He opened his mouth to speak.
“I know you don’t want me to fight,” she said before he could utter the words, “but I need to fight. I need it…”
She held her hands out in front of her, drawing his focus to them, and to her nails. They were black, transformed by her hellcat genes and the need to fight she was battling to hold inside, to keep tamped down until she needed it. She wanted to go out there and launch herself into a battle just as he did, but it would only get them, and their pride, killed.
They needed a plan if they were going to succeed in taking Pyotr down.
Grey took hold of her hands and lifted his blue eyes to meet hers. “So what’s this plan?”
She didn’t have an answer to that question.
He smiled softly. “We’ll think of something.”
The door to her right opened, and the female she had sensed outside stood there, a petite blonde with dark gold eyes. She placed her hands in front of her pinafore and bowed her head.
“My alpha would like to announce his intention to hold the ceremony tomorrow night. He has posted two guards outside the cabin so you will feel safe while you prepare.”
Maya wanted to laugh at that. Pyotr had placed the two males there to keep her from escaping, not to protect her.
Well, she wasn’t going anywhere.
Not until Pyotr was dead and her pride, and her brothers, were safe from his wrath.
“If your brother would like to come with me.”
Maya shook her head. “No. My brother will be staying with me until the ceremony to ensure that everything is done according to tradition.”
The female quickly looked at her, surprise and fear flashing in her eyes, and then back down at her feet. Maya had the feeling that she expected Pyotr to punish her because Grey had refused to do as he wanted and was staying with Maya. What sort of male treated those he was responsible for in such a terrible way?
“As you wish. If there is anything you require, please speak with the guards.” The female backed away from the door and closed it behind her.
Grey huffed beside Maya. “A satellite phone would be nice. Do you think he would agree to it?”
She frowned and looked at her brother. He scowled at his phone as he held it above him, moving it around, as if that was going to get him a signal.
“Why don’t we just ask him to invite the pride to the ceremony?” Because that was as likely to happen as him giving them a phone so they could call for help.
Grey’s lips tugged into a wry smile. “I could try leaving and going back down the trail until I get a signal.”
Maya looked at the door. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. If you try leaving… I don’t think you’ll get far before he stops you.”
And then she would be alone, without her brother to protect her.
“Quick thinking mentioning the tradition thing.” He stood and shoved his phone into his jeans pocket, and held his hand out to her.
She took it and let him pull her onto her feet. They were unsteady, her legs trembling beneath her. He helped her to one of the armchairs and she sank into it, leaned her elbows on her knees and buried her fingers in her long hair, clawing it back as she held her head.
Grey dragged the second armchair close to hers and eased into it.
They had thirty-six hours.
Tradition stated that Pyotr couldn’t see her in the thirty-six hours leading up to the ceremony, which was why he had chosen tomorrow night. He wanted it done as soon as possible.
The next she would see him would be at the ceremony.
She thought about it, going over everything she knew about traditional wedding ceremonies. Most tiger shifters didn’t bother with them, but her parents and his had written it into the contract that bound them and he couldn’t break from it, otherwise his claim on her could be broken and he wouldn’t be able to retaliate against her or her pride.
So she had thirty-six hours to come up with a reasonable plan that wouldn’t get her, Grey, and her kin killed.
She looked to her right, at Grey where he sat with his eyes locked on the door, a steely look in them. His anger flowed through her, together with a trace of despair, and a trickle of fear.
Gods, she was glad that he had insisted on staying with her until she was settled, because she might have been forced to go through with everything if he hadn’t been around to help her.
He looked across at her, and gently placed his hand on her leg. “We’ll get out of this mess.”
She nodded. They would.
Together they were strong.
And she had just come up with a killer plan.
CHAPTER 14
August was going out of his fucking mind.
Talon had surprised him by answering his call to Underworld and saying that he would help him before August had even asked him, that whatever he planned to do, he wanted in on it, for Maya’s sake.
He owed the tiger.
Talon had given him the Altay pride’s location, and details of the nearest airport, and had agreed a time to meet him there.
Without Talon, August wouldn’t have made it this far, stood in a small airport in a remote area of China, close to seeing Maya again.
Gods, he hoped they weren’t too late.
Talon had painted a grim picture of the Altay pride’s alpha.
The thought of his precious Maya being with that male made August’s blood burn. He paced the tiny waiting room of the airport, his eyes constantly locked on the area passengers passed through after clearing customs. Every fibre of his being screamed at him to go ahead without Talon, to follow his instincts to Maya.
He tamped down that urge, aware that if he gave into it, it would take him days to reach her.
Talon knew the way to the Chinese border and had plotted the route they would take through the nature reserve to the Russian side.
To Maya.
Besides, he had the feeling Talon would kill him if he went off without him. The big tiger male wanted to be the one to save his little sister.
It wasn’t going to happen.
August was going to save her, and he was going to kill the bastard who had her.
If they were lucky, they could reach the pride’s village before Grey and Maya even made it there and cut them off. Grey’s last message to Talon three days ago had mentioned continuing on foot from a location within China that was further away from the pride’s village than the one Talon had picked as the border crossing.
Grey was doing his best to delay their arrival, his reluctance to hand Maya over to the Altay alpha showing in his actions, but the tiger thought he was only delaying the inevitable, giving Maya a little more time to enjoy her freedom.
He didn’t know he had been buying August and Talon time too.
Time August was going to use to save her.
A fresh wave of people rolled through the doors and into the waiting area, and August stopped pacing, his eyes running over all of them, searching for one familiar face.
He needn’t have searched so hard.
Talon stood head and shoulders above the other passengers, easy to spot as he sauntered out of the backroom with a pensive expression etched on his face, the black slashes of his eyebrows meeting hard above blazing amber eyes as he stared at his phone.
August’s heart started a hard, painful beat.
He pushed through the people towards the tiger.
Talon lifted his head, and the flicker of fear in his eyes hit August hard.
“What?” He grabbed Talon’s arm and pulled it towards him so he could see the screen.
There was a message on it, dated from yesterday, signed by Byron.
The ceremony was taking place today.
“Fuck,” he growled and shoved Talon’s hand away, the need to shift and run blasting through him as the desire to be with Maya now, before it was too late, exploded inside him. “Fuck!”
Talon clamped a hand down on his shoulder. “There’s still time.”
August unleashed a string of obscenities in response to that, because Talon didn’t sound sure, and that sure as hell wasn’t going to inspire him into believing that they could still reach Maya in time.
“Fuck it,” he barked and stormed towards the exit. “Even if she’s married the bastard… I’m going to kill him.”
He shoved the glass door open and stepped out into the cool afternoon air, his gaze scanning the parked cars and the people coming and going.
His eyes caught on the mountains that rose in the distance.
Maya was there.
She needed him.
He dropped his pack, grabbed his thick red coat, and tugged it over his right shoulder.
Talon stopped him, seizing his wrist before he could remove it. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m going to her,” August snapped and twisted his wrist free of the tiger’s grip. “She needs me.”
“By the time you get there, it’ll be too late.” Talon calmly stooped, picked up August’s bag and slung it over his shoulder with his own pack. “Shift if you want… expose us all to humans… I’ll probably see you at the border when I’m on my way back with Maya.”
The black-haired male pivoted on his heel and walked away from him, swinging a set of car keys around the fingers of his left hand.
Bastard.
August tugged his coat back on and hurried after him, but it was hard to deny his urge to shift, and the pressing need to run. He caught up with Talon beside a silver compact car that looked far too small to fit both of them, and Maya and Grey, in it. Talon opened the driver’s side door and squeezed into it, dumping their packs in the back seat.
It was tiny, but it was a vehicle, and hopefully once they were moving, the need to shift and run would abate.
He yanked the passenger door open and slid into the car as Talon started the engine. The male didn’t hesitate, had pulled the car onto the road before August had even had a chance to put his seatbelt on and slammed his foot down on the gas, pushing the vehicle to its limit.
August gripped the handle on the door with one hand and the dashboard with the other as Talon wove through the cars on the road, veering in and out of the oncoming traffic at high speed.
Son of a bitch knew how to drive.
Or he was a maniac and was going to get them both killed.
Fear of ending up in a mangled mass of metal in a ditch had his need to shift and run shooting to the back of his mind as they sped towards Maya, his focus locked on just making it to the border in one piece.
He could worry about the rest once they got there and his feet were back on solid ground.
It wasn’t long before they hit the end of the road and a dirt track. He grunted as the car bounced and dipped, rumbling over potholes and rocks. Ahead of them, the mountains loomed, swathed in green.
Maya.
He was coming.
“Fucking airport car-hire… place like this needs a good four-wheel drive,” Talon muttered, his amber eyes locked on the road ahead as he manoeuvred the vehicle around a particularly deep pothole.
He could sense the tiger’s frustration, his need to go faster, to reach Maya.
As soon as they hit the end of the track and the car rolled to a stop, August was out of the vehicle and stripping off his clothes, tossing them onto the seat. Talon followed him, his actions hasty and a little rough as he tore at his own clothing, ripping his t-shirt as he wrestled to get it off. The second he was naked, he dropped to all fours and shifted, growling as his body twisted and contorted, and fur rippled over his skin.
Looked like August was locking the car then.
He rounded the silver vehicle, pulled the keys out of the ignition and shut the driver’s side door before locking it. He placed the key beneath the front tyre, and pushed the car, just enough that it rolled back onto the key and hid it.
The huge tiger beside him watched his every move, fascination in his bright gold eyes.
“You can tell me later how awesome I am for coming up with a great way of making sure we can get back into it.” August dropped to his hands and knees.
Talon snorted, a low coughing sound that he figured was meant to be insulting and tell him that wasn’t going to happen.
August closed his eyes and focused on the shift, gritting his teeth as his bones burned and fire swept over his skin. His body was quick to transform, years of practice making it take only a split second to shift from human into his snow leopard form, but it felt like longer, like every bone in his body was breaking as his legs shortened and altered, and his arms followed them, his fingers broadening as they shrank in length, and silver fur spotted with black rings sprouted from his skin and rippled up his arms.
He growled through his fangs as his face morphed, ears rising to the top of his head as his nose flattened and cheeks puffed up, and whiskers grew from them.
When his tail had finished forming, the part he liked least about shifting, he shook his head and let it ripple along his body, so his fur settled.
Talon took off.
August followed him into the woods, his heart and mind fixed on Maya, on the distance between them as it shrank.
He willed her to hold on, to feel that he was coming for her.
He had been a fool to let her go when he should have had the courage to fight for her, to break with tradition and win her over, to make her see that even if they hadn’t been fated, he would have still been the one for her.
She was the only one for him.
It didn’t matter what her pride wanted, or what his expected.
All that mattered was them being together.
Gods, he had been such an idiot to let her go.
He would never make that mistake again.
If the fates could just give him one more chance with her. Just one. He wouldn’t fuck it up this time.
Once he had her back in his arms, he would never let her leave them.
He would hold on to her forever.
CHAPTER 15
Maya closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The air coming in through the small window of the cabin near the door smelled of evening. Her time was almost up.
She lifted her head when Grey touched her shoulder, his large hand warm and comforting, telling her that he could sense her feelings and he was there with her. For her.
Gods, she hoped this worked.
She looked down at herself, at the layers of gold fabric that criss-crossed over her breasts and swathed her body, cinched at her waist with a thick black satin sash. Her brother had helped her dress in the traditional outfit of a bride, his face like thunder the entire time, his blue eyes stormy and dark with a desire to fight, to draw blood for her sake.
It wouldn’t come to the things he was imagining, she would make sure of that.
She wouldn’t let Pyotr lay a finger on her.
Grey’s blue eyes softened and he sighed, his bare chest shifting with it as he watched her, wrestling with his own feelings as fiercely as she fought hers. She had tried to get him to dress in a more traditional manner too, but he had forsaken his tunic in favour of the freedom to shift, and had stopped at donning a pair of loose black trousers tied around his waist with a black sash that matched hers.
Outside, someone jeered.
Her heart leaped about in her chest and she sucked down another breath, hoping to steady it. Pyotr wouldn’t think anything was off if her heartbeat was fast, would think it was nerves, but she didn’t want to give him any reason to focus on her too hard. Just the thought of him looking at her at all made her skin crawl and her head fill with the vile things he had said to her, and those he hadn’t.
Those sick unspoken things he wanted to do with her.
She shuddered.
Grey gripped both of her shoulders. “You don’t need to do this Maya. Stay in here and let me fight.”
She shook her head, causing her black hair to brush across her exposed shoulders, and took his right hand, drew it away fro
m her and kissed it.
Grey was strong, his hands callused and worn from all the battles he had fought, both in his tiger form and with a sword, but he wasn’t strong enough to take on an entire tiger pride alone.
She would fight with him, at his side, once the deed was done and Pyotr was no more.
Without their alpha to lead them, half of the males would be drawn into fighting each other for the position at the head of the pride, and the rights it would grant them. It would be easy for her and her brother to pick off the weakest, and let the strongest kill each other while they fled.
A soft knock at the door had her heartbeat accelerating again.
Her time was up.
The nerves she had fought so hard to contain rose back to the fore, swift and fierce, a deluge that threatened to shake her courage. She steeled herself. She could do this. She was stronger than Pyotr and one part of the ceremony would give her the perfect opportunity to use that strength to end him.
Grey answered the door, revealing the same female who had come to them yesterday, only this time she wore a plain dark gold dress and she had bathed.
Pyotr wanted everyone looking just right for his special ceremony.
Maya curled her lip at that.
She turned on her heel, her bare feet making no sound on the wooden floor, and swept towards the door, meeting her brother there.
The female backed down the steps, her head bent the entire time, and kept backing away as her bare feet hit the dirt.
Maya followed her down the steps, aware of Grey as he prowled like a shadow behind her, a dark wraith waiting for his moment to strike. His need to fight flowed through her too, bolstered her courage and had her heart steadying as she reached the dirt and turned calmly towards her left, where the main cabin stood beyond the large fire burning in the centre of the village.
Eyes landed on her, intense and focused, more pairs than she had expected.
Her nerves jangled again but she held herself together and tamped them down. A few more to fight shouldn’t prove a problem.
She lifted her chin and stared ahead of her. Blazing torches formed an aisle straight down the centre of the clearing, lined up between her and the fire. They circled the fire there, creating a path between them and the fire, and continued beyond it, lighting the way to the main cabin. Above her, the evening light had faded, and a million diamonds glittered against rich blue velvet.
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