Damn. He wouldn’t last five seconds if she did that.
The need to be inside her, to fill her up and satisfy her every desire, was too strong, driving him to obey it. He clutched her bare backside in his left hand, groaned and shuddered as her moistness coated his fingers and she whimpered again, rubbed him harder, a desperate edge to her actions and the feelings that echoed inside him.
She needed him.
Gods, he needed her too.
He seized his cock with his free hand, slowly lifted her with his other one and eased it down through her folds, drinking in her gasps and moans as he rubbed her with the blunt head. When he reached her core, she stilled, breathing hard, and he focused on her, trying to pick out her feelings, needing to know what they were as they stood on the precipice.
No fear.
There was only excitement, arousal, need that matched his own.
She really wanted this.
He eased his hips forwards, pushing slowly into her, a monumental achievement considering his every instinct was screaming at him to claim her, to make her his.
She moaned and breathed harder, her breath washing across his lips in sharp bursts as she tried to keep kissing him. He kissed her gently, giving her something to focus on as he inched deeper.
Gods, she was tight. Hot. Fucking incredible.
He breathed harder too, fighting to hold himself back and deny the urge to spill before he had even started to make this good for her.
“August,” she whispered against his lips, and he had never heard his name said so sweetly, with so much need.
Shock blasted through him when she moved in his arms, pushing him deeper inside her far quicker than he had intended.
He stilled, afraid he had hurt her.
Her moan was ambrosia to his ears, soothed his soul and eased his heart.
He held her on his cock and breathed hard to cope with the onslaught of feeling that being inside her stirred in him. He hadn’t been prepared for it, hadn’t expected to feel so moved by just being inside her, so content and so lost for words.
What was it about Maya that made her so different to every female he had ever known?
What was it about Maya that made her feel like home?
As if he had never truly known the meaning of that word until she had walked into his life?
He shut out the thought that came next, not wanting to contemplate it, because it wasn’t going to happen. She had told him this was a moment of madness, a wild fling before she left him forever, walked right back out of his life.
This was all they could have.
No matter how many times he told himself that, he couldn’t make it sink in. Something soul-deep rebelled against it, roared that it didn’t have to be this way, even when he knew that it did.
He couldn’t take a mate from a different species.
Not even when that mate was as beautiful as Maya.
He needed to find his fated one and set an example.
Even if it killed him.
He wasn’t sure anyone else could ever make him feel the way Maya did.
Her lips sought his, brushed sweetly across them and pulled him back to her, an anchor in the violent storm of his emotions. He growled and kissed her hard, couldn’t help himself as he cursed the gods, cursed his ancestors and every fucking power that had made Maya and had put her on his path.
If he couldn’t have her forever, he would at least have her for now.
He swallowed her gasp as he eased out of her and back in, setting a slow tempo that felt too good, brought light back into his soul and chased the shadows away, narrowing the world back down to only them.
She softened the kiss as he thrust long and slow into her, a moan leaving her lips each time their bodies met. He drank down each one, drowning in her and the light that seared his soul, grew brighter with each passing moment, bathing him in warmth.
What was it about Maya that made him feel this way?
August pulled back and stared into her dazzling amber eyes, seeking the answer to that question in them.
Gods she was beautiful.
She stared right back at him, her rosy lips parted on her moans as he took them higher, her hands clutching his shoulders, clinging to him as he clung to her.
“August,” she husked, and ripped a groan from him as she started to move, countering his thrusts, driving her body down onto his cock as he thrust back inside her.
He kept watching her, memorising every emotion that danced across her beautiful face and shone in her eyes as he sent her higher, quickening his pace just enough to have her eyebrows furrowing and her head tipping back, and her nails pressing into his bare shoulders.
He wasn’t sure he had ever made love to anyone.
Maya was his first.
And gods, he wanted her to be his only.
He wanted to be her only.
He leaned in and pressed his forehead against hers, overcome as that thought, that burning need ricocheted through him.
Maya’s palm came to rest on his cheek, gentle and soft, her touch filled with understanding and telling him that she could feel him, could feel the conflict and the confusion, and the damned feelings she had awoken in his heart.
She stroked her fingers along his jaw, tipped his head up and caught his lips in a soft kiss.
Damn it.
He growled and kissed her, tried to wash away everything that was dragging him down and forget it all.
She moaned and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer, her kiss turning fierce, helping him shove all the messy shit out of his head. He swallowed her gasp as he clutched her backside in both hands and drove deeper, faster, until her heart and his thundered in his ears and she started to rock against him, her body flexing around his cock.
Her need spiked.
He felt it the moment it did, the second she reached the pinnacle and was close.
He kissed her deeper, meeting her desperate thrusts, weathering the storm as she clawed at his shoulders and locked her feet behind his bottom, using them to force him harder into her.
August curled his hips, driving as deep as he could go.
Maya tensed.
He covered her mouth with his and kissed her, muffling her cries as she shattered, her body quivering around his cock and her nails pressing so hard into his shoulders he could smell the tinny scent of blood.
He groaned and followed her, grunted with each throb of his cock as he spilled inside her, claiming her in the only way he could. She trembled with each pulse of his length, whimpered whenever her body echoed one, an aftershock of pleasure rolling through her.
Sweet gods.
When he had finally caught his breath, he swept his lips across hers.
She didn’t respond.
August pulled back, a ripple of fear racing through him to leave him cold.
Maya stared at him through wide eyes, tears lining her lashes.
He stumbled backwards when she shoved him, pushing him away and landing on her feet.
“Maya…”
She refused to look at him.
He reached for her, aching with a need to hold her and find out what was wrong, to comfort her because she was hurting, but she smacked his hand away.
The cold feeling spread, icy fingers reaching towards his heart.
She rubbed her tears away, sniffed and lifted her head, her black hair falling around her shoulders.
Her eyes met his.
No trace of feeling in them.
“This was fun… but it was all we can have… just this stolen moment with each other.”
She was gone before he could respond, leaving him reeling in the booth as the curtain swayed to his right, staring at the black wall where she had been.
That cold filled the hollow space in his chest where his heart had been.
A heart she had stolen.
CHAPTER 10
Maya cursed herself as she ran through the heaving nightclub, tears streaming down her face. S
he had been an idiot to think she could have a moment with August and not regret it, not feel affected by it.
It had been too wonderful.
He had been too wonderful.
She shoved through a group of demon males, not slowing when they growled at her and shouted, probably calling her names in their tongue. She didn’t care. All that mattered was running, putting as much distance as she could between her and August.
She couldn’t bear it.
It tore her apart inside, ripped her in two directions until she wavered between the male she was running from and the one she was running towards.
She reached the door to the backroom of Underworld and punched in the code Sherry had given her on the silver panel beside it. The moment it clicked, she twisted the handle and pushed inside, slamming the door behind her. She didn’t slow. She ran up the stairs on the left side of the room, taking them as quickly as she could manage and battling an urge to shift so she could move faster.
Fear began to seep into her heart, fear of what her future held.
She hit the corridor on the second floor and kept running, not stopping until she reached the door of her room. She opened it, turned and shut it, and stood there with her hand clutching the knob, her breath coming so fast she feared she might pass out.
She had to go.
Byron and the pride were depending on her to do this.
It didn’t matter how miserable she was going to be now, how she was going to spend the rest of her life thinking about August.
Thinking about what might have been.
She screamed and pummelled the door with her fists, fury and fear colliding inside her, mingling with the pain that tore through her, born of her heart.
Gods, why had the fates brought her to August?
It was just too cruel.
She sagged to her knees and pressed her hands to the door, her head hanging between them.
She wasn’t strong enough to choose him over her brother, over her pride.
Over the wishes of her parents.
She needed to honour them, needed to put her pride first and her brother’s safety before the desires of her heart.
But why did it have to hurt so much?
She pressed one hand to her chest and closed her fingers over it, digging her nails into her skin.
Why did it feel as if she might die if she never saw August again?
“Fuck,” she hissed and banged her fist against the door. “Fuck. Fuck!”
Awareness prickled down her spine.
He was coming.
If she saw him again, she wouldn’t be strong enough to resist him, wouldn’t be strong enough to go through with her family’s plans for her.
She shot to her feet, grabbed her bag from the end of her bed and shoved all her belongings into it, leaving only a pair of cream knickers out on the bed. When her bag was packed, she grabbed those and hurried into the bathroom. Her hands shook as she cleaned herself up, heart pounding in her ears.
Someone knocked at the door.
Her heart stopped.
“Maya.”
Her breath rushed from her.
Grey.
She tugged her knickers on and then ran to the door and opened it. His pale blue eyes darted down to her, and darkened.
“You’ve been crying,” he said, his silvery eyebrows dipping low, hardening his features until he looked every bit the warrior he was, ready to kill someone.
She shook her head. “I need to go.”
“Is it that snow leopard?”
“Please, Grey,” she snapped, and he blinked, shock dancing across his face. She had never raised her voice at him before. She lowered it to a whisper. “Please… I want to leave… now.”
“Maya,” he started.
“Now,” she cut him off, her eyebrows furrowing as her heart stung with the thought of seeing August again.
She wanted him, more than anything, more than life itself, but she had to do this. She had to do what others wanted for her, and place the pride and her family first.
“Please?”
Grey’s handsome face hardened and he pushed past her, and for a moment she thought he was going to argue with her, was going to give August a chance to find her.
He picked up her bag and her coat, grabbed her hand and walked out into the corridor, not looking back at her. “Come on.”
Maya followed him to his room next to hers, and waited as he gathered his bag and his own jacket. She put her coat on, her hands still trembling, heart refusing to steady.
Grey slung both of their bags over his shoulder, seized her hand again, and tugged her back out into the hall.
She trailed behind him, her eyes fixed on the back of his black jacket as it stretched across his broad shoulders, her heart aching and tears threatening to line her lashes. She could feel Grey’s hurt, his desire to stop her from doing this. It echoed inside her, burned as fiercely as August’s pain, and her own.
She didn’t want to hurt her brother, but she needed to do this now, before the strength she had mustered gave way and she placed everyone at risk.
She hadn’t meant to hurt August either.
But she had.
Gods, she had.
She could feel it beating in her chest as Grey led her down to the ground floor and out of the emergency exit, into an alley behind Underworld. She could feel it as he hailed a taxi and loaded her into the back.
She could feel it as the vehicle pulled away, taking her far from him.
It continued to echo in her even then, even with miles separating them, and she knew this pain would always be there, etched on her soul forever.
A reminder that she had paid the ultimate price for her pride.
For her brothers.
She had sacrificed herself.
CHAPTER 11
Maya clouded August’s every moment, whether he was awake or asleep. He couldn’t focus on anything but the tigress. He kept seeing her wherever he went, kept dreaming about her.
She haunted him.
He wasn’t sure he would ever be the same again, would ever be able to settle and find peace. A restless feeling gnawed at him every second, had his snow leopard side pacing, and had him wandering the mountains alone, lost in thought, drawn to places he was unfamiliar with.
Places that were dangerous.
He would have walked right into a crevasse that morning if Dalton hadn’t found him at that moment and pulled him back, shaking him back to reality.
He couldn’t remember walking up the valley between the two snowy peaks that loomed above the village, had no recollection of how he had gotten there. A feeling had lingered though, a sensation that he needed to go that way, that his life depended on it.
Gods. He was losing his mind.
Dalton had kept a close watch on him all day, not moving more than a foot from his side, his pale golden eyes wary.
August scrubbed a hand over his red hair and then replaced the black knit skullcap. He kicked at the fresh layer of snow that covered the plateau, watching the fine white dust catch the wind and dance into the forested valley far below.
Normally, he found the view of the white capped peaks that rose high above the forest and river breathtaking, the contrast between the green of the trees, the pure white of the snow and the deep blue sky something beautiful to behold.
Now it lacked colour.
It lacked the life it had once had.
He sighed, his breath fogging in the cold thin air.
Dalton shifted foot to foot beside him, stamping them to keep the chill off.
They were snow leopards, but they still felt the cold, the climate up in their secluded mountain home a little too frigid for their warm blood. It was necessary though. The pride had to be protected, and to do that, they had made sacrifices, cutting themselves off from the world below.
Talon’s words rang in his head.
Maya was doing the same damn thing.
She had chosen to make a sacrifice for th
e sake of her pride.
Her brother had been frantic when August had finally pieced himself together enough to leave the booth and go after Maya. Grey had already taken her away, and neither of them had stopped to say goodbye to Talon. They had disappeared without a word.
Because of him.
Maya had run away from him.
She had run straight to another alpha, one who didn’t deserve her but one she was promised to according to Talon.
Was she there now?
With another male?
He threw his head back and roared.
The sound echoed around the mountains, mocked him with the impotent fury in it and all the pain.
Pain he felt sure was never going to leave him.
“August,” Dalton said in a low voice, a note of caution in it.
He nodded, knew that it was no use and yelling about it so the world knew his pain wasn’t going to change anything. The pride were already talking, had noticed he had returned from London a different male, and he could understand their concerns but they had nothing to worry about. He was still their alpha.
He was still going to do his best for the sake of the pride.
“They’re here.”
He glanced at Dalton, who jerked his stubbly chin towards the right side of the plateau, where it gently sloped down towards the forest below.
August looked there and spotted three figures clad in brightly coloured thick jackets and trousers steadily making their way along the path that followed the base of the jagged peak to his right.
The alpha from their nearest neighbouring pride and two others.
The male led, far larger than the two who followed him.
August tracked them as he walked towards that side of the village, heading across the open land that bordered the sheer drop into the valley, a space they used for social gatherings. To his right, the small houses of the village clustered together, their deep stone foundations dark against the snow. At several of the two room houses, females dressed in warm protective clothing stood on the stone steps that led up to the main part of the structure, sweeping snow off them. Some of the owners had chosen to decorate the white panels set into the thick dark wooden beams of the houses, painting them in brightly coloured scenes and patterns.
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