The Outcast by Calle J. Brookes Read Free Book Online

bit of blood loss, even to her mate.
    But there was no reason she couldn’t feed from him.
    He tilted his neck back, then guided her head toward his skin. “Take what you need, as it is my right to give it.”
    She shook her head. “I—I’ve never… Always from a glass. I can’t… I don’t know how…”
    Just how vulnerable she had been sickened him. “Come closer, Lana; your body will know what you need it to do.”
    It took her a moment, but he finally felt the tiny pinpricks of feminine fangs sink into his skin. He closed his eyes at how it felt.
    He’d fed people before, even women. Even his l overs—he was five hundred fifty-two years old, he’d not lived like an eunuch waiting on his Rajni. But feeding those females was nothing like what was happening to him now.
    He stroked a hand down her side, murmuring encouragement. She started tentatively, then with more ferocity. His poor female had been starving, hadn’t she?
    Finally, she got her fill, and pulled away. She wiped her mouth with one delicate hand. “I did not hurt you, did I?”
    Hurt wasn’t exactly what he was feeling. Lust, hunger, determination to have her and soon.
    But there was no way she was ready to know about those feelings. “Of course you did not. Anytime you thirst, I will provide.”
    “I need to get up. I have to find my people. They will be scared, and looking for me to guide them.”
    “They are my people now, as well. I hope they shall accept me.” He would rush nothing, of course. “At least as the mate of their Dahn. ”
    Fear hit her pretty yellow eyes. “What will happen to us all? Here in this world? How long will we be here?”
    “I don’t know. I had only arrived a few hours before you, but I have learned much from my sister and her mate. And my brother.” 
    “What?”
    How much should he tell her, burden her with? He hesitated.
    “Truth, please.” Could she read him so easily already? He wasn’t certain how he felt about that.
    “A war is coming, and there are threats that it will darken more than just our Gaian realm. We were brought here, to keep our people from the humans, as the war will be something that we may not be able to keep from the humans. We are gathering here, and in Levia, home of the gods. There will be many great battles. And I will probably be in some of them. I am an Adrastos and we are warriors.”
    “And me?”
    “You will be safe, I can promise you this. And if something were to happen to me, you are to continue on. I know you can, you have proven so. You will stay with my sister and sister-in-law, and they will be your family. But we shall most likely live for many thousands of more years, together. With our children and families.”
    “In this world.”
    “I think so. But it’s not so bad, I think. We should explore it together.”
     
    **
     
    Lana didn’t know what to think. He’d given her a few minutes to get showered and dressed. She’d found a set of clothing in the small bathroom, and the vestis and pardus had fit almost perfectly. She’d had to roll them up at the ankles, but that hadn’t surprised her. She knew she was short, compared to the rest of her Kind.
    She brushed her hair quickly, and braided the unruly curls into two braids. A small pair of white sneakers, the kind humans favored, also waited, along with a pair of socks. She was grateful for the feel of new shoes—shoes without holes—around her feet. She’d lost sensation in a small bit of her left foot last winter from frostbite.
    He waited for her. Her Rajni. He was alive, and he didn’t despise her.
    She couldn’t wrap her thoughts around that.
    He smiled when she came back into her small room. “You ready?”
    “I think so.”
    “Here.” He held out a bundle, and she recognized it as the hasha he’d worn around his waist. “I noticed you wear no color.”
    “Why do you have this black here?”
    “My father declared when I left his rule that I was not fit to wear the color of Adrastos,