She leaned into his touch all the same.
“I’m sorry, Diana,” he said.
“For what?”
“I didn’t want it to be like this,” he said.
“I know,” Diana said, “but, I didn’t want to get captured and drugged by greedy psychopaths. We can’t always get what we want.”
He smiled, but it seemed very forced. Not a moment later, he pulled away and began to dress.
“I still don’t see why I can’t come with you,” Diana said as she moved to the edge of the bed to gather her own clothes.
“I told you, it’s too dangerous,” he said. Though now, looking at him, Diana began to suspect that, once again, he was not giving her the full story.
“You know, this overprotective thing is losing its charm,” she said.
“I’m not being overprotective,” he answered, “I’m being cautious.”
As he put on his shirt, she looked at him, giving him her best skeptical glare. This caused him to heave a sigh.
“Look,” he said, “it’s not that I doubt...what you can do it’s...there are a lot of people that I don’t trust. Not just Charlie and Manaba. I’ll have to go with the Navajo to the salt lake and I...I know they’ll try to use you for their own version of the prophecy. I can’t let that happen. Do you understand?”
She looked at him one more moment. She still thought he was being overkill protective, no matter what he said to the contrary. But, she could at least accept that he had reasons for not wanting her to go.
It did not mean that she wouldn’t go to the lake. It only meant that, if she was to go, it wouldn’t help to have Cat fretting over her the whole time. She would have to go on her own.
All the same, she looked at Cat who was eyeing her anxiously. She gave him the best smile she could muster.
“All right,” she said, “I’ll stay here like a good little girl.”
“Come on, Diana,” Cat said, “you know it’s not like that.”
“I know,” Diana answered.
Cat finished putting on his pants, picked up his phone and looked anxiously at the clock.
“You’d better hurry,” Diana said, “you don’t want to keep them waiting too long.”
Cat looked at her and merely nodded. He gathered his keys, his phone, everything he would need. Then, he moved slowly towards the bed.
“Diana,” he said gently, sitting down next to her, “do you promise me you’ll keep yourself safe?”
Diana looked at his eyes. He seemed so genuinely concerned for her that she felt a stab of guilt when she realized that she could not, in good conscious, promise what he asked her too.
“I promise,” she lied. Biting her lip and fighting the urge to look away from him. He smiled at her and lifted her lips to meet his in a sweet chaste kiss.
He pulled back and looked her in the eyes once more.
“I love you,” he said softly, almost hesitantly as though he was not sure what he would receive in response.
Diana smiled back at him, a crackling like fire now running through her veins.
“I love you too,” she said without the slightest hint of hesitation. Glad at least, that she did not have to leave him with a lie.
He smiled back at her, kissed her once more and hurried out the door. She moved to the window and watched as he headed out to the open field where the small group of Navajo men had gathered.
She was surprised that the group now included Lonon, Cat’s father. Though, she realized immediately, that she should not have been. It was very clear from the earlier meeting that he was desperately worried about Amanda.
They huddled together for barely a moment before splitting apart. The Navajo headed into the truck that Diana recognized as the one that had escorted her to the reservation, not two days before. Cat and his father headed towards Cat’s small Mercedes.
It was then, as Diana watched Cat get in and start the car’s engine that she realized she had no plan. There was no way she could sneak out now without being seen. And the very idea of trying to, somehow, force her body into the tiny trunk of Cat’s car without him noticing made her cringe with embarrassment.
She moved away from the window and cursed herself for being so stupid. It was all well and good to want to go to the Salt Lake. To want to fulfill the prophecy and end this madness once and for all. But, wanting to do something and having the means to actually do it was two very different things.
Diana sank down into a chair by the table and tried to think. She could hot wire a car, (with every intention of bringing it back, of course). But, she had no idea how or where to even begin that process.
There was no way that she could walk to the Salt Lake. It was thirty miles from the reservation at the very least.
That was when she remembered.
When Cat had brought her to the reservation, they had been protected by a group of shifters. In cougar form, these shifters were able to run right alongside the cars on the road. Matching speed for speed.
If she could transform…
But, she had only done that fully once. And that had been in a very desperate situation. Not to mention...Charlie had been there the last time. If she tried again, who knew what he might do to her.
Still. She realized that there was no other option. She had to try.
Quickly, she slid from the chair and onto the cool adobe ground. She closed her eyes tightly and tried, as best she could, to remember what she had been thinking about the last time. What had caused her to forget all other thoughts, empty her mind?
It had been Cat. She’d thought of Cat the last time. She’d remembered the dream she had, the dream where they’d spoken to one another.
Now...now, she had much more than a dream.
She pressed her eyes closed and remembered what had happened, not half an hour before.
She remembered the way Cat had carried her to the bed, the way he’d nearly torn her shirt and pants from her once they were in the room.
How he had grasped her wrists and his teeth had raked across her neck, then his mouth had suckled at her breasts.
She remembered watching him as his tan, muscled body thrust its way into hers. She remembered his wicked grin against her skin every time she moaned or screamed or begged him to fuck her harder. To pound into her with complete abandon.
She remembered her feeling of utter bliss when he did. When he thrust into her with everything inside of him, causing her body to rock and sway. She felt it now again, as she remembered the last powerful thrust that sent her over the edge.
Suddenly, she felt herself changing, as she had before. Her arms were lengthening, as were her legs. She could feel fur growing against her skin. Soon, her thoughts began to leave her. They became fragments, images, just as they had in the canyon.
The cougar soon found itself on hard, unforgiving floor. She knew her mate was out there. Her mate was going to the lake. She also knew that she had to be with him. She had to get away from this floor, away from the inside and go to the outside, go to the lake.
Quickly, she sat back on her hind legs and, with a powerful leap, burst through the glass window and began to run, as fast as she could, towards the lake. Towards her mate.
Chapter Five
It took thirty minutes to get to the salt lake. Thirty minutes of a long, torturous car ride. Cat’s father, Lonon sat with his arms crossed staring out the window and refusing to speak to his son.
Cat would not have minded the silence if the tension was not so palpable. He knew Lonon blamed him for Amanda’s plight. But, it was more than that. Cat’s father blamed his son for a lot of things.
He blamed him for the attention the Salt Lake was getting from the world outside the tribe. He blamed him for wanting to go to business school instead of finding some kind of work within the reservation. He blamed him for not putting as much time into his shifting studies as he ought to have and, most of all, he blamed him for being born a boy.
Cat knew the last was true even th
ough Lonon repeatedly denied it. Cat knew his mother and father had wanted girls. Less for the usual aesthetic reasons and more because a girl could not be a mate for the salt woman. Cat knew that Lonon had not wanted any part in the Salt Woman prophecy even though he knew his family was destined to, one day, fulfil it. Lonon hadn’t wanted the Salt Woman to return until he and his children were long dead.
Cat knew that his father had never sought attention and hated being thrust into the limelight. In many ways, he was like Cat in that way. The one difference being, Cat had always known he had a destiny that he would be forced to fulfil. And, what’s more, had no interest in shirking the responsibility of it. Even though his father had wanted him to.
Even now that Lonon knew the prophecy was being fulfilled, what’s more, there was nothing he could do to stop it, The sour expression he wore told Cat clearly that he had no desire, whatsoever to reconcile with his son.
Cat was not sure why this idea bothered him. He, after all, had not seen his father in years. They were not close and never would be. Perhaps it was best then that they stayed like this. Both men, sitting intense, in stubborn silence until they reached their destination.
Not long after this thought crossed Cat’s mind, the silence was broken.
“Are you mated?”
“What?” Cat asked. More out of surprise at his father’s sudden speech than lack of understanding.
“Did you mate with the girl?” Lonon asked again. Cat looked over at him. His eyes were still fixed determinately at the sights outside the car window.
“Once again,” Cat said, “her name is Diana. And yes. We’re mated.”
“Good,” his father answered, “I’m...I’m glad one of us will have some protection, at least. I wouldn’t want to lose both my kids on the same day.”
Cat looked over at his Father. Though his sour expression, very much like Amanda’s, still hadn’t changed, he could see a different kind of tension settle into Lonon’s shoulders.
For the first time, Cat realized, Lonon wasn’t just worried about Amanda, who he’d always been close with. Lonon was also worried about his son.
“You won’t lose us,” Cat said.
His father finally tore his gaze away from the window and looked at him. The sources in his expression lifted for a moment to reveal something else. Something altogether more vulnerable. The moment passed, however, and with a curse nod at Cat, Lonon returned to staring out the window.
They reached the edge of the Salt Lake. The Navajo was already there to meet them.
“We should transform,” Tse said immediately trying to take charge, “they could be anywhere in those canyons. We need to be ready.”
“I know the way,” Cat said stepping towards them. He wanted to remind Tse that this was not a Navajo mission. That only Cat, a Zuni, could show them the way to the cave. They would have to take a back seat to him.
“Transform and follow me,” Cat said moving to the front of the group. He closed his eyes and immediately felt the tug of change.
When the cougar opened his eyes, he saw five others surrounding him. Quickly he led them over the rock and into the canyon maze.
He walked as though he had known the way all his life. He remembered where his mate had been before; convinced his simpler mind that he needed to protect her by going back there. That instinct led him to the small cave where he had first seen Diana in her shifter form.
Once they had climbed up the cave, the cougars carefully stalked the enemy’s ground. Cat could not hear or see any sign of the others. Not Charlie, Manaba, Amanda or Ashkii.
He would have to enter the cave to know for sure. He looked back at the others and found his father’s grey form. Silently he communicated to his father, asking him to follow him. Lonon, in turn, as the eldest in the group, was able to instruct the others to keep watch outside.
The two stalked carefully into the cave and Cat tried, as best he could, to remember what Diana had shown him in the dream and how to get to the center of the cave.
He closed his eyes and tried to see the vision she had given him. Right, then left, then straight on through.
He followed the directions carefully until, eventually, he found the rocks where Diana had been tied. And, sure enough, there Ashkii lay, beaten and apparently unconscious. Amanda, on the other hand, while bruised, was very much awake.
“Where the hell have you been?” she asked in a fierce whisper as soon as Cat reached her.
He immediately sat back on his hind legs and closed his eyes. He felt his features transform. As soon as he did, he reached for Amanda’s ropes. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his father move towards Ashkii.
“Do you have any idea how long we’ve been here?” Amanda spat again in a whisper.
“Look, we came as quick as we could, all right?” Cat said untying her last rope.
“Does ‘as quick as we could’ include a pit stop to make out with your girlfriend?” Amanda asked.
“Amanda!” Lonon whispered grabbing Ashkii and swinging him over his shoulder, “there’s no time. The others are waiting-”
“Charlie! Charlie, please don’t!” A cry was heard from the other end of the cave. Lonon and Cat both turned to look.
“You stay here,” Cat said, “I’m going to go-”
“You’re not going alone,” Amanda said.
“Don’t worry,” Cat said, “I’m protected.”
“What does that mean?” Amanda whispered, but Cat was already making his way towards the source of the sound. The woman’s voice grew louder the closer he got.
“Charlie, you don’t have to do this it-”
“God-damn it, Manaba! Let go of me!”
Cat heard a scuffle then a loud slap and a high pitched cry. He rushed forward. When he finally reached the source of the noise, he found Manaba bruised and sitting alone in the dirt.
He simply stared at her for a moment. He had been expecting a threat, a fight. Instead, he found this injured woman with dirty tear tracks streaming down her cheeks. Her hair was matted and fell wildly around her shoulders.
Cat, against his instincts, took two steps towards her. She turned towards him. Her eyes widened first in surprise then, in a split second, all vestige of weakness disappeared. Her eyes hardened before they closed.
Before Cat could brace himself, he saw a blur of large black fur hurtling towards him. He felt himself being pushed to the ground. He pushed as hard as he could against the large weight biting and clawing at him, but the large black cougar was stronger than he could ever hope to be untransformed.
The cougar clawed at Cat’s face, eyes, shoulders, he could feel blood pouring down from them as he struggled. He knew he would lose. There was no possible way he could battle Manaba alone.
In desperation, he turned his head from the fierce cougar in front of him and closed his eyes. Trying, with all his might to focus on transformation. Trying to ignore the scratching and biting even as his limbs continued to struggle.
Then, in one moment, with his eyes still closed, he felt the large weight leave him. He heard the telltale sound of two separate and new growls. He opened his eyes to see a small grey cougar pinning the large black cougar to the ground while the brown cougar swiped at it with its paws.
Both Lonon and Amanda had come to his rescue. Shakily, Cat lifted himself from the ground and moved towards the two cougars.
“Enough,” he said. The two looked to him. The large brown cougar backed away from the rogue immediately. The small grey one stayed where he was, his claws digging into the black flesh, looking at Catahassa definitely.
“Father, please,” Cat said more softly, “we need her alive.”
The cougar’s eyes remained locked with Cat’s for one moment before, reluctantly, moving away from the black cougar.
The large cougar, clearly injured and realizing she was cornered and outnumbered, closed its eyes and shifted back to the form of the weak woman Cat had first come upon.
“Where is he?”
Cat asked.
Manaba looked at him defiantly for a moment and turned her head away.
“Manaba, it’s no use playing dumb,” he said, “the Navajo are with us. They’re waiting outside for our signal. Would you rather wait for them? I don’t think they’d behave kindly towards you after what you did to their leader’s son.”
At this, Manaba turned sharply towards Cat. Her eyes were no longer hard.
“How is he?” she asked.
“Unconscious,” Amanda said, “you should have expected that after what Charlie did to him.”
“I didn’t know he would do that,” Manaba said, “I...I begged him not to. But-”
“Where is he?” Cat asked urgently.
“He’s gone after her,” Manaba said.
“Who?”
“Who do you think?” Manaba asked a small note of defiance returning to her voice, “your salt woman.”
“He won’t be able to get to her at the reservation-”
“She’s not there,” Manaba said.
“What do you mean, she’s not there?” Cat asked. His blood beginning to freeze at the thought. He had told Diana to stay put. He had told her to keep herself safe.
“She’s here,” Manaba said, “she’s by the salt lake.”
“How do you know that?” Cat asked.
“Charlie had her talisman,” she answered, “it burned when she arrived at the lake. He ran off to...to find her.”
Manaba looked down at the ground, fear and vulnerability entered her face once more. Looking at her face told her everything he needed to know.
In order to keep the prophecy from being fulfilled, Charlie was going to try to defile the salt woman.
“I’m going after her,” Cat announced immediately.
“I’m coming with you,” Amanda said immediately.
“No, you’re not,” Cat insisted, “stay with Dad and Ash. Keep an eye on her,” he jerked his head towards Manaba.
“Cat-” Amanda began but, he didn’t give her the chance to finish. He closed his eyes and, in one moment, shifted back into his cougar form.
He took off through the cave opening, once more, in search of his mate.
BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE: The Unforgettable Southern Billionaires: The Complete Collection Boxed Set (Young Adult Rich Alpha Male Billionaire Romance) Page 37
