Hunted by a Jaguar

by Felicity Heaton

  “Kyter,” she murmured, his name a sound of supplication.

  She lifted her left leg, wrapped it around his hip, and drew him against her.

  Her warm wetness pressed against his balls.

  He lost it again.

  He grabbed her under her thigh, lifted her and stumbled across the small span of the doorframe, his combats around his ankles hindering him. She moaned as her back slammed into the doorframe on the other side and raised her other leg, wrapping it around his waist. She shoved her left hand between them, colliding with his, and laughed at the same time as he did. It seemed they had both lost it, both becoming slaves to their desire.

  He snatched her hand and wrapped it around his steel length, and held it with her as he guided it towards her. She moaned sweetly as he nudged into her slick heat and groaned with him as he pulled their hands away and eased into her, somehow finding the strength to do it slowly and savour their first coupling. She was tight and hot, so wet that he wanted to growl.

  She needed him. He would satisfy that need.

  Kyter lowered his hands to her backside as she grabbed hold of his shoulders and grunted as he angled her hips so he could go deeper, feeling all of her and making her feel all of him. He wanted to leave no part of her untouched. He wanted her to know that she was his now and he was hers. Mating was just a formality that could wait. They belonged to each other already.

  She held on to him and brought her lips down hard on his, stealing his breath in a passionate kiss as he withdrew almost all the way out of her before sliding back in. He couldn’t do slow and steady. Not this time. His animal instincts rode him, his need to claim her driving him to take her harder, faster, satisfying both of them. He tried to hold back, thrusting deep with long strokes, fighting for control.

  Iolanthe shattered it.

  She rocked on him, her feet locked behind his bare backside, and drove him into her, deeper and harder, faster. She wanted it frantic, just as he did. She wanted it wild and untamed, feral and primal.

  He growled into her mouth, grabbed her hard and pinned her against the doorframe as he took her, pumping fast and deep, his entire body flexing as he surrendered to his shifter nature and his need to physically claim her body.

  She moaned and clawed at him, her fangs nipping at his lips, awakening a deeper need inside him, a desire to have those fangs in his throat. He groaned and clutched her backside, thrusting deeper, until she moaned with each meeting of their bodies. One hand left his shoulders and she held on to the doorframe behind her, her head tipped back and mouth open on a cry as she rode each plunge of his cock into her.

  Kyter buried his face in her throat, kissing and licking it, obeying his instincts to lave at her neck as they mated. His balls drew up, tight and heavy, his release rising. He growled and pinned her harder, his heart beating so fast he felt sure it would burst as he pounded her and she took every deep stroke of his length, her blissful cries music to his ears.

  He couldn’t remember ever being able to be like this with someone. None of them had been strong enough to take him like this, wild and untamed, more beast than man. None of them had awakened this side of him, this primal need to lay claim and possess them.

  “Kyter,” she whispered, hoarse and beautiful. She dug her nails into his back and said the one thing he hadn’t thought he would hear leaving her lips, “More.”

  More?

  She could take more than this?

  She wanted more than this?

  He snarled and pressed the clawed tips of his fingers into her hips as he drove deeper, harder, faster, obeying her command. She flexed against him and her cry filled his ears, her body quivering around his, drawing him deeper still, scalding him with her climax.

  He roared and joined her, thrusting deep as he pushed her down on him and shot hot jets of seed into her, his cock throbbing and entire body shaking as heat spread through him, stealing his strength and leaving him weakened.

  He held her on him as she fluttered around him, drawing out his climax and hers, her soft breathy moans teasing his ears as she slowly sagged against him, settling her head on his shoulder.

  His knees gave out.

  He hit the tiled floor hard, not feeling the pain that ricocheted from his knees up his thighs.

  Iolanthe giggled against his neck, the thundering rush of her heart against his chest matching his, and stroked his shoulders. Her wet hair caressed his chest. He breathed hard, struggling to bring himself down, shaking against her. She was shaking too.

  Kyter gathered her into his arms, holding her against him, basking in the warmth of her and what they had shared.

  She murmured, “I think I need another shower.”

  Kyter groaned when she pressed a kiss to his shoulder and whispered to him, a seductive quality to her voice that had his hunger rising again and the primal side of him stirring once more.

  “I think you need one too.”

  CHAPTER 16

  Iolanthe lay in Kyter’s arms in the large bed, her cheek pressed to his bare chest, listening to his soft steady breathing as she stared out of the window across the pale yellow room. He had risen to open it at some point while she had been sleeping and now a cool breeze swept through it, carrying the scent of evening and the noise of insects. Trees swayed and rustled, and nature swirled around her, comforting her together with the feel of his strong arms banded around her.

  She couldn’t remember the last time she had slept so soundly, even in her bolthole where she was safe and extremely secure thanks to various enchantments and blockers that prevented anyone except her from teleporting into her home.

  Something about the feel of Kyter against her, his hard powerful body gently cushioning hers, and the steady beat of his strong heart against her ear had made it easy for her to let down her guard and fall into a deep sleep.

  He stroked her left arm, calloused fingers caressing her skin, and she felt his gaze following them, burning her with its intensity.

  He had kept his promise today, never once attempting to bite her, and she was grateful for it. She finally believed that the male holding her tucked against his left side was the real Kyter, and the one who had frightened her and had wanted to own her had been nothing but a phantom, a product of the emotions evoked by discovering she was his fated one.

  She was glad that she was female and experienced only a sliver of the possessiveness and protectiveness that ruled him.

  She still felt those emotions though. She had surrendered to them this morning when making love with Kyter, giving all of herself over to the moment, letting her passion and possessiveness consume her. She had wanted to claim him. She had wanted to ruin him to all other females, so he would never look at another.

  He would only ever desire her.

  “What are you thinking?” he whispered and ran his fingers back up her arm to her shoulder, brought them to her cheek, and slid them along her jaw. He tipped her head up, angling his body away from hers so he could look at her.

  “I do not know… what am I thinking?” She couldn’t resist teasing him, because his eyes said that he knew what she was thinking and he just wanted to hear her say it. They were dark again, the gold in them bright against the wide aroused abyss of his pupils.

  Hunting her again?

  Perhaps he couldn’t help himself.

  She had quickly learned that the more she evaded him, the more his eyes gained the same look they held now. If she walked away, he felt a powerful need to pursue her. It fascinated her and she wanted to know more about him. She had learned about shifters, and had met many of them from different species, but she had never really cared enough to truly want to know them and how their behaviour and abilities differed from hers.

  “You feel as if you’re thinking naughty things.” He feathered a caress down her throat and around the nape of it, and pressed his fingers there.

  Another behaviour that felt cat-like to her. He wanted to control her by holding her neck. If they ever mated, would he
need to bite her there?

  “I was thinking about shifters,” she said and his expression darkened, his sensual lips losing their playful smile as they flattened into a hard line.

  “Better not be thinking about males.”

  “Only one male.” She walked her fingers across the delicious expanse of his bare chest. “I am curious about you.”

  He caught her left wrist and rubbed his thumb over the black and silver band around it. “I’m curious about these.”

  Evading her? Why? Didn’t he want her to know about him and his kind?

  “They are my armour.” She tried to take her arm back but he tightened his grip, locking his fingers around her.

  “Do all elves have it?”

  Iolanthe looked away from him, unable to keep her eyes on his as she answered. “No.”

  His grip on her loosened and he stroked his thumb across the inside of her wrist, sending shivers dancing up her arm. “I get the feeling you weren’t given yours.”

  She shook her head, ashamed to admit that and not wanting to think about how she had come to have the armour that had saved her life countless times.

  “Only elves who serve in the army or hold a rank have this armour.” Her voice lost its strength and she closed her eyes, afraid that she would find him looking at her differently if she dared to glance at him.

  “I’m guessing you neither served nor held rank… and you don’t like how you got this armour… but it was necessary.” He drew her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to the inside of her wrist, and then sighed, his breath moist against her skin. “Did you kill someone for it?”

  “No.” Her eyes shot open, leaping to his, and then dropped to his chest as she said, “Yes… in a manner of speaking.”

  She closed her eyes again when he released her wrist and his palm cupped her cheek, his tender touch almost too much for her to bear. She didn’t deserve it.

  “How did you get it?” he whispered and she felt the depth of his desire to know the answer to that question.

  He wanted to know her too.

  She drew in a deep breath and exhaled it. “I seduced an elf soldier.”

  His hand tensed against her. She had known he wouldn’t like the answer to his question, but she hadn’t wanted to lie to him, or evade it as he had evaded hers. What had happened had been thousands of years before he had even been born, but he still experienced jealousy, even when he had no reason to feel that emotion. What she had done with that elf had been business, and far from a pleasurable experience. It haunted her.

  “I stole the armour from him and every day I have to live with what I did.” She slowly opened her eyes and lifted them back to meet his, pain flowing through her, as fresh as it had been back then, all those countless centuries ago. It never eased. “I have to live with my reckless and greedy actions because he came after me, he tracked me down in an attempt to retrieve his armour and restore his honour, and I saw him killed. He would have lived if I had not stolen his armour.”

  “He would have lived if he had let it go.” Kyter stroked her cheek and she shuffled backwards, away from his comforting touch.

  “It was a matter of honour. I tarnished that honour when I stole his armour. He would have been punished for it. He had wanted to restore his honour.” She shook her head when he opened his mouth to speak, not wanting to hear what he had to say because she knew he would seek to comfort her. “Do not… I would rather forget what I had done, or pretend it was not my fault, but it is a black spot on my life that I must live with.”

  He nodded and held his left arm out to her, and she returned to his side, nestling against him, her breasts pressed against his ribs and chest.

  She moved her right arm so it lay over the top of his one beneath her and settled her palm on his chest, and her chin on the back of her hand. She studied his face as he looked at her, a smile in his golden eyes even though it didn’t touch his lips. He was absorbing what she had told him and she hoped he didn’t think worse of her because of it.

  Iolanthe lowered her gaze to his chest and frowned as she placed her fingers against the start of one set of claw marks, matching a fingertip to each slash. She gently stroked the thin silver scars that darted diagonally towards her, from the right side of his chest to the left of the first set of abdominal muscles on his stomach.

  “Earlier… at the temple… you said that your pride is not your pride anymore. What did you mean by that?” She had wanted to ask him at the time, because there had been a wealth of pain and sorrow in his eyes as he had spoken those words.

  He sighed and stared up at the ceiling, his profile to her and his gaze distant.

  “Was it because of the demon attack and your mother?”

  He shook his head and raked the fingers of his right hand through his sandy hair, causing his muscles to flex beneath his golden skin. “It was before that.”

  She waited for him to elaborate, not wanting to push him because he would push back if she did. He would close up and shut her out.

  “Barafnir—” He cut himself off and slid her a wary look. “Don’t suppose you’d give me a clue about your stance on mixed species people?”

  Iolanthe frowned, unsure why he needed to know. “Barafnir is mixed species? I did not believe that was possible for a demon. All demon offspring are born pure demon or purely the other species involved if that species is genetically stronger.”

  Kyter closed his eyes and his jaw flexed as he ground out, “Not all offspring.”

  Her eyes widened and she stared at him for long seconds before she caught herself, realising that she was making him uncomfortable. It wasn’t possible. The only species she knew that was powerful enough to overrule the demon genes were elves. Elf offspring born of a union with another species came out purely elf, without any trace of the other species in them.

  But Kyter was implying that it was possible for the offspring of a union with a demon to come out as a blend of both species.

  And he was implying something else too, something that only made her heart go out to him even more.

  “Barafnir is your father,” she whispered and he turned his face away from her, confirming her suspicions. She gently caught his cheek with her left hand and drew his gaze back to her. “I have seen you as a jaguar.”

  “I am a jaguar… but I do have my father’s genes too. That problem you had figuring out what I was from scent alone… that’s because of my mixed blood.” He tried to look away again, a glimmer of pain darkening his striking eyes and fear lacing his scent.

  He thought she would reject him because of his mixed blood?

  Her eyes went wide again.

  He thought it because his pride had done such a thing.

  She hissed through her fangs as they dropped and Kyter turned on her and growled, baring his own fangs in a threat. She grabbed his shoulder before he could move, cursing herself for reacting without thinking.

  “It was not aimed at you.” She held on to him, refusing to let him go until he relaxed again, sinking back into the mattress beneath her. “It was aimed at those who hurt you… they did hurt you, did they not?”

  She ran her hand over his right shoulder, to the start of the scars that littered his back, her gaze locked there.

  His pain flowed into her through that touch and he trembled beneath her palm.

  “That is why they are not your pride.” She wanted to find the ones who had wounded him and make them pay for turning on such a beautiful, noble male, rejecting him and leaving him scarred, both inside and out.

  He nodded, swallowed hard and forced a smile as he finally looked at her. “Barafnir found my mother when she was hunting one day and tricked her into believing that he was one of the cursed demon species, only able to mate with his fated one. Jaguars value their fated mates. A mate means everything to those in my pride and it fooled her into believing him. He held her captive for months… and she finally escaped him before he could discover that she was pregnant with me.”

 
She still couldn’t believe that Kyter had been born jaguar, not fully demon. His will was strong, his blood even stronger. It was the only explanation she had for the fact he had managed to subdue his demon genes. Now, he wanted to kill the male who had given him those genes, an act of vengeance she knew he needed in order to heal his heart.

  “When I was born, they thought I was pure jaguar until the new moon. My mother tried to hide the change that came over me, but another female saw it. She told the elders and the elders took me from my mother and showed everyone in the pride what I was. A monster.”

  Iolanthe bit back her growl and stroked his cheek. “You are not a monster.”

  “I felt like one.”

  “They made you feel like one… when they should have accepted you as part of their pride. They are fools for how they treated you. It was not your fault.”

  Kyter sighed. “They blamed my mother too. She was disgraced by what happened to her to give rise to me. Because of that, she never mated and was always without position within the pride. They made her life hell but she was never strong enough to leave them.”

  “You were though. You left them.”

  He nodded. “Eventually. They kept us both at the fringes of the pride and my mother thought that should be enough for us. It wasn’t enough for me. I did everything I could to make them accept me as part of the pride and recognise me. I shouldn’t have bothered.”

  She ran her hand over his chest, stroking the scars there again, giving him a moment to gather himself. His pain was growing stronger, flowing from a deeper source, and she regretted pushing him to talk about himself now. She hadn’t meant to hurt him.

  “When I was young, nothing more than a boy, I began trying to play with the other males my age in the pride. They were wary of me but sometimes they would let me go with them into the forest. I treasured those times… until one day when one of our group ended up injured when trying to leap between the trees. When the elders heard about it, and heard I was part of the group, they punished me for it.”