She closed her eyes against the ominous burning behind her eyes. She didn’t want to cry. Tears were useless, and she was so exhausted she nearly forgot what she wanted to sob her heart out over.
“I don’t really understand why it would bother you that Luiz talks to me. He is my cousin. Believe me, I know when a man is interested, and he most certainly is not.”
“That doesn’t matter. I need your help to deal with this while I’m learning to handle the emotions.”
As if he knew her head felt like it was stuck in a vise, he began a slow massage of her scalp. She had to admit that felt nice.
“I’m not telepathic.” It didn’t matter that Luiz had said she was. She had never spoken mind to mind to anyone before her cousin. She tipped her head to look at Tomas. “I would help you if I could, but Luiz bridges the gap between us. I wouldn’t have the first clue how to invite you in.”
“It is easy enough to establish a connection between us.”
She nearly came off the hammock, but one arm locked around her waist as if he knew she would attempt to bolt.
“Absolutely not if your solution is the same as Luiz’s. I’m not okay with any of this. It’s crazy. The entire lifemate thing. It isn’t just crazy, it’s scary and wrong. I don’t like anyone taking away my rights as a human being. Or as a woman. You don’t get to make my decisions or tell me what to do.”
He waited, unmoving, not responding until she lay back against him and relaxed. His fingers settled on her scalp, and he began that slow massage that was taking away the headache from hell.
“I would like to promise you that I would not make decisions for you, or that I wouldn’t tell you what to do. For instance, I told you I wouldn’t enter your mind, but your head is hurting. I can easily take that away. Ineedto take the pain away. You’re my lifemate, and that means I see to your care. I’ve held off in order to get your consent, but I know, if you do not give it to me, I will still remove the headache.”
As confessions went, it was straightforward. He was being honest with her. She didn’t like what he said, and yet she did. She didn’t know if she was confused and conflicted because she was too tired and couldn’t think logically or because her head pounded and she feared she might start throwing up. Maybe that would send Tomas packing. A vomiting lifemate. Lovely.
“Woman, you’re too much sometimes.” There was definite amusement in his voice. “I don’t have to read your mind to know your thoughts. When you’re tired, you broadcast fairly loudly, at least to me. I would like your permission to take away the pain in your head.”
What was the use of saying no when he’d already informed her he would simply do it anyway? And it would be wonderful if the migraine was gone. Sometimes they lasted for days.
“Have at it. Both of your brothers called mesisarke. What does it mean?”
“It is a term of endearment meant only for family. It meanslittle sister. The three of us always wanted to have that. You are already intheir hearts and minds. They consider you family and hope that one day you will feel the same about them.”
That felt nice, to be thought of as family by his brothers. She knew she couldn’t get complacent, but she was exhausted, and she was willing to take anything good at this point.
She felt warmth moving through her head. Weirdly, it felt good. And just like that, the pain vanished. It was completely gone.
Sarika closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “You do have your uses.” She’d give him that. No meds, the migraine was gone, and the relief was tremendous.
His hand went to the nape of her neck, and he began a slow massage of her shoulders and neck, helping to ease the tension from her. Her exhaustion settled around her like a heavy blanket. She felt the weight of it, the physical and emotional toll on her. As a child, she had never been in the best of health. Her adoptive parents had worried far too much about her, but she refused to allow anything to slow her down. She went after the education she wanted and went from country to country interning in as many places as possible in order to learn as much as she could to become better at taking care of the animals and their habitats.
“I’m going to have to fight with you later, Tomas. Right now, I just want to sleep,” she confessed.
“Good plan,sivamet.”
She hadn’t asked what that meant for a reason. Whenever he called her that, his voice softened. The velvet deepened, stroked over her, got inside where she didn’t want it. She didn’t want T. Smolnycki Jr. inside her anywhere. Not her head, not her body. Still, she turned into his warmth, wrapped one arm around his rock-hard abs and drifted off.
Chapter
9
“Is she okay?” Luiz asked the moment Tomas emerged from the bedroom.
Tomas nodded. “She’s finally asleep.”
He glanced at his brothers. Sarika believed they couldn’t read her thoughts unless they took her blood or were standing very close to her. In truth, for him, it was easy to read her. When he did, his brothers were just as aware. They’d been sharing information automatically for centuries, and it wasn’t going to stop anytime soon.
Sharing his new emotions, they had almost been as upset as he had been. As he still was. His lifemate knew zero about Carpathians, and the one man, her cousin, who was both jaguar and fully Carpathian should have filled her in.
“You had to have known there was a possibility of her being a lifemate to one of us,” he said, pinning Luiz with his flat, cold stare. A demon lurked in him. A dangerous monster, one that lived for battle and blood. He knew Luiz was a De La Cruz. In their world, that name was nearly as powerful as Dubrinsky and as powerful as Daratrazanoff or Dragonseeker.
That Luiz didn’t do right by Sarika infuriated him. He tamped that down. Emotions had to be swept aside, put away, if he was goingto handle this the way a lifemate should. Calm. In control. Making a statement that couldn’t be mistaken.
