by Tiffany Wood
I take a bite of my eggs. “So, what’s the next stage?”
He shook his head. “I was afraid you would make me explain that. Well, I guess I made my bed; I may as well lay in it. The changes you’ve been going through prepare you to mate with one of us. Your body senses the attraction and there is a chemical reaction from our pheromones. If I hadn’t stopped us last night, we could have gone all the way. Yeah, you thought you wanted it at the time, but I didn’t want to be the one that you looked at in the morning and thought, oh my God, what did I do?” He dropped his gaze to the floor now.
“I know that you haven’t done that before. We can smell the difference. If I knew for sure that you wanted me to, nothing would have stopped me. I just couldn’t take that from you without you knowing everything. It would be like using a date rape drug.” He kept his head down now. He was ashamed of himself. “I almost let you convince me that you really did want it and that it had nothing to do with the hormones. I know I was right though. When you started having the seizures in the bathroom, it confirmed it. When you get intense like that, and you don’t finish, your body goes through a withdrawal like it would from drugs. You suddenly purge your system of all your excess hormones. If it didn’t, they could kill you. When I started kissing you again though, I relaxed your muscles and got you close enough that your body could skip to the purging stage.”
I finish my eggs and go to the bathroom. He sits there. I take a shower and scrub my body and my mouth out. I’ve never felt so dirty in my life.
I’m getting dressed when he knocks on my door. “Sara. I know you’re getting dressed and I know that you heard everything I said. I want to apologize. You probably feel like I took advantage of you. If you do, I don’t blame you. I’m going to finish what I started by getting rid of that guy, and then I promise if you really want me to, I’ll leave.”
He walks back to the kitchen and I start to cry. I wipe my eyes and get my under clothing on. There’s a twinge in my back, then another. They turn into a stabbing pain.
I drop to the floor. “Da-amian?”
I barely get his name out between the stabs of pain. I hear him run down the hall as another one hits, and another. He drops to the floor with his arms on my shoulders.
“Crap! Okay, just relax. I know it’s scary.”
I try to breathe through it. “What’s happening?”
He looks down. “You’re beginning the change. I’ve never seen it happen this soon before. My sister’s didn’t even happen this fast.”
The pains are coming faster now. I feel like my body is trying to explode. “Make-it–stop!” I barely get that out before I collapse.
He rolls me over. “Sara, I know how much it hurts. Just keep breathing. You’re almost through it.” My skin felt like it was crawling. “I only know of one way to make it stop, but I can’t.”
I look up at him with all of the pain in my eyes pleading, “P-pleas-s-e. I can’t do this alone.”
He shakes his head. “Alright, but it won’t stop it for good.”He leans over and kisses me. He rubs my arms, and digs his nails in my back. He continues kissing me and pulls his shirt off. He moves to my ear and whispers, “If I bite your neck, it should stop for now. Are you sure you want me to do this.”
I shake my head and manage an “uh-huh” before I lose myself in the pain again.
Chapter Thirteen
Damian starts kissing my neck more and I feel him open his mouth against it. He starts sucking on it like he was giving me a sucker bite. I feel a twinge where he’s sucking and then a strange sensation like my energy and his are one.He releases his mouth and licks my neck delicately. He turns his head to mine and kisses me again. I taste my blood, but it doesn’t taste like blood. There’s something different about it. My body goes still and the pain stops. He keeps kissing me. He moves down to my belly and kisses it to. He kisses me up and down my arms and legs stopping wherever I have clothes on. Then he sits up on his knees and moans.
I feel it to. “What was that?”
As I asked, the answer flowed into my head as if he were talking to me. “When I bit you, our minds bonded. As I stopped kissing you, I felt what you felt. You can hear my thoughts and I can hear yours. This is what I meant when I said preparing to mate. If I hadn’t done this, you would be a wolf before your aunt gets here and would still be in pain. I went though it without a mate, but I had prepared for it all of my life. I’ll understand if you don’t want to talk to me again. If we don’t mate and I don’t bite you again, we’ll lose this connection. It doesn’t become permanent until you’ve mated.”
I look into his eyes. “If you feel that way about me, why did you stop? Oh. You’re afraid that I’ll resent you if you did that now. I know. You won’t listen to me right now so I may as well stop trying.” We both laugh. “How long will this link last? Until Monday of next week, you think? Wait, you don’t know? Sorry, I guess that does get a little annoying. I’ll try not to finish your thoughts before you have them if you try not to assume I am confused about my feelings.”
As if I had knocked down a wall that was holding him back, he kissed me again. This time there was no restraint. We could feel each other’s wants as we kissed and moved with each other. The phone rang. He started to pull back and I kissed him down his neck. It rang again and I thought to ignore it. He kissed me again then stopped and went to the phone. He wasn’t letting me ignore it. If it was my aunt, she would rush home to make sure I was alright.
“Hello?” I sounded like I had to run to answer the phone. “No, I was in the shower.” He kisses me down my neck as I talk on the phone. “I did throw up last night. I’m feeling a little better now though.” He kisses my mouth and covers the mouth piece on the phone as I’m about to moan. “I’m still a little tired. I think I’m going to lie back down for a little while. I’ll see you after work. Love you too.”
He hangs the phone up before there could be any objections. He’s still kissing my neck and crossing my collar bone. I beg him to bite me again in my thoughts. He stops. I try to read him, but his mind is distant.
“What is it? Did I do something wrong?”
He pushes me back on my bed and starts pacing. I would have got up but I could tell he would just push me back down. I lay back on my pillows and closed my eyes. I didn’t want to start crying again and I didn’t understand why he had pushed me away. As I lay there, I get bits and pieces of thoughts he’s trying to keep from me. I can’t make any sense out of them. Then I feel this incredible love pulsating to me. It surrounds me like a blanket. I relax in the warmth of it. He mentally brushes my cheek with his hand.
Damian’s POV
What am I doing? I had moved my pacing to the kitchen so I don’t wake her. What was I thinking? I know she doesn’t think she’s confused, but I can’t be sure right now, especially when we’re linked. My parents had explained to me that when the link takes place, your feelings intertwine and you can feel what the other person is feeling instead of what your true feelings are. Young werewolves are warned not to bite until after they have chosen their life mate and confirmed the feelings. I was stupid to have done this, but I couldn’t stand to see her in so much pain. The stories we were told about half breeds said they could choose whether to become one or not. She didn’t seem to have a choice. I would have to get my clan books after her aunt got home and see what I could find out. When she wakes up, I’ll focus our thoughts on her changing. I’ll go through the process a couple of times from my memories. That should help her be able to transition into her wolf form faster. My parents had used this technique on me so that I wouldn’t be afraid. I felt their pain through their memories. Maybe if I can keep her focused on that, I’ll be able to keep myself from going any further. I pace for a few more minutes to calm myself then head back to her room. I cover her up, then sit down in her chair and fall asleep. I start to dream about her and me together.
Sara’s POV
I’m dreaming. Damian and I are running through the wood
s. He’s chasing me and I’m laughing.
“You can’t catch me.” I taunt.
“Oh really?” He runs faster.
I scream and take off. I reach the edge of a creek and he tackles me in. We both emerge laughing.
“I thought you said I couldn’t catch you?” He laughs again.
“This water is freezing!” I shout as I splash him in the face.
“Oh you’re gonna get it now.” He splashes me back and dunks me under.
“That was cold.” I start to shake and he looks at me funny.
He’s talking but I can’t hear him. I’m being pulled away. I reach for him but can’t touch his hands. He fades away into the background, just like my parents do. I’m not alone but I can’t see who else is with me. They’re pulling me away. I try to scream, but I can’t. It gets dark.
“Is someone there? Hello?” I hear a distant laughing.
“I will have her Damian, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.” I feel someone kissing me down my neck. It’s not quite the same as when Damian had done it. He snarls and starts to suck on my neck the same way that Damian had before he bit me.
“DAMIAN!” I scream. This time I could hear myself.
Damian’s POV
I jump out of the chair and run to her side. “Sara? What’s wrong?” She’s trying to breathe, but it’s like she isn’t getting enough oxygen. “Sara, look at me!” I force my will on her through the mind link and she jerks her eyes to my gaze. “We need to calm down. Breathe with me.”
I inhale and exhale and she begins to do the same in time with me. As her breathing slows, I release her from my hold. She wraps her arms around me as tight as she can and begins to cry. Now that I’ve calmed her down, I remember the dream. I couldn’t get to her. I could only watch. He wanted to bite her and she willed herself to scream and break the mental hold. She had woken us both up. I can’t believe he would do anything so… She looked at me and I realized she was scanning my thoughts for answers. I saw the fear in her eyes as she had already heard the rest of my thought before I thought it. She knew what had happened. I pulled her back to me and thought of my love for her. I could feel her trying to do the same but she was too upset by what had just happened. She wasn’t going back to sleep. I started to think of how much I just wanted to be with her right now and I felt her heart jump in response. I quickly thought of something else.
“You still don’t trust my feelings?” She pulled back from me and got off of the bed. She grabbed her clothes from where she had left them laying on the floor and ran to the bathroom. I did it again. I kept hurting her by pushing her away.
Chapter Fourteen
As she came back into her room she began to shout, “Stop trying to analyze everything I do and feel. My aunt does enough of that for the both of you!” Her anger knocks me back and she looks at me in shock. “Did I just do that?”
I smile a little. “Yeah, you kinda did.” I realized our bond was stronger than it should have been. Did she really feel this way about me before I kissed her? No, I can’t think about that right now.
“I think you need to call someone who actually knows what’s going on instead of sitting here trying to decide for me whether I really feel like this toward you. Yes, your father seems like a very good choice to me.”
I look up at her shocked. “I don’t think I’m ready for him to know about all of this. I do have a friend I could call. She may know more about it than me.”
As she turns away from me, I can feel her jealousy just below the surface. Her blood begins to boil.
“You know what? I think we’ll hold off on that.” I realized only too late that I had thought of my friend and visualized her at the same time. I needed some coffee. I can’t think straight on what little sleep I have gotten.
“You mean…you have hardly slept the whole time you’ve known me? You were in my room those two nights. I wasn’t dreaming that. You didn’t realize that I had those dreams with you.” She had been connected to me since the day we met. “You jumped in front of me on the school steps…and made me think you were going to hit me with your car. I don’t care if it was an accident, you sure didn’t apologize for it.” She was reading my mind back to thoughts before I had even met her. She ran to the bathroom again.
“Sara, wait. What did you see? You’re reading thoughts I’m not even having right now. Sara?” I’m standing outside the bathroom door. I could easily go in if I wanted to, but I wouldn’t unless she invited me this time. Her bond with me was growing every second and I was losing control of it. My father had never told me about this happening to anyone.
She must have looked deeper into my memories because she opened the door and asked, “Have you really wanted me since the moment you first saw me?” She scanned my eyes.
“Yes, you are the only girl I have ever wanted like this” I whisper it so faintly. I look back into her eyes and see images from the day we met. “You felt drawn to me when I was sitting in the shadows. That’s why you looked my way.” I shake my head. We needed to change the subject or I would lose my self control. “Sara, I don’t understand why, but you’re changing. You should have been able to choose, but your mind won’t stop it. As scary as it seems now, I can help you know what’s going to happen before it does. I can’t explain how your body will time it, but I can show you what to expect. You will be able to feel my pain from past transformations so that you know what to expect. Do you want me to show you?”
Without hesitation, I feel her scanning my thoughts again. She is searching for the worst transformation I can remember. “You should start with one a little more recent. I don’t want you to feel all of that suddenly.”
My warning came too late. She dropped to the floor holding her head. She was whimpering with pain, my pain. I try to stop the memory but it takes me over and we’re both on the floor now. I reach out to her and pull her close.
“Sara, I’m here. We’re going through this together.” I was taking the pain from her a little at a time. It wasn’t long before she realized what I was doing.
She gave me a mental shove. “I have to feel this. I have to be prepared.”
The memory ends and we lay there for another moment before she pulls away from me. I pull her back toward me and kiss her forehead. She pushes on my chest with all of her might and actually manages to pull herself an inch away from my chest. She was getting stronger.
“We shouldn’t do that again for awhile, your aunt will be home soon and I really don’t think that you want her walking in on this.”
I let her go. I got up and offered her my hand. She tried to hit it away but I caught hers and pulled her up. I was starting to be able to anticipate her movements. She yanked her hand from mine.
She was angry, but she understood. “Yes, I understand. That doesn’t mean I have to like it. You should get out of here. Aunt Lynn will be home in about ten minutes and I don’t think you want to be here when she arrives.” She didn’t want me to leave, but she didn’t want me to be here right now. She had mixed feelings that were probably my fault.
“Do you want me to come back tonight?” I felt her heart jump as she heard the innuendo in the suggestion. “Maybe we should wait till tomorrow. My aunt may think that I was just skipping school if you show up to see me tonight.”
I didn’t want to leave her alone. She may start to change again and I didn’t want her to go through that alone.
“I’m a big girl Damian. You don’t need to be here.” She went to her room and shut the door. She was giving me my chance to leave before anything else happened. I walked out the door and hoped I could return.
I went to my home on the outskirts of town. I lived in a large manor that was transformed into a boarding house. It had been owned by my family for centuries. I decided that the first thing I should do was check the archives to see if I could find anything about Sara’s family.
I pull the ‘P’ archives from the shelf. This may take a while. “Payano,” I flip through to
the last Payano in the book. There were at least fifty pages on them. I figure it may help for me to start at the last page and work backwards. The problem was that the last entry was started thirty-five years ago.
The entry says that two children were born to Prince Ezequiel Payano of the Taurs Hawks Clan. The twins were named Robert and Zachaeus. Two years later, Zachaeus was abducted by the Borne Bloods. When the council refused to search for him, the family fled. The last communication recorded was that they weren’t losing their other son. The hunters tracked them for three years before they lost them completely. They found Ezequiel seventeen years ago in a nursing home. They tried to find out where his son had gone, but he wouldn’t cooperate. He said that they had brought enough grief to his house and he wouldn’t let them have his son or his newborn. They tried to force a link between his mind and the pack. He was too weak. He passed away two hours later. They watched the home for months and listened in on every phone call. They found nothing. They had lost the last link to his family because of the council’s decision. That was the end of the entry. I had to call my father.
Sara’s POV
Damian had been gone for a while. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to feel right now. Aunt Lynn had decided chicken soup would be the best thing for me to eat right now. As I sat at the table to eat, I regretted not choosing a different shirt.
“Sara, where did you get that mark on your neck? Did you have a boy here?”