Page 22 of The Wedding Hunt Ylara

He looked at her, then said, “Why did you do it? Was it the money?”

She looked at him and laughed until tears streamed down her face. When she swallowed and got herself under control, she said, “Because I wanted to learn what it felt like to be touched by someone who wanted me and not just because my scent drove them insane. Just someone who would touch me because they wanted me. I learned what I needed to and then returned to recruiting.” She chuckled. “Turns out, men are all the same, and the second they are done, you need to get up and get out.”

He stared at her.

“Don’t worry. You were the exception. You whispered promises of a future to me. Actually made me believe them. A home and love and someone who wanted to keep me. Based on the progression, I should be dead in an hour.”

He got up and left the room. She sighed and tried to flop herself out of bed. She pulled herself to the edge of the bed and hauled herself to the chair in the corner. She wasn’t going to die in bed.

She left a trail of blood that led to the chair, and she started gasping slowly. Her exertion must have sped up the venom. She rocked the chair and patted her belly where the baby didn’t have a chance, and she sang the same lullaby to the little speck that she had sung to Baola on her first night with the family. She sang softly until she heard the door open and a woman screaming. Funny. Her family weren’t screamers.

Chapter Five

After explaining the situation to his parents, he had to stand and be threatened by his father and Salat. Her estimate of her time was accurate. His mother finally got tired of the wait and went to talk to Ylara.

The scream caught them all by surprise, and Riithan ran up there to see an image out of his nightmares. Ylara had gotten herself out of bed and pulled herself across the floor. It started the hemorrhaging, and she was bleeding from every orifice.

He rushed up to her, and his tail stung her in the chest, and she inhaled deeply, her colour turning a healthier pink. She was still covered with blood, but she was breathing, and her body was waking and repairing. It was what his stinger wanted to do.

“Riithan, what did you do?”

“I saved her from a mistake her physician made. I might have been a little brutish and aggressive with her, but I never meant her harm. I am just hoping I was quick enough to save the child.”

“At this point, the mother is more important. There will be another heat, son. There always is.” His mother touched his arm.

“You only had one, Mom.”

“That was because I had an alpha, and it wasn’t an easy birth. Your father did not enjoy the thought of me bleeding out with the next one. So, we had you, and we loved you, and there were plenty of heats and a lot of riotous stints in my nest, but we got through it.”

Ylara dragged in another slow breath.

The stinger shot forward to her soft belly, and she shrieked.

He opened his mouth, and his mating teeth descended. Her gaze rolled toward him, and she whimpered. He bent her forward and bit her.

The first time he marked her, he had been riding high with lust. Now he was giving her the antivenin in his jaws to keep the effects of his venom from overwhelming her.

He saw her legs twitch, and she moaned softly. He released her neck and licked the wounds closed. His was not a particularly neat bite. The teeth that came down had only one purpose, and his scorpion really didn’t want her to get away again. The mark was red and would need tending. This time, she wasn’t delirious with need. He would have to be firm. She wasn’t likely to come to him for help. As she said, he was just another guy who discarded her the moment he had what he wanted. He now had to find her again.

His mother said, “Help me clean her up and get her out of that gown. No woman enjoys being covered in her own blood.”

He nodded, and his mother looked around and found another gown. She tutted. “She needs things that are not so old. This designer died four years ago. They must not pay very well at the BDC.”

He stared at his mother. “You know about that?”

“Certainly. I have done my research, and a few dozen of our males have tried to apply for patron status. I am hoping that one day I can meet Zera. She has discovered a safe way for female actives to meet males and slip under the legal radar of her city. And a way for males to find women they won’t crush or maim.” She smiled. “If not for them, Etgar never would have met Vallu. Vallu would not have met Ylara and invited her to the wedding.”

“And I would not be standing here with her blood in my mouth.”

“How does your beast feel?”

Riithan got a wet cloth and came back to clean the blood off. Ylara was raising her head slowly. Her eyes were black again. “Well, that sucked.”

She looked over at his mother. “Oh, hello, ma’am.”

Riithan murmured, “Queen Himera. My mother.”

“Pleased to meet you, ma’am. I apologize for my appearance. I wasn’t expecting guests.”

---