by JF Holland
"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.
"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 pla
net 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 lik
e 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.
