A life for a life.
“When you find Mr. Gao,” Camila gritted out, still glaring at her one remaining ocelot loyalist. “You are to notify me immediately so I can come and get the amulet from him.”
“And the second order of business, Your Majesty?” asked a vampire she’d picked up back in the shah’s empire.
“Secondly, there is an ocelot traitor here,” she said, turning to the group.
A muscle in Gabor’s jaw tensed, but otherwise, he showed no reaction. The rest of the group shuffled their feet uncomfortably, and the ones who knew he was the only ocelot in the party shifted away from him, as if her venom might spread to them if they stood close enough. Ebele’s cameraman pointed the camera right at Gabor, and Ebele gave a giddy grin, obviously loving the drama. I could already see the clip making the show. A second of dead silence followed by some dramatic music would accompany the princess’s words.
“Not him,” Camila said with a dismissive flick of her fingers toward her guard, as if he couldn’t possibly be a traitor, and if he were, it wouldn’t matter because he was so powerless. She gave a tittering little laugh that made me want to slap the shit out of her.
I’d been watching her for weeks, since Camila had claimed me as her guard. I still couldn’t figure her out. She was too fucking unpredictable. One minute she was as ruthless as her father, and the next, she was trembling like a leaf at the thought of meeting the tiger maharajas.
I didn’t know how to feel about her. On the one hand, I knew she was a conniving snake. On the other, she’d eagerly grabbed me when the shah offered me to Itzel. It was nice to be wanted, to be valuable enough to snatch up, even if I knew she was using me like she used everyone. At least I had work to do, a job at last. She’d treated me well enough, too, not threatening to behead me every time I grumbled about something. The sad truth of it was, I missed home, fucked up as it was. It was comforting to see a familiar face, to be around someone who knew not just the language and customs I’d grown up with, but the world we’d lived in. She and Gabor were the only comfort I’d known in months. And to be gainfully employed again, not to feel like a useless burden, was worth far more than she was paying me.
“I’m talking about my sister,” Camila said. “Chances are, we’ll find her wherever the amulet is, so it won’t be any extra work. But if she’s not there, we’ll hunt her down.”
“And then what?” I asked. The camera swung my way.
Camila raised her chin and arched an eyebrow as if daring me to challenge her. Then she turned to the camera and spoke right into it. “And then we’ll kill her.”
Twenty-Two
Itzel
Princess, Ocelot Nation
Fear jolted through me at the sight of a dozen snow leopards stalking toward us. No, not us. Me.
They prowled like hunters, hunger in their eyes that made my thighs quake and my heart explode in my chest.
“Fuck,” I whispered, leaping up from Kwame. “How long have they been there?”
“I don’t know,” he said, rising beside me in all his naked, dark glory. I wanted to gaze upon my lover forever, but the brief encounter was all we’d get. One time. One night, interrupted.
“I thought the heat took days to go into effect.”
“It—it does,” Kwame said, crouching slightly when a snow leopard moved into the firelight. It stared at us across the fire, a white mane surrounding its head that was shorter than Kwame’s but almost as thick. Balam was beautiful in feline form, and Shadow was deadly and breathtaking. But this… This was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen. Its ice-colored eyes burned with intensity as it stepped closer on large, silent white feet, never blinking or wavering in its attention to me. The spots on its snowy silver coat shifted with each step. For a moment, I was transfixed, awestruck by the majestic, otherworldly divinity of the beast.
Kwame’s strong, cold fingers wrapped around mine. “Shift. It’s the only way to fight.”
There was obviously not going to be much of a fight, but I obeyed nonetheless, reaching for Sir Kenosi’s cheetah. I hadn’t known how to shift, but when I called for it, it sprang to life with such force that it nearly ripped out of my skin. I lost my balance, lurching forward to all fours. A blinding pain shot through my limbs, and terror swallowed me whole as blackness swept over my vision, leaving me in this vulnerable position.
Seconds later, my vision cleared, and I lifted my head and snarled, baring my cheetah fangs at a snow leopard. Beside me, Kwame had shifted into a lion. He threw back his head and roared, the immense sound filling the night, echoing down the mountain and into the valleys below. My heart swelled with pride at the sight of my gentle lover staking his claim to the death like the ferocious beast he was inside.
I had no time to dwell on it, though. A snow leopard leapt at me, and I snarled and swiped my claws across his face, leaping aside. Fear charged my limbs, and I shot forward, sinking my teeth into another leopard. My fangs sank through his skin, and the sweet tang of blood exploded across my tongue. He roared and ripped free of me just as Kwame dove in and clamped his enormous jaws around the leopard’s neck.
Another one charged, but I darted aside, my smaller size and speed giving me an advantage. Kwame hurled my attacker across the clearing, and he landed with a sickening crunch against a sandstone ledge. Another leopard leapt at Kwame, slamming him to the ground. They rolled away in a blur of fangs and claws, roaring and growling and biting. I darted away from another attack, only to find myself cornered by two more. I turned, and someone fell onto my back, his teeth sinking into the back of my neck as he mounted me.
I squeezed my eyes closed and screamed. I could feel him trying to penetrate me. Suddenly, I felt a rush of air. Opening my eyes, I saw an enormous snow leopard drop to the ground in a crouch in front of me. He opened his jaws and roared, slamming a giant paw against my attacker’s head. The leopard on my back flew backwards, thudding to the ground next to the fire. I scrambled to my feet, but the leopard who had just freed me clamped his jaws around the back of my neck, lifting me by my skin.
He latched on and turned, slamming his shoulder into another one. I lost sight of Kwame under a blur of more snow leopards. I screamed, but my lover couldn’t hear me, and my attacker didn’t release me. Charging forward, he swung me at another leopard’s legs. My body took his feet from under him, and then we were charging up the mountain. I screamed again, hoping my mate would hear me, that Lord Balam and Shadow would hear me, that someone, anyone, would hear me and know where I’d been taken.
But no one came to rescue me this time. Darkness swallowed us, only the starlight to illuminate our path and bear witness.
I scratched and fought, crying and hissing, but the leopard didn’t release his grip as he bounded along the rocky crags of the mountain, from one boulder to another, down into a quiet hamlet and up another mountainside. Twisting my body, I swiped at his legs, but I only succeeded in making his teeth tear through the skin on the back of my neck. The sharp tang of blood filled the air, and I twisted harder, forcing his teeth through the skin until I felt blood trickling down my pelt and falling to the ground. I prayed that it would lead my mates to me when this was over.
At last, I heard a sound that cut through my panic. I twisted my head around, trying to see who had made the sound I’d heard—footfalls bounding behind us. My heart leapt as I made out a blurry form charging our way. And then I saw another and another. Not my mates. More snow leopards chasing down their prey, ready to fight for my body.
My captor ran faster, his breath coming hard against my neck and his saliva mixing with my blood as it soaked into my fur. At last, he scrambled up a vertical cliff face and onto a ledge. He dropped me in front of a towering wedge of stone, its face roughly the size and shape of an enormous sail on a boat. Turning at the sound of claws raking down sandstone, he snarled ferociously, his bloody lips drawing back from gore-streaked teeth. A white snow leopard’s head appeared over the edge of the ledge, and my captor
slashed its face with his paw, hurling the predator back down the way he’d climbed.
I scrambled to my feet, my gaze flying from one side of the ledge to the other. My captor roared at another attacker, bashing him off the ledge as he tried to ascend. Turning, he raced along the ledge to the corner of the stone and pressed his face into the crevice between it and the cliff face. A grinding creak sounded, and to my horror, the towering rock began to slide sideways along the ledge. Behind it, I could see a dark entrance gaping like the mouth to hell.
I turned and streaked in the other direction, but suddenly, another snow leopard dropped down from above, landing in front of me. He pounced, pinning me to the stone underfoot. I snarled and ripped myself free, slashing with my claws. His giant paw slammed against me, and I went rolling straight toward the edge. My bloody captor dove for me, snatching me and dragging me into the entrance to his dark den. The other leopard on the ledge charged.
My captor ripped me from his reach, tossing me behind him and slamming into his attacker. The invading leopard tumbled backward and over the ledge. I cried out, leaping to my feet and diving for the light. The huge stone made a grinding sound as it began to close. An anguished snarl tore from my throat as my captor clamped his jaws around the back of my neck, flinging me deeper into his lair. My last hope disappeared with the last sliver of light as the stone sealed over the entrance, plunging us into utter, blinding darkness.
Twenty-Three
Kwame,
Prince, Lion Nation
I woke to the chill of wet blood freezing in my fur. With a jolt, I sat up. The sky was lightening with the promise of the new day, but one look around told me that the sun would not shine for me on this day.
Itzel was gone.
When I leapt to my feet, the searing pain of my injuries made me stagger drunkenly. Blood soaked the ground where I had fought one snow leopard after another until I collapsed under my injuries. Around me, coals that had been scattered from the fire lay black and dead. A snow leopard’s body lay motionless a few feet away, but there was no sign of another living soul.
My queen was gone. I’d only had one night with my mate, one night that had ended before the moon crossed the sky, before it was complete. My lion cried like a lost cub inside me. I knew I should lay down and heal, but I couldn’t waste any time. I had to find her. I had to save my mate. One mating would not be enough to last my lifetime.
No. I wouldn’t think like that. Itzel wasn’t dead. I had heard her crying as they stole her away. I’d fought to follow, but I’d been piled under more and more attackers. They’d left me alive, though, no doubt following her trail once they knew she was gone. They had no interest in killing. They only wanted me out of the way because I’d tried to keep her from them. When they realized she was gone, they must have abandoned my broken body and run after her in a mating frenzy.
How had it happened so fast? It was all wrong. The tiger maharajas had explained exactly how their amulet worked—just like a regular heat. It should have taken days, not an hour. It should have been gradual, not instantly strong enough to draw out that many snow leopards. Had they deceived me? Or were Itzel’s pheromones infinitely stronger than they should have been?
All I knew was that making love to her was unlike anything I’d ever done before. And I knew that I had to find her before they destroyed her. True, they didn’t want to kill her. That didn’t mean that they wouldn’t. If they all got hold of her at once… Not just a handful of them, like might be attracted to a typical female in heat. There had been dozens. Knowing how far apart snow leopards lived made that even stranger. They must have come from miles around. If they all mated her at once, they could hurt her. Or worse.
My mate was not weak. She’d already been through so much, things that would have destroyed a weaker queen. She’d grown stronger with each one. And I knew that she was proud of her strength, just as I was. But this was something different. She’d never experienced a heat, and this was no ordinary mating time. This was something powerful and unexplained. Something that drew snow leopards from hiding all over the mountains, something that made them fight for her and leave her mate for dead.
I had to find her before they broke her, body and spirit.
I started up the mountain, letting my lion guide me. He would take me to my mate, my queen, my love. My savior.
I called out to her, silently and aloud, wandering over stones and boulders, logs and slippery patches of snow that scalded my feet with cold. At last, I had to lie down and heal further. I considered going back to the spirit world, but I refused to entertain the possibility that she was there.
I woke around dark that evening, leaping to my feet with a renewed sense of urgency. It had been a full day since they’d taken her. I’d wasted too much time. I ran through the valley and up the next mountain, roaring for her all the way. Darkness fell, and still I hadn’t found her.
I heard a scraping over the crest of a small ridge, and the scent of smoke and sizzling meat found my nostrils. I charged toward it, scrambling over stones and leaping toward the sound, my heart thudding in my chest. If someone had set up camp there, maybe it was her captor. I could smell a wild ocean, the salty brine of the sea, and damp earth and water collecting on leaves in the moonlight.
And then I was over the ridge, skidding to a halt. Lord Balam sat at a campfire, his cloak pulled over his shoulders and down his tattooed arms, the fur rippling from his skin as if he were mid-shift. The shadow of a black panther flickered in the firelight and then disappeared into the darkness.
“That better be you, Kwame,” Lord Balam said, crouching by the fire, his eyes alert as he watched my every move.
With a shower of magic, I shifted back to my human form. “I lost her,” I said miserably.
Lord Balam stared at me a long moment, and a dart of fear pierced my heart. I had regained my human form when Itzel brought me back, but I didn’t know how immortal that form was. I wasn’t keen on finding out yet. Not until I knew if my mate was in that world. If she was, it wouldn’t matter. I’d give up the human form I’d fought for in an instant. Once a shifter found his True Mate, life without her was unlivable.
“How’d that happen?” Lord Balam asked, easing himself back onto the stone he’d been using for a seat.
“Yes,” rasped a gravelly voice from the darkness. “Tell us.”
“I fought for her,” I said, sinking onto the ground beside the fire. “She opened the amulet, and instead of taking a few days, her heat was instant. We were not prepared. I’m sorry.”
To my surprise, neither of the men attacked. Lord Balam poked at the meat cooking over the fire, his brow knit with concentration. Shadow, who had slunk out of the darkness as I spoke, only watched me with those eerie green eyes.
“I should have known that would happen,” Lord Balam said. “Itzel may be human, but there’s nothing common about her.”
“You know I would die to protect her,” I said.
To my surprise, Shadow nodded. “Yeah. We all would.”
“You don’t blame me,” I marveled. “How do you not hate me?”
“We know you’re her mate,” Lord Balam said. “There’s no use pointing fingers. That won’t get her back. We’re all on the same team here.”
“Yes,” I said, letting down my guard for the first time since I’d found them. Despite the things that had happened to me in the past, these men were restoring my faith. Friendship could be true. People could be trusted. There was more in the world than betrayal and grief. There was good. There were people, even strangers, who showed kindness, who shared a fire and their food and their mate, without complaint or competition.
Not everyone was as transparent as I was, but it hit me then that they wanted her back as badly as I did. They ached for her in their bones, just as I did. They would do anything for her, just as I would.
“What do we do?” I asked, anguish lacing my voice. I’d failed her. My first chance at protecting my mate, at beginning to repay h
er for what she’d given up for me, and I’d failed beyond the worst I could have imagined.
“The only thing we can do,” Lord Balam said. “We keep searching until we find her.”
Twenty-Four
Itzel
Princess, Ocelot Nation
I woke with a jolt, panic ripping through me. Scrambling to my feet, I looked around. A glass wall surrounded me on two sides, with stone making up the last two walls, ceiling, and floor. I’d been lying on a thin pallet on the floor with a blanket. Though the room was chilly, heat trembled inside me like a mirage, and my skin was slicked with sweat. Between my legs, my sex throbbed like a hungry animal.
“Oh, fuck,” I whispered, sinking back to my knees on the mat. It came back to me then—fucking Kwame, the intensity of our bond and the rush of power that had come over me. The way the snow leopards came out of the mountains around us like ghosts to watch the holy spectacle. The fight they’d had to get to me. The one who had stolen me, hauled me up here, and dragged me into the dark. I’d fought, changing into a human so he might not want to fuck me.
But he’d simply become a man, thrown me over his shoulder, and carried me through the dark, tossing me into this enclosure and leaving me here. I’d fallen asleep on the only soft spot in the room, in complete blackness. Now, I’d woken to find the room lit dimly by candles. Beyond my glass cell, I could make out more of the man’s lair.
It didn’t look very lair-like. It looked like some kind of expensive experimental lab, with metal equipment on long tables, something that looked suspiciously like an upright hospital bed with restraints on the arms and legs, microscopes, and other shiny silver instruments reflecting the soft, flickering glow of candles placed around the room. It was all so incongruous, so unexpected. I’d thought he’d dragged me away into a cave, not a hidden spy operation. And if he had such high-tech gear, why the primitive candles for lighting?
Hunted Princess: A Paranormal Dark Romance (Feline Royals Book 3) Page 16
