Two of the guards exited the room while Shah Tiger turned back to me. “I owe you an apology, too,” he said. “I believe you were greeted in a most inhospitable manner upon entering our country.”
My head swam, and I could barely keep my feet. “Yes, Your Highness,” I agreed, taking courage from the strength of my own voice. “But no apologies are necessary. As you can see, I’m fine now.”
“Still, I would like the chance to make it up to you,” he said, motioning to the door behind us. “Please allow the man who attacked you to do that. He’s prepared to show you the warm welcome he failed to give you when you landed here.”
“No,” I whispered, stumbling back against Shadow. His strong hands caught my waist, and together we turned slowly to face my attacker.
A man stood in the doorway, a guard holding each elbow while his hands were bound together by a pair of steel cuffs. He was bigger than I remembered. No, that wasn’t exactly right. He was bigger than he had been. Tadeu had been strong from hard work and naturally on the tall side. Now he was at least seven feet tall, straining with muscle from head to toe. His eyes, though. His eyes were fixed with the same murderous hatred I’d seen in them the day he’d died.
My knees buckled. Shadow’s hands kept me upright, his grip tightening on my waist, his voice rasping in my ear. “No fucking way.”
“Tadeu,” I said, my voice coming out strangled as tears sprang to my eyes. “You’re really alive.” I was scared, yes, but more than that. So much more.
This man had been my childhood. For every party I hadn’t been invited to attend, for every tear I’d shed, Tadeu had been there. He’d been the one I ran to when my entire family, even my mother, went to ocelot-only events. And there were plenty for the royal family.
My mother had apologized for having to leave me. She’d brought me back gifts when the obligations took her away for more than a night. When they went visiting the other families on their tours of the country, she’d bring me back fancy pastries, little stones she’d found in a streambed, even the gifts the family had bestowed upon the queen.
But Tadeu had never left me. He had been there to wipe my tears when the royal procession disappeared through the palace gates. He had taught me to curse so that I could express my feelings about the snobbery, to despise their status so it didn’t hurt me. He’d made up games to distract me when they were gone, never failing to invite me along when he snuck out, even though most of the things he wanted to sneak out for were scandalously inappropriate for a princess. He’d never treated me like a princess. He’d treated me like a person, one he wanted to protect and care for as an equal, not someone he had to bow and scrape before.
What had happened?
Death, that’s what.
Tears blurred my eyes as I stared at him, at the inhuman coldness in his gaze, the inhuman size he had grown to as a shifter. This was no longer the boy who’d given me my first kiss and my first orgasm. He wasn’t the boy who had taught me how to spit watermelon seeds, hide from angry tutors when I skipped a lesson, and saddle a horse. The world had lost that boy. In his place was only a ferocious animal, a cold killer.
My killer.
At the shah’s signal behind me, the guards began to march him forward. His jaw clenched, his nostrils flaring as he approached, but he didn’t fight. He wore only a pair of loose trousers, so I could see every inch of his gigantic form, so I could tremble at the thought of enduring his wrath in a much more intimate way than a beheading.
A flicker of movement beside me caught my eye, and I glanced over to see a sleek black panther beside me, baring its teeth. Its coat glistened under the lights, its eyes gleaming green at the approach of danger. The panther was powerful and majestic like all felines, but he had a stillness about him that made him unique. He was the watchful one, my shadow guardian.
“Take the panther,” the king said, sounding bored.
“No,” I cried.
A net dropped over Shadow from out of nowhere. I wanted to scream, but before I could even draw breath, six men leapt across the tables and landed around him. Shadow hissed and bit at one of them, but another stuck a dart into his haunch, and the next second, the panther collapsed at our feet. The men started to drag him away, and when I tried to leap after him, Prince Kwame grabbed my hand.
“He’s okay,” he murmured. “They won’t hurt him.”
I took a shaking breath. Fuck. I’d almost lost it. I couldn’t do that. I was the princess. I was being tested. They were watching my every move for worthiness. This was all a game, one that Sir Kenosi had prepared me for. He’d told me it was all a game, and now I was grateful as I pulled on that knowledge. The other kingdoms weren’t so open and honest about it, but it was the same at each.
I squeezed Prince Kwame’s hand to thank him, glad for the anchor as the guards holding Tadeu resumed their procession. When my first love drew closer, I could see the thin scars across his broad, tan shoulders—the ends of the lash marks that marred his entire back. Scars he’d gained at the hands of brutal ocelot guards for daring to love the king’s daughter, insignificant as she was.
But that wasn’t true, was it? If I was being honest with myself, I had to admit this part, too. I was responsible for every one of those scars. I might as well have held the whip in my own hands. In fact, he’d have been better off if I had. I wouldn’t have struck him as hard as the ruthless guards.
When they whipped him, they’d done it for me. He hadn’t been whipped because he dared to love me. He’d been whipped because I dared to love him. I had dared to love a stable boy. I had snuck out to see him. I had defied the king. But he couldn’t order me to be whipped in the square without causing public outcry. As much as the ocelots of the nation knew and respected Camila, the human majority knew and embraced me. So he’d taken out his rage over my rebelliousness on Tadeu, knowing that if he hurt the man I loved, it would hurt me.
It had. But I hadn’t stopped him. Sure, I’d cried and pleaded with my father to spare him, like any other teenage girl would. I hadn’t been extraordinary. I hadn’t summoned some unknown magic to protect Tadeu when the whip fell. I hadn’t made him unnoticeable, almost invisible, the way Shadow could when he wanted. I hadn’t murdered King Ocelot in his sleep.
Which made each of those scars mine to bear.
“Don’t come closer,” Kwame said in a low, strong voice.
The guards halted a few feet in front of me, their gazes moving between us and their ruler behind us, waiting for his instruction.
Sir Kenosi’s cheetah was struggling furiously inside me, writhing for revenge. Our murderer stood in front of me. I might have been responsible for the beatings Tadeu had gotten, but he was responsible for my death, and now that I was alive, Sir Kenosi’s. And the cheetah was pissed as fuck about that.
Apparently he was not alone.
Lord Balam turned to the shah with a murderous expression. The tattoos on his face seemed to have flowed into the lines of his fury, making this usually imposing man terrifying. His skin had gone red under the brown complexion and black tattoos, and his fists were clenched so tightly he was shaking.
“You can’t mean for the princess to allow her own murderer any closer to her than he is now.”
I’d never seen Lord Balam angry. Through this whole trip he’d been my rock, standing by me with calm that bordered on nonchalance. When Shadow had grabbed me and fucked me on the plane, he’d done nothing. When I’d told him what had happened when Sir Kenosi locked me up for days, he’d comforted me, but he hadn’t hunted him down and kicked his ass, either. Lord Balam was the kind of guy who accepted things and moved on instead of fighting them.
Or so I’d thought.
The tiger shah scratched his head, grinning. “Who are you?”
I expected Lord Balam to back off at the reminder that although he was esteemed in his own court, he was still well below a king. Not only that, but he was a visiting noble, not in his own kingdom. Hell, he wasn’t even from the Ocelo
t Kingdom, who would have more say in what happened to their princess than a random jaguar.
“I’m her True Mate,” Lord Balam growled, the rage in his expression only darkening.
“And you think that puts you in a position where you can tell the Great Shah what he can’t do?”
Before Lord Balam could speak, I grabbed his arm. When he didn’t even move, his bulging muscles taut under my grip, I stepped in front of him. I took his face in my hands and lowered my voice, though the cats in the room could probably hear me anyway.
“It’s okay,” I whispered. “I promise.”
“It’s not okay,” Prince Kwame murmured.
Lord Balam didn’t relax, but his gaze moved to mine.
“I can do this,” I said firmly, reassuring us both. “It’s part of the game. He made his move, and now I make mine. Understand?”
Lord Balam swallowed, his gaze full of anguish that pierced straight to my heart. I leaned in and kissed him, hard and quick, on the mouth.
“It has to be done,” I said. “It’s what the king wants for the tiger amulet, and I’m going to do it.”
“Your most esteemed and majestic Shah,” Prince Kwame started, bowing deeply to the king. “If we may present a plea for your mercy—”
“I’ll do it,” I cut in, spinning away from Lord Balam.
“What?” Kwame asked, looking bewildered at my lack of hysterics.
“Your princess is eager to experience the true power of the most majestic of all beasts,” Shah Tiger said. “The mighty tiger!” He swept his arm out, his oversized silk sleeve fluttering like a flag signaling the beginning of a race.
Go.
It was my move. A stark clarity entered my mind, and I began to unwind the dress I’d secured around my body. I didn’t know if it was the cheetah inside me giving me strength or my own new understanding of the political world of felines, but any hesitation was gone.
“Seat the princess’s escorts close to the exit so you can remove them if they distract from the wonderful show I’ve arranged for my guests,” the shah said.
As guards escorted away my last two protectors, I wanted to offer them some comfort, but I had to focus on the task at hand before I lost my nerve. There was no easy way for them to watch this. I just had to get it over with so I could be with them again. I had to finish undressing, to pretend that I’d never known Tadeu, never promised him this night, this privilege. He was a stranger now.
But even as he stood watching me undress in front of the entire Tiger Court with zero fucks evident in his eyes, that became impossible. He may have been bigger and angrier, but he was still the man who laughed with me on his last night on earth, who I’d promised my virginity. That was long gone, but I’d always meant to give myself to him. Not like this, but nothing ever worked out as planned. So, I would have sex with him for the tiger king, put on a show for his guests. It was still Tadeu. If I’d been willing to do it with Lord Balam, someone I’d only known a few months, it should be nothing with Tadeu, who I’d known since I was old enough to sneak out of the palace and run to the stables to hide from the sting of rejection.
I’d been old enough for my mother to explain things to me, but not old enough for logic to ease the ache. Only Tadeu’s jokes, the forbidden rides on the ponies and races up haystacks with other servant children, could make me forget and laugh again.
I turned to him, the last layers of silk sliding from my body and pooling around my feet. I heard a murmur of approval as the royal court surveyed my ample curves, but my eyes were fixed on Tadeu. “You’re alive,” I whispered. “It’s really you.”
“Don’t act surprised,” he said, his voice hard and accusatory.
“I just never imagined it like this,” I admitted. I closed my lips, not willing to admit more. To tell him that if I’d let myself even hope that he was alive, it would have killed me. I’d have pictured myself running to him, throwing my arms around him, and sobbing until the tears were gone. That then he’d lay me down and make love to me, telling me he loved me even after death.
My virginal fantasies were obviously not coming true.
There was no love in Tadeu’s eyes, not even understanding. No sympathy showed in this giant who had swallowed my childhood love. This was a transaction and nothing more. I took a deep breath, pushing down the swell of emotions that threatened to wash away my sanity, to make me throw my arms around him anyway, beg for forgiveness.
His gaze traveled slowly down my body, the weight of it making me come alive. As his eyes swept over my breasts, my nipples hardened, and a chill of fear and desire wracked my body. I knew this man’s touch, knew his mouth and his hands, the pleasure they could give. He wasn’t my True Mate, so I didn’t endanger him. I’d promised him this, and even though my virginity was long gone, I owed him my body.
I stepped forward, a tremor going through me when his lids lowered halfway. He watched me close the distance between us. I slid my fingers into the waistband of his pants. I could already make out the ridge of his familiar cock through the fabric of his pants. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. So it was in front of an audience this time. Still, I’d been fooling around with this man for years. I knew every inch of his scarred, work-hardened body. We were only taking it one step further, and though I didn’t love that the entire Tiger Court was watching our first time to fully possess each other, maybe it would be kind of… Hot.
Tadeu lifted a hand, sliding it behind my neck. He gripped my hair, gathering it at the nape of my neck, and spun me around, pinning me to him. My head barely reached his nipples. Fuck, he was big. I bit back a cry of pain as his fist tightened in my hair, dragging my head back.
“Bend over,” he growled in my ear.
“Wait,” I said, grabbing his forearm. “I’m not ready.”
“You think I was ready to die?”
I heard a small commotion to my left, but he was holding my hair too tightly for me to turn my head. My scalp stung and tears wet my lashes. Only when I heard the king order them to take him away did I realize my men must have moved to protect me.
“Okay,” I whispered. “You’re right. I deserve this.”
“You fucking deserved to die,” he growled. “I ripped your throat out. What voodoo is keeping you alive?”
Before I could answer, he wrenched my head forward so I was forced to bend over. The court cheered, hungry for the show. Ripping his pants down, Tadeu grabbed my hip and drove into me. A shock of pain tore straight through me, and my body clenched against the invasion. The head of his cock was so big it felt like a fist forcing its way into me.
I cried out, dropping to my knees to escape him, but he dropped with me. Yanking my hair, he forced my head back, making my back arch. Tadeu thrust forward, ripping into my unyielding flesh. Tears of pain leapt to my eyes, blurring my vision, and my mouth dropped open in a silent scream. He pumped into me again, his huge cock filling me and reaching my depths. His huge body and powerful muscles contracted, forcing his cock in deeper, past the point of pain, until his hips met my ass.
I clenched my teeth, swallowing my screams as tears poured from my eyes, dripping down my face. I couldn’t open my eyes, couldn’t see the room full of people watching my punishment.
“Oh fuck,” Tadeu groaned. “I like virgins, but even a whore tightens up if you fuck her right.”
He gripped my hip with one hand, yanking back on it as he began to thrust into me again and again. Pain washed over me with each punishing blow of his hips against mine, and I forgot the spectators, forgot everything. Blackness swam in my vision, and pain seared up my arms, up my legs, into my core. A roaring in my ears swallowed me, and for a minute, nothing existed.
I’m dying, I thought. He’s killing me again. First he ripped my throat out, and now he’s ripping my insides out.
I was vaguely aware of a change in the way his cock felt inside me, in the places it strained against the confines of my walls. A collective gasp went up around us, murmuring voices invading my tortu
re. His cock swelled even further inside me, and I felt wetness as he pumped into me even deeper. I didn’t know what was happening until I felt the brush of soft fur against my thighs as he drove his cock to the hilt inside me. The hand in my hair loosened, and a paw so big it covered the entire top of my back crushed me to the yellow carpet, grinding me into the stone beneath.
Razor claws pierced my skin, and then his huge jaws clamped around the back of my head and neck. My blood mingled with his saliva, trickling along my jawline and dripping off my chin. His cock swelled impossibly inside me, ripping me apart at the seams, and a scream tore from my throat as his massive tiger cock pumped relentlessly into my frail human body.
I screamed again, and again, and again, until he drove his hips against mine and held. Shots of scalding cum erupted into me like a volcano, burning through my veins and along my limbs. For a second, everything blurred, swaying sickeningly around me. My vision dimmed. Inside my head, an instinct whipped relentlessly at my nerves.
Fight. Fight. Fight.
I opened my eyes, aware that I could now see both rows of tables, one on each side of me. Some people began to clap and whistle, others looking stricken. They all looked… Strange, somehow, as if distorted in a funhouse mirror. I turned my head, which felt woozy and clouded.
I could see my sister sitting there, her face a perfect blank, and I knew that was wrong somehow, and it should matter, but I didn’t know why. Beside her sat Gabor, his face like a stone statue. He was bleeding. I could smell it. I was bleeding, too. The scent of our blood together smelled right, as if it had been made to mingle, to complement the other’s…
Wait…
How could I tell he was bleeding? I looked down at my hands in disbelief.
Not hands. Golden paws with small black spots.
Twelve
Holy motherfucking shit. Sir Kenosi’s cheetah had just…possessed me.
Bite.
Tear.
Slash.
Instinct urged me to act, but I knew I couldn’t. I had to finish this, but I couldn’t remember why. The pain exploding in volleys through me made me snarl and spit, my lips drawing back from my teeth and a hiss rolling off my long tongue.
Hunted Princess: A Paranormal Dark Romance (Feline Royals Book 3) Page 9
