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  Nevin turned to him, feeling fuzzy and warm and tossed both hands in the air. “I know! I know! It doesn’t seem at all like me, does it?” he half-slurred. “She’s changed me, Jared, that’s why. She did something to me, Kelsey.” He plunked his glass back down on the table, feeling very cozy with his king and queen. It felt nice to call them by their first names.

  He saw them exchange a look, stifling smiles, the both of them. “Go on, it’s all right. Laugh. I’m sure this is pretty amusing, isn’t it?”

  Jared slipped an arm about his shoulder. “N’Vsai, it’s only amusing because in the past months my wife and I have known just how falling in love can dismantle you. Completely. It strikes me that Anna has had quite the time taking you apart, piece by piece.”

  “She’s pregnant,” Nevin blurted, reaching for the bottle of whiskey himself.

  He didn’t have to look at the royal pair to see the confusion in their faces. “Yes, indeed, it seems that”—he thunked a fist against his chest proudly—“that I’m actually fertile as the day is long. Nobody knew it. Nobody told me, so hell no, we didn’t take a single precaution. The doc says she might have a few babes inside of her already. A few.”

  Nevin paused only long enough to drain yet another glass filled with Scotch, holding his verbal place in the conversation by keeping one hand extended. “And she has no idea,” he gulped, slamming the glass down once again. Only this time Jared slid it out of his reach, and Kelsey took the bottle back into the kitchen.

  “You need to slow down there, Nevin.” Jared propped both hands behind his head, tilting backward in his chair. “Otherwise, you and your lovely new lifemate will have one hell of a time when she returns. You don’t want to unload all of this upon her without warning.”

  “She’s not coming back, sir. That’s what I’m telling you—I totally blew it with her this morning. She thinks I’m ashamed for the camp to know we’re together.”

  “Are you?”

  “Absolutely not—but I am ashamed of my poor judgment. I completely failed you, my lord.” Nevin buried his head within his hands miserably. “I am her superior officer; I knew better…”

  “There are no directives within our military structure that forbid lifemating.”

  “None that are spelled out.” Nevin slapped a fist against the table. “But I feel the weight of my position, my lord.” He turned in his chair, meeting Jared’s gaze soberly. “I have failed you. If you wish for my resignation, you shall have it.”

  Jared frowned, tilting his head sideways. “You have always confused me, Nevin. Your intensity, your seriousness. Now, more than ever. Anna will make a splendid lifemate for you. What is your real concern?”

  Nevin stared into his king’s eyes, and for the very first time understood his real fears about loving Anna. “I have no control with her, not even an ounce of it.”

  His queen, returning from the kitchen, began to laugh. “Nevin, you aren’t supposed to have control with your mate. That’s the whole point.”

  “But it’s terrifying,” he admitted, bowing his head solemnly.

  “That,” Jared agreed with a laugh of his own, “is also the point. And if I were you, I’d go to her quickly—at least based on my own experience.”

  “You are certain, my lord?” Nevin searched his king’s face and saw nothing but support and genuine happiness.

  “With our blessing.” Jared rose from his seat, carrying his plate with him. “But don’t blurt out the part about the babies until you’ve had the chance to truly make up. Just a piece of advice from my marital career so far.”

  Nevin took the connecting hallways and elevator, but apparently his lifemate had taken the trail outside, heading back up to the lodge. In exasperation, he exited the lower area of the base, hit the trail and began hiking up the mountain at an aggressive rate. The remaining snow along the mountain path was packed, so there wasn’t any making out her boot prints; when he didn’t reach her, he punched at his communicator angrily. “I need the location of Lieutenant Anna Draekus,” he commanded.

  He expected her to answer, but the only reply he got was that she’d left the base around approximately fifteen minutes earlier—and this was not new intel.

  Nothing at all came over the comm from his lifemate. “I’m still her commanding officer, and I’ll be damned if she won’t answer me,” he muttered, the former glow from the whiskey morphing into irritability.

  “Lieutenant Anna Draekus, your position please?” he called into the comm, but she didn’t answer at all.

  Damn it, all he wanted was to find his mate, to make up with her, to lay with her, to tell her the deepest secrets of his heart. And he wanted all of that—every last bit of it—right now. Not later, not another day, but now.

  Sinking to the ground, he calculated his position in regards to love; he and Anna were forever tied together by the bond that they’d formed. However, she could choose to shut him out forever—even though he had to admit it didn’t seem much like her personality. Still, the thought of never holding her again stabbed at his most primal, base instincts. He tossed back his head and howled his need for her, giving in to the dizzying lusts that kept pummeling through his body.

  No answer came from the woods, not that he expected it would. He stared upward at the moon and released a melancholy, plaintive cry for her…still no sound in return. Would she even know his call if she heard it? It was personal, intimate, memorized over time between lovers.

  Personal, like their energy, he thought, his mood instantly brightening. Oh, yes, he had a brilliant idea of how to win Anna back. Opening his palm, he allowed a glowing sphere of his power to form until it swirled beneath his two hands. Working it upward toward his lips, he leaned forward and whispered her name into the fiery orb. Over and over, he whispered “Anna… Anna…” Infusing his energy with all the love he felt for her. Then, raising his hands high, he released the energy into the night woods and watched as it shot up the dark mountainside, seeking her out like his own personal missile.

  Anna stood on the deck of the main lodge, staring at the stars overhead. It was a perfectly clear night that seemed perfectly designed to illuminate her heartbreak. From deep within the woods below she’d almost imagined the sound of Nevin’s cry for her, but she knew her heart was only imagining what it wanted to hear.

  The sound came again, more plaintive, desperate. Needy. She leaned over the railing, listening intently; silence was her only answer.

  Tears stung her eyes, blurring her vision, and she blinked at them hopelessly. Of course Nevin wouldn’t lay claim to their bond now that they were back in the compound. Of course he would return to the man she’d always known before, so controlled and unemotional. The only surprise at all was that Anna hadn’t anticipated his behavior.

  Lifting a hand to wipe away her tears, she spotted an eerie light down below the deck. The woods glowed unnaturally, as if some powerful energized being were moving through the area. Anna tensed, clutching at the railing, and tried to get a better view. Perhaps it’s our commander, moving through the woods in his natural form, she thought. Yes, that has to be it.

  She shuddered. Or maybe it’s one of our enemies, probing us.

  Reaching carefully, she found her pulse pistol holstered at her hip. Her fingers twitched, but she didn’t make a move for fear that she’d alert this being—whoever it was—to her presence.

  The glowing intensified, moving up the mountain rapidly—and aiming right for her. “Anna,” she heard whispered through the dense trees. “Anna…”

  Before she could blink, the orb of brilliant energy made a beeline for her, seeking her out with intense purpose. “Anna,” came Nevin’s whisper again, from deep within the energy sphere. His power was so blinding, she could barely keep her eyes open.

  She sensed his invitation, his pure desire to have her touch this part of himself. Glancing all about them, she searched for him. “Where are you?” she muttered aloud, her gaze sweeping the side of the main lodge.

/>   “Right here,” came his throaty, emotional reply from just behind her. She jolted, and he caught her from behind, clasping her shoulders with firm, staying hands.

  “Your energy?” She squinted, trying to gaze at it in the pure darkness. Up close like this, it was absolutely blinding.

  “It was the only way I could think to find you.”

  “You sent it after me? Like a homing beacon?”

  He pressed his lips against the top of her head, blowing out a heavy breath. “You’re my lifemate. My energy reacts to that, feels it. But that wasn’t the only thing.” He wrapped his muscular arms about her waist, pinning her against him. “I wanted to reveal my energy to you…intimately. Sensually, not like the other times when we were stranded. This is the most vulnerable part of me.”

  Tears brimmed in her eyes anew. From the very beginning between them, their respective energies had been a staging area, a line neither would cross willingly.

  She forced her eyes open, leaning back against his chest. “How could All have ever made something so incredibly beautiful?” she whispered.

  “Touch it.”

  “I-I can’t.”

  “I would never hurt you, Anna,” he promised, pressing his lips against her ear. “Not intentionally. That I hurt you earlier, well, it’s torn me up inside. But with my touch? With my energy? No, I will never hurt you. Never.”

  Extending both hands, she placed her palms around the undulating sphere; at that precise moment, her lifemate’s very energy shot deep within her, setting her entire body afire. She began to quaver, feeling her legs grow wobbly, but he anchored her against his chest. After a moment, she began to giggle, feeling light-headed and drunk.

  “You just got me high!” She turned in his arms until her cheek rested against his massive chest.

  “I’m a little drunk,” he admitted shyly, “so that just evens the odds.”

  She pulled back, gazing up into his dark eyes. For a minute, she swore that his hair seemed a little darker too. “Why did you get drunk?”

  With a shake of his head, he stroked her hair, quiet for long moments. “I was terrified, Anna. Of you, of this change in me, of our lifemating…but mostly of you.”

  “I don’t understand. We’re fantastic together, so beautiful, so amazing—”

  “Because I have no control when it comes to you.”

  Anna snorted. “It’s about damn time you lost control, N’Vsai. I’m just honored that it happened with me.”

  His mouth tilted upward in a sideways smile. “Does this mean that you forgive me? For being a stupid stratkai?”

  Anna leaned up onto her tiptoes, planting a full, wet kiss squarely on his cheek. “If you’re planning to tell Jared our news.”

  Nevin’s gorgeous smile widened. “I’ve already done that. And then some, I’m afraid.”

  “I don’t think I want to know what that means.”

  He slid his arm about her shoulder, walking her toward the door that led to the lodge interior. “Well, sweet Anna, there’s a little something I need to tell you about visiting the doctor earlier today.”

  And then he tossed his head back and laughed more deeply than she’d ever heard him do. A strange feeling began deep within her belly at the sound of it, almost like a quiet answer. A knowing answer.

  She stopped in her tracks. “I was right—wasn’t I? About the way it felt the last time we made love?”

  He slid a large palm over her belly. “The doctor described my condition as ‘dynamically fertile’. He also let me know that it was in reaction to you, Anna. You.”

  She covered his hand against her stomach. “So does this mean I’m pregnant? Already?”

  Her lifemate had the gall to look proud of himself, cocky even, as he thrust his chest out. “I believe you said of men my age that we—what was it now? ‘Rut like fucking stallions’?”

  “What did the doctor say?”

  Nevin’s dark eyes gleamed. “That you are likely carrying our child.”

  She thrust her arms about his neck, squealing. “I told you. I absolutely told you, didn’t I?”

  “And he also said that we can’t make love without some kind of protection for a while, or there will be more and more babies.”

  She pulled out of his arms, studying him. “You’re afraid that I’m already pregnant with multiples.” He bowed his head, but said nothing. “Nevin, it only burned inside of me that one time. You don’t need to worry.”

  “Can you live with this? A man like me?” He cast a shy look up at her. “One with these kinds of raging needs and desires…who might give you many babies, whether intentional or not?”

  She gaped at him, then slugged him lightly in the chest. “You, sir, are unbelievable. First you worried that you couldn’t give me children, now you worry that you’ll give me too many? I love you, Nevin. Do you hear that? Children or no children, age gap or not, I love you. Nothing can alter that.”

  His arms closed about her, and he drew her into an almost-suffocating embrace. “I love you too. Gods, it’s insanity the way this has happened, but it’s right. Deeply right, and I know it.”

  She closed her eyes and stood, just feeling the warmth of him, until a thought occurred to her. “So,” she asked with a giggle, “did you tell Commander Bennett about the rutting like a stallion part? Or did you leave that much out of our story?”

  He swatted her bottom playfully. “Let’s go to bed, Lieutenant. I’ll share all my secrets there.”

  About the Author

  To learn more about Deidre Knight, please visit www.deidreknight.com. Send an email to Deidre Knight at [email protected] join her Yahoo! group to join in the fun with other readers as well as Deidre! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DeidreKnight

  Look for these titles by Deidre Knight

  Coming Soon:

  Butterfly Tattoo

  Is Emma ready for a bite?

  The Wallflower

  © 2008 Dana Marie Bell

  A Hunting Love story

  Halle Puma Series Book 1

  Emma Carter has been in love with Max Cannon since high school, but he barely knew she existed. Now she runs her own unique curio shop, and she’s finally come out her shell and into her own.

  When Max returns to his small home town to take up his duties as the Halle Pride’s Alpha, he finds that shy little Emma has grown up. That small spark of something he’d always felt around the teenager has blossomed into something more—his mate!

  Taking her “out for a bite” ensures that the luscious Emma will be permanently his.

  But Max’s ex has plans of her own. Plans that don’t include Emma being around to interfere. To keep her Alpha, Emma must prove to the Pride that she has what it takes to be Max’s mate.

  Warning: This title contains explicit sex, graphic language, loads of giggles and a hot, blond Alpha male.

  Enjoy the following excerpt for The Wallflower:

  Emma realized Max had stopped moving. Looking up at him, she found him staring down at her with a quizzical look. “Well?”

  Emma blushed. She’d been rubbernecking in Max’s house, trying to take in everything at once. “It’s incredible.”

  He smiled with satisfaction. “If there’s anything you want to change, you’ll have to let me know.” Gently he placed her on the quilt. “This is now as much your house as mine.”

  Emma’s mouth fell open as he toed off his shoes and socks. “You’re kidding me, right?”

  Max began unbuttoning his shirt, diverting her attention from his whole “Mi casa es su casa” attitude. “I was in Simon’s shop when you called about the Madonna, you know.”

  “Oh. Really?” she replied absently. She could barely speak as Max unveiled the finest chest it had ever been her privilege to see. It was lightly sprinkled with light brown hairs, trailing down his stomach to point directly into his pants. Dark brown nipples peeped out from the hair, tempting her into some very sinful thoughts.

  “Yes, I was. And you know what?
”

  Emma didn’t know her own name; Max was unbuttoning his jeans. “Um, nope.”

  “You live up to your voice,” Max purred as he slipped his jeans down his legs.

  “Urgh,” Emma choked, “naked.” She could feel her eyes bugging out of her head. Max went commando. A sinful buffet of man-flesh was laid out before her in one single sweep of his hands. She didn’t know whether to sigh or to sob.

  “Yes, I am.” Max laughed huskily. “Now it’s your turn.”

  Emma bit her lip, a sudden attack of shyness nearly paralyzing her. Max didn’t know it yet, but he’d be her first, and from the look on his face she’d better tell him soon.

  “Max?” Emma sat there, her hands clenched in her lap, her gaze riveted to his cock. The thing looked huge, all veined and red, and pointed straight at her. A small drop of liquid seeped from the slit. It twitched a salute to her rapt attention.

  “Yes, Emma?”

  Her gaze lifted to his; unknown to her, they’d turned pure, molten gold. “You remember the talk of other men?”

  He growled low in his throat and crawled onto the bed.

  “Eep,” she whispered, lying down as he prowled up her body.

  “You were saying?” he whispered huskily as he settled his naked body between her thighs. He brushed against her cheek with his lips, a caress so soft she barely felt it. It sent a shiver down her spine. Those same lips continued their incredible journey, trailing down the side of her neck to settle on the bite he’d given her outside the restaurant. Goose bumps raced up and down her arms as he moved his hips in a sinuous motion, brushing his naked cock against her mound.

  “Um, there weren’t,” she squeaked, unconsciously arching up into his body as he scrapped his teeth along his mark.

  “Weren’t what?” he muttered, one hand moving up to start sliding her camisole up her stomach. He paused long enough to caress her there, trailing fire in his wake.