“So what is this you wanted to tell me…or ask me or whatever?” she asked, scooting closer to him.
“It’s actually something I want to show you and then something I want to ask you.” He looked serious as he took her hands in his. “Early on, you saw a pretty bad memory in my head, baby. It scared you and I don’t blame you for that—I haven’t always led the most quiet life.”
“Oh Slade, please—it’s okay,” Brandi hastened to reassure him. “I understand now. I know you have this…” She groped for the right word. “This potential for violence. But I also know that it’s not going to be directed at me or Emmie or anyone that you love. It only comes out when you feel threatened or when someone you care for is in danger.” She cocked her head at him. “Am I right?”
“You are.” Slade nodded gravely. “I’m so glad you understand that, sweetheart. But there are still some memories I’d like to show you…if you don’t mind looking.”
“I’ll look.” Brandi braced herself as she closed her eyes, to better embrace their link. She wondered what Slade was going to show her now. Would it be another fight from his prison days? Or maybe one of the battles from his days in the Blood Circuit? He’d told her a little about that part of his life and it sounded like he’d been a kind of gladiator.
“Neither of those,” Slade murmured through their link. “I want you to see something better…someone I cared for very much.”
And then, just as she had before, Brandi was suddenly rushing down the long, dark tunnel of memory and seeing something from the big Kindred’s past.
As the memory came into focus she couldn’t help the small noise of surprise that escaped her.
“Oh! It’s…a woman.”
A woman with a full, plus-sized figure much like Brandi’s own. She had a long waterfall of black hair and purple eyes and her skin was a delicate leaf green. In Slade’s memory, she was looking over one shoulder and smiling shyly.
“She’s beautiful,” Brandi murmured through the link. “Who is she, Slade?”
“That was Cinda.” There was a little catch in his mental voice and she could feel the strong emotions attached to this memory. “The one whose memory I vowed to stay true to.”
Brandi felt a sharp stab of guilt.
“Slade, I’m so sorry. I never meant to make you break your vow. I never—”
“It’s all right, baby,” he murmured quietly through their link. “I’ve been to the Sacred Grove and made my peace with the Goddess and with Cinda. She loved me with her whole heart—the way I loved her. The same way I love you.” He sent a surge of love and devotion through their link that felt like a warm caress stroking against Brandi’s skin. “The point is, Cinda loved me and I don’t believe she would be upset with me for finding someone else to love and care for. I just wanted to show her to you so you’d know not all my memories are violent or bad.”
“I know they’re not,” Brandi told him. “And you’re making new ones everyday with me and Emmie and Bud. And hopefully my mom whenever she gets out of rehab.”
“How would you like to make good memories together the rest of our lives?” Slade asked softly.
“We will,” Brandi said. “We’re bonded, right?”
“Yes, but I’d like to make it official—by Earth standards I mean. Open your eyes, baby.”
Brandi did as he asked and saw that he was holding a black velvet box in one hand. It looked tiny between his large fingers. Slowly, he sank to one knee beside the couch. As Brandi watched, wide-eyed, he opened the box displaying a perfectly gorgeous pear-shaped diamond ring.
“Brandi baby,” he murmured, his deep voice hoarse with emotion. “Will you marry me? Will you be more than my mate—will you be my wife?”
“Oh, Slade!” It was the last thing she had expected and Brandi wondered how he had hidden it from her through their extremely sensitive link.
“Because I’m not a projector like you,” Slade sent back in amusement. “Been planning this for weeks—the other Kindred males told me it was a tradition in your culture to offer a ring when you want a female to join with you. But you didn’t answer my question. Will you be my mate—my wife—forever?”
“Yes!” Brandi slid off the couch and put her arms around his neck. “Oh yes, Slade,” she whispered. “I will marry you. I will be your wife!”
“Gods, baby! You don’t know what it does to me to hear you say that.” Slade slipped the ring on her finger and crushed her to him. Burying his face in her hair, he inhaled deeply, breathing in her scent. “Love you, Brandi,” he sent, his mental voice as hoarse as his physical one. “Love you so damn much!”
“I love you too,” Brandi whispered, nuzzling against him. “I can’t wait to get married.”
“When do you want the wedding?” Slade asked. “The jeweler in the shop where I bought your ring told me that sometimes human women take months or even years to plan such a big event.”
“I don’t think we need to wait that long,” Brandi told him. “In fact, I think the sooner the better because, well…” She bit her lip. “I have a secret too. One I’ve been trying really hard not to broadcast to you—but it hasn’t been easy.”
“You have a secret?” Slade’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “Seriously?”
“You shouldn’t be that shocked,” Brandi said with mock severity. “I can keep a secret—especially one as big as this.”
Taking one of his hands, she placed his palm flat against her belly.
“Slade,” she whispered through their link, “I’m going to have your baby.”
“What?” His eyes flew wide and he looked at her for confirmation. “Really? You’re not just teasing me?”
“Nope.” Brandi watched him carefully to see how he would take the news. She well-remembered the scene when she’d told Earl she was pregnant with Emmie. He’d become enraged and pushed her out of his car, forcing her to walk home through the rain.
It hadn’t been pretty.
But Slade’s reaction couldn’t have been more different. He cupped her lower belly reverently, a look of wonder coming into his mismatched eyes.
“Oh sweetheart,” he whispered reverently. “I can’t believe it—is it really true?”
“I have the positive pregnancy test to prove it,” Brandi assured him. “Although I hear there’s a Kindred test you can take up here on the Mother Ship that will let you know if it’s a boy or a girl?”
“We’ll get it done right away!” Slade jumped up. “Come on—I know the med center is still open!”
“Hold on, the test isn’t going anywhere,” Brandi laughed. “We can wait and find out tomorrow if you want. I…have something else I want to give you before we go.”
“Oh?” Slade asked. “And what’s that, baby?”
Brandi gave him a flirtatious little smile.
“Me.”
Chapter Nineteen
From the moment she said the words, she felt the hunger rising in him—a hunger that matched her own.
“Come here, baby.” Scooping her up in his arms, he settled back on the couch and kissed her hard.
Brandi settled against him with her knees on either side of his thighs. Under the sundress she was wearing for their day on the “beach” she had on only a thin pair of sheer black panties and she could feel the bulge of his long, hard shaft rubbing against her through the thin fabric and the leather of his own trousers.
“Mmm, Slade…” she moaned softly when he rolled his hips up, parting her already-swollen pussy lips with the ridge of his shaft and pressing had against her swollen clit.
“Want you sweetheart,” he growled softly, looking into her eyes. “Want you so damn bad—but are you sure it won’t hurt the baby?”
“It’s perfectly safe,” Brandi assured him.
“In that case, I need to be inside you tonight,” Slade told her. “Need to bond you to me all over again, baby.”
“I…I’d like that too,” Brandi whispered breathlessly. “So much, Slade. I want to feel
you filling me up again—you’re so big I don’t even know how you fit inside me but it feels so good when you do.”
“It’s because my body makes compounds to help you open to me,” Slade explained in a soft growl. “It’s the way I was able to slide all the way up inside you and bond you to me in the first place.”
“Compounds? What compounds?” Brandi wanted to know.
“In my saliva…and mostly in my precum. Look.” Reaching between them, Slade unfastened his black leather trousers and let her see his extremely long, hard shaft again. On the tip of the broad, flaring crown was a droplet of precum.
“Is that why you were rubbing it against me the first time we…were together?” Brandi could hear the breathless catch in her own voice but she couldn’t seem to help it. Slade’s bonding scent was rising around her, filling her with need.
“Yeah, baby—that’s why. It helps you stretch to take my mating fist,” Slade rumbled, stroking his cock so that the droplet of precum grew larger.
“So if I was to do this…” Lifting the skirt of her red sundress, Brandi pushed the thin panel of her panties aside. Then she took his thick shaft in her hand and deliberately fit the head of his cock to her pussy, rubbing the broad crown over her open folds.
“If I was to do this,” she continued breathlessly as she kept rubbing, “Then…”
“Then your sweet little pussy would start opening up for me. Gods, baby…that’s so fucking hot,” Slade growled. “But don’t you want me to taste you again? That’ll help you open up too.”
“I loved it when you tasted me before,” Brandi admitted. “But I can’t help it, Slade—I need you in me. I just feel so hungry to have you filling me up again.”
“I need to be in you too, sweetheart,” he murmured. “And I can always lick you later if you don’t want to wait. Go ahead, take me deep in your sweet little pussy if you need to.”
“I just want to feel you inside me,” Brandi repeated. She had the familiar tingling sensation as his precum coated her open folds and it only made the hunger inside her greater.
“Take your time, baby—this is your show,” Slade told her. “Take as much or as little as you need. I’m yours—do what you want with me.”
His sweet, hot words turned Brandi on even more. She knew there would be time for leisurely love-making later but for now, what she really wanted was to feel the big Kindred’s thick shaft stretching her inner walls. She hadn’t had him in over a month and she was so hungry to have him fill her again!
Raising up on her knees, she fit the broad, mushroom-shaped head of his cock to the entrance of her pussy and pressed down, taking just the tip inside herself. She couldn’t help thinking that giving him access to her pussy was a somewhat daunting task. He was so long and thick that if she hadn’t been able to let him in before, she would have doubted her ability to be open enough now.
“It’s okay, baby—just take it slow,” Slade murmured through their link. “Let my precum spread inside you and take it as slow as you need to.”
But Brandi didn’t want to take it slow. She wanted her mate in her now.
Taking a deep breath, she lowered herself further, taking several thick inches inside herself. She was tensed for it to hurt but as before, the compounds in his precum did their work and she felt herself stretching without pain—or at least, with only the minimal, pleasurable pain of being so widely opened.
“Oh, Slade,” she gasped and pressed harder, taking more of him. “Oh God, you’re so big inside me!”
“You don’t have to take it all if it hurts, baby,” he said anxiously. “We’re already bonded you know.”
But Brandi wasn’t willing to settle for half measures.
“I want it all,” she told Slade, hearing the need in her own voice and being unable to help it. ”I want all of you inside me, Slade—even your mating fist. Especially your mating fist.”
And with that, she pressed down even harder and felt the huge shaft bottom out inside her. A deep, throbbing pleasure that was almost like an ache went through her as the head of his cock kissed the mouth of her womb but Brandi knew there was more to go. Looking down, she pressed harder, determined to take it all—determined to take the thick swelling of his fist.
As before, she was amazed to see her pussy stretching and to feel her channel expanding to receive him. His mating fist slowly slipped inside her just like the rest of him had and then she felt him swelling even bigger—tying the two of them together for what she knew was going to be a long, delicious session of bonding sex.
“Ah, Gods, baby! So tight around me,” Slade groaned. “Hell yes, it’s going to take a nice long time. Gonna stay in your pussy until both of us come over and over again and I fill you up with my cum,” he promised, stroking her back. “Let me see your beautiful breasts while I make love to you…while I bond you to me all over again.”
With a little moan of pure need, Brandi let down the top of her sundress, exposing her full breasts to him. Leaning forward, she fed him a ripe, pink nipple just aching to be sucked.
Slade took it in his mouth and his big hands found her hips, taking a firm hold on her. With a growl of pure lust, he began to thrust inside her, filling her…fucking her…claiming her all over again and making her his forever.
Brandi wasn’t sure how long it lasted but it seemed like hours. Slade filled her with his shaft and his seed and at last, when both of them were ready to come, he bit her neck, sinking his fangs in deep and shooting both his essence and his seed deep in her hungry pussy at the same time.
“Slade! Oh God, Slade that’s good—feels so good!” Brandi gasped, bucking against him as pleasure rushed through her.
“Feels good to me too, baby. Love to feel you coming all around me…love to bond you to me all over again,” he sent back, his fangs still buried in her neck as his cock pumped her full of his seed.
Brandi tried to reply but her brain was on overload as her body kept spasming around his. As her orgasm rolled over her like a tidal wave, she knew she had found the man she would be with forever. It wasn’t just that she was in love with Slade and he with her—their very souls were entwined and nothing short of death could ever tear them apart.
Closing her eyes she sent a silent prayer of thanks to the Kindred that she and Slade had been…Bonded by Accident.
Epilogue
“Oh, here we go…here we go. I think it’s done.” Liv was sitting on the edge of her seat in anticipation and Brandi was excited too. Slade’s big hands were fisted at his sides, his jaw clenched in nervous anticipation. Only Emmie was sitting on the floor of the exam room, playing quietly with a doll, completely unconcerned.
When Brandi had told her they were going to the doctor to find out if she was getting a baby brother or a baby sister she had shrugged and said,
“I told you, Mommy—it’s a baby brother. The Goddess-lady told me so.”
Despite her daughter’s calm attitude, Brandi herself was nervous about the gender reveal. After all, Kindred babies didn’t always play by the rules, as Kat had frankly told her. For one thing, no human birth control in the world could prevent one. For another, human birth control tests sometimes gave false positives to a woman who was mated to a Kindred.
Knowing this, Brandi’s thoughts were in a nervous whirl. What if she’d been mistaken all along? What if she’d just skipped a few periods because of stress and she wasn’t pregnant at all? She knew Slade loved Emmie as his own but he also desperately wanted a son or daughter with his new mate. And Brandi wanted badly to give him one. What if—
“Here we go,” Liv announced. “I have the results right here.”
Taking something out of the small coffee-cup-sized machine she’d inserted Brandi’s blood sample into, she held it up.
Brandi stared at it, uncomprehending.
“A blue flower?” she asked, frowning. “What does that mean?
“A boy!” Slade’s deep voice was hoarse with excitement. “We’re going to have a son!”
“Yup, you’re on the preggo-train all right, as Kat likes to say and it’s a boy.” Liv laughed. “Sorry, I guess that’s not very professional. Congratulations, Brandi.”
“Thank you…” Brandi still felt stunned but also excited. Her life had become so wonderful lately—so different than it had been two months ago. She had moved up to the Mother Ship, gotten married to Slade in a lovely, understated ceremony, and been accepted into the nursing program. Emmie was happy in her new school and Brandi’s mom was out of rehab and she and Bud came for regular visits.
And now she had a new little bundle of joy to look forward to. How could things get any better?
“They couldn’t,” Slade told her, sending a warm wave of love and affection through their link. “The Goddess has truly blessed us, baby.”
“Yes, she has,” Brandi agreed. She gave him a big hug. “I love you, Slade.”
“And I love you, sweetheart. Forever.”
Breaking the hug, Brandi looked down at her daughter, still playing calmly with her doll.
“Did you hear that, Emmie? You’re going to get a little brother!”
Emmie made an exaggerated sigh and rolled her eyes.
“I know Mommy—the Goddess lady told me a long time ago.”
“Oh—does the Goddess talk to your daughter?” Liv looked interested.
“She says so,” Brandi admitted. “She knows things sometimes—she had dreams of Slade before he came into our lives and she said the, uh, ‘Goddess-lady’ sent them to her.” She looked at Liv anxiously. “Is that okay?”
“It’s perfectly fine.” Liv smiled. “The Goddess is close to children, I think because they’re so uncomplicated. The fact that she sent dreams of Slade to your daughter as well as you is just another sign that she meant for you and Slade to be together.”
“Well, we’re together now,” Slade rumbled. “And we’ll never be apart.”
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