Submitting to the Shadow (Kindred Tales)

The dress was skin-tight, clinging to her curves in a provocative way she hated at once and the fishnet pantyhose were hard to get on. The shoes were sky-high—she wobbled on their skinny stiletto heels thinking she’d be lucky if she didn’t break an ankle trying to walk in them.

Once she had on the clothing, she picked up the purple cut-glass bottle of perfume. Passion it said in gold, scripted letters on the front of the bottle. Sammi sniffed it experimentally.

“Ewww!” she gasped and jerked her head back instinctively. It had a thick, powdery aroma that she associated with an older generation. It smelled like something her older aunts or grandmother might wear.

It wasn’t really a bad smell—just heavy and cloying. Sammi had been very sensitive to smells lately—just another symptom of her pregnancy that she’d overlooked because she believed Roark was actually using “fake” seed on her.

What had he used? She wondered as she put down the perfume bottle without spraying any of it on herself. Whose sperm had made the twins she was carrying? Roark had seemed so certain that he couldn’t have made her pregnant despite their recent activities. Or maybe his anger and denial had been an act and he just wanted to get rid of her once she was inconveniently knocked up?

But if there was one thing she knew about Roark—or thought she knew—it was that he was not given to dramatics. He was blunt and to the point and despised any kind of hyperbole. So if he had been acting when he denied being the one to make her pregnant, it would have been very out of character for him.

But what do you really know about his character, anyway? whispered the little voice in her head. You haven’t even known him three months yet, Sammi. Maybe he’s just a jerk who gets off on impregnating women and then abandoning them.

Which was very unlike a Kindred. They were supposed to be extremely loyal and monogamous to a fault. It was one reason the women she knew who were mated to Kindred loved being with them.

“I never ever have to worry about my Berik cheating on me,” Meg had told her, rather smugly. “Because of our bond—we can feel each other’s emotions so I know he’s even more in love with me now than he was when we first got married.”

At the time, Sammi had wished she could have a bond like that with a man. Then she had stupidly fallen in love with Roark and decided she didn’t need the bond to be happy. She would have taken him even though he couldn’t form the deep soul-connection that the Kindred seemed to think was so important for a happy marriage.

“But instead of even trying to bond with me, he kicked me out,” she whispered to herself and felt hot tears stinging her eyes. “And accused me of cheating on him! How could he think that? I would never…ever…”

She put her head in her hands and sobbed, unable to finish the sentence aloud.

Oh, Roark—I would never have cheated on you. I loved you! Why couldn’t you just return that love instead of throwing it back in my face? Why did you—

The creak of the door at the top of the stairs opening made her jump and brought her back to herself. Sammi suddenly remembered she had much more than a broken heart to worry about. Hastily, she wiped at her tears, blotting her eyes on the sleeves of the silky, too-tight red dress.

“Oh, Beautiful,” she heard her captor calling. “Come on out now—it’s time for the dinner part of our date and I made your favorite!”

“O—okay, Sonny-boy,” Sammi somehow managed to call back. Looking around, she realized that she didn’t want him to catch her in the bedroom again. It was definitely the one place she wanted to stay out of, if possible.

Heart pounding and palms clammy, she stood on shaking legs and wobbled out to greet him to play along with his weird scenario.

There was nothing else she could do.

Fifty-One

As he drove, Roark opened himself as much as possible to the partial bond the Goddess had strengthened for him and enabled him to use as a tracking device. He realized now that it was this bond which had allowed him to feel the danger Samantha was in—and probably also what had allowed his seed to take hold in her belly.

He only wished it was strong enough for him to communicate with her. Periodically he tried sending her thoughts, as he knew other mated and bonded couples did, but so far he didn’t sense that any of them were getting through. Maybe once he got closer to her location, it might be possible to speak to her through the temporarily strengthened bond, but for now he had to be content with just feeling her emotions, which were guiding him towards her.