Stealing the Snow Leopard's Heart

by Zoe Chant

  “Watch it, or I’ll start to think you really can read my mind.” Keeley leaned back against Lance’s chest. “I can’t believe it was only three days ago.”

  “Shifter relationships tend to move quickly.” Lance nuzzled the top of her head. “Are you okay with that? This is your home too, now, but if you’d prefer to take things at a more human speed…”

  “No.” Keeley’s certainty surprised her. She turned to face him. “I spent the last ten years hating myself for who I thought I was. Now…”

  She bit her lip, but the faith and love in Lance’s eyes gave her the strength to go on. To say out loud words that a day ago she wouldn’t have even dared to say inside her own mind.

  “I have ten years of life to catch up on. And I don’t want to waste a minute of it without you.”

  Relief flashed in Lance’s eyes. Keeley knew he would have given her all the space she needed, no matter how much it hurt him. Well, frankly, she’d had enough of his self-sacrifice the moment he put himself between her and a bullet.

  Lance’s hands slipped down her sides. “Let me show you what you’re not missing out on, then.”

  He drew her over to the shower and adjusted the controls until they were both drenched under a waterfall-like cascade of hot water. Keeley hadn’t thought she could possibly be more relaxed, until Lance directed her to lie down on the raised marble block beside the bath.

  “It’s warm!” she exclaimed.

  “My snow leopard likes the heat,” Lance explained. “And it’s good for relaxing after a long day. Not as good as a sun-heated rock by a mountain pool… but close enough.”

  “Mmm.” Keeley lay down on her front. Warmth seeped up from the stone, easing her muscles as hot water pattered down from above. “Are you going to lie down, too?”

  “Not yet.” Lance’s voice moved away.

  Keeley closed her eyes, letting herself sink into the heat. This was luxury beyond anything she’d ever imagined. She was warm, and satiated, and safe with her mate. Things couldn’t get better.

  Lance came back and sat next to her. She heard him handling something and then felt the brush of a soapy loofah on her back.

  Things had just gotten better.

  “What’s this?” she murmured, her voice blurring with pleasure.

  Lance coughed softly. “I told you, we’re doing this properly. You’re my mate.” He lowered his mouth to her ear, so close she could feel the tickle of his breath. “I’m grooming you.”

  He hesitated, and she could imagine his eyebrows drawing together. “Of course, if you don’t want me to…”

  Keeley reached out and grabbed the nearest part of him she could reach, which turned out to be his knee. “I want everything about you,” she said firmly.

  She stretched luxuriously across the marble as Lance washed her. He started at her shoulders and moved down, gently soaping every inch of her and scrubbing in soft, slow circles with the loofah.

  Keeley’s breathing slowed.

  It wasn’t just a shower—this was intimate, a slow, careful worshiping of her body that left her head spinning with wonder.

  Her skin was tingling by the time he set down the loofah. And then he started using his hands.

  “Is this good?” he asked, digging his fingertips into the knotted muscles around her shoulder blades.

  “Yes,” Keeley breathed. The heat from the marble suffused her entire body, but now it was joined by a new warmth from inside her. Not a blazing fire this time, but a liquid, languid heat.

  Lance continued his massage, his gentle fingers finding every ache and knot in her body. He turned her over and she lay on her back, gazing up at him while he made long strokes up her thighs.

  “Lance…” Even her voice sounded liquid. Keeley couldn’t remember ever being so relaxed.

  Because she’d never felt as safe as this before. Not with anyone.

  He made her happy. He made her feel safe to be happy. She wanted him to be happy, too. He had to know how much she cared for him. All of him. Everything that he was.

  “Lance, I want to groom you, too.”

  Lance’s hand stopped. Keeley sat up.

  “Please?”

  Lance made a strange, strangled noise in the back of his throat. Keeley swept her legs around and took his hand.

  “I’m going to take that as a yes,” she decided, and the sudden delighted light in his eyes assured her she’d made the right choice.

  Keeley gently pushed Lance down onto the warm marble, then grabbed a fresh loofah and began to soap him up.

  Lance had groomed her in worshipful silence. Keeley didn’t find herself able to do the same.

  “Your back!” she exclaimed as Lance rolled onto his front. “You’re all bruised!”

  “Only bruised?” Lance remarked under his breath.

  Keeley ran her hand across the marks that mottled his dark skin. “I thought you weren’t hurt at the warehouse,” she accused him.

  “Not badly.”

  “You should have said something when we were on the staircase.”

  “I was distracted.”

  Keeley hissed in her breath as she carefully scrubbed at Lance’s back, but he was right; it was only bruises, no broken skin. Still. “Don’t scare me like that. It’s only a few days since you got shot.”

  “Mmm.”

  “If I’m going to be living with you, you need to start telling me when you’re hurt before I get your shirt off.”

  Lance’s back had been going up and down as he breathed; now it stopped. In one fluid movement he sat up and swung around, grabbing Keeley’s hand. His eyes blazed silver and green at the same time.

  “I will,” he said, his voice rough.

  Keeley’s heart melted. Lance had lost control on the staircase, the same as she had, but this was a different loss of control. The way he looked now, the snow leopard staring out at her at the same time as his human half, was more vulnerable than she had ever seen him.

  “If this is going to work,” she began, and regretted it immediately as worry flashed across Lance’s face. “No, I mean, it is going to work, but it has to be more than just incredible sex and you looking after me. I know I’m the more broken one out of the two of us, but you have to let me look after you, too.”

  A smile fluttered tentatively at the corners of her lips. “I don’t have a lot of experience looking after someone else, but that’s one of the things I’ve got to catch up on, right?”

  Lance’s expression relaxed. “Deal.”

  “Good.” Keeley put her hand in the middle of his chest. “Now, lie back down. I haven’t finished grooming you yet.”

  Lance made a happy rumbling noise as he settled back down on the warm marble. Keeley frowned, and then laughed silently to herself.

  Is he purring? Actually purring?

  Oh, my God.

  She finished washing him, as slowly and carefully as he had groomed her, and then laid the loofah aside. The shower was still cascading over their heads, sluicing off Keeley’s shoulders and the edges of the marble.

  She leaned over Lance, spreading her fingers across his pecs. Her body made a shelter from the rain-like shower, and he smiled up at her.

  “Now I’ve looked after you, and you’ve looked after me,” he said, his voice curling around Keeley’s heart. “What was the third thing you said, about what we need to make this work?”

  Keeley laughed. “Seems like you remember. Why don’t you remind me?”

  This time, their lovemaking was slow, as gentle and intimate as the shared grooming had been. Lance kissed her from her neck down between her breasts to her upper thighs, his lips teasingly soft and never touching her most sensitive spots.

  The bath had filled while they washed. Lance slipped off the marble bench and gently pulled Keeley into the water after him. Keeley’s breath was already hitching with pleasure. As they both sank into the water, she thought it would only take one touch for her to unravel entirely.

  The new scar on Lan
ce’s chest gleamed as the water hit it. Keeley covered it with her hand, and then took her hand away and kissed it.

  She met Lance’s eyes, and he picked up her hand and kissed the fine scars on her fingers and the slight grazes from the holding cell.

  Life has hurt both of us, his gaze seemed to say. But we’re together now. Stronger. I won’t let you get hurt again.

  And I won’t let you get hurt, Keeley thought.

  She wrapped her legs around Lance, her movements slow and almost dreamy in the warm water. When he entered her, every nerve in her body lit up with the sensation of pure pleasure.

  Lance groaned into her shoulder as he filled her, slow and deep and perfect, and Keeley cried out. Her fingertips bit into Lance’s shoulders as she came, holding him close against her until the crash of pleasure faded into perfect, peaceful joy.

  Afterwards, Keeley rested her head on Lance’s shoulder. The golden light inside her was fixed now, and she knew nothing would destroy it again. She and Lance were bonded for good.

  He was hers. And she was his. And if he looked after her, and she looked after him, it would all work out.

  Especially if the sex stayed that incredible.

  Epilogue

  Lance

  “No! Maggie, no! Leave the pilot alone!”

  Lance chuckled as Maggie finally paid attention to Keeley’s exasperated tone. The tiny dragon swiveled her head around on her long neck, an injured ‘Who, me?’ expression on her face.

  Keeley sighed. “Don’t give me that look, baby. I’m not the one trying to blind our pilot as he flies us a million miles above the ground.” She tapped Maggie on the tip of her snout. “Some of us need this helicopter to stay in the air, okay? We don’t all have wings.”

  She flicked a grin at Lance, and his heart turned over.

  “Ready to meet your first full-grown dragon?” he asked out loud.

  Keeley grimaced. “Sure. I’ll just hide behind Maggie if he gets too scary.” She wrestled the baby dragon into her lap and re-secured the makeshift dragon-seatbelt around her.

  Lance sighed quietly and rubbed his forehead. He gave it ten minutes, max, before Maggie got tired of being cuddled and broke out of the restraints again.

  *Don’t sweat it.* Harley’s psychic voice was all grin. *I’ve flown with a half-dozen of my nieces and nephews in the back. I can handle one miniature dragon.*

  *Even with her wings over your eyes?*

  In the pilot’s seat, Harley shrugged. *I’ve been looking for a new handicap. Might mention it at the next race meet.*

  Lance sat back in his seat, grinning. A nudge from his snow leopard made him reflect that, yes, a few days ago Harley’s comment might have made him groan. Maybe he was a little less uptight now.

  He glanced at Keeley again. I wonder why that might be.

  The unsteady feeling that had plagued him since they first discovered the scale shields was gone, too. Lance no longer felt as though he was walking on the edge of a crumbling cliff, afraid that every next step might be the one to plunge him into the abyss.

  Again, no surprises why. Keeley’s presence—her bravery, her protectiveness, hell, the way she gritted her teeth when she was angry—everything about her grounded him.

  The world still held its mysteries. There was still crime in the world, shifter as well as human. Briers had been dealt with, but Lance wasn’t convinced that he was the final piece in the puzzle. Something was still missing.

  But it didn’t frighten him anymore. Even if his next steps did send him tumbling into the unknown, he wouldn’t be alone—because, as Keeley put it, he was no longer being a dumbass who thought he had to deal with everything on his own.

  He had his gorgeous mate by his side. Loyal friends who he trusted. They’d been there all along, he’d just been too boneheaded to realize he could rely on them. Grant and Irina, Mathis and Chloe. He’d been a fool to leave them out of the loop about his investigations.

  Julian, too. He’d kept the dragon shifter separate to protect him… on Briers’ recommendation. No more. Julian Rouse had more reason than most of them to smoke out the last traces of whoever was involved with the attack on his family.

  And Frankie. Lance straightened his shoulders. Frankie Delacourt, his old friend who he’d lost before he even knew any of this was going on. She was another victim of the criminals’ web of lies. She deserved better than the self-imposed exile that was her current existence.

  He’d bring them all together. And together, they’d deal with the situation once and for all.

  His comm crackled, and Chloe’s voice burst into his headphone. “Hey, helicopter! Found you!”

  Lance laughed and un-muted his mic. “You mean we caught up with you,” he said.

  Keeley leaned over Lance to look out the window. “I didn’t realize this was a race,” she muttered.

  “Did someone say race?” Harley called from the front of the helicopter.

  This time, Lance did groan. But—he had to give himself credit—he laughed, too.

  The helicopter swung around, heading for distant mountains. Nestled in a small town in the foothills was the safehouse where Julian Rouse had been living for the last six months. Alone, except for his guards.

  Well, he wasn’t going to be alone anymore. Soon he’d have his niece with him—and two more eggs, which were probably as ready to hatch as Maggie had been.

  Keeley wrapped her fingers around his. “Hey,” she said, bending her head towards him even though thanks to the helicopter’s engine noise, they were speaking through the headsets. “How big is this safehouse, anyway?”

  “Two stories, a yard. Why?”

  Keeley nodded to where the two dragon eggs were safely stowed behind them. “They’re going to come out dragon-shaped too, aren’t they?”

  “Ah.” Lance thought about this.

  He glanced at Maggie, who stared innocently back. One of the reasons the makeshift seatbelt was so unsuccessful was that the tiny dragon was rapidly becoming less tiny. Eating twice her body weight in fish and red meat for every meal was having results.

  We’re going to need a bigger safehouse, Lance thought, looking sideways at Maggie.

  And if her behaviour here in the chopper was anything to go by, she was ready to start flying. At less than a week old. With two more dragonlings on the way…

  A bigger safehouse. In a more remote location. A very remote location.

  “I’ll sort it out,” he said automatically, and Keeley elbowed him with a grin on her face. “Sorry. We’ll sort it out.”

  The mountains rose up in front of them, and Lance’s heart lifted as he glimpsed snow in their highest peaks.

  Maybe he didn’t have all the answers. But he had something better. A mate who loved him, and friends he could trust with his life.

  “We should arrive in time for dinner,” he broadcast to the rest of the helicopter and the others driving on the road below. “And after that—who wants to help me save the world?”

  The resounding cheer from everyone on his comms was so loud he had to tear his headset off before his snow leopard came out and ripped it off for him. He kissed Keeley’s hand, staring into her laughing eyes as the helicopter headed for the mountains.

  Who knew? Maybe, once Maggie was settled with her uncle, they might even have time for a mountain vacation.

  Maggie

  Maggie liked the helicopter. It was fast, and went high, and the fwoom-fwoom-fwoom of its spinny wings was so loud it made her entire body rumble.

  Best of all, under the hot makes-things-go smell and the familiar smells of Keeley and Lance and the new but also friendly smell of the other man, it had gold in it.

  Maggie climbed up Keeley’s front and peered over her shoulder to where her hoard was. It was still there. Good.

  But the box was too small to put the helicopter in.

  Bad.

  Maggie chirped sadly to herself, then nibbled on her gold chain to make herself feel better. Above her head, Keeley an
d Lance and the cat man were talking. It was too much work to listen to their voices through the fwoom-fwoom-fwoom, so Maggie snuggled herself down in Keeley’s lap and listened to their feelings instead.

  The other cat-man was full of fly-fast-fly-fast feelings. Maggie liked him immediately. Lance and Keeley were mostly soft fluffy feelings, especially when they looked at each other.

  But there was something else, too. They weren’t all fluffy all the time, which was good, because that would be very boring.

  Keeley was a little bit scared of being up high and going fast. That made sense. She didn’t have another being inside her who she could send out to be tougher. All she had was her human body. Maggie shivered. Being a human was terrible. Poor Keeley. No wonder she was scared.

  Maggie draped a bit of her necklace over Keeley’s hand to make her feel better.

  Just a little bit of it, though. It was her necklace, after all.

  Lance was different. He was excited, with sharp edges. And his excitement reached out in front of them, up where the ground came even bigger than buildings.

  Maggie stretched her neck out. What was Lance so excited about out there? Her wings fluttered, and Keeley made an oh-no noise and held onto her more tightly. Maggie didn’t mind. She didn’t actually need to flap her wings to sniff over by the mountains. She just liked doing it. Having wings was the best.

  She didn’t need to actually sniff either, but she did, anyway, poking her snout this way and that while she stretched out her mind to see what Lance was so excited about.

  When she found it, she shrieked and flew up to the helicopter’s ceiling.

  Keeley and Lance were both making oh-no noises now, but Maggie ignored them. She dug her claws into a bit of soft stuff in the ceiling and trilled excitedly.

  There was another dragon.

  A big dragon.

  He was too far away for Maggie to talk to him, but that didn’t matter. She already knew the shape of his mind. He’d been around… before. When she was still in her egg.