Moon Sworn (The Bound Series Book 1) (15 page)

"Where was I?" she said taking the lid off her coffee and taking a sip before putting it down on the table.  "Okay, a Phoenix is born human the same as every other shifter on the planet and doesn't shift until they reach their immortality.  A Phoenix shifter is a little different than the others though, for a Phoenix to gain their immortality, they first need to die.  The body then needs to be burned and they are then re-born immortal from the flames, but it doesn't happen overnight." 

Jaden felt Maya in his head, a cry for help.  He heard the hitch in her breathing as she again saw the lifeless body of her mother.  Her blank eyes open, shocked and staring into her own horrified ones as the flames ravaged her body before the inferno obliterated her.

'Breath, she's here, she's safe.  I know it was horrific to have to go through that, to witness her murder and to think you'd lost her forever, but you have her back now.  Breath baby, take a breath,
' Jaden whispered to her as he moved one of his hands to the nape of her neck and began to soothe her the only way he knew how.  He kneaded the muscles in the back of her neck, trying to get her to relax and release the tension in her body.  The vision in her mind didn't waver, her breathing became shallow, she was going into shock and he released the hand that was holding her own to his thigh.  Pushing his hands under her thighs he lifted her onto his knee and held her to him.  Brushing a hand down her back as he rocked her, her head tucked beneath his chin.  He didn’t give a shit that they were being observed by the others, he blocked them out because all he cared about was that his mate needed him, and he needed to provide her with whatever it was that she needed.

All Maya could see were her mother's lifeless eyes, fixed and staring into her own as the flames swept up her body, engulfing her in a fireball, the smell of burning flesh, thick and fetid in her nostrils.  The crackle of the fire as it took hold and began to sweep through the room, over loud in her head.  She also heard her father laughing as he walked away.

"Burn in hell, bitch, and that little witch too" he shouted as he again laughed.  She huddled in the cupboard, her hands around her knees as tears fell without a sound as she rocked herself.  Screaming in her head for her mother as she huddled there, the cupboard door getting warmer, the smoke getting thicker until her chest hurt and her eyes stung.

'Enough Maya, let it go, come back to me, come back.'

She tried to dislodge the images, and smells but they were fixed there, continuing to play as she crawled along the dirt tunnel her mother had dug for her, dragging her raggedy bunny bear along with her and her spray bottle.

'Maya, drop it now, I'm telling you come back, come back now or you'll be sorry.  I'll make you pay for what you are doing to me now I swear to god, I'll tan your hide in front of everyone.  Do you hear me, drop it?  Shit Maya please.'

Then her mouth was taken, possessed, hard lips pressing against her own, a tongue pushing into her mouth and she took in a startled breath, bringing his taste and smell in with it.

'Jaden'
a whisper, a plea for help
.

'I've got you, give yourself to me.'
She opened her mouth fully to him and he swept inside, his taste and presence pushing aside everything else as he ravaged her mouth.  His heart beat thudding against her own, the sound soothing.

He felt her moving in his mind, slowly the door began to shut on the memories.  He helped her slam it closed and lock it up tight as he continued to kiss her, pouring himself into her, everything he was his strength, his need.  Releasing her mouth with one last feather light brush as he rested his forehead to her.

'You back with me?
' he felt her nod and her eyes opened and stared directly into his dark amber eyes that were full of worry.

'Thank you
,' she grinned shakily at him, you have your uses.

'You definitely owe me a blow job for that one
,' he informed her with a crooked grin as he laughed and kissed her nose before pushing her head under his chin again and turning to her mother.

"You were saying?" he asked, pretending as if absolutely nothing untoward had just happened.  Maya's mother was looking at him as if he was some kind of strange species she'd never come across before and he looked up to figure out what was going on and found Sam and Binks watching him too.  They both wore frowns as they looked from him to Maya and back again and then Binks made a whip gesture with his hand.  Jaden hissed at him, he would have liked to tell him to fuck himself (not that that would be possible at the moment) and the thought actually cheered him up.  He just grinned at his brother and shrugged.

"Your time will come little brother," he watched Binks swallow and nod in return his grin fading slightly as he looked over at him.  He ignored him and looked back towards her mother.

"You were saying?"

"You really are different," she said looking from him to Maya and back again.

"Jesus, I have not grown a second head that I know of, can we just get this over with.  You said she was in danger for Christ, sake, spit it out.  Whatever it is you have to say, say it, I'm aging by the second here," Maya moved against him and a hiss sounded in his head.

"You be quiet and just sit there.  No more scares for one day, sit and listen and just look pretty." He informed her and she subsided against him with another hiss, he jumped when she bit his chest and sat up.

"Do not tell me or my mother to be quiet," she informed him as she glared at him.  He grinned as he rubbed the spot her sharp little teeth had just tried to take a slice out of him from.

"You're grinning, seriously?"

"Yeah, you're adorable when you're angry," he told her and pulled her back into him. 

Maya gave in and just leaned against him, she may have just claimed the woman as her mother, but it would still take some getting used to.  She'd not been in her life for nearly 21-years.  That was a long time, and she heard Jaden snort.

'Try 190-years and then try to wrap your head around it
.'  Maya conceded that it would take some time and maybe she was asking a little much of him to get over what had happened with his brother.

'
I'll get there with Balin, as will you with your mother, we just need to listen now, okay?
' She nodded and leaned back against him as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Anyway, as I was saying. I may have put her in danger by coming here.  I'm so sorry Maya, I just needed to see you.  As soon as everything came back to me I came looking for you," her mother said.

"I have a question though, if you are a Phoenix, why is Maya a Jaguar?" Jaden asked.   Binks and Sam looked at him as if to say duh, and Maya's mother blinked a couple of times.

"I thought you knew of our kind?"

"I do, but not everything certain things happened in my past too so my knowledge is very small.  I've kept to myself and haven't mixed much," he admitted grudgingly

"Okay, well with a Phoenix anyway the child's shifter is determined by the father's.  Therefore in Maya's case she will also be a Jaguar, it isn't the case with every race but it is with Phoenix.  That is why there are so few, compared with the others." She informed them and Binks looked towards him as if to say anything else you want to interrupt for and he showed him the birdie and Maya's mother blinked at him.

"Sorry, I meant that for my brother not you." He actually blushed, God, he couldn’t remember the last time he'd done that.  She leaned over the table and patted his knee like a child and he blinked a couple of time, I mean he was over 200-years old.  He heard Maya snort in his head.

"Anyway as I was saying I think I've put Maya in danger by being here, her father will come after me and I look forward to it this time.  I have more the play with now than I did before so he'll be sorry.  I just don't want Maya in the way, I didn't want to bring her into this but I may have already done so."

"How long have you been around?" Sam asked, and she turned in her seat to look at him.

"I only arrived in the area yesterday evening.  I booked into the hotel, but I'll be leaving again after this.  I don't want Maya put in harm's way because of me.  Once it's sorted out and he's no longer a danger to her, I'll come back and we'll get to know each other all over again."

"It's already too late," Jaden told her and she turned and pinned him with her dark eyes, the same navy blue as Maya's.

"Explain please?" she said, sounding more like a school teacher than a young woman.

"Maya is already being stalked, hence Jaden being here.  She's been being stalked by at least 2 that we know of." She hissed.

"Is that jackal with them?"

"Jackal?" Sam asked.

"Yes, Aidan my bound mate, not that he went through the moon binding with me.  He wanted me tied to him so he could have a child, he just didn't want me coming into my immortality.  Idiot thought I was just another Jaguar like him."  Maya sat up now and looked at her mother.

"What do you mean he bound you but didn't go through with the binding, what is the difference?"  Maya looked from her mother towards the men in the room but not one of them said a thing and her mother smiled.

"It's something we aren’t meant to know of, and something the males aren't allowed to divulge.  Mother Nature made sure they couldn't.  They are physically incapable of telling us they are meant to use persuasion to get a mate to agree to the binding.   There are certain things, and certain species once they are bound only have 5-years to find a mate.  With some it's more with others it's less."  She took a breath and looked towards the men with a brow raised and then back to Maya. 

"Anyway if they find their mate in time, they are then classed as bound to you, but on the next full moon if you sleep together." She blushed as she said this, and Jaden spoke up as Maya looked so confused.

"
Your mother is uncomfortable saying the word sex in front of you
,"
Jaden smirked at her and Maya blushed.

"Oh."

"Yes, quite," her mother said, "Thank you for explaining that bit for me at least, I still think of her as a child.  It will still take some getting used to," she admitted.

"Anyway the circles connect and you become bound, but there is a further process that will set you into your immortality and allow you to shift.  While the male, while he… as you… under the moon."  She blew out a breath and took another drink from the Styrofoam cup, then cleared her throat.

"Once he finishes inside you, he marks you, but it has to be when the full moon is out.  But he also has to ask for your consent, and it must be given freely, hence them not being able to influence you.  If it is not given freely or you decide you do not wish to be bound, the relationship will dissolve after the 5-years are up.  Which is fine for the women, we can go on to have further relationships." Maya frowned at this but Jaden wouldn't meet her eyes.

"Why is if fine for the women and not the men?" Maya asked her.

"I believe they lose their immortality if it isn't given freely or if they find a way to tell you.  If that happens they turn fully into their animal form and can no longer become man again.  Once that happens, they no longer have any humanity either and their life span becomes that of their animal.  They die alone wondering the earth as their animal dear." Her mother told her and Maya's shocked eyes turned to Jaden.

"You'd die, and you aren't allowed to tell us.  That's the reason you actually thought about leaving the other shifter to it, wasn't it, why, what is the reason for that?" Jaden refused to look at her and looked towards his brother instead.  He couldn't believe her mother was spilling the beans or that she even knew, and she kept on talking giving away all the males secrets.

"If you are killed before the 5-years are up he is released from the bond which then leaves him fully immortal and no longer bonded.  He can carry on through eternity wandering from bed to bed with whichever female takes his fancy." Her mother told her and Maya leaned back into him.

'You could have freed yourself yet you still chose to stick by me, even knowing it could cost you your life?
' Jaden just looked at her but refused to say anything a tick starting in his jaw.

"Thank you," Maya said out loud and leaned into him and kissed his mouth softly, he pulled back and looked at her with a frown.

"You could have let me die, left me to him and guaranteed your own survival and yet you still came to my rescue.  That tells me more about your character than anything else ever could have.  You put my life before your own, I couldn’t do any less for you."

His eyes searched hers.  Now was not the time for this kind of discussion.  There were psychopaths on her tail and his future mother-in-law truly could breathe fire, he actually grinned at that one.

'Idiot.  She's not a dragon, she's a Phoenix,'
she said the word wistfully.

'We have no choice with mates Maya, in most cases it works out well.  Your parent's are the exception to the rule.  My parents always seemed happy together, my father truly loved my mother I don’t know what happened to yours.  I'm sorry
,' She looked at him, kissed his cheek and leaned into him again as she turned to her mother.