Chapter Five

“W ow, that was fun,” Hope laughed as she dabbed at a cut over her eye.

Rose felt bad, but Kraven’s sister continued to remind her it was okay and that she would heal in the next ten minutes. The one thing she could say about the female… she was a vicious fighter.

Rose immediately liked her.

“We should do this again tomorrow if you’re not busy,” Hope chuckled.

Rose laughed alongside the other female, and it felt good…really good.

During the past hour, she’d come to an understanding of how the pride worked. Hope had taken every blow, every painful fall, every debilitating punch Rose could throw and still bounced back on her feet. She respected the hell out of the panther female. Not many could take her trained form of punishment.

Kraven had left them alone shortly after they’d begun sparring. Rose didn’t know where he went but immediately felt his disappearance. It was like they were connected somehow even though they’d only met twenty-four hours ago.

“I see why my brother won’t leave your side,” Hope announced as she caught Rose looking out the large window of the training area.

“What?” Rose asked, confused.

“You’re his mate,” Hope stated, giving a wicked smile. “Don’t you scent yourself?”

“Scent? What are you talking about?” Rose was confused, but not totally. She’d noticed a change in her own scent since being rescued, and even remembered the alpha’s mate making a comment. “I don’t understand.”

“Oh my,” Hope sighed, plopping down on the bench by the window. “Did your old home not have shifters who were…connected? Romantically?”

An immediate blush burned Rose’s cheeks. She’d heard of the other shifters being caught fornicating when they were not training, but she was oblivious to the details of it. Was that what Hope was insinuating?

“Romantically?” Rose balked. “Like… sexual relations?”

“Oh, ewwww,” Hope shivered. “As much as I hope my brother finds his mate, I really don’t want to think about him having sex.” Hope shivered again, but started laughing at whatever thought crossed her mind.

“Umm, I’m not sure what you’re asking,” Rose replied. “I’ve never…um…done that before.”

“You truly were sheltered, weren’t you?” Hope asked, patting the seat next to her on the bench. She waited for Rose to take a seat before she continued. “Let’s have a discussion, female to female, before my brother returns.”

Rose was confused, but also wanted to know what Kraven’s sister was talking about. There was a scent, and she’d even memorized Kraven’s when they were close. It was exquisite. He smelled of the forest and pines, and…home…but not the home she knew. His scent was different from anything she’d ever known. However, a part of her wanted it to be her own.

“Well, let me start off by explaining the basics of our kind and how matings work,” Hope began. “When a male and female meet, their panthers, or beings in your case, immediately know that person is to be their mate. When you touch each other, skin to skin, either by accident or on purpose, magic happens.”

“Magic?” Rose asked, hanging on every word.

“Yeah,” Hope sighed. The female’s eyes sparkled in a way Rose had never seen before. “It’s beautiful and powerful.”

“How so?”

“Well, your body tightens, and I swear stars fill your vision. A sort of connection happens inside your body, and that’s not even the sexual part.”

“Sexual?” Rose’s eyes were the size of half dollars. She’d never heard this information before.

“Then, this is the part I don’t even want to think about with you and my brother,” Hope said as she shivered in disgust.

“Wait,” Rose barked, holding her hand up to stop the female. “Are you saying your brother and I are mates?”

“Oh, definitely,” she laughed. “When you meet your mate, not only does your beast yearn for each other, both of you will put off a scent. It’s not a normal scent, and it’s strong for both of you. I know you can smell it on yourself pretty strongly. To the shifters around you, it’s faint but easily recognized.”

“Does Kraven scent me ?” Rose was shocked. They’d never discussed any of those things at the hospital.

“Of course he does,” Hope said with a nod. “He scents it as strongly as you do. That’s how each of you know you will eventually be mates.”

“Oh, wow,” Rose sighed. “I’ve never known anything about this part of being a shifter.”

“So, back to the icky part.” Hope paused to make a gagging face. “When the two of you touch, skin to skin, and have sex, he will mark you with his teeth and you will mark him. That is the recipe for your forever. See, I have one.”

Hope pulled her ponytail off the side of her neck and Rose gasped softly. Right there, plain as day, was the perfect imprint of canines; obviously from her mate.

“Wow,” Rose breathed, leaning back against the wall. “I wouldn’t know how to even begin this mating thing.”

“It’s okay,” Hope said, bumping her knee against Rose’s. “You have time. Most males want to forge a relationship before touching the females.”

Something occurred to Rose. “But didn’t he carry me from the woods? Didn’t he touch me?”

“Yes, but not skin to skin,” Hope answered, pride putting a huge smile on her face. “My brother ran back to the cabin he was staying in and shifted to his human form. He stripped the bedsheets and hurried back into the woods to retrieve you. He wore a long-sleeved shirt and jeans. He was wearing gloves when he arrived here, too. He said he wrapped you in the blanket and carried you through the woods and across a river to get you to his truck.”

“Wow,” Rose replied. “I owe him more gratitude than I thought. I had no idea.”

“You were pretty messed up when you got here,” Hope reminded her. “It’s okay that you don’t remember. Oh, here he comes. We can talk about this later.”

“Okay.” Rose paused to look out the window to see Kraven approaching. When she looked back at his sister, she smiled. “Thank you. I appreciate you telling me these things.”

Hope raised her nose to the air just the slightest and whispered, “ Mating scent. ”

It went against everything in Kraven to leave the gym so Hope and Rose could spar, but Talon had requested a quick meeting. He also knew Hope would report back to him about Rose’s strength after they were done.

When he entered the training facility, he paused at the sight before him. It wasn’t the two of them deep in conversation…nor was it the hushed voices. No, it was the sight on his sister’s face. She was healing, but the gash over her eye was fairly deep. Bruising around her eye was almost gone, but he still noticed. It wasn’t like Hope to come away from a fight with that many marks on her face.

“I see you two had an eventful session,” Kraven grunted.

“Ah, flesh wound,” Hope chuckled, shrugging her shoulder with a wince.

“Why don’t you go over to the healer’s and have Landon stitch up that cut? Looks like it’ll take a few hours to heal.” When she rolled her eyes, Kraven busted out the older brother stare.

“Fine,” she huffed, turning to Rose. They hugged and made a date to spar again the next day if possible, and if not, they would set a time later in the week.

As soon as she left, Rose stood from the bench and took a deep breath. “Is there some food around here? I’m starving.”

“I have some leftovers at my cabin. We can go there,” he offered, not wanting to sound controlling or obsessed with her.

Rose’s scent was getting stronger, and everyone who had met her had to know she was Kraven’s mate. But, like most of the pride, no one teased or said anything out of turn. Some males were agitated when they were courting their potential mate, but Kraven wasn’t feeling that yet. He wondered if it was because of his advanced age.

Advanced like thirty-six years old. There were some mated couples who’d found their mate when they were barely mature, but not him. He’d had time to be alone, and since he finally found a female to call his own, he didn’t want to ruin something before it ever started.

Hope always told him he was a good male. He just hoped he could stay his laid-back self and not go ape-shit feral if something happened to Rose. From the look of his sister’s face, he had a feeling his female could hold her own in a fair fight.

“Everything okay?” she asked.

“We can talk over lunch,” he hedged, holding the door open for her to pass through. He had some questions for her about the days she was running or flying from the hospital where she was created, and it was probably for the best if they did it in private.

Once they arrived at his cabin, Rose excused herself to shower while he heated up leftover lamb and venison. He didn’t know if her diet consisted of mostly protein, or if she needed vegetables, so he pulled out some salad mix and dressing to offer her when she returned.

Her scent was even more amplified when she returned, and as he leaned against the counter to grab two glasses, his free hand tightened on the cabinet door. He released it before his strength crumbled the wood into shards.

“Water?” he asked, trying to keep his voice as even as usual, but failed.

“Sure, thank you,” she replied. Once he set the glass in front of her, he noticed she was waiting on him to sit down.

“Grab whatever you’d like,” he offered. “If there is something specific you need for your diet, let me know and I can get it for you later today.”

“I eat mostly proteins.” She reached for the platter of lamb and placed a few pieces onto her plate. She took more of the venison than the lamb and he made a mental note to stock more of the meat in his freezer. “I do crave sweets late at night, though.”

“Sweets, huh?”

She chuckled at her admission and looked at him with a twinkle in her eye. “I don’t know why, but I do.”

“What do you like to eat that is sweet?” He wanted to know everything about her. Even things as simple as a treat before bedtime.

“Cheesecake,” she hummed. “With raspberry sauce.”

“Raspberry cheesecake,” he chuckled under his breath. “I think Marie can make one for you. I can’t bake and have never learned.”

“Good to know,” she replied, taking her first bite of food once he made his plate. “I can’t bake anything, either.”

“I hate they never taught you the basic skills you need in life.” He tried to hold his anger. What else had they not taught her? Was her imprisonment worse than he speculated? Had they harmed her?

“I know that now,” she said with a shake of her head. Her hair didn’t move because it was still wet. It looked like she’d combed it before coming to the table, and he hoped she’d used his brush that was lying by the sink. “We had a cafeteria and the ladies took care of food. A janitor cleaned our rooms and other ladies washed our clothes, towels, and bedsheets. I trained a lot.”

“Okay,” he replied, knowing he shouldn’t rush into asking her a million questions even if he had two million on his mind. “There are a lot of things that are different here than where you were raised.”

“I’m noticing that,” she blushed. He scented her again and it drove him wild, but he was thankful for the table he was sitting at. It hid his erection well. “However, I’m not completely oblivious about some things. I just have no understanding of my…species. The things I’ve learned in twenty-four hours have me thinking my life has been a waste.”

“Your life is not a waste!” Kraven’s eyes flashed amber, and he realized his voice was deep. The growl was his panther rushing to the surface of his skin.

“You don’t know that,” she growled back, but she didn’t shy away from him. He could scent her anger, and he hated it. The mating scent he’d memorized was absent. “My life consisted of daily training for strength, planning, and history. We learned how to read and write. They taught us complex mathematics, too.”

“Why did you escape?” he asked, needing to know the honest answer.

“We were allowed to watch movies, read books, and learn human histories…like I said, but something never felt right to me. In the movies I was permitted to watch and the books I’d read from their approved lists, I started noticing differences in everyone around me. The tools they were teaching us were all human…and not shifter. It seemed odd.”

“That’s because shifters don’t write books about ourselves and there are no true movies made about us, either.” Kraven wanted to know more and relaxed back in his chair. He silently gave her his support, praying to the gods Rose would open up completely.

“So, there was another MOD there who thought the same things, and we began talking and comparing our worries. He was the first one to escape. It was six years ago, and he was my age. They sent out Trackers to find them, and when they returned, they put his body in the cafeteria for everyone to see what would happen to them out in the human world. I didn’t believe it for a second.”

“Why didn’t they take you back instead of leaving you for dead in the woods?” It was an honest question even if it was a little harsh.

“They stopped bringing the escapees back after MOD-061869,” she replied. “I don’t know the real reason. All they did was post their file photo on a huge video screen in all of the common areas with a bright red x over their faces.”

“It was a tactic to remind everyone what would happen if they left,” Kraven cursed. “Do you know what they were training you for?”

“The only thing I could come up with was for a war, but I’m thirty years old and there has never been a war. We never fought anyone but other MODs.”

“War?” he balked. “Seriously? I don’t understand. The country has had its fair share of wars over the last thirty years, but none on our lands except for a few isolated terror attacks.”

“I don’t know much more than my own speculations. They were very careful about what they said in front of us and what they taught us. To the MODs, it was scary enough when the first escapee was laid out where we ate morning, noon, and night.”

“How many MODs have tried to escape over the years?” Kraven was trying to retain all the information she was giving him so he could talk to Talon. His alpha needed to know everything about Rose’s upbringing.

“Seven. Including me,” she stated, holding a straight face. Whatever they did to train her took out almost all of her emotions.

“Fuck,” he snarled. “How many MODs were there when you left?”

“Um,” she paused to think, tapping her bottom lip with her unpolished and cracked fingertip, “there were seven in my decade group.”

Seven! Son of a bitch.

“Wait?” he balked, realizing what she’d said. “Explain to me what you mean by ‘decade group’?”

“We were housed in separate levels of the hospital based on our ages. One to ten, eleven to twenty, twenty to thirty. However, I never knew anyone older than me, but I speculated there might be more on the floors above me. There were five floors to the hospital.”

He was shocked. There were so many factors at play here. Those shifters were made in the hospital and raised to become fighting machines. He thought it, but he wouldn’t ask what happened to the ones who failed at training.

“And you were never told what city you were in or what state?” he asked, knowing it was time to call out to Talon, letting his leader know they should meet as soon as possible, but he didn’t. Rose opening up to him was more important.

“No, Kraven,” she replied. “We were trained like the robots I’d seen in an old science fiction movie once. We weren’t allowed to ask questions, and if we did, the answers were often painful.”