Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 118860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 594(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 594(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
She tilted her chin at him. “According to my uncle, I don’t.” Her smile faded. “Tomas, I hope you know I’m only teasing you. Thank you for doing your best to give me choices. I feel the conflict warring inside you, and I know your brothers and Luiz have a very different point of view on how you should handle things with me, but seriously, I’m so grateful to you. I feel like you see me. That what I think and feel matters to you. So thank you.”
“We’ll find our way,” Tomas reassured. “I’ll do my best, when we have more time alone, to explain what is happening and why we are so pressed for time.”
“Hurry with the blood thing. I’m so tired, and that darling child is coming closer every second we wait.”
He knew she wouldn’t want the others to observe her taking blood from him. She still had an aversion to it, and he didn’t blame her. It wasn’t like it was natural in her society. Not in human or shifter.
Tomas didn’t wait. He curled her closer into him, shielding both from everyone’s eyes, and opened a line on his chest with one lengthening fingernail. She didn’t fight him at all when he pushed her to go under. That meant quite a bit to him. Her level of trust in him was growing. They would need that in the coming weeks as they hunted for the demon Carpathian who was plotting to destroy the Carpathian people.
He gave her as much blood as he dared. Had they been alone, he would have made certain he took enough back for a true exchange, but that wasn’t for when she would be under the scrutiny of several shifters and eventually other Carpathians. He knew what was coming. Luiz had filled him in on the ridiculous party that was being planned.
Tomas supposed that was what it was like when two species got together and tried to combine customs. He’d never seen the need for showers and bathtubs until he saw what pleasure that deep sunken tub gave Sarika. He decided bathtubs were in their future. He liked the idea of washing her hair and lavishing attention on her, adding to the ritual of her bath.
There were other things she enjoyed that he would try to incorporate, just as Dominic so obviously did for Solange. His brothers were going to give him hell, but they might as well learn if they were going to be with a woman. The notion of cavemen wasn’t as correct as people believed. Those women weren’t pushovers. Many hunted and fished right alongside their mates.
He closed the wound in his chest. After ensuring there was no evidence that she had taken blood, he woke her.
Chapter
15
Sandrine burst into the room, arms outstretched, a smile of pure joy on her face as she raced across the room straight to Solange. She looked like a little tornado dressed in pink tulle, her dark hair a riot of curls. Someone had attempted to tame the mass by putting in bows, but the ribbons hung in streamers, adding to the effect of a little pixie come to vibrant life.
At the last moment, as Solange braced to be bowled over by the little dynamo, Dominic stepped in, swooped her up and spun her around, laughing as he made the interception.
“Ha, little one, I caught you.”
Sarika could see that Sandrine was older than she’d first thought. She was very small, but she was more like six or seven than four or five, which was the age Sarika had originally thought her to be.
It is entirely possible Jubal and Jasmine keep her looking younger when they take her out in the forest to train her jaguar. They don’t want the male shifters fixating on her, Tomas informed her.
They seemed more fixated on Jasmine. And that’s just gross that they look at female children as potential breeders. Sarika was indignant as well as disgusted. What is wrong with the males? How did they get the way they are?
She watched the interaction between Dominic, Solange and Sandrine. The child hugged both and chattered about how she raced Jubal and her mom and beat them, she was so fast. Her laughter had a magic to it, lightening Sarika’s heart. She had been feeling so lost and sad. Just having the child in the room changed everything.
Not all of them have been affected, but the high mage began to work against the jaguars, with the intention of destroying them. From your memories, the high mage wasn’t the only one. I believe he made a deal with the underworld to aid him in his plan to destroy all other species. It was found, after centuries, that he was a triplet, and the other two conspired with him, Tomas explained.
The child turned in Solange’s arms and immediately went still when she noticed Sarika and Tomas for the first time. She looked up at Solange. “I didn’t see everything like you taught me. My jaguar didn’t, either. That’s a bad mistake.”