Predator's Fire

by Rosanna Leo

  The color faded from her cheeks. “Oh, God. Do they exist, too?”

  “That’s a story for another day.” He dragged his tongue up the length of her neck, drowning in her appealing scent. He arched a brow. “Now that doesn’t mean I can’t bite you on the neck, but I had somewhere else in mind.”

  She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Killian Moon, tell me right now or I’m out the door.”

  He tweaked her nipple for her impertinence. “I’d like to see you try. I’d have you back in a second, and I’d put you over my knee.”

  She let out a frenzied whimper. “Animal.”

  “Don’t you forget it.” He reached a hand down to her ass and squeezed the ample flesh. He licked at the base of her throat, nipping a path toward her breasts. He fondled them, pushing them together and burying his face between them. Lost in their sweetness, he knew exactly where he wanted his mark. Right here, on her luscious breast, above her nipple, high enough that he’d see the scar when she wore a V-neck shirt. He wanted it in such a place where he could admire his handiwork anytime.

  And it would be a clear warning to any other shifter men. His teeth marks would bind her to him forever. The human in him marveled at his savage need to put his stamp on her, but the beast in him approved.

  She writhed under him, impatient. He slipped a hand between her legs and knew she was more than ready for him. Good. He was more than done with foreplay.

  Bowing his head to her breast, he allowed his jaguar teeth to descend. In that moment, so focused and yet so addled at the same time, he gave thanks to any god who might be listening. Not the false gods of his parents. Not that bastard August Crane. Rather, he thanked the universe for sending Nina to him. His woman. His mate.

  As his animal teeth poked through his gums, he squeezed his eyes shut against the pain of lust.

  Just as he plumped up her left breast, over her heart, she touched his face and made him look at her. With the automatic reaction of one who’d always had to hide his nature, he turned his head.

  “Look at me, Killian.”

  With slow movements, he turned back to her, willing her not to be afraid.

  “Show me your teeth.”

  He frowned, nervous, knowing this half-shifted state could be more frightening than a full shift. Seeing a man with long jaguar fangs would produce nightmares in any human, but Nina wanted to see him. His eyes burning, he opened his mouth so she could examine his canines.

  She ran a gentle finger down the length of one sharp tooth and over his anxious gums. “Do they hurt?”

  “Just a bit,” he replied, grimacing at the slight lisp the teeth produced. “But the pain goes away when I put them to work.”

  She looked him in the eye, her brown eyes sparkling with love, and smiled. “Put them to work. On me.”

  With a gluttonous growl, he lowered his head to her breast and bit her. Nina gasped but held his head in place, her body stiff and unmoving against the initial wave of pain. Knowing he’d chosen a sensitive area, he punctured her skin swiftly and then retracted his fangs, allowing his human teeth to remain in place on her flesh. In this position, he sucked at her blood until it no longer flowed from the wound and then laved the whole area with his tongue. His unique saliva would heal her, but would continue the branding process, sealing his mark on her. As he ministered to the area, his jaguar roaring in triumph, her limbs relaxed under him and she let out a soft sigh.

  My mate.

  My mate, she replied in her new telepathic voice. And then, shocked at her ability to speak with him in such a manner, she gasped. Oh my gosh, you can hear me! I can hear you.

  He smiled and ran a reverent thumb over her new mark. That’s right. One of the perks. Now, no matter how far you are from me, we’ll be able to communicate.

  A beautiful glow of wonder spread across her face, making her appear luminous. She laughed and nibbled her bottom lip. Read my mind. I want you to fuck me.

  He grinned. Message received.

  With the confidence of a predator prowling the plain, Killian entered her in one deep thrust. Nina moaned in delight as he continued the mating process, stretching her with his girth, marking her insides with his scent. Each slow glide programmed to let her know she was his and he was hers. He plumbed her depths, determined to bind her to him with precision and sweet abandon, all at once. Their fit was so tight, so perfect together, each movement made her clench and drove him toward madness. As he increased his speed, feeling her flutter and catch her breath underneath him, he felt the need to mark her all over. He wanted his touch, his scent, his seed all over her. He would take her in such a way that Nina would struggle to fall out of his bed.

  And then he’d take her again and again.

  Nearing completion, his cock aching for release, he lowered his head and bit her once more. Allowing just the dangerous tips of his jaguar teeth to emerge, he sucked at her neck. He didn’t bite hard enough to bruise her, but forceful enough to reiterate his claim.

  “My lady jaguar.”

  She threw her head back on the pillow, arching her neck for him. “Yes. Yes.”

  Delirium inched up his spine and his balls grew tight. He raised himself over her and positioned her legs over his shoulders. Holding her ankles, he fucked her hard, driving deep, making a vow with each life-altering thrust. This is how he would take her, for all their days. With utter voraciousness, leaving her in no doubt as to his feelings.

  He would love Nina until she saw only him.

  “Oh, dear Lord,” she cried, clutching at his chest hairs, her face transformed into a mask of pleasure.

  “Come for me, my love.” He withdrew, his hungry gaze pinned to her. She sucked in a desperate breath. And with a sly grin, he pounded her into what he hoped was the best orgasm of her life.

  “Jesus, Killian. Oh!” She thrashed below him, her arms flailing.

  Wild with happiness and desire, he held her hips and rode out her climax. Just as she unraveled on an exhausted sigh of disbelief, he picked up his pace and drove himself toward oblivion. As her lovely mouth formed an “O” of shock, he allowed himself to finally fall apart. His dick throbbed as he shot his seed deep inside her and he uttered the foulest words in his vocabulary and then fabricated a few new ones. As his orgasm continued to baffle him with its severe aftershocks, he held himself still, absorbing each wave with avarice. After many minutes, he pulled out, shocked his cock could still feel so full, so needy.

  She lay limp on the bed, her knees knocked to the sides, her pussy exposed. The sight of his mark on her breast and her sex covered in his juices brought forth the animal in him once more. Even before she cracked open her eyes, his cock soared.

  He reached for the tissue box on his bedside table and pulled one out. With a gentle hand, he wiped her at entrance and she jumped.

  “You don’t have to do that.” Her voice was so crackly and sexy.

  “You just lay there and keep telling me how I rocked your world.”

  She burst into laughter. “You did, you know. No one would believe me if I told them how good it was.”

  He disposed of the tissue and ran a finger between her still-wet lips, breathing in their combined scent. “I’m glad you enjoyed it. I’m going to do it again now.”

  As her jaw dropped, he chuckled and brought his mouth to her pussy.

  Yes, his delirious jaguar grunted. More.

  He patted the animal’s head. Don’t worry, friend. I can do this all night.

  Chapter 11

  “LET my mate go. Do whatever you want to me, but please let her go.”

  August Crane tilted his head to look at the lynx shifter couple before him. Rather, the abominations before him. A former employee of the Ursa Lodge, Horace Williams was a local lynx and pure-bred. However, he’d made the tragic error in judgment of taking a human wife. Why did so many of the shifter men on Gemini Island insist on rutting with human trash?

  His former human slut Elizabet
h, now a false lynx, struggled in Mary Moon’s stronger arms. Lawrence Moon restrained Horace as he pleaded for his wife’s freedom.

  “I can’t do that Horace. You made the mistake of mating with a human, sharing our sacred truths with her. This is on your head. I am merely acting as the instrument for a higher power.”

  “Your higher power reeks of shit,” Horace spat.

  Lawrence threw him to the ground and punched him in the stomach. “Don’t talk to the Great Alpha like that.”

  Elizabeth stamped on Mary’s foot in an attempt to break away. “You’re all insane!”

  Mary restrained her. “And you’re already dead, human filth. As will be any shifter who defies our master and takes a mortal to bed.”

  Even August nearly started at the vehemence in Mary’s voice. Of course, she had recently detailed how her own son Killian had taken a human woman as his own.

  He would deal with Killian soon, and his human-fucking friends on Gemini Island.

  Elizabeth and Horace exchanged a look. August could almost read their desperate telepathic conversation, even though he wasn’t privy to their brainwaves. He could see the way the husband tried to comfort the wife, could just about glean every apologetic word tumbling from Elizabeth’s mind. He appraised the woman from top to bottom. For human scum, she was quite attractive with her red hair and perky breasts. If Mary and Lawrence weren’t in the room, he might even be tempted to rut with the whore, despite his preaching against such practices. Maybe he could separate her from the others for a while.

  It had been some time since he’d indulged in his more aggressive proclivities. He’d tried very hard to remain on the straight and narrow, bedding shifter women from his following. But despite counseling his acolytes to refrain from intercourse with humans, there was still nothing he enjoyed more than fucking a human woman to death.

  He remembered the first time, when he was just in his teens. A drifter, he’d been hitchhiking through the Rockies. A gullible human woman had picked him up one rainy night. He recalled his shivers of anticipation as he turned on the charm and persuaded her to take him home for the evening, promising her an evening of pleasure she’d never forget. A lonely mortal, she’d succumbed easily and driven home with him.

  He’d barely gotten her inside before ripping her clothes off. They’d fallen, dripping wet to the floor. She’d moaned his name. He’d already forgotten hers. And before she could even produce a drip of lubrication, he’d piled inside her, shocking the hell out of the whore.

  “Wait,” she’d said, her voice a delightfully frantic whisper. “You’re hurting me.”

  “That’s how I like it, baby. Now scream.”

  She’d moaned and cried, pushing at his chest in a futile attempt to dislodge him. And although he’d experienced a sick revulsion at being so capable of manipulating a weak human, he’d felt elation as well. Nothing in his life had ever made him feel so powerful. Not the day he’d killed his own father, after the Alpha had kicked him out of their pack. Not the day he’d decided to go rogue, knowing he could lure numerous shifter minions to his cause. And certainly not the day he’d decided to target other shifters for mating with humans.

  He was a fucking god and he would prove it to anyone who dared question him.

  As the mortal woman had fought in his grip, he’d scratched at her. As she wriggled in shame and fear, he’d ripped at her skin with his fangs. And as she let out her last scream, he’d torn her throat out.

  A drip of saliva gathered at his lip as he remembered the taste of her blood. Delicious.

  He looked at Elizabeth Williams. Yes, he could play with her in the same manner. No one would question him. Hell, maybe he’d make Horace watch. That would surely kill the man.

  Another searing memory presented itself to August. The day his human mother first hit him. She’d begun drinking, unable to cope with a wild shifter child. One day, when he’d made a mess of her living room, his mother had beaten him black and blue. He’d been about eight years old.

  Bested by a human. He hadn’t even told his father, his shame had been so all-encompassing.

  No one knew August had a human mother, not even his closest confidantes. He looked the wolf, acted the wolf.

  As far as he was concerned, he was all wolf. He would spend his days beating humans into submission for his mother’s sins.

  This time, when he looked at Elizabeth, his stomach lurched in shame. How could he consider bedding the slut?

  Without giving them a moment of warning, not offering them a chance to say good bye, August stalked toward Elizabeth. With a purposeful glance at Horace, he slashed the lynx woman’s throat and she crumpled in Mary’s arms. As Horace screamed for his lost mate, August walked over to him and ended his pathetic life the same way.

  Banishing his hated memories, he then wiped his claws on Horace’s shirt and walked away to prepare his next sermon.

  * * * *

  The next week at the Ursa Lodge proved a tense time for Nina and everyone around her. The men scrambled, shoring up defenses they’d never expected to need. She could see it bothered Ryland, who’d never wanted his resort to resemble a penitentiary. Even still, knowing Crane’s spies had already infiltrated, no one wanted to take chances. They still had many guests wandering around, oblivious to the tensions riding the staff, as well as teens there for the mentoring program. New people arrived on the island every day, including some very intimidating men who Killian introduced as shifter police friends from the mainland.

  Staff members watched each other, too. After all, Angus, while slightly creepy, had been a trusted member of staff. For the first time since she’d arrived, Nina noticed people locking their doors and peeking over their shoulders. In a location where everyone was meant to feel free and easy, it saddened her.

  Her parents, still coming to terms with the reality of shape shifters, hammered her and Killian with questions. She couldn’t blame them, but around the fourth day, she’d finally had to distance herself from her folks. She knew they meant well, but she was still coping with everything herself. Thankfully, Lia, Gioia, and Charlotte took her parents under their wings for a couple of days, knowing she needed a break and that she needed time with Killian, too.

  Killian. Her mate.

  A week had gone by since he marked her and she was still touching her hand to her breast, amazed at his ferocious devotion. He caught her touching the mark a couple of times and each time he frowned at her, worried she was unhappy.

  She’d done her best to reassure him the opposite was true.

  Her blood boiled for him. Her bones cried out for him. She’d never wanted anyone so much or so often. Despite everything happening at the resort, they’d snuck every possible moment to make love. They’d done it in every possible place, in bed, their nude bodies entwined, to say nothing of the many spots they’d used in the woods. He’d taken her on park benches, behind outbuildings, and right on the cold forest floor. Each crazed coupling had only brought them closer together, and each time they’d come, he renewed his vows to her, promising to keep her safe.

  She wanted to keep him safe, too. She kept waiting for her jaguar to appear, kept touching her teeth, feeling for sharp points, but continued to feel like a human woman. When she’d asked Killian why she hadn’t shifted, he’d explained the first shift often came at moments of stress or anger. While she didn’t look forward to feeling those emotions, in a weird way, Nina just wanted to shift and get it over with.

  Ever the gracious hostess, and sensing the major case of nerves running rampant all over the island, Lia took it upon herself to organize an evening event. Even though the pool hadn’t officially opened yet, she got Ryland to prepare it for what she called “a night-time booze swim.” Sure, the water would be cold, but Killian assured her shifters had their own internal thermostat. Even cold water felt warm and comfortable to them.

  Lia had tea lights placed all around the massive pool, set up a makeshift bar, bla
sted tunes and invited resort staff to have a leisurely swim.

  As soon as Nina dipped her toes in the strangely-warm water, her handsome mate at her side, she had to admit she felt some of their problems drift away. Propping her Grasshopper on the deck near them, next to Killian’s beer, she slid into the pool with him. He sat behind her on an underwater ledge and she sat between his legs, his arms wrapped around her waist.

  For a moment, she just closed her eyes in luxuriated in his touch, so fierce and yet so gentle.

  He planted a few kisses on her shoulder and his finger slid under her bikini cup, teasing her sensitive skin. “Did I tell you how hot you are in your pink bikini?”

  “About fifty-seven times on the way over.”

  He gave her thigh a playful swat. “Am I boring you with my attentions?”

  She angled her head to look at him and smiled. “Never.”

  The kiss he gave her then was one she knew she’d always remember. No matter how often Killian touched her, he managed to infuse each caress with a sense of newness and of amazement. As his tongue stroked against hers with silken seduction, her pussy throbbed and an ache gathered low in her belly. She clutched at his muscled forearm, scratching it, and was stricken with the need to act out her inappropriate desires in public. Perhaps it was the pool. She made a mental note to seduce him in a pool soon, when their friends weren’t around, of course.

  Lia splashed into the water next to them, followed by an anxious Ryland.

  “Babe,” he whispered. “Be careful.”

  She gave him a pointed look. “I will. Don’t worry so much.” And then Lia leaned over and kissed his furrowed brow.

  Still frowning, Ryland gathered her onto his lap and glared at the water.

  Gioia and Soren joined them, and Bart and Charlotte followed, completing their circle of good friends. However, the pool was positively rocking with other Ursa staff, and just as many hung out on the deck, drinking and laughing, clearly appreciative of the opportunity to let loose. Even Percy and Byron, her insanely-handsome brothers-in-law, had come for the party. They chatted up her parents on the deck, apparently oblivious to all the female heads turning their way.