Forbidden Temptation

by R. L. Kenderson

  What if he dies? The thought was more than Phoenix could bear, and she bit down with all her strength until she felt the life leaving Gerald’s body.

  She let go and stepped back as he slumped to the floor. Instead of feeling satisfied, she wanted him to come to life again, so she could kill him all over.

  The sound of Dante coughing pulled her from her vengeful thoughts.

  Phoenix quickly shifted back to human, practically tripping over her clothes. They were ripped from her shifting, and she pushed them off her body. She barely felt the cold air as she fell over Dante.

  “Dante.” She scanned his body, trying to find his bullet wounds, but he was completely covered in blood, and she had no idea where to put pressure. With no other options, she laid herself over him, hoping that it would help.

  “Phoenix,” Dante said as he tried to reach up and touch her. His arm fell back to his side.

  “Shh...Dante. Don’t try to talk,” she told him as she used her leg to pull her pants over to her. She reached in the pocket and pulled out her cell. It hadn’t been that long since Saxon dropped her off, so hopefully, he could come back and help her save Dante.

  “You got Saxon.”

  “Saxon, I need your help.”

  “You weren’t careful, were you?”

  “No.”

  “Shit.”

  Phoenix gave Saxon her location and the apartment number, and then she hung up.

  “Dante, help is on the way.” She looked down around them at all the blood that was on the floor. “Please, don’t die, Dante.”

  Dante coughed, and blood came out of his mouth, giving Phoenix an idea. She just had to keep him alive long enough to get him to the vampire clinic. She put her wrist up to Dante’s mouth and shook him.

  “Dante, you have to feed from me, okay?”

  Dante moaned but didn’t bite down.

  “Dante.”

  She shook him again, but he didn’t move. She took her wrist away and shifted her other hand enough for her claws to come out. She cut herself deep enough to make herself bleed and put her arm back to Dante’s mouth. After a few drops hit his tongue, he finally bit down and started sucking.

  Relieved that her plan was working, she relaxed on Dante’s chest and let him feed.

  After a minute or two, Phoenix began to feel sleepy. She knew her adrenaline was wearing off, but she had never felt so exhausted. Just as her eyes began to close and her consciousness faded, the door opened, and someone walked in.

  Her last thought was that she hoped they were safe.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  TWO DAYS LATER...

  SAXON FLIPPED THROUGH the channels on the TV, feeling bored. There was nothing on worth watching, but he had promised Dante that he wouldn’t leave the hospital room. It was the last thing Dante had said right before he closed his eyes.

  From the bed beside him, Phoenix stirred and opened her eyes.

  Saxon turned the volume down. “Sleeping Beauty awakens,” he said as he smiled down at her.

  “What happened?” Phoenix barely managed to say. Her voice was hoarse and low.

  Saxon grabbed the glass of water sitting on the stand next to her bed. “Here, drink some of this.” He held the straw up to her mouth, so she could take as much as she wanted. When she finished, he asked, “Better?”

  She licked her chapped lips and nodded. “What happened?” she asked again. This time, it came out more coherently.

  “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  She closed her eyes as she tried to remember. Suddenly, her eyes popped open. “Gerald.”

  “Dead. You made sure of that.” Saxon wasn’t proud of her for breaking the rules, but he was proud of the way she’d taken Gerald out.

  She licked her lips again. “I remember going to meet Dante to get Gerald, but that’s it.”

  “You and Dante decided to go rogue and take Gerald on your own. Apparently, he knew something was up, and he was waiting on the other side with his trusty ol’ gun.”

  “And Dante was shot,” Phoenix said, panicking as she remembered. She tried to sit up. “Oh my God, I have to see him.”

  Saxon leaped off his chair and pushed Phoenix back down. “You’re not going anywhere.”

  “But I need to see if he’s okay,” she said as she tried to fight him.

  “Shh...he’s fine.” Saxon said, trying to calm her. “At least he will be once he fully recovers. Besides, he’s lying right next to you if you want to see him.”

  Phoenix whipped her head to look to her other side. Dante was lying on his side, facing Phoenix. He had dark circles under his eyes, and a small snore escaped from between his lips.

  “What is he doing in my bed?” Phoenix said with a raised voice.

  “Shh...” Saxon told her again. “Do not wake him up.” He sat back down in the chair next to the bed. “He’s been watching over you pretty much since you both got here. It was only after I promised not to leave your side, not even to take a piss, that he let himself sleep. And even then, he still refused to go to his own room. So, please, do not wake him up. The man is exhausted and weak, and he needs to rest.”

  “But what is he doing in my bed?” she asked in a hissed whisper.

  “Do you remember anything else besides Dante getting shot?”

  She squinted as she concentrated. “Lunging for Gerald and getting his neck...killing him...laying over Dante to try to stop his bleeding...calling you for help...giving Dante my blood...and then that’s it.”

  “You saved Dante’s life by giving him your blood, but you almost got yourself killed.”

  Phoenix grimaced. “I don’t understand.”

  He couldn’t believe she was serious. “Phoenix, you were shot and losing blood yourself. You didn’t have any to spare, yet you fed Dante.”

  She looked down at herself. “I was shot?”

  “Yes, dummy. You almost died on me.”

  She put her head back against the pillow and looked at him. “I’m sorry.” She looked down again. “Why can’t I feel anything?”

  “Because you have more drugs in you than a crack house.”

  “Oh.” She scrunched up her face. “I still don’t understand why Dante is here.”

  Saxon faced the TV again as he explained, “Once he came to—which happened pretty fast, thanks to you feeding him—and found out what you did, he refused to leave your side. They had to give you a blood transfusion, and he went apeshit at anyone who volunteered, even me. Even though the doctor told Dante that he could not give up any of his blood after what had happened, he donated his blood to you. And since he’s refused to leave your side, you’ve both been recovering in here ever since. That was two days ago.”

  When Phoenix didn’t say anything in response, Saxon looked at her, only to find her sleeping again. He didn’t even know if she had heard anything he’d said. But it didn’t matter. She would hear the story again, and right now, she needed her rest.

  Saxon smiled and shook his head at his two friends. Maybe one day they’d realize they were meant to be together.

  Lexine stood outside the cat-shifter female’s door, listening to the friend tell her what had happened, feeling sick to her stomach.

  Lexine had rushed to the vampire clinic the moment she had heard Dante had been shot. Lexine had been hanging out with her new friends. Her phone had been shut off for the past couple of days since her battery died, and she hadn’t bothered to charge it. Her brother’s text was the first thing she had seen when she turned it back on, and she hadn’t thought to do anything but come to the clinic, only to find Dante’s room empty. When the nurse had told her that Dante was in Phoenix’s room, Lexine had expected to find him sitting next to her bed. When she had seen that they were sleeping in bed together, her heart fell.

  Lexine put her head back against the wall as her emotions transformed from heartbreak to rage.

  Lexine liked her new friends a lot, but she had discovered early on that they had extreme vie
ws on vampires and shifters and the fact that they shouldn’t mix. She usually tried to ignore their biased comments because she really had no hatred toward the shifters. Until now. If the stupid princess hadn’t fucked the stupid cat-shifter, the two species would never have started to comingle. And if they had never started to comingle, Dante would not be lying in the slutty cat-shifter’s bed.

  Lexine’s new friends had been careful to talk about certain things around her, but she wasn’t stupid. She had caught on to the fact that they had some sort of plans to put a separation between the vampires and cat-shifters once again. She had been a little worried that they would go forth with their plans, especially since she didn’t know the full extent of what they wanted to do.

  But now, Lexine didn’t care if what they planned to do was wrong. If it got the stupid cat-shifter’s claws out of Dante so that he would be free to be with Lexine, she would do it. She was so occupied with hate and jealousy that she didn’t even care if it was illegal.

  She pushed herself away from the wall, filled with determination. Her phone rang as her brother’s number came across it. Lexine let it go to voice mail, and instead of calling her brother back, she called her new friends to come and pick her up. She’d never thought it would happen, but betraying the Guardians would be easier than she’d ever thought possible.

  Epilogue

  TWO MONTHS LATER...

  KENZIE SHUT THE car door, and she carried the bags of groceries into the house. She started unpacking them from the bags and putting them in the cupboards when she felt strong arms come around her and a large erection push at her back.

  Sawyer nuzzled her neck and muttered, “I missed you, mate.” His hand moved from her stomach up to her breast. “I’m so glad you’re not working today.”

  She was, too, even though she loved her new job. The cat-shifters had really come through.

  “I wasn’t gone that long. I only went to check on Naya and then stopped at the grocery store.” She laughed.

  “I still missed you.” Sawyer continued to caress her as she tried to concentrate on putting away all the food.

  “I missed you, too.”

  “So, how are the parents-to-be?” Sawyer had wanted to go with her, but he’d had prior obligations to his alpha that he had already committed to.

  Kenzie paused. “Well...I guess I’d have to say they’re both going nuts.”

  With Naya’s due date just around the corner, she was miserable, and Vaughn’s attempt to make it better by hovering only made Naya feel helpless.

  “Naya hates being so huge, and Vaughn’s constant attention only makes it worse. Hopefully, those babies will choose to be born soon.”

  Sawyer rubbed her belly. “If I promise to never do that to you, will you go to the doctor and get that thing out?”

  Kenzie laughed. “Maybe soon.”

  Things had been good between the two of them, but Kenzie was being cautious not to move too fast. Technically, in the shifter world, they were already mates, but in the human world, they were just live-in boyfriend and girlfriend. She had talked to Sawyer a few times about getting married, and he’d seemed to be on board with it, but she hadn’t pushed him because she wasn’t quite ready yet. Truth be told, she was afraid of jinxing things, and she couldn’t quite let go of her superstitious feeling that something was going to ruin everything for them.

  She knew she wouldn’t feel this way forever because, every morning, she’d wake up feeling better about their relationship. It was just that, right now, she was still worried that it would all be taken away from her. It seemed silly because Sawyer had continued to go to therapy, and he’d show and tell her every day how much he loved her, but the feeling was still the same.

  Apparently, Sawyer was not the only one who had changed. Kenzie used to be much more careless with her love life, or lack thereof, and now, she was much less reckless, whereas Sawyer had never been more open with his feelings in his life.

  Sawyer continued to rub his nose across her skin when he suddenly turned stiff. He took the can out of her hand and turned her around to face him. He pushed all of her hair out of her face and stroked her cheeks with his thumbs, and he studied her.

  She grabbed his wrist. “Is everything okay?”

  He looked so serious. “You know I love you, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “And that I would never force you into anything you weren’t ready for or trick you into anything?”

  Without a moment’s hesitation, she answered, “Yes,” again.

  “I was teasing you just now, but...shit...there’s something I need to tell you.”

  Kenzie put her hands on his chest as her throat tightened with fear. Immediately, her mind began to race with every bad scenario she could think of.

  He loves me, but he needs to leave me. He thought he was ready for a relationship, but he isn’t. He loves me, but it isn’t enough. He’s fallen in love with a shifter, and he realizes that is who he’s supposed to be with.

  “Sawyer, what is it?”

  “I don’t want you to hate me.”

  She took his fear as a good sign that he wasn’t going to leave her, but until he told her what was wrong, she was going to think the worst.

  “Baby, I told you I would never hate you. Now, will you please tell me what is going on? I’m kind of starting to freak out.”

  Sawyer put one of his hands on her bicep and rubbed her arm. “It didn’t work—or rather, it stopped working.”

  She didn’t understand. “What are you talking about?”

  He nodded down to her arm. “It doesn’t work anymore.”

  She looked down at her arm, confused. Then, she suddenly realized what he was rubbing, and everything clicked. “Holy fuck, I’m pregnant.”

  Sawyer winced and nodded his head.

  She dropped her hands from Sawyer’s chest and leaned back against the kitchen counter in shock. “Oh my God. Oh my God.”

  Sawyer bent his knees to put himself more even with her line of sight. “I’m sorry, baby. I swear, I had no idea you were fertile. I would never get you pregnant without your knowledge. Please don’t hate me.”

  Kenzie looked up at him. “Huh?”

  “What’s the point of being mated to a shifter if I can’t even tell when you’re ovulating? Listen, I know you’re worried that I’m going to change my mind about being with you, and that’s why you haven’t wanted to get married yet, but I swear, I did not let this happen to trap you.”

  Kenzie looked up into Sawyer’s handsome face. She loved this man so much, and now, she was going to have his baby. She knew they had a lot to work on and work out, but just like that, she knew everything was going to be okay.

  She looked down as she put her hand on her flat stomach and whispered, “We’re going to have a half Kenzie–half Sawyer.”

  “I’m sorry. What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”

  She shrieked and threw her arms around her man. “Oh my God, we’re going to have a half Kenzie–half Sawyer.”

  Sawyer picked her up, and she wrapped her legs around his waist.

  “I know,” he said with a laugh.

  She leaned back far enough so that she could see his face. “Are you okay with this?”

  “Are you kidding me? I’m fucking ecstatic.” He brought her closer until their noses touched. “Are you okay with this?”

  She grinned at him. “More than you could ever know.”

  The End

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  R.L. Kenderson is two best friends writing under one name. Renae wrote her first poem in third grade and learned she might have a knack for this writing thing, while Lara remembers sneaking her grandmother’s Harlequin novels when she was probably too young to be reading them and always knew she wanted to write her own.

  When they met in college, they bonded over their love of reading and the TV show Charmed. What really spiced up their friendship was when Lara introduced Renae to romance novels. When they discovered their fir
st vampire romance, they knew there would always be a special place in their hearts for paranormal romance. After being unable to find certain storylines and characteristics they wanted to read about in the hundreds of books they consumed, they decided to write their own.

  They both live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area where they’re a sonographer/stay-at-home mom and pharmacist by day and a sexy author by night. You can find them at www.rlkenderson.com, R.L. Kenderson Facebook page, and R.L. Kenderson Tumblr blog or email them at rlkenderson@zoho.com. You can also find them on Twitter at @rlkenderson but don’t hold it against them that they’re not big tweeters. Some day they might get the hang of it.