Are you my woman?
Her breath hissed out between her teeth. I didn't say I would obey.
Are you my peje woman?
"Gabrielle?" Trixie said, drawing her attention. "Are you all right?"
Gabrielle nodded. Yes, I am. But I'm the biggest mess in the world right now and I need to sort things out. You just make me crazy. I can't talk to you about what I'm feeling because my feelings make you crazy. Both of us can't be crazy.
Get. Rid. Of. Her. This is between us. I warn you, Gabrielle. You do not want to test me over this. Abruptly he was gone.
Gabrielle took a deep breath and let it out. Okay. That was scary. Beyond scary. But he wasn't going to dictate friendships to her. Trixie was making sense. Helping her. Listening to her when she needed it.
"I'm okay, Trixie. I'm trying to figure out how to explain what a lifemate is to you. It's rather complicated. Fane isn't human. He's a Carpathian. Just as Andre is and Aleksei. They live very long lives. Very long," Gabrielle emphasized.
Trixie took a deep breath and stared into Gabrielle's eyes. She believed every word she was saying. Knots began to gather in Trixie's stomach. Fane had used the word centuries more than once. She'd overlooked it because quite frankly, he was gorgeous and she was already so far under his spell she didn't want to hear anything that might bring her out of it. But if that was true along with sleeping in the ground . . .
"He's a vampire," she whispered.
"No." Gabrielle said it sharply. "Absolutely not. He hunts vampires. He's devoted his life to hunting them. Carpathian males live very difficult lives, Trixie. They lose their ability to feel emotion or see in color after so many years have gone by. There is only one woman for them. One. She can restore those things to him. Without her, he has only two choices. He can give in to the darkness, lose his honor and become vampire, or he can walk out into the sun and die a hideous death. His lifemate is everything to him. He binds her soul to his and he is safe."
Trixie was beginning to get a really bad feeling. "How does he do that?"
Gabrielle hesitated.
Trixie shook her head. "That doesn't bode well, you looking at me like that. You know something I need to know."
"You have a psychic gift, don't you?" Gabrielle said softly. "Like Teagan. Like me. You have a gift."
Trixie couldn't deny that. She heard songs in people. Gabrielle's song was sad. Fearful. Fane's song was beautiful and every single cell in her body responded to it. "Yes. Why?"
"The Carpathians are nearly extinct. They began to have fewer and fewer female children born. And then those children died before they were much more than toddlers, or the women miscarried. Soon, there were too few women and a child that lived was rare. I was helping to research along with Gary in order to help them. Their prince discovered a human woman with psychic abilities could not only be a lifemate to a Carpathian, but she could become Carpathian. She could be converted."
Trixie didn't like the sound of that. "Is that what happened to you? Is that why you didn't realize you have a lifemate? You weren't Carpathian? You were human?"
"I was human. I was nearly killed, and the Carpathians saved me by converting me. That didn't stop me from thinking like a human or clinging to human ways. I didn't want to consider that because I had psychic gifts a male Carpathian who had suffered centuries of darkness might be looking for me to save him."
Trixie tasted fear in her mouth. Whatever was happening here was much bigger than she expected. She was prepared to have a short fling with a very hot man. One she knew would eventually burn her, but she thought it would be worth it. No. She knew it would be worth it in the end. He had already replaced those terrible memories of that scared, innocent fifteen-year-old girl.
Fane had made her feel beautiful and sexy. He'd made her feel like a desirable woman. She wasn't a woman to kid herself. She was too old. She lived far away, a completely different life, but she could hold Fane in her memories. She didn't have to share those memories with anyone else. She'd given and given her entire life. So many pieces of her had gone missing along the way. No dreams. She knew better than to dream for herself, but she'd dreamt big for her girls and saw to it that they had the chance to make those dreams come true. She had no regrets. None. But Fane would be hers alone, and she deserved every memory she could make with him.
She took a deep breath. Now, she feared the price was far, far higher than she ever thought possible.
"Trixie." Gabrielle whispered her name. "I shouldn't be the one explaining this to you. Fane should be. Or Teagan and Andre. Teagan's happy. I'm too confused and mixed up to be a good example of how wonderful it is to find a lifemate. And my lifemate is different. Very different."
"Does he have a tattoo on his back?" Trixie guessed.
Gabrielle's eyes widened. Her lashes fluttered. She nodded slowly.
"So does Fane. If your man is different, then Fane must be like him. How is he different?"
Gabrielle shook her head. "I'm absolutely not doing this with you. It's scary to find out you're a lifemate, but my sister is so happy. You have no idea how happy she is. You will be, too."
Gabrielle didn't look happy at all to Trixie. She was certainly anxious, her gaze sliding toward the door over and over again as if she expected something terrible to happen at any moment.
"I'm in my sixties, Gabrielle. I've lived my entire life without a man. Making my decisions. Expressing my opinions. Doing what I wanted to do. I've worked hard, and I have a family I love above all else. I am well past child-bearing years if they're looking to repopulate. I would never put up with any nonsense from a man, and I can tell you right now, any man who is a man would find me a pain. We would clash every minute. You're sweet and you want to find a way to please your man. Me, I'd just as soon hit him over the head with a frying pan."
That earned her a smile from Gabrielle. A first. When Gabrielle smiled, her beautiful face nearly glowed.
"You are breathtaking, child. Like my Teagan. No wonder these men both had their eyes on you. Your Aleksei is lucky to have you. You think about that when he's with you. He should make you feel beautiful and special. Not undermine your confidence in yourself."
"He does make me feel beautiful," Gabrielle admitted. "The way he looks at me, as if he would never see another woman the way he sees me."
Trixie closed her eyes briefly. She knew that look. Fane's entire focus had been on her. She'd felt that exact way. As if he would never see another woman like he saw her. This was getting more and more complicated by the minute.
"I've got me a stake gun. It fires little tiny stakes. It didn't do me much good when I shot at Fane and hit him. He just laughed and pulled them out. But you're welcome to it if you think it would do you any good," she offered. Because she wasn't going to need it. She was leaving. Right now. Fast.
She scrambled to her feet. "I'm heading down the mountain, Gabrielle. I would invite you to come along, although I might have to hike out in my altogether. I have to find my pack because I have extra clothes in it and I can put them on when these disappear. He hid it, but I can find it."
"Fane threatened to take your clothes?" Gabrielle guessed.
"He did. I didn't think he could really do it, but he's done quite a few things that looked impossible, so I'm not taking any chances."
Gabrielle felt a smile rising. That was two smiles Trixie had given her in the space of a couple of minutes when she had believed she'd never smile again. She really liked the older woman. Really liked her. She stood up as well.
The door didn't open. Not at all. The hinges didn't creak. But he was there. Filling the room until it vibrated with fury. The air was so heavy Gabrielle choked. Coughed. She froze, afraid to move in any direction. Her gaze slid to Trixie. The woman had frozen as well. Gabrielle wasn't the only one who felt that anger like a blow.
He materialized close to her. So close Gabrielle felt his heat. He smelled of forest. Of the mountains. Of rain. His hair was a wild fall around his face, and hi
s eyes blazed a pure green at her. His jaw was set. His mouth as well. He looked so menacing, Trixie instinctively took a step toward her, as if she might put her body between Gabrielle and Aleksei.
He didn't look at Trixie, his fury-filled gaze focused completely on Gabrielle. He waved a casual hand toward Trixie and she stopped moving, her body going still, her mouth partway open, but no sound emerged. Gabrielle knew instantly Aleksei had frozen her there, and that was even scarier than the four walls filled with his wrath.
"Would you like to explain yourself to me?" He bit each word out between strong white teeth.