Malek caught her hand in midair. “Be still. What the hell are you doing?”
“What the hell are you doing?” she asked, glaring up at his dark expression. “And why are you here? I need my privacy.”
His expression was grim. “I already told you not to be fooled by this quiet terrain. I do not want you venturing off into the woods alone.” He paused, clenching his jaw. “I was trying to help you get out of these blasted trousers. Turn around. I almost had it.”
She pursed her lips, realising she had no choice. She really had to go. Scowling, she turned around and stiffened the moment Malek touched her. She closed her eyes against the unfamiliar warmth of his hands. The only touch she had known from men was violent and Malek’s gentle touch was alien to her, stirring her Lycan blood. Reluctantly, she had to admit she liked it.
“My mother gave me these pants and I’m not familiar with the fastening,” she explained, her voice sounding strained to her ears.
“There. It’s done,” he said, his tone curiously hoarse.
Slowly, she turned around. “Thank you.”
Malek cast a dark glance around the area. “This place looks safe enough, but I won’t be far.”
“I hope far enough so you don’t see me,” she murmured. His expression revealed nothing and he turned away. She bit her lip. “Malek.” Slowly, he turned to face her, his expression guarded. “I’m…I’m sorry I tried to hit you,” she said quietly. “It was a reflex of my last two years with Balkathan’s wolves.”
A shutter fell over his face, masking his emotions. He ran a dark gaze over her face, his eyes flickering over her mouth. Nodding brusquely, he turned and walked away.
Quickly, she went about her business and then went back to the camp when she saw him standing near a large tree. He eyed her briefly before he abruptly turned and strode back to the tent he had been erecting. She made her way to him as he was tightening the ropes.
“Are those trousers all you packed?” Malek asked, not bothering to look up. “Do you not have any riding gowns with you?”
“No.” Katya’s face flamed. “Don’t worry. I think I figured out the fastening. You won’t have to undress me every time I need to go in the woods.” Malek snapped his head up, staring at her oddly and she flushed, realising her choice of words insinuated an alarmingly intimate position between them.
Clearing her throat delicately, she went to the crate containing her cot and began pushing it toward the tent’s opening. Malek immediately appeared by her side and lifted the heavy crate as if it weighed nothing more than feathers.
Her brows rose in surprise. “I can do that,” she stated. “Since I turned into a Lycan two years ago, my speed and strength is that of ten men.”
“I am aware of that,” he said brusquely. He bent his head slightly as he went through the opening of the tent and she followed him in. He looked around the small enclosure and gave her a hard look. “Where do you want it?”
She pointed to a corner on the far right as she tried to ignore the nervous flutters in her stomach. His immense presence filled the tent’s interior and she couldn’t tear her focus away from his handsome face. “Over there. Thank you.”
He nodded and deposited the crate on the ground. Straightening, he gave her a hooded look. “I trust this tent is to your liking?”
“It’s fine. Th-thank you.” God, he confused her. In one moment he was harsh, bordering on rude and in the next moment he was gallantly lifting her crate and enquiring politely after her comfort. She watched him stride to the opening. “Malek.”
He stopped and turned around, regarding her silently.
“If we’re going to spend the next week together,” she began stiffly, “can we at least try to get along? I…I would like us to be friends.”
A momentary flash of surprise entered his face, but it disappeared so quickly she wondered if she’d imagined it. Without saying a word, Malek turned abruptly on his heel and left her.
“So much for my olive branch,” she murmured.
* * * *
Friends! Was she mad? Malek recalled her warm flesh when he’d unfastened her trousers and he was immediately aroused. Damnation! The last thing on his mind was friendship.
He growled under his breath as he toured the camp, making sure everything was in order. Spending all this time with her was going to be worse than he thought. The tension he’d felt the first moment he set eyes on her last week was mounting, and in disgust he realised that tension now rested in his loins.
He knew firsthand the immense power of Balkathan’s mind control, and until he knew he could trust Katya, he could do nothing about his attraction for the dark-haired beauty.
* * * *
Alone by the side of the camp, Katya nibbled on her bread and glanced at the guards having their dinner. She caught a few of them casting surreptitious glances her way and she wondered if Malek had poisoned their minds against her. She saw Malek off to the side. He was all by himself, occasionally casting a dark look her way.
He couldn’t have made her feel like more of an outcast. She pursed her lips and tore her gaze from his. He should have been grateful to her for embarking on this journey with them. She was the only one who knew where Balkathan’s lair was. Instead, he treated her as if she was a pariah.
Anger welled in her breast and she rose abruptly from her boulder. Katya tossed the remaining food from her plate on the ground, knowing a wild animal would appreciate the bread and beans, and marched to her tent. From the corner of her eye, she saw Malek rise abruptly.
Inside her tent, she placed her plate on top of a box and went to her bag.
“You barely touched your food,” Malek said behind her.
She didn’t believe for a moment he was concerned about her appetite. Without bothering to turn around, Katya reached for her small satchel of soap. “I’m not hungry.” She heard Malek growl softly.
“A Lycan is always hungry. You must eat.”
Angrily, she spun around. “Well, maybe I’m not like all Lycans. If you bothered to get to know me, you’d know I was born human with my mother’s vampire blood in my veins before I turned into a Lycan.”
Malek frowned at her bag. “Where are you going?”
“To bathe before bed.”
He grimaced. “I will come with you and stand guard.”
Her shackles rose. “No, you won’t. Your duties to protect me end where my privacy is concerned.”
Malek’s jaw tightened. “I gave the king my word I would keep you safe.”
“And I’m grateful. However, I don’t like to bathe with an audience,” she said, gritting her teeth.
“You will have your privacy. I will wait behind the trees.”
Chapter Three
Malek heard her humming a soft melody and tightened his jaw. A few moments later, he heard a splash. She was in the water—naked.
Damnation. He was supposed to be protecting her, not entertaining thoughts of ravishing her. He heard her moan and his gut tightened. The wolf in him was going wild. It wanted to join her, touch her, and caress her.
The man in him, however, was frustrated.
In two hundred years, he’d discreetly bedded hundreds upon hundreds of wenches, but he’d never felt this uncontrollable hunger coursing through his veins for any one of them.
The splashing stopped and Malek tensed. He couldn’t hear her. Moving his head to the direction of the lake bed, he gritted his teeth and tried listening for any signs of movement from her. Then, he heard a sharp yelp.
Growling, he ran toward the lake, snapping branches and breaking twigs as he charged through the thick shrub, his heart pounding with fear. Privacy be damned! He should not have left her alone!
The woods thinned and he vaulted through the air into the clearing, nearly falling over Katya. Shocked, Malek reached out his hands and stopped her from stumbling back. Instantly, his shock evaporated as he felt her soft skin beneath his hands, her curved hip, her small waist. Dazed by the sudden heat ass
aulting his senses, Malek stared at her breasts, full and supple, their rosy nubs his control completely crashing down.
His inner wolf howled with primal need and he grimaced as fire coursed through his veins. He looked down at her face. She looked terrified. Without warning, she clawed at his face and screamed, her eyes turning amber.
Damnation, Katya was shifting!
“Be still,” Malek roared as he gripped her shoulders. “It is I, Malek. I heard you scream.”
She ignored him as she kept clawing and growling, pounded on his chest. Grimacing, he watched her face shift, brows meeting at the bridge of her nose, jowls appearing, ferocious fangs snapping in rage. Slowly, she grew in height, towering over him. If he didn’t shift, her Lycan form would rip him to shreds.
Without another thought, Malek called on his inner beast and shifted in his eight-foot Lycan form, his clothes ripping and shredding from his body as he expanded. She had already shifted in her seven feet tall She-Lycan and wrestled him to the ground.
“Katya! Stop,” he growled in his eerie voice, rolling over, imprisoning her body beneath his.
Malek grabbed her hands and gripped them tightly over her head as he gazed down at her face. He tried to ignore the treacherous wave of desire making his heart pound where their naked loins met. She was breathing hard, squirming under his weight, and he sucked in a harsh breath. Even in her Lycan form, he found her desirable.
Her stare connected with his and he caught a flash of recognition in them, then fear, and finally shame. “Oh no,” Katya whispered. “I’m…I’m sorry. You can release me.”
“Not until you shift back to your human.” He sensed her powerful strength beneath him and didn’t want to take any chances. Not that Katya could overpower him in battle. It was his own beast, his own strength Malek didn’t trust, and he didn’t want to accidentally hurt her.
He saw her begin her shift back to her human, and he followed suit. He gritted his teeth, trying to ignore the powerful wave of lust heating his loins. She was soft and curvy beneath him, her nipples grazing his chest, his rigid penis against the supple curve of her thigh. Malek could take her in one swift move and relieve his burning, sexual frustration, but he gritted his teeth against that option. That would be rape and he’d never forced himself on any woman, human or otherwise, in his life.
“Are you calm enough now before I release your hands?” Malek asked. Her seductive curves beneath his body made his throat go dry. He swallowed convulsively as stabs of pleasure and pain pulsed through his erection.
She nodded slowly.
He then released her hands and rose, willing his rigid penis to go limp as he watched her reach for her clothes on the ground next to her. “Leave me. Please,” Katya said thickly, tugging on her trousers.
Malek frowned. “You were trying to protect yourself. You didn’t know it was me.” He watched Katya slip into her white top, shoving it with hard jabs over her breasts.
“Go away,” she said stiffly.
His desire for her still throbbed in his blood and before he did something he would regret, he turned and strode naked back to the camp, ignoring the guards staring at him curiously as he reached for his bag. He pulled out another set of warrior garb.
For the first time, he wondered of the horrors she must have endured in Balkathan’s lair. He’d heard the females imprisoned were raped to become with child so Balkathan could grow his army.
The thought of another man, Lycan or human, laying his hands on Katya consumed Malek with uncontrollable fury, nearly blinding him into a murderous rage. His Lycan beast wanted to be released, but Malek’s human fought, denying it freedom.
Dressed, he threw back his head and released a long, gut wrenching howl as his men rose abruptly to their feet.
“What is it?” Ortega asked gruffly once he reached him.
Malek took a moment to calm down before he gave his friend a dark look.
“The wench,” he replied hoarsely. “She is driving me mad.”
Ortega’s expression slowly relaxed. “Aye, Malek. I understand. It happened with Prince Vasilis when he met Alexandra and then with King Drago when he met Eve.”
Malek growled. “Are you talking of that damned Lycan Legend? Do not annoy me with that now. I have bigger things to worry about.” His gaze caught Katya returning and his gut clenched. “Make sure Nolan secures the damn corral,” he snapped. “I don’t want another horse veering off camp.”
“Aye,” Ortega said, his face breaking into a hint of a smile.
“What the devil do you find so amusing?”
“Nothing,” Ortega said, his smile disappearing.
* * * *
Katya pulled down the covers of her cot. She was mentally and emotionally exhausted and in desperate need of a good night’s sleep.
She couldn’t stop thinking about Malek and what had just transpired by the lake. If he hadn’t shifted, she could have seriously harmed him, or worse. Her mind raced to her dark past, when most of her nights were filled with her fighting off Balkathan’s wolves.
Now she wasn’t so eager to sleep.
She dreaded the nightmare she knew would reappear.
Under her covers, she closed her eyes, willing her thoughts away from her imprisonment in Balkathan’s lair.
She failed miserably as once again her dream sequence began.
Katya tensed at the jarring sound of the gate opening. They were back.
She sat up, looked around the dark, filthy cell, and noticed the other women stirring from their sleep, staring at the two Lycan entering in their human form. Some women began to sob while others scrambled back against the cold cement walls.
Katya knew why they were here. They were going to rape one of them.
She growled, her hand going to the neck brace that had silver spikes ready to kill her if she shifted.
One of the Lycan guards leered at Katya and she grimaced. The bastard was going to pick her.
“You’ll never make me pregnant, demon,” she spat.
She couldn’t count how many times she’d been raped by different guards and still remained childless. It was so many times, she’d learned to numb herself from the horror. The guard shifted in his Lycan form.
“To be sure I do, tonight, I take you as my beast,” he snapped back.
Katya froze as she stared up at his towering form. He was eight feet tall, naked since his shift had shredded his clothes, and his erection was enormously thick and long.
“You’ll kill her!” one of the women screamed.
Katya wasn’t sure who because she was numb with paralyzing fear.
“Touch me and I’ll shift,” she growled once again. “I would rather die by silver to my throat than be taken by you in your beast form.”
He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her to the middle of the cell. Katya kicked and screamed, clawing at his taloned hand, her actions useless.
“No, leave her alone,” Elizabeth cried.
Katya shot her an anguished look, and swallowed hard. “Close your eyes! Don’t watch.”
In the two years Katya had been imprisoned, she’d grown to love Elizabeth like a little sister, protecting her to the point of suffering rapes only to save her from being chosen. Now, Katya felt helpless, unable to save her young friend from witnessing what was sure to be a horrifying and violent scene.
Katya growled as the Lycan beast grabbed her filthy shift and drew it up sharply over her thighs, exposing her naked limbs. The other guard, still in his human form, laughed cruelly.
“This will be fun to watch. We’ll find out if a human female can take a Lycan beast,” he snarled.
She knew fighting would be useless, so she closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. She tried blocking the sounds of the women crying around her, Elizabeth sobbing uncontrollably, and rumbled.
“Get it over with, swine,” she hissed.
Curiously, she felt the Lycan beast’s talons withdraw and heard the women gasp in surprise.
“Shi
ft back to your human, imbecile!”
She stiffened at the deep, imperious voice of Balkathan and opened her eyes. He stood by the entrance, a tall, dark form, with his personal guard at his side. “I want to impregnate them, not kill them, fool!”
With trembling hands, Katya pushed her shift over her legs and sat up, her eyes flashing murderous rage at her captor.
“You bastard! I promise you, one day I’ll kill you,” she spat.
“Silence!” Balkathan roared, his eerily translucent skin glowing in the dark cell. He turned to his personal guard. “Gar, take her to isolation. In fifteen months no one has made her with child and I grow tired of her.” He gave her a cold look. “You are barren.”
* * * *
It was well past midnight and the campground was still. Malek heard the imperceptible sound of a gasp in Katya’s tent and he rose from the ground, his body tensing. He trained his ears on the sounds inside the tent and heard Katya moaning, her breathing laboured. Concerned, he flung the flap back and entered the tent.
The candles were out, but there was enough light from the moon’s glow coming in from the open entrance to make him see she was distressed. He rushed to her side.
“Katya, wake up,” he said thickly, lowering himself on the edge of her cot. She whimpered and his heart thudded at the look of anguish on her face. Her pretty features were drawn tight and the edge of her closed eyes glistened. She was crying in her sleep.
Malek was unmanned. Grim-faced he placed a gentle hand on her cheek and leaned closer to her. “Katya, wake up,” he repeated, his tone gentler this time.
She did and looked at him with confusion on her face.
“You were having a terrible nightmare,” he said.
“I left all those women behind,” she whispered. “My God, Elizabeth is still there.” Her face crumbled and she began to sob.
Without saying a word, he slid his hands beneath her and lifted her off the cot, gathering her in his arms. He held her tight against his chest, wondering whose heart was beating that fast, his or hers?
Lycan Warrior Page 2
