by Terra Wolf
“I was fulfilling my duty. I didn’t have a choice.” I gritted me teeth.
She laughed. “Jaguar duty. Tribe duty. The duty of the prince declared by his royal highness Case.” Her lips were inches from mine, but I wasn’t expecting a kiss; she could bite me with that look in her eye. “Your duty broke my heart.” She shoved me backward.
She spun on her heel and walked down the hall.
“Where are you going?”
“To shower. To wash the forest off of me. To wash any trace of your touch down the drain. I want to forget the lies. I want to forget your wasted words. Because that’s all they are—a waste of breath and air.”
“Francesca, wait!” I hollered, but the door slammed in my face.
I had fucked up. And I had no idea how I was going to fix this.
28
Francesca
The run had helped until I saw Drew again. Being close to him reminded me what his body did to me. How it charged every cell. How it brought every nerve ending to exquisite pleasure. But I fought the impulse to touch him. I fought the draw to him. I pushed past the burst of lightning our energy created.
I was a stronger panther than he could even imagine.
I showered and got dressed. My first exam was at eight. I could make it to campus a few minutes early.
I grabbed my backpack and marched past my mate.
“Where are you going now?” He jumped to his feet.
“Exams.” I slammed the front door behind him, not giving him a chance to ask another question.
I clutched the wheel as I drove to campus. If I wasn’t careful, I might rip it from the dash. I’d never felt this kind of fury or betrayal.
But I had no one to blame but myself. Who marries a man they meet in forty-eight hours? A man who admitted he was sent to bond with me. I groaned. I gave in to the sexy eyes and biceps. I gave in to his lies and kisses. It was my fault.
Drew was right. He was only doing what he had been trained his entire life to do. I was the one who did the opposite. I knew better than to trust. My entire life I had been trained that trust only ended in pain. I went against my instincts and got burned.
“Hey, how’s newlywed life?” Alexa greeted me with a chipper smile at the top of the stairs.
“Don’t ask,” I warned.
“Uh, the wedding was beautiful. The groom hot as hell, and his friends were basically walking GQ models. He is totally smitten with you. Don’t tell me you got cold feet. I don’t even think you qualify for an annulment.”
“I don’t want to talk about it. We have an exam. A three-hour exam,” I reminded her.
The idea of being stuck in this building was a relief. For three hours, Drew couldn’t bother me with shifter lies. There would be cool air around me. Air that didn’t burn with his warmth.
“Well, I’m here if you need me,” she offered. “Really, anything you want to talk about. I’m here, Francesca.”
“Thanks.” I tried a smile. It felt weird given the circumstances.
We took our seats in the classroom and waited for the questions to appear on the whiteboard. For three hours, I’d block out all thoughts of Drew. All our conversations. Our vows. Our bonding. A future that was never going to happen.
I walked through the door and slung my backpack on the floor. I practiced what I was going to say to him on the drive home. There was only one solution to this mess. He had to leave. We could get a shifter divorce or whatever magical unbinding was needed to untangle ourselves from each other. The other she-panthers on the list would be expecting him. They would know their responsibilities. I tried to repress my jealousy, realizing they were probably waiting for their prince to ride up and take them.
“How was the exam?”
“Why are you still here, Drew?”
“I told you. I’m not leaving.”
“Even if I want you to?” I walked past him and pulled one of the last beers from the fridge.
“Even if you want me to.” He eyed me. “Nothing could make me leave you. Nothing.”
I huffed. “Not even wife number two?”
“Stop saying things like that.” His voice was firm.
“I don’t even have the energy to fight with you. My brain is fried.”
“Then don’t. Stop fighting. Believe me. Give me a chance to earn your trust again.”
There they were. The lines he was so good at saying. The words I wanted to hear.
“I can’t do this again. I should have never stopped on the side of the road. It was the worst mistake of my life.”
“But you did.” He leaned down in front of me. And the air sparked. I could almost see it. I held my breath, hoping it would go away. I tried to push it out from the space between us, but it was there, pulling me toward him. It was like wisps of heat lightning flashing between us.
“You did stop, Francesca. And you said yes. Over and over again. Every time I asked, you said yes.”
I closed my eyes. I knew what he was talking about. I asked to be claimed. I asked to be his mate. I wanted to marry him.
“Because I didn’t know there was a lineup. You have an entire bench of wives. I said yes to a life based on a lie.”
“Listen to me. I tore up the list.”
I laughed. “You tore it up, so it isn’t so?”
“It’s a start. I don’t have their names. And they don’t know who I am. No one is going to come looking for me. You did something to me. You turned this entire journey on its head. You turned me inside out. You’re all I want. This is it. You and me. No list. No more wives. You’re all the she-panther I can handle, darlin’.”
“Damn it. Why do you say those things?”
“Because I mean them. Because I want you to believe me.”
“I want to believe you. But that would require trust. And trust is not something I’m giving out right now. You broke it just when I started trying it again.”
Drew looked frustrated. “Then don’t. Don’t trust me. I can take that. I deserve it.”
“What?”
“Pretend I’m that guy on the side of the road. The one you know nothing about. The one you don’t know if you should let in your car, but something in your gut says you should. Pretend it’s the second night I’m here and you can’t keep your hands off me. Pretend that we need each other like we need air. You don’t have to trust me, to want me. I can trust enough for both of us.”
I didn’t know what to say. “Drew…”
His lips brushed over mine tenderly at first, but his hands fisted through my hair and he pulled me into his arms, picking me up.
“I didn’t say…”
“Don’t say,” he whispered. “Pretend.”
His mouth devoured me as if I had stirred an unleashed hunger in him. He walked down the hall to my room, kicking the door open with the heel of his boot. He dropped me on the bed, discarding his clothes as he pounced on top of me.
He began unbuttoning my shirt, quickly shoving it off my shoulders. The air was filled with lust. The primal need of my panther was awakened as Drew took control.
“Pretend, Francesca.” He kissed my collarbone, dropping kisses behind my ear and along my throat. His fingers threaded through mine as he dipped to kiss the tops of my breasts.
I clutched at his hands. “I don’t have to pretend.” I stared in his eyes.
Something in that moment broke free between us. We clung to each other, kissing and licking. Biting and sucking, as our bodies slid with electric friction. His tongue ran between my breasts, down between my legs. I bucked as I felt him settle there. He lashed out, flicking against my bud. I felt the vibration of his growl against my thighs.
“Fuck,” he moaned. He knew I was peaking quicker than before. The need for him was unbearable. I rocked wildly, desperate for more of him.
“You, I want you.” I locked on to his eyes as they glowed and glimmered for me.
I felt the sweet relief as he slid inside me, filling me completely. “Oh, God.” I clawed at
his back while he pumped in and out of me.
“I’ll never leave,” he whispered in my ear.
The orgasm crashed down around us both. My teeth nipped at his shoulder as the howl burst from his throat. He pushed deep inside me, and I raised my hips to meet his powerful thrust. This was heaven. Our union. Our bond.
He collapsed on top of me, kissing the side of my neck. “I swear, Francesca.”
“Shh.” I pressed my lips to his mouth. “Kiss me. Love me again.”
“I can’t say no.”
“Do you want to?” I laughed. All the anger and betrayal had melted the instant he swept me into this bed.
“Just as long as you know who the alpha is around here.” He poked me in the side between my ribs.
My eyebrows rose. “Is that how this marriage works?”
“You tell me.” He kissed my stomach and then my cheek.
“I’m scared to blindly follow you,” I whispered.
“I’m scared to let you out of my arms.”
“Then don’t.” I wrapped my legs around his waist dragging him toward me. He groaned instantly.
“You know what you do to me?”
I smiled wickedly. “Everything.”
He smiled. “This is everything.”
I looked into my mate’s eyes. I believed him. He may have driven into town with a reason to find me and move on, but I had given him a reason to stay. We would face whatever challenges came from Drew’s defiance. It couldn’t be that easy to disobey generations of jaguar law. But we would figure it out together.
“Where are we going on our honeymoon?” I asked. I was ready to get out of town and start our new chapter together.
“Doesn’t someone have a birthday tomorrow?” He began kissing me again, and my skin tingled with new fire. I didn’t think I’d ever get tired of the heat between us.
“I might.” I rolled my eyes toward the ceiling.
“Then I think the birthday bride gets to decide. Tropical? Europe? Somewhere cooler?”
“No, no snow.” Hopefully the other night was my last encounter with ice for the year.
His fingers circled my navel. “Islands?”
“I could do islands. Do you think we’ll be too hot?” I laughed. We were instantly hot the second we touched each other.
“I don’t plan on shifting on a tropical island, so I think we’ll be all right.” He winked. “We keep the fur out of the trip.”
“Right.” His hand was dipping lower and I was having a hard time concentrating on honeymoon destinations. “When do we leave?”
“On your birthday, of course.”
“Oh God.” I arched my back as he curled a finger inside me. His head lowered to my breast.
“And this is all we’re going to do.” He took a breath to kiss my lips.
“All?” I raised my eyebrows.
“Well, we have a few things we haven’t tried.” He sounded rather serious.
“Ohh,” I moaned as he flipped me on my stomach.
I felt the warmth of his kisses on my back. He squeezed my ass roughly as he nudged my legs apart. I clasped the sheets around me.
“Mine, Francesca. Always mine.”
I nodded. “Only yours. And the only one,” I added.
His teeth clamped on my shoulder. “The only one.”
That night, Drew and I united in a way we didn’t even realize. Our vow to each other bonded us for life, but also against the laws of the Maddox line. We rebelled against the council. We gave each other our souls, not knowing there might be a cost to pay.
As I loved my husband and my mate, I didn’t care if anyone tried to come after us. I knew we were stronger together and we could handle danger. We could handle anything life threw at us. I held Drew in my arms as he slept, and knew for the first time I had family. I had love. And I had something worth fighting for.
Sacrifice
1
Josh
I drove and I drove. I drove until my eyes burned and my knuckles were numb from gripping the steering wheel. I drove until the lines in the center of the road blurred. I had one focus. One need.
To get to her.
I didn’t care how long it took, or what winding Georgia back roads I had to take to reach her. The instant I saw her name written on that list, the need kicked in. The primal instinct to hunt my mate rose to the surface.
My jaguar felt hungry. I didn’t know what it would mean when the list landed in my hand, but my entire life changed the moment the paper touched my skin. It was a borderline obsession, but I knew I couldn’t stop until I found her.
I wanted to look in her green she-panther eyes and whisper the words, “you’re mine.” I wanted to surprise her. Race into town and whip her up into my arms with a promise we were both bound to fulfill.
I fidgeted with the radio, trying to find something without static. My Jeep had been patched together so many times I was lucky it was still running.
There was a supercharged amount of adrenaline pumping through my veins. The more miles I put under this rusty piece of shit, the more I could feel it. I was getting closer. She was drawing me toward her without even knowing it.
My best friend grew up under the royal shifter line. Things were different for Drew. He was a prince. His brother was the damn king of the jaguar Tribe. When Case, the king, handed out the orders that it was time to begin collecting the territories owed to us by our mates, Drew and I slapped each other on the back.
We took our lists, hopped in our cars, and drove in different directions. But we felt like we were in this together. There was a sense of camaraderie that our journeys started at the same time.
My quest took me farther south. By the time the Tribe finished, we would rule the entire southeast of the country. For Case, his reach was expanding quickly. But that was only true if his soldiers fulfilled their shifter obligations.
That was how I felt. Like one of the soldiers. One of the chosen ones, hand-picked to serve the king. Serve the greater purpose of my family’s shifter line. I would bring pride to my family. The land I possessed would honor my parents. This is what I had been raised to do.
Hunting my mate was all I could think about. Tessa Cunningham had no idea I was headed in her direction, and I liked it that way.
2
Tessa
I closed the hood of the Cadillac, giving it an extra tap, and wiped my hands on a rag I kept tucked in my back pocket. I smiled at Mr. Handon.
“I think you’re all set. It was only the battery.”
“Tessa, I can’t thank you enough. I’m embarrassed to say I know nothing about cars.”
I grinned. “It’s okay. It’s all taken care of. I’ll write up the bill and you can pay me. Give me a few minutes.”
I walked into my office in the back corner of the garage. It was the cleanest part of the whole place. I pulled out my invoice binder and began to fill in the details of the battery replacement. I was in the middle of converting my accounting system and had to keep hand-written receipts for another week.
“Here you go.” I handed the older gentleman the pink slip of carbon paper while he counted out a few bills from his wallet.
“Thanks again, Tessa.”
“No problem.” I waved as he backed out of the garage and onto the highway.
It was close to five. My shoulders were sore from hunching over the cars all day. I could soak in a hot bubble bath with a glass of wine.
I thought about all of the things I could do in my apartment over the garage. I had loads of shows on my DVR to watch. I could cook. I could read. But the thought of my claw-footed tub was calling. It sounded like heaven.
It took a few minutes to power down my computer and straighten the items in my office. I was probably the only garage in Four Corners that always had fresh flowers in the window. Let’s face it. This was the only garage run by a girl in the entire state of Georgia.
And I wasn’t just any girl. I had power and strength. Grace and quickness. I had a set
of skills the people in town would freak out about. I turned off the lights and took my she-panther butt up the stairs until I heard a vehicle pull up outside the closed commercial door.
I groaned. Of course someone would show up at the last second. Right when hot water and my new bath salts were so close. But I jogged back down the stairs. I didn’t want to turn away someone who needed help. I’d been in that position before and it was terrible. No one liked feeling helpless.
I whipped open the door and my eyes locked on him. The brilliant green. The shimmer was just like mine. I swallowed hard. I might not have known his name, but I knew exactly who he was. He had come for me.
I glared at him. “I was wondering when you were going to show up.”
He grinned. “Sweetheart, you don’t know how happy it makes me to hear you’ve been waiting for me.”
“Dreading is more like it.” I stood with my hands on my hips. I wasn’t anxious to let him inside my shop.
“Aww, now don’t say that.” He leaned his palm against the doorframe. “I’ve driven a long way to meet you.”
“You could keep driving.” I eyed the Jeep he had parked by the door. It was clearly on its last leg. He probably wouldn’t make it out of town.
He chuckled. “Tessa, we both know I can’t do that.” He traced the embroidered thread that spelled my name on the denim shirt I was wearing.
I hated that I could feel the heat from his fingertips. It was almost as if he was twisting a knife in my heart. Reminding me with each sweep of his finger that everything I had was about to go up in smoke. Why did I open the door?
“Are you going to tell me your name at least?” I prodded.
“Josh. It’s Josh Bauer.”
“Hmm.” I didn’t move from the entrance.
“Aren’t you going to let me in? We could have dinner? Talk? Get to know each other a little better.”