Chapter 10
(Kalli POV)
I had slept most of the morning away. It was well past midday before I opened my eyes. I instantly knew that Lucas was laying next me. He seemed to sense the moment I came awake and pressed a kiss to my forehead.
“Good morning beautiful. Did you sleep well?” he asked in a husky sexy voice.
Wow, I could get used to waking up next to him. He is so warm and sexy. Wait a minute, how did he manage to slip into the bed while I was sleeping. I was a very light sleeper I should have noticed. I couldn’t stop myself for saying out loud
“Wow you must have super stealth skills to manage to sneak into bed with me and not wake me. Usually someone walking past my house is enough to wake me up.”
Lucas looked at me strangely then shrugged his shoulders and said the oddest thing
“You must have been really exhausted last night. I could have carried you through the woods without waking you from your sleep”
The word woods made me faintly remembered the strange dream I had last night with the vampire. I was trying hard to bring it clearer into my mind when Lucas kissed me. Every thought I had deserted my mind. The only things I was capable of thinking about was the texture and feel of his lips on mine. He pulled back and bestowed a huge smile on me.
“Come on beautiful. I am starving. Let’s go downstairs and get something to eat”
We spent the next hour amicably chatting in the kitchen while we managed to cook fresh pancakes from scratch with blueberries and a side of bacon. We played twenty questions so we could learn about each others likes and dislikes. We named off our favorite colors, flowers, names, places, books, movies and TV shows. He told me about his family and friends. Then we went for a really nice walk around the property. Turns out the land was in his mother’s family for more than the last two hundred years. It once was home to a small pack called BlueRidge. I was well over twenty acres and had several more home spread throughout it.
BlueRidge pack combined not long after his mother and father married. According to the story since his grandfather had only given birth to females, and no other male in the pack challenged to be alpha prior to him passing, the pack felt it was natural to follow his mother and join our pack. The land had been untouched until about a year ago when Lucas felt a strong desire to rebuild the pack house.
Throughout the day, Lucas and I talked about everything and anything but our future. Most of the conversation stayed pretty light with a few exceptions like his mom and dad’s relationship, and the loss his mother felt over true mate. He asked me how my mother dealt with the loss of my father. He asked about my mom and dad, but I told him that was her story to tell no mine. I was surprised by how comfortable I was talking with Lucas.
I had also gotten very comfortable touching Lucas and having him touch me. It was strange how I didn’t even flinch anymore. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world to me now. We held hands the entire time we walked, and then he would randomly stop lift me into his arms and spin me around and place a kiss on my lips. It was everything I could ever dream of wanting. Every romance novel I had ever read never could have prepared me for how good my real day was. Oh, part of me knew that all of this was going to come to an end, but I will never get this chance again. My mother said
“It is better to have known love and lost it, than to have never known it at all.”
When I woke up with Lucas beside me, I knew she was right. I would embrace every moment I had with Lucas and not worry about tomorrow until tomorrow came. If he wanted to bond with me, we would bond. If he wants to kiss, we’ll kiss. If wants to sleep next to me I will snuggle with him. I will give him my heart, body and soul and leave it in his care until he no longer wants it. When the time comes, and I lose him, I will remember our time together and know that it was worth it.
Just before we decided it was time for bed, Lucas finally brought up our future. He used a lot of words and back tracked and even double talked a couple of times, but basically he avoided telling me his father was not in favor of our mating and that we needed to wait to bond until we had the official bonding ceremony in front of the pack.
Lucas let me know we were going to spend a few days here in the BlueRidge pack house before we go back and deal with our pack. I wish I believed and agreed with everything he said. I just didn’t though. Not that he really asked my opinion or gave me a choice. He spoke like this was going to be easy, I knew that was never going to happen. The pack had seventeen years to learn to hate me. It was going to take a lot more than an ancient bonding ceremony for them to throw open their arms and accept me.
That however was something I kept to myself. I didn’t want any conflict with Lucas. I didn’t want anything to spoil the short time I was going to have with him. I needed this time, I deserved it. So when he took my hand and led my upstairs for bed I smiled my brightest smile and followed him.
(Nikoli’s POV)
It was impossible; my beloved could not be a werewolf. A werewolf isn’t capable of being turned, and we can’t be blooded. In order for us to be blooded soul mates, we would need to feed from each other and since she is a wolf that was impossible. Wolves’ blood is poisonous to us. We may bite wolves during a fight, but we never swallow their blood.
Unlike the wolves we are immortal. Only four things can kill us. First and most commonly known method is completely severing our heads from our shoulders. This is a task easier said than done since there is no creature alive that is stronger than a vampire.
The second and most misunderstood method is removing our heart from our chest and completely destroying it. Most of the time, humans and wolves alike stab at our hearts and leave us for dead. They misunderstand and think they have killed us. Occasionally they will know they should remove our heart, then foolishly don’t know to destroy it. Either way, even a small undamaged piece left behind can be regenerated and we can completely recover. We can even shove back in the damaged removed heart and can regenerate.
The third and again misunderstood is sunlight. While we can tolerate a little sunlight, prolonged exposure causes severe burns, and eventually death. By prolonged I mean days of exposure not hours.
The final way, and most deadly way to kill a vampire is the consumption of wolf blood. This is a secret that vampires never share outside of our own race. If wolves or humans knew how deadly wolf blood was to us, they would use it to their advantage. This was our best kept secret.
Last night, when I heard my beloveds’ soul calling out to me I was ecstatic. I have waited for my beloved for nearly three hundred years. Over the years I had dreamed of what she would be like. I had hoped that my beloved would be young enough when I found her to have a blooded couple turn her so that she could be immortal and we could spend eternity together.
This however is very rare, more likely when I found her she would have already lived too many years as a human and no longer be capable being turned. That was okay with me; Many blooded couples consisted of a vampire and human. We simply shared our immortal blood with our beloved and it expanded their life three to five times a normal human. I would gladly spend the next three hundred plus years loving my blooded human. When my beloveds’ time was up, I would join her.
What I never expected and could not accept was that my beloved was a wolf. I would have less than a normal lifetime with a wolf. She is mortal, her life can’t be extended by drinking my blood, and I can never drink hers. I could never blood her. Having a beloved that was unblooded was unheard of. The truth is, even when we found our beloved as infants we immediately blooded with them. Blooding is the essence of our race. When we mix our blood our souls dance with each other and we become one.
Without blooding, I would continue to decay, my heart would not beat, and our souls would never dance together. Being near me would cause her such pain. Her soul would call out day and night and mine would not be able to answer. It would eventually drive her insane. It would feel like constant rejection. I felt blood te
ars leak from my eyes. I had found my beloved but would never be able to be with her.
It been so hard to leave her last night. She was standing there with her soul shouting for mine to dance with her. I wanted to so badly. It would have been so easy if she’d been human. I caught the scent of her wolf just moments before I touched her. Then, the second wolf appeared and I realized it was her pack mate. He looked so protective and clearly felt strongly enough about her to sacrifice himself since he couldn’t possibly win a fight against me.
I sniffed again hoping that my nose had been wrong the first time. It wasn’t. She was definitely wolf; I took one more look at her, then her protector and made my decision. I would have to leave her in the male wolves care perhaps he could keep her safe and happy.
I turned and ran as fast as I could from by beloved. I felt like my heart was being severed in half. I could only pray that she had a good life. I could not be part of her life without driving her insane.
Knowing that I was losing my beloved before I had even had a chance to love her left me weary of this world. Without the prospect of a life with my beloved, I no longer wanted to walk this earth. I would watch her from a distance for a short while to make sure she had all the good things in life, and then I would seek the sun and my final rest.
Chapter 11
(Kalli POV)
I was kind of melancholy as we got back into Lucas’s mustang to head back to the pack. I couldn’t help but feel like bad things were coming our way. Over the past few days Lucas shared with me all the things that I already knew but was afraid to say out loud. Turns out his head wasn’t in the clouds. He knew just how bad mating with me could be. He knew that his father would demand he reject me. He knew he might have to challenge for Alpha. He knew his friends might denounce him. He knew the pack might not accept him as Alpha even if he won the challenge.
Worse, he convinced me that no matter what the pack decided, no matter what obstacles were put in our way Lucas was not willing give me up. He would fight his father to be Alpha. He would fight the pack if they dared to exile him. He would leave them all behind to suffer without a true Alpha, and move with me to BlueRidge if necessary. Lucas was never going to give me up. I believed him now.
Our time over the past week had convinced me. Lucas believed I was his other half, and that his destiny in life was to protect and please me. I also knew that the pack would never accept me. That the worst case scenario was the most likely. I just prayed to god that I was wrong. Lucas was an alpha meant to rule, not a loner meant to live in the shadows.
Every single mile we moved closer to pack territory was like a knife in my side. It was getting hard to breathe. The fear was palatable and clung heavily around me. I felt like my soul was getting sucked out of my body. More than once I moaned in actual physical pain. Each mile away from BlueRidge left me feeling dull and desperate to go back. Lucas asked me several times if I was fine I kept saying I was hunky-dory but he wasn’t buying it. Finally just to calm him down, I told him that I was a little hungry. He pulled over at the next rest stop with the intention of buying us some food.
“What do you want babe?” He asked.
That’s when it hit me. I really was hungry. Not for food for blood. My cheeks turned bright red. I hadn’t had any fresh blood since the day we left school together. That was well over a week ago. No wonder why I was in physical pain. I opened my mouth to tell him when an intense pain shot through my body. I screamed out in agony and doubled over in the car seat. Lucas darted around the car and pulled open my door.
“Oh god babe, what’s wrong. Please tell me what’s wrong so I can help!”
My vision was blurring, my breathing had gotten very shallow, and I felt like I was on the verge of passing out. I used the last ounce of strength to murmur
“blood”
Lucas must have heard me because within seconds I felt his arm pushing into my mouth. I know he was speaking to me, but I just couldn’t make out the words. My head was spinning and I kept having this strange feeling like I shouldn’t be drinking Lucas’s blood I should be drinking someone other than his. It made me think about the dream I’d had the first night we stayed in BlueRidge.
It had been such a strange dream, and for some reason I seemed to keep day dreaming about the dream. I kept trying to remember why the dream was so important. It was like my soul was trying to tell me something but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Then, as I felt the first drop of blood pumped through my heart it was suddenly very clear.
In the dream, I had met my soul mate, but in the dream it wasn’t Lucas. In my dream my soul mate was almost the mirror opposite of Lucas. He was tall, lithe and light haired. But it wasn’t just physical appearance that was different. In an instant I knew everything there was to know about my mate. It’s as if our souls were bared to each other and every intimate detail about ourselves had been shared.
This mate was in many ways the opposite of Lucas. I knew he would be hard where Lucas was soft. He would be cold where Lucas was warm. He would be reasonable where Lucas was demanding. He would be rough where Lucas was gentle. He would be carefree where Lucas was duty bound. He would be funny where Lucas was serious. He would be a mate that forced me to be all I could be and take all that I could give, while Lucas was a mate that would give all he could give, and take only what he needed.
I knew he would love me heart body and soul for being exactly who I am. That I would be his beginning and his end and that he would be mine as well. He would love only me. No other in his lifetime. He needed no pack or justification from anyone else.
Lucas’s blood started making its way through my system and I could feel myself getting stronger. The stronger I got the less the dream made sense. It started to get fuzzy around the edges. I started to come around and could hear Lucas apologizing and calling himself stupid over and over again for not providing for me. He promised to make sure I never went hungry again. He felt that it was his responsibility to make sure that I was taken care of.
Mother told me it’s very traditional for the male wolf to provide and coddle the female wolves. They like to make sure their mates never want for anything. Often the shewolves are kept like china dolls on a shelf. I had never thought that I would enjoy being treated like I was so breakable. But the way Lucas hung on my every word and need was kind of a major turn on.
Who would have thought that such a powerful wolf would bend over backwards to try and make me happy. He would put the average gentleman to shame. Lucas went above and beyond in everything he did for me. I’d finished feeding and thanked Lucas who still looked upset with himself. I kissed him several times, and promised he could make it up to me once we could officially bond. That seemed to perk him up.
He ran in and grabbed some burgers and we got back on the road. We arrived back in pack territory by mid day. Lucas said he was going to take me to mothers while he went to the main pack house to speak with his father. He promised not to be gone longer than a few hours and told me not to leave the house until he returned for me.
I was so scared worrying about what was going to happen. Would he have to issue a challenge to his father? What if he didn’t win? What if he was seriously injured? What if he did win and the pack still rejected him? I couldn’t stop my heart sinking. By the time I got through my front door I was a nervous wreck. I felt like I was falling apart from the inside out.
I started crying the moment I saw my mom. The next several hours were very strained while mom and I sat on pins and needles waiting to hear what was going on. Mom kept telling me not to worry that Lucas had thought of everything.
Turns out that Lucas had given my mom specific instructions on what to do with and for me in his absence. Worse, he had given her orders in the event of several outcomes on where and how she was to take me to safety. She wasn’t able to tell me much of anything since the alpha ordered her. Apparently he also forced several weaker wolves to also do his bidding. There were currently four wolves standing guard in t
he front and back of the house.
I was a little upset that Lucas hadn’t told me about it, and that he used his alpha on my mom, but mom kept saying that I should be happy that he cares enough about me to protect me anyway he can. I guess I could sort of agree with her, but it still bothered me a little. Finally Lucas called,
“Hey baby, I don’t have much time to talk but I needed to hear your voice and know that you are fine.”
I told him that I was fine but wanted to know what was going on. He used a lot of words but really didn’t tell me anything concrete. I pushed a bit harder for some solid answers when he finally said
“Well, babe honestly it could have gone a lot worse. Dad isn’t accepting this graciously but he has accepted my official alpha challenge. We agreed to fight tomorrow at sundown. I am going to spend a little time here with my mom then go over and talk to a few of my closer friends. I need to find out how many of the pack will support me as alpha. I’m not sure how much longer I am going to be, but I promise I will come to you as soon as I can.”
Hearing his words sent me back into a panic. I was crying and begging him not to fight his dad for me. I wasn’t worth it.
“Please Lucas, don’t do this. You need your pack. Let me go Lucas so that you can have a good life” Lucas growled into the phone at me.
Mated & Blooded, A Blood Ties Novel, Book 1 Page 5
