Accidental Acquisition (Kindred)

Maybe he has to work extra hard on being calm in order to keep the creature inside him from coming out, whispered a little voice in her head. Maybe that’s why he’s always so even-tempered. Because if he loses control of himself, that thing might come out and rip somebody’s head off!

Jillian shivered and pushed the rogue thought away. Honestly, she’d been able to almost forget about the huge green Grizzly bear thing that Kalis called his Ursus. He had pretty much promised never to bring it out again—at least, not around her—and he didn’t seem to need to change every full moon, or anything, like a werewolf out of a story.

Better to just try to forget about that thing, Jillian counseled herself, as she got off the tram at her station and headed for her suite, where she knew Kalis was waiting for her. Forget about it, the same way you can usually forget about poor Lucy and what happened to her.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed the frightening creature the big Kindred could turn into, straight to the back of her mind and made a conscious decision not to think about it anymore. It was the same way she dealt with her childhood trauma and it usually worked.

She had no idea that she wasn’t going to be able to avoid Kalis’s beast forever.

37

“Good evening, Mistress,” Kalis said, opening the door for Jillian the moment he sensed her outside. They weren’t living in the same suite together yet, but they had been spending almost every spare moment together for the past month, which was a damn-near perfect arrangement, as far as he was concerned.

In fact, he was beginning to hope they might make their arrangement permanent in the next few days. He didn’t want to rush things too much, but they were getting on extremely well and neither one of them was getting any younger.

Plus, he wanted badly to Claim Jillian properly—not just with his tongue, but with his cock. Not only because he wanted to fuck her—to put things crudely—but because he ached to have a bond with her. He still remembered the soul-deep connection he’d had with his first mate, Kara. He’d believed he would never have that again. But once he started dreaming of Jillian, he knew the Goddess had other plans for him—or hoped so, anyway.

The question was, would Jillian agree to be Claimed? She would have to meet and tame his Ursus before that would be possible—which wasn’t really a difficult thing—but he knew how frightened she was of the huge beast he kept within himself.

Kalis decided he would have to wait for the right time to broach the subject. He just hoped the curvy little Elite would be open to discussing it soon…

38

Jillian had to admit, she loved having the big Kindred there to greet her at the door. For much of her adult life, she’d lived a lonely existence. Spending most of her time in the kitchen, constantly climbing the ladder and perfecting her craft, had pretty much nixed any long-term relationships. And of course, the moment she’d been brave enough to try getting beyond that, her ex had shot down her dreams by being such a complete and total bastard.

Now, though, it really seemed like a happily-ever-after ending might actually be possible. Or was she only kidding herself?

But as Kalis pulled her in for a warm, lingering hug and kissed her affectionately, she felt herself melting into his arms and a warm glow seemed to suffuse her entire body. When she’d been younger, she had been drawn to the “bad boy” type. But now that she was more mature, she definitely valued kindness and calmness over angst and brooding. Kalis was an Alpha without being an asshole—she liked that a lot.

“It’s good to have you home again,” he rumbled in her ear. “I’ve prepared a late-night snack if you’d like one. Or would you rather have a nice long soak in the bathing pool together?”

“Bath first, snack second and let’s watch a movie while we eat it,” Jillian decided. She had been showing Kalis films from Earth, to give him an idea of her culture. He liked most of what she showed him, though he was disturbed if the plot had to do with a woman being killed or hurt in any way.

Jillian had found this out after she had showed him some of the typical male “revenge fantasy” films, where the hero loses his wife or daughter and then has to go kill the people responsible for the heinous deed. These movies seemed to upset Kalis deeply.

“These females—they are using them as nothing but objects,” he had protested. “They’re fucking disposable—nothing but a reason for the male character to go off and kill a bunch of other males.”

“You know, you’re right,” Jillian had said. “The women are pretty much just a plot device, I guess.” She supposed it wasn’t very feminist of her, but she hadn’t really noticed that fact until Kalis pointed it out.