STORY EXCERPT

“Hayden!” I shouted as I fell to the ground, too turned around to get my hands out in front of me in time.

“Fuck!” Hayden and someone else exclaimed as I found the floor… With my shoulder. I gasped as I heard something snap inside. That couldn’t be good.

“Baby, are you okay?” he asked as he dove to my side and tried to lift me up.

“Don’t move him yet,” the other guy snapped and I felt his hands on me too.

“What’s going on?” I whimpered and pushed at Hayden with my good arm. “You just plowed me over! What happened to whatever I needed and taking care of me?”

“I know why I’ve been edgy as if sensing your blood somewhere else in the mansion,” he explained but it wasn’t making sense through the pain.

“So? That means you should trample over your blind mate?”

“You’re blind?” the stranger asked quietly, sounding tortured at the idea.

“Yeah, so?” I snapped. What was wrong with them?

“Right, I’m here because you can’t smell,” he mumbled as he moved his hands over my shoulder. “I think you just popped it out of the socket.” He quickly jerked it and I hissed at the pain before it started easing.

“You couldn’t warn me?” I snarled and hit him with my other hand.

“People freak when you warn them it’s coming,” he answered incredulously.

“Yeah, but those people can at least see what you’re getting ready to do from the way you move,” Hayden growled.

“Right, sorry.”

“Okay, so you’re the doctor,” I surmised since he could pop back in a shoulder. “So why did the doctor freak you out, Hayden?”

“He’s our mate, Cam.” Hayden didn’t sound all that thrilled about it and I wasn’t sure why until the doctor opened his mouth.

“Guess I’m done traveling the world to learn new medicine,” the doc bitched and then gave a frustrated sigh. “I can’t take a blind mate in remote areas and to people with specific customs.”

“Asshole,” Hayden growled as I backed away from where I heard the doc talking.

“What? It’s the truth,” he defended. “It’s not his fault but it does end my research.”

“Fuck you,” I whispered as I stumbled to my feet and tried to map out the room.

“You’re just proving my point. You can’t find the door in the infirmary. How could you be in a rain forest or boonies of a foreign country? We could get separated and you’d be a goner.”

“Jesus, are you an asshole,” Hayden snarled and I felt his hand on my good arm. “Let’s go, Cam.”

“I’m here to fix his sense of smell and whatever makes him react so negatively to blood for a predator. Most odd. I was really excited to hear of the case.”

“Oh. My. God. Are you a prick,” I exclaimed and gaped at the man. “Were you raised in the jungle you’re so fond of without any manners?”

“I don’t interact with people often unless it’s a local medicine man,” he admitted, almost sounding repentant now. “I’m more a lab doctor for rare disease and disorders. I tend to stick to paranormals though.”

“Great. Wonderful résumé.” I glanced up at Hayden, hoping he was looking and saw my expression. “Can we go now?”

“Yeah, baby,” he answered and led me back into the hall. “I’m so sorry about in there. His scent hit my nose and I just got discombobulated trying to zone in on it, I plowed right into you.”

“No, I understand now,” I whispered and pulled away. Now that I was out the door I could count my steps. “I’m going to go for a run.”

“Cam, please,” he begged. I shook my head and kept moving.

“This isn’t about you bumping into me. Though shifting would fix the throbbing in my shoulder. I just need a run, Hayden, and then I’ll come find you.” I growled then because I realized something. “I need to go to the infirmary and get hooked up to the IV so you can drink from me today.”

“Not until Dr. Dickhead leaves,” Hayden said firmly. “I don’t want you around him.”

“He’s your mate too, Hayden,” I reminded him quietly. “Won’t the same thing happen if you don’t claim him as it did with us?”

“Shit,” he snarled.

“Go talk to your mate and I’m going to run.”

“Not your mate?” he whispered as he ran his hand through my hair before I got to the staircase.

“No,” I answered as my heart started bleeding from saying it out loud. “You got pissed from however he was looking at me on top of what he said. I could never be with someone who handled my being blind like that.”

“Maybe this whole thing isn’t as bad as it seems,” he offered. I raised an eyebrow at him and gestured for him to go on. “I live to stick my foot in my mouth. Maybe he blurted out the first thing on his mind. Selfish and rude, but not unforgiveable, Cam. We all screw up.”

“Maybe.” I shrugged, not really believing it. Hayden let me walk away then and go for my run. Honestly, in part, I really just needed my cheetah before we met our other mate. I was very used to being in cheetah form half the time I was awake. Now with Hayden I couldn’t do that, especially with his possessive and somewhat crazed issues.

But that didn’t mean I just would blurt that out and throw it in his face. Who did something like that?

Oh right, my other mate…

ADULT EXCERPT

“Look, Hayden, put the hot kitty down and let’s get this settled,” that same calm guy tried to reason with the man holding me.

“You can’t have him,” Hayden snarled and tore my shirt off of me. Then my shorts seconds later until I was shaking in fear and from desire. The desire was because I’d seen what Hayden looked like when I’d been in cheetah form and he was sexy as hell. My body wanted him and his desperation for me was like catnip.

The fear part was because I didn’t understand what was going on, didn’t know how many people were in the room, and had serious issues with blood. Since that’s something vamps needed to survive and had around them most of the time, I avoided them as best as possible.

I moaned when his hand moved to the crack of my ass and bumped into the plug I’d put in earlier.

“Who has been fucking you?” Hayden asked darkly. “Why do you wear a butt plug?”

“Um, Bob,” I mumbled, ducking my head at having to admit that.

“Who’s Bob? There wasn’t a Bob that lived here when I did,” he snarled and in a flash he lowered me to the table and flipped me so I was chest down on it. “You are mine! I’ll kill Bob for touching you!”

“Um, there’s no Bob that lives here,” Mitchell said in a confused tone. Then he chuckled. “Cam, do you mean Bob as is Battery-Operated Boyfriend?”

“Yes,” I yelped as Hayden yanked the plug from me. “I meant my favorite dildo.”

“My sweet mate likes toys,” Hayden groaned as his hands cupped my ass and spread my cheeks apart. “I knew you were perfect for me.” Then I squirmed when I heard the zipper of his pants and then felt his cock pushing against my hole.

“Hayden, just wait a minute,” Mitchell growled. “Cam’s not exactly said yes to having sex with you. You really want to take your mate like this?”

“Yes,” he hissed as he rubbed his dick up and down my crack, getting it slick with the extra lube from the toy. “He’s mine and you all need to see that. I know most of you have said you wanted one of the hot kitties for your own. I want no doubt in any of your minds that this one is mine!” He leaned over my back and I whimpered as I felt how huge his body really was as he surrounded me. “Will you deny your mate any longer and what I need more than air, Cameal?”

He said my full name and again I shivered. The way he stressed the meal part made me really feel as if he was going to eat me right up. I tried to think past the lust and fear. I hadn’t known we were mates and Hayden had suffered for it. I knew about having timetables for mating and what it could do to a person. But he should have told me. Either way, I knew the answer.

“No,” I whispered, blinking back tears. I would deny him nothing.

But that didn’t mean I wanted my virginity taken like this with witnesses as if I was a conquest. Hayden growled in approval and slammed into me. I was stretched and slicked up but it still hurt like a bitch because I’d never had anything as big as him inside of me and it was my first time after all.

“Better than I ever dreamed,” he said in a strangled groan as he bottomed out inside of me. He grabbed my hips and started pounding into me. I buried my face in my arms in embarrassment. Just how many people were in the room with us? If my cheeks got any hotter I thought I’d pass out.

But it felt good. Really good once the burning and pain eased up. I mewled and tried to get some purchase, something to hold on to. It was a big table though and my arms were way too short to reach the other side.

“Jesus, he’s a fucking hot little thing,” one guy groaned.

“Only with me,” Hayden snarled and I wasn’t sure what he meant until he went on, thrusting even harder inside of me. “My mate would only respond like this to me. He belongs to me and even his body knows that I’m perfect for him. Only I can bring him this pleasure.”

Okaaay then. Something really had snapped inside Hayden’s brain. I remembered a sweet, kind man who I thought had had a crush on me because he’d tried so hard to simply be close to me anytime we’d all gathered. He’d kissed me in Vegas and I had run, hiding from him ever since. It had been a brush of his lips on mine but it had been enough to scare me and not just because he was a vamp. Because I wanted him.

How had no one told me that he’d left Curtis’s? But then again… When did I ever leave my room or really talk to anyone?

“Are you thinking of someone else?” Hayden accused me and slapped my ass hard. “Am I not enough for you?”

“No one else,” I whimpered, reaching back to rub my ass. “Just confused. I don’t understand any of this.”

“Don’t think,” he ordered as he leaned over me. His lips found my earlobe and I melted against him even more. “All you need to do is enjoy my claiming you and make those hot little noises again. Show everyone here I own you and can take you to the moon.”