by PJ Schnyder
Shaking her head, she clarified. “I do want to go, I do. I’m having trouble keeping my mind on serious things right about now is all.”
Palming away a few errant strands from her cheek, he placed a sympathetic kiss to the cheek. “You’ve been thinking heavy for a couple of days straight and you’ve had a lot of hurdles to face. You know what I’m going to help you do?
“What?” Suspicion colored her voice as she watched him through narrowed eyes. Mischief sparked on his face and she sensed an incoming punch line.
He scooped her up easily in the cradle of his arms. “Get over them.” And he’d delivered.
“Hah.” Okay, he’d gotten a laugh out of her, a little one. “Hurdles aren’t on my mind right now. I’ve got other things going on upstairs.”
Like the fleeting thought of an old storybook about a princess. The other times he'd held her, he hadn't given her time to think about it, but she couldn’t help feeling swept off her feet and she sort of wished he’d carry her back up to his palace and do a few naughty things involving that huge bath.
He’d been watching her as the thoughts ran through her head. “Anything interesting, Kitten?
Nope, not telling him she'd been fantasizing about his bathtub. She changed the subject. “How do you know what path to follow?”
“You found your way to town fine yesterday. A shifter gets familiar with its surroundings.”
“But, you take a different path every time, coming or going. I don't think I could find my way from town to your home on my own.”
He strode along confidently, pausing here and there to taste the air and hop over streams or deliberately walk in them. She did her best to hold still in his arms, knowing extra motion would spread her scent around and let it fall to the ground. He'd explained it to her the first time he'd carried her to the cabin.
“It's a safety precaution to take different routes in and out of private places.” He had dropped his voice to barely audible, his words only for her ears. “You'll get familiar with the paths soon enough and maybe make up a few of your own.”
“How do you hide your trail?” Taking his cue, she spoke as softly as she could. “I can see some of it in the way you're going, but I don't get all of it.”
He grinned at her. “We'll play a couple of hide and seek games once you get more used to what you can do. Mostly, Sentinels and Enforcers learn to hide their own trail as part of training.”
“If you learn to hide it, can one of you find the other?”
“The hide and seek games help there,” he replied. “Keeps our skills sharp.”
She noticed he hadn't answered her question. Her mind took another intuitive step. “That's why you can't find Van. He's hiding his trail from you all. He only leaves his scent where he wants to on purpose.”
Adam's face became serious, but he kept moving. She pretended not to notice he'd gripped her tighter to his chest.
They approached the cabin from behind, avoiding the clearing all together. He didn't put her down until they reached the front steps and traded manly nods with Aaron, a handsome young man with reddish-brown hair falling to one side, big brown eyes and a lopsided grin. He seemed to have a sore throat as he greeted Mackenzie.
“Actually,” and he cleared his throat yet again, “your friend, Stephie, wants to talk to Adam first. Says she wants to know what she needs to do to make sure he doesn't take you away again.”
She brightened as she beamed at Adam. “Promising. See? She wants to make sure to do things your way.”
His dubious expression spoke volumes, but he entered the cabin without a complaint or wise crack.
All smiles, she sat down on the porch steps to wait.
Adam stepped inside and immediately, his jaguar snapped to alertness. Something about the female's scent, a ripening musk, irritated him.
“Hello.” Stephie sat on the kitchen counter. “I'm glad you came.”
The girl wore a halter top and shorts, the bright splash of fuchsia from her bra peeking from the keyhole of the top. She waited there, far too comfortable, for someone who had so recently been traumatized and called Mackenzie for help.
He folded his arms across his chest. “Aaron says you wanted to know what precautions you need to take so I don't remove Mackenzie from harm's way again.”
“Well, how will I know if you don't tell me?” Her head cocked to one side the same way Mackenzie's did. It didn't look as natural when Stephie did it.
She hopped down from the counter and approached, gazing up at him through heavy bronze lashes. Her top's keyhole showed off cleavage and the splash of color from the bra drew his eye. She stopped within arm's reach, close enough for him to get a very good view.
“So, no shouting.” Stephie's voice lilted in an almost sing song way. “No sudden moves, because it excites the beast in you, doesn't it?”
A growl rose up in his throat as she leaned closer. Her fingers toyed with the ties to her halter top and the knot came undone. Her scent was cloying; an adult female's musk hanging in the air. His jaguar rose quickly to the surface, irritated and suspicious.
She licked her lips in a slow, deliberate act. “No touching? I'm not allowed to touch Mackenzie even though you do? Wouldn't you want to let us touch?”
Too much sex in her voice, too many unspoken invitations. Her nipples stood out, easily visible through the thin fabric of her bra and shirt. His cat didn't trust the signals she broadcast with premeditated skill.
She hadn't lied yet, he would have smelled a lie in her scent, but as he thought through what she'd said, he realized she'd been very strategic with her truths.
“Back off,” he growled.
She pouted. “But, I'm really new. Aaron said new shapeshifters have trouble with their hormones. It’s why you're assigned to Mackenzie. She has trouble with them too, right?”
“Mackenzie is learning to be a shapeshifter. I'm her trainer.” He watched Stephie carefully, but not for the reason she wanted. Her skin had taken on a ruddy color, eyes almost fever bright. His jaguar had been trying to tell him since he entered the room, the girl had gone into heat.
“What are you teaching her?” Those green eyes narrowed and then widened in alarm. “Are you forcing her? Are you taking advantage of her? What kind of teacher are you?”
Every question had gotten louder and more alarmed. He cursed when Mackenzie rushed through the door.
“What's wrong?” She looked from him to Stephie. “Stephie, Adam wouldn't ever take advantage. He's a good man.”
She'd come through the door to defend him, not her friend. Relief washed through him even though he hadn't known he'd been concerned. And then Mackenzie really looked at Stephie. Her nostrils flared as she took in the musk saturating the air inside the cabin, dark eyes dilating even as the edges lightened to gold. His jaguar yowled as she absorbed it, her expression changing.
“Damn! Aaron! Get in here!”
Adam grabbed Mackenzie and tossed her over his shoulder without ceremony, getting out of the cabin. But Mackenzie proved an unwilling bundle. She flailed and kicked , then managed to get leverage with her feet on the support column for the porch. She shoved hard with both legs, knocking them both off balance and sending Adam tumbling backwards.
She rolled when they fell, taking a bump or two but managing to stay out of his grasp for a split second and shot right back into the cabin.
“Stephie, what are you doing?” Mackenzie asked, point blank.
“You!” Stephie's lovely face had contorted into an ugly grimace. “I could have any man of yours! I would have had him in a few more minutes. They can't resist when I'm like this!”
Aaron tried to block Stephie's line of sight without touching her, but she kept dodging to the right and left to glare at Mackenzie.
“You've got to be kidding.” Mackenzie didn’t recognize the friend she’d known for years in the raving woman before her.
“Van loves me!” Stephie screamed. “He said I was the only one. He said I
had to be like this for him to take me. And, there you are! How did you trick him into Changing you, you little…”
“Enough.” Adam's power rolled through the cabin, silencing Stephie. His hands fell like vice grips onto Mackenzie's shoulders.
Probably a good thing since she saw everything through a haze of red. Her heart beat in her ears so loud, she wondered how Adam couldn't hear it. Or maybe he could. She only knew in that one moment, she wanted to rip into Stephie.
Snarling sounded far away, but it took a moment before she realized it came from her. Funny, she decided she wasn't going to stop.
“Van lied.” She snapped, a tiny part of her cringing at how harsh she sounded. “He lied to us both. He Changed us both. When he Changed me, it was after I said 'No' over and over again.”
“Liar!” Stephie spat at her. “He only loved me. He wasn't lying. You'll see.”
“He lied.” Mac insisted, never wavering. “He told me he loved me, told me I was the only one. He made all the same commitments; he lied.”
Stephie laughed, the sound high-pitched and a little insane. “You're so naïve, Mackenzie. You're so gullible. Always the sweet one, the one everyone wanted to shelter. You can't handle the fact Van wanted a real woman. A woman who knows dating is more than just kisses.”
She turned to Adam, all haughty arrogance. Holding his gaze, Stephie's voice turned mocking as she pitched it higher. “Kisses are special.” She let out a sound of disgust. “Mackenzie thinks a real man can be satisfied with baby kisses. She's too immature to know how to really please a man, or what kind of pleasure satisfies a real woman.”
Mackenzie stared at her friend in disbelief. The bitterness, the hateful words, they weren't Stephie. The temperature of the air around her rose with her anger, and she clenched her hands into fists, but she’d waited too long—her claws broke past her fingertips.
“See?” Stephie laughed, turning to look down her nose at Mackenzie. “You can't even control yourself. You never did know how to make the best use of what you had.”
“This stops now.” Adam interrupted, barely sounding human. “Aaron, you keep that thing here. Tie her up if you have to. Whatever you do, don't bed her, no matter how bad the heat drives her.”
Aaron stretched his neck, popping a few vertebrae. “Not likely.”
Adam locked Mackenzie in a solid grip as he pulled her stumbling out of the cabin. When he threw her over his shoulder in a modified carry, he kept a hold of her arms and legs as he strode away into the woods listening to her imaginative string of curses.
She cursed better than most soldiers.
It almost made up for the trouble brewing. A couple of hours, the night at most, and the heat would take her. Driven by need, attracted to and threatened by every male around her, she might lose her sanity. Without help, she definitely would lose control, and Chryssa hadn't returned yet. The female healer wouldn’t pose a threat, could have helped Mackenzie through safely. Without Chryssa, he’d have to do his best, for Mackenzie’s sake.
He strode deep into the forest, away from the cabin and into his own territory. Once they were alone, he slid Mackenzie off his shoulder and back on her feet.
“Damn it, let me…” she hissed and spit, madder every moment.
He waited.
Without Stephie there to feed the flames, her temper blew over in the face of his calm, almost sad demeanor. She abandoned her line of thought after a few more curses and asked warily. “What?”
“This is going to suck, Kitten, and your friend knew it when she used it against you.” His head ached. Anger still burned through his system, heating his blood, but weariness weighed in his heart. Mackenzie didn't need yet another blow.
“Used what?” Her eyes held a touch of fear.
“Heat. She got you close enough and got your temper close enough to the surface that she's brought you into heat right along with her,” Adam said it quickly, airing the unpalatable truth.
“No.” She turned her head left and right in slow denial. "Why wouldn't you have noticed earlier? There's got to be a mistake.”
But her skin flushed darker than the usual rose and her scent carried the richly spiced touch of arousal. Mackenzie was coming into heat, slowly but inexorably.
“There's no way we can hide your scent with you in heat.” He had to warn the Enforcers, step up the security even higher. “You're going to be crawling inside your skin.”
“I don't want this.” She hugged her arms. “I don't understand.”
“We'll work through this.”
She took a step or two back, away from him. “How? What are you going to do?”
He held out his hands and made a soothing noise. “Easy there, Kitten. Heat works itself out in more than one way. You have a choice.”
She laughed, a sound with no joy in it. “Choice of who?”
He slashed the air with one hand in the negative. “You could hunt instead. If I stay in this form and you Change to cat, you won't be drawn to me sexually. You could redirect your drive into hunting, and I'll run with you on the hunt to guide you. You don't have to have sex.”
She’d be trading one fear for another, Adam could see it in her eyes.
“It's the best choice I can give you, Kitten.”
She fell silent for a moment. “Where does that leave us? There's something between us. We don't know what it is yet.”
“This isn't going to rush us.” He could wait. He wouldn't rush her with the heat driving her into his bed. “Once we get past this and resolve the issues with your friend and the stray, we're going to explore this thing between us. I promise, Kitten.”
“Tell me what the heat will do.” Her jaw set. She wouldn’t run from the problem.
“It's going to last a couple of days. You're going to be aggressive and defensive and on edge.”
“Sounds like PMS.” She scowled.
“You'll also be turned on.” He wasn't about to let her think it would be easy. “So turned on every male who comes near you will know. You'll crave touch, crave it more than food or water.
“Okay, there’s something different.” Mackenzie's eyes dilated.
He continued in a hurry. “The only way to satisfy the craving will be sex or the kill. You can fight it, but you'll be driven to one or the other.”
“So, Change into the cat and run something down.” Mackenzie grimly considered the alternatives. “Or, stay human and stay with you.” Suddenly, stay took on a whole new meaning.
“It doesn't have to be me, Kitten,” he added, gently. “You have a choice there too.”
Temper flared and she bared her teeth at him. “I'm not some teen to go flaking off to some cute boy when I've got an itch to scratch. Deal with it.”
His cat stilled inside him, both man and beast waiting for her to say what she wanted.
She took a slow breath, letting go of her temper bit by bit as she exhaled. He’d never seen anyone else weigh the options, assessing so carefully, and decide so fast. “I'm going to go through this, in this form. I'll learn to Change when there isn't the heat to push me.”
He waited for the rest, every fiber of his being tuned to her, her scent already a heady drug surrounding him as those dark melted-chocolate eyes fixed on him.
“Stay with me.” She made the request in the softest of whispers. “Please.”
“Kitten.” He answered her in a husky voice as his body responded to her gentle request, but he had to repeat his warning. “You choose me…”
“I choose.”
Mackenzie put everything into those two words. Heat rose inside, her skin hot. Her clothes chafed skin as it became more sensitive by the second and her nipples tightened as she watched Adam absorb her answer.
He took a step toward her, moving slowly and giving her time to avoid him if she wanted to. Those wonderful amber eyes burned as they studied her. His musk surrounded her, made things tighten low in her belly. She’d been hungry for him for days and this new issue only sharpened it.
> He reached out a hand to brush her cheek, his touch cooling. “Then I'll stay.”
Heat or no heat, he'd given her the freedom of a choice. She had control and her heart calmed with the choice, the cat inside her purring. What should have driven her over the edge, she felt sure for the first time since Van had taken all choices away from her.
Steadying herself, she leaned into his touch, letting the cool relief of it soak into her skin. “What next?”
“Are you comfortable with my home?” His hand slid behind her neck, cradling her as he tilted her head to look up at him. His lips brushed her cheek.
She nodded, too focused on his body to say the words.
“Then we're going to spend the next couple of days in there.” His other hand brushed along her side, along the curve of her hip, the outside of her arm, his touch drew a streak of cool with its passing. She burned even more in the wake of it.
“What about Van?” she gasped, a part of her still holding on to the danger out there. She trembled when Adam growled, not from fear but from arousal.
“You and me, Kitten, we'll focus on the heat.” His voice barely audible. “We let the pride deal with the stray. And, if he gets past the pride, he deals with me.”
And that, she understood, was a predator speaking.
Concern peeked through the haze of desire and Mackenzie opened her mouth to ask another question, but he settled his mouth over hers, effectively drowning out what she would have asked.
His lips pressed firm against hers, both his hands moving to cradle her face, thumbs brushing a cool trail along her jaw line. Words fled as she opened for him, her senses focusing sharply on the feel of every touch, every point of contact between them. His tongue danced inside her mouth, tasting her. Hungrily, Mackenzie fed on his tongue, his mouth, pressing herself against him as a tide of need washed over her. One kiss and wet desire soaked her panties.
“It only gets stronger from here, Kitten,” Adam whispered against her mouth.
She uttered a low moan and gripped his sides as she reached for his mouth again. When he hesitated, waiting for her answer, she nipped his lower lip instead. Staring at him, she licked the same spot, sliding her hands over the corded muscle of his abs.
