Sam laughed thinking Sophia was kidding. “So you’re saying you think I have werewolf inside?”
Sophia shook her head, glanced back down at the papers on her desk and then back at Sam, her lips no longer curled up in laughter. “Not really. What you have is some of the traits since you don’t have an animal. Trust me, I checked.”
Sam really thought there might be a mistake with her blood work. There was no way she could have any shifter traits inside. “I think you might be mistaken.”
Sophia bit her lip. “Have you encountered anything different lately? Enhanced sense of smell? Sight? Arousal? Sorry to get so personal, but it’s important.” She lifted her brows and waited.
The beating of her heart made it almost impossible to hear Sophia’s questions. Since she’d been bitten in Brazil, she’d been seeing things at a farther distance with more clarity, even in the dark. And her sense of smell had gotten incredibly acute. But what made her palms sweat was the arousal bit. For the past three days she’d been desperate in her need to have sex with Riel. She’d brushed it off as having been ignorant of her needs for too long, but now she wasn’t so sure. A cement block settled on her stomach. “What does that mean?”
Sophia’s brow puckered. “Which part?”
Sam gulped. “All of it. Especially the sex part. What if I…I’ve had better sight and smell. What if I’m hornier than a bunny and can’t get enough sex to save my life?” Her voice rose to a hysterical pitch.
Sophia gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “Calm down, Sam. I know how you feel. But what you have to realize is this has always been you. When you were bitten in the jungle, the animal that bit you was a werewolf. He couldn’t turn you because you already have the partial gene in your makeup. That means the bite only served to awaken dormant traits. You can’t turn into an animal because the gene is not complete, but you have some of the traits. And one of them is the mating heat. Right now you are in full-blown heat.”
She stared wide-eyed at Sophia. “So this desperate need for sex, will it go away?”
Sophia lifted one brow. “Do you want it to?”
Did she want it to? Of course! She wasn’t an animal. She shouldn’t be in heat! But wait, if the heat went away, did that mean she’d stop wanting Riel? “If it goes away, will I still want to have sex?”
Sophia laughed, her eyes twinkling. “That’s one thing you don’t have to worry about. The difference between regular sex and in-heat sex is that when in heat all your body wants is for your mate to breed with you until you’re pregnant. The hunger doesn’t go away until you’re either pregnant or see the full heat through. It’s the way our species survives and thrives.”
Sam’s mind whirled at a million miles per hour. Hold on just a second. Did she say mate and pregnant in the same sentence? “What exactly do you mean mate? I don’t have a mate.”
“I think you do. And I think you know it too.”
Sam knew she was right. Ry. She’d had feelings for the man since the first time she’d laid eyes on him when she was eighteen. The invisible link had always scared her, but now that they’d been together she couldn’t imagine being apart from him.
“But don’t you need to go through some kind of ritual to be someone’s mate?” She’d heard something, but wasn’t sure what that meant.
Sophia’s eyes softened. “Well…it’s more of what he does that seals the bond.”
Sam wanted to jump over the desk and shake the other woman. Sophia was having too much fun at her expense and taking too damn long to explain. “What does he have to do?”
Sophia giggled and sighed, her voice turning wistful. “He bites the back of your shoulder and fills your womb with his…er…semen.”
Did that mean—? “But Riel already came inside me. We’ve been having sex like rabbits. So does that mean I can be pregnant?”
Sophia sniffed. “I’m not scenting any changes in your hormone levels. Has he bitten you?”
Sam ran a hand through her hair and made her ponytail fall. “He’s given me a few love bites, but what does that have to do with anything?” She fixed her hair and wondered if she was nuts or if Sophia was the crazy one. Somehow she doubted Sophia, renowned geneticist, would screw with her just for kicks.
“I’m not sure how this works, but trust me I’m looking into it. I think a male can only get his mate pregnant after he’s given her the mate bite. A mate bite isn’t a little love bite. He’ll have to bite down hard on the back of your shoulder, embedding his canines into your skin and drawing blood. By doing that he’ll be able to mix his saliva with your blood and give you a new scent. You’ll scent of him. All other shifters will know you’re his mate. I’m not sure if you can get pregnant before mating, but I do know your heat won’t go unless you get pregnant or get through your heat. So you can’t be pregnant. If his seed had taken inside you, you wouldn’t be feeling horny as hell anymore.” Sophia tapped a short, pink nail to her chin.