I started to tell him it wasn’t true, that the panthers had invaded our country. But as the saying went, history was written by the victors. I didn’t know the truth. I hadn’t been on the frontlines or in the jungles where guerilla rebels hid out. I had been a child, safe in the castle when they’d invaded the outskirts of our territory. The only part I knew for sure was that somehow, as impossible as it seemed, a panther had snuck into the castle and taken my mother from her bed in the night.
“And now you’re here as a sacrifice,” Shadow growled into my neck, his smooth cheek skimming over mine as his rigid cock pressed against my ass, demanding more. “A peace offering from your nation to ours. Too fucking little too late.”
Was that what this was? In a way, he was right. The amulet was given as a symbol of trust between a Feline Nation and the heir to the throne of another. It said there was goodwill between nations. Was my body enough to mend the rift between these two nations? From Shadow’s words, I knew it wasn’t.
“I’m sorry,” I said, squeezing my eyes closed and inhaling through trembling lips. “I was a kid then. Don’t blame us for our father’s mistakes.”
Shadow’s hand trailed down my belly, his claws skimming across the leather bustier I wore. “You’re saying you were innocent?”
I pressed my lips together for a long moment before shaking my head. “No. I was in my ivory tower while you starved.”
“You don’t know shit about my life,” Shadow snarled, grabbing my throat. “But you’re here now. Why? For me to fuck until this is gone?”
I nodded, not daring to swallow for fear that his claws would puncture my throat.
“Why did you drug me? What have I ever done to you besides sink your shitty little car when you tried to invade my territory?”
“Nothing,” I said, shuddering when the tips of his razor claws tickled my skin.
“Then why?” he demanded, his hand gripping my jaw, turning my face so his nose pressed into my cheek. “You thought it would be funny to drive a celibate man out of his mind with wanting to fuck so bad?”
A celibate man. My chest caved at the words. How could we have been so selfish? We’d thought we’d knock him out and take the amulet. We’d never thought about what kind of man he was, what his life had been like in this destitute clan in the swamp. We’d never considered what the tincture would do to him, what he’d do when he woke up. I was lucky that he’d found only me, that what he did to me was well deserved. I was lucky that he hadn’t raped someone innocent because of my stupid little stunt.
“We wanted the amulet,” I said.
His hand slid down my body, his claws tearing through the sexy top I’d put on so I wouldn’t look out of place. He spread it open, exposing my torso and baring my breasts again. His palms covered them, and when my nipples pebbled, he moaned with such anguish it made my core tremble. He dropped his face to my neck, inhaling deeply before his soft lips opened. A long tongue rasped across my skin, and a shiver went through me.
One of his hands raked down my belly, and I cried out in pain as his claws broke the skin. Shadow didn’t seem to notice. He wedged his fingers between my legs, cupping my mound with his palm and crushing me to him. His erection pressed against my crease, and he let out another tortured groan.
“Don’t hurt me,” I blurted. “Put your claws away and just fuck me, but please don’t kill me. I’m sorry—you have no idea how sorry. I know it’s not enough, but I really will do whatever you want. I’ll obey if you’ll just let me go afterwards.”
“You don’t get to make the rules,” Shadow roared, hurling me from him. I flew through the air, smacking the wall before crashing face down to the shredded mattress. Before I could roll over, Shadow fell on my back, his claws tearing through the fabric beside my face.
“I make the rules,” he growled, his hips crushing down on mine. “You made your bargain back at the club. You made the choice to do this to me. You’ve punished me enough. Now it’s my turn.”
His claws raked down, tearing more slashes in the mattress. They tore through my leather pants, shredding them and slicing into my hip. I bit my lips, willing myself not to cry.
“You fucked with me,” he said, his forehead pressed against my shoulder, his breath coming fast. “Now I’m going to fuck with you.”
“Don’t hurt me,” I said again, my eyes fixed on those clawed fingers puncturing the mattress. He grabbed my hand, snapping the thick iron cuff around my wrist before I realized what was happening. I started to fight, but he grabbed the other one, straddling my back while he snapped the manacle around my wrist.
He dragged me flat on the bed, ignoring my hitching breaths as I pleaded. Sitting back, he yanked away my torn pants until I was bared to him. My body trembled at the clinking sound of his belt buckle, but before I could move, he was on me again. His cock was hot and as hard as before against my exposed skin, his palms calloused and rough as they ran up my sides. I wanted to push him away, but something in my body responded to the sensation of a hot, bare body against mine. Warmth swelled between my thighs even as my brain rebelled.
“You took my sanity,” he growled against my ear. A hot shiver ran through me as he parted knees with his, rocking against me with a groan. “I’m taking it back.”
His cock pulsed against me, wetting my opening, and my body trembled with a mixture of fear and arousal.
“Let my hands go,” I said. “I promise I won’t—”
“No talking,” he said clamping a hand over my mouth, his claws pressed to my cheeks until they almost broke the skin. With a tortured growl, he thrust forward, forcing his way into my resisting flesh again. I bit back a cry against his palm, but my walls were already slick with his cum from the last time, and the pain was only in my heart now.
“If there’s a god,” he moaned, lifting his shoulders from mine and driving his hips to my ass, his cock pulsing inside my sheath as he waited, motionless. My body craved the friction of motion, wanting him to move inside me. Shadow moaned low in his throat, lowering and laying his cheek against my shoulder as he moved slowly, his cock gliding out and then in again. He shuddered against me, his hand moving from my face to my hip. When he gave my hip a nudge, I found myself lifting for him as if by instinct, arching my back to allow him deeper.
Shadow began to move his hips in a rolling motion that hit sensitive places inside me that I hadn’t known existed. He pushed up onto his knees, lifting my hips and spreading my thighs as he fucked me from behind. The deadly sharp tips of his claws rested against the soft flesh just inside my hipbones as he gripped my hips, and a shiver went through me at the thought of how easily he could sink them into me, ripping out my insides.
His hips smacked against my ass with each thrust, his breath coming in quick gasps as he began to move faster, harder, fucking me with the frenzy of a madman. His claws added a dangerous, erotic charge that was half terror, half unbearable excitement. And oh my god, it felt good. I tensed at the shock of realization, and my walls clenched around his shaft.
With a snarl, Shadow’s solid chest slammed down on my back, smashing me to the mattress as he drove himself into me up to the hilt. Another growl ripped from his throat, and his cock throbbed inside me, hot streams of cum pouring into me. I cried out, grinding my hips up against his as my body responded, my sheath fluttering helplessly around his rigid length. He crushed my hips down with his, pinning me to the mattress while little pulses of his orgasm continued flooding my insides with cum, and aftershocks pulsed through my walls, milking every drop from him.
We lay there for minutes, both of us shaking. Sweat formed between our bodies, but neither of us moved. My head was spinning. What had just happened? I wasn’t supposed to enjoy this. It was punishment. If fucking Lord Balam made me feel powerful, Shadow was the exact opposite. I was utterly and completely helpless, naked and chained to a bed in a wrecked trailer on an unreachable island in the middle of a swamp. No one knew where I was. No one would come to my rescue. I was at the
mercy of a sex-crazed, insatiable panther who would claim me over and over, whether I wanted it or not.
Shadow leapt off me and stumbled backwards against the door. I twisted around, rolling onto my side. His nostrils were flared, his breath coming fast. He stared down at his hands, which were fully human now, as if they were now more monstrous than when three-inch curved blades extended from each fingertip.
“Witch,” he hissed, wrenching open the door. He kind of tumbled out, staggering away. The door banged open and then shut, but it didn’t latch. It hung open on its hinges, just enough to let in any swamp beast that wanted to come in and find me shackled to the bed.
Fuck. He better not leave me here. I sat up, examining the bedframe. Unfortunately, the metal was all welded together into one, so I couldn’t just unscrew one of the crossbars. Not that I had a screwdriver. The manacles were two-inch iron cuffs on my wrists, each one attached to the thick length of chain that Shadow had run through the bars of the bedframe.
Double fuck. There was no way I could break out. I looked around the trailer, trying to find something that might help. At last, I slumped sideways against the bedframe. Nothing.
Maybe Lord Balam would see this in his oracle and come rescue me.
A bloodcurdling scream ripped through the night outside, making every hair on my body stand on end. I huddled against the metal bed, my heart pulverizing my ribs with fear. It came again, the high, ear-splitting scream of a woman in pain. I bit back a scream of my own. Had Shadow heard someone out there and gone out to kill them?
Lord Balam wouldn’t make that noise. And surely, surely, they hadn’t let Camila come with them if they were coming to find me, even if she’d commanded it. Maybe it would be okay. Maybe Shadow was chasing off some other panther who wanted to come eat me. Now that he’d mated twice, the tincture had to be wearing off. Any minute now, he’d come back in his right mind and let me go.
A scraping made my head whip around, panic tearing through me. Not only was I a human, I was naked, chained up, and alone. The door swung open, and my limbs liquified. For a second, I couldn’t see anything at all in the darkness out there. And then a sleek, black head appeared. I shrank back, blood flooding my veins so fast I thought I’d have a heart attack from fear. The panther slinked up the steps and into the trailer, sniffing the air as it crept toward me.
“Shadow?” My voice had deserted me, and all I managed was a quavering whisper. If it wasn’t Shadow, if it was some wild panther…
Please let it be Shadow.
He sniffled at my foot, and I curled into myself, trying to hide my extremities so he wouldn’t start gnawing. A long, rough tongue swiped along my thigh. I whimpered, twisting away from him. A huge paw landed on my knee, and I quaked with fear, lifting my gaze to meet his.
His green eyes still burned with such madness, such lust, that my thighs trembled. No, no, no. He was supposed to be sane again. He’d fucked me. He’d come. A lot. I could feel it trickling out of me as I sat there on the bare, shredded mattress.
His claws extended against my flesh, and I gasped, obeying as he pressed at my knee until I extended my leg along the mattress. His rasping tongue swiped up the inside of my calf, my thigh.
“No,” I whispered, falling back as his figure loomed over me, his slick black pelt glimmering under the bare bulb. I stared at the light, willing myself not to believe what was happening to me as his tongue swiped through my wetness. He lifted his head, and I could have sworn he was gloating as he stood there licking his whiskers like a cat that got the cream…and was going back for more.
Twenty-Six
Lord Balam
Curandero, Jaguar Nation
The water around me was warm and mucky, and I had to stay on alert and watch for creatures under the surface. At least I was a match for them in feline form. Unlike other cats, jaguars were good swimmers, so I had some advantage. Goddamn fucking panthers, though. Panthers and their powers of invisibility. There was almost no chance that I’d find him if he didn’t want me to.
But almost no chance was better than no chance at all. I could search them out by scent. I’d know Itzel’s mouthwatering scent anywhere. Was he enjoying it now, licking the juices from her sweet, tight cunt, sucking them out of her like honey?
A stab of pain went through my head at the thought.
Something moved in the water, and the next second, the stabbing pain wasn’t only mental. Sharp teeth sank into my hind leg. I snarled and lashed out, my claws raking through the water. My eyes opened wide as the force dragged me under, but all I could see was pitch dark water around me. I slashed again, my claws sinking into mud this time. I shoved off the bottom, surfacing to suck in a breath before my attacker dragged me under again.
I twisted around, my claws extended to swipe as the creature wrenched my legs from under me. Shoving my head through the water, I sank my teeth into tough, scaly skin. A fucking alligator.
It flailed, releasing me and scrambling backwards. My leg throbbing, I turned and lunged away, wanting only to put distance between us. Now that I was bleeding, I’d probably attract every swamp monster out here, not to mention leaving a trail for the gator.
I stumbled into a shallower spot, struggling onto the small hillock that hadn’t been fully submerged in the flooding. Shaking myself, I freed my body of the heavy water clinging to me. My back leg was mangled, possibly broken. I couldn’t put weight on it. And here came a trail through the water, the gator closing in.
Fuck. I turned, baring my teeth. The animal shot out of the water and onto the bank. I jumped back, batting at it with my claws and throwing it sideways into the water. For a second, nothing moved. My heart hammered as I watched the water still again. I’d just begun to relax when it rocketed out of the water yet again, racing faster than I expected. With a snarl, I raked my claws through its thick skin, leaping out of the way at the last second. The water churned where the gator’s tail beat furiously. Its jaws opened, but I dove past it, plunging into the murky water.
I didn’t want to kill an animal, not even one that attacked me. I heard the splash as it sank into the water behind me, and I knew I had only seconds to go. I grabbed a tree, digging my claws into the bark and scrambling up. My hind leg burned like a fire dragon had bitten me, but I managed to get my other three legs onto the trunk. Behind me, a soft splash sounded as the animal approached.
Fuck.
Digging my hind claws in, I propelled my front legs up as far as I could, grappling with my hold as I dragged myself higher. The alligator circled, leaving behind a trail of ripples in the water. Breathing hard, I yanked my body higher, biting back a snarl as my wounded leg reached for the tree by instinct. The pressure of gripping the bark nearly made me pass out from pain. Resisting the impulse, I heaved myself onto a limb draped with Spanish moss.
I lay my body along the limb, watching the water where the alligator circled. At least my claws had only broken the skin. I hadn’t wounded the creature enough to kill it. If I rested for a bit, my leg would heal itself. But that meant waiting. That meant quitting my search for the kidnapped princess.
I should have told her. I should have fucking told her. I’d seen something that I didn’t understand in the oracle the night after I’d fucked her the first time. I’d been inside her. I knew only the beginning of what she was feeling. I knew the shackle on her wrist, and the fear in her helpless body as he stood over her, ready to break her in.
I hadn’t known what it meant, but I should have warned her when I’d seen Shadow in the swamp. I should have warned her that he would try to take her, but I had been sure I could stop him. So fucking sure. And look at me now. Hiding in a goddamn tree.
Not that she could have prevented the way things had gone, anyway. I hadn’t wanted to scare her, but maybe somehow, some way, we could have stopped this. Maybe Princess Camila would have kept her at the hotel, though I doubted it. I knew too much about palace politics to labor under that delusion. I knew what it was like to be used as a paw
n, to be seen only for what advantages you could bring your family.
If only I could be so callous. If only I could have stayed as detached as I should, as strategic as Camila. Instead of swimming through a snake-filled swamp at three in the morning, trying not to get snapped in half by an alligator, I would have been asleep in my bed at the hotel, content that Itzel was serving her purpose. Instead of draped over a precarious branch in the middle of a flooded cypress grove, I would have been satisfied to let it happen however it would. I knew she’d get the amulet. I’d seen it.
I’d told them all. Camila had argued at first, but now… Tonight she had said that we couldn’t do anything but accept the inevitable. Looking for Itzel at night would be dangerous and it wouldn’t lead to anything but more casualties. She was probably right. I’d barely gotten away from that alligator. But I wasn’t sorry I hadn’t obeyed Princess Ocelot when she ordered me and Gabor to rest for the next day when we could search by daylight like sensible people.
Fuck that.
I wasn’t her guard. She couldn’t order my beheading or call me a traitor if I left her side. She couldn’t take my livelihood and order the kingdom not to employ me, forcing me to watch my family suffer and starve.
I understood why Gabor had obeyed her, but I didn’t have to take orders from her. I knew I was being irrational, but I couldn’t sleep knowing Itzel was out here somewhere at the mercy of a madman. Driven by the sliver of a chance that I’d find her, the uncommon princess who had opened her legs for me the day I first laid eyes upon her, the girl whose virginity I had taken without earning it, the girl I’d fucked so many times, letting her believe that’s all it was.
I should have told her that, too. That she’d tamed the untamable Lord Balam. That what I’d always taken for granted, what I’d never thought twice about, had now become something more. She had become more than someone to warm my bed and milk my dick.
Broken Princess: A Dark Paranormal Romance (Feline Royals Book 1) Page 18
