A Forbidden Taking by Kathi S. Barton Read Free Book Online Page B

and then back twice before he felt calm enough to speak. “I would
bring her here for me to protect. She is my responsibility, not that of the
pack. And before you yell at me again, I will tell you that I was incorrect in
my first dealings with her.”
    “No matter how you dress it up,
she’s still going to know you’re admitting you were wrong. Hello, Beau. Welcome
to our home.” Aaron MacManus stood in the doorway as he spoke.
    He was an impressive vampire. Even
if Beau didn’t know he was a master he would guess it. Looking back at Sara as
she stared at her mate Beau could see the love and respect that they had for
one another. He wanted that he suddenly realized. All the things he’d said
about his mate were things he’d heard from his own father. Beau sat down.
    His father had treated his mother
like a thing rather than a person. She’d had no answers for him when he’d lived
with them, as had none of the women of his family. They would send him to his
father or a male elder when he wasn’t around. Even his sisters were subject to
the same treatment and had probably been treated that way by their own
husbands.
    “She will never trust me. That is
why you don’t let me go to her.” It was humiliating and humbling to know that
his mate needed to be protected from him.
    “Not just you. Her mind is a
jumble of misinformation. She has no idea what she is. To her, she is a
monster. What little knowledge she has about herself is half truths and myths. She
believes that she can starve herself to death and is currently working toward
that end as we speak.”
    Beau stood. He couldn’t, wouldn’t,
let her end her life that way. Not while he could do something to prevent it.
He paced and thought aloud. “I must go to her and speak with her. She and I, we
need to bond and mate so that I can know where she is. How do I do that if she
won’t let me near her?” Two more trips across the room and back. “Woo her. I
will curiam suam and make her see that I am not a barbarus , a barbarian.”
    “Courting
her could work. You know how to do that, I assume?” Aaron had a look that Beau didn’t
like, but he didn’t comment. Sara had a look too, but he knew what that could
mean.
    “ Oui ,
I am French, we invented the courting process. I will begin tonight. I will…you
will bring her here, yes?”
    “Yes.
She will come to me. She won’t like it, but she’ll have to come.” Aaron stood
and put his hands on Beau’s shoulders. “You fuck this up and I will let Sara
have her fun. She’s in the last months of her pregnancy and she would like
nothing better than to beat the living shit out of you right now.”
    Beau looked
over at the beautiful woman who looked as though she wouldn’t hurt a fly. He
knew that looks were deceiving and shuddered to think what “beating the living
shit” out of someone meant.
    “I
will not fuck this up, sire. This I promise.”

 
    ~Chapter 7~
     
    Megan
was on her way back to the cave when she noticed the wolf. He’d probably been
following her for some time, but she’d been so wrapped up in her thoughts that
she’d missed him. When she stopped, so did he.
    “Go
away. Shoo. Go back to your home or den or whatever. I don’t want to play
tonight.”
    He
sat down on his butt and cocked his head at her. Then something occurred to
her. She could piss him off. “If I attack you will you defend yourself against
me, little wolfie? I think if you bite my neck really hard with your big teeth,
you could take off my head.” She picked up a stick and swung it at him. “Come
on, come at me.”
    He
backed up when she swiped at him. “Damn it. You can’t be afraid of a stick, can
you? Come on, attack me.”
    “He
won’t. Not if he wants to live through the next hour. Hello, my dear, I’ve come
to take you to my home.”
    Megan
whirled around, pulled the stick up, and pointed it at the man behind her. She
didn’t know this man. But he looked familiar. Taking several steps back