Reyna landed with Jorlan in a tangle of legs and paws on her bedroom floor. Not having time to think it through or plan, she was grateful they hadn’t landed on the dresser, or in the tub. Immediately she nudged him onto his back to examine his throat where the vampyr had grabbed him. She should have bitten his head off. Would have if the asshole hadn’t moved at the last moment.
Using a paw, she lightly patted his cheek. Jorlan.
Please let him be all right, she prayed. Blood was everywhere, seeping and pouring out of various puncture wounds and slashes. Reyna licked at the gouged flesh, forcing healing saliva into it.
Jorlan, speak to me.
His breath came in small rasps, his lips had a blue tinge to them, and blood bubbled from his mouth. There was so much damage, she was scared to leave him and call for help.
Reyna… Even his mental voice was weak, strained with pain.
Jorlan?
Blood…wounds…heal.
I’m trying to heal you. There’s too much damage.
Shift…your blood…heal wound. He passed out.
Jorlan. Jorlan!
No answer. What did that mean?
He’d said, “Shift.” She changed back to her human form. Now what?
Your blood…heal wound.
How? She looked at his mangled throat. Jorlan didn’t have time for her to sit here and figure it out. She needed to act and act now.
Raising her wrist to her mouth, she ripped a hole in it with her teeth. When the blood was flowing freely, she held it over the gaping meat of his neck and let the blood drip into the wound, pulling the pieces apart and holding it open so her blood completely saturated it. Then she opened Jorlan’s mouth and allowed her blood to fill his mouth, praying he wouldn’t choke. Beginning to feel lightheaded, she sucked on her wrist until she felt the flesh knitting back together.
Jorlan was as still as death.
“Damn it, don’t you die on me.” Jorlan had been her friend, her confidant, playmate, and protector. He was always daring her to do the impossible, and somehow with his constant support and much needed approval, she managed to achieve it. He couldn’t leave her now. He was the only one who understood her, the only one to fully accept her.
She beat on his chest. “Live, damn you. Live! You’re too ornery to die.” She collapsed on top of him, crying. “Don’t leave me.”
Two strong arms came up to embrace her. Why, Kitten, I didn’t know you cared.
Her head snapped up. “Damn it, Jorlan, you scared me.”
Sorry, doll. It’s not as bad as it looks.
“You passed out,” she complained.
Blood loss. Feeling better already.
“You don’t look it.” There was still so much blood—his and hers—that she couldn’t see if the flesh was healing, but he was well enough to joke. She’d take whatever she could get.
Soon as I shift I’ll be good as new. However you, my dear, are in major trouble. You do realize that was your husband whose head you were trying to remove?
“I don’t have husband.”
That might have been true two days ago, but not now.
“Felini don’t marry. We don’t mate. We breed,” she stubbornly insisted.
But you’re more than just Felini, aren’t you? It’s time you embrace your other half, Reyna. Only then will you be all you’re meant to be.
It wasn’t the first time she’d heard this same lecture from Jorlan. However, this was the first time she might not have a choice. Something had happened to her Friday night, causing her to change. While the Felini part of her had instinctively responded to the threat to someone she loved, another part of her—one that seemed to be growing by leaps and bounds—had been horrified and tried to hold her back. Reyna told herself she’d aimed for a killing blow, but now that Jorlan was safe, she wasn’t sure if that’s what happened.
Legally, you belong to him, Jorlan said.
“He has to find me first,” she grumbled, knowing Jorlan was right but willing to fight to the bitter end rather than admit it. “A damned vampyr. Isabella will—”
Your mother is not here. This is your life. Not hers. You have to live it. You can’t do that if you keep focusing on the past.
“But—”
But nothing. You can’t keep denying what you are.
“Easy for you to say,” she snarled. “You weren’t the one treated like a pariah for something you had no control over. My own mother can barely stand to look at me, and now you want me to accept this…this…vampyr…” She imbued the word with all the revulsion she could manage, “…into my life?”
Jorlan shifted into his feline form and laid his head in her lap. Kitten, he sighed, you’ve done all you could to fit in with the Felini to no avail. Maybe there’s a reason. Maybe you’ll find the acceptance you need among your father’s kind.
“My father was vampyr and—” she began bitterly.
He’s dead, Reyna. You can’t continue to blame a whole race for one man’s actions. He paid for his crimes.
He’s not the only one who paid, she said, thinking of her life in the pride and the way the males had looked at her before she’d ported. I’m still paying for them.
Reyna, don’t let the actions of others turn you into a bitter woman. This may be your one chance for love, for cubs. Do you really want to miss it? Don’t you think it telling this one man managed to do what all others have failed—kick started you into estrous? So their ways are different. Different doesn’t necessarily mean wrong. You can’t accuse the pride of being backward in their thinking and stuck in their ways and then do the same. All I’m saying is when he comes to claim you—and have no doubt, he will—give the man a chance.
Reyna laid her head on his belly, curling her body into his as the healing sleep claimed him. She lay awake a long time, thinking on his words.