“Killing him would have released us from the claim bite, right?” She rather deliberately selected a pot sticker from the platter. “But we’d still transform?”
“Yes. Regardless of what we do, the virus will ensure that,” Cara offered as she pursued another sliver in Kade. “So now we have to find another way of blocking your connection to him.”
“Can’t we take her through one of those gate things?” Zach asked. “You said they connected to other worlds.”
“Other realms,” Cara corrected. “It won’t work. My protections are much stronger than anything the gateways can provide. They won’t block his connection, the pull of the virus is too strong, although they would blur it. Being in another realm might slow him down. But Jessie’s attraction will only grow until the virus forces her to seek him out.”
A muscle jumped in Zach’s jaw, and his mouth twisted.
Neil stared at Kade. “The only way I know of to block the connection is if someone else mated her.”
“Mated?” Zach’s voice broke.
“What?” Jessie looked from Neil to Cara. She was at a loss. “You talked about using another’s virus to neutralize Braden’s in me. But he’s already bitten us. Are you talking about more than a bite?”
“Braden wants to mate bond you. It is initiated by a bite, but it isn’t set in stone until he also mates with you.” Cara waved her forceps. “Has to be done on the full moon. In this case, he will try to do it on your first moon, while the virus is reproductively active. Which is actually a thirty-hour period from roughly midnight the previous night to dawn the morning after.”
“If he mates with you, you will be bonded to him forever,” Neil said. “If you survive the shift.”
Jessie stiffened. “Those are two major ifs.” Every time she thought she knew it all, the rules changed.
Zach glared at Neil. “This is insane. Can’t we stop it?”
“The only other way is for the women to mate with someone else,” Neil insisted.
Jessie was confused. “But Braden bit us—”
“The other Were would have to both bite you, and mate with you, on your first full moon.” Kitani’s tone was so conversational it was as if she discussed planting begonias.
Jessie’s mind raced. “What if we avoid Braden past the full moon?” she asked, with a faint stirring of hope.
“You would still feel the effects of the claim bite,” Cara said. “And he would just keep trying to mate with you every full moon.”
A lifetime of avoiding Braden didn’t seem like fun. Or even possible.
Especially when Kitani pointed out, “And your attraction to him would drive you crazy. It would just keep getting stronger.”
Ugh. Jessie’s stomach clenched. Not good. But mated? The very word implied a permanence she wasn’t ready for. Even if she got to choose the mate. Her eyes slid to Kade. He was sexy as hell. She was attracted to him. But forever was a long time.
And there was Zach...
“Avoiding him is not an option,” Cara stated. “That mating bite will connect him to you even through gateways. My protections are the only thing that can stop him. But I have an idea that might block Braden’s claim on them.” She looked at Kade.
“Am I going to like it?” Kade asked.
“Unlikely,” Kitani commented. When he shot her a look, she shrugged. “You never do.”
“I want to try injecting her with Sabre blood,” Cara said. “The reference in the old literature claims it will work.”
“Won’t that just bond her to the Sabre?” Kitani asked.
“Not in small doses. That is the theory, anyway.”
Jessie frowned. “But, doesn’t it have to be a full moon for the virus to be active?”
“I have vials of Sabre blood, collected during the full moon. Frozen.”
Jessie absorbed that with wide eyes.
