17. OBSIDIAN: ME

“Who was that man?”
I paused and glanced over my shoulder at Vanya. She sat on the bottom step, knees pulled to her chest with her arms wrapped around her legs and her chin resting on her knee as she watched me.
“Is he your friend?” she asked.
“No,” I growled as I turned back to my task.
“Oh.”
I sighed as Ezra’s words flashed through my mind. “I don’t have friends, I only have family.”
“You have brothers and sisters?”
“No.” Picking up the dustpan, I walked over to the pile of dirt. “Only the new generations have siblings, except for the brothers. They are the only ones from the older generations who are related by blood.”
“You guys are from the older generation, right?”
“Yes.”
I walked over to her and took a seat on the floor and leaned back against the wall.
“Who’s the oldest between the three of you?”
I smiled. “Who do you think?”
Her eyes darted over my face. As she thought about her answer, I took the opportunity to study her.
Vanya looked like shit. Her hair was sticking to her skin that was covered in a thin layer of sweat. She was pale and trembling even though she was trying her best to hide it. Guilt flooded me. I knew that she felt like shit because of the side effects of the sedative I gave her combined with the impending heat.
“You’re the oldest,” she said.
“What makes you think that?” I asked curiously.
She shrugged. “I guess it’s the way you handle things and probably your dominance.”
“Devrim is the oldest,” I told her. “Ezra and I are only a few years apart but Ezra is the youngest.” I chuckled. “Technically you are the youngest.”
“How old are you?”
My eyes darted over to the door. “A lot older than you, sweets.”
“Is it a secret?” Vanya asked me.
“No, but it’s better for you not to know.”
I looked at her when she fell silent. Her eyes were closed but as if sensing my gaze, they fluttered open and locked with mine.
“I drugged you,” I blurted. “I drugged you before we left Reeves’s house because I knew that you wouldn’t have let Ezra stay behind.”
Her eyes widened. “You drugged me,” she breathed in disbelief. “You fucking drugged me!” Vanya sat up and glared at me. “I could be pregnant, Obsidian, and you—”
“You’re not pregnant, Vanya,” I interrupted her.
“How the hell do you know that?” she yelled. “You’re not a doctor. We’ve been having unprotected sex for months.”
I grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her onto my lap. Vanya instantly tried to get up, but after a few seconds of struggling, she slumped against my chest.
“We have an amazing sense of smell, sweets. If you were pregnant we would have smelled it,” I whispered against her ear. “Human mates can’t get pregnant unless they’re ovulating or. . .” I trailed off, uncertain if I should tell her or not.
“Or?”
I sighed. “Or when the mating fever hits.”
Tilting her head back, Vanya frowned at me. Unable to resist the urge, I leaned down and kissed her. She whimpered as she straddled my legs. Before things could get out of hand, I broke the kiss.
“I want to strengthen our bond and once I do that, my body will release pheromones that will trigger something in your body. It’s when the mating fever starts,” I breathed against her lips. “It’s going to get much worse than what you’re feeling right now.”
“H-how much worse?” she questioned.
I swallowed. “It’s going to feel like you have a fever and your body is only going to crave sex. Another male’s touch will cause you pain. The only way for the need to fade is for your mate to keep knotting you until it passes.”
“Hours of fucking and knotting,” she whispered.
I nodded. “And biting.”
“Devrim had explained what strengthening the bond meant and the mating fever sounds like that.”
“It does.” I frowned.
Vanya was right. They both included hours of fucking and the need for sex that never faded. Had the information I found been incorrect? Or was Vanya’s body just reacting differently because of the drug I gave her?
“Obsidian, why won’t you knot me?”
“I told you—”
“No,” she interrupted me. “Devrim and Ezra knotted me when we have sex, but you always pull away. Why?”
“I’ve never knotted anyone before, Vanya,” I told her.
Her mouth dropped open and then slammed shut. “N-not even Lindsey?”
“Not even her. Or any women I’ve ever fucked.” I cupped her cheek. “The need has never been as strong as it is with you. I’m scared that if. . .I’m scared that I’ll hurt you.”
“I want your knot,” she breathed, grinding her hips against my cock. “I want you locked to me. You’re going to knot me, right?”
Fuck. A purr fell from my lips as she continued to rub her pussy over my cock. Her scent filled the air, making it harder for me to keep my head clear. Gripping her hips, I stilled her movements.
“Yes, sweetness, I’m going to knot you. I’m going to fuck you until you beg me to stop and then I’m going to knot you and spill my seed deep inside your pussy.” I growled and squeezed her hips. “If you keep looking at me like that we’re not going to get anything done.”
“I want you to fuck me now.”
“No,” I growled. “You need to eat first.”
Vanya stared at me for a few minutes, sighed, and then leaned forward to rest her forehead against my shoulder. I tensed when she slipped her arms under mine and wrapped them around my waist.
“How long is this mating fever going to last?”
“I’m not sure,” I muttered.
Turning her head, Vanya pressed her lips to my neck. My eyes fluttered closed but snapped open again when her lips parted and her tongue flicked out to taste my skin.
“Will you still let me touch you?”
“Will you still let me use my knives on you?” I questioned.
Vanya sat up and silently studied me. I held my breath when she reached up with a shaky hand. For a moment her hand hovered a few inches from my face but when I made no move to stop her, she brushed her fingertips across my cheekbone to my nose and then up to my forehead.
“Why did Devrim buy condoms?” Vanya asked instead of answering my question.
“So he can use them when you have sex,” I told her.
“You’re not going to use them?”
Vanya’s fingers slipped along my jaw again and to my lips. Parting my lips, I nipped the pad of her thumb. Her lips parted as she sucked in a breath. Flicking my tongue over her finger, I pulled away.
“No, I’m not going to use them,” I answered. “I can’t get you pregnant, sweets.”
Her eyes snapped up to mine. “Why?”
“I was sterilized.”
Vanya’s face dropped. “Can’t it be reversed?”
“No.”
“Fucking bastards,” she hissed.
Chuckling, I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her to my chest again.
“You never told me about Red.”
I could think of a hundred other things I would rather talk about. Sighing, I pressed a kiss to her shoulder and then dropped my head back against the wall to stare at the door again. Devrim had left to collect some woods for a fire but he hadn’t gone that far since I could hear him moving around.
“Red was in the facility with us. He was transported from somewhere else.”
“Is he like you?”
“He’s DNA was spliced with a mountain lion,” I muttered. “Very rare from what we heard.”
“He talked like you were good friends,” she pointed out. “You said that you don’t have friends.”
“I have family. You, Dev, and Ezra are my family.”
She made a sound and pressed her face to my neck again. When Vanya remained silent, I continued.
“We shared a mutual hate for humans. However, where I learned to differentiate between bad humans and the good ones, Red still believes that all of them are bad.”
“Bad,” she croaked. “Like the monsters you mentioned.”
I nodded.
“Like Mike.”
A shudder raced through her body. I held her tighter and lowered my head to press my cheek to hers.
I hummed as I sat up. Like the bastard who almost ruined everything. If I had more control, I would have only injured him and then locked him up someplace where I could torture him over and over again.
“Let’s get you something to eat. I can hear your stomach growling.”
Vanya groaned. “I don’t want to move. I’m too comfortable.”
“You might be comfortable, but I’m not,” I grumbled, shifting slightly. “I think I have a splinter in my ass.”
Her laugh echoed around the house. It was the best fucking sound I had heard in weeks. I got to my knees and hooked an arm under her ass before I climbed to my feet.
Vanya gasped and slipped her arms around my neck.
“Do we have electricity?”
“I’m afraid not,” I told her. “The appliances are like the ones at our cabin. They work with gas.”
I lowered Vanya to the table and stepped away from her to walk over to the bags we had carried inside earlier. We would have to eat from the cans. Tomorrow we could go hunting for some meat.
“I’ve been here before,” Vanya said, making my eyes dart up to hers. “I’ve been here with Mom and Darial.”
“Dev told me.”
“You’ve been here before too otherwise you wouldn’t have known about this place.”
Placing the cans down on the table, I walked over to her. I gently gripped her thighs and squeezed them.
“Yes, we’ve been here a few times to help Darial build the house.” My eyes dropped to my hands. “He was building this place for you and your mother but he never said why. We all just assumed that it was to show gratitude for her rescuing us.”
“Obsidian—”
“Let’s not talk about this now,” I interrupted, stepping away from her. “We have time but the most important thing we need to do now is to get through the mating fever."