Forgotten (54 page)

The Beast made another inquiring noise and
came towards her again. This time Kate held her ground. With a hand
that trembled only a little, she raised her wilting bouquet of
staybacks and thrust them directly into his face.

Rone’s Beast snarled and staggered back,
pawing angrily at his face as the other Beast-man had done. Then he
looked at Kate with an expression of distrust in his silver
eyes.

“
That’s right,” Kate told
him in a shaking voice. “Just…just stay back or you’ll get more of
the same. Don’t try to get up to anything and we’ll get along just
fine.”

He growled softly and came towards her
again.

Again Kate thrust the wilted bouquet in his
face and again he stepped back…but not as far as before. And it
only took a moment before he came for her again.

This time, Kate saw a kind of determination
on his face. Rone might not be at home mentally right now but his
Beast was clearly determined to get to know her…intimately.

And would that really be
such a bad thing?
whispered a little voice
in the back of her head. Was it the voice of the
Knowing?

What—letting Rone’s Beast
rape me? Hell yes, it would,
Kate told it
sternly.

You can’t keep this up all
night,
the voice said reasonably and this
time she
knew
it
was the voice of the Knowing.
It isn’t
safe—you’re just going to make him angrier and angrier. And you
know what happens if the Beast can’t breed…

“
He’ll want to feed. Oh
God,” Kate whispered to herself. “But what should I do?”

She didn’t often communicate so directly
with the inner sense inside her. Most often it only surfaced to
give her the occasional warning or allowed her to read people when
she needed to. But this time it spoke directly to her.

Submit, Kate. Give yourself willingly.

“
Like the girl in the
book—the Volume of Submission?” Kate muttered. “I can’t…I couldn’t.
I don’t…don’t know Rone well enough for this, let alone his Beast.
I’m not ready—not yet.”

You may never be
completely ready for something like this,
The Knowing told her calmly.
But the
only way to get through this situation is to submit.

“
But what about what Tante
Corii said? That the Beast would be able to smell if I wasn’t madly
in love with him? With Rone? I mean, I’m starting to care for him
but I’m not in love with him—not yet.”

Yes, you are,
whispered the Knowing.
You just don’t remember it right now. But the Beast will
scent your true emotions—the ones that are buried. Trust him,
Kate…and trust yourself. You can do this. You
have
to. It’s the only
way.

“
The only way. The only
way,” Kate muttered to herself. The Knowing had never steered her
wrong and usually she listened to it without a second thought. But
this…what it was telling her to do now was hard…harder than
anything she’d ever had to do before.

A little distance away, the Beast Rone had
become made a soft, inquiring growl and stepped towards her again.
Kate raised the wilted bunch of stayback flowers once more and saw
his pure silver eyes track her movements. A rumbling sound started
deep in his chest and one corner of his sensuous mouth lifted in a
snarl.

Kate had a choice to make here and she knew
it. Either she could continue to try and keep the very determined
Beast away from her all night using the wilting stayback flowers…or
she could listen to the Knowing and give in to the inevitable. What
should she do?

She lifted the flowers higher and Rone’s
Beast growled again, its silver eyes filled with anger and
mistrust. Kate made up her mind. Later she thought it was the
hardest thing she’d ever done in her life, but she took a deep
breath…and tossed the flowers away.

“
It’s all right,” she
said, kneeling down to rub her open palm against the grass to get
rid of the scent of the staybacks. “Look…see? I don’t have them
anymore.”

Standing slowly, she held out her open
hands, palm up, just like the girl in the Volume of Submission
had.

Rone’s Beast made a soft, uncertain growl in
the back of his throat and eyed her suspiciously.

“
Really, I don’t,” Kate
told it earnestly. “They’re all gone. You…you can come over and
see…see for yourself if you want to.”

Remembering another illustration from the
book, she tugged at the neckline of the petal dress. It lowered
easily and suddenly she felt the cool breeze on her bare breasts.
Her nipples tightened immediately and she felt her heart beating
like a jackhammer in her chest. But there was no backing down
now.

“
See?” she told Rone’s
Beast. “Here I am…come see for yourself.”

He made another inquiring sound and came
towards her again. Remembering that she shouldn’t stare him in the
eyes, Kate looked away submissively as he towered over her, his
broad, hairy chest level with her face.

This close to him, she could smell the rich,
pheromone-laden aroma Rone had said was his Bonding Scent. In fact,
Kate had never smelled it so strongly before—the dark, spicy,
masculine fragrance seemed to overwhelm her senses and make her
almost dizzy.

To her surprise, the scent seemed to calm
her. It spoke to a part of her that her cognitive brain had
forgotten—to the memories that were buried somewhere deep in her
subconscious waiting, hopefully, to someday come out again.

Home…safety…need…love…lust…desire…pleasure…

Rone’s scent promised her all these things
and more and Kate found herself responding to that promise, even
though she wasn’t completely sure she wanted to.

Having ascertained that the stinging
stayback flowers were nowhere to be found, Rone’s Beast leaned over
her and sniffed her hair.

Only I guess I shouldn’t
keep thinking of him as the Beast or Rone’s Beast,
Kate told herself.
He
really is Rone…just in another form. A slightly hairier and wilder
form but it’s still him…still the male I’m coming to care for. The
one who loves me so much he’s willing to kill or die for me. He’s
mine…and soon I’ll be his.

She hoped, anyway. Would Rone be willing to
breed her in his new, mindless Beast form…or would he sense her
uncertainty and want to feed on her instead?

Kate held her breath as he
sniffed her hair and then pushed it aside to press his face against
the side of her neck. This was the moment of truth. If the
Beast—no, if
Rone—
didn’t like what he smelled, he would rip her throat out in a
heartbeat.

He could do it, too—she
had no doubt. The brilliant, silvery light of the converged moons
showed that his teeth had grown longer and sharper. They were
nowhere near as sharp as the modified tusks she’d seen in the
picture of the wolf/bear beast the Wulven
used
to turn into before the Kindred
had come. But they were still sharp enough and he was plenty strong
enough to kill her with no trouble at all.

His breath was hot against the side of her
throat. Then, he opened his mouth and she felt sharp, white teeth
settle against her flesh, right at the juncture where her neck met
her shoulder. Kate felt like her heart was trying to pound its way
out of her ribs as the needle-like fangs sank into her flesh,
lightly piercing the skin. Oh God, was he going to kill her now?
Was he getting set to rip her throat out?

“
Rone,” she whispered
breathlessly and dared to put a hand to his broad, hairy chest.
“Rone, please…that…that hurts.” She wasn’t trying to push him
away—the
Knowing
warned her that would be a mistake—possibly a deadly one.
Instead, she curled her fingers in the soft, wiry black hair that
had grown between his pecs and stroked him gently. “Please,” she
whispered. “Please, Rone, you’re hurting me. I know you don’t
really want to hurt me. You…you love me, Rone. You’ve told me so
over and over.
Please.”

He growled softly and for a moment his teeth
bit just a little deeper. Kate felt the warm trickle of blood
running down her bare back and shoulder and cried out, unable to
help herself. This was it—she was going to die. Rone’s Beast could
sense that she didn’t remember him enough to love him and he was
going to kill her here and now. He—

But just then the teeth withdrew and a
gentle licking began. Kate held still in absolute shock as Rone
bathed the bite wound he’d made tenderly with his warm, wet
tongue.

When he finally pulled away, she dared to
look. It was hard to see her own shoulder but she was able to tell
that the wound was gone, as if it had never been. In its place was
a prominently placed set of bite marks, already healed to
silvery-white scars.

Understanding burst over her suddenly and
she looked up at the Beast.

“
Marking me—you
were
marking me,
weren’t you?”

Rone made a soft growl that sounded almost
like affirmation. His silver eyes blazed with possessiveness and
Kate knew as surely as if he’d told her in words that he had had
bitten her not to harm or cause pain but to show that she was
his—totally and completely his.

“
All…all right,” she
whispered, still looking up at him. “I’m yours. Now what…what are
you going to do with me?”

In answer, Rone lowered his head again but
this time he didn’t sniff her neck or hair. Instead, he pressed his
scratchy cheeks to the soft, bare slopes of her breasts.

Kate gave a little moan as she felt his hot
breath against her sensitive flesh and then Rone was sucking one of
her tight peaks, drawing deep and hard to get as much of her breast
into his mouth as he could.

“
Oh…God, Rone!” she gasped
as he sucked hard against her nipple, a sweet, savage kiss that was
filled with pure, animalistic lust.

When he released one nipple, he went
immediately for the other and sucked it even harder. Kate felt the
sharp sting of pain as his big mouth enveloped her, pulling her
tight, sensitive peak deep into the hot cavern of his mouth. If the
big Kindred had been in his right mind, Kate would have told him to
back off a little. But there was no backing off the Beast. There
was nothing she could do but try to relax in his tight, possessive
hold and let him do as he pleased…let him suck her tender nipples
as hard and as long as he wanted to.

She moaned softly in mingled pain and
pleasure. Despite her fear and uncertainty, she had to admit this
was turning her on. With each hard draw of his mouth on her
sensitive peaks, showers of sparks seemed to travel through her,
especially down to her pussy which was beginning to feel wet and
swollen. The sensation was intense—almost more than Kate could
bear. God, would it ever end? Would he ever be through?

At last, Rone seemed to be finished sucking
her breasts. He pulled away from her and pawed at the petal dress
she still wore.

You know what comes
next,
whispered the Knowing. Yes, she did.
Remembering the Volume of Submission, Kate slipped off the lovely
petal dress and let it fall in a soft heap at her feet. Then she
stepped out of it and lay down on the grass, using the petal fabric
as a kind of pillow. She bent her legs at the knee but kept them
closed.

“
All right,” she whispered
to Rone. “Here I am. Do…do what you want.”

Rone gave a soft, lustful growl and suddenly
he was on his hands and knees beside her. Kate tried to stay calm
and still—it was important to let him know she was submitting to
him, that she wasn’t going to try and get away before he took what
he wanted from her.

Her knees were still closed though—she
couldn’t bear to part them of her own volition. It was too
scary…made her feel too vulnerable. The grass tickled her bare back
and bottom and the breeze felt cool against her throbbing nipples.
She shivered but Rone’s big form beside hers radiated heat like a
furnace, drawing a line of fire down her side when he nudged her
gently.

“
Rone?” she whispered as
he pressed his face to her hip and then followed the curve of her
thigh until he came to her closed knees. “Rone, please…” But he was
already trying to nudge his way between her legs and Kate
remembered what he had told her—about how his Beast wanted to taste
her so badly because he was addicted to her honey. Well, after the
way he’d been sucking her nipples, she certainly felt wet enough.
It was just scary to let such a huge male—one who had been reduced
down to his most basic animal lusts—into such a delicate
area.

Still, Rone was nudging her insistently and
she knew she couldn’t hold him off for long.

“
O…Okay,” she whispered in
a shaky voice, letting her legs drift apart. “Only please…be
gentle, okay? I’m really sensitive there…especially after the way
you, uh, tasted me so long last night.”

Rone looked up at the soft, pleading sound
of her voice. Kate wasn’t sure if he understood her words but he
did seem to understand her tone. He gave a soft growl that was
almost comforting and then spread her thighs wide and leaned in to
taste her.

“
Oh…
oh!”
Kate gasped as she felt his hot
mouth connect with her swollen outer pussy. “Oh,
Rone.”

She couldn’t tell if he was trying to be
gentle or not—maybe he was at first but his need for her honey
seemed to drive him wild. With a hungry rumble deep in his throat,
he wrapped muscular arms around her thighs and split her wide.