Their Mating Rituals [Paranormal Protection Unit 4] (Siren Publishing Classic) by Honor James Read Free Book Online Page B

me alone,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “Please, honey, wake up and talk to me. Now that we can talk I want to talk to you, even if it’s in our minds, please?”
    So loud, Aiden grumbled mentally as he tried to fight his brother’s hold, but his arms felt like lead weights.
    Allister nodded. “We’re not that loud. Your hearing is just a little oversensitive right now from the drugs, bro. It will settle back down as soon as you push more out of your system,” he said in a murmur, keeping his voice down so his brother’s Dragon hearing wasn’t hurt.
    Drugs? What drugs? Why does everything feel like I’m stuck in fucking molasses?
    “Because you just got out of surgery, honey,” Lina murmured quietly, lowering her voice as she did so. “You got so very hurt and I hadn’t been able to do as much as I should have and for that I’m so sorry. I did the best that I could. So I need you to please wake up and tell me that you aren’t upset with me.”
    Never upset at you, Aiden whispered, turning his head slightly, and cracked an eye before slamming it shut and squeezing it tightly closed.
    “I’ve got them.” Allister released his wrists gently and got up. Moving to the wall, he shut off all the lights, the glow strips letting off enough light to let them see shapes. Or in his case and Aiden’s a hell of a lot more. “You can look at her now, bro, glow strips only.
    Cautiously, Aiden opened his good eye and looked at her. You stayed, he whispered softly and happily.
    “Of course I stayed,” Lina murmured softly. “You have turned me inside out, Aiden. You are the first man ever that I’ve wanted to put before myself, and I really want to know why. I need to know about this connection.” Leaning in closer, she kissed his cheek and whispered against his ear so that Allister didn’t hear. “And I think I love you.”
    He heard you anyway, Aiden said, looking to his brother, who was grinning like an idiot. Go away for a while, bro. I need to talk to her before… Before his body insisted he changed forms to heal at a faster and more efficient rate.
    “I’ll go and grab a snack from the kitchen and maybe cook something up. You hungry yet, Lina?” he asked her. He knew she’d eaten recently, but she hadn’t eaten before that one meal very well, so he was trying to feed her as often as he could.
    “Sure, anything you want to bring me is good. Just nothing with lettuce. I’m allergic to lettuce and cabbage. Weird, I know, but I’m terribly allergic, so unless you wanna see me with hives anything other than that please.” It was why she had to spend so much time special ordering her food and double-checking it before eating it.
    “Right, no rabbit-type leafy things for the lady.” Allister got up and headed for the kitchen. He knew that Aiden was fighting the clock, his body was burning off the drugs fast, and the Dragon would soon take over and demand the change to heal as it should. He had to tell her everything in very little time.
    Lina looked down at Aiden then. “Talk fast. I figure that there is a hell of a lot going on here that I am totally clueless on, so talk to me, love. Tell me what it is that you have to tell me so that you can go back to sleep and heal.” She looked around the darkness though and added, “But why the hell they have you in a warehouse hangar is completely beyond me.”
    Licking his lips, he stared up at her, seeing her much clearer in the low light than she could probably see him. I need you to know that what I’m going to tell you is the truth, nothing but the truth, and that I would never, ever make fun of you or yank your chain about any of it. It is truth and soon you’ll know it with a lot of evidence in your face.
    “Aiden, I trust you. As crazy as it is, I completely and fully trust you. I’ve never trusted men before, but I do you,” she said softly. “So talk fast, honey, because I want to talk to Allister about having you shifted to a real