Primal Desires (19 page)

S
ofia was surprised to find Jason already in their room when she reached it. He'd changed into black silk pajama bottoms, in which he looked mighty fine, and was lying on the bed reading a book. She instantly wanted to climb on beside him and toss aside the book.

“And you a lover of literature,” he said, looking up and raking her with a hot gaze.

“Some things are more important than a good book.” She chuckled. “That would be considered heresy if I posted it on my blog. Then again, it would be considered porn if I posted what I'm currently considering—and I'd get a lot more hits than I do talking about books.”

He put the book on the nightstand and patted the mattress beside him. “Come here.”

“Give me a minute.”

She smiled and went into the walk-in closet. If he could wear black silk, so could she. She found a sexy, lacy confection in a lingerie drawer and quickly slipped into it. She gave a brief glance in the full-length mirror to check the effect, then shook out her long curls so that they rested on her shoulders and framed her face.

“How do I look?” she asked, stepping back into the bedroom.

He looked her over, eyes lighting with lust. “Wanton,” was his response.

“What a lovely, old-fashioned word.” She slinked forward, and he rose to meet her. “George and Gracie aren't likely to disturb us, are they?”

He took her in his arms. “They're kenneled up, and the evening is ours.” He nuzzled her throat, kissed across her collarbone and down between her breasts.

Sofia curled her toes in the deep carpet. “That feels sooo nice.” She ran her hands over his shoulders and arms, relishing the feel of sculpted muscles and warm flesh. “What did the Matri want with you?”

He gave her a look that said this wasn't the time or place for conversation, but after a moment he gave in to her curiosity. “She's concerned about Sidonie. She wanted to know if I knew any Prime among the Families that might spark Sid's interest.”

“What did you tell her?”

“That I'd think about it.”

“Um…”

Jason drew away from her. “What?”

“Can we talk? About Sid.”

He looked almost panic-stricken. “I don't know what you overheard, but—”

“I know she wants to have your baby. Rather, she wants you to father her baby.”

Jason sat down on the bed and stared at her. “You're taking this calmly.”

He wasn't. The agitation that boiled off him made her head hurt.

“I begin to suspect a cultural problem here that I have no clue about.” She pulled up a chair to sit down, rested her folded hands on the smooth silk of her nightgown, and kept her tone reasonable and as academic as she could manage. “Walk me through this, please. I have been given to understand that vampires are matrilineal.” Jason nodded. “Women are heads of households, and all children belong to the mother and are part of the mother's Clan, no matter who the father is, whether they're bonded or not.”

“That is correct.”

“And it is not only customary, but necessary for the viability of the species, for vampire women to have children with several vampire males. They reproduce this way until they acquire a bondmate, and after the bonding they only have children with the Prime who is their bondmate.”

“Yes.”

“Okay, so, Sidonie is not bonded.”

He gave her a hot look that made her shiver all over. “I am.”

Sofia refused to give in to the strong urge to forget about everything and throw herself on the man. “You're working on being bonded. I believe the process of mind-soul-body integration takes some time.”

“
We're
working on being bonded,” he answered. “You and I. Sidonie Wolf has nothing to do with it.”

“No, she doesn't. She doesn't want to have anything to do with you sexually. I'd cheerfully kill her if she did. She simply wants you to contribute your DNA to conceiving a child that will be totally hers. She wants to take the sex out of an ancient custom and put a modern spin on it. She wants a sperm donor—that's all.”

“All?”

He stood, with grace that barely covered his outrage. For a moment Sofia shrank back in her chair. It was like having a furious giant standing over her, but she didn't give in to the intimidation for long. She met his gaze, Wolf Tamer to Beast Master, and after a few seconds of mutual glaring Jason resumed his seat. He hadn't calmed down at all, though. This was
so
not going well.

“I really don't understand why you're angry.”

He crossed his arms over his bare chest. “You want to pimp me out to stud, and you wonder why I'm angry?”

“Oh, please. That's just male ego talking. I thought you were better than that.”

“I am Prime!”

“Good for you,” she snapped as her own temper flared. She shot to her feet and glared down at him this time. “Aren't you the person who recently pointed out that this is the twenty-first century? What's wrong with vampires using alternate fertility methods?”

“That's sick and disgusting and utterly—”

“Mortal?” she questioned sarcastically.

“Yes,” he snarled back. “If Sid wants a baby, let her do it the right way—instead of using you to try to get to me.”

It wasn't that she really wanted him to be Sid's sperm donor, but she saw the other woman's point, and her desperation. “Jason, you're being old-fashioned.”

“In this, yes. I belong to you.” He grabbed her shoulders hard. “And you're mine. Conversation closed. Do you understand?”

J
ason knew instantly that he hadn't phrased that right. He took his hands off her shoulders, terrified that he'd left bruises, and clasped his hands tightly behind his back. “I'm sorry. I—”

Sofia turned away from his apology. She walked to the patio door and he let her go, realizing that the hurt he'd caused her wasn't physical.

“You aren't my property,” he said. “I didn't mean it like that.”

She stopped and rested her head wearily against the glass door. “I am not ready for this. I am
so
not ready for this.”

He moved up behind her and put his arms around her waist. Though she tensed at his touch, he took it as a good sign that she didn't move away. He buried his face in her thick hair and breathed in the scent of her. He didn't understand why being near her brought him peace, even now, when she was so agitated, but he accepted this gift she brought to his life. He hated that the last thing Sofia was feeling right now was peaceful and longed to help her.

“I'm not ready for this,” she repeated in an anguished whisper.

“For us?” he asked, dreading the answer.

“For everything. For life. Everything's changed so fast. Everything is so different! I'm used to being alone, to being unwanted, to having a father who's a murderer and…” Her voice trailed off into a long, strangled moan.

Her tense muscles went suddenly limp, and she threw her head back with a tortured wail.

Jason quickly turned her around and pulled her close.

She shook like a tree in a storm, sobs racking her.

My father! Daddy!

I know. I know.

She cried and cried, a lifetime's worth of grief pouring out of her. She bled inside, battered by pain.

Her pain cut through him. He wanted desperately to make it stop—but no. She needed this.

Sometimes pain could be a gift, no matter what it felt like at the time. So he held her, and loved her and waited, hoping she could come to terms with all she'd lost.

When she sagged against him, he picked her up and sat on the bed with her cradled on his lap.

After one last huge shudder, finally Sofia lifted her head. “My father went to prison for killing feral werewolves.”

“Yes.” Jason used a tissue to wipe her wet face.

She took the tissue from him and blew her nose. Then she scrubbed her hands across her cheeks. When he rose to carry her into the bathroom, she said, “I can walk.”

He ignored her and didn't put her down until they got to the sink. He stood back while she splashed cold water repeatedly on her burning face and handed her a towel when she straightened.

“You're too good to me,” she said. “I'm a blubbering fool.”

“You needed the release. Feeling any better now?” He already knew the answer to that; her broken heart beat inside his body. He would do anything to make her whole.

She looked at him, her dark eyes full of bleak hopelessness. “He did the wrong thing for the right reason.”

Jason nodded.

“He's serving life in Gull Bay Supermax.” She swallowed fresh tears. “He did it for me.” The bleak expression left her eyes, but the hurt remained.

Jason crossed his arms. “I see. You won't let yourself grieve anymore, but you will blame yourself for the choice he made. Don't do that, sweetheart. He wouldn't want you to.”

“That selfless bastard,” she spat out. She threw down the towel and marched out of the bathroom.

He followed her into the bedroom and watched her pace restlessly around the room. He knew a caged tiger when he saw one. An angry caged tiger.

“What are you thinking?” he asked.

She turned to him. “Can't you read my mind?”

“Sometimes it's wiser not to.”

“This isn't justice,” she said. “This isn't fair. What am I going to do?”

“Visit your father,” Jason suggested. “Let him know you know why he did what he did. Let him know you forgive him, and that you love him.”

“Of course I love him. I've hated his guts, but I haven't stopped loving him. Believe me, I tried.” She went back to pacing. “I wonder if I could hire a lawyer and get the case reopened with new evidence.”

“You can't mean that.”

“Why not? Even if every werewolf in the world comes after me for outing them, I don't care.”

“I'd care. I'd have your back, sweetheart, and I'd have to kill a lot of nice werewolves defending you.”

She saw his point and kicked a chair leg in frustration, then winced. He felt the blood racing through her and the wild pounding of her heart.

“This is life and death we're talking about, Sofia. You are in my world now, and our secrets cannot be revealed.”

She nodded reluctantly and began pacing again. “I know. But something has to be done! I cannot—
will
not—leave an innocent man in that place.”

“He is not innocent,” Jason reminded her.

She stopped moving, her fists bunched at her sides. “Why did he have to kill them? Why couldn't he have—”

“He was a father defending his child. I'd kill any monster that threatened my child.”

“All right. Maybe the question is, why did he have to get caught? Where was his cleanup crew to make sure the police didn't know anything supernatural occurred?”

“That was—unfortunate.”

“Something has to be done,” she declared. “We have to do something to help him.”

“I don't know what.” He hated the way she felt, desperate and close to breaking again, her control a brittle and fragile shell. “We'll think of something,” he promised.

“We could break him out of Gull Bay.”

He might have laughed had this not been so deadly serious. “Sweetheart, this is real life, not some show on the Fox network.”

She countered, “Vampires, werewolves, skinhead biker bad guys? Don't talk to me about
reality,
Jason Cage.”

“Okay. Point taken. But how could we—”

“Wait. I think I've got an idea. Vampires. And werewolves.” Sofia laughed. “It's crazy, but it just might work. Of course it'll work! It
has
to work.”

He caught her enthusiasm. “What have you got in mind?”

“Do you know anything about the security at a place like Gull Bay?”

“Do you?”

“I know as much as anyone on the outside can know about Gull Bay.” She shrugged. “As much as I tried to forget about my father I couldn't stop myself from doing websearches about where he is. I didn't want to know, and I couldn't bear not to.”

“That is understandable.”

“Is it? Anyway, Gull Bay was built specifically to house Level Four offenders—the worst of the worst. It's located in an isolated spot in northern California. My father's in the Security Housing Unit, which means he spends twenty-three hours a day alone in a cell. Only the staff are allowed into the SHU, except for routine searches by drug-sniffing dogs. The dogs and their handlers are brought in from police units outside the prison. Do you see where I'm going with this?”

Jason shook his head. “No.”

“You and Cathy in wolf form can go in as one of those canine units.”

He began to get an inkling of what she had in mind. “You want to use our strength and telepathic abilities to break your father out.”

She nodded. “I remember how you psychically made the cops at the motel go away. All you have to do is go into Gull Bay, make everybody in the place forget Daddy ever existed, and bring him out.”

By the Goddess, the woman didn't know what she was asking! But she deserved to have her father. And he would do anything for her happiness. He wasn't going to tell her what it might cost him, though.

He forced a confident smile. “It's so crazy it just might work.”

“Good. Let's go talk to Cathy.”

When she started toward the door, he turned her around and pointed her toward the bed. “You're exhausted. I'll go talk to Cathy. You get some rest.”