” she asked.
“Yes…rogues.”
“Have you found them all?”
“Most of them. We’ve had a lot of Packs and covens disband over the last several decades. UCON’s records aren’t as impeccable as they can be, but we’ve made progress.”
“I’d say that getting murderers off the streets is major progress,” she replied.
“There are still rogues out there, and those are usually the ones who commit crimes and then hide out. We won’t force anyone into a group if they wish to remain outsiders, but we have to ensure that they aren’t troublemakers or pose a threat to humans or any of our families, covens, or Packs. That’s not to say that wolves or vampires don’t have their own squabbles within our inner circles. That’s another matter in and of itself.”
Kalena drifted her gaze down to Katara as she slept peacefully on her dad’s lap. Katara would definitely be a daddy’s girl. The baby girl had become wide-eyed and gleeful the moment Thane picked her up from her crib. As Katara had always done in the past, she’d fallen asleep to her dad’s voice.
“Looks like someone has finally given in,” Kalena noted.
“Yes.” Thane rose from the chair. “Taylor and Toby aren’t far behind.” He walked over to the adjacent side of the room and placed
Katara down in her crib.
The boys had a healthy appetite, so they continued to nurse.
Kalena was lucky she was able to produce milk fast enough to go around between the siblings. When she had been pregnant with them, she often wondered how she would manage. She was now the mother of not one, but three children. Wolf shifters. It didn’t take long for Tracy and her dad, Dr. O’Neill Jr., to confirm that all three had the shifting gene.
If it hadn’t been for Anna stepping in to be nanny, or Kalena’s mother flying in from Florida every few months or so to help out, Kalena would be a wreck. For the days when she needed triple the amount of sleep because she was doing triple the amount of work, they relied on breast milk stored in the freezer. There was almost a six-month supply now. More than enough to go around between her babies should anything ever happen to her. Once the babies were born, the plan had been to bond with Thane as vampires do when they accept eternal mates. It was the reason why they’d stored so much milk. But Thane had been apprehensive. He constantly struggled with whether to keep her alive as an altered human, or give her the blood elixir that would make her vampire like he was.
What Kalena really wished for was the mating they’d always talked about. Things had happened so quickly, and time passed without regard to what was left to do. Between Thane’s business meetings, acclimation into the vampire society, and her transition to motherhood following the birth of the pups, time had slipped away from them.
Thane must have sensed her sudden change of mood because he came to take the boys, who had drifted off to sleep. He placed them in their cribs, and when he returned, he lifted her off the chair, sat down, and turned her to straddle him.
“No worrying, Kalena,” he said.
“I had my checkup today, too. Tracy says the imprints are fading.”
“Imprints were not what made me love you. My love hasn’t faded. My wolf loved you. I love you.” He gently lifted her chin. “Do you feel differently about me?”
She shook her head. “No. I’m just not good about letting go, but we both know that, don’t we?”
“Who said anything about letting go?” He kissed her gently on the lips.
No matter how many times he touched her, day after day she still craved more. Before long, a fire grew deep within her belly. She knelt in the chair, her thighs on either side of him, and took control. Holding his face in her palms, she kissed her way into his mouth, tasting him. He grew hard as she moved her hips and slid her heated center over his lap.
He’d already slipped his hands under her long dress, and his fingers dug into the meaty flesh of her ass.
“You’re making me hot for you,” he groaned into her neck when they parted.
“That’s the point,” she teased.
It took him less than five seconds to grab hold of her waist and then cross the threshold to reach the hallway where they were free to explore each other without disturbing the children’s naptime.
She eagerly wrapped her legs around his waist and threw her arms over his shoulders. He pressed her back into the wall, and she ran her fingers through his hair and up and down the expanse of this back.
Short of breath, Thane undid his fly and freed his thick cock with quick, jerky motions. It didn’t take him long to find the source of her arousal. He pulled her panties aside and slid himself deeply within her. His hot, burning gaze bored deep into her soul as he held her open against the wall and plundered her.
Her lips parted on a scream as exquisite pleasure rocked her core. He moaned in tune with her cries of ecstasy. His eyes fluttered closed. He bent his head, parted his lips on her skin, and licked the delicate fleshy top of her breasts.
A raw, blinding climax ripped through her. She bit her lips to keep from yelling out too loudly. Her body shook against him and the wall in the aftermath.
Thane’s rhythm intensified. He flung his head back, his fangs extended from his gums. He was sexy, hot satisfaction, rendering her weak and giving her ultimate pleasure at the same time. He plunged his cock inside her hard and deep, drew back sharply, and then drove in between her creamy thighs again.
One orgasm folded on top of another, but this time, he joined her in release. Hot streams of semen flooded her core, the elixir sending her into a blissful, euphoric high.
It was a good thing that Thane was stronger now. A man built like a steel truck. Virtually impossible to break. He had died, been given the blood elixir of an ancient, and had risen again. His craving for sex and blood were now tenfold. He thrived on it and needed it. It was something she vowed to herself that she would always give to him. She couldn’t lose Thane. She was mother to his children. She wanted to be his everything.
His heart beat in tandem with hers as he regained his breath, but his desires didn’t immediately rescind. His cock was still hard in her sex, and her muscles tightened around the length of him. Milking him for more and encouraging him to remain aroused.
“Take me again,” she whispered in his ear.
Five seconds later, she found herself on the soft master bed beneath him as he began to once more make love to her. Gentler this time.
CHAPTER FOUR
Just before Thane’s cell began to ring on his desk, his vampire intuition kicked in. Before he’d even answered the phone, he knew something was wrong.
Once he recognized the number on the caller ID, he had to answer.
He pushed the green square on the phone to accept the call. “This is Thane.”
“It’s Luxar.” The master vampire seemed panicked and out of breath. “I’m calling a meeting. All Heads are to report to headquarters immediately.”
Thane’s throat tightened. Something was seriously wrong. Luxar wouldn’t dare call a meeting in the middle of vacation. “What’s up?”
“Too complicated to discuss. Can you make it?”
“I’m on my way.”
Kalena was in the nursery, playing with the babies when he went to look for her. She looked up with a smile, which slowly turned down into a frown as he remained in the doorway, shuffling his car keys from hand to hand.
Her eyes dropped to the keys and then trailed back up to his face. “You’re leaving…” She dropped the little stuffed toy she was holding and rose.
Thane met her in the center of the room and embraced her tightly.
“Kalena, I’m sorry. I have to report for a meeting. Luxar wouldn’t call if this weren’t something serious. We both know that. I’ll be back in a few hours, depending on what’s going on.”
Kalena sighed in disappointment. “All right.”
He kissed her forehead. “Don’t be upset. I promise I’ll make it up to you.”
“Sure,” she said reluctantly, but there was still a hint of sadness in her voice.
“There will be vampire guards here tonight, and if I’m not back by day, a couple Epsilons from the ShadowRock Pack will take over.” He brushed the hair out of her face and pulled her close for one more long kiss.
The babies had already crawled off the blankets they’d been playing on and managed to grab at Thane’s pant leg. He scooped them up one by one and kissed their little cheeks goodbye before gathering up a few belongings and leaving the mansion.
* * *
“The execution was messy. Us vampires don’t kill each other this way. We don’t lay waste in this manner. This is more like a slaughter,” Luxar’s lips flattened in disgust as he looked down at the carnage on the ground.
Silvano stooped low and plucked up something that appeared to be a thick patch of fur. He brought it to his nose. “Smells like wolf and inferior chemicals,” he noted.
Thane swallowed against the rising suspicions taking root within him. The stench of vampire carnage revolted him. They couldn’t identify the victim. A young vampire, who hadn’t been strong enough to defend himself. He had clumps of blood and fur caked under his nails, which proved he’d put up a fight.
Silvano threw the fur back to the ground and said, “Despite the rumors of civil
unrest between a few of the shifter Packs and vampire covens, the manner in which this vampire was executed doesn’t make sense. No one has owned up to it, and from the looks of his branding, he had no coven home. It’s a punishable offense to kill a vampire and then leave his corpse for humans to discover.”
“All evidence leads to a senseless, isolated attack. The attacker didn’t care about hiding this crime. This vampire was left in the open to be found. I have a bad feeling about this,” Luxar stated.
Thane followed Luxar’s line of sight across the field where they both focused on the dense forest just yards away. “The claw marks in his chest are similar to what I encountered in my struggle with Gavril. He went straight for the heart, and considering that this vampire’s heart is missing, I would presume it was taken.”
“Despicable,” Silvano grumbled.
“Do you think this is the work of Gavril? Not him, of course, but his experiments?” Luxar asked.
Thane nodded. “Very possible. In the past, whenever Gavril created something, he wanted to be known for it. He was the type to push his failures under a rug, never to see the light of day again. But what Gavril did and how he altered himself to shift without the dominant shifting gene was no failure. We have to admit that—despite the damage Gavril caused in our communities and all the lives he ruined.”
“Then there’s another beast out there. Like Gavril?” Silvano asked.
Thane nodded. “It appears so. A transformation like his could have taken months, maybe even years. I have evidence that he was injecting himself daily with whatever formula he used to become the beast. If he gave someone else access to the formula, it means that person could be even stronger. It’s been almost a year. They’ve been lurking…and now this…”
“We’ll need to deal with this issue immediately before more lives are lost,” Luxar stated. “We can’t let this beast destroy what we’ve built, and we certainly can’t let him roam freely and prey on the humans.”
Bound (Wolf in Exile Part 5): Werewolf Shifter/Vampire Paranormal Romance Page 2