“You shifted because you were angry. Our beasts can sense when we’re in danger. They rise up and force a shift to protect us. It’s instinctual.” He rubbed my back. “It takes time and practice, but we’ll work on it until shifting feels seamless. Here or…”
Gods willing, not always here.
But I couldn’t imagine being able to become my griffin at will. To control the wonderful creature inside me. Head tilted, I stared up at him. “Are griffins common on Aaidar?” He’d only mentioned great cats.
“None that I’m aware of.” He took my hand and sat, pulling me back down onto his lap. It felt different being close to him with clothing on.
I’d rather feel his skin pressed against mine.
I shoved the thought away before it could swirl through me like liquid fire.
“My arm—” One of the guards had broken it. Badly. But now, it felt like nothing had ever happened. “You reset and wrapped it, but there’s no way I healed that fast.”
“Cats do.” He lifted my arm and carefully turned it over, studying it. “Because our bones elongate and grow, the calcium is redistributed. Shifting must’ve finished the healing process for you.”
Wow.
“I still don’t understand how I can shift.” I said. “My family has been Glian since the beginning of time.”
“Someone in your past must’ve mixed with an Aaidarian.”
Gnawing on a fingernail, I scowled. “It’s impossible.”
“As impossible as you being able to shift into a griffin.”
Which we both knew was my new reality. My shoulders fell, and I leaned into him again.
“Does it bother you?” A thread of sharpness edged into his voice.
“Shifting into a griffin?”
“That, and…”
I centered my chin. “I’m proud of my heritage. That means all of my origins.”
“That’s a good thing. Especially now, because…”
Pulling back in his embrace, I frowned up at him. “Why especially now?”
His amber gaze darted away, before narrowing on my face. “They sent me down here for a purpose.”
Something in his expression, and in his tone, made me realize I hadn’t asked him how he’d found me. Or why he was free to stroll through the caves on his own. Let alone why we were both free and not locked up in chains.
He raked his hair. “I’ve got to get you pregnant. As soon as possible.” One eyebrow lifted. “Now, if you’re up for it.”
Ah, of course. “It’s our only chance of escaping the compound, isn’t it?”
“If we do it, we buy time. A few days, at most, between when they test our hormones to make sure we did it, and then test you to see if it took.”
Needing distance between us—between my heart and his—I climbed from his lap.
When I said I’d fuck him days ago, I’d seen it as a task to get over with. But a jumble of emotions were scrambling inside me, making me feel all mixed up and confused.
In some ways, I was the person I’d been before my capture. But I was also the Lyrie who’d struggled to survive in this harsh prison. Plus, the woman who, despite my best intentions, was falling for Khal.
How in hell had I let it happen?
I stalked away from him, crossing the large chamber before striding back over to stand before him, trembling.
He’d risen, and he watched me intently. Not pushing or making demands. Just letting me be the one in control. He must’ve decided I didn’t want to be with him, because he said, “It’s okay. I won’t force you.”
Funny how the other guys I’d been with had been more than eager to drop on top of me and shove themselves inside. Yet Khal, who could make his own life easier by talking me into this, was still willing to let it go and take whatever punishment they delivered.
Fuck. Love. Yes, that’s what the emotion surging inside me was. Even knowing the feeling was lethal.
But I’d never turned my back on danger.
He nodded slowly, as if he’d seen something revealing in my face. “I get it.”
“I don’t think you do.” Stepping forward, I placed my hands on his shoulders. “I want this. But I also want more than just to be fucked. I need…”
“I need it, too.”
Though he cut me off, the widening of his pupils sent a secret thrill through me, because it gave me hope. Not for a future, because the odds of us getting out of here alive were next to none.
But maybe he wanted to face whatever came next together.
Heat rising inside me, I pulled his head down and kissed him.
His tongue parted the seam of my lips and dove inside. Hands sliding up my waist, he cupped me through my clothing. My breasts seemed to strain to reach him. And, when he pinched my nipples, I mewed.
Pivoting us around, he backed me into the wall.
Some emotion—undefined but greedy—grew inside me. I moaned when he pressed himself against me. His cock, more solid than the granite below my feet, strained against his pants. To think, as beat up as I was right now, that I could attract this man.
A shifter. Like me.
He lifted his head and stared down at me, his pupils almost eclipsing his amber eyes. “You sure?”
“I want you, Khal. Now.” Emitting gasps of anticipation, I undid his pants and slid them down his hips, over his butt. He stepped forward and stood before me, more gorgeous than any man I’d seen in my life. His cock thrust against his belly.
He was stunning.
Absolutely perfect.
And mine, if only for this moment.
The broad expanse of his naked chest begged for my touch. I slid my fingertips across his nipples, and he tilted his head back and groaned before reaching for my shirt.
In seconds, I was naked again, and I kicked the fabric aside.
Moving close to him, I slid my fingers down his chest.
His eyes followed my hand as it moved across his abs. I cupped his cock. His body twitched and shook. Groaning, he closed his eyes, tipped his head back, and leaned into my touch.
I slid my hand down his huge length, gripping and tightening. I squeezed my way back to the tip, where I stroked him.
“I need you,” I said, ache filling my voice. I wanted what he’d given me before with a thirst that could not be slaked. “Please.”
His hand slid between my legs, sliding along my clit. He pinched the bud at the top and rubbed in circles. Leaning back against the cave wall, I almost came undone. It was all I could do to focus on sliding my hand up and down his cock.
When his fingers dove inside me, I moaned and writhed. Damn, it felt good.
I gasped and his fingers moved faster. My mind spun out of control. Breath coming faster, I spread my legs wide and arched up as he pushed inside.
A coil spun tight inside me, threatening to burst through my skin.
“Now,” I said. “Don’t drive me over the edge alone.” Not again. Be there with me, this time.
He pulled his fingers out, and I clung to him. Hands feverish, he spun me around and urged me down onto the floor on my hands and knees. He dropped down behind me and cupped my hips. The tip of his cock—his hard, solid, enormous cock—parted my slit.
“Yes,” I breathed, trying to push backward. I wanted this, wanted him impaling me to the hilt.
Everything inside me twitched with anticipation.
Mumbling my name, he moved forward, one exquisite inch at a time.
My flesh expanded, stretching to take all of him. It burned and stung, but it was an intense, wonderful feeling. Unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. My insides quivered as he pulled back and drove forward again, stopping partway inside.
“Do it,” I shouted. “I want it all!”
“Lyrie, I…”
“Khal!”
With a growl, he shoved himself deep, deep inside me, not stopping until I couldn’t take any more.
His fingers found my clit again, and rubbed.
Rocking back,
he filled me again. As I gasped, he picked up his pace, slamming into me, over and over.
With each plunge inside me, I shrieked and called for him to go faster. Until he was pounding into me so quickly, I couldn’t keep up.
My knees, spread wide, braced me in place on the stone floor. My cries flew to the top of the cavern. I tipped my head back, savoring the bliss that engulfed me. “More!”
He answered my cry with a shout of his own, and drove himself, ramming into me so hard and rapid, I could barely breathe.
In a flash, I came undone, moaning out his name.
He shuddered against me, and his groan echoed around us.
Panting, I lowered my upper body onto my forearms as my insides slowly unwound.
He stroked my back, my butt. Then he pulled out and paused behind me a moment, before he dropped onto the ground on his back.
As I lowered myself onto his chest and his arms slid around my waist, I almost held in my words. I didn’t want to ruin something that had been perfect, special.
But I had to say something, because we had major problems.
“Khal?” I stroked his nipple, which peaked at my touch.
“Yeah?” he said sleepily, as if he was a fully sated beast basking in the sun.
Rising onto my palms, I glared down at him. “How in all hells do you expect me to get pregnant if you don’t come inside me?”
Chapter Ten
Khal
F uck.
I thought I was good at faking. I’d sure as hells had plenty of practice over the years. But I’d been so into the moment, enjoying the feel of Lyrie, the closeness of skin on skin, her lithe limbs wrapped around me, that I’d damn near lost control.
Now my claws extended agonizingly from my clenched hands, my fangs gouging my lower lip as I fought the urge to plunge back into her sucking, warm welcome. To pound my seed into her, like I could brand her.
Claim her.
Damn, I wanted her so bad, the muscles in my neck corded as I forced back my partial shift. It’d been so long since I’d come inside a woman. Felt the hot eruption of our mixing juices, the ultimate satisfaction of filling her as I emptied myself.
But I’d reflexively jerked out of Lyrie at the last second, tossing my load into the dirt alongside us. Yet, for some reason, that felt totally wrong.
Which made no sense. For the last fifteen years, I’d fucked women the same way, pleasuring them, driving them to orgasm, but pulling out before I came. The technique had never failed me.
My claws retracted swiftly as my blood chilled, my heart seizing for a moment, then pounding at double speed: it felt wrong because I wasn’t fucking Lyrie.
It was more than that.
Shit, it was more than it had ever been.
When Lyrie said that she wanted more than just fucking, I’d been quick to cut her words short. I planned to get the Regime off our backs and simultaneously offer her some pleasure. Make up for what her dead husband so obviously had not provided. That was it. Full extent of my involvement.
But the second she was in my arms, I knew she wasn’t the only one who wanted more.
I dragged a hand across my face. Fuck, I’d known it before then. I’d known it when the guards darted me and pulled her from my cell and it’d felt like my chest would crack apart. But I’d pretended to myself that was the pain of the beatings.
And the moment I saw her in her beautiful shifted form, I’d been totally lost.
Now I wanted to know everything about her.
Who she was, and where she’d come from.
How she looked when she wasn’t scared and hurting.
Whether her commanding, bad-ass attitude was the real Lyrie, or a disguise, hiding a different woman.
How her laughter sounded, and whether her cropped hair glinted in the sunlight.
I wanted to find out how she could be part-Felidaekin, yet have no idea of the fact.
I longed to see how beautiful she was in full flight, her magnificent wings unfurled against the aching blue sky.
I wanted to know how she’d feel beneath me in her part-cat form.
And I needed to know why the hells the Regime had it in for her, when there was a town full of Glian women they could choose from, no doubt a number of them—like Smithton’s pet nurse, Tina—more than willing.
At least, Tina had been willing until Hartlin ordered Spike to do her in cat form, to create the fetus the Regime demanded. Sick bastard. I’d had no choice but to give Hartlin my word then that I’d screw Lyrie, to save Spike from the toxic self-hatred that came with being a murderer.
But I’d broken my word.
Because I hadn’t fucked Lyrie.
I’d made love to her.
And that was all kinds of bad.
“Khal? Why didn’t you do it?”
I sat up abruptly, dislodging Lyrie from where she leaned on my chest, her eyes holding more questions than her words. The nylonium grated my skin as I shoved my legs into my pants. “There’s a damn good reason why,” I snarled, angling away to hide my flaming face. Hells, I felt like a teenager caught jerking one out in my bed.
Lyrie moved aside, pulling my shirt around her shoulders.
Instantly, I wanted to ask her not to dress, to let me revel in the sight of her for a little longer.
I clamped my lips together tighter than a shoal shell.
“Well? Do you care to explain?” Her icy expression made it clear she didn’t really intend to give me a choice.
“Not particularly. Look, it’s ancient history. Nothing personal.”
“Seems pretty fucking personal when it’s my life you’re putting at risk.” A flock of wints startled and flew out of the dark shadows as Lyrie’s sharp tone echoed off the rock.
Okay, so she had me there. Tension tightened my gut at the thought of my actions endangering her. Fuck, wasn’t that precisely what I was trying to avoid? “Look, you don’t need to get knocked up, we just need to buy time. Now you can shift into this sort of…griffin—” My loins stirred at the memory of her cat-form. Not pure Felidaekin, but a mix of lion and something more ancient, maybe a dragon, given the span of her magnificent, veined wings. “We’ll be able to find a way out of here. I can smell fresh air. Somewhere further down these tunnels, there must be an opening.”
“Let’s go find it, then. You can explain your…issue…on the way.” She shoved to her feet, her naked thighs level with my face.
I licked my lips, trying to contain the hunger that rose in me. “We can’t. You have to learn to control your shift, or it’ll take you when you can’t afford it to. It’s dangerous, until you establish dominance over the urge. In fact, how about we practice, now?”
She slammed her hands on to her hips. “So, you want me to put on a performance for you?” The pitch of her voice had changed, a tremulousness beneath the sneered words, and I knew the idea of shifting again scared her, but she was trying to hide the fear behind rage. “Here’s a new plan. How about you stop with this tough, mysterious beetric-shit and tell me your secret, since you’re so invested in mine?”
Even though she was mouthing off at me, her tone sharp and strident, I felt sorry for her. It was hard enough changing when you knew what to expect, when you’d spent your entire life anticipating it. I couldn’t even imagine how hard the discovery she was a shifter must’ve knocked her. “Well, it’s not like you’ve willingly shared your secret, is it?”
Her jaw twitched and I could pick up the faint sound of her teeth grinding as she scowled at me. “Give me yours, and I’ll give you one.”
What the hells, she had more secrets? I took a deep breath and stared at the floor. “I killed a woman.”
From the corner of my eye, I caught her shrug. “We all have. This is war, soldier.” Her words were hard, but when I glanced up her eyes glinted with what could be either anger or hidden tears.
Damn, I wished I could leave it there. Her easy acceptance. But I wasn’t about to lie to her. That was no way to start out. An
d man, I wanted this to be a start. Clean slate. I’d tell her it all, then she could run like hell.
Not that there was anywhere to run to, right now.
Acid churned in my throat, but I forced the words out, my lips twisting with distaste. “It wasn’t like that. This was before the war. Back on Aaidar.”
She stilled, her body absolutely motionless for a second, and I tensed. Because if she was about to do a runner, I was going to chase her.
Instead, she dropped to her knees alongside me. “Why did you kill her?”
“Accident.”
The tension fled her body, her shoulders softening. “Okay. But what does that have to do with you not following the Regime orders now? You know they’re going to test me as soon as they figure we’ve had time to do it. Then in a few days they’ll be checking if I’m pregnant. Why won’t you just fuck me like they want, and get it over with? One less thing we have to worry about, while we work on how the hells we’re getting out of here.”
“Because I don’t want to fuck you, Lyrie.” Holy crap, they weren’t the words I wanted. Sure, I was processing the notion in my head, but that didn’t mean I was anywhere near ready to share it. Not when I wasn’t entirely sure where Lyrie stood on the matter. Sure, she’d said she didn’t want only fucking, that left quite a bit of gray area for me to get lost in. What exactly did she want? She was damned hard to read, one moment almost pleading, the next demanding.
Plus, I was in the middle of telling her that I’d killed my girlfriend. Not exactly the moment for romantic disclosures.
Romantic? Where the hell had that thought come from? The guys would give me shit if they knew it even existed in my vocabulary.
Her mouth tightened, and she lifted one shoulder. “You don’t want to? Well, tough. As I recall, this relationship is on a needs basis, not wants.”
I shook my head and swallowed, my mouth as dry as if I’d sucked on an unripe cava pod. “I don’t want to fuck you, Lyrie, because I want more. I want to…get to know you. Properly. But I can’t do that.”
She chewed at her thumbnail, her brows drawn into a blonde V. “Maybe you can. Once we get out of here, we’ll see what—”
CAT SHIFTERS OF AAIDAR: ENSNARE: (A Sci-fi Alien Romance, Book 3) Page 10