Devoured Read online

  “And I’m Becca,” Becca said, smiling. “Oh, and this goddess bringing us a plate of scrumptious goodies is Lauren.” She nodded at a woman with creamy brown skin and the most striking amber eyes Tess had ever seen. She was coming in from the front hallway area and carrying a huge tray loaded with cupcakes, brownies, donuts, and other delicious looking baked goods. After a week spent living on alien food, the sweets made Tess’s mouth water.

  “Hi, Lauren, where did you come from?” Olivia said.

  “Just dropped by to say hi,” Lauren remarked. She frowned. “Hey, Sophie, is there something going on? As I was coming up to your suite, one of the lower ranking guards was right behind me. He said something about an urgent message for Sylvan.”

  “Oh, who knows?” Sophie threw up her hands. “Ever since he’s gotten on the Council it seems like everything is urgent. It’s probably nothing.”

  “Well, if you say so.” Lauren still looked uneasy.

  “We see the baked goods but where’s the baby?” Liv asked, gesturing to the tray in her hands. “I’m dying to see her again—she’s adorable.”

  “Aziza’s just down for a nap so I can’t stay long.” Lauren smiled and deposited the huge tray on the coffee table in front of the very pregnant Kat. “I just wanted to run these by because I heard Kat was dying for something sweet.”

  “When is she not?” Liv said dryly. “But seriously, Lauren, you’re supposed to be still recovering from having the baby. You shouldn’t be up and around and baking everything in sight.”

  “I love it,” Lauren said. “Besides, it gives Xairn an excuse to bond with Ziza. He was scared to death he would break her at first—he would barely touch her.”

  “Oh, seriously? That’s too bad!” Sophie said.

  “Yes, well, that didn’t last long.” Lauren grinned. “The first time she cried while I was up to my elbows in cake flour, he had to pick her up. Once he realized that he wasn’t going to drop her, he started falling completely in love with her.”

  “And I bet she loves her daddy too,” Kat said, laughing.

  “Let’s just say she already knows she’s got him twisted around her little finger,” Lauren said. “Not that Xairn minds—that man is absolutely foolish about Ziza.”

  “I just bet.” Liv sounded a bit wistful. “I love the way Baird is with Daniel but I can’t help wishing I might have a girl next—even though I know the odds are way against it.”

  “Never mind womb mate—you can borrow Kara anytime you want,” Sophie said comfortingly. “But only if you’re willing to take Kaleb too. He cries anytime they’re separated.”

  “You guys, I think Tess is feeling a little left out,” Becca said gently, interrupting.

  “Oh, sorry doll!” Kat exclaimed. “We’ve all just known each other forever and any time we get together it becomes a total gab fest. Just have a seat and grab a…ooh, Lauren—are those éclairs?”

  “Fresh and homemade,” Lauren said proudly. “I’m thinking of selling them in the shop. Let me know what you think of them.”

  “No problem!” Kat pounced on the gooey treat and took a big bite. Her eyes rolled up in her head and she moaned in apparent ecstasy. “Mmmm…”

  Tess couldn’t help it—she started laughing.

  “Are you guys always like this?”

  “They pretty much are,” Becca confided. “I haven’t known them as long as they’ve known each other but they took me in like a little lost lamb.”

  “Well we had to, Becca,” Kat protested, around a mouthful of éclair. “After all, it was my fault you ate that big slice of horny cake at my wedding that got you into trouble with Truth and Far in the first place.”

  “My men—I’m mated to Twin Kindred, or I will be as soon as we plan our joining ceremony,” Becca explained to the puzzled Tess. “As a matter of fact, Garron is Truth’s half brother.”

  “He is?” Tess put a hand to her throat. “Then…he has a twin somewhere?” The big warrior was so intense she didn’t know how any girl would handle two guys like him at the same time.

  “Oh, no!” Becca exclaimed. “No, Garron isn’t a Twin Kindred—he’s half Kindred and half Rai’ku.”

  “Half what? I’m sorry—I’ve only heard of Beast and Blood and Twin Kindred,” Tess said. “I didn’t know there were other kinds.”

  “Most people don’t. And the Rai’ku aren’t really a branch of the Kindred because the Kindred High Council has refused to do a formal trade with them,” Becca explained. “That’s because they…” She frowned. “Well, let’s just say that maybe it’s a good thing you and Garron aren’t together.”

  “Why? Would he hurt me?” Tess remembered the rage in the big Kindred’s jewel-like eyes. He’d looked every bit as angry as Pierce got—positively enraged when he’d learned he had been telling his secrets to a real girl and not just a Pairing Puppet. And yet, though he had grabbed her by the arm, he hadn’t squeezed or pinched or bruised her as her ex had so often done. And he hadn’t hit her, not even when he looked mad enough to punch a hole in the wall.

  “Oh no, of course not! Garron is a good guy,” Becca said at once. “But that being said, he may still be dangerous. Or his Rai’ku half might be. We’re just not entirely sure he’s O’ahn. I mean, we think so but—”

  “Not sure he’s what?” Tess asked. “Sorry, but this is kind of confusing.”

  “I thought so too when I went to Pax,” Becca said. “That’s the Rai’ku home world,” she explained. “And it’s not exactly a nice place to visit.”

  “Oh? Why not?” Tess reached for a cupcake—a luscious looking chocolate one. Everyone else was eating and talking and no one seemed to mind that she and Becca were having their own little conversation.

  “Well, it’s freezing for one thing.” Becca took a cupcake too—a vanilla one with pink frosting, and began pealing back the paper. “And the inhabitants are judgmental assholes for another. Oops.” She put a hand to her lips. “Sorry for the potty mouth. Would you believe I was going to be a nun before I got mixed up with my guys?”

  “Really?” Tess took a bite of cupcake which seemed to melt in her mouth. “Mmm. This is delicious!”

  “Uh-huh—Lauren’s like some kind of a baking wizard. But back to the Rai’ku. You know the first time I met my mother-in-law—well, Truth’s step mother, anyway—she called me a whore?”

  Tess nearly choked on cupcake crumbs.

  “What? Right to your face? Why?”

  “She could smell that Truth and Far and I had…” Becca cleared her throat delicately. “Had been together. The Rai’ku have this incredibly sensitive sense of smell—even better than a regular Kindred’s.”

  “I can smell how hot and wet you’re getting. Can’t wait to taste your honey right from the source,” Garron’s deep voice growled in her head. Tess felt her cheeks getting hot at the memory.

  “Wow, that’s…amazing,” she said weakly, taking another bite of cupcake.

  “They’re extremely repressed people,” Becca said, taking a bite of her own cupcake. “And this is coming to you from a former almost-nun who was raised very strict Catholic. Seriously, the Rai’ku make the sisters in my order look like party girls.”

  “How so?” Even though she knew she would never see the big Kindred again, Tess found herself fascinated by the subject of Garron’s home world.

  “Well, they don’t touch each other for one thing. I mean, not at all. They don’t even hug their children.” Becca’s lovely eyes widened. “Can you imagine that?”

  “That’s awful,” Tess murmured. No wonder he was so upset and kept claiming we’d done ‘forbidden’ things. If they don’t even touch each other, hugging must be a big no-no where he comes from.

  “It’s just not a nice place at all.” Becca sighed. “Luckily, I never have to go back since Truth and Far and I aren’t welcome there any more. Not that I’d want to be. But enough about me…” She nodded at Tess. “What about you? What were you doing hiding out in the Pairing House?”