Soul Deep

Chapter Twelve

“Get a bath. I’ll call down to the main house and see about clothes.” He sat her in the middle of the surprisingly large bathroom, beside a deep Jacuzzi tub that she knew her sore muscles were going to fall in love with.

The rough log walls were thick, well sanded and painted a dark redwood. White filling bisected each log and made for an attractive contrast. The tub sat on the far wall with a white porcelain sink a few feet from it. Over a bit more was the toilet; the opposite wall, a wardrobe that Kiowa pulled several towels and a washrag from. He sat a bag of Epsom salts on the sink beside her.

“I’ll get something fixed to eat,” he continued. “Then we can rest for a while before you have to face anything more.”

His expression was closed. Not cold, just unemotional. She had never realized the difference before now. Her father and brother had a habit of going stone-cold when angry or during political confrontations. You could feel the ice coming off them. But not Kiowa. He was just unemotional. Not hot, not cold, as though he just really didn’t give a fuck.

Amanda sat down on the small stool at the side of the tub and began unlacing her boots. She kicked them from her feet, then glanced up as she realized he hadn’t left.

“I’m not an animal.” His voice hadn’t changed, neither had his expression. He made a statement, nothing more.

She had called him an animal. She glanced away, fighting back the anxiety growing in her chest as he continued to watch her.

“I don’t want this,” she said then, staring at the dark wood floor, the colorful rug laid out in front of the tub. “I didn’t ask you to do this to me.”

Even now the heat hadn’t faded from her body. She could have taken him again, easily. Her skin was sensitive, her nipples engorged and dark red rather than the soft pink they had been days before. Her breasts were tight, still swollen and she ached for the taste of his kiss. Her mouth watered for it.

“You don’t always get to ask for what life throws at you,” he said then. Unemotional. God she hated that. Only then she realized how much more comforting her father and brother’s chilling politeness could be. At least she knew it indicated some feeling. There was no feeling here.

She moved to the elastic at the top of her stockings. They were torn in several places, the red silk ruined. She didn’t bother taking them off with any care, just stripped them from her legs as she ignored his quiet statement.

“I’ll call for some clothes.” He could have been talking about the weather as he turned his back on her. “Take your time.”

Take your time. As though she had plenty of it.

Was her father worried? Surely he was; he would have been notified the minute her security detail in the apartment next to her didn’t check in. As much as she hated the thought of them before, she was comforted by it now. At least he would know she was in trouble.

He and her brother Alexander would come for her. If they could find her.

She shivered at the thought before flipping on the water, adjusting the temperature to as hot as she could stand it, and watching the tub fill up slowly.

It was surreal, this situation. The day before she had nothing bigger on her mind than class subjects and hoping the kids weren’t too hyped on chocolate when they returned to school Monday.

Breed Law hadn’t been a major concern for her. Her father’s Presidency was something she just wanted to ignore. She had been independent, free and enjoying it. Now what was she?

She pushed her fingers ruthlessly through her hair. If she wasn’t pregnant yet then she would likely soon be. The timing was too close and the angle and position of his cock as he locked inside her didn’t give her much hope that some of his little buddies wouldn’t hit home base.

She shuddered at the thought. Oh God, what the hell had she managed to get herself mixed up in? And why would a Wolf Breed, a breed almost unheard of, be close enough to her home to help her?

She knew there was much more going on here than her mind had been able to assimilate in the past hours. Following conversations hadn’t exactly penetrated the haze of lust that overwhelmed her. That was trying to overwhelm her now.

She shook her head before stepping in the tub and turning the pulsing jets on full blast. Maybe she should have tried a cold bath.

Kiowa stood silently in the doorway of the kitchen, staring at the men lounging lazily in the living room.

Dash Sinclair and Simon straddled two of the kitchen chairs that had been placed in front of the fireplace. Kane Tyler sat back, too relaxed, in the comfortable recliner set on the left. To the right, Callan and Taber sat on the couch, watching him closely.

They hadn’t said much since entering moments before. Kiowa had taken the gown and change of clothes they had brought to the bedroom and laid them on the bed, letting Amanda know they were there.

Now, he stood uncomfortably before the five men watching him, his cock all too aware of the woman still soaking in the bathtub in the other room.

“I don’t have all night here,” he finally informed them, pushing back his anger over the situation and his concerns. “What the fuck is going on?”

Dash sighed, shaking his head as Simon snickered.

“Boy, it’s going to be fun watching these hard heads until news hits about this,” Simon chuckled. “You guys can get so comical when you’re all confused.”

“Shut up, Simon,” Dash kept his voice quiet, though it vibrated with amusement.

Kiowa stared at each man in turn.

“I’m not in the best fucking mood.” His smile was all teeth. He made certain of it. “As a matter of fact, I could kill real easy right now. Answers, gentlemen.”

Dash leaned forward, linking his hands in front of him, his brows lowering.

“You mated her,” he said simply. “The Breeds have a unique biological reaction to their mates. Your tongue swells, small glands at the side becoming enlarged. Those glands release a hormone, a very potent aphrodisiac that binds you with the woman until either a. she becomes pregnant, or b. ovulation passes and she hasn’t conceived. The process can begin at anytime, and continues until either one or the other occurs. After ovulation passes with no pregnancy, it will ease after the initial intensity, but it never goes away. She’s yours. Period.”

Kiowa stayed completely still. He didn’t so much as bat an eyelash or draw in a deeper breath.

“No cure for it?” he asked.

“None,” Dash answered. “It’s stronger in some, lesser in others. From what I’ve seen, your mating with Ms. Marion is one of the most intense.”

“What if I ignore it?” Oh yeah, he thought, he could do that. When hell froze over.

“Not possible,” Callan said. “At least not to this point. The hunger in the female becomes so painful it’s intolerable. At least in our experience. I believe it was less so in Dash’s case from what little he’s told us.”

Kiowa stared back at the men, the information flashing through his brain as he fought to find solutions now.

“Have any tests been run on the women?” he asked.

“Not possible.” Callan shook his head. “We’ve tried, but the reaction and mating is so fierce during the period that actual testing could help, that the females can’t bear the touch of another male. Taber and I became more animal than man if anyone attempted to touch them. The male instinct to protect and mate is too strong at that time. And the pain they endure is too intense, even drugs don’t help. The hormones overwhelm the drugs and impose their natural coding on the female despite all efforts to reduce it. At this time, there’s no way to change that.”

“And your female is ovulating, Kiowa,” Dash informed him. “I could smell it when you first opened the door to the jeep. She’s in full heat.”

Fuck. Fuck. Double damned fuck. Kiowa wanted to hit something. Hell, he wanted to kill the bastards who put him in this situation. His gaze slashed to Dash. He could kill him, but goddammit, he actually liked the son of a bitch.

“There are, to count, three mated Feline pairs as well as Dash and Elizabeth as the first recorded Wolf mating,” Callan informed him. “If it brings you any comfort, we’ve found nature to be very generous in her pairings. We love our wives, Kiowa, and they would have been women we would have chosen even without the mating heat.”

Fine, well and good, Kiowa thought mockingly. So, because his dick got hard for her while he watched her, and he admitted, harder than normal, then nature thought she could just pull a fast one on him? Just his luck.

“Remind me to refuse you next time you need help,” he told Dash politely. “As I said, I was doing fine on my own.”

Dash snorted. “Come on, Kiowa, that was a lousy job and you know it.”

“Someone has to do the shit work.” Kiowa shrugged, though he silently admitted that working as a bouncer wasn’t his all-time favorite sport. It was just too damned easy to start with. Scum wasn’t that hard to keep track of.

“We have another problem here.” Kane leaned forward at that point. “President Marion, at this moment, is willing to trust us with his daughter. I talked to him within seconds after your arrival. Official word will be that she is ill and recuperating in an undisclosed location while his son launches an investigation into the situation. The fact that he’s willing to trust us with his daughter indicates his security in Breed honor. He wants to talk to her later, but otherwise agrees it would be foolhardy to head out here and bring more trouble down on her.

“Official report on the helicopter attack was that Callan was attacked while on his way home from meetings in Washington, where he had been earlier. We can keep her safe here until the vote on Breed Law. Then, he’ll want to see her.”

That gave him a week, Kiowa thought. Not nearly enough time.

“That chopper wasn’t government issue either,” Taber said. “It was private, and modified for weapons. Communications we intercepted indicates they weren’t certain who was in the vehicles though. They were taking a shot and hoping. But if they got other Breeds that was fine too. Innocents didn’t matter.”

“A week isn’t long,” Dash said then. “Marion will be here the moment voting is over to see his daughter. We’ll have to have answers for him then.”

“And that concerns me how?” Kiowa lifted his brow fractionally. “She won’t be leaving with him, so he can come now for all I care.”

He wasn’t certain where that declaration came from, but once it passed his lips he guessed he committed to it.

“There’s a ban on relating the information on mating and the mating heat, Kiowa,” Callan said then, his voice hard. “If we’re to protect ourselves, we need to keep this information hidden from the general population as long as possible. We can’t tell Marion why his daughter can’t leave. You’ll have to convince her to stay.”

Kiowa stared back at the Pack Leader for long moments. They were idiots, he thought. What the hell made any of them think that Ms. Amanda Marion was going to agree to anything so outlandish?

“I can gag her.” Actually, it wasn’t a bad idea.

“Come on, Kiowa,” Dash snapped then. “Let’s be serious for a few minutes here.”

“Fine, then say something serious,” he shrugged loosely, careful to keep his body relaxed, to hide the internal fury pouring through him.

His mate thought he was an animal and the swelling inside her sickened her. She had been kidnapped, fucked, and mated and Kiowa didn’t see a chance in hell of her accepting any of it easily.

“She’s a reasonable woman…” Dash began.

“She’s a child.” Kiowa crossed his arms over his chest as he stared back at the other man. “She’s twenty-four years old, first year out of Daddy’s care, and not exactly mature enough to handle the fact that within days she’s going to be carrying an animal’s ba—” He broke off as he caught sight of movement at the bedroom door.

There she stood, stock-still, the flannel gown Callan had brought her dwarfing her figure, the dark blue color emphasizing the pasty white complexion of her skin. Her scent filled the room then, drawing all eyes to her. Honey and spice, so sweet she made his mouth water as her arousal reach out to him.

He stayed in place, forcing back the impulse to rush to her, to protect her. Dammit, he had enough trouble protecting himself at this point.

She swallowed tightly, her throat working convulsively as she obviously fought to keep her stomach from heaving.

“You talk to her,” Kiowa suggested then. “Maybe you can convince her it’s really not so bad. What do you think, Amanda? Can you handle carrying my pup?”

She swayed, her hand gripping the doorframe as she went impossibly whiter.

“Fuck, Kiowa,” Callan snarled as he jumped to her as her knees buckled while Kiowa forced back the screaming objection as the other man kept her from falling to the floor.

He hadn’t believed them, he admitted a second later. When they said she could bear no other male’s touch, he hadn’t believed them.

Her pain-filled cry shattered his soul the moment Callan touched her, hard shudders racing over her body as she tightened to breaking point, going to her knees from the pain. Kiowa raced across the room, jerking her to him, his arms enfolding her as her hands gripped his waist, dry heaves spasming her body as she fought back the reactive sickness to the Feline’s touch.

“Shit,” he sighed wearily, one hand cupping her head and holding her close to his chest as she fought for her composure.

“Kiowa, you’re a bastard!” Simon snapped furiously.

“Get out of here,” Kiowa growled. “Just get the hell out until I can figure out what the hell to do.”

He was aware of their gazes locked on him—Callan and Simon’s filled with anger, Dash’s just quiet, regretful. The emotions filled the air, assaulting his sensitive sense of smell as well as his patience.

“Good luck, buddy,” Dash murmured on his way past him. “Good luck.”

His hand smoothed down Amanda’s hair as she slowly composed herself, the arm around her waist tightening as she pressed herself closer to him. It had to be unconscious, he thought, she wouldn’t want his warmth, wouldn’t need it. It was biological. An urge brought on by the hormone and the situation nothing more.

She thought he was an animal. And he guessed he was, because it would be a cold day in hell before he would let her go now, no matter what she wanted.