Chapter 7
SEVERIN
“Ravik, stop—no! You don’t have to bathe her! She can bathe herself,” Sev protested, following his friend and the human woman who was wiggling in his arms down the hallway.
He couldn’t understand why Ravik was acting like this. Had the latest batch of anti-viral serum made him hyper-sexual? But he didn’t seem to be threatening to rape or hurt Cassandra—he just wanted to take care of her.
He thinks she’s his mate, Sev thought desperately, as he followed the two of them.
It must have something to do with her scent.
She did smell special in a way he couldn’t quite define.
He didn’t know what it was about her but when he’d been inspecting her luscious body for bites and inhaling her warm, sweet, feminine fragrance, his fangs had gotten so sharp he’d almost cut his tongue on them.
That wasn’t usual for a Blood Kindred—they only bit to inject their essence—a pale blue liquid they used in Bonding a mate to them or to heal a woman they were mated to or wanted to be mated to.
Usually, a Blood Kindred’s fangs didn’t grow sharp enough to pierce flesh until he met the woman who was meant to be his mate.
And he was certain that Cassandra wasn’t the one for him—was she?
What’s wrong with me? I’m as bad as Ravik, thinking of her as a mate! he scolded himself. But there’s something about her scent…Is it because she’s a Mature Elite?
That was what the Kindred called older, curvy women.
They were especially prized both for their wisdom and for their curves.
Mature Elites were considered to be blessed by the Goddess and any man who was able to claim one for a mate was thought to be extremely lucky—it was like winning some kind of lottery.
But Cassandra had revealed to them that she had been betrayed by her Visskous husband and sent out to die in the Dead Zone only a little while ago. She wasn’t going to be interested in Joining with another male anytime soon.
However, there was no arguing with the big Beast Kindred.
He was intent on giving his new “mate” a bath and Severin didn’t dare try to take her away from him.
Ravik seemed to be coming back but he still wasn’t fully himself.
He might get angry or go into Rage—the state of berserker fury all Kindred went into if they thought a beloved mate was being hurt or threatened—if Sev attempted to take the human woman from him.
Maybe I should give him another dose of the latest anti-viral, he thought. Since it’s working so well a double dose might kick the virus out of his system completely.
But in the meantime, he needed to supervise this bath.
He was fairly certain that Ravik wouldn’t hurt the curvy little human or take advantage of her.
Even in an altered state of mind, he was still a Kindred and harming or forcing a woman went against every ingrained instinct and even a Kindred’s DNA.
But if Ravik was confused enough to think Cassandra was his mate, well… things could get a little dicey.
By the time he got to the bathing room, Ravik was already running water in the deep tub, which was almost the size of a bathing pool back on the Mother Ship.
Sev was grateful that the underground science bunker had a private reservoir or they would have been in deep trouble.
Luckily, they had as much water as they needed—it was the food supplies that were growing thin.
Still, they had enough for tonight and lately, that was all Sev had been living for—just getting through one more day and night on this hell-hole of a planet until they could send a message to the Mother Ship and asked to be rescued.
He wasn’t quite ready to make that call, though. Besides the fact that the nearest interstellar transmitter was located in a Red Zone, known to be crawling with Infected, Sev didn’t want to risk bringing a deadly virus back to the place he called home.
So he went on from day to day, venturing out just long enough to collect supplies and working tirelessly in the lab to try and find a cure.
But maybe now I’ve found one, he thought hopefully as he watched Ravik thoughtfully test the water temperature to be sure it wasn’t too hot for his “mate.” That last anti-viral serum did the trick!
As soon as Ravik is all the way back to normal, we can risk a trip to the transmitter and call for a shuttle to take us home.
He just hoped he could keep the big Beast Kindred in line until then.