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  Maybe it had a lot to do with the bond that had formed between them, but Tor knew he didn’t want to go back to his old life of being alone. Kenna completed him, made him feel things he hadn’t felt in thousands of years—longing for someone to share his days and nights with being one of them.

  Tomorrow he’d take the steps to bring Kenna into his world and permanently into his life. He wanted her living under his roof where she’d be better protected from the evil Tor knew all too well lurked outside, just waiting for a chance to strike at the next victim. She’d already experienced it firsthand, not that she remembered. He wanted to shelter her from it so it would never happen again. He would always be one of Anubis’ warriors, but he now had a duty to protect Kenna, his mate, as well.

  * * * * *

  Kenna found she didn’t know what to do with herself after Tor had dropped her off at home. She prowled around her apartment missing him like crazy. No other guy had she obsessed over as much as she did Tor. Some great sex and now she wanted to hang on to him and never let him go. Neither of them had even discussed the future. She didn’t even know if Tor wanted a serious relationship with her. And it was way too early to think about bringing up the topic of marriage.

  She went to her bedroom and decided she might as well pack a bag for her weekend at Tor’s. The first thing she did was head to her underwear drawer. Though she wasn’t one for dressing overtly sexy, she did like to wear slinky undergarments. Nick called her the closet slut, that deep inside she wanted to show off her body. She did, but only to the men she slept with. And right now that man was Tor.

  Kenna pulled out some of her skimpiest lingerie. She had one set in particular she wanted to take. After lifting it out of the drawer, she held it in front of her. It was a red satin baby doll with black lace trim along the hem and a sweetheart neckline. The straps were black and thin with tiny black satin bows partway up. A red satin G-string completed it. It was one of Kenna’s recent purchases and she hadn’t had a chance to wear it yet. She had a feeling Tor would like to see her in it. She knew she’d love it when he stripped the baby doll off her.

  Once she finished packing, Kenna took a long, hot shower. She washed her hair, shaved her legs and lathered herself up with her vanilla-scented body wash. Letting her hair air-dry, she applied lotion to her body. Now she was all set to see Tor the next day.

  When the hour grew late enough, Kenna went to bed. She thought she might have a hard time falling asleep, since she was more than looking forward to the weekend starting, but that didn’t happen to be the case. Sleep claimed her in a matter of minutes.

  Then she dreamed about Tor, but it wasn’t a sexy, fun one. This dream was a borderline nightmare. One she tried to wake herself up from but couldn’t. In it, a strange man threatened her, demanding she give him something. What, she didn’t know. All she knew was he frightened her. Tor appeared on the scene. Some of Kenna’s fear dissipated, knowing he’d take care of the man who threatened her. Tor would keep her safe.

  That soon changed when Tor’s body blurred and he shifted into a creature straight out of a horror movie, something half-human and half-animal. He stood taller than his normal height, was more muscular with his body completely covered in black fur. His tail swished behind him as he curled the upper lip on his muzzle and growled much as Tor had done while they’d made love. Somehow she’d even added his Egyptian heritage, because the creature he’d become wore a snow-white kilt as they did in ancient times, complete with gold armbands around his furred biceps.

  This new Tor focused on the man and grabbed him by the throat. With a flash of a gold dagger, Tor cut the stranger with it, and the man yelled in fear before he literally disappeared. Tor turned toward Kenna, the dagger still in his hand. Blood marred the gold of the blade, dripping as he walked closer. There was more blood than there should have been. It didn’t seem to stop.

  Kenna told him to stay back, but he kept coming. His gaze snagged hers and she couldn’t look away, felt trapped, unable to move. In a deep, gravelly voice, he said, “You are mine.” He then lunged at her.

  She screamed, which woke her up. Kenna lay still on the bed, her eyes trying to focus in the darkness as her heart beat at a fast rate. She panted in fear, afraid to move. It was only a dream, she told herself. Tor was not the creature she’d seem him shift into while she’d slept. That was only the stuff of horror films, or her dreams, apparently.

  Once she could breathe again without sounding as if she’d just run a marathon, Kenna got out of bed and went to the bathroom. She splashed cool water on her face. She rarely had nightmares. And of course it would figure when she did it would be an exceptionally bad one. She just hoped she’d be able to go back to sleep.

  Kenna headed to the bedroom and climbed into bed. She closed her eyes and once again the creature Tor had become rose in her mind. It’s not real, it’s not real. She could tell herself that, but the fear was still there. Not about to let the nightmare win, she rolled over to her side and pulled the extra pillow to her chest, holding it tight. She would not stay awake. She needed to rest. She wasn’t going to ruin tomorrow by being tired from lack of sleep.

  It took a few hours, but Kenna finally was able to push the memory of her bad dream aside to find the sleep she needed. As she drifted off, she thought of Tor and how good it felt to be held in his arms.

  * * * * *

  Kenna awoke in the morning, grateful her nightmare hadn’t returned. She stretched and sat up. The small sliver of sunlight that shone through the crack in her drapes told her the day was already a bright one. She threw back the covers and got out of bed.

  After a stop in the bathroom, she headed for the kitchen. It was a little after ten. She decided to make herself some breakfast, then get dressed and ready for the day. Standing at the open fridge, Kenna saw she had all the ingredients to make a veggie omelet. She took out everything she needed and shut the door with her hip.

  As she worked, she thought of Tor’s huge kitchen and his chef-quality stove. She might not cook as well as he did, but she wasn’t awful by any means. Maybe he’d let her make their dinner tonight and she could try out his fancy things.

  She ran through menu ideas as she chopped some of the vegetables. Her mind really not on the work at hand, Kenna ended up cutting herself. She sucked in a sharp breath and lifted her finger closer to her face to see what kind of damage she’d done. She blinked, not sure if her eyes were playing tricks on her or not. Had the cut just instantly healed? She ran water over her finger in the sink. Her skin bore no slice mark.

  Kenna dried her hand, giving the digit she knew for a fact she’d cut with the knife a closer inspection. Yup, it looked exactly the same. She knew that wasn’t possible. She had cut herself. She’d felt the sting of it. Maybe she was losing her mind and only thought she had hurt herself.

  Deciding she’d better not go there, Kenna went back to preparing her breakfast. She’d almost convinced herself the knife incident really hadn’t happened when she touched the hot frying pan with the side of her hand. Her first instinct was to hold it under cold water in the sink, but as she turned toward it the pain ebbed away to nothing. Almost afraid to look, she flipped her hand. No burn mark.

  She let out a small whimper. Kenna had never healed this fast. Before she completely wigged out, she forced herself to continue on with what she was doing. Once her omelet was cooked, she slipped it onto a plate and sat at the table to eat. With each mouthful, her thoughts became more chaotic, grasping at ludicrous possibilities as to why she’d healed in a matter of seconds.

  By the time she’d finished her breakfast, Kenna had worked herself up into quite a state. She also entertained the notion of cutting herself to see if she’d still heal at a rapid rate.

  Calling herself stupid for even thinking of doing it, Kenna got up from the table and grabbed her sharpest knife out of the block sitting on top of the counter. She sat back down, her hands shaking. Should she? Shouldn’t she? What if she cut herself and she didn’t
heal and it was bad enough that she’d need stitches? How the hell would she explain why she’d done it without the doctor wanting her to go see a shrink?

  Then her thoughts strayed to what she would do if she did heal. It wasn’t fricking normal. Not by a long shot. And it was something new for her. Before today, she had to wait like everyone else in the world to have a cut disappear. She couldn’t think of anything she’d recently done that would be so off the wall as to change her in such a way. The only thing new in her life was Tor and he sure as shit hadn’t made her like this.

  If she kept this up too much longer they would have to take her away in a straitjacket and lock her up in the nuthouse. Before she could talk herself out of it, Kenna ran the knife she held across her left palm. It hurt more than when she’d accidently done it since she made sure she went deep enough to make herself bleed more than a little.

  She did, but only for a few seconds. The wound healed, not even leaving a scar. The blood that had been spilled absorbed back into her skin. No trace of it remained. Kenna laughed, on the verge of being hysterical, then cried. Then cried and laughed at the same time. She barely managed to pull herself together before she totally lost it.

  Kenna dropped the knife on the table as if it were a poisonous snake. She took deep, even breaths. She looked at the clock on the stove. There was a little less than an hour before she had to leave to go to Tor’s place. She could not show up at his door looking like an absolute mess. For one thing, she didn’t know if she’d be able to tell him why she was so upset. It was bad enough she thought she was crazy, but it would be even worse if he did too. And she sure as hell didn’t want whatever this was to push him away from her.

  She stood and went to the sink to do the washing up as she would any other Saturday morning. That finished, she left the kitchen to head for her bedroom. Dressing helped her get more on an even keel. Kenna would not think about anything that would be considered off in woo-woo land. She’d be herself, not give Tor any reason to think something was wrong.

  By the time Kenna had collected the bag she’d packed and headed out of her apartment, she’d collected herself to the point no one would be able to know she’d somehow acquired a freaky ability. At least in her mind she pulled it off.

  Chapter Six

  Tor resisted the urge to open the front door and look outside to see if Kenna had arrived. Instead he went to the living room and turned on the TV. He’d missed her, had even found himself reaching for her while in bed, wanting to have her in his arms.

  Since he’d already made them mates, he planned to tell her everything once she’d had a chance to settle in, and after they’d made love once, maybe twice. The sooner he got it over with the better it would be for both of them. As Anubis had said the night before, sooner or later Kenna was going to notice something was different about her. She needed to understand why before that happened. He could see it freaking her out if she happened to hurt herself and then healed in seconds.

  Tor also didn’t want to risk the demon that had him in his sights finding out what Kenna was to him while she was on her own. Without being under Tor’s protection, the demon could hurt her. And if the creature ever found out Tor’s and Kenna’s life forces were joined, the demon would try to take Kenna out, knowing full well Tor would die right along with her.

  Having not spent the night and into the early hours of the morning hunting, Tor’d had the chance to go to the grocery store earlier and stock up on what he hoped Kenna would like to eat. Now being immortal, she would be able to eat as much as she wanted, food that was good or bad for her, and not have to worry about gaining a pound. She’d always stay the same. She’d also be able to drink alcohol and never get drunk.

  Ten minutes later, Tor heard the sound of a car pulling up his long driveway. He smiled as he hurried out of the living room and walked through the foyer to the front door. He opened it and stepped out in time to see Kenna park in front of the garage. He smiled as he headed in her direction. She didn’t see him at first, but once she did, she gave him a small wave before taking an athletic bag out of the backseat.

  Once he closed the distance between them, Tor cupped her face and kissed her as he’d ached to do since he’d dropped her off at her place the night before. He then put his arm around her shoulders and guided her toward the door.

  “I missed you,” he said as they walked.

  She smiled as she angled her head to look at him, her arm snaking around his waist. “I missed you too.”

  Inside the house, he shut the door behind them. Tor took her bag and placed it on the bottom step of one of the staircases to bring up to his bedroom later. He turned back to her.

  “Would you like something to drink or eat?”

  Kenna shook her head. “No, I’m fine. Thanks.”

  Tor looked down and saw she wrung her hands. Gazing at her more closely, he saw her expression was a little on the pinched side, almost as if she appeared anxious about something. He hoped he wasn’t the cause of it.

  “Are you okay, Kenna?” he asked.

  “Of course I am.” She wrung her hands harder and spoke faster. “Why wouldn’t I be? Everything is perfect. I have nothing to worry about.”

  “Well, for one thing, you’re babbling.”

  “I’m not babbling. I’m just—” Kenna took a deep breath, then said more slowly, “I’m fine.”

  “All right.” He still wasn’t convinced that she was. Something bothered her. “What would you—” Kenna cut off his words by throwing herself into his arms and covering his mouth with her own. He wrapped his arms around her waist and returned her kiss.

  Against his lips, she said huskily, “Take me upstairs and make love to me. I need you inside me.”

  He groaned as he lifted her off her feet and turned toward the stairs. He’d planned to wait a bit before they got to lovemaking, but he was on board with getting to the good stuff sooner rather than later.

  Taking the stairs two at a time, he practically ran to the upper level. All the while he kissed Kenna passionately. She put her legs around his waist and her pussy rubbed against his cock with each step he took. By the time he’d reached the top he was fully erect, aching to sink inside her.

  The short trek down the hallway to his bedroom ramped him up even more. Only with Kenna, with his mate, did he feel desperate, wanting to sink his cock into her moist heat. As if he wouldn’t survive another minute if he didn’t. And she seemed to need him just as badly. She clung to his shoulders, kissing him so hard their teeth knocked together. Tor had a feeling it would always be like this between them.

  Setting her on her feet inside his room, Tor pulled away from Kenna’s mouth and lifted her shirt up and over her head. His gaze dropped to her breasts and he sucked in a sharp breath at what he saw. Her bra was dark pink and so sheer it left nothing to the imagination. Her nipples were taut, just begging for him to suck on them.

  That would have to wait. First, he wanted to see if she wore a matching pair of panties. Tor dropped his hands to the top of Kenna’s jeans and undid them. He yanked them down her legs to pool at her ankles. She stepped out and kicked them away with a flick of her foot. Yup, her panties matched the bra. His cock twitched at the sight of her pussy encased in the sheer, shimmering material.

  “You’re beautiful,” he said in a low, raspy voice. “I’m going to take my time stripping you out of that sexy bra and panties.”

  “You mean thong.”

  Kenna turned and Tor groaned. She was indeed wearing a thong instead of panties. She went to face him once more, but he stopped her by placing his hands on her hips. He nudged her hair away from the side of her neck and nuzzled her there with his lips as he ran a hand along the skimpy waistband of her thong. Tor followed it down the crack of her ass before he skimmed his fingers over the twin globes of flesh not covered by the sheer material.

  Tor caressed up her sides, reaching around Kenna’s front and cupped her breasts. He tugged the nipples as he ground his cock against
her ass. Kenna lifted her hands to cover his and rocked back into him. The smell of her arousal perfumed the air, making him want to taste the wetness that had to be soaking into her thong.

  He turned her in his arms. Tor yanked off his shirt, then pulled Kenna against him. He claimed her lips in a heated kiss, unhooking her bra at the same time. She sucked on his tongue, pushing the straps down her arms, and let it drop to the floor.

  Kenna’s taut nipples brushed against Tor’s chest. He released her mouth and licked and kissed his way down to the tight buds. He flicked one with the tip of his tongue, then swirled it around the nipple before he sucked it inside his mouth. Kenna’s nails dug into his biceps as she held on to him and let out a throaty moan. He shifted to the other one and suckled on it, her moans increasing in volume.

  Leaving her breasts, Tor continued his downward travel. He kissed along her ribs and stomach, ending up on his knees. He slipped a finger under the front of Kenna’s thong and dipped it between her legs. The digit came away wet. Meeting and holding her gaze with his own, he slowly brought his finger to his mouth and licked it clean. Kenna’s eyes dilated and her breathing grew more rapid.

  Tor’s arousal beat at him. He dragged his gaze from Kenna’s and hooked the waistband of her thong with his fingers and pulled it down her legs and off. He used a hand to push her thighs farther apart, then went in for the taste he craved.

  He licked her pussy, gathering all the wetness there before he swallowed it down. Wanting more, he stiffened his tongue and speared it into Kenna. The grip she had on his shoulders increased as her legs shook with slight tremors. She moaned long and loud.

  He pleasured her until he could no longer ignore his need to be inside her. Tor smoothly came to his feet and undid his jeans. He shucked them off, then wrapped his hand around his erection and pumped his fist up and down his full length. Kenna’s gaze followed his movements.