Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
“It’s a very good thing he was there at the right time to protect you,” Aunt Luna remarked. “Have some more pancakes, my dear—you always loved my blueberry pancakes before,” she added, pushing the plate that was stacked high with the delicious brown pancakes towards Hanna.
“Oh, no—I shouldn’t.” Hanna shook her head—she was always shy about eating in front of men, due to her weight. Especially men she liked, and she was beginning to like Wraith very much.
“Why shouldn’t you?” Wraith asked, frowning a little. “You must be hungry. I remember feeling ravenous when I woke up most mornings, back when I was alive.”
“Yes, but pancakes are so fattening,” Hanna protested. “I really shouldn’t.”
“Yes, you should.” He looked at her seriously. “You need to eat to feed your curves. It would be a pity if you lost them. Don’t you want to remain an Elite?”
“What is he saying?” Aunt Luna asked eagerly.
“Oh, he said I should, uh, ‘eat to feed my curves’ so I can ‘remain an Elite,’” Hanna said, looking at her aunt. “What’s an Elite?”
“An Elite is an extra curvy woman—like all the women in our family,” Aunt Luna put a hand on one full hip. “The Kindred love Elites.”
“Your aunt is right,” Wraith confirmed, his mismatched eyes going half-lidded as he looked at Hanna. “A female with a full figure is beautiful and extremely desirable.”
“Oh!” Hanna could feel her cheeks getting hot with a blush but somehow she couldn’t look away from the big Kindred.
“Here—have some more.” This time Aunt Luna didn’t wait for an answer, she just added two more pancakes to Hanna’s plate.
Hanna took a few more bites, but she found she couldn’t eat much—the butterflies in her stomach wouldn’t allow it.
This was ridiculous, she told herself. She hadn’t felt this way since college…and then the guy she’d had feelings for had turned out to be a self-absorbed, narcissistic jerk who only wanted to sleep with her because, as he put it—he wanted to “dip his dick in crazy” because he’d heard that “crazy chicks were wild in bed.”
Hanna had disappointed him—she’d never been very good at letting go in bed unless she felt really safe and cared for and he hadn’t given her that feeling at all. He had called her a number of names—“fat bitch,” “cold fish,” “crazy cunt”—before storming off and telling all their mutual acquaintances that she was bad in bed.
It had taken Hanna a long time to recover from that kind of betrayal and she still hadn’t fully recovered her self-esteem, even though it had been years ago. It was after that encounter that she had sworn off dating for good.
But Wraith seemed the opposite of self-absorbed and narcissistic—on the contrary, he was completely focused on her, which only made the butterflies in her stomach more active and fluttery.
It still seemed hard to believe that he was into curvy girls—a man who looked like him down on Earth would have had a string-bean influencer hanging off his arm. But the way he was looking at her made Hanna a believer. Their eyes kept meeting and his gaze was so direct—so intense. It made her heart pound and she had to squeeze her thighs together tightly to control the tingling she was feeling in her clit.
“You never told me how you ended up here—stuck on the Mother Ship,” she said, looking away from his gorgeous, mismatched eyes shyly.
“Oh, you mean I never told you the story of my death.” He nodded. “It’s a simple one, actually—simple and stupid.”
“Stupid? What do you mean?” Hanna asked, frowning. “How could your death be ‘stupid?’”
“Because I brought it on myself.” Wraith sighed heavily. “I am, as I told you, a Hybrid—both my mother and my father were Kindred, but from different branches of the Kindred family tree. As it turns out, Hybrids have a lot of trouble Bonding a female to them—the same way many Hybrid animals are sterile.”
“Really? I didn’t know that,” Hanna remarked.
He nodded.
“It’s true, unfortunately. Anyway, I had a female I loved very much and she loved me—Mara was her name.” He sighed. “Though I tried to Bond her to me, I was never able to. And a Failed Bonding is painful.”
“Go on.” Hanna was fascinated. She was learning so much and he hadn’t even gotten to the main story yet. “So what happened?”
“I heard that there was a certain wise woman on G’rala Three that could help Hybrids to Bond with their chosen female,” Wraith explained. “So I went to see her.” He shook his head. “I should have known there was something wrong the moment I stepped into her hut.”
“Why? How could you have known?” Hanna asked.
“I sensed the presence of evil—I was always sensitive to the supernatural when I was alive. I didn’t have a Gift like yours, but I could feel the presence of the other world that surrounds the world of the living,” Wraith explained. “And I sensed it strongly in the wise woman’s hut. But I wanted so badly to Bond with Mara, I ignored my instincts.”