Mated & Blooded, A Blood Ties Novel, Book 1 (18 page)

I sensed several rooms below the home and was
somewhat amused by what I sensed there. I determined it was a sight
that I would prefer to see with my own eyes. I walked outside and
allowed my instincts to guide me towards the entrance to the
underground dwelling. It was far simpler than I could imagine. As
usual it was not challenging. Lately, my life had become a series
of boring events. I found it harder and harder to keep myself
mentally challenged. I was beginning to fear that there was nothing
new to learn or see.

I rounded the corner and took in the site of
the female wolf. She was in bad shape. Who ever had torn her up
made it very personal shoving her own heart into her dead mouth was
pretty darn personal. Perhaps Nikoli realized it was some sort of
wolf trick and snapped. I sniffed the air and could tell that a
vampire and multiple wolves had been recently in the room.

I noticed something metallic underneath of
the dead she-wolf and nudged her body my foot to get a better look.
It appeared to be some type of shackle. I lifted it in my hand and
used my mastery of psychometry to understand everything that had
taken place.

I watched as a male wolf brutally forced open
the shackles with the female’s flesh and blood. My power of
psychometry was very strong and very well developed. Not only could
I see the series of events, I often felt the emotions of those who
had touched the object as well. The male wolf felt pure hatred
towards the shewolf now lying dead on the floor. Even more
stimulating I knew he was mated to her, though hadn’t been her true
mate.

I moved through the room touching objects
here and there. With each object I touched I continued to learn
more bits and pieces of information on what had taken place in this
room over the past several days. I was definitely becoming more
amused with each item I touched.

Just as I was leaving the room, I touched the
door jam and got a strong visual image of a female vampire. What
astonished me most about the vision is that she was embracing a
young male wolf and that the embrace was much more than just
friendly. I found myself thinking that I just might have to let
Nikoli live, his little twisted world was intriguing indeed.

I carried Lucas back to my place. I wasn’t
really sure what I was going to do with him once I got there but I
found myself running with him anyway. I burst through my front door
and carried him straight to the guest room that his mother had
occupied just earlier today. I laid him on the bed and felt a bolt
of electricity shoot through my body. I knew that an elder was
nearby and by the sheer power I had to assume it was Kenyan.

Of all the elders that had answered my
request for help he was the one that I had almost hoped wouldn’t
answer. Though as the oldest of our race if any had a solution it
would be him. I turned towards the door and took in the sight of
him. I had never seen him with my own eyes before. He was amazing
to look at. He stood well over six foot two inches tall with pure
white long hair that fell below his waist. He had it woven together
with coral and other jewels mixed in. He wore an old fashioned red
velvet robe you would imagine a Greek god would wear. He smelled of
leather, lavender and cedar.

He looked every bit the ancient that he was.
If I didn’t know he was just another vampire I would have dropped
to the floor and worshiped him as a god. Looking into his face, I
had to fight doing just that. I struggled to find my own voice.
Finally I managed to croak out the question

“Can I assume you are Kenyan?”

He snorted and cracked a very small smile and
responded

“I am. Relax young one, I rarely ever kill
one of my own race. I was very intrigued when you called yesterday.
I am here to see for myself the truth of your words. Come closer so
that I can touch you and know all that you have been through”

I moved closer and felt Kenyan touch my
forehead. I felt a small pain then nothing. I must have blacked out
because the next thing I knew I was awake and sitting in a chair in
my living room. Kenyan was sitting opposite of me with a look of
amusement on his face. The moment he noticed I was awake he
immediately started speaking to me.

“So it is true. You really are half blooded
to your beloved and she is a werewolf. I was so sure that when I
got here I would find that you were mentally deranged and that you
had created something that wasn’t true.”

He looked at me like he wanted me to say
something. I was at a loss for words so I just swallowed hard and
dropped my eyes to the floor. Then he started speaking again.

“Quite a quandary you have here. A beloved
with poisonous blood and a wolf that hates everything about you
seems to me like you are in a bit of a jam. Let me see if I can lay
out the facts for you.

Fact number one: You will die if you try and
complete the blood bond between yourself and your beloved wolf.

Fact number two: Her wolf will never accept
you as a possible lover or likely even as a friend since she sees
you as a threat to her wolf mate

Fact number three: Your beloveds wolf will
only die if your beloved dies and or if her bonded wolf mate
dies.

Fact number four: We are vampires and are
immortal she and her wolf mate are mortal. While we have forever
their years are numbered”

I felt the air shift and suddenly found
Kenyon mere inches in front of my face. I felt his hot breath slap
into my cheeks as he said his next words

“I do believe I have the solution to your
problem. It seems apparent to me that you need to make sure she
mates and bonds with her wolf upstairs before he dies. Then once he
dies her wolf dies. Then we can figure out how you can finish the
blooding.”

I was lying in bed next to my mate feeling so
content from our recent love making when I started to think about
my conversation with Rob again. I couldn’t believe everything he’d
told me. I didn’t want it to be true. I wanted Lucas to be okay and
have the happily ever after ending that I was going to have with my
mate Lily.

I turned over and took in her beautiful body
again. It felt like I had known her forever. It was hard to believe
that it was just earlier today that I’d met her. Yet here were
already fully mated and bonded. I hadn’t meant to but I started to
touch her the moment I thought about losing her. She awoke the
moment my fingers touched the soft flesh on her side.

“Hey baby you okay?” she said in soft tender
voice.

Then reached out and pulled my head in
towards her breast. I felt my cheek rest against her warm chest. I
sighed and said

“Yeah, I’m just thinking about my brother
Lucas again. I hate that I don’t know if he is okay . It just hurts
me to know that he is probably laying somewhere dying or worse dead
already.”

I felt a tear slip from eye and land on the
curve of her breast. My chest hurt thinking of Lucas lying
somewhere alone and dying. He’d been a good brother, and a great
friend to me. Without him I think I would have lived a very lonely
life.

My mother had never been much of a touchy
feely wolf and dad well; he didn’t pay much attention to Rob or me
since he had already chosen Lucas as his heir. Even my twin brother
rarely ever provided me with the touch that I needed. He
occasionally gave me a high five, but rarely ever embraced me the
way my wolf desired to be touched.

It was always Lucas that kept an eye on me.
He would make sure that he hugged or embraced me on a pretty
regular basis. It was like he knew that my wolf needed the touch
and he would seek me out and make sure that I always had what I
needed. Lily adjusted slightly and looked into my face.

“I’m so sorry about your brother baby.” Then
she leaned down and pressed her lips into mine.

“I can tell that you need closure, how about
we head out and try to find him. No one knows these mountains
better than me and your sister we can probably figure out where the
vampire left him”

I grunted in frustration. I knew I was never
going to be able to fall asleep. I was riddled with guilt. I
couldn’t believe that I had become such a bad person so fast. Lucas
was my brother. Hell, for most of my life I had been closer to him
than my own twin.

I felt hot tears splash down my face. I
bellowed in pain and rage at the thought of him being dead. How
could I have become so selfish and so self motivated that I had
allowed it to come to this. I should have been there for him. I
should have had his back not turned away from him simply because he
was mated to the freak. It was destiny’s choice not his.

I was so ashamed of myself for everything I’d
done and become in the last few days. I wasn’t worthy of being the
alpha. Lucas should be here not me. If either of us deserved to
die, it was me not him. I yelled out in anger and frustration and
smashed my end table.

I wasn’t worried about making any noise. The
pack knew I’d been very close to my brother our entire lives, they
also knew it would only be natural for me to grieve his loss. What
they didn’t know was how guilty and ashamed I was. If I could take
back everything that I’d done over the past week, I would. If I
could give my life so that Lucas could live, I would.

I wasn’t even sure if he was dead yet, I knew
with the damage that had been done to his throat it was just a
matter of time. I couldn’t let Lucas rot somewhere in an unmarked
grave, he deserved better than that, I needed more that, I needed
closure. I needed to find my brothers body and bring it home. I
jumped out my bedroom window and shifted in mid air. The moment my
paws touched the ground I started running back towards the east
border.

I howled out my pain and ran like my life
depended on it. I heard several of my pack members howl behind me
joining in my song of sorrow. None of them however followed me. I
think they just assume I was going to the border to cry for the
loss of my brother.

I yipped loudly and waited for Ryan and Lily
to catch back up with me. It had been so easy to pick up the
vampire and my brother Lucas’s scent even though it had been hours
since they moved through this area. I knew every single inch of the
woods surrounding Northern Star territory. It was clear to me that
the vampire was taking Lucas to an old mansion that sat just
outside of the BlueRidge pack territory.

I watched Ryan and Lily bound over a downed
tree and come to a dead stop. Their ears both dropped back and both
of them bared their teeth at the same time and started to growl. I
slowly turned my head and caught the scent of another wolf moving
in our direction. I cautiously moved back towards my alpha and his
mate. I dropped low to the ground and couldn’t help but
whimper.

I watched as another wolf broke through the
foliage and stopped right in front of my alpha pair. I almost wet
myself with fear of what was going to happen next. Then I realized
it must be my other brother Rob, Ryan’s twin brother. Their scents
were so similar and aside from the patches of black on their ears
being the exact opposites they were identical in size, shape and
coloring.

Ryan and Rob shifted back into their human
forms and started talking. Since Rob was a different pack he
couldn’t mind speak with Lily and I. I wanted to shift but Ryan had
growled at Lily and I to stay in our wolf forms. Seems he wasn’t
comfortable with Rob seeing Lily naked. Not thinking that when he
pushed the order it was aimed at me too. So I stayed in my wolf
form unable to do anything against my alpha and waited patiently
for Ryan to introduce me to my brother.

I sat with my tail wagging and my tongue
hanging stupidly from my mouth. I yipped excitedly to draw
attention towards me. Finally Ryan caught on and told Rob that I
was Lauren and that I was his half sister too. I thought that he
might have allowed me to shift but instead he said we can hold the
family reunion until we found our older brother Lucas. I was
pleased with that command and yipped again and picked up the
trail.

I mind spoke with Ryan to let him know I had
the trail. He verbally told Rob and they both shifted and started
following me again. If I was right about where the vampire was
headed we would find my older brother dead or alive within the next
hour.

I had been pacing back and forth since Nikoli
had left. I was worried. My wolf was freaking out and neither of us
could seem to settle down. I reach out multiple times in my mind
and tried to speak with Nikoli but I wasn’t getting a response.

My mom was driving me nuts. She kept trying
to calm me down and that was only making me crazier. I finally lost
my patience and hollered at her. Her feelings were hurt so she
decided to go back to the bedroom to wait.

The moment she left the room I decided I
would try to astral project to see if I could figure out what was
going on. I snapped to Nikoli’s side and found him resting on his
bed. His hair was slightly tossed and his bed looked rumpled like
he’d been as restless as I was. He had this sadness in his eyes but
gave me just a small smile at me and patted the bed in an
invitation to join him.

I knew that I we needed to talk about Lucas,
but for just a moment I didn’t want to. I moved quickly and sat on
the bed next to him. He took in a deep breath and opened his mouth
to say something. I felt my heart slam into my rib cage and knew
that I needed to stop the words from coming out.

Before he could make a sound I moved forward
and pressed my chest into his at the same time as I sought his lips
out with mine. Deep down inside of me I knew I needed this. I
needed to be intimate with Nikoli before. Before there wasn’t any
more chances before our time together was up.