Bonding With the Beast Read online

  She sighed. “Kat, are you really going to make me tell the whole story again? I know it sounds crazy—we were abducted by aliens.”

  “By little gray men, no less—real Area 51 type stuff,” Kat said. “And they made you have sex?”

  “They said they wanted to study our mating habits.” Isobel paced up and down her bedroom as she talked, holding the phone to her ear. The townhouse was finally quiet and it was well after midnight. She’d had a time getting Brandon to settle down and go to sleep—he’d been over-excited by the change in routine.

  “Mating habits, huh?” Kat said.

  “I know, I know…” Isobel raked a hand through her hair. “It sounds like the plot of a crazy science fiction porno but please Kat, you have to believe me—it happened.”

  “Listen doll, after some of the stuff I’ve seen, I’m not gonna play the crazy card on you,” Kat said reassuringly. “But if you had sex, then I’m assuming you probably bonded. So what is Commander Hail doing up here while you’re still down there on Earth if the two of you had bonding sex?”

  “Bonding sex?” Isobel asked blankly. “What’s that?”

  “It’s the way Kindred tie their mate to them for life,” Kat explained. “It’s different for different kinds of Kindred. With some, it gets pretty complicated but with others, well, they just have to, uh, come inside you. Did he, you know, do that?”

  Isobel blushed as she thought of how drenched the sensible cotton panties she’d been wearing under her black pencil skirt had been when she finally got a chance to change.

  “Um, yes,” she said in a low voice. “Yes, he did.”

  “Well, I’d have to ask my friend, Mei-li but I think that’s all it takes with the Dark Kindred. But…you don’t hear him inside your head?”

  “Inside my head? You mean the way I heard you when you were calling me on the Think-me?”

  “Sort of,” Kat said. “But more intimate. It’s a kind of telepathic bond all Kindred males share with their mates. After you bond, you can talk mind-to-mind for the rest of your life.”

  “Really?” Isobel said doubtfully. “Well, that sounds nice I guess. But no, I haven’t heard Hail’s voice inside my head. And I wouldn’t know how to go about trying to contact him, uh, telepathically even if we did have a bond—which I don’t think we do.”

  “You just kind of reach for him mentally—I do it with my guys all the time,” Kat told her.

  “Well, I don’t feel any ‘reaching’ from his end and I’m not about to reach myself,” Isobel said.

  “You might just be out of range,” Kat said thoughtfully. “Or maybe something’s blocking you somehow. I don’t know—as I said, a lot of the little details vary from Kindred to Kindred.”

  “Look,” Isobel said directly. “I didn’t just call you to gossip about the really weird alien-abduction sex I had, Kat. I’m calling to let you know I think Hail blames himself for what happened. He was talking about turning himself over to the authorities and I don’t want that.”

  “Turning himself over to the authorities?” Kat exclaimed. “Holly crap, doll—what kind of wild monkey sex did the two of you have that he thinks he ought to be prosecuted for it?”

  “That’s just it—it really was wild in more than one way,” Isobel said. Rapidly, she told Kat about the beast Hail kept locked inside himself and the way it had come out during sex.

  “Ouch!” Kat exclaimed when she was done. “I know you can’t see me but I’m over here wincing, and I get with two guys at once on a regular basis. That just sounds painful.”

  “It was a little—at first,” Isobel admitted. “But when I was able to relax it was just really…intense. Really emotional too. I was crying when it was over because it made me feel so…” She shook her head. “Just so many things I don’t think I’ve ever felt before. Anyway, I think that the crying and the fact that his beast came out and took over are what made Hail think he’d…you know, gone too far.”

  “Yeah, I can see where he’d get that idea,” Kat said dryly.

  “Anyway, I just don’t want him to get in trouble for it,” Isobel said. “It was rough and really intense but I don’t blame him for it. And…and it was pleasurable too,” she ended, almost in a whisper. “I know that sounds weird…”

  “Not really.” Kat sounded thoughtful. “Really good sex can be like that—it breaks you down and wears you out. I think anyone who’s ever had sex with a Kindred has felt that, or something like it because the emotional connection is so strong.”

  “I’m glad I’m not alone in feeling that way,” Isobel said, feeling better.

  “You’re certainly not,” Kat said. “I know my friend Kate had a similar situation to yours but her hubby is a Wulven Kindred—they have a kind of werewolf-full-moon thing going on and the only way for her to get preggers was for her to get busy with his beast.” She laughed. “Long story short, she’s thrice expectant now—that means she’s carrying triplets in Kindred talk.”

  “Wow…I didn’t even think about pregnancy,” Isobel admitted. She felt a thrill of fear go through her. “I’m not even on the pill anymore since I left Mitch.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about it,” Kat said comfortingly. “Kindred babies don’t usually show up unless it’s the Goddess’s will. And if you’re not bonded to Hail, I can’t imagine she’d stick you with his baby.” She cleared her throat. “Speaking of which, why aren’t you with Hail?”

  “What do you mean?” Isobel asked, trying not to sound exasperated. “Because he doesn’t want to be with me. And because of all the weirdness between us now.”

  “But don’t you want to be?” Kat asked frankly. “I mean, it sounds like you formed a pretty strong connection, even if you didn’t bond. And if this whole thing about the rough beast sex is just a big misunderstanding…”

  “You don’t understand—Hail doesn’t want anything to do with me.” Isobel thought of the big Kindred’s stern, impassive features when he’d asked her to just go and leave him alone. Her throat felt suddenly tight with unshed tears. “He…It would never work between us.”

  “Because of his beast?” Kat asked frankly. “Are you worried about Brandon?”

  “No,” Isobel said, sniffing. “I mean, I was in the beginning and you’d think I would be more worried now after…after what happened. But I’m not. Hail’s beast only comes out during times of really extreme emotional stress—he let it out on purpose while he was defending me. And then later it came out during sex because things got so intense between us. But I don’t think he’d ever let it out around Brandon.”

  “Then you should call him,” Kat exclaimed. “Clear this up—clear the air. Get your man and get knocked up with triplets the way the rest of us Kindred brides are doing.” She laughed but Isobel didn’t join in.

  “I just can’t, Kat,” she said quietly. “I just…feel like there’s no coming back from some things…some situations. Do you understand?”

  Kat sighed. “I guess so, doll. “But look, why don’t you just sleep on it? Give yourself a few days to process and then consider maybe giving the big guy a call?”

  “Maybe,” Isobel said but in her heart she knew that wasn’t going to happen. She and Hail had had their chance and things hadn’t worked for them. Even if Hail stopped hating himself, she was afraid he would hate her for the way she’d made him feel. And the things that had happened between them were so strange and outlandish…they were too much to come back from.

  No, Isobel felt sure that no matter how much time passed, the big Kindred would never want anything to do with her again. And knowing that broke her heart.

  Hail, she thought as she said her goodbyes and hung up with Kat. Hail, I’m so sorry things went the way they did between us. I wish we could have some kind of do-over—that we could go back in time and take a different way home, avoid the little gray men who made such a mess of our lives.

  But there was no going back and sadly, Isobel knew it. She would never see the big Kindred again.