The Bite Before Christmas by Lynsay Sands, Jeaniene Frost Page B

well.
    â€œI was trying to save you,” he muttered, swallowing when he saw that his skin was torn just as the material had been. It looked damned deep, too. Four gouges running diagonally from chest to hip like long ditches in his body.
    â€œI’m immortal. You should have let me handle him,” Katricia snapped, suddenly straightening to move to the sink.
    â€œFine. Next time a bear’s around and you come out bellowing like a female moose drawing its attention, I’ll let the damned thing eat you,” Teddy growled irritably as she returned with a dish towel. When she began to mop at his chest, he winced against the pain and ground out, “Are you sure you want to do that? You’re wasting good blood. Maybe you should just lap it up while it’s on offer.”
    When Katricia raised her head and glared at him, Teddy grimaced and then gave a slight shrug, which made him wince again as he said, “It’s perfectly good blood and your delivery hasn’t arrived yet. Besides, it runs all the way down my legs. Could be fun to have you lick it up. It would certainly distract me from the pain.”
    When her eyes widened incredulously, he closed his eyes and leaned his head back, muttering, “Ignore me. I think I’m delirious. Must be the aftereffects of that damned dream I had.”
    â€œ We had,” Katricia corrected solemnly and continued to mop at his chest.
    Teddy struggled his eyes open and forced his head back up to stare at the top of her head again. “We?”
    â€œIt was a shared dream,” she said without looking up, her concentration on trying to clean up enough blood to see the wound better, but the blood was still oozing out.
    â€œA shared dream?” he echoed, a slow smile replacing the pain on his expression. “So we are life mates?”
    Katricia merely nodded, her concentration on his wound, and Teddy grinned like an idiot for a moment, but then frowned and sighed.
    â€œWell, doesn’t that just figure? Turn out to be a life mate and die before I get to enjoy it,” he muttered with disgust and then drew in a hissing breath when she gave up trying to clean away the blood and pressed the cloth firmly to his chest and stomach to try to stop the bleeding.
    â€œYou’re not going to die,” she said grimly, pressing harder on the wound. “I’ll turn you. It will be fine.”
    â€œYou need blood for a turn and there isn’t any here. You can’t turn me,” Teddy said gently, and then forcing his head up and eyes open again, he took in the fear on her face and forced a smile. “Don’t worry, I’m too ornery and stubborn to die.”
    Katricia didn’t appear much reassured. Teddy supposed it was because his voice seemed to grow weaker with each word and they both knew they were empty anyway. He was pretty sure he was going to die. In fact, he was growing cold, which could be shock, but he suspected was loss of blood. He was bleeding out, Teddy thought, letting his eyes drift closed again.
    â€œMaybe you should put another log on the fire. It’s getting cold in here,” he muttered wearily just before darkness claimed him.

Six
    T eddy woke up warm in a bed with just a sheet covering him to the waist and a mess of blankets gathered below his feet where he’d kicked them off. This was how he was used to waking up. However, he didn’t recognize the room he was in. The light was on, revealing soothing pale blue walls similar to his bedroom at home, but the furnishings were all wrong. The two dressers and bedside tables were all a light wood, the windows were covered by ice-blue blinds instead of his own, darker blue drapes, and the bed he was in was king-size and damned comfortable.
    He also wasn’t alone in the bed, Teddy noted, peering at the woman lying beside him in bed. Katricia in the overlarge T-shirt she’d been wearing in their shared dream. Even as he peered at