He couldn’t look at her. Didn’t want to see pity or disgust or any of the vile things he already felt about himself mirrored in her eyes.
“The first time I saw him,” he told Raphael, “he looked to be a ninety-year-old human. The second time, a male in his sixties. Every time after that, even younger.” Cold dread scratched like fingernails up his spine as he recalled his time in that prison. “I was, of course, strapped down. The human male lay on a bed a few feet away. For hours, they took my blood and put it in his body. Afterward, I was weak as a newborn cub. He appeared in perfect health. Even thanked me.” A snarl rippled through the room. “I wanted to rip his skin from his body.”
“That piece of shit,” Taylor whispered, vitriol lacing her tone. She didn’t pity him at all. She was pissed.
Raphael’s expression was measured, but his eyes flared with the heat of revenge. “So, they believe our blood is the fucking fountain of youth, do they?”
“Why the pregnancies?” Taylor blurted out. “Why do they want to create Pantera children?”
“I don’t know,” Séverin answered, his gaze moving to the window to his right. “They never told me.” He felt his jaw go painfully tight. “Just forced the semen from my body and left.”
The room went silent. And for several moments, only the sound of breathing could be heard. Then Raphael leaned back in his chair and cursed.
“I imagine,” he began acidly. “Like any great, profitable discovery, more must be created. More blood, longer lives to sell to the highest bidders. Black market Pantera blood.” Raphael looked at Séverin. “You escaped.”
He nodded, but inside he wasn’t sure that was really true. It was all still there. Attached to his male’s mind.
“Did you ever see anyone else while you were there?” Raphael asked him. “Any other Pantera?”
Pain licked at his insides. “A female. She was taken from me. To another clinic, or maybe she was killed. I will never know.”
“What was her name?”
“We didn’t have names,” he ground out. “Male subject. Female subject.”
Raphael sat forward. “Do you remember what she looked like?”
He would always remember. “She was beautiful. Dark hair, green eyes, kind, strong.” His gaze went to Taylor, who looked utterly bereft.
“She was your mate?” Raphael asked gently.
“She was my friend. They wanted us to… But no. We were friends. We kept each other sane.” An unnatural heat started to expand within him. “I need to shift. I can’t…”
“Go,” Taylor said. “It’s okay. Raphael can bring me—”
“No. I will be outside. Waiting. When you are ready.”
Pain lancing through his body and mind, he left the room, stalked down the hall and was a puma the second he passed over the threshold of the front door.
CHAPTER 6
The ride home was a quiet one. As her hair whipped about her face and she wrapped her arms more tightly around Séverin’s neck, Taylor thought how normal this could seem in the world outside the Wildlands. Just switch out the cat for a car. Driving home from a dinner party where…shit happened. Both parties deep in thought, and not ready to talk. Not just yet. Not until they got home and could breathe the familiar air again.
The night was comfortably cool, a full, bright moon following them as they raced through the brush and trees. Taylor’s stomach ached slightly, not from the food, but from what she’d heard in Raphael’s office. What Séverin had revealed. She’d come here looking for a place to hide, and been taken in, cared for, protected, by someone who had only known suffering at the hands of humans.
Séverin was the very antithesis of Edgar. He could be the most brutal creature imaginable, and yet he chose not to be. With her—to her—he was gentle and kind and generous. He’d shared things about himself and his past. He’d been vulnerable.
Could she say the same?
She slipped off his back in front of the treehouse and went inside. She was tired. Both mentally and physically. And the idea of curling up with the warm, solid puma, falling into a deep sleep, sounded wonderful. But Séverin hadn’t followed her into the tree. She could see him outside, pacing back and forth.
She went to the doorway. “Are you okay?”
He looked at her as he moved, those silver eyes shockingly bright in the full moon’s light. A strange sound exited his throat. It was like a strangled cry. Taylor wasn’t at all sure what was wrong. The dinner? The others seeing his male form? The conversation with Raphael? It wasn’t until she saw the stress in his expression that she realized he was trying to shift. Trying and failing. Or trying and not really wanting to let go of that protective outer layer.
“Don’t,” she said, leaving the doorway. “You don’t have to.”
Still pacing, he snarled. Not at her, but at himself.
“Séverin?”
He kept his eyes to the ground.
Fine. I’ll meet you there.
Taylor moved directly in his path and sat down. The hard earth was cold and unforgiving. Not unlike the puma’s spirit. “I want to talk to you. Ask you something. Please.”
A few feet away, he slowed, his shoulders falling.
“Did it feel good today?” she asked him softly. “To touch me? Kiss me?”
For one moment, he stared unblinking at her. Then, like a freshly painted canvas in the rain, the stress bled from his features. He padded over to her and put his muzzle in her hands.
Tears pricked Taylor’s eyes. “To me, too,” she whispered. “But it was also terrifying.”
His head lifted and his tired eyes locked with hers.
“I let someone take my body before and they abused it,” she explained. “I gave that same person my heart, and he crushed it. And trust?” She laughed without humor. “He shattered it.”
The puma made a sad, mewling sound.
“I was scared when you were kissing me because I felt my body and my heart, and maybe the soul I thought was dead and buried, reaching out to you. This stranger. And yet, not so much a stranger really.” She reached up and stroked his soft head. “I think that might be why the male part of you is growing stronger. Braver. Because it’s reaching out for me too.”
To watch the shift from beast to male so closely took Taylor’s breath away. Or maybe that was just Séverin. He was so startling, so beautiful. Even more so when he stood up, displaying a body that was a true work of art.
He offered her his hand, and when she placed hers in his, he lifted her up and carried her inside the treehouse. It was no five-star hotel, and there was no king-sized bed with Egyptian cotton sheets. But the den was scented with fresh cypress and soft, sun-warmed blankets. And the view…oh, the view. Moonlight on dewy green.
With the gentlest hands, Séverin removed her clothes. And as he did, his gaze took in every inch of skin that was revealed to him.
“You are so beautiful, Taylor,” he said. “And yet…”
Her heart stuttered. “What?”
His eyes locked with hers. “I can’t have you look at me. When you touch me. I…every time they took a sample—”
“Hey.” She took his face in her hands. “It’s okay.”
His nostrils flared. “I want you like I’ve wanted nothing else. But my mind won’t… I may shift back if…”
She kissed him. To shut him up. To allay his fears. And to show him how much she wanted him too.
His hands drove up her naked back and into her hair. He fisted the thick tresses and kissed her with utter abandon and barely restrained hunger. Taylor felt dizzy as she pulled away.
“Taylor…my beautiful, wonderful Taylor.”
“Séverin. I want you, too.” She turned away from him then and went over to her blankets, got down on all fours. Then she looked back at him. “Can’t you see how much? Take me. I’m yours.”
For one brief second, she saw the puma flash behind his eyes. But it was gone in a flash, a flicker, a blink. And before she could take anothe
r breath, he was behind her. Oh, she groaned. Just the feel of his skin, all that hard muscle, pressed against her. And that cock. That thick and very impressive muscle she wanted inside her. So deep inside her.
His head was near her shoulder. His mouth at her ear. “The need to bite you, hold you still, hold you in place while I fuck you,” he growled. “Is so strong.”
Shards of heat battered her insides, making her sex clench. “Do it,” she urged.
He laughed softly, his breath tickling her face. “Not yet. But I will be gentle if I do. I won’t break the skin. I promise.”
Taylor wanted to scream at him that she didn’t care—that she wanted his teeth inside her just as she wanted his cock inside her. But Séverin was doing things to her, raking his fingers down her back as he kissed the length of her spine. She moaned and arched her back. Why couldn’t he just take her? Fill her? Why did he have to tease and torment—
Her words were cut off, or maybe her mind just shut down, because when he reached her backside, he started nipping at the flesh. First one cheek, then the next.
Hot curls of awareness moved through her, and she felt moisture leak from her sex. It seemed Séverin knew it too as he inhaled deeply and groaned.
“Cream,” he growled. “Mine.”
It was all he said before he spread her wide and licked her from clit to pussy. She inhaled sharply and her fingers dug into the blankets. He was masterful, a hungry cat, and she couldn’t stop the image of his puma entering her mind. He lapped at the entrance to her sex, even drove his tongue up inside her with a snarl of possession.
Yes, I belong to you.
To Séverin and to the puma.
Taylor arched her back and groaned as found her clit and licked it furiously. Hot, hard swipes. Back and forth until she was about to explode. And then he covered her with his mouth, and started to suckle. Heat and unquenchable desire roared through her. It’s not enough. It’s perfect. More. Harder. Inside. Come in me.
Come.
On a cry, she broke apart. And as Séverin continued to suckle her pulsing clit, Taylor bucked her hips. Back and forth. Riding it out as long as she could. It had been so long…so long since she’d felt the thrill of climax run though her body, but those moments in time were nothing to this. This was Séverin.
Could he be hers?
Before her body had a chance to cool or calm, his arm slipped around her waist, and his hand cupped her breast. Sucking air through his teeth, he squeezed the tender flesh and rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefinger. Taylor groaned with desire.
“Mine,” he uttered, his teeth grazing the skin of her shoulder as his cock found her entrance—hard, thick, pushing, pushing until he thrust inside.
Taylor stilled, gasping for air as her body grew accustomed to him. So deep. So big. Wet heat surrounded his cock and she started to rotate her hips. She wanted to feel him everywhere. Wanted him to grab her hips and fuck her hard. Fuck her until—
Suddenly he was no longer there. She was empty. Cold.
“Séverin?” she panted. Oh, god, had he shifted? Was he a puma?
Would she ask him to stop if he was?
The stray, insane thought dashed through her mind and was out in a flash when Séverin flipped her onto her back and opened her legs as wide as they would allow.
She stared up at him, breathless.
“I need to see you,” he said, his expression a mask of desire and longing.
“But I thought…”
“No. Not with you.” He shook his head. “This is right,” he growled. “You and me. Male and female. Eyes locked, mouths playing, nipples brushing my chest. This is how we are meant to be, Taylor.”
Such overwhelming feelings ran through her. “Yes,” she cried out. God, yes.
Pushing her knees back to her chest, Séverin drove up inside of her, so deep it took her breath away and left a body that desired no other—and a heart that belonged to the one who had only to claim it.
***
Hot.
Wet.
Tight.
Squeezing his cock.
I am male.
I want to be male for you. With you. Inside you.
As his eyes locked with hers, Séverin moved inside Taylor’s body in a rhythm so perfect he wanted to weep. The humans he’d known in his long life had taken so much from him. And yet this one—this beautiful human with her open and understanding heart—had given it all back times a thousand. He couldn’t let her go. Wouldn’t.
No, he thought darkly, rolling his hips, giving her what she was crying out for. He wouldn’t take from her, demand anything from her. That was what she’d come from. He would offer…
Oh, but fuck. What did he have to offer? A hole in a tree—
“Séverin.” Her legs were around his waist and her hands were on either side of his face. Her eyes implored him. “Kiss me. Make love to me. Fuck me. Come with me, and stop thinking.”
How had this creature wandered into his life? His sorry life?
Stop. Thinking.
Take.
Give.
Fuck.
Come.
His mouth closed over hers, and he drove his tongue deep. Taylor groaned with approval and sucked on the welcome invader as her sex squeezed around him. Come leaked from the head of Séverin’s cock, and he knew it wouldn’t be long. He slipped his hands beneath her glorious ass and lifted her. As he kissed her, taking every moan, every sigh, he thrust deep. Over and over. Grinding his hips, trying to hold on as she came, bathing his cock with the cream he still tasted on his tongue.
Her hands plunged into his hair, and as they kissed, biting and sucking and showing their hunger, she pulled the too-long strands. It was the quick and hot pain that sent him over the edge. He rode her hard and deep, then drove up inside her and bathed her womb in his seed.
“Taylor,” he groaned, burying his head in her neck. “You don’t know…you can’t know…”
“Tell me,” she said, her voice so soothing it made his throat tight with emotion.
“It was the first time.” Fuck. Just say it. Tell her. “I’ve given my seed freely.”
For a moment, everything got quiet. Even Taylor. Then she released a weighty breath and wrapped her body around him so tightly, he could hardly move.
“Mine,” she said. “All mine.”
Séverin didn’t know if she was talking about his seed or him, but it didn’t matter. He rolled them to his back, then when she loosened her hold, he pulled her close again, grinned when she draped a leg over his thigh and still-hard cock. And as she snuggled into him and drifted off to sleep, he allowed himself the same pleasure.
Not as a puma. But as a male.
Taylor’s male.
CHAPTER 7
The dream Taylor was having was so delicious, so perfect, she never wanted it to end. She was in Séverin’s arms and he was carrying her into a house…or was it a tree? A tree inside a house. But they lived there together beside the spot at the shore of the bayou where they’d had their picnic. Taylor hadn’t seen the house before. She believed it was a surprise by the look on Séverin’s face. So proud, so happy. Content for the first time in his life.
It was only when that smile faded, when he shifted abruptly into a snarling, pissed-off puma, that she realized her dream was over. No. It had never existed. Happy endings weren’t in her future. Because the Wildlands wasn’t far enough or magical enough to keep fate away.
She woke to the barrel of a gun pressed to her temple. A Glock 19, to be exact. She knew because she’d felt it before. Several times before. Not on her temple—that was new. But other parts of her body.
“Wake up, you stupid bitch,” Edgar whispered in her ear.
Taylor’s eyes opened, and at first she felt no panic. Edgar’s threats. His ugly, demeaning language. It was almost a normal state of being for her. Or had been before she’d come here and met—
Oh shit. She sat up, saw Frankie, one of the assholes who worked with E
dgar, holding a gun to Séverin’s head. He was in his male form and naked. He sat with his back against the wall, calm as death and looking straight ahead.
“Séverin,” she breathed.
“Shut up!” Edgar spat. He was wearing his customary black jeans and gray sweater. Upscale prick, she’d called it. Not to his face. Never to his face.
“One more word from you, whore of mine,” he said. “And I’ll have Frankie take the kitty cat out.”
“You sure you wanna do that, boss?” Frankie asked. “Mr. Locke would want him alive, wouldn’t he?”
Edgar glared at the man. “Did I tell you to speak?”
The man gulped and shook his head.
“But you have a point…” He cocked his head and regarded Séverin. “He’ll fetch a very nice price. Take him outside. I’ll be right behind you. We want to cross the border before dawn.”
“Get up,” Frankie commanded, poking Séverin in the ribs with the barrel of his gun.
Séverin! she screamed silently. Why wasn’t he looking at her? Did he blame her? He should. She’d brought Edgar here.
“Don’t take your eyes off him,” Edgar added as Frankie led Séverin outside the treehouse. “And if he shifts, shoot him. We have the other Pantera male now. It’d be nice to have a spare. But not necessary.”
What other Pantera? Utter terror rippled through Taylor. She had to get to Séverin. Find a way…
“Just take me,” Taylor begged as her piece-of-shit ex forced her to stand. “Please, Edgar. You know that’s what you came for.”
He grabbed the pink robe Ashe had given her off the floor and threw it in her face. She nearly ripped through a sleeve in her rush to put it on.
“Yes, I did, my sweet, foolish Taylor. I came to rescue you. From a group of disgusting creatures who had obviously abducted you.” He reached out and ran his thumb down her cheek. She felt bile rise in her throat. “But look what I found. You fucked an animal.”
He’d meant to bruise her with that comment. Unfortunately for him, it only made her smile.
Edgar’s eyes filled with hate. “You like him. You wanted to be fucked by him.” He grabbed her by the wrist and hauled her outside, pushed her to the ground.
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