Andrea’s voice came through the line, angry and indecipherable.

“I can’t lock her in a room. We’re not at Dabyr. We’re out looking for Eric.”

Joseph stroked her back as her muscles squeezed down to fit someone with a much smaller frame than hers. She tried to pant through it, but it didn’t do squat to help.

“It’s a long story,” said Joseph. “All I need to know is what to do for her. She’s suffering. As her mate, it’s my duty to make it stop.”

Joseph paused while Andreas went on a furious rant.

“You knew this could happen when you sent her to me,” said Joseph. “You knew she was a Theronai and didn’t tell me. I’m the one who should be pissed that you hid what she was from me. She and I could have started bonding weeks ago.”

Andreas’s rant continued, but he was losing steam fast, likely dealing with his own need.

“No, it’s permanent. No way out.”

After a few seconds, the tone of Andreas’s voice changed to one of weary acceptance.

Joseph’s hand involuntarily tightened at the back of her neck. “Seriously? That will fix her?”

“Yes.” The word came through loud and clear, and, instantly, Lyka knew her brother had ratted her out.

Chapter 34

Joseph had always known that the Slayers were private people, keeping to themselves and protecting their secrets with an almost cultlike ferocity, but even that hadn’t prepared him for what Andreas had told him.

“You’re mated to my sister now, so you might as well know how to deal with this. It’s going to happen every time the moon is full, at least when she’s not pregnant.” The Slayer’s voice was tight with pain. “She needs sex.”

“Seriously?” said Joseph. “That will fix her?”

“Yes. If you do it right, it will. But she’s fertile now, so unless you’re both ready for young, wear a fucking rubber.” There was a muted groan of pain, as if he’d covered the phone with his hand.

“Is that’s what’s wrong with you, too?” asked Joseph.

“Yeah, but I’ll live. Just take care of my sister and you’ll live, too. I don’t like it that you let her leave the protective walls of Dabyr.”

“Neither do I, but it wasn’t exactly my decision. She tricked me.”

“Lyka is good like that.” He sucked in a sharp breath. “Gotta go, man. Hurt my sister, and I’ll kill you.” Andreas hung up.

Joseph looked down at Lyka, who was doing her best to absorb her knees into her chest. Pain trickled out of her through the luceria. She was shaking, pale.

He couldn’t stand to see her like this.

“Andreas told me what to do,” he said.

She opened one eye, revealing a narrow pupil and plenty of fury. “Keep your hands off. I’ll be fine.”

She looked anything but, and even if she hadn’t, he could feel a little sliver of what she did.

It wasn’t good. It reminded him far too much of the pain he carried around before she’d taken his luceria and freed him of it. The least he could do was return the favor.

And if it got his hands on her sweet body in the bargain, then all the better.

“I know why you’re afraid,” he said. “You don’t have to be. I’ll protect you.” If she wasn’t ready to have a kid, then he’d respect that. He didn’t have any condoms, but there were other ways to take care of her. “I won’t come inside you.”

She looked up at him with a feral light glowing in her catlike eyes. “You don’t understand,” she said. “But you will.”

And then she pounced.

She shoved him back to the floor of the tree house in a move that was far more suited for combat than foreplay. She landed straddling his hips, her hot hands splayed across his naked chest. Her mouth covered his in a kiss so demanding, he could feel the air being pulled from his lungs. Her tongue thrust into his mouth, giving him a taste of wild need.

The mental shields she’d been using to keep him out crumbled, and a torrent of emotions came spilling out. All the pent-up desire that had been rolling around in her for hours broke free and invaded him, becoming part of him.

He was instantly hard, aching with the need to bury himself in her over and over.

This was no gentle desire. It was all jagged angles and hot, sharp edges. There was nowhere to touch it without feeling its sting, and the only way to ease it was to give Lyka everything she wanted. This was her need, her lust. And he was going to sate it.

She was naked beneath his shirt, and so scorching hot and wet, it was a wonder she didn’t burn him. Her deft fingers had his fly open in seconds, and an instant later, she was sliding her tight, slick pussy down over his erection.

He let out a rough groan and tensed every muscle in his abdomen to keep from coming right then and there.

She rode him in long, slow glides that had every inch of him sliding out and back in again. Then, when he was seated fully inside her, she rolled her hips until his cock hit a spot that made her breath catch in her chest.

“I need it,” she demanded. “Don’t you dare hold back on me.”

He wasn’t sure what she meant, so without thinking, he slid into her mind as easily as he had her body.

This was the first time he’d come across this part of her. It was more animal than woman, guided solely by instinct and urge. It was ferocious and hungry, unwilling to take no for an answer.

It wanted his seed. It wanted him to breed her. Give her a child.

The idea that part of her felt that way gave him a visceral thrill, but he knew better than to let it go to his head. It wasn’t what Lyka wanted. She wasn’t ready. She’d been very clear. Whoever—whatever—was in charge now, it wasn’t the woman he loved, the one he’d promised to protect.

And that was exactly what he was going to do. He’d waited centuries for children of his own. He could wait a little while longer—as long as it took for her to be ready.

“You can’t deny me,” she said as she unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it away from her breasts. “I know what you really want—the binding tie of a child uniting us as one, a sweet little life in your arms to protect and raise to be kind, strong and noble. Your eyes looking back up at you.” She brought his hand up to her abdomen and held it there. “I know you want to give that to me. I’ve felt your desire running deeper than even you realize. You’ve waited so long.” She leaned down and slid her tongue across the outer rim of his ear and whispered, “You don’t have to wait any longer.”