Forbidden Hunger (Forbidden #8): Siya & Ram Read online

  Forbidden Hunger

  Forbidden #8

  R.L. Kenderson

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Epilogue

  A Note from R.L. Kenderson

  Forbidden Blood Sample

  Also by R.L. Kenderson

  About the Author

  Forbidden Hunger

  Copyright © 2021 by R.L. Kenderson

  All Rights Reserved

  ISBN: 978-1-950918-35-5

  Editor: Jovana Shirley, Unforeseen Editing, www.unforeseenediting.com

  Cover Art: R.L. Kenderson, www.rlkenderson.com

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the authors, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Forbidden Hunger

  Can a human ever be enough for a vampire?

  Siya Patel had a run-in with the shifters and vampires several months ago when her best friend was in trouble. Everything turned out okay, except her heart. Because it hadn’t been ready for Ram Warin, the vampire who lived with the cat-shifters. And she hadn’t been prepared for him to hit on her, only to reject her later.

  But she’s moved on and almost forgotten about him until a scared teenage shifter shows up in a human hospital, where Siya is a nurse.

  Now, she’s being thrown back into the world with shifters and vampires…and Ram. And this time, he doesn’t want to keep his distance.

  One

  “Siya, I need your help in room eight.”

  Siya Patel looked up from the computer at the nurses’ station in the emergency department to see Dr. Murphey standing in front of the counter. Friday nights in the ER were always busy.

  Room eight’s nurse was Scott, which meant that the doctor most likely needed a female chaperone for a pelvic exam.

  “On my way,” she said and followed Dr. Murphey to the room, but before they were halfway there, the doctor pulled her aside.

  “I need to do an exam on a young girl who is injured and bleeding vaginally. The mother claims that the girl is seventeen, but I have my doubts. I also asked if they needed me to call the police to file a report, and the mother said absolutely not.”

  “What about the girl?”

  “She didn’t say a word. I’m hoping to pull the mother aside after the exam and speak to her privately. When we step out of the room, I’m thinking you might be able to get some information out of the girl.”

  “I’ll do my best,” Siya said, feeling heartbroken for a teenager she hadn’t even met yet.

  This was why she didn’t like working in the ER. Too many sad things came in. She much preferred the cardiovascular floor. Not that there weren’t sad patients there, too, but it wasn’t the same as seeing someone bleeding everywhere from a car accident or a guy who had gotten his face punched in during a fight. Or in this case, a possible rape victim with a mother who didn’t want her daughter to report it. Siya had seen it before. It had ended up being the stepfather, and that was why the mother hadn’t wanted to press charges. It made Siya sick to think about.

  A young girl who didn’t look any older than fifteen lay on the bed with a woman standing next to her. The girl looked frightened and unsure, but the woman looked angry and irritated, and right away, Siya knew things were worse off than what the doctor suspected.

  “Hannah,” the doctor said to the patient, “this is Nurse Siya. She’s going to stay in here and help me while I do your exam, okay?”

  Hannah looked at her mother and then back to the doctor and nodded.

  “Siya, this is Hannah and her mom, Jane,” Dr. Murphey said.

  Siya managed a fake smile. “Hello.”

  “Let’s get started, shall we?” the doctor said.

  As he gave Hannah instructions and told her what to expect, Siya studied the two females and wondered what the hell they were doing in a human hospital.

  Because these two were shifters. Siya was ninety-nine percent sure of it. She didn’t know enough to know if they were cat- or wolf-shifters, but thanks to her best friend, she knew they weren’t fully human.

  Her best friend, Demi, was half-cat-shifter and had lived her life in secret until about nine months ago when she had been injured and had no choice but to reach out to the local cat-shifters. Before that, Siya had known only Demi, but since then, she had met many more shifters and could recognize them now. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was something about them that made them different from humans.

  Now, she knew that shifters had their own hospital with their own doctors. They wouldn’t come to a human hospital unless they wanted to hide something.

  Like the fact that this Jane—or whatever her real name was—was not Hannah’s mother. They looked very different from each other and were too close in age. There was, of course, adoption, and shifters aged more slowly, but adoption didn’t seem to happen often in the shifter community. Also, Jane didn’t once reach out and hold her supposed daughter’s hand despite the young girl obviously being scared.

  The doctor motioned Siya to come closer to him.

  “I’m going to need a suture kit,” he said in a low voice, and Siya momentarily closed her eyes.

  This poor girl must be in a ton of pain if she needed to be stitched up.

  Siya straightened and looked at Jane. The woman was on her phone, too busy to pay attention to what was wrong. Or she was pretending to be distracted. Siya had best remember that Jane had better hearing than she and Dr. Murphey combined.

  Siya went to the door and stuck her head out to ask for the supplies the doctor needed since she was required to stay in the hospital room until the pelvic exam was done.

  “I’m just going to check you for STIs—or STDs, as you might call them.”

  Jane smirked at her phone, and Siya knew they wouldn’t find anything since shifters couldn’t catch sexually transmitted infections or diseases.

  Once the doctor finished with his exam, he made sure Hannah was comfortable and asked Jane to go to a private room reserved for family members for when the doctor needed to discuss issues that shouldn’t be talked about in front of certain patients, like minors or elderly who could no longer take care of themselves. Thankfully, it worked because if it were any other seventeen-year-old patient, the doctor would speak to both her and the mother in the same room.

  The second they were out of the room, Siya pulled up the doctor’s stool and moved to the side of Hannah’s bed.

  “Hey, Hannah, you
know that we’re here to help you, right?”

  “Yeah,” she said uncertainly.

  “Is there anything at all you’d like to share with me?”

  She hesitated, and for a second, Siya hoped she’d get something out of the girl, but Hannah just shook her head.

  Siya chewed on her bottom lip. She needed another approach. Hannah needed to know she could trust her.

  “Do you have any pets?”

  “No. No pets.”

  “That’s too bad. I have two pets. I have a huge cat named Vance and a large dog named Damien, who almost looks like a wolf.”

  Hannah’s eyes widened to the point Siya thought they might pop out of her head.

  “Some people think my names are odd, but both of my pets are fearless leaders in their own right, and I think their names are fitting.” Siya kept her voice casual, as if she really were talking about pets she owned.

  “What about you?” she asked. “Do you like cats or dogs better?”

  Hannah licked her lips nervously. “Um…I like cats.” Her hand shook as she pointed to the door to her room. “But my mom likes dogs.”

  “That’s interesting.” So, Hannah was a cat-shifter, and her fake mom was a wolf-shifter. “Hey, do you want to see some pictures of my pets?”

  “Yes, please.”

  Siya pulled her phone out of her pocket and brought up her Notes app. She rapidly typed, asking if Hannah was her real name.

  She showed her the screen. “What do you think? Does he look scary?”

  “No, he looks nice.”

  Hannah wasn’t her name.

  Siya took her phone back and quickly entered another question, asking if Jane was the real name of the older woman.

  “What about this picture? Do you think my dog looks silly?”

  “No, he looks kind of mean in that photo.”

  Siya nodded and took her phone back, swiftly erasing her messages before “Jane” came back.

  But if she could find out Hannah’s real name before that happened, she would feel so much better. Jane’s real name would be good to have, too, but she didn’t know how much time they had.

  She supposed she could have Hannah type her name in herself, but she was scared what Jane would do if she walked in and saw that Hannah was on Siya’s phone. It was easier to pretend like she was showing the young girl pictures.

  “So, are you sure you don’t have any pets?” she asked, hoping that Hannah would understand the question. “Because now that I told you my pets’ names, you could tell me yours.”

  “Oh, um, I used to have a cat. Her name was Emery Telfort, but she ran away, and I haven’t seen her since.” Hannah—or rather Emery—started crying. “I think she really misses home.”

  “Oh, honey,” Siya whispered. “I’m sure your cat will make it back home and soon.”

  She sniffled. “You think so?”

  “I do.”

  Siya was at the counter to grab a tissue when the door opened and Jane walked in.

  “What’s going on here?” Jane’s eyes bounced from Hannah to her and back to Hannah.

  Siya could see the alarm in the other woman’s eyes, and she didn’t want her to panic and do anything stupid.

  Bringing the tissue back to her patient, Siya said, “Nothing. Your daughter is in a lot of pain, and Dr. Murphey has yet to prescribe her any medication.”

  He had numbed the area he sewed up, but Siya was sure Hannah really was in pain. Or she would be once the lidocaine wore off.

  “Oh, yes, I meant to do that.” He looked at Hannah. “I’m so sorry about that.”

  Hannah sniffled. “It’s okay.”

  Dr. Murphey signed in to the computer. “I’ll order that right now, and a nurse will bring it in.”

  While Jane watched him, Siya quickly took a picture of her since her cell was still in her hand. She had no idea if she’d gotten a good angle, but she prayed she’d gotten something identifiable as she slipped it into her pocket.

  The doctor looked up and over at Siya. “Thank you for your help, Siya.”

  “You’re welcome.” She turned to Hannah. “I hope you feel better soon.”

  “Thank you.”

  She headed to the door as Jane narrowed her eyes at Siya, but she wasn’t going to let herself be intimidated. She knew bigger and badder shifters than her. Plus, it wasn’t her first day as a nurse. She could handle threatening looks any day.

  As soon as she exited, she rushed to a break room and pulled out her phone.

  Two

  Ram Warin closed his bedroom door and walked out to the living room to meet up with Saxon. Being a vampire in a home full of cat-shifters had its challenges, but he had grown used to living with them, and Saxon was probably the one he was closest to.

  Saxon looked up from the fridge when he heard Ram. “You ready?”

  “Yeah. You?”

  Saxon sighed. “I was hoping for something to eat, but it looks like we need to go grocery shopping.” He shut the fridge. “You mind if we stop somewhere and pick up some fast food?”

  Ram grinned. “I’ll never say no to food.”

  The two were headed to the door when the sound of feet slamming into the floor had them freezing where they stood.

  Last fall, they had added another hallway and set of rooms off the main area of the house. Ram’s room was still on the original side, but the sound seemed to have come from the addition.

  A few seconds later, the sound of a door hitting the wall and footsteps running came closer before Demi, Saxon’s mate, emerged.

  “Saxon, wait,” she called and shifted the phone she had pressed to her ear to her mouth. “He’s still here.”

  Next to Ram, Saxon’s body went rigid. “What’s wrong?”

  “Hold on. I’m going to put you on speaker,” Demi said. She moved her phone again and hit a button. “Okay, Siya, Saxon can hear you now.”

  It was Ram’s turn to go stiff. Hearing Demi’s friend’s name conjured up images of her in his mind. Her big, dark eyes, her beautiful brown skin, and her thick, long hair that he wanted to wrap around his fist while he—

  “Two shifters came into the ER tonight.”

  “What the hell?” Saxon said with a furrowed brow. “How do you know?”

  “Because I’m now able to recognize shifters from humans. But that’s beside the point. They were here instead of at the shifter infirmary.”

  “What were they there for?” Ram asked.

  That statement resulted in silence on the other end, which probably meant that Siya had recognized his voice.

  About seven months ago, Saxon and he had come to the rescue of Demi and Siya. Demi was not yet Saxon’s mate and was a half-shifter, half-human, hiding from the shifter world. On the order of the cat-shifter alpha, they’d brought Siya and Demi to the bunkhouse for protection. Saxon had been in charge of Demi, who he had already been having sex with, and Siya had been put in Ram’s care.

  He and Siya had had chemistry from the start, and Ram knew if he’d wanted to have sex with her, she would have said yes. Even though Ram wasn’t one to turn down a free screw, something in him had held back from getting intimate with Siya. That all had been fine until she kissed him the night she was planning to leave. He’d wanted to pull her in his arms, but he’d needed to feed, and he’d been afraid he might hurt her.

  The situation had only gotten worse from there because Ram called a friend to feed from. When Siya had walked into his bedroom and found Ram sucking on her neck, she’d assumed they were getting physical. But Bianca had only been sitting on his lap to give him better access. He had tried to run after Siya to tell her it wasn’t what it looked like, but she had fled in her car before he could get to her.

  And Ram hadn’t seen her since.

  Demi always went to Siya’s home or somewhere that wasn’t the bunkhouse when she hung out with her friend.

  Ram was surprised—and a little flattered—she’d recognized his voice.

  Siya cleared her th
roat but made no acknowledgment that she knew she was talking to Ram. “This part is difficult to talk about. I’m breaking so many HIPAA rules, but I realize it needs to be done.” A large sigh followed, as if she had come to the conclusion that she had to break the law. “A young girl came in with someone pretending to be her mother because she had been injured…vaginally.”

  Ram, Demi, and Saxon all shared looks of alarm.

  “It was so bad that the doctor had to stitch up the girl.”

  Demi closed her eyes and looked like she was going to be sick.

  Ram could sympathize because he felt the same way.

  “So, I was able to find out that the girl is a cat-shifter, and her name is Emery Telfort. The woman pretending to be her mother is a wolf-shifter, but I didn’t get her name. That woman said it was Jane, but Emery confirmed that was a lie.” Siya snorted. “She couldn’t even come up with something original. Hello? Jane Doe.”

  “Definitely fake,” Demi said.

  “Oh. But I did get a picture. It’s not the best because I had to take it in secret, but hopefully, someone recognizes her.”

  Two seconds later, Demi’s phone beeped as the image came through.

  The three of them exchanged looks and shook their heads.

  “We don’t know who she is,” Saxon said into the phone. “But I’m going to get this to Vance right away, and he’ll probably contact Damien. If she’s a wolf, hopefully, he knows.” He looked at his mate. “Forward that to me, please.”