Damn, she was going to be a handful when she grew up, he thought, stubborn as hell.
“I’m sorry I spanked you.” He stared down at her, his heart breaking at the thought of the spanking he had applied to her rear. “You terrified me, Cassie. I don’t know if I could have lived with myself if something happened to you.”
She nodded slowly. “I know that, Kane. But that’s what I think, too. I would always cry if you were hurt. And Sherra would too. She cries too much. Almost as much as I do at night.”
He stared down at her in surprise. “How do you know?”
“’Cause I can hear her when the house gets all quiet and she goes outside on her balcony,” she whispered. “Sometimes, it sounds like she hurts awful bad too, Kane. I think her heart is breaking like mine did, when I thought my momma couldn’t save me from that bad man.” The rooms were soundproofed for the most part, compliments of the Council. But Cassie liked to open her door the slightest bit that security blocks allowed. If Sherra were on her balcony, several rooms away, it would be easy for Cassie to hear her.
“I think you should tell her you aren’t mad at her anymore, Kane,” the little girl said solemnly. “You hurt her feelings really bad.”
He had hurt more than her feelings and he knew it.
“Come here and give me a hug. I’ll make sure Dawn gives you a cookie tomorrow. But that’s it. One. You broke the rules.”
She jumped to his arms, hugging him tightly and planting a loud kiss on his cheek. “My momma will be all done soon,” she whispered in his ear. “And my daddy Dash will need me to go to him really fast so Momma will be happy. You have to fix Sherra, Kane. I don’t want you to be all alone when I’m gone. My fairy worries about you.”
He stiffened, watching as she snuggled back under her covers, staring back at him with eyes that were too old, too knowing.
“Cassie, about this fairy,” he said hesitantly.
“You have your fairy too, Kane,” she told him, her childish voice at odds with the knowledge in her eyes.
“Sometimes I see her. She’s got all this pretty dark hair that looks like a cloud around her face. It looks like Merinus’ hair. And she has blue eyes, and she smells like real roses. Not the perfume kind. The real kind.”
He stilled. Despite the fever that made him rush to Sherra, the danger he could feel moving closer and his own worries about Cassie, he couldn’t stop the shock that filled his system. His mother had smelled like roses. The real kind. The very ones she so loved that still filled the backyard behind his father’s house.
“Roses, huh?” he asked her softly.
“She’ll talk to you if you let her,” Cassie said softly, her eyes drooping with sleepiness now. “’Cause she loves you. Just like my fairy loves me…”
Kane rose to his feet, shaking his head in confusion. Damn, that kid could bring armies down if she tried. He drew in a deep breath, tucked the blankets around her snugly and headed from the room. He had an appointment with his mate.
Chapter Seven
Sherra was able to hold back the pain until late that night. She knew it was coming. She had enough experience with the symptoms of mating heat to know what would happen. After the explosive episode in the weapons shed, the rest of the day was so busy, so filled with the fight to survive that she was able to train all her senses on her job, rather than the increased arousal that began to build. But when darkness fell and weariness tugged at her body, it slammed into her harder than ever. Her womb spasmed painfully. Life. She could feel her body screaming out for the life-giving pulse of Kane’s se**n spilling into her, his c**k throbbing, swelling within her, spurting into her. She didn’t want his fingers, she wanted his thick erection. She wanted all of him, coming over her, pinning her down, taking her with erotic fury.
She whimpered as she paced her bedroom, her flesh almost electrified, overly sensitive and in need of his touch. She had removed her uniform earlier, showered and dressed in the soft, lightweight cotton of one of the long gowns she preferred to wear. The tunic-style material fell to her feet, with long slits running to her knees and giving her freedom of movement.
The bodice ghosted over her br**sts, rasping her ni**les gently as the small straps over her shoulders held it in place. Between her thighs, her juices dampened the small panties she wore, almost making them useless. Her pu**y was so slick, so wet, she knew it would suck Kane’s c**k to its very depths within seconds.
She closed her eyes as she curled up on the couch in her sitting room, her head cushioned on the thick armrest, her thighs clamped together. Her br**sts were tortured, hard curves of radiant heat that had her ni**les nearly popping through the material of the dark gown. Her tongue was throbbing, swollen, and every so often she could feel and taste the pulse of the hated hormone in her mouth. Spitting it out didn’t help, she had tried that before. There was nothing she could do but suffer through the nights and stay as far away from Kane as possible when it became so intense. She should have stayed away from him last night and run hard and fast this afternoon. The memory of his c**k tunneling into her mouth, throbbing against her tongue, so hard and hot, had her biting back a moan of overwhelming hunger. She would have sucked him to completion if he hadn’t been so weak. She had been possessed, so hungry for the taste of his seed spilling into her mouth that she had lost her sanity. Instead, she had lost her control. She hadn’t been any stronger that afternoon. She hated this. She wrapped her arms across her br**sts, drawing her body into a fetal position as she fought the need to go to him. He was her mate, her mind screamed out in protest of her denial. Go to him.
She shook her head. She wouldn’t. She couldn’t. The heat lasted a month for her—she had no idea how long it would affect Kane, what it would do to him. He had nearly died for her once. He put his life on the line for her family daily. She couldn’t face the potential that he would be hurt further, in ways she could not anticipate.
Sitting up with a ragged groan she pushed her fingers through her damp hair and fought to push the thoughts of him out of her mind—the tanned contours of his muscular body, the thick length of his cock, his lips as they whispered over hers and his erection pushing inside her greedy pu**y. His hands, holding her as he f**ked her with hard, deep thrusts.
“Oh hell…” She cursed her hunger as an abrupt knock sounded at the door. Raising her head she watched in resignation as the door opened and Kane stepped inside. Her eyes widened in alarm as she stared at the scarred chest, then lower to the rippling muscles of his abdomen and the straining length of his erection tenting the sweatpants he wore. He closed the door, clicking the lock in place.
“God, don’t do this to me.” She shook her head desperately as he pushed the gray pants over the straining flesh and down his powerful thighs.
“And watch you suffer instead?” he asked her quietly. “Suffer myself? The hell I will, Sherra.”
She whimpered. “Please, Kane.”
“Take the gown off.” He advanced on her.
She couldn’t breathe for the excitement. He looked savage, determined. His eyes glittered with lust, with emotion. Emotion hell, it was love, she knew it was love and hated herself and everything she was for