Carson nodded. "Exactly. It would also explain why it's so common for us to mate outside our species. I think it's why so many Arcadian and Katagaria end up together. The Fates are hoping the women will reject the men and then both are left sterile for the rest of their lives. It's cruel really."
Yes, it was.
But it still didn't explain her attraction to Fang. "Have you ever heard of a completely out-of-species mating?"
"What do you mean?"
"Like in Wren's case, while they weren't the same species per se, they were both cats. Have you ever heard of say a wolf wanting to mate with a hawk or a dragon?"
Or in her case, a bear.
She cleared her throat before she asked the most significant part. "Especially if say one of them was Arcadian and the other Katagaria?"
Carson scowled as if her question was completely preposterous. "No. That's never been done. At least not to my knowledge. Gods, I can't imagine anything worse than that. Can you?"
Actually, yes, she could, lots of things, point of fact. But she wasn't about to say that out loud and risk his telling her mother. "Horrifying to the extreme."
And she really did mean that. How could she even think about touching Fang? Like Carson had said, it was unnatural and wrong. It defied everything she knew about her people and their traditions.
Everything.
Yet she couldn't get him out of her mind. He hovered there in the back of her thoughts like a beckoning light, drawing her fantasies to him anytime she left them unguarded. Even now, a part of her wanted to go hunt for him.
I am so broken.
Aimee was about to get up when a sharp, shooting pain went through her head.
Carson leaned forward, concerned as she doubled over from the agony of it. "Are you all right?"
An image of Wren went through her. She could see him outside being trounced by a group she absolutely hated. "Wren's in trouble."
Carson gave her a suspicious look. "He's downstairs busing tables. How can he be in trouble?"
Aimee shook her head as images of him being beaten flashed through her head in sharp clarity. Because of the close friendship they shared, she could almost feel the blows. "He's not inside the club."
Without another word to Carson, she flashed herself to the alley behind the club where they dropped their garbage into Dumpsters.
Sure enough, just as she'd seen in her mind, Wren was there, surrounded by a pack of wolves. It was the Arcadian pack that had been in New Orleans even longer than the bears had. Their leader, Stone, had been at odds with her clan since he'd hit puberty.
All of them hated that little prick.
There was something about him that just chafed her raw. He and his bully squad were always looking for some reason to jump any Were-Hunter who came to Sanctuary-if they were Katagaria, even better. She had no idea why they were so aggressive, but there was no excuse in their behavior.
Wren was trying to maintain his human form, but because he was in the middle of puberty and currently in pain from their beating, his form kept shifting from naked human to tiger to leopard and back again. He was covered in bruises and blood from their bites.
Anger descended on her with a vengeance as she ran at the wolves. "Get out of here! What are you doing?"
They turned on her then. Stone, who was more than a head taller than her and twice her girth, grabbed her and shoved her against the wall. "You're not inside the club, little girl. The protection of Sanctuary doesn't exist out here. Stay out of this or get hurt."
Wren growled as he lunged after one of the other wolves, but he was no match for them. Not while he couldn't control his powers.
The sight of them preying on him disgusted her.
"If those are my only two choices . . . I choose to get hurt." She head-butted Stone and kicked him back, then ran to Wren to try and help him to his feet. Something that would have been infinitely easier if he stopped switching from human to large, heavy cat.
"Can you walk?" she asked him, panting from the strain of trying to lift his body.
"I'm trying."