Mated & Blooded, A Blood Ties Novel, Book 1 (6 page)

I let out the breath I hadn’t even realized
I’d been holding, and turned to face my mate. She was still not
moving. It was like she was hypnotized, her eyes were closed, her
lips were slightly parted and her body was swaying gently with the
breeze. My wolf howled at her, then rubbed back and forth across
her legs. There was no reaction.

I phased back to human, and reached to pull
her towards me. She was so soft and pliant in my arms, but still
she hadn’t opened her eyes. I wondered what the vampire had done to
her, and how long the vampires’ effect would hold onto her. I
lifted her into my arms and carried her back into the house. I took
her straight to the bedroom and laid her on the bed. I climbed in
beside her and pulled her tightly into my arms. I laid there
waiting for the sun to rise and my beautiful mate to come back to
me.

Minutes became hours. As time moved slowly
past, I found myself replaying the conversations I’d had with my
father, mother and several pack members last night. My father had
been angry. Angrier than I think I’d ever heard him before. He was
very clear that he felt I needed to quickly reject my mate and
return home. He threw out some ultimatums, and made sure I
understood his comments were really orders from my alpha. It was
very clear; if I wanted to come back I had better not be bonded to
Kalli. If I was, that meant I had gone against a direct order from
my alpha. I would be immediately thrown out of the pack. I would
lose my right to challenge my father and become alpha. Kalli and I
would be forced to live as outcasts unprotected by pack.

Last night’s little adventure showed just how
dangerous that could be. Pack was important if we wanted to
survive. I was going to have to hold off on bonding with Kalli
until after I officially challenged my father to become the new
alpha. I was sure I was strong enough to win a fight against my
father. I just wasn’t sure I wanted the responsibility of leading
the pack yet. I’d taken Kalli upstairs after that phone call, so I
could have some time to think and call a few of my closest
friends.

I started my calls with Rob. He was my half
brother and would be my beta when I became alpha. We shared a
father but had a different mother. I called Ryan next, Robs twin
brother and my other half brother. Rob and Ryan were just three
months younger than I was. Rob is older than Ryan by mere minutes.
Had they been born first dad would have married their mom and they
would be the next in line to be alpha instead of me.

I then called in quick succession Joel, Lance
and Cody. Each call I made was worse than the one before it.
Everyone one of my so called friends turned their back on my mate,
which really means they turned their back on me. Each of them had a
different take, but all of them thought it would be better if I’d
rejected my mate.

First they would get excited and congratulate
me on finding my mate. Then, when they realized it was Kalli, they
would get shocked. Here’s where it varied. Some would be sad for
me; some would get quiet and afraid to say anything, Lance was
actually stupid enough to say bad things about my mate.

Eventually the conversation would move on to
what my dad said and my need to issue an alpha challenge. Everyone
believed I would easily beat my father in a fight with no problem.
All of them however, thought it was foolish and that I should just
leave Kalli here and come back unmated.

In desperation, I called my mother. The one
person I thought would understand why I needed to keep Kalli and
bond with her. My mother cried harder with every word I said, until
she too finally said I was better off without Kalli. She was wrong.
They were all wrong. I was nothing without Kalli. I was never going
to let her go. She was going to accept me, and we are going to bond
and nothing is going to stop me.

I would return to the pack unmated, but Kalli
would be with me. I would make an alpha challenge to my father and
I would win. I would be Alpha and Kalli would be my Luna. There was
no other option. I just wanted a few days alone with Kalli before
going home. Hopefully, she would understand when I explained it to
her and agree to stay with me for a few days here before we headed
back.

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.

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 tears 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.