Brides of the Kindred
Book 1: Claimed
by
Evangeline Anderson
SMASHWORDS EDITION
* * * * *
PUBLISHED BY:
Evangeline Anderson on Smashwords
Brides of the Kindred
Book 1: Claimed
Copyright © 2011 by Evangeline Anderson
Smashwords Edition License Notes
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Prologue
Dusk was falling on Idlewild Avenue. Rows of identical townhouses, lit softly from within, lined the street which was overshadowed by huge old oak trees. A light evening shower had just passed and now the atmosphere was heavy with moisture. Tendrils of steam rose from the asphalt and the sweet scent of honeysuckle filled the air.
In number eleven at the end of the row a slender female figure moved in front of a large picture window—one of the selling points of the otherwise unremarkable houses. She was walking back and forth, placing objects on a table, or perhaps taking them away—maybe cleaning up after dinner. She moved with ease and grace as she did the mundane chore, completely unaware that she was being watched.
Across the road from the lighted window and the slender figure, two pairs of eyes looked on avidly as she moved. One set of eyes was a pale, piercing blue that was almost white and the other set was a warm amber-gold that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the face of a tiger.
Neither pair of eyes was human.
“Mine.” The low rumbling growl came from the owner of the amber eyes. He was tall, six foot seven at least, with shoulders so broad he would have to turn sidewise to go through most doorways, but he moved silently, with a feral grace that belied his muscular physique. Dark stubble covered his cheeks and chin and matched the thick black hair on his head.
“Not yet, Baird,” the one beside him cautioned. He was as tall as his friend and just as muscular but he had short, spiky blond hair that complimented his pale blue eyes.
“Can’t wait much longer.” Long, strong fingers curled into a fist as though the amber-eyed male could grasp the slender figure in his hand and hold her through sheer force of will. “Been dreaming about her every night, Sylvan. I ache for her.”
“What does she look like?” There was genuine curiosity in the question. Though Baird had never seen her outside his dreams, Sylvan had no doubt he could describe his chosen female to the last detail.
“So fuckin’ beautiful it hurts to look at her. Yellow hair like yours but longer—more golden. And her eyes…” Baird shook his head. “Like jewels. A pale grey that’s almost silver.”
“You find these human women appealing then?”
“Only her—she’s the only one I can see.” The amber eyes stared hungrily across the road. “I need her soon. Need to be with her. In her.”
“You’re sure she’s the one?” Sylvan stared doubtfully at the woman silhouetted in the window. She was humming softly to herself but despite the distance and the pane of glass between them he could hear her perfectly and knew Baird could too. As attuned as his half brother was to this human female, he could probably hear her heartbeat even from across the street.
“I know she’s the one.” There wasn’t a shred of doubt in the deep, rumbling voice. “Didn’t I tell you we’ve been dream-sharing? And her scent…” He inhaled deeply and his dark gold eyes were suddenly half-lidded with desire. “It’s her all right and she’s ripe for bonding. I want her.”
“I know you do, but Baird…” The other male shifted from foot to foot uneasily. “You haven’t been back that long—only three days and it’s a miracle you escaped alive. Don’t you think it might be a good idea to wait a while? To take some time to recover?”
“Waited long enough,” was the rumbling reply. “Six months in that hell hole and the only thing keeping me alive and sane were the dreams I had of her. I won’t wait any longer—she’s mine, whether she knows it yet or not.”
“You’ll scare her,” his half-brother objected. “Human women are frightened enough of us as it is.”
“I won’t hurt her. Just need to take her—bond her.” Unconsciously, he took a step toward the lighted window but his half-brother put a restraining hand on his broad shoulder.
“Wait.” The other male’s voice was soothing. “Just wait until they serve the papers. One more night and she’s yours but you can’t have her now—not without violating the contract.”
A low, frustrated growl was his answer as the thick muscles of Baird’s upper arms bunched with tension.
“Come on.” The one called Sylvan tugged his half brother gently away from the lighted window. “If you stay here you’ll do something you regret. Remember, just one more night.”
The other male stood like a rock for a moment despite his brother’s tugging. Then, reluctantly, he allowed himself to be led away. He cast one last possessive glance over his shoulder at the figure in the window.
“Mine,” he repeated with unshakable certainty. “Mine whether you know it or not, Lilenta. And tomorrow I claim you.”
Chapter One
“Bad dreams again last night?”
Olivia Waterhouse jerked at the sound of her twin sister’s voice and then went back to staring at the kitchen table. “Uh, not so much,” she lied and tried to smile.
“C’mon, Liv, give. It’s me, your womb mate—remember?” Sophia sat down across from her and patted her hand gently. No one could ever decide if the Waterhouse twins were fraternal or identical. Liv had honey blonde hair with grey eyes and Sophia had a rich, chestnut mane with pale green eyes but their facial features were exactly the same. They had the same build too, both were five-seven and slender with hourglass curves. More than just twins, they were also best friends, which was why it made Liv uncomfortable to lie to her sister. But she couldn’t help it—the things she’d seen last night didn’t bear repeating.
“Really,” she said, not meeting her sister’s eyes. “I’m fine. I just had a restless night—that’s all.”
The truth was the dreams she’d been having for the past half year about the muscular stranger with glowing, amber-gold eyes had become progressively more disturbing. He was her nighttime visitor every time she closed her eyes. Liv had even named him—inside her head she called him “the dark man.”
For the longest time she’d dreamed of him someplace filled with shadows—someplace where despair was an almost palpable thing. Sometimes he was chained to the wall, his head bowed as if in exhaustion. Other times were worse. Liv had seen him hooked to some kind of machine, wires embedded in his dusky tan skin like malignant snakes feeding off him. On an inverted dome, as big as an IMAX screen above his head, images flashed—pictures of strange worlds she never could have imagined. One seemed to be all ice and snow, another a lush tropical jungle where the vegetation was mostly blue instead of green. And yet another seemed to be a world that was mostly a clear, golden ocean with tiny rocky islands dotted here and there.
When she dreamed of the pictures of other worlds flashing across the enormous screen, Liv always got the idea that they were somehow drawn from the memories of the dark man. And there was pain—so much pain, both physical and emotional. He was hurting and she was powerless to help him. She didn’t even know him but somehow his agony affected her deeply. She woke up with tears in her eyes most mornings, her heart clenched like a fist in her chest, his name—a name she could never quite recall—trembling on her lips.
Liv tried to tell herself her dreams were just that—only dreams. Lots of people had reoccurring dreams. Why her brain should choose to show her the same thing night after night was a mystery but it was also no big deal. And she only felt for the mysterious dark man because that was the kind of person she was. She’d just finished nursing school a few weeks ago and was taking some time off before she started her new job in the pediatric unit at Tampa General. She could be tough when she had to but by nature she was a nurturing person. Otherwise she wouldn’t care how this man, this dream stranger, was hurting. Wouldn’t care about the pain she saw in his unusual amber eyes.
Then, two or three nights ago, the dreams had changed. When she finally let herself sleep, she saw the man as usual but he was free. Unchained and out of the shadowy place where his only emotions had been despair and agony.
The change in her depressing dream should have elated Liv but she found herself frightened instead. Because in her new dreams the huge man with black hair and golden eyes was looking for someone—searching tirelessly. And somehow she knew that the person he was searching for was her.
Then last night, he’d found her. Liv still remembered sitting bolt upright in bed at four in the morning, her hand pressed between her breasts as if to still her pounding heart. The scene in the dream had showed the mysterious dark man staring right into her eyes and he’s spoken only one word.
“Mine.”
“What?” Sophia looked at her in concern and Liv realized she’d quoted her dream aloud.
“Nothing. What’s for breakfast?” It was a Saturday morning—the day officially decreed as off the diet and anything goes. Liv tried to curb herself the rest of the week—her curvy figure was already a lot more hippy than she liked—but on Saturday she let herself off the leash.
“How about pancakes? Kat’s coming over and bringing some blueberries from that organic farmer’s market on Dunn. Sound good?”
“Mmm.” Liv nodded, trying to look enthusiastic and failing miserably if the expression on her twin’s face was any indication.
“Come on, Liv, blueberry pancakes are your favorite.” Sophia frowned as she moved around the warm yellow and cream kitchen, getting out the eggs and flour and sugar and pulling down a frying pan from the hanging rack above the sink.
“Yummy. Can’t wait.” Liv gave her a weak smile and stifled a yawn. “Seriously, Sophie, I’m just tired. I stayed up a little too late reading.”
Sophia shot her a skeptical look. “Right. And that’s why you look like one of my first graders who’s just been sent to the principal’s office.” She taught at an affluent private school in South Tampa that catered to the wealthy and gifted children of the city and she absolutely loved her job. Since it was summer, however, she had three months off to pursue her other love—art.
Liv knew Sophia was itching to go paint and was probably only hanging around the kitchen making blueberry pancakes because she was worried about her twin. She opened her mouth to protest that she was fine again when a rat-a-tat-tat sounded at their front door.
“Coming!” Sophia beat her to the door and opened it to the beaming face of Katrina O’Connor, their mutual friend since high school. As Sophia ushered Kat inside, Liv shook herself mentally. It was time she stopped letting these silly dreams affect her so much. She was Olivia Waterhouse and she wasn’t afraid of anything.
Despite being compassionate Liv was no pushover. She had worked her way through nursing school and always stood up for herself, even to the crankiest doctors who could verbally eviscerate anyone with a sarcastic word or two. She went car shopping and to the mechanic by herself and never got screwed over. And most importantly, she never took no for an answer—when she really wanted something, she went for it. So why was she letting a stupid dream put a crimp in her personal style?
Time to get over it, girl, she lectured herself sternly. It’s just a dream and he’s not real. Let it go and enjoy your pancakes. It’s a beautiful Saturday—anything could happen. But rather than cheering her up, the thought sent a shiver down her spine. That’s right anything could happen…anything at all.
“What’s your deal, Liv? You look like you saw a ghost.” Kat’s cheery voice broke her morbid train of thought and Liv looked up and tried to smile.
“Hey, Kat-woman. Heard you were bringing some blueberries.”
“Did better than that.” Kat put a large recycled cloth shopping bag on the round kitchen table and started pulling things out of it, like a magician pulling rabbits out of a hat. “Eggs, butter, ham, chives…” She stopped to push a wisp of auburn hair behind her ear before continuing. “Some fresh shitake mushrooms, goat cheese—”
“Whoa—whoa!” Liv was startled into laughing. “What the hell kind of pancakes are we making here, anyway?”
“Not pancakes—quiche. I saw this new recipe last night on Food Network—”
Liv and Sophia both groaned aloud at this, cutting her off. Kat was a paralegal at Linden and James downtown but she had always had grand aspirations when it came to cooking. Unfortunately, she didn’t like to follow a recipe so most of her culinary creations landed in the trash—a fact that didn’t discourage her in the least when it came to trying something new. Especially if she was working in someone else’s kitchen and didn’t have to worry about cleaning up the mess afterwards.
“Tell me something, Kat,” Sophia demanded. “Exactly how much of that stuff in the bag does the recipe call for?”
“And how much is your own addition?” Liv finished her twin’s thought effortlessly.
“Come on, you guys.” Kat pouted unconvincingly. “This one is going to be good, I can tell. And just because it doesn’t actually call for sardines and black olives doesn’t mean they won’t be good in there.”
“Black olives?” Sophia made a face.
“And sardines? Yuck! Are you making a quiche or an everything pizza?” Liv crossed her arms over her chest.
Kat noticed the gesture and grinned. “Ooo, nice nighty, Liv. Did we have a nocturnal visitor last night?”
Liv opened her mouth but Sophia beat her to it. “No one besides her dream man—whoever he is.”
“I didn’t dream about him last night,” Liv lied defensively. “And I wore this because I happen to like it—it’s comfortable.” In contrast to Sophie’s Sesame Street pjs and Kat’s sensible t-shirt and shorts, she had on her lacy black baby doll nighty. It was the one her ex fiancé, Mitch had given her and it had a short black robe and panties that matched.
Liv wasn’t wearing the set because she missed the jerk—she’d really dodged a bullet when she gave him back his ring and told him to hit the road. It was more a case of not letting something so nice go to waste. Mitch may have been a cheating bastard but he had good taste in underwear—underwear for her, anyway. He’d worn tighty-whities himself. Liv had always struggled not to laugh when he strutted around the house in them, thinking he looked so hot.
“She claims she stayed up late reading a book—that’s why the dark circles and eye luggage.” Sophia sounded skeptical.
“Well you look like hell,” Kat said frankly. “It must have been some book. Was it a horror novel or what?”
“Something like that,” Liv muttered sulkily. She was in no mood to put up with her friend’s teasing.
“Well don’t get bent out of shape, doll.” Kat smiled at her as she continued pulling ingredients out of her shopping bag. Liv hoped the strawberries and mangos were for a fruit salad and not the sardine and black olive quiche. “I just thought with that sexy outfit maybe you’d finally decided to get back on the dating train. You and Mitch hit splitsville over six months ago now.”
“You’re the last one to talk about dating.” Sophia was whisking something in a bowl—no doubt she’d decided to make pancake batter after all as a back up to the disastrous quiche. “You’re even worse with men than me—and I suck at the social scene,” she added, tasting the batter and reaching for a bottle of vanilla extract.
“Exactly—because most men today don’t appreciate the pleasures of a plus sized woman.” Kat gestured at her own lush figure with a small pineapple she’d pulled out of the seemingly bottomless bag. “Which is why I have to live vicariously through you two skinny-minnies. A size eight looks good in that naughty little nighty—a size eighteen, not so much.”
It was true Kat was a size eighteen but she had it all in the right places, Liv thought. She had often wished that her breasts were as full as Kat’s but then, Kat was full to running over all over the place, including her mouth. She was thinking of going back to school to become a lawyer instead of just a paralegal because getting paid to argue was her idea of a perfect job. Usually her quick wit and naughty sense of humor cracked Liv up but this morning she so wasn’t in the mood.
“Change the subject. Preferably away from my hot jammies and the fact that I don’t have a man to wear them for,” she said, getting up from the table and going to the fridge for a glass of juice. Actually she’d tried dating again after she’d dumped Mitch but somehow it didn’t feel right. Mainly because none of the men she went out with were tall and dark with glowing amber eyes…Stop that! she scolded herself, pulling open the fridge door which was covered in colorful magnets and reaching for the carton of OJ. Stop thinking about him—he’s not even real!
She tried concentrating on her favorite fridge magnet instead, the one with two California rolls in bed side by side. The caption underneath read, Wake up, little sushi!
“Okay, sourpuss, try this subject on for size,” Kat snapped, folding the empty shopping bag and stowing it away in her barn-sized purse. “You remember Jillian Holms that took home-ec with us in high school?”
“The head cheerleader?” Sophia made a face. “How could we forget?”
“That’s her.” Kat nodded enthusiastically. “Well, you’re not going to believe this but she got drafted.”
There was complete silence in the room for about two seconds and then Liv and Sophia said simultaneously, “She what?”
“Got drafted. I know, can you even believe it?”
There was no need to ask what Kat meant when she said their old acquaintance from Hillsborough High had gotten drafted—every woman in the room knew about the draft and every one of them lived in fear of it.
Five years before the Earth had been suddenly attacked. The space station orbiting the moon, which had been completed in 2025, had been destroyed and the rest of the planet was threatened by a mysterious force known only as the Scourge. Attempts to contact and reason with the menacing threat had failed and even the deadliest weapons had little or no effect. It looked like the Earth was down for the count and everyone on the planet was going to wind up as alien take-out.
Liv remembered those horrible days—it had been forty-eight hours of mass panic. Suicides, bombings, looting and unprotected sex which she thankfully had not personally participated in. With no other immediate family, she and Sophie and Kat had locked the doors to the little apartment she’d been living in at the time and eaten themselves sick on Ben and Jerry’s while they watched a never-ending marathon of vintage chick flicks.
It might not have been the most productive way to spend their last days on Earth but eating your body weight in Chunky Monkey and watching Sixteen Candles and Pretty Woman beat chowing down on the business end of a gun or having sex with a total stranger any day of the week, in Liv’s opinion. And their wait-and-see approach had been justified—in the end everything turned out all right.
Because of the Kindred.
The Kindred were a race of alien warriors, humanoid in form but much more massive in scale than the average human male. They had swooped in suddenly and forced the Scourge to stop their attack and retreat to the far side of the moon. There were rumors that the war continued somewhere in space with scrimmages and battles between the two factions but if so, it was kept quiet. The alien warriors took up orbit around the planet, ensuring that the tenuous peace continued, for Earth at least. And they only wanted one thing in exchange—a genetic trade.
Because a mutation in their genes caused their race to be ninety-five percent male, the Kindred had become a space faring race, looking for other planets to inhabit and other humanoid species to trade with. Earth was only the fourth planet in their ten thousand year odyssey to offer a viable trade and they were eager to get started.
Of course the governments of Earth agreed to the trade—what else could they do? The only thing that stood between the planet and total annihilation was the warrior race keeping watch far above the ionosphere, so it was considered best to keep them happy. An all female draft was set up which every unmarried woman between the ages of nineteen and thirty-five was required to enter. It was considered a patriotic duty but also a long shot. There was only about a one in ten thousand chance of ever getting called to do your “duty” which was why it was so unusual to actually know a person who’d been drafted.
The Kindred pretty much kept to themselves, staying in their ships above the surface of the planet and only coming down occasionally in twos and threes to claim their brides. Nobody knew how they picked them and personally, Liv didn’t want to know. It was easier to pretend that the Kindred didn’t exist, easier to forget that you personally might win the bed-an-alien lottery at any minute. But something like this—actually knowing a girl who’d been drafted—made pretending and forgetting impossible.
“So what exactly happened?” Sophie had stopped whisking her batter, intent on Kat’s latest piece of news.
Liv realized she was still gripping the juice carton with the fridge door open. She shut the door and turned around. “Yeah, what happened?” She couldn’t help echoing her twin’s question.
Kat shrugged. “Two draft officers came to her house and took her down to the HKR building. Then she had to sign some kind of a contract—like a marriage license I think.” There was a Human/Kindred Relations building in every major city in the world built specifically for this purpose but Liv had never been inside the Tampa facility which was located downtown. Just driving by it gave her the willies so she tried not to even look at it when she did.
“What…which kind of Kindred did she get?” Sophia asked in a hushed voice. The Kindred were split into three distinct branches, all outcomes of their past genetic trades.
There were the Tranq Kindred—a group of males with piercing blue eyes and a double set of short, sharp vestigial fangs. There were rumors that the fangs grew and they bit when they had sex with the female of their choice and other rumors that they could heal any illness with a bite. Liv wasn’t sure how much of that was true and how much was just media hype but the buzz about their sexual habits had earned this group the nickname “Blood Kindred.”
Then there were the Twins, a branch of the Kindred in which the males always came in pairs and had to share a woman. No one knew exactly why and they declined to offer an explanation. Some said they were telepathic and needed sex to communicate but that hadn’t been proven—not that anyone had ever gotten a chance to study them. The Kindred as a whole kept strictly to themselves and refused to participate in any kind of scientific research or experiments. So no one really knew anything about the Twin Kindred other than they refused to make love to a woman individually.
And then there were the Ragers—also known as the Beast Kindred.
Working for so long in a hospital as she went through nursing school, the sight and idea of drawing blood wasn’t frightening to Liv so the Blood Kindred didn’t scare her. And being a twin herself, she wasn’t terribly afraid of the Twin Kindred either. But the Beast Kindred, well…they scared the ever-loving crap out of her.
As tall and dominant as the rest of the warrior race, the Beast Kindred were said to have the most unpredictable tempers. Rumor had it that they could go into berserker-like rages when protecting their women, killing anyone that stood in their way no matter how many opposed them. But it was the other rumors, the sexual rumors, which put a lump in Liv’s throat.
Besides being filled with animalistic lust, the Beast Kindred were said to have sexual stamina unequaled by anyone. Rumor had it that they could come again and again without going soft and their marathon love-making sessions put even practitioners of tantric sex to shame.
Just the idea of being held in place, helpless, while a huge alien male filled her for hours made Liv’s blood run cold. She hadn’t had many lovers but the men she’d been with in the past had convinced her that sex was like a box of chocolates—you never knew what you were going to get when you went to bed with a man. And sadly, you were more likely to pick the nasty pink marshmallow cream than the yummy nut cluster. So rather than lingering for an indefinite amount of time, it was better to get in, get out, and get on with your life. Cuddling was more fun in the long run anyway.
The year and a half she’d spent with Mitch had only reinforced her ideas. In retrospect, Liv couldn’t understand why she’d stayed with him so long. His idea of good sex was to get on top and grind her into the mattress while chanting, “Who’s your daddy? Who’s your daddy?” over and over again until she wanted to scream and not in a good way. No amount of tactful hints that references to her parentage during intimate encounters didn’t do a thing for her would make him stop. Finally Liv had given up and just plugged her tiny iPod micro-mini into her ear whenever it looked like he wanted some nooky. She’d even had a playlist called “sex with Mitch.”
That had been bad enough but at least Mitch had never had the stamina to get through the whole playlist. Liv imagined with horror what it would be like to have sex with a man who could go through the entire micro on shuffle setting without quitting once. Just the thought was enough to send her running—which was why the idea of getting chosen by a Beast Kindred freaked her out completely.
Don’t they say the Beast Kindred have golden eyes? whispered a small voice in her head. Shut up! Liv told it fiercely. He’s just a dream and that’s all there is to it.
“So what kind did she get?” she forced herself to ask, not looking at Kat while she got a glass from the cabinet.
“Twins, I think.” Kat shivered. “Can you even imagine? I mean, I know lots of people have had three-ways. You get drunk in college and before you know it you’re getting the shaft, both literally and figuratively. But two horny frat guys is one thing—the Kindred are supposed to be hung like Clydesdales.”
“Kat!” Sophie slapped at her with the hand not holding the bowl full of pancake batter. “You are so bad!”
“But I mean honestly, how would they fit? You’d be bowlegged for life if you ended up with a pair of Twin Kindred.” Kat raised her eyebrows comically and took a few wincing steps as though it hurt to walk. Sophie giggled and shook her head. Liv tried but all she could manage was a weak smile as she poured the orange juice and put the carton back in the fridge.
“Well, I hope she’s happy. When does she come back?”
“She’s not. She did her month and she’s staying.” Kat went back to assembling her quiche ingredients which appeared to include fresh thyme, basil, and cilantro as well as some cayenne pepper. “You know everyone that gets drafted has to sign an agreement to at least try things out for that long—a month long claiming period. After that you can come back and call it quits for good—if you and the Kindred stud who chose you haven’t made the beast with two backs. If you have…” She shrugged fatalistically. “Well then it’s too bad for you. You’re a Kindred bride for life and they don’t do divorce or separation. So it looks like Jillian’s stuck”
“How do you know so much about it?” Liv demanded.
“I helped one of our attorneys prepare a case for some clients of my firm. We had this young woman’s family try to sue when she got called up,” Kat said matter-of-factly.
“What were the grounds?” Sophie asked.
“That she was a virgin and wasn’t prepared to be with, uh, such a large guy.” Kat snickered. “But all I have to say is, sitting there, listening to what this huge masculine alien could and couldn’t do to you sexually and what you could and couldn’t to do to him with your parents listening in had to be at least as bad as actually doing it.”
“How embarrassing!” Sophie shuddered. “I’d rather die.”
“Did they win the case?” Liv asked, taking a sip of juice.
Kat shook her head. “Not on your life. The court threw it out almost before her lawyer finished talking. Everybody knows we have to keep the Kindred happy. The Scourge is still out there somewhere and if throwing the big guys a bone by boning them is the only way to keep them on our side, well then, so be it. So if you get drafted you better develop a taste for alien nookie pretty quick.”
“You know the thing that really freaks me out?” Sophie dropped the blueberries into the batter, stirring as she talked. “The fact that nobody ever decides to leave and go back to their old life after that initial thirty day period is up. You can’t tell me the Kindred always know exactly which woman is going to be their soul mate for life when they pick a bride.”
Kat shrugged and started cracking eggs into a large mixing bowl. “Maybe they brainwash you once you get up to their ship. Maybe it’s filled with all kinds of sex toys and pleasure rooms and it’s so good you just can’t say no.”
“Or maybe they trick you into having sex in the first place—like they slip you a roofie,” Sophie said darkly. “And when you wake up it’s like, ‘Oh, sorry—we did the deed and now you’re mine for life. Hope you don’t mind moving to a galaxy far, far away and having sixteen pound alien babies the rest of your natural.”
Liv gripped her glass full of OJ tightly. This certainly wasn’t the first time they’d speculated about the Kindred when they got together on a girls’ day but for some reason her nerves were so on edge she felt like she might scream if she had to listen to another word. Just then the doorbell chimed faintly and she breathed a sigh of relief—finally a distraction.
“I’ll get it!” She was already halfway to the door when Sophia objected.
“Liv, you’re hardly decent! That outfit almost shows your panties.”
“I’m fine,” Liv called back, pulling the short black lace robe that went with her baby doll nighty more tightly around her. “It’s probably just Mrs. Jensen from next door. She’s always wanting to borrow something—eggs, sugar, you name it.”
She threw open the door expecting to see the kind and wrinkled face of her next door neighbor and instead was treated to the sight of two perfectly huge males in black uniforms.
“I…I…Who are you?” Liv gasped, barely able to get the words out.
“H/K officers Trex and Locan at your service,” the one on the right rumbled and both of them made stiff, abbreviated bows. “We’re here for Miss Olivia Lauren Waterhouse.” He held up a digital picture and Liv recognized her own face staring back from the holo sheet. “This is you—correct?”
“I…yes, that’s me,” she said weakly, meaning both the picture and the name.
“And can you sign this document, verifying that it is so?” He held out a thick sheaf of papers with legal looking words on them along with a pen. Liv signed automatically where he indicated.
“All right, but I—” she began as the guard snatched back the papers and stuffed them into his uniform pocket.
“Excellent. Subject confirms identity,” said the one on the left, as though he was making some kind of official report. “Preparing to escort subject to the HKR building at once.” As one, both huge officers stepped forward and each took one of her elbows. The glass full of orange juice dropped from her fingers and shattered on the tile of the foyer like a bomb, spraying glass shards and sticky juice everywhere. One shard pieced her heel when she took a step back but Liv barely noticed the sharp little pain.
“Now wait just a minute,” she protested, aware that both Sophia and Kat had crowded into the doorway behind her. “What are you saying? Where are you taking me? And can’t I change first?”
“Negative. Flight risk is incurred if the subject is allowed to linger on the premises for any reason,” barked the one on the right.
“But I haven’t done anything. Let me go!” Liv struggled against them but it was like she was being held in pincers of iron on either side.
Kat and Sophie were suddenly there in front of the huge males, blocking their exit. It was like two Toy Poodles facing off Great Danes but neither woman budged even when the officer on the right glared at them in a menacing way.
“Where exactly do you think you’re taking Miss Waterhouse?” Kat demanded, her blue eyes flashing. “And on what grounds?”
“Please step aside, Ma’am,” said the officer on the left with mechanical courtesy. “We are simply fulfilling the orders on the papers we have just served to Miss Waterhouse. And we’re taking her to the Human/Kindred Relations building for her claiming ceremony.”
“Her what?” Sophia exclaimed, her green eyes wide with distress.
“Her claiming ceremony, where she will meet the Kindred warrior who has chosen her as a bride,” the other officer explained patiently. “Miss Olivia Waterhouse has been drafted.”
Chapter Two
“Just try not to scare her.”
“How would I scare her?” Baird cast an annoyed glance at his half brother. Sylvan had his arms crossed over his broad chest and there was a look of doubt on his face that got on Baird’s nerves. All morning the other male had been giving unsolicited advice and he was getting sick of it.
“To start with, the fact that you’re so much larger than the human males she’s used to is probably frightening,” Sylvan pointed out, nodding at the puny looking humans standing behind the counter at one end of the large drab room. They were waiting in the Human/Kindred Relations building for Baird’s bride to arrive with the draft officers and it was staffed mainly by humans. “Not to mention that hungry look in your eyes—you look like the big, bad wolf waiting to eat her up.”
Baird frowned. “The big bad what?”
“Wolf, the big bad wolf, threatening to eat her,” Sylvan clarified.
Baird growled low in his throat. “No threat about it—it’s a promise. Can’t wait to eat her.” Just the thought of spreading his bride’s sweet, creamy thighs and lapping between her legs had his shaft pulsing—so much that it was hard to concentrate on the other male’s words.
Sylvan rolled his blue eyes and hissed in disgust. “That isn’t what I meant at all.
Haven’t you ever heard the human legend about the young female who wore a red hood and was menaced in the forest by a large lupine predator?”
“No, should I?”
“It was in the human training course I sent over for you to study,” his half brother reminded him. The Kindred had a natural affinity for languages. Being genetic traders they found it extremely easy to pick up any native tongue including the slang—which allowed Baird to curse as fluently as any Earth born human—a fact that pleased him to no end. But the nuances of culture sometimes eluded them so the training courses were a necessity—one he guiltily acknowledged he had mostly skipped. But it was difficult if not impossible to concentrate on obscure Earth myths and legends when all he could think about was her. He saw her in his mind’s eye constantly—when he wasn’t blocking out images of his recent imprisonment that was.
Dark, so dark and cold. Chained to the wall when the wires weren’t piercing him. Fucking wires, raping his mind, stripping his memories, sucking away his strength. Showing him things—unspeakable things—until he didn’t know what was truth and what was a lie. Telling him he’d never get free, never see the ones he loved again, never see her…
He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the ugly images. He would have died or gone insane if the alignment between his mind and hers hadn’t happened just as he’d been captured. The Scourge were a parasitic race that lived off the agony of others and their ability to get inside a prisoner’s mind took torture to a new level. To make matters worse, he’d roused the interest of their AllFather and had been singled out for special attention. Apparently his pain had a unique flavor…Baird felt a chill creep down his spine. Without the dreams of his bride to keep him sane he would have given up hope of living, let alone escaping from that hell hole.
He owed her everything—she was the other half of his soul. And he couldn’t wait to see her, couldn’t wait to hold her close and claim her.
How often had he imagined this day? How often had he pictured meeting his bride, taking her in his arms and looking into her eyes for the first time? Baird thought about how soft her body would feel against his hard warrior’s muscles. How good it would be to breathe in her feminine fragrance and know she belonged only to him. Her lips would taste so sweet and when she gave herself to him, he would fill her for hours, covering her slighter body with his larger one and taking her until his scent was all over her and any male within a fifty mile radius would know to stay the hell away from her.
Yes, that was what he needed most of all. To be inside her, breeding her, bonding her to him forever. She was his and he would never let her go…
He became aware that Sylvan was talking again. Couldn’t the male ever just shut up? “What?” he asked in irritation.
“I said you need to remember this is still a new trade. It won’t be like it is for males who call brides from Tranquil Prime or Rageron or Twin Moons. This is unknown territory for the human females—they don’t know what to expect.”
“You seem to know a hell of a lot about calling a bride for a male who swore he’d never take one of his own,” Baird snapped. When he saw the pain in Sylvan’s ice blue eyes he regretted his hasty words. He shook his head apologetically. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
Sylvan shook his head and ran the tip of his tongue over the short, sharp fangs in his upper teeth. Baird knew it was a habit he had when distressed or unhappy and he further knew that those fangs would never grow unless Sylvan found a woman of his own. Not for the first time he wished things could be different for his half brother. Even before their father had died they had always been close—spending most of their time together since neither one was mated. Now Sylvan would be left alone.
“Sylvan—”
“Baird—” They began at the same time and Baird shook his head. “Shouldn’t have brought it up. Not my business.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Sylvan ran a hand through his spiky blond hair. “You know the vow I took.”
“Yeah and I know why. But what happened on Tranq Prime—”
“Is over and done with,” Sylvan snapped. “I don’t want to talk about that, Baird. Anymore than you want to talk about the time you spent with the Scourge.”
Baird clenched his hands into fists. It was true he hadn’t been able to tell anyone what they’d done to him. It was too horrible, too fresh. He pushed it away. Now wasn’t a good time to think of it. There was never going to be a good time to think of it.
“I’m just saying—now that I’m about to take a bride myself I want you to be as happy as I am,” he said, controlling the bad memories with an effort.
“I think I’ll wait a little while before I wish myself into your position.” Sylvan said dryly. “There’s your bride, Baird. And she doesn’t exactly look happy to be here.”
Baird’s head jerked up and he stared across the large room to the large double doors. How could he have missed her entrance? Now that he was attuned to her, Baird found that he couldn’t look anywhere else. Her sweet scent tickled his nose enticingly, the warm smell of her skin mixed with the floral odor of whatever she used to wash her hair and body. Her extremely luscious body, he saw with approval. The dreams hadn’t lied, she was curved in all the right places—it was easy to see with that little bit of nothing she had on.
“Gods.” His own voice sounded hoarse in his ears. The thin outfit that draped his bride was made of fragile, almost see-through black lace. Under it the ripe curves of her breasts and the tight points of her nipples were clearly visible. And the hem of the thing was barely low enough to cover the tender vee between her thighs.
Suddenly Baird became aware that he wasn’t the only male looking at his new bride—all eyes in the room seemed to be turned to her. It didn’t occur to him that she was the center of attention because she was being flanked by two large males and was struggling every step of the way. All he could see was that others were looking at the woman who was exclusively his.
A possessive growl rose in his throat as the claiming lust came over him. At the base of his cock, the mating fist came to life for the first time in his life, swelling with heat and need just for her.
Before he knew it, he was across the room, staring down the male draft officers.
“Get your fuckin’ hands off her.” His voice was a low menacing growl. The two officers released her at the same time and backed up nervously, eyeing Baird as though he might bite. A Beast Kindred in the grip of the claiming lust was no one to mess with. Baird didn’t spare them a second thought. Now that they were well away from the human woman—his woman—all his attention was focused on her.
Gods, she was so tiny, so perfect with her long tousled mane of golden hair and her big silvery-grey eyes. Baird longed to gather her into his arms and hold her. He reached out…Only to be restrained by Sylvan just before his fingers could close over her upper arm.
“Baird, control yourself!” the other male muttered in his ear. “Can’t you see you’re scaring her to death?”
“I’m not scaring her,” Baird protested.
But just then his bride’s eyes rolled up in her head and she fainted into a little heap of black lace and long, smooth limbs.
Chapter Three
My God! The dark man! Liv couldn’t believe he was real. Couldn’t believe he was here, obviously waiting just for her. She was being dragged, protesting all the way, into the HKR building in downtown Tampa, wearing her black lace nighty, with her heel throbbing and dripping blood from the shard of glass still embedded in it and all she could focus on was the huge man at the other end of the room. At least he cleans up nice, her mind chattered irrelevantly. But he isn’t a man—he’s a Kindred warrior. And admit it, Liv, didn’t you really know that all along? Even in the dreams?
In her dreams he’d always appeared dirty and disheveled, understandable considering that he seemed to be in some kind of prison undergoing torture on a regular basis. Now that she saw him in person he looked quite different.
He’d had a haircut for one thing. The shaggy black hair on his head had been tamed to a certain extent although it was still longer than the blond crew cut of the warrior beside him. And he was wearing a high-necked, deep crimson shirt that looked outstanding against his dusky tan skin. The shirt was made of some heavy, silky material that draped across the broad expanse of his chest, clinging with loving detail to each chiseled muscle group. It was tucked into a pair of black pants tight enough to prove that Kat had been right in her earlier assessment—the Kindred were hung like Clydesdales. Liv swallowed hard and tried not to think about that. High, shiny black boots that came to his knees completed the outfit, giving him a slightly military air.
Liv couldn’t help herself—she stared. She’d been dreaming of him for six months but nothing she’d seen in her dreams had even remotely prepared her for how incredibly freaking huge he was. Tampa was a favorite stop on the Pro Wrestling circuit and as a student she’d seen her fair share of big men with ridiculous stage names come through the ER. But this Kindred male, the dark man, made even the largest guys she’d seen look small in comparison. His shoulders were immensely broad, his arms bulged with muscle and each of his thighs was as thick as her waist. His hands with their long, strong, capable-looking fingers looked big enough to palm a basketball or span an octave with no problem.
Once she’d gone down his big body, her gaze naturally swept up again, stuttering along the way over that enormous bulge in his crotch. His mouth was a full, sensual red and he had unusual facial hair—long, closely clipped sideburns that marched down to the edge of his square jaw. A high forehead, arching black brows and the familiar amber eyes that were focused intently on her alone finished the visual tour. He was looking her over too, Liv realized, assessing her the same way she was assessing him. And from the blazing look in his eyes he liked what he was seeing.
She could almost feel him touching her with that heated gaze. Undressing her was more like it. Her nipples hardened into tight little points and her sex suddenly felt wet and tingly for some reason when he glanced at her there. It was almost like his gaze was a laser beam, burning her everywhere he looked, forcing her body to react to him.
Then everything happened at once.
The dark man strode across the room. He seemed to saunter with a slow, lazy stride but somehow he was in front of her in under a second anyway. He growled like an animal, his voice too low to understand and suddenly the officers on either side of her dropped her arms and backed away, as though they’d suddenly been confronted with a wild beast.
Liv felt like she had, too. The look in those hot amber eyes went beyond desire—there was a consuming need to devour in their liquid gold depths and she was plainly what was on the menu. She stared up at him, unable to speak, almost unable to breathe. He looked utterly ferocious—beyond terrifying. And then he reached for her.
Liv’s brain went into overload and everything went black.
When she woke up, she was lying on one of the powder blue couches that were pushed against the perimeter of the large main room of the HKR. The whole building had a slightly institutional feel to it—kind of like being at the DMV. Only here you were standing in line to get an alien husband instead of a driver’s license. But she hadn’t been standing in line, Liz thought groggily. She’d what…fainted? Had a syncopal episode. Need to lie down with my legs higher than my head, she thought, her nursing training automatically kicking in. Then she realized she was lying down, but her head was propped up on something. Something warm and hard and solid was under her cheek and a musky, masculine scent that smelled both alien and totally familiar was filling her nose.
“Easy, Lilenta.” The deep voice from her dreams filled her ears and Liv told herself she had to be dreaming again. But was she dreaming the warm, spicy scent of his skin? Was she dreaming the long fingers that stroked strands of hair away from her cheek so tenderly? Suddenly she knew where she was and what was going on. And none of it was a dream.
The dark man! Liv sat up and jumped to her feet, staggering a few steps before his hand shot out to catch her. She backed away just before his fingers closed on her wrist.
“How long have I been out?” She couldn’t believe she’d fainted in the first place—what a horribly weak and girly thing to do! But it had been so shocking, seeing what she thought was a dream turned into hard, cold reality. Well he’s certainly hard but I’d say hot describes him better than cold, jabbered a little voice in her brain. As in hotter than any guy you’ve ever been with. Liv hated that little voice but she had to agree with it—the Kindred warrior certainly put Mitch in the shade.
“You collapsed.” There was a look of concern in his amber eyes. “How do you feel?”
“How do you think I feel? I’m here against my will in nothing but my underwear,” Liv threw at him.
“So I see.” Hot amber eyes raked her body again, making Liv flush when she realized she’d practically just given him permission to stare.
“Who are you?” she demanded, pulling her thin lace robe tightly around her. “And what have you been doing in my head?”
“The dreams you mean?” he asked, as though it was the most natural thing in the world for her to dream of him.
“Yes, of course,” Liv snapped. “What the hell are those all about?”
“I dreamed of you, too,” he said simply, ignoring her question in the most infuriating manner. “It was the only thing that kept me sane.”
“I…I…” Liv had no idea how to answer this bizarre statement but the standoff was broken suddenly by two familiar voices behind her.
“Liv!”
“Olivia!”
Sophia and Kat rushed up behind her, surrounding her protectively and glaring at the big warrior sitting on the too-small powder blue sofa.
“They wouldn’t let us in at first,” Sophia explained breathlessly, wrapping her arms around Liv in a trembling hug. “We had to go back and get our ID to prove who we were. We were in such a hurry to follow you we forgot it.”
Liv realized that her twin was still wearing her Sesame Street pjs, the ones she’d gotten as a gift the last Christmas they were in high school. They were old and worn but Grover and the Count and Cookie Monster still looked pretty fresh, grinning up from the ragged t-shirt and loose pajama pants. She gave a shaky laugh and hugged Sophia back.
“It’s okay. I’m okay now that you’re here.”
“Friends of yours? Nice of them to make it to our claiming ceremony.” The deep voice behind her made Liv whirl around. He was directly behind her, looming over her and nodding at Sophie and Kat as though they were at a wedding or something. Well it is a wedding, isn’t it? Or the next best thing to it, chimed in the little voice. Liv was beginning to wish she had an ice pick so she could dig it out once and for all. Then she realized that was a crazy thought—and yet, she was in a crazy situation. How else was she supposed to react?
“I’m her attorney, you asshole,” Kat lied with abandon before Liv could say anything.
“And there’s not going to be any ceremony,” Sophia added, speaking up even though she was usually a total wallflower around strange men. She turned to Kat. “Is there, Kat?”
“I’m afraid there is.” The big Kindred warrior had a neutral expression on his face but there was a warning rumble in his deep voice. “She’s my bride. I’m claiming her today.”
“Excuse me? Claiming her? Like she was a lost piece of luggage at the airport or something?” Kat demanded.
“She’s not lost anymore,” the big warrior said with certainty. “Now that I’ve found her she’s mine.”
“Liv doesn’t belong to you or anybody else,” Sophia hissed, glaring up at him and keeping her arms protectively around Liv. “She’s my sister—you can’t step in and take her away, just like that!”
“Actually, I’m afraid he can.” The new voice caused all of three of them to swivel their heads. Another Kindred warrior with blond, spiky hair and ice blue eyes was speaking. “You made a legally binding agreement when you enrolled in the draft,” he told Liv. “Not to mention just now when the officers picked you up and you signed the contract of claiming.”
“I what?” Liv demanded. “What are you talking about? I didn’t sign anything. Did I?”
The blond Kindred held out his hand and one of the Kindred officers put a thick sheaf of papers in it. “Does this look familiar?” he asked, holding it out to her.
Liv felt her heart sink. “But I thought I was just signing to verify my uh, identity. See, they showed me this picture—”
“Let me see that.” Kat snatched the papers away and began scanning through them rapidly. Liv and Sophia watched her hopefully but Liv could feel the hope in her chest turning to despair as Kat’s pretty face grew more and more blank. At last she looked up.
“Well?” Liv felt like someone had deposited a fist sized ball of ice in the pit of her stomach.
“Liv, honey—” Kat began and Sophia began to sob.
“I can’t believe this,” she gasped, tears pouring down her face. “Can’t believe that they can just drag you out of your house without even giving you time to change clothes and force you to go with some strange man. This is horrible!”
Liv felt numb. “No, Sophie, this is reality.” But her twin’s words seemed to have had a definite effect on the Kindred warrior who was claiming she was his.
“Did you do what she said?” he growled, glaring at the draft officers that had brought her in. “You dragged her in here without letting her change or say goodbye to her family?”
The two officers looked as sheepish as six foot six males could. “Standard operating procedure,” one of them mumbled defiantly. “Allowing the subject out of your sight, even for an instant, more than doubles the flight risk.”
“She’s not a subject, you fuckin’ idiot,” growled the dark warrior, his amber eyes flashing. “She’s my bride. I don’t give a good goddamn what your SOP is, if I find you’ve hurt her in any way, you’ll both answer to me.”
“I’m so sorry,” the blond Kindred said awkwardly as the dark one raked the officers over the coals. “None of this was handled very well.” He put a hand tentatively on Sophia’s shoulder and she flinched away from him.
“Don’t touch me!” she flared, shooting him a deadly glare from narrowed green eyes.
The blond Kindred’s ice blue eyes widened, then narrowed as well. “Forgive me. I wasn’t aware you’d take a gesture of comfort as a threat.” The double set of fangs in his upper teeth seemed to sharpen alarmingly.
“Okay, everybody take it down a notch.” Kat raised her voice to be heard over the babble. She looked at Liv. “First the good news. It’s only for thirty days.”
“Only thirty days?” Sophia cried, still clinging to her. “That’s a long time to be abused and molested, Kat!”
“Nobody’s getting abused or molested,” the dark warrior growled.
“Oh really? So you have no interest in having sex with my sister?” Sophia demanded of him.
Liv felt her cheeks heat. “Sophie, please.”
The warrior’s eyes flashed. “Hell yes, I’m interested and I’m not gonna deny it. She’s mine—I need to claim her. Bond with her. Can’t do that without sex.”
Liv felt her face get even hotter. Oh my God, is he for real? The thought of being pressed up against that huge, masculine, muscular body was doing strange things to her, things she didn’t want to admit even to herself. And no one had ever said they wanted to bond with her before.
“Baird, you’re only making things worse,” the blond Kindred muttered, tugging at the other one’s muscular arm.
Baird—is that his name? Does he even know mine or am I just a “bride” to him? Vaguely she remembered him calling her something else, something that sounded like an endearment in another language, but she couldn’t quite remember what it was now.