by Lauren Dawes
Turning his head, he looked into the darkened living room, until he settled his gaze on Neve. He strolled in, shutting the double doors behind him. A small sound of protest escaped her, but she made no other motion to stop him.
He blinked, letting his cat closer to the surface to see through the near-darkness.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
He leaned against the wall beside the door, casually crossing his arms. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“About what?”
He held back the urge to roll his eyes at her. “About who you really are.”
“Why would it matter who I was? What would you have done if you’d known I was the Leo’s daughter? Treated me differently?”
His hackles rose at the challenge in her voice at the same time as his cock stirred. Damn, this female stoked the fire in his blood.
“It would’ve been good to know.”
She shook her head slowly, her eyes finding her clenched hands in her lap. “Who I am isn’t what’s important. Finding Katie…” She wiped under her eyes angrily, her back straightening as if she’d mentally locked down her emotions and looked back at him. “Finding Katie is all that matters.”
He fought the instinct to go to her, to wrap her in his arms. Which was fucking weird. He never coddled females. He never cared enough to want to…
But Neve got under his skin.
He pushed off the wall and approached, before kneeling in front of her. Very gently, he eased her knees apart and wedged himself in closer. She watched him with skeptical eyes.
“We’ll get her back.”
“How do you know that?” Her hair fell across her face with the violence of her words.
Slowly, so he didn’t startle her, he tucked the strands back behind her ear. She was a cornered animal. Her instinct to bite rather than accept the kindness teetered on a sharp edge. She stunned him when she sucked in a breath as his fingers lingered on her cheek, and he repeated the motion, marveling at the smoothness of her skin.
“I swear to you we will.”
His words broke the spell, and she eased back, breaking the contact.
“Why?” she demanded. He frowned. “Why are you taking this so personally? You don’t know Katie, and you don’t know me.”
He could physically feel his expression shutter, her question hitting way too close to home for his liking. Surging to his feet, he yanked open the living room doors and strode out, his boots hitting the floor like thunderclaps.
18
Neve blinked at the sudden spill of light invading her retinas, the doors Drake had thrown open still swinging from the force. She sucked in a deep breath, but it did nothing to dispel the adrenaline pinging around her body. Adrenaline and…want.
“There you are, Neve,” her mother said, appearing in the doorway and dragging her mind away from the Shadow. “Are you ready to eat?”
“I’m not hungry, Mom.”
Her mom let out an exasperated sigh. “You need to eat, darling.”
“I’m not hungry,” she repeated, her words stronger this time. All she could think of was Katie locked away somewhere, scared and starving. Her pulse suddenly became a tangible knocking against her throat. She stood up. “I just need to get out of here,” she announced. “Excuse me.”
She flung open the front door and walked out onto the porch, planting her hands on the railing and leaning into them. Sucking in a few mouthfuls of cool night air, she looked up to find Drake standing at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes reflecting the light coming from the house.
“What are you doing out here?” she demanded, embarrassed she’d been caught less than composed for a second time in an hour.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re infuriating.”
His mouth flexed into a sinful smile. “I’ve never been called that before. Stubborn. Unyielding. Hard.” Jesus. “All of those things.” He climbed the steps, and she turned to face him. “But never infuriating. I think most people would be too afraid to tell me that to my face.”
She darted her gaze to his mouth and let out a shuddering breath.
“Why are you out of the house by yourself?”
“I’m not by myself. You’re here,” she replied sweetly.
“You know what I mean.”
She bristled, but kept her anger locked down. “I can look after myself.”
“Your father has given me a direct order to guard your,” his eyes drifted down hungrily, “body, and I’m a real stickler for rules and order.”
She glared at him. “I just bet you are, but you should know I’ll make your life a nightmare.”
His mouth curled into a mocking smile. “You already do, sweetheart.”
Shaking her head, she said, “I don’t need you here when I’m at home. I don’t even know why you’re still here, lurking outside the front of my house like a goddamn stalker.”
“Your father wants me with you twenty-four-seven, so you’d better get used to seeing my face.”
She didn’t miss the fact he didn’t answer her other question. “I still want my privacy.”
“Bathroom and shower breaks. All other times, you’re going to think I’m glued to your ass.”
Wow. That was an interesting visual, but it wasn’t wholly unappealing. He was an exceptional looking male, even dressed in a short-sleeved black Henley and beat to shit jeans.
He folded his arms, his biceps bulging, the strongly corded muscles of his forearms pushing against his skin. “Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked in a slow drawl.
“No reason,” she replied with a casual shrug.
“Liar.”
She frowned and stepped around him, coming up short when he grabbed her by the bicep.
“Where are you going?”
She shrugged out of his grip. “I need to walk.” She sauntered off before he could stop her, but he still followed. She approached the edge of the driveway where the forest inched into existence. Looking out into the darkened trees, she inhaled the scent of pine and loam. Fall was sitting heavily in the air, the promise of colder weather nipping at its heels.
“I need to get out of here,” she said softly—mostly to herself, although there was no doubt Drake had heard it, too. She turned back to find he’d moved closer to her without her knowledge. “I need to get out of my head for a bit.”
She didn’t know how else to articulate her needs, but it felt as if she was trapped inside her skull with the same what-ifs cutting laps through her gray matter. There were only so many times you could examine everything, but then the universal truth remained the same—the past couldn’t be changed. What was done was done, and there was only one way to go from there—forward.
“You want to go for a run?”
She nodded, and he sighed.
“Let me tell your father where we’re going.”
Of course he was coming with her. “Fine,” she replied dryly, hooking her thumbs into the waistband of her pants as he stalked away. Dragging them down her legs, her panties followed, and she put them both into the crook of a nearby tree. Her skin broke out in goose bumps as the cool air scrambled to reach every inch of her. Shucking her shirt and bra, she walked a few steps into the forest and let her cat’s will roll through her.
Pain licked through her body, starting at her fingertips and working up her arms. When it got to her shoulders, the joints that had already had the oh-shit pain treatment began to ache—like the marrow in her bones was taking cover in another part of her body in protest.
Down her torso, the ripple continued, her skin hypersensitive in its wake. Surging further still, it buckled her knees and made her calves ache. When the sensation got to her feet, she watched her toes change shape, turning into her cat’s. The long claws that sprouted from the nail beds were long, black, and wickedly curved.
Her muscles began to twitch and cramp, knocking her onto all fours, the pain riding her in relentless cresting waves. Nev
e embraced it, shutting her eyes and seeing her cat creeping forward. Her eyes flew open as a series of loud snaps splintered her awareness. She blinked, her range of colors falling away until all that was left was desaturated blues and grays.
Behind her, careful footsteps eased over the ground, and she glanced over her now feline shoulder, a long hiss escaping her throat.
“Easy, Neve,” Drake said, coming to an abrupt stop, his hands lowered and loose. “I’ll wait here until you’re done.”
She huffed and turned back around, her skin twitching as her fur came in. It felt as if a blanket of ants was being laid down upon her, the crawling, itching sensation dissipating a few seconds later.
She opened her mouth to crack her new jaw and let out a soft chuff to let Drake know she was done. Getting to her feet, she stretched out her body, front legs first, then the rear, her tail swishing as she became grounded in her feline body.
Understanding she should wait so she didn’t incur the wrath of Drake, she did her best to ignore the grunts of pain behind her and began washing one of her forepaws. She paid particular attention to the soft fur and webbing between her feline toes. She’d just begun on the other one when he huffed behind her. She turned and blinked. Then blinked some more, something primal and basic warming her blood so quickly, it went from lukewarm to nuclear in a heartbeat.
The giant black cat strolling toward her was bigger than any other she’d ever seen before—even bigger than her father—and she inhaled deeply, taking Drake’s dark spiced scent into her lungs. A part of her recognized what he was, what he could be to her, but another part of her was terrified of that reality.
Strong.
Powerful.
Mate.
She shook her head, shifting the traitorous thoughts of her cat away from her frontal lobe. She had to shatter that notion before it could take root. She spun around and bolted through the trees, her pace increasing when Drake let out an angry roar that echoed around the forest.
Drake had seen a lot, experienced a lot too, but coming face-to-face with his blood-bonded mate wasn’t something he’d either expected or been prepared for. As soon as he’d seen Neve shift, as soon as his cat had seen hers, that was it.
Arnasa.
The word was a sweet whisper in his head. It was something he never thought he’d find. Instinct overrode everything else his human brain came up with and replaced it with just one thing—claim her before another male could. Whether Neve had been conscious of the connection or not, her cat had. He knew because she’d released a bonding scent that marked his brain and seared his soul. Neve was his, and he was hers.
Arnasa…
Males protected their females, but Shadows worshiped theirs.
He let out a furious roar when she turned around and ran, disappearing into the underbrush like a wraith. His desire to protect her was a scream in his head, and the fact she’d run from him triggered his impulse to hunt her down and mark her…
No! That would only scare her.
Despite the internal debate, he took off after her, slamming into the low brush and sliding through the narrow passes between trees. There was no discernable path to follow, but with his mate’s scent in his nose, he knew exactly where he was going.
After only a few minutes of running, he burst through a clearing and drew to a stop. Neve was standing in the center—waiting for him—the moonlight filtering down from the canopy to play over her dove-gray pelt. He’d never seen a cat so pale, nor so beautiful. Rosettes appeared near her flanks, the slightly darker coloration complemented by the silvery satin ribbons of her fur.
Making sure to keep a lid on his inner caveman, he stalked toward her, his tail swishing in annoyance. Her ears flattened against her skull in warning as he came closer, his instinct to mark her still warring with the more civilized part of his brain.
Walking down the length of her body, he sniffed her and got a lot of hissing and growling in return. And as he neared her tail, she whipped around without warning and lunged for his throat.
He huffed in amusement as he danced back a step, sweeping her paws out from under her and pinning her to the ground. With his paws on her shoulders, he held her in check as he dropped his head and sniffed at her, rubbing the side of his face against her cheek. He hadn’t intended to go in so strongly, but he found himself unable to resist touching her, curious to see if she accepted it or not. It was when her breath stopped heaving in and out of her lungs that he realized she’d frozen in place.
Pulling back, he stared into her green eyes and eased back, shifting his weight from her shoulders. For a beat, she did nothing, but a warning snarl rippled out from her throat, and she swiped at him, her protracted claws catching him on the nose.
He jerked back, the sting an annoying throb rather than an all-out scream of pain, which it could so easily have been. Neve had teeth and fangs, and he’d been awfully close to her mouth. She hadn’t bitten him, though, but he had deserved the swipe on his nose.
He concentrated on her, trying to burrow into her mind as he’d tried before. This time, instead of an impenetrable wall, he got flashes of her cat’s thoughts. They were base and crude, like a child trying to draw the inside of a computer motherboard, but he sensed the direction of her thoughts—she was attracted to him, wanting him to claim her, but Neve was blocking a lot of the impulses.
With blood slowly dripping from his wound, he jerked his head back in the direction of her house. Her eyes shifted over his shoulder before she bobbed her head and started back. He fell onto her right side, quickening his pace until he was half a length ahead. When they emerged from the edge of the forest, she approached the tree where she’d left her clothes and jumped up, putting her forepaws up against the trunk and pulling the fabric free with her teeth, letting them drop to the ground.
He waited until she shifted back before he got back onto two feet himself. Luckily for him, he was marginally faster at shifting than she was. She was still in recovery from the change—doubled-over and breathing heavily—when he nabbed her clothes and held them under her nose. She glared at him, straightening her body slowly like pain was still licking through her muscles and bones. He was happy to just let her get dressed, but when she drifted her green-eyed gaze back down his body, lingering on his hips, his cock stirred to life, and her body let out more of that delicate scent of hers.
Driven by instinct, he corralled her closer to the tree at her back.
“What are you…” She licked her lips. “If this is about that swipe on the nose, you deserved it.” Her words wavered, and he knew how much he was affecting her.
Planting both hands on the trunk of the tree, he leaned in and was rewarded when she tilted her head back to keep holding his eye. His girl wasn’t a wilting flower, but then again, he already knew this. He sniffed the length of her neck, feeling her sharp exhale of breath when he did.
“Don’t do that again,” he growled, opening his mouth over her throat and clamping down on the skin between her shoulder and neck with enough pressure to make her still, but not enough to draw blood. It was the only way she’d understand how serious he was. She couldn’t run off on him, and when the human wouldn’t listen, the cat would. “Ever.”
There was a small hiss before she shoved him away from her. Her eyes said she was pissed off, but her body and the heat it was throwing off said he could do that and more to her and she would welcome him.
Picking up her clothes, he tossed them to her. “Get dressed, sweetheart.”
19
Everything was off-kilter, including Katie’s own innate sense of time. Being left in murky dull light didn’t help things, and neither did the infrequent meal times. She sighed and leaned back against the cinderblock wall. The cold seeped in almost immediately, chilling her down to her bones.
“Are you awake?” she asked Elsie. They’d been sticking together a lot more since their last visitor.
“Yeah,” came the slow, sleepy reply. Absently, Katie wondered whether t
hey were drugging the water to keep them all docile and compliant. She was certainly suffering from increased lethargy, but with nothing to do but sit in a cold cell, sleeping seemed to be the only real way to pass the time.
“Where do you think we are?”
“Hell.”
Katie frowned. “I mean in the country. You said you were taken from California, but I’m from Wyoming.”
Her cellmate looked at her with dull eyes. “Does it really matter where we are?”
“I guess not,” she whispered back.
Silence fell like an uncomfortable blanket between them. Katie knew everyone was hungry, could feel it like she could feel the desperation or the acceptance that maybe none of them were going to get out of there.
She zeroed in on the cell opposite theirs when a feminine groan cut through the silence. A few seconds later, there was another one, followed by a grunt, and Katie stiffened.
She knew that sound.
Beside her, Elsie straightened as she realized what it was too. Minutes skipped by until the unmistakable sound of popping bones confirmed what she suspected. There was a whispered hush of fur along concrete, of claws clicking on a hard surface, before Katie saw the shadows stir and move as the female in the cell used the last reserves of her strength to shift into her jaguar.
Somehow, her very human cellmate hadn’t woken with the noise, but Katie knew the exact moment she did.
A sharp inhale of breath.
A trembling keening.
Finally, the scream.
Around the room, everyone jerked to attention, their heads turning in the direction of the cell.
Another scream.
Shoes scraping along the hard floor.
Katie threw her hands over her ears at the deafening roar that shook the metal bars in their housings.
And then it was a gurgling breath—the death rattle of a human being fighting to live, but dying in the jaws of a hungry jaguar that shared its skin with a frightened young woman.
Once the sound of gasping died off, there was a rip and a gush, carotid blood flowing. She knew by the smell, the woman’s throat had been torn out, her blood escaping in a torrent, splashing onto the rough floor.
