Surrendering: A Regent Vampire Lords Novel, Book #1 (33 page)

Unless…click.

The puzzle pieces instantly fell into place. Xavier didn’t know because…she wasn’t
supposed
to be alive.

“Ren, urgent meeting in fifteen. My office. Bring the detective and make sure Big D is either there or available by phone.”

“On it.”

He gently woke Kate and told her he’d figured out something very important. She quickly dressed and they made their way to his office. The other lords had headed home, as it was not a smart idea to be gone from your Regent for any length of time, but they had left behind several of their best men to help with the efforts. He’d loop them in after this meeting.

He’d debated the idea on revealing Kate’s parentage, but if his theory held water, it was critical to what Xavier was doing.

When everyone was gathered, he began.

“I think I’ve figured out something important, but let me start at the beginning, because not all of you know that Kate is Xavier’s daughter.”

You could hear a pin drop, everyone, except Ren, clearly stunned. Kate sat next to Dev, a protective hand on her shoulder as he stood, addressing the group. He’d purposely put her in his chair behind his desk. He would kill anyone who tried to harm her.

“She didn’t know until just yesterday and she’s not working for Xavier. He wants her dead as much as he does us. Which brings me to the purpose of this meeting.

“I couldn’t understand why, if she was Xavier’s daughter, would he just not kill her? But I think that’s exactly what he intended to do; only I think he sent someone else to do his dirty work. Someone he trusted, who unbeknownst to him, went behind his back and let her live.” He gazed at Kate with sympathy before continuing.

“I’m sorry, love, but we need to talk to your parents. We have to find out how they came to adopt you. We have to find this person, as it may be another lead to finding Xavier.”

He didn’t wait for her consent before continuing.

“Doc, I’ve also been thinking about these young women getting pregnant and how so many of them could possibly be. We’re thinking about this wrong. We all know that a human female cannot get pregnant from a vampire unless she is his Moira and they’ve bonded. And we all know how difficult finding your Moira is, so how is it that so many females Kate saw were pregnant? It’s just not possible they have all bonded, which means they’re doing something else to impregnate them. And we need to find out what.

“Xavier must have some sort of research scientist or a team working for him to find ways to impregnate a human female without bonding. Obviously we cannot let this type of experimentation continue, at least not in this heinous fashion, but this mission has become even more critical. Not only do we need to rescue the girls and destroy Xavier, but we also need these scientists alive. And we need their records to determine if there are other female vampires out there who were also supposed to be discarded.”

Big D spoke first. “I find it curious that there is a female descendent from Xavier, but no males that we know of. Word would have leaked out by now if Xavier had male heirs. Hell, knowing Xavier, he would have shoved it down our throats himself.”

“I was thinking the same thing, Doc,” said Ren.

They formulated next steps and Dev adjourned the meeting, after agreement that Ren and Dev would be the ones to meet with Kate’s parents, along with Kate. The three of them would head there in the morning. The scout teams were not expected to return until first light, but even if they found something, they needed time to strategize on how best to handle the mission with the least amount of casualties. Dev had no doubt Xavier would try to cut his losses and kill as many girls and other humans he had in the compound, while trying to save his vampires and his own hide.

He had just shut the door to their bedroom when Kate pushed him against the door, kissing him furiously. He groaned, switching their positions so he had the upper hand. Kate may have changed Dev in ways he would never understand, but dominance wasn’t one of them. He loved it, he craved it, he needed it. He broke their kiss, searching her eyes to be sure this was what she wanted. His poor Kate continued to be bombarded with revelation after revelation. It had to be exhausting.

“Please make me forget,” she pleaded.
Fuck me hard, Dev. Fuck me now. Please.

He swiftly stripped their clothes and lifted her against the door. “Wrap your legs around my waist.” She complied.

She wanted rough and he was more than happy to oblige. With one deep thrust he was buried to the hilt in her sweet, sweet pussy. She moaned, her head falling back against the door. Her pulse beckoned to him.

“Christ, Kate. You feel so good, love.” He set a fast, punishing pace, her generous tits bouncing with each hard hammer into her body. She was mesmerizing and he couldn’t wait another second to taste her honeyed blood. His incisors sharpened and he quickly struck. Kate’s pussy immediately squeezed his cock, and he felt her shatter as she chanted his name repeatedly.

Being inside her was a feeling unlike any he had had in his long life. There were no words in any language to describe the pleasure coursing through his body. He wanted this to last forever, but the way her pussy was gripping and squeezing him, he couldn’t hold back more than several more thrusts before he was emptying himself into her, causing her to explode a second time.

At the peak of their pleasure, she none too gently bit his neck, drawing his essence into her. His orgasm went on and on for what seemed like minutes. Every time inside of her was better than before. They clung to each other as they came down from their post-orgasmic bliss, Kate’s legs still wrapped firmly around his waist.

“That was…wow.”

“I agree,” he chuckled. He pulled back to look into her lovely eyes. “Everything will be okay, you know.”

“When you tell me that, I believe you. But I’m still scared.”

“I know, my love. But I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“I know. I trust you.”

“Come on, let’s get cleaned up and get a couple hours of shut eye before our difficult day tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

As they drifted off, he hoped that tomorrow would bring answers to many unanswered questions. But he didn’t have his fucking fingers crossed.

C
hapter 57

Kate

The meeting with her parents today went better than she’d thought it would. After first profusely apologizing that they’d never told her she was adopted, they explained how she came to live with them and why they’d never told her.

They had been on a waiting list for so long, they’d given up any hope of being granted a child, so when a representative from the agency came knocking on their door late one night, with Kate in hand, they fell in love with her instantly, agreeing to adopt her. The man who dropped her off wasn’t one they had worked with before, but he told them the agency would contact them in the next few days with the paperwork to sign. Of course, they thought it slightly odd, but were so desperate for a baby, they didn’t question him. When the agency didn’t call after a couple of weeks, they followed up, but were told that a man by the name of Tom Cutler, which was the name he had given, wasn’t, nor had ever been, employed by that agency.

They panicked and by that time, they simply could not give her back, so they kept their mouths shut, withdrew their name from the adoption agency as potential candidates and moved up to northern Wisconsin, starting over with a new life, raising her. She came to find out that the birthday she celebrated wasn’t even her real birthday. The man had left no paperwork with them that evening, not even a birth certificate, so she had no idea what her actual day of birth really was. That had stung.

Obviously not able to tell the complete truth, Kate explained that Dev was her boyfriend and Ren was a good friend. They seemed very impressed with Dev. They had been after her to get married and give them grandbabies. The married part she’d accomplished. The baby part would never be. But that was okay with her, as she had Dev for eternity and he was more than enough. They left, telling her parents she would be in touch with them and they would try to make it to dinner very soon.

On the long drive back home, Dev and Ren checked out both the adoption agency and Tom Cutler. As suspected, all searches for Tom Cutler were a dead end. Of course it was an alias. Her parents didn’t remember much about what he looked like, as they were so taken with her, but they did say he was rather on the short side and had thinning hair. And that was so helpful, as that didn’t describe about two million men in this country.

As she sat on the chaise in their bedroom, frustration welled within her. She was not a violent person, but she just wanted Xavier found and killed. She desperately wanted to save all of those kidnapped girls from their daily horrors. She wanted to leave the goddamned house and do something with Dev, like normal people. She wanted to finish her dissertation paper. She wanted to veg out on the couch and watch
Real Housewives
and
Ellen
. She wanted normal.

She sighed. She wanted to go back to teaching. That was probably one of the things she was most sad about. She was literally just months away from completing her PhD and applying for a professorship that would secure her tenure and she knew there was no way she’d be able to go back to that life. So once all of this other stuff was behind her, she’d have to figure out what she could now contribute to this new life. She was not going to sleep in every day, read romance novels and wander around, waiting for Dev to finish his workday.

No.

She had a lot to give, a lot to contribute, and she wasn’t about to be a stay-at-home wife of a Vampire Lord.

And what happened when they did rescue these women? Many would need years of trauma counseling and some may not even want to return home under the scrutiny of their parents or loved ones. At least for a while. While counseling was never really Kate’s career aspiration, with her training, she knew she’d be able to help these tortured women.

The kernel of an idea started forming. She’d have to give it more thought, work out the kinks, before she talked to Dev about it, but suddenly she was very excited and had something to really look forward to after they’d taken care of the task at hand.

Feeling a bit more refreshed, she rose to find Dev, but was hit with sudden queasiness, and had to sit back down. She guessed the chicken salad sandwich she’d had for lunch wasn’t sitting well with her. She knew that damn diner they’d stopped at for lunch on the way to her parents’ house was sketchy.

She lay there for a few minutes until the worst of the nausea passed, praying she wasn’t going to spend all night worshiping the porcelain god, when she’d much rather make love to her new mate.

___________

Dev

After returning home, Kate said she was a little tired and went to rest in their room. Dev wasn’t sure if she was physically, mentally or emotionally tired, and while he didn’t want to be away from her for a minute, he wanted her to rest.

So Dev sat in his office, getting the daily update from Giselle and the detective. They’d identified several more missing girls potentially related to the dream studies and they were working on tracking down more leads. He’d asked them to check out other adoption agency registries that may have had potential parents withdraw their applications. If there were other female vampires out there, he definitely wanted to find them. And protect them. He had a feeling there were more out there than any of them knew. He would have Rom’s computer wiz help with that request as well, as it was bound to be an arduous task.

Just as Giselle was finishing her update, Ren walked in, excitement lighting up his pretty boy face.

“We have an update from the field.” The men had not finished their scout of the area last night, with only a few more houses remaining this evening.

“And?”

“We think we may have found it. Manny found shrouding over a large wooded area on the northeast part of Washington Island, north of the Door County peninsula.”

“Get everyone together in here immediately. Get Damian and Rom on the vid com. Tell Manny to leave two men there to watch for any activity and have everyone else return.”

As everyone was filing out of his office, Kate walked in. And she didn’t look well.

“What’s the matter, love? You don’t look well.”

She laughed, but it lacked her usual cheeriness. “Well that’s not something any woman wants to hear.”

He gathered her in his arms, kissing her forehead. “Bad choice of words. You look edible, as always. Just a little on the peaked side.”

“I think it was just something I ate. My stomach’s a little sour, but I’m feeling better than I was. I’ll be fine.”

“Manny thinks he found Xavier and we need to strategize. Do you want to go lie down again and I can just update you later?”

“No. I’ll be fine. I want to come. But I think I’m out on chicken salad sandwiches for the near future. Just the thought of them makes me want to vomit.”

“Well, that’s easily solved, love. Don’t think about them.” He wrapped his arm around her waist, drawing her down tightly on his lap. “Let me hold you until everyone gathers.”

“Yes, I’d like that.”

C
hapter 58