The Alpha's Forbidden Mate (Blood Moon Lynx Book 2) Read online

  “Well, Canyon and his father don’t pay me that much.”

  “Really? I’ll have to speak to them.”

  “Oh, right. You do that.” She laughed softly before taking another sip.

  “He’s one of my best friends. If I tell Canyon to tell his father to pay you more money, he’ll do it.”

  “Don’t you dare. Canyon and his bride are having a baby. They need his income.”

  A small shake of Arizona’s head cast a shimmering glow over his hair. “Luke would never fire his own son. It’s not our way.”

  There was that phrase again. It’s not our way. She’d heard it from him describing everything from baking a cake to buying real estate. “Is this the night I learn what that actually means?”

  The answer would have to wait because their server pushed a small cart next to the table and greeted them both by name. Next, he presented a dish filled with oysters, as well as every imaginable accompaniment to put on them. “Would either of you care for an additional beverage?”

  “I’m fine with the wine and water.”

  “Same here,” said Arizona. “Give us at least twenty minutes before bringing the salads.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Arizona picked up an oyster, then dabbed horseradish sauce plus wasabi on it. “Bet you never had them like this.”

  “I haven’t.” She opened her mouth, and he placed it on her tongue. Gillian let the taste linger for a moment before swallowing. “That was fabulous.”

  “And hot, right?”

  A large sip of wine cooled the fire on her tongue. “I happen to like hot things.” Gillian held his gaze, hoping he got the hint.

  “Music to my ears, beautiful.”

  “I hope you’ll answer all my questions while we enjoy these.”

  “I’m planning on it. I have so much to tell you.”

  “Finally.” She had dozens of questions she’d been mentally listing for weeks.

  After swallowing two oysters, he leaned back in his chair. “I know you’re aware that shape shifters exist, and that I am one.”

  “Your entire family is shifters, Stone’s family is, Canyon’s family is … the village you live in is mostly shifters. I know all that.”

  “Patience, my love.” That grin! It did things to her emotions that Gillian couldn’t explain. “I want to explain this slowly so I don’t freak you out.”

  Okay. She hadn’t expected that answer. Gillian took another large sip of wine before eating a couple more oysters. Her stomach was beginning to rumble, though whether from hunger or nervousness, she couldn’t tell.

  “First, the ugly part. Last week, Stone and I found someone had painted a phrase on our front door, in blood. We couldn’t tell if it was human or animal blood.”

  “Excuse me?” Gillian was grateful she had nothing in her mouth because she would have choked on it.

  “It said, ‘The legend of the blood moon lynx is alive and well.’ So, before I explain anything else, I need to tell you the legend.”

  The most profound sadness had crept into his voice and eyes, and Gillian suddenly realized why. He was certain that once she heard this, she’d change her mind about him. Not a chance. She wasn’t superstitious, and after watching how he and Canyon had dealt with the Medinas, she was convinced Arizona could accomplish anything he set his mind to.

  “It’s said that over a thousand years ago, a male lynx shape shifter and a female vampire became lovers. This was a forbidden mating, but they ignored the law. They mated under a blood moon, and this was supposed to have given them both enhanced powers that would pass to their descendants.”

  “Hold on.” She held up a hand. “Let’s assume for the sake of argument this legend is truth. Vampires are immortal creatures. They can’t bear children.”

  A soft chuckle, followed by Arizona taking her hands, sent shivers down Gillian’s spine. “Will you do me a favor? Will you put the lawyer on hold for a while?”

  “I’m not sure I can.”

  “Try.” He kissed the backs of her hands, making her pulse race. “Please try. Just for tonight. The things I have to tell you require a great deal of faith. Logic won’t work for this.”

  “Now you have me intrigued. All right. I’ll try to stop listening with an ear toward critically examining everything.”

  “Thank you.” When he leaned over the table and gave her a quick kiss, Gillian wondered how her brain was working at all this evening, let alone thinking like she’d been taught to do in law school.

  “During their mating, the lynx bit the vampire woman to mark her as his mate. The vampire in turn bit the male lynx shifter, marking him as hers forever.”

  “This biting thing … do you still do that?” Because it sounded both terrifying and over-the-top erotic.

  “Let me finish the legend first. This is important. After the lynx marked the vampire as his mate, he betrayed her by taking a human as a lover. When he did this, he also betrayed pack law.”

  “Which means what, exactly?”

  The look on his face told her she was still doing it. Firing off questions like an attorney would. “Sorry. Please continue.”

  “I will explain pack law, biting, and mating law in a moment. Promise. Even after the vampire discovered the lynx had cheated on her, she couldn’t kill either one in the end. Her love for the lynx was too great. But the lynx and his human lover realized their days were numbered, so while the vampire slept in her coffin the next morning—”

  “But does that mean…” Gillian’s voice trailed off when he sighed out loud.

  “Yes. She stayed immortal even after mating with the lynx. While she was in her coffin, the lynx and the human drove a stake through her heart. They didn’t know it, but in doing so, their act turned her mark of possession on the lynx into a curse that was so powerful, it affects his descendants to this day.”

  At least ten additional questions sprang to mind, but this time Gillian stayed silent.

  “Even though centuries have passed where lynx males have mated with other cat shifters and with humans, we still have vampire blood in our DNA.” He held up a hand before she could ask. “No, we don’t have actual scientific proof of that. It’s part of the legend. Our powers are strongest during a blood moon, and it’s said if we mate during one, the offspring will have enhanced abilities.”

  “That part surely can be proven. The enhanced abilities.”

  “True. I’m a blood moon lynx. Canyon is, and so is Stone. But even without the blood moon, our normal abilities are enhanced because of the altered DNA. We can see tiny details at great distances. While in partial or shifted form, we can run really fast and cover a lot of ground in a short time.”

  “May I ask one question right now?”

  “Yes.”

  “How many people still believe this?”

  “Too many, but that’s not really the danger today. There are those who’ve turned the legend into a self-perpetuating curse. They believe if any of us takes a human as a mate, it brings evil on all our kind. Part of the legend includes the belief that if a shifter mates with a human, those offspring will also possess enhanced negative traits such as greed and contempt for the pack and its laws.”

  “Well, is that part true?”

  “Not always. Take the Medinas, for example. They were assholes before their ancestors mated with humans. I think some equate mating with humans as bringing evil because they want to blame something for whatever ills befall our village. They twist the legend to try to make others believe such and such happened because one of the lynx males mated with a human.”

  “I can see how they did believe it in the case of the Medinas.” Gillian drained her wine glass. Arizona refilled it, giving her a guarded look.

  “That’s not exactly the same thing.”

  “How can you say that? Hawke’s mother is half-human. Her shifter half is leopard, and that entire branch of the family has since disappeared from your village.”

  It was impossible not to wonde
r at this point what the hell she’d stepped into. Fear welled up inside her, and she tried to tamp it down, but this was far more serious than she’d imagined at first. Painting slogans in blood on your neighbors’ doors? Wasn’t that considered terrorism, or at the very least a hate crime? Who the hell were these people? Would she be safe with Arizona, even in his village?

  Chapter Three

  “We don’t know why that happened.” Arizona wished at that moment he could take the fear from Gillian’s beautiful blue eyes, and put it someplace where she’d never find it again. His heart was breaking, but he couldn’t possibly mate with her until she knew everything and understood what it meant for them and their future together.

  “No one has been able to definitively equate their disappearance with the legend.”

  “But what I’m asking is, didn’t the same people who oppose lynxes mating with humans try to say that everything the Medinas did was tied to Amasa mating with Nanette?”

  Now, he didn’t mind that she kept asking questions. It showed she was at least willing to think this through. “The objections to Amasa mating with Nanette had an additional twist. Most people who opposed that mating did so because of the ongoing business rival between Royce, Luke Benedict’s grandfather, and Will Davis, Nanette’s paternal grandfather.”

  “My boss is embroiled in a business rivalry that goes back three generations?” Gillian raised her brows. “Does he know you know this?”

  “Sure he does. He’s the one who told me the story. Both men were good at what they did, but Royce was better. It was when the Medina and Davis families joined forces that things really got ugly. They thought by joining forces, they could lure Royce’s customers away.”

  The fear in her eyes was gone now, replaced by curiosity. She reached for the oysters. “We shouldn’t waste these, especially not at these prices.”

  “Yes, let’s finish them. The salads will be a while yet.” He decided to ignore her comment about money this time and instead enjoyed watching her eat. His dick jumped to attention as he pictured her mouth wrapped around it instead of the oysters.

  Down, boy! He needed to get through this explanation first. Once she heard all of it, Arizona’s never-ending lust for his mate might become just that. A lust he would never satisfy. Once they finished the oysters, Gillian asked him to continue with his story.

  “Amasa was accused by more than one shifter family of mating with Nanette only because of her father’s business connections. They were right, of course, but by that time, Amasa’s family was even more ruthless than Nanette’s, and they were already feared in our village.”

  “Why was that?”

  “Jarvis, Amasa’s father, already had a reputation for tricking people out of their money and their companies.”

  “Like they tried to do to Fiera’s father.”

  “Exactly. Once Nanette’s family was tied to the Medinas, their reputation and their shady business practices only became worse. But while Luke’s business grew because he understands the stock market better than any Medina or Davis ever did, the Medinas had to resort to hostile takeovers with dummy companies to stay ahead of the game.”

  “Which explains what we uncovered with respect to their SEC violations.”

  “Yes.”

  “And when I also found out that the transfer of the businesses from Will Davis to Jarvis Medina actually took place when Amasa and Nanette were infants…”

  The light blazed from her eyes as it all suddenly made sense. Arizona could practically hear her thoughts racing.

  “Bingo.” He snapped his fingers. “You’ve got it now. Pack law violation. Jarvis arranged for his son to marry instead of allowing Amasa to choose a mate when he came of age. He and Will took the mating law out of the equation entirely, and instead made it an arranged marriage based on business reasons.”

  “And no one knew this before we uncovered it. That’s why your Elders could do nothing about it. Will and Jarvis had concealed it. But doesn’t that only serve to prove in some people’s eyes that the legend is true? I can almost hear them, Arizona. ‘See what happens when you mess in human businesses and take humans as mates? Arranged marriages and shady dealings behind the scenes.’”

  The urge to kiss her into next week was so strong Arizona didn’t bother trying to fight it this time. He leaned over the table and planted his mouth on hers. She stiffened a bit at first, but he hoped that was due to them being in a public place, not because she didn’t want to kiss him.

  He didn’t give a shit who might be watching. He cupped her face and shoved his tongue into her mouth, relishing the taste of everything she’d put on those oysters moments ago. When his cock grew so hard it became painful, only then did he release that delicious mouth. Lust shone from her eyes, and he was half tempted to skip the rest of dinner. They could order takeout later, after they’d fucked each other’s brains out.

  “Um, does that mean I passed the test?”

  The humor in her eyes drove him to distraction. It was one of the many things he loved about her. “No, it means I couldn’t wait any longer to do that.”

  “I think I get it now. The whole thing about why they’re so suspicious of humans. It’s too bad they don’t understand that the Davis and Medina families could just as easily have been two shifter families working in the background to arrange a marriage or a business transfer.”

  “Except that hardly anyone believes a shifter family would turn ruthless without human involvement.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Petitio principii.”

  “That’s one I don’t know. Translation?”

  “It means a proposition to be proved is implicitly or explicitly assumed in one of the premises.”

  “Circular logic.”

  “Close enough.” As she leaned forward, she rested her clasped hands under her chin. “So, the real question here is, what do you believe?”

  “About choosing a human for a mate?”

  “Yep.”

  “It’s not a choice. We don’t choose our mates. They’re given to us by fate. The second I looked into your eyes, I knew you were mine.” Arizona took her hands and held them. “You can’t approach this from the perspective I had any power to resist you, or to select an alternative. I did not. I never will.”

  “So this is forever.” Her voice came out all breathy and smoky. Arizona was in a lot of pain now, but she was worth any amount of discomfort.

  “Yes. Eternally. If you died I would not mate again. I couldn’t. I only have one mate, and you are the one, Gillian.”

  Arizona watched the emotions cross her beautiful face, from curiosity to awe, and finally to the one he craved—acceptance.

  “You have no doubts about this, do you?”

  “None.” He shook his head. “It’s as certain for me as breathing.”

  They locked gazes for what felt like hours. Arizona didn’t want to look at anything except his mate, but was forced to when he caught sight of their server approaching the table. Their salads were here.

  ****

  Gillian’s appetite wasn’t what it had been when they’d first arrived, but she didn’t want to leave any of the food uneaten. The salads here were legendary, and after the first bite, she knew she’d finish it. But everything in her life had now changed, and she still had a multitude of unanswered questions.

  “Do you mind if we continue talking while we eat?”

  “Of course not. I don’t want you to have any doubts by the time we leave this restaurant.”

  A nervous laugh escaped her throat. “Arizona, I’m not sure I can cast aside all my reservations within a couple of hours.”

  “I’ve made it my mission to see that you do. I can’t deal with anything less than your complete and total surrender, Gillian. You’re my mate. I need you and I want you. Tonight. This will be finalized tonight.”

  God, he was gorgeous! Earth-shatteringly, heart-stoppingly beautiful. She’d thought so the second she first laid eyes on him, weeks ago, at the B
enedict home. While Gillian had grasped most of what he was now explaining during the past few weeks, the long term ramifications were finally beginning to sink in. The whole thing blew her mind if she thought about it long enough.

  “Are we talking about sex?”

  The lust in his eyes sent a gush of wetness to her pussy. Yep. She definitely should have put spare panties in her purse. “Yes. I want to make love to you tonight.”

  “I want the same thing. I’ve wanted it for weeks now.”

  After he placed his fork next to his salad bowl, he took hers and did the same thing with it. They held hands, and she held her breath. “That first time for us is more than just sex.”

  It was difficult to focus her thoughts because erotic images raced through her mind, but she tried. “The legend you told me. The biting … excuse me. I mean the marking. Is that what you mean?”

  “I can’t imagine making love to you the first time without doing that, too. I may even partially shift, and that’s every time we do, not just the first time.”

  Holy fur balls. “When you say partially shift, what exactly are we talking about?”

  A soft laugh filled the space between them. “Well, I’m not sure what I look like when I do it. I’ve never taken the time to glance into a mirror. But when I’ve watched other males begin to shift for various reasons, sometimes their faces look both human and cat-like at the same time. Often one or both of their hands will become paws instead. Things like that.”

  “Do I need to be afraid you’ll hurt me?”

  “Oh, Gillian.” He released her left hand to brush two fingers down her face, sending shivers to her spine. “I would never hurt you. I will not lose control. It’s not like that.”

  “Will the bite hurt?”

  “I’m not sure. Probably a little.”

  “You’ll actually break the skin and draw blood?”

  “Only a small amount.”

  “And that has to be part of it?”

  “Yes. The mark will heal but never leave you.” She recalled seeing a healing bite mark on Fiera’s neck, but thought at the time it was just a sucker bite. “It will identify you to our kind as being mated.”