Mated & Blooded, A Blood Ties Novel, Book 1 (27 page)

I realized that I was becoming aroused and
decided I would go shower and shave for the ceremony. Perhaps
bedding her wouldn’t be as bad as I’d initially thought. Perhaps
something good could come of this after all. I would request that
some of the females of the pride train her to be a bit more human.
With time, she could end up being the perfect mate.

I bolted awake with the sense that my beloved
was trying to reach out to me. I took deep breath in an attempt to
calm myself. My body trembled with joy and excitement. Then the
anticipation and joy left my system and was replaced by anxiety and
sorrow.

As a vampire, I was raised with the knowledge
that someday my beloveds’ soul would call out to me and I would
find and blood with her. She would be my one and only chance at
true love. I also knew like all vampires that it generally happened
around a humans seventieth or eighteenth birthday.

The tricky part was it could happen at any
time for the vampire and the vampire must be vigilant and ready for
the call. For me it happened shortly after my twenty second
birthday. I was considered young to find my beloved and truthfully
I hadn’t been ready. My own stupidity and hesitation had cost me my
chance at happiness. Instead of rushing as any other vampire would
have done, I had taken my sweet time making my way to my beloved’s
side.

Her soul had called to me from the jungles of
South America. When I first felt her call I'd had been visiting
friends in Canada. I been having a good time and was in no rush to
go to South America so I decided to take my time making my way
there. I arrived in Brazil and made his way into the Amazon nearly
four days after her initial contact. Each night at approximately
the same time she would reach out to me and touch my soul. Each
time I realized it was a little more desperate then the last, then
on the fifth night there was no call.

I'd roamed the Amazon for months but was
unable to find my beloved. I smelled ever human I met looking for a
trace of her. I came up with nothing. My beloved was nowhere to be
found. Part of me knew, but wasn’t ready to accept the fact that if
her soul no longer called for me, it meant that she had died while
I dallied in coming to her side.

After about a year, it finally sunk in and I
lost my will to live. I’d started to take major risks and had begun
living on the edge. As a way to keep me sane and give my mind time
to heal and grieve for my beloved’s loss, my vampire parents forced
me into a very deep sleep and buried me in the dirt deep below the
jungle’s floor.

I mused to myself that it must have been a
very strong dream to have pulled me from the slumber. I moved my
toes around and allowed the warm wet soil to crunch between them .
Then I realized that my parents wouldn’t know that I’d been
awakened and thought this might be his opportunity to escape this
world.

I prepared to force myself out of the earth
when I again felt the presence of my beloved. This time, I knew
that it wasn’t a dream. I saw her soul clear as day and it was
terrified, she was calling and begging me to come to her and save
her from a fate worse than death. This time I didn’t hesitate for a
single moment. I pushed myself from the earth and ran with all the
speed I could muster towards my beloved.

They had slipped a rope over my neck and were
pulling me somewhere. It hurt but I had put up as much fight as I
could and there were just to many of them and they were to strong.
I couldn't understand what they even wanted me for.

I knew they were humans, there was a part of
me that remembered that I too was once human. Then the hunters had
come and I'd been left to fend for myself in the wild. If not for
the female leopard that found me I would have died.

Something hit me hard on my hind side and I
roared out in pain. I swiped my paw backwards and make contact. The
feel of flesh and bone crushing under my powerful paw was
wonderful. Then the humans pulled on the rope and forced my body to
the ground. I couldn't even lift my head.

They started to surround me. So many stinky
humans. Then they started grunting and making noises. I suddenly
was assaulted with so much pain. My bones started to pop and crunch
inside of me until I felt them totally rearranging themselves. I
screamed and reached out with my soul to beg them to stop.

“Please, not again. Don t force me into this
form again”

Then I felt my mind go blank for just a
moment before it cleared and I peered through eyes that had minimal
clarity and missed more then they saw. The humans were continuing
to make noises as they circled around me in this small weak form.
Some reached out and touched or poked at me. In this body every
touch hurt and ached. I wanted badly to shift back.

I closed my eyes and focused on my leopard, I
called her forward but nothing changed. I remained stuck in this
human form. I opened my mouth and tried to roar but a strange
little high pitch noise was all that come out.

I swung the weak little hairless paws towards
the people but it appeared to have no effect. Then just when I
thought I'd had enough it got worse. The humans pulled me by the
rope and forced me into the river.

The plunged me beneath the water over and
over again in what I think was an attempt to drown me. I flayed
around and tried my best to keep my head above the water. I pushed
at them with my paws and I bit them with my tiny blunted teeth.
They continued to hurt and rub at me painfully until they caused my
hairless body to burn and ache.

Finally they decided to stop trying to drown
me and pulled me from the river. They again surrounded me and
covered my hairless body with another animals skin. I didn't need
some dead animals skin on my body, I had perfectly good skin of my
own. The smell was horrific and caused my stomach to want to heave.
I coughed and eventually managed to empty my stomach of my most
recent meal.

The humans seemed to become agitated by my
coughing and punished me by again trying to smother me. They pushed
something over and over again into my face that cut off my
breathing. I held my breath and managed to outsmart them and
eventually they gave up on trying to smother me too.

I looked at the humans smugly as I realized
that I had outsmarted them yet again. They must have realized it at
the same moment since they all started jumping up and down and
making lots of noises. Then a very large male human entered the
circle and walked towards me. He had something that shined brightly
in his tiny paw. I watched as he slid it against his arm and blood
welled out of it. Then he pulled at my and used the glinty object
on my arm. It stung and burned and I saw that I too started to
bleed.

Then the male leaned in and placed his mouth
on my arm. I think he was lapping at my blood. Strange since I felt
no teeth. If he was going to eat me alive he would need more teeth.
He grabbed the back of my head and pushed my face onto his bloody
arm.

Fine, I thought I will accept. I bit down on
his arm and tried to pull a chunk of flesh off. I heard the male
make a noise then my world went black. I awoke and found I was
still stuck in the weak human shape. I was tied down against the
ground with each of my limbs pulled out and away from me. The male
that I had tried to chew on earlier was above me. He no longer had
his hairless body covered. I watched him trying to understand what
he was doing and couldn't make sense of it.

He laid his body on top of mine so that he
covered me from head to toe. He was saying words that I think I
used to understand but couldn't quite understand. Then I felt him
moving around between my legs. I realized just seconds before it
happened. He was going to mate with me in this form.

I didn't look forward to having sex as a
human. I had been approached often in the wild, and had many males
fight for my attention but none had been lucky enough to catch and
mate me. I however loved the challenge. There would be no challenge
with this male. If we were in the wild, he wouldn't have to tried
to catch me to get me to accept him. I wouldn't know if he was
worthy or not since I was already trapped.

I found myself sad that I would have to breed
with a male that didn't earn it. I might have a sick litter if he
wasn't strong and healthy. I might be forced to eat my own cubs if
they are born deformed. I'd seen a leopard forced to breed with an
unworthy male and knew she lost her entire litter that year. This
is common in the wild, these humans should know better.

I felt a sharp pain in my birthing area and
knew that he'd begun the process of leaving his seed. I wanted to
fight against him and the ropes but know it was hopeless, so I
stayed silent and perfectly still so that he could finish
quickly.

I felt moisture leaking from my human eyes
and knew that it was from the pain that my body was experiencing.
He grunted and groaned while he moved up and down and back and
forth inside me. It seemed to go on for far longer than I thought
was normal before I finally felt something warm and wet down
there.

I watched as the human pulled himself off of
me. He looked at me and I think he noticed the tears. He pushed his
face into mine and licked at my lips and made noises. He kept
making the same cooing type sounds. Finally, he moved away from me
and I felt grateful that he'd finished. I had meant to stay awake
and vigilant but the events of the day had exhausted me and I'd
fallen asleep.

I was awoken with the male back between my
legs. The pain was worse than the last time and I couldn't help
from growling out my pain. I hissed and whined over and over. I
started to move and buck my body around in an attempt to stop him
from continuing. Nothing I did worked.

The more I hissed and bucked the wider he
smiled. He cooed and hummed at me. Then he reached out and started
to roughly pinch and bite at my breasts and nipples. I grunted and
tried to express he was hurting me.

The level of pain was beyond anything that I
could have imagined. It seemed to go on and on without end.
Finally, I again felt warmth between my legs and the male pulled
away from me. I breathed a sigh of relief. The male hearing me,
moved close to my face and again licked all the moisture from my
cheeks and mouth.

This time I started to identify some of the
words he was cooing at me. Words from when I was a child something
like

“good girl” and

“glad you like me”

I realized he was confused and thought I had
enjoyed his sex play. I racked my brain trying to remember the
right words to tell him it hurt and was bad and I didn't like it,
finally I remembered and said

“more bad”

I felt myself smile at my cleverness of
remembering human words. Now he would know that I didn't want any
more bad pain and sex. He started to move and I expected him to
leave when I suddenly felt him shove himself back into me and start
again. I screamed over and over

“more bad, more bad, more bad” but he didn't
stop. He said just lied and said

“yes” like he would stop but he didn't.

I couldn't take the pain anymore. I had
closed my eyes and prayed to god to save me. Then I passed out and
thankfully didn't feel another thing.

I could tell my mate was near by. I smelled
Bastet people and somehow knew that she was with them. I approached
their camp quietly and tried to get a fix on where in the camp my
beloved was located. I couldn't visually see her anywhere in the
camp. I took a deep breath in through my nose and was immediately
able to identify the scent that had to be by beloved. It was the
most amazing smell I had ever before had the pleasure of sniffing.
It was a combination fresh baked apple pie and violets. I sniffed
again and picked up the underlying scent of cat and realized that
she too was a Bastet.

I sat silently on the edge of the camp and
allowed myself to separate from my body. I moved though the camp
entering caves and dwellings in search of my beloved. I'd gone from
hut to hut and hadn't found her yet. I called to her soul but got
no response. I felt myself becoming full of rage and fear. Not
again, I couldn’t have failed her again. She must be here. I used
my speed to my benefit and began to run at top speed through the
rest of the camp.

I had checked every household except the
Leos. I ran through the entrance of the Leo's cave and was appalled
and enraged at the sight before me. My beautiful beloved was staked
down to the ground naked and spread eagle. There was a small amount
of blood on her thigh and I could tell she had been recently
used.

The pride Leo was sleeping comfortably on his
bed without a care of my beloveds well being or comfort. I reached
out and touched my beloveds cheek and felt the moisture that had
yet to dry from the tears she must have recently cried.

I bellowed out in rage, I knew this was my
fault. I snapped myself back to my body and raced towards the Leo's
cave. I was going to kill everyone that hurt her. I would punish
them and save my beloved so that she would never be hurt again.