Forbidden Hunger by R.L. Kenderson
Fourteen
Ram slowly satup and let his senses finish waking up.
Something was…different. Not necessarily wrong, but different. Something had changed.
He couldn’t put his finger on it, and he feared the sun had taken more out of him than he’d originally thought. But…
He wasn’t as hungry as he had been when he went to sleep. He smacked his tongue in his mouth a few times. It tasted like blood. Human blood.
What the fuck?
Even though he could see well in the dark, he could see even better in the light, so he leaned over and flicked the switch to the lamp on his nightstand.
He lifted up the covers to peer underneath and saw clothes that didn’t belong to him in his bed, and he was beginning to figure out what had happened.
He looked down at his dick, and even though there wasn’t any physical evidence to the naked eye, he could smell her.
He’d caught the scent of Siya’s desire months ago, and he hadn’t forgotten it. He’d even caught a hint of it outside. But his cock? It was covered in it.
He slammed his hand to his forehead and fell back on his bed.
He’d thought he’d dreamed it. He’d been so hungry and horny that he imagined Siya in his bed. It was the best dream his brain had ever conjured. There had been a moment, after he withdrew from her body, that it didn’t seem like it was all in his head, but he’d dismissed the feeling. Turned out, he’d been wrong.
Because it had been real.
Fuck. What was he going to do now?
He licked a fang and tasted her blood once more, causing him to stiffen and fly up again. If he’d drunk her blood and had sex with her, why couldn’t he sense her emotions? Why wasn’t she full of rage toward him?
He flung off the covers, prepared to run out of his room, naked, and call everyone to find her because, surely, Monica had gotten to her, when he saw her sleeping on the floor.
He stopped short and stared at her.
That explained why he hadn’t detected her wrath. She wasn’t awake enough to think bad things about him.
The sense of relief that washed over him made him feel almost scared. He hadn’t realized how worried he’d been, and he needed to sit down before he passed out.
But once he knew she was safe, it really registered to him that she was now sleeping on the floor.
He’d really fucked up.
He would need to figure out how to make it up to her once she woke up.
But first, he was going to get her off his hard floor.
It had carpet, but it couldn’t be that comfortable, so he carefully picked her up and set her in his bed.
He made sure she was tucked in tight before kissing her on the forehead and whispering he was sorry. Then, he got ready since he was up for the night, and he waited for Siya to wake up and go back to hating him.
* * *
Somehow, Siya was back in Ram’s bed. People really needed to stop moving her. The good thing was that this time, she was alone, and it was light outside.
The room still had the shades drawn, so no direct light could come in and hurt Ram, but it was pretty impossible to block it all. And she was glad it was finally morning.
She heard someone yell something in the kitchen about pancakes, and her stomach growled. She didn’t blame it. Pancakes sounded delicious.
She lifted her wrist again and saw that it looked even better than when she had gone to bed. Did the healing properties keep working, even after they were applied, or had a good night’s sleep helped repair her wounds? It was probably a combination of the two, and just her luck, both were thanks to Ram.
She had thought she wasn’t tired after they had sex, but after she had lain down on her makeshift bed, she didn’t remember struggling to lie still or even getting tired. She must have simply drifted off.
She rubbed her hand over her neck, and while she couldn’t see it, that area felt fine, too. She was actually a bit disappointed she wouldn’t have any marks there. She’d seen Demi’s marks that Saxon had left on her, and she thought it was sexy as hell.
Her inner feminist was screaming at her to not let a man mark her as his possession, but secretly, it was still hot. And the fact that Saxon wore Demi’s mark as well made it more acceptable in her mind. Possession was a two-way street with the shifters.
Speaking of Demi, she hoped her friend was up, so she could give her crap for not waking her to move to Ram’s room. Demi was going to be shocked when she found out that Siya’d had sex with Ram.
Ugh. That wasn’t something she wanted to think about right now.
Ram had been weird last night, and she didn’t want to deal with anything awkward between the two of them. Or rather, anything more awkward than things had already been.
Knowing she couldn’t stay in bed forever, she shifted to get out of bed and winced.
She’d forgotten about one area on her body that might be tender and not healed by Ram.
Her fricking vagina was sore.
Not horribly. She wasn’t going to develop a limp, but it had taken her by surprise. A nice, long, hot bath would help with the pain though.
Forcing herself to get up, she quickly got out of bed.
She winced again but had expected it.
But what she hadn’t been prepared for was Ram to be sleeping in his chair and for him to jump up like someone had poked him with a sharp stick. He only wore a pair of gray sweatpants, and normally, she would admire him in such attire, but he was on high alert for some reason.
* * *
“Are you okay?”
Ram slowly looked over to Siya, who looked at him like he was a freak. But one second, he’d been sleeping, and the next, he’d felt pain coming from her, and it had shocked him.
“You’re hurt,” he told her.
He sensed her blood rising to her cheeks, and he stepped forward to pick up her arms. He inspected both because he wasn’t sure which one he’d bitten last night. Both looked good with one showing two small teeth marks.
He pulled her shirt to the side on both shoulders. Again, she looked good with only one side showing a partially healed area.
She backed up a step. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.”
“You just looked at where you’d fed from me. I’m fine.”
He narrowed his eyes. She was lying. He could sense it through her blood in his body. He could also tell she didn’t want him to know, but he could figure out why.
“I’m fine,” she said again and went to step around him.
He felt her pain shoot through her body. To him, it felt like someone had squeezed his balls.
He gasped and stopped her with his body. “Your pussy.”
Siya’s eyebrows flew up, and she chuckled. “Excuse me?”
He looked down, as if he could see through her clothes somehow. “Your pussy. You’re hurt.”
In the back of his head, it occurred to him that he was responsible, but the protective part of him was more focused on helping her than letting his guilt take over his emotions.
“I—I don’t know what you mean.”
“Liar,” he said and picked her up to set her on the bed.