A Forbidden Taking Aaron’s Kiss Series Book 11 By Kathi S. Barton World Castle Publishing This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. WCP World Castle Publishing Pensacola, Florida Copyright © Kathi S. Barton 2013 ISBN: 9781938961779 First Edition World Castle Publishing January 1, 2013 http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com Licensing Notes All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews. Cover: Karen Fuller Photos: Shutterstock Editor: Brieanna Robertson ~Chapter 1~ Megan moved toward her car. She was exhausted and her head hurt. Rubbing her forehead with her finger tips she staggered slightly when she bumped into a parked car. Laughing slightly to herself she continued on until she could see her car. Megan Reed was only a few short days from getting her results back from her state exams, then she’d be a full fledged doctor. Nine years waiting for this day and she was almost too tired to be happy. Grinning as she came upon her car, she rubbed her hand over the trunk and thought about what kind of car she would buy when she had the money. A fast back, she decided, and maybe a— The noise came out of nowhere. It was a low, keening sound that made her want to run and hide. Looking around she couldn’t see anything, but instinctively she knew she wasn’t alone. Moving to the door she pulled out her keys and kept darting her gaze around looking for it, for something. When the shadow fell across her face she nearly screamed out loud, her hand going to her throat before she realized she knew the person. “Alfred, you scared the life out of me,” she said as she leaned against the car. “Where have you been lately? I haven’t seen you in weeks.” Alfred Deveron stared at her. She looked around for his car and wasn’t surprised that it was still in the same place it had been for the last two weeks. She’d heard rumors that he’d gone off with one of his women, but who knew with this man? He was as strange as they came. She looked back at him and noticed he looked ill. “Alfred?” “I’m sorry, Megan. I’m hungry. I’m really sorry.” She started to get a little scared when he came toward her. “That’s okay. I’ll…maybe I can get you something at the local diner. My treat. You can meet me there.” She knew as sure as she was standing there that as soon as he stepped away she was out of there. Alfred didn’t look right. He looked…well, he looked dead. Megan started fumbling for the door handle and was startled when Alfred was suddenly right there, his hand gripping hers so tightly that she was sure he’d break bones if he kept it up. “Alfred, you’re hurting me. Let go of my hand or I’ll call security. And step back. You’re crowding—” “I’m sorry, Megan. I wish I could do this differently, but I’m so hungry. So very hungry. And it only hurts for a little while, I promise.” He was too close now, much too close for her to get away, and incredibly strong. She’d never realized that he was so strong before. She started to struggle and pull away, but he simply wrapped his arm around her waist, trapping her arms and lifting her off the ground. Before she could scream or yell, he clasped his other hand over her mouth. She felt her lip burst from the pressure. He tightened his grip on her and suddenly—holy shit, they were flying. Crying now, she screamed around his hand. Megan was afraid to struggle much, afraid that he would drop her and she’d die. When he started to nuzzle her neck, licking and nipping at her, she thought she would be sick. He smelled of old blood and death. Crying harder, she was startled when the ground was suddenly under her feet. “You have to know that I’m sorry. I’m just so hungry.” He licked her throat again and then pulled back to look at her. His eyes were red. Not the bloodshot kind of a person who’d been crying a lot or had been drinking, but a blood red. The whites of his eyes were red. And his mouth. Screaming again, she looked at his teeth. He had…he had fucking fangs. When he licked her this time she really fought him, trying to get away. When she felt a rib break, she nearly passed out from the pain. Pausing slightly was all the encouragement he needed, apparently. With another, “I’m so sorry,” Alfred bit her. His teeth, his fangs, sank into her deep. Her screams were ringing in her head. Now she was sick; her belly was churning over and over until she felt herself grow weak. When the colors started to fade from the trees around her and the grass became gray as well, she felt her knees grow wobbly then she drifted off. Her last thought was that she would never know what her results were. ~~~ The sun was close to setting, she thought, and Megan needed to move. Her body was sore and achy from lying in a cramped place for so long. She stretched and moved to open the way out. This was the part she hated more than anything, the not knowing. She didn’t know anything really. All this time and all she knew was that she was a monster. A horrible monster who wished every day that she could have died that day sixteen months ago. Testing the light coming in she was relieved to find it was indeed dark out and moved the seat out of the way and then moved out of her trunk. She crawled out of the back seat and was standing up when the first wave of hunger hit her. Looking around she could see a couple of people milling around, and the sound of their hearts beating nearly drove her to slide back into her hidey hole. That was the second thing she hated. Everything was too much. The sounds were too loud, the colors too bright, and the smells…some days she wanted bury her head in a gas mask to keep the smells away. She held onto the handle of her car trying to keep herself from going to them, the warm blooded people who would feed her. Megan hated this part of herself too. The need to drink blood. The need to feed herself on the blood of others was sickening to her. She had tried not drinking from anyone, but that had been a mistake. She’d killed that man that one time and had vowed never to do that again. Now she fed nightly, or as close to that as she could. She wouldn’t put herself in a predicament like that again. She started toward the two men standing next to the fire in the large can near the water. “Cold, huh?” She grinned at them and hoped that her fangs wouldn’t show. She didn’t know how they just knew to drop like they did. Sometimes when she was excited they just popped out. She tried to control them, but had only made it worse by thinking about them. Since they didn’t run off she figured she was all right. “Sure is. Huddle up closer, girl. You don’t got enough meat on your bones to be standing around without a jacket on. You should go down to the shelter. They’ll give you a nice fleece.” Megan looked down. She’d forgotten about a coat. The truth was, she didn’t feel the cold like others did. Most of the time she was barefooted and would only wear shoes when someone would point it out to her. She moved closer to the fire and began rubbing her hands together. Moving slightly closer to the man nearest to her she turned her body so that it looked as if she was seeking warmth from him. The other man couldn’t really see her or what she was doing, but he did move up behind her other side and seemed to be sheltering her from the worst of the wind. She nearly cried out for them not to be nice to her, she was a monster, but she was hungry and kept quiet. When she nuzzled up to his throat, she licked the area. The man, nearly twice her age, moaned in response. Before he could say anything she bit down. She was as gentle as she could be, but he still jerked a little. Soon he wasn’t moving away, but turning so that his body was bumping hard against her thigh. She’d learned that the first time she’d had to feed. Men got some sort of sexual release from her biting them. The first several times she’d felt them come in their pants she’d been sickened more by it. But soon she realized that if they got pleasure from this they didn’t fight her as much. At least the older men didn’t. She’d learned the hard way to keep away from the younger men. She was sealing up the wound when she felt someone coming. Megan didn’t move much, but her body was ready. She leaned into the second man, quicker now, and bit him as well. She never drank much, just a few swallows, but it was enough to get her through the night before she had to seek others out. She saw the man in the shadows. He was just beyond the light of the fire, but with her powerful sight she could make him out. He didn’t move, but watched them. As soon as she sealed the wound at the second man’s neck he climaxed too. Megan was backing away from the two men when the one in the shadows moved toward her. Megan could smell him. He didn’t smell like anyone she’d ever smelled before and that made her nervous. She moved back further as he kept walking toward her. She was nearly to the edge of the light herself when he stepped into the light enough that she could see him. Christ. He was big and not only big, but he was beautiful. Shaking her head Megan turned and ran from the area. She was nearly three miles away when she realized that she wasn’t alone. There were wolves here, big ones too. Megan sat down next to one of the big trees in the open forest and stilled. She knew that she could sit this way for hours and no one would ever feel her. Twenty minutes later the man, the one in the shadows, walked right by her. The wolves, silent now, didn’t move when he did. Megan waited another ten minutes, sure that he was gone before she rose. Smiling at the wolves she thanked them for their added help and began playing with them. It was nearly ten o’clock at night when she moved away to go to work. ~Chapter 2~ Kyle paced his office. He wasn’t a very patient man and he knew this. He was hoping that his mate, Madison, would hurry up and show. He knew that she could calm him in ways that nothing else could. His friend Beau had better be on time too. Beau Desjardin was coming for an extended visit. Kyle didn’t know why, nor did he particularly care, but he was glad for the visit. He and Beau had been friends for more than two hundred years, since Kyle had been visiting France during the war. He’d met Beau just after the French war. He’d been wandering around in a slight daze and Kyle had come upon him, thinking to find a quick feed. He didn’t care for feeding from men, but he was starved and desperate. It wasn’t until he was nearly next to Beau that Kyle realized that Beau was a newly turned vampire. When Kyle had tried to help the younger man he’d been surprised at his strength. A newly turned vamp was normally weak and very easy to kill. Beau had not only knocked Kyle on his ass a couple of times, but managed it on a massive amount of blood loss and not knowing how to replenish it. Taking him under his wing Kyle showed him the basics and also showed him how to make sure that he had what he needed to survive. Not just in the human world, but also among the predators like themselves. Beau had become a master some decades back and had retired with honor among his kind. A rare thing for a vamp to retire; they were normally killed for their position and power. But Beau had managed to not only do that, but also retire with the blessing of the Vampire Council as well. “Will you please sit down? You’re wearing a hole in that carpet and I am so not going to wait for that carpet guy to come back.” Kyle turned to Maddie. “I told you I didn’t do anything to him. He was in the way when I came up from our lair and he was…startled, that’s all.” Maddie looked at him with a raised brow. She could do that as well as Aaron, his friend. He didn’t like it on her any more than he did on Aaron. “You just happened to come from the lower levels at the same time he was making a pass at me? Get real. We both know you’d been waiting in the corner to jump him ever since I told you he thought I had a nice ass.” Kyle could feel the anger surge though him again at the thought of that man, any man, looking at his mate’s ass. That was his and his alone. He turned away before she could see his reaction again. Maddie hated it when he got all possessive like he did. “He was just there. I don’t know why he refused to come back and finish the job. All I did was startle the man.” “Yes, I’m sure you did. You’d startle me too with your fangs to your chin and standing there beating on your chest like some sort of he-man routine. Get real, fang boy, you deliberately scared that man and we both know it. Sit down!” He sat. Not because she had ordered him to, but because he was getting tired. Yeah, he told himself, you believe that and the one about the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. He snorted at her then smiled. “Come here, Maddie. I want to nibble on your skin. I want you again. Please?” She snorted this time. He was sure he’d picked up the habit from her after thinking about it for a second. He started to stand and bring her to him when there was a knock at the door. After bidding the person to enter Kyle rushed the man standing there. Beau. The two men embraced tightly. It had been a very long time and neither man had changed much over the years. But their level of friendship had. They had gone from being friends to becoming as close, if not closer, than brothers. “Do the two of you need a room or should I just leave? It’s getting very…manly in here.” Both men turned to Maddie. Kyle was fighting the tears to keep them from falling. He hadn’t realized just how much he had missed his friend. He pulled Maddie to him and held her close. “Beau, this smart ass is my mate. Madison, this is Beau Desjardin. He and I have been good friends since the French Revolution. He and Aaron are friends as well.” “Bonsoir, Maîtresse. Vous êtes beaucoup plus beau que Kyle avait dit. Je suis très heureux de faire votre connaissance.” Beau kissed her hand and bowed before her. Kyle wasn’t sure if he was impressed that he’d been able to render Maddie speechless or if he was angry that he had. He bumped the man from his mate and pulled her back into his arms. “How lovely,” she finally said. “What did you just say to me?” Kyle pulled her tighter. “I wished you good evening and I said that you are far more beautiful than Kyle had said. I am also very happy to make your acquaintance. You are a very beautiful femme, mistress.” “Oh well…thanks. I have to go. I know you two have a great deal to catch up on and I have some people who need their asses kicked. I’ll see you both later?” “We should be back around sunrise. You and the baby make sure that you lock all the doors before you go to bed.” Kyle and Maddie had had a little girl about two years ago. She was the spitting image of her mom and Kyle couldn’t be happier with them both. He worried about them constantly and wondered once again if he and Kyle should just go back to the house and talk or go to the Blood Moon as planned. “Will you take him out of here, Beau? If he doesn’t give Angel and me some breathing room we may stake him ourselves. Angel’s first words were ‘go away, Daddy.’” “They were not. She did say daddy, but not…will you behave? I swear. Let’s go, Beau, before I have to beat my mate.” They were out the door with Maddie’s laughter still ringing in their ears. Beau, of course, was having a bit of fun at him too. Kyle decided that he’d make her pay and thought about the hundreds of ways to do that. Top on the list was tying her to the bed and having his way with her until she was screaming for release. Oh yeah, he thought, he was so going to make her pay. ~~~ Megan was making her way back to her car after her job at the clinic when she saw the young child being loaded into the back of the van. His limp body made her think he was dead a first, but the way the men were handling him made her rethink that. She was sure he had been drugged. She made her way toward them. “Hey there. Whatcha doing? That’s a pretty little boy you got yourself there.” The men stopped suddenly and looked at her. She didn’t move a step closer, but she could smell the drugs they’d used on the tiny child. Megan wondered where his mother was, but didn’t say anything. She also wondered if the men knew what they had. She realized that they did. And not only did they know, but had purposely drugged the child because of what he was. A wolf, a young pup of a wolf that she knew they were going to bring untold harm to. “You be on your way, kid. This is no concern of yours. This here…this is something you don’t want to get that cute ass of your’n involved in. Biting off more’n you can chew could get you killed.” “That’s real nice of you.” She stepped closer to the child. “I don’t think you guys are the child’s family and if you don’t mind, I’ll see that he gets there. Now.” The men shifted and so did she. She knew there was one more man coming up behind her and the two in front of her. She didn’t want to hurt them, but if they pushed her or tried to take off with this pup she was going to stop them. “Like I said, don’t be biting off more than you can chew. This isn’t any of your concern and I suggest, nicely like, for you to move on and forget you ever seen anything.” When he pulled out his gun and pointed it at her she decided that she was going to have to get rough with them anyway. Megan turned and started to the right of the two men. When she was just a few feet from the man who was coming up behind her she lunged at him and hit him in the throat with her fist. She knew she was stronger than she’d ever been thanks, she supposed, to the change, but she didn’t realize how much. The man’s neck snapped and he dropped to the ground. She hated to kill and for that one fleeting second was sorry, then promptly forgot him. Turning back to the two men now behind her, she lifted her fists and stepped toward them. In actuality she was terrified. Megan didn’t kill, it wasn’t in her nature. And though she wasn’t one now, her years of trying to become a doctor had ingrained something into her that made her hate killing on a higher level than she’d thought possible. She hoped these two would just walk away, but knew that in reality they’d fight her. “I don’t want to have to kill you, but I will. Why don’t we just call it a night and I take the young pup with me and we all live to fight another day?” The first man laughed. She could smell his fear. She was sure that a healthy part of it was her own so she couldn’t really blame the man. The second man seemed to be considering his options. She was sure he was going to get him and his partner killed when he grinned at her. “If we win, which we will, we’re going to rape you over and over until there ain’t nothing left of that sweet-smelling pussy of yours. Whatcha think of that?” She made them think she was considering it when she suddenly grinned at them, showing as much of her fangs as she could without opening her mouth like a horse on display. “Okay. Fair enough. But if I win.” She moved toward them with dizzying speed and was suddenly in his face. “If I win, I get to drain you both for my dinner.” She could almost see their minds working this out. Sharp teeth, check. Dark outside, check. Snapped the dead guy’s neck like a chicken bone, double check. Vampire. When they continued to stand there she leaned closer and licked her lips. “Go,” she told them in a low voice and they took off in a flash. She might have laughed if she hadn’t felt the sun starting to beat on her. She knew she only had about thirty more minutes before it would be too late to get anywhere safe. Picking up the tiny little pup she cradled him in her arms and moved to her car. It was the only thing she could do. He was drugged and she didn’t want to burst into flames. Crawling into the back of the car and closing the seats up over the trunk then setting the locks, Megan put the wolf in the blanket next to her and settled down. She hoped the little guy wouldn’t wake while she was out. She didn’t want him to be scared when he did. Her last thought before sleep claimed her was she should have found him some food. ~Chapter 3~ “We’ll find him. Don’t worry, Jacob. He couldn’t have gotten far. We have everyone looking for your son.” Bradley hoped he was right. He and his pack had been looking since late last night for the three- year-old son of his best man and pack member. Jacob and his mate Sandra had been out on a run with their son on his first night training and someone had hit them with a tranquillizer gun and drugged them both. When they woke a few hours later JC was gone and they had one hell of a headache. “It’s been so long, alpha. He’s only a child. What if he was taken? What if…what if they harm him?” Sandra asked on a sob. Bradley didn’t answer. He wasn’t even sure he could. He knew that if anything happened to his own children…he didn’t want to think about what he would do, what lengths he’d go to in order to get them back. He looked up at the waning sun and shuddered. Night fall again. He nearly pulled out his cell phone to call his brother when it rang in his hand. Putting his hand over his heart to slow it some he answered the call from David. “We have a problem. I think we…we have a dead man here and JC’s scent all over him. Also… also a car. Bradley, you need to come here. I think we have a vampire situation on our hands.” “I’ll be right there. Do we need to call Aaron?” He didn’t ask his brother what the problem was knowing that if David was nervous then he was afraid of what his answer might be. “No. Not yet at any rate. Come here first.” He gave him the address in one of the worst sections of the city. “Don’t bring Jacob or Sandra. I don’t think it will go any better if they’re here and upset.” Bradley got into his vehicle and gave his driver the address. He knew the street and agreed with David. Winston Street was not known for anything but drugs, prostitution, and drugs—not necessarily in that order. Then he thought of Aaron. Aaron MacManus; friend, savior, and master vampire. The man had been around for nearly fifteen hundred years and had the largest realm of vampires in the United States, maybe even in the world. He was fair-minded and very well respected, not only by his peers, but by most of the other paranormals around Ohio. Bradley thought with a sardonic grin that it probably helped that he was by and far one of the most powerful beings in this world and was mated to the cousin of the Queen of all Magick. Bradley knew that he’d be up. Aaron could withstand sun longer and longer as the years went by and Sara, his mate, helped that with her own magic. Bradley also knew that even if the sun would boil him alive, if Bradley needed him, he’d be there. He just hoped that he wouldn’t need him in this particular issue. Pulling up near David’s car Bradley walked up beside him. There were several of his pack members milling around. The dead man David had mentioned was still on the cold ground, but covered with a tarp. Bradley didn’t concern himself with him. He knew that his brother hadn’t brought him there for him. As Bradley got closer to his brother he could see that a couple of his men were injured. And that the car in question had been damaged. “We believe JC is in that trunk.” David indicated the small sports car with a wave of his hand. Bradley noticed that his brother had blood on his arm and a small cut. “You believe that he’s in there? If you believe that, then why haven’t you made certain? Or do you need me to do this for you?” David huffed at him. Bradley merely smiled. His brother had only been his enforcer for a short time, not long enough to get rid of his policeman ways and think like an enforcer for the pack. He