Embrace the Heat (16 page)

The strange men surrounded her, sniffing her
and touching her. It was the most bizarre thing she’d ever
experienced. “You’re not from around here, little kit,” one of them
practically purred. “Where’s your family?”

The one behind her pushed her hair to the
side and examined her neck a little too closely. “She’s not
marked.”

Layla turned to her side and pushed him back.
“That’s enough touching.”

One of them laughed. “Oh, Jase, she’s
feisty.”

“And unmated, Cam,” the one in front of her
murmured. “How is it that an unmated female is wandering around
alone during her heat cycle?”

“Heat cycle?” Layla asked and tried to move
out of the circle of men.

“Back off from her,” Carla said from the
ground beside Shelby.

“Calm down, vampire,” Jase said with a
grin.

“We aren’t going to hurt her,” Cam assured
Carla with a not so innocent smile. “You can trust us. We saved
your life.”

“She’s tiny,” murmured the one behind
her.

A shudder ran through Layla’s body when she
felt teeth on the back of her neck.

“Now, Zane,” the one called Jase admonished.
“You know better than to try to mark her like that. There are three
of us, so we should fight to impress her first, and then the winner
can mark her. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, little kit?”

“Get your mouth off of her,” Simon’s voice
slithered up her spine.

Zane backed off, but not much. “Come on,
little kit,” he said with a flirty smile. “Let’s leave the vampires
and take care of that need you have. It’s got to be hurting by now.
You might need all three of us. We don’t mind sharing to take care
of you. Then after you’re sated we can fight to see who marks
you.”

Layla stared helplessly at Simon. She had no
idea what the hell was going on.

“Touch her, and I will kill you,” Simon
said.

“Back off, vampire,” Jase said. “We aren’t
going to hurt the little kit.” Then he grinned. “Well, probably a
little, but mating is like that. Trust us, she’ll love it. Either
way, this really isn’t a vampire matter. It’s nice that you’re
worried, but we’ll take care of her.”

“I want you to back off,” Layla said and
didn’t miss the surprise on Jase’s face. She felt the energy
flowing between their bodies, and her eyes closed.

“That’s right, little kit,” Jase murmured.
“Come with us, and we’ll make it all better. No need to go back to
your family. If they’re letting you wander around in this
condition, they obviously don’t deserve a prize like you. Your body
knows what it wants. Listen to your body, little kit.”

“Fucking blonde hair,” murmured Cam. “I’ve
only seen a couple of females with blonde hair. So sexy. I would
never let a prize like you out of my sight. I’d keep you too busy
to think about wandering around the woods during your heat cycle.
We certainly wouldn’t let you wander around with a bunch of
vampires.”

“Let us help,” said Zane. “You must be
hurting pretty bad by now.”

Oh God! The heat coming from their bodies was
intense. Energy crawled along her skin, caressing her fevered flesh
like a lover. The worst part was that they were right; it did hurt.
She’d been aroused for nearly a week, and every day it got worse.
Layla couldn’t satisfy herself. Three men? She had no idea how that
would even work. Then she had to wonder why she was even
considering it. That’s right; she was considering it because the
pain was getting to be too much. At this point, she would do just
about anything to make it end.

“Layla!” Simon shouted, and it was more of an
order than him simply calling her name. He was ordering her to look
at him. What was strange was that she suddenly liked it. No, she
fucking loved it. Did that mean she was going to take orders from
him? Nope. She ignored him.

“Look at me,” Simon said, and she did this
time.

That was when it hit her. She didn’t want
these men. No matter how sexy or tempting they were, she wanted
Simon to take care of the ache. Simon was the only man she wanted
in her body.

Jase looked back and forth between her and
Simon. “Ah, little kit, you don’t want to go off with the vampires.
They can’t take care of you like we can.”

“I want to be with Simon,” she admitted
softly, and if she wasn’t mistaken Simon muttered “Damn right you
do.”

“Okay, little kit, but if you need us, just
come back here. We’ll take care of you,” Zane said.

They started to walk away, but Cam cocked his
head to the side and turned to face Layla again. “How old are you,
little kit?”

“Twenty seven,” she said even though she
still had a few days until her birthday.

Jase gave her a knowing smile. “Well, that
explains it. Most females are difficult their first couple of heat
cycles.” He turned toward Simon. “If you don’t want her hurt, keep
her close by for the next week.”

“Was that a threat?” Simon asked.

Jase put his hands up in surrender. “No
threat from us, vampire. Some of the younger males have less
control around an unmated female. Until she belongs to someone,
she’s at risk.”

“She belongs to me,” Simon said
arrogantly.

“Then I suggest you mark her,” said Zane. “If
she’d been marked, we would have left her alone.”

Without waiting for a response, the three men
took off into the woods. They moved at an inhuman speed, and their
grace reminded Layla of the wood nymphs. She felt the strange draw
of their power and wanted to run into the woods too.

“What just happened?” she asked, her voice
shaking with her arousal.

“I don’t know,” Simon admitted. “Something
tells me we need to talk to Raven very soon. I’m messaging Ian now
to tell him to head this direction to help us transport
Shelby.”

Layla turned her attention to Shelby. “Are
you okay?”

Shelby nodded but didn’t answer.

“The bleeding stopped,” Carla said, “and the
wound is healing, but she’s lost a lot of blood. We need to get a
donor for her quickly. I don’t think she’ll make it back to the
settlement without blood.” There was no mistaking the fear in
Carla’s voice.

“No males,” Shelby said weakly.

That was right; Shelby wouldn’t feed off of a
male. Actually, bagged blood was her preference. The problem they
had now was that she couldn’t take blood from a vampire and the
only other human with them was Danny. Layla had never donated
blood. Connor required all humans to donate blood, except their
team. He claimed it was because they fought, but it was really
because many on her team had bad experiences with vampires in their
pasts. Connor wasn’t concerned about the humans as much as he was
about Raven. He’d made the exception to keep his mate happy.

“Well,” Layla said a little nervously, “I
guess it’s me then.”

Shelby gave her a weak smile but didn’t
reply. Carla was right, Shelby wouldn’t survive much longer without
blood, and Layla was willing to donate a little blood to save her
friend. Still, she couldn’t deny the fact that it was more than a
little scary.

Simon caught her arm as she made her way over
to Shelby. “Thank you,” he said softly, his voice caressing her
warm skin. Her body shuddered slightly when she remembered him
telling the other men she was his. Of course, that wasn’t true.
He’d just said it to keep her safe. Still, it made her ache all
over.

Layla nodded and sat down beside Shelby. “How
do we do this?” Her hands were dirty, and she didn’t like the idea
of putting her dirty wrist up to Shelby’s mouth.

“Unless you have an objection, she’ll use
your neck,” Carla said. “It’s more personal, but the blood flow is
better there so it’s faster.”

“That’s fine,” Layla assured her. Faster was
better. After Carla got them situated, Layla felt Shelby’s fangs
sink into her skin. It was no lie to say it hurt like hell at
first. After the initial shock, it was disturbing but not
painful.

Shelby pulled away after only sucking a few
times at Layla’s neck.

“You need to take more,” Simon pushed.

“The hell I do!” Shelby said with her usual
enthusiasm. “Was there something you wanted to share with us,
Layla?”

“I’m not in the mood for games,” Layla said
irritably. She stood and dusted off her pants. “You’re
welcome.”

“Hey,” Shelby said as she quickly jumped to
her feet, “I’m not saying I’m not grateful. I just want to know
what I sucked down. Nothing has ever given me that much of a rush
before.”

Simon stepped forward. “What do you
mean?”

“After watching Layla fight today, I was
already suspicious. After sampling her blood, I can guarantee you
our girl is not human.”

Simon’s mouth hung open. He reached out to
grab Layla, but she quickly stepped back out of his reach.

“Layla,” he growled in warning, and the
threat in his voice sent both fear and arousal racing through her
body.

Apparently that was enough to make her panic.
She spun away when he tried to grab her again and ran as fast as
her legs would carry her. That was probably stupid. Vampires were
not only stronger, they were faster. Plus, she knew how vampires
reacted to the chase. Maybe that was part of the reason she
ran.

“Layla, stop!” Simon shouted from close
behind her.

She managed to evade Simon longer than she
expected, but he finally caught up with her and tackled her to the
ground, rolling them so he took the brunt of the fall. The wind
came out of her lungs in a loud whoosh, and Layla immediately
started struggling to get up. She clawed at Simon and snarled. Even
she wasn’t sure why she was fighting him. It’s not like she was
afraid of Simon. He was her friend. Pure instinct was ruling her
actions in that moment.

“Stop!” he warned. When she didn’t, he rolled
them to their sides and forced Layla onto her stomach. He settled
his weight onto her back and pinned her hands to the ground beside
her head. Still she fought him at the same time as she grinded up
against his erection. What Simon did next came as a complete shock.
He bit her. Not like he was getting ready to feed. Nope, it was
nowhere near a vein. His fangs sank into the back of her neck
hard.

Layla’s reaction shocked her to the core; she
practically purred.

Simon didn’t remove his fangs from her neck
until she calmed down. “What are you?” he rasped out, his mouth
still close to her neck.

“I’m human,” she said. “My parents were
human. Let me up, Simon.”

“No, you wanted me to chase you. Now, you
keep grinding your ass against me. I can tell you like being right
where you are. Wanna know a secret?” he asked in a silky whisper.
“I like you right here too. Holding you down and controlling you
makes me want to take you just like this. After that, I want to
take you home and tie you to my bed. I want to keep you there until
I’ve had my fill of you. How long do you think that will take,
Layla? Days? Weeks? Maybe it will take months or years.”

Layla was panting and writhing. The bite mark
on her neck ached in a good way.

“Now, tell me what you are,” Simon
ordered.

“Human,” she said again.

“I only got a little bit of your blood, but
that was enough to know you aren’t human.”

Layla stopped struggling and closed her eyes.
“I don’t know,” she said softly. “Something is going on with me,
but I have no idea what it is.”

She hadn’t realized she was crying until
Simon released one of her wrists to brush away the tears. “It’s
okay,” he crooned. “Please don’t cry. I’m sorry about scaring
you.”

“And biting me?” she asked in an attempt at
humor. “I’m pretty sure that will leave a mark.”

“I’m not sorry about biting you,” he said.
“Those guys we ran into definitely understand what you are. They
said marking you will keep you safe, so I marked you.”

Layla was back to being angry again. Biting
her was just his duty. That was the only reason he’d marked her.
“Can you just let me up now?”

“No,” he said, and it sounded like he was
laughing at her.

With her hands free now, Layla tried to elbow
Simon. Yeah, it was awkward and ineffectual, but some primitive
part of her insisted that she push him.

Simon quickly shifted positions until he was
straddling her back facing her feet. She continued to fight with
everything in her until Simon’s palm made contact with her
backside. The sound and the sting made Layla jerk. “Are you done
fighting me?” Simon asked as he massaged her stinging backside.

She tried in vain to throw Simon off of her,
but he was much stronger. His palm made contact with her backside
five more times before she finally stilled.

“Are you done?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said irritably. “Are you going to
let me up now?”

“Once again, no,” Simon said. “We are going
to finish this conversation.”

“I can talk standing up,” she snapped.

“You’ve proven that you’ll run. It’s hard
enough maintaining my self control after chasing you down this
one time. I don’t want to test it.”

Layla remained silent.

“Was what they said about your heat cycle
true?” he asked.

“What am I? A wolf?”

“We’ve already established that we have no
idea what you are. Hopefully Raven and Connor can help us sort this
out, but for now you need to tell me what’s going on.”

“I don’t know,” Layla said desperately. “What
he said about the lust hurting is true. I wake up crying from the
pain sometimes. Nothing like this has ever happened before. This
all started a couple of weeks ago, but it’s gotten much worse since
the day you complained about my smell.”

“Does it hurt now?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said a little breathlessly.

“Then why are you fighting me so hard?” He
was back to massaging her backside, and she involuntarily tried to
lift her hips to increase the pressure.