“You’ll like it.”
“I hope so. Your clan can really eat two of them? I thought they weighed a ton.”
“VampLycans can eat about six times what a human can, and we really gorge at a feast. Think of it like your Thanksgiving holiday, only we do it more often.”
“No wonder you’re all so big.”
“It takes a lot of fuel to shift. We’re also naturally toned.”
“You mean mega-muscled.”
He grinned. “Yes. Relax. You’re really talkative.”
She sealed her lips. He was right. She had a tendency to babble when anxious. He just had a nicer way of putting it. She clutched at his hand as they strolled deeper into the clearing. People stared at her and some even stopped talking. She resisted the urge to drop her chin and lean against Drantos. It might make her appear weak. She lifted her head a little higher and clenched her teeth together.#p#分页标题#e#
Relax, Drantos thought at her.
I’m trying.
Velder came up to them first. It was his way of letting the clan know he approved of his son’s mate. Drantos had given her a run-through of things to expect. She bowed her head to show the clan leader respect.
He reached out and brushed her shoulder with his fingertips. “I’m glad you both could make it.” He touched Drantos’s shoulder next, then stepped back. “Let them come to you,” he suggested, his voice barely above a whisper.
“I’ve got this,” Drantos muttered.
Velder spun away, retreating back to the men he’d been speaking to when they had arrived. Dusti glanced around, looking for Crayla. Where’s your mom?
She’s with the women. They prepare the food and the cooking hasn’t started yet.
Dusti nodded. Peva strode toward them with a tall, handsome man at her side. She guessed that was the woman’s mate. They stopped and Drantos did the talking.
“Hello, Peva. It’s a nice evening.”
“It is. Dusti, this is Maku. My mate,” Peva confirmed.
“It’s nice to meet you.” Dusti smiled.
He had seriously dark eyes and his nostrils flared. “You smell totally human.”
Peva elbowed him. “I told you that.”
“No offense.” Maku glanced at Drantos. “Are you certain she carries any bloodline?”
“Yes. She’s part VampLycan. Her mother was one of us.”
He looked her up and down. “I see.”
Peva elbowed him again. “Knock it off.” She winked at Dusti. “Forgive him. He’s over two hundred years old and gets a bit grumpy when it comes to humans. He remembers when they used to chase him with sharp sticks as a youngster. He liked to roam into their territory.”
The big guy grumbled under his breath. “It’s not funny.”
Peva laughed. “He also should appreciate someone finding their mate since he had to wait so long to find me. He watched generations being born and grown before I was brought into this world.”
Dusti tried to keep her mouth from falling open.
“I had to chase him.” Peva turned into her mate, hugging his waist. “He thought he should give me a few more years to mature since he was so much older. I knew he was mine when I hit sixteen but we waited to mate until I was the age of consent.”
“That’s eighteen, right?”
“Yes. Some knucklehead made that law.” Peva rolled her eyes. “Tell that to a horny teenager when she has the hots for a guy and knows he’s hers. He’d leave our village when I went into heat because I’d go to his house and climb into his bed. I told him if he touched someone else while he was in heat that I’d hunt them both down and kill them, since I was more than willing to break the law to be with him. My Maku isn’t one to break rules.”
“I’m an enforcer. How would that look?”
Peva rolled her eyes and sighed. “It was two years of hell.” She suddenly grinned again. “Just before midnight on the last day of my seventeenth year, I grabbed my packed bags and ran to his house. I got there about a minute after I hit eighteen. He knew me so well. He had the door open and was waiting on his porch.”
Her mate chuckled. “You had warned me that’s what you’d do.”
“As if you weren’t happy about that.”
“I was. It was hell for me too. Especially when I’d come home after you’d been in heat to find your scent all over my house—and you’d always leave your vibrator on my nightstand. You left it there for me to find on purpose. You’d send me into heat. I never touched another woman though, after I knew you were mine. I had to suffer through it alone.”#p#分页标题#e#