She peered over her shoulder. Her brown eyes locked with his. A sense of recognition passed over him. Other than the glimpse he’d gotten of her standing amongst the lion shifters, he’d never met her before. He didn’t understand what the sensation meant. Pushing the response aside to figure out later, he gave chase.
The female ran faster, stumbling and slipping along the forest floor. She tripped over a rock and fell. Her scream rang out, the cry echoing in his ears. Instead of trying to stop her downward roll, she tucked her head, letting gravity guide her. She splashed into a stream at the bottom of the small hill. Swaying only slightly, she pushed to her feet and reached for a crevice on the rock face in front of her.
He shifted to his human form. Lost in awe, he watched her climb, expertly traversing the surface. Her stamina shocked—and yeah—excited him. Humans were generally weak. Not this one. She was a sight to behold. Strength in a compact package. Already halfway up, the female’s sweat-slickened skin stretched over taut muscles as she strained to hook her fingers into another crack.
Beautiful.
Yeah, she might be the loveliest creature he’d ever laid eyes on, but she also had a hand in trafficking cubs. With the rage over that one unforgivable act held firmly in his mind, he ignored the way those black shorts molded her firm ass. This female was prey, not an object to drool over. She’d sold Molly, an innocent child he was responsible for, to a pride known for their cruelty to women.
As if he’d conjured them up, five lion shifters approached from the side. He glanced from the enemy to the woman climbing the wall. She’d tricked him, led him into a trap just as his human nanny had when she’d locked him in the basement of his father’s keep. She’d wanted to kidnap his twin, Mira. Sell her. Ruin her life exactly as this woman was trying to do to Molly.
He’d been duped by another human. Another female.
His vision clouded as thoughts of the past came roaring back. He fought the memories. It was too risky to allow them to surface. There was nobody around to stop him from lashing out at everyone and everything within striking distance. Dammit, why had Kade sent him out here alone?
He scrambled for something else to think about besides his failures. Megan’s voice popped into his head. Molly can make everything better. She can fix their mistake. You just need to bring her home. Promise me, Uncle Devin. Promise me.
Not the right memory. It was too late to think of something else. His rage grew. Fangs filled his mouth. Claws sprang from his fingers. He trembled and shoved at his cats as all three big predators slammed into him at once. They didn’t like the shadowed gloom that descended over them. Bad things happened to them in the dark.
No, no, no.
He clenched his jaw and pushed hard against the forceful wills of the animals living inside him. He sent them soothing thoughts—they were fine, they weren’t little cubs anymore. The abyss opened up. The comforting words drifted away. Blackness crept over his vision. His legs gave out and he fell to his knees.
Gods, he couldn’t lose control now. If he did, the woman would get away. That couldn’t happen. He’d promised Megan he’d bring her twin home. He needed this human to do that. The thought gave him strength. He fought the blackout, inhaling deeply to ground himself in the present.
The scent of heaven drifted to him. It pushed the darkness back and cleared the fog. His nostrils flared. He opened his mouth to draw in more of the calming fragrance. The rich signature was familiar, intoxicating and so damn delicious his body burned with need. He ignored everything else and focused on the image of the woman who went with it.
Long brown hair flowing behind a trim body as she ran, soulful brown eyes and lips he wanted on every inch of his body. He knew her yet he didn’t. No matter. With the vixen’s image held in the forefront of his mind, the constant guilt plaguing him lessened. Peace filled him, eased the anxiety.
A woman’s piercing scream cut through the tranquil state. Awareness returned.
The female. The lion shifters.
His eyelids popped open.
The scene playing out across the small valley in front of him stopped his heart.
One of the males had a hand wrapped around the woman’s ankle. She kicked blindly at his head. Her heel hit his forehead with a satisfying whack.
He stumbled backward. “Fucking bitch! You dare double-cross us. I’ll kill you.”
Snarling, Devin pushed up from where he’d fallen. Another male leapt on his back, knocking him back to the ground. The shifter dug his sharpened nails into Devin’s sides and gnawed on his shoulder. Devin reached behind him, dug his own set of talons into the shifter’s chest and flung him away. A shout rang out then the loud crack of bone sounded. The scream stopped.
The male at the rock face peered over his shoulder. He cursed and yanked the female off the wall. She shrieked. The horrifying cry cut through Devin. He lurched forward with an arm outstretched. She hit the ground before he could get to her and the smack of her body onto the hard-packed earth resonated in his ears.
His vision wavered. Pain radiated up his spine as if he’d been the one tossed around. His legs gave out and his knees connected with the rocky soil. The familiar dots spread, fuzzing the female’s face. He focused on her eyes and the plea in them for help. Sensation returned to his legs. The black faded.
Thank the gods.
He pushed up to go to her. She needed him. Her arm was bent awkwardly and blood covered her temple. A foot away, a fully shifted lion rammed into his side, knocking him away from her.
He rolled with the big cat. Its hot breath bathed his face. Devin locked his elbows and pushed the animal back with talon-tipped hands. He didn’t dare shift, not while on the verge of a blackout. Once his primal side rose, he’d have no hope of fighting it.
The woman screamed.
With the strength in his legs, he threw the lion off him and jumped to his feet. Another male was dragging the female by her injured arm. She dug her feet into the dirt and fought him. The shifter backhanded her. Her head whipped to the side under the force of the blow. She crumbled to her knees. He yanked her hand hard.
A shrill cry accompanied the sound of crunching bone.
Black edged his vision, stole the image of the female’s eyes.
Rage, guilt, fear—the emotions whipped through him, unraveling the tight control he kept over his primal side. His inner animals swamped him with their desires. The swirling thoughts condensed into one. Annihilation. He embraced the predator’s instincts and leapt the distance between him and his prey. The male released the woman, scrambled backward to avoid the blow from his modified claw aimed at his head.
Devin followed him down, clamped his mouth over his neck and bit.
The hot blood gushing over his tongue fed the primitive instincts, ramped up his need for retaliation. His tiger took more ground, pushed against his skin. It wanted to be released to kill, to punish. The males deserved to die. Devin agreed. He let the wrath consume him and gave himself up his primitive side.
He tortured and toyed with the males with a ferocity he’d never know. They suffered, exactly as he’d wanted. Finally, the last male fell. Devin watched his headless body crumple. He stared at the blood without seeing it. Instead of enjoying the defeat of his enemies, his thoughts kept drifting to…chocolate. All he could think about was chocolate.
The reason skittered across his mind with some life-altering significance. He reached for the explanation, but couldn’t grasp why he’d be thinking of food at a time like this. He frowned and tried to get his mind to work. No, it wasn’t the dessert he craved. It was the color. Yes, of course. A pair of brown eyes, the color of chocolate, filled his vision. They became his world. He knew them from somewhere. But where?
Confusion surfaced and with it another wave of dizziness. Gods, no. He latched on to the other sensory information seeping into his mind. He had to get his shit together and fix his mistake. The idea took hold. He’d done something horrible. His breathing quickened. He forced
his lids open and scanned the area.
The early evening left the world around him blanketed by shadows. It didn’t hide the aftermath of the fight. He barely glanced at the body parts littering the ground. His gaze focused on the female lying face down in the midst of the slaughter, blood soaking the ground beneath her. Her muffled sobs twisted his gut.
Another memory surfaced, one that chilled his soul. Chocolate eyes, an angel’s eyes, locked onto his. They widened, so did her mouth. No scream escaped, only a garbled grunt. A haze spread over her eyes and replaced the shock. She fell.
He shook his head to clear it of the image. It didn’t help. The betrayal in her brown eyes haunted him. He lifted his partially shifted hands and stared at the blood coating it—human blood, the scent unmistakable.
He closed his eyes on the sight. He’d blacked out, lost his precarious control and stuck out at a woman. The significance of what he’d done hit him, but now wasn’t the time to wallow in self-pity or berate himself. She needed help.
He jogged closer, stopped after a couple of feet and watched as she dragged her beaten body across the dirt. His throat thickened. She was still fighting, her will to live stronger than most shifters he’d known over his long life.
He swallowed hard, the damn lump in his throat annoying him. “Stop moving.”
She halted her forward crawl but stretched her hand out, straining to reach a small rock. The sight of those dainty fingers wrapped around the pathetic weapon did something funny to his chest. He pressed a fist hard against the feeling centered there.
“I won’t hurt you.” Not again.
A soft hiccup came from her, the only indication she’d heard him. He blew out a rough breath and knelt. The top swell of her butt cheeks showed from where her shorts had been tugged down. The sight aroused him against his will. He reached for the waistband to yank it up. His knuckles brushed against her skin. She flinched and he dropped his hand.
“I said, I won’t hurt you.”
A tremor racked her frame at his guttural and inhuman voice, his cats still too close to the surface. He cursed. There was nothing he could do about it. Still, her fear angered him. He didn’t want her to be frightened of him. He hadn’t meant to hurt her.
He grabbed the waistband and tugged her shorts up. Once the sweet temptation of her tight ass was hidden, he swept his gaze over her body. Minor cuts and bruises covered her limbs. He didn’t see any wounds that would account for the amount of blood soaking the ground beneath her. His pulse kicked up. What had he done? Trepidation squeezed his chest and robbed him of breath.
“I need to roll you over.” She trembled, but didn’t offer any other response. Gently, he gripped her shoulder and hip. “Ready?” Devin asked, not that he expected her to answer.
He rolled her into his arms. His gaze immediately zeroed in on her torso. The confirmation of his sin stared up at him.
“Dear gods.” He flicked his gaze to her face. Beautiful. More than just beautiful. Gorgeous, with the biggest brown eyes he’d ever seen. At the moment, pain hazed them, but intelligence and the force of her will burned through the glaze. He watched them close and one thought took hold.
He’d just lost his sanity, once and for all.
Chapter Two
Devin stared at the evidence of his biggest mistake. Four slashes marred the female’s belly. Blood flowed steadily from them and the pained sounds she made told him moving her had aggravated the injury. He petted her, hoping to ease her agony. It didn’t help. The pitiful noises she made reminded him of a wounded animal.
“I’m sorry. So sorry.”
Sorry didn’t always help. In this case, it meant nothing. She was going to die. Panic gripped him. No. She can’t die! He looked from her injured stomach to the woods. She wouldn’t survive long enough to get her medical help. He’d have to share his blood with her. It was the only way to save her.
He couldn’t make his hands move.
The act was meant for those humans he cared about and wanted to protect. Kidnappers did not fall under that category. But I did this, I lost control. My hand struck the blow.
He blew out a rough breath. There was no other choice. He had to do it. It’s just blood, not a permanent claim. He could handle having this female ooze his scent for a few days. All he had to do was remember what she’d done to Molly. It’d be fine. Nothing to worry about. Yeah, right. He had everything to worry about and it all centered on the woman bleeding to death in his arms.
Although necessary, he still hesitated. The three cats he housed looked upon the woman with awe and regret. The latter he understood. The reverence, though? The intensity of it concerned him. Coupled with the lust he’d felt at first sight, he didn’t trust his unstable cats not to mistake the wonderment for something more, maybe even think the human was his gift from the gods. That’d be a damn disaster. Beautiful or not, the female was his mistake, not his one or his salvation.
The female’s eyes rolled back into her head. The time for debate had passed. He had to act. Devin sliced his wrist on an extended fang and pressed it to her lips. Blood dribbled down her chin. His heart raced. He cradled her closer in order to free his other hand and smacked her cheek in an effort to wake her.
“Don’t die on me, woman. I need you!”
He gave her a little shake. Nothing. His blood continued to drip off her chin. He massaged her throat. She still didn’t swallow. Her heartbeat slowed, the beats lengthened.
His cats roared.
They shoved an image into the forefront of his mind—this female wearing his claim.
Mate her, save her.
He couldn’t do it, not without her permission. She had to willingly allow his cats to take up residence in her soul. If she didn’t, she’d die and lose her soul in the process.
Devin considered his options, settled on one—a desperate one but the only choice he could come up with. What did he have to lose? She was already dying.
He gently pushed her hair out of the way and lowered his head to the delicate spot where shoulder met neck. Her scent filled his lungs on a deep inhale. Arousal whipped through him along with a sense of coming home. He focused on the act, not his reaction to it, and bit.
Warm, rich blood slid down his throat. Instead of triggering violent instincts, visceral ones rose. Lust as he’d never felt before gripped him. He ignored it. His wants didn’t matter. He tightened his hold on her tiny body and ground his teeth into her bone. She didn’t respond to the pain he knew he caused her. That worried him more than anything.
Eyes closed, he let his mind surround the woman and reached for her soul. The light in it dimmed. He latched on to the iridescent tether extending from her fading core and gnawed on it at the same time as he burrowed deep. A flicker of awareness slid over him in an intimate embrace he’d never expected to feel. It wrapped around him as if he were a long-lost piece of her heart she refused to lose.
Don’t leave me.
The thought hung between them. His or hers, he couldn’t tell. The truth in it, however, resonated through him. He pulled her closer, sheltered her in his metaphysical arms. Her fear and pain finally registered in his psyche. He took both and offered his strength and reassurance.
With her comforted, he shredded the link to her god until only a few strands extended from the brighter essence he’d claimed as his. One more tug and it’d break. His nostrils flared with his rapid breaths. The compulsion to finish the bond he should never have started beat at him.
Mate her, keep her.
Gods, he wanted to. Her soul felt so damn right twined around his. Instead, he sent a prayer to the gods for their help in saving her life and eased back. Three glowing cords extended from her bright center—one the connection to her heaven, another to his and finally the one linking her to her human body. All three pulsed with life. The warmth returned. Her inner light flared.
He breathed a sigh and released her shoulder, allowing the entry points of his bite to sear closed. An agonized groan fell from his
lips. He gloried in the connection he’d experienced with the female. Needing to feel her soothing presence again, he reached inside himself and found none. The connection was gone.
Because she wasn’t his mate.
He’d pulled back before sharing his cats, the only way to join them completely and the only way to tether her to his heaven. All he’d done was give her time and enough of his life force to stop her from ascending to her heaven.
He pushed away the anger over not having her inside him and focused on why he’d shared his essence with her in the first place. He had to finish saving her life. Wrist pressed to her lips, he pinched her arm. She finally groaned, the action forcing her to swallow.
“That’s it. Take more,” he encouraged as she began to suckle.
With the severity of her wounds, she hovered on the verge of consciousness and wasn’t aware of her actions. He doubted she’d willingly accept his gift otherwise, even with the lingering touch of his soul on hers. She wouldn’t be conscious of it. Humans didn’t have the ability to look inside themselves. The mystical bond he’d started was exactly that, mystical—unseen, unexplainable, undeniable but breakable. It was the latter which would save him from making yet another mistake.
Although it bothered him that she wouldn’t be aware of what he’d shared with her, he was glad. The female he held wasn’t his. He was too broken to keep a female, his mind too shattered to offer her a home. Even if he could pull off the unbelievable feat without unraveling her mind in the process, he had no intention of mating a kidnapper.
His cats snarled. They wanted to keep the female. In those few moments when he’d resided in her soul, they’d felt peace for the first time in nearly three centuries. They wanted to experience it again. He ignored them and concentrated on the present, not some foolish desire for normality. He’d never have a mate, cubs and a life filled with joy. He’d given up all hope when he saved Mira from the fate he suffered now.
Beautiful Mistake: 2 (Royal Pride) Page 2
