But Kiowa was none of those. He was a man, with plenty of faults, she admitted, but he wasn’t bloodthirsty. If he had been, he would have helped the kidnappers rather than rescuing her. The Feline Breed leader seemed to accept him well enough; he actually seemed to like him from what Amanda had seen.
“Stop thinking so hard.” Kiowa moved her empty plate from in front of her as well as the glass that had held the milk he forced on her.
She watched him curiously as he washed up quickly.
“I need to take a shower.” He placed the last dish in the drainer minutes later. “Stay in the cabin. The mountains are heavily patrolled by Feline guards and they don’t know you yet. We also have several trained wolves and a mountain lion or two patrolling. They definitely won’t like you. If you don’t smell like a cat, they eat you.”
She knew her expression reflected her shock.
“Go on to bed and try to sleep. It’s been a hell of a night.”
Weariness seemed to drag at her anyway, but it did little to dim the need burning bright in her womb.
“Where are you sleeping?” she asked him.
He stiffened.
“On the couch. If you need me, just let me know. I won’t bother you otherwise.”
If she could handle it. The words seemed to linger in the air around them despite the fact that she hadn’t voiced them.
Could she handle it?
Could she handle the consequences if she didn’t?
“How did your mother conceive you?” She didn’t know where the question came from. He watched her closely for several, long moments.
“She was taken while coming home from college one night. The Breed scientists often kidnapped their breeders. If they were ovulating, they kept them and bred them. If they weren’t, they tried to force ovulation. If they couldn’t make them take, then they let them go.”
“How did your mother escape?”
“She was ovulating. She was artificially inseminated with the altered sperm and then locked in a cage. A week later, tests were negative for conception. They released her. Evidently, there are very few women compatible enough with the altered genetics to actually allow conception.”
“How was it negative?”
He smiled sarcastically. “You’re a smart one aren’t you? Coyote sperm is evidently viable for much longer periods of time within the female womb. Up to two weeks was the latest report I believe. The unique hormone created by the altered genetics can also force ovulation on its own. As it did with my mother, I guess.
“Once they learned this, they started searching for the breeders they had turned loose. It was years later unfortunately. Shit happens. My mother died in a car crash when I was five, no one but my grandfather knew of my existence. Even her new husband had no idea I existed. By then, there was no checking the body for previous birth since she was more or less cremated in the crash. Too bad, so sad. Kiowa got away.”
“Then…” Her heart was racing in her chest now, a hard anxious beat that unfortunately had negative results.
“You’re ovulating now.” He nodded. “I’ve locked inside you twice and chances are you have all kinds of little Coyote sperm racing around in your womb. But you might hit it lucky, baby. As I said, most Breed sperm isn’t compatible with a normal female. Chances are good it won’t catch.”
That was not regret she heard in his voice, she reassured herself.
“I’ll go to bed.” She rose quickly to her feet and headed out of the room. She had to think, but thinking and being in the same room with Kiowa wasn’t going to work. Immature, he had called her. A child. Unfortunately she wanted to rage at him just as she would have her father or brother when they were doing something unreasonable or enforcing a rule she disagreed with. If it were merely a question of disagreeing, then she would be in his face now. From what she had overheard, it was much more than that. The hormone that was making her crazy for his touch was no more his fault then it was hers, though. How could she fight that?
“You do that.” His quiet snarl behind her pricked at her heart and she didn’t even know why.
Chapter Fifteen
How was she supposed to sleep? Her mind wouldn’t settle, but even worse, neither would her body. She stared at the dimly lit ceiling, tracking the fragile motes of light that managed to slip through the heavy dark curtains and tried to find some way to accept this new reality she had been dragged into. Kiowa was furious. She could see that now. Where her father and brother turned icy, letting their anger freeze rather than burn, Kiowa pushed it back. He buried it under years of acceptance, beneath the tragedy of a childhood that never was and dreams he didn’t dare have. She remembered the look on his face when he pulled from her, his swollen c**k popping free of her, the knot barely subsided as she stared up at him in horror that first time. An animal she had called him.
His expression had shut down immediately, becoming quiet, emotionless, as he calmly left the Jeep. It had been the anger. He fought it, just as she fought for freedom. Now, his anger was escaping and she was bound to one person in a way she feared she would never truly be free of. If what she had overheard Callan saying was true, then nature had taken her choice away from her. She turned to her side, curling into a tight ball and pushed back the need lancing through her body. It was getting worse. Horribly worse. She closed her eyes and tried counting sheep, she bit her lip until she tasted blood. She covered her head with the blankets, but the ache just grew and grew. Her br**sts were so tight and swollen she feared her ni**les would burst. The touch of her own hands against them sent sensation ripping to her womb, warning her she was in for a long hard battle if she meant to deny what her body hungered for.
Would she have wanted him even without the hormone building in her system? She would have, she thought, remembering his natural inclination to touch her as she had always dreamed of being touched. His teeth tormenting her ni**les. His hand landing hard and heavy on the waxed mound of her pu**y. She flinched at the thought as a white-hot streak of remembered pleasure seared that swollen button of nerves. And his cock. She clenched her thighs at the thought of it. The pleasure pain of being impaled on that thick stalk had her juices flowing thick and heavy from her hungry cunt. She moaned in bleak of acceptance of the fact that she would only be able to fight the arousal for so long. The building pain was almost an agony, her womb clenching, spasming as the withdrawal tore through her.