He leaped to the top of the cabin steps and shoved the door so hard it flew off its hinges and smashed into something metal.
As the light from the fire outside spilled into the cabin, his eyes widened.
A fucking cage?
Was this bastard serious?
Someone growled at him.
August casually swung his gaze towards the owner of it.
The big male tiger hunkered down, his fur already dotted with blood. It coated his mouth too.
August saw red.
He growled and shifted in a heartbeat, met the male as he launched towards him, grappling with him. The moment his back paws hit the floor again, he shoved upwards as hard as he could, driving into the male with all of his strength, tipping him off balance.
The male hit the wall.
August’s gaze zeroed in on his exposed neck.
He snarled and launched forwards, towards it, his jaws parting as he angled his head and aimed for the male’s vulnerable spot.
A huge paw struck him hard in the side of his head, sending him into the wall on his right, and then came again, claws raking over his fur and drawing blood, sending more fire sweeping through him.
A feral roar echoed around the cabin, deafening in volume.
Maya slammed into the male, her bare pink skin marred with blood around her throat and on her hips and thighs. She growled through her short fangs and hooked her arm around the tiger’s throat, dragging him backwards.
Exposing the male’s vulnerable spot again.
August launched at it.
The male broke free of Maya’s grip and barrelled into him, sending him skidding backwards. The bastard didn’t stop. He ploughed onwards, until August hit the wall near the door. He tried to escape, but the male didn’t give him the chance. Sharp fangs sank into his right shoulder and he cried out as pain tore through him, and struggled to hold on to his snow leopard form.
Maya snarled and suddenly the male tiger was gone, ripped away from him and sent flying across the cabin. He struck the far wall and hit the floor, shook his head and growled as he came to face them again.
She stepped in front of August, shielding him with her bare body, facing the male.
Beautiful.
She had every instinct inside him awakening, rising to overwhelm him, from a desire to claim her to a desire to defend her, and all the ones in between.
Before he could even move a muscle, she had kicked off, was on the tiger and fighting him, a wild warrior who stole his breath as she grappled with the tiger, hands clutching his front paws, head ducking and dodging as the male tried to bite her.
She growled and twisted, and threw the male to her left, towards the cages.
Gods.
She glanced at him, that blue corona in her glowing golden eyes again.
Talon had told him her secret. Their secret. August had been right.
She had hellcat blood in her.
On a low snarl, she launched at the male, catching him before he could gather himself, landing on his back and gripping his jaw with one hand and his neck with the other. The tiger snarled and bucked, trying to shake her, but she held on to him, her eyes flashing dangerously as she fought against him, wrestling with his head.
August had foolishly thought he would be the one to fight the alpha for her, that she would need him to come charging in like a white knight to save her. Idiot. Maya was strong. Beautiful. She didn’t need him to fight her battles for her.
She needed him to fight her battles with her.
At her side, as an equal.
She yanked on the tiger’s head as he snarled, grunted and cried out as she fought him, her fingers bleeding as she clutched his upper jaw and pulled, his teeth sinking into her delicate flesh.
She roared as she leaned back and managed to pull the tiger’s head up at last.
Giving August the opening he needed.
This time, he wouldn’t waste it.
They would end this male together.
August ran at the male and roared as he closed the distance between them. The male frantically fought Maya but she held him firm, her eyes almost entirely blue now as they shone with the desire that echoed in August, a deep need to make the male pay.
Gladly.
August growled and seized the male’s throat, bit down hard and locked his jaw, so the male couldn’t break free. The metallic tang of blood filled his mouth and the male struggled, but August held on, biting down harder as Maya fought to keep the male’s head up. The taste of her blood joined the male’s in his mouth and fury blasted through him, driving all the light from him, rousing a dark need to avenge his mate.
He snarled and shook his head, ripping through the male’s neck, spilling his blood.
The male’s struggles slowed, the scent of his blood growing stronger in the air, the warmth of it rolling down August’s throat to his stomach and over his chest.
When the male sagged, collapsing beneath Maya, August released him and staggered back a step, shifting as he did so and landing on his bare backside, breathing hard.
Maya threw her head back and roared.
Silence fell like a shroud over the village.
August lifted his eyes and looked at Maya where she straddled the dead tiger, her eyes glowing blue and gold, her chest heaving as she fought for air.
Gods, his fated one was beautiful.
A warrior.
She growled low in her throat, eased onto her feet and prowled towards him, a fire in her eyes that said she wanted him, here and now, wanted to stake a claim on him.
Fuck, he wanted to claim her too.
Just not right now.
He held his right hand up to her, turned his face away and vomited.
“August!” Maya was by his side in an instant, the hunger that had been burning in her eyes replaced with concern as she took hold of his shoulders and made him look at her.
He shook his head, swallowed and tried to keep it down, and failed dismally. He quickly turned away and threw up again, just the sight of the tiger beyond her and the blood pooling beneath it enough to have his stomach rebelling.
He stared down at the blood he had vomited up, and threw up again. Fantastic. Not exactly how he had pictured this moment going. Maya should have been throwing herself into his arms right about now.
She rubbed his back instead, making him feel a million times worse.
“That’s a lot of blood,” she said.
So he threw up again.
Hung his head and prayed to his ancestors that the floor would open up and swallow him whole.
Or maybe he could die from shame.
Maya reached for him, but then sharply withdrew her hand. He lifted his head to ask why she didn’t want to touch him, fearing her answer, and his words died on his lips when he found her gazing at her upturned palms.
Blood covered them, seeping from the shallow cuts caused by the tiger’s teeth.
August shot to his feet, snatched a towel from the small bathing area near the right wall of the cabin, and was back to her before she could even turn her head to track his movements. He sank to his knees in front of her, ripped the dark towel in half, and gently bound her left hand and then her right, tying the cloth tight enough that it would stem the bleeding.
He lifted his eyes, but they didn’t make it to hers. They caught on her throat.
He growled and reached for her, pure fury blasting through him as he took in the deep puncture wounds on the side of her neck, where the bastard had clearly gripped her with his fangs.
Before he could touch them, she was in his arms, her face buried in his neck and her arms around him.
He stared at his outstretched hand, absorbing the feel of her against him. She was warm. Trembling. He closed his eyes, wrapped his arms around her and held her gently, keeping her tucked close to him.
Where she belonged.
The feel of eyes on him roused a desire to growl at their owners, but he tamped it down, not wanting to f
righten the females as they looked between him and the dead tiger. Tears lined their lashes and tumbled down their dirty cheeks, their relief written in every line of their faces.
Another pair of eyes landed on him.
He looked up at their owner, nodded when Talon stared at Maya, concern edged with fear in his stormy amber eyes. The male nodded, and glared at the cages, and then at the dead tiger.
Talon didn’t say a word. He quietly went to work breaking the locks on the cages and freeing the females, covering them with thin blankets and ushering them outside with Grey’s help.
Maya remained hidden in August’s arms, her warm breath skating over his neck, her bandaged hands resting softly against his back, her arms looped beneath his.
Gods, it felt good to hold her again, to feel her in his arms and know he never had to let her go.
He would never let her out of his sight again.
He smoothed his right hand over her hair and savoured the feel of it, as new to this as she was, unsure what he was meant to do or say. He had never felt this close to anyone, especially a female. He had spent his life keeping relationships short and sweet, all business. He wasn’t sure he had ever cuddled anyone.
It felt fucking wonderful.
He lowered his head and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, breathed her in and closed his eyes.
She drew back, stealing the moment from him, and raised her head, her amber eyes round as she looked at him.
There was relief in them, and hope. A lot of hope.
Something else too, something that stole his breath and stirred a need to kiss her to show her that she wasn’t alone, she wasn’t the only one feeling new things, things that caught him off balance.
Although he couldn’t fall any further than he already had for her.
Her soft gaze dropped to his mouth, and her dark eyebrows pinched in a frown.
He went to wipe his hand across his mouth to clear the blood away, but she beat him to it, rubbing it away with the bandage around her right hand.
And then her mouth was on his.
Stealing his heart all over again.
He gathered her closer, pulled her onto his thighs and kissed her, lost himself in her and the relief that washed through him, carrying away his fears and his strength with it. Gods, he had feared. He had feared he would be too late. He had feared he would lose her. He had feared she wouldn’t want him and that he had been wrong about them.
All of those fears melted away as she kissed him deeply, desperately, as if she couldn’t get enough of him either.
He slipped his arm beneath her knees, wrapped his other one around her back, and scooped her up as he stood, his lips still on hers, their kiss not slowing.
He was going to kiss her every damn step of the way back to the car.
Every step of the way home.
He was never going to stop kissing her.
He was never going to stop craving her.
When she was ready, he would become her mate, her only male.
Until then, he wasn’t letting her out of his sight.
He wasn’t going to let her go again.
CHAPTER 17
August’s plan to keep her with him had hit a snag just a single step outside the cabin in the Altay pride’s village.
Maya secretly smiled to herself behind the thick red scarf covering the lower half of her face in the way she always did whenever she relived that moment. She had been so caught up in him, in how good it had felt to be back in his arms, that it had taken her a moment to realise why he had stopped.
Talon and Grey had blocked his path down the steps, both of them far too naked for her liking, their powerful arms folded across their bare chests and their bright eyes locked on her.
August had done his best to cover her so her brothers and the subdued members of the Altay pride didn’t see anything, and had told Talon and Grey that they were leaving, and he was going to take her to his home.
Her heart had done a strange flip in her chest at that.
While part of her had wanted to rebel, everything she had been through pushing her to escape his hold, afraid he would be like Pyotr, her heart had calmed her and told her that everything would be perfect if she went with him, that he would never force a bond upon her or treat her as Pyotr had treated his females.
He would be gentle, tender, and would take care of her.
His eyes had told her more than that when he had looked at her, promising her that he would never try to overpower her or control her, that he wanted her to stand at his side as an equal, as his partner.
Talon had sort of obliterated the moment when he had told August no.
Grey hadn’t helped when he had denied her fated one too, stating that she needed to go back to their pride.
August had looked at her then, and gods, she had wanted to tell him to ignore them and run away with her.
But her brothers had been right.
She still hated the way August had looked at her when she had told him that, and announced she would return to her pride.
He had looked as if she had plunged a knife into his chest and twisted it.
So she had been quick to give him a balm to soothe his pain, telling him that it would be a temporary parting, a necessary one because she and her brothers needed to speak with Byron about everything that had happened.
August’s silvery eyes had softened then, and although she had sensed his reluctance to let her go and his fierce need to keep her with him, he had agreed to it.
On the basis that she come to him within two weeks.
Her smile widened.
Gods, she had loved the way he had growled that he would go ‘fucking insane’ if she kept him waiting any longer than that.
Byron looked back at her, knocking her out of her memories.
She shivered as a frigid wind swept down the broad valley in front of her, whipping up ice flakes and blasting them into her yellow waterproof jacket and black trousers.
Byron’s gold eyes told her everything he was feeling, and she agreed with him about a few things. Most notably how it was too damn cold up on the mountain and that August was already insane because he lived in this unholy place.
The snow crunched beneath her boots as she trudged onwards, trailing close behind Byron as he followed their guide along the narrow path at the base of a towering cragged mountain.
Maya looked off to her right, her breath catching as she glimpsed the village nestled on the plateau high above her for the first time.
August was there, waiting for her and her brother.
Could he feel she was close now?
Did he want to run to her as she wanted to run to him?
It had only been nine days, but she had missed him, had been going out of her mind, needing to be close to him again.
It turned out she was the one who had gone fucking insane.
Byron had grown so sick of her switching between moping around the village and arguing with him that he had stepped up her departure, bringing her to Bhutan four days early.
Her brother had wanted to make August wait right until the fourteenth day before bringing her to him.
She could understand her brother’s reluctance. He had been genuinely distraught when Talon and Grey had told him everything she had been through, and had apologised to her countless times since then.
He had also smothered her, refusing to let her out of his sight.
It had taken threatening to leave and go to August with Talon and Grey’s help to make him confess that he didn’t want her to go, that he was worried August might hurt her, that she might not be happy with him.
Maya had told him to come with her and meet August for himself.
She wanted her brother to see that August was the only one in the world who could make her truly happy.
“Is it not quicker that way?” Byron hollered over the wind and pointed towards the sweeping valley to their right that separated them from the village.
The gui
de, a male dressed in neon green protective clothing, laughed. “Only if you’re talking about meeting your death.”
She frowned at the back of the male’s head.
He looked over his shoulder at Byron and swept his right hand out. “This whole area is riddled with crevasses. Only a mad person would choose that way.”
Maya was considering it.
The trail was taking too long.
She could feel August was close now and she needed to see him again, would risk death to achieve that.
Byron pushed the hood of his black jacket back to reveal the dark orange woollen hat he wore over his black hair and looked back at her, his amber eyes warning her that he had sensed her need to run. He glared at the white world around them.
“It’s fucking horrible here,” he muttered from behind the black scarf wrapped around his nose and the lower half of his face.
Maya looked around her.
It was beautiful.
The journey had been long, and a little frightening in places.
They had landed at the local airport yesterday and had been met by their guide, who had driven like a demon along a track that had taken them deep into the forest. From there, it had been a long walk along trails that had followed the course of a river, bringing them past splendid waterfalls as they rose higher into the hills.
After camping in the forest, they had trekked across open land and arrived at the base of a sheer cliff several hundred feet tall.
Their guide had climbed it as if it was nothing, no rope to protect him if he fell. When he had reached the top, he had dropped a rope and harness for them. Byron had insisted on going first, not trusting the strength of the rope. She had the feeling he was going to be overly protective of her for a while, his guilt driving him to coddle her.
Talon and Grey had given him hell when they had return to the pride with her.
For the sake of Byron, they had waited until they were alone, none of the pride within earshot, but they had really given him both barrels.
She had to admit that she had given him a little hell of her own too, had made it very clear that his behaviour over the past few decades had hurt her, and that she wasn’t something he could trade like a commodity.
She was his sister.
Tamed by a Tiger Page 13
