Normally he was cold and emotionless as a Tranq Kindred ought to be but suddenly he was having all kinds of troublesome feelings. It must be a byproduct of being around a couple in their claiming period, he decided. Baird had been emitting clouds of pheromones, his mating scent filling the air in order to attract Olivia to him and she had been reacting to his scent by releasing a more subtle fragrance of her own although Sylvan didn’t think she knew it. Yes, that must be it. His own body had become attuned to the chemical signals in the air around him for most of the day and now he was reacting to this attractive human female because of it.
Trying to control himself, Sylvan looked her in the eye. “You sound frightened. Let me assure you that if you were claimed by a Kindred male no harm would befall you. We treasure our brides above everything else in the universe—even our own lives.”
“Yes, I’ve heard how you treat the women you take.” Sophia’s voice was still fearful and from the look on her face, someone had been filling her head with slander and rumors.
“Is that right?” Sylvan leaned forward. “Tell me, Sophia, what exactly have you heard?”
She lifted her chin. “What I’ve mostly heard is about the way you…uh, mate.”
“The way we make love?” Sylvan hadn’t expected this. He knew that the humans sometimes found his people to be frightening because of the size difference and he’d been ready to refute any ridiculous rumors she might have heard of physical abuse but what problem could she possibly have with the way Kindred males loved their women?
“Uh, yeah.” She blushed again and nodded.
“What have you heard?” Sylvan really wanted to know. A Kindred male loved his woman to distraction and was unfailingly loyal, if incredibly possessive. He would protect his bride at all costs, no matter the danger to himself. And the desire to pleasure a woman and make her come was part of a Kindred male’s genetic makeup because a satisfied mate was a faithful mate. What fault could the humans possibly find with any of that?
“I’ve heard…heard that the Twin Kindred always share a woman.”
Sylvan nodded. “Yes, that’s true. It’s complicated to explain but they’re unable to reproduce with the seed of only one male. So a pair of them always claim a single female. Does that seem strange to you?”
“Uh…more kinky than strange.” She was looking down at her fingers which she was twisting together in her lap. “That’s not all though. They say that the, uh, Beast Kindred, like the one that took Liv—your brother, I mean—I’ve heard they, uh, practice some kind of weird tantric sex thing that lasts practically forever.”
Sylvan shrugged. “First time bonding sex with any Kindred male is a lengthy experience. In order to bind a woman to us we need to take her for hours, filling her over and over to mark her as our own. But it’s true that the Beast Kindred can take slightly longer due to their unique anatomy.”
“Unique anatomy?” she echoed. Her eyes flickered down to the crotch of his black uniform pants and her cheeks went pink with embarrassment as she looked hastily away.
“They recover very rapidly from any sexual encounter—so much so that they don’t need any recovery time between one encounter and the next.”
Her eyes widened. “So they’re capable of multiple orgasms?”
Sylvan nodded. “They also have what’s called a mating fist. It’s a swelling at the base of the shaft that only the Beast Kindred have. What happens is—”
She put up a hand to stop him. “That’s enough, really. You don’t…don’t have to go into detail.”
“All right.” He shrugged. “So what have you heard about my branch of the Kindred?”
“The Blood Kindred?” She nibbled her full bottom lip for a moment as though trying to decide how to phrase her answer. “I’ve heard you bite,” she said at last, very softly. “That you drink your mate’s blood while you…”
“While we fuck them?” Sylvan asked roughly.
Sophia winced at the crude word and he was sorry he’d said it. “Forgive me for putting it so bluntly but to be perfectly honest, that was what good bonding sex is. It’s fucking. When the urge to claim his mate comes over a Kindred male nothing can deter him. It’s a rough, messy, passionate experience that can’t be controlled.”
She looked up at him, her beautiful pale green eyes wide. “Yes but does it hurt?”
“All really intense pleasure has a tiny kernel of pain in it, don’t you think?” Sylvan asked. “But if you’re asking if we deliberately savage our brides, the answer is no. By the time a Kindred male finally sinks his shaft into his female she’s as ready as he can possibly make her to receive him.”