Awakened by the Giant: Brides of the Kindred Read online

  She shivered at the awful memory of staring down at her own dead face and knowing that the man she’d thought she’d loved had been using her for his own awful purposes.

  “You found your own dead body in a drawer?” Lauren exclaimed. “That’s terrible!”

  “You have no idea.” Maddy shook her head. “And the worst thing was, it was Calden who cloned me. I thought…thought he loved me but now I think he just…”

  Her eyes were suddenly filling with tears and she could barely go on. Why was she telling all this to strangers? Maybe it just needed to come out. At any rate, she couldn’t seem to stop talking.

  “I think he must have cloned me more than once,” she confessed. “The way he’s cloned so many other animals like little Snuffy here.” She nodded at the little brantha who burbled sadly and caressed her wet cheek with his trunk, as though sensing her sorrow. “Cloned me over and over so he could have fun with me and then let me die, just like he let all the animals in his lab die with those awful self-termination units in their necks.”

  “But that doesn’t really make sense, hon,” Liv said gently. “If he cloned you over and over and didn’t care if you died, why would he rush you here to get the termination unit out of your neck before it killed you?”

  “Sylvan told me he was absolutely frantic with fear for you,” Sophie put in quietly. “He told me that Calden admitted when he cloned you he never intended to fall in love but he couldn’t help himself. He said he never would have agreed to have that self-termination thingy implanted in you if he’d had any idea of what being with you would be like or how you would affect him. I think maybe you were supposed to be just another experiment to him but then you kind of stole his heart.”

  “Really?” Maddy looked at them uncertainly. “I just thought…he made a big deal out of never, uh, being with a woman before me.” She cleared her throat, feeling her cheeks get hot. “But his technique is so good—I mean he just doesn’t seem that inexperienced, you know? I thought he must have been cloning me over and over so he could play out his little ‘first time’ fantasy more than once.”

  “He really doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who would do that,” Liv said.

  “And if you’re thinking that his bedroom technique is too good to be true, well, welcome to the world of the Kindred, doll,” Kat said dryly. “They’re completely focused on pleasing their women and they’re very, very good at it—it’s like they have some kind of instinct about how to make you happy in bed.”

  “That does seem to be a Kindred trait—no matter what race of Kindred they are,” Sophie said thoughtfully.

  “Really?” Maddy was almost ready to forgive Calden for everything but then she closed her eyes for a minute and remembered that horrible moment of realization as she looked down at her own dead body lying in the drawer. “Well, Calden still shouldn’t have cloned me,” she said, frowning stubbornly.

  “What? So you’d rather be dead?” Lauren asked, sounding mystified.

  “I am dead,” Maddy pointed out.

  “Only your first body,” Kat said. “Why don’t you think of this one as a do-over? You know—body 2.0 or something. Like your first body went to sleep and Calden woke you up in this body.”

  “I think what’s upsetting Madeline is that Calden didn’t tell her she was a clone,” Liv said gently. “And it does sound like she found out in the worst way possible.”

  “Well, I can’t argue with that,” Kat remarked. “Finding your own dead body in a drawer? It’s like something out of a Stephen King novel!”

  “It really was,” Maddy agreed and shivered.

  “Well, it seems to me that even though Calden is a Kindred, he’s still a guy and guys do stupid things sometimes,” Sophie said tactfully. “I’m sure he didn’t mean for you to find your old body in a drawer. And to hear my guy, Sylvan, tell it, he’s completely head-over-heels in love with you but he’s afraid you’ll never forgive him.”

  “He’s been pacing outside your room all night—ever since you got out of surgery,” Liv said. “He asked me to bring in that plant for you…” She pointed at the plant with its delicious-looking ripe fruit. “To make you feel more at home.”

  “Did he?” Maddy felt her heart beginning to melt, just a little. “I just don’t know how to feel about him right now.”

  “Look, doll—why don’t we leave you alone and let you digest things for a while?” Kat asked tactfully. “You’ve got a lot to think about—not the least of which is if you can forgive the man you love for cloning you and keeping your original body in a drawer.”

  Maddy shook her head. “It sounds so surreal when you put it that way.”

  “Again—welcome to the world of the Kindred,” Sophie said dryly. “Crazy things happen when you’re with a Kindred guy. The stories we could all tell…”

  There were murmurs of general agreement and all the girls were nodding.

  “But wonderful things happen too,” Liv said firmly. “I think all of us were so angry with our guys at one time or another we wanted to get rid of them. I tried everything in my power to get away from Baird—my hubby—when he first Claimed me. But now I can’t imagine life without him.”

  “So…you think I should give Calden a second chance?” Maddy asked hesitantly.

  “I think you should do what feels right for you,” Liv told her. “I won’t push you one way or the other. If you decide you want to see him, let me know and I’ll show him in. If you’d rather see your family, I can track them down for you, too.”

  “Oh no—not yet.” Maddy put a hand to her cheek, feeling cold and faint. “I can’t face telling my mom and sisters that I’m not the Madeline who left them yet. And what if…” She bit her lip. “What if something happened to them while I was gone? What if you look for them and…and they’re not there?”

  “Don’t go borrowing trouble like that,” Sophie said briskly. “Odds are they’re perfectly fine.”

  “Sophie’s right—you should take one problem at a time,” Lauren told her. “And it sounds to me like your first problem is deciding what to do about your man.”

  “Calden isn’t my man,” Maddy said and sighed. “Or, well—I thought I wanted him to be but I’m just…just having a hard time getting over this.”

  “Which is completely understandable,” Liv said. “So we’re all going to leave you alone now with Lauren’s excellent cupcakes and let you think things through. Come on, girls—visiting hours are over,” she said, ushering the other three out.

  They all came to give Maddy a quick hug and welcome her again to the Mother Ship before leaving.

  “Say, do you mind if I try one of these?” Kat asked, pointing to the fruit hanging from the laden branches of the plant. “I’ve never seen bonding fruit like this before—I’m curious about the effects.”

  “Sure—help yourself. I haven’t tried any but they look good.” Maddy shrugged. She had no idea what “effects” Kat was talking about but there was plenty of fruit to spare and she was happy to share it.

  “Thanks, doll.” Kat took a fruit and squeezed her hand. “You take care of yourself now, Madeline 2.0,” she whispered and winked.

  Then, before she knew it, Maddy was left alone in the room with no one but Snuffy and the little plant for company. The former had fallen asleep after eating the rest of her chocolate cupcake and was snoring softly through his trunk. The latter just sat there, filled with delicious-smelling fruit. It seemed to rustle softly…invitingly, when she looked at it. But at the moment, she wasn’t hungry—not even for another luscious cupcake or a piece of the strange, square fruit.

  She eyed Snuffy, sleeping so peacefully, and yawned. She would have been worried about giving him chocolate but Calden had informed her that branthas were omnivorous. On their home planet they were scavengers eating anything and everything that came their way—they were even immune to most poisons. So she was certain the remains of the luscious chocolate cupcake wouldn't hurt the little creature. If anything, it ha