Moon Sworn (The Bound Series Book 1) (14 page)

'You just did
,' Maya whispered and turned to give him a tentative smile as she handed the coffee over to the woman at the counter.  Her eyes meeting his briefly before they dropped, and she took the money offered to her, giving the woman a cheery smile as she tilled up her order and gave her change.

Maya tried to ignore Jaden as he spoke to his brother, not the easiest thing to do when she was now so aware of him.  She wasn't really paying attention to who she served, was just working on autopilot smiling and trying to serve without much thought.

"Maya," she looked up puzzled at that tentative enquiry from the woman before her.  She held her coffee to her chest and watched her expectantly, if not with a little trepidation.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?  You seem awfully familiar but I can't quite place you." She told her apologetically, she watched Jaden stop talking mid-sentence as he turned towards her, as did Binks, Sam stopped what he was doing with the bookshelf, and he also turned.  The woman shuffled from foot to foot, her eyes going to the window and door then looked over her shoulder towards the men who were now watching her like a hawk, suspicion in their eyes.

"It doesn't matter dear," she said and went to leave, but Maya leaned over the counter and put her hand on her arm.  The woman froze and closed her eyes, and when she opened them again there was sorrow in their navy blue depths.  Maya wracked her brain trying to think where she knew her from, she was only about her own age but there was something familiar about her, she just didn't understand how.

'Jaden, I know her, I know I do. I just can't think from
where?'  Jaden moved then, he was pleased she'd turned to him yet again when she was unsure, and she was broadcasting her distress loud and clear at the moment.  Binks got up and was on his heels, Sam moved over to the doorway and turned the sign to closed, as he locked and then stood before it, blocking her exit and covering them.  Arms crossed and legs planted firmly in the floor, he looked intimidating with his dark eyes, presently observing what was going on around them.

Maya felt better, she felt protected and cared for.

'
Always
,' whispered through her mind and she looked up towards the towering wall of muscle that was making his way over to her.  He'd stopped what he was doing to see to her comfort to offer her strength, and that confused her.  He didn't know her well enough to be so in tune with her.

"Maya," Jaden said as he made his way around the counter and to her side, he put an arm around his waist and pulled her into the shelter of his body. 

"How do you know her?" he asked, he wasn't as polite as Maya and had no problem asking questions that she didn't seem to want to.

'There is definitely something familiar about her, I can't put my finger on it either
,' he informed Maya as he pulled her in closer and looked towards his brother for help.  What the hell was going on?  Was this woman a threat to his mate, his brother?  His heart rate remained steady, but he was beginning to worry that more than one person was out for his mate, he didn't want to lose her, or his brother now that he'd found him.

The woman looked from Jaden to Maya and back again and her eyes slit.  Her top lip lifted off her teeth and her hair seemed to glow, lift slightly as if in a breeze.  Her eyes started to shimmer as if a fire had been lit deep within their depths.  He heard Sam swear by the doorway as he began to move into the room.  Maya and Jaden didn't know what the problem was but obviously Sam, and now Binks, seemed to as they moved closer towards them.

"You're a shifter, show me your hand," the woman announced as she looked from Jaden to Maya and back again.

"Maya, yours too, please." She looked towards them and lifted a brow as she waited for them to comply her mouth a flat line of displeasure as her eyes landed on Jaden.

Maya tried to move, to stand before him and block him but Jaden grinned as he pulled her back and into his side.

"Seriously Maya, I don't need you to protect me but thank you." He said as he dropped a kiss onto her hair and held his palm out.

'Yours now honey, show her what she wants.  Otherwise we may never get to the bottom of this and I feel this is important somehow'
he told her.

Maya wasn't happy, but she nodded and held out her own hand, showing the mirror image on her palm to Jaden's, the woman hissed and then put the Styrofoam cup back down on the counter and she seemed to crumble.

"Too late, I'm too late, oh fate. I'm so sorry, I tried to get back.  I tried so hard to stop this from happening.  The words should have protected you, why didn't they do that?  Why were you visible to him it should have worked, why didn't it?  I'm going to go find her and take it out of her hide, I swear to all that is holy she will pay for her failure.  It was all for naught, everything I did, I did to protect you and for what?  Just so another bloody shifter could come along and claim you."

"Lady, I don't have a clue what you are talking about, so you better explain and fast." Jaden told her leaning forward so she could see how serious he was.  Maya went to move forward, but he put himself in front of her again.

"If I feel you are a threat to my mate, in any way shape or form I will end you.  I don't care how long it takes.  You harm her in any way I will find you and make you pay, do you understand?"   The woman's eyes lifted, and she looked at him, really looked at him as if she was trying to see into his soul and he dropped a hand behind him as his shoulders tensed.  Maya didn't think she stepped into him and put her hand in his, her other hand going to his back as she then rested her cheek there and felt him relax further.

She seemed to deflate, her eyes settling as she looked from Jaden to Maya and back again.  A contemplative expression now taking the place of her previous displeasure.

"I may have misjudged you, may we take a seat and talk?  There is much to say and very little time," she informed them.  "My coming here may have set things in motion, things I was not prepared for.  I had no choice though, I had to see her to explain." She said looking towards Maya with what looked like sorrow and absolute longing.

"How do I know you?" Maya asked from behind Jaden.

"I'm your mother Maya, do you not recognise me?  Have I changed so much that you wouldn't know me?" she asked quietly and Jaden felt her stiffen behind him and he looked towards this woman that was no older than Maya, yet claimed to be her mother.  He'd seen her die in Maya's thoughts and he frowned as he heard Sam swear again as he got closer to them, looking her over.

"You're a phoenix." Sam said, he stated it, not as a question but with absolute conviction.  The woman nodded.  Maya's breath stilled in her lungs and Jaden couldn't make sense out of all the things rushing through her head.

"Maya slow down I can't understand a single thing, please, just take a breath, concentrate, breath honey.  Go on, slow your breathing and think." He told her pulling her around to his front and wrapping his arms around her as he blanketed her.  His arms surrounding her smaller frame, his chin resting on her head as she buried her face in his chest.

"You can speak telepathically?" The woman asked and Jaden just nodded at her question.

"So you are her true mate, one who would be accepted by the Phoenix.  Only a true mate would be able to not only talk to her telepathically but also to hear her thoughts." She told them, her shoulders relaxing a little.

"May we sit and discuss this?" she looked over her shoulder towards the sofa that Jaden had recently vacated and he nodded.  Sam and Binks moved to the chairs at the table facing the sofa and straddled them, arms resting across the backs of them.  She followed on their heels once again holding her Styrofoam cup. 

Maya was in shock, what was going on, her mother, she'd said she was her mother? But she'd seen her bastard of a father kill her, she'd watched her die, seen the life leave her eyes.  She'd sat outside and coughed as he'd burned the house down with her body inside.  She began to shake and Jaden pulled her closer, his mouth lowering to her ear.

"I saw those memories, I watched what it did to you.  You were so small, so young to have been witness to that, I'm sorry Maya, truly sorry.  But if what she says is true and I think it is, you need to listen to her.  A wise woman told me herself earlier that I needed to give people a chance to explain things."

'Fine, but if I don't like it I'm leaving, you can't make me accept what she says
.' She said petulantly directly into his head, and he pulled back and used a finger under her chin so she had to look at him.  He also transferred to telepathy as it was more intimate and there were too many eyes on them at the moment.

'Such a temper, have you any idea how horny it makes me when you defy me?  I really hope you are going to put that sassy mouth of yours to good use when we leave here later.  I've been thinking about what you showed me earlier, and I really think you should show me in real terms.
'  He whispered the words in her mind.

He pushed the image in her mind of him between her thighs using his tongue and teeth on her, pushing her over the edge before he turned her around and took her from behind. She blushed to the tips of her hairline, but he didn't miss the way her breathing quickened and her heart rate picked up.

"Do you ever think of anything else?" she sniffed, and he grinned before he bent down and took her mouth in a gentle kiss.

"Yes I think of food too," he told her with a wink as he licked across her bottom lip and stepped back as she hit his arm.  Laughing he took hold of her hand, threaded his fingers through hers and started to lead her from behind the counter.  She ran their joined hands over his backside and he nearly bit his tongue off as he had to bite back the rumble of pleasure that shot through him.  He edged them around the back of the counter and out onto the floor of the coffee house.

'Great, now I'm going to be sat with your mother, your mother Maya, and I have a boner.  Sheesh woman, you are definitely putting that mouth of yours to good use as soon as I can get you alone
.' He grumbled as he shuffled towards the table, he was uncomfortable all over again.  His hard dick pressing against the zipper and he couldn't afford to reposition himself in front of the others.  He heard laughter in his head as she sent him a mental picture of a chicken being strangled.

"You're playing with fire," he hissed as he pulled her along beside him and then sat on the sofa, pulling her down beside him and keeping hold of her hand.

'Yes, but at least now I know why I like the heat,
' she whispered softly inside his head.

"Okay, you said you'd explain.  So explain." Jaden said sitting back on the sofa, keeping Maya pinned to his side as he ran a hand over the back of her knuckles as she kneaded his thigh muscle.  He was sure it was done unconsciously on her part but how close she was to his dick wasn't helping his hard-on in the least.  Sat with 2 other males in close proximity and a mate he'd still not tied down, this was not a good idea.  His cat began to prowl, not liking the other others so close to his unbound mate and his eyes flicked up, top lip coming off a fang.  Sam and Binks looked at him, and both moved back slightly as if to give themselves shifting and fighting room, his chest rumbled and he watched the resignation settle over Sam's face.

'Down Tiddles, nothing doing over there,'
Maya whispered in his head as she continued to dig her fingers into his thigh.
  'Breathe through this Jaden, this is the cat's reaction not yours.  That man you are presently eyeing up as prey is your brother, your only living relative, and he has his own mate somewhere.  Think logically.  Didn't you tell me that a bound male could only get it up for his mate until they went through the ceremony?  What's he going to do beat me with a flaccid dick, not really much of an incentive now is it?
' She purred, her hand digging deeper into his thigh muscle and he turned his head away from the others and grit his teeth, taking a couple of breaths.  He had to cough to clear the gravel from his throat before he could speak again.

"Okay, you claim to be her mother and a Phoenix at that.  How is that possible?  How could a Phoenix give birth to a Jaguar?" Jaden asked, his eyes flicking to his brother and Sam who both gave him a grin.  They were both obviously feeling a little relieved after watching his struggle to control the cat.

"How much to do know about shifters?" Maya's mother asked him, and he shrugged, not willing to reveal that he knew very little about his own kind.  He heard her sigh.

"I don't have a lot of time here, the longer I am around you the more danger you are in." She flashed her palm and showed them her own mate mark, faded and complete and they all hissed.  Jaden looked towards the front window and Sam and Binks did the same as well as shuffle further back from her as they checked the camera's showing them the back entrance.

"I am still bound to her father, he will come looking for me at some point.  I don't know why he hasn't already?" She frowned at this, then shrugged and Sam and Binks looked towards Jaden, their eyes moving towards Maya, the same thoughts that they had earlier.  Yeah, daddy dearest was already here, and the chances were he had company, at least another jaguar and possibly a hyena too.  Whoop de fucking doo, this got better and better.