*****
They snuck out of the castle in no time, avoiding the people and using the cloak provided to them to blend in. The smell of autumn leaves filled Roxie’s nostrils, and an ache settled in her as she realized how much she missed this place. This was her home and the place she’d grown up in since she was a kid, and she didn’t know how to live anywhere else.
Her mother had often told her things: about how she wasn’t really wanted there, about how she was never going to succeed in ruling the place when her time came. Tiny insults, said in a playful manner, sometimes with a hug or two. That was just how Pine was, and Roxie had built up a wall so as not to let the words affect her. But this was the first time that those words had taken fruit, and she realized her mother was more serious than she thought.
She also realized her mother had probably just been waiting for her to be the one to give up first and leave.
Isaac was silent as they kept walking until they finally reached a lake in the middle of a clearing. It was deep blue, a direct contrast to the orange and red trees and perfect because of it. Roxie liked coming here to think and be alone, and the pang hit her again.
She closed her eyes against it and concentrated on using her magic.
“Roxie?”
“Quiet. I’m concentrating.”
He growled. “But you just used your powers and need to rest. I was just asking for the spot because—”
“Quiet,” she repeated, more firmly this time. She kept her eyes closed and tugged at the reserve inside her, feeling something respond even while she already used up most of it earlier. This was all the Autumn Court’s doing, of course, enhancing her magic. She let it out slowly, taking her time, imagining the portal in her mind as well as the spot near Isaac’s home.
A hand took her wrist and tugged her forward. Her eyes snapped open as she looked at Isaac, who was studying her closely.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” she replied, her voice steady.
He had no response to that. His jaw tensed again, and she figured he was still not fine with Pine’s decision.
“I’m so—”
“If you say sorry one more time, I’m going to strangle you.”
“—delighted to be welcomed into your home,” she said instead.
His lips quirked. She stifled a smile. Then she looked at the castle from afar one more time before turning to him with a deep breath.
“Let’s go.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
There had to be some way he could cheer her up.
Roxie’s sadness wasn’t obvious. In fact, she was putting up a very impenetrable front, one full of sparkle and sunshine that had he been any other man, he’d have believed it instantly and moved on already. Urban certainly believed it, and the young man was obviously taken in by Roxie’s genuine sweetness to him as he subtly guarded her and made sure her needs were met while Isaac got busy with taking care of things he hadn’t attended to since his absence.
His instincts had been right on Urban and the young man’s initiative, and his mind eased in that department.
As for Roxie…well, she was a different case.
She did her best to mingle, but mostly kept to herself. She also avoided him like the plague, and he could feel the guilt and the pride warring inside her whenever she dropped the act, and he happened to be looking.
And that just wouldn’t do.
He wanted the fighter in her back, raging and telling him and anyone else who crossed her to go to hell. Isaac knew it was unreasonable, even irrational. But before he could stop himself, he was already ordering one of the cooks to cook some of her best dishes and create a table setting within one of the more private halls of the cave. He knocked on Roxie’s room, waiting as she opened the door. When she did, he tossed a box at her.
“Get dressed tonight.”
“Why?”
“Just get dressed. Urban will take you somewhere in an hour.”
He left it at that.
An hour later, he was the first to walk into the hall, where a table was set up with candles. Five minutes later, Roxie walked in, and he heard the gasp come out of her as she stopped just behind him.
“Isaac? What’s this?”
“Dinner,” he said simply.
He turned around, and the next thing he was about to say left his head at the sight of her.
He was used to Roxie wearing outrageous fairy cloaks and simple jeans and shirts, as well as pajama pants, which she seemed to love to wear at night. But this Roxie, in a simple black dress that accentuated her small curves softly and only emphasized the gold gleam of her hair and those eyes…he felt his mouth water and something intense throb inside him. Isaac forced it down and attempted a smirk, remembering his goal.
“Come on. I’m hungry.”
Tonight, it would be all about her.
*****
Dinner was light, and he managed to convince her to take some of his world’s food other than the fruit, reasoning out that since she was stuck here with him for a while, her magic wouldn’t really be needed since she was automatically under his protection. She was reluctant at first—until she tried the cook’s roasted duck and closed her eyes in bliss.
Then she tried the wild rice, then the dessert tray consisting of cheesecake and assorted pies, and after a while, Roxie was enthusiastically gobbling everything up and making little sounds of pleasure that had him amused and turned on at the same time. Again, he stifled his reaction and simply ate with her, then brought her into conversation until he felt her body relax and a genuine smile tug at her lips. Her eyes lit up every now and then as she began asking questions about his people and his culture, and her genuine interest had something inside him reacting as well as he did his best to explain.
He had never hidden the fact that he cared and loved his people with a fierceness that belied everything else, and he let her feel it now. It was his silent way of telling her that she was accepted and welcomed here, that everything that happened in the past should be forgotten, and he hoped it would be enough.
As someone who wasn’t very forgiving, it was big of him, and he even surprised himself.
After dinner, she made a request that surprised him all the more.
“Can you show me around?”
“Hmm?”
Her cheeks colored, but she went on. “I mean, I’ve already explored the cave when I was bored, but the forest…”
He immediately thought of the colorful forest at her Autumn Court, and the wistful tone in her voice when she stared at that lake. Again, before he could organize his thoughts, he found himself already standing up. Then he motioned for her to follow him, where he led her to the cave halls down to the back, which led to a large clearing that he often used for outdoor parties and gatherings. Beyond the clearing was one of the forests, and beyond it were the cliffs and the sea.
“Would you mind terribly if I shifted?” he asked.
She shook her head and grinned. “I’ll catch up with you.”
He raised his brows but didn’t comment on it, knowing her magic was lessening now due to the food. To his amusement, she turned around, and he would have teased her but decided against it. Instead, he quietly shed his clothes and shifted as fast as he could, then gave out a yowl before running in the direction of the forest.
Come on. Catch up to me.
He was alone at first, the fresh scent of the trees filling his nostrils. Then the scent of freshly cut grass hit the air, and her feminine scent replaced it, and a blur whizzed by him and went ahead. Shocked, he watched as she ran with her magic enhancing her movements, her feet bare and her limbs loose. With her lithe body, it almost seemed like she was flying through the forest before breaking into the field that led to the cliffs.
Laughter filled her face and resonated in him, and he sprinted after her. She kept laughing as she bounced around, and then made a high jump that had her rocketing up in the air before she landed on the soles of
her feet. But she lost her balance and rolled around the grass before stopping on her back, where she giggled like crazy. Golden light vibrated out of her, and he finally caught up to her and bumped her on the shoulder until she sat up.
A mischievous gleam entered Roxie’s eyes, and her smirk tilted them further. Then she was using her fingers and her magic on his fur and rubbing, setting a rhythm that made him ticklish and set his loins on fire at the same time. He was pretty sure she wasn’t eliciting the second reaction on purpose, and he tried to stop her by crawling over her. He gently but firmly set his paws on her wrists and limbs, and an answering vibration responded in her body.
Then instead of stopping, she was wrestling with him.
They rolled around, each one of them trying to overpower the other. The challenge rose in him as he balanced strength without hurting her, while she simply enjoyed the silly use of her magic to stay on top of him. But her magic was slowly weakening, and he decided to wait her out until he felt it go out of her bit by bit.
When it was gone, he pounced on top of her and stayed there, snarling and showing her his sharp teeth. He was much bigger than her and definitely heavier in his panther form, but she held her own and made no complaints—the first time that a woman had ever matched his sheer power.
She grinned up in response to his snarl, and joy filled him. Then, just as he was about to rejoice, more magic filtered out of her and snuck in his senses, rendering his shifting abilities in reverse. To his shock, he was rapidly shifting in front of her until he was back in his human form and unable to stop it.
Her shoulders settled back, and she heaved a deep, tired sigh, her magic disappearing completely. “Sorry. I couldn’t resist. I wanted to test that out.”
His own breathing turned harsh. “Cool trick.”
She laughed, and he couldn’t stop staring at her. His hands fisted on the grass as he tried to keep from pressing his body against hers, the need in him stronger than ever.
Take her, it called out.
Make her yours.
He kept his eyes on hers, memorizing her face as he did so. He’d been wrong—she wasn’t conventionally beautiful, but she was beautiful inside and out, and she had no idea how much that affected him. He drank the sight of her in, etching it in his memory forever.
The laughter trailed off her as the realization came in her eyes—realization of their position, at what was on his mind.
And at what was about to happen.
“Oh, autumns,” she murmured. “I didn’t mean it.”
“I know,” he murmured back.
Then he was lowering his mouth to hers.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The kiss caught her by surprise, but it wasn’t so sudden that she wouldn’t have had time to evade it. Roxie could have evaded it anytime she wanted, could have even run off knowing he wouldn’t follow her.
But she didn’t.
Instead, Roxie met the kiss, anticipation tingling in her bones until the warm contact. His lips brushed against hers once, then twice, then multiple times like an experiment. His body—his hard, naked body—strained on top of hers, and the heat radiating from him had her own body responding. But she refrained herself, savoring the slowness instead. In turn, she teased him back, testing the boundaries by placing the tip of her tongue on his lips, tracing and whispering her own kisses.
A low, approving rumble came from his throat, and his hands tightened on the grass near her shoulders. Her hands came up to slide up his elbows, a whispering touch that had his muscles straining and going harder. The control he had over himself turned her on, and an ache started inside her as she longed to ease that off him bit by bit.
But first…
She arched her body against him, losing her own control first. She gasped when he deepened the kiss, then moaned when his tongue came out and sought hers. Her hands tightened on his arms, clinging, as she felt his hardness settle against her stomach and pulse there. Then she slid her hands up further on his neck, then through his hair.
Gently, he pulled away, his breath heaving and his blue eyes molten hot with a desire that was both exciting and unnerving. He lay down beside her, looking up at the sky, and she did the same, as her heart raced and she tried to calm it down. They stayed silent for that moment, both minds preoccupied with the same thoughts.
How wrong this was.
How delicious and tempting this was.
How they were supposed to be doing the right thing.
But what was the right thing?
Before she could decide between what was in her heart and what was in her mind, he spoke first, his voice still low but relatively calmer.
“We can’t do this,” he said, his voice full of regret. Full of something else. She wanted to reach out and touch it—wanted to reach out and touch him—but pride and his own words prevented her from doing so.
So she kept her hands to herself and kept her silence, knowing exactly what he meant. They were from different worlds, and sleeping together would only lead to complications they weren’t ready to face yet.
Finally, she nodded.
“You’re right. We can’t.”
Before he could make a move to leave her, like he’d done twice already, Roxie stood up first. She half-turned in his direction, then stopped, realizing that seeing him naked wasn’t any good for her already revved up system.
“We can always be friends,” she suggested lightly.
Silence filled the crisp night air.
“I’d like that,” he murmured.
Roxie smiled at the ocean ahead. Maybe she could work with that.
“Good,” she murmured back.
Then she left first.
*****
Life in the panther clan was equal parts peaceful and exciting, with Roxie exploring things that she’d never encountered in her life before, at the same time being amazed that everything in the place seemed to be at ease.
Back in Autumn Court, the first priority was politics: knowing it, living it, and breathing it to survive. Her mother had tried her very best to get Roxie fully acquainted with the games that were frequently played there, as well as get her to push at her already weak magic to protect herself at all times. It had been taxing, and she’d never really gotten the hang of it, always preferring to keep to herself and her close friends, especially when other courts came to visit. The fear of slipping and exposing her true self was always on her mind, as it counted as a weakness against the Autumn Queen and her power.
But here in this world—particularly Isaac’s staked boundary—there was nothing of that. He handled all the politics with the ease of someone who’d been doing it all his life, but he didn’t play the game with his people. She could see how honestly he dealt with them, giving fair justice to those who needed it. She could feel the respect the panther shifters had for him, too, and knew it was the kind of loyalty that would never be swayed.
As the outsider, everyone was naturally wary of Roxie at first. They didn’t give her the hostile treatment, but no one really talked to her, either, other than Urban. He made it his duty to follow her around and make sure she was safe, and she had to laugh at the young man’s eagerness. Urban was a newly instated head guard, wanting to impress and prove his worth to the leader.
“How old are you?”
He colored at the question but remained polite. “Twenty, Miss—erm, Roxie.”
“And you’re the head guard? Wow. You must be really brave and good at what you do.”
He colored again, obviously unused to the praise, amusing her in the process. She discovered that Urban was indeed good at his job, never missing out details and reporting everything necessary to Isaac. But his age bugged Roxie—and so as the days went on and turned into weeks, she ended up bugging Urban to tell her the tale of why he had to replace someone so quickly and get to where he was now.
On the start of her fourth week in the panther clan, he finally relented. The mystery of what happened to Isaac’s previous head g
uard came to light, horrifying Roxie as she listened to Urban tell the story of the slavery.
“So, who was the mastermind of it?”
Urban’s expression shut off. “Someone close to the leader.” He glanced at her. “It doesn’t feel right for me to tell that part of the story.”
She nodded her head, understanding perfectly.
“Nole.”
The voice interrupted her thoughts, and she stilled right away. Then Roxie forced herself to relax as she turned to face Isaac, whose piercing eyes were focused on hers even while he gave Urban instructions to help check the perimeters. Then Urban was gone, and they were alone, making Roxie hyperaware of Isaac more than ever.
Since that night in the field, the tension between them was so high that one could pretty much cut it with a knife. She didn’t let it affect her and didn’t let him see it, but it was getting difficult to even be in the same room as him.
“Hey,” he murmured, looking her over. She knew it was just a quick perusal to see that she was doing fine, but the ache it brought was surreal. “How are you?”
She steadied herself. “I’m good. You’ve been busy.”
Isaac nodded, standing closer to brush her arm. The almost affectionate way he did it had her staring at him in equal parts surprise and puzzlement as she tried to figure out what it was about. She sensed him out with some of her restored magic, feeling the oddity.
“What’s wrong?”
His jaw tensed. “I sense something in the air.”
“What?”
“I can’t tell. It’s…something. A feeling. Just trying to make sure everything’s still good. Will you stay inside the cave today?”
Roxie frowned. “You know I have some of my magic back. I can help sense around.”
“I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“Do you trust me?”
“Of course.”
The absolutely certainty in his voice had her heart skipping a beat. Wanting him to know that his trust wasn’t misplaced, she stepped forward and placed her hand on his arm.
“Then let me help. You know I can handle myself.”
They looked at each other in silence, and for a moment, he looked like he wanted to say something. But nothing was said, and he simply nodded. “Thank you.”
Isaac (The Clan Legacy Series) Page 8
