Sought...Book 3 in the Brides of the Kindred series Read Free Page A

male
seeker/finders to use a female as our focus,” Deep said. “What
happened in the other case?”
    “The girl died,” Mother L’rin said grimly.
“I wasn’t able to save her.”
    Lock sucked in a breath and Deep went pale
again. “Mother L’rin, please…”
    “Her spirit is fractured,” she continued.
“Which is why she is hovering between this life and the next. You
must complete the bond in order to have any hope of healing
her.”
    “How can we bond with an unconscious
female?” Deep demanded. “That’s called rape and Lock and I don’t
practice it.”
    “I didn’t say you should complete the physical bond.” The old woman’s eyes flashed again. “I know
this is difficult to understand, warrior, as the soul bond and
physical bond are usually formed at the same time during bonding
sex. But it is possible to have one without the other—for a
time, anyway.”
    “What can we do?” Lock said eagerly. “Tell
us, Mother, please.”
    “Her spirit must be tethered to her body.
But it must want to stay—you have to tempt it with pleasure,
lure it back and heal it with your touch.”
    “Not my touch.” Deep shook his head.
“She’s reacted badly to my hands on her since her collapse.”
    “That’s true,” Lock said reluctantly,
thinking of the way Kat’s pulse had spiked after her collapse on
the Kindred Mothership. “Her heartbeat increased abnormally and she
moaned out loud—something about ‘too much’ when Deep put his hands
on her.”
    Mother L’rin frowned. “And were you touching
her at the same time?”
    Lock nodded. “I was. It was my touch that
stabilized her the first time. But then, on our way here, it
stopped working.”
    “Because she needs you both. Do not dispute
me, warrior,” she said when Deep opened his mouth to protest. “I
know what I’m talking about. If you want to have any hope of
healing this poor girl you and your brother so callously injured,
you’ll listen and do exactly as I say.”
    “All right.” Deep crossed his arms over his
broad chest. “What can we do?”
    “As I said, you must bind her spirit back to
her body. It has to want to stay on this plane and be bonded
to the two of you.”
    Lock cleared his throat. “In that case…”
    “In that case there’s no hope,” Deep
finished for him. “Kat wants nothing to do with either of us. A
fact I’ve been trying to make clear to you for over a month now,
Brother,” he said to Lock.
    Mother L’rin’s pinkish eyebrows shot up.
“The three of you had an unwilling joining?”
    “Kat only participated in the joining so
that we could locate her friend—another Earth girl who was being
held captive by the Scourge,” Deep said. “She never would have
joined with us if need hadn’t forced her hand.”
    “But you said the two joinings you did with
her were successful?”
    “They exceeded anything we’d ever done with
F’lir,” Lock admitted. “Deep is right about one thing—the lady Kat
is a natural focus. Her ability is unlike anything I’ve ever
seen.”
    “It’s not just her ability—she has an
affinity for the two of you, whether she admits it to herself or
not.” Mother L’rin looked thoughtful. “An affinity I’m sure you
felt the first moment you laid eyes on her.”
    Lock nodded. “That’s exactly how I
felt.”
    Deep said nothing.
    “So if there is some affinity—some spark
between the three of you—there is still hope. You have to bring
that spark to the surface. Tempt her spirit back with it and then
bind her to you with pleasure.”
    “If you’re talking about sexual pleasure
then we’re back to where we started,” Deep said icily. “Lock and I
won’t take advantage of an unconscious female.”
    “Of course she’s unconscious,” Mother L’rin
snapped. “She’s is so much pain she can’t bear it. One of you must
take the pain for her. Only when her agony is gone will she be able
to receive your touch. Only then can you heal her spirit.”
    “I’ll do