Brides of the Kindred Volume One Read online

  “Of course it matters.” Lauren caressed him tenderly. “What happens in your childhood sticks with you as an adult. Jumping into that pool must have scared you to death—but you did it anyway. To save me.”

  “How could I not?” He shook his head, his damp hair whispering against her bare skin. “I…there are many things about my existence before I met you that I didn’t want you to know. That was one of them.”

  “I want you to tell me. You hear me?” Lauren lifted his chin and looked down into those familiar burning eyes. “Tell me anything you want to—anything you need to. Doesn’t matter what it is, I’ll still love you, no matter what.”

  He frowned. “You think that but there are things in my past that would make any normal person ill.”

  “Try me.” Lauren held his eyes with hers. “Go on.”

  Xairn’s face grew grim. “Fine. You’ve seen how quickly Little One bonded herself to me, haven’t you? But I had another pet before her. One I cared for so deeply it nearly drove me mad when she died.”

  “Oh, honey…” Lauren was almost afraid to ask but she knew she had to. This was some kind of test Xairn was putting her through—a trial to see if she truly loved him as much as she said. Lauren wanted desperately to pass it. “How…how did she die?” she asked hesitantly.

  Xairn drew a deep breath. “I killed her,” he said quietly, still holding Lauren’s eyes with his own. “I had no choice. My father found her and threatened to torture her.”

  “Oh, no!” Lauren shook her head, not wanting to believe.

  “Oh yes,” Xairn said quietly. “I always knew it might happen one day. I had a poison capsule implanted beneath her skin, one activated by my voice alone. When the time came, I commanded her to die and she did, in…in my arms.”

  “Xairn…” Lauren didn’t know what to say. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

  “I was taken from my mother as an infant and taken away from the nurse who raised me as a very young child.” Xairn’s voice was steady but his hands trembled slightly as he spoke. “My father was…cruel. I knew he didn’t care for me. Sanja was the only thing I had to love in my whole sterile existence. Killing her…nearly killed me, too. I was dead inside. Emotionally lifeless until…until I met you.”

  “Oh baby…” Lauren hugged him hard and his arms around her waist tightened convulsively. “I love you,” she whispered. “I still love you, I don’t care what you had to do to survive in that horrible place. It doesn’t change how I feel about you, how much I care about you.”

  “Lauren…” He said her name over and over like a prayer and she felt his mouth move, soft and slow and hot against the bare skin of her chest. A caress…a kiss. “You showed me what love was,” he whispered. “Gave me the strength to leave my old life behind. I owe you so much.” Then his lips moved to one side, trailing hot and wet over the thin, damp bikini top that covered her right breast. Lauren gasped softly as she felt the heat of his breath over her suddenly tight nipple. God, she thought. I want this so much. Want to hold him and comfort him. Want to show him how much I love him…

  “I want to show you how I feel, too.” He looked up at her and placed a hot, deliberate kiss over the aching point of her nipple. “But I don’t know how I can.”

  “Xairn,” she whispered, her voice tight with pleasure and hope. “Honey…” Reaching up, she pulled the damp triangle of fabric to one side, baring her breast to him. “Do it,” she murmured, stroking his hair. “Let me feel your mouth on me.”

  With a low growl, Xairn sucked her nipple into his mouth at once, lapping and sucking eagerly. Lauren moaned and clutched at his thick black hair. “God, yes,” she whispered. “Yes, Xairn, yes.”

  He moved to her other breast as well, pushing the bikini top aside himself this time in order to get to her full curves. Lauren thrust toward him, offering herself, breathless with desire. At last he looked up at her.

  “I want you,” he whispered in a voice that was dangerously near a growl. “I need you, Lauren—need to be in you. But I don’t…don’t want to hurt you.”

  “I’m not afraid,” Lauren assured him breathlessly.

  “But I am. Every time we get close to making love my Scourge instincts take over and I lose myself…lose the ability to be gentle.”

  Lauren frowned. “There must be a way. There has to be. I need you too—so much.”

  Xairn looked thoughtful. “Yes. A way to subvert my dominant tendencies so I can love you without hurting you.” His eyes roved over the room, as though searching for something, and then stopped at a certain spot on the kitchen table. “There.” He nodded at the long black nylon leash they’d bought for Little One at the pet store.

  “What?” Lauren looked at the leash uncertainly. It was thick and very tough. They weren’t certain what kind of dog Little One was but it looked like she had some Black Lab in her and they got to be a pretty good size. Still, she didn’t understand what Xairn wanted her to do with it.

  “Get it,” he said, indicating the leash again. “Bring it here.”

  Lauren did as she was told. Standing before his chair she looked down at his naked, muscular form, taut with tension. “Now what?” she asked, holding up the black leash.

  Xairn took a deep breath. “Now I want you to tie me to the chair and take me.”

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Far above in the Fathership, the AllFather raised his head. Leaving his current victim in a heap on the metal floor, he began to pace in an ever widening circle. “Sssoon,” he hissed, his lipless mouth moving in eager anticipation. “Sssoon he will take her. Sssoon.”

  The Earth girl he had stolen with the transport beam moaned and tried to crawl away. She was a feisty one, all right—twice she’d pulled out the memory wires implanted under her skin and tried to escape. No one would think from her delicate appearance that she had so much fight in her, the AllFather mused. Her diminutive stature along with pale, porcelain skin and long midnight-black hair made her appear almost like a doll. But her small size belied a savage heart and strong spirit.

  The AllFather didn’t really care about her temperament. He had chosen her for her hair, as it was the exact color and length as Lauren’s. He was certain that once Xairn saw her image on the local NewsFeed he would know why she had been taken. If that didn’t work, he had planned to take an Earth girl with eyes like Lauren’s. But that unusual shade of amber had proved difficult to find.

  “And now it appearsss I will not need to take another after all,” he murmured to himself, still pacing. The huge viewscreen which projected the latest female’s memories was frozen in place, showing the girl standing in a defensive posture with a large Earth male poised to beat her. Truly, the AllFather hadn’t had to twist her recollections much—her past had enough pain to satisfy him without adding much to it. In fact, he was very nearly satiated at the moment. Perhaps he should finish her off another time.

  “It ssseems you have a ssshort reprieve, my dear…” What was her name again? Oh yes, Elise. “My dear Elissse.” He leaned over the girl who gasped and pulled back. The AllFather smiled, his eyes glowing. “I mussst concentrate on my errant ssson. I expect him here sssoon. Perhapsss you’ll get to meet him before I end you.”

  The girl drew herself into trembling ball and stared at him defiantly with dark eyes. “Go to hell,” she whispered and spat at his feet.

  “Ssstill rebelliousss, eh?” The AllFather smiled. “Good. I like the onesss who fight to the end. It makesss their pain ssso much more deliciousss.” Then he turned and swept from the room, leaving the girl naked and shivering in the center of the large room.

  He had another prisoner to tend. One who would hold a special interest for Xairn, he was certain.

  Chapter Thirty-two

  “Take you?” Lauren wasn’t sure she’d heard him right.

  Xairn nodded. “If you tie me tightly enough it should help me control my dominant urges. There are no equals in a Scourge sexual relationship—only dominant or submissive. In o