Free Son of Our Blood by Kathi S. Barton

trying to figure out what he needed to do.
    She was beautiful, her bruises
notwithstanding. Her eyes were a light purple to a darker almost black when she
was pissed. Smiling, he thought she was mad at him most of the time so he’d
seen very little of them light-colored. Her hair was dark; he thought it was
black, but right now he could see highlights of reds and almost blues. He ran
his hand over her full lower lip.
    She was certainly kissable. He
remembered the dreams he’d had of her before he’d met her. He had no idea why
they had connected, but it had been incredible. She was responsive to him and
he found he wanted to see if she would be that way if they were actually
together. He leaned down and buried his nose in her throat. He wanted to sink
his fangs deep into her vein and drink from her. He lifted his head and bit
into his own wrist, then placed the open wound over her mouth.
    “Drink from me, love,” he whispered into
her ear. “Drink from me so that we can be one.”
    He wanted them to be one, too. When she
swallowed he felt his cock stir in his jeans. When she suckled at his wrist Mac
had a hard time not joining her on the bed and stripping her naked. He wanted
to watch her wake, wanted to wake her with his mouth.
     Running his free hand down her body, he
reached the juncture at her thighs. He pressed his thumb over her clit over and
over while she drank. When he pulled his wrist away and sealed the wound she
whimpered. Mac stood up and looked down at her. “Wake. Wake now, Brandi. I need
to see you.” Her eyes fluttered open and he commanded her again. She leaned up
on her elbows and looked at him.
    “What happened?”
    He knew she meant the accident, but he
decided to ignore that for now. His dad had a lot to answer for.
    “I fed you with my blood so that you’d
heal. You drank from me.” Her eyes widened and she bit her lip. Christ, he
wanted her. “You’re mine, Brandi. Do you know what that means?”
    “No. But if it means you and I are a
couple you’re off your rocker. You can’t simply just think all of a sudden that
you want me. You said all along that you’re going to kill yourself. Why the
fuck would I want you if you’re going to run out the first chance you get and
off yourself?”
    He started to roar at her because he
said so, but he had a feeling she’d not take that well. He decided on the
truth, not that he could lie to her. “I was pissed and hurt. I didn’t want to
be a night walker. I think I knew that it would probably be that way for me and
I decided that…I decided that…”
    “You decided that you’d be a big baby
and make someone pay for you not getting your way.” She rolled over the bed and
stood on the other side. “You said you gave me your blood. Since I don’t see
any transfusion machines I can assume that you gave it to me by mouth.”
    He nodded. “Yes. It was the only way to
make your pain go away. I didn’t want to see you suffer.”
    “I wasn’t. Suffering, I mean. I was out
cold. Why did you really do it? I’m assuming this, too, has something to do
with this whole mate thing.”
    “You and I have exchanged blood and that
means we’ve bonded.” He looked at the distance between them and wondered if she
would leave when he told her the rest. “In order to be mates, we have to bond
and mate. Mating means exchanging blood while we have sex, a climax to be
exact.”
    She moved to the chair and sat down. The
feeling of relief was profound. When she began rubbing her leg he stepped
toward her and she raised her hand. “No more touching until you clear a few
things up.” She nodded to the other chair and he moved slowly to it.
    He was afraid if he told the truth she’d
leave him. And that, for whatever reason, hurt him tremendously.
    “How badly was I hurt? The reason I’m
asking is because I hurt like a mother fucker now and if you made me better, I
think I might have been really hurt.”
    “You had three or four cracked ribs. Your
leg