Panthers of Brigantia Shifter Box Set

by Lisa Daniels

  There was a low roar. Orion pulled her off the bed, his arms wrapping around her and moving her body against his. Phoenix pulled his shirt up over his head. As he pressed her against the wall, she undid his belt. She looked into his intense eyes that reflected her hair and face. It was like looking into a green fire. The moment ended as he could not wait any longer. Covering her mouth, his tongue slid into her mouth as he slid between her thighs. The guttural moan that she felt moving up her throat was cut off, so she dug her nails deeper into his skin. The wall shook as he pressed into her, each time more forceful and demanding of her body.

  The way he moved his body against hers was nothing like she had imagined it would be, but the passion was very obvious from the raw power she felt as he thrust into her. Breaking her mouth free, she screamed as her body climaxed. Orion buried his face in her neck, nipping as one hand massaged her thigh. When she finally began to calm down, his hand moved up her thigh and slid into her. He tilted her lower body toward him, and angled her upper body into an arch, his hips continually demanding as much as she was willing to give.

  They moved around the room, never remaining in any place for long, leaving broken glass and shattered furniture everywhere. When Phoenix began to slow down, her orgasms becoming less frequent, Orion lay her gently on the bed. As he looked at her, the assassin noticed that bruises had already started to form on her skin.

  “Oh gods, I am so sorry.” His hands began to brush over and heal them.

  Phoenix looked up at him, the sweat rolling back onto the pillows, “That’s nothing compared to the bite marks I left on you.” She leaned forward and began to gently kiss each mark on his body.

  Orion closed his eyes and purred, “That may not be the best idea in our current situation.”

  “Why? Does it turn you on?” She kissed his bicep, a smirk on her lips.

  “I haven’t been turned off since you returned.”

  Phoenix pulled back a little, “Oh, please. You were not turned on while I lay there asleep for days.”

  Orion pressed against her, his lips gently caressing her cheek, “At no point when you are near me am I turned off. I just won’t take advantage of you. Watching you sleep does not make you any less desirable.”

  Phoenix slid her nails up his arm with a light touch as her body shivered. “All this time, you never—”

  “I don’t want anyone but you.” His arms wrapped around her back as he positioned his body between her legs. “You should have been my first and last, but I screwed that up. When I lost you, I knew that I would never find real pleasure with anyone else. So, there was no reason to seek it.” One of his hands massaged her lower back, and the other pulled her chest closer to him.

  “I'm so sorry, Orion.”

  “No, I am sorry.” He kissed her neck and moved down to her breasts. “I deserved everything you have done to me and worse. All I can hope is that someday I can make it up to you.”

  Taking his face in her hands, Phoenix stopped him. “You can make it up to me when you stop suffering for me. That hurts more than anything because you won’t recognize how much pain you are in.”

  “You are living in an entirely different plane because of me, yet you accepted me. I would be willing to go through so much worse for you.”

  “I don’t want you to go through worse. I want to come out the other side of pain with you and find the happiness that you deserve.”

  The sad smile almost broke her heart. “I have accepted my life as it is. As you have reminded me so many times, there is only so much we can do.”

  “I was such an immense fool.” She leaned into him, softly kissing him.

  This time, Orion’s hands moved tenderly along the sides of her body. Slowly, he began to make love to her, his more measured and gentle movements causing her an entirely different type of pleasure.

  The sun had set and risen by the time they finally stopped and fell asleep. Both knew that they would need to return to the work at hand, but neither was willing to stop after waiting for so many lifetimes. Orion’s magic worked in a few ways that Phoenix had not realized was possible, and there was no point where he ever had to stop over more than 24 hours. It was only when Phoenix whispered that she needed sleep that he finally stopped. Wrapping her in his arms, he pulled her close and lulled her to sleep, the way his hands skimmed over her naked body, exciting her enough to make her ask for more, despite not being able to open her eyes.

  “Get some rest, then I swear, if you want me again, I am yours when you wake.”

  Phoenix didn’t need to be told again. She curled up in his arms and slept without any dreams.

  Chapter 9

  A Request and Another Heart

  Feeling a little sore, Phoenix took a few seconds to remember exactly what had happened. As soon as she opened her eyes, though, the recently made memories flooded back. Lying next to her, his arms around her, was the only person that she wanted to see. Snuggling up against him, the druid gave him a gentle kiss.

  Orion’s eyes fluttered open. His arms pulled her even closer, “Good evening.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

  He closed his eyes, both dimples obvious in the waning light. “It’s quite alright. If I’m being honest, I prefer being woken by you. More time.” His voice was husky as if he hadn’t fully woken.

  Remembering his final words before she fell asleep, Phoenix giggled. His eyes opened to slits, “What’s so funny?”

  She wiggled her body against his, “It’s just a new sensation. Should not have waited so long.”

  With a laugh, he kissed her forehead. “Well, it never seemed like a good idea to either of us. Now that I know how things could be, it is going to be a hell of a lot harder to let you go.”

  She moved in and gave him another gentle kiss. Pressing her body against his, Phoenix decided to test his offer. Quickly, it became obvious that he did not need any further prompting. All sleep was gone from his eyes as he looked at her, then pulled her under him.

  Looking up into his eyes, she whispered, “Be selfish. Be as selfish as you want, for as long as you want.”

  It was the best way to wake up she had ever experienced.

  Later, he brought her food, and Phoenix noticed that the room had been cleaned up. “Did you clean this place up while I slept?”

  Sitting on the bed beside her, he put his head on her shoulder. “I didn’t want you to wake and get hurt. Besides, it was the only way to keep myself occupied while you slept.”

  “Surely you were tired.”

  “Not tired enough with you in the bed beside me. But I promised, so I let you sleep. I can’t tell you how happy you made me with your invitation when you finally did wake up, though.” He put a forkful of food in his mouth.

  Giving the top of his head a kiss, she laughed, “I will keep that in mind.” She began to eat as she felt her stomach beginning to revolt at the smell of food without any food to accompany it. After swallowing, she corrected herself, “Better yet, just assume that is how I want you to wake me from now on.”

  Orion shifted, placing his chin on her shoulder. “You had better be careful what you offer, I will believe you mean it.”

  “You had better.” She smiled at him, then shoved food into her mouth before she could kiss him. Taking his cue from her, he began to eat, too.

  He collected their dishes and headed back to the kitchen, Phoenix following him. “I feel like a parasite. You are doing virtually everything. Cooking, cleaning, taking us everywhere.”

  “Nonsense. You are my core. Without you, I would be nothing. As long as you are happy, that’s really all I need.”

  “Now, you are lying. You need to know that those you care for are alright.”

  Orion opened his mouth to argue, then laughed, “Yeah, okay. Knowing you are happy and that the other people I love are alright is all I need.”

  “I suppose you won’t let me help.” She sat on the counter again.

  “Not a chance. Y
ou just sit there and enjoy yourself, that helps me far more than I can say.”

  “I have a better idea. Considering we have just used up more than a full day’s time, we probably should start thinking about how to handle the remaining hearts. The one in Ishtar we can ignore for now. There is one that we can take out, just the two of us, but it is going to be a bit more of a challenge because there are some magic users there who have not been incorporated. I want to get them out.” Orion nodded at this. Phoenix sighed, knowing that the next part was going to be fairly difficult. “For the other two, we are going to need help. A considerable amount of help.”

  “If Darius has returned, we could probably ask him.”

  Phoenix scoffed, “I don’t mean just one or two people. I mean, we are going to need a couple of sizeable teams.”

  Orion stopped washing and looked at her. “Like, five or six more people?”

  “I mean at least six more people on each team.”

  “Oh,” he put a hand to his mouth to process the information. “Is it because the hearts are so big, or are there that many innocent people around them?”

  “Both, actually. And I don’t want another situation like Falstone.”

  “Hmm, okay. Well,” he began cleaning, “if Darius is involved, there’s every reason to believe that Itzel isn’t going to let him go alone, though the druids will be pretty pissed if he leaves again, having just returned. Ignacio and Rosaline should be good to help, too. That’s two assassins and two druids.”

  “That’s a good start, but,” she grimaced, “we are going to need to ask Precious to join us. We need to take down both hearts at the same time to avoid them having any extra time to put up extra protection. You aren’t going to be able to get me from one place to the next in time.”

  “You want Precious to take on more lives. Do you think she can handle it if the hearts are as large as you believe?”

  “That’s why we are going to have to give it a few days. She needs to try to help guide as many as possible before she goes in.”

  “And that means Legend will be on board, then.”

  “We are also going to need Freya.”

  Orion put the last dish away as he considered what she said. Looking up, he said, “You do realize how difficult a request that is going to be.”

  “Hector owes you.”

  Orion’s eyes flicked over to her, “He doesn’t know that.”

  “He will when he sees you.”

  “Oh gods. You are just going for broke aren’t you?”

  “Sorry, Orion, but one of our biggest problems is that time is leaking out everywhere. It is not the same week in some places. And the problem is getting worse. No one else can manipulate time, not to that extent. We basically need her to resync the world before it gets torn apart.”

  “So, all we have to do is convince the Order to let the queen and her guardian leave. That will be easy.” Orion puffed his cheeks out, then clicked his tongue. “We may as well invite Draven and Maverick so that they don’t feel left out.”

  Phoenix vigorously shook her head. “Not Maverick. He’s… busy. We will meet up with him later.”

  “Okay.” Orion didn't feel it necessary to ask. “There are a couple of other mystics and guardians visiting not too far from here. We can see if they want to join. I’m sure Haiden and Harmony would be more than happy to join if she has healed enough. While Caden and Callie won’t be able to join since she is due any day now, she has proven incredibly effective at affecting minds even over a large distance. And Caden has the most authority among the guardians. Even if he isn’t there in person, he can provide support.”

  “I’m surprised you haven’t mentioned Anders.”

  Orion laughed, “I did. He’s one of the guardians who is here. Alexis is visiting with a baby she helped save. And she is going to sneak away with the baby when all of this is over. It’s going to get messy. By involving them, it will be easier to justify them taking the baby. The other mystic is a mort statera.”

  “Really?” Phoenix looked thoughtful. “If we can get her, we won’t have to tell the druids anything.”

  Orion laughed, “I do not want to be the one to have to tell them later.”

  Phoenix waved her hand, “I can manage it.” This caused her lover to freeze. Her grin was positively evil, “It will be my pleasure.”

  “Why would you—”

  “I won’t go out of my way for revenge, but if I can make them feel a bit of guilt, why not?”

  Orion put his face in his hand, “You are really playing with fire.”

  “I’ve had worse.”

  “If you are sure, I will support you.”

  She leaned over and kissed him. “I don’t know what I would do without you.” Placing her hands on the edges of the counter, she hopped down. “I guess we need to send word, then plan how to manage the next heart.”

  “The messages won’t take long. If you go start the planning, I will get the word out.”

  “Deal.”

  Less than 15 minutes later, Orion returned. “I was able to contact three of them, and they will get a hold of the rest. Should be easy since one of them was Anders. He’s about as efficient as they come. I love working with him when the opportunity arises. Anyway, what do you need me to do next?”

  Phoenix spread out a few papers. “The women are being kept here. Before we do anything to the heart, they need to be removed to keep the Unwashed from doing anything desperate. I know that they have been using a poison, so we need to get them a greater distance from the heart before we go. They need to be too far from any Unwashed so that we won’t need to worry about them being caught while I dismantle the heart. Here’s the hard part,” she paused, knowing that he was going to push back, “I need you to protect them after you clear out the Unwashed in the immediate area.”

  “I am not leaving you there alone with them.”

  “The only other option is to try to get someone to go with us. Do you know anyone who can do it today?”

  Orion scowled out the window, “I can’t leave you in that kind of a situation. What if something goes wrong?”

  “I didn’t say you couldn’t keep something open.”

  “I can’t do that. Having it open on two sides at once can create a vacuum. Not to mention, one of the Unwashed can come through.” He put his hands on the back of his neck. “If you are going to insist that I protect them, leaving you behind, I will agree only if you will allow me to put up a field around you.”

  “That is very risky so close to the heart.”

  “You won’t be at risk of any harm.”

  “No, but you will be.”

  “That is the only way I will agree to what you proposed.”

  Phoenix looked down at her paper, now trapped by the logic she had just used against Orion. They could try to get someone involved, but there really wasn’t time if they were going to get it done within the next few hours. The risk was high, but none of their other options was any better. “Alright, I accept.” Wishing that she could stop time, Phoenix looked at Orion. He couldn’t be killed, but death was not the worst thing. There was a chance that he could somehow be fused with the heart if he attracted enough energy from it while using so much of his own. If anything happens to him, I will find a way to fix it. Things have to work out. This can’t be the way it ends.

  Standing up, she indicated that she was ready. Orion pulled her to him, then he kissed her, his soft lips nibbling at hers. Without a word, they left on their last solo mission.

  Like the other ventures, they stepped into an area some distance from the entrance to the heart. They were only a few miles from a town, but it was on the other side of a small mountain range. The collapse would certainly attract attention, but as long as Phoenix was able to maintain focus, she should be able to make a targeted strike. They took longer looking over the terrain than the previous trips, in part because the operation would require speed not needed in the other ones. Neither was terribly eager, though.
Holding hands, they discussed the exact plan, a backup plan, and a third location if any Unwashed were present at their chosen locations.

  After a few moments of silence, Phoenix turned to her assassin. Rising a little, she kissed his cheek. “Okay.”

  His expression was unreadable as he opened up a space, their first destination where the women were being held.

  The rescue took less time than expected—Orion’s ability to quickly take down the Unwashed with his unique weapons left even Phoenix temporarily stunned. So far, he had killed only in panther form—but apparently his human form was far more dangerous.

  She whispered to him as he wrapped a protective shell around the women, “You could have worked that fast at the other places.”

  “I wanted them to suffer,” he whispered back. “It was no less than they deserved. I feel these got off too easily.” He kicked one of the corpses at his feet.

  Phoenix couldn’t help but laugh, “That is not what I expected from you.”

  He gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “Good. I will try to keep surprising you, though next time I will try to make it something pleasant.”

  “I look forward to it.”

  The women were all unconscious, their minds and bodies frozen in the shell so that he could move them through the Holding Place. They emerged at the first location, where Orion shifted and quickly left to scout the area. A few minutes passed before he returned. His sleek body moved like he was made of pure muscle as he checked a few areas closer to the women.

  When he was satisfied they were safe, Orion shifted back into his human form. He freed the women from the protective shell, telling them, “You are all safe for now. If you would please remain here, I will be back in a few minutes. There are no Unwashed within three miles, so you should be fine until I can return. Then we will escort you somewhere safe.” He held up a hand as some of them began to speak. “The Unwashed already know they are under attack, so we need to return to destroy the heart before they have any more time to set up defenses. I will answer your questions when we return. Until then, please be quiet and try not to attract any attention. I promise, as long as you do, you will be safe.”