by Kyle, Celia
She was human, but not. Shifter, but not. Sensitive, but not.
She was all of the above and then some.
Most importantly, she was his.
Harding needed to be closer. Touching her. Feeling her skin beneath his palm. He shifted, easing his hand closer to her bare leg, and moaned with the effort.
“Hey, stay still. It’s gonna hurt for a little longer, but now that you’re away from Millie, you’ll heal better.” Those tinkling words soothed his cat.
“Wh—” He licked his dry lips. “What happened?” His voice was hoarse and scratchy. “Who are you?”
A teasing smile spread across her lips with his first question, but her expression closed down with the second. He saw the shutters descend and blanket her features as a cool mask replaced the happiness he’d glimpsed.
“Amelia—Millie—doesn’t take surprises well, and Stone hadn’t given the others any warning that you’d be arriving any minute.” She shook her head. “A local Sensitive has been working with her on control, but now that she’s stronger, she tends to lash out at strange men. Disable first, ask questions never.”
Harding nodded. Almost. At least until a shard of pain shot through his skull. “And you are?”
He wanted to say “his.” His mate. His life. His everything. He didn’t deserve her. Hell, she didn’t deserve to be saddled with a man as damaged as him, but that didn’t matter to the cat.
Tension wracked her body, muscles vibrating beneath the surface of her skin. All he wanted to do was reach out and soothe her, stroke her soft skin and tell her he’d fix whatever was wrong. But he knew she’d bolt. Fear floated on the air, sliding into his nose, and his beast responded with a roar. Their mate should never be afraid. Never. Not of him or anything else in the world.
The woman rose, stepping away from the bed, and his entire body burned to snatch her back to him. As if sensing his intent, she skittered to the open door, lingering in the doorway. She moved into the hall, no longer standing within the small, sparsely furnished room.
Her gaze met his for a moment, a fleeting look as she uttered two words that stilled his heart.
“Tess McCain.”
* * *
Tess decided that it didn’t matter that Harding was gorgeous. It didn’t matter that some part of her demanded she remain in his presence. Nor did it matter that everything quieted when she stood beside him.
Okay, that part mattered.
The voices, along with the stress of holding them at bay, eased when she was around him. The reaction had been hinted at when she’d first glimpsed him, but it’d been confirmed when she padded into his small room within the infirmary. The closer she got to him, the quieter things became. Then everyone’s words disappeared when mere inches separated them.
What would it be like to touch him? Touch his bulging muscles, slide her fingers through the pale blond strands and trace his lips with her fingers? She wanted to discover every scar that decorated his body, learn the stories behind them, and pour out her soul into his care.
That idea was what scared her most. She craved to be bare, physically and emotionally, to this man. Stone had said he was a lion, a massive cat even larger than the Prime of his pride, but he had never felt the need to lead.
Harding Grange.
The name sent a shiver down her spine. Of fear? No, of something else she didn’t want to identify. Something she hadn’t felt…ever.
With a shake of her head, she continued her journey, intent on returning to the kitchen to snag a bite to eat. The morning’s fun had torn her from breakfast, and her stomach was grumbling in response.
Through twists and turns she traveled, pushing thoughts of Harding further and further from her mind with each step. As the distance between them grew, so did the rumbles of other voices. One by one they ventured into her, the whispers growing and swirling inside her.
Tess wanted to return to Harding, risk the disgust that was sure to coat his features now that he knew who she was. His scorn was nothing in the face of quiet.
Who was she kidding? She couldn’t deal with his hatred. She got enough from Jackie and wasn’t sure how she’d react if he also felt that way.
Striding past the living room, she ignored the hate emanating from the space. Jackie’s loathing was out in full force as she screeched at Stone about Harding.
“What the hell can a fucking pussy do for us? Send his ugly ass back!” It was the last few words screamed by Jackie that broke Tess’s hard-won control. The rage swept over her, primal and feral in its intensity.
Tess’s heartbeat sped to double-time, pumping blood and adrenaline through her body. She sensed the anger, but an unfamiliar rage crept into her chest. The tendrils slithered through her and filled her arms. Her hands ached, fingers throbbing and stretching as if something fought to burst through the tips.
She flew across the room, shoving a placating Stone aside, and launched herself at the bitch. Hands curved into human claws, she struck out, reaching for Jackie’s face. The first hit landed, leaving four furrows of bleeding torn flesh in her wake. She swung with the other hand, ready to give the woman a matching wound on the other cheek only to have Jackie duck out of the way.
“How dare you?” Rage filled Tess’s words.
Midnight hair slid from Jackie’s pores, bursting through her skin and coating her face, chest, and arms in her animal’s fur. The crack and snap of bones overrode the screeches and screams of the other women. With every heartbeat that passed, Jackie took on more of her beast, changing in the middle of the living room. Tess knew she wouldn’t last long against her, but she wasn’t about to back down either.
She tensed, ready to take on the woman, but never got the chance. Stone stepped between them, easily catching Jackie and shoving the bitch back before her claws could even touch Tess. He grunted and roared, releasing his gorilla’s warning and silencing everyone.
More of the change rolled through the other woman, and Tess’s body tried to respond. Her gums ached, and fingers throbbed as if she truly held an inner beast that fought to burst free. Except that’d never happen, but not for lack of trying.
Tess bared her teeth, snarling as she pushed against Stone’s restraining hand. Jackie growled low until the gorilla gripped her arm, shaking her like a rag doll.
“Enough!” The deep baritone crowding his voice revealed that the man’s beast was near the surface.
Jackie threw off Stone’s grip and stepped back, but not before hissing at Tess. “Fine. Stupid bitch isn’t worth it. We all know that she’ll be put down like her daddy. Blood’ll run true, won’t it Tess? Crazy bitch.”
Rage burned hotter than before, and she pushed against Stone, fighting to shove him aside so she could get at the shifter woman. She wasn’t like that man. She wasn’t even his true daughter, not really. She’d never be like Alistair. Never. It wouldn’t happen, couldn’t happen.
No, no, no, no…
“I said enough!” The roar shook the walls and the vibrations traveled through the ground.
Stone glared at Jackie one last time and then grabbed Tess, holding her by her bicep as he led her from the room. Jackie’s hateful stare bored into her with every step until they turned the corner. No words were spoken as they navigated the halls, but they weren’t necessary. She knew what was happening, where they’d end up.
Before long, they were standing outside her room, her haven of sorts.
“You shouldn’t have done that, Tess.” Stone’s voice was back to normal, at least.
Tess sighed. “I know. She just… Harding isn’t…” How could she explain the unexplainable? “Damn it.”
“Go ahead inside. You haven’t had breakfast, right?” She shook her head. “Okay, chill out. I’ll have something sent to you while I go deal with Jackie and the rest of them.” Stone stared at her door and she couldn’t help but read his thoughts.
I’m putting her back in a fucking prison. God damned prison.
She reached for him and
gave him a gentle stroke of his forearm. “It’s okay, Stone. Them’s da rules, right? We can scream and yell, but we can’t get physical.” That had been drummed into them by therapists and guards alike.
Fists and claws wouldn’t fix them. Sometimes Tess wondered if anything ever would. Oh, the others might get past the rapes and beatings, but could she ever get over her very existence? She didn’t think so.
“Can you ask Ben if there are any pancakes left? Maybe some bacon?” She pushed a grin to her lips, praying that he’d believe her forced smile. She didn’t want him to feel guilty about confining her to her room.
“Nice try.” Stone rolled his eyes. Okay, he didn’t fall for it. “Go inside. I’ll smooth things over and send someone back with breakfast.”
With that final promise, he retraced their path, moving along the hallway until he came to the end. Before he made the turn, he stopped and looked back at her, eyebrow raised.
Tess grumbled. “All right already. I’m going, I’m going.”
She stepped into her room, her cell, and let the door swing shut with a soft click.
Back to prison it was.
38
“I know there are times when you wake up and are all ‘shit this is crazy’ and then you’re all ‘boo hoo for me’. Lemme tell ya, there’s always someone crazier than you. Always. Take my children for example… Really, take them before I turn them into homicidal maniacs. I think it’d be surprisingly easy, and that’s a temptation no woman should have.” — Maya O’Connell, Prima of the Ridgeville Pride and woman who has decided that nothing is worse than twins. Nothing.
It took Harding a while to find her. After two days of being stuck in bed, he’d shoved aside the doc trying to keep him in the infirmary and then forced himself to his feet. It hadn’t been easy, and more than once he nearly fell, but eventually he’d made it to the elevator. Damn, that Millie packed a punch. Without Tess nearby, the pain was a constant drum in his body. It seemed only her touch could soothe him, but she hadn’t returned, and the doctor had been adamant about him staying on bed rest. Of course, the beaver shifter relented after a roar or two.
Limping past the living room, he ignored the grumbling and growling from a few women that his sensitive hearing picked up. Stone had already told him the women weren’t thrilled with his presence. “Not thrilled” seemed to be an understatement. The stench of hatred scored his nose when he strode past the living room and toward the elevator.
He had to find Tess, had to talk to the woman that, by all accounts, he should despise.
Alistair’s violence against shifters had seemed unending. The man had targeted so many people Harding cared about. No, not just “people.” Women. Alistair went after the pride’s women. Thankfully, between the members of the Prima’s guards and a Council tracker, they’d been able to return the ladies to safety.
Regardless of all that, even knowing that Tess was Alistair’s daughter, he couldn’t hate his mate. There had to be something more there, something that he needed to look beyond to find the truth.
Harding pushed through the lingering pain, shoving it aside at the prospect of seeing Tess. It’d only been two days, but already he was desperate to be with her.
He followed Stone’s directions through the forest, keeping an eye out for the inconspicuous markings that would lead him to one of her favorite spots. After six months of chasing the woman down all over the mountain, the gorilla had finally marked the path. Being a gorilla, Stone’s sense of smell wasn’t the greatest. At the moment, Harding’s wasn’t either. He wished he could chase her by her scent, but that cursed ache pounding within his bones made it hard to concentrate.
Damn, it was a long walk. As soon as they were mated, he’d tell Tess that she needed a new favorite spot. One that was much closer to the compound. Like inside.
The leaves crunched and broke beneath his heavy boots, announcing his every step as he neared Tess’s haven. He consciously made noise, giving her plenty of warning that someone approached. Stone had told him of her reaction to Jackie’s behavior, the feral way she responded to the woman’s words, and he didn’t want to frighten her into reacting to him. The twists and turns of her scent hinted at different things. With every inhale, he’d tried to sort through her flavors and still hadn’t come up with an answer.
Before long he came to the clearing she’d claimed as hers. She sat on a boulder not fifty feet from him, her legs drawn up and arms wrapped around her shins while she rested her chin on one knee. Those green eyes he ached to see once again weren’t centered on him, but were staring into space, seeing everything and nothing at the same time.
Harding approached slowly, hoping not to scare her. She hadn’t turned toward him, and there was no telling whether she knew of his presence or not. The last thing he wanted to do was frighten his delicate mate.
When he was mere feet away, she rested her cheek on her knee and trained those piercing eyes on him. She was quiet, the silence stretching between them with every passing second.
And suddenly he was tongue-tied. He had thought of nothing but getting to her, being in her presence. God, he was probably supposed to talk. As if there was anything more frightening. Hell, he would rather face her father than—
He didn’t want to think about her father.
“Do you know it all stops when you’re here?” Her words were a husky whisper.
“What stops?”
Tess shook her head. “Nothing. It doesn’t matter. How are you feeling?”
Harding shifted and grimaced at the shot of pain that assaulted him. He wasn’t healing from Millie’s attack like he normally would, but Stone indicated that it was because of the way he was attacked. The woman didn’t really touch his body with her power. It was all in his mind. Until it worked itself out, his brain would keep telling him he was damn near dying.
“Fine.”
“Liar.” A grin played around her lips.
He grunted. He would admit nothing.
Tess eased over and patted a bit of the stone. “C’mere.”
Harding was too tired to deny her. He stepped closer and lowered himself to the hard surface, welcoming the chance to sit as well as be near his mate. The luxurious scent of honey wrapped around him. His cock hardened and everything in him screamed with the need to toss her to the ground and claim her.
Well, almost everything. There were still parts of him that realized that while he’d had years to move beyond his past, Tess had not.
And that kept him at her side and doing his best to be nonthreatening.
The sounds of the mountain surrounded them. The rustling leaves called to Harding’s lion while the trilling of the birds teased his cat’s senses. If they couldn’t have Tess, the least they could do was chase down a few forest animals. Like a squirrel. Or a rabbit. Since two of his fellow guards had mated a weresquirrel and a wererabbit, those had been taken off the menu, but here…
A snort tore into his thoughts. “Off the menu?”
He hadn’t said that out loud, had he?
“No, you didn’t.” Tess sighed, and her shoulders slumped. “Sorry. I let things slip. It’s hard to remember with you here. Everything is so quiet.”
Harding furrowed his brow. He hadn’t had the opportunity to review anyone’s files, so he wasn’t sure what “slipped.” “Tess?”
She turned her face toward him and closed her eyes. “Can I give you the short-ish version? You can read the long one in my file later. And if you don’t wanna hang around when I’m done, let me know before you run off. Things are silent with you here, and I’ll need to prepare and—”
He placed two fingers against her lips, jerking when skin met skin and a zing of electricity bolted down his spine. His cock throbbed in his jeans and the cat purred with the solid touch. Gentle caresses two days ago had been one thing, but this was firm contact. And he loved it. Her lips were downy soft beneath his fingertips, and he forced his hand away before the urge to trace them overwhelmed him.
“Just tell me. I’m not going anywhere.” Not even Stone and all of the other guards in the mountain could get him away from her. He’d never leave…unless she told him to go. And even then…
Tess took a deep breath, eyes still closed, and began her story. “Do you know what happens when a woman is Changed while pregnant?”
Harding didn’t have an answer for her. The mere idea that a pregnant woman would be put through such a thing boggled his mind. The Change was hard on a human, their DNA mutating and transforming until a beast came to be inside them. The first shift was painful, debilitating to some, and he couldn’t imagine what it’d do to a woman carrying a child. And what about the child?
“The child lives.” Tess answered her own question. “Except she’s got a bit of everything inside her.” A delicate, shining tear emerged from beneath her lashes, and all he wanted to do was pull her into his arms. “If her mother was telepathic, she inherits that ability. And if, after the Change, she’s a Sensitive, the baby gets some of that as well.” Tess’s nostrils flared slightly as she took a deep breath. “And once the mother is Changed, the daughter is fed a hint of her inner beast.” Tess opened her eyes, and the emerald green was replaced by an arctic blue that seared his soul. “And if the animal that bit her mother is Alistair McCain, she becomes his daughter.”
Harding couldn’t breathe, couldn’t force his lungs to draw air as the full weight of her words slammed into him. They poured into his veins and thumped through him with every beat of his heart. Her pain swamped him, wrapping around him like unbreakable chains, and tightened. She wasn’t Alistair’s daughter and yet she was. Her scent made sense to him now: the conglomeration of so many things, so much genetic history that merged to create the small woman before him.
He sensed her inner strength and the pain of her past that seemed to be a living, breathing thing inside her. How many years had she spent beneath Alistair’s thumb? How many men had—?
