by Elyssa Nyte
need to challenge the other man to a fight. His animal spirit was eager for a good fight, but he couldn't allow that in a place like Chicago. There were just to many people around for him to 'panther out'. He chuckled at his own thought because he knew that the old saying was 'wolf out', but he wasn't a wolf.
Sitting in her office, she leaned her head back onto her leather chair. She closed her eyes and did the unthinkable - she fell asleep. It was a good thing she was the boss. The office door was closed, and no one bothered her as she slept. It wasn't until the phone on her desk started buzzing that she woke up. She picked up the phone and listened for a few moments as Julie explained the problem with one of the larger stoves in the smaller branch on the outskirts of the city. After listening to the problem, she instructed Julie to purchase a brand new one. She hung up the phone and shook her head. Well, she had accomplished nothing today.
Standing up, she picked up her purse and left her office. She walked out of the building and was thankful to be outside. She longed to be out of the city and running through the woods. It was disturbing that she pictured herself as an animal, when she envisioned bounding through the forest. And she didn't just picture any animal. She pictured herself as a sleek black panther.
She walked down the sidewalk and never noticed that she was being followed. Micah knew that the day for their first meeting was going to be today. He could wait no longer to claim his mate. He walked faster and caught up with her, but he had no idea how to approach her.
Allowing her to get slightly ahead of him, he took a seat on a bench. He had no intention of allowing her to slip from his grasp, but he could not allow his needs to override his common sense. He couldn't just approach her. That would only scare her and put distance between them, but he was at a loss on how to approach her. She continued on her way. Each step took her further from him.
He hurt because of the distance between them and once again he cursed her mother who was a conniving bitch. If Tarrah been brought up within the panther pack, then she would know her place was beside him. But in this strange world, he was a nobody.
She strolled along the streets and she had never felt more adrift. She belonged nowhere. Her very soul hurt. She felt alien in this environment. She did not understand why because she had lived here all her life, but each day that passed she became more certain that this wasn't the place for her. She felt silly for such thoughts, but on more than one occasion she had contemplated on selling her business and moving out of the city. But she had no idea where to go or what to do.
Sighing, she stepped from the sidewalk to the private walk that led to the elevator that would take her to her high rise apartment. Glancing in behind her, she saw no one as she stepped onto the elevator. She wished that someone was following her. She wanted it to be the man from her dreams.
She stepped from the elevator onto the floor of her apartment. Entering the spacious apartment, she headed straight to the bath for a shower. She needed to wash the city from her skin. She had started to despise everything around her. And once again, she felt something alien and animalistic shift beneath her skin. She needed her dream lover. She imagined him touching her as she took her shower.
He stood on the street below and through their connection, he knew that she longed for him as he longed for her. And more than once, he had to stamp down on his urge to bust up into her apartment and claim her. He monitored her activities until she made her way to her bedroom. For tonight, he decided not to visit her dreams. Tonight he would figure out the best way to enter her life.
While she slept, he brooded and rejected every idea that surfaced in his brain. He fell asleep just before dawn. He was no closer to a solution than he was before. Shrugging down into his sleeping bag, he continued to sleep.
Tarrah signed as she once again headed to her office building. And as usual she was reluctant to be locked up in a building. Every part of her longed for a freedom that she could not have. She groaned as Craig walked toward her. Couldn't she have just one day without his unwanted advances?
Turning, she hurried into the ladies' room to avoid him. Going into a stall, she leaned back against the door. She just couldn't do it. She had to get out of here. She used her cell phone to call Gina at the switchboard. After informing Gina that she would not be in for today, she snuck out the bathroom and out a side door. She was relieved that no one had noticed her.
She returned to her apartment and knew that she could no longer pretend she was happy with her life. She just didn't understand what it was she needed. And she didn't understand the strange feelings that crawled beneath her skin. She no longer felt that she belonged to herself. She craved to be in her dreams where the man took her and claimed her.
Tarrah jumped as the intercom system buzzed. Someone downstairs wanted her attention. She touched a button and groaned. What was Craig doing here? He was really starting to annoy her. Couldn't he fucking get it? He was quickly getting on her nerves. She signed and answered the system. And because she couldn't think of a way to tell him to go away, she buzzed him in. Craig had never been inside her apartment, and she didn't want him there now.
The knock at the door announced his arrival. She reluctantly opened the door and stepped back to allow him to enter. He immediately hugged her as if he had the right to do so. She knew it had been a mistake to let him in. She tried to pull away from him, but he started running his hands down her back and to her butt. She shoved him off her, and he became angry. He grabbed her roughly by the arm and begin to force kisses upon her lips.
She became angry and clawed at his face. The move infuriated Craig, and he slapped her across her face in his anger. She could feel a vibrational shift beneath her skin and did her best to keep it in check. The change beneath her skin allowed her to shove Craig off her. She quickly ran to the door and demanded for him to leave. He gave her a go to hell look and left her apartment.
Once he was gone, Tarrah begin to shake with fear. She was afraid of the vulnerable feeling she felt when Craig assaulted her. But more importantly, she was terrified of the change beneath her skin that got harder each day to keep in check.
He arrived at her apartment, and he knew immediately that something was wrong with her. They weren't even bonded, and yet he knew she was upset and miserable. He once again cursed her mother for her actions. How could she live knowing what fate she had left her daughter to? And once again, he knew what a selfish bitch her mother was.
He longed to go to Tarrah and wrap her up in his arms. He wanted to be the one person in the world that sheltered her. But he couldn't go to her, yet. She wasn't ready to accept him. But soon, he would have to force her to listen to him. And he knew, this would have to be within the next four to five days max. She was so close to her first change.
His kind could control the change after that first initial change. However, if they were not bonded to their mate when they changed, then they would be stuck in animal form with no way back to their humanity. He listened as she got ready for bed. She slept a lot lately, but it was good for her. She needed rest, and he needed her. He could not wait until he could go to her in her sleep. In her sleep, she accepted him.
She fell asleep quickly. And once again, he entered her dreams and manipulated them until she began to dream of him. He knew in this state she wanted him, needed him. She quickly wrapped her astral body around his. He brushed her hair back from her face, and for the first time, she was aware of him with more than just her body.
She lifted her eyes to his and spoke to him with her mind. 'Are you real?' And he responded with his. 'I am as real as you are.'
She wrapped her arms tighter around his neck and pulled his mouth to hers. She kissed him with a hunger that he did not even realize that she was capable of.
She pulled back from him. 'Then, come to me.'
He gently pushed her out of her dreams. She immediately woke up. He was real. He had to be. But who was he? She wasn't sure. She almost screamed, when there was a knock on the door. Her first thought
was that it was Craig, but he had been gone for hours.
She remembered her dream and her demand. It couldn't be him. Could it? There was another soft rap at the door. And she eased out of bed and quietly moved toward the door. Standing on tiptoe, she peered through the peephole. 'Oh, god, it was him.'
She lifted a shaking hand to the doorknob. 'Should she open it?' He waited quietly on the other side of the door. He knew she was struggling within herself. He heard the sounds of her removing the locks on the door. She slowly opened the door and for the first time she knew he was real.
They should have talked and introduced themselves, but the months of making love in her dreams overrode everything else. He grabbed her hip with one hand and wrapped his other hand in her hair. He jerked her body to his and walked her back into the apartment. Kicking the door shut, he pressed his lips roughly against hers. Their mouths fused together with their hunger for one another. He couldn't stop. He had to take her. She was his and he could wait no longer. He broke the kiss and ripped his clothes from his body. Then, he grabbed her in a manner that should have caused her to jerk away in fear. But she wanted this, had to have this.
Moaning as he pulled her body against his, he picked her up in his
