Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 118860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 594(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 594(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
“Including,” Lojos said, “on the internet. You can order anything, even a custom necklace.”
“This was made of ancient metal,” Luiz said. “I felt the older vibrations it gave off.”
Tomas could confirm that as well. “Very strong.”
“It warrants looking into,” Dominic said. “Sarika could be what drew Justice here.”
“Or a piece of this weapon is somewhere close. The ruins aren’t far from here. The temple is still standing, along with a few other buildings,” Luiz added. “If I had gotten hostile vibrations from Sarika’s amulet, I would have ripped it off her.”
“I am uncertain anything destructive could be against Sarika’s skin,” Tomas said. “She has rare gifts, and one is protection.” The blood exchange was not easy, he confessed to his brothers. Even under compulsion, exhausted and asleep, she resisted. When I had her take my blood, it felt for a brief moment as if there was a power struggle.
Both his brothers refrained from turning their puzzled gazes on him. They were used to looking expressionless around others, no matter what they discussed.
We are ancient, Tomas, and extremely formidable, Mataias stated. There should be no contest between a young female shifter and any of us. What exactly happened?
Not exactly a power struggle. He tried to explain the strange thing that had happened. She was lying in the hammock, looking fragile and lost. I shared that moment with you and Lojos because the way she looked in her sleep tore me up, and I needed the two of you to balance the overwhelming emotion I was feeling for the first time. Each emotion seems a first, and the need to inspect it and understand it after the blow of feeling it is strong.
How did one explain a miracle to his brothers? He had tried to show them just as he shared his emotions with them. Just as they had shared everything for centuries. Information was valuable—one of the most valuable things in their world, they’d discovered. It gave them even more power and made them far better hunters of the undead.
Dominic and Luiz talked in quiet tones, discussing the women and Dominic’s lifemate, Solange. He heard Dominic say, with humor in his voice, that it was a good thing she wasn’t present. She had been converted and was Carpathian, but like Luiz, she retained her jaguar. Solange was all about women’s rights. Their choices. She would not be down with taking Sarika’s blood or claiming her without her consent.
Tomas had believed he thought the same way as Solange until the moment he realized Sarika was his lifemate and she’d been in danger. Nothing else mattered to him but keeping her safe. He wasn’t sorry to claim her or start the conversion process, especially when he realized Sarika was very conflicted. She might actually take it in her head to make a run for it. He would follow. His brothers would follow, and they had a duty to their people. They were on the trail of one of the deadliest Carpathians living, and they had to get to him before he turned his attention to mass murder.
Tomas. Mataias brought his attention back to his brothers and what he was trying to convey. Tomas decided to open his memories to them, although it would be giving a great deal away from the lack of control, not only of his emotions but of his body’s reaction.
Every protective instinct I possessed kicked in. Instincts I didn’t know I had, not like that. I have always been protective of you two, we have of each other, but feel what I felt. He invited them to share his memories.
He allowed the memory to surface, complete with every uncontrolled, wild emotion that raged through him at the time. They had to know what it was really like. The tarot readers had predicted that their lifemates were in this life cycle. If they found them, it was necessary for them to know that they very possibly could go temporarily insane. After centuries of nothing, colors and emotions were almost too much to take. It felt as if he were in a thrall, one he had no control over. But Sarika lay there, so fragile and lost, so his, that he needed to ensure he could protect her. He needed to do that even more than he needed to smooth their relationship.
It most likely wasn’t the right decision, but his always logical brain was in total chaos. He drew Sarika gently into his arms and pulled her onto his lap. That might have been a mistake. He had an unexpected and unacceptable response to the feel of her bottom sliding over his groin. The response was instant steel.
It was exhilarating—and painful. Not in the way of a battle wound, but something altogether different. He hadn’t thought he would have to fight his body for control right along with his mind, but he did. He shared all of that with his brothers.