Stolen - Nhys Glover Page 0,6

Rescue Central. Oh, Jenna has been helping… Good. I worried five of those little monsters might be too much for even a capable boy like you to handle.”

“Not a boy, Jade,” Jenna immediately spoke up in my defense. “He’s an adult as far as Danans are concerned. Or would have been in a few days, after he got his brands.”

Jade’s green eyes flew open in surprise. “Yeah, of course. Sorry. I knew that.”

She drew in a few cleansing breaths as she dropped to the ground so her boys could surround her.

As she accepted kisses and hugs, as if she’d been gone months instead of an hour, she went on. “I know how sensitive my guys used to be about their age. They didn’t even believe they could recognize their podmate—me—because they were told they were too young. But age doesn’t really have much to do with it. It’s circumstance. I just came along a little earlier than expected, that’s all. And they were mature enough to feel the draw. Me… well, I was only sixteen. I didn’t quite know what I felt. I was more concerned with staying here than podmate bonds.” She gave a short bark of laughter. “It feels like a hundred years ago.”

I laughed too. “Up until a while ago I would have said I wasn’t sensitive about my age. Age is only a number, as they say. But all this talk about adulthood is making me insecure.”

I kept my tone light so they knew I wasn’t feeling insecure at all, even though at some deep level that’s exactly how I was feeling. It was a new experience for me, and I had no idea where it came from. Why did I want to appear older than I was?

But the way Jenna looked at me with laughing affection, like a friend rather than something more, made me desperate to be seen as an adult by this one woman.

Was it a crush? Mother had told me stories about what she called her adolescent crushes. They were all hopelessly unrequited because she was considered unattractive back on Gaia. I had always found that impossible to believe. To me, my mother was gorgeous. And I knew my fathers felt the same way. It was more than the podmate bond, they said. And I had to agree.

Hastily climbing to my feet, knowing my break had lasted too long, I said my goodbyes. At least my embarrassing erection had disappeared with the arrival of Jade.

“I work in the Earth Garden most of the time. If you get another break, come talk to me,” Jenna said with a bright smile. “It’s a good place to chill.”

I walked away with a little bounce in my step. Jenna wanted to see me again. She might not see me as anything but a kid, but at least I’d get another chance to impress her with my maturity. Change her mind about me.

Even as I thought those things, I grimaced in disgust. I was such an idiot!

JENNA

I sat in the Earth Garden, weeding. It was the only place I felt truly at peace these days. The chaos beyond the compound had eaten into my slowly-righting world and, even when we weren’t hearing about it directly, the storm devastation filled me with anxiety. So much death. So much heartache. So much chaos and confusion.

Well, the storm chaos was the excuse I was giving myself for my inner turmoil. But memories of my dream last night told me a different story. In my dream I was driven crazy with want by a Danan warrior. A white Danan warrior, with starburst eyes and delightful fangs he’d used on my neck. Not like a vampire uses his fangs, but just a sensual grazing of those sharp canines across my neck, sharpness juxtaposed with the soft slide of his hot mouth over my skin.

I’d awoken wet and panting, excruciatingly aware that I was fantasizing about a seven-year-old. Huh, I was even upping his age a little so I didn’t feel so bad about it. He hadn’t turned seven yet. I knew that.

I was pathetic!

Yet I couldn’t get away from the truth. I was more attracted to Rian than I’d ever been to Toby. It was insane!

Toby was the picture-perfect boyfriend I’d had since freshman year at college, the gorgeous preppy guy with streaked blond hair and manscaping everywhere. We’d been the poster-couple for a romantic happy-ever-after. He’d proposed with a ginormous ring and a room full of flowers.

I thought I was madly