Forbidden Bond (3 page)

“Poor little guy. Put him here, so I can get a better look.” Liv patted the stainless steel exam table. “Dr. McDaniel handles the domestic animals, but he ran out to grab us some lunch, and our vet tech is on her lunch break too.” She glanced up at Eion. “But we’ll manage if you don’t mind hanging around for a few minutes in case I need an extra pair of hands.”

“Sure.” He nodded. “I have some time.”
Whatever you need
, he finished the thought inside his head. Everything inside him wanted to be there with her. Dog or no dog.

Eion gently lowered the pup onto the cool metal, its bloody hindquarter glistening under the exam lights.
Damn.

“First off, our patient is a boy, and I can tell by the angle of his leg that he has a pretty significant fracture.” On the other side of the table, Liv trailed her hand down the canine’s spine. Both leaned in for a better look at the wound on his upper leg, but their heads met halfway, colliding with an audible
clunk.

“Ow!” Liv grabbed her forehead.

“Oh, damn.” Instinct had Eion reaching for Liv, cupping her face. “Sorry about that.” Their gazes met, and just like that, it was Y2K again—the summer sun beating down on their backs—the lake calling them for a dip. And a beautiful young girl with a mouth too inviting, stood right in front him. But this wasn’t twelve years ago, and Liv was all grown up. The pink tip of her tongue darted out and moistened the swell of her lower lip. His cock jerked.

Pulse raced.

His wolf stirred, yearning for Eion to taste what belonged to him.

“Oh. Wow!” Liv pulled back. “Déjà vu, huh?” She laughed, but it sounded strained.

“What?” He cleared his throat and gave his head a quick shake. That was too close.

“That day at the lake,” she went on to say. “The summer right before you and Kris graduated when I almost drowned.” Liv gathered some supplies from a drawer by the table. “I’d planned to help you with that old ice chest when it broke. And then…well, you know what happened next.” Keeping her attention on the injured pup, she shoved a stray lock of hair away from her face, but Eion didn’t miss the flush in her cheeks. “God, I was so embarrassed.”

The memories from that day came flooding back with perfect clarity. He could almost feel the warmth of the sun on his skin, smell the wild flowers on the breeze rushing up the hill and off the lake.

Snap!

The ice chest handle busted free from the side of the hard plastic container. “What the…” Eion spun, trying to hold onto the sliding box filled with ice and sodas. “Hang on, Liv!”

The sudden increase in weight jerked the handle on her side out of her grip.

“Watch out!” Liv cried out as the heavy chest fell off the tailgate and crashed onto the dirt road. Ice and cans of soda pop spilled out, rolling in all directions.

“Well, that’s just freaking great.” Eion groaned, staring down at the chaos around his feet.

“See,” Olivia drawled, from her spot above him in the truck bed, “now you really need my help.” She jumped down in front of him. “It was destiny.” She grinned.

Eion couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Olivia was so dramatic. “Yeah. Yeah. Whatever, Liv. Just help me get this stuff back into the ice chest, will you?”

Liv bent for the nearest can of cola and so did Eion, bringing their foreheads together with a hard thud.

“Ouch!” Liv laughed, slapping a palm to her head, and glancing up.

“Oh, man.” Eion chuckled and grasped her nape, pulling her in for closer inspection. “You okay?” Their gazes collided, and suddenly everything faded. How come he’d never realized how long and dark her eyelashes were? She tugged on her lower lip with her teeth. Had her mouth always been so full, so red?

Before he could contemplate further, Liv leaned in and planted her full soft lips on top of his. His heart skipped a beat, snapping his brain out of its zoned-out state. Eion grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her back.

“Whoa! Liv…” Eion gave their surroundings a frantic scan for any of their friends or, God forbid, her older brother. “What was that?”

A deep flush filled her cheeks as she placed a pair of trembling fingertips to her mouth. “I-I…” But she turned tail and darted down the hill toward the rest of the group by the lake.

Holy freaking… He smoothed a palm over the lower half of his face. Liv had kissed him.

“Yeah. I remember,” he said, doing his best to mentally yank himself back to the present. “How could I forget a kiss from my best friend’s little sister?”

Despite the slight tremor in her hand, Liv threaded an IV catheter into the dog’s front leg and hooked him up to a bag of fluid she hung from an overhead pole. She was definitely a pro at her job.

“I was too impulsive for my own good back then.” She plucked a vial of medication from a nearby shelf and filled a syringe part way before injecting it into the IV tubing.

“Considering the fall you took afterward into the lake, I won’t disagree with you.” He chuckled. “But you were pretty adorable and that made it hard to stay angry with you for long.”

Liv glanced his way, a small smile turning up the corners of her mouth.

“You still are,” he added.

She lowered her lashes. “What happened back—” The dog stirred, cutting off whatever Liv had been about to say, and drew her back to his side. She tugged a stethoscope from her scrub top pocket and listened to the furry guy’s chest.

“He appears stable for now,” she announced a couple of minutes later. “The pain medication I gave him should help ease the little fellow while he waits for Dr. McDaniel to get back.” Liv reached over and lifted the tag dangling from his collar. “At least we’ll be able to track down his owner from this and hopefully return him home all patched up.” She moved around the table, joining Eion on the other side. “Thanks for bringing him in.”

“Of course.” Eion’s gaze roamed the still form of what he decided was probably some sort of poodle/terrier mixed breed. “I couldn’t have left him out there to die. I hit him. He was my responsibility. Please let the owners know that I’ll be happy to pay for whatever needs to be done to fix him up.”

She nodded and smiled. “We’ll do that. That’s nice of you to offer. Not everyone cares that much about an animal.”

“What can I say?” He shrugged. “I like dogs. Horses. Cattle. Though I have to admit, I doubt you’d ever find a feline in my home.”

Liv grinned. “Okay. I promise we won’t ask you to assist with the next cat that comes in with a broken leg.”

We?
Right. Her and the other vet. The Dr. McDaniel she’d mentioned earlier. Probably some old guy about to retire brought her into the practice.

“So, I guess I should head out since the mutt’s doing okay.” He turned to leave.

“Wait…”

Eion glanced over his shoulder.

“Your shirt.” She pointed toward his midsection. “You’ve got blood all over you. You don’t want to go out in that.”

“Oh.” A large area of what used to be a solid white dress shirt now sported a bright red stain.

“Hang on.” She brushed past him, the sweet scent of her hair temporarily chasing away the medicinal smell in the air. He bit back a groan.

“I think I might have something you can change in to.”

After working the buttons free, Eion shrugged the shirt from his shoulders. With his back to the door, he checked on the pooch one more time. The soft tap of Liv’s approaching footsteps told him she’d stepped back into the room.

“Here you go. This might…”

Eion spun. Liv stood there, mouth open, arm outstretched with a dark blue scrub top hanging from her hand. He grabbed the top from her fingertips. Her gaze roamed the planes of his chest, and the sharp twinge of arousal seared his nostrils.
Fuck
. Blood surged into his shaft, taking him to an immediate rock-hard state.

He had to get out of there or he’d end up doing something neither of them could come back from.

“Um,” Liv said, blinking. “This might work.” She pointed to the item in his hand. “It’s one of Taylor’s. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”

“Taylor?”

“Dr. McDaniel. My business partner and boyfriend.”

Well, that was one way to take care of an erection.

No. Way. In. Fucking. Hell.

All that he was—man and wolf—rejected the idea of wearing clothing that belonged to Taylor McDaniel.

Eion held up the scrub top. Stitched in white on the right side, the name
Taylor McDaniel, DVM
burned into his retinas. “You know…I really don’t think it’ll fit.” He handed it back over. “Thanks. I appreciate it though. But come to think of it, I’m pretty sure I can find a T-shirt stashed in my truck.”

“Oh.” She folded the shirt over her arm. “You’re probably right. I should have thought of that.” With a wave of her hand, she indicated his upper body. “You’re a bit bigger than him and…tattooed.” She pointed at his chest and biceps. “Taylor doesn’t have any of those—not that that has anything do with his shirt fitting.” A nervous chuckle bubbled out. Liv drew in a sharp inhale, dropped her gaze, and darted over to the mutt.

A growl on the verge of escaping sat in his throat. Instead, Eion swallowed hard and made for his getaway. “Good to see you, Liv.”

She flashed him a hesitant smile and reached for her stethoscope once more, her grip clenched around the tubing. “Thanks for bringing him in,” she said.

He strode toward the exit and had almost made his escape when a blond man in scrubs sauntered through the door. The other guy drew to a halt, assessing Eion’s bare chest before his gaze finally traveled to his face.

“Can I help you?”

After a quick glance at the other man’s scrub top to confirm, Eion stated, “Dr. McDaniel.” Nope. Not a gray hair in sight. He ground his molars, but managed to stick out his hand.

“That’s right.” Taylor inserted his palm inside Eion’s, squeezed, and gave it a token shake. “And you are?”

“Eion Mandrake.”

The doc’s eyebrows lifted. “Eion Mandrake. Livvy and Kris’s friend from a few years ago. We heard you were in town.”

“Is that so?” Before the other man could pull away, Eion increased the pressure of his grip, holding the human in place a moment longer. “You and Liv are dating, huh?”

Taylor’s eyes brightened. “She mentioned that to you?”

Eion nodded.

“Yes. I’m a lucky man.” A grin split Taylor’s face.

Eion carefully withdrew his hand. “Yeah,” he replied, his words slow and deliberate. “You are.”

***

Gripping the leather covering his steering wheel with one hand, Eion swiped his other hand through his hair. He needed to get a grip. Exhaling, he repositioned in his seat and scanned the wide expanse of acres where the Mandrake ranch eventually rolled into the Wilsons’. He’d heard Liv had become a vet, but a large animal one, not the kind that would treat an injured dog. She should not have been on duty. Damn! Eion slammed his palm against the hard surface of the dash, cursing his luck and the relentless hold of their bond which yanked the chain on his control.

He’d been in Little Crow for three days and had managed, until today, to stay out of the path of Olivia Wilson.

Which had not been easy.

Not because he’d nearly run in to her on several occasions—he’d made sure to keep his distance—but being this close to her was like asking a man lost in Antarctica to refuse the offer of a bonfire.

God knew he could use something to warm the incessant chill in his body. After more than a decade of trying, he’d yet to find a woman able to reach within and thaw the ice in his veins. Taking them to bed wasn’t an issue. Feeling anything more than a hollow physical release, a deeper connection that satisfied not only his cock but his soul when it was over,
that
was a problem. Hence the string of one-night stands he’d left littered behind him. Why go back for more when he had felt as cold leaving his lover’s bed as when he’d begun? No sense risking the possibility of a female becoming too attached. He wasn’t capable of it developing into anything more.

The thumping beat of the radio faded out, replaced by the jarring ring of his cell phone coming through the speakers. Caller ID on the dashboard display read: Tawny. The corner of his mouth lifted in a half-ass smile. Sadly, his aloofness didn’t mean females gave up trying to create something that wasn’t there. Eion pressed the talk button on his steering wheel.

“Hello, Tawny…”

“Eion Mandrake, it appears you left town a few days ago without saying goodbye,” she whined.

“Tawny…I wasn’t sure I was going to handle this in person until the last minute. I should be back in a few days. You’ll survive without me. I’m sure of it.” Tawny Danniger and her family had been friends of the Mandrakes for as long as he could remember. One of the few reasons she felt she owned the privilege to call him at any time of the day, to cry on his shoulder, or pester him for attention.

She giggled. “I don’t know…what am I going to do with my time while you’re gone?”

“You’ll think of something.”

“You never talk about the time you spent with your godparents in Little Crow. Do you still have friends there?”

Eion’s gut knotted at the thought. He refused to go there with her. Out of respect for her and her family, he gave Tawny more leeway than most women. But no one needed to know any details of his life from back then.

Sleeping with Tawny had been a drunken mistake that he couldn’t take back, but she didn’t deserve the cold wall he’d created after the fact. She craved a closer relationship and made no attempt to hide the fact. But no matter how hard he tried, Eion couldn’t chisel through the block of ice he’d built around himself. For any female.

The barricade was a necessity, the only way he knew how to survive. To keep himself sane without the one person whose bond had seared itself deep into his soul. The woman he could never have—no matter how much his wolf howled inside.

Humans and shifters were forbidden to mate. That was pack law.