Gambler's Folly (Bookstrand Publishing Romance) (17 page)

“An old family recipe?” she teased.

“Something like that, yes,” he agreed, smiling slyly at her.

They finished breakfast at a more leisurely pace and then took coffee into the living room to relax.

“Okay, Damiano. I have a few questions about last night. And I want the truth, alright?”

“Cara mia, I will answer your questions, but first let’s just rest for a while and enjoy the morning. I want Marco and Paolo to come up when we have our talk. They might be able to explain things a little better for you, or maybe I just need their support.”

“You? Need support? Since when do you have trouble talking, Damiano?”

“There are certain subjects which are hard to explain, and can be more difficult to understand and accept. This would be one of those subjects. I know of no way to make it any easier than to just come out with it. But later, when I’ve had a chance to put it into words. I can’t think properly just yet. Cara mia, you are hard on a man!”

After their coffee, Damiano excused himself and went into his office, perhaps to think about whatever it was he needed to tell her. Karianna stretched out on the sofa and drifted off to sleep. She woke to Damiano’s voice and his kiss on her cheek.

“Cara, are you rested?” he asked. “If you’re ready, Marco and Paolo are here. I thought maybe we could have some wine and cheese while we talk.” She saw he’d already brought in the cheese plate and glasses for the wine. Marco was coming through from the kitchen, a bottle of wine in his hand.

After everyone sat down with snacks and drinks, Damiano took a deep breath and asked her, “Karianna, what do you know about your ancestors, those in Europe several centuries ago? Anything at all? Are there any old family tales that seem just a little outrageous?”

Karianna thought for a moment. Of course, everyone had strange family tales, but they didn’t really mean anything, did they?

“I don’t know. I mean, there was one of my aunts who always went walking during a full moon. Rain or shine, she was outside walking. And there is the really old story about one of my great-great-however many-grandmothers. She was, supposedly, some sort of priestess way back, when people worshipped the moon or something.”

“Did the men in your family spend a lot of time away from home, especially around the time of the full moon?” Damiano seemed intense, or maybe just tense.

“Well, the people of my family have always been wanderers. They were among the first to go to America from Europe. Later, they helped settle the western states, following the Oregon Trail. A bunch of the guys were avid hunters. They’d go out every season, for a couple weeks at a time. I don’t think it had anything to do with the moon, but I couldn’t say for sure.”

“Did you ever hear anything about times for hunting?”

“Maybe. I know they always went fishing early in the morning, usually when it was a foggy day. Hunting, I think, was supposed to be easier in the light of the moon. I guess because they could see better and the deer would be out grazing. Why does it matter?”

“Your great-whatever-grandmother was, I believe, a priestess of the Changing Moon.”

“That’s it! I always thought it was something to do with the changing month or something.”

“No, cara. It was not the moon which was changing. And your aunt who went walking during the full moon was probably looking for someone who’d gone out the previous night, who might need help when they returned.”

“Well, that would be my cousin, Brad. He was always out partying or getting into some sort of trouble.”

“A lot of the wanderers travel for a reason. They travel to avoid people with too much curiosity. Many of them are hunters, because it’s in the blood.”

“What’s in the blood, Damiano? What are you talking about?”

“I’m getting there, cara. Let me take my time. Bene?”

“I guess, so. I just don’t understand…”

“I know. But you need some background first. A long time ago, our kind was nearly killed out by those who feared people who were different. So we learned to hide, to control the changes that came upon us, and find a way to fit in with the others.”

“How are you different? You look just like everyone else to me,” Karianna countered.

“Even last night, cara?”

“Trick of the light…”

“No, amore, no trick. Let me continue. For some reason, most women cannot complete the transformation, though they carry the same genes. Many of them have eyes which change, or canines which elongate during certain times, but they don’t change completely.”

“What do you mean, change?”

“Please, cara, I’m trying. It is difficult.”

“I’m sorry, Dam. Please, go on.” She noticed Marco and Paolo were getting restless as he spoke.

“Those women who carried the genes of their kind organized, so they could use the other talents they possessed to help their men. They were nature’s healers, using the abilities God gave them, channeling the divine energy, for the good of others. They were called Priestesses of the Changing Moon, because in the early days, those who could change used the power of the full moon to facilitate it.”

“You mean like werewolves and things? Aren’t those just old stories to scare little children?”

“The way the stories are told, yes, but they were invented by those who could not change, who hated anything different. They saw us as a threat and tried to destroy us.”

His tale continued, and later, Marco and Paolo added to her knowledge with their experiences. The were-people were real. Her grandmother had been one of them, but as a woman couldn’t become one of the great cats, those hunters in the dark. She waited for their men to return, in whatever form they carried, and helped them back to human form or healed their wounds if needed. Those genes had been carried down all the way to Karianna’s time, from her ancestors the travelers, the hunters in the family, and her crazy aunt who walked in the moonlight.

“But how does all of this affect me?” she demanded. “I don’t have any special talents or anything. I’m just me, just human.”

Sadly shaking his head, Damiano said, “No, cara, you are not. You’re were-folk, one of us, just as surely as I am, and Marco and Paolo.”

“How do you know?” she asked, confused.

“I suspected right after I won you in a game of cards,” he began. “You knew my name and my reputation, yet you did not fear.”

“Well you’re not that scary, you know,” she countered.

“Maybe not to you. But everyone else I meet shows fear, in one way or another. Not you. So I asked myself, why?”

“And that’s the first thing that popped into your mind?”

“No, but as our time together went on, it was the little things. Things like the way your eyes take on a golden color when you’re angry or aroused. Or that your canine teeth become just a little bit more prominent when we make love.”

“Now you’re being silly,” she said, shaking her head.

“Maybe, but there was your obvious attraction to me very early in our relationship. Within days of moving into my home, you came into my bed, as my wife. No fear, no hesitation.”

“Well, we were married, Damiano. I thought to make the best of the situation.”

“And you did, cara mia. So wild in bed you are.” He smiled seductively at her. “But no other woman I’ve ever known has been attracted to my scent, the scent I give off when I’m fully aroused. Many are frightened by it.”

“Why?”

“Because it is the scent of a great cat in rut, cara, and primates fear the great cats.”

“I always wanted to be a cat, a great black leopard.”

“You probably would be one if you could change, cara. Anyway, a couple weeks ago I decided to try an experiment. The results were telling to say the least.”

“That was cruel and heartless, you bastard,” she stated.

“Well, cats can be cruel and they play rough. Unfortunately, I didn’t believe I could be lucky enough to find a woman of the old priestess line, especially way out here, this far from Earth. If I had, I would never have experimented.”

“Why not, Damiano?”

Marco chuckled, while Paolo tried to hide the wide grin on his face. “Because, Signora, you turned the tables. Of course you didn’t understand what it would mean, which is why we’re having this discussion.”

“Okay, I’m missing something here. Does someone want to get to the point, before I beat it out of you?”

“What you did last evening was initiate a bonding ritual. I would have been fine had your scent not compelled me. The pheromones released when a female wants to bond are undeniable.”

“Is that like the way your scent affects me sometimes? I mean, really, it’s overwhelming.”

“Yes, like that, only more. When a man and woman are already attracted, especially when they are lovers, their mutual scents accentuate their attraction. But when a woman is ready to bond with her mate, her scent changes and becomes irresistible to him.”

Paolo interrupted at this point. “It also affects every male around her. The normal humans don’t understand it, but they get restless. The females become jealous, the men randy. For us, it is a warning. We understand the scent and know who it’s for. Since we are a team, we look out for each other.”

“As soon as we smelled it, we came to Damiano, knowing he would need our help,” Marco added.

“I was hoping,” Damiano continued, “that if we could go into the office and make passionate love, you would be satisfied and let it go. Instead, you turned and denied me, even as your scent changed and became stronger.”

“I wanted to make you suffer, damn you, like I had when you’d done the same thing to me. I had no idea it was anything else. Really, I didn’t.”

“Whether you knew consciously or not, your body did and it took control. As I tried to take you, you fought me off until you were ready. Once my nature took over, I responded to your scent and signals. When your scent changed, taking you became something I had to do, or die trying. I could no more stop what happened than I could stop breathing.”

“How is this different than just sex?” Karianna still didn’t understand.

“Once the ritual begins, it continues until it is finished, one way or the other. It cannot be stopped, which is why Marco guarded the door. Once you yielded, and we came together sexually, we were compelled by our nature to continue, until we reached exhaustion, each of us performing our role in the ritual. Mine to completely dominate you, yours to submit your entire being to me.”

“What does this mean to me, Damiano? I still don’t understand the significance of it.”

There was sadness in his eyes and weariness. “I hadn’t wanted to take a mate, cara. My business is too dangerous. Once you became mine, I kept the contract to two years, thinking that when the time was up, you would leave. I never thought you would come to me at all, let alone so soon or so passionately.”

“Damiano, please, just say it, whatever it is.”

Leaning forward, Damiano put his face in his hands for a moment, as if trying to find the strength to go on.

“If you had stayed away, or if I could have stayed away, it would have been different. Even when you came to me, I thought perhaps it could be a casual relationship, one of convenience. Few of us find a soul mate. Most times we are just like other men and enjoy a succession of lovers, usually not were-folk like us.”

“Soul mates?” she asked.

“When you initiated the bonding, you told me you wanted to bond for life, challenging me to take you as bond mate. When I accepted your challenge, as if I could have resisted, I had to subdue you, take you, dominate the ritual. If I could do that, and force your surrender, we would be bound.”

“So even if I later decide I don’t want to be with you, I have to be?” Karianna was beginning to feel a bit of panic.

“No, cara.” His eyes were sad, questioning, hopeful. “What I am saying is that we will always be mates. Once we are bound, our body chemistry, our genetics, makes it so. I will never want another woman, as long as you live. And you will never want another man. We cannot. We are bond mates for life.”

“For life? Like forever and ever amen?”

“Now you see why I tried to avoid it, tried to discourage you last night. I knew you didn’t understand our kind, our ways, and so you didn’t understand what you were doing. And now, it is too late for you to have a choice.”

“So what kind of cat are you then? Can you change whenever you want?” Now she was curious about this man she was going to spend the rest of her life with.

“Are you not upset, cara?” Damiano was worried. Marco and Paolo were wary.

“What good would it do, Dam? What is, is. We seem to be a good match anyway. You asked me a while back if I could ever love you. I kind of fudged that answer. Truth is, I already loved you, but didn’t want to admit it. Guess I blew that one. Looks like the cat’s out of the bag, huh?” Marco and Paolo chuckled in the background.

“Are you sure, cara? You seem to be taking my word for a lot.”

“I’ve always had questions about certain things in my family. And once in a while, my friends asked me why my eyes sometimes changed color, or said something about my teeth. Vampire jokes usually. I didn’t really spend a lot of time thinking about it, but you’ve offered some insights. So can you change?”

“Yes, I can change whenever I like. And I’m your favorite, I suppose, a black leopard. Not jet-black. You can see a lighter pattern in my coat when I’ve changed.”

“And your eyes go green-gold with slit pupils,” she added.

“Yes, which is one way we were identified in the early days. Normal great cats have round pupils. Were-cats have pupils that are slit, like the domestic cats. And our eyes reflect when a light shines on them in the dark. Most people’s eyes do not.”

“What about Marco and Paolo? Are they brothers or something?”

“No, only in the way of being were-, like us. We are brothers in a way, like soldiers in the same company, brothers in arms.”

“Well, what are they?” she demanded.

“Cara, so many questions. Why does it matter?”

“I just want to know.”

“It is irrelevant.”

Marco spoke up to keep the peace. “I’m a leopard like Damiano, only not black. Paolo is a snow leopard. The three of us have worked together since we were young. We took Dante in just a few years ago. And before you ask, he is a panther.”