The Mating Project Read Online Free Page B

there was no mistaking the heat behind it.
It was more than a kiss. It was a promise, a claim, a brand on her very soul,
and Maria knew that her life would never be the same again.
    He pushed her
through the door, and her beast roared and broke free as she hit the ground on
all four paws. She caught a glimpse of Malachi's magnificent wolf as he, too,
shifted, and then she ran. The sound of gunfire, swearing, shouts, and the
warning call of several hyenas rang in her ears, but she kept on running.
    Mindless of her
surroundings, the screams and pursuing footfalls, she ran until her lungs were
fit to burst. It was only when two male cougars bounded in her way that she stopped
and let the tears flow.
    Jake and Carter
shifted and scooped her up between them, and she clung to her brothers as all
the horrors of the preceding few days crashed on top of her.
    From far away
she heard the howl of a lone wolf, and she cried harder. She knew she would
never see Malachi again.
     

Chapter Three
     
    Present Time
     
    God, nothing made you
feel old as fast as being surrounded by the young and beautiful on the very
campus you used to attend. Maria flicked her hair back off her face and
frowned.
    Had it really
been ten years since her first day of her freshman year? She had been dragged
here by her brothers, who had not taken no for an answer. After the dreadful
events that had led to the complete eradication of that underground cell in the
forest, Maria had only wanted to hide. She hadn't thought it possible to cry as
many tears as she had done back then, but, of course, her dumbass brothers
wouldn't just let her wallow. They had dragged her to one party after the other
in an effort to cheer her up.
    "Live a
little, sis. You're free of De Souza, and you need to enjoy life. It's not
often Dad relents on a promise made, so for goodness’ sakes, stop moping after
that damn wolf, and live."
    They had been
referring to Malachi, of course. Most of his pack had been killed in the
forest, and the males that weren't had been executed by the council. True to
her word, Maria had pleaded with her father for the safety of the women and
children, and after much lengthy discussion they had been granted amnesty.
    Of Malachi
himself there had been no trace, and he, too, was presumed dead. Maria had hung
onto the thought that he must be alive, and that he would come to find her, but
as months had turned into a year, she had to concede that he either was dead,
or he didn't care enough about their bond to come and claim her. Concern had
turned to anger, and in a fit of the devil may care she had lost her virginity
to a young lion shifter. Her sexuality thus awakened she had spent her free
time at Uni screwing shifters and humans alike. The
sex had been good, but the whole one night stand thing was beginning to get
old. Never more so since her brothers had mated and had become fathers to
adorable triplets. Even her work colleague Emmi had returned from a trip to
Bear Country mated to a bear shifter no less, and she was expecting a cub. The
human was finding the whole existence of shifters somewhat hard to get her head
around, and her relationship with her bear was complicated to say the least,
but Maria knew they would sort it out.
    Which
just left her with her biological clock ticking away. Not that she
was over the hill at age twenty-eight, but the whole being surrounded by mated
couples thing, did make her feel lonely.
    "There you
are. Sorry I'm late." Natasha, a young Siberian tiger and assistant to the
very man she was here to see, bounded up to her with a big grin.
    Maria forced a
smile on her lips. Natasha was a pretty, young geeky thing, who spent her
entire free time doing research for the council. Cole Jackson's side of the council,
that was. The bear shifter was of the firm belief that the solution to the
falling fertility rates lay in the old ways and the mysterious mating bond.
    Maria had to
concede that he might have a point. Bears had the lowest