Chapter Twenty
Alexandra
“It is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.”
- Maya Angelou
“Breaking news today in the mysterious virus that has killed tens of thousands of people. The World Health Organization has asked the pharmaceutical industry to look into creating a vaccination for this latest virus that currently has a zero rate of survival.”
I sat down slowly on the sofa behind me, stunned at what I was starting to suspect. I shouldn’t have left the way that I did. It was juvenile and thoughtless. And the worst of it was that I might have jeopardized Xander’s life.
Despite how weak I was feeling, I logged online to see what possible flights I could take to get back to Russia. I was debating on whether to call Alexi by telephone, because telepathy wasn’t working for me anymore. I needed to contact him to come get me before the slight flutter I felt earlier became stronger.
How stupid could I be? I was a doctor for Christ’s sake! I had unprotected sex repeatedly. What the hell was I thinking?
That was just it; I wasn’t thinking. I’d fallen so hard, so fast that there was never a thought to say no to him. Now I was hurt because a boy didn’t want me.
Me! Stressing about a boy liking me! You couldn’t get more pathetic than that when the world around me was literallyfalling apart.
What the hell was I going to do now? I could take a hard stance when it was just me, but now I had a baby to consider. A dhampir baby. A being with a growth rate and abnormal nutritional needs that were not human. I couldn’t let my baby starve. Hell, I was only a few weeks along, and I already had a baby bump. Yeah, this kid couldn’t care less about my hurt feelings.
I was taking a shower, after having packed up my few meager possessions in anticipation of contacting Alexi to come get me, when I felt Xander’s presence. I jumped out from under the shower, not quite trusting my senses. Wrapping a large towel around me, I stepped out into the bedroom and then dropped the towel again in shock. I barely noticed because, despite my body throbbing in places it really shouldn’t right now, my shock was, for the most part, because of the stark cessation of the cramping stomach and ravenous thirst I had suffered all week. But I couldn’t ignore the incredible joy I felt at the sight of him.
God, I am pathetic.
And then the ravenous thirst returned, but this time, it was though Xander was a huge magnet with an imaginary force pulling me toward him.
Xander stood large and imposing in the middle of the room. His usual clean-cut jawline was darkened by sexy stubbles. He appeared bigger and intimidatingly more virile than I’d ever seen him. Certainly, the physical impediments that afflicted us during our separation had done nothing to diminish his appeal. His sea-green eyes glowed brilliantly as he stared steadily back at me.
And then his familiar masculine scent filled my senses, short-circuiting every nerve ending in my body. White-hot lust coiled throughout my body like electrical bolts. The rapid staccato of my heart beating filled my ears, and I felt lightheaded from the sudden lack of air to my lungs. Moisture pooled hot and intense between my thighs.
“First, you’re going to feed.” His gravelly voice only made me tremble harder with need. “And then I will feed as well.”
Oh God, just the thought of his fangs sinking into my skin, the remembered pain of his sharp teeth and the euphoric pleasure of his essence filling my system, had my juices soaking my inner thighs.
“When we’re done, we will get the hell out of here,” he continued as if he wasn’t aware of the desire pulsing insistently through me.
However, I knew that just as I was aware of his terrifyingly dark desire for me, he was aware of how much I wanted him. How much I needed him. If I had any sense, I would have run then.
“Come here,” he demanded.
Why was his take-charge, dominant demeanor turning my lust from simmering to boiling hot? “You don’t get to tell me what to do,” I muttered, trying to save face and hide how much I loved his dominance.
But the arrogant bastard knew. He slowly and possessively roamed his gaze over my naked body. His molten gaze scorched me. Owned me.
I tried to stifle the agonizing moan of need that tore through my body, but it passed through my lips anyway and filled the charged air around us.
Xander shifted his stance slightly as if he had come to some decision. He deliberately and meticulously unbuckled his belt, unfastened the snap of his combat-styled trousers, and lowered the zipper over his blatant arousal.
I tried to look away. Hell, I wanted to look away because the need only made me hurt more. But my gaze was glued to him, mesmerized as he freed his thick length.
With his legs braced apart, his lean buttocks locked, and his granite arousal distended from his body, every inch of his body seemed to pulse with “I am alpha” vibes.
“Come here.” His low, sexy baritone seared my insides.
“Oh God,” I moaned as I took an involuntary, uncoordinated step toward him.
“Come here, Alexandra.” His voice was deep and commanding, husky with his own lust as he slowly caressed his length from balls to tip, over and over again, in languid flicks of his palm. “Feed yourself and our baby.”
Reeling from the fact that he knew about our baby and drugged by my body’s eager enthusiasm for him, I wasn’t even aware of staggering drunkenly toward him. Too far-gone with desperate need and wrecked with a compulsion I didn’t have the strength to ignore, I fell to my knees before him. I gripped his muscular thighs with dhampir strength to lock him where I wanted as I sucked his thick bullous tip into my hungry mouth.
With every push and pull of my head, his length glided over my tongue and lodged deeper and deeper into my mouth. I didn’t recognize the sexy siren that I became in the next twenty minutes of intense oral pleasure. His and mine. I felt what he felt. Moaned when he groaned. With a teasing glance of my fangs and a wicked twirl of my tongue over his veiny, engorged girth, and within the suctioned walls of my lips and mouth, I wrung two intense orgasms from him. Which triggered my own searing orgasms.
I loved his taste and scent, and every bit of his essence fed my thirst. It took the edge off my gnawing need.
I was still trembling delicately in the sizzling embers of our last orgasm when Xander lifted me with an arm around my waist and hugged me tight against him before he took me to my neatly made bed. The feel of my overheated skin on the cool, clean sheets of my bed forced a nanosecond of sanity to filter into my mind, but then he kissed me, and I was again drowning under the pressing weight of blistering need. That fast, every cell in my body was clamoring for him, wanting his fangs in my skin and his cock buried deep inside of my molten center. I wanted us connected any and every way that we could.
My cloak was immediately obliterated, and our link became firm and solid between us again. Our minds and our senses melded and became one. Xander knew my every sex-soaked thought and my body’s every need.
And still he made us wait for that mind-bending pleasure.
He suddenly stood beside the bed and stripped out of his clothes at an uncool speed but flattering to my ego. I barely had time to admire his thick tattooed biceps, the smooth, sleek muscles of his massive chest and chiseled stomach, his narrow hips, and rock-hard buttocks before his virile body covered me and weighed me down.
I loved the feel of his weight and heat on top of me and hugged him even closer, tighter against me.
I trembled with combustible lust as he sealed his lips over mine in a passionate kiss. His scent, his taste pushed me into such a sexual abyss of mind-numbing need I had no hope of recalling why I ran from him in the first place.
Despite his caution that we had to get out of there, Xander took his time caressing every inch of my body with reverent touches, and to my everlasting delight, his lips followed in their wake. His every touch was drugging, possessive, and oh so seductive.
I was a mass of voracious need when he finally sheathed his cock deep into my velvet heat and his fangs into the curve of my neck and shoulder. My scream of utter completion soon morphed into sobs and hums of bliss when he pressed his wrist against my lips, even as he continued driving hard and deep in my snug channel. I mindlessly sank my fangs into him and drank greedily. I tightened my inner walls, holding him jealously inside my greedy depths as we fed from each other.
His hard shaft expanded and lengthened even more as he powered into my heat.
With his fangs still locked on my neck, he grunted in agonized pleasure as he exploded deep inside of me.
I sobbed in ecstasy as his pleasure became my pleasure, driving me stunningly into a quicksand of sensory overload. I had no sound, no more thought as numbing ecstasy wrecked me.
Closing my eyes, I knew nothing but oblivion.
When next I opened my eyes, I had no idea how much time had passed, but Xander was standing at the foot of the bed fully dressed.
“We need to move,” he said softly. He threw the pair of well-worn jeans and T-shirt, which I had left out previously, onto the bed beside me.
“You might not be aware of it, but Tristan and Danika had relatives here on the island,” he continued in that same soft tone, as if he was afraid that I would run again. “We came here to evacuate them before your great-grandfather and his friends infect the island.”
I reached out my senses without even being aware of it and picked up on Drako’s presence in my kitchen. He was pacing in agitation while munching on a ham sandwich. His and Xander’s wolf bodyguards, Desmond and Boggs, were also in the house. Boggs was outside my bedroom door keeping guard, and Desmond was at the entrance of the kitchen. There were three other large wolves outside guarding the house.
My body pulsed with my revived powers. No more sick feeling in the pit of my stomach; instead, I felt healthy and whole. And I felt my child’s response to that fact. The baby’s mind was happy, pure, and carefree.
I rolled from the bed and grabbed my clothes before strolling to the bathroom supremely confident in my nudity.
Hell, Xander’s thoughts on how beautiful he found my body were loud and clear. Sovershenstvo. Izyskannyy. Krasivaia.
He repeated them to me so many times in the sexy drawl while he made love to me that I knew he believed them. Perfection. Exquisite. Beautiful. Were the translation of his thoughts.
Yeah, I strolled toward the bathroom, a woman confident that her lover liked what he saw. I felt the same about him, but then I loved him. What the hell was his excuse?
“I suspected that they were responsible for the virus infections, but I wasn’t sure,” I told him as calmly as I could, given the sexually charged air that suddenly swirled around us. That fast, both of us were pulsing with primal, raw need to be intimately welded again.
I stepped into the shower, desperate to wash away the evidence of my arousal. So desperate that I didn’t take the time to close the bathroom door.
Xander followed me and leaned his hip against the granite counter. “We don’t have time for this,” he muttered, even as his green gaze was bright with interest on my wet, soaped body.
“You think that an attack is imminent here?” I asked in surprise. I was surprised because I thought that if they knew where an attack was going to happen that they would stay and fight.
“There are too few of us here, and we didn’t come to fight,” he said, clearly having read my mind. “We were a bit under-resourced, as I was recently unpowered. And with two of the mates”—he swallowed before continuing— “now three, pregnant, we are a bit vulnerable. So, there is no plan for any of us to get into a fight yet.”
“But there are over 60,000 people on this island. Are you going to let them die?” I frowned, letting him know what I thought of that plan.
“No, I won’t let them die.”
I stepped out of the shower and was immediately engulfed with a large bath towel held by Xander. He gently dried my skin.
Under his tender attention, my eyes moistened with emotion. Damn pregnancy hormones.
His every action made it seem as if he cared, but I couldn’t afford to misinterpret his actions again. I had thought that when he claimed me as his mate that he wanted me, needed me, and, for sure, cared for me. But by his own words, he had only claimed me to get us both out of the Chamber alive.
“My brother will be coming through that door in two minutes to take us home whether you’re dressed or not. So, get dressed.”
Again, that dominating voice. It was so damn sexy. I quickly pulled on my matching black lace panties and bra and had just pushed one foot into my jeans when Drako teleported beside us.
“Close your damn eyes,” Xander growled at his brother before pulling me front to front against him with his large palms covering my panty-clad bottom.
“I’m not interested in your mate, you ass,” Drako muttered. His agitation and fear had me diving into his mind before I thought it through.
My foray in his mind lasted barely a second, but it was enough to have me pulling up my jeans and saying urgently, “We have to go!”
“Ya think?!” Drako’s disgruntled tone would have made me smile if I wasn’t as scared for my friend as he was.
“Xander, Danika needs us.” I pushed Xander’s hand away as he tried to drag my T-shirt over my head. I quickly pulled my T-shirt on and grabbed Drako’s hand. “Let’s go.”
Drako teleported us directly into his and Danika’s bedroom. From the screams emanating from her and the blood coating her inner thighs, Danika had been in labor for a while.
I moved quickly to her side and grabbed her hand as I scanned her human doctor’s mind and asked him questions, trying to get answers. However, the doctor wasn’t in any fit condition to answer any questions vocally or mentally because he was also screaming and cradling his recently burned hand. Clearly the baby didn’t like the doctor’s hand on him. Although, how he managed to burn the doctor’s hands without hurting his mother, I was still trying to figure out.
“Danika, I know it hurts, but I need you to listen to me.” I spoke softly, calmly, and rubbed her hand and back gently, but Danika was hysterical and out of control. She was breathing and panting erratically between screams and not listening to anyone. Not even Drako, who had moved to sit on the other side of her and was holding her other hand, seemed to be able to calm her.
“I’ve got you, Danika, and I have your baby.” I spoke directly into her mind.
Danika immediately quieted and finally looked at me as though she’d just realized that I was there.
“Xandra? You came back,” she said in surprise.
“Yes, sweetie, I’m here,” I told her gently. “You know that I will take care of you, right?”
“Yes. Is my baby, okay? The baby doesn’t seem to want to come out,” she cried.
“The baby is powered and agitated. He doesn’t seem to trust Dr. Simon.” After reading the doctor’s and Danika’s minds, I read the baby’s mind as well. He was strong and so much his father’s son.
“Can you help?” Drako asked anxiously. “Are they okay?”
“The baby is in a breech position. I will turn him, so don’t worry.”
“Xander, please heal the doctor, wipe his memory, and get him out of here,”I said telepathically.
The ability to wipe a human’s memory was a basic dhampir power, so I was confident that Xander could do it. After washing my hands thoroughly, I then turned my focus to Danika and her baby. Speaking directly to the baby telepathically, I eased my hands between Danika’s thighs.
Less than thirty minutes later, Danika had her bawling, bloodied son on her chest.
It was the first time that I’d delivered a baby who kept trying to teleport from the womb.
When I told Drako, he thought it was hilarious as hell.
With a full head of blue-black hair, an alert sea-green gaze, and born at ten pounds and nineteen inches long, Blaze was adorable. Given his blazing entry into the world, the whole family agreed on the newest Petrov’s name.
Over the next hour, once baby Blaze was cleaned up and dressed in the cutest onesie that read “Badass Dhampir,” and Danika was cleaned up and dressed in a comfortable nightgown and robe, the rest of the family filtered into the room.
Alexi, Luka, and Tristan, along with the wolves, had returned to the castle hours before we did. Everyone had expected Luna to go into labor first since she was further along than Danika. However, Luna didn’t look as if she was going into labor any time soon.
“He is so cute!” Zora held her cousin and simply refused to pass him around to the others. And Blaze seemed to like her too, if his gummy, wide, dribbly grin and his sparkling eyes fixed on Zora’s face were anything to go by.
“Stop hogging my cousin,” Apollo grouched and spoiled it by grinning with mischief.
I was already laughing and shaking my head in warning when he hugged and kissed his sister on her cheek before ruffling her hair into a messy nest about her head.
“Hey!” Zora yelled in annoyance.
Baby Blaze laughed in delight, his eyes shining with amusement at Apollo’s mischief.
“Come on, cuz, give up my baby brother.” Drago was teasing her next.
The cousins joked, teased, and had such clear enjoyment in each other that they had the adults smiling and laughing at their antics.
I’d never had any experience with this kind of absolute love and acceptance in a family.
Xander came to stand behind me and wrapped an arm around my waist. I tried reading his mind but quickly backed away from that because he was replaying our lovemaking in explicit slow-motion detail and humming a song that I didn’t recognize.
He was massive and hard as steel at my back. His broad frame and masculine heat engulfed me as he tightened his arm around my body, hugging me to him. His desire was coming off him in pulsating waves. Even if I didn’t have a front row seat into his mind and the technicolor reel of us making love there, every inch of his contoured body touching mine telegraphed how much he wanted to be making love right now.
“Don’t do that,”I whispered telepathically.
“My family will understand that we just found each other again,”he said stubbornly. His hold around my waist had no give.
“We’ve found nothing, Xander.”
Not loosening his hold by even a little, Xander sighed deeply. “We have a lot to talk about.”
“What’s there to talk about? You mated with me to save my life.”
“That’s an oversimplification.”
And then baby Blaze gave an adorable yawn, clearly exhausted from his recent birth and his sibling’s and cousins’ antics. He didn’t wait to be handed back to his mom, however. He burst into flames, disappeared as if by magic, and soon reappeared with his thumb in his mouth, his eyes closed, and his head pillowed on his mother’s chest.
“Well damn!” Drako said, stunned. “I guess naming him Blaze was prophetic.”
Everyone laughed softly in stunned admiration. Suddenly, I couldn’t wait to have my baby and see what my little dhampir would do. I touched my stomach without thought, instantly gaining Alexi’s notice.
He gave me a long look. His expression was enigmatic, and his thoughts blocked from me.
“Danika…” Alexi spoke loud enough that he gained everyone’s attention. “Thank you for blessing our family with another beautiful child. He is already loved and will be protected with our lives. You honor us,” he said solemnly.
Alexi then turned to me and Xander. “Come, we have much to discuss,” Alexi said with somber authority.
“Not now, Papa,” Xander said coolly. “I get that you’re worried for us, given what we’re all about to face, but Alexandra and I have to decide for ourselves how we want to move this relationship forward. We haven’t had a chance to have a conversation about that yet.”
Xander surprised me when he asked for my agreement telepathically. “Is that okay with you?”
Instead of answering Xander, I addressed Alexi. “I’m sorry that I left the way I did.” I looked around the room and briefly captured everyone’s gaze, even the children’s. “In fact, I wanted to apologize to all of you. My leaving weakened Xander and, therefore, weakened and endangered you. That was not my intention, and I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologize for.” Luna spoke up, and Danika nodded in agreement. “We heard what Xander said. He was being an ass. We love him, but sometimes you just want to slap some feeling into him.”
“Thank you, sister dear,” Xander said sardonically. “However, if you two would have stayed out of my business, it would have given me a chance to explain things to my mate without your misguided advice.”
My concentration on the conversation was being seriously compromised by Xander’s brooding bulk at my back. God, his heat and scent were intoxicating sensual stimulants that I found impossible to resist. I shivered with escalating need but was trying desperately to hide it from a room filled with heightened-senses beings.
“Don’t go blaming our mates for this,” Luka muttered. “If you could have kept your damn hands off of Xandra long enough to have a discussion, you wouldn’t have created your own mess!”
“Xandra? Her name is Alexandra,” Xander insisted.
Oh God, his take-charge, sexy voice again. I can’t be responsible if I maul him here and now.
I deliberately took a deep cleansing breath before I pulled away from him. I thought he only let me because he was so intent on arguing with his family. It was the most emotion I’d ever seen him express.
“You can call her whatever you like, but she is Xandra to the rest of the family,” Luna hissed, clearly still smarting from being told that her advice was not appreciated.
Xander rolled his eyes. Honest-to-God rolled his eyes. It not only shocked me, but it also shocked the rest of the family too, if their slacked-jaw expressions were anything to go by.