* * * *
Aiden took Kaitlyn’s hand and lead her out to the main bar area of the tavern while Sean left to patrol the town. Sitting on a chair at one of the tables, he pulled Kaitlyn onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her. He breathed in her unique scent.
Mate.
It helped to calm the rage boiling inside him. Rage for the atrocities committed to their newest pride member, and for those that the wolves Josh and Shane Walsh had borne witness to. The horrors that they had survived would now haunt him through eternity.
Kaitlyn’s natural berry scent had changed since she’d become pregnant. She now scented of the cat she was. Aiden and Sean both suspected they were soon to be the proud daddies of an adorable little panther.
“He’s not going to let me go, is he?” Kaitlyn said. She burrowed deeper into his embrace, her arms protectively wrapped around her flat stomach.
“Are you sure you haven’t learned to read minds, my love?”
“No. You stink of anger. It’s not hard to imagine what has you so angry.”
“Too smart by far, my little cat.” Aiden kissed the top of his mate’s head and looked for his partner, Sean. He wanted to mount an attack on Selwyn Graves’s base in Canada and end the threat to Kaitlyn and all other hybrids. He then needed to find a way to counteract the effects of their blood and get the vampire council to allow the hybrids to live.
Easy.
“Kaitlyn, I need to speak with you,” Isabelle said. Aiden raised an eyebrow at her. She took a breath in. “To both of you, then.”
He had no intention of leaving Kaitlyn alone with Isabelle, even if she was Kaitlyn’s mother. He did not trust easily, and when it involved Kaitlyn and their baby, he didn’t trust anyone except Sean.
Isabelle’s brows drew together as she raised her eyes to meet his. He saw anger and suspicion there.
“Have you been feeding from Kaitlyn, as is the custom between mates?”
“What business is it of yours,” Kaitlyn said. Her spine stiffened, and she sat up straighter on his lap.
“Are you feeding from her?” Isabelle asked, ignoring her daughter completely.
Aiden knew what had Kaitlyn’s mother so angry. “I have tasted her,” Aiden said slowly. “When we sealed our mating we exchanged blood. I have not fed from her since.”
“I don’t think this is any of your business, Isabelle,” Kaitlyn said.
She went to stand but Aiden pulled her tighter against him. He liked his little cat defending him.
“Even if you had been a mother to me all these years, this is not something I would likely be discussing with you.”
Instead of being apologetic, Isabelle grew increasingly furious. “Have you disrespected your mate and fed from another, Aiden St. John?”
“Of course he hasn’t. I’d kill him if he put his mouth near someone else,” Kaitlyn said. She turned on his lap and looked at him. “You haven’t fed from anyone else, have you?”
She looked more fearful than angry, and Aiden knew he’d have to tell her everything, even if it was in front of her mother. “Isabelle is worried for you, my heart. She fears I may be feeding from you simply for the effects of your hybrid blood, and if I’m not feeding from you, then she fears I am breaking the bonds of our mating by feeding from another.”
“Vampires should only feed from their mates once they have found them,” Isabelle said, “to do anything else is akin to cheating on them.”
“Are you saying you’ve survived for twenty-five years without blood, Isabelle,” Kaitlyn said, “because you certainly haven’t been feeding from
your
mate all these years.”
“I have fed exclusively on donated blood since I met Ray. It’s available for those of us who won’t, or can’t, hunt for our sustenance. I couldn’t feed from another, even though I wasn’t able to be with him.”
Aiden could see the years of loneliness and yearning etched on her beautiful face. She really had wanted to be with her mate and daughter. “Have no fear of my ever cheating, Isabelle, Kaitlyn’s is the only blood I will ever consume.”
“Even a vampire as old as you appear to be would need to feed every few weeks at the least, yet you claim not to have fed from Kaitlyn for nearly two months.” Isabelle glared at him, her disbelief evident.
“I was going to explain this to you and Sean once I was certain, my love, but Isabelle is making that impossible.”
Kaitlyn turned her gaze back to him and looked scared again. He did not like her being fearful of him.
“I had a small amount of your blood when we mated. I feared taking more in case it had a similar effect on me as it did the vampires who attacked you. I would die before hurting you, Kaitlyn.”
“You have never hurt me, Aiden. But I’m confused. What effect
did
my blood have on you?”
She was so beautiful that he had to kiss her soft lips before he answered her. “It was like liquid life. I took only the smallest amount, and it burns inside me still. I don’t know when I will need to feed again, but I suspect the amount I drank will sustain me for the next year at least.”
Kaitlyn’s eyes widened and her smile filled Aiden with happiness. “Well good.” She turned to look at her mother. “See, he hasn't cheated on me.”
“Did the blood affect your sex drive?” Isabelle asked, her gaze still locked on Aiden.
“Kaitlyn is my mate, I desire her always. I have no idea if her blood has affected me. I seem to have no greater drive to be with my wife than Sean does, so I suspect being mates may have made me somewhat immune to that aspect of her hybrid blood.”
Isabelle visibly relaxed. Her features softened, revealing her natural beauty. Kaitlyn resembled her mother greatly. “I would like to approach the council with you, Aiden. I assume that you will be seeking sanctuary for all hybrids as soon as a vaccine has been manufactured.”
She was jumping the gun a little, and Aiden needed to understand her motives. “If a vaccine of some kind is ever made I will be approaching the council.” He felt Kaitlyn stiffen again in his lap. She knew it could mean a death sentence for him if the council declined such a petition and asked him to hand his mate over for the purpose of her execution.
“Why would you risk your own life after abandoning your daughter twenty-five years ago?”
Isabelle didn’t surge into an angry tirade or become defensive as he’d have anticipated. She looked deeply ashamed. “I was foolish, it’s true. But I believed it was the only way I could keep my daughter alive. I had decided to fight for my right to have my chosen mate, and our children, at my side even before your idea of a vaccine was known to me.”
“You were going to fight to be reunited with my father?” Kaitlyn’s voice was husky, a slight hiccup betraying her imminent tears. Aiden held her tight and let her realize the full implications of what her mother had just said. “You want more children?”
“I love my mate, and I love you. I have yearned for him as I watched you both from a distance all these years. My heart could not stand to hear of your pain. I was not going to let that vampire hurt you again, my child.”
Aiden let Kaitlyn slip from his lap to stand in front of her mother.
“I hope to be a part of your life over the coming centuries, my daughter.” She opened her arms and waited for Kaitlyn to make the first move.
Kaitlyn walked hesitantly into her mother’s embrace, and Aiden shared in his mate’s happiness. As soon as Selwyn Graves was dead he would investigate an arcane legend he’d once heard of. Now it would not just be of import to himself and Sean in their mating with Kaitlyn but would affect her mother and the three Walsh brothers.
* * * *
Brody was surprised to find the office held only the wolves when he returned with Elliot and all of the doctor’s equipment. Well, Elliot had all of the equipment. He wouldn’t even let Brody carry the doctor’s purse.
“Thank you for your help, Elliot. You saved me quite a few trips,” Brody said, deliberately keeping his tone cool. He hadn’t fully forgiven Elliot. He wasn’t going to be mocked or put down again.
Not ever again.
“Baby, I’m sorry for embarrassing you. I thought you meant you’d make fire with that awesome flaming-ball thing you can create.” Elliot stepped up to Brody and held out his hand. “I honestly forgot about the electric heater Landon put in here to keep you warm.”
“Ha, you’re right. That would have burnt the tavern down.” Brody took the bear’s outstretched hand in both of his. He stifled a groan from the rush of pleasure that washed through him when he touched his mate. “I might
have overreacted by getting mad.” He turned Elliot’s hand over and leaned forward to gently kiss the palm.
“God, what you do to me, baby.”
Elliot’s scent thickened in the air. Brody wasn’t a shifter, so he didn’t know what the change in his scent meant, but it made his bear smell even more wonderful, almost edible. His mouth watered, and his cock thickened in his skin-tight jeans.
“Get a room,” Josh said sullenly. “There’s enough musk floating around this room already without you stinking it up even more, Elliot.”
“Shit,” Brody said. He looked at the three Walsh brothers and felt his cheeks heat in a blush. “I forgot you were even here. What’s wrong with me?”
“Not a damn thing,” Elliot said. He picked Brody up by the waist and brought him up to his to eye level. “When will you be mine, baby? I love you so much.”
Brody forgot about the wolves and just kissed his mate. He’d intended to tell Elliot and Landon that he’d decided to be their mate as soon as Meg left for her honeymoon. Then the vampire had arrived, and the wedding party had turned into a conference on the possible impending attack on Pine Falls.
When he felt the warmth of his other mate at his back Brody gasped, the increase in pleasure was immediate. His skin tingled and buzzed as Landon kissed the column of his neck. He felt the hairs on his arms rise as goose bumps spread down them.
He pulled away from Elliot’s kiss, licking his bear’s lower lip one last time and making him groan. “I was going to surprise you tonight, actually.”
“I think you should have this conversation somewhere private, Brody,” Brayden said.
Brody couldn’t tear his gaze away from his mates. Both had eyes of glowing amber. Their growls were vibrating through him, and he was close to coming in his pants with ecstasy.
“We’ll be upstairs,” Brody said. He grasped Landon’s hand as it slid down his stomach toward the top of his jeans and took them all somewhere private for their “conversation.”
Brayden couldn’t help but smile at the thick scent of happiness and lust the bears had left in the room. The demon was going to make them a wonderful mate, and they, in turn, would treat Brody like the gift he was. “Do you even realize that she’s that special to all of us?”
Brayden heard his brothers both growl but didn’t bother to look up at them. He’d grown used to their snarls over the last forty-six years and felt safe in the knowledge that he was the only one they’d never hurt. In their own twisted way, they loved him.
“We don’t even know her name,” Josh said.
“She might be a horrible person who tortures kittens just for the hell of it,” Shane said.
Brayden actually laughed. He’d have thought the act impossible after the revelation of what his tiny mate had been forced to endure over the term of her captivity, but Shane’s attempt to distance himself emotionally was ridiculous.
“Sure she does. Tell yourself that if it makes you feel better, but it won’t work. You both stink of the mating musk. Your wolves kept you alive when you needed them. You trusted them implicitly when you were only four years old. Why can’t you trust them now?”
He looked down at the still unconscious wolf and hoped she wasn’t able to hear his brother’s hurtful words. “Your wolves
want
her for their mate.”
“We can’t, Brayden,” Josh said.
Brayden looked at him and saw the torment in his eyes.
“We would hurt her.”
“We’re broken,” Shane said. “We always knew what we’d have to do if this day ever came. We won’t deny you your happiness. You’ve carried us long enough, brother.” The doctor walked back into the room and froze as she took in their pained expressions.
“I won’t let you go after bringing you this far,” Brayden whispered. “She’s going to need all of us to get over the trauma of what has been done to her.” He said it loud enough for the doctor to hear.
“Are you all going to stay crowded around her, or will you move so I can examine her?” The doctor walked to her pile of equipment and began opening boxes and packages.
“Are you a wolf or a shrew, Doctor Paige?” Shane asked.
She didn’t bristle at the lack of humor in his tone. “Good one, never heard that before. Call me Charlie. Doctor Paige is my father. Now move back before she dies in your brother’s arms.”
Shane jumped aside and made room for the doctor to examine their wolf. Brayden was comfortably certain that she was being a little dramatic. He’d had part of his attention fixed on his mate’s heartbeat since the moment she appeared in the vampire’s arms. She was stable.
After the doctor had examined their mate she took a liter of blood from Josh and administered it directly to their mate. She phoned Jason Reed, the doctor in Eminence and, after discussing their mate’s condition with him, repeated the process with a liter of Brayden’s blood.
“Some of her wounds appear to be healing now,” Charlie said, “but she’s in a much poorer condition than Kaitlyn was when Jason treated her. I think we need to continue the blood transfusions until she regains consciousness.”
Josh pulled up a chair and pushed Shane into it. Shane rolled up his sleeve and held out his bared arm to the doctor. Despite their posturing, Brayden had noticed that neither of them had taken their eyes off their mate. They were both totally focused on her, waiting for her eyes to open, as was he.
Brayden knew that this was going to be the easy part in his fight for all of them to happily share a mate. He would need to make her safe from the vampires who had drained and tortured her, help his poor little mate recover from her ordeal, and then convince his brothers to accept that they were worthy of a mate.