by Lacey Thorn
“I know,” he answered.
Her eyes searched his again. “I can feel your emotions. Is that part of this?” she asked and her hand moved back and forth between them.
“Yes,” he whispered. “The bond is forming and will only grow stronger. We will feel each other’s emotions. There will be no hiding from one another. It is the Danuja way.”
“So no more lies or half truths,” she smiled. “I kind of like that.”
“It means the same for you,” he reminded her but she didn’t seem too concerned.
“You are aware of my feelings for Micah,” she whispered. “I know that it hurts you and I would change that if I could. But there is just something there that I can’t deny.”
“I saw the night you shared with him,” Merced whispered. “I know of your desire for the two of us, to share.”
She smiled and there was no embarrassment in her. “Well you can’t blame a girl for that,” she said with a twinkle in her eyes. “He is your twin, the other half of you since birth. It only makes since that I would be attracted to him as well.”
“And he healed you, leaving a piece of himself behind. He touched you, brought you to release,” Merced smiled softly. “I would give you what you desire. He is my other half and though no Danuja has ever shared, for you, for him, I would.”
“But he won’t.” It was a statement from her and he nodded.
“He is the holy man, the epitome of what is Danuja. He will not easily go against what we have been taught since birth,” Merced said. His people would be shocked at what he was going to suggest but there was no hiding the secrets he kept inside from the woman he had mated. Honestly it was why he had not mated anyone before.
But Lynx didn’t seem shocked or disgusted by the man he was. She smiled at him waiting to hear what he was going to say. With the sharing of his breath she had been witness to every moment of his life, even those he had hidden from everyone else. She had seen the sex he had shared with others, knew that he enjoyed sharing a woman. Just as he had seen the same desire in her. He had known since she breathed into him that she wanted both him and Micah. That was most of the reason he had held back from her. Micah might never accept a threesome.
No, his little cat had seen her sister Aurora happily mated to two men. Lynx saw her sister’s joy and contentment and longed for the same. Merced would love to give it to her. As king none would question what he did, though they might discuss it behind his back. Micah was a different story. They would not be so easy on the holy man. But then neither he nor Micah had ever wanted the fate they had been born into. It was why Merced had been the one to play messenger and probably why Micah had been the brother to follow him. They longed for more, for adventure, for freedom from the confines of ‘being Danuja royalty’.
The difference was that Merced had already admitted it to himself. Micah might never do that. Merced didn’t know for sure what Micah had undergone when he had been separated from the family and taken to the temple for several years. The man who had returned had not been the same carefree person, and his power had changed as well. But Merced knew his brother, his twin. He could see the longing in Micah’s eyes for a freedom they had never known.
Lynx knew his emotions but not his thoughts. She could sense what he felt just as he now could with her.
“What is it that you are planning, Merced?” she asked.
“I’ll tell you in just a bit,” he promised. “There is something else I want to do first.”
She smiled and lay back on the bed spreading her legs as he shifted between them. “What is it you want to do?” she asked with that grin still in place.
“I want to love you until neither of us can move,” he whispered leaning down so that his face was even with hers. “I want to kiss you without fear.”
She hooked one arm behind his neck and lifted up to him. “Then kiss me, Merced. Kiss me until neither of us can breathe.”
That was just what he intended to do.
Chapter Six
It was soft and sweet and everything she had dreamed of. She loved him and knew that he loved her. There was no way that she couldn’t after she had witnessed every moment, every emotion of his life. Inside her heart still broke for what he worked so hard to deny himself, for the responsibilities he carried. She shuddered at the depths of the torture he had endured at Wilhelm’s hands and wanted to kill the man a million times over.
“Shhhhh,” Merced whispered to her as he pulled slowly from her lips. “No anger here, in this bed, in this moment. Only us,” he said and bent to her lips once more. “Vengeance has no place here.”
She nodded and did her best to shove her thoughts away and focus only on him, on them and the moment that existed right now. His hands were everywhere on her flesh, sparks left a trail from his fingertips and now she knew that she really was glowing with a golden shade. It was his magic flowing from his skin to hers. He couldn’t control it with her and that thrilled her.
He smiled as he trailed his finger over her nipple and the spark lingered on that sensitive spot. Lynx arched and moaned, her fingers curling into the bed. The finger moved to the other nipple and treated it to the same torture.
“Merced,” she moaned his name and he laughed. It was one of the most wondrous sounds she’d ever heard.
He leant over her and took one nipple into his mouth and sucked deeply. The magical ripple was replaced by a pinch and tug. Her hands reached for him, one bracing on his shoulder and the other going around to the back of his head to hold him to her. He slowly pulled back letting her nipple pop free. She moaned and he smiled.
“I love you, little cat,” he whispered. “You are the most amazing woman I’ve ever known.”
And she knew he meant it, could feel the emotion behind the words. No one, not her mother, her sister, or any shifter she’d been friends with knew her to the depth that her mate did. Her mate. It was bizarre and crazy and yet impossibly right. She loved him too. There was no way that she could not after what had passed between them.
He lifted his head and brought it to her. She smiled as their mouths met, meshed and loved.
He moved over her, wedged his body between her thighs and never once pulled from their kiss. They were already making love with his cock hard against her leg. With their mouths, their minds, their very souls. The body was only a part of the circle they created.
When he lifted from her his mouth moved to her jaw and up to her ear. He whispered and the words were of love no matter that he spoke in his native tongue. His cock probed her wet entrance and slowly slid deep. She lifted her knees to clamp at his hips. One hand went to the small of his back while the other caressed through his hair.
She loved the way he wore it long, the fat braids so different. She loved the darkness of his skin against her own, a deep brown. He wasn’t as dark as Domi, her sister’s mate who kept the black skin of his panther while in human form. Merced and his brother were a creamy version of that, a lovely brown that made her think of the rich fertile soil. His eyes were a deep gold the brown specs all but gone in his passion. His eyes made her think of the lion, whose form she loved to take.
Slow and easy he pumped inside her, his mouth constantly returning to sip from hers. She could feel the glow of his magic around them both. Lynx marvelled that even with the damper Wilhelm still held over Merced’s magic he was still the most powerful man she’d ever met. The man possessed the power to do things she’d never imagined, never even thought of controlling.
Their eyes met and held. His mouth hovered just over hers and his breath washed across her. She could feel how much it meant to him to not have to control that little thing that she had never worried about. Yet he had always had to control that simple act. Never had he breathed into another, kissed another. It made her regret the fact that she had. She’d just never realised the true intimacy of a kiss.
One hand moved down between their bodies and she felt the spark directly on her clit.
“Merced,�
� she cried out feeling her orgasm building. He was right with her, enjoying the build with her.
He quickened his thrusts, his cock moving faster, surging deeper within her. She met him thrust for thrust using her grip on his hips to help her lift into every downward stroke. One more pulse to her clit and she was flying through the air. Her head was thrown back, an unvoiced cry trapped on her lips.
She could feel his orgasm. Not only the pulse of his semen in her pussy but even better she could feel how his orgasm felt to him. She felt his pleasure just as she knew he felt hers and it took the intimacy to an entire different level. She remembered how not so long ago she had longed for what her sister Aurora shared with Domi and Nado. Now she couldn’t imagine having anything different than what she shared with Merced. Only one thing would make it better.
Merced moved to lie beside her on the bed. “Now we plot,” he said and Lynx laughed. The only thing that could possibly make things more perfect for her and Merced would be to include Micah. He was Merced’s twin, the other part of her mate and important to them both. She did not have Micah’s memories yet, nor his emotions, but she had Merced’s of Micah. Through Merced she felt her feelings for Micah grow. She was in love with Merced and through him she loved Micah.
“Micah will never agree to join with us,” Merced stated, relaxed beside her. She rested her head on his chest and loved the way it was just such a natural thing to do. One big hand stroked up and down her arm while the other ran through her hair. “It is against our culture to take more than one mate. Danuja mate for life and some would say even in death. No Danuja marries after their mate dies. It is as if through our link we die with one another as well.”
“I can only imagine,” Lynx whispered. “Having seen what you went through at Wilhelm’s hands devastates me as if I felt it as well.”
“You must let it go, little cat, and move on,” Merced stated. “Vengeance will have its time, its place. But not at this moment.”
“How do you do that?” she asked. “Just push things to the side.”
“Years of practice,” he sighed and she thought of the burden that came with the title he held. It made her think of Aslan, her king, the twin of the woman she had always thought of as her sister, in a new light. There was much that rested on the shoulders of a king.
“There are two things that work in our favour when it comes to my brother,” Merced continued, his arms back to stroking her. “One is the simple fact that he is my twin, my other half. In my culture many say that twins are one soul split into two people. So it is not uncommon for only one of the two to mate while the other seemingly remains alone. Now I wonder if there is not more to that than we have been aware of. The Danuja are a mystical people and secrets are easy to keep from one another. We do not share our kiss, our breath, our souls easily and so when we do, it is forever.”
“And I took that choice from you when I breathed into you,” Lynx whispered. She knew he loved her but had to wonder if it was because of the link they shared, the one her act of ignorance had brought upon them.
“And I thank you for that,” he whispered bending to brush her lips with his. “It is a choice I would have wished for and yet felt compelled to walk away from. I would choose to walk away instead of sharing my life, my emotional self with another. And I yearned for you even when you came to me as a small cat.”
Lynx laughed as she knew he intended her to. “I did not know what that moment would bring us to and would have found another means at the time to revive you had I been aware. Much for the same reason I suppose. I would not wish to bind a mate to me fearing the vulnerability it would bring. Yet, I wouldn’t change it for anything now. Lying here in this bed with you is the most perfect moment of my life.” She cupped his face feeling his emotion in tandem with hers. “And I can only imagine it getting better.”
“And that brings me to the other thing that works in our favour,” Merced offered.
“What is that?” she asked.
“You,” he whispered and they began to plot.
Micah felt as if his soul was ripped from his body as he shut the door and walked away. She was the one, the only one. Lynx should have shared his breath, his soul, his life. He could still taste her on his tongue, feel the smooth skin of her pussy under his tongue. And now she was forbidden. Danuja mated for life. Lynx was his brother’s mate.
It didn’t matter what wishes had filled his head, his heart. It only mattered what was. He made it down the hall, down the stairs and outside the walls that felt as if they were closing in on him. He had never felt less holy in his life. He would give almost anything to shirk the cloak of being the Damisau of his people.
He didn’t know how long he had walked nor how far when he heard the sighs and moans on the breeze. It appeared he’d stumbled upon the love play of the queen Aurora and her mates Domi and Nado. The three were entwined with one man under her while the other embraced her from behind.
As a holy man he should have been repulsed. As a Danuja he should have immediately turned and walked away. As a man he stood routed to the spot and wished that it was Merced on that ground with Lynx. And Micah wished with all he was that he was the man with them.
Finally he turned and walked away heading deeper into the wood. He needed solitude, time to commune and renew his spirit. He was lost in his thoughts, immune to what was happening around him. He never saw the men who stepped out of the shadows and followed him. When the blow caught him on the base of his skull he fell easily and for the moment his thoughts did not torture him.
The two men struggled to haul the dead weight of the big Danuja on the unmarked trail that led to one of their scattered camps. They would be highly rewarded for their capture. They would have all they wanted. They would live like kings when Wilhelm saw the bounty they brought. He wanted the big Danuja badly. And luck was with them as Wilhelm was there when the dragged the body in.
“You have him,” Wilhelm demanded immediately heading towards them. He gripped the thick braids and lifted the head to his line of vision. “You idiots!” He screamed at them. “Fools, you’ve grabbed the wrong man. There are only two of them and yet still you manage to screw it up.”
“He fell into our hands, my lord,” one of them pleaded knowing that their lives depended on how Wilhelm reacted.
“You dragged him all the way here,” Wilhelm shook his head and it was easy to see the disgust on his face. “You left a trail all the way here. So take your sorry asses back out there and figure out a way to remove that trail.”
Both of the men jumped to follow that order.
Wilhelm watched them leave and turned to the remaining men in the camp. “You will need to pick up and move to another location. Make sure it is as secure as this one once was.”
“The two you sent out?”
At the question Wilhelm turned to one of the men who captained his dwindling ranks. “Find them and kill them.”
The man merely nodded. “And the Danuja?”
Wilhelm looked down at the man before him. His restrained power would not be useful to Wilhelm. No it was the other Danuja’s he craved as his own.
“Kill him.”
Chapter Seven
Lynx still couldn’t find Micah and now she had lost track of Merced as well. This mate thing was going to drive her crazy. Especially since she could feel Merced’s growing worry. Her mate couldn’t hide it from her and it increased her worry as well. She was just turning a corner when she ran into her sister Aurora coming out of a room.
“Have you seen Micah?” Lynx asked.
“Not recently,” Aurora answered. “Have a minute?”
“Sure,” Lynx smiled as Aurora grabbed her hand and squeezed before leading her into the room she’d just walked out of.
“Sit with me for a minute,” Aurora said and pointed to two chairs. “So much has happened in so short a time. I want to make sure that you are okay.”
“Of course I am,” Lynx automatically stated and her sister shook he
r head.
“This is me you are talking to,” Aurora stated.
Lynx took a deep breath. “I always knew that you weren’t really my sister but there was always this connection between us. I know that you are queen and I can’t tell you how proud I am of you. You will be an amazing queen. I’m also happy that you have found your family, your brother, your home. I know how much you wondered where you came from.” Lynx laughed. “Do you remember the stories we used to create and act out?” Aurora joined in and it was good to see her laugh. “I just want you to know that I’m always here for you. I know that you have Aslan and it is important to explore your relationship with him. He is your twin after all. Just remember that I love you and always have.”
Aurora leaned in and hugged Lynx to her. “And you remember that I will always love you. Our bond is stronger than blood. You are the sister of my heart and nothing can change that.” Aurora pulled back but stayed close. “I would love for you to stay here with me, to be a part of everything I hope to do.”
Lynx smiled and shook her head. “My life is changing also and I can’t promise that I will remain here. But I can promise that I will always return when you need me.”
“Micah?” Aurora asked softly and Lynx wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.
“It is a long story,” Lynx sighed. “One that is not finished playing out just yet.”
“You will tell me when the time is right?” Aurora asked and Lynx loved that her sister didn’t pry.
“Yes,” she vowed. “Now I have to find Micah and Merced.”
“Merced was with Aslan earlier discussing some things,” Aurora stated. “Which reminds me, Lake and Lincoln left this morning for the camp. Mamma should be here in a few days.”
Lynx caught her breath. The danger her mother could face scared the hell out of her. She would give anything to keep Lydia safely hidden from Wilhelm’s eyes. But then was that even possible? Another part of her was happy her mother was coming. She wanted to share the fact that she was now mated with her as well as whom she was mated to. She had no doubt that once her mother saw how happy she was, how much she felt for Merced and hopefully Micah, Lydia would be happy as well.
