Fated

by R. L. Mathewson

  The heavy sigh that she released wasn’t really appreciated so he tried to block her out and focus on the other nipple, hoping that a little attention might be enough to get his mate focused back on what he was doing for her. Tending to her needs and making sure that she wasn’t going to die from an infection was his job, and he was damn well going to do his damn job no matter how unappreciative his mate was.

  “Seriously?” she asked, not sounding as affected as she should be and earning a glare as he took her nipple between his teeth and gently suckled.

  “We have to go,” she groaned, making him pause as he tried to figure out if that had been a, “Oh, God, Drew, please keep sucking my tits,” groan, or an, “I’m going to tear off your balls if you don’t stop,” groan.

  Deciding to risk his balls, he continued licking her breasts, closing his eyes in pleasure as he did it, because they felt so fucking good against his mouth, but the scent that was coming off her skin was so fucking intoxicating that he couldn’t think straight.

  Then again, what was there to think about when he had his mate, naked, aroused and beneath him and-

  “Mother fucker!”

  Twisting his ear to pull his mouth away from her beautiful breasts.

  She gasped in pain and immediately released his ear, probably thinking that he’d take the warning and stop, but there was just something so fucking alluring about her scent that he couldn’t seem to focus on anything else.

  He reached down to run the tip of his finger through her wet slit, licking her nipple in reward as though it had earned it. As he slipped his finger inside her and found her soaking wet, he gently suckled her nipple harder, unable to remember ever feeling a woman this wet before or this-

  He paused as a new scent, one that he’d never smelled before reached him, stopping him dead in his tracks as he prayed that he was wrong. His erection suddenly a thing of the past, he released her nipple slowly, so fucking slowly, tried to take a breath as he sat up, keeping his eyes locked with her frightened ones and raised his hand between them, feeling his stomach twist in dread.

  “Oh…God…,” Kara said hollowly the same time that he felt like he’d just been sucker punched, because the last thing that he’d expected to see when he pulled his hand away was fresh blood coating his fingers.

  Chapter 36

  “What the hell are you doing?” Drew demanded as she paused mid-sip of taking a drink of her water to give him a look that let him know that he needed to calm the fuck down or she was going to kill him.

  He ignored the look of warning, as he had for the past two hours since they’d discovered the blood, had his little meltdown, dove into a lake to quickly clean the blood off, made her do the same, backtracked to their truck, got dressed, drove a hundred miles an hour to the next pharmacy, bought two hundred dollars of what he had deemed as, “Necessary supplies,” scaring the shit of the cashier and then rushed her to a hotel just outside Boston where he carried her into the bathroom, handed her a hotel glass and demanded that “She fill it up.”

  So, to sum up how things were going so far…

  Her old Pack, the one that had shunned her because of her status, tortured her, starved her and beat her had finally found her after six decades, taking her by surprise and also forcing her to tell Drew the lovely truth about her existence. After which point she’d stormed off, determined to put as much space between her and Drew as she could so that when the meanest bitch on earth came looking for her to kill her, torture her or whatever rocked her boat, that Drew wouldn’t have to be there to see her humiliation.

  After that things became a little blurry, what with the massacre of her grandmother’s Pack and Drew losing his mind and all. Then there were the failed escape attempts, unintentionally flashing everyone on the highway and then of course Drew had another meltdown…

  Or was it still considered the same one?

  She inwardly shook that thought off, because when it came down to everything it really didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was that Drew had finally lost his mind for good. It had been something that she’d been waiting to happen for years, and something that she’d secretly hoped that she would be the cause of, but now that it had happened she really wished that she could turn the clock back and make a different wish, because this one was actually pretty damn frightening.

  “What the hell are you doing, Kara?” the insane shifter formally known as Drew, demanded once again.

  “Drinking water,” she explained as she slowly tilted back the plastic bottle of water and took a sip to show him exactly what she’d been doing.

  “Are you sure that you should be doing that?” he asked with a frown as he glanced down at that damn book that she was going to have to burn the first chance that she got.

  “Yes, yes, I’m sure that it’s perfectly okay for me to drink water,” she said, struggling to keep a firm hold on her temper, because if this had happened to anyone else, she would be laughing and teasing Drew by telling him just how cute he was being about this.

  But this wasn’t happening to anyone else.

  This was happening to her.

  “But it has no nutritional value,” Drew pointed out desperately as he searched the back of that book for a reference about water while she sat there on the bed, yes sat, because he didn’t want her to move at all until he was sure that she was done bleeding.

  She considered moving the blanket aside so that she could check for herself, but that would just piss the bastard off and earn her another lecture about interfering with his responsibilities, something that he wouldn’t seem to bend on. So, she simply sat there, sighing heavily as she took another sip of her water while Drew, more panicked than she’d ever seen him before, continued to pace the large hotel room, researching the benefits of drinking water while pregnant.

  She could point out that it was common sense that she needed to stay hydrated, but unless it was in a book or written by a doctor, he wasn’t listening to her. He also didn’t want to talk right now, which they really should do, because according to him, he needed to be prepared. They had at least six months before this baby showed up and he was doing his best to prepare himself for those six months, and judging by the pile of books on the table, the first five years of their baby’s life.

  This was definitely going to be an interesting time, she thought dryly as she took another sip, ignoring the questioning glare that he kept shooting her until finally, she couldn’t take it anymore.

  “What?” she snapped, annoyed with the overprotective bastard.

  He cleared his throat uncomfortably as he looked away from her stomach, down to the large, natural bulge of his cock and then back at her stomach again. “How do we know that the baby doesn’t need to drink blood?” he finally asked, sounding a little embarrassed about not knowing what she needed.

  Frowning, she asked, “Why would you assume that I need to drink blood like some leech?”

  Clearing his throat as he shifted uncomfortably, he admitted on a mumble, “Because you’re an impure.”

  *-*-*-*

  When she didn’t say anything for a full minute, he realized that he might have made a tactical error, one that he desperately wanted to take back.

  Beautiful silver eyes narrowed on him as Kara slowly climbed off the bed and walked towards him, taking slow sips of her water as she did it, which for some unknown reason made his balls twitch in fear. Keeping those beautiful eyes locked on him, she said, “Just ask your damn question, Drew.”

  Well, considering that he had so many questions to ask her, it was a bit difficult narrowing it down to just one, but since that look she was giving him told him to cut the shit and just ask the damn question that he was obviously dying to know, he did just that.

  “What are you?” he asked, and maybe he was wrong about that expression on her face, because she suddenly looked very serious and-

  Oh, shit…

  “What am I?” she demanded as the tears started flowing down her beautiful fa
ce. “What am I?” she demanded hollowly, shaking her head in disbelief as she wrapped her arms around herself, turned around and crawled back on the bed where she faced away from him as she curled up into a ball, adding a little sniffle at the end there just in case he didn’t already feel like an asshole.

  Dropping his face in his hands, and feeling a bit sick to his stomach, he couldn’t help but wonder where he’d gone wrong. That is, until the little faker gave herself away.

  “D-do you think that you could order something to eat? I’m getting kind of hungry.”

  “Sure,” he said slowly as he narrowed his eyes suspiciously on his mate. “What do you want?”

  “Rotted meat with a side of maggots and a big glass of double O negative blood would really hit the spot,” she whispered, adding another sniffle as he dropped his hands so that he could glare at her.

  “This is serious, woman!” he snapped, instantly feeling like an asshole for yelling at the woman carrying his baby, but he couldn’t help it.

  She just had a way of pushing all the right buttons and making him want to put her over his knee and spank that beautiful ass-

  Wait.

  Could he spank her while she was pregnant? God, he hoped so. He loved it when he took her from behind and slapped that beautiful ass of hers, listening to her moan as she rewarded his cock with a tightening of her pussy. He loved spanking her, but if he had to wait until after the baby was born, then he would just have to suck it up.

  “Why are you sighing heavily?” she asked, making him realize that he’d completely forgotten what they were talking about, but instead of admitting that, he went on the defensive.

  “You know why!” he snapped, making sure to sound completely justified, which once again had the unpleasant reaction of making him feel like a complete douchebag for raising his voice to her.

  Not even five months ago he would have screamed at her, calling her every name in the book except for the ones that even he wouldn’t say to a woman and laughed when she gave it back just as good, but now, he was a fucking mess and it was all her fault.

  “If you want to know what I am, then just ask!” she snapped, admittedly sounding a little bitchy.

  Having been around enough pregnant shifters in his Pack over the years, he decided that it might be best for everyone’s safety if he put some food in her stomach before they had this discussion, especially if he wanted to keep his balls on the outside of his body where they belonged.

  Chapter 37

  “So, what are you exactly?” Drew asked, surprising her, not because he asked, but because she’d made a personal bet with herself that he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from bombarding her with questions once the food arrived, but he’d taken her by surprise and managed to hold them back until long after he’d made sure that she was well fed, bathed, dried and tucked into the nice comfortable bed.

  Maybe he was hoping that pampering her would make her compliant?

  It probably would have, but she was done playing games. She wasn’t sure if it was because she trusted him or if she was just honestly sick of living a lie. She was so sick of running, of looking over her shoulder, wondering when the day would come that her Pack finally came to take its property back.

  She always figured that when that day came, and she’d always knew that it would come, that Drew would happily turn her over without a second thought. What she really hadn’t expected was for him to lose it and kill half of her grandmother’s Pack in what could have easily passed for a massacre scene in a major horror movie.

  “Does it really matter?” she asked with a careless shrug, trying to pretend that she wasn’t terrified of his answer.

  “Not really,” he said, sounding like he honestly didn’t care, but she knew that he did.

  He had to care.

  There wasn’t a shifter alive, especially an Alpha, who wasn’t concerned with his bloodlines remaining pure and powerful. Most Packs like the one that her Grandmother ran, may the old bitch rest in many pieces and rot for eternity, would have decided to severe