by Maddy Barone
She looked utterly horrified. Kit sighed. “Humans don’t do that?” He didn’t need to hear her emphatic denial to know his guess was right. “I won’t do it anymore. I have a mate now.”
“Are any of those … children yours?”
His mate seemed very concerned about which male fathered which children. “All of them are mine. They are part of the Pride, and I am a mature male of the Pride.” When her horror didn’t diminish, he quickly went on. “But only I will be the father of your children.”
He frowned, troubled by another thought. Tricia could force Olivia to have sex with other males, as she had threatened. He caught his mate’s chin in his fingers and turned her face so she had to look at him. “I will not give you sex without your permission, but if you make me wait too long, the queens could take your choice away from you. Then I would have to fight my brothers. I won’t be able to win against them. There are too many. If I am killed, I can’t bear to think what will become of you. If I’m not killed, I could be banished from the pride. Please, please don’t make me wait too long.”
Fear joined the horror in her eyes before she shuttered her emotions behind her closed lids. “Oh, God.”
Her moan stabbed him like a knife. Her face was so beautiful. He couldn’t help himself. He lowered his head and put his lips on hers. For one wonderful moment she accepted his kiss, but all too soon she jerked her face away. He hid his hurt and turned her questions back on her.
“How many brothers in your pride? Your family?” he corrected himself.
“I have two brothers.” Her chin lifted as she stared in something close to a challenge. “The Clan has over two hundred fighting men.”
He understood her meaning well enough. She came from a large pride and they would search for their stolen queen. The knowledge sank like a stone in the pit of his belly. “They won’t find you, Olivia.”
“Yes, they will, Kit.”
It was the utter assurance in her voice that shook him. “No, no one can find us here.”
His mate rose to her knees and fixed him with an urgent stare. “My father is called ‘He Tracks the Wind’ in Lakota. He’ll find me. I told you that. And if he has to, he’ll bring the entire Clan to rescue me. How many men are in your pride, Kit? Two dozen? The clan has twenty dozen. They’ll destroy your pride.”
“No!” It was a visceral denial. “No one will ever destroy the pride again. Never again.”
The urgency in his mate’s face faded to confusion. “What you mean, again?”
He had never spoken of that time. He didn’t remember it. He only knew the stories, but they were bad enough. His mate deserved to know. “The day I was born, the pride was discovered by humans. They slaughtered almost all of us. Only the young survived. The queen who bore me had been badly wounded and I was born two months early. She died.” He closed his eyes against the unfamiliar sting of tears.
When he opened his eyes he saw Olivia’s eyes were wet. “That’s terrible. Years ago, some men stole some of the women of the clan and murdered them. That’s one of the reasons why our men protect women so fiercely.”
“Your pride understands what it’s like, then. Did you notice any elders in the pride?”
“No,” she whispered. “I didn’t see any old people in the other cave.”
“That is why we hate humans.”
The warmth of her hand on his arm eased the old hurt and rage. “Not all humans are like that.”
“But your family will destroy the pride to get you back. You said that.”
She withdrew her hand. “Yes, they would fight to get me back, but they wouldn’t murder people who hadn’t done anything to them. Kit, let me go.”
“Never.” It was a flat statement. “You are my mate. I can’t let you go.”
“You have to. I’m not rejecting you. Come with me. You can bring me back to my house and court me properly. We can take our time to get to know one another.”
Why did she have to insist on forcing him to leave his pride? “No. Why do you keep saying that? What’s wrong with me that you don’t love me?”
Her eyes fell from his for a moment before her back straightened. “Kit, there’s nothing wrong with you. Except that, uh, you’re not really civilized. I mean, you live in a cave and you think it’s okay to sleep with women who are probably your sisters. I don’t want to live in a cave with people who hate me.”
Her eyes gleamed with tears. She was crying? That sight almost made him forget that she thought there was something wrong with him. Uncivilized. He wasn’t even sure what that meant.
“Kit, take me home. I promise to allow you to court me and learn how regular people live.”
Claws sprouted from his fingertips, the very first sign of the change. He dug them into the blanket to control his fury. “No.”
“But you have to!”
“I said no.” When she opened her mouth again he forgot about his claws and gripped her chin and his fingers. Staring deeply into her eyes, he growled, “Sleep, my mate.”
He’d never seen anyone come so close to shaking off his compulsion. “Sleep,” he commanded.
Gradually she lost her fight against sleep and slumped against him, a warm, precious weight that he swore he would never give up. He touched his lips to her forehead, each of her eyes, and then her lips. He would do everything he knew to make her happy, but he would never let her go.
Chapter Six
Her head hurt. That was all Olivia could think of at first. Thirst made her mouth feel like it was coated with glue. Was there any water left in that bag? Waking more, she became aware that it was dark, and a heavy weight was draped over her chest. An arm. Kit’s arm. She peered through the dark, trying to figure out where she was. Kit’s cave, she decided. They were lying together a few yards from the banked fire. The barest hint of a glow lit the outline of his long hair where it spilled over his broad shoulder to hers.
She stared at him, waiting to feel hatred well up inside. It didn’t come. She sighed when she remembered his refusal to let her go. She should hate him, shouldn’t she? Did the story he’d told her –yesterday?— about his pride being destroyed explain her softened feelings? Maybe that was it. She searched her emotions and found reluctance to bring harm to his pride. They had suffered enough. She clenched her teeth when Maria and Tricia popped into her mind. They could suffer a little with her good will. On the other hand, Juanita had been kind to her, and so had Devlin. They must just be kind people. They had protected Kit when he was young and helpless. The Clan wouldn’t murder the women or children, but they would kill anyone who tried to keep them from retrieving her. If they found these caves, people would die. She was sure of it. She had to escape from here so that when her father and brothers found her, she would be away from Kit and his pride. Her escape would not only benefit her, it would protect Kit and his people, too. She didn’t want Juanita or Devlin hurt.
It was utterly still. Kit was sleeping. Could there be a better opportunity to escape than this?
Slowly, carefully, she moved away from him, easing her leg from between his, and untangling his hair from hers. Her heart thundered when she stepped over him. It jerked into agonized stillness when he caught her hand. He immediately let her fingers go and curled more tightly on his side. Her heart started up again after a long minute of watching him, to be sure he slept.
Once out of his cave, she hesitated. Her thirst didn’t seem as important as her need to get away from here, but she would need water soon. Where had Kit gotten the meat and water from? Regretfully, she decided searching for it would take too much time. Which way was home? She studied the dark landscape, wishing she had her brothers’ wolf-born eyesight. She didn’t know which way Kit had come when he stole her because she had inexplicably fallen asleep while he carried her. Just, she realized uneasily, as she’d fallen asleep earlier.
No time to think about that now. She had to get moving before he woke and came after her. When he first picked her up and carried her off, he ha
d headed north and west. A look at the stars told her it was around two hours after midnight, and south and east were to her left. Moving carefully to avoid kicking any loose rocks, she started down the steep slope and began her journey for home.
It was too dark to make a fast pace safe over the rocky terrain. Each slow, careful step made Olivia frantic to go faster. Kit could wake up any time, or one of his pride could find her. After what had happened when Kit was born, they must put out perimeter guards. Normally, Uncle Taye had men patrolling a mile out at the den. If he had any reason to expect trouble, he would have another set of guards two miles out. Olivia looked back to try to estimate how far she had come. Maybe a half a mile. She had to move faster!
She kept walking, trying to keep to the shadows where she could, flinching at every stumble or clatter of pebbles. Every now and then, she glanced up at the sky to be sure she was still heading south and east, and to gauge how long she had been away from Kit. Please, she begged silently, please don’t let him wake up before morning.
As she walked, her mind went over the time they had spent together. When she first woke in his cave, she was sure he would rape her. A shadow of the terror and fury she’d felt then moved through her now. If Maria hadn’t come, would he have stopped? Yesterday —er, before she fell asleep, he said he would never hurt her, he said he hadn’t understood. For heaven’s sake, how hard was it to understand the word “No!” Yet, she believed him. She couldn’t say she knew what his life had been like after spending only fifteen minutes with his family, but it was plain they were completely crazy. All of them having sex with each other? In plain view of everyone else? A shudder that had nothing to do with the cold night air jerked down her spine. No wonder Kit was messed up. She almost felt sorry for him. Even though he was a feral, uncivilized half-cat, a tiny part of her was drawn to him. He said he loved her. Once he was convinced she didn’t want to have sex, he respected that. Maybe if they’d spent more time together, she could have convinced him to let her go. But she couldn’t wait around for him to change his mind. Her dad and brothers were already looking for her. She was pretty sure they’d started after her within hours of her disappearance. How long had it been? Only a day? She pulled her flannel shirt tighter at the neck to ward off the chill in the night air as she tried to count. Maybe two days. It felt like weeks.
It was two hours later that she heard a distant rattle of rock behind her. She jerked around, her heart doing its best to block her airway, to search the dark shadows of the craggy landscape she’d passed through. It was just a nocturnal animal moving around. Right? It couldn’t be Kit. No, please, not Kit. She increased her pace until she was almost trotting, looking back every minute or so. She stumbled while she was looking over her shoulder, kicking a small avalanche of debris free. She froze, listening hard. Nothing. Relief made her almost dizzy as she rushed on. No, she told herself firmly, running and not watching where she was going was dangerous. The risk of spraining her ankle here wasn’t worth the increase in speed. She forced herself to keep her eyes on the ground and her feet to a walk. She still heard occasional rocks falling behind her, but each time she strained to hear more there was nothing. She struggled on, hoping she was moving in the right direction.
Hunger and cold made her long for dawn, but dawn was still at least an hour away when a faint roar chilled her heart. Kit! Completely abandoning caution, she ran as fast as she could, sliding and skidding in the gravel as much as running. She chanced a glance back and saw a lion-man shaped shadow outlined against the star-lit sky when it leaped from rock to rock.
Oh, God. She couldn’t outrun him. She couldn’t hide. And he was running right toward her.
“Olivia!” he screamed in his distorted cat voice. “Come back, mahmade!”
“No,” she sobbed, running even faster.
He was closing on her. Fifty yards. Forty. Thirty. Olivia ran, knowing escape was agonizingly hopeless. Twenty yards separated them when she heard a sound ahead of her. Growling? Her breath rasped in and out of her so loudly she wasn’t sure what she heard. Kit was only ten yards away when she saw the gleam of white canine teeth shining in the dark fur of a wolf’s face on the trail in front of her.
Strength gone, Olivia fell, skidding painfully on her elbows along the rocky ground. She dragged herself up, to stare as two—no, three—wolves launched themselves, snarling viciously, at Kit. They crashed together in the air and went down in a thrashing mass of fur and teeth.
“Dad!” Olivia croaked. “Wait!”
She scrambled to her feet, but before she could go to the fight, another wolf was there, blocking her way and sticking his nose in her crotch. She slapped at him, realizing too late it was her cousin, Colby, not one of her brothers.
“I’m okay,” she said. “I’m not hurt. Let me by.”
Colby growled low in his throat and didn’t move. He was one of the bossiest of her cousins, more Alpha than even his father, Taye. She glanced at the furry bodies writhing on the ground, seeing how her dad and brothers were tearing into Kit. They were killing him. It didn’t look like he was even trying to fight back.
“Dad! Stop! Colby, let me by.” Kit was bleeding from multiple lacerations. He didn’t deserve to die. “Dad, I mean it! Let him alone!”
No one was listening to her. They were going to kill Kit. She glared down at Colby’s big gray head and tried to shove him away. “Get out of my way, Cole. The only way you can stop me is if you bite me. You wanna bite me?”
Colby whined, but let her go. He walked so close to her that he nearly pushed her over a couple of times. She clenched her fists as she watched the fight. Except it wasn’t a fight, because Kit only tried to defend himself, not attack. It was three against one, and Kit was losing. If only Kit had taken her back to the ranch, then none of this would be happening.
“Dad, he’s not fighting back. Look! You’re going to kill him if you don’t stop.” For the first time in her life, her father ignored her. He ripped into Kit’s leg. The snap of bone was clear. “Dad!” she screamed. “He’s not fighting back. Stop!” She didn’t even know she was crying until Kit’s face blurred from her tears. “Kit! Oh, God, you have to fight.”
“I won’t hurt my mate’s pride.”
At least, that’s what she thought he said. His words were distorted, and his voice was weak. Desperate, she flung herself at Taylor, the nearest wolf, and grabbed him by the ruff. “Leave him alone,” she ordered. “He never hurt me.”
Behind her, Colby morphed into a man and grabbed her arm to haul her back. “Are you crazy?”
She twisted away from him. “No. Kit didn’t hurt me. He fought his own people to keep me safe.” She launched herself into the fray and let out a yip when a claw scored through her jeans. Something –the scent of her blood?—turned her father and brothers’ attention from their victim. She immediately launched into a tirade worthy of her cousin Victoria.
“What are you doing? You never even asked if he was a bad guy!” she yelled. “He didn’t hurt me!”
Parker shoved his snout into her crotch to inhale. She slapped at him, but he leaped back and changed to his human form. “I don’t smell him there, Dad.”
“That’s because he didn’t rape me!”
“I smell you all over him,” Parker retorted hotly. “And him on you. He stole you.”
Kit lay on the ground, the moonlight showing his blood as black blotches over his furred body. Taylor and her father crouched over him, snarling. Kit’s eyes looked at her with mute pain. She turned to her father’s wolf and tried to control her voice. “Dad, don’t kill him. He didn’t hurt me. When some others wanted to, he protected me.”
Her father shifted back to human, his face cold and pale in the moonlight. “Was he the one who took you?”
Olivia swallowed. “Yes.”
“Were you running away from him?”
“Yes.”
One of her father’s eyebrows lifted. “But you think we shouldn’t kill him.”
�
��No.” She tried to sort of her feelings for Kit, but they were too jumbled. “He didn’t hurt me,” she said again.
“Why did he take you?”
Kit answered, and Olivia could tell he was trying hard to speak clearly. “She’s my mate.”
She drew in a shocked breath at the rage that flashed over her father’s face. Such raw emotion looked alien on his normally stoic features.
“That’s not the way a man treats his mate!”
That was her cousin Colby, harsh and loud, glaring at Kit who still lay at their feet. Taylor, still in wolf form, snarled.
Olivia turned on Colby. “And how did your grandfather claim his mate? Huh, Cole? Wasn’t he the one that carried her off and held her captive for three years until she accepted him?”
“That was different.” Colby scowled, trying to push her behind him. “He tried to court her first.”
Her father, face once again cool, cut them off with a slashing gesture. He stepped closer to Kit. “My daughter has asked for your life, so I’m gonna let you live.” His voice sunk to a harsh whisper. “But if I ever lay eyes on you again, I’ll kill you.”
“My mate—” Kit began, but all her men folk growled.
Her father leaned over Kit’s battered, bleeding body. “I don’t give a rat’s ass what you think she is. If I see you sniffing around, you’re dead.”
He turned sharply away, catching Olivia’s arm. “Let’s go.”
As she was marched away, she cast a quick glance over her shoulder. Kit was curled in a tight ball on the rocky ground. He lifted his head to watch her leave. She wondered if the gleam on his fur was tears. When her father tapped her chin, she faced forward again. Leaving Kit injured and alone didn’t feel right, but at least he was still alive. His pride was still alive.
She was rescued. Why didn’t it feel like it?
*
Kit lay on the ground, the pain of his broken and shredded leg throbbing in time with the beating of his heart. Olivia, his one and true mate, was leaving him. She rejected him. She had left him while he slept, and ran to escape him when he found her. She had begged the men of her pride for his life, but hadn’t demanded to be allowed to stay with him.
