Matefinder (21 page)

                She grimaced. “Yes, we are aware
of your philanthropic efforts.”

                “What does Layla do?”

                Dr. Tavern chewed her lip. “She
owns a few night clubs and an anti-aging skin crème line.”

                “Ahh, well thank God for her.” I
laid the sarcasm on thick and shifted. I took off after Kai. It was important
to me that the high ups at RAIDOS didn’t lump vampires and werewolves together.
We were nothing alike. If they thought they could just wipe me out because my
blood could grow the vampire race, they had another thing coming. Did I have
two enemies now? The vampires and the humans?

                I ran alongside Kai as we met Max
and the others at the front of the water treatment plant. None of our wolves had
died.

                ‘If RAIDOS hadn’t helped us this
would have been a lot worse,’
I told Kai.

                ‘I know.’

                ‘Dr. Tavern didn’t have to warn
us about them taking me if Layla has a child.’

                ‘I know,’
he said again.

                I sighed. I didn’t know why I was
sticking up for them. Then I laughed out loud. Sylvia and her clan had joined
our group.

                “What’s so funny?” she asked.

                “We thought humans were a weak
race.” I gestured to the pile of ashes that symbolized dead vampires.

                 Max chuckled. “Guess we gotta up
our game and buy a helicopter.” He nodded to Kai.

                “Consider it done.” Now Kai
smiled.

                A month had passed already. It
was a rough two weeks with no shower. We had been bathing in freezing cold
creek water and only drank bottled water. When the running water tested
negative for the silver particles, we were finally given the all clear. Kai had
ordered a device on every water tap on every pack members’ house that glowed
blue if silver was present. This would prevent future attempts. So today I
packed my bags to accompany Kai to his sister’s wedding in India.

                We drove with Akash, Max and
Trent to the airport. I hadn’t heard anything from RAIDOS. I didn’t know how
long it took for a vampire pregnancy to show. I knew Kai was working on
something. He had a plan A, B and C in case certain things came about. I didn’t
want to be involved. I focused on my Circle nights with Sylvia and her coven. I
was learning about my witch powers. Diya had been video chatting me and Emma
nonstop lately to show us last minute things for her wedding and to get our
opinion. I was excited to have her and Jai join our pack; we had grown close.

                Kai told Emma she couldn’t travel
pregnant and left most of the pack behind to protect her. Only the five of us
were going. We boarded the private plane and took our seats. The same
stewardess that we had on our LA flight was there to help us. Max appraised her
body and then caught me looking and blushed. Kai poked him with an elbow.

                “Why not ask her on a date?” Kai
challenged when she was out of earshot.

                Max’s face looked pained for a
second and then it was gone. “I was just looking. I’ve had my great love.
Anything else would taste like orange juice after brushing your teeth.”

                “I’ll ask her on a date,” Akash
said, grinning. One stern look from Kai had him staring at his shoes.

                I laughed.

                ‘What does Max mean?’
I asked Kai.

                Kai looked at Max sadly. ‘
He
was mated for four years and she died about twenty years ago during labor with
their first child. Neither of them survived.’

                I tried to control my breathing
and my face. I didn’t want Max to know we were talking about him. I swallowed
hard. ‘
That’s horrible. What happened?’

                ‘The baby shifted into wolf form
during labor, while inside her belly. The placenta tore. They both bled out.
She couldn’t heal fast enough.’

                My hand went to my mouth. ‘
Could
that happen to Emma?’

                ‘I won’t let it.’

                Oh my God. Why hadn’t I thought
about this before? Of course werewolf pregnancies would be hard. You were
carrying a shape shifting baby! Emma would be okay. I told myself. I closed my
eyes and forced myself to sleep. I awoke as the plane landed.

                We were greeted at the airport by
Jai, Diya, and the buffest man I had ever seen. He was seriously like a Vin
Diesel, with hair. Kai embraced the large man lifting him off of his feet. The
man ruffled Kai’s hair and then turned to me. He placed his hands in prayer
pose and bowed lightly. “Namaste, Aurora.”

                I grinned. “Namaste.”

                “I’m Nikhil, welcome to India.”

                Kai punched him in the shoulder.
“He is my middle brother and my father’s second. He has a weak right hook and
makes horrible chai.”

                Jai leaned into my ear. “I’m his
favorite brother though.”

                I laughed as Nikhil retorted
something about working on his boxing.

                I looked over Kai’s shoulder to
see Diya kissing Trent. I smiled. Weddings were fun. Kai cleared his throat
loudly and they broke apart.

                “You aren’t mated yet. Get over
here,” he scolded Trent. We all laughed.

                I took in a deep breath. India.
It had a distinct smell. Your clothes smell of spices for weeks after you’ve
left. I had missed it. After grabbing our bags, we made our way outside. The
road was packed with cars, rickshaws and motorbikes. We all piled into two
waiting taxis, I sat in back with Kai and Nikhil.

                Nikhil turned to Kai. “We lost a
few wolves protecting the water supply from the vampires, but thanks for
warning us.” He tipped his head to me and smiled. I suddenly felt
uncomfortable. If I hadn’t had that vision and warned everyone… I shuttered. I
smiled back.

                “We didn’t lose any wolves but we
had our own complications.” Kai was leaning into me. I felt safe.

                Nikhil placed a hand on Kai’s
knee. “I’ve missed you, brother. The pack isn’t the same without you.”

                Kai placed his hand over his
brother’s and gave a deep rumbling laugh. God I loved that laugh. “I’m sure
father is glad I’m gone and you made second, so it all worked out.”

                Nikhil stared out the window. “Papa
is becoming obsessed with the vampires attacking us. He doesn’t want to sit
idle and wait for another attack. I feel it fair to warn you, this trip isn’t
just about Diya’s wedding. He will want to talk about the next step.”

                Kai sighed. “I figured. That’s Papa.
Can’t sit still for a single moment. Always moving, never sleeping, always
planning. In some ways it’s good.”

                “Sounds exhausting,” I commented.

                “It is,” they said in tandem and
laughed.

                We only booked a two-day trip to
India, with two days eaten up for travel. That was being away from the pack and
Emma for four days total. After settling into our hotel, I was quickly wrapped
into a sari and taken to Diya’s henna party. It was girls only. I made small
talk with some of the other girls, surprised to see a few white girls in the
pack. I had assumed they would all be Indian. I was careful not to make eye
contact. I felt that my dominating and foreign wolf presence made a few of the
more dominant wolves edgy. I stuck to conversing with the submissives. I found
Diya who had an artist working on her feet and another on her hands. An
intricate elephant design was being drawn onto her palm.

                I sat down next to her holding my
hand still, careful not to smudge the small design I had gotten.

                “Tomorrow we become sisters,” she
told me. I smiled.

                “I always wanted a sister,” I
shared with her.

                “Me too! Instead I got eleven
brothers!”

                I laughed. I remembered Diya
telling me over our video chat once, that she was a midwife in India. Now that Kai
had told me about Max and losing his mate and child, I was interested in werewolf
birthing.

                “Hey Diya, is the werewolf
birthing process more dangerous than human birthing?”

                Diya’s face became serious. “Yes
and No. Human births can have all sorts of defects. Heart defects, lung
defects, limb abnormalities. A werewolf pup is immune to these defects. They
learn to shift at about 35 weeks gestation. When they shift, they set off the
uterus and most mothers go into early labor. Werewolf pups are bigger than
normal babies but the mothers aren’t. If they shift during labor the chord can
become compressed or the placenta can tear. There are a lot of complications.”

                “Why don’t you just do a cesarean
section and cut them all out?” I didn’t know much about birth but I knew that a
c-section would be better that placenta tearing or chord compression due to a
lengthy labor.

                “We tried it back in the 18
^th
century. The women kept healing too fast. The babies were stuck halfway out of their
mothers’ stomach and the women’s abdomens were starting to heal closed. The
babies suffocated. Also, pain medication doesn’t work on werewolves. We
metabolize it too fast.”

                Jesus Christ. My head was
spinning. “Emma.” I breathed.

                “Will be fine,” she told me. “I’m
taking over her care when I get home with you guys. I have delivered thirty-six
healthy pups and Emma’s baby will be my thirty-seventh.”

                I swallowed. I wanted to ask her
how many she had lost but this was a wedding. So I smiled.

***

                I was trying to battle my jet
lag. I lay in the hotel room bed as Kai entered the bathroom to get ready for
the wedding. I heard the shower turn on and my eye lids began to droop. He
poked his head out. “I feel like we should be good to the environment and
shower together, ya know, to save water.”

                A genuine laugh left my lips and
I was suddenly awake. I gave him a smoldering look. “Well, if it’s for the
environment.” I jumped off the bed and began undressing. I loved that I felt no
pressure to go all the way with him. We hadn’t talked about it but I think we
had decided to wait until our mating ceremony night before we did it.

                I wore a bright teal sari and Kai
stared me down in the elevator. The hotel lobby was decked out in red and white
flowers. A large sign read, ‘Diya weds Trent’ in gold lettering. I whistled.

                “This is fancy,” I told Kai.

                “My father has been waiting his
entire life to marry off his only daughter. There will be no expense spared
tonight.”

                Wow, I knew from Indian culture
that the woman’s family was expected to pay for the wedding. I couldn’t afford
a fancy wedding like this.

                “What’s bothering you?” he asked
me, reading my mental anxiety.

                “Our wedding won’t be this fancy.
I can’t afford much,” I told him tugging at a wrinkle in the sari.

                “I wouldn’t want a wedding this
big but we can afford this because my money is your money. We will have
whatever wedding you want.”

                “No, I know the culture expects
the woman to pay for the wedding and I can assure you from my bank account, we
cannot have this fancy of a wedding. I feel bad taking your money.”

                “It’s OUR money, not mine. I will
add you to all of the accounts when we get home. Don’t bother arguing this.” He
gave me a kiss then and shut me up. We took our seats. How did I feel about him
sharing his money with me?

                ‘Don’t analyze this money thing.
Pay attention. Our wedding will be similar.’
He patted my thigh and stood. “I need to
enter with my family to show support for my sister.”

                I looked up then and saw Trent in
the doorway. He looked handsome. He wore a bright orange Indian top that went
to his knees. Max stood next to him.

                “Hang on.” I caught Kai’s arm.
“Trent has no living family? Who will walk in with him?”

                Kai shrugged. “Max.”

                I shook my head. That wouldn’t
do. I walked over to two of the nicer girls from Diya’s henna party. “Hey
girls, Trent doesn’t have any family to walk in with him. Would you like to
join me and stand with him?”

                One of the girls, a submissive
wolf, Tara was her name, had a short black bob and almond-colored eyes. A big
teal jeweled bindi stuck between her eyes. Her skin was light brown and she
glanced at Max who stood with Trent.

                “Sure.” She stood and followed me
with one other girl.

                We approached Trent who looked
nervous.

                “Hey, Aurora, I think I’m going
to faint. They say the groom is supposed to come in first and with a big song
and dance and lots of cheering.”

                I looked at the girls. “I think
we can manage that. We’re here for you.” We moved to step behind him, near Max.

                “Thank you,” Trent whispered, as
I passed. I smiled. I put my arm on Max’s shoulder to tell him how nice he
cleaned up, when my other hand brushed Tara’s finger. My knees buckled and a
vision took me.

                It showed Max holding a beautiful
woman with long red hair. Her body was limp in his arms and he was sobbing into
her chest. Blood soaked the bed sheets he held her over. Kai stood frozen in
the doorway. ‘
Oh God. Why am I being shown this? This was Max’s wife. Their
poor baby.’

                Then the vision changed. Tara was
smiling up at Max. She had a crown of flowers on her head. It was in Kai’s
backyard on Mount Hood, their wedding day. Then the scene changed and Max was
screaming at Tara in the lobby of the hotel we were at today. He was telling
her to go! To get out of his life. Then it changed and they were kissing in a
hotel room later. Then it changed again and I saw myself waking from the vision
and not telling Max anything. I was so confused.

                I felt someone’s arms around me.
I opened my eyes. Max held me in his arms and Kai was running across the
wedding hall towards me. Oh Great. What the hell do I do?