by Thorne, Elle
Gavin opened his door, as did his group.
Cy looked at them. “Seriously. This much scent coming off all of you is going to hamper my abilities.”
Gavin pointed to three men to get back in the vehicle, leaving only himself, Cy, and another shifter outside. Cy began to walk and raised his head, inhaling deeply.
Is that Lila? He turned to Gavin. “Give me more room.”
“Hell, no,” Gavin exclaimed.
He shrugged as though he didn’t give a damn. “Fine. You can tell Vax Tiero how his sister wouldn’t be dead if you weren’t such a jealous ex-boyfriend.”
“Fuck.” A scowl crossed Gavin’s features.
Nailed it. The fool should learn how to handle his emotions better when it came to Lila. Then again, Cy couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t be the same way about her. She was a hell of a woman.
Gavin stepped away, waving his man away, too. They both stood by the SUV while Cy kept walking. Without looking back to see if they were following, he rounded a corner and sprang into action.
Shifting into his tiger skin faster than he’d ever shifted before, and praying his block was still working, he jumped to a rooftop, cleared it in two leaps, and had gone five buildings and three alleys farther in less than ten seconds.
He was rid of Gavin and his men. Another thing he hadn’t told them was he was extremely quick at running. He’d spent his life training to stay alive, so he wouldn’t lose his life or let Petra’s by being taken by shifters the way their parents’ lives had been.
Yes, Cy was self-trained, but he pursued his with a single-minded focus that was rarely matched.
He didn’t stop once he’d cleared that distance, only pausing long enough to raise his head, his tiger nostrils flaring, his lungs filling with air.
Lila!
He had her scent!
Chapter Thirteen
The voices came closer and closer. Their timbre definitely identified them as shifters. As far as she could tell, there were two males and one female. All shifters.
Their tones were friendly, so whatever was going on, it wasn’t hostile. Maybe it was a dead end. Maybe it was just a few shifter friends, hanging out and walking down the street.
She rolled her eyes. Damn the luck. She tuned out their conversation, no longer interested.
Lila relaxed her pose, dropped her guard, and became comfortable again, waiting for the shifters to pass.
Except the shifters didn’t pass. Their footsteps approached then stopped.
Lila refocused her attention. Where’d they go?
A click was followed by laughter. The door opened, letting a little street light in. From her vantage point, Lila could see three shifters, two large males, the third a female. The males were wolves. The female was a fox.
“Where’s the party?” the fox shifter asked. Her tone was confused but not alarmed; clearly, she trusted the men.
“We’re going to take you to it,” one of the males said.
The way he said it made Lila’s skin crawl. She didn’t like this at all.
“What do you mean?” The fox shifter looked from one wolf shifter to the other. “I thought you said—”
“Don’t worry about what he said.” The other shifter’s voice was gruff. He pulled something out of his pocket.
“Don’t hurt her. We need her to be able to fight,” the first wolf said.
“Fight?” The redhead’s voice was shrill, panic kicking in.
Oh, shit. God. Now what? Lila had to help her. What was he was holding? A tranq, that was what it was. Shit. Shit. Shit.
They’d said fight. Yes! She’d found the right ones! She was happy. That meant she was in the right place. She wished Cy were here as backup. Hell, she’d even take Gavin’s help. Damn, damn, damn.
Eager to help the fox shifter and not thinking about consequences, Lila stepped out from her hiding place before she could come up with a plan. In her mind, her tigress growled a warning at her lack of planning.
Her mind ran through some scenarios in the few seconds she was exposed but unnoticed by the wolf shifters.
She took pity on the fox. Lila could save her and then sacrifice herself in exchange. She’d be a decoy so the fox was freed. Then she’d let them take her, even though she’d be pretending to fight.
Great idea. Well, no, her tigress rumbled, not really, but it was the best she could come up with and these guys were going to overtake the fox shifter in a moment.
The fox struggled against the large wolf shifters, trying to pull her arms free.
“Don’t make us hurt you, little fox.” One of the wolves smiled a wicked grin.
“James.” The other wolf pointed to Lila.
“What?” the one called James growled.
“We have company,” the second shifter said.
All three shifters looked at Lila.
She glared at them. “Let her go.”
“Oh, she’s a fine, bossy one, isn’t she, Will?” James asked the other shifter.
“Yes, but she’s a tiger. We don’t need another tiger.”
“Don’t be stupid,” James said. “The other tiger won’t last forever. She’s fighting in three days. After that, they’ll need another one.” He leered at Lila.
“Run, fox,” Lila told the female then shifted.
Now let’s see how they like this.
Chapter Fourteen
Cy could tell Lila was close. Her scent grew stronger with each moment, with each step. He leaped over a fence and found himself in front of a Honda parked at a convenience store. It had to be hers; it carried her scent too strongly. He shifted into his human skin in case he was spotted.
If he thought he had problems now, wait until the humans sent out an alarm for a loose tiger. That was a problem he didn’t need.
Looking into her car, he saw nothing that gave him any idea where she had gone or what she was doing. Well, hell, at least he knew she couldn’t be far. She wouldn’t have left her car behind.
Then it occurred to him. She wouldn’t have left her car behind willingly.
Shit. What if she’d left it unwillingly? What if she’d been taken? Like Petra? He was more and more convinced this was exactly what had happened to Petra.
Could he follow Lila’s scent to find Petra? Would that work?
He shifted back into his tiger skin and leaped over the eight-foot-tall fence, once more tracking her by scent. Come on, Lila, he begged her in his mind. Where did you go? Where are you?
Halting, he scented for her, to see if anything had changed. That was when he picked them up.
Shifters!
More of them.
The sound of a scuffle came from…
That way! He started off at a swift pace, reaching a warehouse. Inside. That’s where it was, whatever it was.
The sounds of wood breaking, and things being thrown or run into were overwhelming.
He shifted into his human skin quickly and opened the door.
A figure bolted out of the warehouse, bowling him over.
Together, he and the figure—a fox?—rolled then came to a sudden stop, the fox on top of him. A female fox, who jumped up and took off at a run.
He sprang to his feet. That was one of the scents. Two more remained. Males. Wolves.
He shifted into his tiger and ran through the open door.
Bloody, fighting, teeth bared, claws swiping, Lila was taking on the two huge wolves. He couldn’t sync with her; there was no time.
She was down on the ground, and one of the wolves was going for her throat.
Cy pounced on the wolf. Taking his throat in his jaws, he pulled him off Lila. The other wolf attacked Lila, also going for her throat.
Christ, had she pissed them off or what? He let go of the first wolf, who made a dash for the door. Just as he reached for the second, mid-leap, the wolf changed course, abandoned his quest for Lila’s throat and followed the first wolf through the door.
Lila shifted into her human skin. Her clothing
was askew, her hair in disarray, and she bled from lacerations and bites all over her body.
Cy wasn’t worried. She wouldn’t die, and those wounds would heal, as shifters healed at an exponentially fast rate—if they hadn’t been killed, that was. But she must have been in a lot of pain.
Then he saw her face. That was not the face of a woman in pain.
Now he was worried. He shifted into his human as well.
“What the hell are you doing?” Lila spun around completely, advancing on him as if he were an enemy.
“A thank you would be a more appropriate response,” he growled.
“You-you-you fool!” She made fists and clenched them by her sides. Enraged, she flung herself at him, her fists flying, adrenaline clearly still racing throughout her body.
“You can’t be serious. What the hell is wrong with you?” Cy grabbed her arms, holding her wrists. He pulled her hands down, kept them in front of her, at the same time pulling her close until their bodies almost touched. “Why didn’t you fight them like you’re fighting me?”
She yanked on her hands to pull them away, but his grip was like a vise. “I wanted them to catch me, goddammit. I wanted them to take me captive, so I can see if your sister is with them.”
He paused, shaken. What if I lose her? The only woman he’d ever had a reaction to? The only woman he and his tiger had ever wanted? “I won’t allow that.”
“You can’t stop me.” Her voice was a vehement hiss. “I’m tired of males trying to tell me what the hell I can do.”
This woman was divinely sexy. His tiger roared for her tigress. Their being so close together, their bodies almost touching, was too much for his tiger.
He lowered his head, his breathing rapid, his pulse pounding in his veins, his desire a primal beat that demanded to claim its mate.
With every breath he took, he sucked in her breath, merging his and hers as one, her essence deep in his lungs, flowing through his body.
She wet her lips, her pink tongue darting from one corner of her delicious mouth to the other. The sight made his cock strain and his tiger roar, and his hands gripped her tighter.
She winced. He released her a bit, not letting her go, being careful not to hurt her.
He looked into those emerald eyes with a fire behind them. Her lips parted slowly, as if in anticipation. Her breath stopped coming out, like she was holding it.
His chest clenched, and he lowered his head even more, pushing her backward with his body until he was pressing her into a crate, holding her prisoner against his torso.
He knew he should take it slow, but slow was the last thing he had in mind—unless it was slowly driving his cock into her while she flexed around his shaft.
Everything faded around him. The lust and need he had for her put them in a spotlight, just him, just her. Nothing else mattered. Wrapping his other hand around her neck, he pulled her close until her nipples pressed against his body, insistent beads begging for attention.
His lips sealed hers, claiming her, branding her, needing her. His demanding tongue separated the seam of her lips, plundering her mouth the way he wanted to plunder every part of her body. The way he wanted to have his cock, his fingers, his tongue, every part of him, in every part of her.
Chapter Fifteen
Lila’s body betrayed her. Hell, her body, her mind, and her tigress betrayed her. She let out a low moan when Cy’s tongue entered her mouth, surrendering her tongue to his, becoming one with him in one of the most simple ways—and yet it made an impact on her as surely as if he’d had his brand of ownership tattooed on every part of her.
She’d never felt this before. Strong hands surrounded her, holding her, keeping her safe.
Her tongue met his in a tango of passion, dancing, sparring, making promises, assurances, and raising the temperature in her body. A flush took over, one that swarmed through her.
She pulled back, confused by the overwhelming surge of emotions. “Let me go. I—”
He cut off her words with a hard kiss, demanding more from her, taking nothing less than her complete surrender. Her head felt like a million bees filled it, buzzing around in a frenzy.
“I will never let you go.”
Had any other man said that to Lila, she’d have shifted and gone for his throat. There was something about Cy. Knowing he could control her, the uncontrollable one, the one who never gave herself fully to a man—that was exactly what her tigress had been gravitating toward.
His tongue flicked at her lower lip. “Understood?” His hand tightened around hers. His other hand dropped to her lower back and pressed her against his hardness.
She sucked in a breath, her moisture building up and dropping quickly.
She could smell his desire, and she could see he could smell hers. His dark-brown tiger’s eyes flared, glowing, ready to mate.
Still, the independent part of her wanted to balk. She narrowed her eyes at him. She touched the tip of her tongue to his lips and traced the outline of their perfectly sculpted fullness.
“I’m not some meek—”
He swooped down, and his tongue entered her mouth, sealing her words, leaving them unspoken. He forged in, dominating her tongue, tempting her with his sexiness.
He pulled back. “I know exactly what you are. Fierce, passionate, loyal. I want every part of you. I want to be in every part of you. Forever.”
A jolt ran through her body. It started somewhere in her forehead and ran straight to her sex, traveled down to her toes, then back up to her breasts.
Goddammit. She had no control over that, and—rawr—she hated it! She jerked her hands free and shoved his chest, pushing him away. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I’ve just found you. I won’t lose you. Unless you want me gone.”
No. No! And yet she couldn’t tell him that. Why was she so screwed up?
“Let’s find your sister.”
“Deny all you want. You won’t belong to another.”
Chapter Sixteen
Way to go. Cy cursed himself. He had no control when it came to her. A little bit of adrenaline from a fight and a little bit—okay, a lot—of desire for her, and he was gone. Off the deep end. If he didn’t have to find Petra, he’d have bent her over that crate and taken her right then. He had no control with her.
Damn, her lips had tasted amazing and the scent rising from between her legs hadn’t helped matters, throwing him even deeper into the abyss of desire.
“So, you say I screwed up your plan. What was it? Can we put it back together?”
“I overheard them. They say they have a tiger, and that she’s fighting in three days. At first, they didn’t want me. Then they did because they said, after three days, they wouldn’t have a tiger.” Her expression saddened. “I’m sorry. I can only think it’s your sister they’re talking about.”
“On the bright side, they won’t hurt her for three days. On the dark side of it, we only have three days to get her back. They laughed because they said Dallas girls must be weak, since I didn’t seem to be much of a fighter and Petra was easy to take.”
“You? Not a fighter?”
She looked down, like she wasn’t sure if she should be proud of herself or not. “I held back so they could catch me.” She frowned at him. “Until you had to come in and screw up my plan by rescuing me.”
“Sorry.” He tried to look like he was sorry, but he wasn’t sure if he should be or not. She could have been killed. “You really don’t know for sure if they’d have taken you or killed you.”
“I do. Maybe at first, they thought of killing me, but I think they look at things in terms of money, and I was money. Now we have to figure out a way to run into them again.” She waggled a finger at him. “And you have to stay out of the way while I get caught.”
“Like I said, I won’t lose you. I can’t. It’s this thing. This connection I have with you. My tiger knew the first time he heard your heartbeat.”
“My tigress knew, too. It took
me a little longer.” There was a twinkle in her eyes.
“Liar.” He smiled, enjoying this side of her.
“I do want to get to know you better,” she admitted, her voice low, as if she didn’t believe she was saying it. “Let’s save your sister then we’ll see. Deal?”
He looked at her. Something about this woman pulled at him, and it was more than their tigers.
“Deal.” As if he had a choice. He wasn’t letting her go, not for any reason. Then Gavin flashed through his mind. He hoped for Gavin’s sake their relationship was a part of the past.
Chapter Seventeen
Lila looked at him. Why did it feel like she’d known him all her life? Was this their tigers? Was their pull strong enough? She’d never felt anything like this before.
It was time to tell him her idea. Would he be like most men she’d known, or would he listen? “I think I have a plan.”
He retrieved her shoes, picked her up around the waist, and set her on a tall crate. Taking one shoe, he wrapped his large hands around her foot and fitted the heel on her.
“I’m listening.” He glanced up at her.
She couldn’t look away from his lips, perfect and full. They offset his predator eyes, making her want to feel those lips on hers again.
He put the other shoe on her foot. Lila was so mesmerized by this act, the sensuousness with which he held her foot, the way he let his thumb glide over her arch, caressing her skin, it almost made her forget what she meant to say.
“What’s the plan?” He helped her off the crate.
“I’ll get us some block from my brother’s place. He’s got enough for an army. Then I’ll meet you in The Woodlands, down by the waterway and the pavilion.”
“I don’t like the idea of you going anywhere on your own.”
“Yeah? Well, how did you get away from Gavin, and what’s the likelihood he’ll let you go if he sees you again?”
“Damn. You have a point.” He told her about how he’d slipped away from Gavin and his men.