The Mating Project by Sam Crescent Read Free Book Online Page B

too, wanted to devour the male in front of her, or to
be devoured by him.
    She
closed her eyes, lest her wayward thoughts show in her expression, and fought
to gain control of herself.
    "You
surprised me, Maria, and that doesn't happen that often."
    The
quietly delivered statement made her smile, and she shrugged her shoulders.
    "Why?
Did you think I wouldn't eat all that?" She winked at him, and he laughed.
    "Well,
that's not what I meant, but now that you come to mention it, yes." He
grinned at her, and Maria's beast relaxed.
    "I
know. My sister-in-law always moans at me that I should be the size of the
house the amount of food I eat, but I guess I've just got a fast metabolism.
Mum is the same. Three kids, and she's still as skinny
as she ever was."
    Silas
frowned at that, and she could almost see the wheels turn in his head.
    "Three?
That's unusual isn't it?"
    "Yes,
though we cats have the highest fertility rates. My brothers and Anastasia have
triplets."
    Silas
whistled through his teeth, and Maria nodded.
    "Yes,
that caused quite a ruckus, especially as Anna is a panther and they're
cougars. Well, we had no idea that she was a panther, until Jake and Carter bit
her, and she shifted. Turns out her grandfather was a
panther and the gene lay dormant until the twins claimed her. It was rather a
surprise to all of us."
    Silas
sat up straighter, and Maria had to smile at the sheen of interest in his eyes.
    "That's
fascinating. I had no idea such a thing was possible."
    "Oh,
there's more. We also have a full human carrying a bear shifter cub. Now, you
tell me how that is possible. Cole is convinced that the answer lies in the
mating bond, and he's determined to bring back the old ways."
    "Cole?"
Silas asked.
    "Forgive
me. Cole Jackson, he sits on the council, and is the last of his line of bear shifters."
    Again,
Silas whistled.
    "Yep,
having mated with a human did not go down well, but no one is going to argue
with an original. Some of us are not that lucky."
    Silas's
eyes narrowed, and Maria cursed herself for all sorts
of a fool. She'd already said far too much, and mate or not, Silas was human.
Her father would have kittens if he knew. Then again her father had not sent
her on this mission. It had been Cole. He wanted Silas on his team of
scientists.
    "Anyway,"
she said. "You're not interested in all of this, are you? I'll never work
for your council, those were your words, were they
not?"
    Silas
glared at her, and Maria bit back a smile. Oh yes, she’d got his scientific
curiosity piqued for sure.
    "No,
I'm not, but that doesn't mean that I don't find the subject fascinating. As a
scientist the mere existence of shifters goes against everything I believe in.
You shouldn't be possible at all, yet here you are."
    "Here
I am, and I'm not going anywhere in a hurry, so what are you going to do about
that?"
    ****
    Now
that was the question of the century, and Silas had no answer to that.
    He
knew what he wanted to do, what every cell in his body, not to mention his
cock, urged him to do, and that was to take Maria home and fuck her silly, until
they both couldn't walk straight.
    He
resisted the urge to adjust his dick. Blue balls was not a syndrome he normally
suffered from, but he got the distinct impression if would be a permanent part
of his vocabulary from now on.
    He
sought refuge in science as he always did. Being that he had a female shifter
in his car, he might as well ask the questions he'd been mulling over, ever
since he heard about the Mating Project. He knew it matched shifters up
according to genetic compatibility, to give them the best chance to reproduce,
and he also knew that there was a thriving black market that exploited this.
Shifters were a sought-after commodity, and while humans on the whole did not
know of their existence, there were plenty that did know. There were also those
on a rather corrupt council who were not afraid to sell out their own for
monetary gain. It turned his stomach every time he