“Thank you, Baby.”
“Are you going out with Uncle Rylan today?”
“Come sit by me.”
Mckayla came and sat on the couch next to her. “Honey, your Uncle Rylan and I are just friends. That’s all, ok?”
Mckayla gave her that smile that said I know more than you do. “Ok, Mom.”
Aviana gave a sigh as Mckayla grabbed her things and headed downstairs. She joined them for a quick breakfast before sliding in the front seat next to Selma as she drove them to school.
The ride was short. They got out and hugged before Mckayla and Vick ran towards their friends who were waiting for them. Aviana turned to face Selma after they disappeared into the school.
“This isn’t a good idea.”
“Huh?”
“Aviana, please. You’re wearing makeup and a beautiful dress with boots that were not meant to be wading in snow. I’m not an idiot you know. Looks like an outfit designed to catch the eyes of a man. Accept that you’ve already caught a man hook, line, and sinker. I don’t think he’ll like you trolling the streets for a replacement.”
“He’s not my man and he never needs to know. He can go back to Hollywood and play with his groupies. All I need is a quick roll in the hay to put out this blasted fire and I’ll be fine.”
“No, you won’t. It doesn’t work that way. Any fire you have will burn brightly the rest of your life looking to entwine its flame with Rylan. Sex with Rylan won’t put it out either because you’ll want more than that, you’ll want to mate. How do I know? Because I spent time evading Victor, thinking if I could just get far enough away from him everything would be ok, but I was wrong. Just like you’re wrong. All that will happen if you have sex with another man is a world of pain.”
Selma turned and got into the car. She left Aviana standing on the sidewalk as she drove away.
“That’s what all the married people say,” Aviana mumbled to herself.
Selma just didn’t want to see her have fun or break free of Rylan. He was obviously broken, vicious. What woman would want him with his eyes that changed from sky blue to storm blue? Then there was the way he had pulled her from the chair. No deep breaths, no struggling, it was like he hadn’t even felt her weight.
He wasn’t broken or vicious she admitted to herself, but he sure deserved better than a woman who had been told to leave her house because she had a child out of wedlock. Mckayla deserved better too. Stop it. She spent too much time putting herself down in the past and that had to stop now.
First thing, stop the burning inside her belly by any means necessary. She would hit the local bar, that place was always open she just needed a man. Maybe a wall outside. It was how she conceived Mckayla. On some dirty wall in an ally with her mouth trapped and the fear of death hanging over her head if she tried to move. This should be the same way.
She ducked into a drugstore on her way and made her way down the condom isle. She couldn’t have another child. What size to get? Heck, what size did men wear? Not sure in the end, she picked up a box that promised to go from small to extra-large. She bet extra-large was the size of Rylan. The thought of his cock in her made her stumble. The heat was getting worse; soon she would be lying somewhere trying to take care of her own needs.
She paid for the condoms blushing the whole time. She was sure the girl at the register was going to tell all her friends about the woman whose face was redder than a flame.
Deep breath. She quickly walked the rest of the way to the bar, entered and took a seat at the bar. The place was old and not very exciting although all she had to compare it to were shows she’d seen on television.
The bar was to the left of the door; it ran half the length of the room with barstools along it. In the very back was a dance floor and off to the side a juke box. Then there was a smattering of tables in the front and off to the left.
There were a couple of men sitting around nursing a drink early in the morning. None of them seemed drunk and two of them were young enough to get her attention.
One had dark hair; she couldn’t see his eyes because his face was turned from her. Still, the hair reminded her of Rylan. If she could put her hands in his hair, she could pretend it was Rylan and maybe even enjoy it. The other was a blonde. He flashed a grin with way too many teeth in his mouth. Other, her mind screamed. Her heartbeat sped up, but when he made no moves towards her she felt a tad bit safer. He wouldn’t do, she needed a human.
She ordered a drink for courage. Too bad it seemed to have the opposite effect on her. She tried to leave her barstool but she was stuck like she was superglued to the chair.
“Another drink, please.” Did you say please to a bartender? Who cares, she was going to say please. Heck, she was grown and could sleep with whomever she wanted.
She downed her second drink and slipped off the chair armed with temporary confidence, she would show them. Her feet moved, turned her in the opposite direction, and propelled her to the door. She would show them all tomorrow. Today she just wanted to lie down.
The cold air hit her and she felt a little bit better as she walked out.
Maybe she was drunk, but that looked like Rylan leaning on the street light looking all badass.
“What are you doing here?” Was she drunk? It was only two drinks. That was two more than she was used to having.
“Waiting for you.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to know who I needed to kill.”
“Huh?” She looked at him owlishly as if this was her first time meeting him.
“You’re mine. Anyone who dares to lay a finger on you won’t survive. Pick any man you want and he’s dead.”
“Did Selma tell you?”
“No, I followed you. I knew you might try to do something like this.”
“You can’t just kill my lovers, it’s illegal!” she screamed.
She wasn’t drunk but she couldn’t take this anymore. The fire on the inside of her was burning her up. Rylan started this; it was all his fault. She was fine until yesterday.
“What did you do to me?”
“The same thing I did to myself. I started the mating bond. We need to finish it.”
“I don’t want to mate. I just want to have sex.”
“Then you’re having it with me.”
He stalked over to her and placed his arm around her, holding her up as he led her to his bike.
“You shouldn’t ride a bike in the winter. You might get hurt.”
“I knew you cared.” He helped her get on and carefully put a helmet on her. He got on in front of her making sure she was holding him tightly before he started the bike.
She laughed as he took off, the wind in her face. He took the long way home letting her body slowly relax against his. The small snickers of laughter kept a smile hovering on his face.
He brought the bike to a halt in front of the bed and breakfast and helped her off.
“Just sex.”
“If that’s what you want.”
“Can we do it in your room?” He nodded.
Perfect, this was just a business agreement, nothing more. He would invade her body using one of the extra-large condoms, she would lie there while he put out the fire, and then it would be all over. Maybe she should demand they do it standing. She knew how that felt.
No, that was too much for her to relive again.
They entered and walked up the stairs to find everyone sitting or leaning around Rylan’s door.
“Move,” his words came out more as a growl.
“No.” Gabe picked himself up off the floor and looked at him. “We’re not going anywhere. You’re going to need someone to watch over your bodies as you go through the trials.”
“She doesn’t want to mate, just fuck.”
“Then change her mind because we both know you need to mate. You’re far too gone to wait.”
“Mind your business, Gabe.”
Aviana looked at them a little wild eyed and tried to slink aw
ay before Rylan shot a hand out and caught her wrist, placing her firmly at his side.
“You are my business, Rylan. You’re not the only one with darkness and you know it. I felt everything done to you and I feel you now in my soul! We’re connected and if you destroy yourself you destroy me. You have to mate.”
Rylan growled and his claws popped out, his head dropped as he stared at them like he never saw them before. Gabe met his growl allowing his claws to spring from the tips of his fingers.
“Stop it!” Selma stepped before them. “You want to bleed each other do it outside, not in my bed and breakfast.”
“Stand down.” Victor’s voice came out like a whip. Both of them stepped apart.
“Rylan you have ten minutes to explain mating. Move, time’s ticking.”
Rylan took her hand and pulled her into his room. His living room was a surprise. It was done in warm browns and beiges not the cold sterile colors she thought he would use. Other than that, it was an exact replica of hers down to what looked like two bedrooms.
She stared at the doors a little surprised.
“I can’t have a child without a room for her.”
He meant Mckayla but she kept her eyes blank as if he was talking a foreign language.
“Tell me what’s going on and why you suddenly don’t want to have meaningless sex?”
“Sex between us would never be meaningless. My kind, we need to bond after a certain point in our lives. My point must have been escalated by the fact that I was taken hostage by a Sudir as a young boy. He bled me, he fed off of me, he…”
He hung his head in shame.
“Stop it. People, things, alien monsters do things to us that we can’t stop. Never let that shame you. You’re a survivor, that’s what counts.”
He nodded. “You’re a fine woman, Aviana. You can imagine what he did to a helpless boy. He took a lot of pleasure in it and he held me for years. Every day I planned to escape knowing one day it would happen. I also knew I would kill him. I studied him every day, learned his weakness until the time was right.
I escaped, it took all I had but I found home again. “My brother, Cal, and Victor helped me. Gabe spent years fine tuning the bond between us. He shared in my torture as well as the rest. He always gave me hope, but Aviana, I’m broken. Nothing can put me back together again, not even you. This is who I am. You need to understand that. If you choose me, this is all I can offer.”
Chapter Eight
Aviana took off the coat still clinging to her body and toed off her boots. Rylan took them from her and placed them in the closet as he took off the jacket she bought him and hung it up also.
Making herself comfortable on the couch, she waited for him to explain the process of mating and what it meant. How did she go from a quick roll in the hay to actually wanting to understand what this whole mating thing was all about? With a shake of her head, she told herself she was being foolish, but somehow curiosity had gotten the better of her.
She checked her phone to see what time it was. “You have three minutes left, Rylan. There’s no way I’m opening this door before I understand so I suggest you start talking.”
“Here’s a crash course on all things Arbrin.” For a minute he felt a twinge of guilt about not revealing he had two sides. His Matra sent a shaft of jealousy through him; that he could even feel his other side after so long was a jolt.
“I come from a planet that was never discovered by Earth and no longer exists to be discovered. There were two dominant races on my planet. I am the Arbrin race. This is not what we originally looked like; we were changed when the Sudir decided they could destroy our planet and our race.”
“They set off a weapon intended to kill every Arbrin on the planet, instead it mutated us. Changed our form enough to survive and this is who we became.”
“Tell her about me. She will be my mate also.”
They could never be one again, too much had happened. He would no longer integrate with his Matra for his own sanity. It has to be this way, he whispered as he firmly turned his back on half of what made him whole. His head dipped a minute in shame at what he wasn’t telling his future mate then his shoulders straightened. He was keeping her safe or so tried to believe.
“The Sudir also mutated into what you have now seen. Their greed for something that didn’t belong to them did that to them. After several generations there was a coup going on. The seat of power was up for grabs and no one was sure what would happen. The royal family grabbed as many children as they could, along with Victor and Calix who were next in the royal line, and sent us to Earth with guards.
They sent all males. I believe it is because we were all in line to be trained. There are several hundred of us, the younger generation, but there are at least a hundred of the older generation also. Our planet was destroyed. They didn’t know that would happen when they sent us. It was just a precaution to send the young males. We were never supposed to stay here. Now we have no planet to go back to. I don’t know if it was the Sudir or the fighting. I blame the Sudir.”
She accepted that, if she was in his position she would put the blame on the Sudir also. Whether they caused the last issue or not, they were the ones who lit the fire.
“So there are no females of your race here?”
“No, at first we thought we would simply live our lives and die. We would be the last of our kind. Then one of the older ones met his match. That’s when we knew we all had a chance to not only survive on this planet but thrive. We believe Victor’s parents suspected this which is why they sent us here.”
“All right, I’m ready to hear about mating.”
“Mating is what you call marriage but its unbreakable, no divorce or do overs. There is something called a mating trial. The two of us would lie together like we are sleeping, that part inside of us that makes us who we are would be on trial. Our essence would leave our bodies and meet in a place that the trial deems best for us. There is no way to understand what will be required to pass this trial, we simply show up and do whatever it takes to pass.”
“Why do you have to mate? Why can’t you just have sex?”
He lowered his head as the darkness lashed out around him. “I’m broken.” He finally admitted as he squared those broad shoulders.
“I have tried to use sex to calm my inner demon but it didn’t help. Now that I have met you, I feel myself wanting to latch on. I know that’s not right, so I try to resist. If we have sex, we would form a half bond that may kill me and damage you. We do not have to mate. If I leave, you will be fine within a couple of weeks.”
“So you offer me a relationship, companionship, a father for my daughter, then you try to weasel your way out of it. What do you want?”
He turned on her, his eyes flashing, teeth grinding. He trapped her against the back of the couch.
“What do you want?” He stared her in the eyes. “You said you didn’t want anything but a quick roll. That’s what you were looking for earlier when you decided to give away what is mine. Don’t lecture me when your motives aren’t all that pure.”
He was right and he was hot. Her panties were soaked and still her essence rolled down her thighs. She wanted to strip him and take him to the hilt without the benefit of a condom because she had to feel all of him.
She reached up and kissed him. Forget about everything but getting closer to him. He sucked her tongue in making her weaker than she already was. Yes. Please!
The loud knock at the door brought her back to the present. “Guess our time is up.”
“What’s your decision?”
How could she make a decision to marry him with so little information to go on? But that’s what he was asking. Not that it would be marrying. No, it would be so much more. She should wait. Somewhere was her knight in shining armor, but would he make her feel half as good as Rylan? Would she ever be sure about taking a step like this? All she knew was there was something about him she wanted to get to know better and he would care for
Mckayla. In the end, marriages had been built on less.
“As far as marriage proposal goes. That one sucked, but yeah. Call me crazy but I want to mate with you. Anything else I should know?”
“Couple of points I might have missed. This will bind our souls together so we call it soul-bonding and you will be in my mind and I will be in yours. After we mate, also known as bonding. we will always know what the other is thinking or feeling.”
He walked into his room and came out completely dressed. She would have followed him in but she was still in shock from that last little grenade he threw her way. He went to the door and opened it.
“Time’s up,” Victor said. “Selma went to get Vick and Mckayla. What’s the answer?”
“Yes,” Rylan said, looking at her to see if Aviana would protest.
“What about Mckayla when I am going through this trial?”
“We have some friends, the Dares; we were going to ask them to watch Vick and Mckayla. They watched Vick for us during Cal and Paige’s trial.”
“Is one of the Dares, Hale Dare?”
“Do you know him?”
“I just know Selma and even Paige talked highly about him. I have to meet them first.”
Victor lowered his head in agreement. Gabe beamed at her giving her a quick hug before he and Victor walked away.
She walked downstairs just in time to see Mckayla come in.
“Mom!” Mckayla ran to her already telling her what happened in school. Aviana leaned over and picked her up giving her a tight squeeze.
“Too tight, Mom.” Aviana pulled back.
“Go put your things up, Baby,” she called out as Mckayla ran upstairs.
“I took a minute to talk to Mckayla’s teacher since I was talking to Vick’s to let them know they would be away for a couple of days. She gave me her homework and said she was such an intelligent young lady that it should be ok.”
“Thank you. Do you really trust this other family?”
“I do. They have a son, Alexei; he and Vick are the same age, and the youngest brother has a girl just six years older than Vick and Mckayla.
“How will we meet them?”
Rylan's Heart Page 5