I wish. “Nothing can change with Rasha,” Aylin said. “Not unless you guys really enjoy war.” And from what Aylin had seen, MoonBound’s residents weren’t warmongers like everyone at ShadowSpawn. “But there have been some new developments I wanted to talk to you about.”
One ginger brow arched. “Really? What?”
Hunter had warned against telling people about her gift, but since Riker knew, Nicole would probably soon know, too. Besides, Aylin trusted the female with her life. Still, she hesitated as she glanced around the room.
“Aylin? What is it?”
“I lost my totem animal.” Her chest cavity tightened as if trying to fill the empty space inside. “Can that affect my health? You know, the way not feeding a male during moon fever can?”
Nicole frowned. “Not that I know of . . . From what I can gather, only born vampires have totem animals, and I’ve never heard of one losing it, but I’ll do some research.” She tucked her hands into the pockets of her lab coat. “I’m very sorry.”
“Thank you, but it isn’t all bad. I have a new ability. One that will make me very valuable to a clan. And one that could help me escape if I need to.”
“Seriously? That’s . . . amazing.”
“There are limitations,” Aylin admitted. Like the fact that she could only transport to places she’d been, and as of right now, she’d only been to MoonBound, Hunter’s cabin, ShadowSpawn, and Samnult’s vortex. She might be able to transport herself to any of the places she’d been in the woods, but how much good was that going to do her? No, in order for her gift to be truly effective, she needed to travel. “But maybe I can get out of the mating with Tseeveyo and find a male who isn’t a complete horror show now.”
Nicole appeared to consider that. “Let me talk to Riker. He’s more familiar with clan workings than I am. He might be able to help.”
Gratitude warmed Aylin, filling her with a sense of peace she hadn’t felt in a long time, if ever. She’d never had a real friend before, but Nicole had, in the short time she’d known her, become as valuable to Aylin as Rasha was.
“Thank you.” Aylin cleared her throat of the emotional hitch in it and glanced at Nicole’s belly. “And how have things been for you?”
“Actually, I need to thank you, too. When you came to me about your bleeding disorder, it made me think about the similar complications female vampires suffer while giving birth. I don’t want to jinx myself, but let’s just say I’m hopeful that I might be on to something.”
Great Spirit, Nicole had already made it possible for vampires to easily conceive; if she could reduce the dangers of giving birth, she’d be revered, pretty much worshipped, in vampire society.
“I have faith in you,” Aylin said. “Is everything going well with your pregnancy?”
Touching her swollen abdomen, Nicole beamed. “Perfect. But I’m craving root beer. I hate root beer, but for some reason, I just can’t get enough.”
They settled into a chat about pregnancies, babies, and, finally, Nicole’s recent past as a human, which Aylin found to be incredibly interesting. When Riker’s son, Bastien, came into the lab and reminded Nicole that it was time for their checkers match, Aylin bowed out. She’d spent almost two hours with Nicole already, and besides, she’d seen on the schedule outside the common room that the movie on the big-screen TV was going to be an old classic, the very first Harry Potter movie.
A strange sensation stayed with her as she walked through the halls, and it took a while before she could identify it.
Happiness. Even if it only lasted for the rest of the day, she was going to enjoy it. MoonBound was full of life, laughter, and people who didn’t scorn her for her limp. She had a friend, a library at her disposal, and movies. It was heaven, and nothing was going to ruin it for her. Not tonight.
Smiling to herself, she rounded the corner and nearly collided with Hunter.
An unwelcome tingle of excitement went through her at the sight of him, followed by a sinking sensation when she noticed his clean jeans, sweatshirt, and wet, slicked-back hair. He’d showered. Maybe with Rasha. A stabbing pain in her chest made it hard to breathe.
A wordless, awkward silence settled between them. She had no idea what to say, and clearly, neither did he. One thing was clear, though: she had to get away from him. The longer she stood there staring at him, the more she remembered the things they had done together. The feeding. The kissing. The orgasms.
“I need to go.” Blindly, she rushed past him, her skin burning when her arm brushed his.
“Aylin, wait.”
Stupidly, she halted in her tracks, but she was proud of herself for having the willpower not to turn around. Instead, she stared straight ahead.
“Nothing happened.” His voice was a broken whisper, as fragile as she had ever heard it. “With Rasha, I mean. Nothing happened.” She heard him take a step toward her, and she went taut. He stopped. “She had champagne and chocolate and . . . other shit I don’t care about. I couldn’t . . . I didn’t . . .” He exhaled on a juicy curse. “Nothing happened, Aylin.”
She should be thrilled, jumping with joy, and a secret, selfish part of her was. But more than that, there was a bleak hopelessness that obliterated her earlier happiness. No one was a winner here. Not even Rasha. In a small way, Aylin could empathize with her sister, because she knew how it felt not to be wanted.
“You don’t owe me an explanation.” She squared her shoulders. “Maybe something should happen. It’s going to, eventually. You might as well get it over with.”
“I don’t want her.”
“Then do something about it.”
He took a deep, shuddering breath. “You know I can’t.”
Yes, she did, and it had been a shitty thing to say. Still, her eyes stung as she swung around to him. “Then leave me alone. Please. It hurts too much to be near you. Go screw my sister, or don’t. But don’t come near me again.”
With that, she walked away. Didn’t look back.
And didn’t go see the movie.
HUNTER WASN’T HAVING the best day, which seemed to be a theme lately. Rasha was driving him batshit.
So was Aylin, but for different reasons.
Every time he was with Rasha, his desire to destroy something—namely, her—made his entire body taut. Just seeing Aylin at a distance made his body taut, too, but not with violence. With lust.
She did things to his insides that had never been done before.
The logical part of him said she had to go, and the sooner, the better. The rest of him snarled like an angry bear at the idea.
Go screw my sister, or don’t. But don’t come near me again.
Aylin’s words two days ago had nearly killed him. He didn’t know what he’d been thinking when he’d gone all confessional on her, admitting that nothing had happened with Rasha, but he knew what he’d felt.
He’d felt as if he’d cheated on Aylin when he was sitting in his chambers while Rasha poured sparkling wine and tried to feed him chocolate and strawberries. She’d stripped down to only a pair of sheer panties and a fur shawl as she worked to seduce him, but aside from his skin crawling, he’d felt nothing. Only when she’d climbed onto his lap and he’d closed his eyes and thought of Aylin had his body stirred. Naturally, Rasha had assumed his hardening cock was for her.
The moment her hand cupped his crotch, he’d shot out of the chair, dumping her on her ass. She’d sprawled on the floor like a doe on a frozen pond, while he made a beeline for the bathroom, saying he needed to shower.
She’d tried to join him.
Holy Maker, forget the deer; she was like a cat in heat. Once again, he’d escaped, had been evading her come-ons ever since, but it was taking a toll on both of them. He was exhausted and grumpy, and she had destroyed almost everything in her chambers with her temper tantrums.
There wasn’t enough alco
hol in the world to deal with her. The icing on top of this shit cake was that tomorrow night was the full moon, which meant he couldn’t keep avoiding her.
And he couldn’t stop picturing Aylin feeding another male.
A rap at his chamber door brought him out of the dark place in his head. Then the thought that it might be Rasha put him back in it. Until he remembered that Rasha used the door between their bedrooms instead of the main entrance. And she didn’t knock.
“Come,” he called out as he poured himself a bourbon.
Riker strode inside, his blond hair grooved and spiky, no doubt from running his fingers through it. “Hey, chief. Got a minute?”
Hunter gestured for Rike to take a seat and handed him a shot of the warrior’s favorite tequila. “’Sup? Is this about the humans?”
“No change. They’re still infesting the woods like fleas, and as far as we can tell, the files Nicole leaked to the media haven’t made their way to the public yet.” Riker knocked back the drink and sank into the leather chair. “I’m here about Aylin.”
Hunter’s heart skipped a beat. He recovered with a gulp of whiskey and hoped Riker didn’t notice that his hand shook. “What about her?”
“She needs help.”
Hunter froze with the glass to his lips. “What’s wrong? Is she okay?”
“She won’t be okay if we don’t do something.” He blew out a breath, and Hunter nearly went mad with impatience. “Did you know she’s going to be mated next month?”
Relief slammed into him, relief that she would soon be out of his sight, relief that he’d no longer be distracted and tempted by her sweet scent. Her soft skin. Her sexy fangs. No, some other male would have the pleasure of bedding her.
A snarl threatened to rise up and make him look like a fool, so he drowned it in a wash of bourbon.
“So?” he managed calmly, when what he really wanted to do was pull a Rasha and destroy the room.
“So . . . her mate is Tseeveyo of NightShade.”
This time, the snarl clawed its way through the whiskey burn. “What?” He stared at his second in command, sure the guy was fucking with him. But no, Riker wasn’t one to poke bears with sticks for fun. He was serious, and Hunter felt his inner grizzly roar to life. Shut it down, man. Stay cool. “Tseeveyo is a fucking monster. He likes little girls, and he has a fucking harem.” Aylin didn’t deserve that. No one did.
Well, maybe Rasha.
“That’s why we need to help her.”
“We could kill Tseeveyo,” he growled. “That would help.”
Riker gave him a let’s be serious look, but Hunter was serious. He’d take out that fucker in a heartbeat.
And doing so would put MoonBound at war.
Fuck. Maybe he could make it look like an accident. Or maybe Tseeveyo could have a run-in with human poachers. Surely Nicole had connections . . .
“Hunt? Yo, Hunt.” Riker snapped his fingers in front of Hunter’s face, drawing him out of his homicidal fantasies. “Nicole and I talked about this. We think we could find a mate for her here.”
Hunter sucked in a harsh breath. The idea of seeing Aylin on a daily basis with one of his warriors, knowing what they were doing in their chambers . . . His fingers tightened on the glass in his hand. He could barely restrain himself now, when she was merely chatting with males at the dinner table or in the common room. To see someone touching her, kissing her, whispering sexy things in her ear . . . he growled loudly enough for Riker to set down his drink and settle into a defensive posture.
Forcing himself to relax, Hunter swirled the whiskey in his glass and tempered his tone. “Kars will never agree. Tseeveyo is a clan chief. He’s not going to downgrade his daughter’s mate.”
“What if we get a born male from our clan? We could offer something else, too. Money, land, a truck full of packaged human blood if Baddon can hijack one—”
“And who do you propose to mate her to?” Hunter interrupted. “Myne?” He snorted. “He’s a bastard on the best of days. Baddon? He likes his females bound in leather and chains.”
Hunter could picture Aylin now, her tender skin broken by Baddon’s toys and teeth, her beautiful eyes hidden behind a blindfold.
The glass in Hunter’s palm cracked.
“They’re good men,” Riker said. “Not the best fit, maybe, but better than Tseeveyo.”
A drop of liquor squeezed through a fracture in the glass and ran down Hunter’s finger like blood. “And what do you think Myne and Baddon would say about this?”
“The same thing I said when I mated Terese. The same thing you said when you agreed to mate Rasha. It’s for the clan.”
Except it wouldn’t be. It would be for Aylin. Hunter already knew Myne wouldn’t do it. Baddon would, and if the way he’d looked at her when they’d returned from Samnult’s portal was any indication, he’d be thrilled to have her.
The bastard.
“Kars isn’t going to go for it.” He slammed the glass down on the coffee table and reveled in the sound of it shattering. He wondered if Tseeveyo’s skull would sound the same. “We don’t have anything he’d want.”
“There is another option to get Tseeveyo out of the picture.”
That got his attention. At this point, Hunter was willing to try anything except mating off Aylin to someone she didn’t want or who didn’t want her. “What do you suggest?”
Riker hesitated, and Hunter went on instant alert. The other male was usually a straight shooter, which meant Hunter wasn’t going to be on board with whatever Riker had to say. “She could lose her virginity.”
Hunter swiped the bottle of bourbon off the bar and drank straight from it, but no alcohol burn was going to scorch away where this conversation was headed.
“Unless . . . she lost her virginity recently.” Riker shot him a meaningful stare, and Hunter knew he was thinking about what he’d seen at the vortex.
“Fuck off.”
Riker continued as if Hunter hadn’t spoken. “According to what she told Nicole, her virginity was the linchpin in the deal with Tseeveyo. Without that, he might let her go.”
Hunter snorted. “And her father would kill her.”
“Not if she asks for sanctuary.”
“That doesn’t apply to relatives or mates of chiefs.”
“Dammit, Hunt!” Riker barked. “We have to do something. She helped us. She helped Nicole escape from ShadowSpawn. She might even have saved Nicole’s life.”
She had saved Hunter’s life. “Trust me,” Hunter said, “I’d give up my soul for her. I won’t let her go to Tseeveyo, even if I have to offer up my own head.”
“But?” Riker prompted. “I know there’s a ‘but’ in this.”
But he didn’t want to think about Aylin having sex with another male, let alone be a part of arranging it. “But we have to be smart. Consider all options and their consequences.” He sank into the worn leather chair behind his desk and kicked up his feet. “Her new ability changes the game.”
“Not if no one knows about it, and she can’t tell anyone. Can you imagine what Kars would do with her if he found out?”
Yeah, Hunter could imagine. Kars would likely keep her for ShadowSpawn, and with her history of running away, he’d have to keep her chained to prevent her from opening a portal and escaping. She’d be forced to travel in order to memorize locations, and then Kars could use her to transport his entire clan anywhere he wanted to in a matter of minutes. He could attack enemy clans before they even knew what hit them, and then he could use a portal to get out as quickly as they got in.
He could change the balance of power with Aylin’s gift, and no one could stop him.
“Have you been working with her on using her ability?” The question was sour on his tongue. He wanted to be the one helping Aylin learn to explore the extent and limitations of her power, but he didn??
?t trust himself around her. And he didn’t want to hurt her any more than he already had.
Riker took a swig of his drink. “She’s experimenting with the size of the portal and how long she can keep it open. So far, we’ve learned that she can’t open one indoors, and that the farther away the destination, the harder it is to open one and keep it open. I think it’s going to be a while before she can operate one for more than a few seconds. Also, anything that gets caught in the portal while it’s closing gets chewed up. She closed it on a melon. Let’s just say that you do not want to get a body part caught in that sucker.”
“Talk about a splitting headache, huh?”
“Funny.” Riker tapped his fingers on the rim of his glass. “So? What do you think?”
Hunter hadn’t been thinking, and that was the problem. At least, he hadn’t been thinking like a clan chief. Somehow he had to protect both his people and Aylin.
“Put out some feelers with males you trust,” he said quickly, before he changed his mind. Or before he vomited. “Maybe one of them would want to . . .”
Riker laughed. “One of them? Just about every unmated male in this place has already asked if she was feeding someone tomorrow. They’d all jump at the chance to take it a step farther.”
Hunter was pretty sure the alcohol he’d consumed had turned to steam and was coming out of his ears.
The door to the adjoining chambers opened, and Rasha swept in. “Hello, boys.”
Riker bared his teeth at her, not even trying to be polite. “I’m out of here. Hunt, let me know.” He made a speedy exit as Rasha poured herself a drink and sank into the chair opposite Hunter.
“What were you talking about?” she asked, curiosity gleaming in eyes that matched Aylin’s in color but were different in every other way.
His first impulse was to tell her it was none of her business, but hell, he might as well use her for information. “Aylin’s mate.”