Savage Kiss
Page 1
Table of Contents
Epilogue
Savage Kiss
Untitled
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
About the Author
Also by Milly Taiden
Savage Kiss
Savage Shifters
Milly Taiden
Latin Goddess Press
Contents
Savage Kiss
Untitled
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
About the Author
Also by Milly Taiden
Also by Milly Taiden
Also by Milly Taiden
Also by Milly Taiden
Also by Milly Taiden
Also by Milly Taiden
Also by Milly Taiden
Also by Milly Taiden
Savage Kiss
Savage Shifters
NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR
MILLY TAIDEN
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Sage Primrose dreams of the day she meets the man who will sweep her off her feet. She didn't expect him to abduct her while she wore nothing but a towel. Why did bad men have to look oh, so good?
Feral Kincaid will do anything to protect his family. When a human female supposedly kidnaps his niece, he goes to get her, claws blazing. But the abductor turns into the abductee and suddenly he has to figure out how to apologize to the one woman he needs to forgive him: his mate.
This tiger isn't used to romance in his life; he's too busy protecting his pride from a rival determined to take his land. But Feral would gladly take on bad guys instead of trying to figure out how to romance a human female. Sage needs to watch out. Feral is hellbent on romance and his target was her.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Published By
Latin Goddess Press
Winter Springs, FL 32708
http://millytaiden.com
Savage Kiss
Copyright © 2017 by Milly Taiden
Edited by: Tina Winograd
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Property of Milly Taiden
October 2017
Created with Vellum
—For my friends,
Thank you for always being such amazing people. Even if we don’t talk often, when we do, time disappears and it’s like we’ve always been together. Distance doesn’t matter when the friendship is true.
I love you.
1
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Sage Primrose counted to ten and then back down. She wasn’t the type of person to be confrontational, but this guy was really making it hard for her to keep her cool. Swatting another bug with a growl, she gave a slow exhale and glanced at Corbin. How she had allowed him to talk her into a nature hike in a city, she didn’t know.
“So,” she took a sip of water and tried to rein in her anger. “Do you know how much farther to this amazing waterfall you promised?”
Corbin stretched his chicken leg calves and she winced at how short his pants were. He’d come across as self-confident and fun in the meeting with the management for the hotel chain she was working with. He was a mid-level manager in some department she’d barely paid attention to and he’d immediately told her she had to see this fantastic waterfall in the city. ‘One of the places you have to see or you haven’t lived’ were his words. Well, if this went on much longer, he’d be the one who wouldn’t live past today.
He started jogging in place and took his pulse at the base of his neck while checking his FitBit. The skulls bandana on his forehead went perfectly with the neon tank top he had on.
“Yo, Corbin?” she said again, to get his attention. “You with me? We’ve walked for three hours. I have no phone service and my feet are probably bleeding in my hiking boots. I thought this was a quick hike.”
He finally glanced at her and smiled. “We could have been there hours ago,” he said, “but I started us on the longer route. It’s fine. We’ll be there soon.”
“There’s too many mosquitoes in this place,” she said, readjusting the military knife and its holster she carried with her whenever she went hiking. Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it was her motto.
“Why did you bring a knife anyway?” he asked.
She raised her brows. “In case we get lost and I need to turn your skinny ass into chicken soup.”
“Ha-ha. Really funny.”
She shrugged. “I’m not laughing.”
Corbin stretched his arms over his head and his soaked tank top clung to his fit body like a second skin from the sweat. Meanwhile, she was huffing and puffing like Puff the Magic Dragon, trying to catch her breath.
Oh, she exercised daily, and even went hiking, something that would probably get her disowned by her sister Isaline if she found out. But she never exercised this long without a proper water supply and breaks. God.
She’d give anything to be back at the hotel, at the spa, instead of in the middle of a national park the size of a state, looking for a waterfall.
The spa. That’s where she should be, getting a massage after dealing with Corbin all week. But instead, she was stuck with him for lord knew how many more hours and all she could do was visualize strangling him until his eyes popped out of his head like a squeeze toy.
They started hiking up another motherfucking hill. Whoever decided hiking was fun needed to get mentally evaluated. She growled, her frustration growing the farther they went.
Lungs burning from exhaustion, she had to stop again after another twenty minutes. She didn’t even bother telling Corbin. He was too busy singing to whatever the hell he was listening to, which she swore sounded a lot like Justin Bieb
er, and half-dancing as he walked.
Glancing at her water bottle, she frowned at how full it still was. Corbin had been telling her for the longest time to take small sips. She’d known that. She wasn’t stupid. But now she was thirsty so she took a couple gulps.
Her stomach rumbled. Crap. The only energy bar she’d brought along, she’d eaten two hours ago, thinking they’d be back in time for a late lunch. It was going on mid-afternoon and she was sure they were nowhere near the stupid fucking waterfall she didn’t want to see anymore. Why would anyone go this far to see water falling?
It was called gravity. You could do that shit at home. Open the faucet. There, a waterfall. No need to hike. No need to starve. No need to die of mosquito bites. And definitely no need to watch Corbin shaking his skinny ass. Argghhh!
Sweat poured from her head, down her back, down her chest. Heck, even her fingers were sweating. She got up again, glanced over, and caught Corbin shaking his head at her from ten feet away.
“I was hoping to be back at the hotel early,” she told him. “I have other things to do.”
“Don’t tell me you’re tired,” he laughed, his face flushed and his voice was too damn happy for him to be a normal human. “You could use the exercise with all that extra weight.” He winked at her and waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t get mad. It’s clear you don’t get a lot of exercise or you’d be skinnier. It’s okay. I know all about busy schedules and bad eating. Don’t worry. If we start dating while you’re here, I’ll get you running up these hills in no time.”
Wait. Did he just call her fat, lazy, and told her they were on a date? “Corbin, I don’t know what you’re thinking—”
He waved his hand dismissively at her again, stopping her from talking. “You’d be a beautiful woman if it wasn’t for the weight.”
She raised her brows, unsure she was really hearing what she thought he said. “Excuse me?”
He went on as if she’d said nothing. “That’s why we’re taking the long route. You’ll be skinny in no time.”
“You mean to tell me,” she clenched her teeth, “you took me the ‘long’ way because you felt I need more exercise?”
2
Sage was two seconds from going postal on Corbin.
He gave a nod with a wide smile. “But I like you. And I know once you get that weight off, we can be a couple and you’ll be gorgeous.”
Her jaw fell open and she could not believe he’d just said those words.
“What?” he asked with a confused look. “Don’t you want to lose weight?”
She marched up to him, her anger simmering. “Let me tell you a few things about me, Corbin,” she growled. “I am very happy with my body. I exercise. Every goddamned day. I eat very healthy. Hell, even my doctor is impressed with how good my health is. I have no medical issues, and to make things even clearer for you, I have done at least five 10K runs this year alone. I am curvy and I know it. But I’m not sick, I’m not in need of medical intervention, and more importantly, I like the way I look. No, I’m not skinny.”
She tapped him on the chest. “I don’t want to be if it’s not medically necessary. As long as I am healthy, nothing else matters. I think you’re confused. You think I want to be skinny to feel valuable. No, Corbin. I am priceless just the way I am.” She shoved him out of the way. “Fuck your beauty standards.”
“Where are you going?” he yelled. “That’s not the right way.”
“I’d rather figure out how to get back on my own than to listen to you tell me how pretty I could be if I were skinny. By the way,” she yelled as she got further away, “we were never on a date. I thought you were just being nice, showing me the area.”
“Come on, Sage,” he ran toward her. “Stop being a baby. We both know—”
Sage slapped her hands on her hips, ready to chew him up and spit him out when the sound of a snarl came from behind her. Corbin stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes wide with fear.
“Sage, d-d-don’t move. There’s something behind you.”
She gulped, fear drumming in her chest. This couldn’t possibly be good. “What is it?”
“I think it’s a…cat,” he whispered, slowly moving away from her.
She scowled at the way he was almost shaking in fear. “A what?”
“A really b-big cat.”
She frowned, her feet telling her to run, but self-preservation making it hard for her to move. What if it attacked when she ran? “What kind of cat?”
Another snarl sounded, a lot closer to her back and he hopped farther away and didn’t stop. “Oh my god, Sage. It’s a big tiger. I knew there were some up here, but fuck. That thing is right behind you.”
“What do I do?” she asked, fear and anger making her voice pitch high. Was he really leaving her alone with a tiger to get mauled to death?
“I don’t know. I’m just going to back away,” he said, his voice faint from the distance.
There was a loud roar and something zoomed past her, knocking her to the side in the process. Corbin screamed and ran so fast, she lost immediate sight of him. The tiger stopped not far from where he’d been standing and turned to face her. She tensed, her body ready for the impending attack. Then she saw something that left her in shock.
The big tiger shrunk until it was a human. A child human. The girl climbed up from all fours and rushed into the trees, coming out with a bag. She pulled out a long top and slid bright leggings on, then put socks and sneakers on her small feet.
Sage blinked. The little girl was a shifter.
“Hi,” the girl smiled. “I’m Ramsey. I could scent your anger over that guy, so I made him go away. Did he hurt you?”
Sage inhaled sharply. She’d researched shifters enough to know they followed their animal’s scent for most things. “Hi, Ramsey. I’m Sage. How old are you? To answer your question, no, he didn’t hurt me.”
Ramsey frowned, rising to her feet. “I could scent something bothering you. I’m seven.”
“He said some mean things. Don’t worry about it.” She glanced around the area. “Where’s your family?”
Sage knew there was no way a child would be allowed to wander off alone without mom close behind. In that regard, shifters and humans were very much alike.
Ramsey glanced behind her and then back at Sage, confusion in her eyes. She raised a hand and scratched her cheek as if trying to figure things out. “I don’t know. Uncle Feral left to gather wood for our campfire, so I went for a run.”
“Oh, honey,” Sage said, her hand went to squeeze Ramsey’s shoulder. “We’ll find him.”
Ramsey’s small brows dropped in a deep V. “I don’t think we will. I went for a run early this morning from our campsite. When I got hungry, I stopped and then tried to go back but couldn’t find my way. I think I got too far away.”
Sage hugged her to her side. “Don’t worry, Ramsey. We’ll find your uncle Feral. Is his name really Feral?”
Ramsey nodded, brushing the hair away from her face. “Yeah. He hates humans, so he’s always growling or angry. So that’s his name. Feral.”
That didn’t sound good. The last thing Sage needed was an adult-sized tiger anywhere near her. “Do you know how to get back to the main road?”
Ramsey nodded. “I found it earlier. It’s not far from here. Maybe twenty minutes walking. Less if I’m in my tiger.”
“Let’s walk. We’ll find the main road, get something to eat, and then we can call your uncle to come get you.” She met Ramsey’s worried gaze. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you, okay? But I’m human. I have to eat or I turn into a gremlin, according to my mother.”
Ramsey laughed and relaxed. She gave Sage her hand as they walked. “A gremlin?”
“Mom exaggerates. Really, I need to eat because I get hungry. I’m sure you know what it’s like to get really hungry and in a bad mood.”
“Yes. Uncle Feral says that’s when we go hunting. To eat.”
“That’s right. I’m sur
e that works for your tiger side, but I don’t have a tiger.” She pouted down at Ramsey and winked at the little girl. “I’m not cool like you.”
Ramsey’s smile brightened. “I’m hungry, too. Uncle Feral does the hunting. He says I’m too loud still.”
“Loud?”
“I let my prey know I’m coming because I make too much noise,” she shrugged, “I’d like a burger with fries.”
“You and me both, honey. Let’s go find us some cow.”
3
Feral Kincaid was ten seconds from losing his shit. His niece was missing and nobody knew where she was. He’d gone looking for her himself. For two hours, nobody had noticed she’d been missing, long enough for anything to happen to the seven-year-old. The tiger in him roared and made his body tense with fury. If something happened to Ramsey, his sister would kill him.
He’d chosen to take Ramsey on an overnight trip where several of his people camped to teach her hunting skills and how to spend more time in her tiger. The girl was always around humans and with the fights for land between his pride, the Terai, and the Behar Pride, there was too much tension to do it near home.
Though he owned most of the mountain, the Behar still had a small portion and they were always trying to swindle more. As if the land maps didn’t exist to prove Feral owned most of the Terai mountain.