Mating Instinct (The COMPLETE Ridgeville Series)

by Kyle, Celia

  She didn’t care. Her lion didn’t care.

  Anywhere was better than here.

  Bianca whimpered and whined with every step. Honor was tempted to kill her merely because she annoyed her.

  Instead, they dragged her along, forcing her to comply. She sensed the exit, the soft blowing wind that filtered beneath the doors. Freedom. Freedom smelled like old oil and gas.

  “I’m done with this game. You will release her and face justice.” The Prime’s chest puffed out, fur lining his jaw. “By my law, you belong to this pride and you will do as I say.”

  Honor’s skin prickled, fur sprouting from her pores. “By mine, I don’t.”

  The Prime’s gaze flicked to Bianca and the woman whimpered.

  Then she felt it, a tentative, gentle touch in her mind. It tasted the same as before, a soft veil of demands clouded her mind. Only now, the human was in charge, the human didn’t give a flying fuck about the woman’s life. The human used her cat’s shifted claw and destroyed the threat.

  More blood, more flesh, loud roars, and then the rolling pain of her shift and then…

  Honor stepped back to the present, staring down at the mass of darkness that writhed before her. She sensed the trio nearby, apart from her and yet not.

  “I killed her.” Honor’s voice was hoarse after pouring out the story that’d forever changed her. “It wasn’t the cat. It was me. All me. There was no instinct. I can’t fall back on ‘the beast made me do it.’” She held up her hand, imagining blood coating her skin. She let the flow of her change slide through her. “I pulled and she was gone.”

  “You did what you had to do.” Grayson’s words were firm and filled with conviction.

  She shook her head. Even now, months later, and she wasn’t sure if that was true.

  “Yes, you did. And I’m so damned proud of you. You’re so fucking strong and I don’t know how you made it this far, how you’re still sane and able to let me touch you.” Grayson’s presence surrounded her and she sensed the truth in his words. There was no disgust, only fact.

  Silence reigned for a while as she replayed those last few moments once again. She didn’t want to move on, didn’t want to continue past her first escape. She didn’t want to think about what happened after she killed…

  Honor ran. Oh god, she ran and ran. Her paws pounded the dry ground, slid through moist patches soaked by recent rain and stumbled across the gravel that lined the ditch. She scrambled, fighting for her life. If they caught her, she was dead. The rage and anguish in Angus’s gaze when she’d ended Bianca’s life had been unmistakable. He wanted her blood. Hopefully, he wanted it more than he wanted to possess her body.

  It was sad, but she preferred torture to rape. It would be rape now. Before, the cat had craved him like a drug, but now they knew of Bianca and her relationship with Angus. It accepted that the Prime’s son was no longer acceptable and it begged for mercy. Except within the pleas lingered a curiosity as to whether there were other males who were acceptable.

  The beast was suddenly intrigued by the idea, forcing her footstep to falter.

  No, you stupid fucking whore. No.

  The lioness whined and tugged on her.

  Fuck you. No.

  A low growl came from behind her. It traveled up her spine, jarring her bones and spurring her on. She demanded her lioness’s body run faster, dig into the ground harder, fight and fight to be free.

  The cat agreed, pushing on. It recognized the snarls, identified it as belonging to Angus. It wanted to be taken, possessed, but not by him.

  Then another vocalization came, this one deeper, different. It wasn’t the Prime, it wasn’t Angus. It was another. Strong. Dominant. And it appealed to her cat.

  The beast purred.

  No, no, no.

  The unknown male’s chase grew louder and she swore she felt the beast’s breath on her flanks. The lioness wanted to skid to a stop and lift her tail.

  The moon shone down on them, painting her in the pale glow, seeping into her body and filling her with the urge to fuck.

  No.

  Honor stumbled again, rocks sliding beneath her paws, and the males following her struck. One male body and then another pounced, shoving her to the ground with their greater weights. She fought for purchase, struggled to sink her claws into the ground, but couldn’t.

  She was caught, captured, and prisoner.

  Long, sharp fangs sank into the flesh of her neck, teeth piercing her skin and scruffing her as if she were a wayward cub. The scent of her assailant reached her. Angus. Angus sliced the flesh meant only for her mate. The flavors of her blood joined the stench that coated his skin.

  Honor remained still, battling the urge to tear from his hold. He wanted her, he wouldn’t damage her too badly. She needed to stay healthy, alive, until she had a chance to run again.

  The stranger at her side held her down with a massive paw to her back as Angus retreated, releasing her neck. The snap and crack of bone signaled his shift, announced his return to a humanoid form. She risked a glance at him, noting his half-shifted form.

  “Shift, bitch,” he sneered.

  She didn’t move.

  He reached for her, digging his claws into the holes his teeth left behind. “Shift.”

  She refused.

  More pain encompassed her as his claws dug through her flesh, sank through muscle and collided with bone. The hold was so familiar. It was the exact one she’d used on Bianca.

  It’d been easy to end the woman’s life. How easy would it be for Angus to treat her to the same?

  Very.

  So, she did as he demanded, she shifted back to her human form, leaving her standing nude in the middle of some random, deserted field in the middle of England.

  “Such a good girl,” Angus purred and ran his claw down her body, scratching her flesh and leaving a thin, bloody trail in his wake. “Come along then.”

  She followed—damn her, she followed—and endured her own version of hell.

  Honor pulled away from the memory then, tugged back from the pain of the long walk back to the pride-owned building. A dilapidated warehouse, far from any main roads. From the exterior, it appeared abandoned, but she knew better, didn’t she?

  “Honor?” She recognized Maddy’s concern and Honor leaned into her soft stroke.

  “It hurts.” It hurt so, so much. Each thought reminded her of what she’d endured, each one made her feel as if the blade sank deeply once again.

  “Stone needs to bear witness.” Pure truth filled the lioness’s words.

  “Leave her be.” Grayson’s snarl was unmistakable, as was his comforting embrace. Warmth surrounded her. Warmth and love even if they hadn’t spoken the words.

  “I’m fine.” She whispered the words into the blackness. “I’m fine now.”

  But not then. No, not ever then…

  Honor didn’t fight as the males led her into the building, nor when they shoved her deeper into the space. The coppery scent of her blood invaded her senses and she recognized it coated her back, slithering over her skin and down her thighs.

  Shadows enveloped her, the light from the main area dimming as they ventured further. Darkness welcomed them, the moon hardly casting a glow in the space.

  Eventually, they were virtually alone. Random moans and groans from the main area of the warehouse reached them, but they were faint.

  The stranger pushed her toward the center of the room, toward a long metal table that occupied the center. That’s when she took a good look, a harder look, at the space.

  A metal platform not unlike those found in a morgue… Shackles hanging from the corners… Drains in the floor…

  Honor turned wide, frightened eyes on the two males, her attention bouncing between them. Sex, wanting, and need fled, replaced by terror.

  Angus breathed deep, drawing in air, and then he released the air with a low purr. “Afraid, pet?” He chuckled. “You should be afraid. Had you said ‘yes’ in the beginning
, you could have saved yourself from all this unpleasantness. As it is, I think you need to be properly punished for killing Bianca. And then, after you’ve apologized, you can tell my father that you want me.” He walked forward, a cocky swagger in every step. He leaned down, running his nose along the column of her neck, his tongue licking a path. He moaned with the taste of her and she shuddered. “And then you will be my mate, won’t you?”

  No. She never would. Never. She’d escape.

  Angus bit her, sinking his teeth into the column of her throat, capturing her muscles with the deadly fangs. As quickly as he injured her, he retreated, lapping at the wound. “Won’t you, pet?”

  Honor jerked away, stumbling and wincing when she scraped her hip on the sharpened corner of the platform. “Never. I’ll die first.”

  “Hmm…” He smirked and turned his attention to the other male, the one who’d helped Angus capture her. “Leave us. I need to speak to my new mate.”

  Honor gritted her teeth, fighting the pain that wracked her. “You had a mate.”

  Angus focused on her once again. “Who you killed. Which makes you mine. You shall be my mate. Look at all that pretty skin.”

  “I have a mate in the U.S., Angus. You know this. Your father knows this.”

  With his attention on Honor, he missed the other man’s reaction, the paling of his face and the tortured look that plastered his features. Apparently rape and torture were okay, but at the knowledge of her mate, he’d blanched.

  Angus waved her words away. “Immaterial.” He strode forward, snaring her arm in a punishing grip. “Are you ready to be mine now, sweet Honor? I would be good to you, taste and love you before I fuck you.”

  Honor spat on him, her animal behind the action with full support. God, the beast couldn’t make up her mind, but she’d take the cooperation. “I’d rather die.”

  He raised a single brow. “That could be arranged. Slowly. You shall last longer than the others.”

  Others?

  Movement behind Angus drew her attention which also caught Angus’s, encouraging him to turn around. “Didn’t I tell you to leave?”

  The stranger stumbled away, disappearing from sight, but not before a look of apology and torment flashed across his features. Well, his regret wasn’t saving her.

  “Now, pet, where were we?” He didn’t seem to want an answer, not as he dragged her to the table, or when he forced her to lay on the surface or even when he snapped the shackles into place.

  She fought, oh how she fought, but it didn’t matter. In the end, she was exactly where he desired, a little bloodier, hurting more, but still in place. The shackles dug into her flesh, slicing through skin and sinking toward the bone. She prayed for death before she crumbled and begged for life, gave in to his demands.

  Angus strode to a low counter on the other side of the room and dug into a drawer. He turned back to her, a look of pure pleasure sliding over his features.

  “Look, pet, I found my toys.” Razor blades. Razor blades and knives glinted in the light, shining like stars beneath the moon’s glow. “Now, we shall play and see how long you deny me.”

  The first cut stung. The second burned. The third bled into the fourth and the fifth and the hundredth…

  He was smart. He didn’t harm her beyond repair, but he didn’t let her recover fully either.

  “Say you want me…” Cut.

  “Beg for me…” Slice.

  “Touch me…” Gouge.

  A shifter could heal a lot. She discovered how much over the days.

  Seven days. Seven of the same over and over again. Pain, snarls, growls, bites, demands.

  The first were spent being cajoled. The rest were spent being destroyed.

  “Why do you torment me?”

  “I can’t get you out of my head.”

  “Your skin… That’s what has captured me.”

  She vaguely recalled the Prime appearing several times, always demanding an answer to the same question, always spitting on Angus at his inability to bring her to heal.

  “Do you want him to take you?”

  No.

  “Do you want to be his mate?”

  No. Always the same answer. No.

  On the seventh day she was saved. Saved by the male who’d helped capture her, who’d returned her to hell.

  Chains rattled, shackles digging into her flesh, metal scoring her skin once again. Callused fingers slid over her, flakes of blood falling from her as he handled her body.

  “No.” She shook her head. She wasn’t sure what question had been asked, but the answer never changed. “No.”

  “Shh… Quiet. You have to be quiet if you want out of here.”

  Free. Yes. She wanted to be free.

  The next hour involved throbbing aches, pain, and agony as she was dumped onto the college dean’s front porch, and hell as the male carefully cleaned the blood from her nude body.

  “Honor.” Grayson’s ethereal arms tightened around her invisible body.

  She’d break, shatter, if she gave in to the need to sink into his comfort. Instead, she sought out Maddy. “Is that enough?”

  “Yes,” Stone answered before anyone else. “God, yes.”

  She sensed the gorilla shifter retreat, his presence slowly drifting away and leaving her mind. Maddy reached for Grayson, his presence still wrapped around her. He snarled at the ghostly representation of the lioness, snarling as he tightened his hold.

  Honor stroked him, gentling and soothing him. “It’s fine. I’m fine. I’ll open my eyes in a moment.”

  Grumbling, Grayson’s overwhelming presence receded, growing more distant until he no longer lingered.

  “Are you ready?” Maddy’s voice tinkled through her mind.

  No, she wasn’t. Not at all. She’d been forced to bare her soul to them and now she had to look them in the eye and fight the shame that plagued her. “As I’ll ever be.”

  Now Maddy growled, taking over for Grayson. “If you weren’t already emotionally fragile, I’d kick your ass for the shame thought. Just wait until you’re ready, lady. I will be all over your ass like white on rice.”

  In a rush, Maddy was gone, leaving her alone inside her head, and forcing her to face the real world once again.

  Honor pulled herself from the darkness, left the writhing mass of her past to squirm on the ground in the deep recesses of her mind. She turned her back on the pain, the shame—whether Maddy considered the emotion valid or not—and horror.

  She forced her eyes open, lashes fluttering and shielding her against the room’s bright light. Grayson still held her wrist captive, his firm grip telling her he wasn’t about to let go. He stared at her, an unreadable expression on his face as his eyes seemed to drink her in. She noticed that Stone no longer sat nearby and she wasn’t clutching Maddy’s hand. A glance around the room revealed there was no one but her and Grayson in the space.

  Finally, he spoke, asking the questions she constantly asked herself. “Why didn’t you come home? Why didn’t you call your parents, your brother, Alex… me?”

  “I…” She wasn’t sure how to explain it, but she’d try. “I couldn’t run. I knew they’d be angry about Bianca. I was disgusted by what I’d done, but it wasn’t a cold-blooded, murderous act. She attacked first, even if it was only my mind. I stayed because…” It all sounded so stupid now. Cocksure. Stubborn. “I didn’t want them to win.” So fucking stubborn and stupid. “We’d started a new semester and I was going to at least get my four-year degree. They’d ruined my first heat, my first Gaian Moon. He tried to destroy me and kill me and… But I wasn’t about to let him wreck the rest of my life. I worked hard for that fucking degree. Even if I didn’t get my master’s at Cambridge, I was at least getting my bachelor’s.” She gave a rueful chuckle that quickly turned into a sob. “And the cat wanted me to run. She wanted to race home and…”

  “You didn’t trust her. To listen.”

  “She practically asked for it. Literally, she asked t
o be taken even as my human half screamed and raged. I don’t want her in my head any longer, I don’t want her dictating my actions ever again.”

  His large, warm hand stroked her back, the heat sinking through her clothes and filling her. There was no hesitation in his touch, no hint that he was disgusted by what he’d witnessed. “What happened at the dean’s?”

  “I begged for his protection. He…” She’d always remember that look. Not of pity or disgust, but rage. “He taught me to protect myself. I didn’t leave his home. Not until I met Alex’s plane. I didn’t even get to attend my own graduation.”

  “Then I owe him more than I could ever repay.”

  She shook her head. “No, I owe him. He took so much heat for me. From the school and the pride. He forced my instructors to deliver the lessons and I took every exam in front of him. I earned every credit that last semester even if it was from his living room. And the pride… they didn’t want to let me go, the Prime wanted justice and came looking for me, but a lion is nothing against a tiger.” She smiled, remembering the dean’s half-shift, the massive size of his body and the way he towered over the Prime.

  “I’m sorry I kept quiet this long,” she whispered and leaned toward him, resting her forehead on his shoulder. “Do you think Alex can find him a place in the pride or at least in Ridgeville? I have no idea what it’s been like for him now that I’m gone.” Worry assaulted her and Grayson was quick to soothe her, quick to stroke her back.

  “Shh… I’m sure Stone is keeping an eye on him, but even if he’s not, the London Prime is occupied with the council right now and can’t be much of a threat. I’ll have Alex reach out to the dean. We’ll take care of it.” His tone calmed her, eased her anxiety like nothing before.

  “What about the rest? Will you tell Alex?” That troubled her the most. How many people would know by the time all was said and done? How many would look at her and not see Honor, Grayson’s mate, but Honor, damaged lioness. “I don’t want anyone else to know, Grayson.” She rushed out the words. “Just Alex.”

  “Just Alex.”