He stopped staring at her in surprise. “Charity, it’s killing you. You look like a fucking corpse,” he yelled down at her as she flinched in reaction. “What the hell would you have me to do?”
She stared up at him, knowing what he had to do. “Hold me down,” she bit out. “Let her finish the exam, Aiden. Please, you have to help me. ”
Chapter Seventeen
Her screams still echoed in his head. Aiden sat on the porch ignoring the silent doctor who sat in the swing on the other end and stared out at the slowly darkening sky. His hands were trembling. He stared down at them, wondering bleakly if he had ever trembled likethis? Even as a child he hadn’t been a nervous type. His hands had stayed strong; fear had never broken him. Yet now, he trembled like a babe during a hard chill.
Not nearly as hard as Charity had shook, though. And she had screamed. The moment Armani had begun the vaginal examination her screams had torn from her throat. And he had been forced to hold her down, watching her eyes, wild and terrified as her body protested any touch other than his own.
“How long will she sleep?” He cleared his throat, still fighting the reaction that had set in the moment he left the cabin.
“Hopefully, a while. ”Armani’s voice was thick, filled with regret.
“Did you get what you needed?” He couldn’t look at her. He was afraid if he did, he would kill her. Then he remembered her tears. The one time he had allowed himself to glance at her, tears had streamed from her eyes.
“I hope to God I did,” she finally bit out. “Dear God, Aiden, I don’t know what’s happening to her. Her ovaries areswollen, her cervix is open as though she were in the last stages of pregnancy rather than the first stages of fertility. Neither Hope nor Faith experienced such pain. How do you bring yourself to take her?”
He glanced at her in surprise. “When I touch her, Armani, her body knows only pleasure. It was your touch that brought her pain. ”
She shuddered as he spoke. “God, Aiden. I don’t know how to help her. I don’t know what to do. ”
“Don’t touch her,” he bit out. “Until the mating is complete, Nikki, no other can touch her. I tried to tell you this, tried to explain what I felt. ”
She frowned. “You knew this?”
He pushed his fingers through his hair in agitation. “Not consciously. The thought of you testing her was abhorrent to me, and I couldn’t explain why. This was why. I knew instinctively…” He paused as he shook his head. “ I knew what it would do to her. ”
“Faith and Hope have not advanced this far in the change,” she whispered as she stood to her feet and picked up the bag that contained her samples. “I don’t know what to do, Aiden. Or how to help her. ”
He shook his head wearily. “There is no cure,” he said softly. “She thinks this can be fixed. You think it can be fixed…”
“Aiden, I know it can’t be fixed. And I think Charity knows as well. You hear her words, but I saw her fears. ” She walked over to him, sitting down beside him on the steps of the porch. “When she was in the Labs, the few times I was able to talk to her, she asked about you. Were you doing well? Had you found someone to care for you? Did you ever ask of her? These questions came out in many different ways, but they were always there. And the emotions behind them terrify her. ”
“It is a mating…”
“No, Aiden. Not like you try to convince yourself. Charity loved you before you ever shot that semen down her throat. She talked of you, wrote about you, and worried herself to the point of tears that you would manage to get yourself killed before the rescue could be pulled off. This isn’t a mating for her, it’s a loving. And it’s that part of it that she denies. ”
Aiden shook his head. He had known that, somewhere deep inside himself. But whatever love may have existed for Charity must have died long ago. And whatever ability he may have had to live had slowly withered away in his fight for survival. He was too hard, too dominating.
“What of her body?” he finally asked. “I can touch her, love her for hours and never cause her pain. What happened in there?”
She stared into the night as he glanced at her. In repose, her expression was frowning, thoughtful. “It’s similar to the Feline Breeds,” she finally said. “To a small extent, Hope and Faith have experienced it, though not to such an extreme. Why, I’m not certain, but I intend to find out. ”
She stood to her feet, stepping down to the ground before turning back to face him.
“She thinks there’s a cure, Aiden,” she told him simply. “You and I both know better. Be careful how you deal with her, or she may run from you as well. If she does, we may never find her again. ”
His eyes narrowed. “What are you not telling me, Armani?”
Her lips quirked secretively. “Things that only Charity has the right to reveal to you. Watch your step, my friend, or you be may lose more than you ever dreamed of holding. ”
And with those words she turned and disappeared into the night. Aiden sighed wearily and walked back into the house, returning to his mate where she slept.
The sedative she had demanded halfway through the exam had made it a little easier on her. The fact that she had continued to demand the completion of it terrified him. She was desperate, certain there was a cure to the chemical reaction that bound their bodies to each other. Instinct warned Aiden there was no cure. No breaking the bonds nature hadlaid in place. He had accepted it; refused to fight it any longer. He had fed his hatred of her for years, but once he saw her again, once he touched her, he had begun accepting that he would never be free of her. What had
happened in those Labs six years before didn’t matter. She had done no more than he would have. She had saved her mate the only way she knew how. And now he would do the same. No more exams. He paced into the bedroom, undressing,staring at her as she slept restlessly. Until whatever changes her body was going through completed, no one else must be allowed to touch her, to weaken her. The progress she had made in the past two days had been destroyed within hours. She was pale once more, weak and in distress.
He moved into the bed beside her, pulling her into his arms. Her whimper caused his chest to tighten, his throat to close as she burrowed into his body. She was cold. Despite the blankets that had covered her, the fire burning across the room, she felt chilled to the bone. Finally, after agonizing seconds of body rubbing and burrowing, she found a spot that seemed to fit her. She sighed deeply and settled down to rest once again. Unfortunately, his cock was engorged now, throbbing, demanding the lithe body that had rubbed against it so sensually. He sighed tiredly. This mate business was getting more complicated by the day.