Claws (4 page)

He looked at her with a shocked
expression. “You want to abort them? What are you asking me,
Vivvie?”

“Yes; I think that’s what I want,” she
said with a tortured look. “Please don’t tell Eli. I can’t go
through this right now. I just can’t.”

Jericho wiped his gloved hands on his
coveralls. “I can’t do it without Eli’s permission. It’s against
our laws. You know that.”

“He won’t give it,” she predicted and
looked away with an anguished look. “I can’t have them right now.
Devon and Elaina are all I can deal with.”

“Talk to him, Vivvie,” Jericho advised
and shook his head sadly. “I could end the pregnancy just by giving
you a morning after pill but not without his ok. I won’t go behind
his back and against our laws even for you.”

Vivvie knew he meant what he said. She
should have known before she asked, not counted on the fact they
were friends. He wouldn’t go behind Eli’s back. Knowing her mate;
he wouldn’t allow it.

Only in extreme cases was abortion
advocated. Theirs wouldn’t appear extreme enough to him. Her nerves
being shot didn’t meet the criteria for an abortion. She knew what
she had to do.

“Fine, I’ll talk to him,” she mumbled
and left the underground parking garage.

Jericho went back to wrenching on his
car. She used his distraction in the garage to sneak into his
medical clinic. He never locked the med cabinet.

She rifled through boxes and bottles of
pills. Her hand shook when she found the pharmaceutical sample
boxes. She stuffed one in her pocket and left the
clinic.

Tears filled her gaze as she sat in the
bathroom with the door locked. She sat on the commode, staring at
the box. Her head told her to take the pill. Her heart told her Eli
would never forgive her for doing this. She reached for the box,
opening the package with shaking hands.

Eli took a run across the meadow. He
arrived at the rock face of the mountain and sank to his haunches,
powerful paws scraped upon the rock ledge in agitation. He growled
under his breath as he took a seat to contemplate this newest
dilemma.

His heart ached to know his mate was
upset about having more children with him. Vivvie wasn’t over the
first pregnancy. The eight week gestation period and fast delivery
hadn’t given her enough time to come to terms with what she was,
much less what she brought into the world.

Eli knew he should have encouraged her
to get sterilized before they left for Australia. He gave her a
choice. She wanted to sit with it. Here they were three months
later, looking at the reality of that indecision. He panted and put
his head down on his paws, staring out over the ravine with a glum
expression.

Eli knew Vivvie struggled every day
with what she was; saw it in her expression as he watched their
young frolic on the beach. She was missing her human life. He had
no doubt she loved him and their young, but he knew she longed to
be human again too.

It was one of the things he had been
attracted to when she first arrived to the compound with Ty. Her
human ways fascinated him. For the first time in four hundred years
he catered to a female’s feelings; really listened to one. While he
found human women just as annoying and complex; he knew his mate
had an internal struggle within herself.

While she embraced some facets of her
new nature; she rejected the others. Her ability to breed every
eight weeks was a fact of her nature. She went into heat every six
weeks. It was all he could do to stay away from her then. She had
to know it was as instinctual for him to want her then as it was
for her to conceive.

They abstained but it grew to be
pointless and today was an example. Her very nature wanted what her
human one recoiled from. Jericho warned him to practice using
protection. He growled when he recalled the elder trying to show
him how to wear a human condom. Where Jericho came by such
knowledge was anyone’s guess.

He refused to wear one. In fact; he ate
the box of condoms in outrage. The stomach upset was worth the
point he made. He was a damn animal! He wasn’t wearing the
ridiculously small rubber shields on his manhood. They constricted
him and inhibited his own pleasure. It was too late to feel regret.
His mate was breeding again.

Jericho told him this would happen. The
elder was Vivvie’s closest friend and confidant; knew much of her
emotional upheaval. He tried to help her now. Eli thought it best
if Vivvie learned the rest of what she needed to know on her
own.

His mate must realize there was no
going back to who she was or what she was. Her human family thought
her dead. He avoided telling her that her human parents ordered a
tombstone in a cemetery with her name on it.

They wanted to put all
behind them when she remained missing six months later. Ty went to
the gravesite; confirmed that Vivian Leigh Collins, born June
7
^th
1988, died April 16
^th
2011. There was no going back
for her. Her human people found peace in laying her to
rest.

Their former daughter would never find
peace unless she surrendered to the beast that she was; the
instincts that grew in her daily. He saw the indecision in her eyes
and knew the cause. They didn’t speak of it because Eli refused to
allow it to invade their life. Vivvie was his mate. It was time she
put the past behind her.

“I should have known I’d find you
here,” a feminine voice intruded from behind him. “Some things
never change.”

Eli turned his head and growled as he
saw the woman approaching. His blue eyes glowed to see who it was.
He shifted back and got up and stared at her in shock. The woman
wore a loose flowing lavender nightgown and robe set. Her full
breasts spilled dangerously at the neckline.

“Tania?” he asked incredulously as he
approached her, sniffing unconsciously. “Is that really you? You’re
awake?”

Tania smiled as her eyes devoured him
from head to toe. “It appears I seem to have overslept.”

Eli looked sad at that. “Much happened
in that time. Jericho has told you?”

She nodded sadly and passed him to
stand at the ledge, folding her arms across her chest. Her long
lustrous dark hair fell over her shoulder, hanging in fragrant
waves to her hips. “Jericho told me you took a mate.”

Eli heard the pain in her tone; saw it
in the stiffness of her slender shoulders. He was annoyed to feel
guilt. She would try and make him feel bad for falling in love with
someone else. Not once had he ever felt he was number one in her
affections. For two hundred years he ate his pride to see her go to
Gideon or Jericho; see her grow big with their young.

“I fell in love, Tania. I won’t
apologize for it. You couldn’t make a choice, as I recall. You had
us all in an uproar for centuries. You refused to choose one of us
for your mate.”

She gave a bitter laugh. “Yes, imagine
my sorrow to wake up with that choice made and discover you took
another for your mate. How do you think I feel, Eli?”

Eli’s eyes widened to know she’d chosen
him. He and Gideon both seemed sure she would choose Jericho.
Gideon had been her current favorite then. Jericho and he fought
daily over her. He despised the feeling of elation within him to
know she chose him over the others. It was too late.

“I’m sorry Tania. I know this is all
very difficult for you. I didn’t know you would come
back.”

“It was your voice that brought me
back,” she told him as she turned, her perfect features filled with
sadness. “You came to sit with me often. If not for your voice; I
would still be in that dark place.”

Eli tensed as he felt the pull of those
electric golden eyes. Tania always moved him in a way no other
female ever had, even Vivvie. He knew it was the throes of his
first love that kept him standing there now. His eyes reflected his
indecision. She moved in quickly, pressing boldly against his
chest. Her luminous golden eyes lit up like molten pools, dilated
with desire.

Her scent and the feel of her alluring
body were alarming for him after so many years. Her hand caressed
his chest, the other stroking his hard arousal. She looked up at
him with such desire; he forgot himself.

He crushed her against his chest, his
mouth taking hers, tasting her, molding her to him. Desire nipped
at him, burning in him, even after coming from his wife. His hands
trembled as they cupped and fondled her round, full breasts while
she stroked his throbbing length, soft purrs escaping her lips as
his mouth went to her neck.

She rubbed against him provocatively
and pulled him with her, down towards the ground. He went with her,
his powerful body covering hers, easing up her robe to stroke her
as she did him, lost in the sensations. He was about to lose
himself in her; give into the lust he always felt for her when a
picture of his wife’s face intruded.

Eli realized what he was doing.
Sickened and disgusted, he rolled away and got up. He glared down
at her as he tried to get himself under control. The need to make
love to her was so overpowering; he feared he’d fail.

Reason returned as he saw her stand,
hurt in her eyes. This gorgeous creature before him waited too long
to make her choice. It was made by him the minute he met his
Newbreed. Thoughts of his mate made him put a safe distance between
himself and Tania.

“I’m mated, Tania. This can’t happen,”
Eli said raggedly as he dragged a hand through his dark hair. “I
adore my wife. I won’t do this to her. What was between us is over.
We have children and many grandchildren, and their children, but it
is over.”

Her eyes filled with unshed tears, her
hand going to her quivering lips. “I love you, Eli! I chose you
finally. Why would you take another as your mate?”

“To be fair; you kept us all guessing
then, Tania,” Eli remarked, under control now and angry at her
words. How soon she forgot how ugly the battles were then? Jericho
lost two souls and Gideon four in those two hundred years they
shared her.

She came forward, coming only to his
shoulder. “Did you really think I would choose any but you,
Elijah?”

Eli took a step back, aware of his
throbbing nudity. Her too alluring, too familiar, presence made him
feel his body react violently once more. He put a distance between
them, glaring at her. He was frustrated by her admission and by his
own pleasure to hear it.

“Why do you tell me this now, Tania?”
Eli asked in irritation. “It’s too late. Gideon and Jericho might
still wish to have you but you know the laws. I have a mate now;
and forever.”

“I love you, Eli,” she cried again as
she took a step closer. “I know you love me still. I can see it in
your eyes. Don’t tell me you forgot the time we shared?”

“Yes, I remember it all very well,” he
stated with a sarcastic laugh, furious at her for reminding him.
The desire for her kept him backing away, forcing himself to
refrain from giving into the musky secretions she made now, luring
him to her, letting him know she wished to mate. The animal within
him pawed at the ground to leave. The human man felt resentment.
“You coming to me with the stink of Gideon or Jericho still on you
are the fondest of my memories, Tania.”

“I did it for the tribe!” she snapped
and glared at him. “We all decided it. Even you! Now you would
throw it in my face to excuse mating yourself to another? How
convenient for you! I don’t recall you kicking me out of your bed
ever!”

Eli was furious. He was shocked at his
elation to know she woke up and chose him, only to remind him what
he used to settle for, taking scraps of her love. He thought of
their children, their grandchildren; the many great-grandchildren
they had now between them. All of it was nothing compared to what
he had with Vivvie.

“No, I didn’t have many standards where
you were concerned, Tania. None of us did. We agreed to mate for
the betterment of the tribe. Later we fought over you like ravenous
beasts. How that must have appealed to your vanity. Even when I
declared my love for you; it wasn’t enough. You couldn’t give the
others up.”

Tania looked outraged. “That’s not
true! It was always you that I loved, Elijah. Please, don’t say
such cruel things to me.”

“Why? They’re all true,” he scoffed and
his eyes began to glow with anger. “You liked having three Alphas
at your whims and in your bed, Tania. Admit it! That’s all it ever
was!”

“And you just pined away for me, did
you?” Tania jeered and her golden eyes filled with tears. “You made
the rounds quite regularly among the woman then. Every damned
female who raised her tail got your attention. You dare throw that
in my face now?”

“I refuse to fight with you over the
past, Tania.”

“It’s not the past for me,” she argued
and tears slid down her ivory cheeks. “It was only yesterday you
forced me to go to my room and make a decision. I didn’t think that
would take so long.”

“Where were you all these years?” Eli
asked, ignoring her impassioned words. “Where did you go when you
left my dream that night?”