Forbidden Hunger by R.L. Kenderson

Nine

“I can sleepin the same room as Demi.” Siya looked over at her friend, only to find Demi wincing, and she already knew what the answer was going to be.

She’d gotten to the bunkhouse about fifteen minutes earlier, and it was suddenly a debate about where she was going to sleep. Everyone expected her to sleep in the same room as Ram, like she had the last time she stayed there. Only Demi knew why she wouldn’t want to.

With the room full of cat-shifters, she wasn’t about to say what the problem was out loud.

Saxon laughed for all of two seconds, and then his face went hard. “No one sleeps in the same bedroom as my mate but me.”

If Siya didn’t know him, she would be scared. She did know him, and she was still a little scared. But the alternative was worse. “Saxon, I’m not going to steal Demi from you. I knew her way before you did, and if I wanted her to be mine, she would be.”

It wasn’t a threat; she was only trying to make a point. But Saxon must’ve taken it as one because he started growling low in his throat.

Demi put her hand on her mate’s arm. “Saxon, Siya didn’t mean it that way.” She moved closer to him and lowered her voice. “She just doesn’t want to sleep in Ram’s room.”

Saxon was a great sentinel, from what Siya had heard, and he loved Demi very much, but relationships were not his forte. Because he opened his mouth and said, “Why? I thought she liked him?”

Ram shifted beside Siya, and she began to regret her decision to come and stay with the cat-shifters. The amount of humiliation she felt at that moment was probably way worse than letting Ram drink her blood.

Meanwhile, Demi hadn’t given up on trying to explain the situation to Saxon. She sighed and whispered in his ear.

Siya couldn’t hear what was being said, but that didn’t mean Ram couldn’t. His hearing was far better than hers, and she feared that she was going to have to bury herself in a hole to hide for the rest of her life.

Saxon leaned back. “What the fuck?”

“Now, do you understand?” Demi asked.

“Yeah. But you’re still sleeping with me.”

Demi put her head in her hand and shook it. “You make my life very difficult.”

Saxon grinned at her.

Demi turned away from her mate and back to Siya with sad eyes. “I’m sorry. I tried.”

As a human, Siya thought Demi should’ve stood up to her mate more, but she understood that cat-shifters had different relationships. Plus, while Demi didn’t want her to suffer, she probably still wanted to sleep next to her mate at night.

Siya understood. If she had a mate who looked at her the way Saxon looked at Demi, she’d want to sleep next to him, too.

But that still left Siya wondering what to do.

Maybe I should get out of town for a while.

Saxon looked at her as he put his arm around Demi. “Yeah, sorry, Siya.”

Demi smacked his chest. “No, you’re not.”

Saxon chuckled. “You’re right. I’m not sorry. But I do feel bad. However, you have no better protector than Ram. Not only did Vance assign him to take care of you, but also, Ram actually wants to. And the fact that he doesn’t want to screw you will only help you stay safe.”

“Oh, Saxon,” Demi groaned and pinched her nose.

“What? It’s true,” the male shifter said.

Siya wanted to disappear right about now. The heat from embarrassment flooded her face, and she had no doubt that Ram noticed it. Usually, her dark complexion covered up her blushing pretty well, but Ram had once told her that as a vampire, he could sense the blood flowing into her cheeks.

She needed some fresh air.

“Excuse me,” she muttered and hurried outside.

Not wanting to face anybody, not even Demi, she took off for the trees before her best friend could come after her. Thankfully, the sun was up, so she didn’t have to worry about Ram coming outside. She simply needed to be alone for a few minutes.

She found a tree under some shade and sat down on the ground to lean against it. She closed her eyes and tried to think happy thoughts. She pictured the last time she had gone to visit her parents in India. She never had any urge to move there. Her parents had immigrated before she was born and then moved back several years ago now that their parents were getting older. But right now, she missed her mother, even when she constantly asked when Siya was going to find a nice Indian boy to marry.

She snorted at the thought of her mother meeting Ram, a vampire.

Her eyes flew open, and she sighed.

She had done a good job of forgetting about him the last few months, and she didn’t pine for him, but it sure had been humiliating for Saxon to tell everyone that she liked him and that he didn’t like her, especially when she had liked him. Had. As in the past.

She was already a human, which made her feel inferior. She didn’t need everyone to feel sorry for her because of this, too.

She sensed someone even before she heard them getting closer. She figured it was Demi and lifted her head to tell her friend she needed a few more minutes, but it wasn’t Demi.

It was Ram.

Siya scrambled to her knees. “What are you doing out here?”

He sat down beside her and pulled up the bill of the baseball cap he was wearing. He was also covered in clothes from head to toe, but she didn’t know how well that blocked out the sun. “I came to check on you.”

Hope rose inside her even though she hadn’t wanted it to. Is he worried about me?

“You shouldn’t be out here alone. I doubt Monica would dare come this close to our home, but you shouldn’t take any chances.”

And poof. Just like that, her hope was gone. He was worried about her but not in the way she wanted him to be. He was worried about her well-being, not how she felt. She had tried to tell herself to not get excited.

All this did was tell her that maybe her feelings for him weren’t so in the past after all. Not that it really mattered. He didn’t like her, and everyone back inside knew it, too.

Siya rolled her eyes. “Right now, you’re in more trouble than I am. You shouldn’t be out in the sun.” She lifted her chin. “You should go back inside.”

“I’m not going to go until you do.”

For the love…

She was tempted to sit out there all day and let him suffer. But she’d have to suffer along with him.

“Fine. We’ll go inside.” Hopping up from her spot on the ground, she took off, not bothering to wait for Ram.

“Siya, wait.”

She ignored him and kept going. He was a big, strong vampire. He could catch up to her without any trouble.

And that was exactly what happened less than five seconds later.

He grabbed her arm and spun her around. “What is your problem?”

She scoffed. “My problem?” She clenched her jaw. “You men are all the same, no matter what species you are.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

Siya closed her eyes and drew from her nurse patience. What would she say if Ram were a patient? Taking a deep breath, she raised her eyes.

Since everything was out in the open, there was no point in beating around the bush.

“Not only have I been forced to leave my home with all my things, but I’ve also been forced to come and stay here with a bunch of strangers. Way too many strangers. Could you pack any more bodies into one house?”

Ram scratched the back of his head. “Not everyone stays here all the time. Many have their own places. And they’re not strangers. You’ve already met everyone.”

She would give him that. “Okay, you are right, but besides Demi, they are acquaintances at best. It’s still awkward, and it’s very hard to relax.”

Ram’s voice lowered along with his eyes. “What about me? Am I just an acquaintance?”

Siya crossed her arms over her chest. “No. You’re the guy who led me on—for who knows what reason—and then rejected me when I took you up on your offer.” She pointed toward the house as Ram’s head flew up. “And now, all those people in there, who I don’t know very well, know I was rejected. So, not only do I feel like a fish out of water, but I also feel like everyone pities me. It’s embarrassing.” She jerked her head in the way only a woman could. “Does that explain my problem well enough?”

Ram just stared at her silently. She was so done with this conversation. She was going inside, and she’d look for Monica herself. The sooner that was figured out, the sooner she would get to go home.

She turned to head inside, but Ram grabbed her wrist and yanked her toward him. She hadn’t been prepared and couldn’t stop herself from running into him.

She looked up into his yellow eyes. They were so bright during the day, even shaded under a hat, and she almost forgot she was upset with him.

“I didn’t reject you.”

“Come on, Ram.”

“I didn’t reject you,” he said again through clenched teeth.

“It’s just you and me. You can admit it. No one is around to witness it. Besides, the damage has already been done.”

That must have really pissed him off because he bared his teeth at her. He seemed so mad. He looked like he was going to yell at her, but he shocked her when he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her instead.

Her lips parted of their own accord, and his tongue swept into her mouth, as if to claim it as its own. She whimpered and tried to lift her arms to reach for him.

But that was as far as it went.

Just as quickly as he’d grabbed her, he let go. “I didn’t fucking reject you.”

And with that, he grasped her hand and led her back to the bunkhouse.