Grey set her down, and she stared at the ruined sleeve of his black jacket as he tended to the wound beneath, inspecting it. She had done that. She had lost control.
Her amber eyes widened and leaped to Sherry.
Gods. She had tried to hurt Sherry.
“I’m sorry,” she muttered, horrified by what she had done.
“It’s fine… but… I’m not sure what just happened.” Sherry offered her a smile, a small one that spoke of confusion as clearly as her eyes did. “Is it because I’m a tiger too now?”
Maya wouldn’t answer that question.
Grey focused a little too hard on his wound, avoiding it too.
Boots striking metal off to her left had her head whipping that way, the instinct to fight rising again but for a different reason this time. Grey was injured. She needed to protect him.
Talon stopped on the bottom step and stared at her. “What are you doing here?”
The tension that had started to leave her on seeing it was only her brother approaching amped up again, making her muscles tight as she came to face him. His amber eyes were hard, demanding. He raked his fingers over his short black hair and huffed as he stepped down onto the floor, and strode towards her.
She looked over his clothing. Was he working as a bouncer now? He wore the same black t-shirt and jeans, and boots combination as the male she had seen guarding the door. She didn’t like the thought of Talon protecting the entrance of Underworld. It was dangerous.
“I needed to see you before I continued my journey.”
His face darkened. “Journey?”
Damn. Byron hadn’t told him. That bastard.
Grey growled from beside her. “He’s sending her to the Altay pride now.”
“What the fuck?” Talon barked and took a hard step towards her, all the fires of Hell raging in his golden eyes. “Son of a fucking bitch.”
He turned to her, seized her upper arms in both of his hands and hunkered down, so he was eye level with her.
“You don’t have to do this.”
Gods, he sounded like Grey.
“Tried that,” Grey mumbled and Talon frowned at him. “She isn’t listening.”
She isn’t listening to reason. That was what Grey had wanted to say.
She was listening, but reason didn’t factor into this. Her parents had promised her to the Altay pride male and she had to go through with it, because if she didn’t, her pride would be shamed by her actions and would lose standing in tiger society.
“I need to get back to work.” Sherry managed a single step towards the door that led to the nightclub before Talon had her swept up in his arms, his lips on hers.
Maya looked away.
Ignored that pang of jealousy that made her chest feel too tight.
The moment Sherry was gone, Talon heaved a long sigh. “I’m going to kill Byron.”
“No,” Maya snapped, her gaze whipping up to meet his amber eyes. She shook her head, wanted to say something else, something to defend Byron’s decision, but she couldn’t.
Because it had shaken her.
She loved him, but sometimes she shared Talon and Grey’s view of him, their belief that he saw her as a sort of bargaining chip, a way of establishing a stronger connection with another powerful pride.
A present he could give to their alpha.
She tried not to feel that way, had fought it for years, but now she couldn’t feel any other way.
She could only feel that he didn’t truly care about what was best for her, not as Talon and Grey did.
He only cared about what was best for the pride.
She told herself that it was how things should be, that he was alpha now and had a responsibility, one that extended beyond his family.
His decision to send her to the Altay pride now, when she wasn’t due to go there for another two decades, when she reached her two hundred and fiftieth year, had come as a shock though.
A blow.
Archangel’s attack on the pride had left them wounded, and weakened. Vulnerable.
Byron had told her that he was doing it to keep her safe.
As much as she wanted to believe that, there was part of her that believed he had an ulterior motive. They had lost many people in the battle, and he wanted to strengthen their position in tiger society quickly, so no one would challenge him as alpha. He had already sent out two females to other prides, and had taken two brides in exchange.
She was to be the third.
Her move to the Altay pride would ensure their support for Byron, making it difficult for anyone within her pride or outside it to challenge him without facing fierce opposition.
It was a power play.
One that would also ensure the safety of her pride.
If she could do that for them, then she would go through with it, whether she wanted it or not.
“Does Byron know you’re here?” Talon cut into her thoughts, tugging her back to reality, and she shook her head. He looked to Grey. “Did she pull those kitten eyes on you?”
Grey rolled his right shoulder. “Maybe I just figured it might be a good thing… that we could talk some sense into her.”
That wasn’t going to happen.
She had always wanted to be of use to the pride, had tried to find the place where she fitted in and could be of help. Now she knew what she needed to do, how she could help her pride, and she was going through with it.
“It’s worth a try.” Talon smiled faintly. It grew into a full blown one when he came over to her and pulled her into a hug, and ruffled her hair. “I’m glad you came. Saves me from having to go to Siberia to drag your arse home.”
She stopped trying to swat his hands away and looked up at him. He would do that for her? The look in his amber eyes confirmed that he would, and that it was going to take a lot to convince him to let her go now that she was here.
She didn’t want to fight Talon, or Grey, but she wasn’t going to let them stop her.
She wouldn’t break with tradition.
She didn’t want to be traded like a commodity, forced to be someone’s bride, but she wanted the pride to be strong and Byron to be safe.
“Can I not just enjoy this time with you?” she whispered, and the smile that had been rising onto his lips faded, the light in his eyes dimming as he dropped them from Grey to her.
She hated that look.
She always had.
It hurt her whenever she looked into any of her brothers’ eyes and saw pain in them.
It killed her that she had caused it this time.
She pushed away thoughts about Siberia, and her own pride, and focused on her brothers, and the building around her.
She had been so excited when she had been walking through the city with Grey and when they had entered the nightclub, seeing a world that so closely matched the one she had seen on the tablet that Talon had snuck into her home so she could watch television and movies without Byron knowing.
Now she could see it with her own eyes.
She wanted to enjoy this time with them, in this world of mortals.
Even though it was a little overwhelming.
The scarlet-haired male from the bar shimmered into her mind and heat travelled through her limbs and bloomed in her chest.
He was a little overwhelming.
Just thinking about him had the instinct that had seized her in the bar rising back to the fore to wrest control from her, a deep desire to attack any female in the vicinity and drive them all out.
Maya didn’t want to think about what that meant.
In two days, she would be in Siberia.
She would be bound to the alpha she had been promised to at birth.
And nothing could change that.
Not even him.
CHAPTER 3
August was finding it impossible to concentrate on anything Cavanaugh was saying about prides and appropriate greetings that should happen at the start of a meeting with one.
He had been doing just fine, scr
ibbling notes like a damn school kid in the pad opened on the round white plastic table in front of him, until forty-three minutes ago, when he had been talking to Cavanaugh about his failing sex life and waxing lyrical about all the females he had bedded in those halcyon days before he had become alpha.
He had caught the most bewitching scent he had ever smelled, an intoxicating blend of cinnamon and snow, spicy but soothing, and had turned his head in time to see the black-haired female from last night standing in the entrance of the kitchen.
Her striking amber eyes had been as round as twin suns as she had stared at him.
The big male who had been with her last night, a wall of muscle and menace with silver hair and icy eyes, had been swift to usher her away, and August had heard him mutter about finding somewhere else.
Ever since then, he had been wondering where this somewhere else was that he had taken her.
“Earth calling August.”
He blinked himself back to Cavanaugh, who sighed as he stood, the legs of his chair scraping on the tiles as he pushed it back.
“You need some coffee?” His cousin crossed the small distance between the table and the basic kitchen to August’s right, plucked the jug from the machine and frowned as he lifted it. It was almost empty. His dark grey eyes shifted back to August. “I can make a fresh pot.”
August didn’t think coffee was going to save him.
He had tried concentrating. Really tried. He looked down at the pad and grimaced at the doodles all over it. His fingers had obviously wandered as much as his mind. He hadn’t taken in anything Cavanaugh had told him.
“I think I need some air.” What he really needed to do was clear his head and evict the dark beauty from it, but that probably wasn’t going to happen.
Something about her had him fired up.
Which was a monumental fucking achievement given the recent death of his libido.
He pushed his chair back, stood, and scrubbed a hand across his tired eyes.
“Give me fifteen?” He looked to Cavanaugh, hoping his cousin would be alright with the break, because he wasn’t going to be much use to him if he couldn’t find his focus again.
Cavanaugh shrugged. “Go for it. I’ll check on Eloise.”
August wanted to pick him up on his choice of words. Check on Eloise? It was pretty crap code for fooling around with his mate. He couldn’t hold it against Cavanaugh though. His cousin should have been in bed, enjoying sleeping with his mate, but here he was teaching August the ABCs of running a pride. If Cavanaugh wanted to use the break to make out with Eloise, that was fine with him.
He nodded and walked out of the room, his feet heavy as he tried to figure out where to go and tried not to think about where Cavanaugh was going.
Five months without sex.
Hadn’t even thought about it.
Not a single urge.
He turned right and followed the corridor, intending to head up the smaller staircase to the roof.
The scent of cinnamon and snow teased his senses.
August followed it through the building, unable to stop himself from tracking her. It led him to the stairs and then downwards, towards the ground floor of the nightclub. Heat bloomed in his blood and his pulse quickened, his senses sharpening as he focused on her scent, homed in on it and ignored everything else.
Hunted her.
Five months, and now he couldn’t think of anything else.
Gods, he wanted her.
He had wanted her the moment he had set eyes on her.
It was just the sudden release from the pressure of being an alpha. That was all. Cavanaugh was right and being away from the pride was doing him good. He felt free again, energised, and back to his old self.
A player again at last.
That was the only reason he wanted the beautiful female who smelled of cinnamon and snow, who set his blood on fire and had his heart beating faster whenever he saw her, and a deep urge to seize her blazing through him.
Hell, if he headed into the club tonight, he would probably want any number of the females who lined the bar, could scratch this itch with his choice of them and be done with it.
Maybe he would scratch the itch a few times.
Make the most out of being away from the pride.
His libido was bound to take a hit again the moment he returned.
He might as well enjoy it.
His feet carried him downwards.
Towards her.
Did she belong to the male he had seen her with? The two were close, and the silver-haired male guarded her as if she was precious to him. It would be just his luck if she was. The first female he had wanted in months, and she belonged to someone else.
A door opened and closed off to his left as the large white room came into view and he glanced there.
The male.
He slowed his pace as the male approached, and nodded as he jogged up the stairs towards him.
The male suddenly stopped. “Have you seen Talon? We were looking for him but we can’t find him or Sherry.”
August had met Talon once, shortly after he had arrived. “The only time I’ve seen Talon, he was on the roof, sunbathing with the pretty bartender.”
The male snarled at him. “That bartender is my brother’s mate.”
Brother. Interesting.
He looked the male up and down, seeing the family resemblance. The male shared Talon’s features, smelled similar in a way, but the scent of the female lingered on him. He wanted to growl at that.
He held himself together, clamped down on that need, and said, “Did you bring your mate to meet your brother?”
The male’s silvery eyebrows rose high on his forehead and then dropped, a crinkle forming between them and a flicker of confusion crossing his pale blue eyes. “Mate?”
“The black-haired female I saw you with.” August tried to say that as casually as he could while the need to rip the male apart warred with a sudden bout of nerves that the male might see right through him and rip him apart instead.
His eyes turned a shade darker blue but shone a little brighter around his pupils. “My sister. We’re just stopping by to see Talon on our way through London.”
Through London?
“Where are you going?” August regretted that question the second it left his lips.
The tiger’s face darkened, his eyes narrowing as he frowned at August, and his voice became a low growl. “That’s none of your business.”
August stood his ground, unwilling to let the tiger intimidate him. The male stepped up to him, his eyes on August’s the whole time, and then huffed and moved on, heading up the stairs.
Moody son of a bitch.
It didn’t stop August from wanting to know where they were going.
He wasn’t sure why he needed to know.
Maybe it was just that itch to fuck she had ignited in him.
He wanted to know her schedule so he knew whether he had time to win her over and bed her.
He looked down to his left.
At a door in the white wall.
A door that would lead to her.
He kept his eyes locked on it as he took the last few steps, as he turned, and as he walked towards it, drawn to it, and to her.
He needed to see her again.
Needed her.
He reached out and gripped the steel handle, and paused, breathed through a sudden rush of feelings, a collision of fear and desire that was foreign and unsettling. Five months without sex wasn’t long enough to dampen his charm, and definitely wasn’t long enough to make him forget all the right moves to make, the ones that would ensure she fell into his arms and into his bed for one wild night with no strings attached.
So why the hell was he on the verge of having a panic attack?
It was just sex. That was all he wanted from her. All he wanted from anyone.
He shoved the door open.
Froze.
Gods.
She was beautiful.
That feeling ignited again, fiercer than before, sending a hot shiver over his skin.
She dropped the barrel she had been attacking in the middle of the large space and growled at him.
Fired every damn instinct he had and triggered a need to dominate her, to drive her into submission.
August bared his emerging fangs and growled right back at her.
He wasn’t sure whether she would understand the message—that he wasn’t going to submit to her.
She was going to submit to him.
She went deathly still, not a single muscle twitching, her eyes locked on him.
His heart accelerated, his breath coming quicker as he waited.
Waited.
Maybe this was going to be easier than he had thought and she was just going to roll over for him.
Two hundred pounds of tiger suddenly leaped at him.
Maybe not.
CHAPTER 4
Maya turned the moment she sensed someone enter the room, ready to snap and snarl and drive them away, because this was her room.
Her territory.
Her toys.
She wasn’t going to share them with anyone, had already driven Grey away when he had been the one to suggest she shift and work off some energy.
She stilled when she spotted the scarlet-haired male standing in the doorway.
Heat flared, rushing through her, and she dropped the barrel and growled through her fangs at him.
Hers.
He was hers.
His silvery eyes brightened, pupils dilating to swallow that precious colour as he stared at her in silence, not moving a muscle.
His heartbeat drummed steadily in her ears, not a trace of a tremble in his powerful athletic body.
He was fearless as he faced her.
As he growled.
Maya was too fired up to heed that order he issued, too far gone to withdraw.
This was her territory.
Hers.
And so was he.
She sprang at him and he didn’t have a chance to move. Before he could even twitch, she had landed on his chest, her front paws on his shoulders, and he was going down. He grunted as they landed, her weight slamming into his gut, and she felt an echo of his pain.
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