“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 c**k 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 c**k 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 f**k 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 f**king 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 f**k. 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.”