Page 23 of Jordan

Chapter Eight

Jordan grabbed Nina, catching her before her head would have hit the ground, missing the bed entirely. He eased her away from his chest and then laid her softly to the bed. Quickly, he righted himself and went for his pants. They were still wet, but he didn’t care. He dressed quickly.

He went to the bed and used the sheet to wrap Nina in. He lifted her carefully, hating what he’d done to her. Their first time together should have been beautiful. Special. Not this. Not brutal and one-sided. He’d taken from her and given nothing in return. She deserved more. She deserved better.

He moved with speed and was greeted by Manna. She took one look at Nina and eyed him wearily. He didn’t respond. He didn’t have to. Following her into her another hut, he kept hold of Nina, wanting to keep her with him for all time but knowing he had to put distance between them. Already he’d hurt the one person in his life he never should—his mate.

I hurt my wife.

The thought bit at his sanity as he laid his wife on a bed. He touched her forehead. “I forced myself on her, and I also forced a claim on her.”

Manna sighed and pushed him out of the way to get to Nina. She shook her head. “She is your true mate, Jordan. Her body would not have accepted your claim if she were not. And she is a strong female. One who would accept no other claim than one of aggression and pleasure. Do not think you didn’t offer both. Her body craved it and you gave it what it needed. I sense no forcing of anything. I sense she was willing and wanting of what you were offering her.”

Puzzled, his brows met. “Accepted my claim? She didn’t. She didn’t bite me back. She didn’t tell me I was hers. It was purely one-sided and I hate myself for that. I should have—”

Manna cut him off, motioning to Nina’s lower stomach. Jordan watched in awe as the symbols on her body morphed into something else. They changed before his very eyes, and he shook his head, unable to make sense of it. They then began to fade. As did all the markings on her body.

“W-what the hell did I do to her?” he demanded, terrified he’d done even more harm than he’d already suspected.

Manna offered a reassuring smile. “You claimed her as your mate and her body accepted the claim. See.” She ran her fingers over the faint markings on Nina’s stomach. “This means she is bound to a powerful alpha male. And this,” she traced another within the same set of markings, “means there can be no question of compatibility.”

“What do you mean?” He stepped closer.

Manna grinned. “Her body accepts your seed, Jordan. A child now quickens in her womb.”

One minute he was upright, the next he was blinking, staring up at Manna as she leaned over him, still smiling wide.

Groggy, he touched his head. “W-what happened?”

“You fainted,” she said matter-of-factly.

He balked at the idea—and then remembered what she’d told him right before he went down. “Nina’s pregnant? I got her… We… She’s carrying my child?”

Manna laughed softly. “I’m glad you’re still lying flat. The look upon your face tells me you would have gone down hard again at this news.”

He shook his head. “She can’t be, Manna. She didn’t accept my claim. She didn’t bite me back or declare me to be hers. The bond doesn’t go both ways.”

“That may be how things work among straight shifters, but Nina is not a full shifter. She shares the blood of the magiks of our world. Regardless how fierce a warrior she may be, Jordan, rest assured, you are dominant to her. Her body understands this. It also understands who you are to it—her true mate. When you executed your rights as her true mate and laid claim to her, there was never any doubt. Her body had no choice but to accept you. And the proof of that now grows within her.”

He went to his elbows. “I only wanted to ease her pain. I didn’t mean to force her. To make her accept me.”

Manna helped him to his feet. “You did ease her pain, Jordan. I sense no more from her. Though you were rough in your taking of her, it was what her body required. You sensed as much, knowing it was needed to ease her suffering. You think you hurt her but in actuality, you ended the torture she’d been enduring. You eased her pain.”

He bent his head. “I’m not her mate.”

“How can you even argue that point?”

“You gave her some of that drink,” he said. “It fooled her body into accepting me and my seed.”

Manna’s laugh shocked him. He faced her and found her grinning again. “Jordan, I lied. There is no such drink. It was merely sweetened juice from the ponutaious fruit. It does nothing other than act as a natural sugar extract.”

He understood then. “You knew I’d react badly to the idea of another man being able to give her what I wanted to.”

A nod was Manna’s only response.

Exhaling slowly, Jordan stared down at Nina. “None of this takes away from how I claimed her. She’ll never forgive me.”

“Or is it that you’ll never forgive yourself?”

Manna’s words hit him hard. She was right. He needed to think. To clear his head.

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